BrOSR and GURPS

BrOSR and GURPS

A few months ago, TheRyujinLP introduced me to the Joy of Wargaming YouTube channel, something for which I'm thankful. Aside from providing interesting battle reports, solo RPG playthroughs, and other RPG and wargaming-related videos, this channel introduced me to the concept of BrOSR (a portmanteau of OSR and Braunstein), something I wasn't aware of before. I watched some videos (both from the proponents and detractors) and read some blogposts. The most material can be found on Jeffro's Space Gaming Blog, but it was surprisingly difficult to find posts that clearly explain what BrOSR is. However, he who seeks will find, so I'll link you two posts that explain the concept very well:

1. BROSR Principles: A Primer (the blog of the Joy of Wargaming host, be sure to check this one out, it has a lot of good stuff).

2. How to Play D&D Like A Wargame (this post really could use some editing, but that's rich coming from me out of all people).

All this for the most part assumes AD&D or similar games, but the principles themselves are universally applicable. I found the concept of BrOSR fascinating, but since AD&D and GURPS are so different, it made me think - what principles can and cannot be applied in GURPS? So, here's a rambly post that'll probably bring me some heat.

Preface: I've never played AD&D, and I'm merely dipping my toes into the subject - there's a chance that I do not understand some of the concepts properly.

First, we have to define what BrOSR even is, and to do that, we'll have to look at all the different ways of playing tabletop RPGs. There have been multiple attempts at classifying the cultures of play, and if you'd like a deeper delve into it, I suggest reading Alexander Macris's A Manifesto: In Defense of Simulationism. The BrOSR people simplify the classification by using only two categories - correct (their way) or conventional (all the other ones). Don't you lump me together into the same group as narrativists! But snarkiness aside, the BrOSR way to play the game is to play AD&D as a wargame and using RAW. This may sound like a gamist approach, but after examining it deeper, it seems much closer to simulationism described in the aforementioned manifesto. Now, let's discuss every BrOSR principle and see how it can be applied to GURPS. I'm really not sure how to structure this post because everything is very interconnected, so this is going to be a stream of consciousness.

1. Mindset

This is probably the most difficult thing to wrap your head around, as mental inertia is a real thing. If you played one way for years or even decades, it's hard to break this conditioning and simply reject some concepts that felt essential in the past. Come on, I've seen people online struggling to get into GURPS because it's a roll-under system with 3d6! They tried reworking the system to be a roll-over d20 system before even playing the damn game!

I experienced mental inertia firsthand when switching from D&D to GURPS, but not to the degree described above - my mind just resisted adapting until at some point I finally got GURPS and everything became clear and obvious. The situation here is the same, and I must say that I still do not get some parts, but that's probably because I have no practical experience with BrOSR.

In BrOSR, the line between the players and the GM and the line between the PCs and the NPCs becomes blurry. One day, you may be the GM, but the next week you may switch places and become a player. A PC of one session is an NPC of another. There may even be multiple GMs at the same time. The entire game world becomes something of a PC for all the players involved with different characters and factions being the actors. The creative process is shared and open to everybody, creating a living world. The game shouldn't be viewed as a "storytelling process," but rather as an always-on wargame. This will make more sense down the line (at least I hope so).

2. 1:1 Time / Jeffrogaxian Timekeeping

This is said to be the most important component of BrOSR. If you're used to conventional play, it may seem strange or inconsequential (and it did to me when I was reading it at first), but the more you read and try to understand BrOSR, the more 1:1 time makes sense. This is what AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide says on page 37:

Even if you're not playing with 1:1 time (I still haven't explained what that even means), I suggest keeping strict time records. I'm doing this in my ongoing GURPS game, as let me tell you - it makes things easier and much better. To the modern players, it may seem counterintuitive. "How come more bookkeeping makes things easier?" But it does.

But anyway, what does 1:1 time mean? Any amount of time may pass during a session, but for each real world day between sessions (not between adventures), time in the game world advances one day. However, it is possible to have time pass even faster, but 1 day = 1 day seems to be the most common rate.

Why is this so important?

- First, this is the great equalizer, as everyone will be able to do only as much as the time allows.

- Second, it allows keeping track of where and when everyone is when there are multiple groups running about (more on that later).

- Third, it actually enables multiple groups running about, opening the table (again, more on that later). - Fourth, it opens up the game, and I feel that this may be relevant to GURPS even more than to AD&D. GURPS has a ton of rules that feel important but that rarely actually come into play, from my experience and from what I read online.

For example, recovery and crippling injuries. Imagine a typical sitation - the PCs are delving into a dungeon, some of them inevitably get injured, and what happens when they come back to town? That's right, the GM does a timeskip to the time of full recovery of everybody, and the next adventure begins. Since time records often are not kept, it is as if the time didn't even pass, and there was no consequence to getting injured. But let's go even further and say that one of the PCs got a crippling injury, rolled HT to see its duration and got a lasting one. I've seen many GMs say that they do not use the crippling injury rules against the PCs at all or use only the temporary ones, justifying it by saying that a crippling injury removes the PC and the player from the game for a long time, and this isn't fun. Now that I think about, I don't think I've ever seen a lasting crippling injury on a PC in GURPS. Why do these rules exist if no one uses them? But with 1:1 time, this stops being a problem - while the crippled character recovers, you just roll up a new character and play that one! (Again, more on multiple parties/characters later).

GURPS, being by default a simulationist system, also has many rules and traits that just don't come up during your typical adventure. For example, Independent Income. Who cares? Invention rules, crafting rules, building rules, job rules, Improvement Through Study. Who cares? Nobody does it, because during the session you have to have non-stop action, right? Imagine a player tell the other player that they have to wait an in-game week for him to brew a potion. Why do these rules exist? Why was so much effort put into these rules? (They are pretty damn good.) Now, you may tip your fedora and say that players should not take traits and skills that are concerned with these parts of the system unless the GM tells them that there will be plenty of downtime, and that this is the case of incompetent GMing. For a conventional game, this is absolutely true. For a BrOSR game, this is not. Since time will pass between the sessions, all of these traits and rules may be used to their fullest potential, there's no "if the GM..." part. And this is the beauty of it - even though these rules will be used, they will not detract from the action during the sessions, because downtime activities are done in the real world downtime. See what I mean? When at first, when I read about 1:1 time, I thought "Why does it matter that much?", now it actually clicked and made sense to me. This simple "new" rule really does open up the game to new possibilities, and it makes it seem that such rules were made with this in mind, even though GURPS doesn't say anything about it... or does it?

GURPS actually does have something on this, but because barely anyone reads the gamemastering section of GURPS Basic Set and assumes that they know how to run the game (to be fair, it does contain a lot of advice that I find questionable, but that's probably because of my distaste of the modern narrativist approach), nobody brings this up. On pages 497-498, GURPS Basic Set suggests "stopping time" between sessions but advancing time between adventures. That sounds conventional, right? However, the very last paragraph says the following: "Alternatively, you can let X days of real time equal one day of game time, all the time. For instance, if X is 7, one day equals one week; therefore, if it has been seven days since your last adventure, seven weeks have passed in the game world." I do not like the wording here. This part is in the "Time Between Adventures" section and says "since your last adventure," but at the same time says "all the time" before that, implying the AD&D method. I don't know what the original intent was. On the very next page, we have a box titled Time Use Sheets. It talks about tracking time and activities "between sessions" but then backtracks and says that it means "between adventures." And then says "between sessions" again. Again, I'm not sure what the intent was.

2.1. Time Paradoxes and Multiple Characters in 1:1 Time

One thing that may seem unclear is how to deal with the potential time paradoxes. For example, the party of PCs during a session held on September 1st embarked on an adventure to clear out a dungeon. Twelve in-game days passed during the session. The next session is on September 8th, and those characters are still supposed to be in that dungeon, right? Do the players have to sit this one out? Of course not! They just roll up new PCs for this session and do something else - the goals of these PCs may be aligned with the other PCs or may be completely different. What if they want to go to that same dungeon? Now that's a no. Until the first group returns, that place is "timelocked" - you cannot interact with it until September 20th in the real world.

To some, this may seem lame, as some players get invested a lot (sometimes too much) into their characters. But on the other hand, this has some advantages. You get to explore more parts of the world, you get to populate the world with more characters who may interact with one another later. You make it much easier to have an "open table", where players may come and go, as there's no need for a "fixed" adventuring party roster.

However, we may run into the problem that is called GURPS. Character generation in GURPS can take a while. I believe that this is more prominent in conventional games, but if you're making a simple character for this BrOSR-style game, it can be quite quick if you're proficient with the system. Alternatively, this is the place where I would actually advocate for the template system that I typically abhor or even a random character generation that I typically adore. The characters are supposed to start out relatively weak and undeveloped, gaining power during the play. Delvers to Grow by Gaming Ballistic would be perfect for this!

2.2. One-Session Adventures

Another concept that may seem confusing at the start (it still kind of is to me) is that you are supposed to end the session in a safe place. If not, then the character party will have to deal with a week-worth of random encounter rolls or even something worse, and this either makes things complicated or unsurvivable. But what about the large dungeons or even megadungeons that you just cannot explore in a single session? This is where you're supposed to change your mindset and plan ahead. Know that you have to get out of the dungeon before the end of the session, or you'll suffer severe consequences. But how do you get back to the safe place after exiting the dungeon? And that's the thing - you have to plan ahead and make the passage safe. Clear out the wandering monsters, place marks so that you don't get lost, attach ropes to cliffs, etc. Alternatively, clear out an area around the dungeon and make a safe camp, or even barricade a part of the dungeon itself to make it safe to camp inside. But always be prepared for rooms and lairs to be repopulated between sessions and even prepared to face you again if you left survivors. I admit that this is one of the concepts that I'm still struggling with.

But wait a second, isn't there an alternative? I've never seen it mentioned in BrOSR posts/videos, but what if you didn't finish a dungeon/adventure/whatever during the session, you may end there, but the rest is abstracted? ACKS II Judge's Journal has chapters for abstract resolution of wilderness and dungeon adventures, where you can add up some modifiers, make a couple of rolls, and know the result and the consequences. If somebody (oh dear, I'll have to do it, won't I?) comes up with a similar system for GURPS, that sounds like a good alternative to me. Or maybe I'm missing something important.

3. Random Tables and Reaction Rolls

These are considered very important for BrOSR games with 1:1 time. After all, the GM has no prewritten plot or adventure (I'll talk about emergent play later), and the various random tables become an important source of action and inspiration. Reaction rolls also become an integral part of the game.

Rolling tons of random encounters and reactions in play can take a while, so it's considered a good practice to preroll a few of them in advance.

GURPS, being generic, doesn't have many generic random tables, so you'll have to come up with some yourself! Alternatively, you can use tables from other systems, but you better check them for compatibility first.

4. Emergent Play

As I said, the GM doesn't have a plot. Instead, he defines a geographical region for the game and then relies on the results of random table rolls and actions of the players. This way, the "story" develops organically from the actions taken by the players. This is something that I've been practicing a lot because I really don't like writing plotlines ahead of the time. I roll up a number of creatures and special features that populate the region and see how they can relate to one another. Then, if your setting and the game system are internally consistent, the story will basically write itself. ACKS II calls this approach a "story web," suggesting coming up with a variety of points of interest and trying to tie them together. This way, there won't be a predefined order in which the players are supposed to explore them, which in turn will increase the players' agency, investment, make the world feel more alive, and ease the workload of the GM. Isn't that great? Even if you're playing conventionally, consider giving emergent play a try, it's great.

5. Patron Play

Another important part of BrOSR is said to be patron play. The GM enriches the world and lightens the workload by delegating major in-universe NPCs and factions to players. They can be the same players that play regular characters, but people are saying that it's best that they are separate. After all, many players are not interested in patron-level play at all, but they still will benefit from patron play being in play, if that makes any sense. Patrons can be quite varied - they can be powerful NPCs or monsters, guilds or other organizations, lairs, etc. For the most part, they only come into play between sessions, although their players may get consulted by the GM during a session even if the player in question is currently playing a regular PC!

In simpler words, the game becomes a two-tier one. Between the sessions, the GM asks the patron players what actions they'd like to perform and adjudicates them, preserving the fog of war. The regular players don't even have to know anything about this, and they don't even have to know who the patron players are. I believe it's even better that way, as they won't even know if they are interacting with the GM's NPC faction of a player-controlled patron during the sessions! From the mechanical standpoint, I believe that patron play is quite abstract, with the GM resolving actions based on what seems reasonable. No, you don't need GURPS Boardroom & Curia for this.

The benefits of patron play are numerous. The most important benefit is that the world stops being static, and that even the GM doesn't know what's going to happen next. Interactions between patron players and regular players are the bread and butter of inspiration for in-session adventures. The regular PCs often are wildcards that can be exploited by the patrons, so they have an incentive to come up with hijinks that would involve the PCs. Patrons also make GMing much easier, and that's a good thing, right?

Finally, an entire new dimension open up when the patrons (and maybe even regular players) resolve some things and plots without the GM and then notify the rest of the group in the form of something of a newsletter. Then even the GM may be in for a surprise! This is the "Br" component of BrOSR.

6. Character Advancement

Now, for something GURPS-specific. How do characters advance? Do you just give them a fixed number of points after each session? The "milestone" advancement doesn't really work since there's no overarching plot. Granting points for killing monsters sounds limiting and open to abuse. But what if advancement depends on treasure? If the GM enforces training rules and asks for money and time to be able to increase skills or gain new ones, then treasure-for-XP sounds sensible. Also, since there's a lot of downtime activity where you can earn money, why not actually adapt the AD&D treasure-for-XP rules to GURPS? I think there should be diminishing returns, however, so the amount of $ you have to bring at higher point values would be higher than when you're just starting out. Also, do not forget that a sufficiently powerful regular PC might as well "evolve/retire" to become a patron-level actor!

7. Playing by RAW

Now this is something that's going to cause a lot of problems. For this to work (especially if some things are going to be resolved without a GM), you have to play by RAW. In AD&D, this is as simple as just playing by-the-book and saying "no" to those who want to change the rules, as you wouldn't be playing AD&D otherwise. Everyone has to be on the same page. You should not use Rule Zero, i.e. "if the GM doesn't like the rule, he may change it to whatever he wants." GURPS Basic Set, unfortunately, actively advertises this. If rules are inconsistent, then what's the difference between playing this and Mother May I? I already talked about how vague rules may detract from the players' agency in a post about Divine Favor.

But what if a situation comes up that isn't covered by the rules? This is where the GM's job to adjudicate it comes up. If you're playing by RAW, the GM becomes not a storyteller, but a neutral arbiter. One of the stupidest parts of the OSR paradigm, in my opinion, is "Rulings, not rules." I very much prefer the ACKS approach of "Today's rulings are tomorrow's rules." If you make a ruling, be sure to turn it into a consistent rule!

But here's the GU issue of GURPS comes up. GURPS is not a game. "We're playing GURPS tonight" doesn't mean anything. GURPS is a toolbox for creating games, and you literally cannot "play GURPS RAW" because there's many rules that are incompatible or contradicting rules (although, some of the contradictions stem from different books being written by different authors who didn't make sure to make their rules consistent with the previous publications). As a GM, you have to clearly define the ruleset you're using, and then it will become your "RAW." It may sound like a cheap copout, but that's the nature of GURPS - it's not a ready-to-play game. On the other hand, if you were to play DFRPG, you could play by RAW!

Another side effect is that the players have to know the rules and read the books. Nowadays, unfortunately, it actually can be a problem. There's this myth that you cannot learn the game by reading the books, that you have to be introduced to it (and hence inherit whatever biases and mistakes the introductor might have), but this is simply not true.

8. Communication

All this sounds complex, but easy Internet access and abundance of communication platforms such as Discord, makes it much easier. Downtime activities or even short 1-on-1 "subsessions" can simply be resolved there. BrOSR games are "always on," and that's the charm of them.

Final Thoughts

Now that I wrote all this, I think I understand it all better. The concept of BrOSR games sounds fascinating to me, and I would love to actually try it once my schedule stabilizes. The problem is finding players - these games seem to work better when you have many players, and GURPS doesn't have that large of a playerbase, and the fact that you have to find players who'd play GURPS your way (as explained in #7) and who'd like to play a BrOSR-style game narrows it down even further. Maybe if BrOSR gets more popular, it would get more mass appeal, but I doubt that's going to happen, as it is something antithetical to the modern "player." GURPS also would need a lot of adjustment, such as various abstract task resolution systems, random tables tailored to the game, etc., but this part doesn't intimidate me. All in all, this probably sounds like insane ramblings to you, but I had a lot of fun writing this up!