TSV RPG Creator's Chat: Jon with Jason & Gabriel

Hey, incredible people - this is a cross-post from The Gauntlet's own Patreon feed, so you might have already seen it there.

For anyone who's interested in the upcoming The Silt Verses RPG, it's a really great hour-long listen as the amazing Gabriel Robinson and Jason Cordova from The Gauntlet talk about what they're cooking up (and I quietly nod and gurn a bit as well).

A few key points from the chat:

• The initial digital release of the rulebook will be available from both The Gauntlet Patreon page and the TSV Patreon (at a roughly equal tier) and then a month later, it'll be purchasable on DriveThruRPG.
• The core rules will also include 6 faith-sheets, 8 Assignments, and 1 over-arching Conspiracy.
• Future updates will be supported over on the Gauntlet Patreon, but there'll also likely be a crowdfund for a physical edition in future that includes everything.
• Release date...as yet unconfirmed, but perhaps not too far in the future at all, according to Jason?!

• The players will take on the role of Custodians, a disparate group of government-bureau 'volunteers' and actual volunteers sent out as a team into the wilds of the Peninsula. Their job? To head into isolated towns and communities, and mediate difficult issues involving stray or dangerous gods.
• While each Custodian is under contract and faces dire consequences should they flee or abandon their task, it's a thankless role, with little training or proper oversight, and a debatable level of authority (as well as little thought given to any Custodian who is killed or hallowed in the field).
• Crucially, you're not playing as monster-hunters or cops. The Custodians' task is to deal with the problem through the most effective means at their disposal, whether that's appeasement, diplomacy, underhand means, or brute force, but you may also choose to undermine your own orders...

• Like The Gauntlet's other games, The Silt Verses RPG will be a mystery game; each scenario will let the players figure out what's really been going on based on clues, witness statements, and investigation. There's no set solution, and what really happened is in the players' hands.
• Each Custodian has some kind of complicated relationship or history with their own god; they may even be a former member of an illicit faith whose skills are now being put to use by the government. (Or they may be *pretending* to be a former member...)
• This complicated personal history will only be revealed slowly, piece-by-piece, as the characters pursue their investigation.

• Players each choose a faith-sheet, based on their individual god, and will get to further customise their clothing, personal tokens, and 'altar' based on that. Jason and Gabriel believe there's tons of room for players to homebrew their own faith-sheets and come up with exciting new gods to follow (or betray).
• Selectable gods mentioned so far include the Trawler-man, Brother Boil and Sister Sore, the Watcher in the Wings, and The Saint Electric.
• 'We each get to choose the thing that eats us' is an active mechanic thanks to the Verses of Prophecy. Calling upon your god for aid or using its prayer-marks can be incredibly useful, and it may give your fellow players a flashback-insight into how you grew close to your deity - but it may also bring you one step closer to surrendering yourself entirely to your god's power and becoming devoured.

Jason is actually a few hours into The Gauntlet's very first actual play of The Silt Verses over on YouTube (including one player taking on the terrifying role of a follower of Sweet Jolly Crunchtooth the cereal god), and it's tons of fun, so do give it a watch!