The Culture: All You Need Is A Blank Map And Some Tables

Jeffro Johnson is getting ready to run another Braunstein event connecting the campaigns together. Here's the map.

Remember what I said about starting with a blank map, and then using the Appendices in the Dungeon Master's Guide for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition to fill in that map if players take their mans into the blank spaces? This is just that approach in action, well past launch, and with multiple active adventuring hotspots in play.

This is proof that Jeffro (and the Bros) are walking the talk.

"How does this help with ambitious players?"

Simple, Anon. You tell the players "See this map? This is all you know about the land. This is also all I know about the land. We're going to find out together what this place is, and who dwells within it. Where do you want to go first?

The most you need to do is generate a base camp. This can be a literal base camp, or (more commonly) an more established settlement--a village, town, or city--where players' men can sortie from to explore and return to when required.

The only known gods are those of any initial characters required to have them (in such campaigns, such as AD&D1e). All others can be discovered through play, and that can be very interesting indeed.

Those ambitious players? Guess what? A wide-open field means that they have all that they require to pursue their ambitions. Conquer and rule your own kingdom? Here you go. Build up a criminal network? Getting in on the ground floor is key. Make one and all pay homage to your god? A lot easier to do in such an environment. You get the idea.

Because no one--including the Referee--knows what's out there until players decide to send their mans to find out, this is truly a matter of Fortune Favors The Bold.

Sure, some folks run into the Ancient Red Dragon and get squished. Some folks get jumped by a massive Berserker warband and don't even get time to say "ACK!" before they get slaughtered. Then a party finds a weakly-defended monster lair, or a mostly-empty dungeon, and make a big score of treasure (and, just as vital, information) and they're the ones that stand a chance of achieving those ambitions.

And as there is no "real map" underneath, there is no blaming the Referee for when things do go wrong and your man gets killed- or worse. No special NPCs for him to favor. No plot threads to follow. Just what the dice generate, and what the players make of those results thereafter.

Players have to drive the bus in this environment.

Nothing happens without players making it happen. There is nothing out there until it is explored, so there is no game to play until a player--it only takes one--says "I go here" and points to a blank spot on the map. Slowly, over many sessions, the map gets filled out. Many men die. A few thrive and rise to power, imposing their will upon the land, taming it and shaping it to their will; they, in turn, come to sponsor the next wave of explorers while they build up Domains in pursuit of their ambitions.

This is how you go about retraining people out of Cargo Cult play, and because you (as Referee) state up front "I don't know what is there either, so we'll find out together" they will figure it out and start driving events- if nothing else, out of the simple desire to find treasure and make use of it for their own ends- Jon Mollison's Solo AD&D series is proof that this is plenty to get people moving at first.

As Referee, the thing to do is to focus on what the man wants; "You're spending several days going to and from the dungeon. Would it not be smarter to cut that time down by setting up a base camp closer to the dungeon?" leads to "Securing that route means clearing the area around it from hostiles" and finally "Fortifying this base camp so you can base patrols here would be a good idea" before "Hey, your Fighter is 9th level now. How about making this fort and the dungeon you've cleared and secured into the basis for a freehold?"

Putting players in the driver's seat also extends to other things. "That takes a Sage. You don't have one. What do you do?"

And, finally, by using a blank map avoids all of the problems that established settings (and their lore) have for far too many players (and Referees). If the setting doesn't exist until a player's man discovers it, then there is no lore to bore people to death with; there are successful adventurers, there are corpses, and that is all anyone needs to know.

Because few things, in practice, facilitate "What do you want?" than seeing an empty table upon which to build it.