The year 2024 was a great one for gamers with some exciting offerings in every genre including role-playing games like Paizo’s Pathfinder second edition, board games, and even newer digital options for multiple platforms. As you read this, we have rolled into a new year, but the influences of some of the offerings in the year that was will reverberate in 2025 and beyond.
Role-play gaming
Even thought there was a lot of ink dedicated to Hasbro Wizard of the Coast’s 50th anniversary products for Dungeons and Dragons for obvious reasons, it was also a banner year for independent publishers and game developers, from the more established companies like Paizo, to Jeff Ashworth (author), Tim Baker (author), Matheus Graef’s “Game Master’s” book Series.
One notable addition to the RPG landscape is Pathfinder’s “Player Core 2” by Logan Bonner and Mark Seifter. The 319 page tome builds on Player Core 1 with new ancestries as flavorful as Catfolk, Hobgoblins and Kobolds and interesting classes for players to try out including the alchemist, a class which throws alchemical bombs and drink concoctions, the Barbarian, which is the “tanky” melee styled warrior of yore to the Champion, a warrior dedicated to a specific deity but with more flexibility than D&D’s classic paladin.
Board gaming
This past year wasn’t the most memorable when it comes to board gaming, but different genres still saw the development of various entertaining games including “Irondwood” by Mind Clash Games, a card-driven tactical game for one to two players where an eternal conflict for the land of Ironwood is raging between two factions and “Dragon’s Down” published by Mr. B. Games. The game is set in Western fantasy where players play as adventurers seeking fame and glory exploring hidden treasure sites, looting treasure and epic artifacts, fighting monsters, with a bit of pvp thrown in for good measure.
In the strategy genre, you probably can’t go wrong playing “Civolution,” Deep Print Game’s medium heavy to heavy euro-style board game that utilizes a dice selection mechanism to trigger actions on a tech tree-like structure. If you enjoy rolling dice and putting unique cards into play and favor tons of strategies and tactics, this game will let you explore numerous possibilities provided by the game’s system and cards.
Digital gaming
While exploring this year’s Gen Con in Indianapolis, I had the pleasure of seeing and trying a demo of Palindrome Interactive Studio’s (which is based in the growing game development hub of Skövde Sweden) “Shadowveil, Legend of the Five Rings” for PC, a single-player rogue lite game that combines RPG-like unit development, powerful card effects, and exciting tactical combat. Players take on the role of a commander, form a party and command units on roguelike expedition runs to earn experience and unlock new cards.
Prior to seeing the game in action, I did not even realize rogue lite, deckbuilding strategy was a digital game genre, as I was more familiar with Multiplayer Online Battle Arena Video Games like DOTA 2 and League of Legens or mmos like World of Warcraft. This game is neither. Instead, in this game players gather a party of powerful heroes and new recruits and equip them with better gear to survive the horrors that await beyond the Wall. I have since acquired the game on Steam and after playing it in late 2024, I can attest it is one of the most immersive digital experiences I have tried in recent years, a big surprise considering this is a genre I was not aware existed.
Supplements
In addition to previous tomes in the Game Master’s series which are aimed as supplements to RPGs (primarily D&D), authors Jeff Ashworth, Tim Baker and illustrator Matheus Graef added a book which will be coveted by many GMs interested in having over 150 unique villages, towns cities at their disposal for on-the-fly game sessions.
In addition to inspiration for unique locations and environments such as swamps, mountains and underground settings like tunnels, caverns and sinkholes, “The Game Masters’ Book of Instant Towns and Cities” becomes an indispensable volume saving the savvy game master hours of planning by providing him/her with interesting non-player characters which inhabit a number of enchanting and flavorful adventure locations in addition to various pre-generated settings for multiple ecosystems.
Paizo wins again when it comes to RPG Adventure Paths with their Mechageddon! by Jenny Jarzabski, publisher Erik Mona et al. Even though I dabbled more in WotC’s “Spelljammer” for D&D 5e, if you like games featuring giant robots, mech combat rules and campaign length encounters in space, this adventure supplement is for you. Inspired by a trove of media influences including Doom, Macross and Pacific Rim to name a few, this adventure for the Starfinder system will have you playing through five different scenarios and also includes “side jobs” which are like side quests of various difficulty and intricacy.
Of course, this is but a brief and concise smattering of the plethora of games available in the year that was, here’s hoping that 2025 will be as fruitful for gamers of all genres.
