Year In Review: 2015

I had somewhat of a difficult time writing the post for today.  Looking back on an entire year of typically classified nerd-type activities and being able to break that down into a single digestible article would probably require more time that I am either willing or able to put into the thing.  I had even begun to categorize the different areas that I wanted to cover such as "Video Games," "Board Games," "Other Games," and "Looking Ahead to 2016."

Those individual headings then simply turned into lists of games that I had played and I didn't want to write a post of lists.  I wanted more meaningful words than titles.

I feel that the biggest thing that happened in 2015 in regards to any type of gaming, was that our group of friends were able to hold together a successful Dungeons & Dragons group together for the entire year.  Well, mostly anyway.  We did have one person semi-permanently leave the group due to stuff and another left when she went back east during the summer and I was instructed to kill her character off (which is a lot harder when that character is not a tank, hangs out in the middle of the group and they have three chances to make successful Death Save before they fail three times (there is a 55% chance of success on each roll).  We also acquired two people from our original group of four who have stuck around.  Our group managed to get 12 games in during the year although there was a month here-and-there when we were not able to play due to not enough people being able to attend so we ended up playing one of our other games (Mansions of Madness and/or Pandemic I believe were the two primary choices).  We also played a great game called Betrayal at House on the Hill, but I've already talked about that game, but I'm very glad that I was able to play a less serious and more light-hearted Mansions of Madness-type game. 

And what is great is that we are still not done with the quest, which could be a "not so great" thing if I think too hard about it.  I've gotten some good feedback from Conklederp about my strengths and weaknesses as a DM and she keeps reminding me that our group keeps coming back so I know that they are still interested.  I also have not heard any talk about someone else wanting to DM the next story/campaign so I know that if they are planning my demise/downfall, they are at least doing it in secret, as I would want them to do; I would expect nothing less of our Halfling theif, Tula Tealeaf.

For 2016, I would love to play maybe 15 times, but I am perfectly happy with a game a month if that is what we happen to average out to playing; as long as everyone is still interested.  

In video games for 2016, I think I am just, at the moment anyway, looking forward to finishing Fallout 3 (maybe starting Fallout: New Vegas) Dark Souls, and any number of games that I have dabbled in but have yet to finish.  And then finally I would like to start up BioShock Infinite (Thanks again SneakyTiki), Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, and any other umpteen games through Steam, GOG (Alone in the Dark 2, Elder Scrolls Adventure: Redguard) and Origins (Dead Space 3) that I've only looked longingly at.  And of course there is The Elder Scrolls Online adventuring with Conklederp.  And there I went listing again.

I'm going to stop now.  But lastly (because I apparently am bad with the saying of the stopping), is that posting frequency for me at least will probably be about the same as it was for the last six months.  With schooling winding down and the associated finals, posts might become more sporadic as the quarters come to an end, but we will still be here.

So happy 2016 for everyone reading this out there.  

And I did not even touch on TV shows (Vikings, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead), movies (Rogue One, The Revenant, Star Trek: Beyond Warcraft, Ghostbusters ), or books (Into Thin Air, Tolkien's translation of Beowulf, A Song of Ice & Fire: The Winds of Winter, Knight of the Seven Kingdoms)!  Damn lists.  I guess that shows how somewhat unorganized I am.  Ah well, I have a whole year to work on that.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Instrumental