Back in 2013, when the Gauntlet was getting its start, we had a member who I had to chase out of the group.
Back in 2013, when the Gauntlet was getting its start, we had a member who I had to chase out of the group. Back then, I wasn’t the leader of The Gauntlet, and so the main tools I had at my disposal were just straight up social antagonism. The reason this person had to go? They were wildly toxic from a political standpoint. They regularly demonized Muslims, regularly demonized liberals, told me to my face that my family would not be wrong to disown me for being gay, and more.
Now, at the time, this cat had a lot of sympathizers within the group (some of them are active in The Gauntlet to this day). They didn’t believe in his politics, but they thought it was wrong for me to hound him out. So, it was less a criticism of the substance of what I was saying, and more a criticism of my tactics.
Is this starting to sound familiar yet?
I continued to follow this person on social media, and they became more and more unhinged. Everything was a deep state conspiracy, President Obama was getting ready to take your guns, Hillary was a puppet of the Russians (ha!) and so forth. I didn’t pay attention long enough to see where he came down on Trump, but I have no doubt he is a red hat-wearing MAGA fuckface. I know he eventually moved to Israel because he wanted to get away from the tyranny of the Obama administration.
Anyway, whatever happened to that creep is unimportant. My point is this: today The Gauntlet is awesome, quite possibly one of the best online communities anywhere. I like to think my unwillingness to be accommodating to that dude’s proto-MAGA bullshit is part of the reason why. There were others, too. I weeded them all out, one by one, and then took a firm stand on our values as a community. As a result of this, I am very, very unpopular in the Houston gaming scene. There are a lot of people who have been nursing their wounds for years now, and to them, I am the fucking devil.
But I do not give a fuck.
I’m not here to make people feel better about their malignant, amoral politics. I’m here to help create a gaming space organized around principles of kindness, camaraderie, and mutual affection. And that is just all there is to it. Point blank. End of story.
The reason I’m putting all this out here today is I think about how awful our current political circumstances are–the absolute and utter debasement we have suffered the last couple of years–and I wish some of the people who criticized me back then for taking a hard position on right-wing fuckery had chosen to instead take the same position in different areas of their lives. (Note: This regret goes all the way back to 2010, when a lot of my liberal friends were softpedaling the Tea Party.)
As a fun aside, some of those same creeps who were so angry at how they had been treated by me in The Gauntlet ended up forming their own Houston-based RPG group. I encourage you to check it out: https://plus.google.com/communities/100733634801755782287
Greetings, and welcome to the weekly Gauntlet Hangouts video roundup!
Greetings, and welcome to the weekly Gauntlet Hangouts video roundup! Don’t miss any of the great sessions in the updated playlists and video links below.
Also, don’t forget that the last ever new $7 Patreon slots will be opening up this weekend on July 1st! Supporting the Gauntlet Patreon at this level grants priority RSVP privileges to all Gauntlet Hangouts games!
Finale! With the shattering of one of the Demon Prince pillars U’duasha comes under martial law, forcing our crew into a two front war against old rivals.
– Gauntlet League Wrestling: Road Tour (Session 3 of 3),
The wrestlers take down new management with the aid of old management as Cat “The Cannon” Causey crushes her rival the Terminatrix while Mister Fahrenheit slips into his Sub Pig persona.
– Hack The Planet: Shifter Crew: The Streamers (Session 11)
The crew takes on a monsoon and face a difficult decision as they discover that the score they were on was bait! Staylight has moved to seize one of their holdings and they must decide if they will go to war.
Our heroes overhear some political troubles brewing inside the city as the orc army approaches. They decide to try to find a secret entrance to the city by raiding the offices of the masons guild.
[For best results, start watching at 12:23 to skip technical difficulties.]
– Dungeon World: Threat of the Pale Moon (Session 3 of 4)
Seeking revenge our ranger leads the party on a scouting route which leaves the rest of their platoon exposed ass they march. Luckily they hear the warning cries in time and engage in battle with well armed and organized band.
– Hack The Planet: Wired Crew: Blue Oolong (Session 13)
Nourish hires Carrion mercenaries to take out the crew who would date pull off the last job against them only to find they’ve walked into a trap set by Blue Solace!
Während Nasrin und Bilal die Spur nach ihrem zahnlosen, entlaufendem Schoßtier aufnehmen, tanzen sie auch miteinander einen Tanz aus Schatten und Geheimnissen.
(As Nasrin and Bilal pick up the trail for her de-fanged runaway pet, they also dance a dance of shadows and secrets with each other.)
– Beyond the Wall: Caverns of Thracia (Session 4 of 4)
Afra, Constant Sorrow, Darrian, Lylani, and Morraine follow Tad into the underground temple and surprise many of the cultists before getting caught in their own trap.
Check out all the great videos on The Gauntlet’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9QoUve1LQHu_feDx0snd4w and be sure check out the playlists to catch up on all your favorite Gauntlet Hangouts games. If you’d like to play in games like these, check out the Gauntlet Hangouts Google+ Community at https://plus.google.com/communities/116329047011220562548 where game signups are announced! To support The Gauntlet and Gauntlet Hangouts, please visit the Gauntlet Patreon at https://patreon.com/gauntlet where $7 and up patrons get priority RSVP for Gauntlet Hangouts games. Enjoy, and everyone have a great weekend!
Last night we wrapped up Lowell Francis Iruvia campaign of Blades in the Dark on Gauntlet Hangouts!
Last night we wrapped up Lowell Francis Iruvia campaign of Blades in the Dark on Gauntlet Hangouts! I played a young kid named Bijan, living on the streets and sleeping in a warehouse until the crew took me in (I was a later addition to the open table game).
I was a forger that didn’t know how to build things yet, but I had an ability to awaken inanimate objects, even wield them as weapons (the ability is called Ghost in the Machine so of course, I chose that one). Vicious and brutal, I set about using my newly obtained power; cocky that I belonged to a crew now.
There was a gang boss who bullied me. I framed him and killed him, sabotaging a building as he and his crew entered. I killed my rival; I turned to my heritage to garner even more power now that I had a taste for it! Iruvia’s current social structures, it turns out, had been built on and suppressing people who practiced my religion, which was the root of how I could put ghosts in machines. As I delved deeper, I accrued more Trauma I became obsessed, cold, and reckless.
And in the end, Bijan walked away from it all still looking for answers in his religion; setting out into the desert to find something he was convinced existed based on ancient knowledge barred from the world, but not him. Bringing only a mechanical hawk he constructed to aid him.
Lowell did an excellent job as GM and the campaign had so many cool things going on. I really enjoyed myself and it was neat seeing how flexible the system is. You can really speed up downtime or slow down and linger on specific scenes. Everyone had really cool arcs and it was a joy to play in.
We are making 75 more $7 Patreon spots available on July 1st! These will be the last of the $7 spots. Ever.
The $7 Patreon spot gives you access to everything at the lower tiers (early Pocket-Sized Play, Codex, the Slack group) plus you get one week of RSVP priority on all new Gauntlet Hangouts games.
Gauntlet Hangouts is consistently the best place to play indie ttrpgs online (and possibly anywhere). $7 a month for access to it is a crazy-good value, even setting aside all the other stuff you get for your pledge. We could definitely charge more for it, but the point is not to make a ton of money, but rather to attract people who are serious about playing games (we believe people take things more seriously when they pay for them). It also helps us put a ceiling on participation so we have the space to grow the calendar.
Anyway, there are going to be 75 more $7 spots on Sunday, July 1st. And once those are gone, there won’t be anymore.
It’s been a while since I posted a play report, but here we go.
It’s been a while since I posted a play report, but here we go. We started some Scion 2nd Edition recently, and I think I’ve posted some of Hilde’s story, but we’re now two sessions into Lily’s story.
Lily is a runaway turned aggressive archeologist and a scion of Inari, though she does not know that last bit yet.
Then, I’ll go ahead and link Hilde’s index page as well.
Hilde knows full well that her parents were incarnations of Thor and Sif and that her literally golden hair means she takes after her mother, but she is frustrated that she has not yet been recognized by her parents’ greater selves. Sure their mortal incarnations, adventuring youtubers, love her and that’s great, but despite her personal fame and enthusiasm, she remains just a mortal with a little something special.
This Sunday I start five-sessions of Dungeon World using Brendan Conway’s The Green Law of Varkith. It’s one of three “Chaos Worlds” he’s written (along with Last Days of Anglekite and The Cold Ruins of Lastlife). I’m also running a one-shot of this for Magpie at GenCon. To help orient myself (and my players) I put together a one-page setting summary for players.
The newest episode of Fear of a Black Dragon is here!
The newest episode of Fear of a Black Dragon is here! In this one, Tom McGrenery and I attempt to keep the holes plugged as we get all hot and bothered in the Fever Swamp!
I’m posting this here since it wouldn’t have happened without last year’s Gauntlet Con and the kindness of the people I’ve played with, especially Christo Meid who has encouraged me since then.
It’s been a year since the French release of “Libreté”, my powered-by-the-apocalypse roleplaying game where you play children gathered in a fortress, recreating some sort of a chaotic society while trying to repel the voracious sirains (think Lord of the Flies and Gone for example, with some horrific touch).
As I said, thanks to the GauntletCon and to the efforts of Christo Meid (and also the infinite kindness of my layout artist), I’ve finally found the courage to translate the Demo Kit, which you will find for free at the following page. I contains the basic rules, 5 pregen characters, and a straightforward adventure (it was made to be used in conventions, hence the railroading feel).
We hope that you will try and love it. Do not hesitate to give us some feedback, and to ask questions!
The Chimaeracast is going to do a little discussion/debrief episode recording tonight to talk about how our actual play podcast is going and what we hope to do in the future. Since we’ve already recorded the end out my arc and now each of the 4 members has run a series, we wanted to have an episode to reflect. This is more than anything me reaching out to see if any of you fine folk who might happen to listen to our podcast or just have a vast wealth of AP podcast knowledge have any questions, concerns, or suggestions. By all means, this post might just fly under the radar, but I wanted to put something out there just in cast because I love this community’s great feedback and well articulated thoughts every time I open the G+.
I hope you are having a wonderful day!
Z
Also, the episode is going to be called “The Dragon’s Den” which I really enjoy 🙂
