The Gauntlet Podcast is back!

The Gauntlet Podcast is back!

The Gauntlet Podcast is back! Episode 17 is all about the games we have been playing recently. We took a couple of weeks off from recording, so there was a lot of ground to cover. 

Games Discussed:

Eero Tuovinen’s Zombie Cinema

Scott Owen’s hack of The Final Girl

Mortal Kombat X

Jason Morningstar’s The Shab-Al-Hiri Roach

Boss Monster

Andrew Peregrine’s Dance of the Damned

Classic German Board Games (Hoity-Toity, Modern Art, and Bohnanza)

James Mullen’s Agent Down and Char. Gen.

Brian Engard’s Becoming

Cheat Your Own Adventure

Ray Otus’s Sorcerers & Sellswords

Pickets & Blinds

Dungeon World

Enjoy!

http://gauntletpodcast.libsyn.com

74 thoughts on “The Gauntlet Podcast is back!”

  1. I take great offense to some of the mortal combat discussion.  Not sure how much older you are but David was the youngest guy there and he also kicked my but.  Also I think the major difference is PC vs console skills.  I bet I could dominate the same group in a first person PC shooter.

  2. I take great offense to some of the mortal combat discussion.  Not sure how much older you are but David was the youngest guy there and he also kicked my but.  Also I think the major difference is PC vs console skills.  I bet I could dominate the same group in a first person PC shooter.

  7. YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I think you mentioned the Becoming session I played with Brian over Google Hangouts. Was that the one with the purple pinstripe suits that the new band manager wanted to impose on the band?

  8. YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I think you mentioned the Becoming session I played with Brian over Google Hangouts. Was that the one with the purple pinstripe suits that the new band manager wanted to impose on the band?

  13. Small worlds! That was really fun to do and think about. And I think it made an interesting point about the intent of Becoming: Brian’s hero got to keep his integrity, but at the cost of pretty much everything around him! it’s very much a game about “how much will you lose in order to remain true to yourself?”

  14. Small worlds! That was really fun to do and think about. And I think it made an interesting point about the intent of Becoming: Brian’s hero got to keep his integrity, but at the cost of pretty much everything around him! it’s very much a game about “how much will you lose in order to remain true to yourself?”

  15. 👏👏👏 bravo gentlemen this is possible the best episode yet. I do think I will be putting in my resignation from college and all other needless ventures of effort as I have finally been mentioned by name in a podcast. #lifegoals #achievmentunlocked 

  16. 👏👏👏 bravo gentlemen this is possible the best episode yet. I do think I will be putting in my resignation from college and all other needless ventures of effort as I have finally been mentioned by name in a podcast. #lifegoals #achievmentunlocked 

  21. The amount of time it took for Daniel Fowler to learn how to successfully jump while playing Mortal Kombat was in one of the parts that got cut.

  22. The amount of time it took for Daniel Fowler to learn how to successfully jump while playing Mortal Kombat was in one of the parts that got cut.

  33. For the record, I belong under the bus.  We were playing Agent Down right by the end, but not at the start.  I’d optimistically delusionally spent my time prepping for Marc Majcher’s playtest draft of Icebox Timeline, which looks awesome, but requires precisely four players to play.  No such luck.

  34. For the record, I belong under the bus.  We were playing Agent Down right by the end, but not at the start.  I’d optimistically delusionally spent my time prepping for Marc Majcher’s playtest draft of Icebox Timeline, which looks awesome, but requires precisely four players to play.  No such luck.

  35. Just caught up to this episode. It was a great one! Thanks for the mention and the feedback. I like your idea for pushing on Sorcery even harder. I’ll be thinking about it. FYI 99% of the time I force Sorcerers to waste a round narrating up to their “spell” in order to get the Prepared die. But the end result is that most players snap cast about everything with “just” two dice. So yeah, it probably could be pushed a bit more.

  36. Just caught up to this episode. It was a great one! Thanks for the mention and the feedback. I like your idea for pushing on Sorcery even harder. I’ll be thinking about it. FYI 99% of the time I force Sorcerers to waste a round narrating up to their “spell” in order to get the Prepared die. But the end result is that most players snap cast about everything with “just” two dice. So yeah, it probably could be pushed a bit more.

  37. Ray Otus Listening to this episode, I think I did a poor job of distinguishing Sorcery from little ‘s’ sorcery, but hopefully it wasn’t too confusing for listeners to keep up with. 

    But, yeah, we ended up in the same situation: the sorcerers would just settle for two dice and still do ok. 

  38. Ray Otus Listening to this episode, I think I did a poor job of distinguishing Sorcery from little ‘s’ sorcery, but hopefully it wasn’t too confusing for listeners to keep up with. 

    But, yeah, we ended up in the same situation: the sorcerers would just settle for two dice and still do ok. 

  39. I don’t know about other listeners, but I knew exactly what you mean when you said “per se sorcery.” The tweak I am thinking about for the game would make this distinction a bit more explicit anyway. Don’t want to talk about it yet because it is still embryonic and ugly and floating around in my synaptic fluids. It needs to drop its gills and grow sex organs before I give out any sonograms. (Wow. Went too far with that metaphor, didn’t I!?)

  40. I don’t know about other listeners, but I knew exactly what you mean when you said “per se sorcery.” The tweak I am thinking about for the game would make this distinction a bit more explicit anyway. Don’t want to talk about it yet because it is still embryonic and ugly and floating around in my synaptic fluids. It needs to drop its gills and grow sex organs before I give out any sonograms. (Wow. Went too far with that metaphor, didn’t I!?)

  41. P.S. I love how you all have explicitly played Cheat Your Own Adventure with non-fantastic and/or non-pulp frames. I almost wish there was a line or two in the game rules about playing the game using “deeper” frames and interpreting the random titles more abstractly. Out of curiosity, which of the two games you played using Catacombs of Ice was more fun? More memorable? I can guess, but I wonder if my guess would be accurate.

  42. P.S. I love how you all have explicitly played Cheat Your Own Adventure with non-fantastic and/or non-pulp frames. I almost wish there was a line or two in the game rules about playing the game using “deeper” frames and interpreting the random titles more abstractly. Out of curiosity, which of the two games you played using Catacombs of Ice was more fun? More memorable? I can guess, but I wonder if my guess would be accurate.

  43. Ray Otus I don’t remember if we said this on the cast or not, but one thing we talked about was just making the outcome ranges more dramatic for sorcery. Like, big wins coupled with big losses.

  44. Ray Otus I don’t remember if we said this on the cast or not, but one thing we talked about was just making the outcome ranges more dramatic for sorcery. Like, big wins coupled with big losses.

  45. Ray Otus We LOVE playing games outside of their implied settings (see: Hell4Leather in Candyland and Dog Eat Dog in a Chuck E. Cheese’s). Cheat Your Own Adventure is really great for it, actually. I don’t think we necessarily had more fun with either version of The Catacombs of Ice. They were both fun, but in their own ways. 

  46. Ray Otus We LOVE playing games outside of their implied settings (see: Hell4Leather in Candyland and Dog Eat Dog in a Chuck E. Cheese’s). Cheat Your Own Adventure is really great for it, actually. I don’t think we necessarily had more fun with either version of The Catacombs of Ice. They were both fun, but in their own ways. 

  47. Jason Cordova I don’t remember either, but I did try to hint at that in the rules. Last sentence of the first column, under “Do Sorcery:” “Feel free to push for big effects, but keep in mind that any backlash could be equally dramatic.” You all zeroed right in on what makes the game sing; how hard the Overlord pushes on sorcery. One tweak I would like to implement (back side of the page?) is a list of hard moves for when sorcery fails. Switch the target, blow shit up, undergo a permanent physical mutation, etc.

  48. Jason Cordova I don’t remember either, but I did try to hint at that in the rules. Last sentence of the first column, under “Do Sorcery:” “Feel free to push for big effects, but keep in mind that any backlash could be equally dramatic.” You all zeroed right in on what makes the game sing; how hard the Overlord pushes on sorcery. One tweak I would like to implement (back side of the page?) is a list of hard moves for when sorcery fails. Switch the target, blow shit up, undergo a permanent physical mutation, etc.

  49. Ray Otus That’s actually a really good point. In defense of your game, we were doing a rotating GM. If I had been the sole Overlord, I would have definitely pushed it that way (it’s more or less my mantra in Dungeon World; big effects can equal big backlash). 

  50. Ray Otus That’s actually a really good point. In defense of your game, we were doing a rotating GM. If I had been the sole Overlord, I would have definitely pushed it that way (it’s more or less my mantra in Dungeon World; big effects can equal big backlash). 

  51. Totally call BS on your statement that older computer games/gamers were all about being a joystick jockey rather than having a story. You forget that years before there was Pacman (1980), Donkey Kong (1981) there was text adventures like Colossal Cave Adventure (1976) and Zork (1977) and also the first graphic adventure games, Mystery House (1980) and Wizard and the Princess (1980). Also, there were games like Rogue (1980), which while not having much of a story, had nothing to do with reaction speed. Not long after Donkey Kong, and still years before Street Fighter (1987), you had arcade games like Dragon’s Lair (1983) which were a blend of story than skill and graphic adventure games for the PC like Kings Quest (1984). Later of course, there was an explosion of adventure games like Maniac Mansion (1987), Secret of Monkey Island (1990), Myst (1993), and more.

    [/adventure game geek rant over]

  52. Totally call BS on your statement that older computer games/gamers were all about being a joystick jockey rather than having a story. You forget that years before there was Pacman (1980), Donkey Kong (1981) there was text adventures like Colossal Cave Adventure (1976) and Zork (1977) and also the first graphic adventure games, Mystery House (1980) and Wizard and the Princess (1980). Also, there were games like Rogue (1980), which while not having much of a story, had nothing to do with reaction speed. Not long after Donkey Kong, and still years before Street Fighter (1987), you had arcade games like Dragon’s Lair (1983) which were a blend of story than skill and graphic adventure games for the PC like Kings Quest (1984). Later of course, there was an explosion of adventure games like Maniac Mansion (1987), Secret of Monkey Island (1990), Myst (1993), and more.

    [/adventure game geek rant over]

  53. Colin Fahrion Speaking for myself, I wasn’t even born (or was, at best, a toddler) when many of the games you listed came out. I said “gamers of a certain age,” not “gamers who are ancient.” ;-)

  54. Colin Fahrion Speaking for myself, I wasn’t even born (or was, at best, a toddler) when many of the games you listed came out. I said “gamers of a certain age,” not “gamers who are ancient.” ;-)

  55. Colin Fahrion Also, I say things all the time on the podcast I don’t actually believe (or, in this case, that I only half-believe). What doesn’t come through to listeners is me smiling tauntingly at David LaFreniere while I talk about how hopeless his age-group is at fighting games. It’s part of the ongoing “storyline” in the podcast that Dan and I are bitter old men who wish David would get off our lawns with his Monster Hunter and Darth Maul and other bullshit that shows people his age just don’t get it.

  56. Colin Fahrion Also, I say things all the time on the podcast I don’t actually believe (or, in this case, that I only half-believe). What doesn’t come through to listeners is me smiling tauntingly at David LaFreniere while I talk about how hopeless his age-group is at fighting games. It’s part of the ongoing “storyline” in the podcast that Dan and I are bitter old men who wish David would get off our lawns with his Monster Hunter and Darth Maul and other bullshit that shows people his age just don’t get it.

  57. Jason Cordova Yeah I get it and I enjoy ribbing you all do with each other on the podcast. Just couldn’t help myself and give props to rich history of story-full computer adventure games. 🙂

  58. Jason Cordova Yeah I get it and I enjoy ribbing you all do with each other on the podcast. Just couldn’t help myself and give props to rich history of story-full computer adventure games. 🙂

  59. Colin Fahrion You make a strong point for Daniel Fowler’s view that the divide is PC gamer v. console gamer, not age. I was strictly a console gamer growing up, and, despite the fact I was just joking, I really don’t remember story being much of a concern in console games from, say, 1985-1994.

  60. Colin Fahrion You make a strong point for Daniel Fowler’s view that the divide is PC gamer v. console gamer, not age. I was strictly a console gamer growing up, and, despite the fact I was just joking, I really don’t remember story being much of a concern in console games from, say, 1985-1994.

  61. I completely concur with this PC/Console divide creating very different gaming experiences. I’m not a console gamer myself  — seriously how the hell do you aim in a FPS without a mouse?!?

  62. I completely concur with this PC/Console divide creating very different gaming experiences. I’m not a console gamer myself  — seriously how the hell do you aim in a FPS without a mouse?!?

  65. Yes in one of the lost episodes of the gauntlet podcast, I believe there is a segment of giving me life where I say being apologetically young was giving me life.  It was mostly thumbing my nose at the geezers wheezing into the microphones on my left and right.  Alas… the episode was lost to the gates of hell as I passed the post office on a Thursday.

  66. Yes in one of the lost episodes of the gauntlet podcast, I believe there is a segment of giving me life where I say being apologetically young was giving me life.  It was mostly thumbing my nose at the geezers wheezing into the microphones on my left and right.  Alas… the episode was lost to the gates of hell as I passed the post office on a Thursday.

  67. David LaFreniere As a middle aged guy, what gives me life is laughing at people younger than me (and less in shape than me) complaining how they are getting old. ;p

  68. David LaFreniere As a middle aged guy, what gives me life is laughing at people younger than me (and less in shape than me) complaining how they are getting old. ;p

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