I’ve had a game-filled summer; and now its the start of term, there’s more games to come! I’m always saying that you should play more, and more different games – and I thought it’d be interesting to review the last 5 games I played – and share what I liked about each one.

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Starfinder 2E

Most recently, I GMed a session of Starfinder 2nd Edition. The Pathfinder 2e system is one I’ve been curious about for ages, so when I found some friends who were also Starfinder-curious, we arranged a meet-up. I’ve run one session of the Murder in Metal City adventure, and I’m liking it so far. There’s definitely a bit of a tactical skirmish feel to the combat – and it’s heavily reliant on gridded maps – but that’s also giving some nice narrative coming out of the fights. The adventure is, so far, excellent – it’s a half way house between a starter set and a normal adventure, full of tips and ideas and definitely designed for newer players and GMs, which we are.

Ex Tenebris

This is a game that isn’t published yet – and if you’re reading this promptly, will still be on kickstarter! Deep space mystery solving; we got Josh and Becky from Black Armada games to come on Unconventional GMs and run us through this – it was a lot of fun, and I got to play an ancient relic programmed to kill. Interesting use of Leads and Clues, alongside a neat setting – check it out!

Fight With Spirit!

The second session of this great game from Storybrewers, a sports anime game, and a 2-player game (using the variant rules in the core book). We played a brother/sister mixed doubles tennis team navigating the tournament, and family life – we got knocked out in the semis, but found some peace at home at least. This game deserves its own post really, but I’m waiting until I’ve played a group game, but suffice to say it’s laser focussed on bringing the drama and using the sports to offset and allude to the drama – it was tense and competitive, and the system of cards and tokens really helps this.

Dungeons & Dragons

A little indie game you might have heard of? This was 2024 D&D, and I ran Baker’s Doesn’t, the 3rd-level one-shot from Dragon Delves. It’s a tight, and light-hearted adventure where the players must navigate an evil hag’s candy house – I’m reluctant to post spoilers, but the candy-themed monsters are excellent, and there’s a really nice construction to the dungeon bit of the house, with various areas gated off but still lots of options to explore.

A Modern Prometheus

This was another 2-player game, A Modern Prometheus is a Firebrands game where you play a created Frankenstein, and his Creator. You take turns picking mini-games to play until you get to a final confrontation, and decide how you resolve your differences. A few of the games felt a bit over-engineered, but it was great fun and we got a compelling story in an hour and a half, so it must have worked!

I can’t say it’ll work for any rolling selection of 5 RPGs from my calendar, but I’m pretty proud of the selection from the trad to indie spectrum there! I enjoyed them all, each in their own particular ways – even with Starfinder, it was nice to approach a new game as a group with all the attendant odd fumbling with the rules that we had. What are your 5 games? What do they say about your gaming habits?