January 05 2016

Pedro's Top 5 Games Played in 2015!

Pedro's Top 5

Hello fellow gamers and happy 2016!

Last year was quite an explosive one for tabletop games across the world. We saw the arrival of great games, the widespread use of crowdfunding to bring great ideas to the world and big companies flexing their financial muscles. But I’m here today just to talk about some of my favourite games last year.

Not necessarily released last year, these are the games I enjoyed the most in 2015.

5. Dice Masters

I haven’t played this game as much as I would like to, but damn, every time I play it is a blast. My collection is quite sizeable and I’m looking forward for more.

My most memorable game was a 2v2 match where one team was Marvel and the other was D&D. It was quite the battle. It's not often you get to imagine Wolverine taking down a red dragon or a paladin facing Ironman.

4. Tavern Fame

The fact that I personally know the designers (Table Tyrant) of this game have nothing to do with the fact that this game has made me laugh a lot last year. The product of a successful Kickstarter campaign, Tavern Fame put me in the seat of adventurers having some R&R between adventures and boasting about our victories to impress impressionable patrons. I like taverns. I like ale. I like fantasy adventures. And the art in this game is both hilarious and of great quality. Also, I killed four dragons btw. With a spork.

3. Lagoon: Land of Druids

This game, oh man, this game. Also a Kickstarter success! Imagine you have some druids at your disposal. They control powerful magic, enough to alter the shape of the world. This game packs great strategy, absolutely amazing art, great components, and the pleasure of watching your opponents frown in pain as they think a way of outmanoeuvre you. You will frown too though. You will end up exhausted after a match, but greatly satisfied, whether you win or lose. And you, stop snickering. I am looking forward to see what David Chott comes up with for expansions.

2. Xia: Legends of a Drift System

Another fruit of the crowd-funding machine. And what a fruit! Xia is the game that will actually make you feel like you are a space cowboy. Shoot your way to fame! Hunt space pirates! Be a space pirate! Trade goods and build your fortune! It is like they grabbed the concepts of Cowboy Bebop, Han Solo, EvE Online and a TV series by Joss Whedon and made them into a board game. You can write Sci-Fi stories out of a full game of Xia. And that for me is what makes a game awesome, the stories. Cody Miller, the designer, encourages gamers to mod and house-rule the game to fit your needs. I’ve seen mods that add the Millennium Falcon to the game. More map tiles, and so on. Very high replayability, and more stories.

1. Fragged Empire

And speaking of stories, Wade Dyer had a brain burp of cosmic magnitude and created Fragged Empire: “Set in a far future 'post-post-apocalypse', four genetically engineered races seek to build a new society for themselves as they emerge from the ruin of genocidal war, and back to the stars”. If that didn’t grab you, then you should be playing Monopoly. No, really, stop reading, and go play friggin’ Monopoly and suffer while you do it. Fragged Empire is a tabletop RPG with enormous potential.

You like miniatures? This game is great for tactical combat. You don’t? this game has rules for no minis play. The lore is magnificent, The art is great, and the system is quite impressive. Seriously, the system is solid. Like, if Shadowrun used this system it would be selling like hot-cross buns with chocolate ice cream on the side.

The modularity of how your character and your items are made creates a universe of possibilities for all kind of campaigns and builds. From combat heavy to story driven, do you want to be a Bio-tech Scientist that experiments on yourself and grow an extra arm? You can. You can do so much with this game that you will only be asking for more content soon enough. This is the RPG that I will be playing the most this year.