BrozerDiceless: My First Braunstein

Brozer Diceless

Pre-Game

From the guys that brought you RealD&D and Don’t Read Anything After 1980 comes a new old thing of great enjoyment that can solve, 100% guaranteed, all your RPG problems! The best part? It’s absolutely FREE! Get Brozer today!

Sales pitch aside, I decided to try it out after the hype-building from the BROsr and a desire to see things first-hand. As for this, I’m just sort of taking notes as I go in the hopes I can get ahead and get that sweet Tarzan book from Cirsova.

I joined up at the near-end of recruitment, a few days before everything was supposed to kick off. Not knowing what to do, or what was expected, I just sort of played from the offerings of others. I played Ferigno, by the way, the big green boi himself. @DoomstoneCrom was the GM, and he sent us a set of rules to build a character with. I am going to assume that these are from Amber Diceless or a simplified version therein. Either way, I got my numbers together on a notepad (I was at work) and re-read my faction.

Natural Disaster

 

Having been on the periphery for a while, I recognized some of the characters and factions right away. Funny enough, I would have missed most of the referential factions less than two years ago. It’s amazing what a bit of reading can do, though. With that said, being a big boss dragon and absolute villain built a lot of initial excitement. I was half-hoping to join the legacy of Those That Died Before the Game Started or make a lasting stamp in some other way. All in all, I convinced myself that I’d be content to just muck about and sow chaos where I could.

I won’t delve too far into my faction and all the goodies, but it is worth noting that you can take any of the Brozer factions and plop them into your RPG world of choice for all sorts of fun.

 

Week 1

The first day was planting the flags and declarations: who was who and some quips or fun bits. There was probably a good amount of back-channel chats already going on (I hit up a few people myself) but the memes were strongest at this point.

I ended up piggybacking off of something the Frogtown player @Hollyfelled had said about a desire to turn the frozen wasteland into a “right and good tropical mudhole.” This quickly became my meme theme as I began mucking about AI generation and such to fill out a resort, spa, and hot spring paradise. I was a green dragon with vinelings, and a verdant paradise could benefit all! What better savior could Brozer want?

"Escape Brozer's frozen and desolate landscape! A dip in the springs, some of BOB's famous dipsticks, and drinks for all!"

 

Shortly after the initial wave, Chaz hit me up for the gala. This would become the first big (public) convergence. It was also an opportunity to throw down with the Swolcerors run by @Bdubs1776 and see how this was all supposed to go.

With a bit of work, mostly by Chaz (top notch and I hope he wins, btw), several big fights with representatives of various factions were laid out. A huge event, Man vs Monster! I was pretty hype for this, and really playing up the “I am the green hero support me for a better world” thing. I had also begun to wonder about how to work the field beyond myself (Ferigno). Thankfully, Brozer handles this with the variety of sub-chiefs, lieutenants, or whatever.

BOB was the first to jump out for this. Dubs is going to shun me forever, but I still haven’t seen Twin Peaks and only watched some clip with the guy crawling over a couch and a lady screaming. Clearly, he is very frightening. In my hands with the running theme? He became one of Gordon Ramsay’s many pupils. Makes sense, though; Wraith that feeds on pain and hatred working in Hell’s Kitchen? Well, I thought it was funny.

Fight night seemed to cause some issues. I’m not sure if it was due to timing, awkwardness with the play, or other complicating factors. Crom ended up handling the fight between Dubs and myself by the end of it, but hot damn was it awesome to watch. Even the prior rounds had some cool stuff going on, but that tomb drop entrance from Caius the Invincible (played by @Kiterion1838131) was bomber. That moment was, “I don’t care if I lose this is pretty damn cool let’s GOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Algernon: Ferigno's Adventurer Form

 

So yeah, Ferigno disappeared. Per the system in place, Tricks can be spent to reframe a situation to suit a different Attribute or escape. This avoids damage (Resilience). There are some quirks in the system I started to realize at this time, but I made my choice and I had to make the best of it. The short: Reframe to your high stat and kill the enemy. I invested quite a few points into Resilience, expecting more chip downs vs OHKO slaps.

As for the gala itself, there was a bit of chaos and Broger de Broger’s Maguffinstone was stolen. Jury’s still out whether or not this was a lie, bait, or otherwise. BOB catered, btw, in true Hell’s Kitchen fashion. The Imperator and J. Jumper Jameson were also invited to an all expenses paid trip to my resort (it never came to fruition).

That’s the end of my memory for week 1, my fault for not keeping notes and getting too busy.

 

Week 2

The convergence and battle from the first week left me re-thinking my choices and position. Most importantly, 2 of my faction leaders/resources disappeared. Crom had kept it simple in his description, but I decided to lean into it and play around with the other chiefs and was struck by a new inspiration. I decided to see where it lead. So begins the Uncivil War.

Ferigno has two Gnoll leaders: Yakkar the Shaman and Chief Bloodfang. I decided that Ferigno disappearing was a sign of weakness and Bloodfang began a coup for leadership. Yakkar still believed in the “greener world for all” of my original pitch. With this in mind, I threw up some posts from different perspectives and with the usual semi-RP bits. I then hit up a few people to search for allies, for both sides.

Bloodfang hit up Caius’s people with offers of raiding spoils. Lupus, a representative of Caius, chose to join up. Easy enough. I got to do a bit of poor prose here as well so that was fun.

 

Yakkar hit up two people. The first was Gray Harry Hausen (@ShirePropagandist) with the hope that the Great Animator could build a replica of Ferigno to act as an interim leader and reunite the tribe. Harry agreed under the condition that Yakkar did work by spying on the Abbess (@FutureFanfare) or bringing him information on Maguffinstones. Easy enough.

He then sent a messenger out to visit with Broger de Brozer, returning the sunglasses that Ferigno’s human form had worn for the bout with Hanzen of the Swolcerors. This was a fun little back and forth with the gnoll warrior putting them on and saying, “Let’s ride.” Needed a leather jacket, though.

 

With all this laid out, I dared try something I had no idea how to manage. I narrated the exploration to Ferigno’s sanctum and then pulled Caius and Broger into a channel wherein the battle commenced. I don’t know if they expected this, but I hope it was fun and surprising for them. It ended how you’d expect, though: Man vs Monster. Broger let out a cry to God and shot down Yakkar who was in communion with unknown spirits. 

 

This set the tone for the fight as the auroras of Brozer’s sky warped and brought down eldritch horrors. After some back and forth with the rules and Tricks spent, the battle was a “stalemate.” All in all, I had a lot of fun with this.

 

Meanwhile, Chaz, Harry, and Ficus (my vineling chief) were all planning an attack on the Abbess. This was a bit anticlimactic as she threw a dragon at Harry’s Animated Talos and skipped town. Lessons learned.

Much of what happened after this was back-channels and rumours. I can’t speak on much with anything but speculation save for one thing: BOB had possessed the second in command of Drakonia (the Lord Imperator was run by @nekrodvna). Some sort of wild battle happened with some Reavers that I admittedly forgot existed, but had an alliance of Lawful elements.

Firstly, BOB prevented the assassination of the Lord Imperator by the Inquisition. They’d intended to blame it on Chaz, no surprise. This was shortly followed by the above battle that killed the Reavers, the Abbess, and soon the Imperator. What I heard was that at the crux of victory, they turned on each other for Maguffinstones. Broger snapped the Abbess’s neck and wounded the Imperator before retreating. BOB just helped the Imperator get a good night’s rest.

Shortly after this, Chaz got into it with Broger and the Inquisition (or so he says). According to rumours, these leaders were also killed. The Grey Green Alliance got some information from Chaz, but I’ll be frank, some of what he said didn’t quite line up. Never trust an elf, after all.

 

Week 3?

The previous events may have technically happened in Week 3, I’m not about to go double check the time stamps. Instead, I’m going to apologize to Bdubs for failing to accept his Hell in a Cell. I was still playing Ferigno as MIA and didn’t really know where to go from there. Oh yeah, Halloween also had a mysterious storm that I sent Ficus to look into but didn’t really go anywhere because it was resolved. Good on that, though.

 

Orders! BOB got exorcised from the Drakonia sublead by Broger Jr and the Pilgrims (Abbess subgroup, I think). There was some back and forth with Crom acting as NotBob for arguments on voting and who would become the next Imperator. I made a Gnollmala Hairis meme for it, but it died off quickly as other things took the fore.

Oh yeah, my orders (at time of writing) ended up being a wash. I’d hoped to meet with Broger as the interim imperator and assassinate him for his stone. I’d also hoped to simultaneously raid his treasury during the battle on the off chance that the stone was elsewhere. My final order, which may not have counted since it was late, was to steal the stone(s) that Chaz “definitely didn’t have.” This was a blind grasp to do something of use. As I said, some of Chaz’s statements didn’t quite line up; conflicts in his own words. I decided to make this my all-in and see what happens.

(Time passes!)

IRL delayed the last week or so of Brozerdiceless and things seemed to slow to a crawl in the public space. A lot of leaders engaged in battles and slaughter, or so the rumours go. I want to say some 5 Faction leaders died in the course of a night or two (shortly filled in by their replacements). The Inquisition took control of Drakonia after BOB’s exorcism and started an immense fire. Something something Woe Frog, Psalms with writings that don’t rhyme with Hog.

The Final Week allowed 4 covert actions and the clock was still ticking. I didn’t have any idea for a 4^th so I told Crom to do whatever he wanted with it- bonus points if he used Gnollmala Hairis. As for the others, I just raided whoever on a gamble. I’d recovered 2 MacGuffinstones from the Imperator as a matter of pure luck and hoped to unite them with the final one. I had this awesome image in my head of New Eden and hoped against hope that I’d be able to drop the bombshell.

Ferigno hit the Rat King, Ficus raided Glicel, and BOB possessed an Elf in the Emerald City. The latter is the only thing of substance, resulting in a fun scene where BOB whistled Dixie and started a classic dance number to pilfer the stone. Rumours had it that Elfland was rioting so BOB had to work fast. He soon found himself a nice mausoleum and created a portal to send the stone to Ferigno. The Elf Brigade murdered the vessel and BOB fled into the Ethereal.

There is no way this stone is real, and I found out some time later that Chaz was truly an Elf and deserves every credit for playing them well. The coolest scene during this was BOB’s escape because he came across the shade of the Imperator! His Just and Righteous Soul yearned for vengeance and it would not be sated without BOB’s destruction! This became an awesome back and forth of imagery and battle themes, memes and dreams. Spoiler: Law wins out. After the resolution of this battle, time stopped and the delay hit.

 

Alexa: Play "A Demon's Fate"

 

About a week later, Crom sent a message and a deadline to finish by the end of the weekend (before Thanksgiving). Working back half twelves, I waited and watched for the moment everything exploded. Sure enough, I see the start of a convergence while at work. Luckily, I had some extra downtime that day.

A MacGuffinstone floats across a landscape of food riots, fires, and warring factions. Gray Harry and I see it before us and must make a choice; fight, die, or try to sustain our alliance?

As with many of my actions, I opened with a short narrative and a bit of roleplay. This sacrifices the advantage of striking first, but I find it more engaging and fun. Harry returned the favor and we discussed the future and our alliance. He’s been a fun guy to chat and play with, and I was happy to keep it rolling. However, all things must reach a climax and ambition cannot rest.

I promised the stone to Harry, noting that we still needed more to make any use of it. I made a case for him allowing me to use magic I’d learned from Hollow Earth to harness the power of the stone and reveal the locations of the others. He acquiesced, not knowing that I already had two in my possession.

 

Alas, victory does not come easy! We were transported into an empty space to fight for a Revenant, the voice of the stones! The Imperator’s shade appeared once again, resulting in a three way standoff… of a sort. The Imperator had no interest in our feud and would have walked away if not forced back into things via the Revenant. It was too late, however, as Harry and Ferigno were in a grand battle.

Gray Harry Hausen, Glorious Animator, called all his creations to create a magnum opus of film! His shining stars were a skeleton army and Fauxrigno (did I mention that side plan?). Meanwhile, I wrote as much prose as I could inspired by Nine Princes in Amber in the hopes that I could fell him. After several escalating rounds, it was determined that I had no chance. My failure, as it was, was through mechanics. I didn’t have enough points in any single stat to overcome Harry and his Stop-Motion Monstrosities.

Having slept on it, I may have been able to eke out a victory by picking up a clue left, intentionally or not, by Crom: control over Fauxrigno. Even so, I was determined to get all the ideas and opportunities floating around in my head into the open.

What ideas? Amber has infinite Reflections, infinite Shadows. I leaned hard into this by aligning the worlds and cosmos to my advantage. I argued that since the Shadows are a maze, that I would attempt to send Harry’s minions at the Imperator to weaken him. Crom and Harry were magnanimous and allowed me to expend all of my Tricks (of which I had like 5) for a final play. 

 

I wrested control of Fauxrigno, warped every Shadow and Reflection to fuse all versions of Ferigno into a Dragon God, and bore down on Harry. Absorbing Fauxrigno gave me the Influence needed to solidify the world into one “In which I am the victor.”

 

It was at this time that the Imperator’s Shade decided to strike. I made various comments about ignoring his existence as he was merely a Shadow and I was a creature of Substance, but the mechanics still beat me. Even with a couple of tricks gained from felling Harry, it would not be enough to destroy the shade.

 

At time of writing, I’m still waiting to hear about the other convergences. Until then, I’ll muse on a few things learned during this event:

The first, of course, is the mechanics. Tricks and a High Stat are king, and ending up in a 2 or 3v1 situation encourages a full disengage. My investment in resilience and attempt at balancing the stats to avoid a OHKO were completely wasted, though I don’t blame it for my loss. I believe I was offered a generous amount of “outs,” whether intentional or not, to compensate.

The second is that being proactive seems to lead to the most engagement, but at a risk. Proactive play and setting up scenarios like the Gala can easily make you a target for enemy alliances, even if it does nothing but remind people you exist. It becomes a win in the long term because engagement helps player retention and drives play. I can’t speak to the hard numbers, but at least in the public space the weeks after the first slowly went quiet outside of the occasional convergence. Perhaps this is intended, rising and falling actions?

The third isn’t a lesson so much as an observation. The back channels were filled with poking, prodding, and joking; things you’d expect from a group of friends or club. But it was also filled with praise, congratulations, and sportsmanship. I’m fairly insular, not exactly well-mannered nor socially adjusted, but just being in the group and observing the hangout was nice. It would be melodramatic to call it an “eye-opening experience,” but I rarely see this level of brotherhood these days.

 

Submit to Rome

A storm cloud rolls over the island of Brozer, then parts with a flash of golden sunlight, revealing the gigantic figure of the Imperator. He speaks with a booming voice for all to hear.

"Citizens and Inhabitants of Brozer, it is time to end this war and enter a new era of peace. Many of us have fought and died; faced bloodshed, disease, treachery, and more. I declare now a concord for all the factions of Brozer. This concord is requires only three things:

1. To commit no acts against the other signors.

2. To not allow the proliferation of crime. Parties in these nations may appeal to the Drakonian courts for rough, Roman justice, if the faction leaders will not grant it.

3. To muster troops when Drakonia issues the call to arms.

For those who fear treachery, know that perfidious legalism will not be permitted. Drakonia will be the final arbiter in all things.

Those who willingly sign the concord I will grant a boon. For the elves, I will build their emerald city. For the sisters and the knights of bro, I will build a cathedral to god. For the Swolecerors, I will build the greatest wrestling coliseum this world has ever seen. For the wolf tribe, I will grant conquest in lands undreamt of. All will find prosperity within the embrace of Rome. Speak now and make your requests.

For those who will not sign willingly, you will be exiled to the wastelands as barbarians and savages. I seek no glory in further strife, but will do what it takes to secure peace, order, and unity. The time has come to decide, rulers of Brozer. Will you see your dreams granted, or will you doom your people to peril and starvation? Choose now, and choose wisely."

Ficus, now leaderless, finds himself at a crossroads. What will he choose? Find out next time on Brozerdiceless 2!