In 2025 I played a bit less but more deeply.
I played 52 new games, down from last year. Overall, I had 410
plays of 127 distinct games, down quite a bit. My collection has
expanded slightly to 202.
My Eddington
number
for games in 2025 (the largest number E such that I have played E
different games at least E times each, also known as an "H factor")
was down to 10: Project L, Compile: Main 1, Steampunk Rally
Fusion: Atomic Edition, Flash Point: Fire Rescue, Sea Salt &
Paper, Turing Machine, Crokinole, Rallyman: GT, Tinderblox
Sunset, Flip 7 amd Imperium: Horizons.
My overall Eddington number has risen from 23 to 25; one more play of
Tinderblox Sunset, Codenames, Sagrada or Mysterium and I'll
make 26.
A measure that I haven't seen talked about elsewhere, but that falls
quite easily out of the Eddington calculation, is what I call "gaming
area": of all the values for "X games Y times each", starting in this
case with 123 games once each and ending with one game 32 times
(Rallyman: GT of course), which one maximises X × Y? In my case
that's 26 games played at least five times each, for an area value of
130. (Last year 145 games × 1 each = 145.)
My overall gaming area is 92 games × 10 plays each = 920.
I've shifted my game logging from BoardGameGeek to a local database.
I've got an API key from BGG for personal use, but it's now clear that
there is no guarantee that anything will remain downloadable.
I completed the 52 game
challenge,
and I've set up a post for 2026.
As last year, I went to two Stabcons, and three separate Airecons, and
Tabletop Scotland, and UK Games Expo. And Essen, which was great fun
as it always is, but the small publishers are definitely getting
shunted aside. I didn't get COVID or anything else at any of them. I'm
still the only person I meet who masks.
I did a lot of rules writing, for other people's games, with a huge
expansion to my Pocketmod rules catalogue and all my rulebooks
including the Pocketmod ones gathered in one
place. (Typst was a big factor in
this.) I accept requests!
There hasn't really been a new big game for me this year; I've been
carrying on with Imperium: Horizons whenever I've had a chance.
Sea Salt & Paper remains my favourite small game, the one I'm likely
to drop into a pocket and play casually while out doing something
else.
My List of Opportunity (games that I own, that aren't up for trade,
but that I have not yet played) has expanded rather (or perhaps I just
didn't update it properly last year).
- Bridge City Poker
- Compile: Main 2
- Deckers
- Elawa
- Five Three Five
- Kiri-ai: The Duel
- Kraftwagen: Age of Engineering
- Make It Happen
- Mü & more: Revised Edition
- Nocturne
- Path of Light and Shadow
- Riverside
- Sandbag
- Seers Catalog
- TRICKTAKERs
- Umbra Via
- Witchcraft: Moonlight Magic
I have resisted the lure of crowdfunding. Games still pending from
2023 or earlier:
- Sentinels of the Multiverse: Disparation
which maaaaybe will arrive in the first quarter of 2026.