Continuing on from part 1, in part 2 we come to new RPGs I played in 2025.
- Streets of Peril
- Grimwild
- Daggerheart
- Dead Belt
- Dragonbane
- Tiny Wastelands
- Tricube Tales
RPGs are a relatively new entry to my blog and gaming life. They work for me because all you normally need is paper, pencil and dice so when I’m lazy to get out all my gaming paraphernalia I can always turn to RPGs for a quick fix.
I originally thought of making a Top 5 RPG list for 2025 but I’ll just do a quick overview here.
Out of all the games I’ve played this year, I think Streets of Peril ranks as my favourite. It’s easy to play and the fantasy Renaissance setting really ticks all the boxes for me and since I’ve gone over the game in a review last year, I’ll say no more about it.
The next game I really enjoyed was Dragonbane. It’s a D&D adjacent game using many of the same tropes but with very solid solo support from the beginning with an actual solo campaign and solid solo rules, tables and charts. When I tell you the bestiary has entries for different attacks each enemy can make and all you need to do is roll a d6, you can see that everything caters for a solid solo experience. It even translates well to tabletop skirmish or just play it as a solo dungeon crawler. It doesn’t take itself seriously. I mean, any game that allows you to play a fantasy Howard the Duck-like character is A-OK in my book. I got this on sale and it even came with a Roll 20 VTT module… that I sadly haven’t used yet because I’m still struggling with learning how to use Roll 20. (I know it’s supposed to be pretty simple but RPGs aren’t my main gaming staple and I don’t play enough to make me want to invest the time, even though I know I should.)
Number three on the list is Daggerheart… but only the free SRD and QuickStart rules as I don’t have the full set. The free stuff that Critical Role do give you though is plenty! And to be honest, once you’re done with the provided campaign, there’s enough meat in the free stuff to generate your own DIY campaign using lots of system agnostic tools and tables. I played mine using a free “How to” play solo using ChatGPT and it worked surprisingly well. Combat was interesting and deadly and I nearly got KO’d. Just do NOT expect ChatGPT to be the DM and run the game knowing all the rules at its fingertips. It’s totally useless in that area which immediately tells you that it may be artificial but it’s definitely in no way intelligent. Just tell it what you’re doing, set the parameters for its response and you’ll have a fun time. You rolls the dice though. Not the LLM. Lastly, the Hope and Fear mechanics work perfectly to give you a solo gaming experience because each time you roll the dice and get Hope it gives you momentum to continue and each time you roll Fear, once you’re done with your PC’s turn, it’s the turn of the DM to go. So there’s never a question about whose turn is it as there is NO initiative and no traditional “everyone gets a turn” in this game. Very excellent and for those gamers NOT wedded to 5e, it’s really really good. For those wedded to 5e mechanics… just be aware this no initiative and no set turn rules leads to most of the negative responses to this game. And yes, damage calculations are unnecessarily complicated and yes Daggerheart could’ve use simpler mechanics to get the same result. I think here they tried TOO hard to be a “not 5e clone” and didn’t succeed. I mean, the damage calculation works… but it’s clunky. Oh and lastly the game uses 2d12 (yay!) and there’s a free online character tracker to try out the game.
I had such high hopes hopes for Grimwild. It really ticked all my boxes: low fantasy, use a d8 as an adversary die when you roll to see if you succeed or fail etc. But what did it in at the end was just using non-standard terms for standard game mechanics that really cause you to stumble and go “what was that”? And makes you flip the rules to look up the definition and then you go: ohhhh… it’s ADVANTAGE. Cheh. I might still return to it in 2026 and give it another go. Maybe.
Dead Belt is technically an RPG but it’s more G and less RP. If you know what I mean. You play a belter who salvages drifting space wrecks and hope you can get enough good stuff to keep your ship flying (much like Firefly) and for you to upgrade your equipment so you have a better chance of surviving. It uses a deck of standard playing cards to simulate the layout of the space wrecks so it does need a bit of table space. OR you can use the free Canva page layout program to play on your laptop (which is what I do). Fun and quick to play. Recommended.
Lastly Tiny Wastelands and Tricube Tales are two sides of the same coin. Both use 2d6s as standard then you gain or lose 1d6 according to the situation, your PC’s skills etc. Tiny Wastelends (a post-apocalyptic setting) is part of the Tiny d6 system and the most supported one is of course Tiny Dungeons for a classic fantasy RPG. Tricube Tales is really interesting. It’s a setting agnostic rules set that needs to be paired with a one pager to give you some pointers on how you want to play it and those one page settings range from pure fantasy to cowboys to Baker Street, Cthulhu Mythos, sci-fi, superheroes and anything in between. If anything, simple as the Tiny d6 system is, Tricube Tales is even simpler. There’s also a very solid rules set for solo play for Tricube Tales and since it only costs $1… it gets the nod over Tiny Wastelands. If you find Tricube tales is TOO simple… take a step up to the Tiny d6 system.
Painted Minis
2025 was a year of ups and downs. Promising start... weak finish.
1st Quarter:
I had a whole bunch of Necromunda/Blackstone Fortress minis and terrain I assembled and/or 3d printed in December 2024… but didn’t manage to paint many of them. Sigh.
I did manage to get my Egyptian minis for Silver Bayonet painted though so that’s a plus. This was also the period where I 3D printed the terrain and minis and some ships for Sector AL-IX (no photo).
I also got some minis printed for Full Spectrum Dominance… but haven’t yet painted any. And my project to 3D print the terrain has also stalled. Sigh.
2nd Quarter
I managed to do quite a bit of 3D printing here. Dungeon walls.
Post-apocalyptic scatter terrain.
Minis for Port Royal.
And the minis for The Wheel expansion for The World of SMOG: Rise of Moloch board game that I plan to use for minis agnostic steampunk gaming in the future.
3rd Quarter
This was where I did most of my painting and “hobberying” so to speak.
Even though I made a start in 2Q, this period was when I managed to paint the core box (plus some KS exclusives) for the Okko board game.
Also 2 factions (finally!) for Anno Domini 1666
Some minis for Star Wars Imperial Assault so I could use them in my Pulp Alley campaign.
And I 3D printed some scatter terrain and managed to find my Mantic dungeon terrain for games in the future.
4th Quarter
I actually managed to speed paint all the minis for the Fortune and Glory board game plus 2 hero minis for The Dark Quarter.
Painted a good chunk of minis for Widower’s Wood Dead Man Walking BUT… for the Undercity mini campaign and not for actual Widower's Wood.
And a few last minute Kami minis to complete my Okko core box so I can play all the missions there before I move on to the expansions in 2026.
Ran out of steam in December to complete painting the minis for The Dragon expansion for SMOG: The Rise of Moloch due to some health issues in early December. I only managed to do the 2 minis in front.
Wow. 212 minis! I forgot I painted 2 more for my 5 Klicks game so that's 214 minis! And a bunch of terrain.
That’s it from me for 2025.
How was your gaming for 2025? Drop some comments!
And let me know what you prefer to see more of in 2026 because in my NEXT post, I’ll be talking about some plans I have for 2026 AND a surprise announcement that’s pretty exciting. (For me, anyway and I hope for you too).
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