20 thoughts on “Episode 74 of The Gauntlet Podcast is out today!”

  1. “…my slow embrace of “rulings not rules.” ” Really?! I figure you’d be a total rulings-not-rules guy?! I think this helps bring out what is so fantastic about analogue RPGs vs. digital RPGs- true freedom supported by this idea.

  2. “…my slow embrace of “rulings not rules.” ” Really?! I figure you’d be a total rulings-not-rules guy?! I think this helps bring out what is so fantastic about analogue RPGs vs. digital RPGs- true freedom supported by this idea.

  7. Richard Rogers Accurate, but usually when people say “slow embrace” or “slow to embrace,” it implies they did it kicking and screaming, and I don’t think that’s what happened.

  8. Richard Rogers Accurate, but usually when people say “slow embrace” or “slow to embrace,” it implies they did it kicking and screaming, and I don’t think that’s what happened.

  9. I’m completely with past, boardgamesy Jason.

    If the game can’t be played as written, then it’s broken. If you want to hack it to make it do something else, that’s entirely different, eg bonds in DW aren’t broken for the way it’s meant to be played, but they don’t work in a game where people drop in and out, so flags work great there. That’s engine tuning.

    But if I actually have to do work to make the game go at all? That’s selling me a car without an engine.

  10. I’m completely with past, boardgamesy Jason.

    If the game can’t be played as written, then it’s broken. If you want to hack it to make it do something else, that’s entirely different, eg bonds in DW aren’t broken for the way it’s meant to be played, but they don’t work in a game where people drop in and out, so flags work great there. That’s engine tuning.

    But if I actually have to do work to make the game go at all? That’s selling me a car without an engine.

  11. I had an undeniably fun time with Tremulus and there are some things that worked better than rules as read there. In terms of player facing genre emulation I had no idea what was going on there, however the tools on the MC side seem to be great in order to do that for the game. So really that’s just me being picky and wanting more player facing input because I wasn’t familiar with the source material, which in the spirit of barf forth apocolyptica, is on me. Essentially I didn’t do my homework at all. Jason’s story was the most fun I’ve had with a mystery game and he used those tools so I’d say they work well. When I gave my characters epilogue I was incredibly excited.

    After some retrospection on it, I have warmed up more to it because, for The Veil, I specifically wanted the the mechanics to be able to make whatever kind of cyberpunk the players created for themselves. It needed to have mechanics in place for social interactions as well as shopping and running jobs, etc. So it is basically a rubber band that will hold whatever the players loved about cyberpunk allowing them to subvert or invoke any tropes. Because of that, a lot of work is player facing in crafting the ideal setting for all of them instead of on the MC. Some people aren’t going to like that either I’m sure.

    I don’t think Lovecraftian stuff is as wide a genre as cyberpunk, but I really have no idea. I’ve literally read no stories categorized as such, so I wonder if one of their design goals was similar in that people could make whatever sort of stories they wished subverting the tropes of Lovecraftian horror if they so chose. A lot more of the moves make sense when I accepted that as a possibility.

    I do agree that the rules need to be completely playable though, otherwise I do think it’s failed. After that when you drift it to your own play that’s fair, but if it doesn’t make sense then the communication to the reader needs to be refined until it does so.

  12. I had an undeniably fun time with Tremulus and there are some things that worked better than rules as read there. In terms of player facing genre emulation I had no idea what was going on there, however the tools on the MC side seem to be great in order to do that for the game. So really that’s just me being picky and wanting more player facing input because I wasn’t familiar with the source material, which in the spirit of barf forth apocolyptica, is on me. Essentially I didn’t do my homework at all. Jason’s story was the most fun I’ve had with a mystery game and he used those tools so I’d say they work well. When I gave my characters epilogue I was incredibly excited.

    After some retrospection on it, I have warmed up more to it because, for The Veil, I specifically wanted the the mechanics to be able to make whatever kind of cyberpunk the players created for themselves. It needed to have mechanics in place for social interactions as well as shopping and running jobs, etc. So it is basically a rubber band that will hold whatever the players loved about cyberpunk allowing them to subvert or invoke any tropes. Because of that, a lot of work is player facing in crafting the ideal setting for all of them instead of on the MC. Some people aren’t going to like that either I’m sure.

    I don’t think Lovecraftian stuff is as wide a genre as cyberpunk, but I really have no idea. I’ve literally read no stories categorized as such, so I wonder if one of their design goals was similar in that people could make whatever sort of stories they wished subverting the tropes of Lovecraftian horror if they so chose. A lot more of the moves make sense when I accepted that as a possibility.

    I do agree that the rules need to be completely playable though, otherwise I do think it’s failed. After that when you drift it to your own play that’s fair, but if it doesn’t make sense then the communication to the reader needs to be refined until it does so.

  17. I heard mentioned in your podcast about being surprised there wasn’t more player created Ghost Lines stuff. Well I create some character creation cards a while ago for making quick characters for one-shot con games.

    Here is a link to them: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_x5XNahtqzvUEhKc2FzYnNkMVE

    How they woks is everyone gets a deck of cards. They pick one and pass the rest on to the player at their right. Then they pick another until they each have one bane, one backstory, one expertise, and one secret. And then bam they have a character.

    It’s technically designed to work with Nick Wedig’s Ghostlines Dark hack but the cards work fine with the base Ghostliness.

  18. I heard mentioned in your podcast about being surprised there wasn’t more player created Ghost Lines stuff. Well I create some character creation cards a while ago for making quick characters for one-shot con games.

    Here is a link to them: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_x5XNahtqzvUEhKc2FzYnNkMVE

    How they woks is everyone gets a deck of cards. They pick one and pass the rest on to the player at their right. Then they pick another until they each have one bane, one backstory, one expertise, and one secret. And then bam they have a character.

    It’s technically designed to work with Nick Wedig’s Ghostlines Dark hack but the cards work fine with the base Ghostliness.

  19. I tried out Ghostlines the other day. Very light game!!! I had difficulties figuring out how many encounters to do on a train. I look at the list of events and rolled a die to decide. Couldn’t decide if all those things were suppose to happen or not. When they started fighting ghosts, I had a hard time trying to figure out how much effort was enough. The Spider got a 12 on their finesse, and while looking at the greater effect option, the best I could figure was it was over? The anchor had grabbed it and the spider netted it into the spirit bottle?

    I guess I would of liked a DW monster card for the ghosts, so I could have a firm grip on it.

    We have a game of Blades in the Dark running as well, which is why I thought I would give this game a spin. If I hadn’t run BitD before, I think I would of been even more at a lost. The setting of course is really great. It gave me a very big murderhobo / basic dnd feel. In that these people are going to be used up and spit out. The anchor is a pretty harsh role to fill. (3 trauma for grabbing onto the ghost right?) I appreciate that aesthetic, but I wish it was more focused or proceduralized? I found myself wishing it was more like Torchbearer.

    Anyways lovely setting, and I can tell it could be a great game. I guess I just need to watch or read a AP. Thanks for bringing it up on the show, so I could check it out!

  20. I tried out Ghostlines the other day. Very light game!!! I had difficulties figuring out how many encounters to do on a train. I look at the list of events and rolled a die to decide. Couldn’t decide if all those things were suppose to happen or not. When they started fighting ghosts, I had a hard time trying to figure out how much effort was enough. The Spider got a 12 on their finesse, and while looking at the greater effect option, the best I could figure was it was over? The anchor had grabbed it and the spider netted it into the spirit bottle?

    I guess I would of liked a DW monster card for the ghosts, so I could have a firm grip on it.

    We have a game of Blades in the Dark running as well, which is why I thought I would give this game a spin. If I hadn’t run BitD before, I think I would of been even more at a lost. The setting of course is really great. It gave me a very big murderhobo / basic dnd feel. In that these people are going to be used up and spit out. The anchor is a pretty harsh role to fill. (3 trauma for grabbing onto the ghost right?) I appreciate that aesthetic, but I wish it was more focused or proceduralized? I found myself wishing it was more like Torchbearer.

    Anyways lovely setting, and I can tell it could be a great game. I guess I just need to watch or read a AP. Thanks for bringing it up on the show, so I could check it out!

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