My Life As A Gamer: So You Want To Make Your Own Braunstein?

You've read my posts.

You're following the Twitter threads, and checking in on the tags.

You're hitting up the blogs of other #BROSR participants.

Now you're curious, aren't you? "How do I do this?"

Anon, I have good news for you: it's not that hard. This is what you need:

• A consistent ruleset that goes from man-to-man up to mass battles, individuals to institutions (for non-battle actions), able to produce promised results when used as-written. The #BROSR has proven that Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition is exactly this, but it is not the only one. Adventurer, Conqueror, King was made with this in mind. Traveller's original edition can do this. There are others. Not all tabletop RPGs can do this.
• A central source for campaign information. This can be a Twitter group, a Discord server, an email list, or something even simpler if you're all in the same realspace area. This is to be subdivided, at the least, into General (everyone can see it), Admin (Game Master and Referees can see it), and Player-Specific subsets (only those able to participate or observe can see it).
• A map, preferably with the ability to display Fog Of War so it can double as player-specific info.
• A calendar, with the ability to post notes or link to entries where information specific to that day can be found.

I also have some bad news: the tedious part is all up front.

• The Game Master needs to be proficient in the rules of the game that are used and be confident in his ability to rule. That takes some time to read and tinker with the systems so you know how it works and are able to tell others what to do and how to do it. Referees should share this proficiency.
• While such a location is free these days, you still need to take some time to learn how to use it and set it up to be user-friendly for others.
• The same applies to whatever form your calendar takes. Fortunately you can incorporate this into your information clearinghouse as you set that up so it's not a significant burden increase.

Once set up you will only need to become comfortable with delegation. You can't run every interaction that goes down; don't try. That's why you, Game Master, appoint Referees as needed--or, if you can trust the players, let them handle it themselves--to adjudicate those things and report the results. Your job becomes administrative as you watch your players interact and take joy in seeing how their schemes succeed or fail without you caring at all about the outcome.

Yes, Anon Game Master, I am telling you not only to become Crom, but that your enjoyment of this hobby in this role will increase exponentially by doing so.

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