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ADAPTING ICONS
ADAPTING ICONS
I have a new post up over at Age of Ravens. I look at the icon mechanics from 13th Age, why I like them, and how they could be ported over to other games. We created our own set of icons with our Microscope world building and I have a follow up post coming which showcases what we came up with.
I posted this in our Slack channel, so I thought’d be worth also posting here.
I posted this in our Slack channel, so I thought’d be worth also posting here. It’s some thoughts about sign up and play with The Gauntlet.
Responsibilities & Best Practices for Sign Up, Attendance, and Cancellations
We’ve had a bunch of new players join us in the last several months and we’re set to have visitors with us for Gauntlet Con. And we’ve had a long summer and now we’re heading into a holiday season. We’ve had a couple of issues with cancellations and both players and GMs have reached out to us to discuss that. So I want to talk about that process.
PLAYER RESPONSIBILITIES AND BEST PRACTICES
Signing up’s a commitment to play, a minor one, but still one to consider. If you take a seat, that means someone else doesn’t get that seat. Be fair to other Gauntlet Members in your attendance.
When you sign up for a game– waitlist or not– you should put it in your calendar. Yes, we don’t have that automated yet, but it’s an important minimal step you need to take. I don’t think that’s an unreasonable expectation.
There’s nothing in the system to prevent you from waitlisting to multiple sessions in the same slot. That’s not something we want to police. But if you do get into one of those events, please drop yourself from the others.
Life’s hard. Scheduling’s hard. That’s a given and we understand that work, school, family, self-care can force someone to cancel. We don’t ask or judge someone’s reasons for doing that. But the flip side is expecting you to make an effort to drop with the most notice for the GM. If you’re uncertain about making it, err on the side of dropping if people are waiting on the waitlist. Or talk to the GM about it. That’s probably the best solution.
If you drop the day of or even a few days before, contact your GM to tell them. Give them a heads up, especially if you’ve already played a session or if there’s a waitlist. This gives them the opportunity to go out and recruit people to fill in or plan around your absence.
You’re under no obligation to explain a drop, but if you swap to another session and don’t say anything, there’s every chance your GM or fellow player will spot that. Try not to burn bridges.
All our games are open table. If you didn’t enjoy a session, you don’t have to return for the other sessions. But do inform the GM of your absence and do drop yourself from the list.
Be understanding of other players who have to drop. Help the GM integrate players from the Waitlist to the session.
In short try to look ahead and try to handle attendance with respect for the GM and fellow players.
GM RESPONSIBILITIES AND BEST PRACTICES
Show up and be ready. If something happens and you can’t make it, see if you can get someone to fill in. If that’s not possible, reach out to all of your players and tell them. Do this as early as possible to give them time to find another game. If the game’s already had a session or two, consider checking if one of the players takes over.
Expect an open table. Don’t plan on your line up to be the same from session to session. Be ready to roll with that. If you have a minimum number and don’t have that many, prepare and offer a back-up entertainment.
If someone drops, be understanding about that. Don’t judge. Sometimes it will be at the last minute and that sucks. But the overall attendance rate is pretty great in the Gauntlet, so don’t let a few bad incidents sour you.
That being said, if you have a player who repeatedly drops at the last minute or without notice, give me a heads up. Let me check in with them to see how we can make the process better for them.
We’ll refine this and add it to our FAQ and our general policies document. I hope that helps. To get a better picture, in November I’m going offer GMs an informal, voluntary survey about attendance at sessions. (edited)
Age of Ravens: Timelining Trindie
Age of Ravens: Timelining Trindie
Over at The Gauntlet Blog this week I look at the prep process for my upcoming f2f 13th Age campaign.
We start with a Microscope timeline for our new setting and then I spin off into the creation of physical props (maps, stickers, cards) for it. I go a little overboard. Below you can see the sectional map I created based on a larger map we chose. I used Cecil Howe’s amazing HexKit to do that and a city map.
We had a fun thing in last night’s f2f Blades in the Dark session.
We had a fun thing in last night’s f2f Blades in the Dark session. It’s set in Duskvol and we’ve had at least a couple dozen sessions, probably more at this point. They’re Hawkers, a group of circus performers gathering stray members into this new crew.
Anyway, I also ran a dozen sessions of Blades set in Iruvia for the Gauntlet. From time to time I’d drop details from one over to the other. The Iruvia game ended with a major, major change in the world. Essentially one of the four Demon Pillars of U’dusasha shattered and, more importantly, a beam of light appeared from the sky. It has remained and slowly grown larger.
That’s important because in Blades in the Dark, there is no sun. It got broken. That whole thing caused chaos and we ended the Iruvia game with most of the PCs hijacking a flying vessel and fleeing to the north, in particular Duskvol.
Anyway last night we took up with the F2f game and I introduced hints of the changes—and the first suggestion of the strange light across the lands to the far south. I had lots of portents, including suggestions that the Leviathans are being drawn there. The group dug down and spent resources on investigation and on finding places for refugees, especially those from Iruvia (since three f2f PCs come from there).
Anyway, I connected the two with the Iruvian crew arriving and one of the f2f PCs spending effort to create an asset and set them up as a temporary cohort for the crew. They plan on working to make them permanent members—they like the Vizier, Mirage, Raksasha, and others (especially the friendly ghoul-loving dog, Lucky). Anyway it was a nice bit and a fun coda to the Iruvian game. Unfortunately Fraser Simons PC trauma’d out in the last session and Darren Brockes character stayed on in U’duasha to unionize the demons.
I have more impressions about Blades and Iruvia and Johnstone Metzger’s excellent playbooks that I’ll write up in a post soon.
History of Universal RPGs (Part Nine: 2016-2017)
History of Universal RPGs (Part Nine: 2016-2017)
After delays, false starts, and convention-borne illnesses, here is the final part of my Universal RPG history series. This one swings wildly between greatness and pain, innovation and rebuilt wheels. Make of that what you will.
I hope you’ve dug this series. After this I’ll be putting the Patreon on hold. I plan to move to a new venue in the near future and continue with these there. When I have the full details, I will post them. Please reshare and comment on the list– especially if you have impressions of any of these recent games.
Laws of the Green Lady
Laws of the Green Lady
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.
Last week I ran Hearts of Wulin four times for Games on Demand Origins.
Last week I ran Hearts of Wulin four times for Games on Demand Origins. It was a good show I actually introduced myself to people this time and got to talk to Sarah Richardson, Morgan Ellis, Mike Olson, and James Mendez Hodes among others. As for Hearts of Wulin I came away from each session happy and spotted new ways players could engage the moves and options. My post talks about what I did, what I saw, and a new, sixth playbook, The Unorthodox.
Hearts of Wulin & PdlP: Origins
Hearts of Wulin & PdlP: Origins
A quick post about the games I’m taking to Origins Games on Demand. If you’re going to the con, come by and check out GoD. I’m hoping to meet up with folks at the con and maybe get some pick-up sessions in
Stories of U’duasha: Iruvian Hooks for Blades in the Dark
Stories of U’duasha: Iruvian Hooks for Blades in the Dark
Tonight’s my first online session of Blades in the Dark. We’re playing in Iruvia, a setting detailed in the BitD Special Edition. I’ve created a set of player-facing hooks for the city. They’re (hopefully) cool stories the players can pick from and get tangled up with if they want.
History of Universal RPGs (Part Eight: 2014-2015)
History of Universal RPGs (Part Eight: 2014-2015)
Woot! Just in time for Easter, we have a new list. It is a doozy. I don’t know how many universal rpgs you thought there were: there are more. Some on this list use classic approaches, but many bring to the table new mechanics and dice tricks. This installment includes Cypher System, a game I’ve been trying out this month via The Gauntlet Hangouts. This is part of my Patreon; if you dig it, considering supporting or resharing the project.