Category: The Gauntlet: Our Community

Some pics from Anthology Friday (with a truly hideous filter).

We had two tables of Dungeon World going. This was the final session of our Dagger Isles adventure until we pick it up again in December.

Thanks to Ferrell Riley for running the second table, and to everyone else for coming out: Jeff Burke Marcus Centurian David LaFreniere Kristen D Scott Owen Gary Wilson Russell Benner Kristina Vansickle Daniel Fowler and the three new people (Kenneth, with his ginger beer,  and the two ladies whose names escape me, but who go by Marfisa and Rahenna on Meetup). 

Some pics from Wednesday One-Shots. We played Danger Mountain! and Ocean.

I’ll let the people who played Danger Mountain! chime-in on their thoughts about it. As for Ocean, we ran a sort of remixed version of it. Instead of the traditional setup of amnesiacs in an underwater research facility crawling with monsters, we did amnesiacs in a mysterious castle patrolled by clockwork men (I just finished watching that particular episode of Doctor Who). It was pretty cool. We gave each of the characters two starting skills instead of one, which helped speed-up the game (Ocean can drag on a bit if you’re not careful). 

Thanks to everyone who came out: Daniel Lewis Russell Benner James Melott Scott Owen Kristen D Gary Wilson and Hunter!

Some pics from Story Game Sunday. We played Dread. We had a great time but, if I’m being honest, this game is starting to age a little. It was developed in the late 90’s, and it shows. The players have zero narrative authority, it allows secrets at the table (which is almost always awful), and there is an unnecessary amount of planning that goes into each session.

That said, we had a fun time, and using a Jenga tower for conflict resolution is awesome. It leads to some great tension, which is appropriate for a horror game. I would love to see this game get a re-design that takes into account all the mechanical developments in story games from the last 15 years.

Thanks to Steve Mains for running the game and to everyone else who came out: Aaron Scott Jessica Scott Jeff Burke Russell Benner and Daniel Lewis.

Some pics from Dungeon World last night. We had a big group, so we ended up doing two tables.

Thanks to Ferrell Riley for running the other table, and to everyone else for coming out!

Some pics from Wednesday One-Shots and Board Game Thursday. For Wednesday, we played 44: A Game of Automatic Fear and The Final Girl. 

44 was pretty awesome. It had a nice vibe; its 1950’s setting came to life in a good way. It is basically Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and that sense of paranoia mixed with tropes from the 1950’s was pretty enjoyable. The rules were a bit finicky, but nothing that got in the way of telling a good story. I’d play it again. 

For Thursday, we continued the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, but also slipped in a samurai game based off Bang! and a few rounds with Machine of Death. 

Thanks to everyone who came out: Daniel Lewis Russell Benner David LaFreniere Kristen D Scott Owen Ferrell Riley Gary Wilson and Daniel Fowler.

I’m thinking of adding a section to the Community page where we talk about GM resources, as well as give advice and tips for how to run/facilitate a good game. Is that something you all think would be helpful?

Some pics from Grey Ranks. In this one, you play youthful resisters of the Nazi occupation of Poland during WWII. It is very similar to Misspent Youth in that your characters have to decide whether they sacrifice the things they hold dear in order to resist the big bad.

We had fun, but this game definitely needs to be played for the suggested three sessions. I think we missed out on a lot of meaningful character development playing the truncated version. Also, I think the mechanics would be more salient over the course of the full game. Basically, we didn’t really have time to let the story breathe. I’d love to try it again in multiple sessions.

Thanks to Steve Mains for facilitating and to Ferrell Riley Aaron Scott and Marcus Centurian for coming out.

Some pics from our Friday Anthology game last night. The adventure took an unexpected turn, which I found pretty exciting, as it forced me to really think on my feet.

There was also some really good character progression last night. Things that had been bugging me were discussed and we started to put a fine point on backstory elements that had only been mentioned vaguely before.

Thanks to everyone who came out: Ferrell Riley Kristen D Scott Owen Kristina Vansickle Marcus Centurian Jeff Burke and Gary Wilson.