Braunstein has been framed as being an intermediary form in the evolution of wargame to roleplaying game. I have demonstrated that Braunstein play is integral to OD&D and AD&D and that its concepts are in fact fundamental rather than vestigial. Consider that the Braunstein has been framed as “the first rpg” by some. This is not entirely true, yet there is clearly a connection between Braunstein and rpgs. Consider as well that Dave Arneson’s First Fantasy Campaign was billed as a Braunstein. Braunstein has a deep and significant relationship not just to the genesis of D&D in partic ..read more

This is what I care about. The cavalry charge. I imagine countless people playing D&D for decades and never running a real charge. This creates a black pit within my soul. Charging gets a great deal of attention within the fatigue rules. Positioning your troops properly and then determining whether to wait or not is suddenly a nontrivial decision. D&D rules universally lack this bit of modeling. When I played this before, the charge rule resulted in the cavalry unit being out of play once it was committed. My question now is… was this rule intended to create a situation where cavalry ..read more

Over at the Joy of Wargaming, an innocent question is asked: This causes rpg Twitter to return to the Chainmail rules, actually read them, and begin to discern the difference between “turn” and “round” within those pages: The question now is… are we playing AD&D combat wrong given that we have always played Chainmail wrong? A cursory glance at Swords & Spells indicates that D&D combat makes a conscious departure from Chainmail melee. However… Swords & Spells introduces increased rates of fire for missile weapons with a rule that is immediately familiar to anyone that has pic ..read more

More questions in the mail bag today! This one is suspiciously similar to a previous one, but whatever. Let’s go! How does 1:1 time account for things that genuinely take months or years? I understand that we can simply take busy PCs out of play for the duration, but this seems unsatisfying. It’s up to the player. If you play the wizard Frobozz, you have to choose between adventuring with your frens, participating in Sir Homer’s epic mass combat campaign, and researching a powerful new spell for three months. There are tradeoffs for each option. What’s unsatisfying is never getting to do sp ..read more

More answers for you today! This time, the question comes in from Brown Wizard Winston. I was watching your post braunstein report on DunderMoose’s channel. How do you determine what each force has, especially with factions like giants? In one case we had somebody playing a longstanding NPC. In another case, we had somebody running their usual PC. The forces at the various small towns were set when the region was first sketched out– including the leveled characters available. We had a new guy show up and I just gave him 200 orcs that didn’t exist. (Just like when David Weseley did it, you c ..read more

More questions in the mailbag today! First up, one from AlchemicRaker: Does #BrOSR adhere to this passage, in regards to “The activity of players in combat”? Related, does #BrOSR delay character actions in combat when players dither? If so, has it worked particularly poorly or well? At low level when PC’s die every week and with players facing impossible odds, I generally give them all the time they want to plan so that all of the loss and pain and carnage is accepted as being completely fair and entirely the players’ fault. If we were strict on this rule, I predict that callers would need ..read more

Black Dragon Games has a very genuine and heartfelt question about how Real D&D works: aa bb cc I agree with Matt that people have been heated about this, c’est la vie. But here is a question. A disclaimer: I’m fine with 1:1 time, I believe you can use it and run a fun and rewarding campaign, I understand it has “corner cases” but no more so than any approach. I also want to stress that this is a good faith question, not an attempt at a “gotcha”, I expect someone who does 1:1 will present a perfectly straightforward solution, I have a system I like so I don’t intend to switch, this is pur ..read more

This game was a long time coming. Way back in January I devised a new town and dungeon local to specifically to set up a “mudcore tier of play” for new players where they could play without being bothered by any “patron” tier characters from the broader campaign. The idea was that when they graduated to level 3 or 4 or so, they would have a chance to fight a cool miniatures battle and then begin to move about on the campaign map as they pleased once they were victorious. Limiting “bro” character autonomy in this way back then was very controversial and the players did not like it at all. Here ..read more

To Aurum’vera Lyth’n’dira (AKA Goldenrod, Goldie, Vera, Aurie) and her legal representative team: After reviewing the response you sent regarding our initial legal brief, we at M.U.C.K. wish to respond and correct a few points made in your response. First of all, M.U.C.K. deals with controversial people and issues, so our funding and leadership, while legal, is withheld from public scrutiny. This is so that the free-ish speech rights of all sentient beings, human or non-human, are allowed to safely say (and donate) what they want in defense of the minorities of this wonderful city. Secondly ..read more

The foul fae Goldenrod has, in her soulless wickedness, slain two innocent human women. Let us look at the evidence of this foul, foul crime. These women were exercising their Saint-Cuthbert-given right to protest peacefully. Say what you will about their political beliefs, but they were not hurting anyone with their protest. They didn’t attack anyone, tear down statues of beloved historical figures, burn down any teepees, or try to kill anyone. Just expressing speech and exposing their ample bosoms. Then, some of these women peacefully entered the tower and had a discussion with the elf. In ..read more