There is a lot of work being done in the trenches digging up the detritus and refuse puts of the earliest days of D&D. Big names have been sifting through the ashes of the Twin Cities gaming scene, brushing off the dust, and holding up the fragments of 1969 like sacred relics. And don’t get me wrong — that work matters. It’s good to know where we came from, because it helps us figure out where we can go from here.
And that’s the problem with researchers like Shannon Applecline and Jon Peterson. All they can do is mimeograph what Wesley, Jenkins, and Arneson did fifty years ago. Maybe they can replicate the one-horsepower Model-A of RPGs, warts and all, but then the curiosity stops. They are only concerned with looking over their shoulders at the giants of the past.
If you want to see the future of the Braunstein, you’re going to have to leave the library and spend some time in the workshop.
Right now, the people actually building the future of Braunstein – the only people producing replicable, procedural, operational mechanics that a referee can sit down and use tonight – are a small handful of modern practitioners quietly doing the work while everyone else is busy polishing the past.
Let’s talk about who’s actually pushing the frontier. I’ve brought receipts, just check the bottom of the post.
The Historians: Valuable, But Looking Backward
Start with the big names. There’s Ben Robbins, creator of Microscope and Kingdom, and the man who popularized the term “West Marches.” And then there’s Griffith Morgan, co‑creator of the Secrets of Blackmoor documentary. These guys have done more than almost anyone to unearth the early history of role‑playing. Robbins’ blog posts about Braunstein are widely cited. Morgan’s documentary is practically required viewing for anyone who wants to understand the origins of the hobby.
But here’s the thing: Neither of them can tell you how to actually run a Braunstein.
Robbins openly admits he doesn’t know the mechanics.
Morgan documents the past, but he doesn’t publish procedures.
Both of them are trying to clone the original Braunsteins – admirable work, but fundamentally archaeological. They’re looking backward. And that’s okay. Someone has to preserve the fossils. Give him credit. Maybe he was so intrigued by what a Braunstein was that he was blind to what a Braunstein could be, but it was his documentary that caught the attention of and introduced the core idea to visionaries like Jeffro Johnson.
But then again, fossils don’t walk.
The Innovators: The Five Who Are Actually Doing the Work
If you want to run a Braunstein today – not a reenactment, not a historical curiosity, but a living, breathing, playable game – you need more than a map and a list of characters. You need procedures. You need turn structure. You need communication protocols, resolution mechanics, referee workflow, and player‑facing action formats.
And very few people are producing that right now. Here are five to watch to get a glimpse into the future:
1. Zach Corbin — BroTech Braunstein
Corbin’s BroTech Braunstein is the closest thing the modern hobby has to a complete Braunstein ruleset. He’s part of the Living Urf Gaming Club.
He provides:
- A full turn cycle
- A d10 resolution engine
- Espionage rules
- Economic rules
- Faction mechanics
- Referee procedures
- Player communication templates
This is the first time since 1969 that someone has put the whole machine on the table and said, “Here. This is how it works.”
2. BDubs & Dragons — Domain and Faction Procedures
BDubs’ blog is a treasure trove of operational mechanics.
He breaks down:
- How to create factions
- How to scale their power
- How to run simultaneous actions
- How to adjudicate conflicts
- How to integrate Braunstein play into an ongoing campaign
This is the kind of nuts‑and‑bolts work that historians never touch.
3. The BROSR / BROXT Community
Love them or hate them, the BROSR crowd is the only group treating Braunstein as a living discipline.
They publish:
- Turn‑based action cycles
- Player‑written AAR requirements
- Discord‑based communication protocols
- Multi‑faction operational procedures
They’re not theorizing. They’re running games.
4. The World of Weirth — Downtime Braunstein
Purple Druid’s World of Weirth campaign has quietly produced one of the most elegant Braunstein‑compatible subsystems in the wild: Downtime Players running NPCs and factions between sessions.
He provides:
- Monthly turn cycles
- Action submission formats
- NPC personality constraints
- Referee adjudication guidelines
It’s not a full Braunstein, but it’s a working subsystem that anyone can graft onto their campaign.
5. The BROSR YouTube Referee Walkthroughs
This is the only place where someone actually explains the referee workflow out loud.
They cover:
- How to brief players
- How to handle simultaneous actions
- How to manage secret information
- How to run a 20‑player scenario without losing your mind
It’s practical. It’s procedural. It’s replicable.
Meanwhile, the Historians Are Still Digging
Compare that to the historians.
Ben Robbins’ famous Braunstein post? Great read. Zero mechanics.
Griffith Morgan’s documentary? Inspiring. No procedures.
Klintron’s blogpost? He literally says he doesn’t know how to run one.
These guys are doing important work – but they’re not building anything you can use at the table. They’re cataloging artifacts while the innovators are forging tools.
The Future of Braunstein Is Being Built in Real Time
If you want to see where Braunstein is going, don’t look to the past.
Look to the people who are actually running games, writing rules, and producing systems.
Look to the people who are treating Braunstein not as a historical curiosity but as a living craft.
And if you want to support the people doing the work, you can start by checking out the three most important Braunstein‑adjacent releases that will show you not just what was, but what could be:
BROZER
UMBROS
WINNING SECRETS
These aren’t museum pieces, and they aren’t meant to sit on a shelf, unplayed but helping you feel like a smart boy nonetheless. These are tools and they are meant to be used. They are games, meant to be played.
Conclusion: Stop Waiting for the Past to Save You
If you’re waiting for a historian to hand you a perfect reconstruction of the 1969 Braunstein, you’re going to be waiting a long time. The original game was half improvisation, half chaos, and half lightning in a bottle that even it’s practitioners admit needed a lot of work.
So if you want to run a Braunstein today, with modern players, modern tools, and modern expectations, the innovators have already given you everything you need.
The future of Braunstein isn’t in the archives.
It’s in the workshop.
And the people doing the work are doing it right now.
You should be doing the work, too. Grab one, play it, experiment, and tell people what you find. Who knows? Maybe you’ll unlock some hidden process that will make the experience even better for everyone involved.