Last year changed the way many of us thought about software. It certainly changed the way I did. I spent much of 2025 building, probing, and questioning how to build software, and in many more ways what I want to do.
Dimension 20 has primarily used Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition across its campaigns, with occasional side quests using other systems. The main cast has only deviated from D&D for the sixth campaign, A Starstruck Odyssey, which utilized an unofficial Star Wars system.
PlayStation has announced a new contest called The Playerbase, allowing winners to have their likenesses scanned to appear in PlayStation games, starting with Gran Turismo 7.
Everbound uses an 18-card construct to fill out the crew of a pirate ship. You start with your Captain and a twinkle in yer eye. And presumably a ship. Yarrrr. You'll take one of two actions per turn. Draw: Take a card from the Dock. Recruit: Play a card from your hand by paying its icon cost.
I wish this was a one-off blip in my regimented friendship schedule, but all through 2025 I played the world's slowest game of message tennis. I'd invite a pal for dinner, only for the world to turn, the seasons pass, grey hairs gather at my temples, before a date was finally locked in. This sentiment seems to be common among my circle.
Baldur's Gate 3 was the kind of game that could take hours to get started, thanks in part to a rich character customization suite that allowed players to fine-tune everything from their race to several minute details.
TPK, a combo brewery and gaming space that opened in 2023, eases entry for newcomers and provides a soft landing for the socially rusty. "Especially coming out of the pandemic, we had a lot of people in their mid-30s [who] were like, 'I have no way to connect with anyone,'" says Elliott Kaplan, TPK's CEO and one of its three founders. "Well, we'll throw you at a table. All the social interactions will be overseen by a GM."
