You’re sitting down to run a session of a game (and it’s not the first session).
You’re sitting down to run a session of a game (and it’s not the first session).
You usually have some establishing questions in mind that you want to ask the players.
You also have some nice in medias res text you intend to read to the players to (a) remind them where you left off the previous session and (b) give them a dramatic “in” for this session.
So what order do you do these in?
Me, I’m conflicted.
If I do the questions first it can often result in interesting conversations (well, you’d hope so wouldn’t you!?) and possible action, and then the medias res bit can subsequently seem a little railroad-y or forced.
If I do the in media res first, I forget to ask the questions.
I realized I had to do my RPG Wishlist early this year. Since Gauntlet events open two months out, we’re already planning 2019 games. My January sessions include Threadbare, Hearts of Wulin, and Masks. But what about the rest of 2019?
After a short hiatus, Fear of a Black Dragon is back!
After a short hiatus, Fear of a Black Dragon is back! In the newest episode, Tom McGrenery and I are discussing seafaring adventures and The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh!
I played Demigods PbtA run by Jason Mills (the designer) for me and my buddies chris norwood and Candida Norwood. I find mythology fascinating and have bought and looked through several RPGs about this subject. I really enjoyed the Godbound+Scion hack Lowell Francis ran a couple years ago, but there’s something especially compelling about Jason Mills’ game! I’m playing a son of Dionysus who “totally gets” that his dad is problematic. Farren (my PC) is naturally gifted at partying and always seems to have a drink in his hand, but in this last session, for some reason, I discovered that when a girl actually shows interest in him, he has no idea how to handle it! That was fun.
Saturday Morning
I ran the second of three sessions of Hunt the Wicked, a bounty hunter game by Ben Dutter for my Star Wars Saturdays living campaign. The players, Michael G. Barford, steven watkins, and Joe Zantek, really embodied their fascinating characters. We had a shocking revelation, a space battle with ARC 170s and their ship, The Hornet, a stand-off, some Die Harding that ended with a garotting, and it ended with a big explosion cliffhanger!
Saturday Evening
Michael G. Barford ran the most recent playtest version of mecha RPG All Systems Nominla by Kyle Thompson for me, Darren Brockes, David LaFreniere, and Gauntlet newcomer Del Benjamin. We mopped up some farmers in mediocre mechs, gave our employer a “talking to” (this was surprisingly cathartic for me!), and decided to head off on a direct course for the awful corporation who put those poor farmers in the mechs. I cannot wait to punch those corporate a-holes in their noses!
Sunday Morning
Lowell Francis kicked off his new month’s series of the wonderful wuja RPG Hearts of Wulin. Players were Darren Brockes, Auzumel S, and Patrick Knowles. I continued playing Zheng, my Loyal swordsman, who was completely full of venomous hurt for Darren’s thief and tried his best to protect Sherri’s investigator without her realizing it.
Sunday Afternoon
I ran Masks Halcyon City for the Intercontinental Group of Awesome ( Alex Prinz, Jan van Zon, Jennifer Kitzman, and Paul Edson ). Viridian and Ashley Banner (secret ID of Seraph) played their first music gig with their high school band, Teenage Gerbil Uprising, a former foe showed up again to attack them, but they realize in the fight that he’s being controlled by another enemy, the shame of Armature. And the humongous Atlas was tempted by a magic weapon.
Saturday Evening
Tyler Lominack picked up his campaign of Fellowship because I begged him to run it some more. Patrick Knowles, James Ryan, and Jesse Crisp-Sears joined up for the reunion of our epic PCs and we fought undead giants!
Hey Gauntleteers, I’m back crowdsourcing the miscellany for Codex – Dark 2.
Hey Gauntleteers, I’m back crowdsourcing the miscellany for Codex – Dark 2. This miscellany is called “Three Dozen Constellations.” Submissions need to be a single sentence, or 2-3 short sentences. By submitting here, you’re agreeing to let us use it (you’ll get a credit on the issue). We’re looking for evocative things; the purpose of the miscellany is to inspire the reader.
Here are some examples:
“The story goes that when Semias the Insatiable found nothing left to conquer, he knotted a ladder out of every kind of grass and rush, tied it to an arrow, and aimed his bow at the moon. On clear nights you can see Semias’ Ladder marked out in the stars and Semias himself as the brightest star among them, still climbing.”
“Any child with a passing interest in astronomy can find Orion the Hunter by his bright belt of three stars. Or they could. Now only two remain, and one of them is fading.”
“The goddess Nerha’s love for Vaone was surpassed only by her grief at the knowledge of her mortal lover’s eventual death. Unwilling to let death claim her, Nerha carried Vaone with her into the stars, where the two remain entwined as a single constellation.”
P.S. If you want to be credited as something other than your G+ name, let me know!
Hey all, looking to crowdsource/brainstorm ideas a little.
Hey all, looking to crowdsource/brainstorm ideas a little.
In Stonetop (my “hearth fantasy” Dungeon World hack), the fae are established as residing in the Great Wood near town. See the image for the text I’ve written on them so far.
One of my playtesters asked me for advice on portraying the fae in play, and I realized that I’m not very good at it myself.
So… What tips or ideas do you have for portraying fae like this? For making such alien-yet-familiar creatures “pop” on screen? And for emphasizing their strangeness?
If it helps, elements associated with the fae in Stonetop include:
1 Beauty/wonder/awe
2 Ugliness/horror/disgust
3 Fluidity of time and space
4 Illusion/glamor/pretense
5 Singing/poetry/art
6 Debts/vows/obligations
7 Strange, fickle customs & etiquette
8 Callousness/cruelty/indifference
9 Yearning/passion/desire
10 Dancing/revelry/sex
11 Wondrous food & drink
12 Tiny in size
Also, their history involves them having been bred, long long long ago, by the Green Lords, giants who bred and cultivated and experimented with life. I’ve sort of got in my mind that the Green Lords bred the fae at least in part to attend them in their false afterlives, which is why the fae are creatures of spirit and dream as much as flesh and blood.
It’s also established that fae rebelled from the Green Lords, and drove the Green Lords to embrace the utterly corrupt and evil Things Below, but that the fae ultimately won.
Pax Unplugged is around the corner and I still need a few more gms to run Bluebeard’s Bride, Urban Shadows, and Zombie World (or a magpie game of choice) for the convention! Come join me and the Magpie team at Pax Unplugged and make awesome gaming happen!
I’m setting the final schedule so I need you to apply ASAP! 12 hours of games gets you a badge and a book! 8 hours gets you a book!
I can’t wait to see you there! Check out the link below to apply and share this far and wide!
Just in time for the weekend: the newest episode of Discern Realities!
Just in time for the weekend: the newest episode of Discern Realities! This is the next entry in our Dungeon World Basics series, this time covering GM moves.
Greetings, all! The weekly Gauntlet Hangouts video roundup post is now up on The Gauntlet Blog! Check it out, and be sure not to miss all the other great Gauntlet Blog posts from the week!
Thanks go out to all our Gauntlet Hangouts videos game runners, facilitators, and players this week, including: Agatha, Alejandro Duarte, Alexi Sargeant, Asher Silberman, Auzumel S, Bethany H, Bryan Lotz, Catherine Ramen, Chris Newton, Darren Brockes, David LaFreniere, David Morrison, Eduardo L., Eike K., Fraser Simons, Gerrit Reininghaus, Greg Gelder, Harry Morris, Hayley G, James Ryan, Jen Overstreet, Jesse Abelman, Jim Crocker, Joe Zantek, Joshua DeGagné, Joshua Gilbreath, Kurt Potts, Kyle Hodnett, Larry S, Leandro Pondoc, Lowell Francis, Luiz Paulo S F, Matthew Doughty, Michael G. Barford, Noella Handley, Patrick Knowles, Paul Edson, Rachelle Dube, Richard Rogers, River Williamson, Robert Angus, Sarah J, Seraphina Malizia, Simon Landreville, Stentor Danielson, Steven desJardins, steven watkins, Taylor W., Tina Trillitzsch, Tomer Gurantz, Tyler Lominack, and Vee Hendro.
