![]() Greetings, and welcome to the weekly Gauntlet Hangouts video roundup! Don't miss any of the great sessions in the updated playlists and video links below. Special thanks this week to Marco for help with the German text! Super Tuesday
Pasión de las Pasiones: Mighty Hearts (Session 3 of 3) Jim Crocker runs for David Jay, Joe Zantek, Luiz Ferraz, and Stentor Danielson Back on track with the third and final episode of Pasión de las Pasiones: Mighty Hearts, our superheroic telenovela! Our characters bring the romance and melodrama as secrets are revealed and volcanoes erupt! Gauntlet Quarterly Hearts of Wulin: Book Two (Session 7) Lowell Francis runs for Darren Brockes, Patrick Knowles, and Sherri Friendship and betrayal vie for control and all roads lead back to the secret of the Orphans of Yun as our heroes challenge the mysterious figure concealing ancient truths. The Gaunt Marches Dungeon World: Archipelago of the Drowned (Session 4 of 4) Jim Crocker runs for Bethany H., Bryan, Jen Overstreet, and Leandro Pondoc The player characters romance Apprentices and disrupt the sinister machinations of a Councillor. Indie Schwarze Auge [DEUTSCH] World of Aventurien: Schatten im Zwielicht (Session 6) Gerrit Reininghaus leitet eine Session für Aljoscha, Tim, und Tina T. Lichterfest - Zeit zum Entspannen für unsere Schwarzmagier-Agent*innen beim Lichterfest bei dem Salpikon Savertin die Gruppe in den fröhlichen Folterkeller führt. Mumien bestehen gegen Frostbestien, Leberdämonen werden seziert und ein Calamari-Golem wird ein Freund. Gauntlet Hangouts Monsterhearts 2: Ballhir - Cold Snap (Session 2 of 3) Donogh runs for Brian B., Gerwyn Walters, Jesse Ross, and Walter A whole new cast of characters goes on a field trip to protest the bypass; a secret crush is revealed and new victims for Muir Iasc discovered! Good Society: Sense, Sensibility and Swordsmanship (Sessions 1-3 of 3) Hayley runs for David Lewis, Ryan M., Sidney Icarus, and Tyler Lominack Weave: The Beautiful World (Sessions 2-4 of 4) Noella H runs for Diana Moon, Eike K., Jason Mills, Lauren, Sabine V, Sarah J., and Tina T. The Final Girl: The Puritan Pat P. runs for Erica Stevenson, Greg G., and Walter A cozy New England town is haunted on Thanksgiving by a ghost of its past. InSpectres (Sessions 3-4 of 4) Paul Edson runs for David Morrison, James, Jason Mills, Tomer Gurantz, and Tyler Lominack Lovecraftesque Mikael Tysvær runs for Alun R., Paul, and Sabine V The murky waters of Peterhead. Warning: this video may contain Scottish accent! All Systems Nominal: Mercenaries (Session 3 of 3) Michael G. Barford runs for Darren Brockes, Luiz Ferraz, and Rich Rogers Bubblegumshoe (Session 3 of 3) Lowell Francis runs for Agatha, Kurt Potts, Lauren, and Sherri Despite painful miscommunication our gang of teen sleuths track down the video thief, but have to make hard choices about what to reveal and what to hide. The Witcher Pen & Paper RPG (Session 3 of 3) Lowell Francis runs for Eduardo L., Leandro Pondoc, Steven desJardins, and Steven Watkins Their broken army behind them, our band continues to flee Nilfgardian territory, but comes across a suspicious village in their mountain crossing. Symbaroum: the Copper Crown (Session 5 of 8) Darren Brockes runs for Agatha, Fraser Simons, Joshua Gilbreath, and Lauren Variol, Iomagoi, Ordelia, and Saoirse finally reach their destination, deeper in Davokar. But first they have to deal with a certain hanger-on... Gauntlet Games Now For the Queen Tomer Gurantz facilitates for Diana Moon, Donogh, Eric Loren, Leandro Pondoc, Maria Rivera, Mikael Tysvær, Pat P., and Sabine V Join the retinue of the assassin queen of the faeries, of the post-apocalyptic jungle of mesoamerica; including the royal chef and sleeper cell assassin, the high score assassin/royal dresser, the bodyguard with a secret love, the changeling, the royal courtesan, the royal map maker, the Delta land-promised, the Delta land-conquered, and the only flying fairy. Check out all the great videos on The Gauntlet YouTube channel and be sure check out the playlists to catch up on all your favorite games. If you'd like to play in games like these, check out the calendar of events and the Gauntlet Hangouts Google+ Communitywhere new games are announced! To support The Gauntlet, please visit the Gauntlet Patreon at https://patreon.com/gauntlet. All are welcome to play Gauntlet Hangouts games, and Patreon supporters have extra options like priority RSVP for Gauntlet Hangouts games and joining the Gauntlet Slack team where special events are announced like Gauntlet Games Now. Enjoy, and everyone have a great weekend!
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by Michael G. Barford, Keeper of the Eternal Chime This series of articles will serve as an introduction to the participants of the September 2018 round of Mandatory Fun Club. These Gauntleteers are preparing to start offering fresh events for Gauntlet Hangouts; be on the lookout for their games! Hello Agatha! Welcome to Mandatory Fun Club! My first question for you is: How did you hear about the Gauntlet community? Through the venerable Gauntlet podcast 😉 What kind of experience do you have facilitating TTRPGs? I've run 2 Powered by the Apocalypse games and facilitated a game of Microscope so far. What kind of experience do you have playing TTRPGs online? Tons! Been playing through them obsessively on the Gauntlet ever since I joined at the beginning of this year. What made you decide to jump in and start facilitating games for Gauntlet Hangouts? There are games I want to play, so I had to bring them to the table. Tell us about the game you're planning to facilitate for MFC! Why did you choose it? It's called Downfall, a GM-less game of world creation and destruction seen through the eyes of its 3 protagonists. I chose it because it's GM-less so there's less onus on me as the facilitator and because I wanted to play it. What other games would you be interested in facilitating for Gauntlet Hangouts in the future?
Masks, Bubblegumshoe Is there anything non-gaming-related that you'd like people to know about you? I'm a co-host of Asians Represent! A podcast celebrating Asian creators and looking at Asian themes in analogue games. Where can people go to hear more from you? My Twitter handle is @aznsrepresent By Tomer Gurantz, Keeper of the Squamous Beast Below
What is an RPG B-side? Occasionally a scheduled roleplaying session does not run as planned. This can happen for many reasons. Perhaps the game has a minimum player requirement or recommendation, and not enough people have shown up. Maybe the game session was for an ongoing campaign and some critical members are not available. Perhaps the GM themself had to cancel. Maybe the game requires certain technologies or preparation that have prevented the game from running. Regardless of the reason, and whether or not this is a face-to-face or online game, you have a group of players who were motivated to play, and are now left with… nothing? This does not need to be the case! Salvage the situation, with an RPG B-side. An RPG B-side is a one-shot alternate game that can be run without any preparation. In the best case scenario, having one or more flexible B-side games means that you can handle situations of any group size, and you can include a GM-less game in your arsenal in case nobody is able to take on the “GM” position. This means that the session doesn't have to be cancelled or wasted, and all the motivated-to-play peoples are given what they came to do. Where did the term come from? Well, sit down young’uns and remember a time when music came on large fancy vinyl discs called “records”. The term “A-side” and “B-side” referred to the front and back side of records. When a famous artist released a hit track on a record single as an A-side, very often the back side had tracks that were rare, sometimes even unavailable, on the full albums… the B-sides. (Editor's note: The specific use of the term "B-side" being referenced in this article was created by Jason Cordova right here.) Preparing for running B-sides Being able to run an alternate RPG at the drop of a hat sounds great, and simple. However the degree of simplicity in doing so depends heavily on the RPG itself. It could be as simple as having a one-shot adventure with pre-generated characters ready to go, for whatever system you all already are playing in. However, for maximum flexibility, having a set of alternate games means you can handle different sets of players, game tones, and moods. Having RPG B-sides ready to go may require some prior setup. Carrying them along in a “Games on Demand” style folder or bag means that you already have the rules, or often a cheat sheet of those rules, as well as any character sheets or other related tools such as index cards, playing cards, dice, and so on. This is no different in online games, where some games require character keepers or the use of other online tools such as white boards and online dice rollers. Gauntleteer Answers We posed this question of some Gauntleteers and got a wide variety of answers. Here are a few: Anyone who has heard me in the last few months knows that For the Queen is my new jam. I will play that in a heartbeat, because it's easy, requires no prep at all and just glides into play mode. In fact, I've already used it twice in the Gauntlet as B-sides (a cancelled GauntletCon game and a postponed pickup game), so I know it works through experience! -Tomer Gurantz, Keeper of the Squamous Beast Below For me, my go to is Fall of Magic. I can spin up a Roll20 instance in like 5 minutes. It requires ZERO prep, so the time it takes to get the Roll20 up and everyone to join, I can be in a place to facilitate it. It's not a game for everyone, as it puts a lot on every player to improv on the spot and spout some self-indulgent fantasy bullshit... but for those who like that stuff, it's great. -Yoshi So the pick up games that I like off the top of my head are duet games. I had a great time doing a pick up of Our Mundane Supernatural Life with Vee during GauntletCon. I think Strange Birds by Lauren McManamon and Kyle Thompson (currently in beta) would also work, and probably a lot of the short duet games from the new You & I: Roleplaying Games for Two collection, like Connection Lost. Actually I think that Mission! Accomplished by Jeff Stormer would also be a great pick up game, especially if you have one of the premade scenarios. Super fun and super easy. -Noella Cheat Your Own Adventure (easy to run on the spot, works for most numbers, fun). -Jason For me B-side usually = maximum self-indulgence and not too many mechanics (hence Fall of Magic is a popular choice ha ha). However I think anything that is designed to play out in a single session is a pretty great B-side. Outside the vast mountain of duets that are great B-sides, there's Swords Without Master, The King is Dead, and to be super self-indulgent there's a couple of our games I tend to use as B-sides as well as they are single session experiences. -Hayley B-sides for me needs to be a one-shot that is no prep, easy to get playing, and importantly, something I remember how to play. With my goldfish memory, I usually have space for only two or maximum three B-sides in my mind at a time, which I cycle through in the year. Current B-sides I am ready to run are Warrior Poet, Swords Without Master, and Our Mundane Supernatural Life. -Vee If I'm not too disappointed to be able to run something alternative immediately, I prefer games with a very short run time, so it's easier to convince the players to indulge in a one-hour game than a full session of something they hadn't expected to play that night. When I offer to facilitate, my B-sides are 2-5 players, < 1 hour, no prior knowledge / prep necessary, and on the not-so-serious side of gaming: Cheat Your Own Adventure (starting at difficulty 6), my own Tuk Fast Tuk Furious, my hack of Happy Birthday, Robot called Happy Birthday Mr President, and Society of Vegan Sorcerers by Wendy Gorman (found in Codex - Yellow), which can be played as a laog (live action online game, or digital larp). -Gerrit, Keeper of the Voice of the Silent Emperor The Final Girl! Fast to the table, and I’ve never not had a good time playing it. Plus, I usually have at least one person who hadn’t played it before. And who doesn’t like learning a new game that is so easy and so fun? -David LaFreniere I love Warrior Poet it's so good and melodramatic and yo people write some good poems when you play that game! My go-to is either Microscope or Star-Crossed. Nice and zero prep. -Agatha I think any game you have a lot of experience running can be a B-side. For me it would be Swords Without Master, The Final Girl, or Cheat Your Own Adventure. An OSR game or a PbtA game could be a B-side as long as the GM has the experience to set it up to run quickly. -Patrick Monstegur 1244, Leverage, Dusk City Outlaws, Don't Rest Your Head. -Mikel Matthews I love Forsooth! Setting and PC are made in a few minutes, if you already know it as GM. Everyone has a rough idea of the settings. Almost no rules. -Marco My B-side used to be Fiasco or Cathulhu but recently it became Cheat Your Own Adventure. -Ludovico I’ve never had not enough players with The Gauntlet, but in face-to-face I have a strong tolerance and will run the scheduled game even if I’m down to two other players. For 2-player games, I pack a Murderous Ghosts or S/lay w/me, just in case. -Donogh McCarthy, Keeper of the Nine Dread Names My go to's usually are Cheat Your Own Adventure, Lovecraftesque, and Murderous Ghosts. (Could probably swing a Cthulhu Dark scenario too.) But... I got to play For the Queen this morning... I totally understand Tomes' fervor over it and I think that will likely become my main go-to, once I get a copy. -Shane Not having a B-side is OK too! When asked about B-sides, Jim Crocker gave the following response: I don’t have any, and won’t. If we don’t get enough people to play, I cancel. When I’ve spent 4-8 weeks prepping mentally to run an instance of my planned game, I don’t really have the capacity to switch gears. I admire people who can do it, but last-minute cancellations really kneecap me emotionally. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, and recognizing what you can and can’t offer is a hallmark of a great person and great game facilitator! What about you? What are your RPG B-sides? Let us know in the comments below! by Fraser Simons, Keeper of the Neon Veil
Date Played 11/14/2018 System Girl Underground GM Lauren McManamon Players Fraser Simons, Ary Ramsey, Michael X. Heiligenstein Session Recap Falling into a tub smelling of cigarettes and gin only to be transported to a magical land would teach anyone something, right? Girl Underground puts you in the shoes of the companions of a young girl who enters just such a place. But it also has the players embody companions that act as different lenses to interrogate various themes in line with the genre. Fiction like Alice In Wonderland, Wizard of Oz, Labyrinth, and Spirited Away. Knowing little of the genre, I wasn't sure what to quite expect other than the knowledge that it attempts a lens often not seen in RPGs; especially because it aims to empower the main character as the players all take time playing with agency. As an alternate lens to the girl the companions help reinforce these goals. Pyrion, the last of his regal kind as a phoenix, was my own character and companion to Penny, the girl. My moves enabled me to contribute to the fiction with tales of the past, to help Penny be courageous, and try to circumvent obstacles despite my inability to fly—all things which enabled me to flesh out Pyrion over two sessions of the playtest. Why was he the last of his kind? Why couldn't he fly anymore? The girl is the only one able to deal with obstacles and address challenges. She has manners she is beholden to but can be subverted, which yield new beliefs forged from these experiences and are the direct result of her agency. When a witch in a shack tells you what to do, "Young ladies must never complain about their duties." is subverted and becomes "Adults always say one thing but mean another." When you're held captive in a fantastic hall, and prince charming and a man in a peacock costume give you tea that tastes like your wildest dreams or try to regale you with never-ending tales (literally) of their own bravery, "Young ladies never make demands" changes to "I matter as much as anyone" when you tell them to stuff it and take off. There is just no time for tea. Even if it tastes like everything good in your life and you think about that tea every second of every day...Anyway~~ Throughout play, the girl and her companions encounter embodiments of the things young girls and women face in their daily lives. Societal strictures and gender performance, and a lot of things I often don't think about as a white male with a lot of privilege. All people and creatures and jerk tooth fairies speak to you, well, like a 12 year old girl. They tell you what to do and what to think. Sometimes subtly, sometimes not. And conflicts, at least in our playtest, never resulted in physical altercations. This is something I love in RPG design in general, but in this game it is particularly satisfying because subverting expectations is what the game is about. Penny helped her companions as much as they helped her. The sheer act of discovering Pyrion was help. He was chained to the ground by villagers who feared his kin, though they were all long dead. The Ogre, Gungun, though physically powerful, was a gentle soul that was being bullied when discovered and later had to face body shame in order to get us out of multiple disastrous situations—all while being the most perceptive one of us all. Skipper, the Runaway, only free so long as she was lost, led the way in compassion despite a lot of exuberant bravado. Skipper found the sea that led to the Crystal Palace and the Queen of Nothing—as Gungun pointed out to her while we tried to evade a magical pact at the bottom of an ocean that could surely drown us at any moment, since it only parted because the Queen willed it. I was sure that this final boss, this unjust ruler, would be maybe the only physical conflict we would have. But as we talked to the would-be-ruler it was clear that she was as much a girl as us. She, too, had wandered in the halls with the prince and the peacock and was rejected. I'm sure we would have made some slight and be similarly ejected. But Skipper took Penny's hand and ran, even taking with us the prince whose helmet revealed not a Prince Charming, but a young boy of 15, no more mature than any of us. His clothes fit for a man but the only thing the boy could think to do was tell other people stories so that he would feel good about himself. And still we saved him from a then-unknown fate but would have been the same as the queen of the ocean—who walked right into the water to be alone forever. Highlight When Gungun told the queen that she didn't rule anything, and that the sea didn't care about her. He invited her to his home. Then it dawned on Pyrion that his kin surely died at her hand; their obsidian bones lying in this oceans floor for doing battle with a young, lonely queen. He saw his kin attacking something they didn't understand. Their bodies unable to burst into flame because they were wet with the salty sea that killed them and unable to be reborn like phoenixes do. He decided he wouldn't find any real sense of justice for the loss he suffered. He wasn't going to try and hurt and kill something sad and possibly dead, and who was a young girl who maybe didn't understand much of what she was doing. So he forgave her. Penny went home and he and his companions carried his kin's bones to be buried. And when the queen or the witch of the sea walked out from the ocean she crumbled into sand anyway. Moment of Insight Girl Underground can't help but express its themes in poignant ways, a byproduct of the design. I love that most moves assume some degree of success, underpinning agency. The fiction, because of the subject matter it's exploring, can then be "as hard as the MC likes." I think it is a clever subversion of the structure of Powered by the Apocalypse games. The companions all have unique and interesting lenses through which to interact with the Girl herself. I like how fast and evocative character creation is for the Girl, as well as the companions (we were the first gangster bootlegger impoverished family). The companions roll with one of the Girl's stats, keeping cognitive load light. The story was fantastic, all as a result from the move outcomes. Especially when posing questions that need answering in service to your companions, and the game's themes, in order to also succeed. Can't wait to follow the progress of the design, it was a great experience! You can learn more about Girl Underground at https://girlunderground.org. ![]() Greetings, and welcome to the weekly Gauntlet Hangouts video roundup! Don't miss any of the great sessions in the updated playlists and video links below. Star Wars Saturday
Hunt the Wicked (Session 3 of 3) Rich Rogers runs for Joe Zantek, Michael G. Barford, and Steven Watkins Orca Thorn, the Herglic with a vibro-axe, is the hardest bounty the group has ever faced. Will they make it out of this fight alive? Super Tuesday Pasión de las Pasiones: Mighty Hearts (Session 2 of 4) Jim Crocker runs for David Jay, Greg G., Joe Zantek, and Stentor Danielson The characters fight for justice, passion, and revenge on the waterfront and at a rock festival! Gauntlet Quarterly Hearts of Wulin: Book Two (Session 6) Lowell Francis runs for Darren Brockes, Patrick Knowles, Sarah J., and Sherri Jade Saber Lan escapes and the group sets out to find the killers, but an altercation with Tian and Ming's master Ironface Liu reveals Dawning Rose's true identity. The Gaunt Marches Dungeon World: Archipelago of the Drowned (Session 3 of 4) Jim Crocker runs for Bethany H., Bryan, Jen Overstreet, and Leandro Pondoc Our heroes learn about Old Left-Eye and can't resist the fat bounty on his head. Meanwhile, the Apprentices are getting restless. Indie Schwarze Auge [DEUTSCH] World of Aventurien: Schatten im Zwielicht (Session 5) Gerrit Reininghaus leitet eine Session für Aljoscha, Marco, Sabine V, und Tim Unbesiegbare besiegen, Windhosen in die Tasche stecken, Meteore auf Städte regnen lassen und dabei gut in Form sein (nicht wahr, Arpan), ist inzwischen Agenten-1x1. Gauntlet Hangouts Monsterhearts 2: Once Again, We Return (Do No Wrong) (Session 4 of 11) Patrick Knowles runs for Alex, Barry, David Rothfeder, and Lauren "True" Love - New gods Aengus & Vesta (relationship status: "it's complicated") join 1TruEnma & Osiris to explore why this Pantheon has so many death gods. What starts as a housewarming ends up as a homewrecking & the entire group is chastised by the bishop of London for the deadliest of sins: hot make-outs. Troika!: The Great Rester (Session 1 of 2) Shane Liebling runs for Jason, João, Karlo Licudine, and Lu Quade Our confused band of misfits find themselves in a bizarre hotel filled with strangeness, wonder, and scrumptious tea cakes. Monsterhearts 2: Once Again, We Return (Do No Wrong) (Session 5 of 11) Patrick Knowles runs for Alex, Barry, Ryan M., and Sarah J. Under My Skin - It's the miraculous return of Eris & everyone is happy forever! Enma meets a new fan! Vesta goes on a date! Pluto admires the new Underground! Eris shows off his new suit! Everything dead is sexy again! So, who are you wearing tonight? PbtA Changeling the Lost: Month 2 (Session 1 of 4) Tyler Lominack runs for Agatha, Chris Newton, JM, and Patrick Knowles Atitlan Riders: Gauntlet International Tuk Tuk League: Bangkok Gerrit Reininghaus facilitates for Ary Ramsey, David L., and Mikael Tysvær We saw a glorious victory of Iceman covering the whole city under a glacier of joy with his amazing driving skills while Mad Jay killed it again with his infamous last minute crashes. Local favourite Rambo rode through every temple in town followed by the Cosmic tourist and his army of space rats. Symbaroum: the Copper Crown (Session 4 of 8) Darren Brockes runs for Agatha, Fraser Simons, Joshua Gilbreath, and Lauren Variol, Iomagoi, Ordelia, and Saoirse take their first steps into Davokar to retrace the steps of the expedition that brought back the Copper Crown. Iomagoi leads the party astray and the encounter the dark the lurks within... Check out all the great videos on The Gauntlet YouTube channel and be sure check out the playlists to catch up on all your favorite games. If you'd like to play in games like these, check out the calendar of events and the Gauntlet Hangouts Google+ Communitywhere new games are announced! To support The Gauntlet, please visit the Gauntlet Patreon at https://patreon.com/gauntlet. All are welcome to play Gauntlet Hangouts games, and Patreon supporters have extra options like priority RSVP for Gauntlet Hangouts games and joining the Gauntlet Slack team where special events are announced like Gauntlet Games Now. Enjoy, and everyone have a great weekend! by Jason Cordova
The Gauntlet Podcast team has just put out the call for Favorite Games of 2018 audio submissions. As in previous years, this gala episode of the show will feature members of our community talking about their favorite game from the last year. Importantly, a “favorite game of 2018” doesn’t have to be a game—modules and setting books are ok, too—and it doesn’t have to have been released in 2018, so long as it somehow made an impact on the participant in 2018. In previous years, my Favorite Game selection was pretty easy to make. I chose Night Witches in 2015, Fall of Magic in 2016, and Monsterhearts 2 in 2017. In all three cases, they were the standout game for me in their respective years. Night Witches had a couple of other games nipping at its heels, but it was still a fairly easy choice. This year is tougher. Part of it comes down to the fact that my taste in gaming has slightly changed. This year, I played many more OSR modules in order to support the Fear of a Black Dragon podcast, and while many of those OSR products were excellent, I’m not sure they are equal to, say, Monsterhearts 2 (and not because of quality, but because I simply get a lot more gameplay out of MH 2). Another thing making the decision tough is the fact that The Gauntlet is now a nascent publisher, and some of the original games coming out of Codex are incredible. As the EIC of Codex, I have a lot of experience with these games, and some of them, while small in scope, are easily Favorite Game material. It’s an embarrassment of riches, and ultimately makes my Favorite Games decision almost painfully difficult. And yet... I have some games that are currently pulling ahead of the pack. Here is a rundown of the games (and supplements) I am currently thinking about for Favorite Game of 2018: Operation Unfathomable This is an adventure and setting for old school fantasy games by Jason Sholtis, published by the Hydra Cooperative. That outfit is doing some of the most interesting things in the OSR right now, and Operation Unfathomable is among their best work. It presents a fantasy underworld that dispenses with drow elves and mind-flayers, and adds in headless cultists; a floating, megalomaniacal mass of snakes; hyper-intelligent fungoid scientists; and many more horrors and oddities. The book is also very slickly produced, with TONS of old school-inspired art, and features terrific advice for the GM to get the most out of the adventure. We discussed the module on Fear of a Black Dragon. That episode can be found here. Veil 2020 This is a rules-light, retro cyberpunk version of Fraser Simons’s game The Veil. It was originally published in Codex - Chrome 2. It was written by Fraser and is designed so you can run classic Cyberpunk 2020 material with a system that is a little more modern. From a design standpoint, the game is brilliant. It incorporates the best bits of World of Dungeons, The Veil, and The White Hack to create a system that is supremely flexible, yet comprehensive. I have run it several times, and it’s a joy, smooth as butter. The game was published in Codex - Chrome 2, which will soon be on DriveThruRPG. Midnight at the Oasis This is a story game by Catherine Ramen that was originally published in Codex - Glamour. It tells the story of a group of people who attend the crossdresser night at a restaurant/bar in NYC in the late 90s. The central drama in the story revolves around Dallas, who has been gone for a year as she prepares for her transition, but returns to the Oasis presenting as a man. I can’t stress enough how touching this game is. It explores a queer subculture that was so vital in the 90s but, due to the internet and the ease of connecting in the modern age, will soon be lost to time. The game is very personal to the author, and that personal connection resonates in every paragraph. The game can be found in Codex - Glamour, which is available right here. Dead Friend: A Game of Necromancy I had a chance to play Dead Friend with the author, Lucian Khan, at Camp Nerdly this year. I have only played it once, but it made a huge impact on me. It’s a two-player game in which one player is dead and the other player is their friend who is summoning them back to the mortal coil. The game is played in the manner of a ritual, which helps emphasize that theme in the game, and involves a series of flashbacks, during which we see the relationship between these two people when the dead person was alive. Through play, you explore how the summoner may have been responsible for their friend’s death, and the game’s climax involves a wildly fun psychic battle between the two. The game works in a variety of settings and tones, too. You can check it out right here. Yoon-Suin This is a setting book for old school fantasy games written by David McGrogan. It presents a continent that is a strange, fascinating pastiche of real-world East Asian cultures, but makes no claims on those cultures and is ultimately its own unique thing. What I love most about this book is the fact that the author doesn’t really put his thumb on the scales in terms of how you use it; it’s all evocative and inspiring, but it’s just a toolbox—use it however you wish. The book is divided into several regions, each of which includes numerous tables which help the GM create the various factions and cultural details for each region. You can follow the book closely and roll everything from the tables, or you can do as I do and just cherry pick the cool shit you want to see in your campaign. So, those are the games I’m looking at for Favorite Game of 2018. Which games were your favorites in 2018? Let me know in the comments. Date Played 11/8/2018 System For the Queen GM Tomes Players Agatha, Leandro, Vee, Hayley Session Recap A perilous journey to a broker a marriage for the young queen. A journey with a farm boy with an oracle's bowl, two siblings—assassins in their ways, the queen's mother who still wields power through words, and a captive ambassador of the land to which we travel. Highlight Once by Agatha, once by Vee, where they needed to stop and meta-discuss the situation because there was just so much intrigue. Moment of Insight The game rules estimated a run time of 30 minutes. I expected 2 hours. We played for over 3 hours. This was the closest I've seen the base game behave as a "standard" RPG in terms of length, role playing, and scene progression. Actual Play ![]() Greetings, and welcome to the weekly Gauntlet Hangouts video roundup! Don't miss any of the great sessions in the updated playlists and video links below. Star Wars Saturday
Hunt the Wicked (Session 2 of 3) Rich Rogers runs for Joe Zantek, Michael G. Barford, and Steven Watkins Aboard the Hornet, treachery is afoot, and Kai has to go all Die Hard to stop their quarry! Gauntlet Quarterly Hearts of Wulin: Book Two (Session 5) Lowell Francis runs for Darren Brockes, Patrick Knowles, Rich Rogers, and Sherri Our heroes discover more about the mysterious messengers, but an ambush trap for the assassins proves disastrous and leads to Jade Sabre Lan's capture. The Gaunt Marches Dungeon World: Archipelago of the Drowned (Session 2 of 4) Jim Crocker runs for Bethany H., Bryan, Leandro Pondoc, and Rachelle Dube The party answers a cry for help that brings them face to face the the Bride of the Croaking King! Gauntlet Hangouts Kaleidoscope: Kiseu Coffeeshop Cranes ala Mode Pat P. facilitates for James, Karlo Licudine, and Robbie Boerth It's like Romeo & Juliet with country western music, but made by Buzz Aldrin as seen through the lens of New Splatoon. Young at Heart!!! on ICE Lauren runs for Chris Thompson, Luiz Ferraz, and Ryan M. Can you feel this Ice Queen's heart beating as she contemplates the end of her glorious skating career? Monsterhearts 2: Ballhir - Cold Snap (Session 1 of 3) Donogh runs for Asher S., David Morrison, Mark Causey, and Sarah J. A new arrival in town feels the icy breath of Muir Iasc, while another tries to prevent a bypass destroying a fairy fort. Cthulhu Dark: Hope and Despair Luiz Ferraz runs for Andrew Hauge, Angel Garcia from Hijos del Rol, and Maria Rivera A Cthulhu Dark hack about tragic mahou shoujo, in the Madoka Magica setting. Content warning: domestic violence, self-harm, suicide, emotional abuse, animal abuse (Kyubei gets destroyed). Three friends make a contract with a magical cat-like being. Their wishes come true, and they receive magical powers and the duty to fight Witches – terrible monsters that prey on emotionally vulnerable people. They soon realize things aren't as simple as they seemed, and everything goes terrible. Sorcerer: Opening (Session 1 of 2) Donogh runs for Brian B., Del, and Tyler Lominack The nascent Silicon Valley in the 1980s is experiencing a boom, while some are dealing with the Satanic Panic, our Sorcerers are riding the wave of both to fortune and eternal...something. Sorcerer: Opening (Session 2 of 2) Donogh runs for Brian B. and Tyler Lominack Crunch week lays waste to the start-up, and the solution to Wal's obsession is, obviously, more demons. InSpectres (Session 2 of 4) Paul Edson runs for James, Steven desJardins, and Tyler Lominack The investigators deal with ghosts that died in a tragic bowling ball mining accident years before, by losing to the ghosts in a game at the modern-day bowling alley built on the site. Demigods PbtA (Session 2 of 3) Rich Rogers runs for Alejandro, Alexi, Bethany H., Giovanni, and Jesse A. (This game is under development by Jason Mills.) Athena shows up at Mercy Hospital, in the morgue on a slab (after a failed player roll). She demands the death of their mortal spindle, they tried to Sway Her, succeeded with a mixed result, so she said simply, "Okay, I'll take her hands, then." This turned into a challenge to a chess game, a couple PCs blew a roll, so Athena turned them into chess pieces on the board. Battle Chess 2018 happened and our Artisan used his Ascendance Move to rewrite reality so Athena was defeated. All Systems Nominal: Mercenaries (Session 2 of 4) Michael G. Barford runs for Darren Brockes, David L., Del, and Rich Rogers Bubblegumshoe (Session 2 of 3) Lowell Francis runs for Agatha, Kurt Potts, Lauren, and Sherri A ghost hunt takes a turn for the mundane as the gang deals with aspiring moviemakers, a shotgun-wielding ginseng farmer, and unrequited crushes. The Witcher Pen & Paper RPG (Session 2 of 3) Lowell Francis runs for Eduardo L., Leandro Pondoc, Steven desJardins, and Steven Watkins It's trad all the way down as our cohort battle a troll, rescue kidnap victims, and live up to the name "murder hobos" (for justice!). Symbaroum: The Copper Crown (Session 3 of 9) Darren Brockes runs for Agatha, Fraser Simons, Joshua Gilbreath, and Lauren BLACKOUT (Session 2 of 2) Lowell Francis runs for Bethany H., Harry, Larry S., and Steven desJardins Our section of WVS & ARP volunteers grab a few moments of rest, then head back to aid victims of the Blitz, but this is Dec. 29th, 1940 and events will take a dire turn. Check out all the great videos on The Gauntlet YouTube channel and be sure check out the playlists to catch up on all your favorite games. If you'd like to play in games like these, check out the calendar of events and the Gauntlet Hangouts Google+ Communitywhere new games are announced! To support The Gauntlet, please visit the Gauntlet Patreon at https://patreon.com/gauntlet. All are welcome to play Gauntlet Hangouts games, and Patreon supporters have extra options like priority RSVP for Gauntlet Hangouts games and joining the Gauntlet Slack team where special events are announced like Gauntlet Games Now. Enjoy, and everyone have a great weekend! by Kyle Thompson, Keeper of the Light of the Peerless Star (@wiegraf_) A Strategic Withdrawal The period since I wrote the last design diary has been difficult for me in terms of my life situation, but also in terms of development of All Systems Nominal. I ran the game at GauntletCon as a one shot, and that began to reveal a lot of fundamental flaws with the design that I talked about in a vlog on my YouTube channel: While the combat system was every bit as good as I thought, the character elements fell flat, despite a lot of spotlight management and eliciting questions on my part as the GM. This was a recurring problem with my earlier playtests, and suggested something needed to be done. I also found that I wasn’t driving the gritty point of the game home enough, and that was a result of a lack of clarity on what it was supposed to be about. Digging into the design more and starting to write the GM materials for the game made me reflect on what I was trying to say with it, and that process forced me to start to outline some major changes I wanted to make. These feelings were only reinforced by reading Jack de Quidt’s excellent interview with Simon Stålenhag, which helped me think more deeply about the themes I wanted to express. I started to want the game to do the same thing for players it had forced me to do for myself. This meant writing a game that would help players to take a good long look at their attitude towards war and war machines. With some inspiration boosting my spirits I started to work on these revisions, but the workload of my day job, preparations for a big move, and commitments to other projects started to take priority, and I wasn’t able to keep up my writing. Feedback from other playtests confirmed a lot of my instincts, but also brought to my attention how poorly formatted the text is, and how its original terseness continues to hurt it in terms of comprehension and ease of use. All these things were good to learn, but in my current state of exhaustion they were problems I could not address. The game needs a thorough tear down and reassembly, and that is beyond my current capacity to do. After Action Reports So what have I learned from half a year of work on the game? What would I do differently in the future? Know Your Audience The fourth edition of Dungeons & Dragons was a notorious flop, partially because it diverged from what its audience expected and wanted. Design of D&D 5e started with, and was supported by an extensive process of market research and community feedback, a contributing factor to its massive success. Even for those of us without Hasbro’s marketing might backing us up, this is a valuable lesson to keep in mind. By running related games, asking questions, running surveys, and having discussions, you can get a sense for whether there is a match between your design intentions and your audiences’ desires and capacities. I put many dozens of hours into reviewing existing mecha games before writing All Systems Nominal, but I did not take the time to learn enough about my audience, and this lead to a lot of design pitfalls. In many ways it felt like repeating the infamous D&D 4e mistake. There is no such thing as perfect market research, but at least consider the effort it can save you down the line. Know Yourself It’s also possible to write a game as a pure passion project, regardless of market research, and attract people with your passion for what you’re doing. Every game design has a core that is both conceptual and emotional, and if both aspects of this core are strong it can really hit. This is something deeper and more meaningful than player experience goals. It informs not only how play is structured but structures the process of writing itself. The design of All Systems Nominal was well ordered conceptually, but it lacked emotional strength, and this was evident in playtesting. A game is a technical construct, but it’s also a lot more than that, and a lack of emotional clarity in design can really sink a project. Staying in touch with the emotional core of your project means practicing self-care actively, and engaging in introspection about what you are feeling about your process and where that is leading you. Very often pursuit of formal design sophistication is a way of avoiding emotional honesty with the design process, and leads to a mediocre product. If you find your core slipping out of your grasp then pause, practice self-care, and try to understand why it is escaping you. Express Yourself But ultimately if your game is going to be driven by your passion for its core, you still need to communicate that core to your audience. I began designing All Systems Nominal by trying to create a design scaffold similar to World of Dungeons that would allow players to express their own passion for the subject matter of mecha fiction. I subsequently learned that a successful game design in this space was going to need a lot more handholding than the scaffolding approach could provide. The text was not expressing enough to fire the imaginations of the players. That required me to revisit and redefine my fundamental design objectives, but the text of the game retained many traces of its original toolbox approach. If the core of your game changes, make sure its expression in the text changes to match. This is very hard work, which leads to my final point. Avoid the Sunk Cost Fallacy Never think that the money and energy you have put into a game automatically justifies its further development. Only your engagement with the core of the design can justify continuing to work on the game. If that core changes, seriously consider whether continuing the project is doing you good, or if you ought to work on something else instead. It is easy enough to throw your hands up and start something else in order to escape feelings of frustration or inadequacy, but let yourself look past that and see if and how you still care about the core of the game. I honestly believe that All Systems Nominal will one day be a good game, I can see something in it that I still care about, but I also know that I cannot engage with it at the level it needs right now. It is okay to accept both of those things and return to fight another day. I hope that my thoughts in this diary will be of help in your own design process! This is the first in our new series of Gauntlet session reports, short and standardized reports of some of the hundreds of games that we are playing through Gauntlet Hangouts. Campaign/Session Title Tumbling / This Is the Story of Evan and Illina Date 11/5/2018 System Tumbling (third playtest) GM Sid Icarus Players Sid Icarus, Barry Cook Session Recap After a bunch of friendly interactions with them on Twitter, Sid invited me to playtest Tumbling - a laundry-based game of meet-cutes. Through character creation we learned that my character, Evan, was still hanging onto his time in college, and tailors his own clothes to fit him perfectly. We learned that whether Sid's character Illina is working in cafes, or possibly getting fired from working in the hospitality business, she uses up every moment in a day without wasting a one (except maybe on laundry). The two had a few awkwardly sweet encounters after a pretty rough start before sharing a kiss that surprised them both. Highlight At about 56 minutes into the recording, we enter Tumbling's epilogue scene where our cards let us use specific prompts like "I've moved too fast. Show me if you slow me down." before hitting our ending, which was very fortunately, "I have shown you I want you. Show me if you accept me." Moment of Insight The tightly-focused lens through which we saw our characters in this game really helped me see each of them as real people. Actual Play |
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