Posts

Showing posts from September, 2014

[WFRP] Fate Points

In Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, fate points separate your character from all the other people inhabiting the game world. When something tragic happens to the character, you can spend a point, indicating that your character had dodged fate and lived to face another day. With this in mind, I think fate points should be something special and epic that happens, not just a generic "the attack misses you; your turn." In the past, we've had experiences where a character uses a fate point so that the blow that kills them never lands, just to have the GM kill them on the next attack. I feel that cheats the idea. When a player uses a fate point, I like to have something occur that changes the whole tide of the battle. Losing characters suddenly find themselves winning the fight due to a very improbable occurrence. Characters crushed by a rock slide instead find that rocks fell everywhere around them, miraculously sparing them. It might take a moment to stop and think, but the mo

[WFRP 2e] Morrslieb's Shadow 40

My PC Maximillian Morningglory , Halfling Vampire Hunter Magnus  the Pony My companions Udrin Sor-Valdir  - High Elf Wizard Ludovic Hasselhoff  - Human Entertainer (Absent) Durak Braksson  - Dwarf NPCs Tegort  - Ogre bodyguard Abelhardt Mullberger  - Journeyman Apprentice Fickuld - Young Camp Follower ( Previous update ) We attacked the front gate. True to Mullberger's vision, we had no problem navigating through the remainder of the barrows, and the necromantic dwarf wights did not bother us in the least. There were four evil elves and a twisted female daemon of some sort (I will have to look more into these things when the time permits) guarding the gate. It seems the battle prowess of elves is overstated, as I'm not sure any of us were even injured getting into the keep. I was going to kill another daemon, but Udrin banished her back to the infernal realms. Sometimes he's a killjoy. Behind unlocked iron doors stretched an extremely long hallway. An

Planned Encounters

Is it just me, or are the best random encounters not truly random? In our WFRP 2e game, the party was merrily tacking upriver just trying to get from one location to another. Out of nowhere, in the middle of the night, the boat was attacked by skaven. It seemed like the attack was completely random, and we almost lost my ogre bodyguard and the ship ran aground as nobody manned the rudder. From our point of view, the GM rolled "Skaven" on a random encounter chart. However, a sitting or two later we found out that a passenger on board was carrying warpstone, unbeknownst to everyone else. Therefore attack was in no way random, and we were able to look back and have an "ah-ha" moment. It was oddly disjointed, but not completely inappropriate, when the skaven attacked. This is the feel for many random encounters rolled by GMs. However, linking it back to the warpstone shows just how planned the encounter was. It was actually a clue to the bigger mystery. It was pos

Journey vs Destination

We had some talk recently in the G+ Warhammer Community about whether we focus on the journey or the destination in our RPGs. These questions are never as polar as they seem. I brought up a few points: Is the GM running a location-based adventure? Did they or the party want the extra part of the adventure that comes with the journey? What medium are you playing in? For location-based adventures, many GMs admit to just hand-waving the travel portion. It seems best if that is agreed upon by the entire group. Our WFRP 2e GM said he often just uses a "time passes, you arrive" approach. I think a GM should read the attitude of the group (which our GM has done perfectly and is why I can't tell if it's his choice or ours when "time passes, you arrive" happens). If the GM tries it and a player asks "wait...did anything exciting happen on the trip," or "there was stuff I wanted to do on the way," then it is probably a good idea to play the t

Post Drought

Image
As the college semester commences, you can expect less and less from me. Major bummer, dude.

Star Wars RPG 2

We begin with our heroes finishing their basic training. Beka gave our heroes their first assignment: locate rebel hero Zan Wilhelm. Zan was scouting a sector of space that contained the planet of Gobindi for possible new rebel bases.  Having been temporary assigned two X-wings, the group arrived in the Gobindi system and scanning was started for debris. Wreckage was soon found in orbit of Gobindi, but no escape pod. Two TIE fighters were encountered and shot down in orbit of the planet. Further scanning found the pod on the surface of the planet.  The pod appeared intact, but the pilot was missing. Tracks showed that Zan had been captured and placed on board a repulsor lift vehicle. Scans led our heroes to a secret imperial base.  There a quick battle with the remaining two TIE fighters on the base got our heroes two more kills. Landing in the compound, our heroes attempted to steal the Imperial shuttle that was on the landing pad, but the doors wouldn't open. The base&

[WFRP 2e] Morrslieb's Shadow 39

My PC Maximillian Morningglory , Halfling Vampire Hunter Magnus  the Pony My companions Udrin Sor-Valdir  - High Elf Wizard Ludovic Hasselhoff  - Human Entertainer (Absent) Durak Braksson  - Dwarf NPCs Tegort  - Ogre bodyguard Abelhardt Mullberger  - Journeyman Apprentice Fickuld - Young Camp Follower ( Previous update ) Two days travel brought us to the outskirts of the barrens in the Howling Hills. Sleep was rough. The howling is rather persistent. Indistinct voices call out as you try to fall asleep. I'm pretty sure it was undead. Udrin told me I have an overactive imagination. Dark clouds were rolling in when we heard fighting up ahead. We were pretty far away, but there were figures on horseback fighting shorter figures on the ground. Nobody wanted to get in the middle of a fight, so we moved cautiously forward until we could get a better look. Tegort was the first to identify a shape. He said the figures on the ground were dwarves risen from the dead. I ordered