![]() Greetings, and welcome to the weekly Gauntlet Hangouts video roundup! Listed below are links to recorded sessions of online games played under the Gauntlet Hangouts banner and other games organized through the Gauntlet online RPG community. These recorded sessions represent only a small part of the giant selection of games available every week, and anyone can join in the fun! Details on how to become a part of the community are listed at the end of the post. Special Events
Beyond the Wall & Other Adventures Richard Ruane runs for John, Josh, Kenny, and Patrick Another video from the Codex Vol. 1 Kickstarter. Gauntlet Sunday Legacy: Life Among the Ruins (Session 4 of 5) Lowell Francis runs for Ary Ramsey, Darren Brockes, Patrick Knowles, and Walter German The age has turned and new leaders have arisen among the families. With different threats looming the factions turn to higher level moves-- calling on old debts, subverting factions, and pushing new agendas. Gauntlet Quarterly Masks: A New Generation (Session 12 of 13) Lowell Francis runs for Chris Newton, Jim Crocker, Michael G. Barford, and Simon Landreville The penultimate session for the series-- tensions come to a head and despite success in capturing Bolt, the team seems split. With old threats now revealed, can they survive? Masks: A New Generation (Session 13 of 13) Lowell Francis runs for Chris Newton, Jim Crocker, Michael G. Barford, and Simon Landreville The climactic session of this long running Gauntlet Comics series. With the team pitted against one another can they save the future? And if so, which future? Gauntlet Comics Demigods (Session 4 of 4) Rich Rogers runs for Alexi S., David Jay, Dr. Jason Cox, and Sherri The Demigods figure their way out of The Labyrinth, again, then rush to Buy More to defeat the newly empowered Geektron and defeat him, but at a great cost. Also, video game battle with Hades! Gauntlet League Wrestling World Wide Wrestling: Gauntlet League Wrestling - Road Show (Session 4 of 4) Tyler Lominack runs for Gerwyn Walters, Paul Spraget, Ryan M., and Sawyer Rankin The road shows culminate in Gatlinberg, Tenn. The Monet Manor stable rises to the occasion, Kandi Roxx rescues the Princess (and pays for it), Dr Destruction creates a monster, and Danger Dan leaves the Jobber behind. Along the way there is family drama and an emotional climax. Who says World Wide Wrestling can't be a tearjerker?!? Gauntlet Hangouts Monsterhearts 2: Ballhir (Session 1 of 3) Ryan M. runs for Alex, Lauren, Morgan W., and Peter Mazzeo Welcome to Ballhir! We have ruins, dragon(s), fairy shrooms, and a broom closet. The Pool Variations: A Tale of Magical Healing (Session 3 of 4) Robbie Boerth runs for Crom, Fernando "Dolan" Dolande, Peter Mazzeo, and Stentor Danielson This party locates Auntie Pine and proceeds to harness magical forces to deal with the mysterious negating force that is afflicting the forest. We are playing James V. West's The Pool, but this week we incorporate some variants, including the requirement to play the scenes in reversed chronological order. That is, play begins with the ending scene in our story, and we work back in time to where our previous session concluded. The Sword, The Crown, & The Unspeakable Power (Session 3 of 4) Darren Brockes runs for Fraser Simons, Klint Finley, Luiz Ferraz, and Mathieu On the date of the Introduction of the Appointees to the Public, everything goes wrong. Well, not for Dusk, Phaedra, Savina or Osada — for them, it seems like everything is going according to plan. Tall Pines Ryan M. runs for Alex, Robert, and Sarah J. Murder and mystery unfold in the small town of Tall Pines. Who--or what--killed Victor Graves? Monsterhearts 2: Ballhir (Session 2 of 3) Ryan M. runs for Alex, Barry, Peter Mazzeo, and Sarah J. A Selkie blows in as a new Queen ascends. MacDermott's still here for the parties, but Róisín's getting in touch with vir inner dragon. The Watch (Session 3 of 4) David Morrison runs for Bethany H. and Sławomir Wójcik Athoc and Jorun deal with the fallout of Jorun's excursion into the forest, but the intelligence they receive leads to a rescue mission in a Shadow prison camp. Athoc makes some hard decisions as she confronts the corrupting power of the Shadow, while Jorun tries to deal with the physical and mental trauma of the ongoing war. Together, they must deal with a new threat posed by the Shadow. Apocalypse World: Lost Vegas (Session 4 of 5) Sawyer Rankin runs for Alejandro, Peter Mazzeo, Rich Rogers, and Sydney Big Poppa, finds a new niche amongst his people and takes to the High Priest role with aplomb. North 93 and Hope & Sorrow, find new meaning together and may have shaped each other's future. Rue Wakeman takes on a new enemy as a favor for an old one and ends up in a twisted predicament. Bite Me! (Session 3 of 4) David Morrison runs for Alex T., Kyle, Rob Ruthven, and Wade Lahoda Colt the Cub proves himself on the battlefield, and meets a friendly taxidermist. Devora the Howl comes to the aid of the pack, even as they manipulate things from behind the scenes. And Mac the Prodigal learns a hard truth about Ash the Enforcer, which threatens to drive a wedge between them. But the pack comes together to see off the Howling Wolf Motorcycle Club. Hearts of Wulin: Monkey in the Scarlet Court (Session 2 of 4) Gerwyn Walters runs for Alun R., Ludovico Alves, Paul Rivers, and Sabine V. General Zheng Heng and mistress secret sun confront a hidden assassin in the dockyards while in the palace somebody frames Princess Falling Blaze for poisoning the elderly Emperor. In the chess court a duel continues between Admiral Le Ho Qin and the mysterious Crystal Hammer that reveals the fate of a mother long thought dead. Hearts of Wulin: Monkey in the Scarlet Court (Session 3 of 4) Gerwyn Walters runs for Alun R., Ludovico Alves, Paul Rivers, and Sabine V. Admiral Le Ho Qin and Princess Falling Blaze feel the palace and each finds support in an unexpected place. Mistress Secret Sun accompanies a prisoner to the palace before unleashing her plan to decapitate the government, only to be betrayed at the last moment. Princess Falling Blaze and and General Zheng Heng make an ally out of an enemy and they finally agree their marriage but as all things it comes with a price. Admiral Le Ho Sun and Mistress Secret Sun penetrate the lair of a master poisoner to obtain a potion to slay Crystal Hammer, only to find an old friend waiting for them. Flotsam (Session 2) Bethany H. facilitates for Cass K., Jason Mills, Jesse A., and Keith Stetson Zen's gang makes Home, a rogue household AI, part of the family. Jasper tries to con Zen, but accidentally helps him instead. Lenny and warlord-turned-trader Hallows come to a business arrangement. And Zen and Hallows, two of the most recognizable people in the Below, try to disguise themselves and visit an aristocrat, each with their own secret plans. Flotsam (Session 3) Bethany H. facilitates for Cass K., Jason Mills, Jesse A., and Rich Rogers Zen and Hallows make a daring escape from the Myerscough house, while Omega takes the opportunity to sneak into the factory. Jasper relays information from the spirits to Mercy. And Zen finally gets his duel. Dark Designs in Krevborna: Hexmoon Sabbath (Session 4 of 4) Richard Ruane runs for Alejandro, Phillip Wessels, and Ren Neuhoff Svasta draws everyone together with strange ceremonies and dark magics in the woods outside Veil. Itras By: Dreams of Revolution (Session 3 of 3) Mikael Tysvær runs for David Walker, Horst Wurst, and Tina T. The Monkeys riot, the devils archives gets invaded by professional and unprofessional detectives and the muse finds his heart just in time to experience the full emotional weight of his masterpiece. Vigor: Whispers of an Old Name (Session 4 of 4) Jake Householder runs for Chris Krueger, James L., and Sawyer Rankin The young Archivist fears for who he might become, but a reunion with his estranged father helps him to see the situation in a different light. Meanwhile, with pistons primed for revolution, Dylarama and Frist work to get the Computer back online. They soon realize, however, that the target of their revolt is not who they'd thought. In the end, one Archivist is faced with an impossible choice on the exciting climax and conclusion to this series of VIGOR... Masks: Phoenix Academy (Session 4 of 4) Rory runs for Blaine, Leandro Pondoc, and Michael Mendoza We conclude the first season of Masks: Phoenix Academy with a mission to rescue a super-villain from another super-villain! Heaven in the Dust (Session 2 of 2) Leandro Pondoc runs for David Morrison, Luiz Ferraz, and Sabine V. With newcomers come change and this particular captain of capitalism is determined to bend Hellenetown to his will. Apollo is given a tasty offer, Dionysus finds chaos in revolution and Ares is forced to uphold the law. Masks: Agents of A.E.G.I.S. (Session 3 of 3) Leandro Pondoc runs for Asher S., David Morrison, Erez, and Rob Ruthven The Sirius Team is confronted by old shames and dangerous robotic threats as they are sent to retrieve an alien artifact before the Restitution can. Glorious Gekko makes an ill-advised acquaintance, Spectre runs into an old heroic ally, Purple reveals their vast stores of power and L0K1 is nearly drowned by the murky side of A.E.G.I.S. Dead Scare (Session 2 of 2) Stentor Danielson runs for Bruce Rusk, Kyle, and Larry S. Check out all the great videos on The Gauntlet YouTube channel and be sure check out the playlists to catch up on all your favorite games. If you'd like to play in games like these, check out the calendar of events and The Gauntlet Forums where new games are announced! To support The Gauntlet, please visit the Gauntlet Patreon at https://patreon.com/gauntlet. All are welcome to play Gauntlet Hangouts games, and Patreon supporters have extra options like priority RSVP for Gauntlet Hangouts games and joining the Gauntlet Slack team where special events are announced like Gauntlet Games Now. Enjoy, and everyone have a great weekend!
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By Michael G. Barford, Keeper of the Eternal Chime This is the second post in Michael's Character Keeper series. You can find the first post here. One important step for game designers in designing a game is designing a character sheet. It encourages players to step back and consider exactly which elements of the game designer’s design a player will interact with and which parts are necessary or overlooked. For a potential player, designing an online tool that we call a “character keeper” can be a similarly illuminating experience. A character keeper is an online tool for all the players to keep the information that would otherwise be on their character sheet. Character keepers are especially helpful in online play because it allows all the players and the game facilitator to access all the information any of the other players have about their characters including rules for moves, descriptions of characters, and other relevant statistics and modifiers. You may find that reading through a rules text through the lens of, “How would I create a character keeper for this,” is a helpful exercise for learning and synthesizing the most relevant player-facing aspects of the game. Most games that need character keepers for online play will come with character sheets already. The task, then, is to translate that character sheet into an online character keeper. Having the character sheet as a resource certainly makes things easier when designing your character keeper, but with practice you could feasibly make a character keeper from scratch. In order to demonstrate this process, I will be creating a character keeper from the ground up for Offworlders, a rules-light sci-fi game that’s (as of this posting) free. You may find it helpful to follow along and practice making this character keeper yourself! Read through the text with this goal in mind; How does it inform your understanding of the game? On page 27 you will find the character sheet presented for play. It is presented in a pretty straightforward and simple manner, useful for our purposes today. Check out the headings and see which information the designer thinks are important for players to have noted. It looks like the designer thinks the following are important to note: Name, Look, XP, Attributes, Health, Supply, Abilities, Skills, Advancement, and Gear. These are things we will keep in mind as we design our own character keeper. Next, let’s go to sheets.google.com and start a new blank spreadsheet. Wow. A blank canvas. So many rows and columns. A little intimidating! Let’s just go ahead and start getting some stuff on the page so that it seems less scary. Up at the top, click Untitled Spreadsheet and go ahead and give your character keeper a title. Then, click on a cell to start editing it. I like to start with B2, because I think a small margin around the characters looks nice. Cell B2 is the one positioned in Column B, Row 2. You may have guessed that the first thing we will have at the top of each character is their name, and you would be correct! There’s a couple of ways of approaching this, though. When we design this character keeper, we want to keep future players in mind. How do you want them to interact with the character keeper? One method is to make headers that suggest which information should go in the box below, like so: Or you can indicate that the text within the cell should be replaced with the player’s input. This is how I usually do it: In either case, take note of how we can use borders and colors to organize our information. Later we will use more formatting to help indicate how users should work with the character keeper. For now, let’s stick with a very simple format and one sheet at a time. When we’re happy with our layout, we can copy it over for the other characters. You’ll also want to add a space for including the player’s name to distinguish ownership. After that, let’s go ahead and add some of those headings from our list and get them on the page. Line them up in Column B. Think about how your players will be looking at this info. We want the most relevant information to be at the top so that players will be scrolling up and down less often. We should also keep in mind that if we order the steps of character creation from top to bottom, it can make the process smoother and more intuitive. Further, think about which parts of each character sheet the other players will want to be able to look at. Remember, this a unique advantage of online character keepers that we absolutely want to take advantage of! With this in mind, I want to reorder these headings in a way that makes sense to me. I also added another heading to the list that wasn’t on the original character sheet: Class. This is the order that I chose, but you may like to order this differently: Now, let’s use those borders and colors to organize this information some more. When you have a cell highlighted, you can click on the paint bucket icon to change the fill color. You can highlight multiple cells and click on the four-square border icon to choose a border style. Don’t forget to leave room for folks to input the relevant info! I’ve zoomed out a bit here to show the full layout: You’ll see I’ve chosen to line up the attributes together in one row (and shortened their names). But now we have this unsightly panhandle sticking out of the side of the sheet, and parts of our cells like the Name sections are cut off! Our solution here is to use the merge tool. I’ll highlight the top row (cells B2:E2), then I’ll click the icon with two arrows pointing to each other to merge these cells. Et voila! Doesn’t that look better? To save time when merging the rest of my single-line items, I’ll select multiple rows and columns and click the dropdown arrow next to the merge icon and select merge horizontally (otherwise they’ll all get lumped into one cell). If you ever make a mistake, the undo button is your friend! When making your character keeper, you’ll want to keep the final image in mind. You’ll notice I have five rows designated for abilities. Don’t you only need two? Well, if you’ll recall, the Advancement rules allow for a character to gain up to three more abilities. By putting them in now, I’ve saved the hassle of figuring out where to put them later after characters advance. I’ve also made room for a third skill slot in case someone takes the Geek’s Polymath ability. While we’re thinking ahead, we have to keep in mind that one of the advantages of an online character keeper over a regular character sheet is the ability to be able to see multiple character sheets on the screen at one time. As it stands, my character sheet in this character keeper is looking pretty wide. At this rate, I’ll only have room for about two character sheets on the screen! I tend to play with at least three or four players at one time (and I’d like to save space for more characters in case I have a new crew member join), so I’ll have to find some more real estate here. One way I can do that is to adjust the width of each column. There’s are a few ways you can do that. When you hover your mouse over the border of the column heading, a double-sided arrow will appear. You can click and drag that to manually adjust the width. If you double click, it will automatically resize the column to fit the width of its contents. And, if you right click the column heading, you can then click resize column to set the width in pixels. You can also highlight multiple column headings and right click>resize column to do them all at once. Here I’ve resized the columns to a conservative 50 pixels, and narrowed the margins as well: Much better! With this, you have the skeleton of a basic character keeper. If this level of functionality is all you need, then go ahead and copy the sheet over to next columns. BUT! In order to retain the column widths you’ll want to highlight the column headings not just the cells themselves before you copy and paste them over.
Thanks for sticking through the basics. However, if you’re interested, there are further modifications you can make to your character keeper to make it even more functional and accessible. If you’re willing to put in more work, keep an eye out for future posts in this series! We’ll cover such wondrous things as checkboxes, dynamic drop down lists, images, and conditional formatting. Stay tuned next week for the next entry in this series. by Jason Cordova
In 1984, 16-year-old Taylor Hartley went missing from their home in Hugo, MN. Weeks of searching and investigation by local authorities turned up almost no evidence of what happened to them. In addition to the normal sorts of things one would expect to find in a teenager’s bedroom, Taylor also left behind a large box full of Trapper Keepers, each of which contained extensive notes for the fantasy roleplay game, World of Dungeons. Collectively, these notes—which detail a strange and terrifying fantasy world—have come to be known as The Golden Shroud Campaign, due to the fact that many people report having dreams and night terrors involving a woman wearing a golden burial shroud over her body. As the years went by, people began to believe The Golden Shroud Campaign contained clues about what happened to Taylor—that the mystery of their disappearance could be solved by closely studying the maps and monsters therein. Some even believe that Taylor had learned something about the very nature of the cosmos itself, and that playing The Golden Shroud Campaign is a sort of cipher that can be used to unlock deep, otherwise-unknowable mysteries. In the Internet Age, the urban legend surrounding The Golden Shroud Campaign has taken on a new life. Over the years, people have managed to get their hands on different parts of the campaign, and as they play through them, they share their experiences on a forum for so-called “lifters” (as in, “lift the shroud”). Perhaps together they will learn what happened to Taylor Hartley; perhaps, if they explore every corner of the campaign world, they will uncover darker truths. Rumors that the world of The Golden Shroud starts to bleed into the real-world as you play are, of course, utter nonsense... Starting in May, I’m going to run a special series on Gauntlet Hangouts called The Golden Shroud Campaign. During each 4-5 session series, players will be participating in two different stories: the story of the shrouders, a group of modern-day people who are playing The Golden Shroud Campaign in order to learn more about the mystery surrounding Taylor Hartley’s disappearance; and the story of the pre-generated characters they play in Taylor Hartley’s campaign world. The series will use Cthulhu Dark to tell the story of the shrouders and World of Dungeons to tell the story of the campaign world. Mechanics in the the World of Dungeons portion will allow players to uncover an emergent mystery related to Taylor Hartley’s disappearance. Over the course of each series, the world of the Golden Shroud will eventually seep into the modern-day world of the shrouders, which will eventually drive them mad or destroy them, as you would expect in Cthulhu Dark. I have several motivations for doing The Golden Shroud Campaign. The first is that I just love this kind of nerdy shit; the combination of Dungeons & Dragons, Twin Peaks, and Lovecraft is just too irresistible for me. This series combines my two loves in gaming——horror and dark fantasy——and just generally plays to my strengths. My hope is people who participate in this series are going to remember it for a long time, and I love giving that kind of experience to people. The second is related to the production of the Fear of a Black Dragon podcast, which I co-host. I had been running old school modules on Gauntlet Hangouts in order to support that show——we don’t discuss a module unless either myself or my co-host Tom has played it——but it was getting to be a bit of chore. Given the open table nature of how we organize games, I found myself increasingly dissatisfied with these disjointed adventures that didn’t connect up in any way. With The Golden Shroud Campaign, I can use old school modules as the basis for the adventures inside the world of the Golden Shroud, while the shrouder meta narrative is the thread that runs through all of them. Also, because the shrouder story is the main story being told, and we only zoom into the Golden Shroud story at key dramatic moments, it means I can more easily cut the fat from some of these modules (like all the boring “getting the job” or “traveling to the dungeon” parts) and just do the good shit. Finally, and related to the above, I think this campaign will be a good way of leaning into the open table nature of Gauntlet play. Each set of shrouders will have a complete story told by the end of a series, but the World of Dungeons characters will live on. This means returning players can jump into a new series, which will be about a new group of shrouders, but can just play their old World of Dungeons character. The in-fiction justification here is that the World of Dungeons characters were pre-generated by Taylor Hartley, and so anyone who plays in his world will be playing one of those characters. I think all of this is pretty clever, but it could end up being a complete disaster. Fortunately, our culture on Gauntlet Hangouts is to do this kind of wild, experimental play. Even if it’s a total mess, it will at least be a total mess we did together. I guess we’ll find out how it goes in May! by Jason Cordova
UPDATE: Services for Paul will be held on March 30th, 3:00 PM, at the Clarendon Methodist Church in Arlington, VA. If you would like to send cards or other condolences, you may do so at the following address: Tony Edson 23 Hoornkill Ave Lewes, DE 19958 In lieu of flowers, the family asks you consider honoring Paul's life and passion in music by giving to either: The CAMP HIGHROAD CHORAL SCHOLARSHIP FUND. Please make your tax-deductible check out to CAMP HIGHROAD, MEMO: EDSON Choral Camp Scholarship Checks may be sent to: Camp Highroad 21164 Steptoe Hill Rd Middleburg, VA 20117 Or The AGMA Relief Fund https://www.musicalartists.org/membership/agma-relief-fund/ Yesterday we learned our dear friend, Paul Edson, passed away. He was 51. Paul was the editor and co-producer of The Gauntlet Podcast, Fear of a Black Dragon, and Discern Realities. He was also a long-time member of The Gauntlet community and a friend to many of us. We don't yet have a lot of details about his passing. His body was found in his home by a friend after he was unresponsive to calls and text messages. We're still learning about the situation, and will update this post as we get more information. Paul touched many people's lives in our community. He was known to be a very caring individual, and always did his best to make our spaces welcoming to newcomers. If you are a long-time fan of our shows, you may remember hearing Paul's voice on The Gauntlet Podcast promo spots, and he can still be heard on the stinger for +1 Forward. Speaking for myself, I had the opportunity to work closely with him over the last few years on the three podcasts we co-produced together. He was a class act and a professional, and the popularity of our shows was due in no small part to his attention to detail. He was particularly proud of Fear of a Black Dragon, a show he co-created with Tom McGrenery and I, and for which we won a silver ENnie in 2018. On behalf of The Gauntlet, I'd like to extend our condolences to his family at this time. If you are reading this and have thoughts you'd like to share about Paul, please do so in the comments. ![]() Greetings, and welcome to the weekly Gauntlet Hangouts video roundup! Listed below are links to recorded sessions of online games played under the Gauntlet Hangouts banner and other games organized through the Gauntlet online RPG community. These recorded sessions represent only a small part of the giant selection of games available every week, and anyone can join in the fun! Details on how to become a part of the community are listed at the end of the post. Gauntlet Sunday
Legacy: Life Among the Ruins (Session 3 of 5) Lowell Francis runs for Ary Ramsey, Darren Brockes, Patrick Knowles, and Walter German Hemlock's expedition into the Killing Fields goes terribly awry, leaving others to seek out a cure for the Chad Virus. After loss, devastation, and discovery, the age turns. Gauntlet Comics Demigods (Session 3 of 4) Rich Rogers runs for Alexi S., David Jay, and Sherri The Demigods stop the tirade of a mortal turned god at the Phantom Nightclub, but then they get stuck in the Labyrinth again. Gauntlet League Wrestling World Wide Wrestling: Gauntlet League Wrestling - Road Show (Session 3 of 4) Tyler Lominack runs for Gerwyn Walters, Greg G., Ryan M., and Sawyer Rankin Big Texas shows the roster what a "Rodeo Wrangle" is all about. Sparkzz learns more about Mr Monet outside the ring. Danger Dan sees a side of Big Texas that is not too appealing. Finally, our roster spends some time an a Wrestling Con in Houston...and receive some offers. Gauntlet Hangouts The Pool Variations (Session 2 of 4) Robbie Boerth runs for Crom, Fernando "Dolan" Dolande, and Peter Mazzeo This week, the characters dealt with the mysterious disappearance of Auntie Pine, the ancient hearth keeper of the village of Wayfrint. The adventure led them to another encounter with the Wooden and resulted in a revelatory mystic vision. The Sword, The Crown, & The Unspeakable Power (Session 2 of 4) Darren Brockes runs for Fraser Simons, Klint Finley, Luiz Ferraz, and Mathieu [Content warning: cannibalism.] Phaedra continues weaving her web, bringing in the firebrand House Matek. That firebrand, Savina, starts to brew her own plot, leveraging the strong arm of the city who answers to no true master. Meanwhile, Dusk meets with a noble and then ritualistically eats her. The Watch (Session 2 of 4) David Morrison runs for Ashley, Bethany H., and Sławomir Wójcik The Watch come to the defence of a farming village now on the front line of the war against the Shadow; they save the village, but the mayor is captured by agents of the Shadow. Corporal Athoc drums her squad and the villagers into shape, but attracts the attention of the Shadow. Warden Jorun once again disobeys orders as she searches out the kidnappers. And Initiate Raish uses her uncanny powers to come to the rescue. Apocalypse World: Lost Vegas (Session 3 of 5) Sawyer Rankin runs for Alejandro, Erez, Peter Mazzeo, and Sydney The Spectacle comes and so does a very shocking surprise. Sickness quickly spreads from the influx of people to the Grotto of Glitz and the Laws must be upheld (as an opening ceremony none-the-less)! North 93 remembers someone she loved and desperately wants to see again thanks to the erotic dances of the Skinner. As the end of the Spectacle nears a grand gesture from the Goddess invigorates the world...and the lust for the Grotto in the hearts of others. Bite Me! (Session 2 of 4) David Morrison runs for Alun R., Kyle, Rob Ruthven, and Wade Lahoda Doug the Greypelt teaches Colt the Cub some important lessons about the pack. Mac the Prodigal and Ash the Enforcer are tasked with investigating Claudia's death, though both have ulterior motives. The Pack comes together under the threat of the Howling Wolf MC. World Wide Wrestling: LAWW (Ladies All World Wrestling) (Session 3 of 5) Sawyer Rankin runs for David Rothfeder, Greg G., Peter Mazzeo, Puckett, and Ryan M. WOO! Boston, here we come! LAWW is more chaos than order these days! Mariana gets threatened to silence or may be dragged into the ring by Jackie Thompson. Onyx gains another thrall in her rise to prominence! Maria turns evil, not just a Heel but evil! Calamity Carla finds her finishers just missing a snippet of pizazz. And Dita Von Teaser gets drawn back into the ring of Creative license. All this and more on LAWW! Spire: The Kings of Silver (Session 10 of 11) Darren Brockes runs for Fraser Simons, Peter Mazzeo, and Rich Rogers A day at the races: Altrium wins a bet for Pollax's face and Yvette finds a dangerous lead. Then a smooth infiltration segues into a risky gamble. The Veil: Holistic Blame (Session 2 of 4) Leandro Pondoc runs for Alex T., Christopher G., Pawel S., and Sławomir Wójcik Digital Illusion provides just that - the bliss of the unreal, as our protagonists find out. Bahar strikes an interesting business partnership, Polya witnesses the fragility of human beings, Sawako delivers her brand of justice and Kess confronts a vast conspiracy. Heaven in the Dust (Session 1 of 2) Leandro Pondoc runs for David Morrison, Luiz Ferraz, and Sabine V. Down in Hellenetown, the old gods try to live their lives, even as history is coming to sweep them away. Ares tries to look after his kin, Dionysus is tasked with creating chaos, Apollo just wants to sing and the Fates watch on. Dark Designs in Krevborna: Hexmoon Sabbath (Session 3 of 4) Richard Ruane runs for Phillip Wessels and Ren Neuhoff Resting in Veil before going to meet the strange magician Svasta, Mazen and Nemes encounter a greedy demonic innkeeper with an eye for their sickly friend, and find a group of penitents who've been cast out of Svasta's service. Monster of the Week: Blues From a Gun (Session 3 of 3) Gene A. runs for Chris Newton, Eduardo L., and Peter Mazzeo A clue is found. The strange doctor makes a break for it. Edwin and the reporter get close. Rhys and Agent Cade learn about the mysterious Markus the Great. A lighthouse and a sudden thunderstorm. Edwin disregards Madame Fatima's advice about windows. A stunning revelation. Rhys makes a choice. Agent Cade takes a shot in the dark. Vigor: Whispers of An Old Name (Session 3 of 4) Jake Householder runs for Chris Krueger, James L., and Sawyer Rankin Filling In The Gaps - A spill in the Works has emptied The Forge of most of its forces, including the Lord Governor. While she's away, Sandor scours The Forge in search of his son, and the three Archivists head to the Governor's mansion in search of answers to a 40-year gap in records. But, will the truth lead them to the answers they seek, or only further questions? New alliances are forged, and one Lead's very world is turned upside down. Masks: Phoenix Academy (Session 3 of 4) Rory runs for Blaine, John Campbell, and Michael Mendoza The Silver Masquerade turns into much more! Alas for the Awful Sea: Kingsport 1851, Part I (Session 2 of 4) Catherine Ramen runs for Alejandro, Eli, and Seraphina Malizia Captain Charlotte arrives to take command; Oren reveals his true form to Ali; Carlito hires on as a harpooneer; the Marriage of Sea and Land results in troubling omens; a whale is killed. The Mustang Tyler Lominack runs for Chris Newton, Keith Stetson, and Peter Mazzeo This is a powerfully emotional game. If you want to see great roleplay, a deep micro-story, and you have about 2 hours this is a game worth watching. Dead Scare (Session 1) Stentor Danielson runs for Bruce Rusk, Kyle, and Larry S. Other Games Sorcerer: Demons are Social Media Junkies (Session 2) Robbie Boerth runs for Alejandro, Jenny W., and Walter German The characters discover that social media can unleash dangerous powers that they don't fully understand. But sorcery is all about embracing such forces, so they take the plunge. Check out all the great videos on The Gauntlet YouTube channel and be sure check out the playlists to catch up on all your favorite games. If you'd like to play in games like these, check out the calendar of events and the Gauntlet Hangouts Google+ Community where new games are announced! To support The Gauntlet, please visit the Gauntlet Patreon at https://patreon.com/gauntlet. All are welcome to play Gauntlet Hangouts games, and Patreon supporters have extra options like priority RSVP for Gauntlet Hangouts games and joining the Gauntlet Slack team where special events are announced like Gauntlet Games Now. Enjoy, and everyone have a great weekend! by Michael G. Barford, Keeper of the Eternal Chime
When playing RPGs online, there are some obvious downsides. Anyone who has come from a background of playing face-to-face knows this. But there are also some considerable upsides that technology can provide to gaming! With online games, we can play with people halfway across the world. We can find people who like the games we like, even if the games are less well known. We can attend conventions without exposing ourselves (or others) to germs and other hazards of large meeting places. If you want to improve your online gaming experience, you should try to maximize the strengths of using online platforms while minimizing its weaknesses. One unique advantage of gaming online is access to online character sheets. Many popular games like Dungeons and Dragons have extensive, advanced character sheets capable of handling the large amounts of information that a player needs to track; often these sheets can be accessed from a service like Roll20 or Tabletop Simulator. Here at the Gauntlet, we tend to avoid those platforms when possible for a few reasons:
With these points in mind, the most practical and accessible solution we’ve found for character sheets is Google Sheets, which are Google’s online, collaborative version of a spreadsheet very similar to Microsoft Excel. Noble Gauntleteers have already created a number of character sheets for various games. We prefer to call them character keepers because they keep all of the characters for any given campaign in one place! You can find the tons of our character keepers in our Player Aids folder on the Community Resources page. The benefits in using Google Sheets character keepers include:
Some people have found Google Sheets so easy to use that they use it to design the rough drafts of their games (looking at you, Hearts of Wulin!). But not everyone has had experience with using Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets or other spreadsheets, and at first it can seem overwhelming. In this series of blog posts I will walk you through how to create your own online character keepers. ![]() Greetings, and welcome to the weekly Gauntlet Hangouts video roundup! Listed below are links to recorded sessions of online games played under the Gauntlet Hangouts banner and other games organized through the Gauntlet online RPG community. These recorded sessions represent only a small part of the giant selection of games available every week, and anyone can join in the fun! Details on how to become a part of the community are listed at the end of the post. Special Events
Hearts of Wulin: Podcaster Edition (Session 3 of 3) Lowell Francis runs for Agatha, Eli Kurtz, Eric M. Farmer, and Sherri We play Hearts of Wulin with Agatha Cheng from Asians Represent!, Eric Farmer & Eli Kurtz from Jianghu Hustle, and Sherri Stewart of the Gauntlet Podcast-- a dynasty changes in our finale! Star Wars Saturday Star Wars World (Session 2 of 4) Rich Rogers runs for Blaise, David Jay, David Walker, Joe Zantek, and Steven Watkins The Rebel cell finds out about a new crimelord in Mos Eisley trying to pick up the crumbs left behind by the death of Jabba the Hutt. What do they do? Try to take him down, of course! Gauntlet Sunday Legacy: Life Among the Ruins (Session 2 of 5) Lowell Francis runs for Ary Ramsey, Patrick Knowles, and Walter German After a meeting of families, they band together to deal with the Kjultivarr threat, but after victory secrets are uncovered and the Enclave moves to take advantage. TGI Thursday Hearts of Wulin: Song of Sorrows (Session 2 of 4) Lowell Francis runs for Chris Newton, Christo Meid, Joshua Gilbreath, and Peter Mazzeo All four heroes are drawn together to uncover secrets about The Golden Shirt, their tangled loves, and the strange pasts that link them. Gauntlet Quarterly Masks: A New Generation (Session 11) Lowell Francis runs for Chris Newton, Jim Crocker, Michael G. Barford, and Simon Landreville The future and the present begin to bleed together. Torrent worries about what Shadow Boy will become and Harvester tried to build a bond with the enigmatic Zan, but other forces begin to manipulate our heroes from the shadows. Gauntlet Comics Demigods (Session 2 of 4) Rich Rogers runs for David Jay and Sherri Demigods Allie and Pillar find themselves in a labyrinth after following a red thread. They meet Echidna and Daedalus the inventor (which allowed me to do my terrible Wallace Shawn impression). Also, Pillar goes on a date! Gauntlet League Wrestling World Wide Wrestling: Gauntlet League Wrestling Developmental League: On The Road (Session 2 of 4) Tyler Lominack runs for Gerwyn Walters, Greg G., Lu Quade, Paul Spraget, and Sawyer Rankin The promotion heads to Georgia and the Augusta High School Gym. Mr Monet, Princess, and Kandi Roxx enjoy some quality family time; Proctor Sparkz misreads the signals and gets a black eye; Kid A gets fucked up and trashes a motel room; and Big Texas gets lucky. The promotion angles some good press...and a tag match gets a little out of hand. Gauntlet Hangouts Macchiato Monsters: Witchburner (Session 1) Asher S. runs for Ben Adelman, David Rothfeder, Diana Moon, and Peter Mazzeo Our heros spend their first day in Bridge of Saint Cleareyes! They find: bleeding pumpkins, lots of gander, mutilated dolls, and a suspicious tailor. Apocalypse World: Lost Vegas (Session 2 of 5) Sawyer Rankin runs for Alejandro, Peter Mazzeo, Rich Rogers, and Sydney The world grows larger and smaller. Big Poppa settles that The Spectacle will happen in the Grotto of Glitz. Rue Wakeman comes upon the best pay for an assassination. Hope & Sorrow gets into the thick of it and draws drug chemicals from the psychic maelstrom. North 93 avenges Big Momma and seeks allies in her life. Come and get lost in Lost Vegas. Trophy: Throne of the Forest Queen (8/3/19) David Morrison runs for Asher S., Jim Crocker, Julian, and Kevin Marshall Teodan the woodcutter, Sibil the marionette witch, Vero the goatherd, and Elisio the Groom-to-Be venture into the depths of the forest to seek an audience with the Forest Queen to receive her boons. Braving travail and temptation on the way, ultimately only one can capture the Queen's fickle heart. And in the courts of faery, no gift comes without a price. Trophy: Throne of the Forest Queen (9/3/19) David Morrison runs for Darold Ross, Jeremy Strandberg, and Peter Mazzeo Priya the Bride-to-Be recruits Kasien the Goatherd to guide her to the court of the Forest Queen, and they are joined on their journey by the reclusive Teodan the Woodcutter (probably no relation). Strange magics are weaved in the forest, the Wild Hunt claims its quarry, and we end with a fairytale wedding. Bite Me! (Session 1 of 4) David Morrison runs for Alex T., Rob Ruthven, and Wade Lahoda In Harper's Den, Oregon, tension builds as Mac the Prodigal returns to the pack lodge. Devora the Howl and Ash the Enforcer are interrupted as they discuss the latest threat to face the pack. And the pack Alpha Evelyn Moore learns some disturbing news about the death of her lover. World Wide Wrestling: LAWW (Ladies All World Wrestling) (Session 2 of 5) Sawyer Rankin runs for David Rothfeder, Greg G., Peter Mazzeo, and Puckett Today we see the behind-the-scenes shenanigans going on at LAWW. Has Mariana the Boss shown her true colors? Will Onyx get what she's looking for or has calling an ex left her in hot water? Will Jackie Thompson show the old school is still the best school through applied science violence? Will Maria "Money Wheels" Romero and Dita Von Teaser show their old tag team roots go deeper than what is normal? Find out on episode 2 of WWW: Ladies All World Wrestling! Flotsam: Below (Session 1) Bethany H. facilitates for Jason Mills, Jesse A., and Rich Rogers Disgraced bounty hunter Zen challenges another gang leader for dominance of his new neighborhood, but it turns out the Below's ritualized gang combat has rules. Jasper, the Sybyl, and Lenny, the Spider, are reluctantly willing to help him. Meanwhile, Omega, the cyborg assassin, has his own mysterious agenda, which might involve the squid boy Zen is protecting. Psi*Run (Session 2 of 2) Donogh runs for Eike K., Leandro Pondoc, and Pawel S. Bill, December, and Jack try to escape from the dragnet closing in on the stadium - falling apart under the repeated backlash of their psionic powers. But they're captured just as they uncover secrets as to their identities. These Hemsworths mean business, but the trio escape from the truck transporting them and after resting up, they infiltrate Spencer Corp HQ itself - there they'll find the truth. Rhapsody of Blood (Session 2 of 4) Fernando "Dolan" Dolande runs for Owen Thompson, Pat P., and Sawyer Rankin Alluvion of the Brood, Compass Rust of the Wandering Book, and Navin of the Scales, arrive at the city of Changsha, in china, pursuing rumors of the Castle’s return. Within they find a city quarantined, as people have become infected and monstrous. They move swiftly, to find the source of the madness. Itras By: Dream of Revolution (Session 2 of 4) Mikael Tysvær runs for David Walker, Horst Wurst, and Tina T. Things get weirder in Itras By as the Bluebird of happiness gets killed and tattoos come to life. Dark Designs in Krevborna: Hexmoon Sabbath (Session 2 of 4) Richard Ruane runs for Alejandro, Phillip Wessels, and Ren Neuhoff Altaban, Mazen, and Nemes head to Veil and the Nachtmahr Mountains where rumors suggest they'll find the witch Svasta, only to find other travelers who are seeking her out for healing. Arriving near Veil, a secretive group of church knights are executing a strange young man at the borders of the town, while inside the town, a group of knights from strange lands has also arrived to ask Svasta for assistance. Masks: Phoenix Academy (Session 2 of 4) Rory runs for Blaine, Joe Zantek, John Campbell, and Leandro Pondoc Our PCs delve into life at a school full of teenage supers and get into trouble off-campus. Alas for the Awful Sea: Kingsport 1851, Part I (Session 1 of 4) Catherine Ramen runs for Agatha, Alejandro, Scot Ryder, and Seraphina Malizia In 1851 the whaling bark Tethys equips for a long trip to the Pacific. Oren makes hiring decisions; James receives a promotion; Olivia strikes a deal with a witch; and the captain still hasn't arrived. The Veil: Holistic Blame (Session 1 of 4) Leandro Pondoc runs for Alex T., Christopher G., Pawel S., and Sławomir Wójcik In the highly-stratified, ecologically-balanced city of Prudence, famed scientist Arista Jordan has been killed. To find her enemies, she has brought together an enforcer of the ways in Obligation, an architect of the Veil in a new form, an automaton seeking their origins and a purveyor of memories and tasked them to find her would-be killer. Masks: Agents of A.E.G.I.S. (Session 2 of 4) Leandro Pondoc runs for David Morrison, Michael Mendoza, and Rob Ruthven Old enemies emerge as our Sirius Team move to intercept the remnants of the River Cleansing. Spectre proves himself a nuisance in the best way, L0K1 discovers a new configuration of an old shame and Everlass is confronted by the cult that shaped her life. Monster of the Week: Blues From a Gun (Session 2 of 3) Gene A. runs for Agatha, Chris Newton, Eduardo L., and Peter Mazzeo A visit to Madam Fatima. A crash course in botany. Agent Cade gets hung up in the orchids. Rhys swords it all out. Edwin confronts a strange man with a box. Miles saves a reporter and makes a friend. The MC learns a valuable lesson about physical limits. Vigor: Whispers of An Old Name (Session 2 of 4) Jack Householder runs for Chris Krueger, James L., Jason Cordova, and Sawyer Rankin It Begins - Dylarama and Sandor whisper of rebellion, and a misguided half-hearted assassination attempt brings Sandor face-to-face with an old flame: Frist. (It’s complicated). Meanwhile, the young Archivist becomes haunted by an ancient machine whose lingering influence over him grows. Other Games Sorcerer: Demons Are Social Media Junkies (Session 1) Robbie Boerth runs for Alejandro and Walter German A social media wiz kid uses demonic powers to lace a news interview with his cult's oath, and an estranged son learns that his family is being stalked. But he then has more pressing concerns as he learns he is holding a possessed smart phone. Our Mundane Supernatural Life Barry facilitates for Eduardo L. Spend a day with Vh'outhl'vhulb (Vow) the cosmic horror and office temp and Vernon Derby the greeting card writer as they get fitted for tuxes for Vernon's wedding to his beloved, Ducky. Monsterhearts: Rivermill '93 (Session 1) Pat P. runs for Fernando "Dolan" Dolande, Kurai, Lu Quade, and Roxanne Sasha asks Victor for a favor. Riley pleads to a friend to go to a party. Hannah lashes out against her drummer. Damien tries to ignore Aaron. Check out all the great videos on The Gauntlet YouTube channel and be sure check out the playlists to catch up on all your favorite games. If you'd like to play in games like these, check out the calendar of events and the Gauntlet Hangouts Google+ Community where new games are announced! To support The Gauntlet, please visit the Gauntlet Patreon at https://patreon.com/gauntlet. All are welcome to play Gauntlet Hangouts games, and Patreon supporters have extra options like priority RSVP for Gauntlet Hangouts games and joining the Gauntlet Slack team where special events are announced like Gauntlet Games Now. Enjoy, and everyone have a great weekend! by Fraser Simons, Keeper of the Neon Veil
Forbidden Lands is a retro open-world survival fantasy roleplaying game written by Free League Games; its core comes from their Zero Engine. I have not done much retro gaming, and what little I have done I honestly don’t remember because I was around 8 or 9 years old. Reading this game was an opportunity for me. Like many RPGs in this space, Forbidden Lands released in two books: a player character-facing (or PC-facing) book, and a GM-facing book. Expectation management is one of the most important things game writers can do for their players. In Forbidden Lands, the PC-facing book instructs the player not to read the GM-facing book, stating that it would “rob” you of an experience if you did so. This seemed a unique opportunity to discuss what expectations the PC-facing materials telegraph to me as I read through it to prepare for an upcoming series scheduled to be run on Gauntlet Hangouts by Lowell Francis. First of all, I really like that, unlike many modern fantasy RPGs, Forbidden Lands seems to signal it is not about killing monsters and looting treasure. Instead, the game describes the PC raiders and rouges as “not heroes sent on missions dictated by others.” Forbidden Lands seems to be more about PCs raiding tombs, make their mark on a cursed world, exploring and, if they live long enough, building up a stronghold. I think this is great; it removes the overused “murderhobo” trope. However, I was disappointed to note that PCs are called adventurers for the remainder of the text. As this is a translated game, I am hoping it is nothing more than a translation issue as “adventurers” are something like “raiders”. “Adventurer” doesn’t have the negative connotations “raider” for many native English speakers who play RPGs, at least in my opinion. In play the PCs, call them adventurers or raiders, navigate a hexagonal map encountering monsters and obstacles. Within some of the hexes are specific locations called Adventure Sites that PCs interact with. There are a few types of Adventure Sites and the GM chooses which one PCs experience as play progresses. If the PCs can, they develop a stronghold. But the real selling point for me is this notion that my character doesn’t know much more about the world than I do. In fiction, something called the Blood Mist has prevented exploration. The Blood Mist only recently receded enough so that people can go out and discover this new world. I am personally concerned branching out into the previously unexplored areas could become colonial in a bad way, but the mechanics do seem to give the PCs some control so they do not have to perceive the colonialism as a good thing. The PCs can speak lore and tell a story about the world, adding to the fiction. For example, a PC may recall a legend and can talk about it. But it is not just open narration left to the PCs imagination. Instead, Legends are GM handouts that are discoverable. I think that this, a sort of scaffolding framework for legends, is a good idea for PCs, especially those who don’t want to make up the whole thing but would prefer to contribute to it. The story unfolds in a nonlinear fashion as the players choose to explore the aforementioned legends. A grander scheme in which PCs hunt for artifacts that have elven gemstones unfolds in the background of the game as well. If the GM uses the Raven’s Purge campaign frame, PCs can amass these things and change the fate of the land. I like the idea of nonlinear story exploration; however I am skeptical as the implementation of it in previous Free League Games (such as in the new Coriolis campaign book Emissary Lost) leaves something to be desired. The problem I have seen develop is that many scenes only make sense when they were experienced in sequential order. Without reading the GM-facing material, players are just left hoping for the best. I personally don’t mind experiencing someone else’s story (especially if it is a good one) but I prefer there be space for me to contribute to the world and story at least in limited ways. Character Creation in Forbidden Lands PCs choice of Kin is between Elf, Half-Elf, Human, Dwarf, Halfling, Wolfkin, Goblin, and Orc. Each of these peoples are pointed at each other with some brief history text. There’s a lot of lore to explore in the text, but my takeaway was that humans are described as the ancestral invaders of these lands; elves were betrayed by humans and were attacked, “with demons in tow”; half-elves are described as the “crown of creation,” and “the best of both kin”; PCs who choose halfling can’t stand their own duplicitous family so they opted adventurer; Orcs were enslaved by elves and dwarves; and finally, goblins, ostensibly, are the dark brothers of the halflings and are sort of wild and free, doing whatever pleases them. While some of this stuff subverts tropes associated with these peoples in Western fantasy, it’s something that would be more interesting to engage with if each Kin didn’t come with a Key Attribute and Kin Talent associated with it. Reducing the populations of these peoples into these two key things feels weird to me. Every halfling has the Hard to Grab Kin Talent and their Key Attribute is Empathy. Every Elf has Inner Peace and Agility. This all seems like much more like the Western fantasy trope. It begs the question: Why bother with historical flavor text that kind-of sort-of subverts it? How pertinent is this history? I am concerned it means PCs may not be interacting with other Kin based on the history. Professions seem in line with what I expected, with one exception; the Peddler seems quite novel. The full list of choices for PCs is Druid, Fighter, Hunter, Minstrel, Peddler, Rider, Rogue, or Sorcerer. Professions give another Key Attribute to PCs and it gives PCs access to a list of other benefits. One example of this is Pride which a PC can use in the game to augment a roll with an additional d12. If a PC uses it and the roll fails though, the PC may have to go a whole game session without using Pride again and choose another to redefine Pride, among other consequences. There are many Talents and Skills, most of which are dedicated to fighting in some way or another. A couple aren’t and that’s nice to see, but unfortunately the non-combat Talents and Skills don’t appear too enticing. For instance, Fisher, which helps during a Survival role when you Fish only gives a +1 at the first step of the Talent. The crafting ones are more interesting, but unfortunately look like they will be difficult to succeed with. One last word on Talents and Skills: PCs learn magic by word of mouth in this game and have to have a teacher, the PC must also have a Talent for one of the four types of magic. PCs choose a Dark Secret, assign relationship statements to other player characters which serve much like Bonds do in Dungeon World, linking characters together in a backstory. The core stats are Strength, Agility, Wits, and Empathy. Strength affects PCs stamina and physical strength, as well as how much gear they can carry. Agility affects PCs speed, motor skills, and body control. More interestingly, Wits affects PCs sensory perception, intelligence, and sanity (apparently, we are going to be seeing some shit in this game). Finally, Empathy affects PCs empathy (gasp), charisma, and ability to manipulate others. A quick side note here. I love that in this game if a PC wants to kill someone who is defenseless that PC must make an Empathy check and fail. If it’s really important to the PC that this does not matter to your character there are Talents which bypass this restriction, but the default state of a character, even an “adventurer,” is that it is hard to commit murder against the defenseless. I truly like the line this draws in the sand for PCs and the implications this rule has for the tone of the game. Slam dunk Free League Games. Next PCs decide on an Age for their character, which has a surprising impact. Age actually informs how many points PCs can distribute to Attributes. PCs choose between Young, an Adult, or Old. The more youthful, the more Attribute points the PC has to spend. I guess more youth means more potential? On the flip side, the older the PC, the more Skill points and Talents. Do you want to have more Attributes or more Skills and Talents? That’s the trade off between being younger or older, mechanically. There is bunch of Gear PCs can get which must also be selected at character creation. There are the usual suspects like consumable food, water, torch oil, etc., all tracked with one die. It increases and decreases with use of any of these things. The reason I bring this up is because when one PC shares their stuff, the sharing PC die goes down and the borrowing PC die goes up. I love this idea. Finally, there is reputation, which could precede you. PCs roll d6s equal to their score and if you get a hit someone has heard of you and your deeds, negatively or positively as decided by the GM. The highest reputation in a group is rolled when PCs travel. The Reward System: What are the Players Incentivized to do? What a game is about is, in my opinion, largely defined by the reward system. In Forbidden Lands, experience is the currency of choice. At the end of each session PCs get XP when they: participate in a game session; travel through at least one hex on the game map that they hadn’t visited before; discover a new adventure site; defeat one or more monsters; find a treasure (worth 1 gold or more); build a function in their stronghold; activate their Pride; suffer due to their Dark Secret; risk their life for another PC; or perform an extraordinary action of some kind. PCs spend XP to increase a Skill, move a Talent up a rank, or learn a new one (including magical Talents). In short, PCs are rewarded for showing up and interacting with pretty much everything on their character sheet. I think this is fine but doesn’t unfortunately it does not goal post the fiction as much as I’d like because it’s very broad. What I do like is that it incentivizes use of your Pride and Dark secret. Both of these aspects being regularly utilized could be used to inject some backstory and control over the fiction, even if it turns out a failed roll hurts their own character. Reputation may also grow; examples in the book include: a predominate NPC is killed or saved from death; a feared monster was slain; a legendary treasure or artifact was found or stolen; a deed will have significant consequences for one of the major powers in the Forbidden Lands; or the PCs build a certain function in your stronghold. The GM decides if your reputation goes up due to these deeds, but a settlement is more likely to hear about it if you are the same Kin as that settlement, so presumably It’s harder for the settlement to notice or care about a PC if they don’t look like you. This seems like a weird mechanic, as presumably everything is spread by word of mouth. People don’t talk about these epic deeds much unless they look like you? I am curious if the cultural ramifications are explored in the campaign. Rolling the Dice PCs make a roll when it’s absolutely necessary, forcing a dramatic moment where the PC faces tough challenges. PCs total up their Attribute, Skill, and Gear dice together in a pool, roll, and look for 6s and 1s. Any 6 and the PC succeeds. Extra 6s are spent for more positive effects. If no 6 is rolled, the PC can push their luck rerolling any dice that aren’t 1s and 6s. The risk is that 1s decrease your Attributes, temporarily, and can break your Gear. To remedy broken gear, a Crafting roll is required. Beware though, a failed Crafting roll and the gear is broken forever. Note however that Artifacts are the only Gear not affected by this. In fact, Artifacts have their own larger die to roll, rather than the regular D6. Additionally, if the PC get 1s and an Attribute is reduced to 0, the PC suffers what’s called a Break. Each Attribute breaking does something specific to the PC, often with dire consequences. For instance if a PC’s Strength breaks, the PC dies. It’s important to note that PCs will likely need to push their rolls frequently to have a decent shot at success. Statistically, for a PC to have close to a 50/50 shot on their roll they need to have a die pool of at least two or more and push the roll. To not push the roll and have the a similar chance, the PC needs to roll four dice. Now, granted, Attributes always have at least two dice. Interestingly, the GM can modify a PC’s dice roll with a difficulty modifier depending on the task, granting between -3 and +3. Help from other players also give you an increased modifier. If PCs help in combat it will use up their action, but gives a +1 for each PC who gives up their action, to a maximum of +3. Clearly teamwork matters in this system; I like that. I do wish it was an extra die added to the pool rather than a modifier. Forbidden Lands has Initiative: and I like it! Initiative is neat. Everyone draws from ten cards, 1-10, lowest numbers going first.But here is the neat part: if the PC makes a surprising action, then the GM may tell them to draw more than one initiative card and keep whichever they prefer. On top of that, Players can spend their turn to swap initiative with whomever or whatever they’re fighting. Even though it costs the turn, it may well be worth it because it is a guaranteed outcome: the PC gets the initiative they traded for. In combat, everyone is encouraged to embellish descriptions of actions; there are slow and fast actions and even an optional, more granular combat with cards sold by Free League Games (which appears to be influenced by Mouse Guard). Non-Combat Mechanics There are social conflicts with a custom procedure for negotiating position, reminiscent of Burning Wheel. Everything is rolled with Manipulation and the PCs modifier has mechanical factors, such as if the PC has people on their side or if the PC has helped the opponent previously. There’s a list of positive and negative ones. I like this. It’s better than just roll the one relevant skill and try to hit a target number. Forbidden Lands has a fair number of rules dedicated to survival as well. Mechanical things happen when a PC is hungry, sleepy, cold, and thirsty. PCs can get frightened when they run into horrifying beasts. There are rules for darkness, falling, drowning, poisoning, disease, medical aid, riding animals, and, of course, the four kinds of magic. A substantial chapter is set aside for a Journey (including ten types of terrain). What I like from these rules is choosing what your character will do that day from a pick list. Hike, lead the way, keep watch, forage, hunt, fish, make camp, rest, sleep, or explore. Each comes with a specific procedure and interacts with other choices people may select. While granular, it sets my expectations for what exploration looks like and why it’s important to me. The answer is if I don’t care, I will probably die. It’s as important as combat. The abstracted hex map doesn’t do much for me but this is more interesting. There are random tables for mishaps along the way for each activity. I like that a sizeable portion of the book is reserved for what it says its about: the journey. The Stronghold Lastly, the rules regarding the Stronghold are detailed. PCs can build a lot of stuff. Libraries, bakeries, and I mean a LOT of other stuff. This appeals to the Sim City addict in me. Most games that are mostly about combat don’t typically have a meta aspect like this where the players get to make a town. There are rules for managing and protecting the Stronghold and sieges when it’s threatened. Final Thoughts and Expectations The art throughout game texts is usually indicative of the tone and what everyone should expect to be doing. The layout in the PC-facing text is great; there’s a lot less “see page XX” than other core books in Free League Games’ line, leading me to think that splitting this book into a PC-facing book and GM-facing book was a good choice. Additionally, I think it’s worth saying that they’ve ordered the sections in a way that makes sense and is easily found with the index and table of contents. I think the PC rules as written is going to lead to a predictable gameplay loop that will be broken up by upgrading and interacting with the Stronghold. I expect a pretty granular experience that doesn’t make much mechanical room for freeplay roleplaying. To be fair, I am less interested in what the game is about and more interested character moments; they’re my favorite part of playing and it’d be nice to see that play more incentivized. If pages dedicated to mechanics are any indication, then I expect PCs to be fighting most of the time. If PCs are not fighting, they are likely travelling, all the while Gear is in peril of breaking and the PCs are subjected to the dangerous forces of nature and difficult terrain. But, when PCs aren’t fighting or traveling, They may just be building something with the treasure, Sim City style. These all seem like great design choices considering the intended audience. After I play in the series I’ll write about my experience; the “reality” side of these expectations. by Jason Cordova Since last summer, I have run over 35 playtest sessions of The Between alpha, and have been revising the rules in preparation for the public beta. The public beta is nearly ready, and I’d like to use this post to discuss a few things folks can look forward to. What is unchanged from the alpha? I’m happy to report that the core of my game is more or less intact from the alpha. The novel aspects of my game, including the Janus Mask, the Overscene, and the overall flow of conflict resolution, are working well. Each of those areas is getting nips and tucks, but they will function more or less the same as before. And now for some of the big changes from the alpha… Talking about the past The cardinal rule in The Between has always been that you can’t talk about your character’s past——either in character or out of character. In the beta, that restriction is loosened somewhat. Now, you are only forbidden from speaking about elements of your past that are related to the Janus Mask. Any other element of your past can be discussed, though it is discouraged. The cardinal rule is lifted entirely with the Intimate Move (formerly the Colleague Move) selection “You may ask the other player a question about their character which they must answer truthfully and completely.” We have already playtested these changes, and everyone agreed they felt much better. Basic moves The triggers for the Day Move and Night Move (the moves used for basic conflict resolution) now say “When you do something risky or face something you fear…” This changes fixes a problem we kept running into, which is there was nothing like an Act Under Pressure or Keep Your Cool. Adding the “face something you fear” language solves this problem neatly. As mentioned above, the Colleague Move is now the Intimate Move. It has been sufficiently streamlined while also injecting a greater degree of flexibility in the outcomes. Playbooks The ability modifiers are now a little less forgiving, leading to more mixed and miss results. They are also pre-selected, a la Monsterhearts 2. Extra end of session questions have been added for variety’s sake. Elements that were previously Assets have been re-contextualized to be moves. The Factotum has been majorly re-worked to account for some of the bigger rules changes and to just make the playbook sexier in general. The Mother’s main move , The Child, has been re-worked to be more evocative. The Undeniable has also been significantly re-worked to account for rules changes, as well as to make them somewhat more sympathetic (they were just plainly evil before). Before I wrap the playbooks section, I want to go ahead and reveal all the playbooks that will be available for the public beta:
The Orphan will eventually be added to the public beta but will not make the initial release. Other major rules changes Harm & Healing is no longer a concept in the game. Now, your character simply has physical and emotional conditions. Conditions have been re-worked to be more immediately problematic for players. Assets of Hargrave House are strictly NPCs now (previously they were objects and collections of items). The rules for how Assets work have been significantly streamlined. Major additions to the beta The most significant addition to the beta is Personal Quarters. In the alpha, the Personal Quarters section of the playbook was there just for color——players were encouraged to write things down, but there were otherwise no particular mechanics associated with this part of the game. In the beta, Personal Quarters is a major feature of the game. Items that get added to Personal Quarters (through character introductions, various moves, and as instructed by the DI) can be used for fictional positioning, and they can be marked to give a die roll advantage. We have had a chance to playtest this part of the game and I am LOVING IT. It adds wonderful color to the proceedings, ties the characters more intimately to Hargrave House, and is a counterbalance to the new, more vicious die rolls and conditions. The other major addition to the beta is the structure of the game. I’m going to talk more about structure in a future post, but for now know that I have added new phases called Dusk and Dawn. These new phases are to do housekeeping for the Day and Night phase, and to further add color to Hargrave House and the characters’ relationships with one another. Finally, what was previously called Dramatic Conflicts are now called Tensions. They work more or less as before, but the rules for how to explore them have been expanded and clarified. The DI materials I have never shared any of the DI materials for this game (the DI is what the GM is called in The Between). The reason for that is I was still very much trying to figure out what they looked like. The Between depends very heavily on its structure——it’s not enough to give the DI some agendas and principles, and then just turn them loose——and so I want to make sure I have everything just right so the beta playtest DIs have everything they need to run the game successfully. I’m happy to report I have recently had a breakthrough in this process. This is basically the main thing that has been holding up the public beta, but now that I have had this flash of insight, I should finally be able to finish it all up and get the beta out into the world. I’m not going to say too much more about the DI stuff, except to say that it is foundational to the game. The player materials are only one-half of the story here. My hope is to do nothing less than marry two schools of thought when it comes to GM-ing: the school that likes to do plenty of prep beforehand, and the school that likes to wing it. The Between operates in a middle space that I think a lot of people are going to really love, and that is going to open up peoples’ eyes to a new way of running games. It’s an engine designed to make you into a strong, dynamic, supremely engaging GM, which is something I have spent years advocating for in my work with The Gauntlet, and I am hype as fuck about it. Closing, play materials, and media Overall, the beta is a much sleeker, much more feral version of The Between. And the above only represents the major changes from the alpha. There are dozens of smaller changes——language, numbers, and so forth——that are not mentioned here. I will be kicking the tires on the beta through April, with the hopes of having the public beta written up and ready for you all by June. I have already conducted one playtest session of the beta, the video of which is embedded below. Enjoy! ![]() Greetings, and welcome to the weekly Gauntlet Hangouts video roundup! Listed below are links to recorded sessions of online games played under the Gauntlet Hangouts banner and other games organized through the Gauntlet online RPG community. These recorded sessions represent only a small part of the giant selection of games available every week, and anyone can join in the fun! Details on how to become a part of the community are listed at the end of the post. Special Events
Lady Blackbird Rich Rogers runs for Aybars Yurdun, Blaise, Greg G., and Joshua Gilbreath This was a stretch goal for the Gauntlet Codex Kickstarter, and wonderful fun! Star Wars Saturday Star Wars World (Session 1 of 4) Rich Rogers runs for David Walker, Joe Zantek, Stephen, and Steven Watkins A rebel cell makes a daring attempt to retrieve a deep cover spy and become involved in a plot to murder a Rebel asset on Tatooine. Gauntlet Sunday Legacy: Life Among the Ruins (Session 1 of 5) Lowell Francis runs for Ary Ramsey, Darren Brockes, Patrick Knowles, and Walter German The first session of Legacy has the group developing their families, mapping out their world, and finally creating their focus characters. TGI Thursday Hearts of Wulin: Song of Sorrows (Session 1 of 4) Lowell Francis runs for Chris Newton, Christo Meid, Joshua Gilbreath, and Peter Mazzeo Fate draws characters together as a relic surfaces, calling out thieves and long-lost killers. When their paths cross, violence and deception hint at the true agendas beneath the surface. Gauntlet Quarterly Masks: A New Generation (Session 10) Lowell Francis runs for Chris Newton, Jim Crocker, Michael G. Barford, Simon Landreville, and Steven desJardins Sarah leads a newly reformed team in a victory against hockey-themed villains, but will this group survive with the many shadows at its heart? Gauntlet Comics Monster of the Week: Precinct 13 (Session 4 of 4) Jim Crocker runs for Bethany H., Rich Rogers, Tara, and Tom F. The characters dial in on the Phone Phreak and track down the vampire infestation at the Artery Night Club. Demigods (Session 1 of 4) Rich Rogers runs for Alexi S., David Jay, Dr. Jason Cox, and Sherri Gauntlet Comics takes a trip into the world of Demigods PbtA, from creator Jason Mills, and our demigods have a little trouble with a Minotaur. Gauntlet League Wrestling World Wide Wrestling: Gauntlet League Wrestling Developmental League: On The Road (Session 1 of 4) Tyler Lominack runs for Gerwyn Walters, Greg G., Paul Spraget, Ryan M., and Sawyer Rankin The promotion leaves home with high hopes and a few tears. First stop, a BBQ Shack in Ala-Damn-Bama. Danger Dan and Mr Monet engage in the class struggle, "The Vegan Assassin" and Proctor Sparkz fire up the joint (and batter their bodies), and Big Texas takes on all comers in tug of war. Also, watch a GM lose complete track of time. "If you want to be the man, you gotta beat the man. Whooo!" Gauntlet Hangouts The Sword, The Crown, & The Unspeakable Power (Session 1 of 5) Darren Brockes runs for Ben Swinden, Fraser Simons, Klint Finley, and Sarah J. We meet Dusk, Goshawk, Songbird and Phaedra during the Eclipse Festival, when the three suns above the port city Carnation all align. Dusk makes a deal with their enemy, Songbird seduces an alliance, Goshawk steps out of the shadows and Phaedra starts to weave a web that could spell doom for Carnation and beyond. Jinkies! Stephanie Bryant runs for Erick, Kevin Marshall, Lowell Francis, and VC A session of Jinkies!, on Kickstarter now! The Watch (Session 1 of 4) David Morrison runs for Bethany H., Donogh, and Sławomir Wójcik A fort and supply waystation is assaulted by the forces of the Shadow. Brave members of The Watch must rally to its defence, though the opposition is all but overwhelming. Corporal Athoc whips the new recruits into shape, Warden Jorun proves a better warrior than soldier, and Initiate Tovy loses a friend and maybe more to the Shadow. Monster of the Week: Dresdenverse Blake Ryan runs for Pawel S., Rich Rogers, and Steven Watkins Apocalypse World: Lost Vegas (Session 1 of 5) Sawyer Rankin runs for Greg G., Peter Mazzeo, and Sydney We enter the crags of Lost Vegas, a delicate rhinestone in a dying desert of dust and decay. Today we encounter the start of our merry crew of North 93, the colorful Big Poppa, and the short lived venture of Sister Filter who has a wonderful harvest planned. We lose a Guardian of the Source and gain abstract plans. Will violence end up solving this? Hearts of Wulin: Monkey in the Scarlet Court (Session 1 of 5) Gerwyn Walters runs for Alun R., Ludovico Alves, Paul Rivers, and Sabine V. In the heart of the Imperial city tensions flare between a Princess, her betrothed, and the man she loves. Meanwhile, a dying man asks his only friend for help. All the while a spymaster watches on like a spider in the middle of its web. Elsewhere a daughter requests a stepmother's aid, but does her young stepmother intend to help or harm the young royal? The perfect unity of the land falls apart, and our actors move like agents of change in a sea of chaos. Truly, like a Monkey in the Scarlet Court. Spire: The Kings of Silver (Session 9 of 12) Darren Brockes runs for Fraser Simons, Paul K, Peter Mazzeo, and Rich Rogers Altrium and Yvette are teamed up with new cell members Magritte and Pollax, who all promptly go to the bar. Altrium wins some influence with bloody knuckles and the air remains quivering between Bastillo and Yvette. Then, a favor is asked at a dire cost and a bet is made for Pollax's face. Yes, his face. Psi*Run (Session 1 of 2) Donogh runs for Eike K., Leandro Pondoc, and Pawel S. Bill, December, and Jack run from the ruined chopper, Spencer Corp hot on their heels. The dragnet of Hemsworths draws ever closer and their inadvertent encounter with Dr. Sharpe raises even more questions than it answers. Their stories all converge at the local stadium, where December's tragic tale affects everyone. Rhapsody of Blood (Session 1 of 4) Fernando "Dolan" Dolande runs for Owen Thompson, Pat P., and Sawyer Rankin A band of heroes rally to fight the ancient Black Jarl and break his bond with the Obsidian Throne. As the castle fades away from reality, one of their own returns to claim the throne as her own. 100 years later, The Brood, The Scales, and The Wandering Book reunite in the ancestral forest to choose a new band of heroes. A new fellowship. Meanwhile, near the city of Changsha in China, the castle resurfaces yet again as its new regent looks down upon a world ripe for the taking. Itras By: Dreams of Revolution (Session 1 of 4) Mikael Tysvær runs for David Walker, Horst Wurst, and Tina T. A strange cast of Itras eccentrics find themselves at the heart of a monkey revolution and strange dream thievery. World Wide Wrestling: LAWW (Ladies All World Wrestling) (Session 1 of 5) Sawyer Rankin runs for David Rothfeder, Joe Zantek, Ryan M., Sarah J., and Scott We set up a fragile, telenovela-tied promotion that is competing on Hulu to be a real women's wrestling league. We set up this tied-up mess, and the promotional match ends a feud right off the bat! Bat Hack: All-American Girls (Session 2 of 2) Jim Crocker runs for Barry, Bethany H., Catherine Ramen, and Jesse A. The team heads to Detroit to try and avenge the shellacking they took in Gauntlet City! Dark Designs in Krevborna: Hexmoon Sabbath (Session 1 of 4) Richard Ruane runs for Alejandro, Phillip Wessels, and Ren Neuhoff Bringing together Codex Emerald's "Dark Designs in Verdigris" with Jack Shear's Krevborna. Stowed away on a pirate ship outside Piskaro, the crew runs into an old acquaintance, fights dirty, and goes to work for the captain. After a few impious nights up river in Chancel, they head into the mountains to find the relics that their old friend stole from their new employer. Monster of the Week: Blues From a Gun (Session 1 of 3) Gene A. runs for Agatha, Chris Newton, Eduardo L., and Peter Mazzeo Mardi Gras in the Big Easy. Rhys has a vision and follows a mysterious man. Agent Cade follows a parade route. Miles has a nose-bleed and lifts a manhole cover. Edwin sees dream-eater syndrome for the first time in the flesh. Worlds of Adventure: Lost Mine of Phandelver (Session 1 of 4) Darren Brockes runs for Alex, Brett WH, Jeremy Strandberg, and Michael Esperum Sturm, Elarah, Zaine and Dorn take a simple escort job…and then goblins (try) to ambush them. This session features a druid transforming into a salmon to swim upstream. Masks: Phoenix Academy (Session 1 of 4) Rory runs for Blaine, Joe Zantek, John Campbell, and Leandro Pondoc First session includes setting and character creation and one action scene to kick off things. Masks: Agents of A.E.G.I.S (Session 1 of 4) Leandro Pondoc runs for Asher S., David Morrison, Michael Mendoza, and Rob Ruthven We meet characters new and returning, now brought together as a newly-minted Sirius Team, the next generation in A.E.G.I.S's never-ending mission to protect the world. Can the playful Glorious Gekko, the happy-go-lucky Spectre, the doom-ladened Everlass be led effectively by the veteran L0K1? The Pool Variations: A Tale of Magical Healing (Session 1 of 4) Robbie Boerth runs for Crom, Fernando "Dolan" Dolande, and Stentor Danielson The inhabitants of a tightly knit village muster the heroic courage to plunge into a magical forest. They find a lost boy, make contact with mysterious creatures made of wood, and bring healing with powerful fire and earth magic. We are using the rules of James V. West's "The Pool." Vigor: Whispers of an Old Name (Session 1 of 4) Jake runs for Chris Krueger, Crom, Jason Cordova, and Sawyer Rankin Building the Threads - The Table works together to build setting, story, and character Threads in a session zero of Vigor: Beta. A tale begins to emerge of an enclave of Archivists, the youngest of whom must interface with an ancient computer to preserve a society's past and help direct their future. But what happens when the computer begins to speak back? Other Games Sorcerer: Theme Park Empires (Session 0) Robbie Boerth runs for Alejandro, Jenny W., and Walter German "Demons are social media junkies" and "The Most Magical Place on Earth: Orlando's Theme Park Empires": Those are the two anchoring statements used as we launched into our character creation and world building of a game that dares to ask "How far are you really willing to go to get what you want?" Check out all the great videos on The Gauntlet YouTube channel and be sure check out the playlists to catch up on all your favorite games. If you'd like to play in games like these, check out the calendar of events and the Gauntlet Hangouts Google+ Community where new games are announced! To support The Gauntlet, please visit the Gauntlet Patreon at https://patreon.com/gauntlet. All are welcome to play Gauntlet Hangouts games, and Patreon supporters have extra options like priority RSVP for Gauntlet Hangouts games and joining the Gauntlet Slack team where special events are announced like Gauntlet Games Now. Enjoy, and everyone have a great weekend! |
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