February 23, 2010 | David

Five new desktop/iPhone wallpapers available in the "Extras" section.

Just messing around with some of the GOLD imagery this weekend, and thought we’d make a few new desktop images. You can find them in the Extras section.Hope you enjoy them!

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February 04, 2010 | David

Session 8, in which the party finds some proof, splits up, gets back together, and must decided on their future.

The GOLD Gamer Recap: I (David, creator of GOLD, the Series) am currently running a Pathfinder game with six of the GOLD cast & crew. I’m taking them through a Pathfinder converted version of the classic D&D super-module T1-4, “The Temple of Elemental Evil,” thoroughly grounded in the original, but with lots of customization (including the incorporation of Michael Curtis’s Fane of St. Toad). This recap is just a summary of what happens during each session, for your amusement, and will be posted irregularly.

Characters:

• Gabriel Lightfoot - Human Paladin 3
  played by Andrew Deutsch (GOLD EP, DP & Director)
• Valen Greymoon - Elvish Ranger 3
  played by Nathan Mobley (Tim Calloway)
• Blars Granitdok - Dwarven Cleric 3
  played by Chad Schnaible (GOLD producer, sound guy)
• Ark Wong - Human Monk 2
  played by Justin Waggle (Peter Foote) -
  NOTE: Ark Wong was played by Rick Robinson (Richard Wright) this session, as Justin was unavailable.
• Shecky Greenblatt - Gnomish Sorcerer 2
  played by Gary Karp (Charles Subar)
• Schlomo Rubenstein - Human Fighter 2
  played by James Xavier (Sam St. Croix)

After being healed somewhat, the party resumed searching Lareth’s room. While no additional treasure was found, in his writing desk the group found a stack of letters and personal notes - some unfinished notes written by Lareth, some letters from someone who signed his name “A,” and some ledgers. The ledgers seems to be an accounting of goods and gold stolen during bandit raids, as well as lists of numbers next to races (with some comments) next to indicators such as “fire” “air” “earth” “water” and “greater.” The “Fire” group seemed to have the largest numbers. Dates were included as well. The party deduced this was an accounting of new recruits Lareth had been sending to the Temple - if these ledgers were correct, Lareth had been sending dozens of new recruits per month. Lareth’s correspondence with “A” also included some additional points - “A” was continually asking for more recruits, especially Bugbears, which he seemed to find the perfect combination of cunning and raw brute force. Lareth had written to A about possibly sending his Gnolls “to the fire,” for they and their captain were especially disobedient and untrustworthy. Also found was a draft of a letter where Lareth explained to A that a group of bandits had taken residence above his dungeon - that he’d initially used them as good cover, but that they’d gotten reckless and he was debating sending them “to the fire” before they got caught and potentially revealed his operation as well - he asked “A” for advice (no return letter was found - they assumed this note was never sent).

As the party was debating what this all meant, and how best to return to Hommlet and present this information along with their “proof” of Lt. Paul’s involvement with the Bandits, Valen heard the door at the far end of the hallway being opened, and distant laughter abruptly stop. Valen crept out of the room to listen and have a look - it appeared that a party had discovered the carnage in the long hallway. Valen heard this new group moving slowly toward them with military precision - these were not the simple guards they’d fought before, but something else. He snuck back to Lareth’s room and the party decided to split, half of them moving across the large main room to the guard’s barracks (Gabriel, Valen & Shecky), and half remaining in Lareth’s room with the door closed (Blars, Ark & Schlomo). The hope was to lure the new group into the main room, and then surprise them by attacking from both sides. The new party approached slowly, sending a scout ahead, who spied Gabriel (who had hidden badly). The new group retreated. Gabriel, knowing he ws discovered, decided to use the slaughter which the new group had no doubt found to his advantage, striding out into the large room and using his intimidate skill to call the new group out (playing on the idea that he’d single-handedly slain all of the guards, Lareth and Gremag himself). The new party approached cautiously. Ultimately, Gabriel saw a band of 2 bugbears (one huge and well-armed - clearly the Captain of this hunting party), five humans, and a kobold in sorceror’s robes. The humans and Kobold held back, terrified of Gabriel’s might, but the Bugbear Captain strode into the room, gleefully joining this “champion” in single combat. When Valen started firing arrows into the room, the second bugbear rushed foward, and the kobold wizard cast a darkness spell on the entire room. With Gabriel, Shecky and Valen unable to see anything, the combat quickly turned bad for Gabriel. The door to Lareth’s room flew open and Schlomo rushed to join the fight. Shecky used a light spell to counter the darkness, and the balance of the battle became more even. Eventually this raiding party was destroyed, but not before Gabriel was rendered unconscious, and Schlomo and Shecky took a huge amount of damage. After the battle, the party discovered that this had been a raiding party coming back with spoils - gold, fine cloth, and a magical circlet Shecky pocketed.

Exhausted and out of spells, the party decided to high-tail it out of the dungeon. The followed Lareth’s entrance tunnel, which led to a cave near the road where the party had originally left their horses, three days prior (the horses were gone). The party camped in the woods, healed, and rested. The next morning they set out on foot to Hommlet (2 days’ walk away) they walked all day and camped in the forest as darkness approached.

The party was awakened in the night by the sound of approaching hoofbeats. Ark and Valen scouted to the road, and saw Mayor Grondarian approaching with a contingent of town guards. Gabriel and Schlomo joined the scouts, while Blars and Shecky hung back at camp. As they got closer, the party could see Elmo riding in back, and the halfling Small Paul riding up front near Grondarian. They also saw that the other guards were very young, save one who they recognized as Hommlet’s blacksmith. The four party members near the road stepped out to greet Grondarian, who instantly declared them under arrest for the supposed murder of Lt. Paul and the bulk of his town guards, who had not been seen since the party left Hommlet five days prior. The party agreed, knowing they could exonerate themselves with the evidence once they reached town. However, the confrontation turned slightly violent, and, when asked about Shecky and Blars, Gabriel lied and said they were two miles back toward the Moathouse. Lt. Paul and two others rode off after them, and the other four were hauled onto horses with the guards, bound and stripped of all weapons and gear (but still wearing armor). Blars and Shecky watched from the bushes as they rode away.

Grondarian and the guards rode through the night. During the ride, Elmo (who had put Gabriel on his horse) quietly got the story of what had happened from Gabriel. He cautioned Gabriel that, whatever happened in town, the party should not reveal anything about Lareth or the dungeons below the moathouse. It was during this conversation and the talk about proving Lt. Paul was the bandit leader that Gabriel realized an important oversight: all of the evidence proving their claims was with Blars, back at the camp.

Shecky and Blars watched the rest of their party being ridden away in shackles. They geared-up and decided to walk after them, and make a plan about what to do when they got to Hommlet while on the road.

Grondarian and the prisoners arrived in Hommlet in the late morning. The party were immediately placed in a small cell, locked and guarded by two nervous, newly conscripted town guards. Gabriel had just enough time to tell the whole group to be honest about the events with the bandits but say nothing about Lareth or what occurred in the dungeons below the moathouse, before Grondarian returned with Elmo. He ordered Elmo to grab Schlomo for interrogation. One by one, the party were interrogated - Schlomo telling a wild, incoherent story about bandits and Temple minions, Ark refusing to talk, Valen telling basically the truth (including some things about the dungeons) and Gabriel matching Valen’s story, except leaving out the dungeons. Schlomo and Ark were roughed-up during their interrogations (fortunately, it was by Elmo, who pulled his punches).

On the road, Shecky and Blars, who’d decided to break their companions out of jail when they arrived at town, hid along the side of the road as Small Paul and his group thundered angrily back toward town, empty-handed.

Back at the jail, Grondarian threw the party back into the cell together. As he did so, Small Paul arrived, angrily shouting that he’d been lied-to. Grondarian decided to convene a meeting of the city council, after Paul attempted to beat the prisoners, to get to the bottom of this garbled information. After they’d gone, Elmo brught them a crude meal, along with a note saying they should stay put until midnight. He’d unlock the door. They should meet just inside the treeline nearest the jail. And they were NOT to kill anyone. Ark loosed all four of them from their bonds so they’d be ready for trouble, and they waited.

Blars and Shecky arrived near town well after dark, a couple of hours before midnight. They saw the town was being heavily patrolled by pairs of guards carrying lanterns, none of whom looked familiar. They worked their way around the treeline to the area closest to the jail. As they contemplated their plan, Elmo appeared from the direction of the jail. He handed them off to the Druid Jaroo, who appeared out of nowhere with his huge black bear companion. With little fuss, the bewildered pair was led to the Druid’s grove and told to wait for their friends to arrive.

Back at the jail, the party waited until midnight and tested the door, which they found unlocked. They quietly subdued the only guard and retrieved their gear, again subduing (not killing) the guard they found in that room. They then escaped, heading for the treeline. When they arrived in the treeline, Elmo took them to the Druid’s grove, where they were united with the rest of the party, and joined by Jaroo, Druid of the Grove, and Canon Terjon, leader of the local Church of Cuthbert.

Elmo introduced the three of them as the “Small Council” - while the town council carried out the regular business of Hommlet, the small council was a secret group, sent by the Duke of Verbobonc (acting on behalf of the Kingdom of Furyondy) [Elmo], the Horned Society [Jaroo] and the Church of Cuthbert [Terjon] to monitor the area for a possible re-surgence of the activities of the Temple of Elemental Evil. The party conveyed its story in great detail, showing also the proof (in the form of the lockboxes, cloaks emblazoned with the fiery Elemental Eye, silver keys and letters from Lareth’s desk). The small council was very troubled by all of this. They retreated into Jaroo’s small hut to discuss. After a few minutes, they emerged. Elmo said he’d take the keys and lockboxes back to the Mayor and try to persuade the town council of the truth of the party’s story, in his alter-ego’s simple way. Terjon urged teh party to accompany him and take secret refuge in the oddly large and fortified Church of Cuthbert while they awaited further word from Elmo and the council, as well as the Small Counsil’s leaders (who were to be sent messages via raven). The party agreed, and accompanied Terjon back to the church, where they were given small but comfortable rooms, and use of the Church’s small library to research the Temple.

The party slept the night in the church, awaking the next morning to a day of studying and rest. Canon Terjon showed them around the keep, to the library, church proper, private prayer halls, the training grounds at the center of the keep, kitchens, smithy and your sleeping quarters. The church was small, but well appointed. Cuthbert is a god of voracious appetites - there is food and drink aplenty - and a god of war - all his priests train daily and the armory and smithy are well-stocked. You all rest, eat, read and discuss in the library, learning much about the temple and its history. Elmo arrived to say that the town council had received the proof of Lt. Paul’s banditry, but Grondarian and Small Paul were not wholly convinced. They planned on riding out to the moathouse themselves (after several more days of discussion) to try to get proof of the party’s story. Terjon planned on sending a contingent of clerics and masons immediately to wall-up the dungeons and prevent them from examination by panicky townspeople. Elmo resolved to return the next morning with more information.

The party slept an uneasy night, to be wakened the next morning and asked to join Canon Terjon for breakfast. When they arrived, Terjon was accompanied by Jaroo and Elmo. Elmo had the bad news that Grondarian had decided to send out a search party after the party, and list them as being wanted men with nearby towns and villages. More importantly, though, the Small Council had a request of the party. On behalf of their various benefactors, they wanted the party to travel to Nulb, a seedy town to the East, and then on to the Temple. The task - investigate the temple - find out what manner of evil stirs there, who it was Lareth was recruiting for. If the party can can - stop them, by whatever means. If the party cannot stop them, then report back. In return, after the deed was done, the Duke of Verbobonc, on authority of the King of Furyondy, would make all of them Knights, including a small grant of land and all the honors knighthood conveyed. The three left the party to consider, saying they’d need an answer by noon the following day. After a short discussion, the party separated to think on it, heading to various points in the church grounds. 

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January 28, 2010 | David

Wanna be in a GOLD DVD Special Feature? Of course you do!

Throughout the process of working on GOLD, we’ve been getting a lot of great fan emails, questions and suggestions. Among the most common were variations on “I’m enjoying the show, but can you tell me more about tabletop RPGs?” or, “This is awesome - you guys should make some tabletop RPG how-to videos.”

Well, we don’t have the resources to do a how-to series on top of the series proper (and there are actually a couple of really good how-to videos out there). But I would like to address these common questions in the special features. To that end, we’re making two new videos. Each will be a short collection of video testimonials from the cast, crew, GOLD fans and people in the RPG industry, responding to the following:

Explain tabletop RPG gaming in 25 words or less.
What has RPG gaming meant to you (in 25 words or less)?

Obviously, to do this I need help. I’d love to get (from as many of you as possible) a short video, answering 1 or both of these (each question answered separately). The responses to each should be as short as possible - 20-30 words long. Basically, a video “tweet.” Each video should be a few seconds long at most - I won’t be able to use longer videos. One sentence. Seriously.

The videos don’t need to be stellar quality - the camera and microphone built into your laptop or even your iPhone (or what have you) are fine. Just sit down, make certain you can see yourself in-frame, and record. Higher production values are also welcome, of course ;-) If you can also include a minute or so of your gaming crew actually at play (for b-roll during the montage), that’d be awesome, too. Just get their permission first!

When you’ve got your video, email me at goldtheseries@gmail.com and let me know, and I’ll send back simple instructions for uploading it to our server.

Deadline is Sunday, February 14 (a little more than 2 weeks). I’ll also send a little release form to everyone who shoots me a video, just to cover all my bases. These videos will be used as part of the DVD special features explained above. The completed montages may also be released online (if they turn out to be really cool).

Lemme know if you have any questions. I can’t wait to see what y’all have to say!

-David
Creator, GOLD

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January 17, 2010 | David

Wanna take a look at the early drafts of the GOLD Season 1 DVD covers? Yeah, we do, too.

We’re trucking along here at GOLD HQ, working hard on the episodes and the extras (we filmed the extra-special new scene this week). In addition, I’ve been playing a lot with the GOLD graphics - the DVD menus as well as the DVD cover(s) and the poster(s) we’ll be releasing along with the DVD.

While the DVD cover/poster is not finished, I feel like I’m getting pretty close, so I wanted to share them with you. This the the treatment for the “Special Edition” - the DVD version which will be sold through the GOLD website (a “regular” version will also be sold through other sites - initially at least, the Special Edition will be available only directly from us). There will be 12 different covers for the SE edition - people will select the cover they’d like upon purchase.

Anyway, no more writey - more lookey. Click on a thumbnail to open the images in another window:

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January 17, 2010 | David

Thank you for supporting the GOLD Season 1 DVD.

Happy New year, everyone. And Happy GOLD DVD Club inaugural year!

As you know by now, we did it: we met (exceeded) our goal, the DVD is being made, the DVD Club is closed, and its exclusive membership are the coolest people on earth.*

We’re busy getting our schedule together and, while we probably won’t announce a hard release date for a few weeks at least (many years working day jobs in software development has taught me not to do that until you are 100% certain), we’re confident that everyone who pledged at least $25 will have amazing, exclusive DVD Club Edition DVDs in your grubby, grasping hands sometime in the 1st quarter of 2010. For anyone who missed the deadline but still wants a DVD when they are released, you’ll be able to buy it through Goldtheseries.com, and maybe other places, shortly thereafter. I can hardly wait.

Now, some discussion of DVD Extras:

DVD SPECIAL FEATURES!

We’re gonna cram as many special features into the DVD as we can manage and, while we will have at least English subtitles, I do not count that as a Special Feature (I hate when DVDs list “subtitles” as a special feature - that’s not a special feature, it’s just common decency). Some of them will be pretty typical - a gallery of behind-the-scenes photos (some never seen before!), a hilarious commentary track or two, etc., but some will be special indeed. I wanna talk about two of them here:

• Never-before-seen Scene with the American Gamers
  
  A lot of DVDs feature deleted scenes. The fact is, for GOLD, our schedules and budgets were so tight that we really didn’t shoot anything we didn’t use. Sure, a line or two was trimmed here or there, but we really worked so lean there’s nothing notable in the way of footage which was left on the cutting room floor.
  
  However, a lot of cutting happened in the writing phase of GOLD. After I originally outlined the plot of the first GOLD story, I broke it down into episode arcs and realized I’d need 20-25 ten-minute episodes to tell the whole story. I knew I couldn’t afford to do more than six or seven episodes in Season 1, and I didn’t want to stretch the story over three seasons (I knew it’d be hard to fund a second season, and I didn’t even want to speculate on a season 3). So I collapsed what would have been the first two seasons of story into one season, and a lot of plotlines (and characters) were removed or greatly shrunk. (A side note: the Dangerous Gamers from Episode 4 were originally much more important in the world of professional Goblins and Gold, and were the American team’s main rivals in the semi-finals.)
  
  However, I’d already written a lot of stuff that would become seasons 1 and 2 of GOLD. Some of the stuff I was cutting was even good (no one is ever more surprised than me when my stuff is good). So, I found a little self-contained scene that I think is funny, and we’re gonna produce it as a DVD exclusive mini-episode. The scene features Tim, Sam & Charles, and takes place between the Prologue and Episode 1, about a month before the Semi-Final tournament where Jonathan is injured. You’ll get to see Charles again while he’s just the Equipment Manager, Sam back in his original chainmail gauntlet, and get a glimpse of the inside of Tim’s house. Exciting stuff indeed.


• An Interview with the GOLD Cast & Crew
  
  Another cool feature, we think, will be a sort of series-regular cast (and some crew if we can convince them) reunion-style interview, conducted by geek culture reporter Cricket Lee (FanGirl’s Guide, GirlGamer.com, GeekWeek.com). We’re gonna sit around and chat with Cricket and do our level best to be fascinating. There’s a solid chance that one or more of us will break down in tears, and a near-certainty that Rick (Richard Wright) will pick a fight with someone and end up being punched in the face. Now you really want that DVD, doncha?

--

We’ve a few more cool extras planned, but I’ll hold onto those details for another time. Thanks again for supporting the GOLD Season 1 DVD Club. I’ll write again soon. In the meantime, if you have any questions or comments, you can post them here, or shoot me an email at . Make certain to mention you’re a DVD club member so I can give you priority treatment.

Later, David
Creator, GOLD

*apart from Lenny Kravitz. That dude is just too cool to be challenged.

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January 07, 2010 | David

Session 7, in which the party heads back into the dungeon, pursued by evil.

The GOLD Gamer Recap: I (David, creator of GOLD, the Series) am currently running a Pathfinder game with six of the GOLD cast & crew. I’m taking them through a Pathfinder converted version of the classic D&D super-module T1-4, “The Temple of Elemental Evil,” thoroughly grounded in the original, but with lots of customization (including the incorporation of Michael Curtis’s Fane of St. Toad). This recap is just a summary of what happens during each session, for your amusement, and will be posted irregularly.

Characters:

• Gabriel Lightfoot - Human Paladin 3
  played by Andrew Deutsch (GOLD EP, DP & Director)
• Valen Greymoon - Elvish Ranger 3
  played by Nathan Mobley (Tim Calloway)
• Blars Granitdok - Dwarven Cleric 3
  played by Chad Schnaible (GOLD producer, sound guy)
• Ark Wong - Human Monk 2
  played by Justin Waggle (Peter Foote) -
  NOTE: Ark Wong was played by Rick Robinson (Richard Wright) this session, as Justin was unavailable.
• Shecky Greenblatt - Gnomish Sorcerer 2
  played by Gary Karp (Charles Subar)
• Schlomo Rubenstein - Human Fighter 2
  played by James Xavier (Sam St. Croix)

The party stood in the aftermath of the just-ended battle, covered in blood and open wounds, down on spells and hit points. They considered the three available exits - up the stairway where Ark had encountered the green slime trap, through the ogre’s lair, where Ark had witnessed a black-cloaked human guard retreating, or down the secret passage to the crypt. As they considered, they heard the sound of a distant explosion, and tongues of flame lept from the secret door leading to the crypt - the guards had sealed that exit with fire. Worried about noises from above, Blars cast an augury spell, asking if woe or weal were to be found if the party proceeded upward. The answer: woe. With near-certain woe above, the party chose to head through the ogre’s lair.

The party headed quickly into the ogre’s lair. While Schlomo and Shecky piled the remnants of the ogre’s bedding in the doorway behind them, recreating the trap they’d used successfully last time, Gabrial & Valen checked out the secret passage leading to the second stairway and the deeper dungeon. Valen and Gabriel heard the sounds of arguing from above, heavy objects being dragged, and a fire being started at the top of the stairs. Ark headed back to the main room to scout, and saw Jon Straw and 2 other Hommlet Guards racing down the stairs, running from something. Ark retreated into the ogre’s lair. When Jon and his companions entered the room adjacent to the ogre’s lair, Shecky, Schlomo and Blars let loose with missile weapons and ranged spells, followed by setting the fire trap alight. Blars cast obscuring mist to prevent Straw from firing into the room, blocking any visibility still left after the fire. From the far side of the Mist, the guards’ screaming was cut short by the sound of weapons clashing. With the fire and mist blocking their view, the party could not tell what was going on.

Ark joined Gabriel and Valen in the secret room. The rest of the party joined and debated their next move. As they argued, a rattling began at the door to the deeper dungeon, the secret panel slid open and a black-cloaked human guard poked his head in. He was struck by Gabriel and Ark, and retreated into the hallway. Through the small portal, the party saw a group of humans and bugbears. With the portal so small, the two parties found themselves in a stand-off.

Valen left the party to the stand-off to investigate the remains of the Jon Straw trap. Ark followed. Outside the ogre’s lair door, they found the remnants of two charred bodies, and a third, Jon Straw’s, sprawled in the hallway. A single black-cloaked human guard stood watch - he was quickly dispatched by Ark and Valen, who looted Straw’s corpse, finding another key matching Lt. Paul’s on a chain around his neck, and Straw’s magnificent composite battlebow.

As they returned to the rest of the party, the stand-off shifted. In ranks, the guards in the deeper dungeon hallway began an orderly retreat. Worried they’d return in greater numbers, the party pursued, engaging them in the hallway. Several of the human guards ran, and the party was tied up by a bugbear and several orcs who were eventually dispatched. Knowing it was essential to make decisions quickly now, lest they be caught on-heels by a larger force, the party decided to push forward once again into the dungeon. Moving as quickly and quietly as they were able, they pushed toward what the Gnoll captain had described as “the pond,” dispatching two more guards along the way.

The party reached the pond at the end of a long, downward-sloping corridor. It was a huge room, filled with a deep pool with a 5-foot lip running around it. As Ark stood sentry in the hallway, watching for pursuing black-cloaks, Blars and Valen began to search for hidden doors. As Blars moved to the middle of the south wall, a giant crayfish emerged from the pond and attacked, pulling him (in full scale mail armor) into the pond. The rest of the party rushed to his aid, firing missile weapons and spells into the pool. As Blars tried to shed his armor to prevent drowning, Valen and Ark (and eventually Schlomo) left into the pool to fight the beast. A long, loud battle ensued, during which time Blars nearly drowned, the party discharged the bulk of its spells, and half the party’s weapons and armor were dropped into the inky pool. Finally, though, the crayfish was destroyed.

The party pulled its gear out the water, and Valen used his swimming skill to explore the pool. Valen found a submerged tunnel, and he and Ark explored it, finding a small, dark air-filled cave and a sandy beach on the other end. As they returned to the rest of the party to deliver the news, the party heard the approach of armor-clad footsteps in the hallway. In no position to stand and fight, the party stripped their armor, tied themselves and their gear together, and, with Valen and Ark leading the way, swam to the secluded cave. Cut off from the rest of the dungeon, exhausted from battle, the party healed and slept for a full eight hours.

Upon waking, refreshed and renewed, the party debated strategy. With the lockboxes full of gold and the key from around Jon Straw’s neck, they had proof that Lt. Paul and his men had been disguising themselves as bandits and terrorizing merchants headed through the Hommlet crossroads. However, there was clearly something much larger going on in these dungeons below the old moathouse, something probably connected to the ancient Temple. It was very clear that Lt. Paul’s men were not connected to the black-cloaks - if the interrogations of the guards and the gnolls had only hinted at that lack of connection, Jon Straw’s death at black-cloaked hands confirmed it. If the group left then (assuming that whatever happened in the previous eight hours while they rested allowed they’d still be able to get out), who knew what would happen in these dungeons? The party decided to head toward the area where, according to the gnoll captain, there was a way out of the dungeon and, again according to the gnoll, the chambers of the Master. Whether they left or faced the master would be determined by what they found there.

Emerging from the pond, the party found many footprints in the damp, bload-soaked room, indicating the room had been searched. But no guards were present. Proceeding as quietly as possible, they headed down the corridors, following the gnoll’s map. After a half hour or so, they arrived at a juncture. In one direction was clearly moving air - a way out of the dungeon. In the other direction a door leading, according to the gnoll, to the master’s chambers.

After listening carefully at the door, Valen heard low voices and the shifting of an armored body. After a brief discussion, the party decided to push into the room. They found a long hallway, populated by three human guards. Two rushed forward to face the party, the third fled. The first two were quickly cut down and the party pursued the third into a larger room with four more guards, who fought fiercely, blocking the party from pushing into the next room. Moments later, six more guards entered the room - two bugbears and four humans. At 10 to 6, he odds turned against the party. Gabriel and Schlomo waded into the middle of the fray, attracting the attention of the bigger guards, while Blars held back, fighting with a human guard. Shecky found a corner from which to lob spells, while Valen hung back in the doorway, firing into the fray. The party dropped a pair of human guards, and the fight seemed to be turning, when three more humans in plate mail strode into the room. One, a tall blond human in plate mail with a gleaming longsword and shield, strode directly into the room to engage Gabriel - when he got near, the party could see that it was the blond shopkeeper from Hommlet, Gremag. As Gremag approached Gabriel, the other figure, in plate mail, carrying a glowing, ironshod quarterstaff, stopped in the doorway and uttered a command spell, ordering Gabriel to drop his weapon. Gabriel managed to fight the spell, but was shaken. Gremag then unleashed a devastating attack against Gabriel. A third sergeant joined the main fray.

As Gabriel fought Gremag and Schlomo and Ark plowed through the other guards, Valen and Shecky focused their fire (spells and arrows) on the other figure (Lareth) and Blars did his best to keep Gabriel alive with spells. As the remaining guards fell, Ark executed a flanking maneuver on Gremag, giving both him and the badly wounded Gabriel a slight advantage. As soon as he did so, however, Lareth cast “hold person” on Gabriel, who failed his save and went limp. Gremag took advantage of his helplessness by running him through with his longsword, sending him unconscious and bleeding to the ground. Shecky and Schlomo then rushed Lareth, while Ark and Valen concentrated on Gremag. While Valen peppered Gremag with arrows, Gremag wounded Ark deeply. Lareth smashed at Shecky several times with his magical staff, causing a great deal of damage despite frequent misses. Schlomo charged in to do massive damage to Lareth, who responded by casting, mid-battle, a spell which caused Schlomo to go immediately blind. Blars healed Gabriel, who climbed back to his feet to face Gremag again. With the damage already done to him by Ark, Schecky and Valen, the party managed to take down Gremag. Lareth, panicked, began casting another spell. Schlomo lashed out blindly to disrupt the spell and hit, bringing the evil cleric down before the spell left his lips.

Bloodied, battered and partially blind, the party quickly searched the bodies and the adjoining barracks. Ark took Lareth’s Staff of Striking, Schlomo or Gabriel (?) took Gremag’s magical longsword. As Schlomo’s sight slowly returned, Schlomo and Gabriel also stripped Gremag and Lareth of their fine suits of half-plate, taking them for themselves. In Lareth’s chambers, the party found an armoire containing a gem-encrusted necklace, a host of fine silver serving pieces, and a writing desk (as yet unexplored). Standing in the chambers of the evil cleric, Blars healed the party to the best of his ability, so that they might survive to escape the dungeon.

- END OF SESSION 7 -

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January 07, 2010 | David

Session 6, in which the party bargains with a Gnoll, and finds serious trouble.

The GOLD Gamer Recap: I (David, creator of GOLD, the Series) am currently running a Pathfinder game with six of the GOLD cast & crew. I’m taking them through a Pathfinder converted version of the classic D&D super-module T1-4, “The Temple of Elemental Evil,” thoroughly grounded in the original, but with lots of customization (including the incorporation of Michael Curtis’s Fane of St. Toad). This recap is just a summary of what happens during each session, for your amusement, and will be posted irregularly.

Characters:

• Gabriel Lightfoot - Human Paladin 3
  played by Andrew Deutsch (GOLD EP, DP & Director)
• Valen Greymoon - Elvish Ranger 3
  played by Nathan Mobley (Tim Calloway)
• Blars Granitdok - Dwarven Cleric 3
  played by Chad Schnaible (GOLD producer, sound guy)
• Ark Wong - Human Monk 2
  played by Justin Waggle (Peter Foote)
• Shecky Greenblatt - Gnomish Sorcerer 2
  played by Gary Karp (Charles Subar)
• Schlomo Rubenstein - Human Fighter 2
  played by James Xavier (Sam St. Croix)

With dawn approaching and spells and hit points low for all, especially Ark, whose injuries and scarring remained severe despite magical healing, the party was hard-pressed to decide where to rest. After some discussion, they decided to retreat to the small room at the foot of the secret stairs where the rescued merchants had been cloistered.

When the party arrived at the secret chamber, however, the merchants were gone. Valen crept up the stairs and overheard a conversation between what sounded like the rescued merchants and members of the town guard - the merchants had not obeyed the party’s request and had revealed themselves, and the secret passage! As Valen crept back down the stairs, he slipped and alerted the guards above. As the guards above rained arrows down the secret stairs, the party surmised that this was only a distraction - that they were likely sending more fighters down the main stairs to ambush the party from behind.

In the Ogre’s lair (the only access point between the secret stairs and main stairs) Schlomo, Blars and Shecky piled the ogre’s filthy bedding in front of the door and doused it with oil. Gabriel took position at the foot of the secret stairs, defending the crossing against the arrows from above. After completing the trap and lighting it, the party (guarded by Gabriel and led by Ark) crossed through the secret doors into the deeper part of the dungeon which Valen had only started to explore. As they closed the door behind them, they heard the screams of the guards as they were caught in the fire left behind in the ogre’s lair.

The party moved cautiously into the deeper dungeon, looking for a place to rest. They crossed an odd barrier trap of some kind, but were unable to locate its point of activation. Just as they found a secret room concealing the apparatus used to raise the barrier (which had not fallen), they heard approaching footsteps. They hid and surprised two human guards wearing black cloaks adorned with a fiery eye. They killed one guard and subdued another, dragging him into the secret room they’d just found. They interrogated the guard, Cheney-style, but were able to learn only a few details about the dungeon - the guard was clearly more afraid of his master’s wrath than of death. Additionally, Gabriel and other members of the party concerned about morality were concerned with some methods used during the interrogation, creating some tension in the party. After having squeezed what they could, the party gagged the prisoner and rested. Those keeping watch heard passing guards several times during the night.

After resting, the party decided to investigate in the direction from which the guards had come, proceeding swiftly, knowing that eventually someone would notice the missing guards. In a side passage, they stumbled upon a lone Gnoll warrior in a black-with-eye cloak, who ran from them. The party pursued, and found themselves in a stand-off at the mouth of a large room with a band of six heavily-armed gnoll warriors. The party fought carefully, making use of the doorway and shape of the room, and, despite taking heavy damage, defeated the gnolls and subdued their captain. Upon interrogation by Valen (who speaks Gnoll) and Ark (who speaks violence), overseen by Gabriel (to ensure no torture was taking place), it became clear the gnoll captain was disgruntled and could be persuaded to reveal info if properly paid.

The party paid handsomely, and in return the gnoll captain drew a map outlining the route out of the dungeon, as well as the location of the “master:” acording to the gnoll, a self-important human named Lareth. They learned that Lareth was guarded heavily, and that he ruled his people through fear. They also learned that Lareth and his people, as far as the gnoll knew, had no connection to Lt. Paul’s bandits, but that Lareth’s people had used Paul’s banditry as cover for their own. They also learned that the gnolls hated Lareth, for some reason, and that Lareth had some connection to the old Temple of Elemental Evil. Beyond that, the gnoll either did not know or wouldn’t say. After receiving his gold, the gnoll vowed to leave quietly without alerting anyone. Ark followed him briefly to ensure his quick departure.

The party then debated how to proceed. Some of the party wanted to quietly leave and present their proof against Lt. Paul to the mayor of Hommlet, Grondarian. Some wanted to confront the master, Lareth, and the evil and torture he represented. Others wanted to explore further into the dungeon, at least to the “crypts” they’d learned of, in search of any treasure they might find. The explorers won the day, and the party proceeded to the crypts.

In the crypts, the party battled a pair of fast-moving, voracious undead with multiple attacks (no one could identify the type of undead) and defeated them. In the monsters’ nest (and the tunnels beyond), they discovered a small amount of treasure, including a potion and a magical scroll. As they were deciding how to proceed, they heard the approach of footsteps. A black-cloaked guard rounded the corner, saw them, and ran, yelling an alert to (presumably) the rest of his group. The party had been discovered!

Quickly, the party retreated into the secret tunnel which led back to the Ogre’s grim torture chamber. Behind them, the sound of many soldiers filled the crypts. The party climbed up a long ladder to the torture chamber. As they rested and strategized, Ark crept out into the main room to keep watch. Moments later, he spotted an advanced party of black-cloaked guards creeping into the relatively dark main room. He hid behind a pillar and watched as two humans and two bugbears emerged. He picked up a small stone and tried to throw it back at his party who were concealed 15 yards away...and missed. Critically. The clatter of his badly thrown stone against the very pillar behind which he was hiding alerted the advance party to his presence, and the guards attacked Ark.

The rest of the party joined in the melee. One of the human guards ran, disappearing into the ogre’s lair. As the party battled the remaining guards, Valen spotted Hommlet town guard Jon Straw, with another guard, crouched and watching from the main stairs. As the battle wound down and the party dispatched the black-cloaked bugbears, Straw and his companion fired a few shots at the party, before vanishing back up the stairs.

The party finally dispatched both bugbears and their human companion. The party, many (including Ark) severely wounded, turned to each other to regroup, knowing this might be only a momentary lull in the battle. Behind them were two ways out - one to the crypts, which was minutes ago filled with the black-cloaked guards, one through the ogre’s lair, from which the recently defeated black-cloaks had emerged. Ahead was another way out - up the stairs, following the same path as Jon Straw and his lackeys.

Will the black-cloaks continue to pursue them? With a day now having passed, what is the status of Jon Straw and Lt. Paul in the world above? And what should the party pursue? Proof of Lt. Paul’s bandit activity? More details about what might be new activity in service of the Temple of Elemental Evil? Possible treasure which might still be found in the unexplored dungeon? Or is the right path at this point simple self-preservation?

-- END OF SESSION 6—

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December 28, 2009 | David

GOLD is eligible for this year's Streamy Awards. You should totally nominate us!

Wow. Okay.

With all the hubub surrounding the GOLD SEASON 1 DVD, we haven’t yet posted about this year’s Streamy Awards.

For those who don’t know the Streamys, don’t worry - this is only their second year. But it’s an amazing award show exclusively for television made for the web, like GOLD. They’re basically the Emmys of the web. Last year, at the First Annual Streamys, GOLD was not eligible because we had only 2 episodes in 2008 (you need 3 to qualify). But this year we’re totally in the race with GOLD episodes 2-6. As we work toward a Season 2 of GOLD, a Streamy nomination or two (not to mention a win) could be a huge motivator for a potential sponsor (last year’s winners included Felicia Day, Neil Patrick Harris and Joss Whedon).

Like any award show, there are a lot of different categories. And, while ultimately the International Academy of Web Television (IAWTV) decides upon the actual nominees and winners, nominations from the public are a major way to show that a program or individual deserves a nomination.

If you’ve a few minutes and want to help us out, please click on any of the links below to nominate GOLD or one of GOLD’s many eligible team members for Streamy Awards. You can vote once per day in each category until January 22. If you really wanna help us out, after you vote, use the Streamys twitter button (you’ll see it) to tell the world you voted for us. If you really, really wanna help out, you can bookmark this page and come back and nominate us multiple times (every day, maybe?) between now and January 22.

Thanks so much for your help. I’ve provided a handy list of eligible categories and people below. Just click on the links to nominate GOLD and the GOLDies.

Show-level Nominations
To make show level nominations, got to www.streamys.org/submit/public-submissions

Best Comedy Web Series: GOLD (goldtheseries.com)
Best New Web Series: GOLD (goldtheseries.com)
Best Ensemble Cast in a Webseries: GOLD (goldtheseries.com)

Individual Nominations
To make individual nominations, got to www.streamys.org/submit/public-submissions-people

Best Directing for a Comedy Web Series - GOLD - goldtheseries.com - www.streamys.org/submit/public-submissions-people

• Frederick Snyder (Ep 6)
• Andrew R. Deutsch (Eps 2,4 & 5)
• David Nett (Eps 2,3,4 & 5)
• Kyle Dickinson (Ep 3)
• Lilas Lane (Ep 4)

Best Writing for a Comedy Web Series - GOLD - goldtheseries.com - www.streamys.org/submit/public-submissions-people

• David Nett (Eps 3-6)
• David Nett with Andrew R Deutsch (Ep 2)

Best Male Actor in a Comedy Web Series - GOLD - goldtheseries.com - www.streamys.org/submit/public-submissions-people

• Rick Robinson (Richard Wright)
• David Nett (Jonathan Drake)
• James Paul Xavier (Sam St. Croix)
• Nathan Mobley (Tim Calloway)
• Gary Karp (Charles Subar)
• Robert J. Brewer (Dave Jackson)
• Alan Loayza (Oliver Crane)
• Jeremy Guskin (Paul Hokes

Best Female Actor in a Comedy Web Series - GOLD - goldtheseries.com - www.streamys.org/submit/public-submissions-people

• Shannon Ivey (Cissy Drake)
• Shannon Nelson (Martha Thisltethwait)
• Angie Schnaible (Persephone)

Best Guest Star in a Comedy Web Series - GOLD - goldtheseries.com - www.streamys.org/submit/public-submissions-people

• Ed Robinson (Crenshaw - Ep3)
• Frederick Snyder (DeValdivia - Ep3,5)
• Jessica Pennington (Leslie - Ep3,4)
• David Bickford (Tolkien - Ep4)
• Jeanette Scherrer (Train - Ep4)
• James Lane (Jaz - Ep4)
• Andrew R Deutsch (Goldy - Ep4)
• Brett Nichols (Harlan - Ep4)
• Justin Waggle (Foote - Ep6)
• Sasha Harris (Janice - Ep6)

Best Editing in a Web Series - GOLD - goldtheseries.com - www.streamys.org/submit/public-submissions-people

• Ashley Miller (Ep6)
• Andrew R Deutsch (Ep2)
• Chad Schnaible (Ep3)
• Andrew R Deutsch & David Nett (Ep4)
• Chad schnaible & David Nett (Ep5)

Best Cinematography in a Web Series - GOLD - goldtheseries.com - www.streamys.org/submit/public-submissions-people

• Andrew R Deutsch (Eps 2,3,4,5,6)
• Chad Schnaible (Eps 2,4)
• Nolan Wang (Eps 3,5)
• Max Well (eps 3,5)

Best Art Direction in a Web Series - GOLD - goldtheseries.com - www.streamys.org/submit/public-submissions-people

• James Paul Xavier

Best Original Music in a Web Series - GOLD - goldtheseries.com - www.streamys.org/submit/public-submissions-people

• Jacob Carver ("All We Were Asking")

Thanks so much for nominating GOLD. And tell all your friends to nominate us, too. The Streamys are a small award show now, so every nomination means a lot.

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December 08, 2009 | David

Thanks to our amazing supporters, the GOLD Season 1 DVD Club is 100% funded.

Hey there, everyone!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted an update. We’ve been super-busy here at Casa del GOLD (I don’t speak spanish, sadly) working on fundraising (always, always fundraising ;-( ), scripts and planning for GOLD Season 2, scripts for our GOLD spin-off, “Night of the Zombie King,” and pre-production for our upcoming (in 4 days!) shoot for the pilot of our new series, “Alice & the Monster.” Whew!

But don’t think we didn’t notice that the GOLD Season 1 DVD Club is 100% funded! Over 100%, actually. Which means that A) there will definitely be a GOLD Season 1 DVD in early 2010 and B) you guys are awesome. Which you already knew. There’re still 20+ days in this Kickstarter, so we’re hoping to build up a little cushion to help us with some extra-extras we’ve been discussing. If you’ve got friends who’d enjoy a GOLD DVD, encourage them to stop by and join the DVD club, pre-order a DVD, and generally go nuts. After December 31, the pre-orders for the cast & crew signed DVD stop. Don’t miss out!

Since we are now fully funded (once the Kickstarter ends on January 1), we’ve already begun work. The first things that need to be done are the most important: re-mastering the GOLD episodes for DVD. I thought I’d tell you a little bit about that here, and in the next week or so we’ll talk more about DVD extras. Cool? Cool.

A word of warning: if you’re not interested in the process of producing a DVD from content originally aimed at the web, you will fall asleep within 2 paragraphs. I guarantee it ;-)

Re-Mastering GOLD
Thanks to your generous donations, I’ve hired a cracker-jack professional editor to assist in the creation of the GOLD DVD. Re-Mastering GOLD essentially means returning to the raw episode edits and cleaning-up much of my ham-fisted post-production work. As of last week, this process has begun. It’s a time consuming, laborious process, but I’m super-excited to see the end results.

Video:

When we originally made GOLD, we shot in glorious 1080i HD on my trusty little Sony HVR-A1u. While it’s only a single-CMOS camera, the footage looks pretty darn stunning, I think. The thing is, we were aiming for the web, our budgets were tiny, and I was, let us say, inexperienced at color correction (I had never done it before ever). My inexperience bled over into the final product. What that meant was:

• I colored it for the web. The range of colors available for display on computer monitors is much wider than the gamut of the NTSC standard used by television and DVDs in the U.S. I colored corrected the episodes to computer monitor standards (such as they are), not NTSC. Therefore, when you convert the current GOLD videos to DVD, you get some bizarre coloring where the current colors sit outside the NTSC standard.
• Since I was such a novice, I had a hard time color correcting across different lighting conditions, etc. I took a shortcut which washed all the episodes with a yellowish, old-film look. By applying this wash, I was able to mask many of the cut-to-cut inconsistencies that I was unable to properly correct. It worked out, but sacrificed a lot of the richness of the original color for consistency.

Probably the most significant amount of work that will go into the making of the GOLD DVD is to undo all of my novice color correction (a fairly easy, if time-consuming task) and re-color correct using professional standards. Episode 6 will be the easiest - we were fortunate to have the help of a pro color correcting EP6. Unfortunately, she was forced to match the yellow-washed look of the rest of the series, but working with her stuff will be least laborious.

In the end, I think the GOLD that you can watch online looks pretty damn good, especially relative to the overall world of web video. But I know there’s an even higher level of quality that can be achieved with our source video - it just needs a professional editor tasked with unlocking that quality. Thanks to you folks, we’ve now got one.

Audio:

Good sound is the hardest thing to achieve in any indie video production. Proper equipment is expensive, and the environment constantly interferes. On the GOLD shoot we used a pretty high-quality boom mic and a great boom operator. But we had no lavs to work with (tiny mics which live on each actor for clear, crisp sound), the surroundings often interfered and, as with color, I was the most novice of novices when it came to post production sound. My processing and mixing skills were, um, raw.

The good news was, web video, especially at the time we were first releasing GOLD a year ago, was a lot more forgiving about sound than your living room entertainment system. Most people watching television on the web are listening using earphones or tiny computer speakers. A lot of the imperfections in sound can be easily masked when aiming at such devices. Not so with DVD. DVDs get played in your kick-butt, amplified, huge-speakered entertainment systems. The sound quality bar is much higher.

Fortunately, like the video, the raw sound we have is pretty darn good. Our pro post guy, Frederick, is confident he’ll be able to make it very clean and pleasant. He’s doing that right now.

---

It’s so exciting to think about bringing GOLD to that next level. The DVD is going to look and sound amazing, and it is all thanks to the folks who backed the GOLD DVD Club. I hope you’re as excited about seeing the end result as we are.

- David

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November 19, 2009 | David

If about 40 more people pre-order the GOLD DVD before December 31, we'll be able to send GOLD to DVD!

So, the GOLD Season 1 DVD Club has been live for several weeks, and we’re over halfway there. But a lot of people have been confused by the project so, with the help of Shannon, Frederick and Andrew, I’ve realized there’s a really simple way to explain it:

Pre-order the DVD for $25. If enough people do this before December 31 (as of November 19 at 3:30PM we need 42 more people to pre-order), we’ll be able to make the DVDs. If we don’t raise enough money, you don’t pay anything.

It couldn’t be more simple than that, really. If you want to pledge more than just $25, there are additional rewards - posters, shout-outs on the DVD itself, etc. And even if you can’t afford $25, you can help us out by pledging any amount.

Pre-order your DVD, or find out more about the GOLD Season 1 DVD Club, here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/davidnett/gold-the-series-season-1-dvd-club

You can find out more about the DVD Club at http://www.goblinsandgold.com/csp/gold/blog_entry/announcing_the_gold_dvd_club, and at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/davidnett/gold-the-series-season-1-dvd-club.

I hope you can join us and help make this DVD a reality. Thanks.

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