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Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I actually considered that except that Necromancy is terrible (outside of Call of Vanhel) and there's no Petty magic for it. Just Petty (Arcane). And you never really get anything from knowing about dark magic, despite the text constantly implying you need to risk reading terrible books to learn how to destroy evil things. She'll be taking Knowledge (Necromancy) as her slot for 'any one knowledge skill' in Journeyman as a nod to it, though.

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Everyone
Sep 6, 2019

by sebmojo

Night10194 posted:

I actually considered that except that Necromancy is terrible (outside of Call of Vanhel) and there's no Petty magic for it. Just Petty (Arcane). And you never really get anything from knowing about dark magic, despite the text constantly implying you need to risk reading terrible books to learn how to destroy evil things. She'll be taking Knowledge (Necromancy) as her slot for 'any one knowledge skill' in Journeyman as a nod to it, though.

Officially, no. Unofficially, there's these.

http://www.liberfanatica.net/The%20Dark%20Path.pdf

http://www.liberfanatica.net/Death's%20Rebirth.pdf

Both of them come from here:

http://www.liberfanatica.net/WFRP.html

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

The thing is the protagonists are intentional RAW mechanical benchmarks, to compare the challenges presented in adventures to a party going through them. I can't really use extra add-on material for it without defeating the mechanical/review purposes for them.

Xiahou Dun
Jul 16, 2009

We shall dive down through black abysses... and in that lair of the Deep Ones we shall dwell amidst wonder and glory forever.



Night10194 posted:

No, CIA, this is foreign. Princess Janiel of Lothern, the overweight (she looks like a perfectly ordinary and healthy human, and keeps the weight so she can disguise herself as one easily) cake-loving elven spymistress is one of my favorite recurring NPCs across our games.

She got their elf deserter to do a dirty hit to evade stolen valor charges! But she also paid them for it and gave him an official record that he'd been a Sea Guard (he was not a Sea Guard) as a favor after he did it. So it balanced out. Also the guy they killed was a Caledor noble and a total rear end in a top hat (one of those 'the only problem with Malekith is he says the quiet part too loud' types) so they weren't too sad to axe the dude in the face.

Some day, some day I'm gonna get around to Shadowrun But It's In Ulthuan as a campaign. Some day.

ElfI6.

Also with all the Imperium chat : I stand-by the idea that everyone in the setting are basically assholes and the real protagonists are the Tyranids. Everyone else is evil, they're just hungry. Embrace your fate as just food for the chitinous horde purging the world.

Loxbourne
Apr 6, 2011

Tomorrow, doom!
But now, tea.

Froghammer posted:

40K is, most importantly, a fictional universe created by human beings who made the conscious choice to make justify fascism by making all of the alternatives worse than fascism, and that's a creative decision I'm just kind of over in 2020

This. But the extra wrinkles you have to add are (a) 40K was a standard part of nerd adolescence (in the UK in particular) for so long that fans now give it a free pass to avoid awkward introspection about their hobby choices, and (b) those same fans may be invested to the tune of thousands of dollars/pounds on multiple armies and books, which they may genuinely enjoy playing with. Or use as the basis for social interaction. They will react very badly to any suggestion they think about what the fluff actually depicts - hence the common phenomena of groups softening 40K down.

People get very very defensive over anything that makes them think too hard about 40K, including changes to 40K.

Ithle01
May 28, 2013

Everyone posted:

I'm giving my take as though I were playing a character in 40K. If my GM said, "Okay, we're gonna do 40K," the characters I played would be revolutionaries-in-waiting. But I don't play it because what little I do know about it has left me utterly uninterested in it. Between 40K and that stupid Nazi Pony game up-thread, I'd rather play a Nazi Pony because at least then I wouldn't have to even pretend to take that bullshit seriously.

The difference between these two is that one was originally making fun of fascists and religious nut jobs (and then some people sort of missed the point or culture shift happened or something but satire is well and truly dead) and the other is straight-up a fan tribute to it. It seems like a weird choice to me, but to each their own I guess.

IshmaelZarkov
Jun 20, 2013

In terms of 40k as a setting in a RPG sense, I like to play up the future dark ages with lasers tuned to 11 aspect of things. You can move away from space nazis by putting more focus on the medieval/renaissance stuff without too much hassle. More Borgia than Mussolini.

There's a lot of fun options in there, you just have to tweak it IMO.

Joe Slowboat
Nov 9, 2016

Higgledy-Piggledy Whale Statements



IshmaelZarkov posted:

In terms of 40k as a setting in a RPG sense, I like to play up the future dark ages with lasers tuned to 11 aspect of things. You can move away from space nazis by putting more focus on the medieval/renaissance stuff without too much hassle. More Borgia than Mussolini.

There's a lot of fun options in there, you just have to tweak it IMO.

Sure, but with modification anything can be made less terrible (not necessarily un-terrible, but less terrible). That 40K can be hammered into a better shape or reinterpreted is sort of inevitable, but the texts that are mass-produced and distributed still have their various issues. It's still Canon Catholic Space Nazis, even if home games can be fixed with some thought.

Popy
Feb 19, 2008

as time goes on the Imperium just reminds me more of Post-9/11 America

GimpInBlack
Sep 27, 2012

That's right, kids, take lots of drugs, leave the universe behind, and pilot Enlightenment Voltron out into the cosmos to meet Alien Jesus.
Night's Black Agents: Solo Ops

Part One: For Your Eyes Only

Well, it's been a while since I've done one of these, but what the hell, it's not like I have much else to do during quarantine, so let's talk about Night's Black Agents: Solo Ops.

What the Hell is This?

Solo Ops is the GUMSHOE One-2-One take on Kenneth Hite's Night's Black Agents, written by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan and published by Pelgrane Press. Let's take a brief moment to unpack that:

GUMSHOE is a game system designed by Robin D. Laws, specifically as a tonic for the old problem common to investigative games (Call of Cthulhu in particular), wherein the PCs failing the skill check to find or decipher a vital clue would slam the adventure to a shrieking halt, forcing the GM to tap-dance frantically to get the clue back in front of the players who grow increasingly frustrated as they stumble around with no clear idea what to do next. GUMSHOE addresses this with its core rule: if you have the appropriate investigative ability and you apply it, you will always learn the clue. The interesting and fun part of solving a mystery is figuring out how all the puzzle pieces fit together, not finding the puzzle piece under the couch.

The GUMSHOE system first appeared in 2007's The Esoterrorists (about a secret group fighting occult terrorists trying to break down the barrier between our world and the Outer Dark) and Fear Itself (the same setting, but PCs are ordinary people facing the horrors of the Outer Dark instead of an elite counter-occult-terrorism unit), but arguably had its breakout in 2008's Trail of Cthulhu, which applied the system to the Lovecraftian horror milieu it was originally built to "fix." Since then it's featured in numerous games, including 2009's Mutant City Blues (police procedurals in a world with superheroes), 2011's Ashen Stars (a "gritty modern reboot of a cheesy 70s sci-fi show that never existed" and one of my favorite high-concept pitches for any game ever), and 2012's Night's Black Agents (rogue covert agents vs. the vampire conspiracy), which is the subject we'll be talking about in this F&F.

Now, I like the GUMSHOE system's philosophy for running investigations. It's good design, and it's a concept that's been echoed in other investigative games, even ones that don't use the actual GUMSHOE mechanics. That said, the rest of the GUMSHOE system is... adequate. About the best that can be said for it is that it's enough to gracefully remain unobtrusive for more cerebral games, where the most action you're likely to see is a brief scuffle or running away from some horrible monster.

Night's Black Agents tries to take that system and put enough meat on its bones to turn it into a full-on action thriller--an effort that, in my opinion at least, it can't quite pull off. It adds "tactical" considerations in the form of lots of fiddly effects and optional subsystems that just clutter the game up. My own long-abandoned attempt to F&F the core book, many years and many threads ago, stalled out at the point of talking about the mechanics, because they're just not that interesting. Over the years, I've toyed with the idea of hacking Blades in the Dark to run it, but never really got around to it. Which is a shame, because the premise of Night's Black Agents is great, and The Dracula Dossier is one of the most mind-bogglingly fascinating campaign structures I've ever seen for a tabletop RPG.

Enter GUMSHOE One-2-One.

First appearing in 2015's Cthulhu Confidential, it's billed as a version of the GUMSHOE system specifically tailored for one player, one GM games. It's not, particularly. I mean, it is well-tailored to one-on-one games, but aside from the core philosophy of "always getting the clue" and the ability lists being the same, it really doesn't share much DNA with original recipe GUMSHOE. One-2-One is a purely player-facing, heavily narrative game that takes a lot of influence from games like Apocalypse World and Blades in the Dark.

2019's Night's Black Agents: Solo Ops by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan adapts the system for Night's Black Agents, and it's pretty much exactly the system I wished NBA had had from the jump. It's sleek, lean, and captures the feel of a Bond or a Bourne movie in ways that the original game never quite did for me. I adore it, and I'm excited to share it with you all. It's also (as of April 28, 2020) an offering in the weekly Bundle of Holding, along with Cthulhu Confidential and a bunch of adventures. I highly recommend it--the current "level up" price is only a couple bucks more than the core book pdf by itself, so if you're at all interested in either game, it's a steal.

All right, that's enough background. The book itself is 280 pages, with the first 120 or so comprising the rules and the remaining 150 featuring three adventures starring Leyla Khan. My plan is to cover the rules in fairly typical F&F format, then shamelessly steal Night10194'sHostile V's approach to WFRP adventures and present the adventures as a semi-narrative, semi-actual play story.

Are you ready to begin your mission? Good. Here we go. This review will self-destruct in 30 seconds.

You Are Leyla Khan
While you can create your own superspy to fight the vampire menace, Solo Ops comes packaged with a default protagonist: Leyla Khan, an ex-MI6 agent who ran afoul of the vampiric conspiracy and spent years as one of their blood-addicted thralls, committing unspeakable acts for her undead masters. Thanks to some mysterious allies, she has recently broken free of the vampires' control, at the cost of losing nearly all of her memories. Yes, this game takes the elevator pitch of "Jason Bourne vs. the vampires" to the next level by making its protagonist an amnesiac superspy on the run from her former masters. Honestly, it's a good hook, makes for a great in medias res introductory adventure and provides a good avenue to drip-feed the player clues in the form of vague, resurfacing memories.

It would be really easy to create your own take on a PC with this same background (though as we'll see soon, there's not a whole lot of mechanical depth to character creation), but if you ditch the Bourne-esque amnesia hook, at least the starter adventure will have to be heavily modified, if not scrapped altogether. That's not a problem for us, since we'll be playing as Leyla.

Setup and Basics
GUMSHOE One-2-On uses cards to track a number of things in the game, from clues you've discovered to problems you have to deal with. The idea is that, with a traditional RPG group of 3-5 players you have a lot of brains to keep track of story elements, take notes on stuff, and so on. In a one on one game, though, both the player and the Director (that's what this game calls the GM, because it's like an action movie, see) are pretty much "on" all the time, so having a tactile reminder that you found that Mysterious, Encoded Ledger last session or that you're Wanted for Questioning in the matter of the destruction of the Carpathian Collection at the British Musem can help you keep track of everything. The book includes a modest selection of generic cards in the back, but the assumption is that the Director will be creating their own for their adventures (or using the ones that come with published scenarios). It's a good concept, but I really wish the cards were available as a separate print-and-play PDF or, even better, a PoD deck. You can find pdfs of blank cards on Pelgrane Press's website, but not the generic cards or any of the operation-specific ones.

Anyways, after a quick note on pronouns (TL;DR "you" can refer to you, the player, you, the Director, or you, the character, you'll figure it out based on context, and for clarity of writing in examples the player is "she" and the Director is "he," but obviously anyone can play either role), we get a very brief precis on the rules.

First up is Investigative Abilities: These are the skills you use to gather information. I've already talked about the philosophy behind these in basic GUMSHOE, and they work the same way in One-2-One: If you have the right Investigative ability, and you apply it, you get the clue. If you have Forensic Pathology and you examine the victim's corpse, you automatically establish cause and time of death, whether the corpse was moved, whether certain injuries were post mortem, etc. Where Solo Ops differs from classic GUMSHOE is that, where a group of PCs in a GUMSHOE game are purpose built to ensure at least one character has at least one point in all the Investigative abilities, in One-2-One you'll be leaning on Contacts to fill in the gaps in your knowledge. You might have found the drug cartel's ledgers, but without Forensic Accounting you'll have to call on an NPC to decipher it and give you the actual clue. We'll talk more about Contacts later, but it's a great way to introduce a supporting cast and give the PC someone to talk to.

The other big difference is that, where classic GUMSHOE characters have a variable number of points in each Investigative ability which they can spend for extra information or useful aid, abilities in Solo Ops are binary: You either have them or you don't. Instead, you start each operation with three Pushes, which you can spend freely on any Investigative ability you have. A Push can get you things like a specific favor from an NPC, a useful piece of additional information, or a bonus on a General ability test. I much prefer this to GUMSHOE classic. Not only was it easy to over-invest in abilities (not for nothing did every GUMSHOE game come with a 2-page sidebar saying "don't put more than X points in these abilities"), it was easy to feel cheated if the operation just doesn't feature enough opportunities for a player to use all their points in a signature ability. Moving to a generic resource not only gets rid of this, it makes the PC a more generalized specialist, which is important when there's only one of them.

Next up come General abilities, the skills you'll use for the action parts of the action-thriller game. This is where you roll dice to make tests, the most important of which are challenges. Solo Ops utilizes what I'd call a scene-based resolution system: a challenge roughly models an action scene in a movie (or sometimes a beat in such a scene, for climactic or setpiece scenes): you don't roll to shoot the goons, you roll to see how well you do in the gunfight against the mooks. You'll be rolling d6s and adding them up, and depending on your result you'll either get an advance (where you come out of the scene ahead, with some kind of advantage going forward). a hold (where you don't get any particular advantage or drawback), or a setback (where poo poo goes sideways and you pick up an extra difficulty). Note that success and failure are decoupled from this system, and we'll talk about why that is more when we dive into the more detailed rules on challenges.

General abilities are also much more binary than in GUMSHOE classic--even moreso than Investigative abilities, in fact. You start with two dice in all General abilities, no muss, no fuss, no decision-making needed. You are, after all, a competent covert operator. You do get to choose three Mastery Edges from any General abilities you like, though. These are a special kind of card that you can spend for an advantage during the operation, things like "no matter how implausible, you find a vehicle and automatically steal it" or the more prosaic "get +1 die on a challenge." You can even switch unspent masteries out during the operation, but you only get to spend three of them, total, per operation. Again, this is a smart move for solo PCs, and if it comes at the slight cost of losing some flavor (i.e. it's hard to build a character who is "the world's deadliest sniper" or what have you), it's still a solid fit for the genre, and the flexibility of masteries keeps you from feeling like you have to guess what will be useful.

Character Creation
Normally I'd do character creation as its own post and solicit examples from the thread, but like I said there's not a whole lot of variety in chargen here, so I'm just going to cover it here.

You start out with the following investigative abilities: The wonderfully-named Bullshit Detector, Charm, Intimidation, Notice, Reassurance, Research, Streetwise, Tradecraft, and Urban Survival. These are variously investigative tools that only really work "in the moment," in that you can't really take the clue back to a Contact to analyze (Bullshit Detector, Notice), are basic interpersonal skills (Charm, Intimidation, Reassurance), fundamental skills for a covert operative (Streetwise, Tradecraft, Urban Survival), or a useful catch-all ability you can conceivably put any clue behind (Research).

Then you pick any six additional Investigative abilities.

You also start with two dice in each General ability, as mentioned earlier. Then you pick your three masteries, and that's it. Character creation done.

Next Time: Abilities, Investigative and General

GimpInBlack fucked around with this message at 13:13 on Apr 28, 2020

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I can't take credit for that approach! I stole it from Hostile V.

Loxbourne
Apr 6, 2011

Tomorrow, doom!
But now, tea.
Does Solo Ops include the Night's Black Agents response track system? That was one of the best GMing tools I've ever seen, it really gave faceless spy organisations a sense of flavour and personality in how they reacted to events or escalated situations.

GimpInBlack
Sep 27, 2012

That's right, kids, take lots of drugs, leave the universe behind, and pilot Enlightenment Voltron out into the cosmos to meet Alien Jesus.

Loxbourne posted:

Does Solo Ops include the Night's Black Agents response track system? That was one of the best GMing tools I've ever seen, it really gave faceless spy organisations a sense of flavour and personality in how they reacted to events or escalated situations.

Not only does it include it, it streamlines and improves it!

Night10194 posted:

I can't take credit for that approach! I stole it from Hostile V.

That is definitely what the review says and indeed has always said. :ninja:

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I am certainly interested in a system designed for one on one games. I love running one on ones in addition to group games.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy
In the Industry thread some days ago, someone was asking about games that use the d1000, and I remember that there's an alternate rule in one of the RoleMaster Companions (Companion III, to be exact) where you can roll a d1000 to determine a character's stats.

I haven't written of/about TTRPGs in a while and I wanted to interrogate this further, so here we go:



The idea is that if you're a DM and you need to stat up an NPC, you can roll a d1000, and the result is the character's (potential) stat, and you just use that immediately and directly, without having to deal with the normal method of stat generation.

I say "potential" in parentheses because RoleMaster does this thing where stats are split into Temporary and Potential stats: the Temporary stat is what your stat actually is, and what's used to determine bonuses and rolls and such, while your Potential stat is how high it could possibly go - i.e., if your Temporary Strength is 78, and your Potential Strength is 80, your Temporary Strength cannot go higher than 80, and since your Temp Str is already so close to your Pot Str, the roll needed to increase Temp Str from 78 to 79 or 80 will be difficult. If this sounds confusing, as you might observe from the description of the alternate rule, they also recommend using the alternate rule, and doing away with Temp and Pot rules altogether.

Anyway, the standard stat generation method is to roll d100, and reroll if the result is 19 or lower.

Those stats translate to the following table:



Simply put:

* if the stat is 75 or higher, then you get some kind of bonus from the stat
* if the stat is between 25 to 74, then the stat does not confer any kind of modifier
* if the stat is 24 or lower, then you get some kind of penalty from the stat (but keeping in mind that you're not supposed to be able to get lower than a 19 anyway)

using this standard method, a player would have

* a 30.94% chance of getting a stat of 75 or higher
* a 9.56% chance of still getting a penalizing stat of 24 or lower
* and 59.50% of the time, it'd be an "average" stat that confers neither a bonus or a penalty

comparatively, if we were to use the alternate rule:

* the table already starts at giving a stat of 25, so there's no way of getting a penalizing stat
* a d1000 result of anywhere between 001 to 649 will result in stats ranging from 25 to 74, which translates to getting a no-bonus-no-penalty stat 64.90% of the time
* everything else would result in a stat of at least a 75 or higher, which translates to getting a bonus 35.10% of the time

this would arguably make the alternate rule better than the standard character generation!

And then there is a second alternate rule besides:



You roll a d1000, and that translates directly to one's bonus, without having to go through the numerical stat first

* there's a 19.40% chance of getting a -5 stat
* there's a 35.10% chance of getting a +5 stat or better
* there's a 45.50% chance of getting a 0 stat

This seems to be worse than the first alternate rule because you have the same chance of getting a high stat, but with the added risk of getting a low stat.

It also ends up introducing an additional amount of work anyway because now you have to reverse-engineer a stat number for the things that do require the 1-100 stats.

(for whoever's doing the archiving of these threads, you don't have to include this, and this isn't a part of a longer work. I was bored!)

By popular demand
Jul 17, 2007
Probation
Can't post for 23 hours!
Good old Chartmaster, for when you need more numbers and you can't play Phoenix Command.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Plundered Vaults

A DOOM HOUSE!?

So first things first: We've had our first promotion! Vendrick has finished Kithbander since it's only 9 advances (free advance and the 800 EXP they've earned). Instead of promoting straight to Scout, he's doing a sidegrade to Hunter. He'll still improve a bit more with his bow, fill in his rangering a little, and more importantly it gets him where I want him: Targeteer. Targeteer is a weird career (and I'd have expected the Elf Class to go into it, but it doesn't) that has +40% BS, at tier 2. The thing is it doesn't do anything else. But it will let you see Vendrick with a 92% BS, 2 attacks, and every ranged talent. At that point the guy won't even care about shooting into melee or extreme range; he'll still be able to hit targets consistently. He will be as good as the average elf thinks they are. The others are just steadily climbing their 1st careers, and after this adventure there'll be a full character status thing as basically everyone promotes. What's more important is the huge influx of cash the team's made means 3 of their fighter types are in plate armor. They're trying to force the elf into some, too. He is resisting.

They have a true embarrassment of moneys, and I think this is one of the reasons the line usually tries not to pay you at all. The thing is there's a happy medium between 'the team has made two thousand crowns worth of gear and treasure and is now in endgame mundane equipment before they finish first tier' and 'no-one ever gives you a cent'. Paying a team 40-60 crowns a mission will let them slowly climb up and gear themselves up. Gilbert and Ulrike having full armor already does kind of throw off the power curve; either of them would solo a Chaos Warrior pretty trivially and they're not even done with their first careers. This is going to make the upcoming pure combat and dungeon crawling adventure much easier.

They also spend 400 on something special for Ulrike, and also finally get her a crossbow. She's going to need it as a full Knight, and she needs to start practicing with it. Ulrike can (once she's a full Knight) use a 'special' weapon from the Old World Armory, the White Wolf Hammer. The writing for the weapon is very unclear (it makes it look like a hand weapon that does SB+1, SB+2 on the Charge) but Errata and other stuff have eventually revealed what it really does. It's a two-handed hammer that is SB+1, Tiring, Impact, but does SB+2 and Impact on any Charge attack. So effectively it's a better flail. You must be a White Wolf to learn to use one, and it's their signature weapon. Naturally, the Ulrican Knight is going to use the special extra weapon only they learn how to use, but they only come in Best Quality, so it's expensive as heck. Still, while she hasn't been officially knighted, Ulrike now owns the hammer, armor, fur mantle, and cool wolfskin cloak (made of wolf that she strangled herself, as Ulric intended!) and is mistaken for a full Knight of the White Wolf at all times.

The team spends awhile in Kemperbad, seeing as they've got a noblewoman who footed the bill for a vacation after the mess in Schloss Vonreuter and their rough night at the Three Feathers. Kemperbad's a nice town outside of Altdorf, the first Freistadt in the Empire. Through a couple loopholes they managed to make their town one that owes fealty to no direct noble, though they still pay taxes. The taxes are instead spent on the town, which has made Kemperbad both a thriving town and a hub of crime as the higher general wealth attracts pickpockets and thieves. Gilbert has lost his mostly empty purse six times in the last week. This is why Elena carries/hides the money. It's also where Altdorf gets much of its wine, and they make the Emperor's personal favorite vintages. Anya is just delighted to be out and about in a real town (and is also pickpocketed several times, but less than Gilbert, which is impressive for someone who's never been outside a castle). Karl spends his time trying to treat whoever needs his help and guiding Anya around the town, Ulrike and Gilbert split time between practicing with her new hammer and trying the wine, Vendrick sleeps in a tree and tries not to let on that he's enjoying himself, and Elena passes the time getting drunk and cruising the town's many bars and studying up on local criminals and gossip. Everyone's glad to have a nice break from the craziness.

Until they start hearing rumors about robbers and treasure hunters going missing in a big manor house outside of town. The place is said to be haunted, but people keep trying to break in since it looks rich on the outside. Anya remarks that that might be a sign of an undead infestation, something that could threaten Kemperbad. Gilbert and Vendrick are both eager to stop laying idle, and at once suggest the team go and investigate. Certainly, other adventurers have gone missing, but they overcame threats like Schloss Vonreuter and they're well-armed and well-trained. Not a rabble of hungry thieves. Ulrike agrees, and soon the team is breaking into an old, spooky manor. They have once again entered the world of survival horror. They find themselves locked in as soon as they've broken down the cellar door and slipped inside; no amount of force will open the doors again, and the town they see outside the windows doesn't look like the prosperous Freistadt of Kemperbad at all. Through the mist, it looks almost like a small vineyard village. Like Kemperbad, but centuries ago, before it grew. What the heck is going on?

The Haunting Horror is one of the other middling scenarios in this book. It's not bad, but it's a mostly plotless dungeon crawl in a spooky haunted house. This is probably the most combat-heavy of the missions, and is meant to be left until players are just finishing their 1st tier, which is why I placed it here. The combats are fairly easy, though the final boss can be pretty bullshit if your team isn't combat capable and has some abilities that can do pretty outsized damage. Namely, every time you hit it in melee there's a chance you catch fire. You might've noticed from the Black Witch taking 10 wounds in one round from fire, being on fire is serious loving business in WHFRP. Luckily, our heroes have enough ways to deal with it. Aside from the fire trick it isn't that dangerous.

What's happened is that the house was the laboratory of a wizard way back when, and he hosed around with trying to invent time travel. As a result, he's created a weird altered house that doesn't quite exist in this world or the Realm of Chaos. It's full of spooky goings on and traps people inside to have them killed by monsters and strange phenomena. An alien horror sits on the top floor, holding the house in place. This mission actually has the cool as heck hook that it's entirely possible to finish it and find yourself back in time when you escape, if you want a campaign about modern PCs stuck in the time of Magnus the Pious. If you ever wanted a good reason to send your PCs back in time and make them fight in streetfights with devils to rescue Nuln and then go north to face the armies of Asuvar Kul alongside historical heroes, this is a pretty neat hook. Sadly for our heroes, they will not be doing something quite so rad, as they have a lot of stuff to do in 2531. There isn't a lot of plot in this dungeon, and it's mostly them creeping around a spooky house and stabbing things, but it's not a bad adventure. If you wanted a haunted house dungeon crawl, it'll do.

Next Time: Exploring the Doom House

Night10194 fucked around with this message at 14:28 on May 5, 2020

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Plundered Vaults

Just imagine Wayne June narrating

Our heroes emerge in a spare guest room full of rotted lumber and moth-eaten carpets. Anya casts a quick spell to light her sword, letting the magical light lead the way through the gloom. The team is a little surprised she knows magic; she explains she learned the basics even if she refused to get involved with actual Necromancy. She also says her senses say this place is really weird, and that she doesn't detect any normal necromancy. Whatever is haunting this place isn't necromantic. Cautioned to expect probable Chaos, they press forward into the guest room and find a portrait of a Beastman triumphantly beheading two defeated warriors. Blood sprays out of the painting and soaks Ulrike and Karl (hits 2 random PCs) and both are penalized to Agility for a short time as they try to wipe it out of their eyes. If you guessed the hideous Beastman champion steps out of the painting, congratulations. However, while he's intimidating and has 2 attacks, he's, uh...a little outnumbered. He goes down to a crossbow bolt from Elena, an arrow from Vendrick, a magic dart from Anya, and a charge and stab from the brave Sir Gilbert. Karl is twitching a little, realizing he's in some kind of crazy altered Chaos space again. He says if they see a thousand mutated spiders or anything to suggest 'wombs' he's loving out. The rest look at him quizzically and move on.

Thankfully for Karl, while he did get sprayed with phantom blood, there's nothing here to smear the whole party with poo poo and there's no hell-wombs. Hooray!

They move on to the guest bedroom, Elena getting her loot sack out and taking a small mahogany end table and silver cake stand (she'll be looting basically everything valuable in this dungeon, there's plenty). As she does, a screaming skeleton arises from the bed and begins to pull the biggest trick of this dungeon: Illusions. The skeleton hits the PCs with illusionary skeleton hands that require an Int test not to believe in. Otherwise, they start strangling the character for 1 wound (unsaveable) every turn. Similarly, it calls additional illusionary skeletons to distract them from killing it. It also causes Fear. After a short fight of failed Fear tests and swarming illusionary skeletons, Ulrike smashes the original skeleton's skull and all the horrors of the room vanish. Karl runs about healing everyone as Elena steals the skeleton's fine signet ring. I actually kind of like the illusion gimmick in this dungeon; enough weird poo poo comes out of nowhere at you that it's reasonable the PCs have a hard time telling what's real and what's spooky special effects. The special effects here are pretty classic, but classic is sometimes classic for a reason. With a less well-geared party the fights could get pretty dangerous and do a good job of being manageable but tense.

Moving to the kitchen, they find two zombified bodies turning a spit with a huge hunk of screaming meat full of faces. They just kinda...back out the door and move on. This is the right move. You can fight the zombies, but there's no benefit to it and the screaming meat can't be destroyed or helped in any way. I mean what were you going to do, burn it? It's already on fire.

The storerooms hold a clue: Jam and preserves with dates of bottling. They show the heroes this house is somehow 200 years in the past, since Vendrick (being expert on berries and plants) remarks they're recently bottled. Entering the dining room, it initially looks like a looter's paradise, but Anya is both equipped with magical sense and a noblewoman; she knows what china is worth what. She says this is a trap. It is! Only a few of the pieces are worth anything, and if you go to loot, you get attacked by all the furniture and multiple animated carving knives. They avoid it and move on.

A fine smoking room awaits, and Elena gets to looting anything with silver and any valuable tobacco. When she opens the drinks cabinet to get the fine silver goblets, however, she triggers a hookah based trap! It summons a fire spirit in the shape of an Arabyan man, who assaults the party with firey fingers. He for some reason has all 25s for stats, but 2 attacks and 24 wounds. He's not really very dangerous, and they put him down easily. If you keep opening the cabinet, it keeps spawning more. A mummified head of a woman appears in the ashes when they kill the spirit, whispering 'The silent hunter', and then vanishes. Karl says he'd very much like to leave the doom house. Anya tells him it'll be okay, this place doesn't seem that dangerous yet (she's kind of used to crazy mummy heads and zombies), and Ulrike reminds him there's no breaking down the door to escape. Gilbert promises to protect him as they move on.

The cloakroom holds nothing but some lootable gold crowns, but hooray! Gold crowns. Also with date stamps to further clue the PCs in that they're out of time. The nearby reading room has a fantastic, ornate, enameled suit of full plate! The book says to play up how it looks like it could come alive, since it won't, and this distracts the heroes (inspecting it for seeing if they can force their elf into it) from noticing an EVIL BOOK flying in the air until it begins to narrate, yelling about how they'l all be tortured to death as the doors lock. Two magical branding irons appear to attack, wielded by the spirit of the book, and illusions of torture equipment appear on Anya, Karl, Ulrike, and Gilbert, trying to sap wounds and debuff them. Anya and Karl see through the illusionary thumbscrews and realize nothing is actually attacking them. Ulrike yells as terrible chains appear on her legs and iron rods beat them, debuffing her Movement and inflicting 1 wound a round. Of all people, Gilbert sees through it with his 25 Int. Rolled a 1. He takes the lead, and by the time the spirit of the book appears on round 3, they've already put down both fragile branding irons. Though not before one got Anya good for 10 Wounds in the confusion. Good thing Karl carries Poultices. The Lesser Aethyric Entity is just a Lesser Demon, and Anya's magic actually puts it down on round 2 of fighting it. They've gotten beaten up a bit in this room, but Karl's mostly able to put everyone back together.

They also convince Vendrick the armor fits. So now all 4 of their combat characters are in plate. What is with these adventures and just handing out plate. More of the books record odd dates to help drive home this is not a house stuck in time normally.

Making their way upstairs using a bone key (it is a 'skeleton key', you see) they find a ritual chamber full of octagrams. Goddamnit, wizards. Anya remarks it doesn't have any unholy symbols; this was probably a mage experimenting around while thinking he could avoid getting Chaosed. In the next room, they meet Exposition Ghost, the ghost of a servant of Ludovicus Hanike, the wizard who owned this place. He isn't sure what killed him, or what happened, but he knows his master is still trapped here, in the attic. As is something else. There's no escaping until this place is un-anchored from hell. The ghost fades after giving his exposition. Karl swears a bit more than he should about goddamn wizards and goddamn Chaos before looking sheepishly at Anya and apologizing, saying this is all reminding him of a really bad experience from when he was a kid. She tells him it's fine, and they move on to the weapons room.

In here they are attacked immediately by not only a goddamn magical giant stuffed bear trophy, but a moving suit of armor that blocks the door. Ha, you see? They fake you out with the armor that ISN'T evil and moving to distract you from the evil book in the last room, then BAM! Animated armor. It's cute. This is a dangerous fight, with the team trapped in close quarters and unable to keep their mage and ranged characters back a bit. They manage to 'kill' (smash) the plate suit while Ulrike fights the bear. No good things begin with this bear. It got her in the face (her lack of helmet was going to hurt her eventually) for some pretty nasty wounds and she'll have a cool scar from it, but they put down the threats and steal the Best Quality dagger that stands out among the collection. Elena also steals some candlesticks. She loves her looting. They also loot an intact and working healing draught from the stores, which Anya uses to heal up the rest of the branding iron damage.

They find some zombie maids in the servant's quarters, and manage to loot the area without touching them. They only attack if touched. More gold rings and trinkets go into Elena's sack; about 58 GC of treasure in here, which is a nice score. They've got a couple hundred worth in that sack now, so whatever else, this is paying well. The next room contains a pair of mutated but still 'living' guards, summoned from the aethry by the beast to keep the PCs out; they go down like a sack of bricks as they're just WS 30-something SB 4 TB 3 mooks and there's only two. The heroes climb an extremely overlong staircase lined with silvery runes, realizing they're at the Final Boss. On reaching the top, they're confronted by the ghost of the wizard Hanike, who wails at them that he meddled in something terrible and now it uses the house as a lure to get new souls to pluck. He is almost gone, and soon it will finish him and nothing will- Oh here comes the tentacle, crushing his ghost into nothingness and drinking him.

This is the Haunting Horror, a terrible giant space squid with a torso made of writhing faces. This is our final boss, and the heroes have no recourse but to kill it before it claims more victims. Not only that, it's anchoring the house. Most dangerously, it's also spraying flammable hell-ichor everywhere from its tendrils. It's got great offense (WS of 45 is okay, SB 4, but it does +2 damage from fire on every attack unless the hero makes an Agility test, 3 attacks) and decent Wounds (24), but kinda poor DR (TB 4, 0 Armor, and because this was written early, doesn't have Daemonic Aura. I'm adding that back in because it's really meant to be backported to all monsters). The real bastard move is any attack that does damage in melee forces an Agility test or the hero who struck it catches fire. It's also Frightening, and Elena doesn't make the test so she's frozen for a bit. They're also kind of low on Fortune, save for Gilbert, who has a fuckton of it.

It's a nasty fight. Gilbert gets set on fire in round 1 when he charges, Ulrike misses outright, Vendrick and Anya are shooting it with magic and arrows, Karl is running around trying to keep people healed, and Elena keeps failing Fear tests. They take their first serious crit as Gilbert takes a heavy hit to the torso after being weakened by fire, but he rolls well on the table and just gets Stunned. Before the thing can follow up and kill him, it takes a Fury from Anya's magical dart and begins to spray fluids everywhere, setting the entire house on fire as it dies in agony. They grab the wounded Gilbert and run, running through the burning house and diving out a now-openable window to find themselves back in Kemperbad, smelling of smoke and badly wounded, and the house is just gone as if it was never there. No-one in town remembers the house, they just say some people went missing but nobody knows where. The exhausted heroes go to count their loot and get Gilbert more medical attention now that Karl actually has time. They also have some serious questions about how the hell he ran into something like THAT as a kid, and he promises to tell them soon. Just needs a moment to recover.

In short, it's a short, spooky dungeon crawl with some interesting combats and gimmicks, some good loot, and a final boss that could have used another look at its abilities. It isn't that impossible, just the 'sets you on fire on any melee hit unless you make an Agi test' thing is brutal. A less geared party would have lost a member or two in that fight; as it is, they almost lost Gilbert (well, almost had to have him Burn Fate). He was lucky as heck he took the crit effect he did to the place he did, or he'd have had a limb broken and risked Bleedout. It's not a bad adventure at all, but it's lacking the plot and intrigue you get from Carrion Call and it's very similar. Still, the special effects and writing are decent, the rewards are big, and the atmosphere can be fun.

You also get a Fate point for killing the Horror. They recognize you were probably going to have a PC or two go down if you're early characters with poor gear. You also get bonus EXP if nobody goes down at all, which is nice.

After a rest in Kemperbad to let Gilbert recover and to regain their wits, Karl admits he was once kidnapped by Chaos Cultists, multiple times. He tells them a bit about Thousand Thrones, though he can't quite bring himself to admit he was the Child in the crazy Crusade of the Child 9 years back. He just says he'd already seen enough Chaos for one lifetime, but he can't back down in the face of it. This sort of evil has to be stopped, terrifying or no. They set out again, and soon find themselves in the town of Mittlesdorf, where a local scholar is desperately trying to find his adult daughter. That's heroin' work, says Gilbert, and they're off, ready to investigate and save another innocent if they can.

It's time for the other not-good adventure. I saved one of the worst for last!

Next Time: The Return Of Doomed Brutalized Women

By popular demand
Jul 17, 2007
Probation
Can't post for 23 hours!
Mmm not a bad diversion of an adventure, if short and clunky.

quote:

Next Time: The Return Of Doomed Brutalized Women

FOR gently caress'S SAKE

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

The thing I like about the Haunting Horror is that it's a Chaos adventure, but it isn't really any of the Big Four, or anything recognizable. poo poo is just weird. And the little hook that you can now time-displace the PCs if they want to have an adventure in the past is neat.

E: Also, Haunting Horror, Grapes of Wrath, and Rough Night are all updates of old 1e adventures.

Night10194 fucked around with this message at 15:48 on Apr 28, 2020

GimpInBlack
Sep 27, 2012

That's right, kids, take lots of drugs, leave the universe behind, and pilot Enlightenment Voltron out into the cosmos to meet Alien Jesus.

Night10194 posted:

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Plundered Vaults

Just imagine Wayne June narrating

Night10194 posted:

Anya casts a quick spell to light her sword, letting the magical light lead the way through the gloom.

In radiance, may we find victory!

Night10194 posted:

They move on to the guest bedroom, Elena getting her loot sack out and taking a small mahogany end table and silver cake stand (she'll be looting basically everything valuable in this dungeon, there's plenty).

Packs laden with loot are often short on supplies!

Night10194 posted:

Moving to the kitchen, they find two zombified bodies turning a spit with a huge hunk of screaming meat full of faces. They just kinda...back out the door and move on.

A wise general cuts losses, and regroups.

Night10194 posted:

She says this is a trap. It is! Only a few of the pieces are worth anything, and if you go to loot, you get attacked by all the furniture and multiple animated carving knives. They avoid it and move on.

Cruel machinations spring to life with a singular purpose!

Night10194 posted:

He's not really very dangerous, and they put him down easily.

Executed with impunity!

Night10194 posted:

Though not before one got Anya good for 10 Wounds in the confusion.

Dazed... reeling... about to break....

Night10194 posted:

No good things begin with this bear. It got her in the face (her lack of helmet was going to hurt her eventually) for some pretty nasty wounds and she'll have a cool scar from it

Mortality clarified in a single strike!

Night10194 posted:

More gold rings and trinkets go into Elena's sack; about 58 GC of treasure in here, which is a nice score.

To those with the keen eye, gold gleams like a dagger's point.

Night10194 posted:

This is the Haunting Horror, a terrible giant space squid with a torso made of writhing faces.

A lurching composition of otherworldly death!

Night10194 posted:

They take their first serious crit as Gilbert takes a heavy hit to the torso after being weakened by fire, but he rolls well on the table and just gets Stunned.

A powerful blow!

Why yes, I am bored and killing time until work is over, why do you ask?

Everyone
Sep 6, 2019

by sebmojo

Night10194 posted:

The thing is the protagonists are intentional RAW mechanical benchmarks, to compare the challenges presented in adventures to a party going through them. I can't really use extra add-on material for it without defeating the mechanical/review purposes for them.

Well, you can use the extra add-on material to review said extra add-on material to see if it works. In some ways that would almost be more useful than what you're doing (though I love what you're doing). Black Library isn't going to produce any more Warhammer 2e material. That ship sailed, hit an iceberg and DiCaprio died after mutating into some kind of ice-beast and eating Kate Winslet's character because THIS ISN'T A FAIRY TALE! THIS IS REAL GRIMDARK FANTASY LIFE!

BTW, a really cool take on a Warhammer Witch can be found in the Gretel and Hansel movie.

Everyone fucked around with this message at 00:44 on Apr 29, 2020

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

GimpInBlack posted:

Why yes, I am bored and killing time until work is over, why do you ask?

One of the projects I should really do one day is converting something like DD's Stress into Hams to replace Insanity. I think it'd be a perfect fit and would handle 'the poo poo you're seeing is awful and wearing on you' better. Plus the whole 'going heroic' chance!

Also thank you for this, it's delightful.

E: Also, I might actually do the Wood Elf book written up in his spare time by Hornburg that's listed on that site, because it is hilariously terrible.

Night10194 fucked around with this message at 15:59 on Apr 28, 2020

GimpInBlack
Sep 27, 2012

That's right, kids, take lots of drugs, leave the universe behind, and pilot Enlightenment Voltron out into the cosmos to meet Alien Jesus.

Night10194 posted:

One of the projects I should really do one day is converting something like DD's Stress into Hams to replace Insanity. I think it'd be a perfect fit and would handle 'the poo poo you're seeing is awful and wearing on you' better. Plus the whole 'going heroic' chance!]

Given that they're both d% systems, I have to imagine it would be really easy to port over Unknown Armies' Shock Gauges (aka the best mental stress mechanic ever designed for tabletop RPGs) over to Hams. You'd just have to decide which skills/characteristics map to each meter (or just have them all roll off Cool if you want to keep it simple).

Tibalt
May 14, 2017

What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee

Warhammer Fantasy Role Playing 4th Edition Starter Set
Making the Rounds, Part 1
Quality: 4
Guidance: 4


Well, actually, before we jump into the introductory adventure Making the Rounds I should talk about the structure of the adventure book. The book opens with the intro adventure, which is designed to teach you the rules and introduce you to the setting in a step by step way. It also contains 10 single-page ‘scenarios’, which are a bit meatier than an adventure hook but aren’t quite a full pre-made adventure. According to the book, they’re intended to be used by more experienced GMs and play groups, either by themselves or to bulk up Making the Rounds. The first four scenarios are set in Ubersreik and are useful to any game that visits the city, while the six other scenarios tie into the pre-made characters. While I might give them a little more leeway, when rating the Guidance of these scenarios it’ll still be from the perspective of a new GM with a group of new players.

Also, there really isn’t a way to discuss these adventures without spoiling them, so spoilers ahead. I personally don't think it'll affect your enjoyment of the adventure besides the final segment.

Part 1: To Market, To Market…
Summary:The Characters, whilst enjoying the Ubersreik market, are caught in a riot and later accused of instigating it...

So first, a little context. There is another adventure campaign called The Enemy Within (TEW) which is generally regarded as being very good, and is being re-released for 4th edition. This adventure is set within the context of the events happening in TEW, and how those events are affecting the situation in Ubersreik. Specifically, the Emperor Karl-Franz has just ordered the Altdorf military to invade the region, take control of Ubersreik, and hang any supporters of the Jungfreud, the former rulers. Why are the Jungfreuds and their men being hung for treason? No one in Ubersreik knows - you’ll have to buy TEW to find out! Order now!

It’s actually not directly important to this adventure, and just provides a lot of interesting and useful backdrops to the events. In particular, members of the Watch who were loyal to the Jungfreuds are either dead or have disappeared, and a new Watch Captain from Altdorf has taken on the duties. As the Watch is currently made up of Altdorf outsiders, and the Altdorf military is using Watch duty as a convenient way to demote unwanted or incompetent soldiers, organized crime has quietly exploded in Ubersreik. As you can probably guess, your characters end up joining the Ubersreik Watch. I really like it, it’s a great way to utilize the setting without getting bogged down in exposition. It also creates a state of affairs where a couple of PCs can have a big impact.

Ubersreik is also an excellent city to use for introducing new players to the Warhammer Fantasy setting. It's a city-fortress seated at the mouth of Gray Lady Pass, the only pass through the Gray Mountains into Bretonnia. This makes Ubersreik a firmly Imperial city, but close enough to other areas if your party wants to have Grail Knight and Haunted Woods adventures in Bretonnia, or Drinking & Grudging & Delving adventures in Karaz Azgaraz if they want. I kind of wished they had included one Bretonnian Knight among the pre-mades to take advantage of this, but it's a better decision Guidance-wise that they didn't. The river Teufel runs through the city, and the guidebook does a fairly good job of stressing the importance of river travel to the Empire. Also, there's a bit of tension - Dwarves make up 20% of the population in Ubersreik and have built the marvels of engineering that are the bridges and massive sewers. The reason that the Dwarves have built all these infrastructure projects is because Ubersreik keeps getting destroyed by Greenskins and Chaos after the dwarves ignore their promises to help defend Ubersreik, and then swooping in earn a lot of gold during the rebuilding. The people of Ubersreik have noticed a bit of a pattern here.

The adventure opens with the party arriving in the Marketplatz of Ubersreik, looking to do a bit of shopping. The GM is encouraged to describe the bright, loud, crowded markets, with enticing smells and interesting items for sale. The starter kit includes a handout to give to the players that includes the conversion rate between crowns, shillings, and pennies, a brief explanation of the Haggle rules, and a short list of things the characters might want to buy. Again, I really like this way of introducing the players to how the economy works in WFRP. The Consumer Guide section of the core rulebook is 20 pages long, poorly laid out, and full of rules text, so searching for the price of a specific piece of gear from the half dozen tables is a chore. This is a much better way to do it that won’t overwhelm the players. The players will also learn the rules for simple skill checks, rolling Perception to find what they’re looking for or Gossip to ask for directions, and opposed skill checks, where they Haggle with the shopkeepers over the price.

Unfortunately, we also run into the first flaw in this adventure. The GM is directed to introduce the characters to Heske Glazer, proprietor of Heske’s Dragonglass. Heske is described as follows: “She is a statuesque Human woman in her 40s with silver-streaked, blonde hair. Her eyes are different colours: one is bright blue; the other — clearly made of glass — is amber shot through with emerald swirls.“ Unbeknownst to the characters or players, she works for “a very powerful patron” in Ubersreik (the Ubersreik guidebook offers a few characters for the GM to choose from), and has picked out the characters as competent adventurers that the patron would like to employ. Great! A notable NPC with a gimmick and a secret who has an ambiguous but beneficial relationship with the PCs, good j-

Oh, she never shows up again in the adventure and the PCs have no way of learning her secret.

I want to be clear here - the fact that Heske Glazer’s role in the story is kept vague and that GM is given the freedom to decide the identity of the patron isn't the problem. It’s debatable whether you should put that responsibility on a new GM in your starter kit, but whatever. The problem is the placement without payoff. It’s GM 101 that the more detail you give an NPC, the more important they become to your players. When you name an NPC, it implies that the name is important. Every “the party adopts a nameless NPC” story starts with a player asking for a name. So when you give Heske a name, an identifying feature, and a backstory, and then you force the introduction to the party, you are placing her as an important character to the story. The note-taking player is now asking you how Heske is spelled, and the inattentive player is asking whether the eye is actually glass or if Heske is heterochromatic. Role playing isn’t Theater, but you’ve definitely introduced Chekov’s gun in the first act here yet no one is shot in the third act. And it happens multiple times in this chapter! A mysterious woman working for a powerful patron, an attempted murder foiled by the PCs, and an ACTUAL murder are all introduced and will have minimal effect on the rest of the adventure ahead.

Well, anyway. The players are given a chance to do their shopping, roleplay their characters a little bit, and get used to making rolls. When everyone has gotten a chance to act and interest begins to wane, the GM makes everyone roll Perception to notice the riot that’s about to break out around them. I like this a lot, especially with new players but with adventures in general. As a general rule, the GM should be introducing an inciting event and the players react to it to get the adventure moving. Once the story has some momentum, you can start asking the players what they do next, but usually the GM has to give it that first push. This is also an excellent way to introduce the rules for combat. A fistfight has broken out, and each character in the party is confronted with a member of the BRAWLING HORDE!
pre:
Brawling Horde
M    WS   BS   S    T    I    Agi  Dex  Int  WP   Fel  W
4    30   30   30   30   30   30   30   30   30   30   12
Weapon(Fist) +3
They’re… a perfectly average human trying to punch you in the face. Since no one is trying to kill each other, this encounter ignores the Critical Hit and Critical Wounds rules. In other words, no one is going to accidentally roll a 22 and tear off a PCs left arm, and the GM is explicitly told to advise the players that even though some people are armed, no one else is drawing their weapon.

Felix has to make a simple Perception test to realize what’s happening. He does, and manages to not be surprised when a riot springs up around him. With an Initiative of 35, he acts third after Amris and Molli. He wins the Opposed WS roll by +5, and hits the nearest rioter with a boot to the chest for 8 damage. In fact, just about any non-Halfling character is going to be fine in this fight even at 0 XP, especially with rerolls from Fortune and Resolve, and the Halflings can easily Dodge out of the ruckus. Put an experienced combatant like Gunnar in this situation, and he’s potentially dealing 12 damage a round with his bare hands after he builds up some Advantage. It’s not a threatening situation, and it’s not supposed to be.

The riot involves a group of entertainers, so you have a couple comedic fighters thrown into the mix, like an exceedingly tall man who turns out to be three halfling jesters in a trench coat or a pair of acrobats who try to flip kick the characters. On the second round of combat, a cart full of halfling pies is knocked over and pies are all smashed, causing the greasy cobblestones to become Difficult Terrain - another excellent way to introduce rules. After six rounds of this, the encounter suddenly turns serious. First, a fire breather named Fosten the Fiery is shot in the throat with a crossbow bolt. With a simple Perception test, Felix gets a good look at the murderer - a thug with a distinctive scar on his face and a milky eye. Since each character gets a chance to make this Perception roll, it's extremely likely that SOMEONE will see the murderer. As the PCs will later be accused of committing this murder, surely this will come back later! They can catch him, but the thug refuses to say who hired him and even if they do find out why, it’s completely unrelated to the PCs and doesn’t affect the rest of the adventure.

The PCs also notice an old woman trying to protect a young maiden wearing an expensive dress from five knife-wielding thugs. The thugs will murder the two women over the next two rounds unless the PCs intervene. Felix, being both a Fantasy Highway Patrolman and having heard enough stories about rich young women defying their families and marrying for love, bites on the obvious plot hook. The adventure mentions what happens if the party doesn't interfere, but Salundra is explicitly a character motivated by justice and also what group of players isn't going to interfere with a mugging? The thugs are armed with knives and are slightly more dangerous than the Brawling Horde. If he tried to take them on 5 against 1, Felix would probably get Overwhelmed and stabbed to death. Luckily this isn't a single player adventure so he has 3 to 6 adventurers to back him up, meaning this also isn’t a particularly dangerous fight even at 0 XP. The woman is immensely grateful and promises to repay them before running off, and the book informs the GM that this act of heroism will affect things in the next section. This is technically not a lie. Technically. Moments later, the Watch shows up and arrests everyone, concluding this part of the adventure.

Overall, without the context of the rest of the adventure, I really like this part. As far as Quality goes, it’s a pretty great way to introduce Ubersreik and getting caught up in a spontaneous riot and preventing a murder are pretty good inciting incidents for an adventure. Still, I can’t really forgive the adventure for planting all these great elements here and refusing to pay off on ANY of them. The Guidance it provides is pretty great as well - it introduces tests and combat in a fairly smooth way, and offers solid advice for a new GM. In particular, it explicitly tells the GM to transition straight to the next scene in jail and not get bogged down in the details of the PCs surrendering to the Watch, getting in the paddy wagon, going through booking, and so on. No, that’s boring, there’s nothing meaningful about it, skip to the next scene. And if a player says “Wait a second, Molli would try to escape!”, it offers this advice:

”And Fade to Black” posted:

When the riot at the Marketplatz is brought to an end, don’t worry about exactly how the Players arrive at the next scene, just move on and push the story forwards. If a Player thinks their Character should be able to escape or slip away unseen, instead of contradicting such wishes, ask the Player to explain how they were captured and brought to the next scene. But don’t dwell too long on this, as it’s important to keep the game moving swiftly.
Great! I mean, not perfect advice, I wish they had included something more explicit about creating buy in from your players for the narrative instead of just pushing through to the next scene. But giving your players narrative control on how they ended up in jail in exchange for getting them to agree that they’re in jail is an excellent way to handle this situation. All in all, this adventure is off to an excellent start, which makes the next section so much worse.

Next time: The worst section of this adventure

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

GimpInBlack posted:

Given that they're both d% systems, I have to imagine it would be really easy to port over Unknown Armies' Shock Gauges (aka the best mental stress mechanic ever designed for tabletop RPGs) over to Hams. You'd just have to decide which skills/characteristics map to each meter (or just have them all roll off Cool if you want to keep it simple).

Just I feel it when I'm writing (both for this, and for my group, and when I'm playing) that while I can certainly roleplay mental stress fine, it feels like a bit of a gap when the choices are 'no stress system' and 'terrible insanity system'. I've definitely played characters who have to struggle with traumatic stress (like Karl!) or other serious issues caused by being involved in fantasy conflict, and Hams' relatively grounded approach to characters feels like it could really use something to track the scars and the moments where someone defies it all to keep going.

I'll have to take another look at the Stress Gauges: I remember liking the distinction between Hardened and Failed, but I'm not sure how well they'd fit into something that isn't primarily horror based, which Hams really isn't. It has horror elements, but it's definitely much more of an adventure game at heart, no matter how much it tries to fool itself with gribblies and its poorly done Insanity system sometimes.

E: As to facing 5 thugs with knives, isn't Outnumber much, much, MUCH worse for you in 4e than 2e? As in, 'enemies get +20 at 2-1, +40 at 3-1, and your Advantage bleeds the entire time?'

Night10194 fucked around with this message at 16:22 on Apr 28, 2020

GimpInBlack
Sep 27, 2012

That's right, kids, take lots of drugs, leave the universe behind, and pilot Enlightenment Voltron out into the cosmos to meet Alien Jesus.

Night10194 posted:

Just I feel it when I'm writing (both for this, and for my group, and when I'm playing) that while I can certainly roleplay mental stress fine, it feels like a bit of a gap when the choices are 'no stress system' and 'terrible insanity system'. I've definitely played characters who have to struggle with traumatic stress (like Karl!) or other serious issues caused by being involved in fantasy conflict, and Hams' relatively grounded approach to characters feels like it could really use something to track the scars and the moments where someone defies it all to keep going.

I'll have to take another look at the Stress Gauges: I remember liking the distinction between Hardened and Failed, but I'm not sure how well they'd fit into something that isn't primarily horror based, which Hams really isn't. It has horror elements, but it's definitely much more of an adventure game at heart, no matter how much it tries to fool itself with gribblies and its poorly done Insanity system sometimes.

Yeah, you could honestly probably distill it down to just the "Violence" and "The Unnatural" gauges and maybe fiddle with the specific triggers at various levels, since Hams characters in general are probably a little more inured to violence and wizard bullshit than middle American weirdoes. Isolation, Helplessness and Self are probably a little needlessly internal.

By popular demand
Jul 17, 2007
Probation
Can't post for 23 hours!
The free rpg Nemesis that came after UA did away with the Isolation meter and the remaining four map out well to the cardinal gods of Chaos, which brings me to an idea:
after a character gets some hardened notches find a time to offer them an extra fate point in exchange for turning one hardened notch into a corrupted one which is not removable by whatever passes for psychotherapy in game-
A better corruption system that the players choose to succumb to.I

That way you can fix two subsystems for one!

E: Greg Stolze's Nemesis
https://www.arcdream.com/pdf/Nemesis.pdf

By popular demand fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Apr 28, 2020

Tibalt
May 14, 2017

What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee

Night10194 posted:

E: As to facing 5 thugs with knives, isn't Outnumber much, much, MUCH worse for you in 4e than 2e? As in, 'enemies get +20 at 2-1, +40 at 3-1, and your Advantage bleeds the entire time?'
Yep, if the rest of the party doesn't back them up in a 5 vs 1, neither Felix nor any of the more experienced characters are going to have a good time. But if the party faces them as group, they're only going to slightly outnumber the PCs if you have 3 or 4 players. This one of the few times where the number of enemies isn't based on the size of the party, which is why I mentioned it.

The thugs get a 40 WS and daggers are more damaging than fists so they're tougher than the Brawling Horde, but your party has their own weapons plus Fortune and Resolve. Even a small O XP party without a lot of combat careers should be able to muddle through, and you only need to deal with 3 of the thugs before they flee. The full party of 2200 XP adventurers is going to both outclass and outnumber them.

GimpInBlack
Sep 27, 2012

That's right, kids, take lots of drugs, leave the universe behind, and pilot Enlightenment Voltron out into the cosmos to meet Alien Jesus.

By popular demand posted:

The free rpg Nemesis that came after UA did away with the Isolation meter and the remaining four map out well to the cardinal gods of Chaos, which brings me to an idea:
after a character gets some hardened notches find a time to offer them an extra fate point in exchange for turning one hardened notch into a corrupted one which is not removable by whatever passes for psychotherapy in game-
A better corruption system that the players choose to succumb to.I

That way you can fix two subsystems for one!

E: Greg Stolze's Nemesis
https://www.arcdream.com/pdf/Nemesis.pdf

...Oh poo poo that might not only solve the Stress system, it might solve a lot of the problems with Chaos. I like Slaanesh as "the God of violation of your sense of self" a lot better than "slut-shaming hedonism bot."

Servetus
Apr 1, 2010

IshmaelZarkov posted:

In terms of 40k as a setting in a RPG sense, I like to play up the future dark ages with lasers tuned to 11 aspect of things. You can move away from space nazis by putting more focus on the medieval/renaissance stuff without too much hassle. More Borgia than Mussolini.

There's a lot of fun options in there, you just have to tweak it IMO.

A new Edition of Fading Suns just finished Kickstarter a couple of weeks ago. Punching/Stabbing Inquisitors in a Late Medieval/Early Renaissance (But in Space) setting easily provided for out of the gate.

Falconier111
Jul 18, 2012

S T A R M E T A L C A S T E

Loxbourne posted:

This. But the extra wrinkles you have to add are (a) 40K was a standard part of nerd adolescence (in the UK in particular) for so long that fans now give it a free pass to avoid awkward introspection about their hobby choices, and (b) those same fans may be invested to the tune of thousands of dollars/pounds on multiple armies and books, which they may genuinely enjoy playing with. Or use as the basis for social interaction. They will react very badly to any suggestion they think about what the fluff actually depicts - hence the common phenomena of groups softening 40K down.

People get very very defensive over anything that makes them think too hard about 40K, including changes to 40K.

And in those three reasons you've summed up reactionary nerd culture and why it tends to be so ruthlessly opposed to anything progressive.

PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!
I'm sure you've gone over it before, but how well-supported are elven PC's in WFRP? I remember dwarves have a bunch of specialized careers like the Slayers and Rune guys, but how about the elves?

I also look forward to a new edition of Fading Suns. As a game it has its flaws, but it's got space marines without endorsing fascism, and in my opinion a more robust space adventure system than the FFG 40k games. Hopefully this edition will actually be a new edition, rather than the previous "new editions" which were mostly just reprints with no real changes.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Plundered Vaults

The Last Adventure

Our heroes will have a lot to do after this as they go visit Gilbert's native Bretonnia, maybe meet a mystical holy flying pig of destiny, explore Mousillon, and eventually end up at an old dwarfhold, but their adventures in the Plundered Vaults are just about done. To that end, they're all at or about at the end of their first careers in one fashion or another. So here's a runthrough of how they've done for themselves in the lands of plundered vaults. You may notice everyone has a couple extra flavor Trappings.

Karl Schmidt, Who is Mostly Coping

quote:

Name: Karl Schmidt
Species: Human
Career: Ex-Initiate of Shallya, Priest of Shallya
Stats:
+WS 36, +BS 35, S 41, +T 41, Agi 29, ++Int 49, ++WP 41 (Shallyaed), ++Fel 50
++Wounds: 13/13
Fate: 3/3
Movement: 4
Attacks: 1
+Mag: 1
Skills:
Academics (History, Theology)
Charm
Common Lore (Empire)
Gossip
Heal+10
Perception
Speak Language (Kislevite, Reikspiel, Classical)
Talents:
Savvy
Resistant to Magic
Very Strong
Public Speaking
Suave
Gear:
Best Quarter Staff (Cost 1 GC)
Religious Symbol (Dove Pendant)
White Robes
Full Leather Armor
Serious Post Traumatic Stress
Divine Marks:
Healing Hands: Karl heals +2 Wounds on any Heal test

Karl didn't quite expect this much violence when he went out to become a traveling doctor. In between adventures, he's been officially ordained at a temple in Kemperbad and permitted to preach Shallya's word as he adventures. Rescuing Anya, healing the sick and wounded, and keeping his friends alive are some of the things beating back the trauma of nine years ago, but his experiences in the Hanike mansion show he still hasn't been able to get past what happened to him. He's begun to confront the possibility that he never will, that it's simply something he has to live with. Maybe you're never the same again after some of the things you see as an Adventurer. His experiences have shown him that being a Shallyan is what he needs, though, and his healing hands and doctor's bag have done plenty of good. He's begun to see unusual things, showing the first, stirring signs of being a miracle-working priest. When treating patients, sometimes he feels as if something is guiding his hands. Accepting Shallya's Mercy has made him a far better doctor than even his impressive natural skills could have.

Karl is now a Priest. Karl will probably be a Priest the rest of these reviews. The chances he actually makes it to Annointed Priest on the EXP remaining are pretty low and depend heavily on how long Karak Azgal takes. Karl got a hell of a divine mark; this is one of the few places I import a house-rule (I know, I should be doing total RAW) and make every Mag advance cause a Mark rather than having them randomly happen when using magic. They feel more character-defining that way. His Mark is awesome. He just straight heals d10+2 with Heal now, or 3 wounds to a Heavily Wounded character. Which means he immediately gets them out of Heavily Wounded. He can cut weeks off recovery times. He's also still good with people, physically fit, and suffering from PTSD that was only exacerbated by going into another hell-touched Chaos space.

Sir Gilbert d'Bastonne, Hero of Bretonnia

quote:

Name: Gilbert d’Bastonne
Species: Human
Career: Ex-Knight Errant, Knight of the Realm
Stats:
+++WS 52, BS 34, +S 40, +T 36 (Shallya’d), +Agi 36, Int 25, +WP 41, +Fel 35.
++Wounds: 15/15
Fate: 5/5
+Attacks: 2
Movement: 4
Skills:
Academics (Heraldry)
Animal Care
Animal Training
Common Lore (Bretonnia+10)
Dodge Blow
Outdoor Survival
Gossip
Ride
Speak Language (Breton, Reikspiel)
Talents:
Etiquette
Seasoned Traveller
Specialist Weapons (Cavalry)
Strike Mighty Blow
Virtue of Chivalry
Virtue of the Ideal
Sturdy
Lucky
Gear:
Actual Imperial Plate Armor (AV 5 All)
Light Warhorse (Renee)
Lance
Shield
Arming Sword
Mustache of Destiny (Generated by pure force of will)

Despite his serious injuries at the hands of the Haunting Horror, Sir Gilbert remains undaunted. He feels he has done great deeds alongside his new friends (like killing the Haunting Horror) that will surely see him granted a fief. To that end, he's petitioned them to begin to angle towards Bretonnia, to meet his father and see about getting him the land that will make him a true Knight of the Realm. They can even visit the central Cathedral of Shallya in Couronne on the way! It'll be a wonderful trip into a beautiful and peaceful country full of chivalrous knights and contented peasants. He can't wait to show the Imperials and the Estalian the wonders of Bretonnia. Though he's not quite sure what they should do about Anya. Or Elena. Or Ulrike. Especially Ulrike. She's a foreign knight, but she's also clearly a knight, and lady-knights aren't done in Bretonnia. But she's also clearly a very good knight, with a lovely head of beautiful blonde hair. And it's apparently a holy vow that she should leave it showing, so surely that should be respected even if it's against custom. She confuses him.

Gilbert has also recently turned 17! Surely he is a very mature adult by now.

Gilbert is as he always was and always will be. He's a total badass in melee who can't do much else. He's also picked up Virtue of the Ideal; he'd have Heroism if I was building for power but then he'd likely kill most of the remaining bosses in the game. I considered Audacity, but that falls off in usefulness as you level and he's got a naturally high Str, which makes 'use your enemy's SB instead of your own if it's higher' less valuable. Still hilarious, mind. Given he's such a paragon of Bretonnian Knighthood, Ideal seemed perfect in both flavor and utility. He gets +1 Attacks if he's outnumbered (any outnumbering, not just outnumbering that grants enemies bonuses) in melee combat. It's the Virtue of Landuin of Mousillon, and given where they're going...

Vendrick Roseblossom, Who May Be Going Native

quote:

Name: Vendrick Roseblossom
Species: Woodsy Elf (Asrai)
Career: Ex-Kithband Warrior, Hunter
Stats:
+WS 35, +++BS 67, S 33, T 34, ++Agi 50, ++Int 52, +WP 36 (Shallyaed), Fel 26
++Wounds: 12/12
Fate: 3/3
Attacks: 1
Movement: 5
Skills:
Common Lore (Elves)
Concealment
Dodge Blow
Follow Trail
Heal
Outdoor Survival
Perception
Scale Sheer Surface
Set Trap
Silent Move
Speak Language (Eltharin, Reikspiel)
Talents:
Specialist Weapons (Longbow)
Savvy
Excellent Vision
Night Vision
Marksman
Rapid Reload
Gear:
Hand Weapon (Elf Hatchet)
Dagger
Elfbow and 10 Arrows
Full Plate Armor, Grudgingly Worn (AV 5)
Smug Sense of Superiority
Unhelpful Tendency To Listen To Racist Trees

Vendrick is convinced that if the boy Karl is some kind of secret power, he has kept it so secret it has evaded the notice of even a keen-eyed champion of the Asrai like himself. But if he was assigned to this duty, surely it must remain important. He has resolved to stay in the company of these oafish lumberfoots until he discovers something. It definitely isn't because they've treated him like an actual friend and welcomed his help and put up with his complaining. He certainly hasn't found companionship with them, nor is he particularly proud of the deeds he's done on their side. Okay, maybe a little. Maybe they are doing good things, killing evil wizards, stopping Chaos horrors, and protecting the innocent. These things clearly indirectly benefit the forest and its holy ways. It's clearly okay for him to stick around and keep helping out while he keeps to his assignment. The world outside the forest is still an ugly and terrible place...but the sausages are growing on him. Not that he'd ever admit it.

Vendrick's entire thing is his bow. Vendrick is ridiculously good with it. His 67% BS (72% to-hit since all Elfbows are Best) would be considered pretty good for several end-game human archer classes. His problem is he lacks Mighty Shot and Sure Shot, but that'll be solved as soon as he finishes Hunter, which is really only 3 or so advances away, and roundhouses into Targeteer. He also picked up trapsetting because it would have been useful against the skulls. It may not be useful in the future. He could just go into Scout (and from there, if he finished it somehow, to Ghost Strider), but it's more interesting if he doesn't just do the extremely standard Ranger progression through Scout. Besides, Targeteer will make him the ultimate sniper. Even as he is, his extremely consistent aimed ranged damage (Since he can reload for free, he always aims, for +10 to-hit) and the fact that it can't be blocked or dodged really does add a lot in a fight.

Elena Santiago, Retrieval Specialist

quote:

Name: Elena Santiago
Species: Human
Career: Ex-Bounty Hunter, Protagonist
Stats:
+WS 38, ++BS 46 (Shallyaed), +S 36, T 38, ++Agi 45, Int 34, +WP 36, Fel 30
++Wounds: 16/16
Fate: 5/5
Skills:
Common Lore (Empire)
Dodge Blow
Follow Trail
Intimidate
Outdoor Survival
Perception
Search
Shadowing
Silent Move
Speak Language (Estalian, Reikspiel)
Talents:
Hardy
Lucky
Marksman
Rover
Specialist Weapon (Entangling)
Strike Mighty Blow
Sharpshooter
Strike to Stun
Trappings:
Crossbow and 10 Bolts
5 Bolas
Hand Weapon (Saber)
Dagger
Whip
Full Plate Armor (AV 5 All)
Manacles
Rope
Excellent Hat
Team Funds: 540 crowns

Elena is a rich woman. She knows she's not 'rich woman' rich, yet. But she's getting there. This team has made her rich beyond anything she expected from simple bounty hunting, and not only is she clad in fine plate armor and equipped with a fantastic hat, their adventures promise to keep paying just as well. What could be better than doing good deeds and making hundreds of crowns doing them? A team where you can drink wine at every meal (assuming wine is available), dine well, sleep in decent inns, and all you have to do is fight many tentacled horrors that spray burning acid everywhere. Add to that the cute elf, the kindly Shallyan, and the adorably earnest Bretonnian (though she suspects he's smitten with the Ulrican) and it's good company, too. What's better in life than companions you can trust to watch your back, a roast pig waiting for you back at the inn, and a sack of looted valuables from a doom house? Nothing.

One of them had to be cheerfully mercenary. Elena's still a good woman, she's just the most financially motivated of the heroes. She's gone into Protagonist because it won't take too long, fills in some gaps (like getting her Dodge), and after that she'll become an Enforcer. They're sort of meant to be roving badass Borderlander vigilantes, but they fit perfectly for a general upgrade to Bounty Hunter that isn't just Vampire Hunter. Also, her specialty in non-lethal takedowns has been surprisingly relevant and helpful for the team, and will continue to be. It's nice to be able to trip people up, or punch their lights out.

Ulrike Steiner, Knight of the White Wolf

quote:

Name: Ulrike Steiner
Career: Ex-Squire of the White Wolf, Knight of the White Wolf
Species: Human
Stats:
++WS 46, +BS 44, ++Str 44, +T 40, +Agi 37, Int 35, WP 45, +Fel 45. (NO SHALLYA)
++Wounds: 12/12
Fate: 3/3
+Attacks: 2
Skills:
Academics (Heraldry)
Animal Care
Animal Training
Charm
Common Lore (Empire)
Dodge Blow
Gossip
Ride
Speak Language (Reikspiel, Breton)
Talents:
Sixth Sense
Coolheaded
Etiquette
Strike Mighty Blow
Special Weapons (Cavalry, White Wolf Hammer)
Equipment:
Demilance
Hand Weapon (Battleaxe)
Armor (White Wolf’s Plate) (AV5 All, AV 1 Head)
Shield
Light Warhorse (Kurt)
Perfect Hair
Unflappable Poise
Cool Wolfskin Cape (Fur Mantle)
Best Quality White Wolf Hammer

Ulrike has finally had the chance to visit a Chapterhouse and recount her deeds, as well as receive training in the use of the traditional giant weighted warhammer of her order. The Wolves above her have accepted her, especially when she finally realized her original assignment was bullshit and demanded to speak to someone about the dishonor. The Knight of the Inner Circle who knighted her told her to remember not to take too much poo poo from anyone, even if she can handle it, for that is not Ulric's way. Ulric's way is to get mad when someone is being a bastard, and this was the secret she was lacking before her adventures. She asked to remain assigned to her current pack, since they need her help, and received dispensation to keep adventuring. She'll show Ulric's flag and let the world know of the White Wolves everywhere she goes, as is their way. The people she saves, the battles she wins, all of these will give glory to the Lord of Battles and spread His faith no matter what scandals some of the dipshit priests up north get up to. Such has always been the way of the Knights of the White Wolf.

The Bretonnian keeps stammering a little when he's around her, and has recently been asking if the Knights have the same vow as Ulrican priests. When she told him no, he thanked her and fled. Odd.

Ulrike getting her special weapon increases her offense a lot, though she loses a lot by not using a shield. Still, it's not Ulric's way to hide behind a shield when you could be smashing your enemies with a giant weapon and sending people flying. Like Gilbert, she's just a total badass of a melee character who is only going to get better; 15% more WS in Knight is going to do her a lot of good. She also learns multiple other weapons, and more social and academic skills. She'll eventually be equally at home at court and on the battlefield, and her huge WP and Fel mean she's brave and striking. Ulrike has a promising career ahead of her if she doesn't get headshotted.

Anya Vonreuter, Pure Heart and Mage

quote:

Name: Anya Vonreuter
Species: Human
Career: Ex-Noble, Apprentice Wizard
Stats:
WS 22, BS 31, S 26, T 22, Agi 32, Int 44, +++WP 55, Fel 39
Wounds: 10/10
Fate: 4/4
Movement: 4
+Mag: 1
Skills:
Blather
Charm
Channeling
Common Knowledge (The Empire+10)
Gossip+10
Magical Sense
Performer (Musician)
Read/write
Ride
Speak Language (Reikspiel+10)
Speak Arcane Language (Magic)
Talents:
Acute Hearing
Atheyric Attunement
Etiquette
Luck
Petty Magic (Arcane)
Night Vision
Savvy
Schemer
Trappings:
Moth Eaten Noble Dress
Stolen Textbooks
Dagger
Sothelin’s Hand Weapon
A Sense of Psychological Resilience

Anya has already brightened up considerably. Just being outside in the sun and the rain cheered her up. Now she's gotten to spend time in towns, making smalltalk and meeting all kinds of people, as she sees the Empire for real rather than dreaming about it from her moldy history books. You might expect someone who was raised among the dead and the horrors to be down, but she's gotten over her trauma with surprising speed. Her cantrips and minor spells aren't that impressive, but they're still a capability her team didn't have before; she's studying as hard as she can between missions to try to learn more. Her time living among hideous things has made her tremendously brave; any gribbly horror they see out in the field is probably not that bad compared to living with the fear her father was going to have her dissected for refusing to murder travelers, and she's seen plenty of awful things with their guts inside out already.

Anya is going to take a long time to finish Apprentice, but even just having Magical Sense and her other abilities really helps the team. Any wizard is a luxury for a Warhammer adventuring party, and a Wizard with a very high WP like Anya is great at using her special skills. It doesn't make her spells any more powerful, but she can still toss out magical darts to help in combat, and her minor illusion and trickery spells from Petty Magic can be surprisingly useful. Don't discount her just because she folds like tissue in a melee fight; she's still useful in and out of combat.

With that, they can get on to the last adventure in the Plundered Vaults!

Next Time: Love or Money

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

PurpleXVI posted:

I'm sure you've gone over it before, but how well-supported are elven PC's in WFRP? I remember dwarves have a bunch of specialized careers like the Slayers and Rune guys, but how about the elves?

Elves don't really get much. They were working on elf books, apparently, but 'we're making an elf book' always seems to get pushed back, both 2e and 4e. My group has a fair amount of extra elf material, since we like elves for being nowhere near as powerful as they think they are, but there's not much official stuff for them aside from the standard.

Which is a little sad. Warhams Elves being kind of fuckups makes them very endearing elves. At the same time, considering the quality you see in the 'extra' elf material produced by some of the line writers for an unpublished sourcebook, maybe it's better we didn't get official elf material. The writers for Hams have always struggled a little between the urge to make elfs special and super and the fact that Hams elfs don't get the same easy time elfs normally do in RPGs, and landing too hard on the former would remove all the charm of the latter.

Servetus
Apr 1, 2010

PurpleXVI posted:

I'm sure you've gone over it before, but how well-supported are elven PC's in WFRP? I remember dwarves have a bunch of specialized careers like the Slayers and Rune guys, but how about the elves?

I also look forward to a new edition of Fading Suns. As a game it has its flaws, but it's got space marines without endorsing fascism, and in my opinion a more robust space adventure system than the FFG 40k games. Hopefully this edition will actually be a new edition, rather than the previous "new editions" which were mostly just reprints with no real changes.

They are still working on layouts, but the text manuscripts were sent out to Kickstarter backers in the last couple of days. The rules are very different; there are more mechanical differences between nobles and priests, merchants and yeomen/independents. They've all been converted into classes and your class determines which callings you have access to, and it's level based now. So there are some major differences, a much bigger shift than earlier edition changes.

Bieeanshee
Aug 21, 2000

Not keen on keening.


Grimey Drawer

Loxbourne posted:

those same fans may be invested to the tune of thousands of dollars/pounds

"We're only ever going to play 3.5, RIFTS, or the horribly mutated tumor of a 4X game that grew out of GURPS from now on." -- My old GM.

Ithle01
May 28, 2013

GimpInBlack posted:

...Oh poo poo that might not only solve the Stress system, it might solve a lot of the problems with Chaos. I like Slaanesh as "the God of violation of your sense of self" a lot better than "slut-shaming hedonism bot."

As much as I like Greg Stolze's work and Nemesis is pretty cool I think DD's stress is a better way of handling this just because as Night said, this isn't really a horror game and we really just need a system for your character flipping their poo poo in certain circumstances. Actually, this does bring up a point, which is that most games can wear different 'hats' or be run different ways and that's the sort of thing a GM guide can handle really well. Like putting extra rules for insanity and stress in a game if you want to play up the horror angles or paring them down and having rules specifically for shell shock or combat fatigue if you want to focus on the war-gamey aspect of it. Basically, a "Here's how to handle the genre-specific ways your character goes nuts" for the different ways of running your game.

Night10194
Feb 13, 2012

We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Jesus this elf book Hornburg and others worked on and didn't get published is definitely getting a look. I might do it right after Plundered Vaults before Barony of the Damned. It's hilariously awful, with stuff like elves getting magic martial arts that let them Fury on 8+ or outfight a Blood Dragon and lots of special rules about how they're too good for normal mutation and get more pluses.

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wiegieman
Apr 22, 2010

Royalty is a continuous cutting motion


Night10194 posted:

Jesus this elf book Hornburg and others worked on and didn't get published is definitely getting a look. I might do it right after Plundered Vaults before Barony of the Damned. It's hilariously awful, with stuff like elves getting magic martial arts that let them Fury on 8+ or outfight a Blood Dragon and lots of special rules about how they're too good for normal mutation and get more pluses.

That's... sort of how elves are. Let them practice long enough and they really are fantastically good at pretty much everything. They're just dicks about it.

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