The Gauntlet was awarded on Sunday, and with your help, Paizo brought home this mighty trophy! Sponsored by Card Kingdom, the Gauntlet tournament featured competitors from a wide array of local game companies and groups. Funds raised by all of the teams went to support Child's Play, a charity that donates games and toys to sick kids in hospitals around the world. On top of furthering such a great cause, donations also earned each team a number of "Power Ups" to use during the event, granting an edge against the opposition.
And let me tell you: the competition was fierce! Before the tournament even started, the team from the Removed From Play podcast surged into the lead, raffling off an amazing Warmachine army. We fought back, but in the end, neither of our teams were prepared for Bungie's fundraising juggernaut. Raising over $6,000 in just the last few days before the competition, they earned the top spot, which came with 5 bonus points and a mountain of power ups to use during the event.
Fundraising alone, however, would not win you The Gauntlet.
As the clock struck 3pm, the battle was joined. I sat down to play Magic against one member of each other team, while Stephen played Ticket to Ride and Erik and Jessica proved their superiority in geek trivia. Both Stephen and I did well, earning a total of 13 points for our team, but Erik and Jessica dominated at trivia, earning 20 points! Stephen then joined Erik and Jessica to play Ugg-tect, a game in which the players take on the role of caveman architects trying to construct monuments using only grunts and body language. They built well, but in the end, we earned only 8 points from the game.
We had a total of 41 points, but that was only enough for 2nd place. The Removed From Play team was hot on our heels with 40, while Bungie held the lead with 42. Before the final game, the winners of the best costume were announced and Bungie pulled even further ahead (to 47) with their excellent Doctor Horrible ensemble. The final game was Suspend, a game in which you must balance wire playing-pieces on a precarious pole. The first team to hang all of their pieces would earn 20 points, but the other teams would earn points too, depending on how fast they could finish their game. We were in trouble. We not only needed to win the final game, but we needed to win by a wide margin to overcome the 6-point lead Bungie had built.
As the countdown reached zero, each team went into a flurry of building. If a piece fell, you lost a team member, meaning that you had to be fast, but steady. As Erik, Jessica, Stephen, and I began to rapidly put together our sculpture, we could not help but keep an eye on Bungie, who were just next to us on the same table. Our practice paid off. We had played Suspend for a few hours earlier that week, becoming skilled at building rapidly, but also figuring out the best way to make the structure stable. As a team, we shouted "JUDGE" as our last piece came to rest. We were first, but it was not over yet. If Bungie came in second, they would earn enough points to claim The Gauntlet. We waited, watching the other teams intently. Then Removed From Play finished their game.
We had done it. The Gauntlet was ours!
We had a great time participating in The Gauntlet. It was a hard-fought battle, but everyone was very friendly and good-natured. After all, the real winner this day was the children. The Paizo team would like to thank all of the other teams for a truly awesome time and a great competition: Bungie, Café Mox Regulars, Card Kingdom, GeekGirlCon, Lady Planeswalkers, Penny Arcade, Removed From Play, Sucker Punch, and Wizards of the Coast. Special thanks go out to everyone at Card Kingdom who spent countless hours setting up this fantastic event. We look forward to defending our title (and The Gauntlet itself) next year!
You can watch a video of the entire event at this link over on The Gauntlet page. The final event starts at around 3:17:30 and you can hear the Paizo team call for a judge at around 3:20:00. You can also catch The Gauntlet being presented at around 3:40:00.
Of course, now that we have The Gauntlet, we thought it only appropriate to show you how it has made life better for us around the Paizo offices (and beyond!).
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| Our winning Suspend sculpture | Celebrating the victory! | I find this ominous... | Winding down after the tournament |
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| Driving to work | Typing is hard | Planning my home game | Scheduling with an iron fist! |
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| Erik Mona shows off our business plan | Our fearless leader, Lisa Stevens | Accounting just got serious | Don't mess with the webstore! |
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| Erik Keith will not be wearing The Gauntlet again | Your shipment, packed with care... with The Gauntlet | I'm not sure which is more dangerous... | That is a tasty beverage |
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| Owen gears up for trouble | Gauntlet + Dog Slicer = Angry James Jacobs | Wesley's last words: "Groovy" | The Gauntlet is kitty approved! |
Finally, we had a wide variety of awards to give you, the fans, for helping us reach certain funding goals during the event. On Friday, we posted a Primitive Human Race for use in your Pathfinder games. We also promised a number of spoilers from the upcoming Advanced Class Guide. You can find some of the spoilers in this thread, but the rest are posted below.
- In the playtest for the Advanced Class Guide, the new classes were called hybrid classes, since each is a mix of two parent classes. In the playtest, you could not take levels in either of the parent classes if you had levels in the hybrid class. In the final version, we removed this restriction.
- The Shaman's spell list changed several times during the playtest. In the final version, we gave the class its own unique spell list to better suit its theme. This includes a number of spells drawn from the cleric list, the druid list, and the witch list, but it also includes a number of brand new spells found in the book.
- The Skald got access to a few more powers from its parent classes, including versatile performance and uncanny dodge. It also got a few new songs that it can use in place of its raging song, such as the song of the fallen. Check it out!
Song of the Fallen (Su): At 14th level, a skald can temporarily revive dead allies to continue fighting, with the same limitations as raise dead. The skald selects a dead ally within 60 feet and expends 1 round of raging song to bring that ally back to life. The revived ally is alive but staggered. Each round, the skald may expend another 1 round of raging song to keep that ally alive for another round. The ally automatically dies if the skald ends this performance or is interrupted. The skald may revive multiple allies with this ability (either at the same time or over successive rounds) but must expend 1 round of raging song per revived ally per round to maintain the effect.
- There are a wide variety of great options for every character in this book, from archetypes to feats, spells, and magic items. Just to give you a taste, here is one of the more interesting spells in the book.
Path of Glory
School conjuration (healing); Level bard 2, cleric 2
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range touch (see text)
Area four 5-ft. squares/level (see text)
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance noYou cause four 5-foot squares (one of which must be your space) to glow with dim illumination. Starting on your next turn, as a swift action you can extend the glowing area by an additional four 5-foot squares; each new square must be adjacent to a square that was previously glowing. Allies that end their turns on a glowing square (including one who falls unconscious in the square) are healed of 1 point of damage.
Well, that about wraps up our coverage of The Gauntlet.
Wait... what's that?
Stephen wants to say something about me needing to get punched with the Gauntlet. That sounds like a nasty rumor. I am sure nothing like that would happen within the next few weeks for all of you to watch. I am sure of it. Anyway, I want to thank all of you who helped make this victory possible. Look for The Gauntlet to make a number of appearances in this blog over the coming year. We are looking forward to defending our title next year, hopefully allowing us to keep this mighty trophy. We know that you will be here to support us!
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
