The future of Gauntlet Publishing, Codex, and more!

Before I get into the substance of this post, a couple of quick release notes:

1) This week we're going to be releasing a few "holiday gifts" in the $6+ Patreon feed. The first one will be in the feed shortly after this post goes up, so be on the lookout for that. 

2) We have uploaded a revised version of The Spider Silk Seamstress in The Between: Season 2 post. This revision corrects an honorific mistake we made with one of the characters, Sir Richard. If you have downloaded that one before today, go grab it again (it has Revised in the file name)

Ok, onto what I want to talk about...

This will be a long post, but I recommend reading it carefully.

A spirit of supporting indie TTRPG creators

The Gauntlet has three pillars: the online gaming community, the podcast network, and Gauntlet Publishing. All three of those pillars revolve around a passion for indie TTRPGs and supporting indie TTRPG creators. Your Patreon dollars support all three of those activities, and more importantly, they help us support the indie TTRPG community in the face of a relentless march toward making Dungeons & Dragons the only game people play. 

I'm here to talk about Gauntlet Publishing, but I wanted to make that basic philosophical point about The Gauntlet clear at the outset. 

The Codex conundrum

Codex has always been a terrific venue for new writers and artists to find an audience. I've lost track of all the TTRPG artists and writers who got their start in our pages. I'm particularly proud of the fact that Codex has always emphasized new creators and creators from marginalized communities, and a few years ago we pledged that 50% of every dollar spent on Codex would go to a woman or non-binary person, and I'm happy to report we have met that goal. 

The trouble with Codex is that it's very expensive to produce and is difficult to market post-Patreon. In fact, the only reason why it has worked in the past is because I, Jason, do all of the developmental editing and project management for free (I do over 20 hours of work per issue for no compensation at all). In the age of the endless pandemic, everything is harder, slower, and more expensive, and that has caused me to take a hard look at where Codex fits. For a time, I wondered if Codex even had a role to play anymore when it comes to helping new writers find an audience, given that it's now so easy to self-publish via, say, itch.io. 

With all that said, I will tell you this: Codex isn't going away. I'll explain why in a bit. 

Brindlewood Bay, The Between, and the role of standalone games

Standalone games like Brindlewood Bay, The Between, Hearts of Wulin, and Trophy have a lot of advantages. The most important one is that they are much easier to market post-Patreon—people are simply more willing to purchase standalone games than they are anthologies like Codex, and standalone games have a much clearer path when it comes to crowdfunding and the like. These games are also easier to build a community around. In order for Gauntlet Publishing to continue supporting indie creators, we have to be able to function more like a business, and standalone games help us do that by generating more revenue. 

And our standalone games are a terrific venue for supporting indie creators! We have commissioned loads of scenarios and other writing for Trophy, Brindlewood Bay, and The Between, and we do other community-oriented things like writing contests. I feel like that is a really important—but easily overlooked—aspect of what Gauntlet Publishing does: these games don't just support the original author; they're whole, tiny ecosystems of indie creator support. 

Bringing on a partner

As I have alluded to, the biggest difficulty in running Gauntlet Publishing is the fact that, administratively and business-wise, it's just one guy (me). But that's changing: I have brought on David LaFreniere as my partner in the business. He's going to be working on the publishing side full time. The reason why I can afford to expand the business like this is because I have been laying the groundwork to do so for the last two years. 

A bit about David... Long time Gauntlet fans will remember David as my co-host on the Discern Realities podcast. David was also the original editor of Codex, and one of the founding members of The Gauntlet back in Houston. He's an attorney with project management experience, and he's totally committed to the success of Gauntlet Publishing. Furthermore, he and I live in the same city, which makes working together much easier. 

The future of Gauntlet Publishing and Patreon

David is committed to pressing forward with Codex. We've been doing the numbers and lots of behind-the-scenes planning, and we believe we can make Codex happen in a way such that it supports the overall business and our goal of helping indie creators. In 2022, it will change to a bi-monthly publication, which will be easier to manage and promote. We'll also be continuing our standalone game program (the next one is Pizza Time!) and doing seasonal releases for The Between, as well as smaller standalone releases. Essentially, there will always be something new in the feed, even if it's not always a new issue of Codex. We're committed to The Gauntlet Patreon being the absolute best value in TTRPGs, and we're going to update the Patreon page for 2022 to reflect all this. 

As always, thank you so much for your support! I hope you understand that we are extremely passionate about what we do, and together we're going to continue to raise the flag for indie TTRPGs. 

-Jason Cordova