Deep in the darkest parts of the Prismatic Wasteland discord server a bunch of us bloggers and designers decided to do a little Secret Santa. Instead of socks and cheap household appliances, we followed the gift guide over at Explorers Design (find games and rate them, play them, write about them, or design for them). For my pick, I got Franco Alvarado, who designs under Root Devil.
Gatorbarge
Gatorbarge was a submission to the Barkeep Jam. The zine introduces a floating casino that appears during the Raves of Chaos and sets up shop. The twist? Well, that casino happens to be right inside the propped-open maw of a giant, slumbering alligator. When you enter, you’re immediately testing your luck—the gator could wake up at any moment, snap shut its jaws, and swallow everyone down its gullet for a nice swim in giant alligator stomach acid. 1
What Drew My Interest?
As one of the editors for Barkeep on the Borderlands I had a personal interest in checking out all of the submissions to the jam (even if I didn’t have the time to write my own). While Barkeep does include a casino inside one of the pubs, the Gatorbarge represents a pub that is primarily a den of debauchery and gambling.
The concept of gambling inside the maw of a sleeping kaiju-sized gator is certainly thrilling, dangerous, and just the right amount of outrageous. This pub fits perfectly with the original Barkeep bars.
What Was the First Thing I Noticed?
There’s enough going on here that this isn’t a one-note pub. The new bird-folk owner of the casino is keeping the Gatorbarge magically asleep, but he’s in over his head. The old owner, a Gator-folk that’s still hanging out here, wants to soothe his ego by doing what he does best—grabbing someone in a death roll and going gator-wild. The casino bouncers are magical ivory golems crafted from the gator’s teeth. Dentists are on retainer to keep everything clean and make sure everything is up to code for any nosy health inspectors. Bird-folk are on staff to sling cards. The amount of tension and mini-faction play happening inside the mouth of a giant gator is frankly pretty dang impressive.
Could I Easily Run This at the Table?
Absolutely. The zine is set up in the same format as Barkeep on the Borderlands. I’m very familiar with the pubcrawl procedure, so plugging this in would be no work at all.
If you’re not running the Raves of Chaos, you could also have the Gatorbarge roll up alongside any river in your setting for a quick session of high-stakes gambling.
Do the Ideas Feel Exciting, Novel, or Well Executed?
A casino set inside the maw of a giant alligator, staffed by animated teeth and filled with talking gator-folk, is definitely exciting and novel. There could have been a slip-up here in the execution, but as mentioned above, the mini-faction play is well-crafted.
There has clearly been a lot of thought put into the various encounters the jolly crew would stumble into, and the through-line of new owner vs. old clientele is the perfect tension builder waiting to boil over.
What Was My Favorite Part?
There’s a sidetrack2 that really made me smile and laugh:
A dental worker cleaning an ivory bouncer in the river with a giant novelty brush.
Which Part Needs Work?
A couple of the encounters (including the one mentioned above as my favorite!) could use a bit of tightening up, as per the Encounter Checklist. In the sidetrack above, this encounter could be a flash in the pan and glossed over once described. Nothing (other than the hilarious image) draws the players in or sticks to them. There’s nothing they need to do to disentangle themselves from the encounter.
That said, the majority of the encounters are tightly wound and forcefully draw the players in. These non-sticky encounters are the exception, not the rule.
You can pick up Gatorbarge on itch today. Root Devil also has an interesting blog full of gameable posts, and I particularly enjoyed the 6 Room Dungeon Generator and 4 Merchants You Meet on the Road.
Did you enjoy this post? Consider signing up to the mindstorm, my semi-regular newsletter!
