Long-form play and open table on the Gauntlet

Most events on the Gauntlet Calendar are part of a four or five session campaign, long enough to explore setting and characters, to allow for character growth and to emulate the typical story structure of introduction, complication, climax, and resolution. However it is short enough to be manageable for grown-ups trying to juggle jobs, family, and hobbies.

Some games, on the other hand, demand more commitment: While Apocalypse World is designed with a definite end of the story in mind it will most likely take more than four sessions to finish the story arc. While it is possible to play a satisfying single session of Night Witches it can be much more fulfilling to play a literal campaign from Engels Airdrome to the final duty station Buchholz—or to travel on the Orient Express from London all the way to Constantinople.

Not the Orient Express

Challenges

Apart from being difficult to plan and organize, longer campaigns also exist in tension with the open table policy of the Gauntlet: As a player you have to sign up for sessions individually and GMs can’t be sure to have the same players over the course of a campaign, a feature that prevents the balkanization of the community when countless in-groups only ever play with the same few players. On the other hand, the series of events that are supposed to form a campaign might feel disjointed if the cast of players constantly changes. Another challenge is to manage relationships between PCs or PCs and NPCs. Many games track the relationship status—e.g. Strings in Monsterhearts—or prompt players to answer relationship questions. Others have NPCs tied to a certain player, for example in Urban Shadows or Apocalypse World. When the players don't take part in the campaign, Strings, relationships, and NPCs cease to be important or disappear completely.

Discarded NPC judging you silently

Solutions

An obvious way to enforce coherence and continuity is to encourage signing up for all sessions. Almost every event on the Gauntlet Calendar will mention this. The Gauntlet GMing best practices document advises GMs to be cautious about going beyond encouraging this (e.g. by requiring that players sign up for all sessions of a series) so as not to undercut the open table policy.  The GM or facilitator can, however, reserve a spot for a regular player, or—if it is a continuing series—limit signing up for returning players at least for a certain amount of time, usually 24h.

Another less intrusive way to provide a more cohesive experience is to use information on the character keeper (NPCs, places etc) and write session reports or in-fiction documents. Lowell made this adorable session summary in-character for his World Wide Wrestling series and Puckett wrote a slightly exaggerated account of events for our campaign of Ultraviolet Grasslands. However this requires work for the person providing the information and for the new players to actually process them and in general continuity seems to be less of a concern on the Gauntlet. In a casual survey on the Gauntlet Slack most GMs declared that they weren't worried about it.

Wonders of the West

Examples of long-form play on the Gauntlet

One way to organize campaigns on the Gauntlet is as a quarterly. While GMs are normally encouraged to keep all the sessions contained in one month they can opt to either put all 12 sessions of a quarterly on the calendar at once or indicate that the first four sessions are planned to be the start of an ongoing series. Notable examples are David Walker’s Masks campaign (14 sessions) and Leandro running the entirety of the Band of Blades campaign in 15 sessions. Quarterlies can also be linked in order to play even longer campaigns: Leandro ran through all the playsets of Masks playing 41 sessions in total.

Alun R. approached long form play in a different way with his 30+ Eotenweard games: he occasionally would put a couple of sessions on the calendar that are set in the same setting with characters from one campaign leaving their influence on the world: t. Likewise Donogh used the same class room setup and relationship map for his Balhir run of Monsterhearts 2. In Donogh's 20+ 3:16 campaign NPCs had the biggest influence on continuity. Both didn't limit their sign ups although Alun would sometimes reserve a spot for a returning player. Rich runs several sessions of his Star Wars Saturdays each month but picks a different system from one month to the next. Players can bring back characters from previous series or spinoff new ones based on events in the games they have played. There is a wiki for Star Wars Saturdays that lists the PCs, links to the character keeper and the YouTube vids of the sessions. In December several Gauntleteers joined Rich in running Star Wars games in a big community event.

Lastly, long form play can be organized as living world campaigns where several GMs run games in the same fictional world with events in one game potentially having effects on another game. Notable examples are the now defunct Gaunt Marches (a Dungeon World setting with four GMs), and the ongoing Gauntlet Comics, a multiple GM-effort that is set in the same city, with neighborhoods created by players and GMs. An introduction to Gauntlet Comics can be found here: https://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/blog/gauntlet-comics-101

A Super Hero

Conclusions

I am currently running an ongoing campaign of Ultraviolet Grasslands, an epic pointcrawl over a vast map, with more than 30 sessions played and no immediate end in sight. Initially I was worried that the series wouldn't be suitable for  the Gauntlet. Would there even be interest in long-form play? How would it work with a constantly changing cast of characters?

To mitigate that I reserved a spot for one returning player (Puckett, who only missed two of the sessions); set up this blog ); created a dedicated channel on the Slack; and designed a sprawling character keeper that tracks trade goods, market prices, locations, NPCs etc. to create a sense of coherence. But looking back I think I shouldn't have been worried at all.

Not only is there a demand for longer campaigns, there is also supply: In October there were 20 events on the calendar that were part of a campaign with 7 or more sessions, in November there were 26.

Not only is it possible to run longer campaigns with an open table policy, but Gauntlet GMs have the will to make new players coming into an ongoing campaign feel welcome and the players coming into a campaign have the ability to make the sessions stand on their own and feel meaningful.

Proofreading by: Alun R and Alexi Sarge

Vicar's Beach II

They enter the narrow tunnel behind the security door, Sarqo’s flashlight revealing countless footprints in the inch deep dust. Saffron checks an air vent which seems to function has an exhaust for a heat source from down below. The corridor opens into a small room with 6 alcoves, one of them illuminated by blue radiation that reveals a motionless vome.

Vicar's Ear

Azure contemplates sending Cataract to interface with the vome but the bone and wire salamander is hesitant indicating that she is pregnant, so Sarqo sends Flux instead. Azure picks up a suspicious looking tiny creature looking like a tiny flash drive with feebly moving legs. Flux returns and spits out a paper tape that reads: *connection established * system programmable * danger of code corruption *. Unsure about the ramifications they leave the vome behind. 

Vome Slacking 

They hear the rhythmic hammering on metal against stone and come upon an excavation site with worker vomes - one of them wearing the overall of a Red Bear villager - breaking the stone with heavy tools. A conveyor belt transporting gravel disappears into a tunnel. Saffron’s thermal vision reveals a blinding heat source in the corner of the room that comes from a dozen corroded metal crates. Sarqo sends Flux down the tunnel and when he reports no apparent danger they surf the conveyor belt. Rattled and poked by stones they emerge on the other side in a large room where the conveyor belt ends in the maw of a giant biomechanical brick making machine with numerous drone vomes carrying the bricks down another tunnel. Sarqo finds green glass shards and a dark stain on the ground under a passageway and when he investigates a glassy slime drops from the ceiling cutting and ensnaring him. Applying snake oil he manages to liquify the slime. The discover a manhole cover hiding a maintenance tunnel leading to a switch board and further down to an airlock that ends under the lake. 

The Switchboard

The switches have different labels: Elevator, Observatory, Rector Door etc. and they flip them all on. Climbing back up they move through another passage way to an entrance room with stairs leading outside, a postmodern fountain and an open door to the observatory. Sarqo ignores the pyramid of stacked green glowing screens where the Crab vomes left seashells and other found objects in reverence and looks through the telescope that is pointed at a strange planet. They return to the entrance room and press the silver button when a friendly android voice announces: “I am Belle, how can I be of service?”

Mapper's Impression of Vicar's Ear

Actual Play: https://youtu.be/odF_RFUXyiY

Vicar's Beach

Saffron connects with the Porcelain Walker through wires growing out of their fingers. While their cybernetic prairie dog body slumps to the side they take direct control of the machine. Naida keeping watch on top of the hill fires a warning shot at the approaching Floating Barge and kills the pony after the caravan guards ignore her. Aida addresses the sharpshooter and insists that she and the other Greenlanders must be allowed to travel to the Porcelain Citadel to work for the princes but Saffron intimidates Formatore through the speakers of the walker until he tears up the contract. They promise the Greenlanders to escort them to the Spectrum Palace where they might find work that doesn’t include selling their body to the abmortal princes. Sarqo takes the Greenlanders back to the Jade Baobab while the others ride the walker back to Vicar’s Beach.

The walker gets trapped in the shallow waters south of the Three Sticks and when Azure dives to free the leg she spots hundreds of geometrically arranged artificial lights glowing on the lakebed.

They arrive at Vicar’s Beach at night and while the others sleep Naida spots half a dozen White Crab Vomes emerging from the waves carrying objects to the inverted dome lying in the middle of multi-colored dunes.

The next morning they find a staircase under the dome leading down but decide to take the side entrance, a metal door embedded into a nearby dune. Azure rips out the retina scanner and sends Cataract to bypass the locked door that opens with a pleasant chime.

Actual Play: https://youtu.be/nIwFTf5C05E

Three Sticks Lake III: Return to the Jade Baobab

Characters in Season 10: 

Naida: A  Deft Yellowlander Climate Refugee and Scope (member of the Legion of the Far Sight). The Legion is a semi-secret society that tries to fight crime on the roads of the Grasslands and around the Circular Sea. Bone grenade aficionada. She is accompanied by Ajax, a grumpy exiled Cat Lord with a serpent tail and Otis, the animatronic bear. 

Azure Dee: A Deft Blue God Cultist on her journey to the Black City where she is supposed to bring the apocalypse by sacrificing Vile organs. The Vile are a species of (demonic?) rulers from the Long Long Ago. She is accompanied by Cataract, a Wire-and-bone biomechanical salamander. She has undergone mutation after being exposed to a vome infection that made her muscles grow uncontrollably. The mutation has slowed down after a week of therapy sessions in the solarium of the Pylon Kraal.

Saffron, a Wise Black Gold Industrialist Machine Human whose personality was uploaded to a cybernetic prairie dog after being killed by Johnny-7's auto immune system. Outfitted with positronic double brain, extendable limbs and laser eyes. Accompanied by a furry animate kite. Seeking a prosthetic body for mother.

Sarqo, a Deft Purplefolk Doghead Anarchist, looking for a clue to abmortality in order to break it. After disappearing in the Maze of Light for what felt like a lifetime he is able to cast Full Spectrum Radiation Blast. Honorary member of the Clan of Sanitation in Red Bear Village.  

While Sarqo, Saffron and Azure spend the night in the synthetic baskets, Naida awakes in the Redlander Autowagon to the smell of coffee from the nearby Floating Barge. Chatting with a caravan guard she realizes that they are professionals and although they don't like Formatore very much, they probably won't betray him even if offered substantial bribes. 

Azure visits He-of-the-Second-Hand in the town hall where the current interims leader of the Jade Baobab discusses matters with his advisers from the different clans. But when she inquires about Formatore's reputation has a body dealer for the princes she senses that He-of-the-Second-Hand knows more than he admits.

Saffron meets with Formatore in the Exibitorium, a scrimshaw paneled museum of Biomancy, and channels their Cogflower background to get him to talk shop. Formatore freely admits that he is making deals with He-of-the-Second-Hand and that his employer is Bone Kaolin 2-Body from the Porcelain Citadel. In the past trading Biomancy tech with the princes had been frowned upon among the villagers. Formatore also ponders to offer "service positions" for the Greenlander refugees who the heroes had just rescued from the Vome Nest. 

Sarqo mingles with the Greenlanders but his vague warnings about slavers who sold naive travelers into indentured servitude is met with incredulity. Disillusioned he reunites with the others at the autowagon where they discuss the situation. 

When they see the floating barge being loaded and ready to leave with Formatore and half a dozen Greenlanders they quickly hatch a plan: First they will take out the Porcelain Princes, then they will address the problems at the village. On their way to the hidden camp Azure uproots a tree to block the road. Naida and Ostins take position on the hill above the camp while the others carefully approach the walker. Azure camouflages herself with shrubbery and manages to climb onto the walker unseen, while Naida sends Ajax to support her. To Ajax horror Azure quickly opens the hatch and throws him onto one of the princes while the other shoots Azure in the shoulder. Ajax stuns his victim while Naida snipes the other through the windshield. Covered in gore from the headshot Azure makes short work of the stunned princes.

Actual Play: https://youtu.be/-EoR32FAjl8