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Thoughts and Review
DoctorDuckButter is a random YouTube user (well, not particularly random - in
that I searched for him) which I came across while looking for new actual
plays for Old School Essentials some time in the mid to early 2021.
Specifically, the Barrowmaze game he ran - for primary group and for "B-Team"
- came up on my radar in that timeframe and I looked into it - watching the
first handful of videos in the series during my morning workout. Time came and
went, I listened to more podcasts, got embroiled in family events - and left
this review to simmer, sitting on the back burner for the better part of a
year before diving in, drilling down, and getting to the point where I'd feel
confident to speak to it in my actual-play review series.
Of DoctorDuckButter's Barrowmaze:
Regarding the playing of OSE Barrowmaze, DoctorDuckButter actually has two distinct playlists - first, Old School Essentials - Barrowmaze & Stonehell; and second, Old School Essentials - Barrowmaze - The B Team. By all appearances, they appear to be sequential - starring the same cast of players, but playing different player characters.
It is my belief that - watching this channel originally, it was the former that I had gotten hooked on; but subsequently, I have been watching the latter to fill out the details of this review.
As such, if you like what you see? Check out the other playlist too! Although the videos are different, older, they are the same campaign with the same referee - and such, likely exhibit a similar if not same viewing experience.
So - cobbled
together from old bullet notes on what I liked or disliked about the series as
well as new notes on the sessions I've watched in 2022, herein - my
conclusions regarding DoctorDuckButter and his party's quest into the
Barrowmaze.
What I Like
The first and most refreshing feature of this actual play series is how closely it resembles a real game. There are no stream-related shenanigans; there are virtually no tech hiccups interrupting the experience (for the viewer or the player); and there are no long introductions, product placements, or cult-of-personality promotions peripheral to the game. It's all game - all the time. Further, the players react and interact in a manner consistent with real players: when an unexpected monster appears, there is trepidation or fearful exclamation; when they break into the Barrowmaze for the first time, there is excitement mixed with terror! The host does not appear to be trying to get YouTube famous - only having hosted his videos, playing them online, because of circumstances leading to inability to play in person. DoctorDuckButter's game is a real game and you can tell while you're watching it. And because it's a real game, the focus is on the game: something that I appreciate tremendously.
Second, I like the game's focus on dungeoneering. On the part of the referee, he visibly tracks turns, stresses the importance of treasure via enforcement of the XP rules and highlighting of the shortness of combat XP, and uses wandering monsters, random encounters, and light sources to tax the party as it moves through the maze. On the part of the party, they parlay with monsters when possible - on occasion making friends in the maze where a fight might have occurred with a new-school party - they bribe the monsters, flee from combats they can't win, make use of allies and hirelings, and use stealth when possible. The biggest props to the party: they have a mapper! Someone is mapping the dungeon! Even though they are on a VTT with maps and tokens, one of the players is mapping! And - because the Barrowmaze is as large as it is, with dozens of corridors and nooks and turns: the party needs the map, the party needs the marks made on the wall with chalk, in order to successfully navigate their way out in order to escape from the barrows and make it back to town in time for nightfall.
Which is a separate point - never sleep in the barrows! Something the party learns firsthand attempting the act. Learning from experience - the improving of player skill - essential elements of an OSR game that can be gleaned, can be observed, in this actual play series.
Finally - I like the presentation of the dungeon. It isn't fancy - but it
looks good enough and is functional: something that parallels what prospective
players should expect of a game run on VTT: while some referees prefer
paid art and fancy products, it's important to note that the purpose of the
VTT is a tool to help promote immersion, to help produce the experience of
delving the dungeon. You don't have to have a full polygon isometric
interactive map in order to experience the game - in truth, you just need some
players, some dice, and scratch paper.
What I Don't Like
If I were to complain about one thing in this actual play: it would be its infusion of different rules into the game. While good in the sense that it represents what you're likely to see in the wild, looking for a group: that is, a set of house rules and customizations to the game designed to alter the experience for the party to the taste of the table, it is bad at the same time from the perspective of someone who has not played B/X or OSE before and is looking to learn how to do so.
On the perspective of OSE - some elements from the Necrotic Gnome product line
are used, but they are not cited: for example, the Snake Cult from
Carcass Crawler #2
is used: a fun addition, but one that a viewer will not know if it's
homebrewed, part of Barrowmaze, or an element of OSE's core product.
Additionally, there are elements of which I'm not sure about the origins -
they could be homebrew, they could be products from Necrotic Gnome or another
OSR producer - or they could be rulings on the spot! In combat, it is evident
that the group are 3e-refugees: the ranger using two weapons, some movement
improvisations, and other subtle rulings or insertions parallel the more
granular combat rules introduced in the 3rd edition ruleset will be evident to
the discerning eye (or someone whose experiences are piqued by the mention of
the procedure).
Further Watching
If you, like many of my readers, aren't here to learn how to play or what to expect in an OSR style game - this complaint not appealing to your sensibilities at all - OSE is not the only game that our host, the good Doctor, runs.
For those fans of the western weird, Deadlands - Savage Worlds may cater to your taste; and it looks like he even may have dipped his toes into the wargaming genre with Star Wars Miniatures Battles.
These extra playlists and their hours and hours of content are outside the scope of this review and as such, I will withhold comment to their accuracy and presentation: however, again, if you like what you've seen so far and are either willing to or interested in broadening your scope of exposure, DoctorDuckButter's channel has additional content, additional ways to wet your tongue, in the world of miniature and fantastic role-play.
This weighs heavily on me - more so than it probably should -
but again: for the purposes of the review, it isn't necessarily a
bad thing from the campaign perspective (it doesn't interrupt the core
loop nor does it really drag combats out like 3/PF combats use to drag) - but
it is in line with the aforementioned impediment to educational use.
So... in so many words - I really only have one complaint about the videos -
and that is that the rules are easy to follow, but difficult to discern for
use in learning the game.
What I'm Ambivalent About
This actual play would work really well as an audio podcast. While the video is useful to see the combats, to see the maze, and the occasional fun moment when the audience knows trouble is coming but the party does not - by and large, the screen sharing is what the ref is looking at at the time. This is very handy - seeing how he runs a game using PDFs, generators, a VTT, and digital dice all in a one-monitor setup: I do not possess the skill and proficiency in this art as he does and would flounder attempting to do what he pulls off mostly seamlessly. But - for what value this adds - I would definitely listen to this on my way to work. Knowing that podcast platforms (Anchor, at least) accepts video files now, which it can process and produce as "video podcasts" or parse the audio from, it would be a cool addition to the DDB media empire.
Further, for the aspiring Roll20 DM, there is a lot of instruction value in
these videos as to how to manipulate, how to handle the Roll20 UI. The videos
- however - are, for the Barrowmaze series, older - 2021 and before - and a
such, this instructional value may wane with time as the Roll20 UI evolves and
changes.
In Conclusion
To conclude - I've been binge watching this actual play for the last few weeks. I enjoy the story - I laugh with the players laughing, my heart races for the moments of tension, and I laugh again when bad things happen to their characters. Just like a friend would. The story is great, the module is solid, and the adventure is interesting - however, the confusion in the rules and the absence of hex crawling (there is some hex crawling: but it isn't hex crawling, if that makes sense - they are 50 yard hexes between barrows, not 5-6 mile hexes used for overland exploration) impact its usability to the OSR neophyte.
Rules? A challenge.
Tone and experience? Without question!
As such, I've rated the product Leather, with Shield. Value is definitely there, and it is worth the time of an actual-play enthusiast.
Thank you for reading; and delve on!
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