Tag: Necrotech

The Gaunt Tribal Update

A Gaunt Crowd, by Jose

Here we are again. My notes have this as “Gaunt 4.0.” The Gaunt play an important role in the setting, and they deserve more attention, they’re just such a complex, involved piece of the setting that they consume a lot of my time, and I often feel like people would rather more attention placed on other parts of the setting. Still, I love them, and so when I find the time, I fill in those details.

They have increased in priority lately as I move towards the Arkhaian. While I know they are native to the Umbral Rim, they have always been deeply tied to Grist. Grist is, after all, based on Coraabia which is home to the Unliving, on whom the Gaunt are based. A toxic junk world on the edge of the space ruled by their enemies is the perfect place for the Ranathim tyranny to dump a bunch of Gaunt, so as I pivot towards one of my favorite worlds, I wanted to expand the Gaunt. I’m also desperate to finish the Dead Art and start to outline the Necrotech of the Umbral Rim, which is slow going, but between this update, the Flesh Monstrosities, we’re making some big strides forward.

But this post is more than just an update on behind-the-scenes material, this is about the Gaunt Tribes. What are those? Mostly an attempt to tackle some issues I’ve had with the Gaunt for awhile. See, I love them, and he community, in general, understands and respects their place in the setting, but they don’t get used as much as they could. This is changing! In particular, Derrick’s work with his playtests makes heavy use of Flesh Monstrosities, likely because it’s the single most detailed “Bestiary” of the setting, but that has put more eyes on the Gaunt and what they are and how they work. But I still see some problems when the community attempts to interface with the Gaunt.

I’ve boiled these issues down to four bullet points:

  • Gaunt are fairly complicated and hard to understand for starting PCs.
  • Gaunt are too expensive for what they get you
  • Gaunt versatility and variety is poorly understood
  • Most players and GMs lack context on how to use Gaunt or how Gaunt societies might work.

This is, as always, a moving target. As noted above, this is the fourth iteration of the Gaunt, which is more revisions than any other race has had (though not by that much: all the “big races” get at least one overhaul, and a few, like the Asrathi, Ranathim and Keleni have had several). Still, I hope this has resolved, or at least chipped away, at these problems.

This will be an ongoing release with a lot of moving parts, and I’ll discuss it in some detail below, but if you want to skip to the results, you can click on the links below. If you’re backer, I have the Gaunt Tribal preview ready for you now, but be aware that it’s a preview, and all of these Gaunt Tribes will end up on the wiki in fairly short order. There will be a Gaunt Tribal Design document that will remain a backer special, and will be the fuel for the coming Gaunt Tribal poll.

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