Happy holidays to gamers here and around the world! It’s that time again where I settle in at the end of the year, make a comforting hot beverage and review what’s gone on in the last twelve months. And, to be completely honest, it’s been a doozy. In the gaming world, 2024 was a year of D&D, the game’s 50th anniversary being a banner event that led to the release of the new 2024 version of the 5e handbooks (I guess we’re not supposed to call them 5.5e, but come on). At the same time, the goliath that is D&D has taken some licks; the self-inflicted wound that was the OGL fiasco led to significant fragmentation in the high fantasy subgenre defined by, well, D&Ds. Daggerheart, Draw Steel, and Tales of the Valiant all brought forth new takes on the 5e formula, and were a double-edged sword in terms of D&D’s monopoly: On one hand, that version of fantasy, the swords and sorcery slash Tolkien mashup that existed nowhere except D&D in 1974 and now exists everywhere, is still the most popular RPG genre in the world. On the other hand, a wide range of 5e players took a look at other games, and if D&D didn’t end up being their first choice for D&D things, they definitely ended up looking at other games for other genres.

Outside of D&D, the hobby continues to grow, both outward and back in on itself. On one end of the continuum I reviewed Wildsea, a game with a relentlessly innovative setting that’s like nothing else out there. Mechanically, though, it’s built on the bones of Blades in the Dark, and when we played there was definitely a familiar feeling among all the clocks tracks of the game’s mechanics. On the other hand, closer to the end of the year I reviewed Arkham Horror. It’s a reinterpretation of a reinterpretation of Call of Cthulhu, and it looks like it, but it’s using Edge Studio’s new game mechanics, the Dynamic Pool System. Even with Legend of the Five Rings still being printed and the Narrative Dice Star Wars games starting to come back into print, Edge Studio is still looking for new mechanical ground to plant seeds in. Needless to say there were many, many, many more games that came out in 2024, and even recounting everything coming out of major studios would be a significant effort.

So what about me? Well, I had the opportunity to have a number of different gaming experiences this year, though keeping track of what’s been going on in the hobby has been a challenge. With a group that included Seamus and a few of our game designer friends, I had the chance to play Wildsea, Fabula Ultima, Into the Odd, Tunnel Goons, and The Black Hack, and it was great to have those differing perspectives from really sharp voices in RPG design. In my own group I ran one game, and it was, to put it bluntly, a challenge. This was the year I brought Burning Wheel to my group, the first time I was going to run the game right (as opposed to the first time I ran it, which didn’t work so well). On one hand, I do think I ran it right; I engaged with the Artha Wheel and Beliefs and that’s how I pushed my players. On the other hand, there were a couple problems. For one thing, I bit off more than I could chew, which made the complexity and bookkeeping all the more vexing. For another, my group, like a lot of gamers, never really got into Burning Wheel. I’m not completely giving up on the game; the things I like about it I still like. That said, next time I won’t try to run a campaign about a magic school and introduce art magic and the full enchanting rules simultaneously to a group of first-time players. The game both did all the magical things I’ve seen it do in the past and also still never got easy enough to where the headache was worth it.

Outside of gaming, there were challenges in 2024. At around this time last year I started a new job, brought on by a former manager who trusted me to excel when he gave me the room to do so. On one hand, I feel like I’ve risen to the challenge, and this job is a good fit for me. On the other, I haven’t worked as hard as I did in 2024 in years, and I felt that in the other parts of my life. Here in December I am tired in a way I haven’t been in a while, and I know every one of my other pursuits has gotten less of me this year. At the same time, I’ve been pushing on the other parts of my life as well. As I implied when I wrote about it roughly a year ago, my passion for cycling was about to get a bigger role to play in my life, and I cemented that when I committed to riding the Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnee (D2R2) in August of 2024. While the 50ish mile ‘Green River Road’ route was one of the easier ones of the ride, it marked my return to event cycling that I haven’t really done since the pandemic. I’ve already registered for D2R2 2025, this time doing the 100km loop instead.

So what does 2025 hold? Well, I’m doing D2R2 again and I’m planning to go bikepacking in the woods of Vermont for a week. Work is not only taking me deep into the energy world, but also travelling, both in the US and internationally. And as for RPGs? I’ve got big plans there too. Starting in January I’m running Apocalypse World: Burned Over for my main online group, but with a twist. I’ll be adapting some of the character generation questionnaires from DIE into a scenario I call ‘The Last Game Before Graduation the Apocalypse’. As part of the most recent playtest iteration of Burned Over, the Bakers have released a wicked piece of tech in the form of a playbook called ‘Forerunners’, which lets you write characters and a Hard Zone around playing through the apocalypse. Between my group’s experiences with Apocalypse World and their experiences with DIE, I am incredibly excited to see how this plays out.

When it comes to writing about games, I continue to think about the work I do on this site and how to best make it relevant. Reviews are clearly some of the biggest draws to the site, but what people want out of reviews is often unclear. To me, reviewing a game is about considering what the game is trying to do and where the game fits as much as it is about mechanics and genre considerations. As I keep going back to relatively big games released by relatively big publishers, the question needs to go beyond how ‘good’ the game is. With that in mind, I have a sort of New Year’s Resolution for my reviews. I will no longer title my reviews ‘[Game Title] Review’. Instead, I will aim to have a statement about the game and where it fits in the hobby that drives the text. Not only may this attract more eyeballs, but it’s going to keep me on task as well. I don’t aim to write a review where I just flip through the game and tell you if the rules make sense and if the kerning and margins look good. There’s always something else going on in something as complex as a roleplaying game…except when there isn’t, which is why reviewing licensed games often feels like self-flagellation.

And what of Cannibal Halfling? Well, we’re not going anywhere, not at the moment. That said, looking back on 2024 is worth some consideration to Seamus and I. 2024 was a very quiet year, views-wise; the site did not grow this year and in fact our readership contracted fairly significantly. While we aren’t doing this solely for ‘numbers go up’ dopamine hits or, worse, money, the fact is that when your reader base contracts by a double-digit rate, you have to consider what you’re doing and how it can be changed. A lot of things are out of our control; Twitter well and finally circling the drain is one of those things. That said, many things are controllable, including how our posts are promoted and the topics we choose to write about. If, as the case may be, we’re out of growth mode and will have this smaller steady-state readership, that means we have to consider the best way to continue making the site a good landing page for bringing games and gamers together.

Here at the end of the year it’s a time of reflection. The hobby keeps on changing, driven by new games, new trends, and new modes of engagement, and we’re changing too. For now, I’m going to keep reflecting on how I can make my hobbies the most enriching things they can be, and I highly recommend you do too, whether your hobbies are gaming or something else. From all of us at Cannibal Halfling Gaming, have a happy, healthy, and safe holiday season. And from this wonk, I’ll see you next year.

Like what Cannibal Halfling Gaming is doing and want to help us bring games and gamers together? First, you can follow me @LevelOneWonk@dice.camp for RPG commentary, relevant retweets, and maybe some rambling. You can also find our Discord channel and drop in to chat with our authors and get every new post as it comes out. You can travel to DriveThruRPG through one of our fine and elegantly-crafted links, which generates credit that lets us get more games to work with! Finally, you can support us directly on Patreon, which lets us cover costs, pay our contributors, and save up for projects. Thanks for reading!