Gauntlet Con 2018: Reflections

by various GauntletCon 2018 participants

This is a Slack chat in which members of The Gauntlet community reflect on their experience at Gauntlet Con 2018

Marco Barreto (he/him): Oh, it was so much fun. So many great people, great games and emotional moments. Thank you all! @PaulStaxxSpraget  and @Pat P impressed me with their performance in "Damn the man, save the music". So much energy, so much fun. They made it very easy for me to play along. And then @gerrit (he, him)  with his tuk tuk race. I only played one round, but it was so much fun. And it was fun to follow the ongoing battle for the crown of the Tuk Tuk racers. Even on twitter. Guys, you rock!

Ferrell (he/him): Honestly, the fact that every player in my games were both patient with me getting the setup complete, willing to pitch ideas, and were giving positive feedback made this one of the best experiences I've had running online games.

Chris Newton (he/him): @Pawel Solowczuk (he/him) had one of the most fun character arcs I've seen in a single session from our Dungeon World: The Cartoon. His kid prodigy's giddy embrace of his sudden transformation into a musclebound barbarian and our big finale battle with Venger where he ended up grabbing Venger by his single horn and pummeling him until Venger just ran was great. Kudos to @walter was for GMing and @Tyler L for playing along with us.

noellarh (they/them): The most special moment of GauntletCon for me was actually a pick up game.  I played "Our Mundane Supernatural Life" with @Vee Hendro (she/her) . We played a phantom grandmother living with her granddaughter who was dealing with an unplanned pregnancy. We struggled to figure out how to tell my conservative father. I tearfully told my Nana that I would get an abortion as we looking at family photo albums. As the game ended, we visited Nana's grave, where she faded away, grateful to have been there to help me through this time. The game was sad but gentle, working through the process of grief.

GroupSoliloquy (Greg Gelder)(he): @gerrit (he, him) 's Tuk Tuk racing has really been a highlight of the con for me. It's just the right amount of silliness, competition and creativity that keeps you engaged. Every time I play it my mouth hurts from smiling so much!

Marcolo (he/him): I had so many great play experiences this weekend. I have to keep playing with my new friends. The highlights for me was a couple of practices I learned from @Sid Icarus (They/Them)  that I am going to incorporate into my play going forward. I thought it was my job, when not in a scene, to be as stoic and still as possible in my little box at the bottom. I was concerned about stealing the spotlight. But Sid got us going in the opposite direction. Now I love being over-expressive and throwing "thumbs-up" or typing encouragement in the sidebar. My character might hate what you're doing, but I love it. My f2f group may think I've gone mad next week. The other thing I got from Sid was asking everyone their dream or the kind of scenes they are most looking forward to in the upcoming game. Not only is that a great tool for the GM to make sure they are giving their characters the scenes they want but it's great as a player too. When you remember another player's hope or wish for the session and see an opportunity to make that happen for them??? Oh man, there is no better feeling in the world. in summary, I can't shine until you do.

Michael G. Barford (he/him): I arrived at Gauntlet Con expecting to participate in four games; ended up being in nine! I thought that I would be completely exhausted, but by Sunday morning I had found my "runner's high."

Shane (he/him): @Marco I think many of us, directly or indirectly, have learned valuable lessons from @Sid Icarus (They/Them) playing with the Gauntlet.

Catherine Ramen (she/her): I had a great time in all my games but I wanna call out especially the marvelous Alas the Awful Sea session on Friday for getting to play with @Vee Hendro (she/her) and @Sid Icarus (They/Them) for the first time. @Sid Icarus (They/Them) you were bloody awesome, mate!

Sid Icarus (They/Them): Y'all! I just woke up! I can't handle so much love. I have two more games before I do my wrap feels but I'm gonna have some for suuuuuure (and @AviatrixCat I can't get enough of you!)

Pat P: Moar love for @Sid Icarus (They/Them)

Catherine Ramen (She/her): srlsy. and it was great to play again with you @Pat P

gerrit (he, him): If you consider bleed a concept which excites your for your roleplaying games, you like thoughtful and careful personal discussions about real life dilemmas and expect from your games practical support on safety the same time, you should definitely check out @Senda (she/her) 's and @Phil Vecchione (He/Him)'s game Turning Point.

Philipp Neitzel: I missed almost the whole con, still only seeing panels and hanging out in the voice chats were highlights of my weekend. The community is what makes the con and the gauntlet special.

Adam Vass (he): I have followed the Gauntlet for a little while on patreon for the Codex zine but I had never played any games or tried to become part of the community in any way. I decided this was as good a time as any to try and was really heartwarmed (not a word maybe?) by everyone I played or interacted with. The games were fun, the players and gms were very welcoming and understanding and I just totally was impressed by all of it and really hope to continue playing and meeting folks this way!

DMK: This was my first Gauntlet Con and it did not disappoint. I got to try new games like The Last Fleet, Kids on Bikes Dads on Lawn Mowers, The Woodlands, and Fall of Magic. I shared NightMirror. The games were fantastic. And I met so many new friendly faces from the community. Thank you all for making me feel welcome and for sharing our love of storytelling and games. I hope to play with you all again!

Oli Jeffery (he/him): My scene of the con goes to @Davechan, who having played a skittish, repressed Victorian academic for nine hours, suddenly became an entirely different character out of nowhere when his character was possessed. Check out the scene in the replays, it is startling.

Barry Cook: I came into the weekend thinking I'd have the time to catch a couple of panels and hang out on Discord here and there. I ended up being invited to participate in a panel by the sheer force of my excitement for it and playing in a game unlike any I've ever played in before, all with a degree of support and care from the people of the Gauntlet that is unmatched on the internet.  Awesome work by all of the organizers, volunteers, GMs, players, and folks who could only make the chat. You all rule and make the Gauntlet awesome.

Tomer Gurantz - Tomes (he/him): I thought I'd have to miss almost all of it due to prior plans, but NO. I was able to run a game during Slot Zero (as I'll call it) on Thursday, prior even to the Gauntlet Games Now games, to kick off some game convention loving. And we were Space Bees protecting our Space Bee Queen (except when we weren't). Although I only ran two little ad hoc games at the very start of the weekend, I would occasionally visit the Discord "lobby", and let me tell you: this game convention is for REAL. The buzz and constant amazing gaming was dripping and glowing and emanating, and it was like a second skin that I wore all weekend, even though I was only tangentially there. The "dreams and prizes" channel is my highlight, watching all the love and recognition given around, and just making me happy and proud to be a part of this community.

Shane (He/Him): @Tomer Gurantz - Tomes (he/him) We added a #dreams channel on the Slack. :)

Tomer Gurantz - Tomes (he/him): Sweet!!!

Lu Quade (he/him): Hahah. Nice to hear you @Tomer Gurantz - Tomes (he/him)  x o
You too @Maria Rivera (she/her)  

Sid Icarus (They/Them): I can't speak highly enough of @Whimsy Machine and how much fun I had merging our games together. I was feeling flat and burned out, and didn't have enough players to continue, but we just pushed the games together, and... Let's face it, @Whimsy Machine made it work so hard! It was very exciting and wonderful and feelings and we had the most fun as a team and I got to meet some wonderful new people (special hollas to @Emily Weiss (she/her)).

We talk a lot about open table, but we really opened our tables to each other. And the result was really heart warming and special. And I'm glad I met Taylor and Em especially. As well as the rest of you punks upon this fine 3 days without good sleep.

David Morrison (he/him): Played six sessions over the con; without exception every one of them has been bloody brilliant. Of all the folk I played with, I’d only played with one before, and (besides the long con of The Between) didn’t play with the same players twice. So that’s upwards of a dozen new players I was just able to get straight into it with, generating some amazing (and often charged) roleplay, in a friendly and encouraging environment.

Special mention to The Between crew, as that accounted for half my con. Some of the tightest, most tonally consistent gaming I’ve done, and I loved having license to exercise my self-indulgent side. It says a lot that despite finishing at 3am 3 days in a row, I left the table feeling energised each time.

Thanks everyone!

Andrew Hauge (he/him): Every one of my experiences was a fresh perspective in the sea of role-playing, and I saw new horizons that I didn't expect, whether it was being enraptured by werewolf magic in The City Afterlife or pushed to go beyond as an Overplayer in Swords Without Master. I stretched my creativity with an incentive First Blood scene in The Final Girl, witnessed player creativity in Golden Sky Stories, and went full-on heely aggro in World Wide Wrestling.

I got to step up my gaming and try so many new things; GauntletCon 2018 was an absolute delight.

Pat P: The energy of this convention is still giving me life. I am immensely grateful to be a part of this wonderful and welcoming community. And then to have it culminate every year with a whirlwind weekend of gaming inspires me to continue my passion for the hobby. Thanks to all the players, GM's, and volunteers that made this a truly memorable weekend. I am honored to have shared this experience with you.

Andrew Hauge (he/him): That great little moment in World Wide Wrestling when Slick Jones, cool like that, gave a cheeky wave goodbye as he hopped over the top to win the Triple Threat cage match.

Rudy Mangual (He/Him): The people were everything. I’ve been a lurker on slack and in hangouts since the last GC, but couldn’t get past a wall of anxiety and actually play in any gauntlet games. Until this weekend. I said “fuck it” and had a beautiful time. First big highlight was where I was the butler in our Clue game and everyone kept voting for me to have a soliloquy scene (which terrified me). I finally had to do it and it went OKAY but everyone was so loving and supportive with their silent applause and visible emoting in the video chat, it made everything better. My second highlight was the extremely giving game of MotW with @Sid Icarus (They/Them) @peripheral @Marco and @Landers (He/Him). We communally made coffee magic (coffeemance) and hugging off-brand Deep Ones totally work and feel right. This was a play culture of love incarnate.

cendrones (he/him): It was the first time I ran one of my games in English, the first time I ran any game in English actually. I’ll remember gauntlet con and the wonderful band of players I’ve met!

Andrew Hauge (he/him): Also, TUK TUK! Tuk Tuk races forever! Tuk Tuk for world president!

Asbjørn Flø (he/him): I was so excited and a little bit nervous to be playing with the Gauntlet for the first time since I started following the Gauntlet on G-plus almost two years ago. What a warm welcome! Since I'm always the GM, never the player, it was really fun and fresh to be able to actually play the game I lead for my face-to-face friends, Dungeon World. But what really stood out for me was the minimal games Into the Odd and World of Dungeons. Perhaps they bring out creativity in players and GMs? @Eamon (he/him) really brought to life the weird and wonderful in the Into the Odd-hack Odd Dungeons, and the setting and the NPCs we met had that China Mieville-flair, like the black-toothed Toxomancer. And @Richard Ruane (He/Him) took his cool OSR-adventure Wreck of the Void Hatred about plundering a wrecked airshop and injected it with plenty of personal and touching moments in what I can only describe as GM-omancy, in a pick-up game no less.

Sabine V: After sleeping a bit I have to say that this was a great convention. Thanks to the organizers for setting it up, and to the help desk people for being there for everyone and making sure that things flowed smoothly despite some hiccups. My personal highlights were Libretè by the fantastic @Vivien Feasson (he/him) and MotW with @Tyler L - they just really scratched my drama itch! The game I facilitated ran smoothly, mostly thanks to my lovely players and the last minute bombshell that @Gene A introduced. Now I have a little post-con blues and am totally looking forward towards the next one!

Ferret (He/Him): Thanks to those in the Gauntlet. I am a biracial, queer man who has never shied away from opening myself up in my characters and have often been hurt. This weekend, even though I added a bit of myself or experiences in every character or game I played in I was unabashedly embraced, cared for, and treated as a human being. This was my first GauntletCon, my first experience with the Gauntlet, and you have a member for life.

River W (she): After closing a session of Final Girl, I asked the players to give me some scenes from the movie's blooper reel. It was a good laugh, and helped us shake out some of the gratuitous gore we'd brought to the screen. An especially inspired blooper was an unedited take of the brawl between Alien and Porkface (with the costumes flapping about).