Google+ community from Dec 2012 to March 2019
A SCHOOL FOR SECRETS
A SCHOOL FOR SECRETS
A couple of times I’ve run a campaign frame I call “Mystery Academy.” Teen characters get sent to a new and strange school with weird secrets and hidden threats. But the kids themselves have their own hidden talents- gifts, knowledge, ghosts or the like. This is my quick & dirty hack of Masks to do that kind of game.
I posted a general thank you in my public feed, but I wanted to give a special thanks to everyone from the Gauntlet.
I posted a general thank you in my public feed, but I wanted to give a special thanks to everyone from the Gauntlet. I won the Silver ENnie for Best Blog last night, which was awesome. I’m a little disappointed that +1 Forward didn’t win Best Podcast, but it got nominated in the first year so that’s dynamite. I think the field was even more challenging in podcasts than blogs.
Anyway, I know Age of Ravens would be nearly as good without The Gauntlet. The discussions here and on Slack have given me food for thought (and posts). I want to thank Richard Rogers for pushing me to run for The Gauntlet and Jason Cordova for being hugely supportive in that. It has made me stretch and I’ve been able to talk about many more new games. The focus on play here is amazing.
And thanks to everyone who voted in the ENnies, even if you didn’t vote for me. And even more thanks to everyone who played in any of my online games. Thanks for indirectly supporting the blog and taking a chance on my GMing.
Also: here’s the music I chose for my “walk-up” bits for when Rich went up to accept for me. https://youtu.be/tqjcSQOQ-2U?t=24s
The Ravens Circle
The Ravens Circle
Reign of Crows, an AGoT Fate hack is one of three Fate games I’m running for the Gauntlet Hangouts in August. It’s the most experimental. We played our second session Sunday, digging into scenes instead of world building (video link at post). I’m puzzling out the game’s rhythm amid the great play moments. We’ll discuss that at the start of next session, hunting ideas to tighten the play experience. At the post I have the second half of my materials: the stunts and specials for each of the six character archetypes.
German Tabletop RPGs with Philipp Neitzel
German Tabletop RPGs with Philipp Neitzel
For episode 112 of the Gauntlet Podcast, I interviewed Philipp Neitzel about the German RPG scene, indie games overseas, his work on The Dark Eye, and more. Most importantly I ask what The Dark Eye means. I think its a good interview and crazy cool to hear about gaming outside the US.
You can find the episode at the link as well as the rest of the podcasts in the Gauntlet network. You can also support us on Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/gauntlet
The Dark Eye on DTRPG: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/3444/Ulisses-Spiele/subcategory/5805_208/The-Dark-Eye They’re on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/thedarkeyegame/
Philipp notes, “You can still get into The Warring Kingdoms crowdfunding, doing late orders on this platform, after it successfully funded on Kickstarter already: https://www.gameontabletop.com/crowdfunding-71.html.”
A Throne of Games?
A Throne of Games?
Sunday we had the first session of Reign of Crows. That’s a “Game of Thrones” style Fate mini-campaign. Everyone plays members of a single noble family. Together they face threats and shifts in power. We had Sherri Stewart, David LaFreniere, Patrick Knowles, and Horst Wurst do the world building. While we’ve only played the first session, I want to post some of the material. I plan on coming back to look at all of this once we’ve done all four.
Rings, Rain, and Rage
Rings, Rain, and Rage
In July I ran four sessions of a PbtA hack I’d written for Changeling the Lost. I don’t know why I love that setting and concept so much. We had four wonderful online sessions—really fun and interesting with a story that evolved naturally. IMHO PbtA fit perfectly; I’d done serious work on the hack, but the players made it sing. My adaptation still needs work and I talk about some of the potential changes at the post.
HEROES WILL RISE
HEROES WILL RISE
I ran two sessions of my setting hack for Brendan Conway’s Masks: A New Generation. This puts the young heroes in the aftermath of a super zombie event, ala Ex-Heroes and Rotted Capes. This offers a twist on Masks issues of identity and self-image, with the characters also responsible for a survivor community yet not fully trust. At the post I detail the set-up and mechanical changes I made. I also have links to the session videos.
I expect you’ll be seeing this a lot in your feed today, but today is the last day to vote in the ENnies.
I expect you’ll be seeing this a lot in your feed today, but today is the last day to vote in the ENnies. If you haven’t checked out the nominees (or voted yet) please consider giving that a look. We have at least three nominees connected in some way to the Gauntlet: +1 Forward podcast, Age of Ravens (my blog), and The Dark Eye: Aventuria Almanac (best setting) which Philipp Neitzel is connected to. There may be others.
BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE
BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE
Last week I ran the second of two sessions of Godbound, reskinned with the Scion setting for Gauntlet Hangouts. I’ve also been running GB f2f. I put together my notes on the conversion, thoughts on both systems, and overall assessment in this post. I dig it, but I see some things I need to retool.
Freehold Threats
Freehold Threats
I dig the random threat generator from Mutant: Year Zero. It’s old tech, but they present it in a useful way. I love generating an incident just before play and running from that. I decided to build something similar for other games. Since I’m running Changeling: The Lost for The Gauntlet Hangouts right now, I started with that.