The Peakies

More arbitrary awards

So last year I did My Favorite Zines of 2023. And this year I even won an award (see the Goodie Awards). So this year I’m starting a completely arbitrary award: The Peakies. The prize is the most minimal of bragging rights. When I do proper reviews, I have either played or run that scenario, but many of the things I’ll soon be mentioning are only things that I haven’t yet gotten to the table, but they are still oh so great.

Best Thing That’s Tough To Get To The Game Table

Winner: Tomb of A Thousand Doors

It's so good. A great megadungeon filled to the brim with ideas. But I don't have time to play it right now. Maybe once my kid gets to "gaming age" then I can pull off a proper Mausritter adventure. Until then, my enjoyment of it will be through simply reading it. Shouts outs to that river of cheese! I want to live next to one of those. Or maybe just visit. The smell sounds kinda overwhelming now that I think about it.

Honorable Mention: Grimooth's Traps

I think this happens to me every time that I buy a Grimtooth thing. I tell myself "I'll be able to mine this for lots of material!" but then read then traps and never want to use anything that ridiculous against my players. It's really well done, just not to my personal taste.

Yee'd the Most Haws

Winner: Last Stop Perdition

I mean, I backed the Kickstarter to get the cover art which now hangs on my wall! This is one big adventure set upon the train to Hell! It's about 50-ish pages of adventure, plus it contains the first new official character class for Weird Frontiers: the Void Ranger.

Honorable Mention: Big Trouble For A Little Blood

I mean, I don't wanna nominate my own product when doing my own meaningless awards, but I will. I'm sure there's a Frontier Scum thing that's great fun, but I can only keep up with so much material.

Reason That I Had to Make Shelf Space

Winner: Xcrawl Classics RPG

Love Xcrawl! Thankfully the book isn't as big as I feared, but I am ready for more! Looking forward to Xcrawl Insider!

Honorable Mention: Dark Tower DCC

It's so big. A really great setting, but all I've done so far is play By Mitra's Bones so I haven't even done much beyond crack the spine.

Highest Density of Idea Per Page Ratio

Winner: Snake Wolf 3

Sean has done it again. There is a huge amount of information here if you have the brain power to comprehend it all. Orbital Intelligence drops these wild books that you have to allow to take hold in your imagination for you to be able to grok them.

Honorable Mention: Mothership 1e

The information density is almost too much at times. I sometimes have this issue with Mothership adventures, both 1st and 3rd party. It is really great stuff but it can be difficult to digest. Great material, but I have to read it in short bursts despite the content being very terse.

Good Clean Fun

Winner: Lilluputian: Adventures on the Open Seas

Much like Tomb of a Thousand Doors, I don't think that I'll be getting this to my table soon. But this would be an awesome alternative for a somewhat for "kid friendly" Pirate Borg (not that it's too "adult" of a game for many). I just really like it!

Honorable Mention: Princesses & Perils

It’s a dead simple system with a vibe that can appeal to kids (and maybe even my non-TTRPG-playing wife) and has that OSR/NSR attitude. Plus the art is just gorgeous.

Zinest Zine

Winner: Odie & D: Garhawk

This is just plain goofy while also being equally horrific. I'm going to just show you a spread since my words won't do it justice.

Honorable Mention: People Along The Way

Some guy dropped these around Long Con. There's no credits and you can't get it online. But the weird characters inside are amazing. 10/10. No notes.

What’s your personal TTRPG related purchase of 2024?

What Else Is Going On?

The Conquest of Chaos

A levels 0-5 campaign path for Dungeon Crawl Classics! Six adventures inspired by the classic GDQ series take the PCs from humble beginning to fighting the primal forces of chaos and saving their world from certain doom!