After Action Reports and You
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| Do you have what it takes? |
The BROSR asks Referees to create session reports. To "show the receipts" of their supposed ongoing campaign. It's a lot of work that, thanks to fake DMs claiming to have ran ongoing campaigns for "muh 40 years", was required. Very few "muh 40 years campaign" DMs can show you a session report they wrote. Did it really happen? Probably not.
BROSR DMs, on the other hand, can show you dozens of session reports.
But we ask too much of our BROSR Referees. It's time for Players to shoulder more of the load. It's time for Players to create session reports or, as I'm lately calling them, "After Action Reports" (AARs).
Another reason AARs are needed is the relatively recent ascension of the BRAUNSTEIN approach to TTRPGs. This restoration of the Braunstein, and realization of the Objective Truth that "Braunsteins are foundational to REAL D&D" can be credited primarily to Jeffro Johnson of "Appendix N", "How to Win at D&D" and "Space Gaming Blog" fame. But can also be credited to the BROSR and our undaunting effort to play great TTRPGs, real D&D, and distance ourselves from the disgusting losers who play Conventional TTRPGs.
On that front, the BROXT may have (it has) outpaced the Legacy BROSR.
The BROXT has played more Braunstein's this summer than the BROSR could have even imagined running at all! And what we've learned about Braunstein sessions is there are a million things going on ALL the time. So much is happening that Referees simply cannot keep up.
So, it occurred to me, as the Head Booker of the BROXT; that Player based AARs could help bridge that knowledge gap and be a sort of "Thank You" to the Referee who did all the work to herd the cats of getting his friends together to Braunstein.
BROmerican Championship Tournament
In an effort to encourage more Player AARs I recently challenged the BROXT and BROXT Hopefuls to write AARs. This AAR will get them into an elimination tournament bracket I will run through July 2025 with the final victor standing tall as the BROmerican Champion.
This first round of AARs will decide the seeding for the tournament. Despite my introduction these AARs are from Player AND Referee perspective. It wouldn't be fair to deny Refs a chance to compete for the most prestigious title in gaming today.
In the rest of this blog post I will go down the list of those who entered, from worst to first, with some quick comments on what was good or bad about their entry. There will be a link to their blog and I recommend you follow all these men. For they are the new vanguard of Real TTRPG Gaming. While the OSR is tired and irrelevant, the 6e wotc d&d fans are riddled with crippling STDs, and even the Legacy BROSR rests on its laurels of past success; the BROXT alone keeps pushing forward for better gaming.
Truly you will see, with these entries, the BROXT holds the Winning Secrets on How to Win at TTRPGs. And people are starting to notice.
BROmerican Championship AAR Entries and Ranking
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| he doesn't like AARs |
Raptor is the contrarian of the BROXT. He says "AARs are boring" and "repetitive" and "I can't read". Maybe not that last one, but you get the point. So instead of an AAR he presented an (admittedly cool looking) newsletter he creates now and then for his Boot Hill campaign.
The newsletter itself isn't too useful to myself and the readers since it's story-based news articles which only mean things to his ongoing campaign players. But his tweet when sharing it as a picture file elaborated a bit: "[my clubhouse] is a mix of Braunstein styles. I used the Lost Conquistator Mine Module (B2 [Keep on the Borderlands]) as a basis for the region".
Who hasn't used B2 to launch a campaign? Always a good option if done right. He goes on to elaborate that "the factions of the campaign are run by players as a Type 2 Braunstein with weekly orders. I also have players play in open table live sessions every Friday".
This sounds like a fine "Always On" campaign any cowboy or injun would be glad to play in!
12. Datsun: "Finders Keepers Pt 1"
Datsun is a BROXT hopeful. Does this entry earn him a contract into the BROXT? Well I'm announcing here that it DOES! This entry is unique in that it is about a "faction level 1e game" he and his friends are playing. Most tables don't even get to faction scale, or won't risk launching a campaign at faction scale! While the Adventurer Conqueror King System has pages outlining how someone might launch a campaign at Faction (or "Conqueror") scale/tier no one ever actually did or does it (except my ACKS campaign of Dubzaron). But guys like Datsun actually are doing it! OSR dweebs could never. Even BROXT hopefuls leave them in the dust!
I only rate this lower as there is little in the way of what I call "meta thoughts" about the game itself. This AAR primarily states "what happened" with little of why it was or wasn't fun, how his players responded, or advice on doing it.
We'll train him up better in the BROXT. Welcome!
11. Tourneville (Not-Jey): "SPACESTEIN After Action Report"
Relatively new BROXT Superstar, Tourneville, has wasted no time jumping into BRO games; including the Spacestein. I'll keep this quick because, as you'll see, many of the AARs in this blog will be about the Spacestein.
This one, however, is a very fun story of a "faction of one" Tourneville played who decided to take a break from all the spacey scheming other players were up to and went to gamble in the space casino.
I rated this a bit lower as it's light on "meta thoughts". He'll need to keep that in mind as the tournament progresses if he hopes to grab the BROmerican belt!
10. Hoot-Owl: "In SpaceStein no one can hear you scream..."
Another Player AAR from the Spacestein brings the excitement. Alot of fun stories in this one and Hoot-Owl is a fantastic Player side salesman of the Braunstein concept. If you can read this and still not want to play in a session Braunstein then you're not really a TTRPG gamer. He lost his first character quickly in the Spacestein and, like any true gamer, quickly grabbed another!
9. Merinus: "Those Taken in the Black (pt. 1)"
Merinus's Spacestein AAR focuses on a pulpy fictionalized retelling of his PC's experience. While I like Merinus's writing (his pulpy retelling of his experience in my Moonstein Restilled campaign was a ball for me to read), I would have rated this one dead last if not for his second section called "A New Adventure Awaits" which outlines his thoughts on the experience of generating a Traveller PC. This is where the action is!
8. Jey: "Dreams of Atlantis"
While not exactly an AAR, Jey delivers with his thoughts about creating a new section of the ongoing "Bloodfall" campaign world which I myself am a PC in. That gets high marks from me. His ideas are cool and Norse themed, they reference BROZER, and his imagined PC "hooks" are well designed. One already grabbed our attention in a recent Bloodfall session.
This post demonstrates how you can pawn off sections of your campaigns to PCs to invent or DM as needed. Shows how real D&D campaigns grow naturally based on the excitement of your best players.
7. Bob: "Enemy at the Gates"
This outlines an "Always On Braunstein" which Bob Referees which led to a session-based wargame battle. While lots of washed up legacy BROSR and fat neckbeard retirees from the OSR say things like "D&D is a wargame" I notice very few actually ever play any wargames (except solitaire, natch). I offered them an olive branch to prove their bonafides with "BROXT BATTLEGROUND" a few months back to provide wargame scenarios out of actual D&D campaigns. Few stepped up!
It's my theory that Gary and Co would do "Total Nonstop Braunstein" (TNB) type play in their much better high trust suburbs of the late 70s which would lead to wargame battles going on the docket. The BROSR and BROXT clubhouse are trying as hard as we can to restore this "docketing" approach but it's a tough hill to climb with supposed wargamers in the clubhouse who are more interested in counter-signaling TNB online than actually wargaming.
But Bob does it. Proving once again the BROXT is not only the future, but the present.
6. DM Rump: "Piratestein AAR 7/3/25"
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| Piratestein! |
This would rate higher if Rump had some more pulp or Appendix N flair to his factions/hooks and if it was based off an ongoing campaign. While this is amazing I think the BROXT (the only ones actually gaming these days) needs to step back from themed Braunsteins now and dig deeper into Appendix N, ongoing campaigns, and TNB.
I'm picking nits with this incredible Braunstein because I care. It's a B effort that could be A+. Oh, also he ran it in real life for real friends. This is a big deal. Take a look for yourself!
5. Scutifer Mike: "No One Heard That Scream"
Scuti comes out swinging with thoughts on his ongoing "Mothership" campaign. Now, I don't know what "Mothership" is (I'll just assume it's some new flash in the pan sci-fi retroclone whose name gets good algo clicks on Scuti's youturb channel) but Mike has an ongoing campaign in real life with real people. So, he's way ahead of most.
Seems he's got 3 (THREE) parties adventuring here; creating a natural TNB that is sure to deliver. Could this "Motherslop" campaign take him to the BROmerican Belt? Time will tell.
4. Angry Steak: "RealD&D, Total NonStop Braunstein, and the Fog of War"
Steak gets high marks for repping the TNB and outlining his recent Braunstein style thinking and play in the ongoing "Bloodfall" 1e campaign. I play in this game as Broderick the Paladin so you really need to read this report and see how Steak completely bamboozled me with his superior play! I'm aghast!
3. Obsessor: "The Pit - Campaign Report"
Obsessor outlines his ongoing campaign well. It has some incredible factions which naturally feed into TNB and Obsessor has some amazing thoughts on that. He would probably be number 1 in this list if he was running 1e instead of Shadowmark. What a waste!
2. Parker Duncan: "Baby's First Braunstein"
Parker Duncan is near the top of the rankings for this entry because he is braver and bolder than most. He ran a Braunstein irl for his family... including granny!
This AAR is a triumph in that it gives detailed thoughts and ideas on how someone could accomplish such a bold goal. If you ever thought your family might enjoy a game night that wasn't Monopoly or some other Hasbro slop (6e), Parker Duncan has got you covered; give them a Braunstein!
He even outlines how he uses 1:1 Joshuagaxian Space to place sticky notes in real parts of his house as items the various Boot Hill characters were trying to collect or heist or steal. BROXT is on the cutting edge, friends.
1. Joshua: "The Spacestein AAR"
Do I really need to say anything here? Joshua's Spacestein was a massive hit. The whole clubhouse is abuzz talking about it. Dunder Moose had some of the best players on to gush with excitement about their experience with it. Just having run such a thing may have gotten Joshua the top ranking in the BROmerican Tournament. But the AAR itself is peak.
For one, he invented Joshuagaxian space with Discord channels the players had to "travel" through. He outlines how this works.
He explores "Diverging Convergence" goals and tying his TWENTY characters together so these "factions of one" could more easily identify alliances and enemies. This is very useful in games that are not D&D (or your players kind of suck) since they don't have Alignment which should make such Referee preparation and game design unnecessary. So, while I generally like that Joshua is giving these matters deep thoughts, I hope this does not become the norm in D&D Session Braunsteins which should lean more on naturally occurring events in ongoing campaigns with alliances etc being based on ROLE and ALIGNMENT.
I'm picking nits again on what is most certainly the top entry in this round of the BROmerican Tournament. Do yourself a service and check out this AAR since, while it is long, it has diamonds of wisdom and deep thoughts that other TTRPG hobbyists aren't even pondering much less answering.
Rankings and Next Steps
At the end of this blog you will find an image of the bracket. Notice the top participants have a BYE in round one. But most participants will need to have another AAR ready by 07/14/2025 or they'll simply be disqualified, and their opponent will advance instead.
I'll make another blog post like this next week to analyze and rank those next AARs so keep an eye on this page to find out who comes out on top as THE REAL BROMERICAN.
