Michael Prescott – The Gauntlet G+ Archives

Where can I find Jason Cordova’s take-down of the DW parley move?

This was pretty cute – a play-through of Tomb of Horrors using a ‘party’ of 30 kobolds.

This was pretty cute – a play-through of Tomb of Horrors using a ‘party’ of 30 kobolds. I think this is the Paranoia-esque version that Tom McGrenery has been waiting for. 😛

https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/90bgk2/thirty_kobolds_versus_the_tomb_of_horrors_a_kill/

In the recent thread about contributors, Anna Kreider made some points that I’m taking to heart about token…

In the recent thread about contributors, Anna Kreider made some points that I’m taking to heart about token diversity and how adding non-cishetwhitedudes purely for stretch goals can translate into them doing unpaid marketing work.

I’m planning a KS and mulling over how to compensate contributors fairly. I’m really curious about this one-time payment vs. royalties side of things. So far I had been thinking of this as psychological sleight of hand–like, I THINK the problem is when contributors simply aren’t paid enough in total, and less important whether that comes from up-front or royalty payments.

So basically I’m wondering if I’m way off on that. (I mean, I can see how the see-saw between the two types of pay could be used to obfuscate an exploitative deal.)

I once got royalties – unexpectedly! – from a generous soul, and I felt like a million bucks to get surprise money (it was tiny, but yay gifts). Until then I had been steadfastly trying to get all my freelancing money up front, because I figured I had no idea how to assess what a very small press book was going to sell, and no faith in my ability to hold a publisher accountable when I had no way to even guess their sales numbers.

From the publisher’s side (my new vantage point), one-time payments for all rights means that projects with lots of contributors don’t accumulate a lot of stakeholders – I mean, assuming they’re paid more than for less permissive rights.

On the other hand, maybe this is side hustle thinking, and someone living a more precarious perma-freelance lifestyle really benefits from royalties to even out cash flow?

The collaborative dungeon The Halls Untoward was a fun project, but scanning the names list afterwards it seems it…

Originally shared by Michael Prescott

The collaborative dungeon The Halls Untoward was a fun project, but scanning the names list afterwards it seems it was mostly men involved. I’d like to see what happens with other voices at the helm. I’m looking for women, people of color, LGBTQ and/or disabled writers (or illustrators?) who dig this sort of thing. If that’s you, please jump in and request edit access. If that’s not you, you can certainly help by spreading the word to your friends who are!

I’m doing a collaborative dungeon-stocking project (as I did back in July), but this time I’m looking for writers…

I’m doing a collaborative dungeon-stocking project (as I did back in July), but this time I’m looking for writers other than cis-het, able-bodied white guys like myself. Is it appropriate to share it here?

Leaving for a cottage soon; any recommendations for:

* story games (whatever)

* two participants (ideally GMless for 2 players)

* quick to learn

* can be bought as a PDF in the next 4 hours

Much appreciated!

Still catching up on the podcasts; just wanted to say how much I enjoyed episode 45 about Cartel with Mark Diaz…

Still catching up on the podcasts; just wanted to say how much I enjoyed episode 45 about Cartel with Mark Diaz Truman. What a poignant subject. For some reason, when Mark says, “The fun that’s not really fun at all,” it really got to me. Really good.

Okay, this is super inspiring.

Okay, this is super inspiring. What is the system where you’d run with all these? Black Stars Rise? Tales from the Loop? Tremulus? Soth? (Don’t think so.) I’m sure I’m missing something.

Originally shared by Jason Cordova

I’d like to do some crowdsourcing for the miscellany in Codex – Crystal. The miscellany is called “Three dozen rumors about Crystal Lake.” Crystal Lake is a fictional, semi-rural town with a dark history and plenty of weird residents. Think: Twin Peaks, a slightly dialed-down Nightvale, or Derry from the Stephen King novel It.

What have you heard about Crystal Lake?

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). Importantly, we’re looking for rumors that are weird, scary, and/or tell us about the town’s seedy past.

Here are some examples:

“A murder occurs at the old post office every thirty four years, give or take.”

“Once per day, Ernestine Jenkins makes the long trek from her house on Rutherford Street to the downtown pharmacy, where she purchases a Cherry Coke. She does not speak a word during her walk, but if you stop her, she will whisper something to you about the town’s ancient past.”

“In 1954, the popular Heartland Bandstand TV show filmed an episode in the Crystal Lake High School gymnasium. The episode never aired because the gym caught fire, killing almost everyone inside, including host Chet Fontaine. They say a single reel of film survived the fire and is passed around among collectors of macabre memorabilia.”

Episode 11 – special snowflakes

Episode 11 – special snowflakes

The conversation spent a lot of time on the matter of tropes and “uniqueness” of characters. I think there is another useful lens, the idea of parallel play.

Emily Care Boss coined a great term for it, “dollhousing.” Someone comes to the table with an elaborate dollhouse of a back story. Am I supposed to touch it? Rearrange the furniture? Or just look?

Some kinds of gaming behaviors are clear invitations for other players to respond and build on the offer. Orcs attack, what do you do? / My character offers you a drink. / I think your plan is naive and we should spend more time convincing the baroness.

Others feel more like non-invitations: I adjust the blue velvet cloak that I inherited from my father and think wistfully of an NPC you don’t know.

I thought the parallel you drew near the end of the segment was apt: the big back story is a little like the GM’s railroad. Both are chunks of creativity that aren’t meant for others to change and affect, but I’d like you as witnesses while I enjoy it in front of you.

I heard you needed more Canadians, so I’m listening to all your podcasts in chronological order.

I heard you needed more Canadians, so I’m listening to all your podcasts in chronological order. I just listened to Episode 11 about Secrets, and it reminded me of a story I was told.

This story was told to me by the GM as an earnest, cherished example of how awesome secrets between players can be in campaigns.

In a high-level AD&D campaign, there was a hapless ranger who was constantly getting killed and being resurrected at great expense. Mostly to himself, I believe–he was deeply in debt to an order of clerics, at a time when the other PCs were building strongholds.

For some reason, this irritated another PC, an assassin. I’m not sure if it irritated the PC, or the player.

At any rate, the assassin player approached the GM and declared he wanted to assassinate the ranger.. secretly. The ranger had no more money available, so this would be his final death.

The GM and assassin player had an impromptu, one-on-one session where the assassin described his plans for finding the ranger in town once the next adventure was over, and how he would go about trying to kill him when his guard was down. The ranger was a creature of habit, so the assassin had several ideas for how to track him down.

The GM dug up the ranger’s stats, and the two characters duelled it out in a hypothetical street ambush – the assassin PC played by his player, and the GM played the ranger, with the GM throwing a few curveballs to try to understand the assassin’s backup plans. The mock fight ends with the ranger dead. Satisfied with his plan, the assassin ends his private session.

Time passes. During the group’s next session they return to town, at which time the ranger heads off to his usual haunts, exactly as the assassin predicted.

The GM suddenly declares to the ranger that he’s under attack by a masked assailant. Using the strategies the assassin described during the rehearsal fight, the GM plays the assassin as an NPC.

The ranger is dumbfounded – who is this guy? Why is he attacking me? His questions are never answered: the fight goes as expected, and the ranger is dead. As far as the player can tell, a high-powered NPC came out of nowhere and killed his veteran PC, for no reason. With no more cash to his name and too indebted to them already for the church to take pity, it’s his final death.

—

There’s lots here to react to, but I wanted to add something that I didn’t hear touched on in the episode. Just like PbtA games remind us that the game is a conversation, the sessions themselves take place in a network of relationships.

This strikes me as the hallmark of messed-up table secrets: neglecting the impact it has on the relationships.

I think some of it stems from a lack of empathy. I have a secret, it’s fucking delicious, and I’m not imagining what it’s like not to know it. I’m confusing the suspense and tension I’m feeling at the impending big reveal with the idea that the reveal will be delightful all on its own (it won’t be). I’m assuming that nobody else can sense something weird is up with the vibe (they can).