2/2 is the first annual New Game Day, and we’re celebrating by offering up over $300 in prizes. To enter, all you need to do is tell us about the new game(s) you played on New Game Day — read on for the details!
How to Enter
New Game Day is about playing new tabletop RPGs and board games, and we want to hear about what you played on 2/2.
To enter, just comment below about the new game(s) you played on 2/2. You can comment more than once, but only one comment (your first) counts as your entry. You’re also welcome to comment about other things, but only comments about new games that you played on New Game Day can win.
To accommodate gamers in different time zones, the comments are open now even though it’s still 2/1 where I am, and will stay open until sometime on 2/3 (Mountain Daylight, U.S.). We’ll choose the winners at random from all eligible comments.
(As always, members of the Gnome Stew aren’t eligible to win but are welcome to comment.)
Prizes
Courtesy of Gnome Stew, Engine Publishing, and Parenthesis Press, we’re offering 6 prizes for New Game Day:
- A $100 Amazon.com gift certificate
- $75 worth of PDFs from DriveThruRPG (you email us what you want, and we’ll buy it for you)
- $50 worth of PDFs from DriveThruRPG (ditto)
- Digital editions of any 3 Engine Publishing books (you choose the books) and a PDF copy of House of Cards from Parenthesis Press
- Digital editions of any 2 Engine Publishing books and a PDF copy of House of Cards from Parenthesis Press
- The digital edition of any 1 Engine Publishing book and a PDF copy of House of Cards from Parenthesis Press
Happy New Game Day, happy gaming, and may your dice roll well!
I played Dungeon World, and it was a blast!
I played The Quiet Year.
I played Dungeon World too. We played the Slave-Pit of Drazhu as a starter (http://www.dungeon-world.com/pit-of-drazhu/) and it was awesome.
I played the board game Seasons for the first time! Gorgeous art, and tons of fun.
We played a Midgard game for the first time. It was a lot of fun with the level of mythology it dips into. We plan to keep playing for a while.
I played Anti-Pool! It’s been around for a while, but this is the first time I’ve played it đŸ™‚ It’s simple, streamlined and the mechanics get out of the way to let the roleplying rule.
Smash Up. A great Christmas gift!
Ran a game of Torchbearer today for the first time. A bit of a rocky start as it is a departure from the games we normally run but we got our sea legs by the end of the session. I am not sure if the group will ever clear the house of the three squires but it was a good experience and a unique one at that.
I got started early (and may comment again later) by continuing a Fate session with my group that began in the evening on 2/1 and went past midnight. It was a lot of fun, and I’ve got more new games planned for later today (after I get some sleep).
(I’m not eligible to win, of course! Just enjoying my celebration of New Game Day.)
Today I tried Demon: the Descent for the first time. I was a huge fan of Demon: the Fallen, and although it’ll take me a while to get a grip on all the new mechanics, the new game seems a worthy (if completely different) successor.
As now is only morning here in Spain, we will play later. We are going to play our first game of Munera:gladiator family an d I want to try Might and Magic Heroes if we have enought time.
I ran a Star Wars Fate Accelerated Edition game for my two older kids (son, 16, and daughter, 11). I went with Star Wars because it’s a well known universe that makes explaining some things a little easier.
It’s the first time I’d run FAE, and it was the first time either of the kids had played any of the Fate games. We did the setting and character creation last weekend, and I’d done a bit of thinking during the week about what we were going to do, based on the setting and character aspects.
We had a bit of a slow start tonight, but we had fun. The two bounty hunter characters have arrived at a giant resort space station in the Outer Rim, on the hunt for a Jedi Knight.
I tried using the rules as much as possible, so that we can all get used to the four approaches and how to create new aspects and the like.
The most fun was when my son’s character decided to win back the money they’d spent booking a room in the casino, and I put it up as a Contest. I told my daughter (who’s character was busy hacking into the station’s computer system at the time to try to figure out where the Jedi might be) to quickly create the approaches for an NPC gambler that she could play in the contest. She came up with “Russell Hankerfish”, who – through some flashy approaches and some lucky dice rolls – ended up winning the contest. I think both NPC gamblers will end up playing a larger part of the story to come (one of the setting aspects dealt with Rebel spies on board the space station, so there’s scope for tying those into the story that way).
On the whole, fun was had, and while I think that we need more time to come to grips with how the game works (especially my daughter), FAE definitely shows lots of promise đŸ™‚
I played Rory’s Story Cubes with the sets “Voyages” and “Actions”.
Then I tried some jason Tagmire’s Storyteller Cards games.
Good exercises for creating stories on the fly.
I played the boardgame Ă¢â‚¬â€œ I picked it up at Essen Spiel in October, it was about time I played it! đŸ™‚ Nice, quick, great graphics, good even for your non-gaming friends.
Ok, can’t edit my reply Ă¢â‚¬â€œ I was supposed to type “I played the boardgame Pick-a-Polar Bear.” đŸ™‚
I’m playing Munchkin and after that will play Fiasco. I’m really excited about that!
I played a made up on the spot savage worlds game!!
I played a game of Edge of the Empire. Fun narrative game with cool dice. Although the dice pool mechanics appear complicated you pick the symbols up pretty quick and it begins to be second nature.The game is fast, exciting and allows players reasonable input in the storytelling.
I played a one shot of Instant game, (http://nornworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/InstantGame.pdf) for the first time, and had a blast with it.
It’s the perfect thing to use when you and a bunch of friends want to spontaneously play something that night and not spend more then 30 minutes on character creation and prep time total. (best of all it’s a free pdf.)
What fun. Played “Dungeon Roll” for the first time. Got it during the Kickstarter but had not gotten around to playing until being inspired by the stewed gnomes. Played solo, which is easy to do, and my minstrel was defeated five times. It took a few minutes to figure out the sequence, but after a turn or two and goes very quickly. Setup takes very little space – a desk corner works fine, and, in the little treasure chest it is packaged in, it is very transportable. I might get a second copy to keep in the glove box of my hay wagon. Recommended.
I played D&D in the Eberron Setting.
We played Fiasco fĂƒÂ¼r the first time, and what can I say, it really was a fiasco đŸ˜‰
I tried out Scarlet Heroes the new one player/one gm OSR fantasy game. It works pretty darn well.
We tried out the Accursed setting for Savage Worlds. It was awesome! We had five Players and everyone used a different character template: Dhampir, Mummy, Mongrel, Golem and a Revanant.
The Accursed heroes rescued some children kidnapped by Gorge Wolves after fighting off some Hunger Trolls. When we play again, they plan to confront the Sorcerer Shukov and take his magic beans (seriously).
So far for New Game Day I have played 7 wonders for the first time in a 6 player game. I also taught two new players Boss Monster. So far have had a great New Game Day.
I played Song of Blades and Heroes and will likely play a Savage Worlds game later today.
I played Kemet for the first time today. My son destroyed me. Point of pride!
For our new game day I introduced 3 people to Dragon’s Horde, (I had only played it once). It was a kickstarter I participated in last year and recently got my reward about 3 weeks ago. Awesome art. Easy to teach and learn. Good Times! 8′)
Our group are hardcore Rolemaster 2ed fans and although we do occasionally delve into other games it’s only once a year or so… by the way, this exercise in trying a new game has led me to calculate the collective and combined experience the group has had in playing Rolemaster… around 165 years! So, you can probably envisage, it’s not easy to break the ‘habit’.
Prompted by the announcement of ‘New Year, New Game’, I thought I might take a look online at some of the big games out there that may have once sparked my interest but I never really looked into after that initial glow (there are many). I happened across Ars Magica…
A simple system, a fantastic setting, an intriguing idea concerning owning/playing numerous characters (troupe play), and the magic system… oh my giddy aunt!
And get this; Ars Magica 4th Edition pdf was free to download.
So, we gave it a spin. I created a few clumsy pre-gens, introduced the basics and we felt our way around a new system like drunks in a chess tournament. As a GM and given that I had the Christmas period to prep, I had hoped it would have gone a little better…actually I had hoped it would have gone well enough for me to convince my players to play a few more sessions, but alas it didn’t, it seems that coupled with having to use a new system and a slower paced story than they were used to, Ars Magica is a no-go for my group.
But what did I get from it?
Well, I have been working on a new system/setting, one which my devoted Rolemaster players will enjoy, a rule set with complexity and scope, a world setting with enough flavour that it will keep me in adventures, stories and campaigns for a long time. Ars Magica has given me a whole host of ideas that will fit into my plan… and did I mention the magic system?
Just finished a game of “A Study in Emerald” from Treefrog games. And it was awesome!!!
A Study in Emerald is a board game inspired by the Neil Gaiman story of the same name. The premise is simple, the year is 1881 and the ‘Old Ones’ have been ruling the earth for over seven hundred years. Although most of humanity has accepted these monstrous rulers, there is a growing underground movement to overthrow the regime, labeled the Restorationists. A secret war is being fought around the cities of Europe and the New World between agents of the Restorationists and those loyal to the powers that be.
The award winning short story combines the worlds of Sherlock Holmes and H.P Lovecraft. The board game has gone one step further to bring in real historical figures to flesh out this alternate reality, allowing players to examine an interesting ‘what-if’ situation.
Up next is Firefly: Out to the Black card game followed by Star Wars: Edge of the Empire tonight! It’s Super Game Day @ my house!!!
I played kinderbunnies and smash up both were awesome
First things first:
I love the idea of “New Game Day”. We (that’s me, my spouse and our son) own a lot of boardgames, and it’s a pity, that some of them haven’t been played even once. So we made the New Year’s resolution to play all our “Nullerspiele”.
So what hit the table today?
sadly just a game called Alcatraz
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1407/alcatraz
My spouse was out drinking with her colleagues from work, yesterday. And her game mood was attacked by headaches and sleepiness, and our son had a sleepover at his granny.
We tried Hawaii earlier this day, but the gameboard was attacked by our cats.
I prepared a mini adventure for M20 (this charming microlite D&D rules). I got the rules booklet at a convention years ago. Maybe we can give it a try today.
Anyhow, we will have our own celebration next friday.
And I look forward to next years New Game Day. A wonderful tradition.
Greetings from MĂƒÂ¼nster, Germany
I played Dungeon World for the first time. I have been wanting to get my group to try this for quite some time, but I had the hardest time getting them away from their Pathfinder and 3.5.
When you announced New Game Day, I told my group that we were going to do a one shot this weekend, or I would cancel my weekly Pathfinder game for the month of February.
Happy to announce that everyone enjoyed the game and the change. Hopefully we can continue with monthly one shots.
We’ve made it to the “fat gnome” comment icon! Can we make it to the rarest of comment icons, the fat gnome on fire?
It’s awesome to see so many folks enjoying New Game Day. Seriously, everyone in this thread is making my day.
Looks the fat gnome is a-burnin’ đŸ™‚
For New Game Day i played Kemet for the first time obviously. My mom crushed us! I was losing by alot i had no chance of winning. I like the idea of New Game Day because i like trying new games (but i normally never play again because i lose almost every time!)
Tried something a little different. I used Rory’s story cubes for some inspiration, which led to a biker game set in saint Louis.
I used hunter the vigil as my engine because there are some great aspects to that game that makes for good sweating bullets moments. Once everyone made their characters, I asked them and the spectator girlfriend to help make the group dynamic by using the questions in monster of the week. By the time this was done, she decided to backtrack and Mae a character!
Great game with a group I haven’t gamed with for months (and a newbie). By the session end, I whipped out prime time adventure’s screen presence rules for a nine session season. Quick commitment on what should be a fun, rife campaign.
I played Abstract Dungeon (http://www.sneakattackpress.com/abstractdungeon/) with my children, 13 and 4. I ran an episode of “Jake and the Neverland Pirates” for the little one, she loves the show. She recently become proficient with her numbers, and the game (based on die pips) reinforces her skills and ups the ante by asking her to add and subtract, at rudimentary level of course. It was a blast overcoming Capt’n’ Hook and many island obstacles. Fairy adventures next! It was great to have her older brother at the table playing along side and encouraging her creative thinking to overcome challenges. Awesome time!
My almost 7 year old and me played Ticket to Ride, and he loved it!
It was mostly played on 2/1, but I got to play “Tremulus” at a gaming convention last night into this morning. Cthulu horror using the Apocalypse World style rules.
I also ran for the first time “Monster of the Week”, also an Apocalypse World hack. It was much fun and brand new, even if it didn’t quite happen on 2/2. đŸ™‚
Elder Sign board game with a new expansion pack was a day too early and our regular Cortex Plus sci-fi hack will be a day too late so all I did today was read – Mindjammer Press’s Monsters & Magic.
My regular gaming group and I played the board game Red Dragon Inn. Than I ran the first session of Numenera. It was the groups first taste of it, and the first time I GM’d it. I love it, between Numenera and Dungeon World I might not have to roll dice for long time.
New Game:Star Swords, A World of Grey Adventure. Core Rules: Savage Worlds Deluxe with the NEW Sci-Fi Companion rules, and a few home-brew setting rules. We began a new game, literally today as the first session (create characters), with the new set of SW Sci-Fi companion rules, and are beginning it as a play by post using a private Google+ Community. Perfect contest timing. I play an Ateraxisian (a Spider-based race). Here are some blog posts with some more details on the setting and the GM’s: http://rptroll.blogspot.com/2014/01/savage-worlds-science-fiction-companion_27.html
http://rptroll.blogspot.com/2014/01/science-fiction-companion-ship-builder.html
Thanks for the contest! – Derek Brown, Keith Athey
I played Agricola. It was a lot of fun!
I played Incursion, since I heard it was very much like Space Hulk (which I’ve been interested in trying for a long time). It was a blast!
An oldie, but goodie, Red Box Hack. We decided to have a little fun with the new game.
Well, we had a family game night last night (2/1) and managed to sneak in some games today as well.
We played several games for the first time:
Junk – which I got through Kickstarter
Iota and Who Would Win, both from Gamewright (The Rory’s Story Cubes people!)
We also played Flux a few times, as my GF’s 13 year old really likes it.
Last weekend on Sunday (1/26) we played his very first D&D game, a simple intro adventure from WotC, The Heroes of Hesiod, in celebration of the 40th anniversary of D&D. He liked it enough to ask to play again sometime! We will advance the rules a bit next time around!
Played Timeline: Inventions with my wife. Fun, quick little game. Might get the others if the replay value holds up enough that we get tired of it but it is still fun.
Great initiative, gnomes – thanks for doing this!
I used the occasion to break out one of my daughter’s games from Christmas, Willy’s Wiggly Web. Not exactly a gamer’s game, but she couldn’t get enough!
After months of whining, my friends and I used Fate Accelerated Edition to play as SWAT members the Gotham City Police Department tasked with arresting the Batman. (We failed. We so failed.)
For new game day we played redbox hack
This is how the game went
They managed to gatecrash an orc feast, beat a blind troll to death (after waking it up by peeing on it), and get impaled on a set of wooden spikes. They proceed to hear war drums. The hard partying bear decides to jump into the room with the sound and yell “PARTY!!!”. Then he proceeds to light a keg of high proof alcohol and kick it into the room. The resulting explosion sends the orcs into a frenzy of confusion. The warrior runs across the room and starts playing the war drum for the mass of confused orcs. They panic and take to exits in a frenzy, killing one another on the way out. The snake decides to stab someone in the face and pole dance while the corpse is still on the spear. The bear proceeds to throw a corpse at the warrior to stop the drumming and constant yells of how awesome the warrior is. The bear decided to try to open the door that the fleeing orcs locked by running through it. He managed to put a knot on top of his head. They find all of the loot from the orcs raids and start to loot the heck out of it. They hear the BBEG calling for more liquor. They immediately proceed to run into the room screaming “Party Bear is in the house!”. The bear, in all of his infinite wisdom, runs up to the booze server and gets a cup and screams “Party Bear!” and starts dancing. The warrior runs in and proclaims his awesomeness. The snake comes into the room and dances as well. The “party bear” dances, in party bear fashion (complete with pelvic thrust), towards the orc chief. The manage to kill him with a combination of giant mace, chair and reach weapon. The snake finishes up the game by using the corpse for warmth.
Played Redbox Hack for the first time tonight, was a blast if you want a quick game to joke around with friends on.
First time playing red box hack. Loved it!!