#RPGaDay2015 -- Favorite new game and Most surprising game

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Today's RPGaDay entries are day 3 and 4, and then we're caught up! Yay!

Day 3: Favorite New Game of the Last 12 Months
Setting aside my own stuff, since that seems like cheating, I'm going to have to say that I think Atomic Robo is going to feature pretty highly here. I picked it up last GenCon and I'm really still quite taken with it. I'm going to have to schedule a time to play it sometime in the next few months, because I really want to run it, but I've got to finish Dresden first.

Day 4: Most Surprising Game
I think I have to give this spot to Epyllion. We are having a new and exciting movement in games wherein cute is actually something that sells. This fact should not be underestimated -- it's recognition of a meaningful shift in RPG consumer demographics. Books like Eloy Lasanta's Mermaid Adventures that got roundly ignored three years ago are now moving like crazy, because there's a new willingness to embrace mechanics and aesthetics that are non-traditional. Marissa Kelly's Epyllion is a sterling example of this trend, wherein the * World system is retooled for a game about baby dragons growing up in a world where the Shadow threatens to consume everything they have, and only they can really stop it. It's fresh, charming, and cute without being twee. There are real issues and darkness behind the adorable exterior, giving the game some real meat and heft without making it  ponderous or too focused on blowing stuff up. It's a really great game.

More tomorrow!

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