The Campaign: This Is Not About You And The Boys Camping In The Woods

I've mentioned this in passing. Now I focus on it, and that thing is a paradigm problem.

What a lot of people think they are doing when they're playing D&D in particular (and RPGs generally) is this:

What the game is actually about is this:

When I say that this is a hobby of fantastic adventure wargaming, I am not exaggerating.

This is like all those men in the 1970s and 80s who read Soldier of Fortune, did a term in the military and thought "Y'know, being a mercenary ain't such a bad idea." Or, generations before, the men who read Pulps or Dime Novels about the French Foreign Legion and ran off to join. Or signed on with Shackleton on his voyage to the South Pole.

In short, this is about going on an expedition full of risks to life and limb where success is far from certain- and reward, in addition to be just as uncertain, has little to do with the success of the expedition. This is not You And The Boys going camping and hiking for a weekend.

A lot of the naysaying about the #BROSR, when it is not rooted in an utter disbelief that excellence in gaming is possible, stems from a complete miscomprehension of what is going on.

When you realize that you're dealing in (para)military activity--go figure, it's a wargame descended from Braunstein and Kriegspiel--you stop thinking that the other men at the table are your friends. Your man signed on to an expedition; so did theirs. Maybe your man, or another at the table, organized it or sponsored it- or maybe that of a player not at the table, but instead one playing that character as a faction leader or other patron. You're dealing with collieges, coworkers- not your buddies you pal around with. It's not the same thing, and every adult reading this knows the difference.

You're playing a game where mortal danger is on the table, where facing it is your job description, and maximizing your man's rewards (given his skills, experience, and morality) is tied directly to developing his capacity to act in the campaign and get what he wants to do done- and he can get ganked at any time if he is unlucky, incompetent, or draws the ire of something he can't put down.

Yet when you hear complaints and objections, that "We're pals in the woods having fun" vibe shows up time and again.

• "Thieves don't steal from the party. We're friends." (That's not how it works; I'll put down a post about this later in the week.)
• "We don't track wilderness trecks/consumables/time because it's boring." (That's not how it works; the game is not a themepark.)
• "We do everything together."
• "We have a plot."

All of this has that Boy Scout camping weekend vibe. Get in the car, go out to the campground, spend the weekend running around a completely pacified area with no real risks, then go home on Sunday. Maybe someone completed a merit badge or qualified to rank up or got tapped for one of the special sub-organizations (e.g. Order of the Arrow).

What it really is means to go off to war or on an exploratory voyage, have no idea where you're going, know (almost) no one when you depart, be just competent enough to handle yourself when under proper leadership- and hopefully your senior isn't a fuckup and neither is your commander. Face people you've never met before in a fight, see beasts you never saw before or even heard of, get shot at or stabbed at, suffer privations of all sorts, see more than a few of your companions and collieges get ganked or crippled along the way, and maybe--if you are fortunate and you're able to rise to the challenges thrust upon you--not only do you come home but you do so covered in glory and festooned with tribute.

Or you carve out your own domain in the lands you conquered, either in your own name or (just as likely) as the vassal to someone more powerful than you. Or (more likely) you die like a bitch and bleed out in a ditch someplace because your luck ran out early and you got your head caved in by a monster using a tree limb for a club.

High risk, high reward- this is a game of high adventure!

And, as a former Boy Scout (and Order member), this is why my camping trips always fell short of what I wanted them to be- and I had one of the better Troops around.

This will be the focus on the blog this week: the need for this formula to make the game work as intended.