1000 Arrows: Questions, questions, questions

1000 Arrows: Questions, questions, questions

1000 Arrows: Questions, questions, questions

When this Kickstarter was announced, it started generating questions on the Gauntlet Slack. Concerns about cultural sensitivity, the Korean stretch goal, why try for a historical RPG if you’ve got magic, etc. Considering how these questions could apply to so many games in development by our members, I wanted to bring this out here for a wider discussion. If we’re lucky, Brennan Taylor and James Mendez Hodes , the designers of this game, will chime in with the hows and whys.

Full disclosure: I’ve played 1000 Arrows with Brennan running it as part of Gauntlet Con, and I played in the cyber skin of this at Dexcon with Mendez running it. I’ve also talked with both of them about their designs on other projects and have been impressed with the thought that has gone into their works, and their openness to questions and critique.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/galileogames/thousand-arrows-a-samurai-action-and-drama-ttrpg

Giving dreams…

Giving dreams…

Giving dreams…

I just wanted to ‘give some dreams’ to the Gauntleteers. Through your fantastic games you’ve given me a fantastic reprieve from certain difficult events, and others on Gauntlet Slack have listened when I needed it, helping me to believe that even if we can’t win each of our own battles, we can help others win theirs and make it better for all.

Special thanks to Kate Bullock​ and Anna Kreider​ for their inspiring posts, to River Williamson​ for their bravery and vulnerability, and to Shane Liebling​ and Lauren McManamon​ for letting me bend their ears and giving an emotional helping hand when needed.

You all inspire me to stay in the fight and speak up. For a person that fears confrontation, that’s huge.

https://goo.gl/images/LNPzEF

A love letter character generator for Legacy!

A love letter character generator for Legacy!

A love letter character generator for Legacy!

This is amazing! It only makes me want to play Legacy more! I looked this up after listening to +1 Forward episode about Legacy, but only gave it a run today.

http://ufopress.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/1-Forward-Love-Letter.html

We Hunt the Keepers Epilogue: Trent Firewalker

We Hunt the Keepers Epilogue: Trent Firewalker

We Hunt the Keepers Epilogue: Trent Firewalker

Seraphina, my old friend, I am following your suggestion and keeping a journal both in case something happens to me, and to help me work through what I have discovered. I know not if you shall ever read this, but if you do, I beg of you, read it through to the end. It is indeed heresy, but it also verified truth, pursued relentlessly as only a Templar can, confirming it from multiple sources.

The Lords of the Church of the Two, Auran and Lunan, sent me on a quest to kill the heretic Gormakir, the First Keeper of the Keys and bring back his Key. I had pondered why they would send me on what they said was an important mission when I was only a recent Templar, having only just been initiated, with the scars from the Trials by Fire that Eranthal had created specifically for me still fresh on my feet and body. I still have nightmares about running on the coals, the smell of my flesh burning as they jabbed me with the red hot pokers, testing my resolve and faith. Eranthal will create no more such tests: I have now seen to that. He confirmed what I learned on my quest before he died. He did not expect the interrogation skills I had learned in my training would ever be used on him. Such sweet hot irony! But I digress.

When I applied these very skills on Gormakir, he divulged that our gods are false gods, that they do not care for us and that they are not, in fact, gods as we were trained to believe. In an act of brave folly, we finished the ritual Gormakir had planned in order to become the Oracle of this behemoth in the caves, the Key we were after, the Battrachian Nightmare. The ritual was supposed to give us the answers we were each seeking, but required a sacrifice. We of course chose the evil Gormakir as the sacrifice, both completing a goal of our quest and supplying us with much needed answers. Indeed, Gormakier was the key component, but the ritual was nothing if not gruesome: as Gormakir’s form shifted, flesh melting over his eyes, ears sloughing off, he started spouting gibberish in ecstasy. It is at this time the whispers began in my head.

This is the truth I learned, the truth for which the brave Mage Logan and clever Weary sacrificed their lives: our gods can be killed!

The very reason the Church is trying to collect the Keys is because they are literally the Keys to Death for the gods. And yes, our gods are false gods, the Oracle revealed that to me in visions,visions of events that I was then able to find confirmation for in the restricted archives of the Church once I had the passkey from Eranthal.

How can they be false gods, when their priests and saints, and even Templars wield magic of the gods? While it is possible the priests magic is a boon of some of the gods, it is also possible that it comes from within us. Not the magic of the mages, derived from learning and weaving of energies around us, but from within us, from our souls and our passions.

Why would they send me, a novice, on such a quest of great danger? Because they had tested me and found me strong and pure, not realizing that in so doing they had sown the very seeds of doubt about the righteousness of the Lords of the Church. Why send me on this quest with others not of the Church? Eranthal confirmed this much: because any higher in the Church wanted the Keys for themselves and could not be trusted to return them, since they knew they were of great value and threat. He hinted that they suspected a rebel in their midst, working against the Church Lords, so they would hire 3 people not of the Church, accompanied by one novice from the Church, for each quest. In most cases, the Church representatives did not return, by chance or plan, I know not.

They know not what I know or have done, and are sending me on another mission soon. Perhaps the next key is one that I will be able to use…

1 Spot open in Stonetop

1 Spot open in Stonetop

1 Spot open in Stonetop

Originally shared by Christo Meid

Darkest Fridays: A Colony of Crinwin (A Stonetop game)

When: 8/4/17, 8/11/17, 8/18/17, and 8/25/17 9:00 PM – 12:00 AM EDT

Where: Google Hangouts

Gorlass staggers back into town muttering, “Crinwin! Nests of ’em. Lots of ’em. A great big one, too!” A small crowd gathers, asking questions and poking fun at him. Few believe him. One of you does, why is that?

Stonetop is Dungeon World hack by Jeremy Strandberg currently in playtest. The setting is a small isolated village of 300 souls living near the edge of the known world, on top of a flat-topped hill with a huge monolith on top of it that is often struck by lightning. It stands at the edge of the Great Wood where the Forest Folk live, which complicates things. Adventures focus on dealing with threats to the village, such as Crinwin, seizing opportunities for the village, or pursuing personal goals. Months or years might pass between adventures, with the fortune and prosperity of the village depending on the projects undertaken and decisions made.

Note: This game will be recorded since it is a playtest, although there are no plans to make it public.

Session 1: https://gauntlet-hangouts.firebaseapp.com/event-detail/-Kp8K8goNMj3Vi59hidq

Session 2:https://gauntlet-hangouts.firebaseapp.com/event-detail/-Kp8L-rJW7Qar9pWAf7U

Session 3:https://gauntlet-hangouts.firebaseapp.com/event-detail/-Kp8LGb8UrhnfZ7Nmquz

Session 4:https://gauntlet-hangouts.firebaseapp.com/event-detail/-Kp8LRKlHmP48b1mUG_c

Looking for Percy (Sorcerer Comic AP)

Looking for Percy (Sorcerer Comic AP)

Looking for Percy (Sorcerer Comic AP)

In NYC for two days, was walking where my feet took me through the overcast City and suddenly the Flatiron loomed larger than life… The photo was no doubt distorted by the demon of the building…

Thanks Judd Karlman​ and Richard Rogers​, I’ll never look at that building the same…

Dreams for some stand-up people

Dreams for some stand-up people

Dreams for some stand-up people

In the Gauntlet tradition, I have some dreams to give out to some people that have really helped me through their discussions and creations of and around role-playing games. They have inspired and enlightened, and put into words many things that I never would have even thought of, much less been able to find the words for.

So, I’d like to give some dreams to Anna Kreider and Kate Bullock for their amazing blog posts, games, and open, vulnerable discussions. The impacts you have already made may seem small now, but as the ripples move out and those touched by you start impacting the people around them, the effect will only grow.

I raise my glass to you two!

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/466615211369308314/

Friday Frights: Who wants to play on Fridays?

Friday Frights: Who wants to play on Fridays?

Friday Frights: Who wants to play on Fridays?

With the growth of the Gauntlet, I wanted to test the waters and see if people would be interested on playing Friday nights in June. If you are interested and have time in your schedule, please participate in the poll below.

If you want to propose something else, put it in the comments. By the +1s on the comments, I’ll know what is popular there.

Open your minds to me, Gauntleteers!

Dreamation 2017: The Watch

Dreamation 2017: The Watch

Dreamation 2017: The Watch

Yes, I finally got it together to write up some of what happened…

My words really can’t convey how intense and rewarding this game was.

Originally shared by Christo Meid

Dreamation 2017: The Watch

The Mystical Fox Tabak

You’ve probably ready posts by other players in the Long Con game of the Watch at Dreamation (by Tony Lower-Basch https://plus.google.com/111342308702465447948/posts/QsYaKJM6AFm), and Michael X. Heiligenstein https://plus.google.com/112385927503441977582/posts/aj19gGAzhHn. They talked about the events, the battles the camaraderie. What they didn’t talk too much about was the magic…

I played the Fox, one of the extended playbooks for the Watch that we’ll only see if we make some stretch goals (that’s a big hint people — please back it! I want those amazing playbooks). You might think the Fox is a trickster or a cunning thief. That’s not how Tabak came out. Her playbook says in no uncertain terms that she talks with spirits of the dead among other things. That immediately drew me: creepy magic!

Tabak, my character, was chosen by Laustek of the Degrassi table. As you might have guessed by reading Tony’s write-up, we were a tight group and earned the name Degrassi. We covered for each other, argued with each other, exposed our fears and vulnerabilities to each other (e.g., Open Up to Someone) but we had each other’s backs even when we did horrible things…

When team Degrassi was taking the fort, following the screaming lead of Presti the Fabulous (aka Presti the Reckless), one of the shadow-thralled got up and surprised Tabak, pinning her to the ground and vomiting putrid shadow into her…. Tabak boiled with rage, freed herself (or was she freed by a comrade?) and fought fiercely. Later, when searching the fort, it was Tabak that found the 3 hostage women in a side room. It was also Tabak who was overcome by the rage of the shadow and viciously slew them…

From that battle, three of our women had been tainted by the shadow: Laustec, our leader, Tabak, and Patho (sp?). We had not known of Patho’s corruption until she attacked Laustec and infected her also. Hiding this corruption from our commander (the women above Laustec), we pondered what to do. At this time, a new force of shadow thralls was approaching the fort, preparing to lay siege. Tabak came up with a risky idea that had the chance of solving many problems at once: she should do the Spirit Walk move and, through extreme exertion, take her comrades with her and cleanse everyone of the shadow taint…This raised her Weariness and Jaded, but Tabak needed to atone for what she had done to the hostages, so she was willing to take the risks of losing herself. Tabak instructed all to close their eyes and link hands, and she would lead them through the whispering spirits.

The Spirit Walk went as planned, with a tunnel opening through the spirit world, leading right to the center of the enemy’s forces as planned. Engaged in battle, our friends were briefly separated. Tabak threw herself to attack the commander of the Shadowthralls, only to discover (missed roll) that it was her cousin. She fell in shock and anguish (missed roll resulted in being overcome by weariness, an excellent cinematic mechanic), since her cousin had been her best friend, and more, growing up. Laustec came to the rescue and saved Tabak. In the ensuing battle, one of the women killed Tabak’s cousin, and Tabak obtained the amulet that had been around his neck — a shadow artifact that Preyma had divined could be used to create a talisman of protection against the shadow. On taking down their commander, Team Degrassi achieved a stunning victory, and routed the shadow forces. Not to forget, the Spirit Walk has also cleansed three of the comrades.

On returning to the fort, Peyma and Tabak performed a ritual (Peyma’s move), using the amulet, some of the remains of the shadow vomit (yes, Tabak kept it in her waterskin after the attack: she has more willpower than I do!) and light to create a protective amulet that would make the wearer immune to corruption by the Shadow.

Team Degrasi hid what had happened to us (shadow tainting) and the fact that we had taken a shadow artifact from the commander, since she felt that any that had been touched by the shadow should be killed. This, of course, ratcheted up the tension, but made our characters bond and trust and protect each other all the more. Oh, and blow off steam, talk heart to heart, etc. Degrassi, after all.

An aside here: in all cases where magical moves are mentioned, the mechanical effects are given in the playbooks, but the fictional details are left to the players and MC. It was Tabak that decided that the Spirit Walk was a chill pathway through spirits of our dead, who would whisper and try to lure living souls from the path. When Tabak botched her roll when confronted with the leader of the enemy, it was the MC who asked: how do you know the leader? The first person that came to mind was Tabak’s beloved cousin… This creative, collaborative flexibility led to fantastic, mesmerizing storytelling and cinematic opportunities to show that our character’s were not emotionless automatons of war, but people that had been drawn into this battle, and were trying to hold on to their humanity. It also, of course, gets everyone to buy-in to the story, since we all contributed to it and no two games would play the same.

Well, hopefully this post has given you a glimpse of the intense dramatic nature of The Watch. Please support it: not only will you bring a great game into the world, but you’ll free the Fox and other playbooks, which are currently locked as stretch goals! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/medeiros/the-watch-rpg

Props to our GMs: Anna Kreider and Aaron Friesen.

A big thanks to the players: Tony Lower-Basch, George Austin, Rebecca W, Michael X. Heiligenstein, Joe Beason, Albert D, and Doug Bonar

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/medeiros/the-watch-rpg