Creating the Unicorn Play Experience

The Core Concepts of Dungeons & Dragons

There was a fascinating discussion on one of the discords I frequent, about play styles and how they have changed over the years. One of the other participants posted this:

The PC paradigm shift from 'colleagues and periodic associates' to 'boon companions' changed a lot.

My players all prefer to play as boon companions, but they treat NPC parties much as Greyhawk PCs seem to have treat each other - possible allies, possible enemies, rarely and slowly trusted.

This is a powerful statement, and it started the wheels turning in my noggin. The following is the long, mini-essay I posted in response to this comment. I have gone through to edit for clarity, and if I add anything it will be in italics and block-quote. Headings have been added for flow and clarity. Emphasis has been added in some cases. I l forward to any questions or commentary!

Purple Druid

The Twin Cities Games were Unique

I know they talk about other games like Diplomacy and various Napoleonic campaigns being played in the Blackmoor movie.

John Peterson has written about how the first Braunstein games went, and they were very much player versus player, with Dave Arneson being the most backstabby of all.

If you look at First Fantasy Campaign, published by Judges Guild, you can see it is 100% a Domain Game with the dungeon-delving RPG slapped on top.

Daniel Boggs has published a lot of historical material on his blog about the "international wars" the Twin Cities group played, where the participants took on the roles of kings and prime ministers.

These games are where the concepts of ability scores came from.

For a couple of years now I have felt like one of those wild-eyed preachers who stands on a banana box in Times Square trying to preach the gospel to the sinners, about how the original group of players of this game were long-time, veteran wargamers, with a thorough knowledge of the foundational principles of War Games, who were simply wild about playing map-based Campaign games (a la Bath & Featherstone) using Diplomacy as a model for the philosophy of play.

Let me repeat this for ADDED EMPHASIS, “long-time, veteran wargamers, with a thorough knowledge of the foundational principles of War Games, who were simply wild about playing map-based Campaign games”. This is the MOST IMPORTANT thing to consider when thinking about how the game of Dungeons & Dragons was originally conceived, and the atmosphere that existed in and around the initial sessions.

As an example: I've had a conversation with "Mr Wargaming", Jon Mollison (YouTube, The Joy of Wargaming, https://www.youtube.com/@TheJoyofWargaming ), about why there aren't any rules for what happens to your Massed Combat troops in AD&D when they fail their morale check.

It's because everyone knows that troops who fail a morale check will fall back one full move in good order.

I have read half a dozen of the old rulebooks, 'how to play war games with miniature soldiers' from Bath, Featherstone, Tunstill, Morschauser, Taylor, Grant, etc. All of them have a variation of this rule (if the stand isn't simply removed from play).

We play a completely different game today, because we didn't get to play all those giant mass Napoleonic / American Civil War games, in the late seventies and early '80s. The games that had four pages of combat results charts, played by the weird, old, bearded dudes at the conventions.

Dungeons & Dragons is a Wargame

When I first got into RPGs, in 1982, I used to go to those cons in the '80s & see the old guys gathered around a gigantic table with 3,000 Civil War miniatures in 15 mm.

Yes, literally thousands of minis.

Because I started with the Holmes Basic Rules, then moved straight into AD&D, I had no idea of the existence of Chainmail and what it meant to the game that I was playing.

I had no interest in pushing all those miniatures around and those old guys had no interest in talking to some teenage whippersnapper who wanted to talk about dragons and magic swords.

It was inconceivable to me that someone could sit down and paint all those miniatures, cast in exactly the same pose, and lined up with 10-20 minis on a single base. Preposterous!

Arneson & Gygax were in some kind of “Unicorn” group that was interested in all of those genres/games and bent their considerable will (& combined experience) towards mashing them together into something completely new.

The Blackmoor Campaign, as described in The First Fantasy Campaign, by Dave Arneson. There is a list of army sizes, in Chainmail Point values, and Domain revenues on page 4.

PAGE FOUR!

Another participant in the discussion asked me this question:

What would you consider to be the baseline for this type of "recapture"...Chainmail or something more to go with standard RPG play?

"The group that shall not be named" is on to something (especially with Jeffro Johnson’s “How to Win at D&D” https://pilumpress.com/products/how-to-win-at-d-d), and gamers like John McGowan (The Living Campaign https://www.amazon.com/Living-Campaign-Creating-Maintaining-Campaigns/dp/B0CRBLYWG6) & Rob Hampton (Dragons Beyond https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/464791/Dragons-Beyond ) have been on a parallel path.

Creating the Unicorn Play Experience means (to the best of my understanding after about 3 years of serious research) embracing a macro approach:

• An appreciation for the political aspects of the game vis-a-vis Diplomacy,

• An understanding of the basic principles of rank and flank Massed Combat systems,

• A large-ish group of players in a West Marches plus a strict calendar session format,

• Multiple characters per player participate in a range of experience levels from neophyte up to Baron.

“The Domain Game is a direct result of the Encumbrance rules”

~ John McGowan, 2024

There is one more piece of the puzzle that I’d like to add here, which is a short list of what I believe to be the Core Concepts that enable or facilitate this very particular approach to role-playing games (previously posted on my old hobby blarg https://journal.stephenpsmith.com/2021/08/25/an-introduction-to-my-old-school-philosophy/):

• One of the most important is the strict regulation of resource management. This includes everything from treasure and rations to spells and tracking of elapsed time.

• Players are encouraged to run multiple characters, in different places and times.

• 1:1 Downtime Pacing allows for extended travel, level training, and other time-consuming activities while play continues, simply moving the focus from one group of characters to another, while the composition of the Player group can change as well.

• The Domain Game starts in Session One, with the initial creation of your PC’s very own Faction.

• Specific rule mechanics are applied to establish and reinforce these underlying concepts:

  • Alignment as Worldbuilding and Game Mechanic

  • Encumbrance

  • Morale

  • Reaction Rolls

  • Level Training

  • Spell Research

  • Factions (which may or may not be controlled by Non-Session Participants in the Campaign)

    • NPCs ruling Domains

    • NPCs in charge of Guilds or Trading Houses

    • Tribes of Bandits, Nomads or Humanoids

    • Various Religious Cults

    • Adventuring Companies

    • Powerful Individuals without Domains

  • and Henchmen/Hirelings

Conclusion

The way to create an expansive, organic, “living” Campaign is to embrace all of these concepts. At the same time. They create a synergy that makes a Campaign greater than the sum of its parts. Greater than the Players and the DM.

Thank you for reading, I look forward to any questions, comments, or discussion.

“BY ORDERING THINGS AS THEY SHOULD BE, THE GAME AS A WHOLE FIRST, YOUR CAMPAIGN NEXT, AND YOUR PARTICIPANTS THEREAFTER, YOU WILL BE PLAYING ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS AS IT WAS MEANT TO BE.”

~Gary Gygax, 1979, AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide Afterword, p.230