Review: UMBROS

Review: UMBROS

I'm not dead, I was busy. Busy writing some stuff to make GURPS playable on all scales, but also busy thinking about running a strategic-level Braunstein to resolve a military conflict between two nations in my setting. It's been set up a couple of years ago, but due to games happening in other regions of the world, nothing was happening on that front. There was just an eternal "upcoming war that is about to happen." No, I'm not just rambling and telling you about my games, this is just a segue into the topic of this blogpost, which is a review of UMBROS: A Braunstein of Dinosaurs & Treachery at the Earth's Core. You see, my ramblings highlight a problem with conventional play - the world is static no matter how hard the referee tries to maintain the illusion of it being alive.

So, what is UMBROS? Remember BROZER? I already praised that book (a free one!) for being a gateway to Braunstein play and living worlds. Now that I've run my own Type II Braunstein and participated in one as a player, I have some hands-on experience, so I'm ready to advance to the next stage. I had new questions, and all of them got answered in UMBROS - another free book with a ready-to-play, carefully crafted Braunstein scenario and, what I found the most important and intriguing, new essays and incredibly useful appendices.

Compared to BROZER, UMBROS is 40 pages longer. While BROZER was a fruit of a group effort by multiple authors, UMBROS is a single-author endeavor brought to life by BDubs1776 in, what I assume, was a fit of magnanimity. However, the appendices heavily reference works of other authors, so I guess this still counts as a group effort.

The first chapter is the Player's Guide. Here, the author describes the setting of UMBROS and its pulp inspirations. UMBROS seems to take itself more seriously than BROZER, with fewer memes, and is much less of an "anything goes" setting. The main inspiration is E.R. Burroughs and his Hollow Earth fiction that I haven't read, unfortunately. I mean, I actually have some books of Burroughs on my bookshelf but I haven't gotten around to them. I'll be completely honest here - I am aware of the works of Burroughs not thanks to Burroughs himself, but thanks to R.A. Heinlein's The Number of the Beast. I should read some more ficiton of that era - I already procured some R.E. Howard's books as well. 

Aside from describing the setting and its inspirations, this chapter also has a one-page-long "How to Be a Player in Your First Session Braunstein." To be honest, I think I'd remove "session" from the heading, as the advice presented there applies to any kind of Braunstein. I have seen some people complain that BROZER doesn't have anything like a player's guide - so, there it is. It's good.

Finally, this chapter also lists what kind of equipment and livestock is available to what factions, which yet again strenghtens the impression that the author had a specific experience/feeling in mind - not "anything goes." Then you have a quick faction breakdown that probably would work well as a handout for potential players.

The second chapter is Factions. There are only five primary factions and seven secondary factions - slightly fewer than in BROZER, but still more than enough for a complete experience. Even though some factions migrated from BROZER to this supplement, you will see a major difference between the two books. UMBROS emphasizes domain-level play, and because of that each faction has Domain Information where you can see which hexes are controlled by this faction, what sort of settlements, fortifications, population, income, upkeep, etc. it has. BROZER did not have such details and was much less specific about the location and territory of each faction.

There is another important moment that you will see here. Well, rather not see here. If you read the entry and then think "Wait a second, what are the goals of this faction?" - do not worry, you did not miss anything. There are indeed no preset faction goals in UMBROS. The reason is explained in BDubs's interview with Dunder Moose. IIRC, BDubs said that preset faction goals are detrimental, and that letting the player decide which goals he's going to pursue based on the character/faction produces better results. BrOSR is not stagnant - there are always new ideas, different opinions, experimentation, etc. I have played only with preset faction goals, but I wonder what would've happened in a Braunstein where the goals have to be inferred by the player from the character's description.

The third chapter is Braunstein Style Play. Remember people complaining that BROZER doesn't actually tell you how to run the game? Imagine an author actually taking the criticism well and accounting for it in the next book instead of throwing a hissy fit. That's exactly what happened here - now you not only have detailed guidelines on how to run UMBROS (or any other scenario) in each of the four Braunstein types (yes, four, not three), but you also have written examples of how a game might run. Now, there's literally no excuse - "I don't know how to run a 'Stein" just won't fly anymore.

As I mentioned above, even the classification of Braunsteins has evolved - now there are four types instead of three. Previously, I assumed that the Always-On Braunstein and the Total Non-Stop Braunstein are the same thing, but UMBROS explains the differences.

There's also a mini-article on 1:1 Jeffrogaxian Timekeeping - something that riles people up online for some reason. Usually, it's contained to (A)D&D discourse, but I had some people get mad at me for advocating for it in GURPS, when GURPS Basic Set suggests 1:1 time as an option. But people do not read the GM sections of that book. I think the topic has been explained many times before, but it's nice to have a concise version in UMBROS as well - it's a nice thing to show to someone who is unfamiliar with the concept.

What I find the most valuable in this chapter is Diffusion and Convergence. This is essential reading to all Braunstein players and referees. So many problems are explained and solutions are offered. I cannot overstate how important this is.

The final chapter is the Appendices. One might think that this is merely some not-very-important supplemental material, but the appendices here are actually essential. Appendices A-C facilitate the logistics of Braunsteins. Appendix A is crucial for Total Non-Stop Braunsteins. I should highlight Appendix B - GOSS. I really wish I had read it before running my Braunstein. GOSS check is an elegant mechanic for determining who learns what information about any major event/hijink. This lightens the mental load on the referee and makes the entire process smoother. Excellent stuff. Appendiced D and E explain the domain management rules, highlighting the important and unimportant parts, and also describing some problems that may arise and how to fix them. You should read them even regardless of what system you are using. Appendix F tells you how to create your own Braunstein factions.

Conclusion

While BROZER was excellent, it still could be better in some parts. Despite that, I thought that it'd be very difficult to top it in terms of quality and usefulness. BDubs proved me wrong and produced this masterpiece, and I cannot recommend it enough.

My only criticisms are very minor. The book could've used better proofreading - there are missing spaces in a couple of places, missing or repeating words. Headings sometimes differ between the table of contents and actual text ("your fast session Braunstein" -> "your first session Braunstein"). There are some typos here and there ("role" instead of "roll", etc.). The "Patrol" entry in the bestiary has wrong heading formatting. But you know, when I have to nitpick this hard to find something to criticize, that means that the actual content is perfect.

With this serendipituous release, I feel much less anxious about running a proper game with multiple-tier action, Braunstein play, and 1:1 timekeeping.

#ThankYouBDubs