For the most recent stats, check Best of Troy Press.

2023

Now that 2023 is in the books, I present the final stats on what your fellow readers found most interesting.

The Top 10 most-viewed blog posts throughout the year:

  1. Wealth Systems in RPGs
  2. Uncommon World: Open-Source Fantasy PbtA
  3. Alternatives to Dungeon World
  4. Links for Designing PbtA TTRPGs
  5. Table Comparing Dungeon World to 5 Hacks
  6. Stonetop is a State-of-the-Art Fantasy Role-Playing Game
  7. Rules for “Diamonds” Trick-Taking Card Game
  8. FAQ: The Right Fantasy PbtA for You
  9. PbtA Science Fiction Recommendations
  10. Probabilities of 2d6 Compared to d6 Dice Pools

The Top 10 games by views:

  1. Uncommon World: Open-Source Fantasy PbtA
  2. Rules for “Diamonds” Trick-Taking Card Game
  3. Fantastic Worlds: An Anthology of Resources for Fantasy PbtA Games
  4. Spin Rummy
  5. Hard-Knock World
  6. Play BASIC Computer Games Online
  7. Suddenly an Ogre: A DW Gamebook
  8. Tunnels & Traps: A Tiny BASIC Game
  9. Double Draw: Rules for a 5-Card Draw Variant
  10. Melee, Missiles & Magic: An Homage to Tunnels & Trolls 1E

And here are the Top 10 blog posts that were written this year:

  1. Wealth Systems in RPGs
  2. Freebooters on the Frontier 2e is the OSR PbtA Homage to OD&D
  3. Star Trek in Chronological Order
  4. The Top 10 Things to Know When Switching from 5e to Dungeon World
  5. The Ultimate Micro-RPG Book’s Games Listed by Player Count and Time
  6. Top 10 Episodes of Star Trek Lower Decks, in Chronological Order
  7. A Catch-All Move in PbtA Games
  8. The PbtA Commons
  9. Quantum Gear from Schrödinger’s Catalog
  10. The Triggerspace and the Moveosphere

I hadn’t intended to become a Star Trek blogger, but, hey, LLAP.

And here are the bottom 10 (not counting December posts), if you want to show them some love:

39.  Tips for Using Mastodon
40.  A New Life in Auspele: A Choose-Your-Way Game
41.  Roll the Dice on Alien Frontiers, for Retro Sci-Fi Fun
42.  Star Trek: Planet, Monster, Romance of the Week
43.  Top 10 Lists for Troy Press Content for 2022
44.  7 Wonders: Architects Makes a Great Gift
45.  Prequelitis in Strange New Worlds
46.  Non-alcoholic Beer for Beer-and-Pretzel Games
47.  Father, Son, and Unholy Ghost
48.  Comparing How Americans Play Games Now vs. 1940

Games

My weekly boardgame group emphasizes variety, though we’re not slaves to the cult of the new. The game I played the most (14 times) was 7 Wonders: Architects (across 4 occasions), followed by Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition (5 times, 5 occasions), and One Night Ultimate Werewolf (5 times, all in one evening). My most played games:

  1. 7 Wonders: Architects (14 times, 4 occasions)
  2. Slide 5 (6 times, 2 occasions)
  3. Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition (5 times, 5 occasions)
  4. Civscape (5 times, 2 occasions)
  5. One Night Ultimate Werewolf (5 times, 1 occasion)
  6. Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy (4 times, 4 occasions)
  7. Undaunted: Normandy (4 times, 3 occasions)
  8. New Frontiers (4 times, 2 occasions)
  9. Agatha Christie: Death on the Cards (4 times, 2 occasions)
  10. Bridge City Poker (4 times, 2 occasions)

Honorable mention to Twilight Imperium: Prophecy of Kings, which I played twice and actually won once (that second game went from 10 am to midnight!).

New Frontiers remains a favorite, and I eagerly await the ever delayed expansion, Starry Rift. The second edition of Eclipse is great. The Ares Expedition version of Terraforming Mars is my favorite version of that game, as it packs the same game play into a half or a third the time. Undaunted is a WW2 deck builder that I’ve enjoyed. Not making the top 10 were Alien Frontiers and Battle for Moscow, both of which I reviewed this year.

Oh, and here are my Top 5s from Spotify.

Photo by Ray Hennessy on Unsplash.

2022

I find it so weird when I start getting “year in review” summaries from my apps (Spotify, Duolingo, etc.) in the first week of December. While I wouldn’t mind working an 11-month year, the year goes 12 months. (Though I do appreciate that my bingeing of Abba and their new album won’t affect any of my annual stats.) So, being a purist, I postponed this analysis until 2021 was actually complete.

Here are the Top 10 most-viewed blog posts for 2021:

  1. Alternatives to Dungeon World
  2. Questions to Ask During Session Zero
  3. List of Resources for Dungeon World One Shots
  4. Prep Technique: Brainstorming Moves in Advance
  5. The Dialects of Tiny BASIC
  6. The Tiny BASIC Interpretive Language IL—and Onions
  7. Links for Designing PbtA TTRPGs
  8. Palo Alto Tiny BASIC in Your Browser
  9. Prepping with the End of Session in Mind
  10. One-Page Dungeon Generator

Here are the Top 10 games by views:

  1. Uncommon World: Open-Source Fantasy PbtA
  2. Uncommon World Configuration Tool
  3. Play BASIC Computer Games Online
  4. Tunnels & Traps: A Tiny BASIC Game
  5. Hard-Knock World
  6. Spin Rummy
  7. Melee, Missiles & Magic
  8. Colossal Cave Adventure: The Card Game
  9. “Diamonds” Trick-Taking Card Game
  10. Castle Conquests

And here’s my personal Top 10 of game and blog posts that I thought deserved to get more attention than they did, starting with the games.

  1. Civscape – The Take-That Civilization Card Game
  2. Hero’s Arc – A Fantasy Gamebook with Story Arcs
  3. Hopping Halflings – 18-Card Raid of the Sleeping Dragon’s Hoard
  4. Melee in the Mines – Monsters vs. Adventurers Combat Card Game
  5. Double Draw – Rules for a 5-Card Draw-Poker Variant
  6. Agile Development for Card Games
  7. Drawing the Line: Shared Narration in TTRPGs
  8. Monty Hall Prep
  9. The Phonotactics of 5E Character Names
  10. Signaling Gender in 5e Fantasy Names