My Life As A Gamer: The #BROSR Proves That Mass Battles Are Baked Into AD&D

Big action in the #BROSR yesterday.

The Pope is just watching this play out:

It starts out with Kangsta Wrappa flying up under the effect of a wind walk spell. Dressed all in white. Apparently there's a pretty good change that a creature in white using wind walk will be mistaken for mist or cloud.k

— Pope Pius XIII (@pius_xiii_) October 11, 2022

That's right, two undead Patrons had a big battle.

There was a Referee. Multiple people in the call. Turns, counter-turns, gonzo weirdness, and more.

The best part? Every single move was resolved entirely within the AD&D rules..

That's right, the very rules that millions used to resolve man-to-man combat in dungeons deep and wildneress wonderlands got successfully applied to a mass battle without changing anything. Initiative, movement, spells, morale, attacks- all the same as if it were one on one.

The thread above gets into it, and you're free to ask about the details of doing it at the table.

This is prime D&D play. Two characters with skin in the game coming to blows over a contested objective. Not quite how the Franco-Prussian War jumped off, but you can feel how real it is from how easy it is to comprehend why a vampire count and a rapping mummy decided to throw down with their armies.

Now that Jon Mollison's "Fate of Stormbringer" series (latest update here) is over, I expect to see more such open warfare to go down across the worlds of the #BROSR.

Those players did not badger the Game Master for a damned thing. They got out there and made things happen. They formed plans, acquired resources, executed and iterated their way to power and glory- and when people get that far up, sooner or later visions clash and they have to bash.

These conflicts can, and will, produce playable scenarios for other characters to take up as they are willing and able. Some will aid one side or another, some will exploit the chaos for their own ends, and some will use the chaos to clean house (literally or otherwise) using it as pretext- again, much like real life.

I know that there's going to be more to come, and I need not have any inside information to say so. I'm stocking up on popcorn and butter while cleaning the kettle. This is far more entertaining than anything in mainstream Western media.