This is my first review in many months, precisely because it is the first new game to really grab my attention in that length of time. Braunstein! is a digital release from Olde House Rules and written by James and Robyn George.
Product Details: Braunstein! is a 24-page .pdf book. It is laid out in single-column style and written with intentionally scratchy type-writer font that imitates an old self-published book. Illustrations are few and mostly taken from Olaus Magnus' medieval plates.
Contents: Braunstein! is supposedly inspired by the commonly acknowledged "proto-rpg" Braunstein that inspired Dave Arneson. I know only a little of Dave Wesely's original games, so I cannot say if Braunstein! is in any way faithful to its namesake.
What I can say about Braunstein is that is serves as a simple and modifiable set of rules intended for historical adventure.
It presupposes player characters to be fighting-capable types who have taken up adventuring by choice or by the circumstances of their era.
A character's origins, education and skills are defined by a description of no more than 25 words. Literacy an social class are also options during the creation process.
Luck is the most significant trait in the game and the only one with a numeric value. Luck is spent to improve dice rolls to perform tasks and to avoid death by injury, traps or hazards. It is important to realize that Braunstein! characters have no hit points... Every attack is either insignificant or deadly, and running out of luck means your character can be killed quickly indeed!
The same holds true of npcs and monsters, though the amount of luck granted to them seems strange to me. Commoners are described as hardy folk and can have as many points of luck as an adventurer while bandits have very few. Wild beasts also seem to be damned lucky... With a pig being luckier than a bandit and a bear being as lucky as a player's character. Very odd.
Skill rolls and combat are simple affairs, being resolved by a 2D6 roll to determine success, failure and how many luck points are required to prevent death. There are no modifiers for strength or dexterity. A character is assumed to be fighting to the best of his or her ability. Only wielding two-handed weapons improves damage, and hey require room to swing and deny the use of a shield.
Experience points are earned by continuous play and improve a character's luck. This works well since luck is both survivability and capability rolled into one.
The book concludes with a discussion of the historical periods best suited to play, the dawn of firearms (and their frightening effectiveness upon the game rules) and a list of suggested era, areas and events taking place within them. A small discussion of magic and plague is included too.
Overall: Braunstein! is as bare-bones as it gets. It can be used for the historic play it suggests, but the system is simple enough to add elements suitable for other styles of play easily. It would be easy to add attributes, skills, variable damage, alien species or whatever else takes your fancy. I find this to be a great strength for the game.
I could see myself using it for its intended purpose, since there are a couple of pseudo-historical games I have tinkering with for a long time. However, I see far more possibility in Braustein! as a set of very versatile and transparent core rules upon which to add other setting elements.
Given the low price and page count, I can certainly recommend Braunstein! to anyone interested in a simple historical rule set or in a good basic framework upon which to build more complicated rules.
