Journey to Braunstein

A DaveCon Play Report

Pre Ramble

Last month, I found out that I would be traveling to the Midwest for work during the summer. My start date would be the Tuesday after DaveCon and only 6 hours away. Since I already have to travel 18 hours to get out there what was another six? This is a pilgrimage I needed to make, and I might not get the opportunity again.

What is DaveCon, and why make the trek from Maine to Minnesota?
DaveCon is a gaming convention meant to celebrate the many Daves who helped create the hobby of Role Playing Games: Arneson, Wesely, Megarry. Even if you don’t play D&D you have probably played GTA, Skyrim, Diablo, etc. You have these men to thank for that. There would also be several other members of their gaming group in attendance. Altogether a treasure trove of history and insight into a hobby deeply ingrained in our culture.

Me, I was going for one thing, and one thing alone.
To play in Dave Wesely’s Braunstein.

It is said that before Dungeons & Dragons there was Blackmoor and Greyhawk, but before those, there was Braunstein. It is potentially the first ever roleplaying game, now lost to history, and I was going to play it. So, I packed my bags and over two days traveled across the country to seek the source.

Before the Game

The Keys to Success

I was not going just for fun, I was on a mission. I was seeking to learn the ancient ways, and represent an entire group of men. However, on my quest for improving the mind I must not forget body and soul. There is something out there greater than you; this acknowledgement is what gives you room to better yourself; if you can not better yourself you can not better the world around you.

So I said morning prayers, found the hotel gym for a quick HIT workout, showered, put on deodorant, brushed my teeth, and was ready to win at life.

The Games Before Braunstein

Outdoor Survival

I had signed up for a few other games on Saturday, and one Sunday morning. If I was going to be there anyway, why no make the most of it. The first game I signed up for was Outdoor Survival with Dave Arneson’s custom map. I will be honest I didn’t read the details of this, so I was a bit surprised when I found out we were not playing the OS board game. Instead, it was OD&D with Griff Morgan, creator of the Secrets of Blackmoor documentary. He had us roll up three stat arrays, the best would be our primary character, the other two his henchmen. We even got to use his original copies of the rules (3LBBs). I rolled up Lou D’Misir w/ Dick & Dale. We explored, fought seven Trolls, and avoided a wizards tower.

Strategos N

Several wargamers I know online were particularly excited about this one. I still owe them a detailed breakdown, I haven’t forgot. A few of the guys from the last game I played were in this one as well, which was cool, and I helped Shelly and Ross set up the table. The scenario was six Brigades against two over a Spanish town on the other side of a river. A few of the players had a solid grasp of wargames in general, but no one knew the rules. Ross Maker, who was running the game, is working on getting his updated version of the rules published with all of the improvements he has made since Wesely’s original version.

I was a little suspicious when the sides had such a lopsided amount of players. Even more so when I saw the size of their canons vs ours. So, I put all of my troop up front to allow for them to die first. My suspicions were confirmed when we finally were able to fire on them dealing 10s of casualties per round with our canon shot to the several hundred they were able to deal with ours. This battle was not winnable for the six of us, especially with the deployment we had chosen. Why? I don’t know.

We still played for a while, but we knew what the outcome was going to be. Shelly Maker gave a wonderful impassioned speech about how it is both imagination AND competitive spirit that makes for great games. I went up to my room to use the bathroom, put away my dice, and then made my way to the room for Dave Wesely’s Braunstein.

Dave Wesely’s Braunstein

Pregame

Before the game even began I was already making moves in real life. I showed up early and introduced myself to the Major. He was charming, though he sure can talk. I helped with a little set up and was given the mission to acquire 2 Diet Cokes for him before the game. The other action I took before the game started was to connect with Harmony Ginger. We have many mutual acquaintances and we agreed, as long as our goals in the game didn’t conflict, we should try and help each other out. If they did the last thing her character hears would be “RDubs sends his regards.” We were all asked to get seated, and prepared for the intro.

The Bros

It is highly unlikely anyone reading this does not know who the Bros are, but just in case I will briefly explain as it is needed context. The “Bros” are the mutual acquaintances I mentioned before known online as the BroSR (Bros+ OSR). They are a loosely organized online Christian Men’s group focused on self improvement, playing better games of D&D, and reading books from before 1980. In addition to the “Old guard” there is the BroXT - the next generation of Bros, and the fantastic Living Urf Gaming Club™. I am a member of the BroXT and Living Urf. More on this later, but let’s back to what you care about.

Wesely’s History Seminar

We sat down around 6pm, all intently listening to Dave as he began his intro.
Having participated I am of the firm belief that the contents of his seminar are his to share, but I will give a broad summary.
The first chunk of time was dedicated to the history of Role Playing Games. He delved into the situation and timeline in which himself, Arneson, and the Blackmoor bunch played their games. How he came up with the ideas he did, and how Braunstein became the first ever RPG.

He also touched upon discussion of legal affairs, litigation, and stated no one is allowed to record video or take pictures of the material. This was almost assuredly aimed at Harmony and the Bros. (Harmony had specifically had asked about record an interview with Wesely for her YouTube.)

Finally, we were brought to the History of the town of Braunstein, of the country of Prussia, the Holy Roman Empire, we learned about Prussia’s different kings and how all of these things interacted with each other. Wesely had instructed us to chant “Long Live the King Ho Ho Ho” whenever he said ‘The King of Prussia”. This helped to keep peoples attention, but my mind certainly wandered, and at times I was checking my phone only to see my friends giving me crap for siding with a girl. A few of them were telling me to pay attention, but I went to a Highschool with no walls I can decently multitask. All together this seminar took a little under 2 hours.

Handing Out of the Roles.

At the end of his instruction, when he had brought us to the present day in the scenario, Wesely asked us who would like part of the Revolution, who amongst us found themselves to be a rebel. Anyone who knows me decently well, knows about actions I have taken in my personal life. Clearly, I was going to be one of these revolutionaries. So, I raised my hand, as did Harmony and a few others. We were handed red beanies and Dave asked us who wanted to be the leader?

Harmony did!

Dave was hesitant, he told her he had a special role for her instead.

“Oh, okay, then make Jake the leader.”

Sure, I’ll do it, no problem. Both of us were in for quite a surprise…

We were led over to the area marked as Prison, and seated down. We were told there is no light in the prison and it is very quiet, so whatever we discuss the guard can probably hear. In addition act as if he has six strapping young lads that can come to his aid. My guess is this number six is so that the five of us could not just say we outnumber and overwhelm them. Wesely handed us our packets with a name tag, and picture of the character. I was Student C who had been in a fight, knocked out and awoken in Prison.
Before I read my details I turned to Harmony to see what the special role she had been given was:

Gretchen.

Her “special role” was the girl, because she is a girl and women should play women…

I did a terrible job at holding back my laughter. Dave told us that Gretchen was a large imposing woman who had put on my coat and was disguised as a man. I guessed at the time this might be because he has several female roles which are usually filled by men. We did have two elderly gentlemen playing both the Bankers Wife and Daughter, so them looking like a man is part of the joke. Unfortunately, the last joke would be on me. Dave had one more prank and the Bros had already called it.

I opened the packet we had been given, four dense pages of character relationships and descriptions for Student C, until finally I got to what I was looking for. My three goals for the scenario which I will paraphrase:

1. Get out of Prison

2. Don’t get kicked out of University

3. Impress Student B, and get Gretchen to fall for you.

I had been given a 1:1 Rizz check, you gotta be kidding me!

Promstein

Being a public facing female in a hobby space dominated by men, particularly men who lack social skills Harmony will often have to face a barrage of cringe comments and compliments on social media. As a Bro I decry these acts and denounce the Simp Brigade, even those who are Bro-Adjacent. Most Bros are upstanding men and are married with children, but I am known to be single. Therefore, during the History Seminar I received a healthy dose of ribbing in the backchannels for saying I was going to try and ally with HG, if it could help me win. There was a smattering of “DONT SIMP” mixed with the voice of a prophet

My character was going to have to be charming as heck. The Promise of FolderBoat’s fated Promstein hangs heavy upon the air.
I let out an audible laugh and physically face palmed.

“What is it?” Harmony asked.
“Check your relationship with my character, Student C. Mine says we live together and I think it there might be more.”
“Oh, oh no.”

We were given a few minutes to read through everything before Dave had us get started, and we were off to the races.

Getting Out of Prison

Thank you Bill

When going over the game I am not going to lay out every detail of the scenario. The scenario itself is what is Braunstein to Wesely, its a play where he has written the opening act, the same scenario with minor tweaks and different actors every time. I will, however, go over my actions, decisions, and give the set up.

We were all in one room with Wesely sitting at a table upfront. There were 4 Labeled areas such as the Prison, the University, and the Tavern. I believe the center was considered “around town”. We had a map in our handout with more detail. The only time map came up was when the Commander of the Guard came to tell us he had locked certain gates to prevent travel between certain areas without permission from him or his Sgt. Everyone had name tags, and unless in prison were free to move around and talk as they please. If they needed they could pull Wesely aside for secret actions. Notably, no conflict resolution system had been given, but right at the end two guys did have a pistol duel. I believe the first guy that aimed his gun and said BANG won. Unfortunately, I was busy trying to sneak plans to the French via carrier pigeons during the explanation and only caught the duel.

At the start, my group was all in prison. We had some money, but not much else. The Sergeant player guarded our cell, and players could only come talk to us if he gave the OK. I don’t know what his goals were, but there is a good take away here: Don’t make your players reliant on the actions of others to be able to participate.

The Five Rebels in jail only had one point of contact for the game, the Sgt. In order to get out we had to go through him, in order for someone to talk to us, they had to go through him. Now, Wesely did say in the AAR that he had never seen someone turn away as much bribery as this player did, but it was extreme. Most of the bribes were a few hundred marks, but at one point he turned away $2,000. One student did manage to get free, it turns out he was the son of a prominent figure I wont reveal. Unfortunately, he was not able to free us, and the Sgt threated to throw him back in jail when he tried.

Our only saving grace was another IRL move. The Sergeant’s superior was a really cool guy, named Bill, I had played with in the OD&D game. Bill wanted us to be able to participate, so when the Sgt turned down the $2,000 bribe from the Chancellor of the University, Bill went and worked out a deal for us. He would take the payment as bail, and let us go free, as long as the Chancellor kept us inside the University. (The Chancellor was played by a kid who was maybe 10, he was a firecracker.)

Second Half of the Game

We were now free, Objective one complete. As part of the deal we had not only gotten out, and the Chancellor had no intention of kicking us out, but I had gotten Gretchen enrolled in classes as she couldn’t read. I was sure Objective 2 was in the bag.

That only left Objective 3.

• Impress Student B, Get the girl.

I had been charming, classy, and a general stud so far. Fortunately, the Banker’s Daughter was going around asking for people to sign her dance card. This was the time, this was the place. Right then and there I turned to Harmony, and for the OTC, I asked her to go to the dance with me. She said yes.

We were then arrested, but shortly were freed again via some scheme with the Mayor.

All that was left was Student B. So, I spent some time trying to help other people accomplish their goals like the Doctor, the Engineers Aid, the Banker. After a little bit Student E and the Mayor tried to come over, but being experienced in this kind of game, I realized it was a trick. They were trying to get us to cause havoc and it would land us thrown in jail or killed. I was easily able to navigate around the treachery.

In order to help the Engineer’s Aide, I had bought a plan of the towns defenses off of him, so I now sold them to someone with a carrier pigeon to impress Student B. Student B then got himself killed in a duel between himself and Student E, for secret reasons I wont reveal, and the game ended just before I got arrested again.

• Accomplish Goals - CHECK

• Help Others Succeed When Able - CHECK

• Stay Classy - CHECK
  I fricken crushed it.

The After Action Report

After the game is over Wesely gathered us all around, and collected the handouts. About 2/3rd of the players were still there as it was now 10pm. He summed up the end result to get everyone on the same page. He regaled us with stories of past playthroughs of the Braunstein scenario and past business ventures. Finally he had three categories in which he asked people to stand up and make a case for themselves if they thought they were the best in:

• Help the French Revolutionaries

• Help the Prussian King

• Help Themselves

I stood up for the first and last, I had accomplished all of my goals and sent off schematics of the towns defenses to the French army after all. In each category after everyone had plead their case he would everyone vote for who they though the winner was. For the Revolutionaries someone else had gotten the plans out before me, and as the Mayor player had gotten almost everyone in town to sign a paper saying they would vote for him, he solidly won the final category, but I have no regrets in my play, only that I wasn’t given a character able to do more. Despite being called the “Leader of the Revolutionaries” there was not much actionable content in my goals. Something to learn from.

The AAR took a total of another 2 hours. Many things were said and I am not going to cover them. Afterwards, I helped Wesely clean up and then hung out with Harmony to discuss the whole event.

The Mayor and Winner. We played in the room on the left.

The Take Away

Altogether, I had a really fun time. Dave Wesely was a very long winded man of a different era, but I enjoyed his company and stories. I would love to have the chance to game with him again.

You may have noticed at this point that I seems like I already knew how to play, and what to expect from this Braunstein game. That is not hindsight dear readers, it is because I did. To Dave Wesely, Braunstein is a scenario he designed. It is his Romeo and Juliet. It can be run again and again with small tweaks, new actors, or set in the 90’s with DiCapprio. Braunstein is a place with depth and a detailed history.

However, it is so much more than that. It is a style of game unique unto itself. We can argue until the cows come home if TSR era D&D is the same game as later WotC era D&D (It is not), but one thing is exceptionally clear:
The style of play found in Braunstein, Brownstone, Banania, or the first session of Blackmoor are VERY different than than the Adventure Gaming of TSR era, or Supes & Soaps of WotC.

It is Multiple independent agents often acting in conflict under a fog of war.

How often are you finding 5e players conniving, scheming, and trying to overcome the other characters in their party? Meanwhile, this is the default state in games like Braunstein. Not only that, but you can replicated this style and incorporate into your D&D games! If done at select points you will improve your game and increase interest.

It is for these reasons that us Bros view Braunstein the same as Coke, Kleenex, Band-Aid, Hoover, Xerox, etc. If I want to run exciting games where the players are all running competing factions striving to achieve their own goals I am not going to call it a “multi-faction-competitive-scenario” or a “Braunstein-esque-like game”. No I am running

A BRAUNSTEIN

I ran one the very next day, I didn’t have time to prep so it was based on a Tarantino movie and I called it Hateful Eightstein. In fact we normally refer the specific scenarios themselves as _____stein, while the style is “A Braunstein”. The Bros have been doing this for years, Crom ran one just a few weeks ago called Norazona 2, you can see my play report on this Substack called “The Parcel”. It worked JUST like Wesely’s Braunstein, only a different scenario, and I might have had even more fun. We have been doing this for sometime now, and I will quickly teach you how. For Free.

How to Run a Braunstein

Read BROZER. There you are done.
What’s that, you want J to summarize it in 10 quick steps for you?
I gotchu bro.

1. Gather at least 5+ friends, preferably 7+ That’s right you need have friends to do this, so let me help you with that first.

   1. Start going to the Gym. Watch Drew Baye on YouTube if you don’t know how. Find your local Church and begin attending. Stop eating an bunch of snacks. Shower every day. Brush your teeth. Get a job.

2. Schedule about a 3 hour block for gaming

3. Each player will have their own character, give them a description, possible relationships with other characters and 2-3 goals.

   1. These goals MUST interact with the other players and some of them should overlap aka be in conflict with each other. (Having a MacGuffin like the Maltese Falcon, or briefcase from Pulp Fiction is an easy inclusion.)

4. Before the event label several rooms in your house, or Voice Channels on Discord as different locations. You might want to one spot/channel for “Needs the Referee” and if online one for “AFK” (We have been calling this the Outhouse because it is funny. #ThankYouPolly)

   1. I suggest there be less locations than the total number of players, but more than 1/2

5. Once they have gathered describe to them the inciting event and any special circumstances you might have. Tell them if they want to take any secret actions, just let you know. If online they can go into the “Needs the Ref” channel or DM you. “Needs the Ref” is best if you are supposed to be hidden.

6. Give them a way for them to handle conflict resolution on their own. You can use a game system like Boot Hill or simply have them do Rock, Paper, Scissors. If someone is at a disadvantage they have to win one more time. (Crom is working on something really special for conflict resolution so stay on the look out for that.)

7. Let them loose. They are to roleplay as their characters with each other and attempt to accomplish their goals!

8. At a certain point it will be clear there has been a climax. This is when you end the game.

9. Determine the Winner, let the other players vote for each other if you you want.

10. Do an After Action Report. This can be done in your Server, on your Blog, or in a YouTube video. (If you are REALLY cool DunderMoose will invite you on to his channel. HERE)

The Conclusion

There are those who do not like using Braunstein to describe a style, the Major himself might even be included, and while he has every right to his opinion it is too late, the winds of fate are now.

The Bros have already started a change in the culture, and the way games are discussed. In only a few years Braunstein will be the word on the lips of thousands of D&D players who have no clue who we are, but their games will be better for it. You can’t stop us, and you definitely wont be able to stop them from calling this style of game a Braunstein any more than you can sensor speech.

I just hope that Dave and crew can publish the original Braunstein scenario so that in the future they can hold a copy of it next to their copy of BROZER and say
#ThankYouWesely, but in the mean time I will continue to say #ThankYouJeffro

Hit the Gym, read a book, have a great week.

~J