Codex – Flame is now available!
Codex – Flame is now in our $4+ Patreon feed. Flame is the first issue in Volume 3, and I’m going to just come out and say it: this the the best issue of Codex yet! If this is what Volume 3 is going to be like, I think we all have a lot to look forward to.
Codex has always been a terrific mirror of The Gauntlet community—the games we’re playing, the games we’re creating, the PEOPLE playing and creating them, the beauty—and Codex – Flame continues that tradition in a huge way.
The issue starts with that jaw-dropping cover by our new cover artist, Chris Spence. Chris has a tough act to follow in Claudia Cangini, whose Codex covers are iconic, but this first cover is an amazing start. It’s very different from Claudia’s work in terms of style, but like hers, it is distinctly his—and distinctly Codex.
The non-Miscellany features in Codex – Flame are entirely original games, and each encapsulates the issue’s theme of love, loss, and glorious failure.
The first is Fire Ships at Midnight by Tyler Lominack. This story game tells the story of the failed invasion of England by the Spanish Armada in 1588. It’s for three players, with each player playing a composite character that represents various social tensions in and around Spain at the time of the invasion: The Duke of Medina Sidonia, Cardina Ribera, and Captain Salazar. The game is played over several phases, with each containing problems to be either overcome or endured, with each character competitively angling for certain types of solutions and outcomes. But intriguingly, what’s at stake is not whether any particular action is a success, but rather, how each of the men will be received when they return to Spain. It’s a fascinating game and I can’t wait for folks to check it out. It features original art by Anna Aphelion.
The next game is A Hand Full of Ashes. It’s a LARP by David Rothfeder about grief and letting go. In it, you are people attending the wake of a character from a book, and as you confront and resolve various issues you had with the character in life, you tear out pages from a copy of the book and burn them in a real fire. One the game’s neatest tricks is how you use the back of the book’s dust jacket to eulogize the dead character. All in all, it’s a really neat exploration of subject matter that is not often interrogated in games. It features art by Devon Serket.
After that comes Like Matches to Paper Dolls by Sidney Icarus and Jesse Ross. This is a play-by-post (as in mail post) game where one character reaches out to another, a person they used to be in love with, to see if there can be anything between them. The players send letters to each other, back and forth, inspired by prompts connected to a set of paper dolls, which are also sent back and forth. I think this line from the game sums up what it’s all about: “Do you feel moved and loved?… If you do not, don’t answer anything. Instead, take all they sent you and burn it. Collect the ashes and send them.” This one features art by Cecilia Ferri.
Finally is our tried and true Miscellany section, this time entitled “Three Dozen Separated Lovers.” Ryan McNeil is doing a fabulous job of curating the Miscellany; this is his best work yet in that regard.
Codex – Flame is, simply, a triumph. Huge thanks and congrats to Jake Householder for their dazzling layout, Lauren McManamon for the sharp edits, and the entire Codex Team for their hard work.
You can get Codex – Flame in our $4+ Patreon feed right now!
