Alright, here's the deal.
I'm looking for some conversation about making and running a Braunstein, so a couple of preliminaries.
What is a "Braunstein"?
For my purposes, a "Braunstein" is a multi-player one-shot scenario game.
Variants are certainly possible. Linked games, games that do not have pre-gens as normal, and ongoing campaigns are all possible, at which point, you're pretty much rolling into early game club RPG play.
Common characteristics of Braunsteins. (Not all need to be present, but a preponderance of these is common)
Where does the weird name come from?
It was the name used by David Wesely for a town in the first game of this type created by him, then became a more general-purpose term for some people (me, for example
) akin to the way people use Kleenex to describe all kinds of facial wipes or people outside of the hobby often use D&D to describe all RPGs. Wesely had designed the first Braunstein game as a kind of preliminary "appetizer course" for a far more traditional Napoleonic Era miniatures battle game, but the participants got into his (primarily) civilian-centered, single character-per-player appetizer course, had fun (he considered it a failure for his purposes, which apparently was mostly to influence how, where, and when various military units would arrive for the 'real game'), and demanded more games in a similar vein.
A later game involved a "banana republic" scenario. One of the players was Dave Arneson. Arneson went completely off-script in method while trying to attain his character's goals and managed to pull off a weird dramatic win. Arneson and enough other players apparently considered this hilarious enough to start developing the concept further with games of their own when Wesely went off to the military.
Where does it fit in the RPG Evolutionary Family Tree?
It's an inspiration to Arneson who makes his own variation(s), including campaign play and non-pregen charaters. One variant of this his variations is then demonstrated to Gary Gygax.
Isn't that just a _________?
With enough ingredients common to Braunsteins being present in a gamer's personal mental toolbox, and with enough other players being available, it's almost inevitable that something like a Braunstein will be conceptualized eventually, whether coming (usually) from a starting point of miniatures war gaming or an RPGs. Braunsteins certainly have common elements found in other types of games like LARPS, some forms of large group wargames, MegaGames, and even some more modern boardgames. Further, often people create something very close to a Braunstein, with no awareness of the original game or the name I've associated with it because of those fairly common expansions of another game sort. The direct connections between anything Wesely created and these other games may be a case multiple degrees of separation that the designer is unaware of, or even simple parallel development/evolution.
Okay, but what is this thread about and what do I want to discuss?
When I've found people who create and design these kinds of games, they're often, well, frankly terrible about explaining the designer/facilitator/referee side of the thing. They don't mean to be. Often they're absolutely great people who'd really like to have people participate more in these kinds of games.
What I'd like to extricate and detail are some common methods/principles/tools to actually run these things. designing them I don't seem to have to much problem with, at least at the level of creating pregens with all sorts of spaghetti bowls of crisscrossed motivations/goals. Or even creating a ( probably somewhat silly) overall scenario.
My problem is figuring out how to actually organize/run/facilitate the thing on the actual day in question, and how to keep that large number of players actively engaged in play for the majority of that time.
With that, I'm off to work. The floor is open.
I'm looking for some conversation about making and running a Braunstein, so a couple of preliminaries.
What is a "Braunstein"?
For my purposes, a "Braunstein" is a multi-player one-shot scenario game.
Variants are certainly possible. Linked games, games that do not have pre-gens as normal, and ongoing campaigns are all possible, at which point, you're pretty much rolling into early game club RPG play.
Common characteristics of Braunsteins. (Not all need to be present, but a preponderance of these is common)
- There are often a large number of players (8-24 or possibly more)
- Characters are often pre-gens with some established goals or motivations, which players choose from or are assigned to players by the person running the game.
- Some characters are more central to the core of the scenario, while others are more peripheral. Often there is a complexity of goals/motivations differences. This is often a matter of having back up characters for late joiners or players whose initial character gets removed from active play in some fashion.
- Each character tends to have their own motivations/goals, which may be at odds with larger character groupings they are a part of such as preliminary alliances or social groupings.
- Characters may have multiple goals which are either conflicting with one another or hard to achieve, so prioritization and taking advantage of opportunities through play are part of the experience. Often these personal character goals create friction within initial groupings or even suggest the possibility of temporary alliances with members of apparent rival groupings
- Characters are often non-military or have goals that are not simply accomplished by violence. Often some kind of trading of goods/services/favors/social clout is considered a core part of the scenario.
- Individual goals are almost never directly accomplishable by the character alone and their personal resources.
- There are very few Referee-played characters, and those that do exist are often very minor and mostly to provide color. The primary interaction is geared towards player character-to-player character, including opposition.
- Very often physical artifacts, especially maps, markers, miniatures, and terrain are used in these games. This isn't a requirement so much as an indication of the interests of the players who design these things. Despite that, the relationship between miniatures skirmish wargames and Braunsteins is somewhat ambiguous. They are certainly not merely straightforward miniatures games as are generally played, and combat is not usually a constant, ongoing part of play.
- Some sort of attempt at dumb humor is also often an element. I think this is perhaps more important than people realize.
- Actual mechanics in the hands of players are usually very light (due to often being a limited time, convention-style set up), with only core important mechanics to that specific scenario being covered. Everything else can be spackled over with rulings or ad hoc mechanics, Frei Kreigspiel style. This is generally not seen as a problem in one-off affairs (if you think the GM/Ref or ref team member is a tool or fool, you just never play with them again).
Where does the weird name come from?
It was the name used by David Wesely for a town in the first game of this type created by him, then became a more general-purpose term for some people (me, for example
) akin to the way people use Kleenex to describe all kinds of facial wipes or people outside of the hobby often use D&D to describe all RPGs. Wesely had designed the first Braunstein game as a kind of preliminary "appetizer course" for a far more traditional Napoleonic Era miniatures battle game, but the participants got into his (primarily) civilian-centered, single character-per-player appetizer course, had fun (he considered it a failure for his purposes, which apparently was mostly to influence how, where, and when various military units would arrive for the 'real game'), and demanded more games in a similar vein.A later game involved a "banana republic" scenario. One of the players was Dave Arneson. Arneson went completely off-script in method while trying to attain his character's goals and managed to pull off a weird dramatic win. Arneson and enough other players apparently considered this hilarious enough to start developing the concept further with games of their own when Wesely went off to the military.
Where does it fit in the RPG Evolutionary Family Tree?
It's an inspiration to Arneson who makes his own variation(s), including campaign play and non-pregen charaters. One variant of this his variations is then demonstrated to Gary Gygax.
Isn't that just a _________?
With enough ingredients common to Braunsteins being present in a gamer's personal mental toolbox, and with enough other players being available, it's almost inevitable that something like a Braunstein will be conceptualized eventually, whether coming (usually) from a starting point of miniatures war gaming or an RPGs. Braunsteins certainly have common elements found in other types of games like LARPS, some forms of large group wargames, MegaGames, and even some more modern boardgames. Further, often people create something very close to a Braunstein, with no awareness of the original game or the name I've associated with it because of those fairly common expansions of another game sort. The direct connections between anything Wesely created and these other games may be a case multiple degrees of separation that the designer is unaware of, or even simple parallel development/evolution.
Okay, but what is this thread about and what do I want to discuss?
When I've found people who create and design these kinds of games, they're often, well, frankly terrible about explaining the designer/facilitator/referee side of the thing. They don't mean to be. Often they're absolutely great people who'd really like to have people participate more in these kinds of games.
What I'd like to extricate and detail are some common methods/principles/tools to actually run these things. designing them I don't seem to have to much problem with, at least at the level of creating pregens with all sorts of spaghetti bowls of crisscrossed motivations/goals. Or even creating a ( probably somewhat silly) overall scenario.
My problem is figuring out how to actually organize/run/facilitate the thing on the actual day in question, and how to keep that large number of players actively engaged in play for the majority of that time.
With that, I'm off to work. The floor is open.
!
