WFRP: Gossip (14)

"The scandalous painter Johann Weissen has been commissioned by the Emperor to paint a depiction of the last stand against the Storm of Chaos at Middenheim! Weissen is bringing in goblins, mutants and even dragons to pose for his pleasure! It's an outrage!"

- A speaker from The Crusade for All That is Right speaking from on top of an upturned barrel on the Three Toll Bridge

Johann Weissen is a famous painter, surrounded by scandals and indiscretions. His studio is located in the Domplatz Bezirk.

Go here to download the complete iAltdorf map!



/Magnus

WFRP: Help wanted (15)

"My dear Hilda has disappeared! Last seen near the Imperial Palace, all by herself and trying to make contact with sympathetic souls! I miss her company dearly, and will pay 50 Karls to anyone who can bring her back safe! Please contact Jan Wachtmiser in the Palast Bezirk! Hurry, hurry!"

- A somewhat unusual advertisement in the Altdorf Presse.

Who is Hilda? Or should I say, what is Hilda? Is it Wachtmiser's fiance? Or daughter? Or dog? Or even a cat? Only the GM knows, and what his choice is will shape the adventure to follow. And remember, roaming about Altdorf trying to find a dog called Hilda can provide the players with hours of fun ... and frustration, I suspect.

/Magnus

FAL GM tip: Turning the tables on genre conventions

We go through a lot of roleplaying games in our weekly gaming group. Lately we've been enjoying several sessions of Call of Cthulhu, the Gaslight version. Great fun and all that, but as things progress steadily downwards for the PCs, we are once again faced with the conundrum plaguing this classic roleplaying game: why not alert the authorities? This problem is accentuated as one of the players is playing an honest lawyer, who sees the civil authorities as rock solid pillars of the Empire. To him, the casual dismissal of the police force and proper authorities is devastating. While this problem might seem to be limited to this one investigator, it highlights a fundamental problem in Call of Cthulhu:

To get things done, an investigator needs to repeatedly break the law.

 Very seldom does this requirement fit with the investigators being played. We have librarians, lawyers,  authors, accountants, some crooks of course, but still ... the logical thing for investigators to do when faced with horrible things should be to go to the authorities. And if we play crooks and bad guys, why should we get involved in the first place? Of course, it is possible to structure a Call of Cthulhu game so that this problem does not occur, for example by isolating the investigators in a backwards mountain area, which I have done on several occasions, or put them on a time schedule, or other such tricks. But after playing Call of Cthulhu for 24 years or so, this becomes a tad bit predictable.

So I'm going to try something different. I'm setting up a campaign I'm tentatively calling Cults of Cthulhu. I'm going to turn the tables on the premise and let the players take the role of cultists. I think this can be as fun as playing investigators, and a real kick to get to think as the bad guys do. And have all the problems that bad guys do, with the authorities, investigators, insanity an rivalling cults. Because just like the investigators, the cultists loose their sanity, they get embroiled in things they know nothing about, the meddle in magic, they take enormous risks ... but for them, all this has a purpose, unlike for many investigators who would rather call the police and curl up under the bed, praying to an uncaring and probably non-existent God.

The purpose of the cultist makes their actions seem logical and beliavable..And the premise neatly explains why you can't call the authorities, and why you must avoid the police, the clergy, the investigators, the enemies of the occult ... or of the cult, as the case might very well be. Another great thing is that it is possible to use the same adventures as always, with only minor modifications: the cult is to be protected and strengthened. Find out who stole the artifact from the museum, because you want it for yourself! Who killed the old librarian, your cult mentor? Stop the cult from raising Nyarlathotep, because you want to do it yourself! And so on, so forth.

I'm sure I'm not the first one to try this, so weigh in with with your thoughts and tips in the comments!

/Magnus

FAL News: N. Robin Crossby, 1954-2008

N. Robin Crossby has passed on. He is remembered for his creation of HarnWorld, a detailed fantasy world firmly grounded in the pursuit of realism in a fantasy environment. Crossby was passionate about his creation, and his writings brought joy and adventure to countless fans. He will be sorely missed by his fans.

You can read more about this here and here.

/Magnus

WFRP: The Altdorf Truth 811

WFRP: Charts and Tables (1)

One thing that's really cool when playing a campaign set in the same place all the time ... well, most of the time ... is that the players start to recognise places and people. Given that they pay enough attention to the milieu you will soon hear words like "this is the same inn we ended up at last time!" and "that's the halfling that sold us that dodgy pie!" and so on so forth every so often. But sometimes it's a drag to have to come up with new NPCs at the drop of a hat, and that's when charts and tables come in handy. In this ongoing series of posts, I will provide amusing and useful charts and tables for the GM to use when reacting to random requests for information from the players.

Such as "we call for the City Watch!" Innocent enough, but wouldn't it be fun if you could tell the players what members of the City Watch that show up? And if you use the same table every time, the players will soon expect familiar faces, for good or bad. Let's take a look at the first table, that'll explain it a lot better.

City Watch in Neiderhafen Bezirk

If the characters call for the City Watch in the Niederhafen Bezirk, roll a d10 and consult the following table.

1. A big fat man (Heinz) and his thin cohort (Franz). This dynamic duo is enthusiastic but ineffectual.

2. A group of three rowdy Watchmen show up. Their leader is a big bully named Adolf, and he is accompanied at all times by his sycophantic colleagues Bastian and Rupert. These three are thoroughly corrupt and abuse their authority at every chance they get.

3. Gerke and Otto come running. Curt and effective Watchmen, they are loathe to take any action without first calling in reinforcements (roll another d10, reroll any result of 3).

4. A lonely Watchman shows up. This is Viggo, a loner with a serious attitude problem versus anyone he thinks is breaking the law. Uses his status as a Watchman to get into fights as often as he can, but he is an effective investigator as well.

5. First nothing happens. Then after some time, Uto, Urban and Viktor show up. Thesy are three enthusiastic young Watchmen without any experience or useful skills. They are eager to help, but are more likely to make any situation worse with their efforts.

6. Two towering giants with gigantic beards loom before the characters. Olaf and Valdemar are two Norscan warriors trying to make a living patrolling the streets of Altdorf. They rely on simple tactics, preferring to beat any suspect senseless with their clubs before throwing them in a cell for further questioning. They speak Reikspiel very, very badly.

7. Klaus and Kastor sneak out of a nearby alley. Corrupt to the bone, they will take the side of any thug or criminal who belongs to a gang or criminal organisation, hoping to get paid for their troubles.

8. From the nearest inn, Jost and Henkel emerges, probably still holding their tankards of beer. Two tragic alcoholics, they still retain a sliver of professional pride, which will probably get them killed one of these days since they are constantly intoxicated while patrolling the streets.

9. Grosse Goran lumbers up to the scene of the action. This giant Kislevite is not too bright, but his enormous strength and simplistic approach to dealing with those who break the law has earned him a lot of respect on the docks. Most people leave the scene or sober up real fast if Grosse Goran appears.

10. Gottwin, Horst and Holger marches up to the characters. They are dressed in perfect uniforms, their helmets are polished to a shine and they carry out their duties with military precision. If they have any fault it's the fact that they don't really listen to what people are telling them, unless the person in question is a higher ranked individual (professional or social rank).

So that's it. Simple enough, just use it lots of times and the players will bemoan their fates as they run into Jost and Henkel for the third time in a row!

Magnus

FAL Interview: A short chat with Steve Darlington

The first time I was made aware of Steve Darlington was at RPGnet. He posted in what turned into one of the funniest threads ever on any site, and after a few good additions to the thread in question he wrote a Monty Python riff based on the spanish inquisition sketch. Pure genius. Ahem ... well it was laugh out loud funny at least. Lines from that post still grace my sig at RPGnet.



After that I followed Steve's posts with some interest, mostly to see if he would deliver more funny moments. Which he did, again and again. And in between that he posted thoughts about gaming and plot seeds and what have you. Posts that became one of the many reasons for visiting RPGnet, apart from the highly amusing flame wars.



So when it came to my attention that Steve was writing on WFRP supplements, I considered that some very good news. It was interesting to see what he would come up with, and for sure, his work on Children of the Horned Rat (with Rob Schwalb and Gary Astleford) and Night's Dark Masters (with Jody MacGregor) didn't disappoint me. I have yet to read through Realm of the Ice Queen (a collaboration with David Chart, Andy Law and Graham McNeill) but I'm sure I'll enjoy that book too. And there are other fans out there, who asked me to do an interview with the distant Aussie. Steve volunteered and I quickly shot off the questions. He managed to return the answers in between being a guest of honour at GenCon Oz and trying to get some well-earned sleep. He also sent a picture of him holding a ... beaver of some sorts, I think.

The Altdorf Correspondent (TAC): Tell the readers a bit about yourself.



Steve Darlington: I live in Brisbane, Australia. I have been gaming for twenty something years but am relatively new to freelancing. I've worked on Children of the Horned Rat, Realm of the Ice Queen and Night's Dark Masters. I've also worked on a few other products like Freeport and Grimm and I'm just about to do some work for Vampire.



TAC: How and why did you start playing WFRP?



Steve Darlington: That's far too complicated a question to really answer here, because it took about ten years from the first time I encountered the game to the first time I actually got to play it. The first time I encountered it I didn't get to play but my friend did and the next day he told me about how cool it was using the Curse spell to turn people's hair purple, which sounded pretty awesome.



TAC: What was it that primarily attracted you to WFRP?



Steve Darlington: Adventures. I've always had a lot of trouble writing these things and as a young gamer I would buy any module I could find. I stumbled onto an awesome double pack in the bargain bin of my old gaming store: The Enemy Within/Shadows of Bogenhafen book and the Restless Dead book bundled into one. As an incredibly stroke of luck, these books contain some of the best adventures ever written for anything in them. I was hooked.



TAC: How did you land the job of writing for WFRP?



Steve Darlington: The same way anyone gets a writing job: I sent off a resume and a sample to the line developer. I had a friend who was working on Freeport with some Green Ronin staff and he'd heard they were looking for freelancers. It was pretty intimidating to start with my favourite company and my favourite game, but the passion for this game is also what carried me through the fear.



TAC: What are your strengths as a writer/designer?



Steve Darlington: Hmm, a tricky question - I'm much better at spotting my weaknesses. I think my strength comes from my passion for the Warhammer world and its style. I love so much about it, and I love crawling into it again and again and doing everything I can to communicate all the joy and wonder and terror I get from the world to others. I could spend the rest of my life writing Warhammer and consider myself blessed.



TAC: Primary inspirations?



Steve Darlington: History. Geography. Humanity. Politics. The world is my sourcebook.



TAC: A catchphrase of WFRP is "Grim'n Gritty". What does this mean to you, and how does this influence your game?



Steve Darlington: Grim and Gritty has many aspects. For me, it's about highlighting the more "mundane" aspects of the world - ours and the Warhammer one. It is a sad casualty of many fantasy worlds that the mundane, the small, the quotidian and the base are swept aside in the pursuit of the epic and the grandiose. Warhammer reminds us all that the mundane and the small and the base are full of just enough evil - and more than enough heroism - to tell the greatest stories imaginable.



TAC: How much humour do you inject into you WFRP game, and how do you do it?



Steve Darlington: I don't really inject humour. I find that games are full of humour anyway, players are just naturally funny. What makes WFRP unique among fantasy RPGs is that that humour is very often in character, instead of just out of character. The humour also comes out of the darkness too, just as the darkness comes out of the humour.



TAC: What is your favourite WFRP book?



Steve Darlington: For 2nd ed, Plundered Vaults, no question. It's probably the most used and most valuable book I've ever bought, except for the core rulebook. For 1st ed, Shadows Over Bogenhafen. Did I mention I love adventures?



TAC: What is your favourite WFRP fan material?



Steve Darlington: Whymme's excellent time-loop adventure for last year's competition. I've forgotten the name but it was gorgeous.



TAC: What's the status of WFRP in Australia?



Steve Darlington: That I couldn't really tell you. I think the battle games are very popular though, and everyone I talked to was jazzed about Dark Heresy, so it seems to be as popular as any non-D&D RPG is these days.



TAC: Have you looked at Warhammer Online? Any comments on that?



Steve Darlington: I don't know a lot about MMORPGs and my computer would melt if it tried to run it...but I am insanely keen to see this game in action. I can't imagine anything cooler than walking around the WFRP world. Also, from some hints I've got, I think my work in Realms of the Ice Queen might have ended up in the game, since one of the main areas is Praag.



TAC: What are your hopes for the future of WFRP?



Steve Darlington: That it goes on. One of WFRP's great strengths has become its legendary tenacity and long-toothedness. The greatest RPGs may just be those that refuse to die the longest. I want WFRP to keep going - and still be on its 2nd ed - long after D&D 20th edition is gone and forgotten.

And that's it, a short chat with Steve Darlington. A few surprises there, especially the bit about Plundered Vaults, a book I haven't heard anyone else list as their favourite for WFRPv2. It's good to see the initial releases get some loving as well! Thanks for your time, Steve, and get some rest now!



/Magnus