Anomalous Subsurface Environment: The Clown War, Play Report

    I've played in three sessions so far of a pickup game of Anomalous Subsurface Environment (ASE), a very gonzo and science fantasy megadungeon, run by Mr.Mann on the rainbow OSR discord server, and using vaguely OD&D or B/X and his houserules.

Below is a (hopefully) not too long play report of what happened in those three sessions as we murder just a frankly unhinged number of clowns.

Player Characters

• Herzgrau “Doberman” Mauler, level 3 Fighter 
  
• Razzledazzle, level 1 Magic-User
• Teela, level 1 Halfling
• Misha the Wide, level 2 War Bear
• One Man Army Corps (OMAC), level 1 Cleric
• Ascellus Tiramisu, Level 3 Fighter 
• Alon, level 2? Magic-User 
• Sparkles Witfully, Level 3 Cleric of Science

Sidekicks

1. Sir Esferico, Balloon Bodyguard
2. Oog

Preamble (Sessions 1 & 2)

Misha the Wide, a Hill Cantons War Bear, somehow finds himself in this strange land of Wizard Towers, sci-fi tech and, most terribly of all, dog-headed people (sorry Doberman)!

In the first delve the party is already going down to level 4 of the dungeon, and they find a circus being run by strange red painted naked men. After enjoying the various sideshows and carnival games most of the party piles into the circus proper to watch the show. Doberman and another character refuse to do so and end up being hassled by Barnabous, the carnival crier, and the ticket collector. Things escalate into a fight, multiple carnies get killed by a flamethrower and the party engage in a fighting retreat, killing Barnabous (maybe, since he comes back) in the process.

The next delve the group decides to scout out the territory of these dungeon clowns and get a read for their strength, numbers and other intel, in preparation for a full on assault on them. After a few brief encounters and questions the party has some vague idea of their territory, rescue and befriend a big man named Oog, and also a character that got turned to stone.

The Clown War (Session 3)

The party gathers up its numbers, recruiting several level 1 characters, equipping themselves well (Misha now owning a bespoke large set of plate armor which puts his Descending AC to 0!) and venture down to level 4 again, looking for trouble.

With good communication, coordinated action and psychotic mercilessness the party begins to systematically go room by room, slaughtering any naked clown people they find, only stopping occasionally to interrogate some before murdering them as well.

Through this process the party learns several useful bits of information. There are in total about 70 to 80 painted men, the enormous bronze gong near by is used for prisoner exchange with other denizens of the dungeon (which the clowns kill and eat as a way to keep the ecology of the dungeon in balance) and they do not appear to have a solid leadership in place.

Through more commitment of war crimes (murdering unsuspecting targets, murdering people who have surrendered) the party makes its way into a foul smelling kitchen where a particularly large painted man chef is busing himself with some cooking. Ascellus, in a bout of brashness, challenges the Chef to a duel, which the Chef quickly starts winning, at which point he is also murdered by the rest of the party.

Loot is found and, more importantly, a secret door leading to the back corridors of the clown territory. using those passages the party reach what appears to be living quarters and/or a clown brothel (the mind shudders), and proceed to slaughter even more them. Unfortunately the last assault leaves victims alive for long enough to start screaming which alerts the painted men patrolling army.

The party decides to take a pincer position in a four way intersection of hallways, and through the use of firebombs and flamethrower (see previous mention of war crimes) manage to cut off the first wave of the clown army. Unfortunately the second wave bring along with them a cannon, which they proceed to fire into the central branch of the party, which happens to house the vulnerable magic-users.

Alon gets a broken leg, but poor Razzledazzle gets hit square in the chest, blowing  hole out of him and allowing him one last spell (his finel razzledazzle if you will) before he expires. The party then proceeds to firebomb the ever living hell out of the shield-wielding clowns, which finally routs them and allows the party a chance  retreat themselves.

Thus ends the first phase of the Clown War. The casualties on both sides are, as follows:

The Party: Razzledazzle, the Magic-user (Dead), Alon the Magic-user (wounded, recovering).

The Dungeon Clowns: 40 Painted Men (dead), 1 Painted Man Chef (dead)

Thoughts and Observations

I quite enjoy Mr.Mann's house rules, and repurposed and tweaked my Hill Cantons OSE character (that I never got to actually play in B/X, only a variant of him using 5e) to fit better. He's almost at level 3, which is impressive, though HC characters do start at level 2 so there is that.

The session focusing on the Clown War was very high energy and fast paced. All of this clown murder took place within 2 hours of gaming (less even since we also had preamble and people sorting out inventories and such). Despite 8 people playing in a voice-only pick up game, things ran smoothly through the employment of classic player roles - a Caller (extra important in the big fights), a Mapper, a Turn Keeper and a Quartermaster (me in this case, mostly recording the kills).

The reason for the especially bloodthirsty session is that in Mr.Mann's rules 1 HD worth of enemies killed gives 100 experience, similar to my OD&D campaign I've written about on here. So that very much leads to trying to take out as many enemies as possible.

ASE itself is...just as bizarre and absurd as I've heard (I've only read the general setting and like 5 rooms on floor 1, so I was going in blind). While things did run well enough considering the number of players, since this was a pickup game we also had several people who had not played in the previous sessions and as such were perhaps a bit lost as to what on earth was going on and why we were killing clowns in this dungeon. Or, in fact, why the dog-headed man had a goddamn flamethrower (that one I don't know either!)

Roleplaying Games are Wargames

Preface

    The title is a simplification and shortening of the real statement. What I will explain below is how (Tabletop) Roleplaying Games are one subset of the broad and expansive design space of wargaming. This does not mean that RPGs are the same, or even similar to, say, board game wargames. Or miniatures wargames. Or matrix games (though they are to those ones!). Or any of other numerous game design practices that encompass wargaming.

Secondly, this is not about [scarequotes]TaXonOMy[scarequotes]. This is about history and game design.

Key Elements of a Roleplaying Game

    While I am sure there are much more well read game designers than myself out there who can elaborate further on this stuff, to me the two of the defining features of RPGs that set them aside from, say, board games or video games are


1. Tactical Infinity. In this case “tactical infinity” means that participants in the game are expected to freely offer any course of action they want to take, without having to pick from a predetermined list of choices or actions. In a boardgame the rulebook explicitly lists out all of the things the game actions that you can take when playing. A Knight in a game of chess can’t simply just wander off the board, then perform a flank charge on the enemy’s Bishop. A knight only moves the way the rules say it moves and that is it.

In order for this tactical infinity to actually have some kind of constraints and sense to it (After all, if you are free to take any action you can simply declare “I win the game.”) roleplaying games employ a participant whose job is to adjudicate the actions of the other players. That person is the referee.

2. The Referee. Or GameMaster, Dungeon Master, Judge, Royal Highness or whatever other title you prefer. The referee’s role in a roleplaying game is, first and foremost, to adjudicate the actions proposed by the other players, and in turn tell them how their actions and choices impact the simulated world of the game, and how things in that simulated world react. This is what keeps the ability to attempt anything in check so you can actually have a reasonable game.

3(ish). Campaigns. While one-off games of TTPRGs are possible and doable and, in some cases, the main way people participate in the hobby, from the very start the goal at least of a Roleplaying Game is the campaign - a continuous and connected setting and characters simulated, explored and changed through multiple game sessions, often with recurring characters. This one I don’t consider as key as the above two, but I figured bears mentioning.

History and Design Lineage

Where do RPGs then get those two above game design elements from? Were they fully formed and birthed from the forehead of Saint Gygax as he used his Galaxy-brain genius to give us mortals Dungeons & Dragons?


No. No they weren’t. Duh.


    Gygax wrote D&D (from what I’ve read second-hand, it is debatable just how much actual writing Arneson contributed to the finished product) as a way to formalize, recreate and allow others to recreate, the experience of Dave Arneson running his Blackmoor game for him and Rob Kuntz. So while the actual writing and product might originate primarily from Gygax, who himself has plenty of game design experience, the broader “idea” of what “a D&D” is, I would argue, came to Gygax through Arneson and Blackmoor.

    Blackmoor, in turn, is a variant of Braunstein, with fantasy, sci-fi, horror and other things thrown into it for good measure. Arneson explicitly started and advertised his Blackmoor campaign to his gaming circle as a fantasy Braunstein. So that leads us to the next step back in history.

    Braunstein is the name that Dave Wesley gave to a type of game he created and ran (and to my knowledge still occasionally runs at conventions) over the years. It is a wargame in which each player controls only a singular individual, usually with predetermined goals and abilities, while a referee helps adjudicate the interactions between the players. Wesley’s very first Braunstein game, and the most famous one, was set during the Napoleonic Wars, a favorite period of his gaming circle at the time. A big inspiration for making and running this type of game was his research into the late 19th century american wargame Strategos, of which Wesley created a variant he called Strategos N (the N is for Napoleonic, in case anyone didn’t get that).

    Strategos is a military wargame (meaning a wargame not meant for hobby enjoyment, but used in actual military training) developed by Charles Totten for the US army and published in the tail end of the 19th century. Strategos has the same key elements as above - a referee who adjudicates and mediates between the players that are participating in the game, because Strategos was a variant of the Prussian Kriegsspiel, though inherited through the British variants of that game from a decade prior.

    And finally, we get to the origin of it all. The literal Wargame (or Kriegsspiel in German), developed as a training tool for the Prussian military by George Leopold von Reisswitz and based on prior attempts at developing wargames in Prussia. And while Kriegsspiel has numerous variants, modifications and changes to it over the decades it was used, “Free” Kriegsspiel variant which Strategos above is based on, relied less on strict and codified rules about what actions can or can’t be taken by players, but instead of an arbiter (usually a more veteran officer) who would use their own military experience and knowledge, combined with potential mechanics to introduce randomness and uncertainness in actions (such as, say, a fog of war) in order to help the players get used to making decisions that would, hopefully, prepare them for leading troops on actual battlefield.

    As you can see, the connection to D&D, and from it all Tabletop RPGs (as RPGs are all, in one way or another, direct or indirect responses to Dungeons and Dragons) leads directly back through a century or so of games back into the Wargame. Not just in simple reference, but in what all of those game designers I listed above have repeatedly taken and reiterated upon from that first Kriegsspiel.

And those very same principles - the ability to attempt any action that a player can think of, and the referee’s job to then moderate those actions, are still very much present in mos RPGs.

    Now, as I said in the preface, this does not mean RPGs are the same as other forms of wargaming like Matrix Games or Miniatures Games or Board game Wargames, or Map Games or the numerous other design iterations. Hell, a good amount of wargames nowadays don’t even use a referee and instead rely on somewhat restricted actions that players can take.

However those all are still wargames, or at least an aspect and interpretation of wargaming as a practice.

What Does It All Mean?

    Nothing. I do not tell people that RPGs are wargames as a hot take to make them somehow change the way they play. I say it because too many people, influenced by company marketing talking points around “originality” or “uniqueness” or “new and better game design” seem to think that RPGs are somehow this utterly self-encompassed thing, and that wargames design can’t offer anything to their games, as wargames are also only about fighting. A statement which itself also shows ignorance about the scope of topic, theme and practice in wargaming.

    Wargames are more about conflict and conflict resolution. That conflict need not be violence though. The conflict in how to allocate resources in a civilian infrastructure is still a viable thing to wargame (and has been done). Yes, a game which utterly lacks any conflict or the need to resolve it is probably truly outside the scope of Wargaming, and some people’s RPG games probably do attempt to be about that, but I would argue those are outliers which simply reinforce the majority rule.

In conclusion - wargames and their offspring tabletop roleplaying games are much more complex, nuanced and usable for a broad and more expansive activity than simple entertainment. And that’s a good thing.

Recommended Reading

The Wargame Developments Handbook - https://wargamedevelopments.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/WD-Handbook-Third-Edition-October-2022.pdf
Jon Peterson's Blog - http://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/
Playing at the World - https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262548779/playing-at-the-world-2e/
The Elusive Shift - https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262544900/the-elusive-shift/
The Connections UK Wargames Conference - https://www.professionalwargaming.co.uk/2024.html

Getting Started with Miniatures Painting: Basic Tools and Paints

 Here is a quick and straightforward guide on what will give you a good start if you want to get started on painting miniatures. I am not going to discuss getting miniatures or preparing them for painting (cleaning, assembling, priming etc). Just a list of things of paints and tools that would give you a good start on this.

A NOTE: I will not mention any specific brands of miniatures paint here, because all major manufacturers have some good and some bad products, and what you should use is what you can get your hands on. I have things I prefer, and I use paints from like 5 different companies.


A SECOND NOTE: I will assume you're painting sci-fi or fantasy miniatures, as those dominate the hobby and market.

A List of Paints

    I would start by acquiring the following colors

• A white
• A black
• An off-white or bone color
  
• A green
  
• A deep and rich red 
• A deep blue
  
• A yellow (Whichever one you get will suck. Don't worry about it)
• A silvery metallic paint
• A copper or gold metallic paint. Ideally both
• A black wash/shade
• An umber wash/shade
• A sepia wash/shade
• Between 1-3 shades of brown, tan or ochre. Preferably ones that are not too similar to each other.

This will get you enough to paint most fantasy and sci-fi minis. You should mix your colors to achieve more complex tones, using black, off-white or browns to make colors lighter or darker. From here on you can expand your collection of paints by getting individual things you need for whatever it is you're painting. Stuff I would generally get, if you need it, would be

•  Some kind of purple
• A bright fiery orange (those are hard to achieve by mixing most miniature paints)
• Any other bright or very vibrant color you might need
• Colored shades or washes. I increasingly prefer to just use contrast paints and dilute them with some contrast medium+water to make them into a wash. 

A THIRD NOTE: I would generally not buy any "skintone" labeled paints. Leaving aside that those more often than not simply are just a very pale, white idea of what a "basic skintone" is, you can achieve a decent looking skin tone by simply mixing your off-white with some kind of warm or reddish brown (either one you already have, or mixing any brown with a bit of your red). 

Other Tools

    Obviously, if you're painting you'll need a brush. There are a billion opinions (most of them from people who have no idea what the fuck they're talking about, but simply regurgitating shit they heard from someone else) about what is the right and correct brushes to get.

Ignore all of that shit. More likely than not, you're painting 28mm scale figures, and for that you can do 99% of your painting using just a number 2 sized brush, synthetic or natural hair bristles, that can maintain a fine point.

That last bit is the only truly important thing in miniatures painting. You want a brush that will not lose its top as soon as you put paint on it. How expensive that brush will be for you depends on where you are and what you have access to. I've painted minis using just random brushes i bought off Amazon and it's been fine. I mostly use an artist's sable hair number 2 brush I can buy reliably at a local art supply store. It doesn't matter.

Next you'll want some kind of a palette to put your paints on. For this you can use any non-pours surface really. A spare plate, a single smooth ceramic tile, just a cheapo plastic palette you can buy from the arts supply isle of your supermarket. They'll work fine. Don't bother with a wet palette for now. They're good, they're nice to use - you do not need one at all.

You will also want a thing to keep water in, and some paper towels or a piece of cloth to clean your brush on as you paint.



And that's it. You can acquire most of this in pieces or buy a starter set that most manufacturers usually sell.