Author: Tim B

Last night, Gauntlet Portland played Firebrands: Mobile Frame Zero by Vincent Baker!

I put this on the calendar two months ago and, hot lil item that this game is, we had 5 RSVPs and 3 on the waiting list the day of. Schedules being what they are, only 3 of us showed up, but we had an amazing play.

For anyone not familiar: sexy mech pilots from opposing factions, and play consists of procedural ‘mini-games’ with 0+ others.

A couple areas that sang:

*Narrative authority is handed out perfectly. Everyone has a say on what matters, and others have a say on what builds tension for you. One example is during intimate games, like Stealing Time Together, that use scripted approaches and responses that demonstrate consent (sex ed done right!). Nothing goes down without you being cool about it, but that doesn’t mean you can predict what happens next!

*Asymmetry is baked into the premise of three opposing factions, and it echoes through each game when no one party feels like they hold power for long. Never was there a true winner or loser during games, but instead we were left with unfinished business to ramp up tension for the games to come.

Thanks to Andrew Mayer and Isona for playing!

Gauntlet Portland brought Slade Stolar’s The Indie Hack to the table last night!

The rich questions supplied with each class produced quality character background and motifs for the session. Death, represented by the Mother but also actual slain family members, as well as loss being part of a greater balance in nature fueled the story from this starting stage.

We began the adventure en media res, then when the action came to a head we paused to give flashbacks that spotlighted each character. This was an opportunity for players to tell some awesome and poignant story, as well as a way to retroactively procure items now on the character’s person in the present. I appreciated that scene framing was so open that we could do this without trouble!

The pacing wasn’t super focused, as a bunch of people offering different details took the story back and forth in different directions, but still led to a satisfying finale that brought the character development to a head. The Indie Hack did a great job of putting each person’s fiction at the forefront for maximum enjoyment!

The one area I struggled with as a GM was the notion of “Challenge Level”— there’s a bit of GM fiat determining the CL of certain opposition on the fly (opponents but also challenges like traps), and mechanically that +1 or even +2 on the GM’s die can really influence outcomes in a big way. I was tempted to totally drop CL and just write up Details for each challenge that I can then exploit for a bonus to my die, but I was concerned we’d create a mess of too many details to manage and time spent notating them, which is my biggest beef with FATE’s aspects. I wanted detail-rich, not detail-heavy.

I’d definitely bring The Indie Hack to the table again and look forward to seeing the developments Slade has coming down the pipeline. Big thanks to Noah Jay-Bonn, Sam Kusek, and Klint Finley for playing!