Earlier this year, we saw John Harper on the socials having worked out how many TTRPGs he’s played. It was a big number. It made Jim and me sit back and do ours. My initial survey revealed I was just shy of 100. And, as a recovering pop culture critic, I knew what that number meant.
A listicle to end all listicles.
I’m starting it today. I turn 50, and wanted to do a long, playful look at my life and how it has intersected with an art form I’ve loved. This seems like it.
(And, yes, when asked if there was any special treat I wanted for my birthday “Can I have time to start writing a listicle?” says a lot about my damage.)
When I’d finished digging through everything, the list was over 100, so I made some choices to make it a significant number. I lost anything in the LARP space which felt closer to LARP than storygame – so I won’t be telling about the time I played Labyrinth with a bunch of other games journos on a press trip. Any game which involves acting a role but positions itself as a party game? That’s also out, so no Fellas, Is It Gay? or Jolene.
When I played multiple editions of a game, I only include them if I can reliably remember the differences between the editions. So (say) Monsterhearts and Feng Shui will only pop up once.
But we’re getting into spoilers. Let’s get in.
You may note that I may not have defined what “favourite” means. That’s going to be part of the exercise. When arranging the list, I had to chew over what favourite means for me, in terms of my memories, experiences and joys with these games.
Which also means, working out what my least favourites means.
That was easy. I wasn’t sure of anything else in this list, but I knew what was at the bottom.
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