Moonstein Re-Stilled: Planet of Adventure!

Have you heard the tale of Moonshine?

It's been called a Planet of Adventure or a Sargossa of Space. But I call it the purest example of Total NonStop Braunstein that has ever been ran. And, as per usual for the most impactful TTRPG moments since 2020, it was GMed by Jeffro Johnson. 

Jeffro succeeded in proving what the BROSR (in our incomparable work "BROZER: Island of War and Winter") now refers to as "The Method 2" approach to running a Braunstein. Essentially that a GM requests players orders periodically and looks for the Braunstein "Convergence" for those orders then runs it for them or invites them to docket the action and run it later.

Method 2 rarely involved "session play" as we're all familiar with it in most TTRPGs so it's a good option when you have an idea or really want to test out a system with friends. The "Traveler" system is new well tested thanks to Jeffro's Moonstein event in the Summer of Stein (2024). He did his work. He proved his point. He ended the game. He's since road off into the sunset of swing dance and rock climbing. I miss him.

But I also miss Traveler and the Planet of Adventure Moonshine! It's like Appalachia in space. 

I'm bringing it back. 

This blog is an invitation for my gaming group the BROXT to jump into MY Moonstein which I will run with Method 2. The BROXT will get first dibs on running Traveler PCs in my event but anyone else who knows how to get ahold of me privately is invited to jump in as well. I'll lay out how, below.

Get in the Game

First you must generate a Traveler character in the original edition. It's free here. 

You must create a blog to explain how the character was generated similar to page 26 of Book 1. I will do so below for another example and to help set the planet and scene, similar to the way Jeffro originally created Moonshine which grabbed my interest enough for me to create a character and blog responding to it back in 2024. 

Create a blog similar to mine on how you will or intend your PC to approach Moonshine.

Keep the following in mind: 

-milieu is king: check out Dumarest or Vance's Planet of Adventure for inspiration

-no stupid names or overly gonzo themes

-focus on convergences

I will attempt to compile all these blogs onto the bottom of this blog through editing it so we'll have one place to go to know who all these dumb characters are.

If you have a Legacy PC from the old Moonstein games and want to get in the game, make a blog about what that dude has been up to while keeping my new worldbuilding in this blog below in mind.

How to Play

I will reach out to you with when I'm ready to accept orders. I will then process the orders. If you take too long to get orders in you will "Miss your turn".

I'll run the combats behind the curtain as much as I have energy to.

You will include your characters stats and equipment in the Universal Format (page 25 of book 1) each time you send an order. So, I don't have to go scouring for it all the time.

If your PC dies you can re-roll another one and introduce him 2 turns later. If that PC dies you can introduce another 3 turns later. And so on.

What's our Goal?

We are aiming to prove you can run Method 2 style for longer term. The Living Urf gaming club is proving, with the Boot Hill system and their Norazona setting in the town of Livingstone, that you can have a sort of Always On  cowboy town "slice of life" game run minute to minute for the eternally and tragically online. This is not that. 

Since Traveler has very little in the form of "leveling" or "getting the ruby" it's the perfect system for focusing on world (and galaxy) building and the ways in which player character schemes create great stories and events for all participants.

Unlike Livingstone this Braunstein will have DM oversight to assure interesting convergences and milieu. 

My New Moonshine Character

I rolled up a character for inspiration and because it's fun. This character may be an NPC or it may be one of the Inciting Incidents depending on what happens as I run one Solitaire round with him below.

My first character joined the Scouts and died in his first term. RIP. My second character rolled up as follows:

"Old Man" O'Gradey

Retired Merchant (4th Officer) 9B9829    Age 38   Six Terms CR 21,000

Blade CBT 1 (Dagger), Gun CBT 2 (SMG 2)      Dagger, SMG, Low Passage

His story:

John O'Gradey dropped out of "Broger de Broger High" at 15 and was a bit of a wastrel. At 18 he stumbled across some posters asking for merchants to join up when he was on hist last credits. He successfully enlisted (5+2=7 success) for a four year term. 

After his first term, in which he mostly worked out (+1 DEX and +1 STR for skills added) he receives his Commission and believes he's well on his way. But, on what becomes a theme in his life, he's not promoted. As a 4th officer he's given a nice dagger which he practices with night and day (Skill: CBT Dagger 1). He eagerly Re-Enlists and succeeds.

His second term is more drudgery with a merchant captain and officers who never even learn his name. Running about to send and receive orders is most of what he does (Skill: Dex +1). He's passed over for promotion again. He re-enlists hoping to catch a promotion in the future.

His third term sees pirates boarding the ship (Survival roll lowest possible without dying) and the Officers are able to fight them off. While O'Gradey is handed and uses a SMG during the fire fighting, he doesn't particularly distinguish himself and does not get promoted again! He begrudgingly re-enlists and succeeds.

During his fourth term he sees no action and spends most of his time practicing with his weapon. (Skill gained: CBT GUN (SMG)). He fails to get promoted yet again and watches as younger more intelligent men pass him over up the ladder. He re-enlists as now he sees nothing better he might accomplish in life. They take him back because who can toss out a good 4th officer?

During his fifth term he goes back to lifting to pass the time (Skill gained +1 STR). The younger and more promoted officers begin calling him "Old Man O'Gradey" as a crack on him getting passed over YET again. The results of age are starting to threaten him but he doesn't fail any of his age checks. He swears to give it one more shot at re-enlistment and "I'm out!" They take him back.

During his sixth and final term he is given degrading work helping out with directing the warehouse guys dealt with on each trade stop. He doesn't take to the work but is hands on with carrying heavy things (Skill Gain: Endurance +1) but at 38 age is getting to him and he loses 1 STR and 1 DEX. Being passed for promotion yet again and the young bucks continuing to use his insulting nickname he retires before he's court martialed for letting them have it! 

They kick him out on the planet Moonshine with 21k, a couple of SMGs and his old combat dagger. 24 years of service for that? They even had the gall to give him a Low Passage ticket to get off this backwater rock even though he knows the captain and service could have offered more. 

Annoyed with a life he sees as wasted he goes looking for a Patron on Moonshine. He's heard a bunch of Barons control the various counties on the planet. Always at odds with eachother and their machinations leading to some big space cotillion that turned violent last fall. Maybe a Baron could use a man who's decent with an SMG and can hold his own in a knife fight. If only O'Gradey was a bit more than a midwit he could have come out of the Merchants with some more marketable skills. Alas!

At this point I put on my GM hat and rolled up the chance O'Gradey found a Patron to align with. No. But in his search he did come across 4 Thugs. I decided these were tweakers looking to score some credits by shaking O'Gradey down just outside the makeshift spaceport (the real one was blown up almost a year ago).

Neither side is surprised (as per the rules one side must roll 3 better than the other on a d6). It is at Short range since I rolled 5 on a 2d6 -4 for it being in a "City". 1 = Short. O'Gradey uses his SMG which need 5+ after his DEX DM. At short range its another +2 so he basically can't miss. 3D damage (3d6) comes out to 11 on one of the thugs. It hits his STR with is 7 so he's unconscious. 

The 4 thugs attempt to beat O'Gradey about his person with clubs. Roll needed is 6+ at close range. 5, 4, 6, 5 so one hit. 2 dice for 6 damage. This his his STR so he's down to 3 STR.

Since one of them fell they make a Morale check needing a 7+. They succeed. They keep fighting!

O'Gradey hits again for 11 damage again on his endurance which is 11 on the dot. Unconscious. Thugs attack: 9 (hit), 9 (hit), 8 (hit). First hit does 10 damage to STR which knocks O'Gradey out.

They rob O'Gradey and run off with his weapons and ammo. Since Moonshine doesn't have an ATM system he had all his credits on his person which were taken as well. O'Gradey is relegated to begging for credits at the makeshift spaceport in the old holler swamp!

He will become an NPC that will hire on with new PCs as long as they promise him revenge on the tweakers that beat and robbed him! He just wants a dagger or SMG and fair pay to sign on. An old Merchant, never promoted, finding himself broke in a town full of scots-irish appalachian tweakers.

Will you hire him on? Or will you get rolled in a JEEP on the way into the forest?

How to Make Your Own Braunstein Domain Faction

The BROSR is the talk of the town again. 

This time because some lady who's wringing cash out of the OSR whales for her Kickstarter decided to mention the word "Braunstein". If you're among those who took out a second mortgage to purchase a bunch of her gaming books (let's call these fellas "shadowmarks") it's likely you've never actually played a long form D&D campaign. I'd wager most shadowmarks have never had a PC reach Domain level or, if they were forever DMs scratching and scrounging for gaming friends at the B.O. Palace of their Friendly Local Gaming Store (BO-FLGS) then they've likely never DMed anything with Domains.

I invite such shadowmarks to check out BROZER: Island of War and Winter for more information on running Domain scale. While I know it's difficult for such marks to read, download a PDF that doesn't cost 100+, or enjoy the writing of men (as it's written by the men of the BROSR) I think they could learn a great deal. And it's free! 

If you play BROZER for even a single shot tournament style session you will have all you need to know to run Domain play in real D&D. Take BROZER down to your BO-FLGS and find guys to play it with you. Surely, they can take a four-hour respite from drooling over their newest foil pikachu card to give it a shot.

But what BROZER doesn't have is rules or precise advice on how to CREATE domain leaders. That's where this blog comes in.

How We Did It In BROZER

BROZER was simple. The Factions were ideas most of the men of the BROSR had for a long time, or tested in real BROSR campaigns. For the resources the Faction Leaders had, we simply used the 1e Advanced Dungeons and Dragons "Monster Manual" (MM). If you're creating a monster faction you simply go to the entry for the monster in the MM and start rolling up the Lair numbers. Rolling up the Lair Treasure will determine if the faction and/or its leader has magic items to use.

If you want a human faction you simply choose one of the Men entries from the MM that best fit your theme or needs. "Beserkers" for a Viking style faction, "Pilgrims" for a village led by a cleric, etc. In wisdom I gained through over a hundred sessions of running my ACKS campaign, I realized the "Hobgoblin" entry was the best one to use to roll up a standard human town garrison. 

Simple.

This will give you a Faction that's about level 9 of power and resources. But what if you want a lower or higher level faction? 

Lower or Higher Level Factions

You can use a version of the Adventurer Conqueror King System (ACKS) "Creating Advanced Characters" (found on page 253 of ACKS1). ACKS2 changed some things which make it a bit too complicated for this blog. If you're running ACKS, however, I highly recommend it. (ACKS2 has these rules on Page 388 of the "Judge's Journal"). This blog will focus on making a Faction for 1e Advanced D&D.

This blog will also focus on creating LOWER level factions as I'm going to challenge my BROXT friends to do so today for a special gaming event.

Step By Step

As the DM you will give yourself or your PCs an XP pool to use to level the leader of the Faction. You do this rather than determine a level for the leader since all classes in old school gaming level at different rates. A Level 5 BX Elf is much more powerful than a level 5 thief, for instance. 

As far as ability scores, one cannot doubt that AD&D Method III is best in ALL cases of playing AD&D but most especially if you want to create a faction ruler of note.

Then you determine a pool of gold pieces to purchase keeps/castles, troops, henchmen, magic items, and equipment. As per ACKS you will need to pay troops SIX MONTHS worth of wages (to indicate them being in your employ for a while). 

Don't forget that Cleric sorts pay HALF for the cost of their Keeps and Castles.

For your henchmen you will need to pay GP in the amount of the XP for the level you want them.

For instance, if you want a Level 2 Fighter henchmen you'll need to pay 2,000 GP since it takes a fighter 2,000 XP to get to Level 2. 

Deciding on Magic Items is a bit trickier. ACKS1 uses a sort of lottery system where you pay X amount of GP to roll on the possibility of this or that type of item. I will remake that here for use with 1e AD&D. Remember these are Magic Items you can equip your Faction Leader with our outfit his people with. These charts all start in the Dungeon Masters Guide (DMG) page 121.

Roll for any randomly determined magic item (Table III): 2,000 GP 

Fighters can choose to roll on Swords (Table G): 2,000 GP

Fighters can choose to roll on Armor & Shields (Table F.) or Miscellaneous Weapons (Table H.): 3,000 GP

Magic Users can choose to roll on Scrolls (Table B.): 1,000 GP

Magic Users can choose to roll on Rods, Staves & Wands (Table D.): 4,000 GP

Clerics can choose re-roll one time any edged weapon they get or any arcane scroll or rod etc they get.

Thieves/Assassins can choose re-roll one time any item they get.

This is probably broken but it will give you a good baseline to work with and adjust as needed for your campaign and/or Braunstein.

Conclusion

If you do all of the above you should end up with a Faction leader who controls a domain and leads an army or cohort of sorts. You might get some crazy magic item which will flip the Braunstein session or your long running campaign upside down. This is a good thing!

You don't want to be a shadowmark you want to be a gamer! 

BROXT Create a Faction Challenge

Most of the superstars in the BROXT were not known to the BROSR when BROZER was written. Thus, they did not supply a faction for that Ennie Nominated work. It's time for them to prove they can do the work!

As of 04/01/2025 (this is not an April Fool's Joke) I challenge all members of the BROXT to create a Braunstein Faction for 1e AD&D using the above rules. The faction leader will have 20,000 XP and 20,000 GP to purchase troops, henchmen, magic items, castles and the like. Structures will cost 1/2 of normal for this challenge (which is 1/4 if you are a cleric sort).

The BROXT CHAMPION "Foolish Intanius" will have 30,000 gp to work with. All those who took part in "BROXT BATTLEGROUND" will have 25,000 gp to work with.

We want something of a bit lower power since I'm going to bully a Living Urf DM (or DMs) into letting us use these Factions in real ongoing campaign(s) for a future challenge where said Factions are to compete in some way.

They are challenged to blog about it to give a breakdown of the Faction's resources, alignment, motivations and MOST IMPORTANTLY the Appendix N story which inspired the Faction. I challenge the BROXT Superstar to directly rip off a character from an Appendix N story. Against my better judgement, however, I will accept Factions and Domain Rulers who are from other works that are NOT from Appendix N. 

It seems necessary since many of the best Appendix N Domain ideas were alright ripped off for BROZER! Be warned that most of the BROXT Bookers have a bias in favor of Appendix N...

The BROXT Superstars will have about a week to accomplish this challenge. I will reveal the winner(s) during my April 6th appearance on the "ACKS TO GRIND" podcast. The best entry or entries will have a chance to contend for the BROXT Championship Belt at a later date. They will be judged on clarity, usefulness/playability in a real campaign or Braunstein, following the rules, and coolness factor.

Good luck!