How my “51 in 15” turned out

A year ago Epidiah Ravachol came up with a game-related New Year’s resolution: play 51 different tabletop games in 2015 (he used the hashtag #51in15). He included all sorts of games: role-playing, card games, board games, miniatures games, etc., counting each title only once, no matter how many times he played it over the course of the year. A few days later Epidiah expanded on his resolution and posted cool badges for various challenges. I liked the idea and I started keeping track of my games in a spreadsheet. By December 31, I exceeded the target, ending up with 62 different games in my list. Let’s start with some summary numbers:

My game types were divided about equally between tactical and strategic play (5 miniatures games, 12 board games, 13 card games for a total of 30) and narrative play (25 role-playing games, 6 storytelling games, and one live-action role-playing game or LARP, for a total of 32).

For clarification of the latter, games I labelled “storytelling” rather than “role-playing” included The Quiet Year, Fiasco, Monster Draft, Durance, Hobbit Tales from the Green Dragon Inn, and Bluebeard’s Bride. But honestly, the difference is subjective — I was only trying to explore the data for patterns.
Similarly, the distinctions between board games and miniatures games or board games and card games can be blurry, such as in games like Robo Rally, Galactic Strike Force, or The Grizzled.

Regarding some categories Epidiah created badges for:

I played 16 different games that play under 30 minutes (such as the Mint Tin games, Coup, or Hanabi.) Five were board games and 11 were card games.
I played (or ran as game-master) 16 different games with more than five players. Of these, one was a card game, one was a board game, two were storytelling games and 12 were RPGs.
Seven were designed by a woman: two of these were storytelling games and five were RPGs. I wish that count was higher and I will keep working at it.
I had a horse in the race! I ran several games of War of Ashes: Fate of Agaptus at conventions.

But here is the thing that I’m really proud of:

No less than 44 of these 62 different games (71%) were new to me: I had never played them before 2015.
And of these new games, 9 were playtests (20.5% of the new games or 14.5% of the year’s total.)

Here is what my list looked like (after the cut):

Mice & Mystics (Plaid Hat Games)—Miniatures game, played with 2 and 3 people.
Sentinel Tactics (Greater Than Games)—Miniatures game, played with 2 and 3 people.
Galactic Strike Force (Greater Than Games)—Board game, played with 3 people.
Pathfinder Adventure Card Game (Paizo Publishing)—Card game, played with 3 people.
Sentinels of the Multiverse (Greater Than Games)—Card game, played with 2 and 3 people.
Mouse Guard RPG (Archaia Studios)—Role-playing game, played with 4 people.
Hobbit Tales from the Green Dragon Inn (Cubicle 7)—Card game/story game, played with 2 people.
Race to Adventure! (Evil Hat Productions)—Board game, played with 2 and 3 people.
Bulldogs! (Galileo Games)—Role-playing game, played with 6 people.
Savage Worlds: Space (Pinnacle Entertainment/Chaosmeister)—Role-playing game, played with 7 people.
DramaSystem (Pelgrane Press)—Role-playing game, played with 7 people.
The Quiet Year (Buried Without Ceremony)—Story game, played with 2 people.
Durance (Bully Pulpit Games)—Story game, played with 5 people.
Monster of the Week (Evil Hat Productions/Generic Games)—Role-playing game, played with 4 people.
The One Ring (Cubicle 7)—Role-playing game, played with 3 and 6 people.
Cold City (Contested Ground Studios)—Role-playing game, played with 3 people.
Night Witches (Bully Pulpit Games)—Role-playing game, played with 4, 5 and 6 people.
Fate of the Mouse Guard (playtest): that’s the setting from Mouse Guard with the rules from War of Ashes: Fate of Agaptus!—Role-playing game, played with 6 people.
Castle Panic (Fireside Games)—Board game, played with 6 people.
Slash (Games by Play Date)—Card game, played with 6 people.
Star Wars: Imperial Assault (Fantasy Flight Games)—Miniatures game, played with 3 people.
Monsterhearts (Buried Without Ceremony)—Role-playing game, played with 5 people. We played using Joe Beason‘s Elderhearts hack.
Kaiju Inc. (Evil Hat Productions)—Card game, played with 4 people (playtest).
Shadow of the Century (Evil Hat Productions) (playtest)—Role-playing game, played with 5 people.
Apocalypse World (Lumpley Games)—Role-playing game, played with 5 people. We used Karen Twelves’ “Olive Garden” playset.
Kigi (Smart Play Games)—Card game, played with 2, 3 and 4 people.
Nine Lives (Smart Play Games)—Card game, played with 2, 3 and 4 people.
Coup (Indie Boards and Cards)—Card game, played with 2 and 5 people.
Hanabi (R&R Games)—Card game, played with 2 people.
Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game (Fantasy Flight Games)—Miniatures game, played with 3 people.
Golden Sky Stories (Star Line Publishing)—Role-playing game, played with 4 people.
Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre (Cryptozoic Entertainment)—Card game, played with 3 people.
Fiasco (Bully Pulpit Games)—Story game, played with 6 people.
Forbidden Desert (Gamewright)—Board game, played with 3 people.
Motobushido (Alliterated Games)—Role-playing game, played with 7 people.
War of Ashes: Fate of Agaptus (Evil Hat Productions)—Role-playing game, played with 4, 5, 6 and 7 people.
Monster Draft (playtest)—Story game, played with 4 people.
Robot Rally (Wizards of the Coast)—Miniatures game, played with 5 people.
OmegaZone (Brooklyn Indie Games)—Role-playing game, played with 6 people.
Just Sentinels (PbtA/Just Heroes hack by Alan Hodges)—Role-playing game, played with 3 people.
Mass Effect (PbtA hack by Alan Hodges)—Role-playing game, played with 6 people.
XCOM: The Board Game (Fantasy Flight Games)—Board game, played with 2 people.
Star Trek: Five Year Mission (Mayfair Games)—Board game, played with 3 people.
Big Bad Gauntlet (playtest)—Role-playing game, played with 15 people.
Bluebeard’s Bride (Magpie Games) (playtest)—Story game, played with 5 people.
Fate Accelerated (Evil Hat Productions)—Role-playing game, played with 5 people.
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying (Margaret Weis Productions—Role-playing game, played with 6 people.
Mint Tin Pirates (subQuark publishing)—Card game, played with 2 people.
Mint Tin Aliens (subQuark publishing)—Card game, played with 2 people.
Koi Pond (Smart Play Games)—Card game, played with 2 people.
JUGGERNAUT (Bully Pulpit Games)—Live action role-playing game, played with 5 people.
Don’t Turn Your Back (Evil Hat Productions)—Board game, played with 2 people.
Nephews of Dune (playtest)—Role-playing game, played with 5 people.
Augustus (Hurrican Games)—Board game, played with 4 people.
Dresden Files Accelerated Edition (Evil Hat Productions) (playtest)—Role-playing game, played with 2 people.
Mint Tin Mini Apocalypse (subQuark publishing)— Miniatures game, played with 2 players.
Helionox (Zeroic Games)— Card game, played with 2 people.
The Company (Evil Hat Productions) (playtest)—Role-playing game, played with 4 people.
Dungeon World (Sage Kobold Productions)—Role-playing game, played with 5 people.
Samurai Spirit (Fun Forge)—Board game, played with 2 and 3 people.
Imperial Settlers (Portal Games)—Board game, played with 3 people.
The Grizzled (Sweet November Games/Cool Mini or Not)— Card game, played with 2 people.