​Star Wars Saturday

Ghost Orbit: Pound of Flesh (Session 1)
Rich Rogers runs for Erez, Marco, and Will H
Three ex-Imperials try to eke out their existence on the Propsero's Dream space station as unionized engineers. Woefully ill-equipped and pushed to make terrible decisions, all in a day's work for Scrip.

Hutt Cartel (Session 1)
Rich Rogers runs for Anders, Devin Preston, Keith Stetson, and Tyler Lominack
A bunch of wild Jawas get in trouble in Sector 1313 with a cantona of Waste-It and a droid, while in a show cantina a Trandoshan beats down a Wookiee, and a Druglord delivers a terrifying threat.

Gauntlet Comics

Masks: Allied Angels Dawn of '43 (Session 3 of 3)
Jim Likes Games runs for Alexi S., Leah Libresco Sargeant, Sawyer Rankin, and Steven desJardins
The Angels track down Dr. Anatos and tackle the threat of Project Omega!

Indie Schwarze Auge

[DEUTSCH] World of Aventurien: Liska (Session 8)
Gerrit Reininghaus leitet eine Session für Sabine V. und SalamanderJames
The adventurers find a treasure they long lasted for - only to be forced by a three headed dragon to dig it up for her from the ground of a lake. With the help of their own skills of getting along with literally everybody, a sacrifice to the Wolves of Heaven and a dragon child accepting her destiny, they make it to sail away with half of the treasure - leaving the other half purposefully to the dragon.

Game Facilitator Camp

Pipedream
Charles Cordingley runs for Lowell Francis, Puckett, and Robert Angus
(Warning: Poor Audio) As part of the GM Facilitators Camp (Shambling Mound) for new GMs, we played Pipedream: a #SWORDDREAM roleplaying game (adapted from ​Cthulhu Dark) of detectives, problem-solving, and rural mysteries in a fantastic world; or a farcical drug comedy. We played as a farcical drug comedy.

Gauntlet Hangouts

Masks: The Streets of Prospect City (Session 2 of 4)
Leandro Pondoc runs for Anthony, David Morrison, Sawyer Rankin, and Stephen
Being a super hero is never straightforward, especially in Shoreline, where relationships are blurred and our heroes find the work harder than expected. Spectre takes a huge bump against his mother's goons, Wrath exercises his will along with his trusty sword, Sia finds their violent hero persona skirting close to her other life and, when facing an old flame, Iktomi demonstrates his commitment to leaving the villain life behind.

Night Witches: November 2019 Zambrow (Session 2 of 2)
Jim Likes Games runs for Bethany H., Mike Ferdinando, Puckett, and Sarah J.
Sometimes too much abundance leads to very real problems.

Night Witches: December 2019 Zambrow (Session 1 of 3)
Jim Likes Games runs for Alexi S., Eli S., Leandro Pondoc, Maria M., and Puckett
Dasha finds herself in charge as a new pilot arrives at the Airbase. Mina returns from her propaganda tour.

Night Witches: December 2019 Zambrow (Session 2 of 3)
Jim Likes Games runs for Alexi S., Bethany H., Leandro Pondoc, Puckett, and Sarah J.
A medal ceremony paradoxically ruins everyone's day, and an ominous portent at the edge of the woods. Luckily for everyone but her, Galya is back in charge.

Pasión de las Pasiones
Jamila R. Nedjadi runs for David Morrison, Gerwyn Walters, Lowell Francis, and Sabine V.
Things get hot, steamy, intense, and dangerous!

Demigods: Mayhem on the Moors (Session 3 of 3)
Alun R. runs for Ludovico Alves, Rob Ruthven, and Sabine V.
Valentin the Arcane is called away by the 'secret society' to which he belongs but the rest of the Weave discover the morally ambiguous reason they have been drawn to Kingsmead-on-the-Moor. After Sophie, the Celestial daughter of Loki impresses Gator the Goblin King, a deal is struck to protect the village. Livia Aurea, the Warrior daughter of Palaestra, employs her gifts to draw both the Jaeger Werewolf Hunt and their intended tourist prey away from Kingsmead, but it sends them all to the Land of Frost. There, she holds off Frost Giants while Dave Ngozi Deth the Reaper son of Hel cowes the Hunt so that Gator can lead his goblin horde against them. All the time the mortals applaud what appears to them to be the greatest wrestling show they've ever seen...before they are swept away to serve Gator in Faery! Unfortunately, the mortal that the Weave were actually summoned to help WANTED to accept the kiss of the werewolf but is thwarted and we end with her, and our Demigods, trapped in the realm of the Frost Giants...the nemesis that the Fates have decreed for them...

Impulse Drive: Coriolis (Session 9)
Lowell Francis runs for Patrick Knowles, Rich Rogers, Sherri, and Steven desJardins
A sudden attack on their Nomad Federation hosts force the crew to split up in a desperate attempt to defuse bombs and stop boarders from seizing the Khyber Swarm's seer and the strange golden disc she bears.

Checkpoint Midnight: Magic Missile Gap (Session 3 of 3)
Alexi S. runs for Jamila R. Nedjadi, Jim Likes Games, and Joe Zantek
Everything comes to a head as Marguerite flees an explosive trap, Inna provokes a fight in the cafe that's supposed to be neutral grounds, and Maria taps into a very disturbing source of power. In what shape will our protagonists leave the city of Vienna? And what unexpected changes will it work on them?

Outscored - the Golden Cobra award winning LAOG
Gerrit Reininghaus facilitates for Donogh, Pearl Zare, Sabine V., and Wanja
Bathed in colors representing our current social status we struggled with our perspectives of leaving this shitty place for a university course on how to change society through literature. And ended up brainwashed in a correction center.

Primetime Adventures: Resistance (Session 5 of 5)
Donogh runs for David Morrison, Pawel S., and Pearl Zare
Planning for the Allied invasion reaches fever pitch, but exposing deep-seated insecurities about their mission and survivability.

Thirsty Sword Lesbians: Queen of Thieves (Session 1 of 3)
Bethany H. runs for Chris Newton, Eli S., and Kristen D.
We create our outlaw camp turned legitimate-ish village, meet the characters (two witches and a Chosen One with a mysterious destiny and no magical skills), and watch them solve mundane problems in the most extra ways possible.

Veil Fantasy (Session 6)
Lowell Francis runs for Alun R., David Morrison, Fraser Simons, and Leandro Pondoc
In this finale, our group of companions choose to face the threat looming at the heart of the city, facing the High Navigator who might have been turned into a vampire as a result of an earlier mistake.

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

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

If you'd like to play in games like these, check out the calendar of events and the Gauntlet Forums where games are announced.

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

Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

These history of Universal RPGs lists remain the toughest to write. Stripped of setting, looking at these games requires focusing on mechanics, presentation, and tone. And I used to be a mechanics gamer-- Rolemaster, GURPS, Champions. But I dig that much less than I used to. Yet I still managed to make the first installment of these lists absurdly huge when I posted it back in 2016, clocking in at 4500 words. For this revisit, I've cut the list in half, with the second part coming next week.  
 
LUDUM UNIVERSALIS
You’d think I’d learn by now. Each time I start one of these histories, I say “How many of these games can there be?” (Spoiler: a metric ton). Every time I thought I had it all set, I found something new. Despite that I tried to keep things tight, but it got away from me. For this list I focused on games calling themselves Universal. They explicitly support play across styles & tropes. That means I left out games that cover many genres but have a specific background, setting, or theme like TORG, Fiasco, or All Flesh Must Be Eaten. I also avoided games for a particular genre that had genre-adapting supplements (Warriors & Warlocks for example). Finally, there had to be a core book for the system. So Fate works, but Powered by the Apocalypse and Unisystem don’t, despite their adaptability.

2. Legacy (1978)
Like, Infinity, Legacy is another self-published universal game but much more ambitious. RetroRoleplaying describes the actual product as, "...a collection of loose leaf pages, looks like it was typeset with a high quality typewriter and is full of half-tone-like illos (including one of the designer on vacation). The writing style is pretentious, perhaps the most pretentious style I've ever seen in an RPG." You really have to check out the blog post on it. Legacy clocks in a 160 pages and looks like a brain-burning slog. It has some novel concepts, like civilization statistics, but ultimately it feels like a product of its time.
 
To illustrate this, I offer a quote from the rules, drawn from the '07 RPGNet thread examining Legacy (all sic):
3.41 INTENTIONALITY
One of the most innovative and least understandable aspects of the LEGACY game system is INTENTIONALITY. Roughly defined INTENTIONALITY is a motivational force which tends to influence the likelyhood of things happening. When associated with an individual INTENTIONALITY signifies that the likelyhood of that individual initiating an action or activity is increased, and that the likelyhood of that action or activity having a certain outcome is also increased. When associated with an object or artifact INTENTIONALITY signifies the importance of that object as a nexus or focal point of some impending action or activity. Essentially it indicated the wampeter without giving away the identity of the karass.
Many of the implications of INTENTIONALITY are not discussed or included in these rules, but sufficient information is present to simulate the motivational behavior of large groups of non-player characters and explain the large number of self initiated actions associated with player characters. These rules should be considered optional, and though I feel that they add significantly to the interest and value of a role assumption game other game operators may not agree with me. 
3.41.1 THE INTENTIONALITY VALUEINTENTIONALITY is measured and discussed in discrete factors which indicate a degree or amount of INTENTIONALITY present in an object or individual. The table below indicates the relative significance of varying levels of INTENTIONALITY 
INTENTIONALITY DESCRIPTION DIE ROLL EFFECTS
0 An individual that possess a basic 1 in 1000 chance of initiating an action significant to the course of play. An object which is not a nexus at all. None 
1 An individual that possess a basic 1 in 100 chance of initiating an action significant to the course of play. An object which is a potential nexus. +2
2 An individual that possess a basic 1 in 90 chance of initiating an action significant to the course of play. An object which is becoming a nexus. +5
3 An individual that possess a basic 1 in 75 chance of initiating an action significant to the course of play. An object which is a secondary nexus. +10
4 An individual that possess a basic 1 in 50 chance of initiating an action significant to the course of play. An object which is a +1 secondary nexus. +20
5 An individual that possess a basic 1 in 10 chance of initiating an action significant to the course of play. An object which is a +2 secondary nexus. Player character. +30
6-9 An individual with a constant chance of initiating an action significant to the course of play. An object which is a +3, +4, +5, or +6 nexus. +50
10+ An individual or an object which is a primary nexus +100 
The chance of initiating a significant action can be determined by the role of percentile dice, or it may be reflected in a direct and and automatic assumption of action initiation as in the case of 1000 sentients with an INTENTIONALITY of 0. During each unit of time one of the 1000 sentients would initiate an action significant to the course of play. Of course significant to the course of play only means noticeable within the game. The exact action of the individual must be determined by the game operator.
A secondary or primary nexus indicates an object or individual which may add to a specific type of die roll or to die rolls which tend to increase the likelyhood of a specific event occurring.
The other die roll effects not related to a nexus are overall die roll modifiers and effect every die roll which that character must make for the duration of the effects of the INTENTIONALITY.
So there's that.

7. TWERPS (1987)
After GURPS gained traction, Jeff and Amanda Dee responded with their own take on generic gaming. TWERPS "The World's Easiest Role Playing System" used one stat and a profession to define characters. The zip-lock rules bag came with the tiniest d6 d10 I’d seen. TWERPS seemed like a joke, but actually sold well around here. Some bought it as a novelty and others as a way around the rules intensity of that era’s games. TWERPS wasn't a flash in the pan. The company followed it up with multiple small setting products: Kung Fu Dragons!, Space Cadets, Super Dudes, and more. A revised edition arrived in '95, done by different authors and more joke-sy while trying to offer richer genre resources.

CONTINUED NEXT WEEK

I originally wrote this list back in early 2016. The Wild West rpg remains an oddity-- trying to figure out a balance between "realism" and pop media depictions. It's also potentially a deeply flawed genre with most games ignoring issues of genocide, representation, and colonialism. That's why it's refreshing that we've started to see some newer approaches. For example the recent Zorro RPG Kickstarter brought in a diverse team for stretch goals. More ambitiously, Haunted West has aimed to amplify lost roles and contributions, within the context of a weird and supernatural Old West. That's hugely exciting. 
 
SHADOW OF THE COWBOY
Why are there no good Western games? I’d seen that question posed on RPGGeek & Reddit, even "Ken & Robin Talk About Stuff" covered it. Eventually that had me hunting down Wild West rpgs to check the truth. I uncovered almost five dozen core systems, not counting revisions and new editions. Proof that the Western’s a vibrant genre? But a closer look contradicted that. The list contained many, many single-edition, flash-in-the-pan games. In the same period other genres had more releases by leaps and bounds. Just up to 2000 we see about 14 Western RPGs, but Post-Apocalyptic had about 100, Supers 60, and Horror 45. It even falls behind Steampunk, a late-comer genre, with two dozen games or genre books in that time.

By Blake Ryan

In the popular game Minecraft, areas of darkness (at night and underground) spawn monsters. The idea of a simple environmental condition creating creatures or even problems got me thinking…

You can use some change in the environment to create an ongoing problem, either small or large in scope, and a temporary period of time or from that moment on. These can be used for any game with supernatural elements, but I shall give examples for Monsterhearts, Urban Shadows and Monster of the Week.

As you will see this is an escalation to the ‘normal situation’, but does not have to dominate the entire game play. However, this can be used as the starting incident for what made the characters unusual in the first place-what made them different from regular folks. Thus it may serve as the start of a campaign rather than an escalation for season 2. It should prove to be a more hazardous journey for PC’s and provide additional options for MC’s.

Suggested Inciting Incidents 

• Halley’s Comet – March 1986.
• Huge solar flare – August 1998.
• Mayan Calendar change of epoch – 21st December 2012.
• Super Blood Wolf Moon – 21st January 2019.

The inciting incident may be all over the news, completely ignored by most, or heralded by the Aware, the Witch and the Spooky.

Suggested Changes to the situation

• Any – One NPC contact per Character either inverts their goals or loses virtues/positive personality traits. 
• Monsterhearts – When you gain a String, an NPC has a vision and learns one of your secrets. MC chooses the NPC, PC chooses the secret. 
• Monsterhearts – When you go Darkest self, you create a monster in some way. A poltergeist, a familiar or even a clone (who is not yours to control).
• Urban Shadows – One faction starts a Join or else! recruiting drive.
• Urban Shadows – If you Let it out, a rival faction starts looking for someone who owes you a debt, and you dream of it/read it in a fortune cookie.
• Monster of the Week – Monsters literally spawn in the lightless areas. They don’t have to be huge or powerful, but it will build up quickly.
• Monster of the Week – Monsters of the same type start developing hive mind. First feelings and visual impressions, then two way speech over long distances.​

Superhero games have always been near and dear to my heart. When I started this series, I thought I had a decent handle on the games out there, but every installment surprised me with something new. The Gauntlet Hangouts initiative, Gauntlet Comics, has embraced many different superhero rpgs as well as non-supes adapted for a superhuman universe. 

SECRET ORIGINS
Over the decades I’ve run serious and extended campaigns in a half-dozen superhero systems. This weekend I pulled together all of the core books I had for different superhero games. I ended up with twenty-eight: from Aberrant to Wild Talents. And that’s just hard copies - I have many more in electronic format. And that’s just core books not the secondary material: citybooks, villain books, modules, alternate settings, WW2 books, power guides, and so on. Honestly if you told me I couldn’t run Fantasy games anymore, I’d turn to superheroes. I’ve done some of my favorite work in that genre - exploring themes and ideas more concretely than in many other games.
 
Yet superhero games still feel like more work to me. I’m a fairly improvisational GM, sketching perhaps a few pages of notes for a session and spinning off previous work for many sessions. When I run a supers game, on the other hand, I dig in. I feel obligated to generate the news, to come up with colorful secondary characters ahead of time, and to develop fully-fleshed mysteries. I don’t want a supers game to be just about the fights - I want something more. But I want spectacle. At heart I’m still a kid getting up early Saturday morning to watch the Superfriends despite having seen the episode many times.