Favorite Games of the Past...?

Today's recommended post from National Blog Posting Month (http://www.nablopomo.com/) is, "What was your favorite song this year? Five years ago? Ten years ago? Twenty?" So, let's obviously twist that into the dice-chucking realm.

What was my favorite game this year?: Doing calendar year (per my 2010 year end review) obviously it's Gnome Wars. I mean, c'mon, I have this blog that I started due to my love for it. It's something that I can do with the family, with friends, and an excuse to make more friends when I travel to Lancaster and Valley Forge. Now, the financial outlay is greater than RPGs, plus, unlike RPG books, a load of gnome lead might be difficult to unload. I'm not going to make any unwise purchases just for the hell of it. Anyway, another pile of unpainted lead might depress me.

Five years ago? 2005 was a barren year for gaming. I had purged my collection before moving to Wellsboro. The closest game store was an hour away in Williamsport. I did play in some Magic booster drafts using the Kamigawa block. I also had plenty of visits by Michelle and breaking out the party games, like Fluxx. Limited playing time and a limited budget forced me to focus on one RPG: Risus. It's so ridiculously simple, with a cooperative group you could do just about anything with it. I had run a portion of A Kringle in Time for the group's Christmas game in December '04 and just kept going. I got a Risus Membership, the Compendium, signed up for all the Risus boards I could find, heck I even ran the Baby Jesus portion of Kringle at one of the Scranton Mepacons.

Ten years ago? This was the end of my Bronze Age of Gaming. 2000 was the final year of Griffon Games, my final year of college, and the last time I would do an exhorbitant about of gaming. I had Mordheim and Necormunda leagues during the week, RPGA games on Sunday afternoons, and a full catalog to peruse at my disposal. Despite being deemed the "Lehigh Valley Games Guru," by Andy Dawson and Mike Griffith, my love was still Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. Screw the edition wars, we played fast, furious, and just about every weekend on the college calendar. Five players one weekend, ten the next, the World of Georic was never more vibrant, more exciting than the beloved "College Game." At the end of the Spring semester of '00 I wrapped it up with a dozen player blowout after-hours in the store. Dice and beer flew, Baraxus the Destroyer was vanquished, and the group was left confused as long dead hero Talis Makolin had been telling the epic story of the campaign... in a freakin' alternative universe. But then again, aren't they all?

Fifteen years ago? Wow, I must be getting rusty, I wrote a great little bit about my (1st) heyday of playing Magic, until I realized that that was 1994! 1995 was a few months of working at New Frontiers, playing Magic, setting up my "Army" AD&D game with my Reserve buddies from Bethlehem, but most importantly I do believe this was the front end of my Legions of Steel addiction. Around Christmas of '94 I was cleaning up around the store and an LoS Fast-Play set, with a paper map and couple of UNE Commandos and Nightmares. It seemed fun, by buddy Wooly and I split the LoS boxed set during the Dreamscape Comics christmas sale, and we were off to the races. To be honest, I never understood the appeal of Space Hulk. Most games I saw run were mostly "Slaughter genestealers until you group falls," affairs. Having the enemy actively fire back, adds that extra layer of tactics. Pretty soon we were demoing at UBCon, Lehicon, and the following year, Origins.

Twenty years ago? Christ, I've been doing this a long time, but twenty years ago is my Golden Age. Nostalgia helps fill in the cracks to the problems with gaming in high school, but '90 was a cornucopia of vintage gaming. GURPS, Palladium, TMNT, Talisman, Best of Dragon Games, Talislanta, whether is was the game of the day, or no one would ever hear of it agained, we gamed. AD&D was the game of the day, again edition be damned. We tried everything we could find in book or Dragon Magazine. I started my first Georic campaign using T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil, moved to Forgotten Realms, and somewhere in there, mixed in a little Lankhmar. It was a bloody mess, but it was the beginning of a beautiful thing.