Introduction
While I am no expert on 1e as compared to Jeffro, Mandalf, or Fluid; I celebrate Appendix B for what I always imagined it to be for: filling out a section of wilderness the DM has not already created with prep (BOO!) or with previous session Real Play (YAY!). This "filling out", I've always seen and used, for a single session to get an idea what's off the edge of the current DM's map. Just for a session!
Jeffro seems to generally agree with my thoughts on this as his blog post says in all caps:
AD&D IS OPTIMIZED FR RUNNING SESSIONS BY THE SEAT OF YOUR PANTS. IT IS NOT ENGINEERED FOR TOP DOWN WORLD BUILDING AT ALL.
Big agree! #ThankYouJeffro
I used Appendix B for some Seat of Your Pants (SEYP) DMing when my Dubzaron PCs were exploring Barsoom. I found it to be insanely fun and was ready to switch the entire setting of my campaign to Barsoom. But my players were less pumped for such an idea. If I'd have understood the TOTAL NONSTOP BRAUNSTEIN back then, we might still be having amazing Barsoomian sessions in Dubzaron. Read below and judge for yourself.
After Jeffro dropped this blog post, and another one here, the BROSR twittersphere blew up with discussion about statistics on Appendix B, if the castle sub-chart should be used for wilderness or inhabited, if Jeffro was an illiterate meanie or just a meanie. And my eyes glazed over with boredom.
This blog post is NOT an analysis of the statistical breakdown of Appendix B or anomalies within it. I don't care. I have never cared. I will never care.
In this blog post I will use the 1e overworld that Jeffro rolled up, the big pile of nonsense numbers and encounters, and I will turn it into a MYTHIC OVERWORLD for real TOTAL NONSTOP BRAUNSTEIN play. Just like I did with Jeffro's Traveller poasts, I will show you why TTRPGs are meant to be played and not game theoried about for hours on end.
The Scourge of Solitaire Play
I know some of you get big followers in yurturb by doing "Actual Plays" of Solitaire Play. That's great. I'm happy for you. But that's not real D&D. And it's not as boring as real Solitaire Play because you have followers (superchatters?) giving you ideas in your chat about how to turn this or that hex into this or that mythic concept. Solitaire players don't.
When a PC reaches name level in a BROSR 1:1 time campaign in the past, they'd be shuffled into the boring scourge of Solitaire Play. It's fun for a while, sure. It was a novelty since most of the BROSR players had never been in a D&D campaign where they could: clear land, build a castle, run trade routes, assassinate rivals, make magic items, etc.
But when the novelty of doing all that in Solitaire Play wore off, the best BROSR players realized something. This sort of real D&D campaign play was fun because of Braunstein Convergence. Not the Diffusion of Solitaire Play. Diffusion created EZ MODE farmdweeb lair smashing. Diffusion inflated entire campaign markets with free money so PCs would never adventure without tens of thousands of GP reward guaranteed from Name Level PCs and Patrons for doing (often) extremely easy and safe tasks. Lame!
Convergence with Braunstein Play is why 1:1 time was fun. Convergence saved campaigns!
You'll need to check out Jeffro's blog about Braunstein play or my analysis of my Battle Braunstein (Shuckstein) here if you need these terms defined but the bottom line is Convergence means a GROUP EXPERIENCE. Or, even better DOWNLOAD BROZER TODAY. It's the talk of the town, and it's free.
You didn't want to build a keep in your D&D world and keep that info to yourself. If no one else knows about your big army or fights it, does it even exist?
And if Jeffro rolls up a small region of an overworld and no one engages with it in actual play, it never existed. But, in the process of me playing with this world (even in this blog post) the world will come to life. D&D is a group endeavor. It is TOTAL NONSTOP BRAUNSTEIN with Convergence. So let's converge!
Jeffro's Overworld and Dubs' Abductive Reasoning
I don't care about every item Jeffro rolled up when populating his region. I will drop below the ones I'm going to riff on starting with his concepts first. I've highlighted most of these in yellow on the picture of the map I put above. And added my own notes. I will describe what Jeffro had and in some cases do some Abductive Reasoning with why it's there.
0201 City (40,000): They "have bird heads [...] and antlers! Their skin is wrinkled and seamed as if they had been sewn together [and] crazy large ears like an elephant. [They] have hypnotic orange-red eyes." Crablike bodies of purplish color.
Sounds great. I have deemed this city Raptorton
0303 Ruins (Tomb): Jeffro gives this no real detail. If my PCs found it I would deem it the Tomb of Wings. It's so close to Raptorton it must be related to them somehow. Millenia ago the Crab-Raptors of Raptorton were deep into a mad cult which deemed that flight was heresy. All wings were removed and put into the Tomb of Wings for generations until somehow the Crab-Raptors stopped being born with them. One quest might be given by a Crab-Raptor heretic to go to the tomb and bring back his ancestor's wings for study etc etc.
0309: Medium Castle: 14th Level Assassin. Jeffro waxes philosophic about how BROSR players won't care about this guy. That (paraphrasing) John Wick was already the best Patron player assassin. I agree to a point. Making up too much about him as part of world creation is boring. I would use him if and when the players come upon him in REAL PLAY. That is the secret to using Appendix B and the TOTAL NONSTOP BRAUNSTEIN
Pretend Session with MORE Abductive Reasoning
Ok enough of that. Jeffro rolled up some encounter checks and noted their location. As if a party trekked across this land. I will place a red line on the map to indicate the travel of the party. Note it will assume they started on the edge of THIS map since the purpose of Appendix B was they walked off the edge of their previously known map. I will note the encounters below and how to Abductive Reason some NoPrep ideas in session regarding the encounters and then regarding my pretend party interacts with them.
Encounter at 0196: Shambling Mound; The players enter this new region and immediately come across a shambling mound. I decide this is a giant mound of the decrepit wings from the Tomb of Wings. Evil magic in the tomb sometimes animates the Crab-Raptor parts there and they scour the countryside. I tell the players "the mound is made all of feathers and chiton". They will likely run away. If they fight and kill it I drop more clues as to what it's made of. I tell the cleric these parts are ancient and almost undead. Seeding future hooks.
Encounter at 0307: Bear, Brown: This bear rolls up a Friendly Reaction check so it is not hostile; I decide it is tamed. The druid pets it and sees it has a collar of sorts with a tag showing an arrow and serrated dagger crossed. The dagger imagine shows drip as if poisoned. The players may theorize it's the pet of another druid but the party's druid would confirm "we don't collar our animal friends". Intrigue. In my mind I know it's probably the Assassin's bear. Due to abductive reasoning I've decided the assassin works with animals. Seems strange no? But this helps me begin to imagine who this guy might be.
Encounter at 0509: Giant Lizard: I've rolled it is hostile and attacks. I've already decided many animals near the Assassins keep at 0309 are Tame. So this creature being hostile could be a former pet gone mad due to Hostile. I deem it so and it fights the party. They see it is impacted by magical anger and realize, upon killing it, it has the same collar as the Bear. The druid finds this odd "why is this not tame too?"
End Session at 0309: Keep of the Assassin: The players, after their battle and with session time nearing, realize they need a place to stay and be safe between sessions. The druid and ranger, by now, have been tracking and realize many animal tracks go in the direction of 0309. These are the numerous pets of the Assassin. So, the party easily finds the Assassins Castle. It has flags with the same arrow/dagger symbol on the collars. I deem this guy is an Elf (due to all the animal stuff) and name him Deadleaf. I think we have a brosr PC named that? Perhaps this is where he's graduated to name level play.
The party has no choice but to approach the castle for rest between sessions. They meet Deadleaf and his reaction is neutral. He is cold hearted and has a magic crown artifact which gives him full control of all animals within 12 miles of him or something. His keep is full of animals as his servants serving him wine and cleaning his carpets and such. This castle now sticks in the party's mind. They have run out of session time sleep at Deadleaf's castle between sessions.
Downtime Play and Session 2 Hooks
Now is where the magic of other players' ideas come into play. In session the players will have been debating among themselves about Deadleaf. Should they work for him, trust him, etc?
An "Always On" DM can take their suggestions about what Deadleaf's deal is and run with it. Or due it at the start of Session 2. Players will always ask "what work does this guy have?" The druid and ranger PC will ask alot of questions about the animal. About the mad lizard and why it went mad.
Abductive Reasoning might tell us that Raptorton is the problem. And the Tomb of Wings. Deadleaf reveals the empty castle at 0502 that Jeffro rolled up is the site of a great battle his people had with the Crab-Raptors some 200 years ago. That a mad cult in Raptorton is working to bring back their power of flight but it's created necrotic magic across the realm and maddened his animals.
Players might help the decidedly untrustworthy Deadleaf or want to go to Raptorton to see for themselves. Who knows! But you may notice we've already seeded two members of a future Battle Braunstein; Deadleaf and Raptorton. Three if you count the made wizard Crab-Raptor in Raptorton who is pushing this new necrotic magic.
Give this region a few more sessions and you have a Battle Branstein ready to go. Simple as.
Conclusion
This is a lot, what's the point? The point is what I said above. The ideas Jeffro rolled up with Appendix B were boring to him but fun to me. Not because I personally find the ideas fun to roll in my mind but because I have an audience of my other players. I know Jeffro will read this. Will he elaborate? Will this become a Total Nonstop Braunstein test case just like we did with Traveller? I don't know, but there's excitement there.
In a real D&D campaign you know people will PLAY this stuff. It's not theoretical. It's not rolling on charts to test percentages; it's real play. And the magic comes from the GROUP ENGAGEMENT with an eye towards Braunstein Convergence.
Appendix B works great for this. It is for Seat of Your Pants play which the DM and his players can use Abductive Reasoning to fill in the blanks. Session 2 should NOT be players running off of THIS map in search of easy scores; it should be players engaging with the elements they found in session 1 with an eye towards a Braunstein. This is different from Prep Addiction because you use it only when you need it and you engage with it only for the purpose of play. Doing abductive reasoning with your fellow players is play! Filling out giant maps of things you pray your players come across is not play; it's arts and crafts.
Do this three or four times in a row of playing like this you will be in a Total Nonstop Braunstein without even knowing it. Do you believe?
This is a great post, and shows what a little imagination can do when you don't assume that the players won't care about something.
ReplyDeleteWhile it is true players often don't care about things (things that a Dungeon Master might consider to be VERY IMPORTANT) it's that failure to be able to predict what the players will actually care about is what makes the game so exciting.