Braunstein 4 - The world's almost first RPG
            AKA "Piedras Morenas" AKA "Republica Banannia 1",
                     Player handouts for Gencon08
                  Copyright (C) 2008 David A. Wesely
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The original game had rules for communication that proved to be completely 
impossible, so I did not even try to use them in the 2008 game.  Players 
were supposed to write down all their phone calls and let me decide who to 
let read them.  Too slow!  Instead, in 2008, I told the Min of Information
and Head of the Secret Police that they could walk up to anyone who was 
having a conversation and listen in, as all phones are tapped by both of 
them!  Players wanting to hold a private conversation without a listener, 
would have to write orders to get together face-to face in a space on the 
map.  I would then give hem a quiet corner they could talk in, and keep the 
Min of Information and Head of the Secret Police away from them.  Of course, 
agreeing to a sit-down somewhere next turn is possibly asking to get killed
if the other player shows up with a few squads of soldiers...

Military orders are all secure (in the original game I said "unless there is 
an Agent in the Army, Navy or Air Force HQ", but doing this was too messy, so
I just read them out (when appropriate) after everyone had handed them in, in 
2008.

The Peasants are in town for the day, and have no phones, so they can only be 
called down to the plaza for a rally by either scheduling one in advance (at 
the start of the game) for a particular turn or by the PWU Leader going to 
wherever they are and leading them down to the plaza.  The same can be done 
for Workers (strike), Crowd (gather), Revolutionaries (protest) or Marxists 
(the latter can turn a strike, gathering or protest into a riot, or they can 
go somewhere to do an attack or sabotage or assassination attempt, but need to 
have those orders in advance).  

As we did not have players for roles that run the Peasants, Workers, Crowd,
Revolutionaries, or Marxists, I just moved them all around randomly, to help
cover for the movements of the Secrret Police agents.  I also randomly set
the turns in which they were going to Rally, Strike, Gather, Protest or do 
an attack/sabotage/assassination.  As it happened, none of these prescheduled 
events took place, partly because the smallpox scare (good work on that one,
Min of Info!) dispersed the Peasants and Workers, and partly because the 
game ended before some were scheduled to happen.

The Radio Station can also be used to call for the peasants, workers,  crowd, 
etc to go to the plaza, factory etc, if one has one of their people planted 
there to send out the call (presumably coded: "John Has a Long Moustache" - 
much quicker than moving around to gather up your scattered followers
In the original BS 4,  Dale Nelson blew up the radio station before anyone 
used it.  In 2008 it ewas secured by the Marines, and Secret Police, and 
they and the Factory OWner, and Min of Info all used it to put out confusing 
news bulletins

BS4 - 2008 was a very cooperative game, where few shots were fired, no 
buildings were destroyed and none of the players was scheduled to be arrested 
and hanged by the winners.  Still, we all seemed to have a good time.

/ ars ludi / Braunstein Memories