Monday, October 23, 2017

Gauntlet Roadshows: Gaming Thunder

LIVE FROM CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY...
GauntletCon ran this weekend, with nary a hitch (except a hilarious one I’ll mention below). I ran four sessions of World Wide Wrestling for it, spinning off from our “Gauntlet League Wrestling” promotions. We framed it as a series of road events, minor house shows. Dictatorial General Manager Bleakwood set these up looking for new cheap talent to replace old hands.

We took first hour (or less) of three to do character creation and build the “Heat Map” of relationships. Then we get to the matches. The WWW's First Session Quickstart has great suggestions on how to book events based on the number of players. I was nervous because my first game (in the earliest possible slot) had only two players, and a couple of the others had similar fill levels. But I loved the two player game since gave both wrestlers tons of spotlight time before their big showdown. My other three events filled by the time I ran so that turned out awesome.

World Wide Wrestling’ remains amazing and fun, even for those with only cursory pro wrestling knowledge (like me) or who haven’t watched at all. We had players from across the smart spectrum over the weekend. I ran for returning WWW vets, Gauntleteers I’d run non-WWW games for, and many completely new players. I love meeting and running for new people at cons. Three hours is a tight for WWW sessions; you don’t get as many backstage and locker room scenes (one of the game's best features). I made sure to stop off and let the players come up with the venue—developing its respective quirks and challenges. That gave us an ongoing BBQ, a rowdy audience filled with drunk free-ticket holders, an intrusive marching band, a Lady Gaga concert, and more.

Thanks to everyone who played—I loved it all. As to that hitch I mentioned above...If you watch session two, you'll see The Analyst struggling. He never rolls above a 4 on 2d6. It turned out a recent online die roller update had bugged anyone rolling dice with pips instead of numbers. Of the six players only The Analyst used those. The creator fixed the problem rapidly and we had no problems with the next session. But it's pretty funny if you watch knowing that's. 

You can see the actual play videos for all four sessions below.

If you’re curious about the 93 games (plus panels) from GauntletCon, you can check out the YouTube playlists below:

SESSION ONE: Mimi Hazard vs. The Jaguar

SESSION TWO: The Coming of the Kraken

SESSION THREE: Final Showdown of Sub Pig and The Analyst

SESSION FOUR: Coffin Match!!!

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