![]() Greetings, and welcome to the weekly Gauntlet Hangouts video roundup! Don't miss any of the great sessions in the updated playlists and video links below. Star Wars Saturday
1%er Swoop Gang 2 (Session 4 of 4) Rich Rogers runs for Blaise, Greg G., Josh DeGagne, Joshua Gilbreath, Lonnie Spangler, and Luiz Ferraz The Sarlac Riders finished their story this fine morning. With violence and heart, with weird cameos and derring do, we told our tale and we told it karking well! Gauntlet Sunday Tales from the Loop (Session 3 of 3) Lowell Francis runs for Jan, Patrick Knowles, Pawel S., and Sherri Twitter One Sentence: The kids hack a battletoad and track it back to its master, leading to a confrontation with the mad scientist janitor. Summer ends. TGI Thursday Band of Blades (Session 3 of 3) Lowell Francis runs for Agatha, Ary Ramsey, Steven Watkins, and Vince The Legion advances and The Ghost Owls set out to negotiate with or finish off a bandit king. (Hint: the resolution involved a hammer). Gauntlet Quarterly Gauntlet League Wrestling: Season 3 (Session 7) Lowell Francis runs for Alex, Chris Newton, Gerwyn Walters, Luiz Ferraz, Matt, and Tyler Lominack Careers change, playbooks change, gimmicks change in a session that opens with a massive brawl. The Gaunt Marches Dungeon World (Session 4 of 4) Spencer Paskett runs for Draghkar, Greg G., Ryan, and Stephen From rats to unicorns we see the full spectrum of wild creatures in the Marches. LAOG - Live Action Online Games Election of the Wine Queen Gerrit Reininghaus facilitates for Greg G., Jason Cordova, and Lauren Content warning: actual singing and drinking and lots of drama. Gauntlet Hangouts Night Witches: Season 2 (Session 1 of 6) David Rothfeder runs for Bethany H., Donogh, and Jim Crocker Night Witches Season 2 does character creation again for the next duty station. Monsterhearts 2: Once Again, We Return (Session 4 of 5) Patrick Knowles runs for Alex, David Rothfeder, Lauren, and Ryan M. Where our Gods set out to prove that death is no escape from The Drama. Parvati is out of the picture, Ares is out for blood, Ami is out for love, Apep is out one cave, Prophecies are out in the open, Moirai is out of patience, and Tyr is selling out! Blades in the Dark: The War in Crow's Foot (Session 5 of 5) Yoshi Creelman runs for Bryan, Chris Thompson, Joshua Gilbreath, and Sarah J. A sabotage mission, a terrified customer, an escaped ghost, a demon summoning, a whole bunch more escaped ghosts, a trap, another escaped ghost, a friendly ish ghost?, an assassination, and a pile of money, sounds like a good finale. Monsterhearts 2: Santa Teresa Confidential (Session 4 of 4) Shane Liebling runs for Darren Brockes, Lauren, Mark Causey, and Michael X. Heiligenstein The finale. Swords Without Master: Remnants - Year 1, Fall Pat P. runs for Jen Overstreet, João, Luiz Ferraz, and Maria Rivera The rogues visit the small coastal town of Stagcoast and wrestle with their own minds as well as the vengeful spirits of ancient peoples. 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 Gauntlet Hangouts games. If you'd like to play in games like these, check out the Gauntlet Hangouts Google+ Community where game signups are announced! To support The Gauntlet and Gauntlet Hangouts, please visit the Gauntlet Patreon at https://patreon.com/gauntlet where $7 and up patrons get priority RSVP for Gauntlet Hangouts games. Enjoy, and everyone have a great weekend!
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by Michael G. Barford, Keeper of the Eternal Chime Back in ye olde days of Gauntlet Houston (in the bygone year of 2015), an initiative named Mandatory Fun Club was started. These events were organized around a theme and usually involved playing an assortment of non-RPGs as an alternative to the otherwise RPG-centric community. Many laughs were had: In the halcyon age of 2017, Gauntleteer and Houston local Daniel Fowler revived Mandatory Fun Club with a new purpose: to train and mentor new GMs and game facilitators for Gauntlet Hangouts. The structure is simple: The mentor helps to arrange a series of one-shots for the new facilitators and pledges to participate personally in each of their games. Each facilitator gets the opportunity to run a game of their choice, and, in turn, the facilitators also participate in each other’s games.
It’s not necessary to enroll in MFC in order to run games for Gauntlet Hangouts; the modus operandi is to simply play at least a few games with us to get a feel for our culture and procedures, then contact Lowell Francis to get started on creating events. However, MFC offers a unique and supportive environment for people new to running games online through Gauntlet Hangouts. There’s something unique about having a veteran alongside you each step of the way, but even more reassuring is the fact that you’re stepping into the fray with a bunch of folks who are just as nervous as you, and willing to support you through the entire ordeal. I should know; I was a participant in Fowler’s first run of MFC. Not only had I never facilitated a game before, I was also new to gaming online. I have a lot of gratitude not only for Fowler’s guidance, but for my fellows-in-arms: Dylan, Christo, and Max. My first game was a train wreck, but the feedback I received was positive, considerate, and encouraging. This year I’m returning the favor and moderating another round of Mandatory Fun Club. Be on the lookout for upcoming spotlight articles on our participants and the games they’re running for MFC! We have an interesting assortment of facilitators with a variety of experiences and voices to bring to Gauntlet Hangouts. If things go well, there will be more sessions of MFC in the future; if not by me, than perhaps by one of my “students.” And if you have a tabletop gaming group, even of only a few members, I recommend you try a series with a structure like MFC’s: you’ll all leave feeling more connected, supportive, and optimistic of games to come. This is our first attempt at a Slack Chat, popularized, at least in part, by the FiveThirtyEight Slack Chats. Richard Ruane, Keeper of the Sacred Malignance: And we’re starting on 3… 2… 1… Hey everyone, welcome to the first ever Gaunt Marches Slack chat, where the GM team for The Gaunt Marches shared campaign talk about what’s going on there. I’m Richard, normally coming to you from Brooklyn, NY but TODAY coming to you from the lovely environs of Cherry Grove on Fire Island. (Photo by Richard R.)
I’m moderating today’s chat, and am joined by the full Gaunt Marches team. Gaunt Marches was started by Spencer, so I’ll let him introduce himself here. Spencer Paskett, : So I've been with the Gauntlet since Jan and fell in love my first game. I play almost exclusively Dungeon World and was inspired to start what became the Gaunt Marches when I heard about the old DnD Westmarches games. I wanted the feeling that players could run into problems they couldn't handle on their first time around. Richard Ruane: I want to ask you more about the Westmarches style of games! But first, I’d like to introduce our other two GMs. Let’s start with Horst… Horst Wurst, Keeper of the Yellow-Eyed Mask: Hi all, I'm Horst currently residing in the city in the Autumn stars. I'm with the Gauntlet since summer 2016 and my first game was ... Dungeon World! As a GM I run almost exclusively games associated with the DIY D&D scene. Richard Ruane: And last (but definitely not least), Jim Crocker! Jim Crocker, Keeper of the Eight Heavenly Questions of Gong-Gong the Dragon: Hey, all. Most folks in the community will know me as a game retailer specializing in indie/small press RPGs. I do a bunch of cons in the Northeast and Midwest, so I'm all over the place. I also was a co-founder of the Origins version of Games on Demand. I recently closed my shops, so joined the Gauntlet to be part of a community after that went away, and, as is the usual narrative, fell in love with the place. I think it was Rich who pitched the Gaunt Marches idea past me after we'd played together at Pax and on the Gauntlet, and it sounded like an excellent way to do some low-pressure and fun design work. Because I'm new to the Gantlet, I'm just now getting games as a GM off the ground. So folks have not seen me running Gaunt Marches games yet, but I've been active behind the scenes in discussion and world building. Richard Ruane: So I want to start by asking Spencer about what got him interested in Westmarches style campaigns? Spencer Paskett: I am into characters being heroes and showing off how awesome they are in RPGs but what I found lacking was the sense that the World didn't care about my character. When I bumped into the idea of there being a little town full of adventurers and a whole dangerous and undiscovered world on their doorstep I thought that is exactly what I need to put the characters in their place. Richard Ruane: So you also decided to do this using a shared world/shared GMing setup. What drew you to that? Spencer Paskett: There was a podcast I listened to for a while that did this but the stories never converged or overlapped. So I guess my brain just thought what if we did both at once? Stories and parties that could converge on a single town and have as many GMs who wanted to join up and run games. Jim Crocker: Did the specifics of the Gauntlet Open Table style of play enter into your thinking? One of the things I love about this approach is that it takes a potential problem with open table and turns it into a feature. Spencer Paskett: It just seemed awesome to try. Since I've only been GMing since June it made sense to not be the only one. I think the idea came and the Gauntlet's Open Table policy was the answer I didn't know I needed. Jim Crocker: Yeah, I particularly love the way sometimes something one of us just sort of tosses off in a stream of ideas will really seize someone else. Horst Wurst was really taken with my Myconic Plague, which I threw in just because people with mushrooms growing out of their faces is super-creepy to me, but I didn't think any further than that! It's basically 3 other writers tossing you prompts so you can just jump right past the blank page. Richard Ruane: So I want to hit on that, specifically, in a moment - what drew you to this shared world campaign, Horst Wurst and Jim Crocker (He/Him)? Horst Wurst: I wanted to put a Westmarches style campaign on the calendar for ages. Like Spencer I love the idea of giving players a sense of place and to have emergent stories as a result of the players actions rather than as a reaction to something the GM had planned. I listened to the Hex-Talk episodes of Hobbs and Friends and read the original posts by Ben Robbins to get an idea about how to put everything in motion. When Spencer came up with the idea I knew it was my chance to realize the plan without having to invent the whole world on my own. Jim Crocker: Well for starters after only a brief time with the community, it was pretty clear there was a shared sense of what we were aiming at in play, and as I said earlier, I knew you enough to trust you were serious about wanting it to be interesting and engaging. Richard Ruane: So I think one question a few people have asked us, “Why Dungeon World?” Jim Crocker: Because The Gauntlet? Spencer Paskett: Simplicity. DW is so easy to just throw things together in. Richard Ruane: So true. It also sort of a lingua franca in the Gauntlet community and something people show up expecting us to run [edit: that’s because of the great work Jason and David have done on Discern Realities]. Jim Crocker: Yeah, like if you're new (hello) you can limit the inputs, stick to basic moves and playbooks until you get your feet under you. If you're an OSR black belt like Horst Wurst, you can tinker to get exactly what you want. Horst Wurst: Playing the devil's advocate for a moment: DW without Perilous Wilds is pretty terrible for wilderness adventures. Jim Crocker: But then it's still easy to convert back on the fly. Spencer Paskett: I think because it is the common ground for so many Gauntlet players it makes it easy for each of us to tweak. Jim Crocker: I don't know about 'terrible', but it's certainly not optimized for that. I think we all agreed that Perilous Wilds really opens it up if you want the walk there to be as important as the volcano you throw the ring into. Spencer Paskett: PW is a blessing from above when it comes to having a scary and dangerous frontier. Richard Ruane: So Horst Wurst went one step farther and is running his sessions in Freebooters on the Frontier, which is a DW-derived system. Why did you pick that one? Horst Wurst: We all use different versions of DW and I just felt Freebooters was the best fit for a Westmarches campaign on a dangerous frontier and it also goes nicely with PW because both are by the same author: Jason Lutes. Jim Crocker: The other thing great about DW is the plug-in nature of it. Like, I plan to run adventures in the Knee-High Sea region, so I'll almost certainly be looking to someone's pirate add-on that I know exists somewhere. Richard Ruane: Jim brings up a great point. I use a lot of non-standard playbooks in addition to Perilous Wilds and flags in my games. What add-ons or hacks are each of you using in your sessions so far? Spencer Paskett: Lots of non-standard Playbooks! I've had a Mage, Witch, Hobgoblin, Itinerant Hunter, Wise Old Man, Winter Mage, and I'm sure another I am missing. Jim Crocker: For my first couple of games, I'm going to keep it to standard playbooks. I'm skeptical of the rigor of playtesting going on in that space, shall we say. Spencer Paskett: I also use Keys from the Wild Blue Yonder series instead of bonds Jim Crocker: I'm a fan of niche protection, that may be my long years of D&D community management talking, though. I'm prepared to be convinced otherwise. But especially since I'm aiming my games at new players, starting things off with the familiar tropes will help us all get our feet under us. Spencer Paskett: Jim, do you worry about some of our old players joining up in your first few games with their crazy playbooks? Horst Wurst: TBH niche protection and crazy powerful playbooks were another reason for me to shy away from DW proper. Jim Crocker: Nope. That's another wonderful thing about having 4 GMs. We can also reconcile play styles and GM tics. Totally sick of my community theater dialects and wild hand gestures? Play with Rich's laid-back Q&A style for a session or two instead. Richard Ruane: I sometimes wonder if my GMing style is getting a tad Rogerian. Jim Crocker: I anticipate folks trying each style and each of us ending up with a crew of 'regulars' in addition to a few folks who just play whatever Marches games they can. Spencer Paskett: Haha. You heard it here first Rogerian gaming! Jim Crocker: Dude, I love listening to your games as podcasts. Richard Ruane: Horst, could you tell us a little about the work you do to help people convert their DW characters to Freebooters for your sessions? Jim Crocker: Folks, I have a 4:30 Gauntlet game, so I'm gonna run. Horst Wurst: I am looking at the core of the character and try to decide what Freebooters character they would match. I only had one case - that ended up not making the session - a weird were-rat type playbook that ended up having most of the moves from the fighter and HD and Load from the cleric. It's more an art than a science. The other conversion is more straightforward. I just change the random stats to the appropriate stat array. Richard Ruane: Bye Jim! Spencer Paskett: Have Fun Jim Crocker: I'll be running my first Gaunt Marches game as part of Gauntlet Con 2018, then regularly thereafter! You can find Jim's game here. Jim Crocker: Love you guys, this has been so much fun. See you all in the Trello! Richard Ruane: So I think just a couple of more questions… First, what’s been the most exciting part of putting this shared world campaign together for you? Jim spoke a little bit about playing off each other above. Spencer Paskett: I love seeing how each of us interpret the text we put in the World Keeper. I mean we all just throw ideas and descriptions in there and then to see another GM take it to a whole new place in session is so fun! Horst Wurst: For me there were several highlights. Putting a half finished random encounter table on the Slack and seeing it being filled by awesome ideas as a community effort. The other was a scene in Spencer's game when a pc from Richard’s campaign used her prior knowledge to come up with a plan. Spencer Paskett: It has also been great having a tight group of advisers for GM talk between sessions. Richard Ruane: That hits on my next question, Horst: What have been some of your favorite moments so far from running these sessions? Horst Wurst: My favorite moment was a combination of discovery and danger rolls that resulted in the pc wrestling with a Unicorn. Spencer Paskett: My players on several occasions have been tempted to GO MURDERHOBO. It is fun to see them pull on the reigns and think, this is going to affect another group’s game, are we sure we want to go through with this? The scene from Richard's game where the players were surrounded by zombies at the undead market was also very high tension. Really fun to listen to. Richard Ruane: I was really amazed at how well “I am the law” worked for them as a move. Okay, that’s my questions for this chat. Anything you want to add? Spencer Paskett: We have only been at this for a couple of months and it is really hard to narrow it down to a few favorites. I think that bodes well for us! Thank you all so much for working with me on this! Richard Ruane: It’s been a real pleasure! Upcoming Gaunt Marches Hangouts Sessions Dungeon World - The Oncoming Storm (Spencer Paskett) https://gauntlet-hangouts.firebaseapp.com/event-detail/-LKS6YKjzpFmcwTjN2OU https://gauntlet-hangouts.firebaseapp.com/event-detail/-LKS6mb7rd_m_d-p99zz https://gauntlet-hangouts.firebaseapp.com/event-detail/-LKS7DVypzGR3yB1q5V7 Freebooters on the Frontier - Into the Wild (Horst Wurst) https://gauntlet-hangouts.firebaseapp.com/event-detail/-LKSDdJ8h3Hqx6MOA2ZM https://gauntlet-hangouts.firebaseapp.com/event-detail/-LKSDuIkQby_majUk9zo https://gauntlet-hangouts.firebaseapp.com/event-detail/-LKSEEHBO3UrHHO-7oNx Dungeon World/Funnel World - Den of Iniquity (Richard Ruane) https://gauntlet-hangouts.firebaseapp.com/event-detail/-LJFLpBIGUKCFdiCNXpd https://gauntlet-hangouts.firebaseapp.com/event-detail/-LJFM78vFRHxRIAi9gej https://gauntlet-hangouts.firebaseapp.com/event-detail/-LJFMxREhZ-Jpvy40fIq Gaunt Marches at Gauntlet Con Dungeon World - The Annuel Eel Extravaganza (Jim Crocker) https://gauntlet-con.firebaseapp.com/event-detail/-LKX69bpOyC33pUn1GDQ Dungeon World - Crypt of the Wight Lord (Spencer Paskett) https://gauntlet-con.firebaseapp.com/event-detail/-LKRuKs7t4HrismHGbed Dungeon World - Hunting the Beast Folk of Karrator (Spencer Paskett) https://gauntlet-con.firebaseapp.com/event-detail/-LKS0XtqiGgp5z1cjUjn Additional Art! by Mikael Tysver, Keeper of the Hymnal of St. Evelyn the White So I finally got around to play something from the Warbirds Anthology on Gauntlet Hangouts. The game of choice (or not that much choice as it seems like the only game from the book that would easily translate to online play) was We Were W.A.S.P., a game about four pilots from the Women Airforce Service Pilots that served in the Air Force during WW2. It's a game that originally was made for the danish con Fastaval and is written by Ann Eriksen. Fastaval is known for its mix of design cultures between Nordic larp and tabletop. As a result a lot of the games that get made for the con (yes, all of the games run at the con are designed just to get played there!) have a very unique style. Specifically, they often involve experimental design that borrows from Nordic larps; very feel-heavy content and very elaborate characters from the Danish scenario tradition. In the last years, a lot of people have discovered that there are a lot of great games that get made here, including others by Mo Turkington, who put together the Warbirds Anthology that We Were W.A.S.P. is a part of. I have been thinking about running this and similar high impact scenarios from Fastaval for a while, but I've been a little nervous about putting it on the calendar. The main reasons being it's a very feel-heavy game and I had a preconception that these kind of games play better in a physical space than online. In addition to that, I must admit that my own inexperience with facilitating games where I as a narrator act as the vehicle for delivering the experience of discrimination and bigotry also factored in a little. But I finally got around to do it and after some aggressive marketing I got all the players I needed to run it. So first of all, it totally works online! I had two new players that I haven't played with before and I suspect that the design was quite different from what they were used to, but I got the sense that they all had a very positive experience. I think doing workshops to get the players rolling is a really nice steal from larps, that I'd like to see used more in tabletop games. What I would add for online play is that this game requires an extended talk about safety. Especially outside of the "culture" where these kind of games come from where playing feel-heavy games are the norm. I also added a debrief at the end to give the players the opportunity to decompress a little after the game and tried to check in regularly during the game as well. I am sure that all of those things are important playing it in person, too, but I definitely feel like it is of extra importance online as it can be more challenging to read how people are doing. So about the game! It is a very good and tightly designed experience. The story and the characters are the big draw of the game. The characters are beautifully written and really draw you into the mindset you need to play the game. I sat with watery eyes while reading the stories of the four W.A.S.P.s, and from that moment on it was clear to me that this game lives and breathes by these brave women who sacrificed so much to be able to fly. That also showed in the play of my players, who really managed to do these wonderful characters justice. It was moving to see them show their character's vulnerability, toughness and willingness to endure sexism and bigotry from pretty much every encounter from the male soldiers they risked their lives to support. My favorite scene was the one where the women say goodbye to the plane after their last flight. It had so much unresolved tension in the air as I could feel the awkwardness as the W.A.S.P.’s tried to avoid saying goodbye at all. When the game ended, I think we all felt a little empty after having been the W.A.S.P. for the last four hours. After a small break we had a little debrief to decompress and the feeling around the table was of thankfulness to have participated in the story of Helen, Betty-Jane, Patricia and Violet. There are some small things that we struggled with (mainly related to the flying part of the game), but I think we all got an experience to remember. If you are interested you can see the recording of the session here: I'd really like to get both We Were W.A.S.P. and other games from the Fastaval design tradition out to more people. I have some strong feelings about trying to make more space for games that are about marginalized folks. Especially if it is about tough subject matter, and hopefully you will see more of those games on the calendar this fall. If you’d like to get your hands on this game you can get the Warbirds Anthology over at Indie Press Revolution. I definitely think you should!
by Tomer G, Keeper of the Squamous Beast Below This is the second in a Design Diary series for MR-KR-GR: The Death Rolled Kingdom. It’s a game setting by Mun Kao and Zedeck Siew, and one I want to evangelize to others in the world. This second installment is a deeper dive into how I built the mechanics around supporting the game I wanted to play. Changes since the last time I removed the World of Dungeons mechanics completely, and created a character generation process which very much mimics that used in Fall of Magic. I used names from various places (the prior game, other Thousand Thousand Islands, World of Dungeons, and some I just made up). I used titles from hints in MR-KR-GR, some from the second Thousand Thousand Island book: Kraching, and a few that I made up. Additionally I needed to distinguish those who are Uplanders (only connected to the outside world through MR-KR-GR) and Downlanders (those from the rest of the world). And then Traits… I wanted everyone to start with at least one, to start defining their character: On the one hand this is tricky, as Merating, and Kandis, and the Tohey people are defined in the book. But they are so loosely defined that there are plenty of blank spaces for the players to inhabit. This allows the players to easily inhabit characters that are part of the setting, and not just some visitor from a faraway land, but without heavy restrictions on the character that require the player to read setting text. Conflict Resolution I was considering having some sort of simple token economy, where each player might have fate tokens to determine a successful outcome for conflicts that occur. I’ve seen this work to good effect in some mechanic light story games and scene-framing games. However, in this case it just didn’t feel like it would hit the right tone for this OSR-style setting and play. I wanted some randomness to adjudicate conflicts that we, as the players, have to respond to. But, without the complexity of what you find in D&D with the mix of dice and overwhelming nature of stats, skills, saves, and so on. My experiment with World of Dungeons showed that conflicts came up very infrequently, and we desired very simple resolution. One possibility was going with a straightforward “die of fate”, and rolling a d6, with lower results meaning bad stuff, and high results meaning better things. But this felt a little too random, and too open to interpretation as well. Don’t get me wrong, it could work, but it didn’t feel like it hit the mark. I ended up going with a simple d6 roll for conflicts, and the mixed success levels provided by PbtA games. I stuck with an unforgiving 1-3 (miss), 4-5 (partial success) and 6 (success). This sounds tough, and is not terribly different from the mechanics of Blades in the Dark. However, Blades in the Dark mitigates this inherent difficulty by using dice pools. I ended up using a different method... Traits The traits would be similar to those in Fall of Magic, but perhaps used more frequently. In Fall of Magic (or at least in the rules of Autumn of the Ancients, the sci-fi hack), traits can be applied to add a +1 to the infrequent d6 rolls that show the outcome of some few, specific scenes. In general, however, there isn’t any conflict resolution mechanics in that game. In my proposed conflict resolution described above (1-3 = Bad / 4-5 = OK / 6 = Great) the results skew towards being hard for the players to succeed. However with the addition of traits, this could change to generally add a +1 or +2 to some rolls, and therefore change the balance of difficulty significantly. And encourage players to use their character’s few strengths to their advantage. I grabbed traits that emulated D&D stats initially (+Strong, +Smart, +Charismatic) but they felt lackluster. I instead ended up going with those that resembled Skills in World of Dungeons, as they are short one-word phrases, and more closely emulate the associated archetypes of character classes in fantasy games: +Hardy, +Seer, +Aim, and so on. In addition to choosing a trait during initial character generation, I decided to add more focused traits during the first two scenes, where the characters get to establish their character through vignettes. In one the character chooses a positive trait such as: +Trusted, +Unflinching, +Lore, +Rich, +Chosen, +Unusual. In another I had them choose a negative trait such as: -Unnatural, -Cursed, -Distracted, -Destitute, -Poisoned, -Maimed. This combination of good and bad traits allows for some diverse interactions, mechanically and narratively. Conflict Resolution in Play After making the above changes, I found the second playtest worked exceedingly well. The additional trait choices during those initial scenes lent a stronger gravitas to player choices. Having a total of 3 traits didn’t feel complex or difficult to manage. The play of positive and negative felt right. In play, when conflicts occurred, the mechanics proved robust enough to give us a variety of outcomes, skewing towards failures when the task was out of the character’s strengths, and skewing towards success when it was grounded in their abilities, but always with uncertainty. I wasn’t sure how character’s aiding each other, or multiple rolls for complex scenes might work, but I found in at least two situations in play, a character’s failure allowed others to be drawn into the scene to “help”, and doing so with their own conflicts and subsequent rolls. This caused some good interactions. One of my criticisms was the positive trait of +Unusual, which was chosen by two of the characters. Although I specifically go for relatively vague traits, this one felt too vague and didn’t work well in scenes. I feel similarly about -Unnatural as a negative trait, and might try to find something that works a little better. Image from Story Games Glendale meetup running the second session of MR-KR-GR on August 7: The Robustness of the Game I was impressed with was how different this game was then the last. The setting really isn’t that large, given the MR-KR-GR book is just a bit over 30 zine-style pages, with many illustrations and a sparseness of words. The two games shared some similar entry scenes, as these are standard when building the characters. But the two games shared very little as far as the thrust of the story and the locations the players ended up visiting. And there are so many locations, star NPCs, and random tables that I didn’t use in either game, that I feel there is still a wealth to explore. I enjoy that there doesn’t feel to be a repetitiveness, and that excites me to run it again. To that end, I’ve put up a two-shot version that I will run for the Gauntlet in September, and I’ve also posted it for face-to-face play at both Strategicon Gateway 2018 in Los Angeles, and at Big Bad Con 2018 in the San Francisco Bay Area. ![]() Greetings, and welcome to the weekly Gauntlet Hangouts video roundup! Don't miss any of the great sessions in the updated playlists and video links below. The Gauntlet Blog: Design Diary
The Between: Playtest Jason Cordova runs for Agatha, Fraser Simons, Patrick Knowles, and Tyler Lominack Two more playtest sessions (4 and 5) of Jason's game The Between, currently in development. Read more about the game and find links to playtest materials in the latest of the ongoing Design Diary series on The Gauntlet Blog. http://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/blog/design-diary-the-between-02 Star Wars Saturday 1%er Swoop Gang (Session 3 of 4) Rich Rogers runs for Blaise, Greg G., Josh DeGagne, Joshua Gilbreath, and Luiz Ferraz The crew finds their stolen spice, and Vulture with it, but they have to take on a deadly bounty hunter to get it back! Who is their foe? None other than DENGAR! Gauntlet Sunday Tales from the Loop (Session 1 of 3) Lowell Francis runs for Patrick Knowles, Pawel S., and Sherri With summer nearly over, middle school friends in an alt 1980's Midwest encounter a strange and amphibious mystery. Tales from the Loop (Session 2 of 3) Lowell Francis runs for Jan, Patrick Knowles, Pawel S., and Sherri The friends regroup and a troublemaker returns amidst parental miscommunication and a muddy escape. Gauntlet Quarterly Gauntlet League Wrestling Season 3 (Session 6) Lowell Francis runs for Chris Newton, Luiz Ferraz, Matt, and Tyler Lominack The Gaunt Marches Freebooters on the Frontier: The Sickness (Session 3 of 3) Horst Wurst runs for Jason Hobbs, Kinote, and Sherm A servant of the wizard promises riches. The teeth of the Bandit King. The Sickness. A hillock of unusual symmetry. Ambushed by Lizardfolk. The wizard's tower. Dungeon World (Session 3 of 4) Spencer Paskett runs for Draghkar, Greg G., and Ryan That escalated quickly! Gauntlet City Limits From GM Rich Rogers: "With a big group of awesome folks, I officially brought the *Gauntlet City Limits* series of games to a close! We played two sessions of the Googly-Eyed Primetime Puppet Show, and all the characters were puppet versions of 30+ characters from a whole bunch of RPGs we've played over the last two and a half years! Warning, these games are insanely silly and filled with in-jokes. It was the most fun I've had in a long, long time." The Googly Eyed Primetime Puppet Show: Gauntlet City Limits Revue (Session 1 of 2) Rich Rogers runs for Dylan R., John, Pam, and Paul Edson The Googly Eyed Primetime Puppet Show: Gauntlet City Limits Revue (Session 2 of 2) Rich Rogers runs for Gerrit Reininghaus, Dr. Jason Cox, Lowell Francis, Patrick Knowles, and Tyler Lominack LAOG - Live Action Online Games Society of Vegan Sorcerers Gerrit Reininghaus facilitates for Ary Ramsey, David L., Dylan R., and Jen Overstreet A Gauntlet Codex Yellow game as a LAOG - Five vegan sorcerers, experts of subjects as berrymancery, potatonic, fungorituals and compostoclasma, cleaned Carcosan blood rituals from their non vegan ingredients in a quick online meeting. [DEUTSCH] Die Wahl der Weinkönigin (The Wine Queen Election) Gerrit Reininghaus ermöglichte eine Session für Christian, Judith, Sabine, und Tina T. Content warning: actual drinking (and singing) CodeX-Files Spirit of '77/Serious Moonlight from Codex-Glamour (Session 1 of 3) Tyler Lominack runs for David L., Michael, Patrick Knowles, and Ryan M. It's Berlin 1977 and David Bowie has been acting strangely...even for him. Is it drugs, the KGB, the CIA, or maybe even Vampires? A French Spy, a Holy-Roller Journalist, a Grease Monkey Space Alien, and a Bodyguard who's One Bad Mother intend to find out. Spirit of '77/Serious Moonlight from Codex-Glamour (Session 2 of 3) Tyler Lominack runs for David L., Patrick Knowles, and Ryan M. Our investigators encounter Vampires(?) and make friends with the fabulous Romy Haag and her Bionic Drag-Queens. A trip to David Bowie and Iggy Pop's apartment leads to a fight and some light arson. What can our heroes use to fight supernatural baddies...the mighty rhythm of "Das Funk"!!! Gauntlet Hangouts Monsterhearts 2: Once Again, We Return (Session 3 of 5) Patrick Knowles runs for Alex, David Rothfeder, and Ryan M. Where our Gods prove that not only can they make things worse, sometimes they can make someone better. Or at least shinier. Come for the electro-glitter club fights, stay for all the whispery indie feels! Pigsmoke: Summer School (Session 1 of 4) Tyler Lominack runs for Asher S., Ludovico Alves, and Pawel S. Old hands and new professors begin the Summer Term at America's top Wizarding School. Zombie LARP's, Golden Fruit, Vampire infestation, and the Queen of Summer fill Pigsmoke's halls. [Note: This video comes before last week's session 2 in this series.] Swords Without Master: Sidereal Ordeal (Session 1 of 2) Maria Rivera runs for J.D. Woodell, Larry, and Leandro Pondoc 1%er: Hounds of the Moon, Santa Juanita Chapter (Session 2 of 4) Jason Cordova runs for Agatha, David L., Lu Quade, and Sam Z. All Systems Nominal: Inner Sphere 3054 Series (Session 3 of 3) Kyle Thompson runs for Bryan, Fraser Simons, Lauren, and Taejas The mercenaries of Vinson's Vigilantes' Omega Lance storm the Coventry Metal Works to seize as much plunder as they can! Monsterhearts 2: Kingsport '76 (Session 4 of 4) Catherine Ramen runs for Bethany H., Dylan R., Jesse A., and Jim Crocker In the finale, Evelyn casts a wicked spell, Calvin comes face to face with his destiny and his past, Jackie struggles to contain the wolf, and Tom lives out a D&D fantasy when the town comes under attack. Monsterhearts 2: Santa Teresa Confidential (Session 3 of 4) Shane Liebling runs for Darren Brockes, Lauren, Mark Causey, and Michael X. Heiligenstein Blades in the Dark: The War in Crow's Foot (Session 4 of 5) Yoshi Creelman runs for Bryan, Dr. Jason Cox, Joshua Gilbreath, and Sarah J. The crew gets aboard the Academy ship... there are fire oil explosions and a angry ghost... the crew will make it out... but what will the collateral damage be? Veil 2020: Land of the Free (Session 11) Fraser Simons runs for Alex, Asher S., Darren Brockes, Joshua Gilbreath, Kurt Potts, and Lauren Finale to Land of the Free! 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 Gauntlet Hangouts games. If you'd like to play in games like these, check out the Gauntlet Hangouts Google+ Community where game signups are announced! To support The Gauntlet and Gauntlet Hangouts, please visit the Gauntlet Patreon at https://patreon.com/gauntlet where $7 and up patrons get priority RSVP for Gauntlet Hangouts games. Enjoy, and everyone have a great weekend! these questions were posed to Gerrit Reininghaus, Keeper of the Voice of the Silent Emperor, about his in-development game Atitlan Riders. Tell us a little bit about your game. What is it about? What will the players be doing? Gerrit: Atitlan Riders is a tuk fast tuk furious coming-of-age Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) game located in one of the largest indigenous communities of Central America. Players will explore the transition of young people into adulthood in Santiago Atitlan, a Mayan rural town in Guatemala. Expressing individuality isn’t easy in day-to-day life. But all characters are secretly tuk tuk racing drivers and their tuk tuk (three wheeled taxis) expresses many things for them: love, passion, rebellion, faith, friendship. In contrast to other PbtA games, Atitlan Riders is not built on a well-known genre and its tropes. Instead, it relies on the global understanding of growing-up and it's rooted in its unique setting. What are some of the major design goals of this game? I'm not from Santiago Atitlan but from Germany. But I have been living in Santiago now for two years and the original design goal for me was to reflect on the my experiences. How is growing up different there? How is it similar? But moreover, I want to design a game with a take on family and friendship through the lens of a racing game as in films like the Fast & Furious franchise. Playing this game shall bring the emotions of coming of age literature together with releasing tension through seriously fun racing action. The setting shall allow players to learn about the place and its people and become curious abou a different world than theirs. What mechanics do you currently have in the game that reinforce your design goals? An integral part of character creation is drawing the front of your tuk tuk. This way you inform your fellow players who you are or who you want to be. Whatever happens in play, you can show it on your tuk tuk. In play, major conflicts are solved through tuk tuk racing. This is a moment of magical realism. You don't want your brother to report to the police? You want to win somebody's heart? Let's have a race. The race is a mini story game focusing on racing fun. A variant in German, English and Spanish exists to play it standalone. Your longer character goal is to strive to live an independent life and realize your dreams. For that, you need to free yourself from manipulative influence others have over you and you over them. This is the main currency which can only be resolved through scenes of personal intimacy in which both involved parties let the other go. Setting creation guides players through a process of getting familiar with the town of Santiago Atitlan while still having an influence on where the story goes. Where are you at in the development cycle? The game exists in a playable and complete edition but keeping the most exciting elements less explored than in the current design state. That edition has been playtested at Metatopia and on the Gauntlet Hangouts calendar. The current design state is to test some of the more innovative elements one by one and then bring another round of playtests to the next version in Autumn. Finish the sentence: “People are going to be excited about this game because…” ...drawing, racing and growing-up is a globally valid combination of fun, and Atitlan Riders provides a unique setting outside of the Western Hemisphere and TV tropes. Play Materials Reference Sheets (Basic Moves, playbooks etc): https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1gaJQCvkb6MUTB6QlVnSkNBTE0 Rulebook (beta): https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jT142p3olzvJZRjn0zZMhNNdOVLPbOtx Online Character Keeper: https://goo.gl/NwQ6uG (also contains links to tuk tuk front creation and racing template) Tuk tuk racing stand alone game: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Ie8rxThACq2Gv_yuQiypnK6holPejugS Tuk tuk racing stand alone game (Spanish version): https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xhZoq1G5MK6bSkV_469ZDhJv8gAZv1Sw Recorded playtests: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB6Hm0gKHHXaQgFc6J8TQr_PyOBSah0oP Interview by Rach Shelkey from the +1Forward podcast http://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/1-forward/alphas-02-death-knights-atitlan-ridersbullets-in-the-mountains Pictures A tuk tuk race from one of the online playtests: Locations to be selected from in setting creation:
words and doodles by Lu Quade, Keeper of the Cloak of Logan Stormbreaker We all want to run better games - and the best way to run better games....is to ask! To share what we are loving, what we want to see more of, and what we would like to see change. Stars and Wishes is a simple tool that encourages positive feedback and gentle forward-looking criticism. I originally introduced Stars and Wishes to the Gauntlet community in response to negative experiences I had using Roses & Thorns - a popular tool used within the Gauntlet and the wider rpg community. The metaphor it relies on is strong: sometimes when you try to pick roses, you catch yourself on thorns. Stars and Wishes has been criticised as just a softer version of Roses and Thorns: but i’m a big word nerd, and think that semantics - the implications and feelings associated with words - is a big thing. This is clearly visible in the case of Thorns vs. Wishes: a thorn has already pricked you, and you speak about a negative experience/element of the game that occured while you were playing. Wishes are forward facing: an optimistic request for change, and when a thorn is reframed as a wish it becomes positive and productive. It is softer - it’s also kinder and more generous, and closely aligned with how we aim to communicate and treat one another within the Gauntlet community. The first little section of this post - Basic Stars and Wishes - will show you how to use it. The second - Advanced Stars and Wishes - will introduce you to how some great GMs have employed and adapted it themselves! Basic Stars and Wishes At the conclusion of a game session everyone who played* offers a Star to another player, to a moment in the game, or to an element of the overall experience (you can give out more stars if you have time). You can award a star for - amazing roleplay, great character moments, amazing descriptions by the GM, the feeling you had at a certain moment, another player’s generosity, a mechanic of the game system that really sang etc. A star is a thing you loved about the game - if the game you played was amazing it is often hard to choose! * this includes the facilitator, if the game has one. After stars have been given, everyone makes a Wish. Each player tells the table something they would like to see happen in a future session. You can make a wish about - something you want to see happen with your own character, an interaction you’d love to see between two characters, a mechanic you would like to see come into play that you haven’t seen yet, places you hope the story might go, etc. Advanced Stars and Wishes The following section includes examples of extensions of stars and wishes beyond a simple debrief tool. 1. Allow the feedback given as wishes to inform your planning for future sessions! This is not so much an extension as part of the intent of Stars and Wishes that I wanted to highlight. Why ask for feedback if you’re not gonna use it, right!? Stars and Wishes in Action: You can see Sidney scribbling down notes about all of our stars and wishes, and they drew on these heavily in future sessions. 2. Shane’s Bookending technique - for every session after the first one, bookend play with stars and wishes. Make a Wish for the upcoming session at the beginning of play, stars as usual at the end. I have personally also used stars at the start of sessions as a refresher entering play, often framing them as opening credits scenes. This can get everyone back on the same page after a break. 3. Tyler uses both Stars and Wishes and Roses and Thorns, as he personally desires stronger criticism at the end of a series. He wants to know specifically what didn’t work - particularly when playtesting or running a new system. I have experienced him using Roses and Thorns in the final session of a series to great effect. Of course, if as a game runner or game designer you want more specific or stronger criticism - ask for it! Big thanks to Sidney Icarus who responded so enthusiastically to my vague musings in the Gauntlet Feel Club about an alternative to Roses and Thorns. They helped me to clarify my thoughts for this post: their initial enthusiasm is responsible for the small but powerful proliferation of Stars and Wishes within the Gauntlet, and for me actually adopting my own idea! Thanks Sid! X o
Bonus age old wisdom ‘ One That Plants Thorns Must Never Expect To Gather Roses ’ Update: As of 2020 (two years after the original publication of this article), Stars and Wishes has mushroomed beyond the Gauntlet. It was recently included in the excellent TTRPG Safety Toolkit - compiled by Kienna Shaw and Lauren Bryant-Monk - which won a Gold Ennie for Best Free Game/Product. So that’s nice :)
Talking about the past In The Between, players are strongly encouraged to avoid talking about their character’s past, both in-character and out-of-character. Players are expressly forbidden from discussing certain aspects of their past, principally the elements of their Janus Mask (discussed more below). Players can expect characters to question their character about their past, but their character must always avoid the conversation, either by tensing up, acting awkwardly, or simply excusing themselves from the scene. In addition to conforming to my personal preferences regarding character backstory, the restrictions on talking about your character’s past also happen to fit the game’s setting. The player characters are privileged individuals who each have a dark, troubled past that is trying to catch up to them. Members of their social class in Victorian London simply would not discuss such matters openly. Having run a few dozen playtests, I can tell you this particular aspect of the game always requires a short period of adjustment for the players. As role players, we are accustomed to jumping straight into our character’s backstory, chatting back and forth about what it all means, how the player characters fit together, how they got involved in the adventure, and so forth. But in The Between, you don’t do any of that. After a very short round of character introductions, during which we learn next to nothing about the characters, the D.I. (what the GM is called in The Between) presents the first Threat and the characters begin the investigation in medias res. But here’s the thing: once you get past the initial awkwardness of not being able to talk about your character’s past, you start to become aware of something this game does constantly, which is it deftly manages your cognitive load. I’m going to talk about this effect more in future Design Diary posts, because I think it is the ultimate triumph of this game, but in the context of this particular aspect of the rules, what it means is that you can focus on the investigation–the here and now–without worrying about whether you are conforming to some concept you have expressed aloud about your character. The Janus Mask Of course, the above doesn’t mean players shouldn’t think about their character’s past. Quite the contrary: they should think about it a lot, because they’re going to be revealing that past, piece by piece, in a grand, entertaining fashion. Every playbook has a section called The Mask of the Past and a section called The Mask of the Future. Together, these sections are referred to as the Janus Mask. At specific points during the game (discussed more in a future post), players may invoke their character’s Janus Mask to alter events that are happening in the fiction. When they do so, they make a mark in either the Mask of the Past or the Mask of the Future. If they mark the Mask of the Past, they are called upon to narrate a particular kind of flashback at some point during the session. These flashbacks are how we, as audience members, begin to learn about these characters’ origins. In order for you to have some context, below are the elements that comprise the Mask of the Past for the Vessel playbook. The Vessel is a character who has been surrounded by dark, shadowy entities their whole life.
Once these elements have been revealed by the Janus Mask, the player is free to discuss them both in and out-of-character, so long as they continue to keep the unrevealed elements behind a veil. Note, however, that there is still a great deal of mystery surrounding the character even after all these elements are revealed. Also note the cognitive load effect I alluded to earlier: yes, you should be thinking about your character’s past, but in order to narrate an entertaining series of flashbacks, you only need to think about these highly specific aspects of the character’s past. The Between, above all, wants to constantly reinforce its themes and does everything it can to keep players on task in this regard. by Tomer G, Keeper of the Squamous Beast Below This is the first in my Design Diary series about MR-KR-GR: The Death Rolled Kingdom. It’s a game setting by Mun Kao and Zedeck Siew, and one I want to evangelize to others in the world. This first installment is an overview of the setting, and an initial playtest. Future installments will dive deeper into how I built the mechanics around supporting the game I wanted to play. Playing with RPG systems Running a game module using an alternative game system is not a new idea. OSR thrives on the concept, with many D&D derivatives being used to run modules that were written with D&D in mind, or sometimes with no game system in mind. A very influential game for me was run by Tom McGrenery: the module Death Frost Doom, run as Death Force Doom (in the Star Wars universe, as an old haunted Jedi temple with us as adventuring snow troopers). Tom used Stay Frosty, an OSR system built to emulate stories of marines in situations similar to Predator or Aliens. I was impressed not just because the system worked, but because the game we played felt enhanced by the system, above and beyond what a D&D clone would’ve done. Tom and Jason Cordova have since taken this ethos and discussed it in the Fear of a Black Dragon podcast. Additionally, I’ve seen Rich Rogers do very similar things with his series of Star Wars themed games, using systems like 1%er for swoop gangs, Apocalypse World for drama on Tatooine, and The Few (a game about WW2 fighter pilots) for a game about X-wing pilots. Each system felt like it targeted the narrative and mood more directly and appropriately than a generic Star Wars RPG would have been able to pull off. What is MR-KR-GR? It is a work of art, plain and simple. Mun Kao and Zedeck Siew are working on a Thousand Thousand Islands, a Southeast Asian-inspired fantasy setting. The first of these books is MR-KR-GR: The Death Rolled Kingdom, a land of crocodiles and the people who mostly worship, or love, or work for and with them (or perhaps even plot their downfall). It’s less a setting book or module, and more a work of sublime poetry. A world visualized in sparse words and phrases and drawings. I can’t remember the last time I felt this connected to a game world, and yet it’s so short it can be read in half an hour. But how to run a game in this land? I spent time ruminating on that before finally being inspired by Mun Kao’s art, and Zedeck Siew’s eloquent wordplay. It reminded me of Heart of the Deernicorn’s Fall of Magic, a game made popular because you literally play on a scroll. Fall of Magic uses beautiful and simple artwork, reminiscent of those maps from Lord of the Rings. The story prompts and wordplay on the game are simple yet evocative, providing just enough direction for a story focused around a single topic, yet open to myriad interpretations (as I’ve seen experienced through play many times). A test run of MR-KR-GR After inspiration hit, I created a few locations (such as MR-KR-Singga Port and The Gates, as described in the module), and created a few thematic story prompts that would get players diving into this world. I wanted players to be able to come from the perspective of foreigners visiting this land, but also as locals or those from neighboring kingdoms. I still needed a way for conflicts to be adjudicated, and turned to a relatively light system that I was familiar with: World of Dungeons (John Harper’s simplified Dungeon World hack). I planned for the players to be able to create a simple character on the fly, or even fill out much of the stats and other information as we were playing. Because of the short time from inspiration to playtesting, I didn’t post this as a scheduled game on the Gauntlet calendar, but instead took advantage of the Gauntlet Slack community and resources such as the #need_players channel therein. My crew consisted of stellar players Lauren, Ellen and Ary, so even though I was nervous, I knew I was in supportive hands. Unlike Fall of Magic, which is a GM-less / GM-ful game, MR-KR-GR is a setting where having a facilitator is important to providing the players a grand tour of this beautiful world. Because it’s also drawn with so many blank spaces, you can easily fill the world and adventure with input from the players, which for me is some of my favorite gaming. So, we started with some story prompts to get them going and introducing their characters. Image from my cards, graphic by Mun Kao: These cards played very well in giving the players images to hold on to, whether those are setting pieces or NPCs. As it turned out, using World of Dungeons, despite being a relatively simple game, was complete overkill. We made a handful of rolls during the game, but almost all scenes were very story-centric and just improvised narratives between myself and the players. That said, we did occasionally desire some conflict resolution that was “random”, and in lieu of any other mechanic, did use the 2d6 rolls inherent in World of Dungeons. This led to some great fiction as we had to respond to unforeseen consequences and successes. Where to go from here? I’m definitely planning to streamline the mechanics. My plan is to remove the use of World of Dungeons completely, and have character generation much more similar to Fall of Magic. I still need some conflict resolution, and I do love the mix of success levels provided by PbtA games. Currently, I plan to use a simple d6 roll, not terribly different from Blades in the Dark perhaps, but with just a single die (instead of a pool of dice). I also like the idea of using individual character traits similar to Fall of Magic (almost like Aspects in Fate), where each trait could provide a +1, or even a -1, to the roll. So instead of tracking stats, a character may just have traits such as “Tough” or “Nimble” or “Clever”. Want to see the actual play? We recorded the game on Google Hangouts, and I used an audio track in the background (that the players could hear, but you the viewer will not be able to, as this time). Ary could only play for 2 hours but Lauren and Ellen could do closer to 3 hours, so we did some narrative jumping forward and backwards in time, which ended up working very well, story-wise. This was first published on Tomer's blog, which can be found here. |
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