My Life As A Gamer: Nested Braunsteins As RPG Campaigning In Action

Allow me to put forth an idea, and to do so by illustration.

Imagine a galactic-scale Braunstein scenario. If you played 4X strategy games like Stellaris, then you know what I mean; each player has a Patron-led faction, and they're out doing whatever it is that this faction is about.

Now imagine a true Fog of War. True because not even the Game Master knows what lies between the initial domains claimed by the players; he knows only the relative distances between the factions. As Patrons spread out, that space is randomly generated.

This can, and inevitably will, generate a brand-new domain that opens up a new Patron for a player to control. It can also, and will inevitably lead to, multiple Patrons finding the same space and begin to contend for them.

Now we have a nested Braunstein scenario, a top-level one generates a secondary one; players can, and should, move to take over local Patrons and their local domains as the galactic Patrons manuever to seize control of the space to incorporate into their galactic domains.

Is this a radical new idea? No. It's how a well-know property looks to the eyes of those that know how RPGs actually work.

This is not at all the only such property. Herbert's Dune also looks like this. Smith's Lensmen looks like this. Traveller looks like this.

In short, I am not talking about a radical idea at all.

You can even do this in a rather interesting inverse of the usual "blank map where people start in the corners" setup by having everyone start in the middle, but all go in different directions at first and head to the edges. The tension ramps up as the page fills up and free space fades away, the domains generated take shape, and now it's time to see what you can take and what you can trade for to fill the gaps.

Each time you come up with a space that becomes a secondary Braunstein, you get an opportunity for some serious gaming to go down in a manner that usually isn't considered by most people, and when it is those parties who'd be making things happen are NPCs and thus rob the players of that joy in being a man that changes how the course of events goes. You gain chances at new technologies, new trade partners, new cultural exchanges, secrets to explore, and more all in that one part of space- and if that space has its own Patron, then you also get a new player on the galactic scale.

The Nested Braunstein is a method of making Perpetual Braunstein happen, keep it engaging over the long term, get eliminated players back into the game, and even attract a following that get as invested in the events of the campaign as they do in this quarter's Mandatory Moe Blob Series.

Oh, and you can scale up from the galactic scale; multiple galaxies (Smith did this), multiple universes, flat out Time Wars (omnicidal pepperpots and quirky British time travelers optional), and more are possible--I mentioned TORG the other day--so the Braunstein Box is a flexible one and you can nest in either direction.