Category: The Gauntlet: Our Community

Hey everyone! As you may know, I have been running a (somewhat) regular online game since January. We’ve done Dungeon World, Monsterhearts, and a few other things here and there. It has always been fun, but it has become too hard for me to manage, what with all the live games we do around here (and, you know, my job).  

So…that’s where Sean Smith comes in! He has offered to take over the online game for awhile. The first game he is going to run will be The ‘Hood, which is an Apocalypse World-based crime drama game. There is some info at the link. 

The first session will be Monday, 09.08.14, from 7pm-10pm. Sean is guessing it will be several sessions in length. If you’re interested, post in the comments. An Event invite will be going up soon. 

http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/james-mullen/the-hood/paperback/product-21563301.html

For today’s Story Game Sunday we played Lasers & Feelings. We ran it with rotating GMs (the only way to play goofy space games). Lots of laughs all around, and a very complete story involving space hamsters, cat amazons, interstellar seduction, and a crystal planet called Quaythaag.

Thanks to Steve Mains Russell Benner Jessica Scott Ferrell Riley and Daniel Lewis for joining in the space adventure.

Last night we had a successful return to the Anthology stories with an adventure in the Dagger Isles. 

Several of our characters were returning from previous adventures, and one was brand new. They were:

Tamatoa Thunder-Eater (triton barbarian)

Kai Mahoe (triton mage)

Kitch (halfling thief)

Oka Wara-wara, the “Dead-Eye” (triton shaman)

Cassius (human paladin)

The party had been hired to retrieve a crystal egg which belonged to one of the bird-like wind mages. Their investigation led them to tiny Tapiset Island and the partially sunken ruins of the Temple of the Viridescent Wyrm. Some decades prior, the temple was the lair of a green dragon, Emerald Nightmare, and his cult of human worshippers, but was now thought to be abandoned. 

In fact, as the party would learn, Emerald Nightmare existed in the swampy waters around the temple as a dracolich, his animating spirit anchored to his bones by a large emerald phylactery in the center of his ribcage. Emerald Nightmare’s plan was to use the power from the crystal egg to complete a ritual by which he would be reborn into a green dragon egg he kept in stasis in the temple. 

There was lots of exploration and derring-do, and in the end the party managed to thwart Emerald Nightmare’s plans and destroy his dracolich form (though his spirit is still around to cause mischief). 

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

Some pics from Wednesday One-Shots. Scott ran Lady Blackbird and Isaac ran a Lost Boys-themed Monster of the Week.

I’ll let others chime-in on MotW, but Lady Blackbird was great. Once we got going, it was a good mix of action scenes and interpersonal scenes. Scott did a nice job with the pacing and narrative. We’re continuing next week. 

Thanks to everyone who came out: Scott Owen Isaac, Daniel Lewis Daniel Fowler Gary Wilson David LaFreniere  Jeff Burke Kristen D Hunter, Elise, Dallas, and a couple of Mormon missionaries. 

Just in time to resume our series on Friday, the Anthology notes have been fully updated. These are a bit easier to read if I specifically share the folder with you, so please let me know in the comments if you would like a direct share. 

Some notes…

-The folder contains sub-folders for each of the major regions currently identified in our campaign world: The Kingdom of Vealun (in the High Dale), The Linnorm Wastes, The Dagger Isles, The Kingdom of the Lamenting Moon, Holy Aramarche, Uri-Sahar, and Wildspace.

-Most region folders contain the following docs: Timeline; Sects, Clans, & Organizations; Cities, Towns, & Villages; and Temples, Castles, & Wondrous Locations. The exceptions are Holy Aramarche, The Kingdom of the Lamenting Moon, and Wildspace (which are too new) and Uri-Sahar (which is being handled differently than the other regions). 

-There are two general documents: Relics, Antiquities, & Objects of Wondrous Power; and Deities, Patrons, & Extraplanar Powers. Both of these are of general interest to the campaign world (and are terrific resources for your own adventures). 

-The Timelines are extremely sparse and filled with holes. This is on purpose. 

-Newcomers to the Gauntlet Anthology may be struck by how standard or trope-y our campaign world is. We are definitely not reinventing the wheel here, and I’m ok with that for a few reasons: 1) I think tropes are easier to grok, which leads to good roleplay; 2) the interesting things are what happens in the nitty gritty of each session anyway; and 3) anyone who would criticize our campaign world can go fuck themselves, because we get to play in our world every week (sometimes multiple times a week) while they are just sitting at home WISHING they could play in their totally unique, scintillating fantasy world. 

I encourage people to run their own games using some of this material. If you do, let me know and I will make your contributions a part of the official canon. 

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0ByS4_7KbXro_Q2NuaGd2NzRscGM&usp=sharing

Some pics from Wednesday One-Shots and Board Game Thursday. On Wednesday we played octaNe and Dungeon World. Russ has a post up about octaNe. Dungeon World was a lot of fun; David put a little twist on the classic “Level 1 characters fighting giant rats in a cave” setup.

On Thursday we began the excellent Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. Looking forward to playing it again next week.

Thanks to everyone who came out: Daniel Lewis Russell Benner David LaFreniere Daniel Fowler James Melott Scott Owen Kristen D Kerry Harrison Ferrell Riley and new guys Hunter and Ben.

Look how much fun these people are having! 

Carcosa Session 3 was an absolute blast; probably one of my favorite game sessions this year. It had some moments that definitely need to go into the Hall of Legends. I’ll write a re-cap after session 4 is complete. 

In the meantime, thanks to everyone who came out: Jacob Densford Nicolette Khan Daniel Fowler Russell Benner David LaFreniere Kyle McCauley and Jeff Burke . 

Some pics from Wednesday One-Shots. We played Questlandia and Dungeon World. Interestingly, this was the first time I had actually played Dungeon World (having run it dozens of times). My very first character was Astrafel the Elven Bard, and he was kind of an asshole (imagine that). 

The Questlandia talk is going on in another thread. Go check it out – it sounds like it was a lot of fun. 

Thanks to everyone who came out: Daniel Lewis David LaFreniere Daniel Fowler Russell Benner James Melott Gary Wilson Stephen Crawford Isaac and Hunter.