When I began running for The Gauntlet, it wasn’t the commitment which scared me. It wasn’t managing shorter campaigns. It wasn’t the threat of having to run for rock star GMs and players. 

It was open table. 

Open table means players can sign up for all, some, or just one session of a series you run. To a GM who has spent decades running multi-year campaigns with a stable roster, this seemed crazy. What about storylines? What about relationship building? What about cumbersome orienting of new players? Initially, I ran just two-shots to compensate; tighter games to minimize problems. But over time I’ve moved to longer games, even mysteries with developing plots. Players have changed, come in late, dropped out, and the games have survived. And thrived. 

WORLD OF CANCELLATIONS
Before The Gauntlet I painfully ran some campaigns online. I’d set up sessions, get commitments, and then the game would flake out at the last minute. I had people not show up and not communicate. I had one player push another out, bring a new one in, and then had both quit because their schedule was too tight. And the next day found out they’d actually dropped to join a podcast, but didn't want to tell me. When campaigns did go we’d often have massive gaps between sessions and reset constantly. It was a wildlands without structure or satisfaction. 

The Gauntlet’s approach–calendar, commitment, and open table–makes online gaming less a wilderness. It begins with our dedicated online event calendar. We previously used public online scheduling tools, but they flaked out, cost too much, or lacked features. So Jason commissioned a dedicated tool; a chunk of the Patreon money goes towards that. GMs post sessions on the calendar and then announce them on our Gauntlet Hangouts G+ Community and our Slack. They post events between two weeks and two months out. For the first week, Patreon members at the $7 level get special access to sign up. After that, anyone can–you don’t have to be a Patreon supporter or even a member of the community. You just have to register at the calendar. Even if a game’s full, it’s worth joining a waitlist. In about half of my games, someone moves up from the waitlist to play. Open table also means you sign up for whichever sessions in a series you want.

OPEN TABLE & THE LONG GAME
Last year on the Gauntlet we had a lot of talk about the challenges surrounding longer open table games. One GM asked if they could require that players sign up for all sessions or commit to reading character creation & rules material ahead of time. But we don’t do that. In my event descriptions, I say players are “encouraged to sign up for all sessions.” Sometimes I’ll even say strongly encouraged. Usually I’ll share character spreadsheets and rules summaries the week before a game. But I come in expecting a changing roster and players who haven’t read the material. It’s a nice bonus when that isn’t true. 

In that conversation about longer campaigns, several said it didn’t work with open table. When folks had said Fate games wouldn’t fly on the Gauntlet, I ran a month of them. So I wanted to prove them wrong about long games. So in 2018 I’ve run three longer open table campaigns, called Gauntlet Quarterly. And I’ve seen others experiment with the form as well. 

When I first considered doing 11-13 sessions, I decided I’d need two things. First, I'd take an episodic approach to sessions. For the most part, each would be a self-contained story. Blades in the Dark does this well—usually a session revolves around a single job. World Wide Wrestling absolutely does this—each game is a wrestling show. You couldn’t split it across sessions without losing momentum. Mutant: Year Zero also leans this way with a fresh threat generated each session and a split between zone-crawl and in-camp sessions, though in my long play, that broke down a little and we had a couple of two-parters that required character juggling. 

Second, I wanted a unifying campaign element. In the case of MYZ, that’s the Ark. Players make decisions about how their home camp evolves and carry out projects to develop it. In Blades, the "crew" has its own playbook and gains experience. In WWW, it's the wrestling promotion itself. WWW: International Incident introduces “tags” and “troubles” to describe the organization. The player with the highest audience at the start of the show rolls a move to affect those. It also has continuity from an ongoing roster past non-player and player wrestlers. If I had enjoyed Star Trek Adventures more, I might have run it with the ship serving as a central feature. Other games I've considered--Scum and Villainy, Cryptomancer, Changeling the Lost, Green Law of Varkith, Sigmata, and Rotted Capes—have rules for ongoing and tracked setting elements that provide continuity.

I came in convinced that a longer game needed that. In my head, I imagined wonky fantasy campaigns where the party changed every week, regardless of where they were—on the road or in the dungeon. I’d played in those campaigns, wracked with highly variable attendance. We had a term for PCs popping in and out, “Blue Flashing.” In practice it made you feel detached from other PCs and heightened the artificiality of the experience. For Gauntlet Quarterly, I wanted a through line for the players to avoid those problems.

I think my approach does that, but I’m less sure now I need the crutch. Players come in hungry to find their place. Most play actively, involve themselves, and look to connect their story. I’d steered away from games with tight relationship systems, like Masks: A New Generation. But I think that would actually work, I’d need to develop easy fictional framing (like a larger organization to explain the shifting roster). I’d also want quick & dirty tools to set up relationships—ways for returning players to connect with new ones and pay off connections with PCs who aren’t necessarily coming back. But I don’t need to restrict my game choices for long campaigns. I know now players will work with me to build that narrative. 

OTHER CONTINUUMS
My take on longer games isn’t the only one on the Gauntlet. Other GMs have looked at open table and figured out how to build continuity. Jason’s Mercy Falls series is a great example—a game broken into chunks with different characters and even different time periods. Go listen to those podcasts. You can hear synergies that don’t require deep lore. I came into the second Mercy Falls series with no idea about the first series and it clicked. Another approach has been The Gaunt Marches on Gauntlet. This has multiple GMs running in a shared fantasy setting. Or look at the one-GM shared universe Rich Rogers has done with Gauntlet City Limits and Star Wars Saturdays. Those games exist in their own universes. References across games act as Easter Eggs rather than required information. But there’s an organic, emergent history there. 

Finally, for the last quarter of 2019 I’m trying a modified approach. I’m presenting my Hearts of Wulin sessions as a book or movie trilogy. In the first month, we do movie one. These sessions should comprise a complete story. In month two, we move forward in time and build lightly on ideas and details established in month one. Players can return with characters or introduce new ones. Like with any good trilogy, I hope to make each month connect but also stand on its own. I'm hoping this structure adds depth to play and makes each month feel complete.

What do you think? If you've played with or run for the Gauntlet, what's been your experience—positive or negative—with the structure?

For the full backlog of Age of Ravens posts on Blogger see here. ​​

Star Wars Saturday

Misspent Youth (Session 3 of 5)
Rich Rogers runs for Blaise, Noella H, Paul Edson, and Steven Watkins

Gauntlet Sunday

Urban Shadows (Session 3 of 5)
Lowell Francis runs for Darren Brockes and Joshua Gilbreath
The Fae and the Tainted go to fix everything and nothing goes wrong. Really. Ignore those sirens.

Tragic Tuesday

Cthulhu Dark: Sukakpak
Shane Liebling runs for Greg G., Harry, Robbie Boerth, and Sarah J.

TGI Thursday

Scum & Villainy (Session 3 of 4)
Lowell Francis runs for Barry, Eduardo L., and Josh DeGagne
The crew extract scientists from a entertainment pavilion past the Guild, but a swerve by the Borniko Syndicate nearly burns out everything.

Gauntlet Quarterly

Gauntlet League Wrestling Season 3 (Session 10)
Lowell Francis runs for Chris Newton, Gerwyn Walters, Joe A., Matt A., Patrick Knowles, and Tyler Lominack
The Kraken returns, backstage politics spill into the ring, a newcomer questionably takes a belt, and an Oedipal tag-team match clears Kent Reid's path.

The Gaunt Marches

Freebooters on the Frontier: Into the Wild (Session 2 of 3)
Horst Wurst runs for Christo Meid, Pawel S., and Sabine V
A false promise of atonement, stealing from the sisters of mercy, the infected hermit, marked by fairies, an ancient bomb, the blood soaked effigy

Funnel World: Den of Iniquity (Session 3 of 3)
Richard Ruane runs for Andrew Hauge, James, Josh, and Tony H
The bear lunges as the demonic forces of the house try to seduce two of the youths to their service. Divided and distraught by the deaths of their friends, they fight to survive the night (with the assistance of a cat).

Gauntlet Hangouts

Undying: Plague Empire (Session 2 of 4)
Mikael Tysvær runs for Asher S., Jim C., and Paul Spraget

3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars: Charlie Sector (Session 2 of 3)
Donogh runs for Ary Ramsey, Brian B., and David Jay
Dropping on Caravaggio, where their scouts have come up blank despite losing some Troopers - no one knows what’s down there...

Dialect: Children of No God
Noella H facilitates for Gene A., Mikael Tysvær, Sabine V, and Tomer Gurantz
We played a community of non-believers surrounded by religion, which ended up being in an ancient Rome type setting. There was a lot of food involved.

Velvet Glove: Energy Crisis
Philipp Neitzel runs for Asher S., Matt Hayles, Noella H, and Sabine V
During the 1970s Energy crisis a girl gang is trying to enjoy a night of partying by the lake.
​
The Mecha Hack: System Malfunction (Session 3 of 4)
Maria Rivera runs for Asher S., Jason Mills, and Leandro Pondoc

Digimon RPG (1%er hack) (Session 2 of 2)
Luiz Ferraz runs for Noella H, Ryan M., and Tyler Lominack

Perdition: A Host of Angels in Perdition (Session 2 of 3)
Fraser Simons runs for Darren Brockes, Luiz Ferraz, and Maria Rivera
The host discovers what became of a forgotten angel--Helel--as they navigate their way to the divine weapons.

Night Witches: Season 2 (Session 4 of 6)
David Rothfeder runs for Bethany H., Bryan, Jim Crocker, and Noella H
In which powerful allies are spurned, planes are recovered, men are monstrously petty, and honorable airwomen die. Content warning: extreme sexism, worry about rape, mention of suicide, corpse desecration, and PC death.

Swords Without Master: Remnants: Year 2, Summer
Pat P. runs for Jeff B. and Larry S.
The rogues set out to investigate rumors of a out-of-place beast. Geddy performs before the storm and shows the meaning of brotherhood while Gaon emotionally wrestles with the parallels of his past.

Monsterhearts 2: Once Again, We Return (It Was Never Going To Be Okay) (Session 2 of 4)
Patrick Knowles runs for Alex, David Rothfeder, Lauren, and Ryan M.
The One With The Gallery Opening - After a little light Deicide, the Gods have an immersive artistic experience to pull off. New enemies are made as old friends return, the past is buried as the dead rise from their graves, and everyone submits to the overwhelming power of larping.

The Woodlands (Session 3 of 4)
Yoshi Creelman runs for Asher S., David Rothfeder, Jesse A., and Noella H
Bluebelle, fully recovered, leads the group to Ginburry, only to find it with a new fence, streets desolate, not what Otis remembers. Kendrick, the new leader, is the son of the former leader, Deacon, but he seems to be relying too heavily on his right hand, Thistle...who happens to be one of the two names on Lee's letters.

Undying: Plague Empire (Session 3 of 4)
Mikael Tysvær runs for Asher S., Jim C., and Tina T.
King Aleric and his Visicots army sack Rome while the undead revel in the opportunities this event presents to move up in the social hierarchy.

Monsterhearts 2: Kingsport 1692 (Session 3 of 4)
Catherine Ramen runs for Agatha, Darold Ross, David Jay, Dylan R., and Seraphina Malizia
Tensions rise as Malachi Goodwin, Verity's foster brother, returns to town after years at sea; Verity finds her affection for Malachi continues to be more than sisterly; Mercy's uncle unfolds a grand vision for their people; Fortune does rituals at the bidding of her dark master; and Chastity accuses John Baxter of being a witch.

Check out all the great videos on The Gauntlet YouTube channel and be sure check out the playlists to catch up on all your favorite Gauntlet Hangouts games. If you'd like to play in games like these, check out the Gauntlet Hangouts Google+ Community where game signups are announced! To support The Gauntlet and Gauntlet Hangouts, please visit the Gauntlet Patreon at https://patreon.com/gauntlet where $7 and up patrons get priority RSVP for Gauntlet Hangouts games. Enjoy, and everyone have a great weekend!

​In August, I ran 24 hours of Gen Con games. Not in a row–though it felt like that once or twice. I’d volunteered to run for Magpie: Last Days of Anglekite & Green Law of Varkith for Dungeon World, Masks: A New Generation, and Urban Shadows. I went in nervous, certain I’d made a mistake and over-committed myself. I’ve burned out at cons before. But Kate Bullock, who managed everything for Magpie, offered support, encouragement, and organization. I’ve never been part of a better and smoother con event. She showed how professionalism and preparation can enhance the experience. 

I came away from those 24 hours energized, not exhausted. 

Some of that came from great players—a father & son team, an Australian who’d heard the podcast, the young woman who showed me her sketchbook of Masks characters. I felt good throughout—like I had a handle on things. Looking back I realize some of my convention style wasn’t part of my repertoire just a few years ago. They’re things I’ve picked up from playing with The Gauntlet, listening to community conversations, and watching others run. 

I found three techniques that stand out. These may be obvious for those who’ve played with The Gauntlet or maybe they’re common to your groups. But not everyone knows them. I didn’t know them for 30+ years. Each of these sparked an “OK, wow” reaction at least once at my tables. I could tell they’d be using that for their games. 

The Gauntlet will be launching a Kickstarter campaign for the Codex Volume One Hardcover on October 2nd! Our goal is to produce a beautiful, collectible hardcover book containing the first thirteen issues of the Codex RPG zine. This post contains a breakdown of everything you will find inside. ​

by Jason Cordova

Anyone who knows me well knows that I do not like bringing this kind of negativity into Gauntlet spaces. There are many instances where people say negative things about me or The Gauntlet, or they actively try to blacklist us from gaming events, and I simply do not respond because I value the positive energy in our spaces more than I value "setting the record straight." Also, as a public, queer PoC in the ttrpg industry, I will lose the argument if the person on the other side of it is popular and white. As the principal organizer of The Gauntlet, I have to keep all those things in mind when making decisions about when to respond to things and when to let things slide. As such, 99% of the time, I let things slide. 

And so you should know this is not easy for me to write; I gave it a great deal of thought before deciding to do so. 

A few days ago, Ross Cowman sent me an email expessing his concerns about a game we published in Codex. He was ostensibly concerned about copyright on his game Fall of Magic, because I had said in social media that the game was "inspired by Fall of Magic." And, indeed, the game is definitely inspired by Fall of Magic. You play characters moving across a map (cards this time, not a scroll) and you frame scenes based off a one-sentence scene prompt. However, everything else about the game is different, and the author didn't use a single passage of Ross's text, and so this was not a copyright issue–at all. To be fair, there was a little bit of misunderstanding going on: I was under the mistaken impression that Ross was aware of the game; in the past, whenever we have published hacks of or supplements for existing games that don't have clear licenses, we check in with the original author as a courtesy. That didn't happen in this case, and I completely own the fact that that was a breakdown in our normal process. 

Setting aside the confusion, I felt that Ross's initial email was hostile. He could have checked-in with me in a manner that was more friendly, but instead he chose to send me something that more closely resembled a cease & desist letter (and I should know–I've written dozens of them). In fact, a very simple "Hey, can we talk about this game?" or "I have a few concerns about this game, and I wanted to run them by you" would have cleared everything up and avoided... all of this. He doesn't think his email was particularly hostile, but I do. This is a difference of opinion, but in this case, I think my opinion should be given a little more weight because I have a few really good reasons for thinking there was a lot of unspoken subtext in Ross's initial email. 

And here, dear readers, is where this gets more interesting. Are you ready for the plot twist?

It is well-known that Ross has a personal feud with Mark Diaz Truman and Magpie Games. Ross has gone out of his way in the past to encourage other people not to work with Mark or feature Mark at their events. You can call that behavior whatever you want, but in my opinion, it's blacklisting. More importantly, it's blacklisting a prominent voice of color in the ttrpg industry. I'm not here to interrogate whether Ross's beef with Mark is legitimate–frankly, it's really old shit that doesn't involve me–but it is no coincidence that the same day Ross sent his email to me is the same day we announced Mark Diaz Truman and Sarah Richardson as guests at Gauntlet Con 2018. 

Ross denies our announcement of Mark and Sarah as guests at Gauntlet Con had anything to do with his motivation to send me that email. I don't believe him. It is my belief this situation has nothing to do with Fall of Magic and copyright, and everything to do with The Gauntlet getting wrapped-up in Ross's feud with Magpie. I have a fair amount of evidence that Ross has always had a problem with us because of our friendliness with Magpie and that he was simply waiting for the right opportunity to come after us. I'm not going to list all those little bits of evidence here, but I will note one rather conspicuous one: I picked Fall of Magic as my Favorite Game of 2016, part of a special episode we do every year that is listened to by thousands of people; for practical purposes, it was the equivalent of naming Fall of Magic our Game of the Year. The Gauntlet never got even a single friendly comment from Ross about this–not even a miserable +1 or Like–and I'm fairly confident it's because we don't tow his line on Magpie (I should mention that Ross was loudly celebrating all the other accolades Fall of Magic got when it came out). 

I'll wrap this up by saying this is the end of this situation as far as I'm concerned. I have put my position out there so people understand my point of view on this, and now I have nothing else to say about the matter. I will not be responding to any public threads or discussion about this situation, and if you come into our public Gauntlet spaces trying to make hay about this, you will get blocked and banned, period. You are free to message me privately, but I won't make any promises that I will respond.

As for Ross, I wish him the best, I truly do. I did not publish a Codex game inspired by Fall of Magic because I have a problem with Ross Cowman. Quite the opposite: I have been a fan of Ross's work for years and I thought we were celebrating that work. It honestly sucks that this is the situation we find ourselves in. But I also have to be mindful of the needs of The Gauntlet community and my own reputation. As a queer PoC in ttrpgs, I have no margin of error–people have hated on me and whispered about me for years, and for the most trifling of reasons. In this case, I felt the need to speak up in the hopes of heading some of that off at the pass. 

The Gauntlet welcomes ENnie winning blog Age of Ravens to our team. Lowell will be posting on Wednesdays. He's bringing hacks, game ideas, thoughts on his Gauntlet sessions, and his ongoing history lists of rpg genres. We're excited to have him on board. 
​
FROM AGE OF RAVENS
For several years I’ve been tracing the publication histories of role-playing games in different genres (post-apocalyptic, superhero, horror, etc.). Starting this month, I’m publishing these lists and other posts from Age of Ravens here at The Gauntlet Blog. I hope to post 1-2 of these lists a month, with a couple of series running in parallel, plus occasional update posts.
 
LICENSE TO ROLL
I chose licensed games because the last couple of years have seen a bonanza of releases in multiple directions. Green Ronin just wrapped a successful Kickstarter for The Expanse, based on the original novels. R Talsorian just released The Witcher RPG which seems drawn from the video game, rather than the books those came from. And then we have Delta Green, one of the big winners at the ENnies. DG first appeared as a supplement to Call of Cthulhu, itself a Lovecraftian license. But then it became a stand-alone game. And now Pelgrane Press has released The Fall of Delta Green, which is an adaptation of an adaptation to a game which is itself a parallel take on an adaptation.
 
The minds boggles.
 
In any case, this lists will focus on products which adapt novels, movies, video games, or comic books. I’ll generally restrict myself to official licenses. My comments offer a mix of context, commentary, description, and review. If you see something I’ve missed from 1977 to 1983 please tell me in the comments. I’ve put links to my earlier lists at the end of this post.

 6. Stormbringer (1981)
Stormbringer stands as the first rpg adaptation of an ongoing fantasy setting–or it's at least tied with Thieves World that same year. It lets players experience first-hand the world of Michael Moorcock’s sulky anti-hero, Elric. ​Stormbringer has a lovely boxed set—with dice, map, character sheets, and a large core book. It uses the old school grognard system for rules, with headings like: "5.7.1.4. Special Demon Abilities"). I love the book’s Frank Brunner illustrations. He provides a set of six full-page black and white images (as well as the box cover). These show weirder, more visceral style than that of later editions.
 
Ken St. Andre and Steve Perrin, two titans of the hobby, wrote Stormbringer, building on a simple version of Basic Role-Playing, Chaosium's house system. The game's based exclusively on the first six books in the Elric series; it came out before Moorcock decided to go back and revisit/milk the character. The authors show an understanding and affection for the material and ideas. Even if some of the systems end up being more than a little clunky, there's a sincere attempt to take the magic and world presented in Elric and make it work within the rpg paradigm of the time.
 
There's an interesting parallel to be drawn between Stormbringer and Call of Cthulhu, both of which have gone through several editions. The former has had to change and retool to match the tastes and approaches of modern rpgs. The latter set the bar high enough to remain unchanged until recently. Later versions of Stormbringer would ditch the wild & random mechanics and build-a-demon summoning of this version. That’s too bad and I can imagine some OSR folks going back to revisit these rules.
 
7. Thieves World (1981)
In the late 70s and early 80s everyone in our gaming group read Thieves World. This shared world fantasy anthology series brought together high profile authors and rising stars. The concept echoed role-playing games—multiple GMs running in an existing world (like Greyhawk or Blackmoor). The series ran through 1989 with multiple short story collections and novels. There would be (of course) a later reboot in novels (and rpgs).
 
Chaosium’s Thieves World boxed set uses just the first three collections. It has multiple setting books, several maps, and a detailed summary and stat breakdown of all the major characters. More importantly Chaosium made the set compatible across many different systems. It includes stats for AD&D, D&D, Runequest, Adventures in Fantasy, Chivalry & Sorcery, Tunnels & Trolls, The Fantasy Trip, Dragon Quest, and even Traveller. In Designers & Dragons, Shannon Appelcline points out Chaosium got permission to legally support D&D because TSR had earlier violated their copyright. TSR had included Cthulhu and Elric characters in the first edition of Deities & Demigods.
 
Thieves World’s one of the best and most useful early city supplements. It conveyed the setting while offering tools and ideas for any GM. Oddly, Chaosium didn’t support the line, except for a Companion book released five years later. But FASA also got the license to the setting and released several modules, including Traitor, in which a random PC gets secretly assigned as the betrayer of the group.

8. Middle-Earth Role Playing (1982)
Technically Middle Earth Role Playing (MERP) came out a couple of years later, but by that point Iron Crown Enterprises had released several ME sourcebooks. Several date to 1982, when Rolemaster still came in individual books for adaptation to other games rather than standing on their own. So ICE released these before they actually had a dedicated Middle Earth rpg. That would be Rolemaster-lite in many ways.
 
In that gap ICE published seven regional books: Angmar: Land of the Witch King, The Court of Ardor, Isengard, Mirkwood (North and South), Moria and Umbar (plus some adventure modules). Of those seven, Isengard and the two Mirkwood volumes deal with areas significantly referenced in Tolkien's works. Moria does as well, but offers just a collection of random floors and section. Angmar, Ardor and Umbar go further off the map–areas hinted at.
 
This gives the authors the great leeway you see in The Court of Ardor, one of the wildest of these volumes. Umbar tries for some faithfulness to Middle Earth but also tries to serve the master...of Rolemaster. You really have to read those two modules. It’s like someone dropped their Epic Level D&D campaign just off the edge of Tolkien’s map. Umbar’s a little crazy; look at the NPCs’ stats and levels. But Ardor’s on a completely different level of crazy—a mash up of Deities & Demigods, Roger Zelazny’s Amber series, and bad Tolkien fan-fiction.
 
ICE would eventually lose the license, but that’s a story we’ll come back to later on these lists.
 
9. Enterprise: Role Play Game in Star Trek (1983)
A Japanese rpg released by Tsukuda Hobby. Enterprise had a gorgeous boxed set with a 20 page rulebook, 13 page adventure book, dice, and 15 double-sided full color character cards. These laminated cards worked with erasable markers and had a photo one side and character stats on the others. Tsukuda Hobby mostly sold wargames and had other Star Trek and Star Wars licenses. The company released no other products in the line. You can see more about this at RPGGeek’s entry on it.