What is the Gauntlet?
The Gauntlet is a game publisher and podcast network focused on independent tabletop roleplaying games. We publish popular games such as Trophy, Brindlewood Bay, The Between, Public Access, and more! Our podcasts include the award-winning Fear of a Black Dragon, The Trophy Podcast, and The Darkened Threshold.
Why are we on Patreon?
At a basic level, producing podcasts, publishing games, and supporting our community costs a significant amount of money, and Patreon helps defray those costs. More importantly, it helps us stay focused on the independent TTRPG scene. Creating content for smaller, non-traditional, narrative-forward games is financially risky, because the market for such games is still fairly small. Your Patreon support helps us continue to do that kind of work, without having to worry about creating content for bigger games like Dungeons & Dragons and Call of Cthulhu in order to stay afloat. And as our Patreon grows, we’re able to give even more support to new and independent creators in the TTRPG space.
Why join?
Because you’ll be supporting all the great work we do in the hobby, plus it’s the best value in all of tabletop roleplaying games. Depending on the level you pledge at, you get access to exclusive scenarios and supplements for our games; early access to our upcoming games; access to Patreon-only podcast and video content; and a special Role and access to a Patron-only channel on our Discord server.
Our Games
Brindlewood Bay
Brindlewood Bay is a roleplaying game about a group of elderly women—members of the local Murder Mavens mystery book club—who frequently find themselves investigating (and solving!) real-life murder mysteries. They become increasingly aware that there are supernatural forces that connect the cases they are working on and, in particular, a cult dedicated to the dark, monstrous aspect of the goddess Persephone will come to vex them.
The game is directly inspired by the television show Murder, She Wrote, but also takes inspiration from the works of H.P. Lovecraft, “cozy” crime dramas, and American TV shows from the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s.
Trophy
Trophy is actually two different games: Trophy Dark and Trophy Gold, plus an additional setting book called Trophy Loom
Trophy Dark is a roleplaying game about a group of treasure-hunters entering a haunted location that doesn’t want them there. The game tells the story of the treasure-hunters’ physical and mental descent as they delve deeper. Their journey ultimately brings them to ancient ruins that hold the treasure they seek, and the monstrous entities that dwell there. This is not a hopeful story of brave and daring adventurers that slay dragons and drag bags of gold back to town. This is a horror story of entitled pillagers meeting tragic ends.
Trophy Gold is a roleplaying game about a group of treasure-hunters entering the haunted and forgotten places of the world. The game tells the story of the treasure-hunters’ obsessive drive to seek ever greater riches in a desperate bid to stay alive. Trophy Gold takes the collaborative, push-your-luck rules and rolls of its sister game, Trophy Dark, and blends them with the survive-by-your-wits mentality of old school fantasy games. Instead of the ever-increasing power that comes with leveling up found in other games, treasure-hunters in Trophy Gold remain fragile, meaning death is always just one bad roll away.
Trophy Loom is a system-agnostic setting book for dark medieval fantasy roleplaying games, especially the games under the Trophy banner. Unlike other rpg setting books you may be familiar with, you will not find detailed historical timelines or accurate city populations in Trophy Loom. Rather, this book consists mostly of random tables you can use to inspire you before or during a game session. These tables contain threads of detail that can be woven into an entire adventure, or can be stitched in to fill a gap when you need a name, monster, or location on short notice.
Get all three books (and more) here!
The Between
The Between is a tabletop roleplaying game about a group of mysterious monster hunters in Victorian-era London. They are residents of a place called Hargrave House, and their job is to investigate and neutralize monstrous threats terrorizing the city—threats that Scotland Yard won’t or can’t handle themselves. As the story progresses, they become aware of the plans of a Moriarty-style criminal mastermind they will eventually have to face in order to save Queen and country. The Between is directly inspired by the gothic horror TV show Penny Dreadful, but also takes inspiration from British horror classics, graphic novels like From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and pulp-era stories. Mechanically, it’s Powered by the Apocalypse but also uses the mystery system from Brindlewood Bay.
Public Access
Public Access is a tabletop roleplaying game about a group of people in 2004—the Deep Lake Latchkeys—who find themselves investigating strange mysteries in and around the town of Deep Lake, New Mexico. In the ‘80s and early ‘90s, Deep Lake was the home of a notorious public access television station called TV Odyssey, the history and fate of which—the station literally disappeared—is the source of much speculation in certain corners of the internet. As the Latchkeys conduct their investigations in Deep Lake, they will become increasingly aware of the central role TV Odyssey plays in everything that’s going on, and will have to face whatever terrible truth lies at the heart of the infamous station…
Our Podcasts
Fear of a Black Dragon is about fantasy modules and setting books, particularly those coming out of the OSR movement. Each episode focuses on a single book and is divided into three parts: the Basic Crawl, the Expert Delve, and the Companion Adventures. To listen, click here.
The Darkened Threshold is about the mystery and horror genres, and how they intersect with tabletop roleplaying games. The show has a particular focus on The Between, Brindlewood Bay, and other Carved from Brindlewood games. To listen, click here.
The Trophy Podcast is an actual play podcast of our game Trophy. The purpose of this actual play is to show how Trophy is played, demonstrate the kinds of stories you can tell with the game, and, of course, to entertain you. This feed also contains a discussion show called The Sixth Ring. To listen, click her
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