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9/30/2019

Thoughts and Questions about Trophy Gold

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by Jason Cordova

When Trophy Gold came out, a lot of folks were puzzled by it. It’s an OSR game that, unlike most others, doesn’t use Dungeons and Dragons as its foundation. It’s a game that discards the room-by-room exploration of dungeons in favor of zooming-in on the best parts and summarizing the rest. It’s a game in love with theme. In Trophy Gold, all the characters can use magic, the combat is lethal as fuck, and the players have just as much input in creating the story as the GM. It’s a game with recognizably OSR trappings but with a strong story gamer sensibility underpinning it, and I think while a lot of folks were excited by the possibilities, they were somewhat confounded by how the game is actually played. 
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​I ran my first session of Trophy Gold last week, and I have some thoughts—thoughts that will hopefully be helpful to folks getting ready to run or the play the game themselves. These thoughts aren’t meant to be authoritative, nor are they presented in any particular order. They also assume you are familiar with the basics of Trophy Gold. 

Character creation is fast and fun
As in core Trophy, character creation in Trophy Gold is really quick. Basically, you choose some elements from a set of tables—Name, Drive, Occupation, Background, Backpack Equipment, and Rituals—write them down, and you’re done. You don’t roll any dice or assign ability scores, but you still have a lot of interesting choices to make. What’s particularly cool about Trophy is the wide variety of character configurations you can end up with. You can have a Bankrupted Merchant who is now an Historian trying to raise money in order to arm the resistance against Lord Haffir’s tyranny, or a Grief-Stricken Poet who is now a Sorcerer trying to buy the orphanage where they were mistreated. There are so many interesting combinations, and each is rich with storytelling opportunities. 

We actually used the Trophy Gold character generator by Ramanan S, which made the process even quicker. You can find that right here. We also used the character keeper by Evan Bucholz for online play (note: set the zoom to 75% for a better experience). You can find that here. 

Character elements have a huge impact on both story and gameplay
The characters may not have any numbers associated with them—and they might be seemingly-shallow compared to other fantasy game characters—but the various elements that make up each character have a HUGE impact on both story and gameplay. 

I think an example is best here: 

In our game, Fraser was playing an Oracle called Kel. Kel’s Oracle occupation gave him the skill Trances. When Fraser was deciding what to narrate in order to trigger a Hunt Roll, he decided Kel might be using his Trances skill to actually expand his consciousness and examine the wider terrain around him. I thought that was a great idea, so I gave him a Hunt Roll to search the area, with a light die coming from the Trances skill. He described how Kel was burning incense, meditating, and so forth, in order to go into his trance state. He got a 5 on the Hunt Roll, meaning he was successful (+1 token), but he’d also have to face a danger of some sort. I described how tapping into this divine consciousness attracted a large, arachnid-like creature with the model of a tiny city on its back. Fraser responded to this danger by invoking another skill he got from Oracle, Gods. He described how the Gods skill would allow him to actually commune with the spider creature, who he deemed to be a minor deity. We did a Risk Roll and Kel successfully avoided the danger, but as the result of a Devil’s Bargain, he had to take a child of the spider deity into his body. 

As you can see from the example, the mere presence of a few words on Fraser’s character sheet lead to very cool story outcomes, all of which were the basis for die rolls. If you’d like to see how this all played out, check out the embedded video at 01:05:00. 

Equipment and creative problem-solving
Related to the above point, the characters’ equipment lead to a lot of very interesting and creative problem-solving by the players. Unlike in a PbtA game, where simply getting a 7+ on a die roll leads to your character overcoming a diffculty, you have to use your smarts as a player to solve problems in Trophy Gold (this is true of most OSR games). As the GM, it was very enjoyable watching the players puzzle over how their pot of grease or 300’ of twine could be used in a situation (and so they could get an all-important light die in a Hunt Roll or Risk Roll). I’ll also add here that the Dungeon World-like equipment slots are another fun avenue for creativity, though, unlike DW’s Adventuring Gear, Trophy Gold equipment has a bit more of a creative constraint in that you can only choose from a list of approved items. In play, though, it felt really similar to Adventuring Gear, which is one of my favorite rules from DW. 

The “push your luck” aspect of the game is ever-present
When I interviewed Jesse Ross, the author of the game, for Fear of a Black Dragon, something he emphasized in the conversation is the “push your luck” aspect of Trophy Gold’s gameplay. On paper, I understood what he was talking about, but it wasn’t until I saw the game in action that I truly appreciated this aspect of it. Hanging over everything are the characters’ Burdens—essentially, the price of coming back to town in order to rest up—and these Burdens inform so much of the players’ decision-making. Importantly, as the players are collecting tokens from Hunt Rolls, they are tempted to use some of them in order to collect treasures, which will help them meet their Burdens and, ultimately, allow them to save up to satisfy their Drive. On the other hand, they need save enough tokens to actually complete the goals of the dungeon, and the longer they spend doing Hunt Rolls in order to collect tokens, the greater chance they have of running into some sort of danger that will kill them. And this tension is SO palpable at the table. 

The “push your luck” aspect also comes out in combat, but we haven’t quite yet seen that in our game. However, I can say that…

Combat is INTENSE
Holy shit. It has been a long time since I’ve played a game where combat felt truly lethal and where the stakes of each die roll were extremely high. We only had one combat in our session (prior to that, the players were using Risk Rolls to avoid it) but the players immediately understood what was at stake. They could probably survive one or two bad die rolls, but a third bad die roll would almost certainly have killed one of them, or, at the very least, it would have made going back to town a much more expensive proposition (since they’d have to spend their hard-earned Gold on healing). Fortunately for them, they defeated the creature in one roll (they rolled a 9 on two black dice when they needed an 8 or higher). But right up until the dice results were revealed, the tension was thick. 

The presentation of sets is a key GM skill in this game
This may not necessarily be how Jesse intends for the game to go, but I think the presentation of sets is really, really important when running Trophy Gold. The thing about sets is they represent discrete areas of the adventure, and they don’t necessarily equal each other in terms of geographical area covered or length. So, for example, in our session we managed to get through 2 sets: the first was a miles-long journey to the dungeon and the second was just 2 areas in that dungeon. No matter the size of the set, it’s completed whenever the players spend 3 Hunt Roll tokens to do so. I think in order for players to properly judge when to go ahead and pull the trigger on completing the set, they need to understand the goal of the set, whether that be in-character or out-of-character knowledge. 

Here’s what I did: much like moving from Ring to Ring in core Trophy, I actually announced to the players “You are now moving into the next set.” I even went so far as to give the players a lot of explicit, out-of-character knowledge about the set. So, in the first set I said “This set is about the journey to the ancient tomb. The goal of the set is the find the entrance to the ancient tomb.” In the second set I said “This set is the False Tomb. Your characters believe it is the real tomb, but as players, you know your goal is to locate the entrance to the True Tomb.” Since the spending of Hunt Roll tokens is a strictly out-of-character thing (your characters have no sense or notion of this), it made sense to me that the presentation of goals should also exist on the same, meta plane. And I’m here to tell you: it worked beautifully. The characters get to have their dangerous, thrilling, hopefully-lucrative adventure, while players and GM work together to advance the story in a way that makes sense. 

The Hunt Roll scales beautifully 
The Hunt Rolls were very effective. In fact, I think everyone at the table was pretty shocked by how great this particular mechanic is. My comment on The Gauntlet Forums about only using the Hunt Roll for large areas should be disregarded. In fact, it scales beautifully to both large areas and small areas. 

Once you get the hang of it, the Hunt Roll is a very intuitive rule. Basically, as the GM, you describe a thing in the environment. If a character goes to investigate, you have them do a Hunt Roll. This leads to the core gameplay loop of Trophy Gold: Hunt Roll leads to danger presented leads to Risk/Combat roll. Spend your tokens and move on to the next set or engage the gameplay loop again by doing another Hunt Roll. It worked great and the players loved it once they understood how it worked. 

The main thing I think you need to consider when it comes to the Hunt Roll is how flexible you are able to be in the moment as a GM. In the sets I was using, the dangers and treasures presented were enough to satisfy most Hunt Rolls and token spends, but there were a couple of occasions where I had to make up a treasure on the fly, and if that’s not something you are comfortable doing, you may want to have a treasure table handy (the one in the Trophy expansion found in Codex - Emerald works great). I didn’t need any on-the-fly dangers, but I could see a situation where it might be handy to have something like that in your back pocket, too. 

I strongly recommend watching the video embedded below (gameplay starts at 39:46) to see how to effectively use Hunt Rolls. 

The Risk Roll from Trophy is very sturdy in this context
In core Trophy, the Risk Roll is paramount; it governs every conflict in the game. Trophy Gold has a couple of new rolls to help it better tell a classic fantasy adventure story, but the Risk Roll is still quite prominent and is highly-functional in this new context. The changes to the text of the roll, particularly the addition of allowing equipment to give you a light die, helps make it fit into this OSR-ish frame. And, as ever, the Devil’s Bargain remains a terrific engine for collaborative story telling. 


Questions I had
I did have a few questions about the game as I was running it. I’ll address those here. 

Do you pool hunt roll tokens? The text of Trophy Gold isn’t clear about whether you can pool your Hunt Roll tokens in order to achieve the set goal. I conferred with Jesse and he said that you can, in fact, pool them, which is the call I made during the game. 

How do Rituals work in combat? We had a moment where we weren’t quite sure how Rituals were handled in combat. I made the call that they were simply fictional positioning—that you still made the Combat Roll as normal, but that you could use your Ritual to narrate what your character was doing in the scene. Jesse told me this was the right way to handle it. 

What will going back to town be like? We haven’t yet returned to town and engaged the various procedures there, and I’m curious how this is going to go from a storytelling standpoint. As written, it’s a very mechanical process (spend Gold to satisfy Burdens, spend Gold to lower your Ruin, spend Gold to get new equipment slots, store Gold away, etc.). I’m curious whether and how we will get some story there, since there isn’t a lot of textual support for building narrative into these procedures. 

The bestiary is intriguing, but I wonder how it feels long-term. I really liked the bestiary as a sort of high-level form of character advancement; it was really fun to name the encountered monsters and to know that that knowledge outlives the characters. But we haven’t yet played long enough to experience the mechanical advantages you get from the bestiary, nor to just generally understand how it affects the long term gameplay and story. I’m intrigued, but need more data. 

Overall impressions
I loved Trophy Gold. It is exactly how I want to do OSR-style fantasy adventure from now on. I thought I’d never find a game to wean myself off World of Dungeons with, but this is definitely it. It has the feeling of an OSR game—of rich, deadly dungeon exploration—but with a flexible, narrative system that appeals to me.

Session video
You can check out the session we played in the video embedded below. To jump straight to the gameplay, go to 39:46. 

Trophy Gold can be found in Codex - Gold, which will be available on DriveThru in November. 

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9/27/2019

Gauntlet Video Roundup - September 27, 2019

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[Gauntlet Hangouts logo]
Greetings, and welcome to the weekly Gauntlet Hangouts video roundup! Enjoy these new recordings of online games organized through Gauntlet Hangouts and the Gauntlet RPG community. These recorded sessions represent only a portion of the wide selection of games available every week, and anyone is welcome to join in the fun! If you'd like to play in new games (or catch up on the back catalog of recordings), check the links at the end of the post.

Star Wars Saturday

Bounty of the Week (Session 3 of 4)
Rich Rogers runs for Blaise, John Campbell, and Rob Ruthven
The Bounty Hunter team adds a member on a hunt for nexu on Canto Bight!

Gauntlet Sunday

Legacy Fantasy (Session 4 of 5)
Lowell Francis runs for Ary Ramsey, Patrick Knowles, Robert Angus, and Sherri
The families regroup and then finally turn to deal with the threat in the south, but an expedition leaves multiple PCs dead and sets the stage for the Turning of the Age.

TGI Thursday

Amber Diceless (Session 3 of 4)
Lowell Francis runs for Eli S., Peter Mazzeo, Steven Watkins, and Will B
Our Amberites must find a way out of the weave-world trap, but first they must face down two elder Amberites or at least their woven duplicates...

Gauntlet Quarterly

Masks: Prospect Academy (Session 3)
Leandro Pondoc runs for Erez, Gerwyn Walters, Ryan M., and Sabine V.
Even with the expected chaos of a superhero student council election, nobody expected the dragon in the quad. Mary is further haunted by the actions of her future self, Serenade remembers an old memory of the implant's, Jay is burdened by expectation after expectation and Princess Hollyhock of the Vale of Storied Dreams has come to look for her lost playmate and have fun in the process.

Gauntlet Comics

Nahual (Session 3 of 4)
Rich Rogers runs for Alexi S., Eli S., Sarah J., and Sherri
The Nahuales face down a Type 4 demon and win...but then things get worse.

Indie Schwarze Auge

[DEUTSCH] World of Aventurien: In Liskas Fängen (Session 5)
Gerrit Reininghaus leitet eine Session für Andrea, Rye, Sabine V., und Tina T.
Follows our heroes again through the Nivesensteppe in our calm and introspective treasure hunt. Sometimes, the most heroic thing to do is to help to repair rather than taking revenge. But when otter demons send their dreams, painters and brewers have a hard time not to turn greedy.

Gauntlet League Wrestling

World Wide Wrestling: Gauntlet League Wrestling 2019 (Session 8 of 8)
Lowell Francis runs for Chris Newton, Gene A., Jeff Bernstein, Matt A., and Tyler Lominack
Here it is the big PPV and everything's up for grabs. Witness the Gauntlet Gamble, see management interfere, watch two belts go up for grabs! Stay for the shocking finish!

Gauntlet Hangouts

Unincorporated: Juggalos in the Mist
Bethany H. facilitates for Barry and Chris Newton
Gus confronts a former bandmate who tried to pay him off with a stolen ring. Cory's attempt to train a new assistant goes horribly wrong. Brook plots to keep the love of his life from marrying someone else. Surely an appearance by the legendary monster of Barber Pond will stop the wedding. Right?

Spectaculars: The Virtuosos (Session 3)
Mikel Matthews runs for Alexi S., Michael Mendoza, and Pearl Zare
Sigil - The Virtuosos take on a group of 9er Mercs who've taken over a government building. The strange sigils they've seen before have appeared again and it appears that Alicia "Sherlock" Bennet is watching Thunderclap as she tests her gauntlets. Magnetar discovers some side-effects from his suit and Your Buddy Made of Mud finds that being a 9' Golem makes you stick out a little.

Spire: Ironshrike (Session 2 of 4)
Leandro Pondoc runs for Gabriel Robinson, Kyle H., and Pawel S.
Ironshrike seethes. Somewhere in its knotted web of relationships, from desperate drug peddlers to venal gun-running arsonists, religious matriarchs and would-be righteous squires, somewhere in the sea of desperation, is the key to killing a market. Varda seeks to prioritize looking after the weak and dispossessed, Nirvic orchestrates a masterful strike to precipitate social change and Joz carefully demonstrates the principle of, "Punch first, never apologize ever."

Achtung! Cthulhu Dark: The Depth of the Horror (Session 3 of 4)
Alun R. runs for Dan Felder, Paul Rivers, Pearl Zare, and Will H
Arthur Blake returns to Dunkirk and his decent French and reasoned argument enables him to avoid detention by a suspicious German patrol. Reunited with the team a plan is hatched to investigate reports of an SS presence at the quayside. There follows daring dashes and bloody knife-work before an ancient statue is blown up and disturbing visions revealed. But where, exactly, is the Fish Witch...

Hit the Streets: Defend the Block: The Golden Oldies (Session 3)
Rob Ruthven runs for Alun R., Leandro Pondoc, and Steven
Marcus abuses his position at the care home to create an opportunity for the Golden Oldies to investigate the Lightning Beverage Plant, Morgan is forced to choose between helping the team or reconnecting with her daughter, and Aemilia receives a warm greeting from an old acquaintance.

Apocalypse World: Loudness Wars (Session 2)
Sawyer Rankin runs for Puckett, Rich Rogers, and Saribel P.
The excursion to a re-imagined plantation ends up in a slave revolt and a dead master, as it should, thanks to our intrepid heroes(?) before a chance meeting with one of the Idols of Gnashville ends with her dead and rent apart by a coaxed mob. The Psychic Maelstrom is invoked to start an uprising that will alter the course of Gnashville forever.

Apocalypse World: Loudness Wars (Session 3)
Sawyer Rankin runs for David Morrison, Rich Rogers, and Saribel P.
Our house Mutha goes shopping out in the Dust and stands up to a cruel Idol who had dared to bring her Family into this. Or, at least, a stupid pantomime of threats. Our Hocus seems to be losing our Skinner's affections for good until the Idols storm their high falutin' dinner party and all hell breaks out. What ends in a ravaged battle exposes the fear of Goddess-hood by the dancer and primes the other two fine ladies for war.

Downfall
Stentor Danielson facilitates for Kirk Rahusen and Kristina
Our Hero had to deal with relationship trouble in the midst of a society exchanging seasonal cuisine for soylent and switching from mandatory 6-letter names to 3-letter ones.

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 project 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.

To support The Gauntlet, please visit the Gauntlet Patreon. Everyone is welcome to sign up for Gauntlet Hangouts games, but Patreon supporters get extra options like priority RSVP for Gauntlet Hangouts 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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9/25/2019

Age of Ravens: Planting the Tech Tree

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SUNK CREDITS FALLACY
While I still have many bits to figure out, the final big puzzle piece for my Alpha Centauri hack has been mechanics for developing the colony itself. For this I'm adapting one of the best systems from Mutant: Year Zero: the Ark-building mechanics. They're great and solidly involve the players. I'm always surprised some version isn't present in more Mutant games. So far only Forbidden Lands has anything close. A modified version to represent the PC's ship in Coriolis would be awesome.

At the beginning of most sessions in Mutant: Year Zero the players collectively decide on projects. These develop a new process, raise a building, or enact a societal change for the mutants of their Ark (Cropland, Tavern, Surveillance). They start from near zero because up to that point they've relied on the Elder to lead them. PCs can work on a chosen project, rolling one of the skills associated with it. Each success rolled generates a Work Point. When the project has enough points, the group adds it to the Ark. It can add new effects to daily life, but more importantly it raises the Ark's rating in one or more of the four development tracks (Culture, Food, Technology, Warfare).

The Ark overall improves as they hit mileposts on those four development tracks. For my hack, I changed them to Food & Survival; Defense & Military; Culture & Infrastructure; and Tech & Discovery. Those echo the tech tree tracks from Alpha Centauri. I've made the tracks longer, while upping the potential points from any single project. So far  I've only created what I call "Tier One" tracks-- those they have available at the start. As we move along I will add to this. Breaking it into parts creates some mystery (and makes it easier for me to work on). 

SEE ALSO
36 Moods for an Alien Planet
Colony Zero
Your New Home in the Outworld Colonies



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BUILDING QUEUE 
Projects represent the colony focusing resources, energy, time, and expertise. While the colony isn’t beginning from scratch they are battling against the loss of advanced techniques, deaths of dedicated experts, materials beyond their skill, lack of resources, lack of proper equipment, and a host of other factions. Colony projects help increase the colony’s development rating in four areas:

FOOD & SURVIVAL
Improvements which allow for greater supply and diversity of water and foodstuffs. As importantly developing systems and treatments to deal with planetary contamination, diseases, and environmental conditions.
  • 0–9 Food supplies are constricted. The Colony carefully controls and allots rations. Miscalculations and loss threaten at all times. Planetary illnesses and environmental exposure claim lives. One material can be traded for one ration. Session Body Count is normal.
  • 10–24 Starvation isn’t far away, but the Colony has just enough to cover their day to day needs – as long as the protein and reclamation systems aren’t threatened. Better preparations and systems on hand for dealing with environmental hazards. Decrease the Session Body Count by one.
  • 25–39 Efforts mean that from time to time the colony has enough to provide extra rations for those most in need. Colony Contamination Protection suits have +1 rating. One material will buy you two rations. Decrease the Session Body Count by two
  • 40-54 Colony has enough surplus and stability to begin bringing some additional personnel out of stasis. Rather than rolling Body Court roll a Growth and a Death die. Subtract the higher from the lower. If the higher is the Growth die, add that to the population. If it is the Death die, subtract it.
  • 55-69 New forms of food begin being adopted. Colony Contamination Protection suits have +2 rating. One material will buy three rations.
  • 70-84 No one in the Colony needs to go hungry. Colonists begin to change and experiment with the taste of what they eat and drink. One material will normally buy you four rations. Roll two dice for the Growth die and take the highest.
  • 85-99 The Colony has enough food to trade with external groups if necessary. Characters no longer have to worry about buying food. Setting up additional colony sites becomes easier.
  • 100+ Abundant food and protections. If intact, Colony Protection suits completely negate contamination. No longer roll a Death die.

DEFENSE & MILITARY
Protection and security for the colony against threats from native flora and fauna. Also useful against rival colonists or rogue settlers. Can also focus on the development of forces for attacking targets outside the colony.
  • 0–9 The Colony has the most rudimentary defenses. Battle Level 1.
  • 10–24 The Colony has begun to secure its perimeters against conventional threats. Battle Level 2 vs. Human Threats; Battle Level 1 vs. Native Threats.
  • 25–39 The Colony has begun to develop security measures and weapons to deal with the native flora and fauna. Battle Level 2 vs. all threats. If necessary the Colony can organize and attack adjacent sectors with Battle Level 1.
  • 40-54 The Colony has begun to organize itself more carefully and arm security forces appropriately. Battle Level 3 vs. Human Threats. Battle Level 2 vs. Native Threats and when attacking adjacent sectors.
  • 55-69 Colony has armed itself significantly and developed more mobile attack systems. Battle Level 3 vs. all threats and adjacent sectors. Can attack further out targets with Battle Level 2.
  • 70-84 Colony has standing military and security forces. Likely supplemented with additional vehicles and support systems. Battle Level 4 vs. Human Threats. Battle Level 3 vs. Native Threats and when attacking adjacent sectors. Can attack further out targets with Battle Level 2.
  • 85-99 The Colony has heavily invested having an agile and effective military. Battle Level 4 vs. all threats and when attacking adjacent sectors. Can attack further out targets with Battle Level 3.
  • 100+ Colony has a robust military and security forces. Battle Level 5 for Colony defense, Battle Level 4 for all external conflicts.​ 

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CULTURE & INFRASTRUCTURE
This covers the comfort, stability, and morale for colony members. Also includes developments concerned with training, education, and expansion. Some projects assist with internal security, while others deal with organization, governance, and philosophy.
  • 0–9 Life in the colony is dull, unremitting, and stressful. Every moment feels like a struggle against death. If rolling for end of session Body Count, roll two dice and take the highest. Roll 4d6 to test each faction’s strife clock.
  • 10–24 Colonists have access to some privacy as well as slightly more downtime. The colony offers some basic comforts and support. Roll 3d6 to test each faction’s strife clock.
  • 25–39 Colonists have access to some forms of basic entertainment. Expressive materials are stored for public use. Political discussions are possible but controlled. Roll 2d6 for each faction’s strife clock.
  • 40-54 Colonists begin to develop unique arts and customs. Discussion about authority lead to decisions about political philosophies. Basic schools established. Roll 2d6 for each faction’s strike clock.
  • 55-69 Populace is generally cared for and supplied with amenities. More advanced schools and training facilities established. Filled Strife Clocks no longer automatically cause a crisis. PCs can attempt to defuse issues before they come to a head. Roll 2d6 for the strife clock of the non-PC faction. Otherwise roll 1d6.
  • 70-84 More advanced teaching techniques. Characters have high-level infotainment. At the end of each session, players mark an additional XP. Roll 1d6 for each faction’s strife clock.
  • 85-99 Colonists have access to new art forms and advanced luxuries. At the end of each session, players mark two additional XP. Roll 1d6 for each faction’s strife clock.
  • 100+ Colonists have amenities and facilities resembling old Earth. At the end of each session, players mark two additional XP. Roll 1d6 for each faction’s strife clock.

TECH & DISCOVERY
Reconstructing lost science and technology. Includes research on the planet itself. Increases the default level of technologies. Some advances can have implications far beyond the colony itself. Unlike other Developments, the Tech Levels here tie highly to what projects can be worked on next and what kind of goods can be made within the colony.
  • 0–9 Basic mechanical knowledge
  • 10–24 Basic mechanics as well as distributed basic science knowledge.
  • 25–39 More advanced mechanical techniques. Life sciences based around the Planet itself
  • 40-54 General scientific knowledge and principles spread throughout the colony.
  • 55-69 Better material sciences
  • 70-84 Development of significant autonomous systems.
  • 85-99 Advanced and unusual technologies
  • 100+ New applied science and theories

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BUILDING PROJECTS
Most projects have DEV Requirement which represents a minimum colony development level or specific project the colony must have to undertake the task. Skills means the skills which someone working on the project can choose to roll from. Work Points is how many successes are required on project rolls in order to go forward, usually based on the # of PCs. DEV Bonus is how much could be added if the projects successfully completed.

TIER ONE PROJECTS

ENTRY BARRICADES Earthworks, simple walls, and spikes are constructed near the main entrances to the colony. Allows for better entry control.
DEV Requirement: None
Skills: Endure or Force
Work Points: 1 × number of PCs
DEV Bonus: Defense & Military +2D6

LOCAL FORAGING Organized expeditions into local sector to capture simple flora and fauna.
DEV Requirement: None
Skills: Move or Shoot
Work Points: 1 × number of PCs
DEV Bonus: Food & Survival +2D6

MULTI-FAITH TEMPLE Basic location for spiritual practices and personal privacy.
DEV Requirement: None
Skills: Human Perception or Society
Work Points: 1 × number of PCs
DEV Bonus: Culture & Infrastructure +2D6

BASIC LABS Rudimentary lab station for analyzing samples and sensor data.
DEV Requirement: None
Skills: Science or Technology
Work Points: 1 × number of PCs
DEV Bonus: Tech & Discovery +2D6
 
PERIMETER ALARMS Simple system of tripwires, electric eyes, and laser grids set up to alert the colony to incoming threats.
DEV Requirement: None
Skills: Shoot or Technology
Work Points: 2 × number of PCs
DEV Bonus: Defense & Military +4D6

DOCTRINE: DISCIPLINE The colony imposes strict controls over movement and training. All able-bodied persons are required to undergo extreme combat training. Cells are organized into tight hierarchies. Objections, shirking, and disobedience are met with swift punishment.
DEV Requirement: Military & Security 5
Skills: Manipulation or Unarmed
Work Points: 3 × number of PCs
DEV Bonus: Defense & Military +5D6, Culture & Infrastructure +1d6

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COMM SYSTEM Most communications within the colony are section to section. This would focus on building a basic shared communication network throughout the colony. Key personnel would have individual communicators. Out in the field it would allow for short range communication within a team (but not back to base).
DEV Requirement: None
Skills: Manipulation or Technology
Work Points: 2 × number of PCs
DEV Bonus: Culture & Infrastructure +4D6

HAB UNITS Currently most colonists sleep in shifts in barracks, divided by faction and role. This puts effort into building smaller shared units, allowing for a measure of privacy and personal space. Also reduces chances of cross-contamination and infections.
DEV Requirement: Culture & Infrastructure 5
Skills: Human Perception or Society
Work Points: 3 × number of PCs
DEV Bonus: Cultural & Infrastructure +5D6, Food & Survival +1d6
 
RECYCLING TANKS Enhanced reclamation technologies put into place. All waste products and materials must be carefully cycled back into the colony’s systems. Based on shipboard systems.
DEV Requirement: None
Skills: Manipulation or Society
Work Points: 2 × number of PCs
DEV Bonus: Culture & Infrastructure +4D6
 
AGRI-POD Isolated facility used to test and grow Earth-based plants and seedlings with native soil and other components.
DEV Requirement: Food & Survival 5
Skills: Endure or Planet Lore
Work Points: 3 × number of PCs
DEV Bonus: Food & Survival +5D6, Technology & Discovery +1d6
 
BIO-LAB Enhanced reclamation technologies put into place. All waste products and materials must be carefully cycled back into the colony’s systems. Based on shipboard systems.
DEV Requirement: None
Skills: Science or Planet Lore
Work Points: 2 × number of PCs
DEV Bonus: Technology & Discovery +4D6

BASIC ARMORY Machine shop dedicated to the production of simple weapons: blades, knives, bows. Reduces the cost of simple slug thrower and slug rifles. Bullets can now be bought 1 material for 6 bullets.
DEV Requirement: Science & Technology 5
Skills: Technology, Melee, or Shoot
Work Points: 3 × number of PCs
DEV Bonus: Technology & Discovery +5D6, Defense & Military +1d6

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

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9/24/2019

Trophy: Notes on Ring 3

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by Jason Cordova

As of this writing, I have run 17 games of Trophy, Jesse Ross’s game of dark fantasy and psychological horror. The purpose of these blog posts is to share the lessons I have learned so you can improve your own experience with the game (and possibly your experience with roleplaying games in general). 

Links to the other entries in this series:
9 Tips for Running Trophy 
Trophy: Notes on Ring 1
Trophy: What's the Point of All These Tables?
​Trophy: Notes on Ring 2

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​You can learn more about Trophy by clicking the image. ​
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The Trophy actual play podcast is now live!  
Before I begin talking about Ring 3, I want to let you know that The Gauntlet is now producing an actual play podcast for Trophy. The first series is a play-through of The Flocculent Cathedral incursion, featuring myself, Fraser Simons, Bethany Harvey, and Lowell Francis. If you have been following this blog post series, I strongly recommend taking a listen to this podcast. The production values are very high, and each episode is a manageable 30-40 minutes long. Importantly, each episode is a different ring of the incursion, and you get a really good sense for how to run and play this game. You can find the series right here.

Now let’s talk about Ring 3 of the incursion. These notes are not presented in any particular order, nor are they meant to be “authoritative.” They are simply my observations from running the game. 

The calm before (and after) the storm
Ring 3 is situated just after the hard environmental challenges of Ring 2 and just before the monstrous terrors of Ring 4. It is a bit of a decompression phase, a chance to breathe, and you should treat it as such. This isn’t to say it’s a “slow” or less dramatic part of the game (in fact, it can be the most intense ring, emotionally-speaking) but it is a time for the treasure-hunters to take stock. Have you had any scenes at camp yet? If not, Ring 3 is a great opportunity to do so. Did something particularly intense happen between two characters in a previous ring? If so, frame a scene in Ring 3 so they discuss it. 

Focus on the personal
Minimize environmental dangers, minimize direct attacks from the forest, and emphasize personal matters. The danger and drama of Ring 3 comes from seeing how people in an extreme situation cope with each other and themselves. Even when you have no choice but to pose external threats in Ring 3 (perhaps because of a Devil’s Bargain), you should ask the players questions about how that external threat affects their treasure-hunter personally. A very loaded and leading question will usually get the job done. An example: 

The treasure-hunters are facing down a wild cat in Ring 3 as the result of a Devil’s Bargain. One of the treasure-hunters has a drive related to impressing his disapproving father. Before a risk roll takes place, the GM asks the treasure-hunter how this wild cat reminds him of a hunt he was on with his father—a hunt that went poorly and caused his father to upbraid him. 

Don’t forget conditions!
As the GM, you should always be asking the treasure-hunters questions, and in Ring 3, those questions should focus on the personal and interpersonal. How did it make you feel when Kasien lost the map? Why is this mission worth enduring this misery? What does Orlen do at camp that drives you crazy? Importantly, don’t forget to ask about conditions. In practice, because you’re so focused on environmental dangers and the characters’ drives, it can be very easy to forget that one of the treasure-hunters is now behaving in a very strange way, or has some kind of strange physical affliction. Ring 3 is an excellent opportunity to remind the players of these strange things, and you can do so by asking them a question as simple as “How does it make you feel?” And, of course, if the situation warrants it—say, because a fellow treasure-hunter’s condition is particularly disturbing—invoke ruin rolls. 

Sow the seeds of betrayal 
The seeds of betrayal that are planted in Ring 3 should, theoretically, bear fruit by Ring 5.  Terrors in Ring 3 are almost always about how the treasure-hunters begin to mistrust one another. If you are following the text of the incursion closely, you shouldn’t have any trouble getting the treasure-hunters to turn on one another, even if it’s just in small ways for now. 

The reduction roll also has a major part to play here. I almost always have a treasure-hunter hit Ruin 5 somewhere in Ring 3. The first time this happens, you should take a minute to remind the players of the consequences of hitting Ruin 6 and then explain how the reduction roll works. Then, you should very explicitly ask the player of the treasure-hunter at Ruin 5 if they would like to have a scene in order to trigger a reduction roll. They will almost always take you up on this (much to the chagrin of the other players) and, before you know it, treachery and villainy abound. 

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9/20/2019

Gauntlet Video Roundup - September 20, 2019

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Greetings, and welcome to the weekly Gauntlet Hangouts video roundup! Listed below are links to recorded sessions of online games played under the Gauntlet Hangouts banner and other games organized through the Gauntlet online RPG community. These recorded sessions represent only a small part of the giant selection of games available every week, and anyone can join in the fun! Details on how to become a part of the community are listed at the end of the post.

Special Announcement

We now have a new way to enjoy Gauntlet Hangouts games! Thanks to Gauntlet Community member mystery_dough, the recorded Gauntlet Hangouts sessions listed in this roundup are now also available in audio podcast form! Browse episodes and get subscription information at http://gauntlet.hellomouth.net/.

Gauntlet Hangouts Videos

Star Wars Saturday

Bounty of the Week (Session 2 of 4)
Rich Rogers runs for Rob Ruthven and Sabine V.
A short and sweet end of a hunt as Johanna rescues the Ombudsman's daughter while Quake stays behind on the station to hold off Pandit Morg.

Gauntlet Sunday

Legacy Fantasy (Session 3 of 5)
Lowell Francis runs for Ary Ramsey, Patrick Knowles, Robert Angus, and Sherri
The Age Turns and we see how the lands change after almost a decade, but what has been built comes under threat as horde of Elves sail from the East, bearing destructive God-Bleed sorceries.

TGI Thursday

Amber Diceless (Session 3 of 4)
Lowell Francis runs for Eli S., Peter Mazzeo, Steven Watkins, and Will B
Trapped in the woven world, the trio come upon other Amberite siblings, but trust does not come easily, especially when earlier betrayals come to light.

Gauntlet Quarterly

Masks: Prospect Academy (Session 2)
Leandro Pondoc runs for Ludovico Alves, Ryan M., and Sabine V.
Prospect Academy's snap student council election seems to have a surefire winner: the perfectly poised Future Superhero of America known as Diamond Dust. Not if our heroes have anything to say about it. Kasey gains a new identity to do the work she needs to do, Serenade stands up to a foe (with no punching!) and Mary works to provide a more wholesome alternative to Diamond Dust, even as she is confronted by her future.

Gauntlet Comics

Urban Shadows: Coven Prime Ongoing (Session 6)
Jim Likes Games runs for Alexi S., Misha B, Pearl Zare, and Sarah J.
The occult heroes of Coven Prime walk into the lions den, some of them invited, some of them not. Cliff-hanger ending!

Urban Shadows: Coven Prime Ongoing (Session 7)
Jim Likes Games runs for Alexi S., Misha B, Pearl Zare, and Sarah J.
The occult heroes of Coven Prime work to save Lucas, discuss Mutually Assured Destruction, and respond to unique job offers.

Indie Schwarze Auge

[DEUTSCH] World of Aventurien: In Liska Fängen: Otter & Schweine (Session 4)
Gerrit Reininghaus leitet eine Session für Andrea, Sabine V., und Tina T.
A goblin boar ritual including a goat organ, landscape painting, the boar-lifecycle-dance and a snake roasting tree. When the old mage dies, the otter takes over control.

Gauntlet League Wrestling

World Wide Wrestling: Gauntlet League Wrestling 2019 (Session 7)
Lowell Francis runs for Chris Newton, Gene A., Jeff Bernstein, Joe Zantek, Matt A., and Tyler Lominack
The cast revolts and rejects the Creative Committee's booking, leading to a complete reworking of the card, The Weasel's brief triumph, and more insight into the awfulness which is "Yellow Rose" Dave Dallas.

Gauntlet Hangouts

Silent Titans (Session 2 of 4)
Jesse A. runs for Asher S., Jason, Jason Zanes, and Sherri
Our heroes explore the towns of Elles Mere and Legions Fort, meet some interesting people and are set on a collision course with a group of Wreckers...

Hearts of Wulin: The Four Masters (Session 7)
David Walker runs for Leandro Pondoc, Pearl Zare, and Sabine V.
The Winter's Kiss - Tiger Eye confronts betrayal and their own heart, Sable Serpent is given guidance by an old enemy, and Perfected Starfall brings balance and explosive fireworks. Warning: contains flashing lights in the last 45 minutes.

Monsterhearts 2: Ballhir: On Thin Ice (Session 2 of 3)
Donogh runs for Dan Pucul, Sabine V., Sarah J., and Steven
Eoin's dance practice turns into a public recital, with Muirín's song bringing things to a mournful close. Donovan the Sasquatch's lurking turns into something more active, while Ajit's school blog takes off. A party where the awkwardness of the whole situation plays off the slow unveiling of Malachi's (aka Muir Iasc's) true nature, and feelings.

Spectaculars: The Virtuosos (Session 2)
Mikel Matthews runs for Michael Mendoza, Pearl Zare, and Sabine V.
What May Hatch - The heroes search down the source of the cyborg attackers, force an Italian restaurant to do the right thing, go on Colbert, and try to make a deal with the Department of Defense.

Achtung! Cthulhu Dark: The Depth of the Horror (Session 2 of 4)
Alun R. runs for Dan Felder, Gerrit Reininghaus, Paul Rivers, and Pearl Zare
Her Majesty's Pursuivants organise a follow-up mission based on the information obtained behind enemy lines last time. They must go to the Belgian seaside town of Nieuport...which was fine when they planned it but King Leopold of the Belgians has just signed a surrender to protect his cities from German bombing. Suddenly Sgt Strauss is escorting 2 agents into occupied territory (again)! Intense Viennese analyst Adriana wins the Sgt's respect for coming up with a cunning plan while former actress (and student of semiotics), Egglantine, plays a number of parts to get them to the centre of the occupied town in broad daylight. There they surprise, confront, and overcome, plainclothes members of SS Sondergruppe KFW2 and rescue captured archaeologist Marcel DuChamp. Private Reggie Wooster discovers what war is like at the sharp end, all the time conscious that Her Majesty's Pursuivants have a hold over him that means he has no real choice in his involvement. Sgt. Strauss tears a strip of the upper class lad, who refused the King's Commission, and that is making Reggie think seriously about the path he is embarked upon, and that maybe this will not be the 'jolly jape' he'd hoped. Adriana races back to British lines with the rescued archaeologist while the others take refuge in a Nieuport basement with a group of Belgian soldiers determined to fight on...

Monsterhearts 2: L.A. Noir: Hollywood Babylon (Session 2 of 4)
David Walker runs for David Morrison, Jim Likes Games, Pearl Zare, and Sawyer Rankin
Adam gets an unwelcome early call that leads into a spiraling conspiracy of death, devils, contracts and magic. The young vampire Rudy makes a deal with a mogul. Hacksaw is murdered, twice and the queen of Hollywood shows her fangs.

Kingdom: Dwarf Mountain (Session 3 of 4)
Michael Mendoza facilitates for Luiz Ferraz, Richard Moser, and Robbie Boerth
A reluctant ruler, a noble exile, an expat elder, and a kobold captain struggle as a recovering dwarf kingdom debates how to aid dwarf hills under attack by the Wyrmblood King.

Heart: Playtest (Session 1 of 2)
David Morrison runs for Donogh and Leandro Pondoc
Ishkran is a Witch - the victim of an eldritch blood disease giving him unnatural power - shunned even by the oppressed Drow of the Spire, and drawn to the Heart by its siren song. Morrow is a heretical priestess of the Moon Beneath, with a mysterious past and a burning desire to find physical proof of the existence of her goddess deep within the Heart. Together, the pair leave the relative stability of the town of Midden to journey to Nightmarket, a mysterious - and cursed - encampment of traders. Morrow trusts in her goddess to light the way through the dark, and Ishkran exhibits an uncanny affinity for the beasts of the Heart. Reaching Nightmarket, Morrow learns of the next step in her journey, while Ishkran makes an offering to the Heart...

Night Witches: Pashkovksaya 1943 (Session 3 of 4)
Jim Likes Games runs for Bethany H., Maria M., Mike Ferdinando, and Puckett
The 588th successfully completes the Campaign to Defend the Caucasus, and looks ahead to their next duty station 8 months later.

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 play in games like these, check out the calendar of events and the Gauntlet Forums where games are announced. To support The Gauntlet, please visit the Gauntlet Patreon. Everyone is welcome to sign up for Gauntlet Hangouts games, but Patreon supporters get extra options like priority RSVP for Gauntlet Hangouts 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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9/19/2019

Trophy Gold: An OSR/storygame mashup for desperate treasure-hunters

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by Jesse Ross
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For the past year, I’ve been dreaming up an OSR game based on the rules of my tragic fantasy RPG, Trophy. An on-the-rails horror storygame might not make the most obvious starting point for an open-ended, gold-grabbing adventure. But for a world full of monsters and with desperation fueling every action, I could think of no more perfect foundation. 

Because of its heritage, Trophy Gold is an entirely new take on OSR gaming. It keeps the spirit of old school D&D, but uses totally different mechanics to get there. With so many excellent old school systems to choose from, why use Trophy Gold?

1. Trophy Gold is light. 

Character creation takes five minutes (or less, if you use Ramanan’s incredible treasure-hunter generator), the rules are simple, and you’re only ever rolling d6s (though you’ll need two different colors of dice for maximum effect).

Everything about your character is minimal but evocative. Your class (which is made up of a background and an occupation) tells you who you were, who you are, and what you’re skilled in. But it only takes 7 words. For example, you might be an "Escaped Cultist (deception) Oracle (gods, rituals, trances)" or a "Cured Beastbitten (transformation) Ranger (beasts, hunting, traps)". 

Rituals—the spells of Trophy Gold—are also minimal. They’re all level-less and anyone can cast them, which simplifies their management even as it increases their danger. They’re also all described in just a single line of text. This isn’t me being a lazy designer. This is because I want GMs and players to negotiate the actual effects at the table. Trophy—and Trophy Gold by extension—is all about collaborative play.

Let’s take the Trophy Gold equivalent of the standard Fireball spell: Kindle. The entire description for Kindle is just "produce fire from oneself." That’s all it says. 

How much fire? 
Is it projectile? 
Can I control it? 

I don’t know! Work with the GM to see what makes sense! Trophy Gold trusts the creativity of players to do awesome things with a few simple words. 

2. Trophy Gold is risky. 

Every die roll asks you if you want to risk your mind or body to improve your odds of success. Push yourself, put your five or fewer hit points on the line, and try to achieve your goal. Make a bad roll? Push your luck and try again.

Most pure OSR games emphasize that combat should be quick and deadly. Trophy Gold makes combat quick by collapsing a fight down to the equivalent of one or two Morale rolls, adjusting the difficulty to account for taking advantage of terrain, special tools, and prior knowledge. It makes combat deadly by increasing the odds of injury the longer combat goes on, making death a very likely outcome if fights stretch beyond two rolls.

Trophy Gold also mechanizes the chaos of combat. Having more allies in a fight increases the chance of a quick victory, but also increases the likelihood of death by friendly fire. And if you get into a battle where you’re in over your head, as an individual, you can easily get out of it. However, to do so, you need to pick one of your allies to remain in the fight and expose them to even more danger.

3. Trophy Gold is tangible. 

Trophy Gold is full of elements that bring changes in the in-game world alive at the table.

When you encounter some strange new monster and live to tell about it, you record it in a special document called a bestiary. The bestiary outlives all the characters, allows for in-town research to learn more about the monster, and makes future battles against the same kind of monster easier for any character who has access to the bestiary. 

When you do kill a monster, you don’t just mark down XP. Instead, you get a handful of dice to roll when you get back to town to see how much gold you get for its meat and bones and scaly hide. 

And when you work your way through a grimy dungeon or haunted forest, you get actual, physical tokens to track your progress or trade in to discover valuables. Of course, what is given can be taken away: every roll you make to explore further risks losing all your tokens, and any in-game progress you’ve made. 

4. Trophy Gold is weird. 

It might be swords-and-magic fantasy, but in Trophy Gold, you’re not Tolkienesque elves and dwarves. Play as a human, sure. Or play as a:

  • Beastbitten, shapeshifting—and dangerously devolving—were-folk
  • Manikin, Pinocchio-like constructs and masters of mimicry
  • Faeborn, illusion-weaving changelings hidden behind charmed masks

The world of Trophy has lots of strangeness you can pull into Trophy Gold too: child-sized earth elementals that mine the deepest depths against their will, and dragon-dungeon hybrids that teach you space-warping magic. Anything available in any of the published Trophy expansions is right at home in Trophy Gold.

5. Trophy Gold is thematic. 

The game comes with a framework and a set of tools for GMs to convert existing modules into adventures that emphasize theme and narrative. Start with your favorite old school module and a couple of hours of game prep time, and end up with a collection of thrilling movie-like set pieces that are easy to run at the table.

6. Trophy Gold is hackable. 

Like all good OSR games, Trophy Gold is built on a series of independent but interconnected elements that can be adapted and swapped as needed, to make the game you want. Don’t like the way the Trophy Gold encounter tracking works? No problem. Swap it out for for Carapace, or Progress Clocks, or good old fashioned “strict time records.”

The whole game is also under a Creative Commons license (CC-BY), so you can make, distribute, and sell your own games based on Trophy Gold. Please do, and then come tell me what cool stuff you’re dreaming up!

This is a project that I’ve been itching to bring to life for a long time now, and I’m super excited to share it with you all. You can get Trophy Gold in Codex: Gold right now by backing the Gauntlet’s Patreon at the $6 level.

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9/18/2019

Age of Ravens: Legacy: System Guide for New Gamers

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I‘ve come to appreciate Legacy as one of my three favorite Powered by the Apocalypse rpgs. It’s probably in my top ten games period. In it you play a family and a character in a world just emerging from the shadow of an apocalypse. It has generational play: moving the timeline forward and changing the world as you go. The first game I ran for The Gauntlet was the first edition and I did a terrible job. Later I ran the new edition from the beta for The Gauntlet, still terribly.
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It wasn’t until my third attempt that I made serious effort to understand the game. I run a ton of systems, so I’m pretty good at picking up the highlights and running from those. I’d skimmed Legacy and assumed I could spot differences and patch over gaps with my PbtA knowledge. But Legacy has many moving parts—and they support each other. I’d missed how powerfully some systems shaped the game feel.
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So I want to help others with a quick overview of what Legacy is, how it works, and what’s worth picking up. As of this writing, The Bundle of Holding still has a Legacy collection up. I hope to show the value of that.

The System
Your Family and Character
Play Features
Core Rules
Core Supplements
Additional Worlds
Stand Alone Games
 

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THE SYSTEM
I won’t try to fully define Powered by the Apocalypse games. Legacy shares some basics with those, but also has a unique framework. Typically PbtA plays as a story game, with a conversation that continues until you hit a trigger. That trigger may be a specific action or the need to resolve some key uncertainty. What you do and how that resolves is called a Move—which can be specific to a particular playbook (your class), a basic move everyone can use, or something else.

When a move is triggered, players roll dice, usually 2d6. Results commonly fall into three types. Full success, meaning the character gets what they want or they have the most options. Partial success, meaning that success comes at a cost, lesser effect, or with a complication. Finally a miss means that the character does not succeed or must pay dearly for success.

A move’s impact depends on the system. In some games, a move in a conflict might simply inflict damage. In others, the move roll might determine everything about the fight. Legacy leans towards moves with a broader effect.

The GM does not roll in PbtA games. Instead the GM makes moves, usually when a player rolls a miss. Legacy calls these reactions. Reactions can be hard or soft, depending on the possible consequences. GM reactions might inflict harm, change your relationships, take away resources, or other options.

Legacy assumes a post-apocalyptic world, though the nature of that world is left in the hands of the players. It could be more grounded like Fallout or more fantastical like Numenera. In Legacy each player creates and controls a family and a character within the family. At the start of the game, the scattered communities of the world have begun to build and move forward.

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YOUR FAMILY AND CHARACTER
At the family level you decide the course of your whole community. Each family has a playbook which sets out all the choices for family creation. These include questions and features which define the community, the world, and what came before. Each family has several unique moves, special abilities related to their theme. So The Lawgivers of the Wasteland have Round Up the Posse where they can call up a gang of locals to assist in their mission. The Enclave of Bygone Lore’s Deep Knowledge gives them several fields they have an advantage in. The Order of Titan has Kaiju Threat Alert which lets them warn other families about impending dangers and gain treaty via that.

Treaty represents connections and debts between families. Some moves require treaty to function. The family move Call in a Debt lets you spend treaty to gain a bonus in interactions with another family, take a surplus from them, or push them into a particular course of action. Targeted families can spend treaty or make a test to resist.

Other family moves include Hold Together, Conduct Diplomacy, Seize by Force, and Subterfuge. Families have two key currencies: Tech which you use to gain advantage on rolls, and Lore which you spend to reveal secrets about the world. Additionally, each family has surpluses and needs (like morale, food, security, etc). You need surpluses to keep the family going and eventually to make wonders which change the world. You balance surpluses against your needs; if you have more needs than surpluses, you’re more at risk when hit by events and when you jump forward in time.
 
At the character level you play a single member of that family. They’re important, but their role within the family varies. On the meta-level you the player make choices for your family. Your PC may or may not be the one pushing an agenda forward. You define this via a “role” you choose (Leader, Agent, Rebel, Outsider). Each playbook has different abilities for these roles and different triggers for when you switch between them. Changing your role lets you advance your character, but when you’ve been all four, you retire.

When you change a role, you can add +1 to a Stat or gain a new playbook move. Each playbook has handful of thematic moves. For example The Envoy can know secrets of other families, the Firebrand can blend in with a crowd, the Survivor can work past their own pain. Each character playbook also comes with a unique harm track.

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PLAY FEATURES
Zooming in and out
In play you move between the family and character levels. Family play works at a grand scale with settlements growing, resources being seized, and alliances forming. To color these moments, you might quickly move in to look at your PCs’ place within those events. But if you move to focus on an important scene or task, you Zoom In. For example you might Zoom In for PCs heading out to meet a new faction, facing a threat, or going on a quest.
 
When you Zoom In on a PC, the table checks to see if other PCs want to involve themselves. If anyone’s PC doesn’t, they still get to play in the scenes. In this case they make up a Quick Character from the lead PC’s family. Each family has a unique set of moves for these characters. QCs also have a relationship to the PC and their own stats. It only takes a few moments and this mechanic is, to paraphrase Paul Beakley, Legacy’s secret sauce. In play Quick Characters don’t feel like throwaways, they often have their own arc. They also reveal more about that particular family.

When that Zoomed In scene concludes, we Zoom Out. Any PC who wasn’t present chooses from a set of benefits and narrates what happened to them during that time. It’s a great way to handle troupe-style play. The game overall continues—doing multiple passes of family play until something feels like it has the weight for a Zoom In. The rules suggest beginning a campaign with the PCs together working on a task related to several of their agendas from roles.

Play Choices
The core rules have eleven family playbooks. Each feels distinct and unique. But they’re also open enough that you could play the same family twice with very different approaches. The rules break the families into three groups. Ruins types work well in most kinds of campaign. These include The Gilded Company of Merchants, Lawgivers of the Wasteland, and Tyrant Kings. Echoes types assume that the world has lots of technological relics and marvels hanging around. These include The Cultivators of the New Flesh, Enclave of Bygone Lore, and Pioneers of the Depths. Finally Mirrors type family playbooks introduce an odd or world-changing element. These include The Order of the Titan, Servants of the One True Faith, Stranded Starfarers, Synthetic Hive, and Uplifted Children.
 
Likewise Legacy offers a ton of choices for characters. The thirteen playbooks also break down into the three types mentioned above. Ruins playbooks include The Elder, Envoy, Firebrand, Hunter, Scavenger, Sentinel, Survivor, and Untamed. Echoes include The Reaver and Seeker. Finally the Mirrors types are The Machine, Promethean, and Remnant. If that seems too much, don’t worry. As mentioned above, the rules include a scenario with pregens, a basic history, and an outline for the GM.
 
Turning Of Ages
At some point your group will feel you’ve dealt with the key threats or elements. You can then choose to move time forward: a few years, a decade, a century, etc. This is called The Age Turns. Each family rolls +Mood (# of surpluses - # of needs) to see how their family fares. This gives a number of trials and/or tribulations chosen from lists. You could choose to give your family new moves or raise a stat. Afterwards you can make changes to your family based on events: settlement patterns, doctrines, culture. You narrate this and add elements to a shared map created at the campaign start. 
 
When the age turns, your character marks a role and advances. At this point you can narrate how their place has changed within the family. Alternately you may decide to retire that character, beginning anew with a different playbook. This flexibility means you can really tell a generational story.
 
The turning of the age offers a great opportunity to think about what you want from the next age and how you might build a Wonder. These are grand-scale, civilization-impacting projects. If you’ve played Civilization or similar games, you’ll see the connection. Legacy’s core rules offer six choices (Age of Discovery, Energy Revolution, Total War, etc). Creating a wonder requires your family sacrifice five surpluses, not an easy thing. If you succeed, your family gains a benefit as do families who have treaty with you. Wonders offer a great goal for players—if you’ve clawed together some stability and dealt with threats, you can start to plan a way forward. 
 
OVERALL
Obviously this doesn’t cover everything happening in the game, but these elements feel unique and important. Legacy takes some getting used to. Elements can be highly abstracted. A single roll can have a massive impact. Rather than blow by blow, most actions resolve a whole situation and set up the next one. If you’ve played other PbtA games, be aware that family and character creation will almost certainly take a whole session. If you want to get running quickly, consider playing the quick start set up in the core book or one of the additional QS scenarios UFO Press has released.

WHAT TO BUY?
CORE RULES
Legacy Core
: The single-volume Legacy core rules has enough to play from. The hardcover is excellent with solid binding and two ribbon bookmarks. It also has multiple indexes. The pdf offers the advantage of hyperlinks and term searches if you’re comfortable working with purely electronic editions. Only the GM needs to purchase the core book, but players will likely find the material useful and relevant. Given that you can choose moves from other playbooks and need to plan for Wonders, it may be useful to have at least two copies at the table. Regardless, you’ll want to download and print out the pdf handout sets for your table. You can find them here. These have all the moves and playbooks as well as GM reference sheets. With a single copy of the core rules and these sheets, you can easily run an extensive Legacy campaign.
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CORE SUPPLEMENTS
UFO Press has released two hard-cover supplements for Legacy with new options and themes. Both show off the richness of the system. They’re a great example of how a PbtA game can expand its material.

The Engine of Life: Subtitled “Hope and Rebirth in a Ruined World.” This volume offers a more positive spin on the post-apocalyptic setting. It keeps an undefined fallen future, but offers advice and tools for games focusing on building and cooperation. EoL includes essays on love; tradition; and culture and revolution. New optional mechanics include the Prophet role, Havens, Festivals, and more. Surprisingly, given the richness of the base game, it adds six new family playbooks and seven new character playbooks.

Three of these new families (The Coalition, Eternal Masquerade, and Syndicate of the Lost) are Ruins-type, working with most campaigns. Two fit with the deep tech settings of Echoes worlds (The Architects of Tomorrow and Timestream Refugees). The latter in particular gives support for players who want to define more of the future or past. Finally the Serene Choir is a Mirrors type, bringing more weirdness. Here you play a family of fallen “angels” or like beings who have fallen into this world.

The character playbooks lean more conventional, with six of the seven fitting with most campaigns. I particularly like The Matchmaker and The Storyteller. Both lean into community and connections. The Prodigy is the odd one here, literally. This character has tremendous powers and a strong sense of the future to come (and how they can shape it).
Finally Engine of Life includes four new wonders. These offer a welcome addition to the palette from the core book. Each speaks to connecting the communities to a central idea or generally offering a form of rebirth. The final chapter gives a quick-start using some of the ideas and elements from these rules. Like other quick starts, it gives a good on-ramp for GMs who want to try out the play without much prep or set up.

End Game: Subtitled “Doom and Entropy at the End of All Things.” This mirrors Engine of Life, presenting a darker, crumbling take on the post-Fall world. If you thought your Legacy game wasn’t grim or PvP enough, this offers a host of tools. The essays here cover The Horror of Isolation; Tragedy; Synergy and Creative Planning; and Strategy. New mechanics include a Traitor role, Doom Clocks, Nightmares, and more. It adds six new family playbooks and six new character playbooks.
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All of the family playbooks seriously reshape the tone and feel of the setting. Three are Echoes type (The Bonded Pack, Failed Guardians, and Doomsday Riders). The last of these possesses a massive arsenal of weapons and tech. They’re suited to a game of warring factions. The other four are Mirror-type (Ascendant Afflicted, Deathless Elite, Evolved Survivors, and Eldritch Servants). They’re all high-concept. For example the Afflicted has your family cursed by a contagion that you can use to infect other families. If you wanted to run a zombie horde, this is your chance.

The character playbooks lean equally strange. Two—The Martyr and Road Warrior—would fit in most campaigns. I like the description of the latter as a form of Knight Errant. The other four are Mirrors-type (The Foundling, Hellion, Herald, and Warlock). The Foundling challenges your character’s relationship to your Family. On the other hand, The Herald allows you to switch through a set of heroic archetypes, changing up the role rules from the core game.
End Game’s four new wonders aren’t obviously as dark as you might expect. They do embrace a world that needs defenses or escape from terrible threats. The most interesting of these is the Race for the Stars. This one actually builds on previously created wonders, meaning that it really only comes into its own in a long campaign. Finally like Engine of Life, End Game wraps with a quick start setting with four defined families and characters. (Unfortunately as of this post, End Game appears to be unavailable). 

Wasteland Almanac: A pdf-only collection of settlements, devices, and threats. Each has twenty entries with a name, brief description, and some questions to help you shape the ideas. A product for the GM which is interesting and useful but not essential.

QUICK STARTS
UFO Press has released two Quick Starts of Legacy: Titanomachy and Non-Compliant. Both have four pre-generated families and characters. They provide a sketched out setting, rich enough to play from but with enough room for you to fill in spaces. There’s a basic overview of the mechanics and a step by step guide to beginning the game. It’s amazing how much material the designers get into a tight package here. As of the writing, the pdfs of both quick starts are free on DTRPG and you can purchase a relatively low-cost PoD version.

Titanomachy has you playing families on a colony world who have been devastated by the coming of Gigas who smashed down the infrastructure and sent the homeland into darkness. Now your families have begun to rebuild and figure out how to face these foes. There’s an Attack on Titan vibe, mixed with a little Godzilla. Non-Compliant, on the other hand, offers a recognizable fallen Earth. You play families in the free zone of Salt Lake City. Outside lies a world being terraformed and exploited by alien forces.

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ADDITIONAL WORLDS
UFO Press has released four new settings for use with Legacy. These can be purchased as pdfs or softcovers. These four plus the stand-alone Rhapsody of Blood can also be found in a “Worlds of Legacy” slipcase edition.
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Generation Ship: You play characters and families in a generation ship still far from its final destination. Has new rules for the starship’s environment itself acting as a challenge. Instead of Wonders, you have Ships Systems. Investing in those can change the world as a whole (and introduce new problems). Hews close to base Legacy, making it an easy alternative.

Godsend: The largest of these setting supplements. Instead of families, you play divinities: gods who need faith to change the world. At the character level, you play an Avatar. However, you play the Avatar of another player’s divinity. Quick Characters are replaced by the Apostles. But the biggest change Godsend makes is that it is diceless. It’s a striking approach, ala Dream Askew, and could be a model to change other Legacy settings. The book offers a broad range of playbooks, but your group’s reaction may rest on if they like diceless approaches. This is the supplement with the most changes from the base rules.

Primal Pathways: A “biopunk” setting of strange evolution. Has an interesting system of traits for focusing characters. You play deliberately inhuman but sentient creatures. Offers interesting tools which you could adapt across Legacy games. It’s well done, but may be a stretch for some groups.

Worldfall: A space colony setting not unlike Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri. Has a tight set of seven playbooks each for Cabals (family) and characters. Rather than taking a broad or threat-based approach to colony stories, Worldfall focuses on the politics between factions. The end goal is to shape and control the colony’s philosophy and governance. Excellent and focused setting.

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STAND ALONE GAMES
So far UFO Press has released four -ish stand-alone Legacy rpgs.
Rhapsody of Blood: One of the Worlds of Legacy, this can best be described as Castlevania the rpg. I mean that in all the best senses—atmosphere, the meta-story’s cyclical nature, a morphing castle. In RoB you play an Explorer from a Bloodline travelling into the depths of a nightmarish castle to battle an ancient evil. The journey may corrupt you, it may kill you, and it may end with betrayal. When the castle’s vanquished, Rhapsody of Blood rolls forward and you see how the next generation faces the legacy of their past.

RoB offers an amazing and tight distillation of the Legacy mechanics combined with a great system for exploration. It’s well worth picking up. The ever-amazing Maria Rivera has expanded Rhapsody of Blood with her Choir of Souls supplement, which adds seven new Explorer playbooks.

Voidheart Symphony: An in development but available stand-alone sequel to Rhapsody of Blood. If RoB is Castlevania, then VS is Persona, complete with Tarot archetypes and covenants. Here rather than generational play, your characters face a manifestation of the castle and then come back to the real world for days or weeks before the next conflict arises. It’s a dynamite game even at these early stages and a must have if you dig later Persona video games.

Free from the Yoke: This version of Legacy takes its inspiration from Slavic fantasy. In it you play Houses (aka families) who have thrown off the influence of the distant Empire. Now you have to figure out how to manage, negotiate, and move forward. FftY has a striking set up which balances an evocative setting with imaginative space for the players. Legacy veterans will recognize much of the basic system here.

But Free from the Yoke also offers several changes. Some are modest, like the new Pitched Battle House Move. But the biggest change comes in the form of the Arbiter. This is the person who led the Houses out from under the Empire’s thumb. Now all the Houses must serve and assist with the Arbiter’s ambitions and plans. Play is structured around Ages, the time in which the Houses work on and contribute to one of the Arbiter’s projects.

The GM manages the Arbiter and uses one of three playbooks to represent how they came to power, who serves them, their agenda, and what projects they favor. Ages are made up of Seasons, with a move to represent transitions between them. When a Season changes, each house must roll to see their place and influence within the Arbiter’s court. When the Houses complete the Arbiter’s project you resolve the larger Turning of Ages.

It’s a great game, showing how you can use Legacy to explore a more focused story with generational play. The addition of the Arbiter creates new play options for the GM.

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Mysthea: Based on an Italian board game property, Mysthea had a successful Kickstarter campaign. The full version hasn’t been released yet, but you can check out the Quick Start available for free on DTRPG. Like other Legacy QS games, it has the basic rules, a scenario set up, and paired family/characters (for up to five players).
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In Mysthea you have a House (family) and a Hero (character). Play centers on the city of Montara which has recently been devastated. Players work to further their House’s agenda and gain influence and control within this city. The setup has question prompts tied directly into the pre-gens, a nice touch. Mysthea adds interesting new tech. Covenants are the bonds between Heroes. They power moves like Aid, Evoke a Covenant, Test a Covenant, Declare a Covenant. It adds a treaty-like options at the character level. The rules also have a flexible magic options to change a character’s scale.

House Actions work similarly to family actions from base Legacy. However rather than free-floating play, each House gets a set number of House Actions. Players decide the length of time between character play and that sets how many everyone gets. Most moves feel close to the original, nicely tweaked for the setting. There’s an additional Rituals move which lets your House spend resources to do big magic.
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The actual game will include more (seven Houses and eight Heroes). It will have Wonders which fit with the history, rules for longer time jumps, and more magic mechanics. In particularly I’m interested in the city creation mechanics promised in the final version. If you’re interested in fantasy and Legacy. I recommend checking out the Quick start.
 
OTHER PRODUCTS
UFO Press has also released an Art of Legacy book with illustrations as well as Sounds of the Wastelands, a collection of music.

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9/13/2019

Gauntlet Video Roundup - September 13, 2019

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[Gauntlet Hangouts logo]
Greetings, and welcome to the weekly Gauntlet Hangouts video roundup! Listed below are links to recorded sessions of online games played under the Gauntlet Hangouts banner and other games organized through the Gauntlet online RPG community. These recorded sessions represent only a small part of the giant selection of games available every week, and anyone can join in the fun! Details on how to become a part of the community are listed at the end of the post.

Star Wars Saturday

Bounty of the Week (Session 1 of 4)
Rich Rogers runs for John Campbell, Rob Ruthven, and Sabine V.
The crew of hunters set off after the kidnapped daughter of a Trade Federation Ombudsman...and find dangerous enemies.

Gauntlet Sunday

Legacy Fantasy (Session 2 of 5)
Lowell Francis runs for Ary Ramsey, Patrick Knowles, Robert Angus, and Sherri
A great winged beast threatens the land, drawing the attention of the Spears, Keepers, and Silvertongues-- but their quest to eliminate the threat reveals deeper magics at play.

TGI Thursday

Amber Diceless (Session 2 of 4)
Lowell Francis runs for Peter Mazzeo, Steven Watkins, and Will B
Simon and Morgard convince Joanna to leave her Shadow Army, and the trio sets off to escape the Orca-killers and uncover the strange new threat facing their fellow Amberites.

Gauntlet Comics

Nahual (Session 1 of 4)
Rich Rogers runs for Alexi S., Eli S., Sarah J., and Sherri
In La Colina, the Nahual pack of La Pluma Azul have mundane troubles with their taqueria. Oh, and there's a cherub!

Nahual (Session 2 of 4)
Rich Rogers runs for Alexi S., Eli S., Pearl Zare, and Sherri
In La Colina, the Nahual pack of La Pluma Azul deal with diablos and old memories.

Gauntlet League Wrestling

World Wide Wrestling: Gauntlet League Wrestling 2019 (Session 6)
Lowell Francis runs for Chris Newton, Gene A., Jeff Bernstein, Joe Zantek, Matt A., and Tyler Lominack
Mr. Fabulous goes for blood and, despite Terremotois intervention, turns heel. Meanwhile Dave Dallas continues to burn bridges as rumors swirl about possible cuts and roster shifts.

Gauntlet Hangouts

Apocalypse World: The Loudness Wars (Session 1)
Sawyer Rankin runs for David Morrison, Puckett, Rich Rogers, and Saribel P.
Welcome to Apocalypse World 2e in Gnashville in The Loudness Wars pt 1. We breeze through characters and introductions and meet some...characters in Gnashville and, in the end, everyone walks into a very obvious trap on the edges of the city. What delightful fun!

Hearts of Wulin: The Four Masters: The Ghost Festival (Session 2 of 4)
David Walker runs for David Morrison, Gerwyn Walters, Mikael Tysvær, and Sabine V.
Tiger Eye is forced to confront a ghost and a lover for a final time. The Dirty Fist finds her long lost sister and finds out she is lover to the Emperor's Eye - the Custodian Clear Sky. Whilst the brave Iron Armed Penitent leads the Emperor's Blade Moon-Sworn Heart away from her allies to face her in a duel to the death.

Achtung! Cthulhu Dark: The Depth of the Horror (Session 1 of 4)
Alun R. runs for Horst Wurst, Paul Rivers, Sabine V., and Will H
It's May 1940, and the Nazi blitzkreig through Northern France has left an MI6 agent with information vital to the allies stranded behind enemy lines. His Majesty's Pursuivants dispatch untried academic Arthur Blake and a sophisticated Polish courier, the Lady Zofia Odrowaza, to find Agent WOTAN amongst the chaos of the retreat to Dunkirk. They are escorted by Lieutenant, the Honourable, Philipp Blonde and cockney Sergeant, Wilbur Strauss, of the Grenadier Guards. Arthur smokes heavily, learns to use a Bren Gun and risks an Elder Sign; Wilbur discovers tank guns are easier to use than you'd think; Lady Zofia ensures a Guards Major realises who is really in charge and demonstrates her capacity to hotwire a Kubelwagen and her dedication to getting the information out...at any cost; while Lt Blonde makes some hard choices between his orders and some civilian refugees, before demonstrating heroism which will influence his family's sense of duty for generations to come...

Monsterhearts 2: L.A. Noire: Hollywood Babylon
David Walker runs for David Morrison, Jim Likes Games, Pearl Zare, and Sawyer Rankin
We go back to the city of Angels and 1941 - this is the second in a set of stand alone urban supernatural games set in the living city backdrop of a noir framed Los Angeles. The shadow of Babylon had fallen over Hollywood, a serpent spell in crude cuneiform; scandal was waiting, just out of Billy Blitzer's camera range. Corruption, excess and darkest desires. Careful what you wish for in new Babylon, no one is what they seem and you might just take a bite out of a sweet cookie full of arsenic.

Night Witches: Pashkovskaya 1943 (Session 2 of 4)
Jim Likes Games runs for Bethany H., Maria M., Mike Ferdinando, and Puckett
The airwomen of the 588th deal with the aftermath of an attack directly on the base, and an oversight culminates in tragedy.

Silent Titans (Session 1 of 4)
Jesse A. runs for Jason, Jason Zanes, Paul K, and Sherri
Our group of intrepid heroes who barely know their own names go toe to hoof with Dr. Hog and his Brain Apes.

Band of Blades: Road to Skydagger Keep (Session 2)
Mikael Tysvær runs for Alun R., Parham Doustdar, Steven, and Will H
The Legion attacks a stronghold of The Knight of the Black Oak, attacking them head on!

Kingdom: Dwarf Mountain (Session 2 of 4)
Michael Mendoza facilitates for Luiz Ferraz, Robbie Boerth, and Steven
A fallen king, a stone seer, a noble exile, and a master smith fight for control of a stagnating dwarf kingdom while volunteers intervene in a kobold civil war.

Monsterhearts 2: Kingsport 1876 (Session 4 of 4)
Catherine Ramen runs for Jesse A., Joe Zantek, Seraphina Malizia, and Steven desJardins
The Fourth of July celebration arrives at last. Selina tries to find new allies; Johnny makes a fateful decision; Adam calls upon a strange and powerful being; Atalanta finally confronts Selina.

Monsterhearts 2: Kingsport 1894 (Session 1 of 4)
Catherine Ramen runs for Rich Rogers, Sarah J., Seraphina Malizia, and Vince
Strange books are discovered in Watkins House; Patrick gets an unfriendly reception; Anathema advises against speaking to the dead; Margaret receives help; Herman becomes mired in the inexplicable.

Hit the Streets: Defend the Block (Session 1)
Rob Ruthven runs for Leandro Pondoc, Sabine V., Sawyer Rankin, and Steven
Four retired supers - Aemilia Price, Arboretor, Controller, and Grandmother Superior - team up to protect the local park as a young cape trades blows with a rock monster, with little concern for collateral damage.

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 play in games like these, check out the calendar of events and the Gauntlet Forums where games are announced. To support The Gauntlet, please visit the Gauntlet Patreon. Everyone is welcome to sign up for Gauntlet Hangouts games, but Patreon supporters get extra options like priority RSVP for Gauntlet Hangouts 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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9/11/2019

Age of Ravens: Your New Home in the Outworld Colonies

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SEEDING SCENARIOS 
Mutant: Year Zero has a ton of little tech that I love: community building mechanics, exploration flavor generators, rival/protect questions in character creation. In particular I like how it builds scenarios. Each session the GM generates a random event-- just before, at the start, or at the end of a session. The game wants the GM to approach these story starters with fresh eyes and not overplan. MYZ keeps these tight; based on the brief concept and questions GMs should be able to flesh out and improvise play. It helps that Free League sells a deck of MYZ cards which include these events. 

I want to take the same approach with my Alpha Centauri: Year Zero space colony hack. I haven't yet made these into cards (but I'm tempted to). Below you'll find 41 random events to kick off scenarios. Some take inspiration from MYZ events, while others come from SMAC and beyond. I hope these will be useful for others running sci-fi games. 

AC: YZ COLONY EVENTS
Roll d66 each session. The GM may choose to skip this if enough threats are already in play.
Most of these assume early days of the colony. If it has made significant advances along the tech tree, adjust accordingly. Events will often put pressure on colony systems; consider temporarily subtracting from development levels until the situation’s resolved.
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11 Faction vs Faction
The leadership of two factions come into conflict. Is it the highest leaders or just their seconds? Are these Admins or some other role? What are they fighting over? (Resources, Justice, Privileges, Personnel, Mission Agenda, Personal Grudges). What have they done so far? Who have they pulled in? How long before this conflict gets nastier? Roll +1d6 for each faction’s Strife Clock until resolved.
12 Internal Dissension
A member questions their faction’s leader. Do they want a voice or look to usurp power? Is the dissension expected or does it come from an unusual place? What do they want? (Resources, Justice, Privileges, Personnel, Faction Agenda, Personal Grudges). What have they done so far? Who have they pulled in? How long before this conflict gets nastier? Roll +1d6 for the faction’s Strife Clock until resolved.
12 Bizarre Weather
The colony’s shaken by a series of strange weather events: tornadoes, heat waves, lightning storms. Are these just natural phenomena of the planet? If so, then the challenge lies in understanding it and finding ways to protect the colony. On the other hand is it purposeful? If it’s a machine run amok or calculated attack perhaps the source can be found and dealt with.
13 Derelict Aquatic Station
Scouts report the tides have beached a large floating structure. The location lies several days beyond current explored boundaries. The vessel could be an extraction or purification ship. There’s a strong possibility of uncontaminated metals, intact systems, and perhaps even clues to what happened to the earlier colony ships. Do the factions organize groups or is the race to get there a free for all?
14 Wild Growth
Some form of flora or fauna surrounding the colony goes wild. It could be a fungal bloom, releasing choking spores. Or perhaps plants undergoing an explosive spread. If the outbreak’s based on wildlife, a species undergoes a rapid population increase either due to a birth cycle or migrations. Has something triggered this? If flora, what kinds of lifeforms does the growth draw?
15 Food Systems Polluted
The colony’s central food production systems break down. Mechanical systems finally give out or an infection strikes the protein vats. Who knows of this? How long do they keep it secret? The cost of rations rises as do factional tensions. The only hope is to go out across the planet to look for a solution (salvaged parts, local antidote, etc). Roll +1d6 for each faction’s Strife Clock until resolved.
16 Rogue Robot
Some kind of autonomous machine threatens the colony. Is it a group or a single large robot? Did it come from one of the previous colony ships? Is it something which self-assembled? Or is it an alien device? Does it attack colonists outside the walls, destroy infrastructure, or something more insidious?

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21 Water Supply Threatened
The systems filtering contaminants for the colony begin to fail. Water rationing goes into full effect. One clean water costs three material. The desperate turn to contaminated supplies. The only hope is to go out across the planet to look for a solution (salvaged parts, new approaches). Until resolved, PCs cannot clear contamination upon return to the colony.
22 Data Loss
Computers throughout the colony suffer crashes and files vanishings. What is lost? Is it a virus leftover from the ship? New sabotage? Some kind of attack? A planetary phenomenon? How do the colony factions react? What kinds of measures do colonists begin to undertake? Can the colony survive without access to Old Earth’s knowledge?
23 Incomprehensible Survivor
A human appears on the colony’s doorstep. Are they a survivor from the Vishnu’s crash or one of the two earlier vessels. Communication with the stranger proves nearly impossible. What at first seems to be a foreign language turns out to be some kind of severe aphasia. What can they learn from the survivor and his gear? Can the PCs find a trail back? What about the stranger makes no sense?
24 Missing Person
A key person in the colony vanishes. What evidence do they leave behind? Have they disappeared willingly? How do the missing person’s divisions and factions react? What kinds of fears does this generate throughout the colony? What’s behind this? (Resources, Justice, Privileges, Personnel, Mission Agenda, Personal Grudges).
25 Murder in the Colony
A key person in the colony turns up dead from violence. Did the killer attempt to hide the body? Why were they killed? What secrets did the victim hold? Who is assigned to the case and what happens to the colony’s mood when they make little progress? What’s at stake? (Resources, Justice, Privileges, Personnel, Mission Agenda, Personal Grudges).
26 A New Experience
A new addiction begins to run through the colony. Is it a synthetic drug? A virtual experience? Some adapted native secretion? What effect does it have on the users? How does it begin to disrupt life in the colony? Who profits from it?

31 New Ruins Discovered
A new site appears in a previously explored sector. Did the PCs spot it or did someone pass the info to them? Did a change reveal the ruins, were they overlooked, or did they somehow transport there? Beyond their sudden appearance what makes the ruins striking or distinctive? Who seems to know more about them than they’re saying?
32 The New Beast
Scouts and scientists have begun cataloging wildlife surrounding the colony. But a series of attacks suggests something new, larger, and more dangerous has appeared. Is also seems smarter and more calculating, avoiding alarms and traps. Who do the PCs know that has been attacked? What traces does it leave? What unusual power does it seem to possess?
33 Sunspots and Solar Flare
Solar storms disrupt communications and systems within the colony. Leaders order key elements shut down to ride out the storm. How does this impact projects and personnel in the field? What measures can be taken, especially if and when the power goes out? How long does this last? What other planetary phenomena seem triggered by these flares?
34 Project Sabotaged
One of the colony’s completed projects goes offline. While it looks like an accident, details suggest that the failure may have been deliberate. What has been damaged and who benefits? If there is a saboteur, is it a single person or a group? What’s their agenda? (Resources, Justice, Privileges, Personnel, Mission Agenda, Personal Grudges).
35 Psychic Infection
A mental plague burns through the colony. What symptoms do victims exhibit—hallucinations, paralysis, night terrors, sensory loss, or something else? Who is patient zero? Which of the PCs friends is affected? Is the original source something from the planet, a talent gone wrong, or is this an attack? What kinds of treatment and protection work?
36 Sinkhole
The ground opens up near the colony revealing something hidden: ruins, tunnels, wreckage, an animal nest, etc. What threat or temptation does it offer the colony? What project does the sinkhole threaten?

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41 Decayed Orbit Crash
A blaze rips across the sky as a piece of orbital debris strikes the planet. What suggests the crash site may hold something of value? Where does it land? How do teams compete to be the first one there? What else might be drawn to investigate?
42 Treasure Hoarders
A fellow colony cell has been more secretive and cautious than usual. Rumor has it they’ve found something of high value in a far off sector. But they’re clearly keeping the rewards to themselves. How do the PCs catch wind of this? What has kept this out of the sight of other scouts? What will this group do to keep this secret?
43 Cult of Planet
A mania spreads throughout the colony as a prophet arises. They claim to hear the voice of the planet. Several persons, drawn from across factions, have joined this prophet and begun to disrupt daily life. What does their leader preach and how will it impact the colony? What areas do their prophecies touch on? (Resources, Justice, Privileges, Personnel, Mission Agenda, Personal Grudges).
44 Outbreak
A disease strikes the colony—forcing new isolation and quarantine procedures. It disrupts the operations across all divisions. What are the symptoms? How fatal is it? What can be done to keep the rest of the colony safe? What suggests that a solution can be found among ship wreckage or located on the planet itself?
45 Infected Attack
A swarm of organic beings assaults the colony. They’re husks with a strange sentience. Are they local animas, humans, or something else? What has done this to them: a parasite, a psychic maelstrom, fungal infection, or something else? What tricks suggest a higher intelligence? How long before victims turn into members of the swarm?
46 Behemoth Alert
Seismic sensors suggest something moving on a straight path towards the colony. How does the leadership equip the PCs to check it out? What do they find: a massive monster, a lumbering machine, a herd of beasts, or something else? Can the threat’s path be turned away? If not, can it be destroyed or contained?

51 Tremors Rock Area
A series of seismic events hits the region around the colony. Is it natural or is there reason to suspect an outside force? How does it damage the colony? What kinds of after-effects must everyone prepare for? What project is damaged or put in peril by these events?
52 Encrypted Signals
Strange communications come from an unusual source. Who detects it? Do they share it? Is the signal random, a human code, or something else? How does it change over time? Which faction dedicates resources to pursuing a solution? How does it haunt those who work on decryption?
53 Resource Conflict
Two departments or factions come into conflict over a rare resource. Neither seem willing to back down and the schism threatens forward progress. What’s at stake? Who is pushing the argument? How can this impasse be fixed? Roll +1d6 for both factions’ Strife Clock until resolved.
54 Mysterious Power Drain
Electrical systems, batteries, EMP shielded devices—all begin to slowly but surely lose power. How does the colony compensate? What other technologies must they turn to? What’s the source of the problem? Can it be stopped?
55 Alien Monolith
Scouts spot an intact structure, clearly not of Earthly manufacture. It defies external sensors. Does the colony forbid or push for investigation? How do the different factions react? What happens when a team investigates? (Clones them, reveals lore, teleports them, releases alien lifeforms, etc.).
56 Hail Storms
A series of hail storms strike the colony, damaging structures and systems outside the walls. The rare solar panels are especially at risk. How can personnel protect colony assets or conduct salvage operations in the midst of this terrible storm? What project is most threatened by the hail? Who or what takes advantage of the chaos?

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61 Turncoat
Evidence emerges that someone has turned traitor. Are they betraying a PC’s faction within the colony? Or is the problem even larger, with the traitor in contact with faction members elsewhere? What evidence has come to light—is it reliable? If this gets out, will paranoia grip the community? And what have they actually done? What seems to be their reason? (Resources, Justice, Privileges, Personnel, Mission Agenda, Personal Grudges).
62 Dangerous Alien Tech
A Scout brings back a trinket from an expedition which proves dangerous. What does it look like? What does it do? How do the PCs learn of it? What makes it a challenge to deal with? Which friend of a PC has been affected by it?
63 Colony Contact
The colony makes definitive contact with another colony—are they fellow escapees from the ship crash, survivors from one of the previous ships, or something else? What kinds of exchange do they want? What kinds of agendas and factions drive them? How do the factions within the colony respond to this news?
64 Lost Patrol
Contact has been lost with another cell’s Scouting expedition. What keeps the colony leaders from sending out a rescue party? Who do the PCs know on the lost team? What clues do they have to what happened?
65 Reckless Experiments
Someone has decided that progress can only come through sacrifice and has begun secret research and experiments. What kinds of tests are they running: drug reaction, psychological stress, sociological? What fallout do these cause? How does it disrupt life in the colony? Which friend of a PC is drawn into this?
66 Game Changers—roll 1d6 and consult below

1 Colony Refugees
A large group arrives on the colony’s doorstep. Did they originally arrive on the Shiva, Brahma, or Vishnu? Or is the group mixed? What forced them out: a catastrophe, exile, starvation? Their numbers exceed the colony’s capacity. How do the factions react? How do they screen the refugees for possible threats?
2 Revolution
The faction with the highest Strife Clock begins to plan to take over the colony’s governance. What’s their plan? What resources and allies do they have? How are the PCs roped into the conflict? What happens in the aftermath?
3 Orbital Launch
A controlled launch comes down from planetary orbit. Is it the remains of a previous ship? Some kind of orbital base? New arrivals? What makes colony leaders hesitant to send teams out? What kind of threat might the landing vessel pose?
4. Asteroid Strike
Scientists determine that some kind of collision will happen in the near future—a meteor, falling debris, or the like. It will be large enough to devastate the area. Options are limited. Relocating the colony will set back progress. But gambling on another solution will eat up valuable escape time. What plan do the PCs support?
5 Rivals Attack
Forces from another colony, dominated by an aggressive faction sweep in to raid the colony. They scout the area beforehand, perhaps tipping someone off to their plans. Do they also attempt to infiltrate? Do they plan to capture the colony or simply loot it for resources? What weakness do they hope to exploit?
6 Aliens Appear
Alien personnel appear. How do they arrive? Are they here to negotiate? Make demands? Attack? What indicates that they are not native to this world, but settlers and invaders like the colony? What secrets can they share? What do they evade speaking about?

36 Moods for an Alien Planet
Colony Zero

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9/10/2019

Getting Excited for the Trophy Writing Contest

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by Jason Cordova

We are currently running an incursion-writing contest for the Trophy RPG. You may want to go check that out before you continue reading this. It can be found here. 

One of the ways we built-up The Gauntlet during the heyday of G+ was through the writing contests hosted by Discern Realities, our (soon-to-be-revived) Dungeon World podcast. Our attitude was “Anyone can do this, anyone can create awesome stuff for this game!” And people really loved it. Our contests were a fun, low-stakes way of getting folks involved in the act of creating TTRPG content, and they were truly the glue that held The Gauntlet together for a long time. The Gauntlet ethos has always been that no one is an island of creativity—that our best efforts in TTRPGs are community efforts. And we continued this idea of community creation through the Codex miscellany features, as well as the general Codex editorial preference for games and supplements by newer voices. ​

Here are some specific reasons I am excited about the Trophy contest. 

The core Trophy rules are currently free
When Jesse and I designed this contest, our number one concern was easy access to Trophy’s rules. We knew a lot of people would be learning about Trophy for the first time, and so we decided to make Codex - Dark 2, the issue of the Codex zine the game can be found in, completely free, despite the fact it is our bestselling issue on DriveThru. You can download that issue right here. 

The contest is highly accessible
The core Trophy rules contain all the guidelines you need to write an incursion, including a sample incursion so you can see how it all comes together. Further, because Trophy is so rules-light, you can begin writing almost immediately since you don’t have to spend time internalizing a complex system. 

All of this leads to a standout feature of this contest: accessibility. Anyone can write something for this contest and, so long as they follow the incursion-writing guidelines (which have been finely tuned to produce dependable outcomes when followed), they can feel reasonably confident they have produced something fun and playable. It’s an inviting process, and we’ve already heard stories of parents writing entries with their kids, and romantic partners writing an entry together. 

Outside-the-box incursions
Our officially published Trophy material is uniformly dark fantasy because we have a brand to develop, and we are certainly hoping to see plenty of dark fantasy contest entries. But there’s nothing in the guidelines that requires incursions to take place in a fantasy setting. I’m personally excited to see how people drift a lot of the assumptions about Trophy. I hope we see a wide variety of settings: Western, cyberpunk, historical, modern-day, you name it—I think Trophy can handle it. In some ways, this contest could be a bridge to whatever is next for Trophy as a system, and I find that very interesting. 

A fun, low-stakes way to celebrate creativity
Sure, there are a few cash prizes, but honestly, that’s only because we have some money to spend. Ultimately, Jesse and I are just hype to see what people come up with, and we’re excited to provide a space for people to be creative. This contest is a celebration of creativity, and to emphasize that, we’re giving folks custom dice and a “Play to Lose” magnet just for participating—kind of like party favors. 

Anyway, we hope folks will get as excited about the contest as we are. I’m including all the relevant links related to the contest right here:
Get Codex - Dark 2 (Trophy Rules)
Check out the contest
Discuss the contest on our forums
Sign up for the Trophy Newsletter

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