Steffan O'Sullivan's Current Favorite Games

(Expect it to change more frequently than I can update it ...)
This page last updated December 13, 2001

Introductory Blather

All right, I'm giving in to the urge to list my favorite games. Please realize this list sometimes changes daily, if not hourly. I'm definitely a mood gamer, and some games might not be on the list for 364 days a year, but on the other day, it's the number one game in the world I want to play. I like variety in my gaming - I'm not a gamer who enjoys playing the same game over and over.

It also depends on whom I'm playing with. For example, I have a good wargaming buddy, and so will play games with him that I won't with most other gamers I know. Likewise, I have a very good friend who only plays Scrabble - I rarely play Scrabble with anyone else, but because of the great games I have with this one friend, it ranks as one of my favorite games. And I play games sometimes with a family, and so enjoy games I can play with kids - and so on. So there will be games listed that I might not want to play in every situation, but still count as favorite games.

I'll list approximately ten games in each category - that is, somewhere between six and fourteen games. I will not rank them - I'll list them alphabetically within a category.

The Board/Card Games section will change most frequently - my Miniatures and RPG tastes change more slowly.

The Lists

Following the game title is the publisher, in parentheses, and country of origin if outside the USA.

OOP = Out of Print, to the best of my knowledge

Multiplayer Board/Card Games

Two-Player Board/Card Games

 See also Historical Wargames, below.

Historical War Games

 See also Miniatures games, below.

Miniatures Games

 Rules [with genre bracketed like this] ("Skirmish" means one figure represents one individual, and is by far my preferred scale):

  • All for One (Ratcliffe & Johnson, UK) [Three Musketeers Skirmish]
  • Desperado (Tom Kelly) [Old West Cinematic Skirmish]
  • Form Line of Battle (Raider, UK) [Age of Sail]
  • Full Thrust (Ground Zero, UK) [SF Space Ships]
  • Hordes of the Things (WRG, UK) [Mass Fantasy battles]
  • Once Upon a Time in the West Country (Partizan, UK) [ECW Skirmish] with Once Upon a Time in the West Indies (Partizan, UK) [17th-Century Cinematic Skirmish]
  • Pig Wars (Todd Kershner) [Medieval Skirmish]
  • Wood Wars (Tim's Games) [Mass Fantasy battles]

Role-Playing Games

 For rules, I now translate everything into either Other RPGs [which I admire for some reason or other]:

  • Bunnies & Burrows (FGU & SJG, OOP) [first love, and still favorite genre!]
  • Dinky Dungeons (Doc's Games/Uncle Morty, OOP) [for the simplicity and conciseness] (NOTE: if you have any Dinky Dungeons products for sale, please contact me!)
  • The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen (Hogshead, UK) [for the outrageousness]
  • GURPS (SJG) [for the core rules, which are elegant, and many of the supplements]
  • Lost Souls (Marquee, OOP) [follow the link to find out why]
  • Melanda (Wilmark, OOP) [many years ahead of its time in its magic and character creation systems]
  • Monsters! Monsters! (Metagaming & Flying Buffalo, OOP) [for the simplicity and early poking fun at the genre]
  • Paranoia (West End Games) [I'm sorry, Citizen, you're not cleared to know why]
  • Prince Valiant (Chaosium, OOP) [follow the link to find out why]
  • The Fantasy Trip (TFT) (Metagaming, OOP) [the first to meld simplicity and verisimilitude - in other words, the first elegant RPG]
  • Thieves' Guild (Game Lords, OOP) [for the supplements]
  • Toon (SJG) [for the silliness and simplicity]
  • Tunnels & Trolls (Flying Buffalo) [the first RPG with simplicity of rules as a design goal]
My Favorite Genres to Play and/or GM - current favorites marked [*]:

Special Games
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