Oberholt: AAR

Oberholt has wrapped up with a final victory of Law over Chaos. Coalition forces under the command of Lord Eros Tyring defeated the invading Chaos god Khorne's ground army of demons while Redcorn sacrificed himself and half the population of the realm to battle Khorne's aspect on the spiritual level. After 2 1/2 years I'm going to pass off DMing to another player and take a bit of a break.

I want to take this opportunity to talk about what I learned during this experimental campaign. I've spoken at length in session reports about what we were trying to do and tried to share what I was learning as we went. Essentially, we were testing the brOSR methods of 1:1 time keeping, staying as close to rules as written as possible, and reliance on emergent gameplay over predetermined plot points with a group of players who are not chronically online and hadn't formed their own opinions for or against.

We used the ACKS system which is the only modern ruleset that can compete with the OG AD&D for this game style. I avoided my predilection to try to be prepared for every eventuality and let the dice determine most everything, leaning into randomly created dungeons, treasure hoards, and points of interest in the wilderness. This combined with low or no preparation towards sessions is referred to as Lazy DMing and is quite aptly named.

I'm going to go into what worked, what didn't, and then offer some advice for anyone looking to run a game like this.

What worked:

- 1:1 time keeping: It's the single best way to encourage engagement in and longevity of the campaign. The pros far outweigh the cons.

- RAW: System choice is key to running a successful campaign. Use something that can support a wide variety of play options with actual rules. Non-game non-systems are bad at this, requiring too many rulings from the DM. DMs are not game designers. Hell most game designers aren't game designers. Play AD&D or ACKS and read the fucking manual (RTFM).

- Patrons: Patrons assume the role of NPCs in the world and offer a breath of life by playing to those NPCs' interests with energy the DM can conserve for other places. Use them to get input on what the big bad might do in the dungeon after several delves, or the witch in the woods might do, or the dragon the PCs discover down the way. The Patrons in Oberholt all generated gameable material just by running their domains and interests as independent actors rather than a DM contrived part of a narrative. Patrons are a double-edged sword which I'll get into later.

- Downtime: With 1:1 time keeping comes the opportunity for PCs to take actions during "downtime", when no session play is happening. This allows them to liquidate treasure, create magic items and spells, recruit mercs and henchmen, and anything else they can think to do to set the session up for an actual game. No one wants to RP the haggling with the blacksmith for the price of a sword, gtfo of here with that. This too is a double-edged sword which I'll touch on later.

- Multiple parties: 1:1 also opens up the opportunity for multiple parties of PCs. Whether your players are confrontational and choose PVP or more cooperative, multiple parties gives every player a chance to try different classes and alignments they wouldn't normally try. It adds a different dynamic than "We're all heroes" or "We're all villains".

- Player agency: Player choices drove the direction of the game, not DM railroaded plot. Let your players show you what they want out of the game. You're a referee, not a narrator or playwright. Run the game that emerges from the convergence of player choices and dice results.

What didn't:

- Setting generation: RTFM. I made choices as a result of foolish notions from previous experiences when generating the setting that ended up being a problem the whole campaign, most significantly the available markets. Follow the advice that your system offers for generating the setting, it's there for a reason.

- Scale: With inexperience and a new playstyle, I made a mistake early of revealing the entire map. I was leaning into the Lazy DM concept particularly for downtime. The intent was to allow travel and things to happen without my oversight during downtime. What actually happened was the game shrank and the wonder of exploration was taken from the players. Let the players explore the world, that's part of the game.

- Dismissal: With expanded scale came the dismissal of small things like mundane random encounters and smaller domains that fed larger. There was little to no interaction with smaller villages or hamlets that should technically exist to support the larger domains on the map. This cost valuable opportunities to engage with the world and focused the game only on big events. Small details matter and can generate gameable scenarios, don't overlook them.

- Downtime: Both with Patrons and PCs, I allowed unsupervised downtime play. The intent was to preserve DM energy while allowing the players to play the game according to their interests and energy levels between sessions. What happened was an explosion of resources from "farming" lairs and other actions and a "turtling" mentality, where those engaging in downtime were rewarded for farming rather than engaging with the other players. These resources inflated the economy and essentially ruined the game. Downtime should be run on turns with DM oversight. The alternative doesn't work.

- Lazy DMing: Most of the biggest mistakes that I made during Oberholt were made with an eye towards how I could make the game easier for me, the DM. Zeroprep can work, sometimes, but ultimately it's inferior to necessary preparation of setting and session. It's ok to prepare the ground, just not the action. The whole purpose of avoiding over-prepping as a DM is to avoid wasted effort. If the players truly have agency and the ability to choose their own course of action, then you don't want to find yourself preparing content that will never be interacted with. You have to find the balance between zeroprep and prepaddiction.

Advice:

- Say no. What I mean is that players will push you. They'll argue and finagle and "yeah but" you to death. It's ok to say no, even if it's only "no I need a chance to consider". You want to indulge them in their interests without giving them everything. Like most things it's a balance, but any ruling you give becomes a rule of the campaign. Consider house rules and edge cases carefully.

- Avoid Patrons in high level established Lawful positions in civilization. The caliber of men in our gaming sphere are builders, creators, disciplined men of high moral standard who will end up running the world. While this is good, in general, it flattens play in the game. Patrons should be if not antagonistic, at least apathetic and/or opportunistic when it comes to PCs. They should offer missions, but they should always "get theirs" from it. Very very rarely should there be gimmes or true total cooperation. Discuss that with potential patrons prior to recruitment.

- Henchmen are not extensions of the PC. They have their own desires and roles within the game. If the player does not enforce that side, then you'll have to.

- Avoid anything that results in too much energy spent for too little gameable content. In Oberholt, it was unsupervised downtime and the Machinist class. Encourage players to pursue their interests, but learn how to implement those interests into the game. This ain't solitaire.

- This game style can run perpetually. Know that going in and prepare for what you want out of the game. ACKS suggests a series of threats to the world. Once those threats see some resolution, win or lose, it can be a natural stopping point for the campaign. Alternatively, you can run perpetually in the same world. If doing so, I recommend sharing DM duties for different regions or different threads/hooks/dungeons etc. Even different tiers, one running lower level play, one running larger scale stuff. Whatever the campaign and group can support.

- Your mileage will vary with player interest. What's called "mudcore" gaming will be more common and comfortable to the conventional player. It's harder for them to see the advantage of setting goals for themselves, engaging in domain play, and expanding their view beyond the dungeon. Be patient and try not to force them. With luck you've got a player or two that can help guide their peers into the next tiers of play, but if not, advise where you can and otherwise just run the game the dice put in front of you.

- Don't be afraid to ask questions of your friends who have done this before.

- Don't be afraid to admit mistakes and correct them.

I'm excited to see what my local friend comes up with when he takes over DMing for the group. I'm hopeful that this AAR offers some useful information to anyone considering running this style of game. I'm thankful for the players in Oberholt that made the thing go for as long as it did.