Category: The Gauntlet: Hail Satan

I don’t normally post video game things here, but I’m making an exception for Owlboy. My best friend, Jonathan Geer, wrote the soundtrack for this game (and also, incidentally, wrote the music for The Gauntlet Podcast and Discern Realities), and I know the team at D-Pad Studios well. After eight long years of development, they have turned in a game that is getting perfect review scores. So proud of them!

https://www.destructoid.com/review-owlboy-395667.phtml

We Shall Name Them Keepers of the Gauntlet!

A lot of people are really enjoying the whole “Keepers of the Gauntlet” thing I do for the Patreon supporters. As a fun bonus, Mischa Krilov, who voices our Patreon video and a few other things for us, is going to record himself reading all the Keeper names in a dramatic voice. We’ll set music and sound effects to it, and then release it in an upcoming podcast stream.

To get your name and Keeper title included in the recording, just be sure to pledge at any level by 11:59 pm on October 31st!

https://www.patreon.com/gauntlet

A dream for the entire community, because we have a lot to be proud of.

We looked at the Houston gaming scene and said “What a hell hole! We can do better than this.”

And then we did.

We looked at the RPG podcast scene and said “Yeah, we can do that, no big deal.”

And then we did.

We looked at online gaming and said “We can definitely do that, and much better, frankly.”

And then we did.

We looked at the RPG fanzine scene and said “Yeah, we can do that, no prob. Oh, and we’ll feature more games than just D&D, too.”

And then we did.

So what do we look at next?

Presently thinking of what the logo for Comic Strip AP should look like, and lamenting the fact no one would understand my original idea of a gender-swapped Snarfquest, with a horn dog female Snarf creature and a ridiculously sexualized male barbarian.

Choices…

Vincent Baker posted a pep talk to his G+ feed this morning, and I’ve been thinking about it. I don’t post or comment outside the Gauntlet, so I’ll put my thoughts here. If you want the context for what I’m about to say, go find his post and take a look.

I completely agree with the spirit of what he is saying. You don’t need permission from anyone to create games. It’s a fun activity in and of itself, and the rewards for doing so are significant and intrinsic. I myself don’t make games, but I’m involved in publishing a zine related to games, and I assure you it is a very satisfying activity, despite the fact the zine makes exactly $0 in profit.

But there’s a part of me that thinks you should look a little deeper into the subtext of Vincent’s post, beyond the “feel-good,” +1 bait surface of it.

Because I read it a little differently. I read it as “You don’t have to try.”

And do you know who has a direct interest in making other people think RPG publishing should be treated as a leisure activity, an activity in which you don’t really have to try? The answer: people for whom RPG publishing is already a major source of their income.

I’m not suggesting that was Vincent’s intention in that post. In fact, I don’t believe it was. But I do see these “pep talk” posts a lot, and I always find them amusing, because they usually come from people who, whether they realize it or not, directly benefit from the hobby staying niche and unserious.

I admire execution more than I admire genius. Not everyone gets to be a Lumpley, but with some work, you can be a Magpie. You’re never going to make a mechanically-perfect game, but there are things you can do, things you should do, to give your game the best possible chance of finding an audience, and doing those things doesn’t make your work any less virtuous than that of the gentleman hobbyist who designs games in his leisure time. And I think those things include doing some research to find out if your game has a place in the market, talking to podcasters and bloggers, working to cultivate a fan base, and, yes, commissioning some art and layout.

I am presently LIVING for the World of Dungeons series we are playing on Saturday mornings this month. There have been so many cool moments, I can barely stand it.

My jumping-off point for this series was Vornheim, but our game has focused on a small city on the outskirts of that larger city, and has gone in a completely different and unique direction from the book. I really want to work-up some of these ideas in a brand-new Dungeon World setting and run it next year, maybe even release it as a thing in Codex down the line.

Anyway, a dream for the players who have been bringing awesome stuff to the table these last couple of weeks, and for enduring what has become an increasingly weird (but awesome) series: Alex Chalk Aniket Schneider Fraser Simons

Plussatar? smh, Richard Rogers