I saw a lot of great movies and played a lot of fun games this year so I wanted to list some of my favorites. All of these entries came out this year, so I’m leaving out things that were new to me. Perhaps a future entry will catch those. I put in links to the games. The movies are on various streaming sites so they’re easy to find. Enjoy and see you next year!

Tabletop RPGs

​FIST: An ultra rules-lite game of paranormal mercenaries fighting the impossible. An inspired and quick character generation system and dead simple rules resolution.

​Frontier Scum: A weird western RPG based on the Mork Borg rule set. It adds interesting twists to the system and its design and aesthetic are very evocative. I dig the hat rule the most. Any time a PC is shot they can declare it knocked their hat off. After the fight, the player can roll to see if their hat survived and put it back on.

​Mutants in the Now: My first RPG was TMNT and Other Strangeness. Mutants in the Now strips out the TMNT and the horrible Palladium mechanics and leaves us with a game about playing a mutant animal on the fringes of society. Exactly what I need!

​Raccoon Sky Pirates: A fun rules light game about playing a gang of raccoons on a heist. Also they have an airship built from garbage. Quite fun!

​Trophy Dark: One of my best role playing experiences in recent memory (soon to be published on RPPR Actual Play). It’s a game of treasure hunters questing through a forbidden place. The deeper they go, the worse it gets. I want to run it myself.

Video Games

​Inscryption: A fiendishly clever deck builder game wrapped in a meticulous puzzle game shrouded in a compelling plot. If you love deck builders and puzzles and video games in general, this is a must play.

​Signalis: One of the best survival horror games I’ve ever played. Sci-fi horror that questions reality. Puzzles are very satisfying to solve, good combat, even on easy difficulty, and a truly immersive atmosphere.

​Elden Ring: I lost a month of my life after this came out. I could barely keep up with work. It consumed me. I dread when the DLC expansion comes out. I will buy it on day 1.

​TMNT Shredder’s Revenge: A slick beat em up with a perfect soundtrack.

​Fashion Police Squad: A retro-pixel FPS with very cool gameplay mechanics and a fun setting. You don’t hurt anyone in this game. You fix their fashion crimes. It’s fun!

Movies

Nope: My favorite Jordan Peele movie so far and a triumph of horror, media criticism, and spectacle.

Everything Everywhere All At Once: a moving and fantastic story of family, culture, and a better depiction of the multiverse than Dr. Strange 2 (although I did enjoy Sam Raimi having fun).

Barbarian: A horror film that came out of nowhere and provides many twists and turns. I love a good labyrinth. Just watch it. The less you know, the better.

Saloum: An African horror film about greed, curses, and the legacy of war. A fascinating insight into a region and culture seldom seen in genre films.

Mad God: A multi-decade labor of love and a triumph of stop motion animation. A bizarre descent into a unique vision of hell and worth the trip.

Prisoners of Ghostland: A cult Japanese filmmaker and Nick Cage teamed up to deliver a beautiful journey. It’s a slow moving movie but every frame is beautiful.

Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent: Nick Cage has been on a roll in the last few years and this film is a brilliant meta comedy action meditation on fame, friendship, and family.

RRR: This is a breakthrough Indian mega hit and it’s a blast to watch with friends. Only the power of true bros and their friendship can defeat British colonialism.

Prey: Finally, a good fucking Predator movie. A tight script, good action scenes and characters, and everything you need from a Predator movie. The spotty CGI bear aside, it’s a worthy successor to the original.

Glass Onion: Another worthy sequel of a great movie. Glass Onion improves upon the formula established in the first movie. I wish the secondary characters had more to do but a near perfect mystery/comedy other than that.

Podcast Episodes

​RPPR After Hours on the SCP RPG: A Kickstarted game based on the SCP mythos. Do we really need 3 different type of dice to roll for a single skill check? Why do skills have decimal points? A pistol skill 12.3? Find out what it means in this After Hours episode!

​Red Markets on LND: An indepth review of Red Markets from Greg Stolze, James Wallis, and myself.

​Night Clerk Radio - vaporwave and consumerism: A discussion on vaporwave as a critique of capitalism.

Links

​Ghostbleed the Bio Horror: A hilarious parody of early survival horror video games, made by Harry Partridge.

​The Gizmodo list of best RPGs of 2022: A list of some of the best new RPGs of the year.

​The Polygon list of Best RPGs of 2022: another list of cool new RPGs, with little crossover from the Gizmodo list.