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12/28/2018

Gauntlet Video Roundup - December 28, 2018

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​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.

​This is the final roundup of 2018, and it has been a year full of outstanding Gauntlet games. We'd like to thank each and every one of our amazing GMs, MCs, facilitators, and players for everything that they do. Keep being awesome!

TGI Thursday

City of Mist (Session 4 of 4)
Lowell Francis runs for Agatha, Chris Newton, Luiz Ferraz, and Steven Watkins
The crew tries to stop the heist of Russian Imperial Treasures from the museum gala but find themselves caught between a vengeful Koschei the Deathless and a doe-eyed professional-thief rift of Anastasia.

Gauntlet Quarterly

Hearts of Wulin: Book Three (Session 11)
Lowell Francis runs for David Morrison, Patrick Knowles, Rich Rogers, and Sherri
With misunderstandings having split the heroes, they try each work to face Coral Lantern: through deception, through sage advice, and through direct confrontation, but the villains have many layers to their traps.

Gauntlet Hangouts

Playing Nature's Year: The Holly and the Ivy
Barry facilitates for Anders Smith, David Morrison, and Steven desJardins

Playing Nature's Year: The Holly and the Ivy
Barry facilitates for James, Stentor Danielson, and Yoshi Creelman

Playing Nature's Year: The Holly and the Ivy
Barry facilitates for Leandro Pondoc, Ryan M., Sabine V., and Sarah J.

Playing Nature's Year: The Holly and the Ivy
Barry facilitates for Djinn, John Campbell, Lauren, and Peter Mazzeo

Bat Hack: Championship Series (Session 3 of 4)
Rich Rogers runs for Jim Crocker and Walter German
The stakes are high for our players as they play in the consolation bracket championship against the Renraku Runners.

Conjure Hagalaz
Blake Ryan runs for Chris Sniezak, Jessa "Doc" Edmond, and Jim C.

Space Wurm vs. Moonicorn (Session 1 of 4)
Tyler Lominack runs for Gerwyn Walters, Leandro Pondoc, Patrick Knowles, and Yoshi Creelman
We build our galaxy, meet our characters, and have a moment at Space Wurm's party.

Space Wurm vs Moonicorn (Session 2 of 4)
Tyler Lominack runs for Gerwyn Walters, Leandro Pondoc, Patrick Knowles, and Yoshi Creelman
Space Wurm begins their plans to subjugate the Imperial Throne. Moonicorn encounters the dark prophecy of the Religious council.

Changeling the Lost PbtA: Month 3 (Session 1 of 4)
Tyler Lominack runs for Chris Newton, Dr. Jason Cox, Noella H, and Patrick Knowles
We meet some new motley mates, hear dark portents, and reveal the Queen of Frozen Shards.

Zombie World: Eurozombies (Session 3 of 3)
Jim Crocker runs for Aybars Yurdun and Diana Moon
The Holidays took out our starting lineup, but our new players stepped up for some intense two-player zombie survival horror. Collapsing architecture, but social and actual, are a major hassle this time.

Monsterhearts 2: Kingsport '43 (Session 3 of 4)
Catherine Ramen runs for Bethany H., Jesse A., Joe Zantek, and Seraphina Malizia
In session three, Selina confronts the Faery Queen; Edward meets a new player in the game and suffers a startling transformation; Astrid stands up for Noah Marsh; the Order of Dagon is less than welcoming; Lawrence helps steal a boat; and both the Feds and the Fae close in.

City of Mist: Second Story Heroes (Session 4 of 4)
Lowell Francis runs for Darold Ross, Gene A., and John Campbell
With the mythic Greek pantheon-mafia on their heels, the group decides to make a strategic strike against Prometheus and her living artist-bombs leading to a brew pub break-in/rumble.

The Sword, The Crown, and The Unspeakable Power: Wreathe Your Hands With Blood (Session 4 of 4)
Agatha runs for Jason Cordova, Lowell Francis, Ludovico Alves, and Pat P.
The plots and betrayals unfurl as a hungry god takes human form. It all ends in blood as the cycle of violence and sacrifice repeats itself.

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+ Community where 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 and a happy new year!

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12/26/2018

A Year of Star Wars Saturdays, Part 2

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by Rich Rogers, Keeper of the Fathomless Well (@orklord; website)

Last week I shared a rundown of my year of Star Wars-themed games in a living campaign run on Saturdays that I called, prosaically enough, Star Wars Saturdays (read part 1 here: https://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/blog/a-year-of-star-wars-saturdays). This time I’m going to share some observations, discuss missed opportunities, and talk about my plans for 2019.

During the thirteen month living campaign, I ran eleven different RPG systems. Some of the systems were a natural fit for the most well-known version of Star Wars and the “backbone” of the setting - the original trilogy. Others took some adjustment and explanation, as well as discussions on tone.

The “best fits”:
  • Star Wars World (natch)
  • Rebel Blackbird
  • The Rebel Few
  • Impulse Drive

Each of the “best fits” worked from the angle of the PCs either being part of the Rebellion, or, in the case of Impulse Drive, closely tied to it. They worked well with missions, carried action scenes well without ever becoming bogged down, and emulated swashbuckling with aplomb. Rebel Blackbird was likely my favorite for high action and setting a blistering pace. The Rebel Few was the best at huge battles and dogfights, it was so cinematic with those scenes.

The “tilt your head and squints”:
  • 1%er Swoop Gang
  • Hutt Cartel
  • Apocalypse World - Tatooine
  • Void Vultures

I knew going in that 1%er would take adjustments. The original game has a stat called Fu@$s, which I renamed into Karks (my buddy Trevis Martin shared a link to an article on Star Wars Expletives that I still use to this day). Hutt Cartel is about spice dealers and corrupt Imperial Officers. Apocalypse World Tatooine has sex moves! And Void Vultures is about scavengers who venture onto space hulks to strip them bare (yes, Force Awakens has a bit of this which I really liked, but the setting for SWS was original trilogy, so it wasn’t our canon). I honestly expected to have to explain this more than I did, but the pitch, a.k.a. Write-up for each game listing on the Gauntlet Hangouts RSVP site, did most of the work to pave the way for the kind of game we were going to play. Also, having rocking players helps, of course.

The highlights of the living campaign, for me, were numerous. Two that I most enjoyed were the continuity that we established and built as the campaign grew, and the gentle brushes with original trilogy canon. I openly declared that nobody would be hanging out with Luke Skywalker or Princess Leia, but that they were playing in the sandbox of those movies.

Continuity:
  • We saw the same PC in three different RPG systems (Zuto the bounty hunter, played by Michael Barford).
  • We saw the same Droid PC in two different RPG systems (MR-34, played by Keith Stetson).
  • Steve Moore, a player from the Apocalypse World Tatooine game, played the NPC cousin of his character as a Spouse in the Hutt Cartel game.
  • Blaise Hebert was our resident Trandoshan expert who evolved and explored some of the EU canon on them.
  • The PCs in the Rebel Blackbird game met the cousin of a X-Wing pilot from Rebel Few, and they first heard about the mission that the crew from the Sea of Stars game went on.
  • The Sea of Stars mission dealt with B-Wings (it was another WED d6 Star Wars module: Strikeforce Shantipole), and one of the 1%er Swoop Gang 2 PCs was a B-Wing test pilot.
  • Lieda Mothma, daughter of Mon Mothma, was saved in a mission during The Rebel Few, and she helped out the crew in Impulse Drive 2.

Brushes with Canon:
  • The Rebel Few pilots included a daughter of Admiral Akbar (played by Tomer Gurantz)
  • Mon Mothma appeared in Sea of Stars to give the crew their mission
  • In Hunt the Wicked, the bounty hunter PCs arrived on Cloud City only weeks after the Imperials arrived and took it over, driving away the former administrator (aka Lando)
  • In Star Wars World, Apocalypse World Tatooine, and 1%er Swoop Gang 2, there was many mentions of Jabba the Hutt and an appearance of Boba Fett (though it could have been Jodo Kast, we may never know)
  • In the Gauntlet Con one-shot of Apocalypse World Tatooine nearly the entire session took place at Jabba’s Palace after he was murdered by Princess Leia

The 1%er Swoop Gang 2 had lots of brushes:
  • an ex-Imperial (played by Aybars Yurdun) who went AWOL after his Stormtrooper squad was ordered to murder two moisture farmers on Tatooine
  • they had a Jawa (played by Joshua Gilbreath) who was the only survivor from the Sandcrawler that was blasted to bits by some Stormtroopers looking for droids.
  • this gang fought and killed the bounty hunter Dengar (who IRL I saved up a bunch of UPC codes and mailed off just to have him as an action figure).

Missed Opportunities:

Not everything was perfect, though. There are things I wish I had executed better, some things I flubbed, others that just didn’t land as well as I’d like.

Running eleven different RPGs meant I ran several games for the first time. While that’s good for me to grow as a gamer and GM, it meant sometimes I ran games less than optimally. I searched hard for reviews or explanations of game texts that confused me, or watched or listened to other people play it. But that didn’t always help (or wasn’t always available). Several times during Roses and Thorns (the feedback method I use after every session), I came to realize that I’d missed important rules and needed to bone up on the system before the next session. Other times, I came to find the rules system needed some tweaks to better support how we were playing. In the case of The Rebel Few, I did some research on dogfighting mechanics, from real-world articles on how it worked to thumbing through other RPGs for inspiration. Misspent Youth was a tough nut to crack for me. Luckily Robert Bohl, the designer, was very generous with his time, and there’s the Tabletop episodes that helped me, too. I still took a couple sessions to get the pacing of MY down, it’s a very different game based mostly on the order of operations and the specific intent of each scene.

I struggled with the core mechanics of Sea of Stars. I wasn’t able to talk through the game as much as I’d liked with the designer (Michael X), and I had trouble getting the PC vs. PC relationship mechanics to work the way it seemed like they were supposed to work. Because this was a beta playtest, I didn’t want to change rules without talking with the designer, so I felt like I was running half the game, which was a disappointment.

Due to the content of slavery in the Misspent Youth game (the PCs were Twi’Leks), I had a player nope the heck right out of the game, which made me feel really gross for a bit. It took me some time to work through the feeling that I’d failed a player in explaining the game setting and helping to include them so they could enjoy the sessions. The player was very generous with their feedback and helped me understand their problems with the content. I admired their bravery to be honest and leave instead of “toughing it out”. They made the right choice for their own fun, and I respect that.

Hunt the Wicked, a game about bounty hunting, seemed like it would be the most perfect fit for Star Wars. The designer, Ben Dutter, put out lots of great supplemental info, from hunts to a listing of bounties, all of which made game prep a snap! But in play, the game worked so differently than how I thought it would work. Conflicts worked with a few dice for character traits and abilities plus a bunch of a pool of dice, with target numbers defined by the skill the player was rolling against. Then players would need to talk through how they were pursuing their motivations in order to build up that pool. What should have been a gritty hunt for dangerous criminals sometimes felt a bit flat. I feel like some more experience with the system might have helped me bring out the most in the mechanics, but after three sessions, I wasn’t sure it was the game for me. It was a real bummer, because Ben’s a great designer and Hunt the Wicked seems so darn cool. I just didn’t crack that nut.

From a broader perspective, one big missed opportunity was that the different games played in this living campaign were only connected by three things:
  1. The original trilogy of Star Wars movies (as intended)
  2. Players who played in more than one series continuing the stories from before or “bringing over” characters or places
  3. Me, as a GM, carrying the canon forward, sometimes without the latest group of players knowing it unless I specifically told them (which I didn’t do much, I try to avoid being a pedant)

This did help with making sure the games were inclusive! Nobody had “homework”, it was egalitarian in that everyone had an equal chance to kick the story forward, shape and mold it. I liked that! But some way for folks to see / hear / taste the cool stories from before without feeling impinged by it, that’s something I want to figure out.

2019 plans:

After a year of Star Wars Saturdays, some folks may think enough’s enough and throw in the towel. Not me! I mean, I am the goofball who’s completed the Ladder of Insanity for three years running (2016: https://rpggeek.com/geeklist/202592/2016-challenge-ladder-insanity, 2017: https://rpggeek.com/geeklist/219284/2017-challenge-ladder-insanity, 2018: https://rpggeek.com/geeklist/235380/2018-challenge-ladder-insanity). I’m nothing if not… crazy? No, another “c” word - consistent!

Seriously, there are more Star Wars tales to tell, and the Gauntlet continues to grow, so I’m keeping this thing going for another year, at least.

What games do I want to run in 2019?

Primetime Adventures happens in January. This is a game that is HARD to make happen in the Gauntlet short-run, open-table environment. So I asked for a four session commitment from all players involved. I made the same request with Misspent Youth, and we had a core 3 players who participated. We’re going to make PTA in the Gauntlet awesome!

In February, I’m running two spots of Hutt Cartel, using some of Mark Diaz Truman’s new playbooks from recent Kickstarter updates, and two sessions of Void Vultures, a game I want to explore further after only one session with it.

Beyond that, I have a short-list of games I’m itching to run (or run again), and for the first time:
  • My Life With Sith Master (it’s gonna happen, Patrick!)
  • Warbirds (with some Rebellion-affiliated non-mercenary squadron)
  • Something re-skinned for TIE Fighter pilots as PCs
  • Crush the Rebellion
  • Using the RPG Stay Frosty for a Stormtrooper story
  • Star Wars d6 REUP edition, but only setting difficulties so I can be lazy and not roll dice as a GM
  • Jedi in the Vineyard
  • A kickass Droids hack of Skeletons that Greg Gelder wrote
  • Maaaaybe Scum and Villainy?
  • Perhaps Night Witches hacked for Rebel Scum
  • More Rebel Few,  1%er Swoop Gang, and Apocalypse World

Another thing I want to do in 2019 is run longer miniseries. I’ve had so much fun watching other Gauntlet GMs running quarterly series of games (Lowell Francis and Darren Brockes are two leaders here). I want to run bimonthly series, getting 8-9 sessions of a game in. Longer story arcs, more continuity, spread over more space, it sounds so cool!

In closing, Star Wars Saturdays has been an experimental living campaign that’s brought me so much joy. I appreciate all the Gauntleteers who gave this game a shot with me, and I cannot wait to keep it going into 2019!

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12/21/2018

Gauntlet Video Roundup - December 21, 2018

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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

Impulse Drive (Session 3 of 3)
Rich Rogers runs for Bethany H., David Miessler-Kubanek, Greg G., Jason Mills, and Sabine V.
The crew of the Nerf Herder discover the threat their cargo poses and decides to turn that cargo into an opportunity.

TGI Thursday

City of Mist (Session 3 of 4)
Lowell Francis runs for Agatha, Chris Newton, Greg G., and Luiz Ferraz
Baba Yaga gets under PCs skin during interrogation and escapes. Meanwhile Excalibur escapes her mother's grip by dragging Flicker along as her +1 to a Museum Gala (and soon-to-be supervillain heist site).

Gauntlet Quarterly

Hearts of Wulin: Book Three (Session 10)
Lowell Francis runs for David Morrison, Patrick Knowles, Rich Rogers, and Sherri
The heroes sow their own confusion, and Nightsky Ming attempts to assassinate Passing Cloud--- revealed to be Cloud's evil twin. His escape splits the heroes further.

Indie Schwarze Auge

[DEUTSCH] World of Aventurien: Schatten im Zwielicht (Session 8)
Gerrit Reininghaus leitet eine Session für Aljoscha, Christopher G., Sabine V, und Tina T.
Charypso - Gerrit schaut Expeditionsleiterin und Hafenseelensorgerin Tina und ihrem Außenteam bei der Erkundung der Piratenhochburg Charypso zu, bei der Christopher im Labyrinth einer Silbermine zu sich selbst findet, Sabine hitzige Worte wählt und Frieden findet und Aljoscha beinahe Freundschaft findet.

Gage Valley Wrestling

World Wide Wrestling: Christmas Carnage 2
Gerwyn Walters runs for Joe A., Paul Edson, Rachelle Dube, and Robert
This session we play out the second year of Gage Valley Wrestling's Annual PPVs, Christmas Carnage. This year the show is live before a crowd of inmates at Gauntlet City Penitentiary where we bring Christmas cheer, chillies and a drunken Santa. Lets only hope that it doesn't end in a riot.

Gauntlet Hangouts

Zombie World: Eurozombies (Session 2 of 4)
Jim Crocker runs for Mikael Tysvær, Nate Bob B., and Tomer Gurantz
The Lazarus Plague continues its march across the UK, as the characters in our UK-based run of Zombie World look for supplies and deal with tension in their prison enclave.

Monsterhearts 2: Kingsport '43 (Session 2 of 4)
Catherine Ramen runs for Bethany H., Jesse A., Joe Zantek, and Seraphina Malizia
In the second installment of our WWII era Lovecraftian-tinged Monsterhearts game, the true identity of Noah Marsh is revealed; omens abound in troubled sleep; Edward the Ghoul strikes a bargain; Selina the Fae meets a strange visitor; Lawrence the Sasquatch makes an unlikely ally; and Astrid the Unicorn has a troubling encounter. Content warning: After the titles there's about 40 seconds of a 1943 US Government film about Japanese Resettlement.

Bat Hack: Championship Series (Session 2 of 4)
Rich Rogers runs for Greg G., Jim Crocker, and Keith Stetson
The Goblins pull off a stunning come-from-behind victory against the Innsmouth Old Ones and come back to Gauntlet City to deal with their lives off the field.

Psi*Run:More Running
Ryan M. runs for Kurt Potts, Robbie Boerth, and Sarah J.
A trio of subtle psionics evade a trio with sharp suits and black latex gloves on the outskirts of New York City (with a GM who knows nothing of New York, I'm so sorry).

PbtA Changeling the Lost: Month 2 (Session 4 of 4)
Tyler Lominack runs for Agatha, Asher S., Chris Newton, and Patrick Knowles
Our motley comes comes face to face with Capt. Steeltooth and with their own inner turmoils. Can they overcome the minions of the Rainbow Man and restore trust between themselves?

Crossroads Carnival: On Broken Dreams (Session 3 of 5)
Jason Cordova runs for Bethany H., Bryan, David Morrison, and Patrick Knowles

Dungeon World: Songs of the Golden Onion (Session 2 of 5)
Jason Cordova runs for Ellen Saxon, Noella H, Robert, and Sabine V

Dungeon World: Songs of the Golden Onion (Session 3 of 5)
Jason Cordova runs for Ellen Saxon, J.D. Woodell, Robert, and Sabine V

Storm Riders!: Merry Eggs-Mas (Session 1 of 4)
Jason Cordova runs for Greg G., Pat P., and Robbie Boerth

Storm Riders!: Merry Eggs-Mas (Session 2 of 4)
Jason Cordova runs for Greg G., Lu Quade, Pat P., and Robbie Boerth

Dead Friend: Leather Boots
Barry facilitates for Sarah J.
In this game of Dead Friend ("Leather Boots") Luzi asks something more of her friend Wilhelmine when they meet again in the ancient woods outside their village.

Noirlandia
Mikael Tysvær facilitates for Alun R., Paul, and Steven desJardins
A beloved movie producer is found dead on the toilet. Join our characters on the hunt for the killer in 1950s Los Angeles.

City of Mist: Second Story Heroes (Session 3 of 4)
Lowell Francis runs for Darold Ross, Darren Brockes, and Gene A.
In an effort to take down the rift of Prometheus, the crew turns to her mafia rivals but negotiations break down as Ms. Wainwright cuts the don's son's head off.

Masks: Caught in the Spiderweb (Session 2 of 4)
Leandro Pondoc runs for Alun R., Jim Crocker, Stentor Danielson, and Tim Osburn
Our young heroes' long night continues as Hardsuit struggles to keep their identity safe, the Rook gets some advice on how to lead from his mentor, Saguaro draws unwelcome attention and Freak reminds their foes how freakish he can get.

Masks: Caught in the Spiderweb (Session 3 of 4)
Leandro Pondoc runs for David Morrison, Jim Crocker, Stentor Danielson, and Tim Osburn
A week after their long night, our heroes try to return to an uneasy calm but find that sinister forces may be closing in on them. Hardsuit tries to juggle their obligations outside of the mask, Saguaro's past starts affecting her life once more, the Rook steps up to protect his friends and the Shoreline Spectre makes their heroic debut.

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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12/20/2018

A Year of Star Wars Saturdays

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by Rich Rogers, Keeper of the Fathomless Well (@orklord; website)

I’ve been running online games for the Gauntlet community since we went online. I enjoyed running different game systems for new and returning folks. It helped forge new friendships and grow the community, too. After several months, I started to find the open table, one-shot or miniseries-only format a little unsatisfying for my storytelling tastes. I craved longer campaigns, ongoing stories, and character development. I wanted to find some way to shape the format of the Gauntlet game-running style to work for me.

In 2016, I launched a living campaign I called Gauntlet City Limits (GCL). The goal of GCL was to create a loose structure to run lots of light-hearted small press RPGs with some recurring characters and a slowly growing set of player-created neighborhoods within Gauntlet City. It worked! We played dozens of hilarious and fun games in Gauntlet City for a couple years. I recently brought the series to a close this year to make room for new things in 2019.

Riding high on the success of GCL at the end of last year, I started thinking about 2018 and what I could do next. I was jazzed about the resurgence of Star Wars in popular media, enjoying the Rebels TV show, excited for Last Jedi, and altogether hyped for that galaxy and fandom. With the power of Disney, it felt like it wasn’t going anywhere soon, and I was happy about that (still am, mind you).

Some of my favorite college gaming memories were playing the WEG d6 Star Wars game with my buddies Christopher Robin (CR) Cronan and Chris Norwood. Me and the Chrises spun wild tales, sometimes playing through modules, often just playing what CR cooked up. We never rubbed shoulders with the cast of the original trilogy (which was the only trilogy back then), but we tromped around in the worlds of Star Wars and the WEG books that expanded the universe. It was a wild ride and we loved every minute of it. Side note: CR was the first GM who ever created a piece of media for a game I played in. He recorded a “emergency distress call” from a starship in trouble that we listened to at the beginning of a session. It. Blew. My. Mind. I’ll always think of that when I work on stuff to set up for games I’m running.

With all of this in mind, I decided my new living campaign for 2018 would be Star Wars Saturdays. Rather than run a campaign of WEG d6 Star Wars, or Saga Edition, or d20, or even Edge of the Empire or the other FFG RPGs, I decided to do it my own way and run it like an anthology series, similar to GCL, where I would run a different game every month. To help decide what games I’d run, I created a set of guidelines to help me choose RPGs from my (embarrassingly large) library of RPG PDFs.

Tenets
  • run in miniseries
  • game sessions run from 9-12
  • need 4-5 players per session
  • easy to allow for drop-in, drop-out play
  • games I know relatively well
  • prefer PbtA (to tie to +1 Forward podcast)

Run in miniseries - The Gauntlet approach for miniseries to that point had been to run miniseries a month at a time, so I worked in that framework.

Game sessions run from 9-12 - that’s 9 AM to noon, Eastern time. I did a poll with the G+ community and it was the most popular game time. It’s also convenient for me to be “done with gaming” by lunch.

Need 4-5 players per session - I knew we needed larger games because the community was growing, so I set a goal of looking for games that could work with larger tables (5 players in one online game can be hectic, I’d never choose to do more).

Easy to allow for drop-in, drop-out play - this follows the Gauntlet open-table approach. It meant I would need games with fast character creation that can be fun in every single session rather than paying off three sessions in.

Games I know relatively well - since I was already running a new RPG every month for GCL, I didn’t want to freak myself out by learning two new games every month. So, I wanted to run games I “got” or could learn easily.

Prefer PbtA (to tie to +1 Forward podcast) - what can I say? I’m selfish that way, I wanted fodder for the podcast I co-produce with Rach Shelkey.


Using my tenets, I created a short-list of potential games, then put out a pitch post on G+ (oh G+, how I’ll miss you). The pitch post was to stoke interest as well as put out feelers for new ideas from the community.

This is what I posted:
Starting this December and continuing through 2018, I'm going to be running Star Wars Saturdays

I love Star Wars because it's a universe of wild science fantasy with a grungy cosmopolitan lived-in feel, with hundreds of alien species thriving despite a despotic Empire that wants to control and subjugate them.
There's a mix of magic as a backdrop, some core ideas of good and evil that fuel a galaxy-spanning war, with action and intrigue always around the next corner.

Star Wars Saturdays will be an experimental ongoing campaign set in the Star Wars universe (timeline is the space between Revenge of the Sith and New Hope so we have some movie and TV canon to inspire, but NOT confine us).

Each month I'll run a different game system, but the characters, locales, and stories will all contribute to an ongoing narrative. Imagine a sci-fi version of Mercy Falls, We Hunt the Keepers, or Gauntlet City Limits. I'm going to create a wiki or perhaps just a Google doc (or something better, if folks have ideas) so we have a common resource for the worlds and people we see and create together..

The Potential Game lineup:
- Star Wars World (kicking off this December)
- An X-Wing Squadron using Era Balam (see the KS here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadesofvengeance/jump-in-your-starfighter-for-era-balam-a-project-o)
- Jedi in the Vineyard (Dogs in the Vineyard with the PCs as padawans on an Outer Rim star system trying to solve problems)
- Apocalypse World set on Tattooine (Scarcity: power converters)
- Impulse Drive with a tramp freighter trying to haul freight in the Mid-Rim worlds
- Stay Frosty (an OSR game) with Storm Troopers (thanks for the idea +Tom McGrenery!)
- Lady Blackbird, but with Star Wars characters (there's a Jedi Blackbird out there, or I can tweak the original)
-  My Life With Sith Master
- 1%er with a Swoop gang (Dwang yeah!)
- Probably something with Star Wars d6 ReUP edition (it's a classic, y'all, don't hate), maybe I'll even run one of the old WEG modules, for fun
- Crush the Rebellion
- Rebel starfighters in a re-skin of The Few
- The Hood or Urban Shadows on Level 1313 of Coruscant.... ?
- Night Witches re-skinned for TIE Fighters....?

I'm very excited about this new thing. We can have ongoing stories, the feel of a campaign, without the burnout of only one system. It's also an anthology approach, letting us switch focus and see different sides of the galaxy-spanning war.

If you have any questions, feedback, or suggestions, let me know!

(PS: stole the scarcity joke from +Michael G. Barford)
(PPS: Don't suggest Scum and Villainy, I need to play Blades in the Dark published version and/or read it before I even tentatively put it on the list, I'm not convinced this is a game I can run well)
The post garnered a great deal of interest and gave me a boost to finalize the games I wanted to run for the first three months:

Games played:
December 2017 - Star Wars World - Omega edition
January - 1%er Swoop Gang
February - The Rebel Few

Star Wars World is a brilliant PbtA hack written by Andrew Medeiros, fully playable in the Omega edition. I used the Edge of the Empire module Beyond the Rim, which is quite solid with beautiful art and a swift plot that allowed for lots of creativity and free play like a PbtA game needs.

1%er Swoop Gang was a reskin of Robert Nolan’s AWESOME 1%er, one of my favorite RPGs in the last few years. I had fun swapping in Star Warsy words for this fun game about bikers. The PCs were a swoop gang on Nar Shaddaa in Hutt Space, making trouble for Hutt crimelords and tussling with their rivals.

The Rebel Few is a hack of an RPG about World War 2 pilots called The Few. My buddy Tom McGrenery pointed me to a play-by-post of it on Tavern Keeper, run by one of the original designers of The Few, who hacked it for Star Wars himself! I literally scooped out huge gobs of his amazing work to reuse in my game, reading his mission briefings and acting them out. I have no shame, his work was so very good!

The next three months I ran a couple games I knew well and a terrifying experiment in the middle.

March - Apocalypse World - Tatooine
April - Rebel Blackbird
May - Impulse Drive - Tramp Freighter

Apocalypse World - Tatooine. I’ve run Apocalypse World quite a bit, live, online, and via play-by-post. Rather than run a version made for Star Wars, my approach with AW - Tatooine was to run AW straight up. We changed the names of some weapons to be blasters, but kept all their stats. For the psychic maelstrom, I found a cool bit on Wookieepedia that Tatooine used to be a verdant planet before a Sith plot ravaged the world and turned it into a desert. Sounds like a great excuse for a psychic maelstrom, right?

As I expected, this game ran “like butter." We had a Faceless running around with a Sith mask from the Old Republic, a Hocus who lived with Tusken raiders, a Savvyhead raised by droids, a Togruta Gunlugger who was straight out of a noir film and a Brainer. It was an amazing crew. I will never forget the moment Tyler Lominack, who played a Force-wielding Brainer with a goal of maintaining the Light Side, realized that he had a set of Moves that pushed his powers into very dark places. It was such horror for him, seeing that he wanted to plant flowers and only had hammers and sickles.

In April, I ran Rebel Blackbird (https://jesseross.com/games/Rebel-Blackbird.pdf), a Lady Blackbird hack that Jesse Ross and I developed from Jedi Blackbird. It was thrilling to work alongside Jesse, a fellow fan of Lady Blackbird and all-around creative dude. We had multiple meetings before that game to hammer out pre-gen characters, develop awesome keys and traits together. I’m really proud of our work and excited to continue working with him. ALSO, this game had our first lightsaber fight! Pawel Solowczuk literally whipped out a lightsaber on camera and it was the most wonderful moment!!!!

May was Impulse Drive, a personal favorite PBtA game that slots in so very well with Star Wars. Maxime Lacoste and I worked on converting the playbook names and gear, but honestly he did the lion’s share. He also cooked up one of the most beautiful Character Keepers (Google Spreadsheet for online player character info) I’ve ever seen! (seriously, check it out)

The next three months, I tackled another light conversion, some beta playtesting for a Gauntlet community member, and a return to a classic.

June - Hutt Cartel
July - Sea of Stars
August - 1%er Swoop Gang 2

Hutt Cartel. I’d had the pleasure of trying out Mark Diaz Truman’s sharp Mexican narcofiction game Cartel a few times over the years he’s been developing it. From his successful Kickstarter in April, he released a Quickstart. I reached out to check with him to see if he minded if I hack it for Star Wars, and of course he was excited to see what I do with it. The game itself I didn’t touch. I renamed a few playbooks, and rejiggered the setup. I reframed the game as the Hutt Cartel on Coruscant on a subterranean level called 1313 (it’s over 1,300 levels down into the city, many hours travel away from any sunlight). I cooked up a little backstory that Emperor Palpatine had driven the Hutts off Coruscant in a big push for “law and order” and the PCs were the cartel that filled in the gaps, acting as proxies for the Hutts to move their product, all the while dealing with Imperials and the Black Sun, too. It was an intense and grimy game with double-crosses, nasty fights, and some tragic endings.

In July, I ran Sea of Stars, a game in early development by Michael X. The game has some really fun playbooks, and one of them was so exciting that we just had to declare that the Twi’Lek species has royal families so we could have a Twi’Lek Princess. We had a rascally droid, a scoundrel and even a Force-wielding Trandoshan (it was awesome). I used an old WEG d6 module called Strikeforce Shantipole as the loose frame for the game series, and it was so exciting to see the players meet a PC from the movies! The party worked with Admiral Akbar (who was a Commander in the module) to get the plans for the B-Wing to the Rebel Alliance!

In August, I just had to run 1%er Swoop Gang again. We had a bunch of new members of the Gauntlet, so I ran 1%er because I knew I could handle six players. I ran it for new Gauntlet folks only and while I was nervous going into a game where I literally knew nobody, the group was amazingly creative, engaged, thoughtful, and so very fun. We ran around on Tatooine and dealt with some of the fallout from the AW Tatooine game.

Coming into the home stretch, I violated one of my tenets, went a bit “out there” with a game, tried a game I expected would be a cinch, and returned to another classic.

September - Misspent Youth
October - Void Vultures
November - Hunt the Wicked
December - Impulse Drive - Tramp Freighter

I’d never run or played Misspent Youth, but during the Impulse Drive Tramp Freighter game I was describing a group of rebellious young Twi’Lek on Ryloth as “A group of punks who are starring in their own game of Misspent Youth”. That just stuck in my head and I decided in September to give it a shot. Robert Bohl, the game’s designer, was so gracious with his time as I asked him questions about the game, how to run it for five sessions, how to convert it for Star Wars, all kinds of stuff. Now, MY needs a consistent group, so I requested that all players sign up for every session. Turns out that due to shifting schedules not every player attended every session, but we worked through it!

October was a light month for SWS with Gauntlet Con and other events taking up my time, but I got to squeeze in a session of Void Vultures, a game about starship scavengers by Josh Roby. I couldn’t for the life of me find any AP for the game to see how it played, but I was able to chat with Josh, read and re-read the game. I wasn’t sure on the best frame for the game until Rach Shelkey mentioned the module Starfall, which had maps of a Star Destroyer and that turned out to be perfect for our session!

Hunt the Wicked. HtW, by Ben Dutter, is about Bounty Hunters, so it only took a little work to reskin it in the Star Wars universe. I’d backed Ben’s Patreon when he put out some bounties for HtW, so I reworked them for Star Wars and ran it straight up. It was a tight group of bounty hunters for two of the three sessions, but their last bounty was so vicious and challenging that it broke up the group! It was a sad ending to a team-up and one of the darkest moments in the SWS series.

I decided to finish up the year with Impulse Drive again, this time with a new tramp freighter and a new crew. It’s the freshest on my mind, of course, but it really was one of the most solid series of the year. There was this make-your-own family relationship between the crew members and a patched-together astromech droid that I simply adored. I didn’t push them to become heroes, but they decided to be heroes nonetheless, stopping a genocidal weapon and helping to bring an end to a proxy war.

Be sure to stay tuned for the second post in this series, where I will share some observations and missed opportunities from SWS 2018 and detail my plans for next year!

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12/18/2018

Design Diary: The Between 03

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by Jason Cordova ​
​
One of my major design goals for The Between was for the game to feel highly cinematic while being played. Early on in the design process, I knew I wanted some kind of cross-cutting between the scene our player characters were experiencing and a scene taking place somewhere else in London. Those back and forth cuts between scenes are a hallmark of my GMing style, and I have also been known to narrate scenes for the players that are entirely outside the purview of their characters (such as villainous monoluges), and so I knew I wanted that style of play baked right into the rules of The Between. 

I eventually landed on a concept I call the Overscene. In its original form, the Overscene was a scene that the main scene the players were involved in occasionally cut to in order to show a different side of the story, in a different part of the city, and was strictly out-of-character knowledge. It was narrated entirely by the D.I. (the GM) and had the additional goal of giving the players a better understanding of the greater mystery. However, after giving it a lot of thought, I decided this approach was too heavy-handed and abandoned it (although there are some echoes of this version in the D.I. procedure called The Enemy, which will be discussed in a future post). 

But I had a hard time shaking the idea; I was still in love with the beautiful, cinematic nature of the Overscene. And so I began to think about my GM toolbox; I began to consider all the little tricks I use in my games to create a certain type of experience and what lessons could be learned from them. My Paint the Scene technique is probably my favorite (you can read about it here) and was most influential here. In Paint the Scene, the most important outcome is that the players get to work with themes and motifs to describe how their characters experience something in the setting. Additionally, it is entirely irrelevant if the details that come from Paint the Scene have any direct bearing on the story being told—more often than not, they don’t. The narrative goal of Paint the Scene is to add richness and texture to the setting that feels both real and coherent. But the real insight for purposes of the development of the Overscene was this: players frequently re-incorporate elements from Paint the Scene into the main narration, often unconsciously. 
Picture

So how does the Overscene work now? 

The present iteration of the Overscene has three goals: to create a cinematic feel at the table, to encourage the players to use theme and motif in their narration, and to pace out the Night phase of the game. The Overscene begins with a short description of a scene taking place somewhere in the city on the same the night the player characters are engaged in their hunt. That description is followed by 4 prompts, each of which has one player (or all the players, in the case of a Paint the Scene prompt) narrating a bit of the scene. After the first prompt is satisfied, we cut to the main scene involving the player characters. After each of the player characters has had a chance to do something in the main scene (trigger a move, have a short bit of conversation, investigate a small part of the scene, etc.) we jump back to the Overscene and do the second prompt. After the second prompt is satisfied, we dive back into the main scene as before. You continue this, back and forth, with the Night phase ending immediately after the characters have taken their actions in the main scene following the fourth prompt. 

During all this, if the players manage to incorporate a thematic or sensory detail from the Overscene into the main scene—or vice versa—they get to mark XP at the end of the Night phase (indeed, this is the only way of getting XP during the Night phase). 

Below is a link to the different Overscenes I have been playtesting, which should give you a better sense of how this works. When the game is published, these will be presented as a deck of cards (with about 50 different Overscenes available). 
Overscenes-Alpha Playtest

Outcomes from playtesting

I have so far run around 35 playtest sessions of the alpha rules. The Overscene is rock solid. There is a bit of mastery involved—it’s an unusual concept in ttrpgs—but after doing it a couple times, the players really get into it (and look forward to it). As for specific outcomes, these are the things I am most happy about:
  • The Overscene is an excellent way of pacing out the Night phase. I’m going to talk more about the interplay between the languid Day phase and the visceral Night phase in a future post, but for now just know that the Night phase is meant to be tight and intense. Putting a hard line on where it ends leads to very efficient, focused play. 
  • Even though players only get XP credit for re-incorporating one thematic or sensory detail, they continue to do it throughout the Night phase, with some players hitting it 4 or 5 times. 
  • Players often make subtle allusions to the Overscene during the main scene without even realizing they are doing it. In this way, the Overscene functions on an unconscious level, in much the same way Paint the Scene does. This is a VERY powerful effect of the Overscene. 
  • The Overscene continues to satisfy my overarching design goal of managing cognitive load, which I have discussed before, and which I believe is one of this game’s triumphs from a design standpoint. 

All in all, I’m quite happy with the Overscene. It’s one of the few parts of the game that is leaving alpha more or less untouched. I expect as more people get familiar with The Between and its very particular style of play, people are going to want to steal the Overscene for their own designs. 

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12/17/2018

Session Report: Fire Ships at Midnight

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by Fraser Simons, Keeper of the Neon Veil

​Date Played

12/13/2018

System
Fire Ships At Midnight

Facilitator
Haley G

Players
Fraser S, Sarah J

Session Recap
Fire Ships At Midnight is a storygame that has 3 players take on the roles of The Duke of Medina Sidonia, Cardinal Ribera, and Captain Salazar. It captures a moment of history I was not even remotely aware of: the legendary disaster of the Spanish Armada as they attempted to invade the English in 1588.

We don't play to affect the outcome of the disaster, though. We play to find out which of the three characters can save their reputations, each vying for their own course of action using the mechanics of the game. You wager dice in an attempt to outbid the others. But your failures and successes are linked, ultimately. And when you play to drive the fiction toward your ideal outcome, you also find yourself slipping into your character; "fighting" with the people you realize you're in bed with, as you are the only people who will be judged...and rewarded.

In the first scene, I found myself advocating for a course of action that was actually the second scene's most positive outcome for my character, the Captain. The plan I quickly thought up when attempting to embody my character was my character's primary goal—how perfect is that?!

As we continued, I found that this was similar for everyone. The desired outcomes also goalpost what your character would do and want, making it so easy to roleplay their possible mode of thinking, maneuvering to the end game.

Even when you start out advocating for the lives of your men and the safest, sanest, course of action, you think. You end up on the precipice, deciding if you want to be crowned in glory (all the while knowing you're all responsible for a horrendous outcome for the lives of those you are, perhaps, most responsible for as the Captain) or be disgraced.

That's when you are really playing to find out; when you're realizing your immense, titanic privilege in a situation with lives in the balance; when you're choosing the best outcome for yourself.

And remember: that is what the game says it's about. It warned you the whole time.

Highlight
To foreshadow my character's own decision, midway through play the Duke offered to help me when we returned. Promises writhed in ostentatious firelight splaying across his gilded quarters. On a player level, I lost and missed my favored outcome, as did the Cardinal, who lost so direly they were out of the game. But while the Cardinal held fast despite this loss, I gave one of my losing dice to the Duke, bending to his will.

In the end, we were crowned as heroes and the Cardinal fell to dysentery in the hull of the ship. He prayed and prayed and cursed us as he died. His grandson, the bishop, looked so much like the Cardinal as we held our final conference. Talking of executing deserters or disbanding the fleet, trusting the captains to sail for Spain and king and country. All the while the words of the bishop, like the shadows on the wall when we spoke last to the Cardinal, fell on deaf ears. In the end, even if you're god fearing, you want the king on your side; not god.

Moment of Insight
No matter what outcome you vie for it is all false valor and bluster. If it happens to align for the best outcome for the army and best sailors belonging to Spain, well, that is particularly lucky for them.

Fireships at Midnight is available in Codex - Flame, which you can pick up for FREE right here. 

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12/14/2018

Gauntlet Video Roundup - December 14, 2018

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Picture
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

Impulse Drive (Session 2 of 3)
Rich Rogers runs for Bethany H., David Miessler-Kubanek, Greg G., Jason Mills, and Sabine V
The crew of the Nerf Herder grows to their full complement, gets into a nasty fight with a Trandoshan Bounty Hunter, had a few costume changes, and flies off to Eriadu.

TGI Thursday

City of Mist (Session 2 of 4)
Lowell Francis runs for Agatha, David Miessler-Kubanek, JM, and Steven Watkins
The crew pursue several avenues of investigation leading to parallel battles with a pissed-off Koschei the Deathless and Baba Yaga's Walking Airstream Trailer.

Gauntlet Quarterly

Hearts of Wulin: Book Three (Session 8)
Lowell Francis runs for David Morrison, Patrick Knowles, Rich Rogers, and Sherri
The final volume of our trilogy begins with our heroes in the wilds, but an assassination attempt draws them together to protect those they love.

Hearts of Wulin: Book Three (Session 9)
Lowell Francis runs for David Morrison, Patrick Knowles, Rich Rogers, and Sherri
Pursuit of the assassins leads the heroes into the secret temple of the Frost Queen where secrets and villainy are revealed.

Duet December

I Haven't Seen You Since...
Noella H runs for Steven desJardins

The Adam of Your Labors
Noella H facilitates for Stentor Danielson
In the wake of her cat's death, tenured professor Olive attempts to bring him back, but instead animates a plant who begins to take on qualities of Spot.

Ampersand Month

Sorcerers & Sellswords
Paul Edson runs for Lu Quade, Rob, and Steven desJardins

Rockerboys & Vending Machines
Paul Edson runs for Jim Crocker, Michael G. Barford, and Tim

Gauntlet Hangouts

Symbaroum: The Copper Crown (Session 7 of 8)
Darren Brockes runs for Chris Thompson and Fraser Simons
Variol and Obadan make a pact with an ancient being and escape the darkness with few treasures in tow.

Bat Hack: Championship Series (Session 1 of 4)
Rich Rogers runs for Greg G., Keith Stetson, and Walter
It's the first game of the Championship series of Bat Hack!

Conjure Hagalaz: Escort Quest
Blake Ryan runs for Alejandro and Diana Moon

Monsterhearts 2: Ballhir - Cold Snap (Session 3 of 3)
Donogh runs for Asher S., Jesse Ross, Mark Causey, and Walter
A party to celebrate their victory preventing the bypass, and to see the Fannon's out of town, breaks up when people go to the lake, Muir Iasc is hungry and close to waking up...

Psi*Run
Ryan M. runs for Brian B., Lauren, and Michael G. Barford
Our heroes evade fluid metal Mr. Rogers beneath NeoDetroit with the powers of memories, feelings, and psychic blades.

Crossroads Carnival: On Broken Dreams (Session 2 of 5)
Jason Cordova runs for Bethany H., Bryan, David Morrison, and Patrick Knowles

InSpectres: A Night in the Park
Shane Liebling runs for Ben Swinden and Sarah J.

Lady Blackbird: From Hand To Haven
Shane Liebling runs for Bethany H., Jim Crocker, Michael G. Barford, and Pat P.

City of Mist: Second Story Heroes (Session 2 of 4)
Lowell Francis runs for Darold Ross, Fraser Simons, and Gene A.
Their case literally explodes, leading our cohorts to dig deeper into a mysterious gallery owner, a series of bombings, the Greek Mafia, and a vulture-like consigliere.

InSpectres: Santa Teresa Nights (Session 2 of 3)
Shane Liebling runs for Brian B., Jen Overstreet, and Rich Rogers
Down a man the crew pick up a go-getter intern and investigate strange happenings in a eucalyptus grove...

The Sword, The Crown, and The Unspeakable Power: Wreathe Your Hands With Blood (Session 2 of 4)
Agatha runs for Jason Cordova, Lowell Francis, Ludovico Alves, and Matthew Doughty
The Crown brings their mailed fist, the Beloved searches for sacrifices, the Hex calls up dark powers, and the Lyre falls victim to those called up powers. Content warning: casual violence and Cordova-level grotesqueries.

Masks: Caught in the Spiderweb (Session 1 of 4)
Leandro Pondoc runs for Jim Crocker, Sabine V, Stentor Danielson, and Tim
In the neighborhood of Shoreline, one of many in Prospect City, a routine night patrol for our heroes gets broken up by gang warfare, shotgun-toting would-be carjackers and awkward conversations about relationships.

The Quiet Year
Leandro Pondoc runs for Ludovico Alves and Sabine V
In one quiet year, a community deals with a lack of food, weaponry, and oh yeah TVs buried underneath the dirt, strange hunting spirits, a sudden proliferation of cults (!), and bears made of orchids and roses.

Monsterhearts 2: Kingsport 1943 (Session 1 of 4)
Catherine Ramen runs for Bethany H., Jesse A., Joe Zantek, and Seraphina Malizia
Join us for homeroom creation and then the opening chapter of our tale of the World War II homefront: Selina the Fae gets into a fight with a popular but bereaved girl; Lawrence the Sasquatch shows kindness; Edward the Ghoul gets caught by MPs; and Astrid the Unicorn is romanced with Edward and takes in the fugitive Noah Marsh.

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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12/13/2018

The Fire Under The Mountain: A CYOA Actual Play

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By Tomer Gurantz, Keeper of the Squamous Beast Below

Back in early November, Steven Stewart, being inspired by a Cheat Your Own Adventure (CYOA) play-by-post thread in the Gauntlet Slack, created a new #cyoa_play channel specifically for the purpose of running more such games.

The first was The Fire Under The Mountain, a Gamma World, gonzo-inspired CYOA game. This was a somewhat normal CYOA, however Steven did set up an NPC in the first scene, and declared that if we ever rolled doubles, then we’d have to narrate something bad happening, such as the death of this extra character. As it turned out, they were safe the entire time!

This game was played during one and half weeks by Steven Stewart, James Ryan, Andrew Hauge, Jim Crocker, and Tomer Gurantz. Come, join us...

Page 1

You stand with all your worldly possessions in your hand, a steel spear, a glow stick which will give enough light as a candle for a few days, and your most prized Possession, the Magical Yeti Cup of keeping things both warm and cold. Beside you, your fellow villager Iridium weeps, pointing as smoke, fires, and laser beams rain down on your humble village. A death bot has finally found your village. You and Iridium were out picking the special magical weed that the village elders like to smoke. You know in a month's time the Deathbot will have finished its job, clearing the land, leaving a smooth gray surface, sterile of life, with little white lines on it and a giant empty building of blue and gray with the giant letters “W A L M A R T” on it. strange letters that the elders do not know the meaning but know it means death. Behind you lies the path up the mountain. That path you have been told leads to one of the Ancient Villages or Fortresses. To the East lies the Irradiated Grass Sea, home to who knows What, but definitely mutants. Maybe they will be friendly. No one has spoken of the north lands. To the South is what is left of your Village. Iridium pulls themselves together and looks at you. “Now Strider of the Weed (your village name) which way do we go?”

  • To warm the magical weed in your Magical Yeti Cup, and partake of the guiding visions of your ancestors, go to page 420. (The bolded choice is the path taken)
  • To hide until the death bot passes, and then explore the strange building it leaves behind, turn to 111.
  • To set a course for the Irradiated Sea, turn to page 7.

Page 420

You place the purple buds of the dry magical weed in your Magical Yeti Cup, say the mystical phrases, and clap two times. You don't have to wait long before it warms, and exudes the reassuring scent of the magic-weed. Iridium doesn't partake, sitting nearby, weeping quietly. Iridium never partakes. You take off your shirt, and place it over your head and the vessel, allowing the sacred fumes to fill your lungs, breathing deeply. The sound of lasers and burning and gentle weeping slowly recede, replaced by other things…

You hear a familiar voice trying to tell you of a place to go. You feel giant letters being seared into your head. You see a path made of glowing neon under the earth. You sense a change in air pressure, perhaps rain. You taste bitter, burning meat on your tongue, tinged with sadness. And smell crushed herbs and brush of a neighboring land. Which of these signs is meant to help you? You think you know. You lift your shirt to make a decision.

  • If you think the spirits of the ancients are guiding you to go up the mountain of the Ancients turn to page 99.
  • If you recklessly swig down the bitter herbal brew to keep the visions fresh and set off to the East where the Deathbot came from, turn to page 47.
  • If you seek the neon path underground, turn to page 302.
  • If you comfort Iridium, then report your vision and ask their advice, turn to 65.

Page 47

You trudge Eastward down the slope, the setting sun low behind you. Iridium walks numbly a few paces behind you. You cross the Verge, the charred, barren strip of land between the hills and the Sea of Grass, quickly, and plunge into the stunningly verdant chest-high blades. It’ll be dark soon, and you’re tired, but the eerie tracers of the path of the Deathbot still linger in your vision, rising from a spot somewhere in the depths of the Sea. The soft emerald glow the veins of the grass emit are just enough to travel by as the dark descends, but this is also when the MowBots roam these plains. What do you do?

  • If you search for a hollow in the earth where you and Iridium can hide, turn to page 214.
  • If you think you better wait till morning, and suggest to Iridium that you better not light a fire to avoid attracting mutants or bots and instead should snuggle together for body warmth turn to page 68.
  • Mowbots be damned! To continue onwards through the night, turn to page 98.

Page 68

Iridium looks at you and looks at themselves. You have been trying to hit on them since your coming of age ceremony. It was only because they wanted to get out of the village they agreed to go with you in the first place. They finally say “Oh Frac whatever” (a curse in your language). “I will keep watch first. But no funny business.” You snuggle up with them with the green glowing grass all around you. The herbs are still giving you a good buzz although now you are very hungry and having a hard time going to sleep. You hear some strange hooting way off in the distance to the east of you but Iridium doesn’t say anything. They look half asleep themselves but may be watching. You luckily can’t hear any more screams from the village, just the smoke still ascending as the deathbot now starts to clean up. As you think about how your life is changed and how some fried and smoked giant locusts would be great, Iridium rolls over getting closer to you in the cold. They have fallen asleep.

  • If you fall into a deep sleep, turn to page 31.
  • If you go check out the hooting sounds, turn to page 88.
  • If you give Iridium an exasperated poke in the ribs and tell them to stay awake for the rest of their watch before drifting back into shallow, troubled sleep, turn to page 22.

Page 31

As you slip into unconsciousness, a strange sensation overtakes you, and you feel strange dreams threading themselves into your awareness. Snatches of sounds, colors, action, events...

"...tear down this wall!"

"I cast Magic Missile..."

"... we're going, we won't need..."

"When in the course of human events..."

"STELLA!"

"I... just have to tell you how I'm feeling, maybe make you..."

"...scruffy-looking nerf..."

  • To focus on the strongest signal, and stare into the abyss, go to page 77.
  • If you wake up and shake Iridium awake to tell them of your awesome vision while continuing to crave something fatty and crunchy to eat turn to page 67.
  • If you awake with a start howling “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”, causing one of the MowBots to twist its parabolic microphone towards you, turn to page 37.

Page 77

You focus on the strongest signal, and zoom in. There is a planet, lush and thriving. You see a moon up in the sky. Wait, that is no... A transmission: "_...reluctant to provide us with the location of the Rebel base, I have chosen to test this station's destructive power on your home planet..._" You find yourself walking through a narrow tunnel, underground, dark and smooth. Iridium follows behind you asking, "Strider! Strider! Can you even hear me? Where are you leading us?" You hear a sound from behind you, an initiation of a great rumbling. A great weapon. A large neon beam, glowing, under the earth, down the tunnel, as it sears the meat off your flesh, and leaves nothing but bones and dust.

THE END... but, cheat by going back to page 31 and choosing:
  • If you wake up and shake Iridium awake to tell them of your awesome vision while continuing to crave something fatty and crunchy to eat turn to page 67.

Page 67

You wake up totally jazzed about your vision. The dawn is coming up over the wavy green glowing grass. Iridium wakes up irritated and cold, and eyeing you like maybe you did something while you were sleeping last night. You don’t even bother reminding them they fell asleep on watch. You are just getting to the part about “Stella” when they point behind you saying “did it sound like that?”. You whip around and see three strange humans. One is a purple and very statuesque looking woman about 7 feet tall. Another is green and hunched over with pointy ears. It is obviously a man, you can tell due to its lack of clothing. The last you can’t tell as it is covered in a Prismatic poncho that almost goes to the ground with a large deep hood. Mutants you think. The small green one is holding a stick thing out with a small metallic box. Blazing out of it are words of your vision in a buzzy voice.

  • If you repeat the words of the vision, turn to page 25.
  • If you frantically beg them to shut it off before it attracts the attention of a Bot of some kind, turn to page 33.
  • If you watch as Iridium approaches them, and see what Iridium does, turn to page 64.

Page 64

Iridium approaches the three mutants confidently. So many thoughts quickly float through your head. Does Iridium know these mutants? Or does Iridium know how to put them down? Make friends with them? Know their weakness?

It turns out, none of these things. The large purple statuesque looking woman points at Iridium and appears to control them with her mind. The green one hands Iridium a strange device, which Iridium then turns and points at your chest. The loud sizzling sound is the last you hear, before the world goes dark.

THE END... but, cheat by going back to page 67 and choosing:
  • If you repeat the words of the vision, turn to page 25.

Page 25

The mutant in the poncho nods slowly upon hearing your words. "One small step for man," they intone, clapping hands together briefly. The other two figures follow suit, looking first at Iridium and then back at you.

The green one bows slightly, and pulls a sack out of one of their pouches. They retrieve a handful of purple pellets, and offer one to you and one to Iridium. "A whole new world."

  • If you refuse the pellets and make a run for it turning north to the cold unknown lands turn to page 78.
  • If you take the purple pill and see just how deep the rabbit hole goes, turn to Page 99.
  • If you take what the mutant is saying literally, put the pill on the ground and step on them, turn to page 163.

Page 163

You step on the pill and crush it with your foot. A purple gas escapes... more gas than could possibly fit in that little pill. You immediately hold your breath to avoid breathing in what appears to be toxic fumes, but the mutant in the poncho steps on your foot, and you gasp in pain, sucking in that gas. You brace for pain.

But it doesn't come. Instead you feel your consciousness expand. You... "you" starts to become a fuzzy concept. "We"? Yes, we are now five mutants... Iridium and Strider no longer exist on their own. We travel the wasteland, giving others purple pills. And then soon we are 12. And then 94. And then 513. And our army sweeps across the land, growing larger, and larger…

THE END... but, cheat by going back to page 25 and choosing:
  • If you take the purple pill and see just how deep the rabbit hole goes, turn to Page 99.

Page 99

You take the pill and dry-swallow it. It's coppery-tasting and maybe tingles a little as it goes down. "Hello, Host" you hear a voice say inside your head. "I hope that we will find harmony after our trial. I am sorry that this will hurt at first."

Sharp pains shoot through your guts as you feel something happening down there.

Ah. Clarity now. It wasn't a pill. It was a seed, and now it's growing.

  • If you try to vomit up the seed, turn to page 104.
  • If you turn to Iridium and have them use their special powers on you, turn to page 54.
  • If you ask one of the mutants what is happening turn to page 72

Page 54

You look to Iridium, concern on your face. "Umm... I think I feel something growing inside of me", you state, knowing that Iridium is the most well regarded healer of this generation.

Iridium turns to you, reaches their hand out to touch your belly, and concentrates. Their eyes roll up slightly into their head, and they have a glazed look, as they concentrate their powers on your being. After a moment, their focus returns, and they stare you straight in the face, with a calm and happy look. "You have been blessed. They will be twins, and they will bring new light into the world... if you can keep them safe."

The mutants bow to you, and head to the North. You look West, behind you, and think of your distant village, and the holy mountain next to it. You hear the buzz of a Death Bot in the far distance to the East. You look at  Iridium, and see a look of hope and expectation in their eyes you haven't seen before.

  • If you smile at Iridium through the slow but relentless rearranging of your organs and turn South towards the unknown, knowing they'll fall in step alongside you, turn to Page 77.
  • If you call out to the mutants, "I Strider of the Weeds will bear forth the Holy Ones that will rise up and cleanse this land of any that harm your followers, come and be the first disciples of the Chosen Ones in the Unseen Womb" turn to page 56
  • If you turn back West to reclaim the scorched land of your village, turn to page 3.

Page 56

The green naked mutant stops and spins. He twiddles with the controls and there is static followed by a blaring out of a very charismatic voice speaking in a language you almost understand “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country”.

The prismatic poncho mutant has a very raspy voice and when it speaks you get an overpowering smell of decaying roses.

“Make .... it .... so.... Number ...... One......”

The statuesque mutant saunters over towering over the two of you. In a seductive motherly voice she booms, “We thank you for your gift to us, we have been waiting a long time. I gift you the gift of quickening.” She leans over giving you a full kiss on the mouth.

Deep inside you feel your insides expand. It is all going a lot faster than you can process. You scream out as it feels like your body, especially your belly, is expanding faster than you could ever think until it burst open.

Right before you die in the green glowing grass, you make out six figures walking away. Two of them small, child size. One turns and looks at you as they walk away and you see a very strange mix of your features and Iridium in their face.

THE END... but, cheat by going back to page 54 and choosing:
  • If you turn back West to reclaim the scorched land of your village, turn to page 3.

Page 3

With no hesitation, you turn west and stride back the way you came, back through the wastelands, past the strange sights and perils which once felt threatening to you. The world is new, and the world has changed, and now hope shines in your heart. You crest the hill to the blackened earth where your village once stood, and kneel silently in the middle of it. The Deathbot has been distracted from its task, it seems, and all that stands as evidence of it is a square of dull paved gray in the center of the village. Here, then, is where you will make a home to last for years to come, where you have always made your home.

And yet, something is new. Iridium begins clapping their hands in a rhythm, voice lifting high above the ruins of humanity in this strange world. You join in, eyes closed, and if you listen closely, you feel as though you can almost hear the singing of a multitude echoing back to you, the multitude of all those who are to follow, all those who will look back to this village as their birthplace, the birthplace of a new world.

THE END.

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12/7/2018

Gauntlet Video Roundup - December 7, 2018

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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

Impulse Drive (Session 1 of 3)
Rich Rogers runs for Bethany H., David Miessler-Kubanek, and Sabine V
The crew of The Nerf Herder land on Rutan to pick up some cargo and get involved with a local rebellion. Yes, that is a moon!

TGI Thursday

City of Mist (Session 1 of 4)
Lowell Francis runs for Agatha, Chris Newton, Luiz Ferraz, and Steven Watkins
Despite an abundance of internal trust issues, our crew of Vigilante Detectives sets out on the trail of poultry-tinged murders.

Indie Schwarze Auge

[DEUTSCH] World of Aventurien: Schatten im Zwielicht (Session 7)
Gerrit Reininghaus leitet eine Session für Christopher, Sabine V, und Tina T.
Opalglanz - Die Gruppe werden in die gefürchtete Charyptik geleitet, in der sie als todesmutiger Zitteraale, Scheinogerschlachter und feurige Orgelspieler Piraten das Fürchten lehren.

Duet December

Connection Lost
Noella H facilitates for Sabine V
The last hour of a dying astronaut's life, with a mysterious voice over the com the only person to talk to.

Gauntlet Hangouts

PbtA Changeling the Lost: Month 2 (Session 2 of 4)
Tyler Lominack runs for Asher S., Chris Newton, JM, and Patrick Knowles
Two of our Motley have a lovely night on the town with a couple of odd moments....and the other two engage in a jail-break. Changeling Chicago is always interesting. ;)

PbtA Changeling the Lost: Month 2 (Session 3 of 4)
Tyler Lominack runs for Agatha, Chris Newton, JM, and Patrick Knowles
FEELS!!! ALL THE FEELS!!! (Note: Session cut into two videos.)

Symbaroum: The Copper Crown (Session 6 of 8)
Darren Brockes runs for Chris Thompson, Fraser Simons, and Lauren
Variol and Saoirse meet up with their new coworker Odaban at an outpost deeper in Davokar to start an investigation into the tomb that housed the copper crown, which was responsible for driving the serial killer of Thistle Hold to commit her murders...

Dungeon World: Songs of the Golden Onion (Session 1 of 5)
Jason Cordova runs for Ellen Saxon, J.D. Woodell, Noella H, Robert, and Sabine V

Crossroads Carnival: On Broken Dreams (Session 1 of 5)
Jason Cordova runs for Bethany H., Bryan, David Morrison, and Patrick Knowles

[DEUTSCH] Ghost Drums: Playtest
Gerrit Reininghaus ermöglichte eine Session für Sabine V und Tina T.
Zwei Geister von Ertrunkenen kehren ins Dorf zurück. Der Besucher nimmt ihnen ihre Trommeln ab, die bis dahin die Lebenden vor der Rache der Toten warnten.

Dead Friend: License Plate
Ryan M. facilitates for Barry
Luna and Christopher meet again in a desert ritual brought to you by WalMart.

Bubblegumshoe (Session 1 of 2)
Vee Hendro runs for Ary Ramsey, Hayley, Ryan M., and Tyler Lominack

Nerves of Steel (Session 1)
Catherine Ramen runs for Philipp Neitzel and Sabine V
A reporter named Alex encounters a complex web of betrayal, mistaken identity, and murder in post-war Central City.

Monsterhearts/Sex, Drugs, and Divinity: Once Again We Return (Session 1 of 6)
David Rothfeder runs for Joshua Gilbreath, Leandro Pondoc, Sawyer Rankin, and Shawn McCarthy
The creation of a dysfunctional family of 90s pop gods.

Zombie World: Eurozombies! (Session 1 of 4)
Jim Crocker runs for Aybars Yurdun, Dylan Craig, Paul Spraget, and Tomer Gurantz
The group tries to survive the Lazarus Plague in their UK-based prison enclave. Session One with lots of world-building, character intro, figuring out Roll20, and around an hour of AP.

Our Last Best Hope
Mikael Tysvær runs for Horst Wurst, Jim Crocker, and Tomer Gurantz
Scientists at a research base becomes humanity's last hope when they reveal the American President's plan to blow up the polar cap with a nuke to stop global warming. Will they make it there in time or will humanity as we know it get wiped out?

Inspectres: Santa Teresa Nights (Session 1 of 4)
Shane Liebling runs for Jen Overstreet, Rich Rogers, Sam Z., and Simon Landreville
The crew bail on community college to start up a Inspectres franchise. They take over an old Subway sandwich shop for an office and investigate disturbances at the local lighthouse.

City of Mist: Second Story Heroes (Session 1 of 4)
Lowell Francis runs for Darold Ross, Darren Brockes, Fraser Simons, and Gene A.
We assemble a crew of Modern Gods who hit the streets to eat Korean BBQ, drink wine, and hassle an art gallery owner.

The Sword, The Crown, and The Unspeakable Power: Wreathe Your Hands With Blood (Session 1 of 4)
Agatha runs for Jason Cordova, Lowell Francis, Matthew Doughty, and Noella H
"Reindeer Games" takes on a horrifying new meaning as we build the mythos of our world. 'Tis the season.

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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12/4/2018

Emotional Choices for Deepening NPCs

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By Mikel Matthews, Keeper of the Scarification Blades (@ImprovGM)
           
I was a groomsman in a good friend’s wedding. We’d had a great reception where I’d been talking to a very pretty girl that I hit it off with. While, sadly, she couldn’t go, the rest of us went out to some bars afterwards and I got to spend a truly wonderful evening with my best friend and people who mattered to him and his bride, who was like a sister to me from the first time I met her.
           
I was exuberant. I was so happy that I wanted everyone else to be happy, too. After waiting 15 minutes at the cab stand at 4am, a cab finally pulled up.
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 “Hello, my good man.  I need to go to the Hilton.”
           
 “Which one?”
           
 “Downtown.”
           
 “That one?” He pointed across the street.
           
I could have thrown a rock and hit the side of the hotel which, in fairness to myself, looked a LOT different from the other side that I had seen before.
           
I was overjoyed. “Well…. Let’s go.”
           
“There’s an $8 minimum.” The cab ride would be about 30 feet.
           
“It’s been a good night and this is fantastic.  Let’s do it!”
           
He laughed as he pulled out of the cab stand and across the street. I gave him $16 total, wished him a great evening, bought hotdogs off a street vendor because I’d seen other people with them, and ended a wonderful day.
           
I was a random guy to that taxi driver. I was an NPC in his life and I guarantee he’s told that story. I certainly have. Nothing that happened in that situation had anything to do with what he did. It was all down to the emotional state I was in that night. 
           
And this can be a fantastic technique to take into your GMing to make an NPC the characters run into someone who is interesting, memorable, and who the players want to meet again.
           
I’ve got a bit of a leg up on making NPCs interesting because I’ve been doing long form improvisational performance since 1995.  There is, however, a fairly easy technique that I use with new improvisers to get them to go places they might not have considered before.
           
    Make an emotional choice for the NPCs reaction BEFORE the PCs interact with them.

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This is great practice for making NPCs more interesting and learning how to justify on the fly. This skill will do a lot of work towards helping you learn how to improvise when it comes to story, plot, and characters.

Take an NPC interaction that’s not terribly important—asking for directions, a minor official or guard, etc. Someone that could easily be hand waved with a bit of exposition or done entirely out of character. Before the PCs talk to them, decide on a strong emotional choice. Do not make that choice with an eye towards what the players are doing. There’s nothing wrong if it fits, but leave yourself open to surprise. 

A strong emotional choice is one where the NPC is genuinely moved one way or the other. Apathy doesn’t often work. My drunken exuberance made for a fun encounter. Your NPC's grief, church giggles with their friend, flirtatiousness, crankiness, aggravation, or exhaustion can do much the same.

When the players interact with the NPC, let that emotion drive their response and then justify it to yourself.

The initial thing they say or do can be based on instinct.  “This person is in emotional state X. What do they say?” You don’t have to figure out why immediately, but at some point make a decision why they’re this way and don’t tie it into things that the characters have done or will do.
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If it’s grief, maybe they had a loss in the family, a pet dying, they’re getting fired, or a friend is leaving. Maybe they’ll apologize and explain. Maybe they can overshare. Maybe they’re not going to say what’s wrong unless the players say something.

Any way you choose, that NPC now feels like someone who’s had a life. They’re not simply a random menu the players buy something from or find out where the next MacGuffin might be. They’re a person who’s had a day. Maybe a great day, maybe a bad one, maybe a strange one.

Choosing the emotion is the easy part. It’s the practice of justifying that will allow you, as a GM, to start to learn how to roll out threads of plot or character without having to struggle with them before a session. 

By using an emotion and then justifying it, you can create a chain of events and emotions simply by asking “why?” with each one.

For example: your PCs in a Wild West game high tail it to another town because they had a bank robbery go bad. It doesn’t make sense for the sheriff at the new town to know what they did, so you have a decision to make when they met the sheriff over there.

Here’s the chain of Emotional Choices and Justifications that lead to a story you hadn’t anticipated.

  • Sheriff’s emotion: Relieved.
    • Why: Needs help to bring in a gang who set fire to a ranch.
  • The gang’s emotional state: Righteously angry.
    • Why:  Turns out the ranch owner was intimidating the sister of the gang leader to sell her land.

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(I choose the Sherriff’s why because, in a situation where the actions of the players might come back to haunt them, it’s more interesting if this sheriff has reasons to look favorably on them. I chose the gang’s why because a gang that’s just out stealing and being awful is a dime a dozen and would end up being an encounter, not a story. If they have a good reason for doing what they did, the players could explore that and the question of justice.)

Now you’ve got a plot that could last several sessions and puts the characters in a position where they might find the gang just to go back to the Sheriff and see about going after the rancher.  All because you kept choosing emotional states and then asking why they felt that way. All you need now is a name generator, decide on why the ranch owner wanted the sister to sell her land--and that probably won’t come up for a session or two--and you’ve got all you need.

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