Tabletop

I want to try something for my D&D campaign, which I recently changed from a West Marches into a Braunstein. I’m going to compile the SEEN posts every month into a post and then report on them. Given that we’re in a bit of a slow period, this might go nowhere. Or maybe it will. I don’t know. To start I’m going to only post the news and rumors that happened the previous month, so that you as an outsider won’t have up-to-date information.

For those just tuning in, the following are called SEEN posts. SEEN stands for “Serious Events, Evidence, and Narratives” and are a creation of DM Serious. Before, during, or after any action has been taken, the players write a post and send it to a separate account ran by the DM, who then obscurs the poster to make the source of the information unclear and shares it in a news feed that’s public to everyone in the game. The DM also writes up his own SEEN posts, which further adds to the intrigue.

The truth of these rumors is determined up front using a system called GOSS, which was originally created by Doomstone Crom.1 GOSS uses a dice roll to determine the transparency of the SEEN post. Is it truthful? Is it accurate? Only way to know is to play and find out!

Here’s a handy little index to take you to the section you wish to reference, if you’re using the substack site:

1. Good Rumors
2. Skirmish with the Crokek’toek
3. Gossip at a Tavern
4. Missing Persons in the Mega City
5. This is Not Our Way
6. The Chwingas in the Chardalyn Mines
7. News of a Lost Tower
8. A Shambling Mass of Limbs and Light
9. Takeaways

I have a confession to make: I used to engage in conventional play in the TTRPG space. Complete and utter shock, I know. Things were good for a spell, I’ll admit, but over time I started to burn out. I was preparing too much, and the players passively went along with it because that’s just how things were supposed to be. Scheduling was a nightmare, and syncing up the right combination of players to unpause the game took an almost herculian effort. I needed something different, and I needed it fast. I began researching in earnest for concepts that promised new or alternative ways to play.

The West Marches was my first significant find in that it gave me something concrete to experiment with. I took my Halfhand Adventurers Guild campaign and made the necessary adjustments to make it fit with that style of play. Right off the bat it solved the scheduling problem. Instead of spending all my time wrangling the players, they came and went as they pleased. Not bad, all said and done, but I was still doing way too much while the players weren’t doing enough. Timkeeping improved a little, but continued to be this cognitive load that kept things a few miles shy of fun. Turns out I’d only slowed the process of burning out instead of stopping it completely.

I almost threw in the towel and peaced out of the hobby, or at the very least packed away the books for a spell. Decided to poke around the socials one last time as a hail mary to see if anyone had made similar journeys or had new insights. I just needed something!

I met Alchemic Raker, who turned me onto Chainmail through his clone The Old Lords of Wonder and Ruin. That got me exploring the origins of D&D and old school play, which then led me to the brilliant, cheeky trio of Scutifer Mike, Dundermoose, and Harmony Ginger. From them I found Jeffro Johnson (author of many enlightening works – such as Winning Secrets), and then picked up Drakonheim through SeriousDM. Met Rule of Thule after that, and then encountered a wild bdubs, which pretty much leads us here.

“Where is here?” you’re obviously asking yourself.