Tag: Jason Cordova

Artists Needed for Codex – Neon!

I have a couple of pieces in the upcoming Codex – Neon for which I need to commission some art. Here are the details…

Cyberpunk piece

-Two illustrations, one half-page and one quarter-page.

-Black and white, with touches of neon pink

-Deadline 06.20.17

OSR Film Noir-inspired piece

-Two illustrations, one half-page and one-quarter page

-Black and white, with touches of neon green

-Deadline 06.20.17

If you or someone you know would be a good fit for one of these, please link me in the comments or send me an email at gauntletpodcast@gmail.com.

Thanks!

I’d like to do some crowdsourcing for the Miscellany in Codex – Time. The piece is called “Three Dozen In Media Res Starters.” Submissions should be a single sentence or 2-3 very short sentences. By submitting here, you’re agreeing to let us use it (you’ll get a credit on the issue).

In media res is Latin for “into the middle of things.” It is normally used to describe when a narrative begins in the middle of the action. In a roleplaying game context, it usually means we first encounter the player characters in the middle of a fight.

We’re looking for short, evocative scene prompts to get the action going. Importantly, we’d like to see tense, dramatic situations that aren’t necessarily related to violence. If they do have a connection to violence, we’d like for there to at least be something particularly interesting or unique about the scene.

Here are some examples:

“The characters are assembled around the bed of their dying mentor, who has just whispered a terrible secret to one of them.”

“The survivors are running through pitch-black woods, the howling of beasts somewhere behind them.”

“The investigators are sitting around a table draped with a red velvet cloth, holding hands with the person to their left and right. Madame Voltier, writhing in her seat, her body possessed by some terrible demon, has just uttered a warning to them.”

EDIT: Thanks to Christo Meid for this idea.

Codex Spotlight – Pizza Time!

Pizza Time! is a scenario for Lovecraftesque featured in Codex – Dark. It’s about a young man who helps his father clean a Chuck E. Cheese’s-style restaurant called Calamity Raccoon’s Good-Time Pizza Farm after hours. The scenario is one part Lovecraftian horror and one part Five Nights at Freddy’s, with a big dash of urban legend horror movies such as The Candyman mixed in.

If you have followed me for awhile, you know that I was once working on a hack of Dog Eat Dog called Chuck Eat Cheese, which dealt with some similar themes. I could never get that game into a shape I was happy with, but the setting of a supernatural pizza arcade just wouldn’t get out of my brain. When Josh and Becky announced their scenario-writing contest for Lovecraftesque, I immediately thought “I can totally do Chuck Eat Cheese in Lovecrafteque!” and then got to work. As it turns out, I wasn’t able to complete it in time for that contest, but fortunately, I know a guy who publishes an RPG zine.

What I want people to know about this scenario is there is so much of me baked into it. The urban legends that are sprinkled throughout the piece are taken directly from my days of working at a Chuck E. Cheese’s, the NPCs are inspired by people I worked with, and some of the more nasty, non-supernatural things that happen at Calamity Raccoon’s (such as employees having sex in the character dressing room) are things that were rumored to have taken place where I worked. I am also a huge fan of genre pieces I call “horror being done to children” and this scenario reflects that in a huge way.

One last note: the art for the piece (see below) was done by Ron Thomas and as part of the layout, Oli managed to recreate the old-timey Chuck E. Cheese’s logo for the title.

Codex – Dark is available for free on our website.

http://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/codex.html

You can get all the Codex back issues in our $4+ Patreon feed until May 31st!

https://patreon.com/gauntlet