I heard about "51 in 15" around October, through various gamers on G+ circles. Looks like it might've originated from Epie of Dread fame over here. I liked the idea, and had already done enough to maybe make it this year, so why not!?
Here's my list, with a sentence about each.
- Microscope: Great GM-less world / history building system by Ben Robbins where you don't play specific characters (except temporarily in scenes) that I'm itching to use with players prior to running a campaign.
- Forget Me Not (by Jim Pinto): A card-based GM-less game that creates a Twin Peaks-like mystery, which you will solve by the end of the game.
- Numenera: The perfect blend of fantasy-style adventure with a far future so indecipherable as to seem like magic.
- The Queen's Cavaliers (by Caoimhe Ora Snow): Swashbuckling adventure in a steam-punkish, renaissance-ish pseudo-France, with a really cool action shopping mechanic.
- Monster of the Week: Fun supernatural / monster mystery RPG, a la X-files or Buffy.
- Apotheca: A beautifully potion-themed candy crush-like board game, soon to be released by Andy Federspiel.
- Agricola: Finally learned how to play after purchasing it for $5 at a thrift store and having it sit on the shelf for 2 years.
- Starship Valkyrie (LARP): Sci-fi pseudo-Star Trek type LARP with many ship roles, miniature sub-games, and also the opportunity for role playing mayhem.
- Fate Core (Vinternacht by JiB): First time playing vanilla Fate Core (i.e. I've played Atomic Robo before) in a Viking one-shot run by Jason; so immersive and amazing table story cohesion.
- Castle Panic: A great cooperative game for kids, but not something I'd otherwise bring to the table.
- Timeline: A simple card game for guessing the sequence of historical events; great for history buffs and non-gamers alike; doesn't work for young kids who haven't taken history classes.
- Cardline: A more kid-friendly version of Timeline, for guessing sequences such as the size or lifespan of animals.
- Apples to Apples Kids / Junior: Excellent kid-friendly filler / party game that can be played with adults as well.
- Legend of the Five Rings (Journey of The Savage Six by Bill Roper): Pseudo asia / Japan RPG with mechanics that suit the setting; great con game by Bill where we played Orcs.
- Kingdom (The Stellar Eagle by Scott Martin): Another GM-less game by Ben Robbins, this time by playing a specific character in a kingdom-sized grouping; in our case the first (and possibly last) colonizing ship sent from Earth.
- Dread: Mad Max Fury Road: A dread hack by Andy Munich, where you play a clan in the world of Fury Road.
- Seafarers of Catan: The simplest of Catan expansions, keeping the essence of the original, but with Gold and exploration mixed in.
- Vox (The Facility by Matt Steele): A role playing game where you play both a character, and also the voice that haunts the player character to your right; a wild puzzly ride run by a great GM at Big Bad Con.
- Serpent's Tooth (by Ross Cowman): A magically delicious system that transforms from GM-run to GM-less in spurts and starts; fascinating!
- Torchbearer (The Secret Vault of the Queen of Thieves by Thor Olavsrud): I overheard this system described as the Vietnam of dungeon crawls, and got to feel that in action with the game designer running a session; very old school dungeon crawl feel!
- Songlines (Generation Starship by Aaron Vanek): An inspiring dice game / rpg / mixtape, which I hope to write my own scenario for.
- Fate Accelerated (Rise of Nations by Ezra Denney): A Fate accelerated hack, that takes "hack" to the next level by playing nation states, instead of characters; one of my (admittedly many) favorite games of Big Bad Con '15.
- Elevensies: A high society tea-serving game that exudes flavors of Love Letter game play, but with more complexity.
- Boss Monster 2 - The Next Level: I played Boss Monster once after the original Kickstarter at a friends place - perfect mix of old 8-/16-bit graphics and Nintendo look and feel mixed with gamer nerd references throughout and fun gaming; and then won and got to play version #2 which is an expansion that is also self-contained; fun for kids too, even though they don't get the references.
- Thebes: A game of archaeology that harks to Indiana Jones, and actually involves treasure hunting when grabbing blind in bags for chips with real historical artifacts on them.
- Loot: A simple and quick pirate-themed card game for kids.
- Car Wars Card Game: Old Steve Jackson cardgame that provides quick auto duel arena action, without involving any miniatures or spacial requirements.
- Takenoko: Very pretty panda and bamboo-themed board game with simple mechanics and goals, and a board that grows differently each time which adds decent re-playability.
- Imperial Assault: Quick pseudo war-game Star Wars scenarios.
- Cthulhu Wars: A very fun and mechanically clean combination of Risk, Diplomacy, and Cthulhu... with amazing miniatures (some of which aren't really all that miniature in size).
- Dungeon Solitaire (by Matthew Lowes): A one-player push-your-luck dungeon crawl with a standard deck of cards.
- Star Wars Edge of Empire RPG (Keeping Up With the Cloneses by Stu Venable): A narrative system that uses customized dice to good effect, and helps exude Star Wars flavor; my first time playing in any Star Wars RPG-type game, and an excellent scenario with hidden agendas that I enjoyed, by Stu.
- Vye: An interesting land acquisition matching card game, not too dissimilar to Carcassonne in some ways.
- Forbidden Island: A great Gamewright cooperative game that works well for kids and adults (especially those new to gaming); probably a better intro than Pandemic for the non-gamer.
- Forbidden Desert: A second version of cooperative game that I enjoyed more than the Forbidden Island.
- Frog Juice: A bit of an odd kids card game by Gamewright, but it works and fills the gap right now, and is worth it for a few bucks at the thrift store.
- Battlestar Galactica The Board Game: Perfectly mimics some aspects of the show in that it is a cooperative game that may also contain hidden competitive player characters that are subtly sabotaging the game; played with a few expansions, some of which I hear are vital for long-term replayability.
- Battle Sheep: Screw checkers, this should be the de facto basic little kid spacial strategy game; works for adults to, at least for a little bit,
- Who What Where: A Pictionary-style game that works for kids, where you draw three random cards and get people to guess the who, the what, and the where: "A child..." "...drawing pictures..." "...at a board game."
- Goblins Drool, Fairies Rule!: A beautifully illustrated, cute little kid card game of rhymes.
- One Night Ultimate Werewolf: A 5-10 player party game that fixes much of Werewolf 's failures; it plays quickly (5-10 minutes a game), has no long delays between games, and is all about information and what you will and won't share.
- Tsuro: A simplistic 2-8 player game of fluid dynamics.
- King of Tokyo: Power Up! expansion: When King of Tokyo becomes a bit dull, this little expansion gives it a power up for a little extra life.
- My Life With Master: Play a toady to the dark villain in this very narrative role playing game, where the mechanics make it difficult to break your allegiance to the big bad.
- Worst Game Ever: A Jeff Siadek game which is really a card-based party game for gamers; you will hate it, but you will also be laughing hysterically within the first 15 minutes.
- Wordarrific: Another Jeff Siadek game which is a card-based "scrabble" type spelling game that has elements of the judging and voting system from Apples to Apples / Cards Against Humanity games.
- Fallout Shelter: One of two phone games I played this year, which I have spent more time than I'd like to admit; a single player resource management and vault building in the Fallout universe with cute dwellers.
- Subterfuge: The other phone game I played this year, which is a weird submarine / undersea country battle that has elements of PvP and diplomacy.
- Escape Room LA - The Detective: You (and up to 9 others?) trapped in a 1940's detective's room where you must find a way out before someone comes to kill you; communication with others is the key, and booking with as many friends as possible is a win for fun.
- The Grizzled: Thematic, enjoyable (yet melancholy) World War 1 (France?) cooperative card game with simple mechanics that's sort of a reverse rummy with friends.
- Agricola All Creatures Big and Small: A 2-player simplified Agricola, which plays very quickly and feels difficult to optimize.
Huzzah! And here's my sticker reward (of which this, and others, you can get on the aforementioned URL)...
