Category: The Gauntlet: Our Community

We just finished-up an incredibly fun five-session run of Michael Sands’s Monster of the Week.

We just finished-up an incredibly fun five-session run of Michael Sands’s Monster of the Week.

We just finished-up an incredibly fun five-session run of Michael Sands’s Monster of the Week. I really grew to love these characters, and I can’t wait to revisit them in February. 

In the meantime, based off the following descriptions, see if you can guess the 1980’s movie that inspired each session:

Session 1 & 2 – A Chinese sorcerer-demon teams up with some Triad storm wizards to complete a ritual that will allow him to re-enter our realm. 

Session 3 – An irresistibly delicious (and low-calorie!) ice cream treat called The Dream is actually a body-snatching alien organism. 

Session 4 – A strange dimensional traveler in the form of a really tall mortician is building an undead army. 

Session 5 – In the basement of the Santa Juanita Mission, a group of professors is doing research on a glass cylinder filled with a liquid that turns out to be Satan. 

Thanks to all my awesome players: Willow Palecek David LaFreniere Russell Benner Daniel Fowler and Kyle McCauley 

 

You and anyone you know are invited to play and/or donate (especially) to Extra Life. This will be my first go at it and the local group will be playing D&D. I haven’t played D&D in years, but it’s going to be a fun time adventuring for a good cause.

The D&D team was started by Wizards of the Coast, but the donations our team generate will support a local children’s hospital. The D&D team is in second place, just behind Team Nerdly + Geek & Sundry. JOIN US: http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.team&teamID=21011

From the site…

PLAY GAMES. Heal Kids.

On an Autumn Saturday each year since 2008, tens of thousands of gamers have joined together to save the lives of local kids in a celebration of gaming culture that we call Extra Life.  From console games to tabletop RPG’s to even lawn sports, Extra Life gives people that love to play a chance to do what they love to save lives and make a difference.

Originally designed as a 24-hour marathon of gaming, Extra Life has evolved to mean different things to different people (though most of our participants still attempt the marathon).

To participate you need only sign up (free) and gather the support of your friends and family through tax-deductible donations to your local CMN Hospital.  Then on Saturday, November 7, 2015 (or any day that works for you!) play any game(s) you want on any platform(s) that you want with anyone you want for as long as you want.

The proceeds from Extra Life stay where they’re raised to support children’s hospitals.

Since 2008, our incredible players have raised more than 14 million dollars, $6 million of which was raised in 2014 alone!

http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.team&teamID=21011

Played first game of The Final Girl, we had a great time with it!

Played first game of The Final Girl, we had a great time with it!

Played first game of The Final Girl, we had a great time with it! I have two questions that maybe I missed in the rules.

1. Are you supposed to discard all your cards at the end of scene?

2. Is there a limit on relationships you can have with other characters? (we had a gardener who  was screwing almost everyone else in the staff and friends of people a huge mansion. It was hilarious but ultimately he had a CRAP ton of cards)

I apologize for these fucking meta posts, but this is the time of year I start thinking about making changes to The…

I apologize for these fucking meta posts, but this is the time of year I start thinking about making changes to The…

I apologize for these fucking meta posts, but this is the time of year I start thinking about making changes to The Gauntlet. 

David Schirduan’s post from yesterday got me thinking about original written content. We have a little bit of that already under the sections titled How to Suck Less and Hall of Legends, but I think I want to eliminate some of these sections and just have a single section called ‘Writing’ or something like that. It would be even better if we had one or two people whose writing was regularly featured. Written reviews of games would be lovely, as would pieces on theory or design. I know a couple of you have blogs where you write things already (Andy Hauge comes to mind). I’m also cool with cross-posted content. 

Thoughts?

TL;DR I’m expanding my reviews page and need game suggestions

TL;DR I’m expanding my reviews page and need game suggestions

TL;DR I’m expanding my reviews page and need game suggestions

Hey Gauntlet! You guys are awesome, and I’m really enjoying the community and the podcast.

Once my Kickstarter ends, I’m hoping to expand my review page with more games, and I was wondering if anyone had any interesting games for me to review next! Some criteria:

 – Game is free or less than $5

 – Game is 100 pages or less

 – Game is something that you enjoyed playing

http://schirduans.com/david/2014/04/rpg-micro-review-mega-list.html

Here is something a little different.

Here is something a little different.

Here is something a little different. You don’t often see a game that has you playing as yourself. It also has a unique conflict resolution system; very curious to see how it goes in play. 

The pledge levels are very reasonable, too, so people should give it a look.  Grant Howitt and Emily Care Boss are stretch goals!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/464972563/mythic-mortals?ref=nav_search

Here’s a game with one of the coolest settings I’ve seen in a while, but then I’m a huge sucker for cyberpunk.

Here’s a game with one of the coolest settings I’ve seen in a while, but then I’m a huge sucker for cyberpunk.

Here’s a game with one of the coolest settings I’ve seen in a while, but then I’m a huge sucker for cyberpunk.  Add AW to the mix and it’s an instant back for me.  Comes with beta rules too, so expect this one to hit the calendar soon.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1991378332/headspace-rpg

We had a nice little kickoff to OSR Tuesday last night.

We had a nice little kickoff to OSR Tuesday last night.

We had a nice little kickoff to OSR Tuesday last night. We are playing Lamentations of the Flame Princess. We did character creation and got started on the first adventure. Doyle is a fun GM, and it was nice to put some faces to names. 

Thanks to Doyle Tavener  for organizing and running, and to everyone else who participated: Daniel Fowler Dirk Detweiler Leichty Jeff Burke Patrick Brannick Warren Denning and Russell Benner. 

I am frantically trying to figure out every cool and completely amazing thing The Gauntlet is going to do in 2016.

I am frantically trying to figure out every cool and completely amazing thing The Gauntlet is going to do in 2016.

I am frantically trying to figure out every cool and completely amazing thing The Gauntlet is going to do in 2016. The most important thing to me, big picture-wise, is expanding the number of voices associated with The Gauntlet. I have always been most closely associated with everything we do, but I think it’s time to get past that and really open-up the community. 

I think the addition of Doyle Tavener’s OSR Tuesday and Richard Rogers  joining the podcast are a step in the right direction, but I would love to see, for example, weekly or bi-weekly spinoff podcasts (say, 20-30 minutes in length), short essays on different gaming topics, and people taking charge of the various online game nights. 

Anyway, I welcome your thoughts, either in the comments below, or privately via Hangouts.