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8/30/2021

Pacts in Trophy Gold

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By Darren Brockes  darrenbrockes.online @DarrenBrockes
You can find Darren's excellent Mecha rpg HILT//BLADE (among others) on his itch.io page here. 

The Pact Roll introduces a mechanic to Trophy Gold that lets treasure-hunters enter into dangerous negotiations and even more dangerous pacts—a mystically binding relationship that transfers some of the pact-maker’s power to the treasure-hunter—with beings who hold more power in the world than the treasure-hunters will ever be able to.

The mechanics are intentionally highly risky to suit the tone of the game, but also to reflect the dynamic of the relationship: the treasure-hunter is free to call on this power, but they by no means are capable of holding that power. The pacts are contracts, but, while the costs are clearly outlined, the results or any way to void the pacts are not.

Entering into a pact will probably kill a treasure-hunter, but what doesn’t in Trophy Gold?

The Pact Roll is outlined along with the rules for using a pact and then a list of 13 examples of pact-makers are given.
Pact Roll

When you begin negotiations to enter into a pact with a being more powerful than you, state your terms and then gather 6-sided dice.
  • Take a dark-colored die for risking your mind or body to negotiate. (You must include this die whenever you want to enter into a pact.)
  • Add one light-colored die if you have a relevant skill from your occupation, background or training or because you are taking advantage of a piece of equipment or the environment.

Roll the dice. If your highest die is a:

1-3 — If you accept their unfavorable terms (they will not renegotiate), you must also increase your starting Ruin by 1.
4-5 — They will state their terms. You may take it or leave it; they will not negotiate further.
6 — They find you worthy and will negotiate their terms with you.

The being you enter into a pact with has four Skills, zero to three Rituals and other possible uses (depending on their form and the terms of your pact).

Whenever you wish to use a Skill or Ritual from your pact or the being itself, you must include a dark die in your roll. If your pact gives you fictional positioning, make a Ruin Roll when you invoke that feature.

If you do not meet the terms of your pact, the GM will give you appropriate and potentially escalating Conditions.

Thirteen Pact-Makers

The Black Blade
The Black Blade is a depraved weapon, a coward whose only strength is killing. Many warriors of both good and ill repute have wielded it and each of them with one fact in common: in the end, it was the Black Blade that killed them, too.
  • Who does the Black Blade want to make pacts with? Cold-blooded killers.
  • What terms might the Black Blade place on the pact? Wanton killing, ritualized murder or strict rules governing who may be slain by it.
The Black Blade is skilled in fear, murder, physiology and undeath. While satisfying the terms of the pact, it may be used as a weapon without increasing the bearer’s Burdens.

Tlasuth, Fae Courtier
The Faeborn are not fae, not fully. That has become terrifyingly clear to you, as has the reason for the masks that the fae wear. Tlasuth may show you, depending on promises given or flip compulsion. Sometimes, they just like to see you scared.
  • Who does Tlasuth want to make pacts with? Alluring charlatans or hedonistic libertines.
  • What terms might Tlasuth place on the pact? Regular baths of honey, substitute harmless details when recounting something or bind any promise or agreement (no matter how small) as a contract.
Tlasuth is skilled in birds, contracts, consorting and glamour. They know the Rituals desire (understand someone’s deepest desire as your own) and invert (lies sound like truth and truth sounds like lies).

Heron the Ageless
To escape the shackles of time...is that not true magic? Freedom from the inexorable, the mundane. Heron breathes in the beginning of time and exhales its end. Walk with him for a awhile and slough off the coil of mortality.
  • Who does Heron want to make pacts with? Hedges, magicians and sorcerers.
  • What terms might Heron place on the pact? Collect small, earthen jars, hoard books or obsessively research a single subject.
Heron is skilled in archeology, monsters, rituals and time. He knows the Rituals scry (gaze into a reflective surface to receive a memory of another time or place), materialize (conjure a simple, handheld object) and exuviate (molt your skin to heal 1 Condition).

The Wolf Gameta
Gameta has had many names, all chosen by itself and now forgotten by everyone else, but all know of Gameta whether through children’s stories, the drunken tales of hunters or from a terrifying night spent too close to the treeline of the forest.
  • Who does Gameta want to make pacts with? A renowned ranger who first agrees to a duel.
  • What terms might Gameta place on the pact? Protect animals at all costs, replant a forest or drive people away from nature.
Gameta is skilled in allegories, hunting, teamwork and winter. It knows the Ritual call (summon a wolf from a nearby shadow). While satisfying the terms of the pact, your sense of smell is sharpened.

One of the Small Gods
You can find one of them almost anywhere: the hinges of a traveler’s lantern, the seam of a runaway’s knapsack, the grease slapped onto a knight’s armor by their squire...some people say hello or thank them, but most don’t even think to look.
  • Who does one of the small gods want to make pacts with? Faithless treasure-hunters or someone seeking answers. 
  • What terms might one of the small gods place on the pact? Collect stories, follow will-o’-wisps or toss Coin into pools of water.
One of the small gods is skilled in folklore, memories, nature and survival. They know the Ritual bloom (accelerate the growth of plant life in a small area). While satisfying the terms of the pact, you have a seventh backpack slot.

Bimulla the Ferryman
“Where do we pay the toll? / How do we save the soul? / Over the eyes, put it right there, / so at the ferryman they cannot stare!”
  • Who does Bimulla want to make pacts with? The newly dead or those who throw Coin into a river at dusk.
  • What terms might Bimulla place on the pact? Perform funerary rites on every corpse, collect Coin as tax or destroy the undead.
Bimulla is skilled in currency, funerals, travel and waterways. They know the Rituals cross (walk across the surface of water) and peer (momentarily see any spirits in the area).

Hemmeh, a Fortune Teller
The diviners who wander from town to town have a bad reputation, though that is the fault of the customer craving convenience over truth. Those who have met one unknowingly, however, may have had their entire reality shifted without realizing it.
  • Who does Hemmeh want to make pacts with? Dreamers and those who have seen the future.
  • What terms might Hemmeh place on the pact? Misguide a patron, donate Coin to those in need or deliver news to the unjust at an inopportune time.
Hemmeh is skilled in astronomy, divination, double-talk and patronage. While satisfying the terms of the pact, you may roll a die before going on an incursion: you can replace any result with the result you rolled as long as you can relate the murky dream that gave you this foreknowledge to the situation at hand.

Taborath Imprisoned in Amber
Centuries ago, avarice was a flavor. It seeped out of bone white lilies, and pooled thickly on the soil. Something like locusts found it, ate it, grew and multiplied; the stillness of the air drowned in buzzing. Then the lilies died and so did the locusts.
  • Who does Taborath want to make pacts with? The greedy, consumed by a buzzing only they can hear.
  • What terms might Taborath place on the pact? Hoard Coin to the detriment of anything else, steal or always bargain for a higher price.
Taborath is skilled in insects, perseverance, rumors and treasure. While satisfying the terms of the pact, you may treat Taborath as any amount of Coin for anything but your Hoard.

The Spirit Who Refuses to Pass
“It is well known that a powerful emotion felt at the exact moment of death will block a person’s spirit from ascending. The most common feelings, naturally, are betrayal, despair and love…” Professor Eduto, presenting at the University of the Crown.
  • Who does the spirit who refuses to pass want to make pacts with? Those with a strong sense of justice or who view the world in black and white.
  • What terms might the spirit who refuses to pass place on the pact? Enact vengeance whenever possible, assassinate someone who wronged the spirit or perform dogmatic rites.
The spirit who refuses to pass is skilled in duty, languages, revenge and vigilance. They know the Ritual speak (you may converse with the undead). While satisfying the terms of the pact, you may assign a Condition you receive to the spirit. (The spirit can hold three Conditions and, to clear them, you must do something for the spirit.)

The Merchant Prince
The gods aren’t dead; they’re right here in this pile of coins and this ledger of transactions. In fact, people fear a tax collector or debtor’s prison far more than any angel and hell! But who controls the coin?
  • Who does the merchant prince want to make pacts with? Those foolish enough to sign their name on a contract.
  • What terms might the merchant prince place on the pact? Pay double your Burdens, invest in risky startups instead of your Hoard or always bargain for a lower price.
The merchant prince is skilled in burdens, coin, debt and trade. While satisfying the terms of the pact, you do not need to pay for quotidian services (transportation, room and board, etc.)

The Eldest Tree
In a copse past a clearcut patch of the forest—warded in an old, old way by those unspoken of—stands a tree that has witnessed countless migration of animals and countless nobles come to rule the ungovernable.
  • Who does the eldest tree want to make pacts with? You. It has been waiting so, so long.
  • What terms might the eldest tree place on the pact? Carry its seeds, dedicate time to a community garden or regulate wildfires to rejuvenate vegetation.
The eldest tree is skilled in ecology, endurance, seasons and time. It knows the Rituals forecast (learn what the weather will be until the next day) and feign (appear dead for a brief time). While satisfying the terms of the pact, when your Ruin reaches 6, you can return to life by increasing your starting Ruin by 1. If your starting Ruin would be 6, you cannot return to life.

Snake-Tongued Meliira
Some say they are all named “Meliira” and that that is more of a job title than a name. Others claim they are, in fact, all the same woman. Others still claim that she is a fantasy who keeps the wicked cold at night and the just warm.
  • Who does Meliira want to make pacts with? Discerning lovers.
  • What terms might Meliira place on the pact? Foment rebellion, undercut patriarchal systems or shelter minorities at risk of abuse or exploitation.
Meliira is skilled in culture, hierarchy, secrets and seduction. She knows the Rituals glare (paralyze someone as long as you hold their gaze) and surmise (learn a named monster’s Weakness).

Iosis, the Transmutated Soul
From a charred, unnamed book rescued from a burning building: “—d then pour a pint of quicksilver into a bone-fashioned bowl suspended in an ice-cold bath filled with a liter of blood (note: yours is fine, but a young subject is prefer—”
  • Who does Iosis want to make pacts with? The singularly obsessed and those who know the value of relentless pursuit.
  • What terms might Iosis place on the pact? Circular argumentation, cataloguing of the base components of the world or ascetic minimalism.
Iosis is skilled in alchemy, elements, philosophy and rituals. They know the Rituals migrate (briefly travel outside of your body to visit another place) and purify (strip apart alloys or other mixed materials into their base components).

In the spirit of Trophy, this text is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, which means you are free to copy, adapt, remix or whatever else you’d like to do with it as long as you credit Darren Brockes.

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8/27/2021

Gauntlet Video Roundup - August 27, 2021

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[Gauntlet Calendar: Online Tabletop RPG Play]
Greetings, and welcome to the weekly Gauntlet Calendar video roundup! Enjoy these recordings of online games organized through Gauntlet Calendar and the Gauntlet RPG Community. These recorded sessions represent only a portion of the selection of games available every week, and anyone is welcome to join the fun! If you'd like to play or watch more games like these, check out the links and information at the bottom of the post.

Star Wars Saturday

Rust Hulks (Session 3)
Rich Rogers runs for Alun R., Francisco Olivera, Josh H, and Will H
Following a distress call, the crew comes upon a trap that they skate out of, right into some Imperial entanglements.

Swoop Gangs (Session 4)
Rich Rogers runs for Anders, Bryan, Paul Rivers, Steven Watkins, and Will H
The Zid Hounds discover a dark secret between their rivals, and one of them pulls off the escape of the century!

Gauntlet Calendar

The Yellow King RPG (Session 6 of 12)
Shane runs for Brandon Brylawski, Matthew Arcilla, Nicholas Timperio, and Puckett
Exit Stage Left - The investigators find more signs of the Carcosan infection in the village that borders the POW camp, and are forced to take drastic action.

Masks: Year One (Session 3)
Lowell Francis runs for Brandon Brylawski, Jo Lene, and Jon Grim
With Dr. Strange sidelined, our heroes She Hulk, Catwoman, and Daredevil must face down both Reed Richards and Doctor Doom.

The Between: Questions and Opportunities Part Two (Session 8 of 8)
Shane runs for Blake Ryan, Gabe McCormick, Jamila R. Nedjadi, and Joel N.
In a charming final session, Helena enjoys a reunion with her sister and the hunters go on to attend a royal wedding.

You can see all these videos (plus all the ones that have come before) on The Gauntlet YouTube channel playlists, and be sure to subscribe to catch all our great podcasts!

If you'd like to catch these sessions in an audio-only podcast, check out the community-run Hangouts Podcast at http://gauntlet.hellomouth.net/.

If you'd like to play in games like these, check out the calendar of events and the Gauntlet Forums where games are announced, or catch one of our Gauntlet Community Open Gaming online mini-conventions.

To support The Gauntlet, please visit the Gauntlet Patreon. Everyone is welcome to sign up for Gauntlet Calendar games, but Patreon supporters get extra options like priority RSVP for Gauntlet Calendar games and joining the Gauntlet Slack team where special events and pickup games are announced.

Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

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8/21/2021

History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part 22: 2018)

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Very Much Doomed to Repeat
I am not a historian, as will have been evident from these lists previously. I am perhaps more a half-assed encyclopedist, a commentator, a wannabe librarian, or a pseudo reviewer. But I like history and I have some sense of historical transformations and time.

So sometimes when I’m reading setting backstories, I do a double take. Because they’ll describe a country or nation and then jump forward a thousand years and it’s relatively the same. Like maybe they’ve fallen under the sway of evil or expanded their borders, but generally their lifeways, tech, and civilization have remained the same.

I mention Forbidden Lands below—where a miasma cuts off cities from one another for hundreds of years and when it lifts, these settlements and institutions are pretty much the same I blame all of this on Tolkien. He’s the one who really set it up that the fantasy history gold standard required centuries and millennia. But even then his civilizations have a continuity. Empires fall—but it’s only a change of politics, leadership, and migration. Everything else remains in it’s weird Low/High Medieval state.

Here’s what I’m saying: read some big history, especially of non-Western civilizations—those that we often have a static, monolithic view of. See what we know about the cultural shifts there and how long those took. Consider going for smaller spans: trade in millennia for centuries and centuries for decades. Consider things in terms of generations. It feels less weird and it offers the opportunity for there to be folks who have living memory of the Old World

Post-Apocalyptic Media from 2018
TV Shows: Origin, Rain
Films: Battle Angel Alita, Fahrenheit 451, How It Ends, Mortal Engines, Ready Player One, Wastelander
Video Games: Darksiders III, Dillon’s Dead-Heat Breakers, Fallout 76, FAR: Lone Sails, Fist of the North Star, Frostpunk, Mutant: Year Zero, State of Decay, The Walking Dead, Will to Live
Board Games: AuZtralia, The City of Kings, The Edge: Downfall, Fallout: Wasteland Wars, Gen7, Human Punishment, Kero, Maximum Apocalypse, The Reckoners, Terminator Genesys: Rise of the Resistance, The Walking Dead: No Sanctuary, Wildlands, Zombiecide: Green Horde, Zombie Kidz Evolution
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Historiographic Ludography
I focus on core books for these lists, plus new post-apocalyptic settings for existing rpgs or significant sourcebooks. If a line has several releases, I put those in a single entry. I consolidate zombie sourcebooks and smaller games into one entry and other miscellaneous supplements into another. Revised editions appear when they significantly change a line or present a milestone. I only include published material- print or electronic. If it’s a question, I err in favor of products with a printed version and cut off sourcebooks with a smaller page count. I skip freebie or self-published games. Finally with a few exceptions, I’ve opted to skip modules and adventures going forward.

I'm sure I've left something off without adequate reason; feel free to add a comment.
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1. CATaclysm The Roleplaying Game
A world after the fall of humanity featuring anthropomorphic felines with a fantasy edge. Cities of the "hooman" old world lie shrouded in corrupting Miasma and filled with foes. But “Mommy Nurtur” has placed new stewards and given them power over Meowgic. It’s a classic fantasy set up, though without the old baggage of classes, instead having a focus on talents and skills.

And Breeds. I don’t know what to make of this. On the one hand it plays into the idea of catkind and reinforces that. On the other hand, it’s a weird bit of racial essentialism which harkens back to some of the worst aspects of FRPGs. It’s clear from the way the book presents Breeds that these aren’t cultural traits, but biological drives and proclivities with modifiers to different stats, special talents, and behavioral tics. That the different breeds are dressed in clothes matching particular cultures isn’t great.

I don’t know what to think. I’ve come in recent years to have a real visceral reaction to “in the blood” approaches, given how people use those ideas for evil in the real world. But it’s also a game about anthropomorphic cats, so maybe that’s something we can look past. Of course the next section has Paradigms, which are cultural traits. Well some of them are (Aristo-Cat, Steam Cat) but others are weirder, like the Blind Cat (with an Asian-themed outfit) and the obese Fat Cat. If those approaches don’t bug you, you may find it’s a solid game with a decently simple system.

The elephant in the room for CATaclysm is the release of Pugmire in 2016, and particularly the Monarchies of Mau sourcebook also released in 2018. CATaclysm has the lighter system which may appeal to some. On the other hand, while I’ve been tracking my reaction to CATaclysm’s set up here, I’ve realized I don’t know if Pugmire and Mau do the same thing with breeds as races or something else. (More on this, see below)

CATaclysm’s laid out nicely with decent art in many places. But it falls back into the trap of texture page background—with different splotches of color on pages. It doesn’t help the book and makes it more difficult to read. The character sheet seems simple mechanically, but design-wise it’s hard to look at with the busiest page bordering I’ve seen in any game.

2. Children of the Fall
Another of the small but striking niche of “All the adults are dead, only children survive” post-apocalyptic games. Unlike KidWorld (all the adults have gone blind) or Libreté (all the adults have vanished), Children of the Fall offers more of a zombie apocalypse with all of the adults turned into ravenous killers. See also the 2017 film Mom and Dad.

Children of the Fall is a GM-less story game with a token economy for narrative. It’s intended for longer term play with a focus on issues of community tensions and developing your haven. In regular session play there’s a focus on structure. First players select from a select of prepared missions. Second, players take turns framing scenes over four acts. Third, based on that the group updates the Haven and Tribe sheets.

Characters are built from a playbook. While these have themes, these playbooks only vary in the three character backstory questions and three kinds of trauma they can mark. As you’d expect with a GMless game, play is narrative focused. There’s little mechanical material in the playbooks. But it isn’t a diceless game. Instead you roll 2d6 versus complications put forward in the narrative to see if you overcome them.

It’s striking little game, with clean and basic layout. The handful of art in it is dynamite and really helps the mood. It does lean more towards Lord of the Flies and The Walking Dead than towards any kind of children’s liberation fantasy. It’s pretty dark.
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3. Dead Air: I Giorni della Piaga
A post-apocalyptic sandbox setting book for the Italian MONAD system rpg. When humanity attempts to repair damage to the ecosystem, they instead release a massive mutagenic infection. The changes wrought transform biological organisms and destroys civilization within few years.

The mutagenic infection remains dormant until activated, meaning that anything can become a danger. When it triggers, the organism transforms into a zombie-like biomass. Think Last of Us for the closest equivalent. As with any good zombie rpg, several different classes of monsters exist. There’s a strong eco-horror theme, with flora as well as fauna infected. Some areas have been overtaken with contaminated vegetation. However some have developed new tech based on synthesizing materials from certain weird plants.

4. Forbidden Lands
Forbidden Lands came something of a surprise—a fantasy adaptation of Fria Ligen’s Mutant system with a distinctly old-school vive. It offered a focus on hexcrawls, resources, and classic dungeons. To reinforce this they hired notable names like Patrick Stuart and Chris McDowall for the first scenario compendium.

In many ways Forbidden Land’s really conventional. A trad approach to actions and resolution, leveling up, and fantasy races. Like all good thick fantasy settings it offers a tremendous amount of backstory and historical information. We have wars and dates spreading over two millennia. But it splits when embraces its post-apocalyptic nature.

This apocalypse is the Red Mist, a hiding place for horrors which has closed everyone into the areas just around their settlements. Going further beyond those bounds invites death. Only members of a particularly nasty order learned to travel through it. The general isolation lasted for 265 years and at the start of the game, it has just recently lifted. As a result heroes and explorers can now go forth into the lands.

It’s a smart set up in some ways. It gives a purpose to characters who go out to see the world and reason why no one would possess accurate maps. That hexcrawl procedure echoes Mutant: Year Zero but with elements lifted from The One Ring.

But as I mentioned at the top Forbidden Lands also bugs mein that we have to accept fantasy world logic about cultural change. Some of that’s present in the backstory, with little change in institutions and cultures over centuries. More importantly there’s little discussion of the impact of 265 years of isolation on these settlements. People can travel up to a day away from their homes, but still need to be back by nightfall. Besides the material and food question, there’s issues of social tension, lack of information, and cultural advancement. Rather than 250+ years of isolation, the material feels more like it’s been a generation or two.

That’s a small issue but one for some reason I couldn’t easily get past when I ran Forbidden Lands. Still it’s a gorgeous package and Fria Ligen have supported it with a second regional Kickstarter. It’s popular among some folks as a slightly more storygame approach to OSR play.
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5. The Happiest Apocalypse on Earth
A PbtA game with a striking art style and aesthetic. THAOE is set in Mouse Park, our Disney stand-in, generations after the apocalypse. A civilization and religion has grown up around the trappings of the park. Some of the Mousineers may know the truth and the dark practices used to keep the park running, but most simply bow down to the Great Mouse Who Lies Beneath.

It’s a strong concept- Christopher Grey mentions indie horror video games as a touchstones in the intro. THAOE definitely captures that feel. There’s a little mix of Paranoia’s rule-driven society and the messy weirdness of something like Human Occupied Landfill. It’s also a kind of brave move for a PbtA game, focusing on a specific apocalyptic setting in the wake of Apocalypse World. You could compare the two, but this game has a distinct feel which sets it apart from AW. The emphasis on horror in particular illustrates the difference.

There’s a fun process for designing the theme of the park: where it’s located, what The Mouse is like, what kinds of attractions are there. The system itself has a lot of moves. Characters get assigned to one of four personality types: earth (melancholic), water (phlegmatic), air (sanguine), and fire (choleric). They pick one move from three choices reflecting that.

You can play as a Mousineer or a Guest, the book suggests players stick with the same group for one-shots and shorter games. Everyone picks a work history/career (Unemployed, Service Industry, Blue Collar, or Professional) which gives you some starting stuff (merchandise) and another move. Guest answer some questions about how they got here and pick another move from their list. Mousineers then define their area and answer questions about that. There’s both Service Industry for work history and Service for area which can be confusing. They pick from their move list, giving each character three starting moves.

My biggest complaint with the book is a text design issue. Sidebars and examples of play are presented in a light grey font. That makes it hard to read on screen. On paper the effect’s even worse. It’s especially bad in sections where that’s combined with a super-tiny font. It’s really distracting if you have any visual accessibility issues.
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6. HeXXen 1733
A German game based on the idea that the Thirty Years’ War opened up a gate to hell and released hordes of monsters to ravage and devastate the land. In many cities these creatures of darkness now rule and command humanity. You play as part of a small portion of the human race will to fight back against these forces.

The system seems to be d6-pool based with attributes, skills, and chosen classes. It’s a big luxury hardcover game with a lot of support: adventure collections, box sets, monster sourcebooks, and more.


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7. High Plains Samurai
“A Story Game of Gunslingers, Samurai, Gangsters, Barbarians, and Steampunk in a Post-Apocalyptic World with Superpowers.”

High Plains Samurai comes from Todd Crapper, designer of Screenplay and Killshot. In fact HPS builds on the Screenplay rules. This is a world where Chaos has come down and shattered the land. Whether that’s our world or another fantasy one doesn’t matter. You play Heroes in this broken land divided now into five distinct cities. Serenity Falls: our Wild West analogue; Yung Zhi, our Legend of Korra location; Monsoon, our jungle and samurai spirit-based city; Khar’tep, place of mountain barbarians; and Rust, home to xenophobic inventors.

How much you dig High Plains Samurai will depend a) on how much you’re into wild gonzo mash ups that mix together tons of different elements into double and triple mumbo jumbo. That’s not to say bad, just a lot of patchwork. b) How comfortable you are with this collection of stitched together borrowings. There’s a lot of stuff here I’m unsure about. I wonder what level of cultural sensitivity consultant was used. Not sure how I feel about that.

Play itself begins with the group defining several elements called formats. This include genre, medium, combat, technology, rating (PG, R, etc.), key initiatives (premises), and duration. It’s good to see that collaborative focus at the start.

Mechanically HPS uses the idea of descriptions. You’re expected to narrate your action in depth. From that the player can use details to create effects. The key detail sets what the action is and everything else supports that. Effects work by applying complications to characters. There’s a diced element to resolving these complications. It’s a very different approach than most systems and I’d recommend checking out an AP for this if you’re interested in the game.
It’s also worth mentioning that HPS offers options for reading visibility—a black and white version & one without the graphical bits—and calls that out right away.

8. Infected: Tabletop Roleplaying Game in the Eldritch Apocalypse
Infected opens with a chunk of in-game narrative. That’s a challenging technique. Do it well, like World War Z or Red Markets and it’s compelling and draws you in. But that’s hard to do. That kind of narrative is like Found Footage. The form of the material strongly impacts the reception.

Infected moves from its in-game narration to a substantial section on ttrpgs and what constitutes play. This is some Levi Kornelsen has written about elsewhere. It’s a little surprising to see in an era when general “What is a TTRPG?” talk has been removed or shrunk in rpgs.

The game itself uses Fudge dice and players have four stats (Grim, Keen, Quick, and Vital) ranged from 1 to 4. Your stats determine number of dice rolled, with – results cancelling dangers and + results adding benefits. Characters themselves are chosen from archetypes which offer Motives, Talents, and Gear packages.

The most interesting hook of Infected is that it isn’t your typical zombie pathogen. Instead the plague which creates the zombies is an attack by extradimensional intelligences. As the campaign progress this should become more obvious to the players, as the zombies evolve and cults begin to dabble with sorcery.

Infected has a very basic text layout with a silhouette illustrations peppered throughout. As of this writing its available PwYW on Drivethrurpg, so it’s worth checking out if this at all sounds intriguing to you.

9. Journal de l Observateur
Translated as The Observer’s Journal. A French modern setting game in which creatures have emerged to summon forth an army of invaders in 2015. Has a mix of modern military and magic which reminds me of Eden Studio’s Armageddon: Chimera, Black Towers, Witches, etc. Uses eight stats plus a skill system with d20 based resolution. Seems to have had only one release, the 116 page core book.
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10. Monarchies of Mau
The feline counterpart to the Pugmire rpg, with fantasy-esque anthropomorophics ages after humanity’s destruction. I wrote about Pugmire on the previous list. Monarchies of Mau is a stand-alone follow up set in the same world, but this time with cats. The backstory suggests the cats of Mau saw humans as loyal servants and subjects to their whims, a nice contrast to Pugmire’s historical vision. 

Monarchies of Mau sets up Instinct vs. Society as a theme. It “is a game about cat people, but the fact that they are cats only highlights the more important point that they are people.” Instinct here is presented as long-standing cultural values, like independence, which go against recent changes to develop a unified nation-state. 

Mau follows Pugmire and uses the same adapted d20 system—fairly simple and clean. The book has the complete rules, which take up 90 pages of the 250+, less than many similar games which is nice. Thee’s a good deal of background, history, bestiary, items section, and GM advice. It includes a sample adventure. 

Let me come back to a question I raised in talking about CATaclysm above. Does Mau utilize “races” per se with inherent traits? Characters choose callings—professions or classes. They then choose Houses. This is the cultural background, indicating upbringing and ideology. These don’t determine appearance or breed of any kind, but they do give a bonus to a particular ability and access to certain House secrets (feats). Lastly players can also take a background, representing early training. 

So no--Mau doesn’t fall into the trap of race essentialism. That’s a relief because it’s a cute game and one I’m seriously considering running, especially now that there’s a Pirate supplement out. 
  
11. Mutant: Mechatron
The third of the Mutant series, Mechatron has you playing newly “aware” robots. You begin within a Collective, filled with robots and overseen by an AI. Since the fall, this community has continued running processes of creation, dismantling, and recycling still acting on ancient corrupted commands. The robots themselves break down, scavenge from others, rebuild themselves, and weirdly evolve. You play awakened robots within a society that seeks to crush such sentience.

Mechatron’s big hook is that you assemble your character out of different parts. You begin with a set model and serial number which cannot be altered, but the rest you mix and match and may change over the course of play. These changeable parts (head, torso, and undercarriage) set your stats, # of add on modules, and armor. It’s a neat system and one which takes advantage of Mutant’s reliance on cards to represent items and powers.

All that’s cool, but Mechatron’s play isn’t as compelling. Mutant: Year Zero has a specific loop of threats--> refuge interactions--> explore the zone--> return to the refuge to deal with fallout and tensions. GenLab Alpha’s campaign is built around building up revolutionary cells within a diverse set of communities. Both of these have a through line which feels really open. On the other hand, Mechatron’s story seems straight-arrow and directed. You have growing awareness and now must overthrow NODOS, the AI which controls your community.

On the other hand the book’s written with the previous two volumes in mind. So GMs who want to introduce robots as an encounter in a campaign will have plenty to work with. Or players could easily play an escapee in a mixed group of Mutants, Enhanced Animals, and Robots.
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12. Numenera
In 2018 Monte Cook Games went back to do a new “version” of Numenera, the game which had kicked off their Cypher System. Numenera Discovery would replace the original core book, but “…this isn’t a new edition. There have been no substantive changes to the setting, the way the game plays mechanically, or the way NPCs, creatures, cyphers, artifacts, and other items work. All existing Numenera supplements (and even the original Numenera corebook) are compatible with Numenera Discovery—as are your existing characters and campaigns.”

On the other hand, Numenera Destiny seems to integrate some previous material with a lot of new ideas how to explore and interact with the setting. There’s a focus on building—objects, weapons, settlements. It adds new character options to fit with those kinds of approaches to the setting.

It’s a little odd—a little bit of clean up and redressing of the core, sold in a Kickstarter with this new sourcebook. There’s some mention that while character options remain the same, some will be less important or effective in light of the new options. As a result in addition to letting the original core book go out of print, they retired Numenera Character Options and Numenera Character Options 2 books.

MGC also supported the line with several other large releases. Building Tomorrow expands on Destiny’s focus on creation and development. It’s filled with items, community ideas, new challenges for these kinds of campaigns. They also revised the Numenera Player’s Guide, giving just the most important player-facing elements. Finally Ashes of the Sea was the lines new quickstart and release for Free RPG Day.

It’s also worth noting the growth of third party supplements for Numenera. For example, The Gardener’s Apprentice is a huge campaign arc developed by Metal Weave Games. I’ve skipped over these a little in previous lists but there’s definitely a robust library of community created content out there.

13. Shattered: A Grimdark RPG
I had a weird journey when I first looked at this game. The first thing you notice is the cover—like Final Fantasy meets Troika meets WH40K meets “Is that lady wearing a shirt or not?” meets a bunch of other stuff. It’s a grabber illustration—done with great use of white space. That slickness is contrasted with the title logo which looks sketchy on a couple of levels. But OK—it aims for a particular feel. But then the title page identifies the creators as INDE. Which stands for “Its Never Dark Enough.”

Please don’t let this be an edgelord bullshit game.

It isn’t that. Instead it’s a kitchen-sink fantasy setting + new complete rules system with a large and detailed setting, tons of talents & magic, crafting rules, airships, and lots of wild fantasy races. (fyi: while I appreciate having both male and female illustrations for each race in games, it does demonstrate how men get to look hulking & dangerous and women get to have boobs. And when you put boobs on the lizard and undead folk, I begin to shake my head).

I always know I’m in for a wild ride when the history starts 3000 years back, though the apocalypse happened only 2400 years ago. This is a big ritual that messes up magic, brings down the cool ancient civilizations, and unleashes horrors across the world. Five hundred years after that there’s a rebirth of humanity. Then 1900 years or so passes with some rebuilding, tech advancement, and reorganizing of political units. It’s a lot, filled with references to many different places and tons of arcane (or Arkäna as the book puts it) terms.

While the game in places suggests you’ll be going out into a shattered world following the fall of civilization, it actually feels more like a conventional fantasy setting with lots of intact nation states.

Shattered uses its own, detailed mechanics. Dice have stepped ranks, but these are listed from Rank 1 (1d4) to 20 (5d10) so it blows the cap off of DCC or Savage Worlds’ dice chains. It’s a lot—it you’re an old school fan of D&D at its crunchiest, Rolemaster, or Chivalry & Sorcery, you may dig it. It does have a substantial set of rules for airships which some may find worth it.
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14. SINS
I often wonder about the hard choice of striking cover design vs. evocative or explanatory design. SINS definitely falls into the former category with a screaming red skull on white and nothing else. The Kickstarter describes it as “Epic Action Horror in a Dying World.” It may be that they went with such a simple design because there’s a lot to the backstory for the game.

SINS reminds me most of Armageddon from Eden Studios, a near-future world with a supernatural invasion being countered by newly emerging supernatural PCs heroes. In the world of SINS seven figures emerged, known as the Reapers. They fought against the world’s militaries and devastated places with their singular personal power. However eventually one died and the others vanished, leaving behind a world in ruins.

Part of the Reapers power came from their control of The Brood. These are the zombies of the setting, but not the typical shambling hordes. Instead the Brood has a kind of collective consciousness. They larger the number of Brood in a group, the smarter they are and the more weird stuff they can do.

The PCs, known as Nemissaries, managed to break free after being made part of the Brood. They have great powers as a result. Those powers come with a cost, a hunger and wound in their soul. Nemissaries may be guided by shards which fell in a black rain at the start of the fall. Shards can drive away the Brood and also whisper dark advice to Nemissaries. There’s more: conspiracies and other paranatural weirdness but that gives a taste.

Mechanically SINS uses a d6 pool system—with dice rolled and each compared against a target number (based on skill level). Each “6” rolled explodes and can be rerolled. Dice which match or beat the TN count as successes. Then the number of successes is compared against a difficulty. The resolution system isn’t that complex in itself, but there’s a lot of bells, whistles, and options which add a lot of crunch and weight. It’s definitely on the heavier end if you want to use all of the sub-systems.

SINS is deliberately grimdark; think Kult or the most shadowy corners of World of Darkness. It provides some content warnings up front and discusses the X-Card as a resource. The company has released a Quick Start “Dead City: (though that’s priced at $5, half the cost of the core rulebook) as well as a sourcebook for the American East Coast. The core book was offered as part of the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality.

15. Summerland Second Edition
Summerland’s first edition appeared on my 2008 list. “So the world becomes a forest. Overnight. One day modernity. The next day a walk in the woods. Everything: buildings, cars, roads, theme parks: overgrown and emerald. Civilization holds together briefly and then flickers out. This isn't a normal forest: it has dangers and stalking beasts and a song that gets into the head of the weak-minded."
 
"So what do you do in the Summerland? The PCs are Drifters, the rare few who have the talent to pass through "The Sea of Leaves" to uncover old things and reach out to other communities. They're necessary, but also regarded as dangerous and damaged. They lack a permanent home but must refresh and attach themselves to communities as then can. It sounds pretty compelling and Summerland does a great job setting that up, riding the line between history and myth. It has a simple, story-driven system focusing on personal issues and lives of the PCs. Characters have traumatic experiences and must deal with those in their journeys."

This new edition is a gorgeous full-color version. The setting material and the form of campaign play remains the same. The major change beyond presentation is a shift from the bespoke narrative mechanics of the original to a version of the Open D6 system.
 
16. T.E.A.R.S. Box
A German-language boxed set for a zombie survival rpg. It uses a classic d20 based system. The game’s focused on a fallen Germany with a population trying to rebuild in a new city called Neuanfang.

But that may be entirely wrong. The translations of the blurbs and scant online discussion lost me. Some of the supplements suggest that this is part of a larger series of modules, with some of them taking place in the 19th century. Other things suggest this is part of a TV show? I’m leaving this entry as a kind of place holder as I seek out further info.
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17. Tiny Wastelands
An adaptation of Gallant Knight Games’ Tiny D6 engine (Tiny Supers, Tiny Dungeon) to offer a toolkit for playing all kinds of post-apocalyptic games. The core book has a dozen+ mini-setting written by a diverse team of authors. Each is about 4-8 pages long. GKG has supported the game with a GM screen, an Enclave deck for random events, and a Mutation deck for random mutations. Beyond that there’s a lot interchangeability with other Tiny D6 elements.
 
18. Wireless Soul Transmission
Wireless Soul Transmission has a wild set up and the path it takes to get there’s really interesting. It manages to do a Leap Forward well. What do I mean by a Leap Forward? That’s when a game gives you a bunch of historical info, setting up the expectation that you need to know this, but then smash cuts forward centuries to give you the present world which is what you really need to do. I remember being at a one shot at a convention where the GM spent fifteen minutes detailing their setting. And then went, “but that was 500 years ago and everything’s different now.” And my brain died a little.

WST has a jump, but it’s a set up all about ambition and hubris which plays into the present world of the game. That’s a New Earth called Hansei where humanity has arrived an begun to settle with the aid of a larger galactic union of races. New Earth has the trappings of the old with a cyberpunk feel and strong corporate presence.

The Shatter sundered the world, a scream across the wireless network connecting everyone which disrupted life and killed massive numbers of people. It cut off New Earth from the rest of galactic society. Isolated, people began to worth to restore what what they had but over time communications and computers began to collapse and people began to hear a hum, called The Whisper. It turned many into the Lost, who wandered in a daze. Then the Lost became worse, turning in violent berserkers—which proved to only be the start as machines, military and otherwise began to turn. Wireless Soul Transmission’s setting begins six years after the Shatter.

The game itself is built on a d20 Modern-esque engine. You have classes, augmentations, “origins,” benefits at tiers and so on. If you’re into d20, there’s a lot to like here. The core rules are split across two volumes: a Play Guide and a Mastery Guide. It has a colorful setting and I’m tempted to pick up both volumes, but I’m not sure what I’d use to actually play it or if I could get it to the table. Still if you like cyberpunk, space opera post-apocalyptic games and you have money to burn, it’s very cool.
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19. Z-LAND
A Zombie apocalypse rpg which “(takes) the survival aspect of survival-horror very seriously. You will see your character weaken as sleep deprivation, hunger & thirst slowly whittle them down. “There’s a parallel here to the rise in survival/crafting video games in the last decade. There’s even one named The Z-Land (no relation) which follows this template.

The Sigil System which powers Z-Land is a skill-based d100 roll under system. It has a lot of the kinds of systems you associate with traditional, detail-oriented survival horror: hit locations, hunger and food spoilage, skill specialization, and so on. If you like more meat on the bones of your rpg, this may appeal to you.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Z-Land is that it offers three robust campaign settings, each with history, rules for character creation, pre-gen characters, and starting scenarios. The first is set just as the collapse is happening. The second fifteen years after the fall. The third 175 years. It’s a cool idea—and nice that the game offers a range of options. Running a Legacy-style game across those eras could be cool.
 
20. Miscellaneous: Zombie
Era: Survival - Definitive Edition Rulebook:
 revised edition of this zombie PA rpg. It bundles the core rules with two key supplements.
Le Corbusier: An enclave sourcebook for Red Markets with an academic bent.
Leaving Solace: Taking Down the Crowleys and The Long March: two linked modules for After Zombies.
Outbreak: Undead (2nd Edition) Survivor's Guide: Player’s guide for the latest edition of this ZRPG.
Parsely: The Z-Ward setting, a zombie game set in a mental hospital, appears both on its own and in the Parsely compendium.
Scavenger Run: A generic location-based module which can be used with any zombie ttrpg (or adapted for other post-apocalyptic games).
Sine Requie Anno XIII: Regno delle Ombre: a sourcebook for this weird WW2 game, but it’s unclear exactly what it covers.
Survive This!! Zombies! 2nd Edition and Source Book 1: Among the Living: A revised version of this OSR zombie rpg and a sourcebook offer more player character options.
Tempus Mortis: a third-party module for Dread set in a town which is being overrun by zombies.
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21. Miscellaneous: Sourcebooks
0.5%: A sourcebook for a post-apocalyptic Bilboa in the CdB Engine rpg.
After the Crash: A big old post-apocalyptic science-fantasy setting for D&D 5e. Has a Gamma World vibe with mutant humans, animal, plants, and robots.
Aftermath: The third setting for The Yellow King rpg. This takes place after the fall of a dictatorial Carcosan regime with the PCs trying to adjust to life in what remains of civilization.
Asteroid Cybele: The Fleet and Australia's Wild West: Two sourcebooks for this alternate setting for Aftermath!. The former covers remnants of the American naval fleet and the later Australia. Both have sourcebook material and adventures.
Black Atlantic: A massive sourcebook for Briton in the German sci-fi game Degenesis. It offers setting details and a massive set of scenarios.
Il Castigo del Corsiero: Sourcebook for the biomachines of the Nameless Lands rpg.
Children of the Apocalypse: A high-fantasy, low tech setting for Savage Worlds taking place five centuries after the collapse of civilization. Focuses on character with potent paranatural abilities.
The Gray Death: A campaign module for Mutant: Year Zero which draws elements from all the books in the series with a threat which arises from Elysium.
Hotel Imperator: Zone Compendium 5: A collection of locations for Mutant: Year Zero which has both psychics and robots.
I Am Legion: Sourcebook with lots of new options and a large series of adventures for Palladium’s Splicers, a post-apocalyptic world of humanity vs machines.
Twisted Menagerie Manual: Bestiary for the Umerican setting. ​

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History of Universal RPGs
History of Steampunk & Victoriana RPGs
History of Cyberpunk RPGs
History of Superhero RPGs
History of Horror RPGs
History of Wild West RPGs
​History of Licensed RPGs
Samurai RPGs
History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part One: 1976-1984)
History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Two: 1985-1987)
History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Three: 1988-1990)
History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Four: 1991-1993)
History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Five: 1994-1996)
History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Six: 1997-1999)
History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Seven: 2002-2002)
History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Eight: 2003)
History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Nine: 2004-2005)
History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Ten: 2006)
History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Eleven: 2007)
History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part Twelve: 2008)
History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part 13: 2009)
History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part 14: 2010)
History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part 15: 2011)
History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part 16: 2012)
History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part 17: 2013)
The Year in Post-Apocalyptic RPGs 2014
The Year in Post Apocalyptic RPGs 2015: Part One 
The Year in Post Apocalyptic RPGs 2015: Part Two
History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part 20: 2016)
​
History of Post-Apocalyptic RPGs (Part 21: 2017)

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8/20/2021

Gauntlet Video Roundup - August 20, 2021

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[Gauntlet Calendar: Online Tabletop RPG Play]
Greetings, and welcome to the weekly Gauntlet Calendar video roundup! Enjoy these recordings of online games organized through Gauntlet Calendar and the Gauntlet RPG Community. These recorded sessions represent only a portion of the selection of games available every week, and anyone is welcome to join the fun! If you'd like to play or watch more games like these, check out the links and information at the bottom of the post.

Star Wars Saturday

Rust Hulks (Session 2)
Rich Rogers runs for Alun R., Francisco Olivera, Josh H, and Will H
The crew of the Regal Huntress scrape a New Republic hulk and deliver their passenger through a blockade, set up a scrap casino, then get a job to fetch tech from Serenno. All in a day's work.

Space Aces (Session 2)
Rich Rogers runs for Anders, Mark (they/them), and Steven Watkins
The crew of the Hummingbird encounter Zitz the Hutt, an irritable Trandoshan bounty hunter, and a space slug on the way to rescue a noble daughter from the Black Sun. All in a day's work.

Swoop Gangs (Session 3)
Rich Rogers runs for Anders, Paul Rivers, and Steven Watkins
The Zid Hounds spring their club president from an Imperial Detention Center, then take him to Hotel Artemis to get him fixed up.

Gauntlet Calendar

The Between (Session 5 of 8)
Alun R. runs for Blake Ryan, Darin Rebertus, David Morrison, and Leandro Pondoc
Hargave House has a visitor summoned by the sadly departed Annie Morrish; another Vessel. Ephraim Parker uses the telegrams Annie sent him to identify more clues about the Coven that killed her. Meanwhile, Dr Weiss the Mother and Razor Rose the American prepare for tonight's ball at Braithewaite Hall where Ephraim will join them. Chambers the Factotum, meanwhile, continues her exploration of Whitechapel and her past. We meet Barrel Staves, a man not to be trifled with, and Tati Braithwaite, a woman with a predatory air that Dr Weiss cannot but notice and barely avoids. There's a library and a séance and the Coven reveals itself, marking two of the Hunters and laying down a challenge to a third.

The Yellow King RPG (Session 5 of 12)
Shane runs for Brandon Brylawski, Jeremy Abernathy, Matthew Arcilla, and Puckett
The Yellow Sign - The investigators are joined by an enthusiastic private as they find evidence of the King's influence at a POW camp, but it's the nearby village where they find some real trouble.

Changeling the Lost PbtA: Never Gonna Give You Up (Session 2)
Lowell Francis runs for José Feito, Kyle H., Sherri, and Vince
The newly reconstituted motley looks into the theft from the Freehold treasury, leading to revelations, pursuit, and recriminations-- and then a strange, mysterious absence in their minds.

Monsterhearts 2: Camp Monsterhearts (Session 1 of 4)
David Schultz runs for Adam Oh, Greg Fulford, Nathan Harrison, and Sawyer Rankin
A dashing Fae and his Fomorian counterpart begin a long summer at Camp Woodpecker with a metalhead Bakeneko and local Cerberus. An early morning stroll along the lake uncovers a disturbing omen of events to come.

Monsterhearts 2: Camp Monsterhearts (Session 2 of 4)
David Schultz runs for Adam Oh, Greg Fulford, Nathan Harrison, and Sawyer Rankin
Dewi the Fae begins an ill-advised date in the woods while Fomorian Javier and Bakeneko August get a little alone time in an abandoned cabin, discovering more than they bargained for. As night falls, local girl and guardian Cerberus Trinity comes face-to-face with the horror plaguing the camp.

Quietus: The Final Voyage of the Debonair
David Schultz runs for Drew D. and Michael Pelletier
Old scars are reopened, guilt is uncovered, and blood is shed as a private mini-cruise falls prey to a masked killer who strikes with medical precision. Burdened by their own private demons, physician Kevin and med-school dropout Mitchell fight to survive an all too familiar threat.

Viewscream: Black Widow, Brown Recluse
Donogh runs for Brandon Brylawski, Diana, and Michael Pelletier
The crew of the Black Widow have all but been killed by the ship's AI. The few survivors desperately battle for their survival, but nothing and no one is quite what it appears...

Trail of Cthulhu: Bright Lights, Dark City (Session 3)
Lowell Francis runs for Agatha, Jesse A., John Glass, and Mike Ferdinando
In this third session our investigators try for some direct confrontation after having run down some new leads. This does not go as well as they hoped.

Changeling the Lost PbtA: Never Gonna Give You Up (Session 3)
Lowell Francis runs for Josh H, José Feito, Sherri, and Vince
The motley pursues leads, trying to find out who has stolen all trace of the Prince of Summer, and discover the vanishing presents more dangers-- breaking the cycle and shattering the Freehold's protections.

Godbound: Pillars of Heaven (Session 7)
Lowell Francis runs for Dan Brown, Patrick Knowles, Sherri, and Tyler Lominack
The Lunar Ball at the Assassins' Library arrives, bringing with it intrigue, banter, revelations, violence, and a high-production value dance number.

The Between (Session 6 of 6)
Alun R. runs for Blake Ryan, Darin Rebertus, David Morrison, and Leandro Pondoc
(Finale) - The clock is ticking with only one day before the Coven enacts its ritual, and Inspector Pettigrew demanding progress in the case of Sally-No-Face. The Coven strikes when Ephraim the Vessel examines detritus from the Thames while Factotum and Mother, Chambers & Weiss, almost become pie fodder. Rose the American, meanwhile, attracts cats and is turned away by a respectable servant. Then...Hargrave House invaded, a ritual interrupted, and a serial killer consumed...London may sleep easily for now, but Annie Morrish does not rest easy in death's embrace...

Checkpoint Midnight: The Clockmaker's Noose (Session 2)
Jesse A. runs for Jex Thomas, John Glass, Puckett, and Robbie Boerth
Wald is sent into captivity, while Anton and Gemma watch. Lili makes some dead friends. [Content warning: the Holocaust, Nazi experimentation, body horror]

The Between: Questions and Opportunities Part Two (Session 7 of 8)
Shane runs for Blake Ryan, Gabe McCormick, Jamila R. Nedjadi, and Joel N.
The hunters find themselves stretched thin and under attack as the Mastermind’s plot nears fruition and she sets her sights on Hargrave House.

You can see all these videos (plus all the ones that have come before) on The Gauntlet YouTube channel playlists, and be sure to subscribe to catch all our great podcasts!

If you'd like to catch these sessions in an audio-only podcast, check out the community-run Hangouts Podcast at http://gauntlet.hellomouth.net/.

If you'd like to play in games like these, check out the calendar of events and the Gauntlet Forums where games are announced, or catch one of our Gauntlet Community Open Gaming online mini-conventions.

To support The Gauntlet, please visit the Gauntlet Patreon. Everyone is welcome to sign up for Gauntlet Calendar games, but Patreon supporters get extra options like priority RSVP for Gauntlet Calendar games and joining the Gauntlet Slack team where special events and pickup games are announced.

Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

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8/16/2021

Silent Legions: Doctor Explosiones vs. The Mad Painter

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Since I've been playing Godbound, I thought I'd revisit a post I wrote about another Kevin Crawford game I dig: Silent Legions. I ran two sessions of it at the end of 2016. While this is a repost, I think it's interesting as an example of leaning into the toolboxes Crawford offers.

Silent Legions is an OSR Loftcraftian toolbox game. It has a simple system, mostly the same one powering many of his other releases (like the amazing Godbound). But Silent Legions isn’t just a CoC-style investigation game. Instead it’s a toolbox for creating your own Mythos -- elder gods, aliens, cults, relics, tomes-- and using them in a sandbox horror game. It also isn’t a Cthulhu game, instead it provides amazing random generators to build an experience that feels like one. That means even CoC vets remain uncertain about what they’re facing. Crawford's smart use of walk-throughs for many the many tables keeps the book together.
  
And at the back of Silent Legions there’s a one-page set of Luchadore variant rules. They’re one of several bonus pieces that came from Kickstarter backer requests. These rules make the characters closer to Godbound’s heroes. Heroes can dish out and take serious punishment in combat. They’re still limited on skills, saves, and sanity but they can go toe-to-toe with the baddies.

To run my two sessions I worked through all of the book's tools. That splits into two parts. First, generating the Mythos itself. That includes the pantheon, an alien race, an otherworldly place (called Kelipots), a cult, and an alien artifact. The second part, adventure creation, builds on that. Silent Legions is intended to be a sandbox game. You generate a region, a set of locations, and then troubles in those places. Then you can drill down to generate ideas for a specific scenario for the evening.

Below you’ll see what I generated. Most of it’s the raw material I created.  Crawford’s book covers fleshing those details out. But since I’d only be doing two sessions, I just generated the basics for outline and inspiration. At the end I sketch out the my scenario built on this. There’s a ton of unused material. I really only worked with two the nine locations generated. I could easily run a longer weird investigation game from this. You can check all that out below. If you want to see the Actual Play videos, I’ve posted them (Session One, Session Two). If you just want to hear the group’s thoughts about play, we take couple of minutes on that at the end of S2 (2:11:30 time-mark).

MYTHOS CREATION
PANTHEON
Theme: Malevolence and Violence
Five Deities, all connected to the same pantheon. Aspected: The gods each have multiple aspects with different apparent personalities.
  • Ungycrig Kegil: Empty Sky Diviner
  • Sharp-sided W’thoth: Sultan of the Greys
  • Cxidaoath: Bloody Thirsting Serpent
  • Burning Rnyc’mu: Smoking Disease Seer
  • Yaim-Zu: Ravening Feaster of the Wastelands
ALIEN RACE: GLAC’TELEKE
  • Arrived within the past thousand years or so.
  • Not known because some humans work to assiduously clean up evidence.
  • A selection of alien technology kept by human heirs remains.
  • They were colonists seeking to expand their species’ influence.
  • Humans are wondrous and utterly fascinating to them.
  • Some animals are secretly under their control.
  • Their human minions ran wild and slipped their control.
  • They lost influence when those human minions ran wild and slipped their control.
Dark Ways of this Race
  • They prefer to work through human agents and catspaws.
  • They have an advantage through knowledge. They know what others have forgotten.
  • They’re in this region because this location provides ideal spawning material for them.
  • They fear rivals. Some other aliens threaten their destruction
  • They control minions through bribery. The pay is far more than minions can earn.
  • They admire devotion and blind worship by those beneath them.
  • They hate faith and piety, hating human religions and having none themselves.
Physical Form
  • Congery of geometric shapes: roiling mass of infinite tubes. Parasitic eggs, poison, viciousness, slenderness. Weeping sores.
  • Digitigrade arms. Small mouths on hands. Mantis-like head. Flayed skin. Obese torso. Fanged Jaws. Metallic Tentacles.
  • Liquefies its food. Shrill and piping voice. Moves as if to strange dance. Feeds on the Sick and Weak.
  • They inject an enslaving ichor in prey, forcing a Mental Effect save or the victim becomes their helpless thrall.

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ALIEN PLACE
Thuagn, The Monstrous Underhaunts
  • An Earthen Swamp which is a Home for Dark Things. What flora there is resembles animals. What fauna there remains is insectile.
  • There is a population here inspired by a twisted version of Pre-Columbian New World (Aztecs, Incas, Mayans). They’re frozen at this technological and cultural level, the very nature of the Kelipah keeping them locked in place.
  • The people only exist in settlements scattered around the region.
  • Despite that rigidity and dwindling populace, they possess a striking technology, indistinguishable from magic. They hide any real magic they possess from strangers.
  • Thuagn is ruled over by an autarch. His reputation keeps any and all in line.
  • As a culture they possess hatred for any who show weakness. The rulers desire more strength and throw themselves into strange rituals and sacrifices to gain the attention of their dark gods. Outsiders bring a panic to the people- they fear their presence may disturb prayers and supplications or even bring the wrath of their gods upon them.
  • Ritual Tribute to the leaders dominates their production.
CULT
Pact of the Illuminated Messenger
  • This cult was founded within the past few decades, being a recent formation. An artist driven by visions of something vast created it. It met resistance from the common folk and rural peoples who dreaded their exactions and sacrifices.
  • The earliest recruits numbered the desperate, wretched, and outcast of the society. They had violated the laws and customs of their communities and families and had been cast out as a result.
  • The original artist who founded the cult was a washed up hotel landscape painter. He wanted to be the next Thomas Kinkaide. Instead he found mystic truths he used to blast the reason of cultists. So far they’ve managed to hide in plain sight as a seemingly harmless group of artists and craftpersons.
  • The cult itself is coldly rational, using the cult’s powers as a mundane tool. They meet in a repurposed school used as an arts center for the region. While the founder once held control, it has become an acephelous group, acting according to alien compulsions. They have cells which share agendas and purposes.
  • The cult wants to create an enormous atrocity or disaster. They have vast amounts of mundane wealth. That’s come from a relentless network of market manipulations for their eerie paintings and crafts. Ebay provides their backbone.
  • The most knowledgeable cultists serve an avatar of their patron, almost uncontrollable in its terrible power and summoned only in dire need. It is summoned through paintings. They have at their disposal a reporter who pretends they’re really just investigating.
ARTIFACT
Mask of the Unchanging Shadow
  • What do the legends say? Nothing. It is completely absent from occult literature. Despite that, it was was part of the defeat of a great eldritch abomination.
  • It was created roughly a thousand years ago by an outer deity for nameless ends. It is said even its creator has no idea why they made it. But it was hurled from its maker in a magical accident.
  • Like all such objects it bears a curse. But this one is more minor and annoying than destructive. It causes users to be especially weak against the undead. But that triggers seemingly at random. It is said that magical spells of dispelling will end the curse’s effects.
  • The item itself is a mask. It is said to be able to soak up a massive amount of harm. But that protection is limited, being only effective against blunt weapons and fists. Still it projects all of the wearer’s body from such harm. The potent magics can only be used once a day, for about an hour. When struck, the body lands with no visible effect. In order to use recharge the item after a use, the bearer must spend their own HP.

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SCENARIO CREATION
Region: South New Mexico
THREE URBAN LOCATIONS
Alamagordo
Senseless Violence
The locals can’t seem to get enough of killing each other. The homicide rate is enormous for a site of its size, and the local police seem largely incapable or uninterested in checking the violence. The bloodshed might be largely restricted to a certain class of people or certain criminal groups, with the local cops indifferent to who kills who among them. At other sites, it might be endemic through the population, or even the product of a corrupt police department.
  • Enemies: Police chief-slash-gang boss, Illicit arms supplier, Homicidal criminal warlord, indiscriminate vigilante
  • Friends: Police internal review investigator, Outside government inspector, Local peace campaigner, Local being hunted by killers
  • Schemes: Seize a cache of military weaponry, Get their enemies disarmed by the law, Kill a troublesome politician or cop, Make a near-military assault on an enemy-held neighborhood
  • Secrets: Firearms are stringently regulated for the law-abiding, The gangs are proxy armies for feuding politicians, The cops are just one more gang with restricted turf, The gangs are seeking to seize full control of local government
  • Places: Heavily-trafficked gun shop, Emergency room full of bodies, Constantly-active funeral parlor, Scene of a random drive-by shooting

Carrizozo
Buried Power
A blind and terrible power is buried or otherwise sealed away at the site, and a cult desires to remedy this confinement. The power may be an unnatural wound in the fabric of the world, a gate to a strange Kelipah, or an alien intellect that chafes at its imprisonment. The power has drawn a group determined to liberate it, even if they don’t fully understand their own strange urges, and their efforts may range from physical digging to the enactment of rituals.
  • Enemies: Obsessed archaeologist, Cultist construction company owner, Maddened local occultist, Alien minion of the trapped power
  • Friends: Owner of the land over the power, Rare book collector, Curious geologist, Heir to the family keeping the power sealed
  • Schemes: Physically excavate the entity’s prison, Perform the rite that will break the ancient seals, Arrange the bloody deaths that will awaken the power, Foolishly seek to bind the power to their own purposes
  • Secrets: The power creates a subtle but unnatural effect on the surroundings, The power is sealed by several important objects, The power grants gifts to those who seek to free it, The locals retain legend of the last time the power was free
  • Places: Ancient buried chamber, Park with strangely charged atmosphere, Hidden ritual room, Tightly-secured digging site

Artesia
Crushing Despair
The locals have given up. Whatever the cause, they no longer have any hope for the future, and seek to numb themselves with transient pleasures and destructive distractions. Corruption, crime, loss, and oppression are seen as inevitable facts of life, and they will resist any attempt to persuade them otherwise as merely a cruel attempt at deception.
  • Enemies: Purveyor of chemical distractions, Predatory loan shark, Political machine boss, Heartless industrialist employer
  • Friends: Crusading preacher, Embattled community leader, Successful expatriate returned home, Local determined to break free
  • Schemes: Quash a troublemaking local leader, Spread a profitable addiction among the locals, Shut down a project that risks empowering locals, Discredit a source of hope as a mere trick
  • Secrets: The local elites rely on a crushed populace, The locals were once rich and important but lost it all, Faith and community were ruined by a sequence of betrayals, Constant plans for renewal always disappoint
  • Places: Abandoned church, Decaying crack house, Riotous illegal drinking hole, Street with half the houses empty

THREE RURAL LOCATIONS
Cloudcroft
High End, Gated Community. This is what I focused on.
Massive Ritual
The site is being primed as the location of a truly enormous ritual. Building geometry, street layouts, concentrations of people and industry, and other features of the location are being brought into harmony as part of a tremendous work of occult power. Some rituals may require the entire physical geography be molded, while others might only need the right masses of people enlisted. The resulting effect may be subtle, but its successful execution is bound to result in some sort of terrible summoning, lasting curse on the land, or warped apotheosis for the high priest who enacts the rite.
  • Enemies: Crazed Masonic architect, Occult-wise tycoon, Mayor-cum-high priest, Diabolical performer
  • Friends: Resident displaced for rite, Relative of new cult enthusiast, Engineer concerned over senseless digging, Conspiracy theorist who's right
  • Schemes: Arrange carefully-coordinated local disasters, Seize a local building that's a linchpin of the rite, Destroy a local structure that interferes with the spell, Create a large-scale "celebration" that triggers the magic
  • Secrets: The ritual has already failed with impending dire consequences, The ritual’s preparations cause echoes of eldritch anomalies, The ritual is embedded in part of a public celebration. The ritual masquerades as a performance or public art piece
  • Places: Baffling tangle of streets, Strangely-gutted building, Defiled church, Huge concealed ritual chamber

​Weed
Has a Dollar General
Migrant Tensions
The site has recently received an influx of migrants. Some might be looking for better jobs, while others might favor the local climate, low taxes, cheap land, or some other point of allure. For small communities this influx can change the character and culture of the town overnight, provoking fear and anger from locals who see themselves suddenly becoming political, cultural, or racial minorities in their own homes. These tensions can easily provoke antipathy or outright violence.
  • Enemies: Bigoted local reactionary, Colonization-minded migrant leader, Ruthless native social elite, Migrant political machine boss
  • Friends: Resident with ties to both groups, Cooperative group leader, Peacekeeping police chief, Local religious leader
  • Schemes: Migrants seek to take over local government, Natives try to effectively outlaw the migrants' culture, Migrants try to drive out natives from "their" neighborhoods, Natives seek to terrorize the newcomers
  • Secrets: One group considers itself plainly superior to the hick / infidel / one-percenter / atheist / prole others, The migrants have no other real choice of places to go, The natives are being swamped by newcomers, The migrants want to make the place the same as the one they left
  • Places: Newly-built migrant social club, Native-only bar, Old house full of new people, Shop catering to a different language or culture

​Orogrande (SR 54)

Kratos Defense & Security, Middle of Nowhere RV Park, Trader Jerrys
Vast Graft
Theft and corruption are a way of life among the site’s leadership. Every ambitious local knows that the fast track to wealth and power is to get a position with the local authorities. These men and women methodically plunder the taxes and government grants they receive, keeping the lion’s share for themselves and passing out smaller tastes to those businesses and people who cooperate with their wishes. Even heinous crimes can be hushed up for a bribe.
  • Enemies: Glitteringly corrupt mayor, Cynical neighborhood alderman, Political machine bagman, Graft-enriched construction company owner
  • Friends: Distressed government accountant, Frustrated tax collector, Suspicious outside investigator, Cheated local business owner
  • Schemes: Loot a charity for personal profit, Cover up the dangerous corners cut in an important local infrastructure building, Buy off or kill a persistent troublemaker, Protect a murderous lackey who makes them money
  • Secrets: The locals feel no outrage over the graft and consider it only normal, The machine steals from one disfavored group in order to finance amenities for another, Local criminals are untouchable as long as they pay "taxes", Most civic construction is somehow dangerous due to malfeasance in building it
  • Places: Crumbling stadium, Impure water purification plant, Building stripped of its interior fittings, Luxuriant government building

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THREE ISOLATED LOCATIONS
Sierra Blanca Peak
Located on edge of the Mescalero Reservation
Darkened Door
There is a portal to a Kelipah somewhere at the site, most likely to a particularly unpleasant one. Something may be creeping through the gate, or it may be under the care of a devoted cult, or the portal may be sealed for now but weakening under the effects of time or a cult’s machinations. The Kelipah beyond may not even be miscible with human existence, and whatever comes out is certain to be unwelcome among the locals.
  • Enemies: Escapee from a hellish world, Seal-breaking cult zealot, Local possessed by a will from beyond the gate, Blindly reckless sorcerer
  • Friends: Heir to a seal-guarding family, Local aware of illegal digging, Victim of a Kelipah escapee, Scientist picking up odd readings
  • Schemes: Reach a precious artifact in the Kelipah, Escape from the Kelipah into a delicious world, Widen the door to absorb a building or whole town, Infect local reality with some aspect of the Kelipah beyond the door
  • Secrets: The door is not to a Kelipah but is to a different time or planet, Opening the door will cause great local destruction, The door is accessible only when the stars are right, The door is one-way
  • Places: Mossy overgrown arch in the forest, Abandoned subway tunnel that sometimes isn’t, Alleyway that twists in alien ways, Nexus of cabalistic streets and monuments

Sunspot

Lost town off of the Sacramento canyon
Black Altar
A place of dread holiness is present at the site, a locus for the power of an outer god or other ineffable power. This altar may predate human settlement of the area or it may have been constructed more recently by devout servitors. It forms a place of pilgrimage for the faithful and tends to warp local residents in ways pleasing to its patron deity.
  • Enemies: Demented cult leader, Dream-driven native, Awakened alien high priest, Otherworldly avatar of the deity
  • Friends: Afflicted local resident, Concerned native clergy, Relative of a new cultist, Archaeologist who’s discovered too much
  • Schemes: Destroy a structure that’s sealing away the holy site, Perform a mass ritual around the altar, Recover a removed piece of the altar, Summon an avatar of the patron deity
  • Secrets: The altar has innocently been incorporated into an important building, The faith has infected a local church, The altar is calling cultists from distant places, The altar is changing the natives in subtle ways
  • Places: Ill-litten unnatural cavern, Desolate glade, Hidden conjunction of tunnels, Secret chamber in a major building

Wofford Lookout

Overlooking White Sands Proving Grounds
Disaster Site
The location was the site of a major disaster. A recent calamity can still be felt, while older disasters were so profound as to permanently scar the site. The locals have tried to accommodate to the new conditions, but many find it difficult, and much that was important here was destroyed or damaged in the event. Fires, floods, earthquakes, plagues, hurricanes, or droughts might all have marked the site.
  • Enemies: Religious zealot blaming the sinful, Local official using the disaster as a power-grab excuse, Slum lord housing evacuees, Greedy "collector" of damaged goods and land
  • Friends: Determined aid worker, Local trying to make a new life, Disaster relief official, Wearied medical worker
  • Schemes: Plunder wealth left unguarded by the disaster, Mobilize the unhomed for a dark cause, Blame an unpopular group for the catastrophe, Use the trouble as cover to eliminate existing authorities
  • Secrets: The disaster was man-made, Local elites are stealing the aid, The aid or reconstruction officials are incompetent, There's reason to think the disaster will happen again
  • Places: FEMA camp, Neighborhood scarred by the disaster, Ragged reconstruction site, Ruined monument from before. 

​CULTS AND ALIEN RACES

The Iron Society
They serve Cxidaoath, the Bloody Thirsting Serpent. They’re more openly malefic and destructive. They sacrifice and rather than transform or indoctrinate. They’ve adapt bastardized Aztec rituals and use that as a kind of cover for their work. They’re at the root of violence in Almagordo.
Pact of the Illuminated Messenger
Cult in the service of Burning Rnyc’mu, Smoking Disease Seer. The cult described above. Primary antagonist for the first adventure. They’ve made the arrangements in Cloudcroft, building the community that way for their ritual.
Glac’teleke
The alien race mentioned above. They serve Yaim-Zu, Ravening Feaster of the Wastelands. They’ve been infiltrated into this area for generations. The Roswell incident arose from their conflict with their rival alien race. Tied to the incident at the Wofford Lookout.

ADVENTURE TEMPLATE
Default scenes of the Hook, the Introduction, the Investigation, and the Resolution.
Beginning from resolution: A hidden Place contains the key to a Scheme. The Place’s existence and the nature of the key is revealed by the investigations, and the PCs must reach it and obtain the crucial object by overcoming the Enemy’s vigilance and concealment.
Three Investigation
  • The Actor has been killed or kidnapped, and an agent of the Enemy is serving as an impostor to ensure that any inquisitive troublemakers are aimed in the wrong direction. Overcoming a challenge will clue the PCs that something is wrong.
  • The clue is tied up with a local Secret, such that finding it means discovering the Secret and drawing attention from those that don’t want the Secret revealed.
  • A Friend is actively trying to get the clue to the PCs or other related allies, but their attempt is being hindered by the actions of the Enemy or some intrinsic challenge to the exchange.
Hook
A Friend from the site sends word asking for help due to intimations of a Secret or a recent Crime involving them.
Ambush
The PCs have screwed up very badly and angered the wrong Enemy. A small group of professional assassins is stalking the PCs and will strike at the most inconvenient time possible, but are more interested in dropping them all than doing control shots.
Conflict
The Enemy is massing their physical forces to stop the PCs, visibly gathering thugs, cultists, followers, or other agents.

Investigator Challenge
Infiltration: The site is set back with little cover for an approach to it.
Finding an Object: It’s buried beneath a drift of unimportant objects.
Scholar Challenge
Information: Information written in a rare ancient language.
Hidden Fact/Needed Skill: Repair the object that hides a vital clue.
Socialite Challenge
People Want: They want a thing, and someone else stole it from them.
People Fear: They fear their professional negligence will be shown.
Tough Challenges
Hostile: A victim of occult powers transformed into a monster.
Environmental: Toxic dust or residue taints tools or objects within.

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MY SCENARIO
OK, so here’s what we’ve got based on those notes:
The Pact of the Illuminated Messenger have been working to craft their plan, a mixture of illumination and madness. Eventually they hope to enact a ritual to spill that madness across the region. To that end they have spent years in a couple of operations. One of those has been the creation of their paintings. They’ve created a regional phenomenon, based on the art of Gabriel Zoido. He’s a Thomas Kinkaide-like figure, the secret master of this particular faction.

Zoido has become a kind of avatar for the infectious madness of his master, Burning Rnyc’mu. He’s become transformed- which has become a problem in some respects. It means that Zoido has become a kind of recluse, still churning out his “masterworks.” These are accessible, lovely, and compelling Southwestern landscapes. They’re super-appealing and have a collectible aspect to them. His Am-Way like network operates to sell and distribute these.

But these paintings conceal something more sinister. Many of them are painted over dangerous works of art: done with special pigments and a vision of the abyss. Then others go through and paint these appealing landscapes upon them. They conceal much but work in some of the original colors and elements. Many of these paintings are actually portraits of what Zoido has become.

In order to do this work however, Zoido’s crew needs artists. They’ve begun to burn through them at an alarming rate. So they’ve turned to kidnapping in some cases and art recruitment in other places. They’ve offered scholarships for low-income art students, they sponsor contests at local schools, and generally cast their net wide.

It was not this net that caught Alana Rubio. Instead one of the cultists spotted Rubio’s talents. She’s a grade-school teacher, but on the weekends goes to local art fairs and shows to do sketches and caricatures. At one of these, a cultist forced on her a Zoido painting, even though she regarded it as trash. She took it home on a lark, hoping to use the frame. The cultists then used the picture to track and kidnap her.

Alana’s father, Arturo Rubio, discovered Alana’s absence. He’s contacted the police and raised a ruckus. In a stupid move, one of the cultists tried to run Arturo off the road—convincing him that something more sinister was afoot. And so through a friend of a friend, he heard about the Luchadores and their skills. He suspect’s he’s being followed or watched—so he surreptitiously goes to the PCs dressing room during their match to leave a note. He then goes to his daughter’s small house.

There he’s ambushed and killed. He’s replaced by one of the Painted Ones, a doppelganger with limited skills and abilities. The cultists are engaged in other activities and will come later to pick up the body. The Painted One’s merely a distraction. He can summon other painted horrors should he need to.

Leads
  • Alana Rubio’s vanishing
  • Arturo Rubio’s efforts
  • The Strange Paintings—one of them standing out as weird. Perhaps the body of Arturo Rubio painted in it?
Next Steps…
  • The Cultist Who Gave Her the Painting: Isaac Huff. Works as a salesperson for the Zoido Galleries.
  • Attack on Arturo Rubio: Police notes. Not taking him too seriously. Semi-corrupt cops. Tracing damaged vehicle back. Able to link it to the Ziodo Arts Center in Alamagordo.
  • Vanishings of Other Artists: Strange pattern in the area.
  • The Zoido Group: Philanthropy
  • The Zoido Workshop: Just outside of Cloudcroft. Chemical evidence.
  • The Cloudcroft Community: Suburban area. The Zoido Estate. Center of the location for the group.
  • Location a tome of unspeakable knowledge: The Sketchbook of Cristóbal de la Cavallería
  • Dominica Barnett, Faithless Reporter and Agent for the Cult
Threats
  • The Painted One and Children’s Painting Nightmares
  • Attack by Rudo and associates, hired anonymously. Street Toughs.
  • Nameless Painting Horror.
  • The Cultists. Zoido as Sorceror. The Avatar of their God.

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8/13/2021

Gauntlet Video Roundup - August 13, 2021

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[Gauntlet Calendar: Online Tabletop RPG Play]
Greetings, and welcome to the weekly Gauntlet Calendar video roundup! Enjoy these recordings of online games organized through Gauntlet Calendar and the Gauntlet RPG Community. These recorded sessions represent only a portion of the selection of games available every week, and anyone is welcome to join the fun! If you'd like to play or watch more games like these, check out the links and information at the bottom of the post.

Star Wars Saturday

Space Aces (Session 1)
Rich Rogers runs for Anders, Danielle B., Mark (they/them), and Steven Watkins
The newest gig working team of Yen Group rescue and deliver FZBLZ, possibly the wildest fuzzcore rock band in the galaxy.

Rust Hulks (Session 1)
Rich Rogers runs for Alun R., Francisco Olivera, Josh H, and Will H
The crew of the Regal Huntress check out a rocket skate arena match, then pick up a job to smuggle someone through an Imperial blockade.

Swoop Gangs (Session 2)
Rich Rogers runs for Anders, Bryan, Paul Rivers, Steven Watkins, and Will H
The Vid Hounds deliver ginger spice to Ha'jurr the Hutt, then rush back to the salvage yard to fend off the Hidden Beks, and end the night setting up a gang war between the Hidden Beks and the Black Vulkars.

Gauntlet Calendar

The Between: Questions and Opportunities Part Two (Session 5 of 8)
Shane runs for Blake Ryan, Gabe McCormick, and Joel N.
A series of strange discoveries sees our hunters closing in on cannibal pie-makers the Figg family. Can they capture their targets alive, or will grizzlier methods be required?

Masks: Year One (Session 2)
Lowell Francis runs for Brandon Brylawski, Greg Fulford, and Jo Lene
We add one more member to the team as they track down who stole the Darkholde-- but that search will lead to a revelation, tragedy, and danger to the city as one man's vengeance may unleash dark horrors on New York.

Trail of Cthulhu: Bright Lights, Dark City (Session 2)
Lowell Francis runs for Agatha, Jesse A., John Glass, and Mike Ferdinando
The hunt for a missing occultist reveals old supernatural conspiracies, revived cults, and the even more sinister power of wealth. The final steps lead them to an incomplete skyscraper and a gate to somewhere beyond.

Checkpoint Midnight: The Clockmaker's Noose (Session 1)
Jesse A. runs for Jex Thomas, John Glass, and Robbie Boerth
Characters are created, and the Clockmaker tightens his noose, sending the pact to interfere with a competitor. [Content warning: discussions of the Holocaust, experimentation on unwilling human subjects]

Godbound: Pillars of Heaven (Session 6)
Lowell Francis runs for Dan Brown, Patrick Knowles, Sherri, and Tyler Lominack
The heroes set their sights on taking control of the Assassin's Library, though they're divided on methods. Apologies are given, insults are made, the obnoxious are beaten in a rooftop race, and more behind the scenes secrets are uncovered-- all leading up to the Lunar Ball.

The Between: Questions and Opportunities Part Two (Session 6 of 8)
Shane runs for Blake Ryan, Gabe McCormick, Jamila R. Nedjadi, and Joel N.
The hunters flirt with the Fragrant Void, and with each other, as they try to understand the mysterious powers of the Whateley Camera and the debaucherous Society Obscura. But the camera isn't the only threat they'll encounter within their supposed safe haven at Hargrave House.

You can see all these videos (plus all the ones that have come before) on The Gauntlet YouTube channel playlists, and be sure to subscribe to catch all our great podcasts!

If you'd like to catch these sessions in an audio-only podcast, check out the community-run Hangouts Podcast at http://gauntlet.hellomouth.net/.

If you'd like to play in games like these, check out the calendar of events and the Gauntlet Forums where games are announced, or catch one of our Gauntlet Community Open Gaming online mini-conventions.

To support The Gauntlet, please visit the Gauntlet Patreon. Everyone is welcome to sign up for Gauntlet Calendar games, but Patreon supporters get extra options like priority RSVP for Gauntlet Calendar games and joining the Gauntlet Slack team where special events and pickup games are announced.

Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

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8/9/2021

Masks: Campaign Starters & Locations

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The recently I’ve run two different Masks: A New Generation campaigns on The Gauntlet. They have two different frames and two distinct feels for me. The first put the team in the shadow of a world-shaking disaster. The second has everyone playing heroes from existing media properties. I talk about both below. I also offer up some new tricks for Masks: more location moves (inspired by Halcyon City Herald and Cartel).

Days of Shadows Past
The first campaign had a fairly simple twist: something had occurred which had made superheroic life extremely difficult. During our session 0, we took some time between safety and character creation to collaboratively decide what that would be. I offered several options which we could flesh out:
  • Government crack-down and control over superhero activities
  • Mass public damage due to a superheroic event
  • Group of respected heroes went bad in some mass, public way
  • Barely stopped invasion or outbreak which has been connected with supers
  • Deaths or vanishings of large portion of the superhero community
  • "The Thanos snap"
  • Something else
The basic idea was to create something looming consistently in the background. I made some tweaks to the available playbooks to reflect this as well (and to fit with how I like to run).

The players took the ideas and ran with them—combining several into a sequence. Essentially a large number of established heroes had suddenly turned evil, they’d gone on a rampage, including smashing sections of the moon and sending them hurtling towards Earth. While that disaster had been averted, many of these former heroes remained at large—with a broken moon as a reminder in the sky. AEGIS had stepped up activities, limiting what supers could do, and deploying anti-meta units.

Then during character creation, some of the players tied their stories to this. One decided that their Lex Luthor-analogue father was behind the mind-control of the heroes. He’d followed that up by supplying AEGIS with specialized weaponry. Another PC was the son of a great superhero who’d now become Aftermath, leader of these super-villains. Aftermath had even drawn his son into villainy for a short time. Another PC’s tech had been stolen and was the basis for the mind-altering device. Our Harbinger had, come from the future to stop all of this. And our non-powered Beacon, the team leader, had a tangential connection to this, having become famous for fighting against these villains.
It worked really well—the players integrated themselves into the story of the world more tightly than I’d imagined. It created a little darkness they were fighting against right from the start. It was a small change, but tweaked the vanilla Masks set up.

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Masks: Year One
The second campaign, running right now, has a slightly more involved set up. Here’s the basic premise:
Everyone will choose a superhero (or villain) from an existing property (DC, Marvel, Image, whatever). They don't have to be teen characters, they could be adults. But you will run a “Year One,” just starting out, teen version of that character. You'll select a playbook which fits with that character's archetype. You can rework and recontextualize the character's identity and background or use lots of elements of the established backstory. We'd use this to build a new world and heroic mythos. Your choice of characters establishes facts about the world.

1. Please avoid dark, gritty, or murderous characters (Punisher, The Boys, Kick Ass, or anything like that). I reserve the right to ask you to make another pick.
2. Please avoid any playbooks which have time elements or have characters which start out split from humanity. So no Newborn, Innocent, Harbinger, or Nomad. Outsider and Transformed are allowed.
3. Some playbooks exclude others-- so if someone takes one, the other one's off the table. Specifically you can take the Delinquent OR the Reformed. You can take the The Soldier (but I want to check in if someone then wants the Legacy or Protégé).

This is a set up I’ve done a couple of times before with Mutants and Masterminds. The players selected Daredevil (leaning towards the TV depiction), She-Hulk (with the classic shot by gangsters origin), Doctor Strange (tweaked to be more of a young “chosen one” character), and Catwoman (in classic BTAS form).

We did fairly standard Masks character creation with this. For example, they chose Doc Ock (but from the Into the Spiderverse version) as the villain they fought in their initial adventure. I had each player also select one villain and one hero outside of other established facts. That added Doctor Doom, The Penguin, and Super-Solider (from Amalgam Comics) among others to our universe.

Riffing Resources
The Year One frame offers a couple of great opportunities. First, it lets players play character they enjoy, telling stories centered on them. Second, everyone gets to tweak those characters and consider what they’d be in a new, variant context. Third, it lets the MC lift and remix existing characters. So if someone’s brought Mister Miracle in as a PC, the MC gets a chance to play with all those great characters.

The best resources the MC has for running a Year One is “alternate design” or “alternate costume” art resources. Check on Pinterest with Marvel, DC, Superhero, Supervillain or similar keywords. Find and use cool new versions with different costumes. Also consider looking for Rule 63 or Gender Swapped characters. Or hunt for different time periods or cultural contexts (like Steampunk versions).

For example in session two the PCs encountered what first assumed was a villain, but turned out to be a version of the Fantastic Four who had not come out well from the accident which created them. I’d found a great image of the FF with some tweaks to use as the basis (different costumes, a grey-block version of the thing, the Human Torch had blue flames, etc.

The one caution I would give for this set up is to not assume everyone has all the comic book knowledge. Explain your riffs and don't make a plot turn on an obscure bit of trivia. It's a good idea to check in about everyone's level of familiarity and what kinds of sources they know (TV, movies, comics, something else). 

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LOCATION MOVES
These are optional moves which the MC can tweak. The idea is to add color to your city and location. Astro City’s probably the best comic series to engage with these kinds of ideas and it’s worth looking at for further inspiration. These draw on the kinds of moves presented in the Masks Halcyon City supplement and Cartel’s location cards.

A Visit to The Fixer
When you go to see semi-villain “The Fixer” looking for resources, contacts, or a lead, roll +(Label of your choice). Base your pick on how you present yourself to them.

On a 12+ they’re impressed with your initiative and attitude. They will give you what you want, but they will now be fascinated with your career. This fascination may range from trying to fix you up with someone to sending enemies to test your strength. On a 10+ they give you what you want—though if may not exactly be the form or approach you were expecting. They’re kind of a villain after all.

On a 7-9 you get the 10+ result, but with a cost. Choose one: give The Fixer influence over you; they tell you an unwelcome truth about someone you know, roll Take a Powerful Blow; or they shift your labels. The MC chooses whether they raise the label you rolled with (feeding your ego) or lower the label you rolled with (mocking your approach).

On a miss, they give you what you want but you suffer all three costs. Alternately you get what you want, but the MC may narrate a brief scene of how this was all a cunning trap which will be sprung in the future.

Down at the Mall
When you go to the Mall or other big pubic space to unwind, clear a condition and roll +Mundane. On a 10+ you have a good time and even find a little gift for yourself or someone you know. On a 7-9, you see someone you care about hanging out with someone they shouldn’t (someone their family would disapprove of, a supervillain, your romantic partner, a bad-for-them-ex, etc.). On a miss, something happens which plays into your alienation from the mundane world. Shift Mundane down and shift Freak or Danger up (MC choice). It could be seeing others happy, an off-hand comment about those dumb teen heroes, or even a villain attack.

Abandoned Super-Base (based on Jason Cordova's Labyrinth move)
When you attempt to find your way through the abandoned super-base, describe how you do it, and then roll (+Label of your choice).
*On a 12+, hold 2
*On a 10+, hold 1.
*On a 7-9, hold 1, but you also encounter a security measure.
*On a miss, you encounter a security measure. Shift your chosen label down. 
*On a 1-3, also lose all hold.


If multiple team members navigate in turn, their hold is pooled together for the entire team. Track which labels are rolled. No one can roll a previously rolled Label for this move until all labels have been rolled once. To find one of the base’s secrets or treasures, spend 1 hold and describe the room it is found in. You may spend 3 hold at any time to find the entrance to center of the base.

Brimstone
Brimstone’s a hangout spot for supervillain teens, powered characters on the margins, and a few hench regulars. You can find it in a weird basement walkdown of a dying mall. By day it’s a coffee shop/hangout spot. At night it gets more dingy, with performances general underground bar. When you go to Brimstone and manage to fit in, you can add the following two questions to Assess the Situation.
*Who here’s involved with some kind of job, caper, or plot?
*Who here’s just a poser?

Fallen Super
When you spend time with disgraced former hero Willforce at his collectible shop, take +1 Forward to Pierce the Mask on an existing super who he dishes the dirt on.

Sports Center
When you go to a sportsball event with your friends to relax and reestablish bonds, roll +Mundane. On a hit you have a great time and rebuild some connections. Choose: take influence over one of them, shift labels, clear a condition, add two team to the team pool (if multiple PCs present), activate one of your team moves (if appropriate). On a miss, recriminations bubble to the surface. If there’s an NPC present they reveal an unpleasant truth, hidden anger, or a secret which will hurt you. If there’s only PCs present, say what mundane thing the argument breaks out over. Reset the team pool to 1, if it’s 2+ or to 0 if there’s only 1 team left.

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St. Killians School for Gifted Teens
When your team infiltrates the school for supervillains, the team leader rolls +Superior or +Freak. If the latter, your team is coming in as weird outsiders. If the former, you’re coming in as elites. On a 12+ you get in with no problems and your cover stands up to scrutiny. Someone makes friends with the leaders of one of the school’s cliques. On a 10+ you get in with no problems and your cover’s intact.

On a 7-9, you get in, but there’s a complication: one team member’s cover cracks (MC choice), you make enemies with the head of one of the cliques right away, you spot someone who could blow the whole thing open, (other options negotiated by the table). On a miss, you’ve stepped into it. You’ve raised suspicions and are put into a challenge right away to show just how villainous you really are.

Stellar Labs
When you break into Stellar Lab’s high-tech facility to research something, roll +Superior or +Savior. On a 10+ you get the answers you need. You may ask one question from either Analyze the Situation or Pierce the Mask and you make declare one fact about the situation. This declaration shouldn’t counter the existing fiction without a reason why and can’t be about a fellow PC. The MC may veto or negotiate declarations.

On a 7-9, you can either ask the question or declare a fact. Alternately you can do both, but Stellar Labs discovers your entry and has hard evidence about your break-in. On a miss, you stumble into something. You’re caught by the person you least want to get caught by; the MC chooses.

Superhero Museum
When you go to the superhero museum to seek inspiration and solace, roll +Mundane. On a hit you may clear a condition or shift labels. Say what hero’s action or sacrifice has spoken to you. On a 10+ something about that hero’s actions ties into or reveals something about your current challenges. Collaborate with the GM to say what that is.
On a miss, you learn something unpleasant about one of your heroes. This could be from a back-corner display, hidden records, or a talkative guide. Say who the hero is and what they did. Then mark a condition.

Convention
When you go to the ACF Convention Center to indulge your geek-hobby roll +Freak. On a 10+ you find a rare item or meet a beloved creator. Clear a condition. You also discover someone in your circles (schoolmate, villain, etc.) shares your interest. Say who. Take influence over them. On a 7-9 you have a good time—choose one of the 10+ options (clear a condition or gain a fellow enthusiast). On a miss, it doesn’t go well. Choose one: someone’s mockery of your geekdom or cred checking gets to you, you end up with fake or broken merch, or a personal hero betrays your vision of them. Roll Take a Powerful Blow.

Bring It On
When you go to the entertainment center to compete as a team against rivals say what you’re competing in (karaoke, cosplay competition, skating, dancing, etc.). Choose which Label will govern decide the competition and then find the weakest link in your team (i.e. the lowest value for that label). They roll +(chosen label).

On a 10+ you blow the doors off the place and leave your rivals in the dust. Everyone can choose to add a team to the team pool or clear a condition. Additionally choose one group or important person who has their attitude towards you shift positively. On a 7-9 as above but you also gain a hated rival who is now determined to embarrass all of you.

On a miss you overstep and your rivals crush you humiliatingly. Say what opportunity or connection you lose as a result. Name one NPC who used to dig the team, but now thinks you’re weak sauce. ​

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8/6/2021

Gauntlet Video Roundup - August 6, 2021

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[Gauntlet Calendar: Online Tabletop RPG Play]
Greetings, and welcome to the weekly Gauntlet Calendar video roundup! Enjoy these recordings of online games organized through Gauntlet Calendar and the Gauntlet RPG Community. These recorded sessions represent only a portion of the selection of games available every week, and anyone is welcome to join the fun! If you'd like to play or watch more games like these, check out the links and information at the bottom of the post.

Star Wars Saturday

Plutonian Shore (Session 10)
Rich Rogers runs for Greg G., Keith Stetson, and Mark (they/them)
In the final, final, final session of Plutonian Shore, the crew of the Beldon Mite board a Star Destroyer to try and save a planet (and themselves?) Betrayal! Romance! Heartbreaking Loss! all in this session.

HyperspaceD6: July (Session 5)
Rich Rogers runs for Cody Eastlick, Greg Fulford, Sabine V., and Will H
The Screaming Gundarks defend Whisper Base, then fly after a karking star destroyer to save their fellow soldiers. Will they survive this wild mission?

Swoop Gangs (Session 1)
Rich Rogers runs for Anders, Bryan, Paul Rivers, Steven Watkins, and Will H
The Zid Hounds steal some "ginger spice" from those posers the Hidden Beks in Undercity Taris.

Gauntlet Calendar

Good Society: Peaks and Peccadillos (Session 6)
David Morrison facilitates for Anders, David Schultz, Kieron, and Robbie Boerth
As our story draws to a close, Eva takes responsibility for the rumours about Nathaniel, Isaac warns Lempster, Abigail is evicted from her aunt's home, and Lempster must face Lord Davenport in a duel.

Masks: Days of Shadows Past (Session 4 of 4)
Lowell Francis runs for Brandon Brylawski, Dr. Jason Cox, Francisco Olivera, Kae, and Thomas Manuel
The group reassembles, having survived the collapse of Reynard Towers. They share information and regroup for a final assult to save Aftermath and perhaps even the future...but at what cost???!!!

Masks: Year One (Session 1)
Lowell Francis runs for Brandon Brylawski, Greg Fulford, and Jon Grim
The first session of a Masks campaign with players re-envisioning characters from existing properties in a new setting--in this case teen Daredevil, She Hulk, and Doctor Strange.

Trail of Cthulhu: Bright Lights, Dark City (Session 1)
Lowell Francis runs for Agatha, Jesse A., John Glass, and Mike Ferdinando
In our first session of Trail of Cthulhu we meet our varied vast of investigators as their search for a missing person in 1936 New York takes strange turns.

The Between (Session 4 of 8)
Alun R. runs for Blake Ryan, David Morrison, and Leandro Pondoc
'Razor' Rose, the American, escapes being trapped above a shop with a case of un-paired hands while Chambers, the Factotum, completes a transactional exchange with a 'professional companion'. That leaves Dr Weiss to enjoy a moment with the 'Child'. We see the exorcism of a resistant spirit, a shadowy threat that turns out to be a gutted victim, and the answer to a question. Then...Annie Morrish returns spitting blood and then a tongue before there are rats...so many rats and so much more blood and guts on the infirmary's tiles...

Godbound: Pillars of Heaven (Session 5)
Lowell Francis runs for Dan Brown, Patrick Knowles, and Sherri
The Godbound dig deeper into matters in the Assassins' Library, annoy the servants, learn about the Order of the Retractable Claw, rediscover bicycles, and get booted into a pit.

Changeling the Lost PbtA: Never Gonna Give You Up (Session 1)
Lowell Francis runs for José Feito, Sherri, Tim Leitner, and Vince
In this first session we set up characters, learn something about the Freehold, and take up with the Motley trying to deal with their trauma when a call from the Prince of Summer arrives.

You can see all these videos (plus all the ones that have come before) on The Gauntlet YouTube channel playlists, and be sure to subscribe to catch all our great podcasts!

If you'd like to catch these sessions in an audio-only podcast, check out the community-run Hangouts Podcast at http://gauntlet.hellomouth.net/.

If you'd like to play in games like these, check out the calendar of events and the Gauntlet Forums where games are announced, or catch one of our Gauntlet Community Open Gaming online mini-conventions.

To support The Gauntlet, please visit the Gauntlet Patreon. Everyone is welcome to sign up for Gauntlet Calendar games, but Patreon supporters get extra options like priority RSVP for Gauntlet Calendar games and joining the Gauntlet Slack team where special events and pickup games are announced.

Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

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8/3/2021

72 Sci-Fi Heist Challenges (Part 2)

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This is the second half of my list of obstacles for sci-fi bounties and jobs. You can find the first part here. As someone pointed out regarding the first part, many of these could be adapted for fantasy settings as well. Mechanically for Blades in the Dark style games, you can either roll some of these ahead of time or as you go along. Especially if the players are going in a little blind, they're great to throw out as the result of an engagement roll just to see how creative they can be will flashbacks.  

  1. More Targets: On site information reveals what they’re after has been split into multiple pieces in different sections of the target complex. Alternately an ongoing rival or high value bounty target turns out to be present—forcing the team to reassess the situation and cost/benefits.
  2. Multiple Parties Involved: The faction targeted turns out to be hosting one or more other factions. Is it a party? A conference? A secret meeting? The team will have to assess their relationship to these new parties. Can they carry out the mission without affecting them? Or can they use this to their short-term advantage, long-term consequences be dammed.
  3. Nano-Swarm: An intelligent host of nanites is present. Is it a security measure? A prisoner? An accident? Defensive nanite swarms will be programmed to convert certain kinds of material or to disable particular equipment. Some large swarms may have personality. Are they a ghost in the machine persona-ghost overlay or something weirder like a swarm imagining itself a mythic god?
  4. On Site Gala: Despite legwork and pre-operation prep, the team walks into some kind of party or celebration on site. Perhaps it’s a private gathering of the rich and powerful, a surprise party for on-site employees, or the security team is using the main holo-projector for a sportsball viewing. While it offers more chaos to work with, it means any info they have on movements, people, and locations will be wildly inaccurate.
  5. Overclocked Defenders: The security team has been outfitted with powerful short-term boosters. They’re faster, more accurate, and hardier—but only for a short time. The team will have to figure out how to delay them or uncover a method to utilize the additional stress the upgrades put on their opponents’ bodies.
  6. Parasitic Defense Implants: Target site employees have accepted an implant, either for a bump in pay or as a condition of employment. As a backup security measure, admins can activate these—mutating and turning the employee into a ravenous monster which can get in the way of any infiltration team. Removal should be possible, especially after the team sees the first couple of office drones turn.
  7. Phase Weaponry: The defender has access to weapons which can fire through walls and obstacles without damaging them. They can use x-ray scopes or on-site surveillance to judge the shots. Calibrating the exact distance for the bullets to phase back into the real world is tough, meaning they may be highly inaccurate and slow. But that matters little to the PCs when gunfire starts up seemingly from nowhere.
  8. Polymorphic Architecture: The building employs adaptive architecture, allowing it to quickly and easily reconfigure to match the needs of the staff. In a pressure situation, the building can go further—working to funnel a team in specific directions, closing off access to levels, and creating disorienting features. The team will have to figure out how to hack the program running this, uncover some kind of reset vulnerability, or brute force their way through walls.
  9. Possessor Suits: Flexible myo-fabric panels which can move on their own and envelop targets, usually dropping over one’s head. While grabbed the suit will take over basic motor functions, putting them under the control of a mental imprint personality dedicated to protecting the site.
  10. Power Drain: Devices and equipment not locked into the sites matrix will begin to lose power almost immediately. This means any device may be only a single use or the team may find crucial equipment will need to be recharged in mid-mission.
  11. Primal Regression Fields: The site can produce a sub-sonic vibration that interferes with rational thought and disrupts higher-level thinking. While caught in this, targets react instinctively—usually with a fight or flight response.
  12. Psychic Android Doppelgangers: Robotic defense systems designed to take a mental snapshot of an intruder and then shift their appearance to match them. They’re designed to infiltrate a team, causing dissention and dividing their attention—while at the same time gathering information. Localized comm jammers allow them to isolate members.
  13. Psychogenic Echoes: The facility can take potent emotional reactions, store them, and project them back out into the ether—often this is used to reinforce happiness and satisfaction in the workplace. But it can also be used for more sinister ends—capturing the pain and fear signals when someone’s been injured and playing that back into their attackers mind.
  14. Quantum Locks: Hyper-encrypted locks keycoded to a biological pass code. Breaking these locks will require equally sophisticated equipment, a dedicated AI, or a clever work-around.
  15. Quarantine/Contamination: The team’s actions, a site failsafe, or just a complex coincidence means that a dangerous substance or disease has been released into the site. Automated lockdown protocols will be activated and those in the know will be rushing for safety and protective equipment. Depending on the situation, local authorities may become involved and move to contain the site.
  16. Ravenous Psychic Maelstrom: A contained psychic negative space left to patrol and absorb the not protected by specialized equipment. The Maelstrom’s difficult to fight, but generates a field of anxiety which targets can use to sense its approach. Some have theorized that you could open your mind to it, allowing you insight and visions of the situation at hand, but that seems super dangerous…
  17. Raid by Authorities: Entry into the site has come at a terrible time as local authorities have decided to raid it on a pretext. This may be a legitimate raid or cover for another operation. It may also be that the team’s client has set them up. They’ll have to decide how much noise and heat they can afford to create.
  18. Remote Decoy Dolls: Robots designed to look like ordinary, panicked on-site workers. The team may find them hiding in a break room or desperately trying to complete work at their desk. These decoys will try to go along with the team. Then when they reach a non-critical section of the facility, they explode.
  19. Resource Interdiction: Something the team counted on on-site has been taken or destroyed: utility outfit disguises, hidden pre-set hacking tools, their inside operative. Now they have to figure out a way around it and uncover if the removal was accidental or deliberate.
  20. Retrograde Memory Barrage: This device captures deeply buried psychic engrams and broadcasts back to their source giving them hallucinations, flashbacks, and guilt pangs. Less aggressive systems may simply make the subject believe they’re back to an earlier moment in the day, disorienting them.
  21. Revolutionary Tinderbox: Tensions between political or social forces at the site have built up into deadly powder keg. Each side is waiting for an excuse to strike at the other. The team may want to push the button on this set up, but may not be fully prepared for the consequences.
  22. Rogue Mecha: Scientists on site have been working to reactivate a massive mechanical armored biped. This may be a relic of a lost society, the creation of a mad scientist, or some kind of repurposed cyber-weapon. In any case, the team’s entry into the situation has shattered controls and overcome failsafe checks allowing the deadly and massive foe free rein in the site.
  23. Sensor Cloaks: The security team has been outfitted with multi-frequency sensor blockers. This could be a single, skilled agent or a team equipped with devices to allow them to coordinate. They will attempt to divide and conquer any team.
  24. Sentient Art Installation: High-end sculptures, paintings, decorative vases and the like are actually carefully crafted hunter-killer robots, though with a higher aesthetic than the usual murderbots. Experts will be able to identify forgeries from fakes, hopefully before everyone’s dead.
  25. Shared Consciousness Defense Team: The defenders have a fully connected network, allowing them to share insights, information, and thoughts at all times. They can coordinate their actions with precision. Surprising them will require timing and speed.
  26. Short-term Mindwipe: In the middle of the mission, the team finds themselves suddenly in another location, dealing with another obstacle. If they’re facing agents, those troops may also be disoriented. Everyone has had the last X segment of time wiped from their memories. This means the team may not know what they have or have not accomplished in the mission. Note: this is a good way to start an op in medias res.
  27. Sonic Hounds: Sonic-field constructs made of condensed auditory vibrations. Invisible to the eye, they can control sound in their local area—with only a low frequency emanation or tell-tale sound to alert their targets. Their vibrations can rend flesh and tear bone like a sonic disruptor with teeth.
  28. Subliminal Mesmer Audio: It functions at just below human hearing, a background pattern design to induce compliance and control. The longer the team operates in the site, the more the pattern can change their thinking. Some versions work to create false narratives or emotional spikes in intruders.
  29. Supersonic Multipliers: Sections of the site have been protected with amplification sound systems which pick up the tiniest sound, play it back louder, and then repeat creating a destructive wall of vibrations which can shatter ear drums and break bones. The team will have to disrupt the setup, hack the system, or find a way to eliminate sounds over a certain volume.
  30. Tailored Infective: The defense system’s designed to suck up any loose bio-matter: shed skin, blood, perspiration, and use that to print a virus tailored to a specific person. Recalibrating the system takes time.
  31. Telekinetic Holograms: Simple holo projections prove themselves to be extra dangerous when combined with directed force fields and magnetic beams.
  32. Telepathic Construct Mental Locks: Each lock is telepathic bio-organism which must be mentally connected with to activate. While not sophisticated, these bio-locks can recognize authorized persons and pick up on ill intent. They can be communicated with if the agent keeps themselves focused.
  33. Vacuum Breach Protocols: Sections of the facility have machinery designed to expunge all air—it could be simply opening doors to the vacuum of space or running high powered pumps.
  34. Vapor Wasps: These strange tailored insects have a gaseous form which can drift and enter into small spaces—ventilators, in shoes, under clothes. They seek out perspiration and blood. Once in place they solidify and sting, often en masse. The trick is detecting them become they can manifest.
  35. Voltaic Barrage Fields: Defensive barriers including modulating cascades of electrical energy—designed to overload equipment, electrocute attackers, and disrupt shields. These have to charge up and so operate on a regular pattern though the speed of the system means only those with the most heightened reflexes can evade.
  36. VR Troopers: The site has a secret, sophisticated array of systems to hack into the HUDs, Augmented Reality Displays, and similar systems used by intruders. Then their agents enter into this virtual space as ghosts—changing information and attacking cyber-implants. They can be fought in the network or dealt with irl if the team can find their secure location. 
If you want more lists, resources, tools, and ideas, check out the Table of Contents for all of The Gauntlet Blog. 

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