Thinking about Warhammer?

[frankthedm]

Now one issue with WFRP is the default area scale with combat maps or terrian is 1 inch = 2 yards, which means combatants take up a good deal of space and building interiors are either quite cramped or the buildings are incredulously large. But on the other hand this also helps missile fire and magic from getting too much range. And helps keep combat from moving off the table.

I'm considering dropping the scale to 1 inch=1 yard for more old 1E feel. [at least indoors] The previously mentioned Apocalypse templates would work well to also scale up the area effects inside.

 

[Iron Sky]

Don't have much time to post, but I ran my first Fantasy game last week.

Randomly generated characters gave a human squire, a human camp follower(cook), and a halfling fisherman. I used my roommate's Tarot deck plus a random Tarot-meanings website to generate nearby lands, nobles, and even the character's backstories(since we wipped it all up quick just before sitting down to play). Enjoyed how that worked out.

For the actual game, they talked their way out of fighting some bandits, giving over their gold, then tried to ambush the bandits. They failed their concealment checks horribly and had a nasty fight with a big bandit with an axe, a halfling with a bow, and a dwarf barely controlling a pair of big mangy wolfhounds.

The group's halfling was dropped by the bandit halfling, who fled. The dwarven bandit's war dogs killed the squire's horse, then the squire killed the dwarf, causing one dog to attack the squire, the other to attack the bandit halfling. The camp follower held off the axeman until the squire could kill the other dog and come help kill the axeman. The bandit halfling injured the last dog and both fled into the woods. Everyone in the group ended up heavily wounded.

They then tried to head to the next village and instead spent the next 3 days lost in the woods - during a blizzard. After nearly starving and freezing to death, they found a partially built cathedral and were taken in by the Sigmar Lictor who was overseeing it.

Over-all, was pretty fun. Nice change from our super-heroic 4e dnd fare to the gritty squabbling-in-the-mud, starving-to-death nobodies of Warhammer.

 

[Rel]

They then tried to head to the next village and instead spent the next 3 days lost in the woods - during a blizzard. After nearly starving and freezing to death, they found a partially built cathedral and were taken in by the Sigmar Lictor who was overseeing it.

Over-all, was pretty fun. Nice change from our super-heroic 4e dnd fare to the gritty squabbling-in-the-mud, starving-to-death nobodies of Warhammer.

You're doing it exactly right.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

You're doing it exactly right.

I agree.

 

[wolff96]

I'm just starting a new campaign with a group who have played nothing but D&D before. We're heading towards the "Enemy Within" campaign, which I love. Sure, it's got a few warts, but it's still one of the greatest module-series I have ever read/run/played in.

Anyway, my players had some crazy dice when creating characters: We've got an elven apprentice wizard (who STILL has yet to cast a spell), a human burgher who is the party diplomat, a human protagonist who wants to be a witch-hunter, a human Initiate of Sigmar, and a disgraced Dwarven Pitfighter determined to sell his life dear as a Slayer. It's the *least* scummy group of new characters I've ever seen! The Protagonist started with a horse, by Sigmar's Hammer!

I ran them through a Warhammer-modified version of "Death in Freeport", so they've got a few advances under their belts. (For reference, the campaign has been running for three weeks now.)

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Anyway, I just had to post about what happened Saturday. The pitfighter has been trying to get a match scheduled for a while and managed to set one up with (sight unseen) a big sailor off a ship that just came into port. The pit they were fighting in had a 'no-deaths' rule from previous trouble with the guards, so it was pure fisticuffs for the night.

Once the fight was set up and the odds were set, the Burgher and Protagonist did a bit of rumor-mongering to talk up the dwarf and try to tilt the odds. They also found out a few things about his opponent. "Big Pete", by rumor, was a Norscan Raider turned pirate who once ripped the head off a bear with his empty hands. He was seven feet tall and had never lost a match. (Granted, that was a *tad* exaggerated...)

Based on the rumors, the party made a few bets... the burgher and the elf bet heavily on the dwarfen underdog, while the protagonist decided the bookies must know something and put FIVE CROWNS on the highly-favored Norscan.

The dwarf gets into the pit and finds himself up against a 6'8" Norscan who has way more reach than he does and was nearly as strong. The two got right to fighting, beating on each other with their bare hands. The dwarf -- using his wrestling skills -- took down the Norscan a few times, but the bigger man always managed to escape. By the time the fight had been going for *six minutes*, both combatants were bloodied and battered, though the dwarf had taken the worst of it. (Two wounds left for the raider versus zero left for the dwarf.)

The human came in like a battering ram, hammering the dwarf with both fists and dislocating his shoulder ('paralyzed arm until medical treatment' result). The dwarf pushed himself up with his good arm and came back at him, raining down blows that the big man fended off. The big Norscan kicked the dwarf across the ring, cracking ribs and winding the tough fighter. ('Winded, all actions -30' result). The dwarf dropped into a defensive stance until he could get his breath back and fended off the big man's attacks. As soon as he could breathe again, the dwarf charged in low, grabbed the human's leg and lifted him clean off the ground before *slamming* him into the wall of the pit, knocking him cold. (The dwarf triggered Ulric's Fury, confirmed, and ended up doing SEVENTEEN wounds to a guy with 2 left...)

As the battered, bloodied, and hurt dwarf took in the shouting crowd, one voice could be heard wailing above the rest of the crowd -- that of Hanz the Protagonist crying out "It was a good bet! The dwarf just got lucky! It was a *good* bet!"

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It was a *great* fight and by the end of it the rest of the players were literally cheering on their favored fighter! It was in doubt all the way to the very end, with a grand total of FORTY-THREE ROUNDS of combat between dwarf and human. They connected most rounds, but parries and innate toughness -- combined with horrible damage rolls -- kept the fight going.

Three voices were cheering every good roll of the dwarf, while BOOING at the norscan raider, with one dissenting voice going the other way. I was worried that it would be boring for the other players -- one reason I had been putting off an actual pit-fight for the dwarf -- but I couldn't have been more wrong. It's been quite a while since I've had so many players so into their characters. The next door neighbors actually came over and asked us to quiet down our party.

 

[Rel]

That sounds like a hell of a fun time. Congrats!

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

WFRP Live Play

If anyone's interested, there's a special installment of the Small but Vicious podcast to be found here:

D20 Radio Presents: Small but Viscious Roleplay in WFRP - d20radio.com

It's a 2+ hour recording of a WFRP play session, with the players being veritable newbs to the system, and will give folks a pretty good handle on how the system runs.

I haven't gotten the chance to listen to whole thing (only the first 50 minutes or so). Just be forewarned that one of the players is more than a little silly (intentionally so) which will seem starkly at odds with the general feel and mood of the 'hammerverse.

 

[the_bruiser]

I have the WHFRP core book and am pretty interested in learning more about this game. So I read it and then went to google to see what's out there. I found FFG, Black Industries, etc., and a few sites that had boards, but nothing even 2% like Enworld (I was hoping for at least 25%, though maybe even that is a stretch). No excel-based character sheet templates, no people rating relative career strengths and weakness, comparing adventures, none of the analytical discussions that I like to see, that's just how I tend to learn about games.

For you WHFRP fans out there, what online resources do you use for this game? Is there a 'core' board that is the primary online message/resource? I'm sure something is out there, I just didn't come across it in my fifteen minutes of browsing.

 

[thedungeondelver]

I have the WHFRP core book and am pretty interested in learning more about this game. So I read it and then went to google to see what's out there. I found FFG, Black Industries, etc., and a few sites that had boards, but nothing even 2% like Enworld (I was hoping for at least 25%, though maybe even that is a stretch). No excel-based character sheet templates, no people rating relative career strengths and weakness, comparing adventures, none of the analytical discussions that I like to see, that's just how I tend to learn about games.

For you WHFRP fans out there, what online resources do you use for this game? Is there a 'core' board that is the primary online message/resource? I'm sure something is out there, I just didn't come across it in my fifteen minutes of browsing.

I have the Excel character generator for WARHAMMER FANTASY ROLE PLAY - email me at thedungeondelver@hotmail.com and I will send it to you.

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

For you WHFRP fans out there, what online resources do you use for this game? Is there a 'core' board that is the primary online message/resource? I'm sure something is out there, I just didn't come across it in my fifteen minutes of browsing.

See the link I posted above for part 1 of a recorded play session with the players being veritable newbs at the game. Only thing really not touched on is magic usage, as the one magic user (a Hedge Wizard) has wisely chosen not to fling magic around.

Also, there is the Small But Vicious Podcast itself, the first couple episodes of which deals with various crunch aspects of the game itself. Oldscool (the GM) is pretty knowledgable about WFRP in general, and the casts are designed to help folks such as yourself that have never played WFRP.

And for those interested, part 2 of SBV's recorded play session as been posted, and can be snagged directly from right here.