Gauntlet Con 2018 was held online this past weekend and it was hard for me to contain my excitement to once again take part in this burgeoning online convention. The inaugural Gauntlet Con was held last year and I was amazed that I was able to participate in six sessions during that convention. Six games is usually about two months worth of tabletop gaming for me. But this year, I did more. This year, I beat that number…no I smashed that number. I played in twelve games over the span of four days. Pardon any foul language, but that is a shitload of games.
Here are some recaps to games I played over the weekend:
The first game I was able join was a play test of Storm Riders! This game will be appearing in a future issue of Codex and is a rules-lite Powered by the Apocalypse game about cartoons and their effect on their audience. The players play both a cartoon character and a member of their audience who is influenced by their character. I played a sidekick character, which is a role of comic relief as well as serving as support for the cartoon’s main characters. This character’s goal was to inspire the viewer to buy a puppy for their son. While this game seems simple at first glance, it really touches on the emotions of the audience and how the cartoon can affect their lives. A wonderful game, keep an eye out for this one.
My second game was a party game of For The Queen. This is another unreleased game written by Alex Roberts. We played a retinue of subjects accompanying our Queen on a journey. The game is played by each player turning over a card and answering each of the questions posed. Eventually the Queen will come under attack and all the players must decide where their loyalties lie. It was a lot of fun playing this game and an interesting take on emergent story-telling.
The final game on Thursday was a session on Inspectres. I had heard of Inspectres before but this was my first chance to play. The concept of the game is the characters are members of a supernatural investigation team dealing with various happenings in their town. I love the setup of the game which determines the quality of the assets the characters may use. Our characters were plagued with terrible equipment and that terrible equipment really added a lot of flavor to the story. Yet another game I want to play again in the future.
Friday featured the first game I would run during the convention and (surprise-surprise) it was Swords Without Master. It was yet another amazing session in which the rogues ventured to the Temple of the Sky. All of the players created wonderful rogues that brought a lot of flavor to the storytelling. There was a scorned lover, a fire-mage looking for the gift of thunder, a bladesman trying to exit the shadow of a legendary father, and an undead child trying find a place in this world.
Damn the Man, Save the Music is a game I remember from its Kickstarter but I ultimately did not back. This game is basically “Empire Records the Game”, complete with similar character archetypes and plot. We played workers in a failing 90’s era music store trying (or not trying) to save the store from crumbling under the pressure of succeeding in an era growing corporate influence. This session spiraled out of control and ended up with a riot spurred by metal heads and fundamentalist religious followers. The tone was fun and bumbling while it did have a tragic character in the form of a burnt-out glam rocker.
I closed out Friday with a session of Alas for the Awful Sea using the The Wind and The Waves scenario. The only time I had played Alas was at last year’s Gauntlet Con and it was a memorable session so I was super excited to be able to play again. One of the creators of the game, Vee, ran a wonderful session and it was heartbreaking tale of false love and familial rivalry. I left this game feeling a wide range of emotions, in a good way!
Saturday started with game of Apocalypse World taking place within a Star Wars setting. The GM, Rich, did a wonderful job adapting the game into the extended universe of Star Wars. We had a Jawa brainer, a Falleen battlebabe, a human Hocus, and a Bothan driver. We had the privilege of being a group of looters entering Jabba’s palace in the aftermath of the rebels destroying Jabba and the majority of his retinue on the sail barge. This game really scratched the “Star Wars nerd in me” itch and I am so pleased I was able to play.
My second game on Saturday was a session of Funnel World. Funnel World is a game in which uses Dungeon World rules to facilitate a funnel, a group of level 0 villagers facing off with dangers they more than likely they won’t survive. The setting was creepy and terrifying as it dealt with the characters searching the evil woods in hopes of finding their lost children. Ultimately, the characters failed at the task of finding the children. I recommend running Funnel World if you want to demonstrate the deadly nature of adventuring in your game world.
My final game on Saturday was another session of Damn the Man, Save the Music. Tonally, this game was a massive shift compared the game I played on Friday. The employees were much more successful in their tasks and this resulted in a rousing event for the record store as we saved it with a concert on the roof (sound familiar?). One of the characters became a nationally recognized rock star as the other two formed an unlikely and budding romance. The game was very heartwarming and hopeful compared to the riotous hijinks of the first game.
Bonus! Just before I logged off Saturday evening, I had the chance to play a session of The World Wide Tuk Tuk Tournament. This is a microgame in which the players are racing through the streets of a city in tuk tuks. The players submit obstacles that everyone must overcome in order to finish the race. A great idea of this game is that players use Google’s Street View for inspiration of their obstacles depending on the city in which the race takes place. This game is quick, usually around 45 minutes, and is full of over-the-top action and character flavor. Wonderful game!
On Sunday I was able to play The Quiet Year. This is a game I have been wanting to play for years but never had the chance until Gauntlet Con. I love the premise of this game and the emergent storytelling and scaffolding that comes along with random prompts for each of the players. No game of the Quiet Year would be the same because of the mix of prompts and (possibly?) players would lead to a new experience every time it is brought to the table.
To cap off the weekend, I managed to sneak into a session of World Wide Wrestling. I was supposed to run a session of Dialect but the game folded so I was able to play in this last session. And what a session it was. I had played WWW on a few occasions before and they always are a fun time. All the players really brought their “A” game and showed off their wrestler’s over-the-top antics and ring entrances. It was chaotic, it was surprising, and it was full of laughs. I wish the video had captured the antics going on in the hangouts chat because I believe table chatter is a major highlight of WWW as the players joke about each others’ wrestlers. I could not have asked for a better ending to my con.
Gauntlet Con 2018 was another rousing success this year. There were some issues with games getting filled and players missing sessions but I was still able to participate in a glut of games. The Gauntlet is an amazing community and home to some of the best tabletop storytellers and role players on the planet. I was able to play with some of my favorite role-players and GM’s as well as meet a ton of new players that share the same gaming values and passion for storytelling as I do. Jason Cordova has built a thriving community that cultivates a play culture that is open, accepting, safe and above all else, promotes the enjoyment of tabletop games for all players and GM’s.
P.S. Only 6 days left to back the Codex Volume 1 Kickstarter. You will not be disappointed.
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