Author: Logan Howard

One of the many reasons I love The Gauntlet community.

I just saw a post elsewhere from a macho GM that wanted to let everyone know that X-cards and “snowflakes” wouldn’t be tolerated at his table.

I get the political thrust of the message but want to look at it from a role playing point of view. When I see a message like that, I translate it like this:

“I’m a really terrible GM that can’t be bothered to consider the experience players are having at my table. If you expect your GM to pay attention to the players, look somewhere else because I’m too lazy.”

Every podcast and post I encounter in The Gauntlet reinforces the feeling that games are made better when ALL the players are paying attention to each other.

Wahooo! Thanks Ray Otus!

Just picked up Shadows of Umberto by Joe Banner. He’s been producing really cool content for Dungeon World for a long time now. I really love the way all of his locations potentially connect to each other. Just reading one of his adventures can improve your game play. This one, for example, has some nifty principles you might add to the usual set. The “Names & Honorifics” section is a delightful way to add flavor. Great stuff! So great, in fact, that I immediately went and supported him on Patreon. I should have done that long ago.

I was just going through Session Zero 3 again and personally find Brian Holland’s ideas about bringing material into Dungeon World really exciting. Here are three reasons why:

1. Brian uses a set of principles to ensure the Dungeon Worldiness. I can’t think of a better way to honor the game and your players than to self impose a set of rules that actually help keep the promises of the system. When players sit down to a particular role playing game they often have specific expectations. Brian’s principles for content creation help fulfill those.

2. If he can make it work with his principles, he’s not afraid to borrow from other games. I think we’ll see some exciting innovations from this zine as Brian works out ways to capture favorite mechanics from a variety of sources.

3. He gives us permission to play as close to the source as we want. He gives us plenty of material that we can drop in to our games without anyone even knowing where it came from. He also shows us how to dive right in and play up the stuff we love.

Has anyone tried his methods? What happened?

And now the new Codex?!! I think I’m in zine heaven!

I got a chance to read Plundergrounds 3: The Hoard last night.

Last year I was in Zermatt for a couple days. It was a super rare opportunity to travel for me and I was really hoping to get a glimpse of the Matterhorn. Unfortunately, it was really cloudy and most of the time only a small portion of the mountain was visible. On the second day, during a lovely hike, the clouds opened up and the Matterhorn stood above us in all its glory. I was stunned.

That’s pretty much how I felt looking through this zine!

I love dragons but find myself getting tired of them because of all the mundane “made-for-slaying” beasts that pop up everywhere. Plundergrounds 3 reminded me how much I adore great dragons! Ray Otus really knocked me out with three of the coolest dragons I’ve seen in a long time. The perspective is exactly what I would hope for. Just poking around their stuff is an adventure. These aren’t oafish worms, they’re Le Guin style forces of nature that have dangerous minds and obsessions.

The variations on Jason Cordova’s moves are brilliant and the threats and artifacts left me feeling like I failed a Defy Danger: WIS roll. How can it possibly be this good?!!!

The New Sword Breaker is here.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/213002/Sword-Breaker-Issue-No-4–The-Tempest-Riders

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/213002/Sword-Breaker-Issue-No-4–The-Tempest-Riders

If you’re only going to get ONE issue of Codex, you should get Codex: Madness because you’d be mad not to have them ALL!