Not Nice at All

Looking over all reactions to Jeffro/BrOSR stuff, most of it from the now broken search engines is from 2022 or so. There is a lot of hate for the “one true wayism”, for the bro affect, for things that got me canceled in the previous decade which half of you don’t even know about. I get a lot of flack for my internet persona, but really… there is an amount of outrage and vitriol here that seems entirely out of place if it were the case that we all were really only talking about how to play a particularly strange vintage game.

But now you’ve got these guys [posting in the comments here]. They dismiss people outright for saying something provocative. (“Oh, that’s just trolling!”) They are bitter if someone developing a thesis punches back when people try to agree in a way that subtly negates it. They wanted something in an exchange they’ve had with us. People like this come to us all the time and praise us and want to be friends. But then they make a demand. “Please bro. Say that what I am doing in my campaign is okay, too. I said your campaign is okay. Please. Please just say that mine is okay, too.”

No, dude. My thesis is that it isn’t.

Wailing and gnashing of teeth then ensues. Later, people like this rendezvous and try to console each other. “Oh! So terrible! Aren’t I entitled to an opinion?!” This is all wrong. I am the person with an opinion. They are the ones that desperately want me to not have one!

This of course has nothing to do with rpgs at all. People like this have an a priori commitment to an idea that there is no such thing as objective truth. They are passive aggressively attempting to get me to bow the knee to it in every exchange. This is REALLY irritating.

When post modernists arrive in the world of rpgs, they ditch the rule books. All of this “rule zero” stuff isn’t a game design concept at all. It’s a sop for people that refuse to have ANYONE tell them what to do. After all, “what’s fun at my table is totally different.” There are varying shades of how people express this idea. Ironically, I like the weakly stated variants of it the least because they are really the most dangerous. The attitude amounts to “it’s okay to tear down the fence as long as you know why it was there first.” Such a catastrophe!

So now for me or the brosr to have any opinion at all, we have to repudiate post-modernism, explain the idea that objective truth is real and words have meanings, and then also convey the idea that we don’t really owe anyone in rpgs our blessing if we think they’re wrong. But it gets worse! Most people are dumb. We routinely uncover evidence that people are ridiculously illiterate compared to what would have been normal in the 1970s. So, we’re going to have this really nuanced discussion about these abstract ideas… with people that can’t read?

How can you communicate across this cultural gap at all? Well… I’ll tell you. You post pictures of Mike Mentzer. You come up with slogans like “you can win at rpgs.” You start speaking in off the wall parables– that sound like totally off topic digressions on social dance. And I know that sounds crazy. And I know you think I am insane. But let me tell you something. The reason these people are so mad is not because our rhetoric is so ridiculous or annoying or offensive. The reason they are mad is due to the fact they actually get the point.

So now we get to this guy Redcap. Nice dude. Runs a great show. I really appreciate him. He has done me a tremendous solid. I have always wondered what it would be like if NPR ran a segment on my ideas during Fresh Air. And he really and truly managed to pull it off. Redcap is nice. He really is. Ah! The number of times the average teenage boy today is exhorted to be “nice”! What does that even mean?

Well, I’ll tell you. It means Redcap can’t even say my name. The cult of “nice” is capable of such mean things, isn’t it? There are so many other things we could have inculcated people with besides “nice”. Virtue for starters. Things like honesty, courage, noblesse oblige. I sometimes think that “nice” is a repudiation of those things. But Redcap is nice. And he really doesn’t like having to pick a side.

I hate it, too. You know… just the other day I remember I was actually even required to put on the “jersey” of the opposing team just to go to the grocery store or sit through a Christmas eve service. Where were all the “nice” people that didn’t like having to pick a side THEN I wonder?

But we were talking about rpgs. And yeah, I am afraid that all of this high-handed philosophy talk is really just a cover for an uglier, more fundamental battle. Rule zero as it is commonly practiced amounts to little more than “do as thou wilt show be the whole of the law.” And this is probably the greatest surprise of all to emerge from this entire fight over the nature of rpgs: it really does all boil down to a weird shadow war between the forces of Law and Chaos. This. After decades of people arguing that the idea of alignment makes absolutely no sense.

I hate to break it to you, but this war between the “do as thou wilt” people and the people that oppose them isn’t just some tacky internet debate where it makes sense for everyone to just be nice and make friends. It is the outward evidence of a very real spiritual battle.

In that war, no one has the option of being exempt from picking a side.

Tunnels & Trolls is the First Rpg

It’s true.

If you love rpgs, then the man to whom you owe everything isn’t Dave Arneson, it isn’t Gary Gygax, and it isn’t David Wesely. It’s Ken St. Andre.

Stay with me on this. We have an iron-clad case here!

In the first place, Braunstein is not an rpg. Yes, it has a referee that is similar to what you find in rpgs. It has players playing roles like they would in an rpg. Nevertheless, it is a fundamentally different type of game from rpgs. Braunstein is explicitly competitive where rpgs tend to be cooperative. In rpg’s, the referee is much more of a mastermind and often described as being sort of a “god”. In Braunstein, the players are liable to run out of control when away from the referee– and the referee himself may not have a clear idea of what all is really going on. This is a fundamentally different type of game!

What about Blackmoor, then? Take a look at The First Fantasy Campaign and you don’t get a description of how to set up and run an rpg campaign. You get a bunch of random notes on how he set up an incredibly large multi-year Chainmail campaign. Though this campaign was initially billed as being a type of Braunstein, it is clearly such a departure from David Wesely’s game that it rapidly turned into something else.

Original Dungeons & Dragons would be the game which most people that aren’t eggheads would describe as being the first rpg. However, sit down and attempt to play the game that is actually described by the rules and you will get a game that is quite unlike anything people playing rpgs are doing. The 1:1 time rule contained within its pages turns the game into a sort of continuous, ongoing Braunstein. It also allows the referee to coordinate the activities of multiple independent parties, characters, and factions under a fog of war. When played in this manner it becomes necessary to actually use all of the wargame elements from the game that roleplayers typically omit from their campaigns. From this vantage point D&D becomes precisely what is written on the cover of its rules volumes: Rules for Fantastic Medieval Wargames Playable with Pencil and Paper and Miniature Figures.

That subtitle is not what anyone into rpgs thinks of when they attempt to define rpgs. That subtitle isn’t the result of someone reaching for words to describe the concept of rpgs before the term even existed yet. It’s a very clear indication that D&D is a unique sort of game that is unlike anything people imagine it to be.

D&D is not a role-playing game. It is a framework for creating a type of continuing campaign that is much more in line with the things you see written up in Arneson’s First Fantasy Campaign than anything really that came after. So, what is a roleplaying game? Rpgs are derivative of Original Dungeons & Dragons. But they did not evolve from it. Rpgs are what people created when they wanted to play D&D but could only understand fragments of its rules. The only way they could play it was if they created their own game out of just the parts that they could understand.

This new type of game tended to eject the 1:1 time rule of OD&D. It shifted from being a sprawling wargame campaign to focusing almost entirely on the exploits of a single party. Dungeon exploration became the primary focus in this initial phase of rpgs with nearly every other gameplay mode being relegated to handwaving and ad hoc rulings. So many needful rules got thrown out that a very early paraphrase of the idea of “rulings not rules” quickly emerged as a means of holding this new amateurish type of non-game together– typified by the phrase be reasonable. All of the premises and assumptions games like Rifts and GURPS and the B/X branch of D&D can be traced back to this point.

The first person to get aggravated that he could not understand D&D, create a variant rule set that detailed how to play the type of game that people today think of as being an rpg, and then publish it and get it into the hands of people that wanted in on this burgeoning hobby is Ken St. Andre. And the game he did it with was Tunnels & Trolls.

Everyone that loves rpgs owes him a tremendous debt. Even as late as 1979 Gary Gygax was still convinced that the thing hobby gaming needed most was a set of instructions that would recreate the awesome scope of the old Blackmoor campaign. He completely failed to anticipate that the derivative non-games of the people that had no idea what he was pointing people toward would ultimately overwhelm his own efforts and even retroactively define what people understood OD&D and AD&D to even be.

If you love rpgs, then truly… you owe Ken St. Andre a tremendous debt. And not just Ken, either really. But everyone that lacked the ability to read and follow the instructions of this odd little group of eccentrics that hailed from the Midwest.

Thank you, Ken!

And thank you to everyone who just didn’t get it!

Braunstein Was the First Braunstein

They keep saying that David Wesely’s 1968 Braunstein was the first rpg.

Questing Plagiarist: “By fusing the tactical infinity of wargames with the concept of each player playing a single character, Wesely had inadvertently created a new type of game: the rpg.”

Mr, Professor: “Dave Arneson, the co-creator of D&D, was the first player to ever die in a roleplaying game.”

That’s a nice bit of rhetorical sleight of hand, isn’t it? By virtue of the fact that they never define their terms, they are able to insinuate all manner of things that just aren’t true. Pretty tacky! People like this are not precisely dumb. They are primarily malicious. They will happily undercut their own credibility as sages of rpg lore just to prevent people from learning how to win at rpgs.

So, let’s not be like these losers. Let’s define our terms now so that we can all know what we are talking about.

Braunstein: A Diplomacy-like game where players take on individual roles either cooperating or else working against each other’s interests under a fog of war. The referee meets with them in succession and while the referee adjudicates interactions between players as they come up, the other players are free to engage in negotiations and diplomacy in the next room

Rpg: Conventionally, an rpg is a cooperative game where the players take on individual roles within an adventuring party and work together to overcome a range of challenges in a sequence of encounters adjudicated by a referee. This type of game can run from relatively procedural dungeon crawling type games all the way up to more freeform narratives that only retain an illusion of being a game.

It is natural to ask how something like a Braunstein could evolve into what we today think of as an Rpg, and the answer to that is that… it didn’t. Conventional rpg play is derived from a weird and broken folk game that was collectively improvised by entire generations of people that lacked the virtues required to either read or implement that rules that are outlined in the OD&D and AD&D rules manuals. Astonishing but true!

Those of us that do not pronounce the word “Braunstein” with a ridiculous impression of a German accent can all see it clearly, however. Braunstein was its own type of game distinct from all others both before and since. It was a highly volatile form of game and to this day it is extraordinarily compelling to anyone that experiments with them. Just as with Diplomacy, there are many variants of the original Braunstein game. Colloquially, we call these variants “Braunsteins”. If you devised one yourself and adjudicated it, you would naturally tell people that you “ran a Braunstein”. Everyone would understand what you meant by this… unless they were simultaneously stupid, ugly, malicious, and dumb.

Now… there is a question of why Dave Arneson would bill his Blackmoor game as a “Braunstein” when it was first announced. Was it originally intended to be a single session event like Wesely’s? Did it subsequently rage out of control and turn into something else? There are quite a few people alive today that might know a few things about this matter, but at this point I have no doubt that they would outright set fire to any primary documents still extant that might corroborate anything I have to say about it. No matter. There are actually many more intriguing questions. And the best thing about it is you don’t have to wait for old boomer to let you in on the game.

• Why does Braunstein play fit so well with the older D&D rule sets?
• Why does Braunstein play seem to solve so many problems that would kill off so many other continuing campaigns?
• Why is it that people that have been bred on conventional approaches to rpgs become so thrilled and engaged and elated with they participate in continuing campaigns that consciously leverage David Wesely’s ideas?

It’s a mystery! And strangely enough, sinister forces in the real world are arrayed against you, dead set on preventing you from solving it!

Honestly, though, they can’t stop us. Even better they can’t stop you! Because someone has taken the time to show you how to get the best possible results of integrating Braunstein events with ongoing continuing D&D campaigns. And that guy is Night Danger.

Check out his recent session report detailing his phenomenal game session here. Also, check out the video below where he shares his thoughts on the finer points of how to get the best results when running this type of game. They are cogent, lucid, and of great utility to anyone looking to try this in their own campaigns. Speaking of which, why don’t you jump on the team and come on in for the big win? There has never been a better time! It has never been easier to do this than right now.

Night Danger has demonstrated that you really can win at rpgs. And more than that… he has explained how you can, too.

The Talk of the Town

We did another show. I have to say, too, this is easily my best performance yet. There has not been a shakeup this big since my appearance on Inappropriate Characters! If you have been hiding under a rock this past week, go pop some popcorn and fire this baby up right now!

There are a lot of people that are less than excited about this. I am here even more of a monster than I have ever been. People actually enjoy hating me– if they can bear to speak of me at all.

This doesn’t bother me. My big debate with RpgPundit had a very similar vibe when it came out. At the time that it aired, everyone thought I was a moron. In the years since, however, there has been a significant shift. Guys that were heckling me in the chat ultimately changed sides as all parties involved began to show their true colors. Heck, one of them would end up doing thoughtful videos about Appendix N, endorse both Zero Prep gaming and a more RAW-oriented ethos, and even publish a retroclone that explicitly incorporated the time rule that nearly anyone else would have omitted before.

Some people walking into the middle of this conversation have no idea what we are talking about, though. I would normally be inclined to dunk on them, but I am feeling magnanimous as I experience this seismic shift in the rpg culture that is entirely in my favor. For the ten or twenty people that would like to know more of what I am alluding to in this conversation, please see the following:

• Recording Game Time with Respect to Each and Every Player Character
• How do you do Patron style play in D&D?
• The Secret History of Trollopulous
• The Charge of the Douche Brigade
• The Most Important D&D Rule You Missed: 1-1 Time
• How to Win at D&D

That’s all old news, though. If you want to see some really exciting stuff, look at the people that have decided to apply these incredible ideas to their own campaigns.

• Scutifer_Mike with How to Battle Braunstein
• Dunder Moose with How to BrOSR #2: Campaign Setup

Of course, I can see how you might not want to tune in to the sort of rpg hipsters that tend to run with me. I get it. We’re imposing. We come off as arrogant. People think we’re rude and insufferable. I know! We’re terrible people. Our only virtue is that we are having more fun than everybody else!

I laugh, but this really is a real problem. It would be nice if someone tried to experiment with some of these ideas but then did it all with people that haven’t been brainwashed by the Jeffro cult. It would be great if the that people did it were familiar with more recent game systems than the weird esoteric texts the bros regularly pick through. It would be great if the people that did it were more representative of contemporary gaming culture with more conventional tastes, normal senses of humor, normal types of banter, and much less of a chip on their shoulders.

And hey, y’all. I’ve got news for you. We finally have you covered:

What happens when a seasoned referee drops cutting edge “bro” innovations like Braunstein play and 1:1 time into more of a straight ahead 5e game that incorporates much more player autonomy than typical story type tables would think to do?

Well, see for yourself.

There’s some good stuff here. Although personally, I like it when the guy attempts to succinctly explain what playing 1:1 time is like and ends up rambling incoherently without saying anything that comes to a point or that makes any sense. Welcome to the club, man! You’re just like me, for real for real!

Seriously, though. I couldn’t be happier that some of my detractors showed up in the chat to ask what things about 1:1 time DIDN’T work and what things about this experimental campaign they liked the LEAST.

The players, who evidently are unaware of my utterly noxious internet persona really had to struggle to come up with something here. They have not drunk the Kool-Aid. They were not going to bombastically declare that 1:1 time is a panacea like I would. So, they kind of hemmed and hawed on this. I feel like they were forced to almost make up a non-problem in their efforts come off as fair and considerate and evenhanded. Either way, the sort of Achilles Heel that guys in the peanut gallery were clamoring for never really manifested.

As to the other question, no one else will notice this but they actually came right out and gave the most Jeffro answer that they could. The thing that they dislike most about their campaign is… they just haven’t had enough time to develop all of the parts of the world that they are most excited to play with. The biggest problem with their campaign is that they haven’t spent enough time playing in it yet!

That right there is funny, y’all.

At the end of the day, it’s all there: the comradery on display in this group, the level of engagement these people can now take for granted in their game, the excitement they share over the subtle shift from “my” campaign to “our” campaign that these ideas naturally engender…. It’s all there. If you know what to look for, it’s all there! There is no doubt that people that honestly want to run the campaign of their dreams cannot help but want to get in on this once they finally see it.

Lucky for them, you really can win at rpgs!

—

Update: There was actually a sort of pre-show featuring speculation about what was actually going to happen during the main event. This is interesting because it highlights some of the questions that normal people have about what’s been going on. Also, if you ever wondered what it would be like if, say, NPR did a piece covering my work… this show pretty well nails how it would have been done. Very unusual! Check it out!!

GURPS Fantasy First Edition Session One

I always wanted to play this game.

It turns out to be quite a slog. A point-buy characters system with elaborate tactical combat rules turns out to be a very bad combination for getting a game off the ground. I had thought that things would work well if I interpreted everything through the lens of the old Wizard microgame, but GURPS Second Edition is not that sort of game at all.

It took one hour and forty minutes to play out a simple duel in a blank arena map. We had to look very closely at the rules for missile spells and the rules for close combat. At one point the goblin pit fighter failed on an attempt to tackle my fireball thrower. The guy was on the ground right at my feet and I could not find any relevant modifier to this to use to adjust the to-hit roll. Even though not getting a dodge roll was a nice perk, this was irritating. Another thing to come up was that we were completely on our own to adjudicate how to find somebody to attack them when they are inside a circle of 7 hexes of darkness somewhere.

I had allowed “patrons” into the game on a very loose basis so that they could bet on the proceedings and possibly interfere. I thought perhaps to get them character stats, but honestly… I am not sure that anyone cares. The idea of these entities as a faction is more important. Their stables of arena fighters, the amount of muscle that they have available, the objectives that they might have against each other… all of this seems well beyond the default scope of the early GURPS System. At this time I am not sure what to do with it.

The feel of spellcasting in early GURPS is quite different from Wizard. The Blur and Flash effects are effectively permanent. Being able to cast one-point fireballs on an infinite basis is quite unusual. Walking around with a fully charged up fireball that’s ready to throw is fun. I am not quite clear on spell spoilage rules and concentration just yet.

We need character point awards for the session here. I think three for the winner and one for the loser is fine. Attempting to rise above the status level of a slave is the default objective for the game. Buying off the Dead Broke advantage may be the first order of business, however. But for old Fireball here, I can’t see him doing anything else but buying up another skill level in Throwing right now.

There is a tremendous pressure to switch to GURPS 4e. The rules I have selected that I want to explore are not available anywhere except eBay and this turns out of be a nearly insurmountable hurdle for the game. I am the only person with the books and the only person that desires rules mastery of them, so this makes me a bottle neck for anything getting instantiated in the game. I don’t like residing in that position at all.

Update: After the game I realized that I had forgotten to roll the skill check for charging up new fireballs. I rolled them after the game and they all succeeded and none of them got critical successes or failures. Later we realized that we had also forgotten to apply the damage bonus that comes from Brawling skill. Our patron player assumed that this meant that the goblin mage had thrown the match. This seems to me to be a strong interpretation that says something about the campaign world, so I elect to lean into this. The experience awards should be adjusted to 2 character points to each combatant.

Here are in-character accounts of the campaign activity from our very helpful patron player:

Game day is here mooks. We’re taking bets right up until that Goblins feet hit the sand so get out your coin purses .

Win $1 for every $1.10 ya put down and get her Pin.

Remember proceeds might go to funding better roads for Orphans.

Odds
Fireball 1:1
Pitman 2:1

Bob Arum: $1000 on Fireball
Don King: $1000 on Pitman Da Gobbo
Karl Karlsonsonson: $1000 on Fireball

From the Journals of Wimpy, the No Longer Penniless, in which he began his career of monies after a day at the Arena with a Goblin Pitfighter:

The arena buzzed with anticipation as the crowd roared with bloodlust, their chants echoing off the stone walls like the rumble of distant thunder. I stood in the center, my robes billowing in the wind as I faced off against my opponent: a goblin, small in stature but fierce in spirit.

As the goblin charged towards me, I raised my staff, channeling the raw power of the elements into a swirling vortex of flames that danced at my fingertips. With a fierce cry, I unleashed the fireball, watching as it soared across the arena and slammed into the goblin’s chest with explosive force. To my surprise, the goblin blurred before my eyes, his form twisting and contorting as he dodged the fiery blast with uncanny speed. Before I could react, he was upon me, his blows raining down upon me with relentless fury.

I stumbled backward, pain shooting through my body as I struggled to regain my footing. With a grim determination, I charged up a new fireball, the flames crackling with renewed intensity as I prepared to unleash hell upon my diminutive foe. Just as I released the spell, the goblin disappeared from my vision as light flashed in my eyes, leaving me disoriented and confused. I blinked, trying to regain my bearings, but before I could react, he reappeared in view, his eyes gleaming with malicious intent.

As the light dazzled my senses, the goblin launched himself at me once more, his movements fluid and graceful as he danced around my attacks with uncanny agility. With each blow he landed, I felt my strength waning, my resolve faltering in the face of his relentless onslaught.

Yet. Still, I fought on. Trading blows with the goblin in a deadly dance of death and destruction. Sometimes I would summon the elements to my aid, hurling fireballs and bolts at him with all the power at my disposal. Other times, he would catch me off guard, slamming into me with brute force and ferocity.

It was a battle of attrition, a war of wills as we clashed again and again in the arena’s blood-soaked sands. I missed several times, my spells going wide as the goblin ducked and weaved with infuriating speed. But still, I pressed on, refusing to give up even as the odds seemed stacked against me.

And then, just when it seemed like all hope was lost, I managed to land one final blow, a double-sized fireball that engulfed the goblin in a blaze of searing flame. With a triumphant roar, I watched as he stumbled and fell, his body consumed by the inferno until nothing remained but ash and embers.

As the crowd erupted into cheers and applause, I collapsed to my knees, exhaustion washing over me like a tidal wave. It had been a hard-fought victory, won by the narrowest of margins, but in the end, I emerged victorious, the last mage standing in the arena of death and despair.

Megalos At Night Urgent Update:

It appears that rumors of Pitfight da Gobbo throwing Mondays duel were true. Without a doubt those little muscles were not used to their full extent. Authorities are seeking information, will offer immunity and reward those who come forward.

The integrity of the Megalos Arena is of utmost importance. Do your duty citizen.

Now a word from our sponsor:

Seeking restitution for damages due to thrown Duels? Sir Lukius Not-medici is here to help. A small retainer is all I ask and you get to keep 100% of your, ah, settlement.

—

Wimpy Penniless Fireball Wizard

ST 12 [20]
DX 13 [30]
IQ 14 [45]
HT 12 [20]

Thrust: 1-1
Swing: 1+2

[15] Handsome (+2/+4 reactions)
[-20] Dead Broke
[-10] Megolomania
[15] Magical Aptitude
[-20] Social Status -4

15 points in skills:
[8] Throwing [PH] DX+1 14
[4] Carousing [PA] DX+1 14
[1] Climbing [PA] DX-1 12
[2] Stealth [PA] DX 13

10 points in spells:
[1] Ignite Fire [MH] IQ-2 13 *
[1] Create Fire [MH] IQ-2 13 *
[1] Shape Fire [MH] IQ-2 13 *
[4] Fireball [MH] IQ 15 * **
[1] Simple Illusion [MH] IQ-2 13 *
[1] Sound [MH] IQ-2 13 *
[1] Complex Illusion [MH] IQ-2 13 *

* Includes magery bonus
** Spells at skill 15 cost 1 less energy

Large Knife
cutting, 1, C 1
impaling, 1-1, C

Thrown Large Knife
impaling, 1-1, P-B -, Inc. 1, 1/2 8, Max 15

—

Pitfight Pitman

ST 10
DX 10
IQ 14 [45]
HT 14 [45]

Thrust: 1-2
Swing: 1

[-20] Dead Broke
[-10] Impulsiveness
[15] Magical Aptitude
[-20] Social Status -4
[10] Night Vision

22 points in skills:
[8] Shield [PE] DX+3 13
[2] Gambling [MA] IQ 2
[8] Brawling [PE] DX+3 13
[4] Alchemy [MVH] IQ-1 13

13 points in spells:
[1] Light [MH] IQ-1 13 *
[1] Continual Light [MH] IQ-1 13 *
[4] Flash [MH] IQ+1 15 * **
[2] Darkness [MH] IQ 14 *
[4] Blur [MH] IQ+1 15 * **
[1] Seek Water [MH] IQ 13 *

* Includes magery bonus
** Spells at skill 15 cost 1 less energy