Background
My friends and I usually play board games, but we thought it would be fun to try Dungeons and Dragons. I decided to run down this idea and give it a try. I had been aware of several #brosr members through the years, and sought out their expert advice. This led to implementing Brozer as an in-person game.
Preparation
Knowing nothing about D&D, and following the advice of the #brosr, as well as my own biases towards “older is probably better”, I took time to figure out which ruleset I should learn and try to implement. AD&D 1e soon became the obvious choice.
In order to make playing the game easier, and require fewer rules explanations, I wanted to condense what each player needed to know to what their faction had available in terms of potions, spells, and magic items. I listed characters as if they were a monster. Just HP, AC, and outdoor movement speeds, their weapons (with stats), and their items and spells (with explanation). Since no one was leveling up, I wasn’t too worried about needing to recalculate those values.
I also changed a few things around in terms of names or faction-specific elements to create something that fit the guys I’d be playing with. Once I was confident this would work, I invited some friends and put the finishing touches on the game materials.
Additionally, since I lacked any experience, I spent a long time reading the rules, and spent a few hours practicing combat so that I’d be ready to teach the rest of the group how to play.
Implementation
In order to keep fog of war, we played in a large space, put on some music, and were able to have private conversations. Some fog of war elements were lost when we did battles, but it was fine. We used my son’s LEGO bricks and minifigs to represent troops and characters on the table. Players who weren’t involved in combat built the terrain for each encounter out of toy blocks.
We handled orders by having everyone give me a description of what they were doing on a given day. Once everyone got their orders in, we resolved any encounters and played out the remainder od the day for those involved.
Gameplay
We ended up with 4 factions: pirates, elves, Romans, and Frogmen. After a couple of days, we ended up in a 3-way battle over the Mcguffinstone, which ended in hilarious fashion as the frogmen decided to snatch the stone away right before his ally could grab it. Greatly outnumbered, they tried to use the stone to create a portal to their main force, and failed, leaving them stranded in an unknown tile. A search and pursuit of this small band of frogs followed, ending in the surrender of the stone. Meanwhile, several skirmishes between the pirates and other frogmen took place, as the pirates sought to discover and loot the frog temple. After five combat encounters over 1 week of in-game time, we concluded the evening with a Roman victory, since they were in possession of the Mcguffinstone and controlled the most territory.
Outcome
It took about an hour for everyone to get into the swing of things, and the first few segments of combat were slow as we worked through the rules. Once things got moving, the pace of the action picked up quickly, and before long, everyone was completely invested in trying to win. We ended up playing for five and a half hours before we were starting to nod off at the table.
Lessons Learned
One issue I ran into several times was keeping track of the compositions of the 15 groups of troops moving around the map. This meant when a group was observed by another group my estimate of troop strength and composition could be off a bit. One could argue this is realistic, but I’d prefer it if unreliable troop estimates were intentional.
Additionally, I’d have kept a monster to-hit vs AC table handy throughout the game. I also would have put together a more-complete glossary of the spells and items available to the characters in each faction.
Key Takeaways
Fog-of-war and discovery were huge elements in keeping things interesting. People naturally started doing realistic things like spreading their troops, skirmishing, and then concentrating for a battle. Since no one knew the spells, items and abilities of the other team beforehand, there were many instances of suprise and re-thinking the approach.
Conclusion
A great time was had by all, I think it went over much better than trying to chase down Bargle in a dungeon would have, or some other starter campaign. Or worse yet, some sort of “Session Zero” where we walk through rolling characters before there’s any interest in the game. Instead, we got a taste for a game that combines heroic fights, tactical battles, and strategic planning. I don’t know what the future is going to look like, but we had a successful and engaging game night.