Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Reviewing my 2020 Predictions

 Tragically one of my predictions was not "We will spend the rest of the year wrestling with a pandemic equivalent to a low grade fever at a socio-cultural level that occasionally spikes into a fever dream," but boy that would have been a great prediction....but, it was a gaming list anyway, so here's the analysis!

#10. a D&D PHB2 - well, more or less this is what Tasha's Cauldron of Everything is, a Player's Handbook update, so I will say I was spot on.

#9. Starfinder 2.0 announcement - totally off on this. It appears Paizo is sticking to Starfinder as it stands for now. Maybe 2021....or maybe they are afraid to do anything until they sort out whether or not Pathfinder 2E will actually take off or not. 

#8. Playstation 5 is console winner - I think Xbox Series X is holding its own, but the early out-the-gate impressions are that PS5 is outselling the competition and has an edge in terms of exclusives right now. But....it's probably going to look a lot clearer in 2021 as to how much of a lead PS5 has.

#7. No BRP or Mythic Iceland in 2020 - nailed it! I don't actually think anyone working at or for Chaosium is seriously interested in these projects.

#6. OpenQuest 3rd Edition - I was half right here; there's an OpenQuest 3rd on the way, via Kickstarter, but we all need to wait until February 2021 to see it, and I suspect it may be delayed slightly. 

#5. New Stuff from Flying Buffalo - Well, some stuff has come out, sort of, but not like I expected, so the verdict is still out. The website is slowly improving but they're still a long ways from a functional storefront with easy sales, unfortunately.

#4. A Real SF RPG based on 5E - actually I finally snagged Esper Genesis's first two books and then pre-ordered the GM book this year, and they are pretty cool stuff, so I will have to say this one was already fulfilled and I just didn't know it. But, to some degree, this was a "no" as there is no widely available 5E-powered SF book out there (you have to know to look for Esper Genesis or ask your FLGS to order it; this one is otherwise not well advertised, and I am not sure of their plans after the third book is finished), so I'm going to still count this as a failure. 

#3. A New Form of GURPS - well, we got a pack of combat cards and a Kickstarter for some mini PDFs this year, so I guess I was way off base here. I think I knew this was a pipe dream. I did satisfy my desire for GURPS to some degree by getting some of the reprints through Amazon, and upgraded my old worn 2004 copies of the original rules to some fresh updated reprints.

#2. Aliens Video Game Announcement - Um, if they announced this it flew under my radar, and Google damn well knows I am notified of all things Alien (because Google has me pegged). So I guess no? Still, it's guaranteed to be a next gen release when it does show up (there's quiet talk of an FPS in development).

#1. Switch Pro Announcement - like every Youtube streamer on the planet I predicted a Switch Pro announcement, but in the end all we have is rumors and leaks that may or may not be real. So for 2020, no....but it seems like consensus is Nintendo has to announce it sometime in 2021 to stay trendy.

Okay, so for 2020 my predictions were:

Right: 3

Wrong: 5

Mixed: 2

So....not bad? Kinda horrible? Eh, who cares! 2020 will go down in history as the year we wanted to forget but it just wouldn't let us. 




8 comments:

  1. I had a feeling you would like Esper Genesis once you had a good look at it. I think the delayed roll out of the monster book and the "still not out" GM Guide has hindered its success.

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    1. Yeah you were completely on target....Esper Genesis blows away the competition, I just wish they could get more attention for the game. I'll have to do my share soon and blog more about it!

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    2. Awesome! I'm excited to hear about what you do with it. Sadly I have yet to be able to run/play EG, Covid derailed our groups plans to play it.

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    3. I've been fortunate my whole group has been able to use Roll20....speaking of which, Esper Genesis just went live on Roll20 with full support on the core rulebook, which dramatically increases the odds I can get them to try it out.

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    4. Not to derail the intent of your post...but, I know you picked up Advent Horizon awhile back? Do you think it has useful stuff to work into a EG Campaign?

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    5. Advent Horizon is pretty cool in its own right but feels like abandonware right now; it really needed a "GM guide/threat guide" expansion but it looks like the developer put out the core rules as one and done. That said, there are a few cool things in AH that I think could be mined for use in EG....might be worth a future blog post on that!

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    6. I emailed the AH author, but haven't gotten a response, so you may be correct about it being "abandonware". Looking forward to seeing if you use anything from it with EG. Happy New Year.

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