Ghost Drums - a game about pain and ignorance

Ghost Drums is a a short story game by Daniel Sojuel and me with art by Ismael Sosof. You can find it in the latest Gauntlet Codex issue, Dark 2. To buy a Codex issue you need to join the Patreon for the respective month (December) on the $4 pledge level. It will later next year be available on DriveThruRPG, too. 

With Codex Dark 2 you'll get the game twice: once in English and once in Spanish. 

The game is based on an old Tz'utujil Mayan legend. The legend is also included in Tz'utujil. 

Ghosts who drown in lake Atitlan (Guatemala) return to the town of Santiago Atitlan (where I currently live) to haunt the living. But they are forced to carry drums, so the living can escape them. One day a visitor from the North comes and steals the drums as they make nice souvenirs. 

Designing and playing live action online games – laogs

This year I started a new project on the Gauntlet Hangouts calendar under the name: live action online games. It’s my attempt to bring some of my favourite moments I had in Nordic larps and American freeform into an online world. In a laog, you stay for the actual play time 100% in-character, often the nature of the video call is part of the game. There can be mechanics or meta-techniques but we don’t describe what our characters are doing, but what we do, we do.

Atitlan Riders, a Central American Indigenous Tuk Fast & Tuk Furious Social Drama RPG

Atitlan Riders is my Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) roleplaying game (RGP) about coming-of-age in a modern Mayan town in Central America - and about secretly being fast and furious tuk tuk racing drivers.

The time has come to present the PbtA story game I’m currently developing to the public. In this article I would like to give you an idea of what the game is about, share with you some design elements, where I currently stand in terms of development and what I have in mind for the future of the game.

My RPG year 2017 - Statistics and looking back

Al my characters - part 3 in 2017

It’s time for another look at my RPG session statistics. Something I’m doing now for three years. As my fellow RPG statistican Timberwere was already saying: the more material from past years you have to compare the current year to, the more interesting observations you can make. So I will compare and analyse between the years. But beside all statistics this article is also a lot about all the great things which happened to my gaming in 2017 and I write to celebrate that.

Indie und Story Games in der Welt des Schwarzen Auges

Im Rahmen der Gauntlet Community biete ich ab Januar regelmäßig mehr oder weniger bekannte Indie-Spiele in der Welt des Schwarzen Auges, vor allem in Aventurien, an. Die Spiele finden auf Deutsch statt.

Den Anfang macht „Brillante Zwerge – Unbill in der Binge* - ein Fiasko Playset, das ich vor einer Weile geschrieben habe und das im Erzählspiel-Zine veröffentlicht wurde.

Solo RPG: Last Ride / First Ride

Last Ride / First Ride (LRFR)  is a solo RPG by Jason Morningstar. I played it a month ago, had a lot of fun and would like to share some thoughts I had around it. Below you can find my Actual Play report. 

Planning a healthy RPG weekend

 One of roleplaying groups I run play over extended weekends with a total play time of more than 30 hours. For this group I do a detailed planning and post-play analysis in an Excel workbook which I have made ready for download and use for others here. The tool also allows to plan chapters and single scenes beforehand and a bit of analysis on how you spend your gaming time.

In the following, I will outline why I came up with such a tool and for what purposes it can be useful. It has a lot to do with how keeping a sustainable enjoyable atmosphere around for a long time, considering health, group dynamics and dramaturgy. I will then describe the tool in a little more detail. I close with some observations I have made while using the tool.

Download time scheduling and campaign planning tool here

Download the German version of the tool