Will P – The Gauntlet G+ Archives

Anyone looking to participate in Game Chef this year should read Stentor’s post below.

Originally shared by Stentor Danielson

Since I’ve seen some similar concerns about the ingredients and how to use them come up in a few posts here, I wanted to give a bit of clarification.

First, the ingredients are meant to inspire, not to limit. Creatively reinterpreting the ingredients is encouraged.

Second, remember that (as always) you only have to use two ingredients. Doing something cool with two ingredients will likely work out better than trying to wedge in all four just for the sake of having them.

Third, it is a longstanding Game Chef tradition not to have explicit guidelines for what counts as valid or proper use of theme, ingredients, etc, in order to encourage openness and creativity. A good use of an ingredient is whatever you can persuade your peer reviewers is a good use of the ingredient. I’d like to have a community-wide discussion of how the competition is run after this year’s winners are announced. But since I took over as Global Coordinator so late in the process, I decided it would be better to have a GC 2018 under the old rules and practices than to skip the year.

I love this community.

As someone who slowly transitioned from podcast listener, to G+ poster, and now the $6 a month Patreon support level just to get on the Gauntlet Slack, I don’t regret a penny.

If it is at all within your budget, I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Good people, good friends, good discussions, and good support

I’m back with yet another crowd sourcing request. This should be a fun one:

Serious or zany or off the wall Non-Player-Wrestlers for a World Wide Wrestling campaign I’m working up. Suggestions can be as long or as short as you want. For example:

Burke “The Sheriff” Hoffa – Black Duster, Black Cowboy Hat – Voice: Val Kilmer from Tombstone

Sunshine the Clown – Creepy Clown – Voice: Bad Mark Hamill Joker Impression

Yet another of my crowdsourcing requests!

Yet another of my crowdsourcing requests! This time inspired by Codex’s “36 awesome things” series! The background here is that I’ve been running World of Dungeons for 45 minutes every morning and I feel like I’m in a creative rut with 7-9 results.

I’m looking for suggestions for generic worse outcomes, hard bargains, and ugly choices. Ideal suggestions would be written to be broadly applicable, like GM moves. Bonus points if they make sense both in and out of combat.

Some (poor) examples:

You succeed but/if…

-Something you value is lost or given away.

-It is more or less effective than you want (GM choice).

-The GM can make a soft move.

Adventures in Six Year Old GMing

Today my son killed my longtime character, The Greatest Fighter, in a pretty metal fashion and I thought I would share through greentext. (Probably not a coincidence that this happened immediately after a game in which I almost killed RR. It was their first near-death and first last breath roll).

>One six-year old = GM (GM)

>Other six-year old = Rain, the Ranger (RR)

>Me = The Greatest Fighter, the Fighter (GF)

>King announces army of Dune-sized worms approaching

>GF and RR rush out to meet army

>GF is swallowed whole, fails to cut himself out

>RR somehow fries the worm turning its bones to metal

>GF can’t get out through the metal bones

>GM: “Roll to get pooped out of the worm!”

>GF: 12

>GM: “Full success! You are pooped out of the worm.”

>GF: (swells with fatherly pride)

>RR is swatted by a worm and is launched up in the air

>GF desperately tries to figure out a way to slow the fall

>GM clarifies that RR is being knocked up into outer space

>RR ties rope to arrow and shoots it at GF

>GF tries to catch rope to stop RR from flying to outer space

>GF: 2

>RR shoots GF in leg, dragging GF out into space too

>GF and RR attempt to figure out way to survive in space

>GM: “You are freezing, what do you do?”

>GF: “I have a space suit in my pocket?”

>GM: “Roll.”

>GF: 4

>GM: “RR steals your spacesuit. The worm army is flying up into space to kill you.”

>RR shoots a worm, killing it.

>GF attempts to cut his way into space worm for warmth

>GF: 5

>GM: “The space worm spits lava at you.”

>GF: “I try to dodge the lava, but stay close enough to it that it warms me up.”

>GF: 3

>GM: “The lava hits you. You die.”

>GF: “No, I get to roll Last Breath.”

>GF: 6

>GM: “You die.”

>GF: “… Can I play as RR’s pet baby blue dragon?”

>RR+GM: “Yes!”

This seems like it could be fairly useful.

Originally shared by Dawit Thepchatree

Hey guys, I made another 2-page PDF for the GM. It expands upon key GM moves:

• Give an Opportunity that Fits a Class’ Abilities

• Use a Monster Move

• Use a Danger Move

Give an Opportunity that Fits a Class’ Abilities

Instead of having to go through or memorize all moves from the player’s class playbooks, I’ve compiled most situational moves into a one Opportunity sheet. I didn’t actually list the moves themselves, but instead, the obstacles or challenges that must be overcome by certain class moves. Optional moves and races are labeled in parentheses.

Monster Moves

I went through the entirety of Dungeon World’s monster section and grouped many of the monster moves into similar functions. I think this is far better as it allows you to be more creative with what a monster can do rather than be limited to three prompts. Be careful about straying too far from the game fiction though.

Danger Moves

There’s also a short explanation on how dangers work, their types, and the moves that each type can make.

I hope this enhances your Dungeon World experience. 🙂

Other PDFs I Made

The GM: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_JdH0Si6SYcRnhiUk05SEhicE0

Combat & Equipment: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_JdH0Si6SYcUDdSeGMxNzQ5Q00

The Hireling: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_JdH0Si6SYcdERnSVZqR0VEY0E

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_JdH0Si6SYcMTM5ckx0QjFMeVk

We have quite a few new members since the last time I plugged The Gauntlet Index, so I thought I’d share it once…

We have quite a few new members since the last time I plugged The Gauntlet Index, so I thought I’d share it once again. This is a list of interesting discussions going back to the beginning of our G+ Community. Anyone should feel free to add any new or interesting Google+ discussions to the list!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JKw4eIgW6x36K4hTKk5o26owRcn7SHhWjx6tqxH_POM/edit?usp=sharing

When you read a new PbtA game, what makes you read a move (basic, player, otherwise) and think “Yes!”?

EDIT: On the flip side, what makes you think “Meh…”?

Anyone have recommendations for APs that demonstrate how to run a good dungeon crawl?

I’d like to share two 5yo kid gaming actual reports from this morning’s commute that made me smile:

World of Dreams:

Dreamer described the initial scene as an empty white space as far as the eye can see. His Dreamer just had an enormous paintbrush. Dreamer didn’t give me much to work with here, so instead of a series of follow up questions, I just asked “What do you do?” Dreamer proceeded to paint the scene, starting with the sky, the sun, then the grass and the flowers. Finally he described a large Gecko on a tree trunk. Dreamer invited the Gecko to take a tour of the world Dreamer had painted, and they began travelling. At this point, Dreamer repeatedly pointed out new details Dreamer had painted, and they eventually came to a large castle. They climbed to the roof of the castle, and in the distance Dreamer saw a large red streak of light approaching at high speed. Dreamer decided to run, and used a Lucid Token to transform into a bird.

During the pursuit Dreamer realized that the red streak was actually a large red bird that wanted to speak with him. Very suspicious, Dreamer slowed down to allow conversation. The red bird challenged Dreamer to a race. The race involved a series of acrobatic tricks, and Dreamer ultimately won.

We were getting close to school at this point, so I moved to the final phase: “You sense the Wim is near, what does it look like?” Dreamer explained that the Wim was hiding as the castle. “How will you stop the Wim?” Just needed to pull some of the stones out of the base of the castle wall. “Great, but first you will have to get past the castle’s catapults.”

After some great rolls, Dreamer dodged a slew of catapult stones and landed near the castle wall. He used a Lucid Token to transform into a giant ogre and pulled out some stones, overcoming the Whim.

Generic DW Variant

My other son GM’d this session, and I played as my fighter, “The Greatest Fighter.”

GM set the scene. I had just visited a new village and learned that a woman had been taken by some goblins. We started in a forest as I was following the goblin tracks. Out of nowhere a tiger appeared, and I raised my shield and yelled “Get out of here!” The tiger retreated to get reinforcements, and I sprinted down the path.

At the end of the path I came upon a lone unsuspecting goblin. I rushed to shield bash the goblin, but the goblin turned at the last second and yelled “Stop, I’m a friend!”

This goblin, Ryu, said he would help me free the woman. Ryu led me to a cave, where two large goblins were standing guard. Ryu asked me to pretend to be a prisoner, and he talked our way past the guards. We came to a large room where seventy goblins were playing Werewolf (the party game). In the distance I heard a woman shouting for help and I asked Ryu to take me to her cell. We freed the woman and she led us out by the goblins (who were too distracted to notice us).

Ryu and I then returned to town as heroes, without any violence at all.