GM Netherpongo's Warhammer Fantasy

Game Master Nathan Goodrich

Big fan of WHFRP but sometimes it seems that the hard mode the game occupies in the RPG spectrum occasionally buries the needle :)

I forgot that literacy is not a given for many.

The current situation is probably harder than I meant it to be. Sandra for instance coulx have been built in her same career with Research.

Since I made that admission, I'll toss in that there is one possibly time-limited thing the group could do that would flip the situation around.

The current situation is probably harder than I meant it to be. Sandra for instance coulx have been built in her same career with Research.

Since I made that admission, I'll toss in that there is one possibly time-limited thing the group could do that would flip the situation around.

Time limited thing? Any more hints?

Only that following the method of finding the papers I outlined in Gameplay earlier is not a very great idea. It represents basically trying to run every paper in the Swordfish House in front of Magda and hoping something pops up. There are better solutions and I'm not trying to be very “guess what I'm thinking” about this, as I hate that. My defense is that a lot of things could work, not just the ones I'm thinking of.

There is an element of “guess what I'm thinking” going on with my earlier hint, but if you miss that it isn't the end of the world.

It might help to go over the events since you arrived at the Swordfish House again. Link is to a starting point, not to any specific clue in a post.

Hopefully everyone else can think of something. I’ve got a couple of thoughts for Magda and Axel.

Whoever killed Timon was a necromancer or at minimum a necromancer came in after Timon was killed. Someone made the zombies.

We’re assuming what we need is in the house...but the GM said whoever got there before us had already searched the place.

Maybe we need to figure out a way to track down whoever made the zombies instead of spending 4 days searching the house. Or divide and conquer...the readers can search the house and the illiterate can start searching for the bad guy.

That's not a bad plan.

A good first step would be examining the bodies. If Magda is willing to do that, I'll roll the tests in a GM spoiler so you won't know if the tests results are good or bad. This is the sort of test where she could be misled.

Necromancy probably interferes some with an evaluation of this kind, so I'd be applying a -10 penalty. Let me know if you want to use Fortune on the tests at all.

I'll d that in a bit... will post again soon.

The dice hate us.

Will check the bodies...

Just watched "the autopsy of Jane Doe" yesterday night, coincidently, good movie!

It looks like Magda has the best Charm for the Opposed Test at 43. That isn't much better than Ludger or Axel. I checked & Sandra doesn't have any Charm advances, so she can't assist the check.

Whoever rolls probably should keep a Fortune in their back pocket as well.

So, going to find Achill was the big obvious thing I had been thinking of that would help the effort to find the Earl of Harwich shipping manifests.

No one brought him up though. I'm curious what you guys thought had happened to him or whether you just forgot him altogether.

I thought he did a runner

If you guys have questions about what you can roll, let me know.

If you guys have questions about what you can roll, let me know.

I do...so Achill is going thru the papers and assuming that Magda and Sandra are helping since they can read. Axel and I have searched the house and didn't find anything. I'm not sure what Ludger could do to help the search. I'm wondering if Axel and Ludger should do something else while the house is being searched. Maybe we should see if anyone in the neighborhood heard or saw something odd in the last few days??

Good ideas there

Sorry I'm being sluggish about the next update. Lots of distractions lately.

Sorry I'm being sluggish about the next update. Lots of distractions lately.

No worries...I completely understand

All good but also hoping we can recruit another player or two.

I'm still there too

Sorry for all the delay on this one. At least a small part of it was that I needed to figure out how to give out xp in this system. This is literally no guidance on it anywhere that I can find except to mimic what is done in other scenarios. So I'll try to explain what I'm going with as a guide here (in part because it helps me get a handle on it):

50 experience points for participation – this reward is really mushy and would probably be lower except that I waited so long to give out experience at all.

25 experience points each for combats against the greenskins in Grunberg & the zombies in the Swordfish House – story/GM-driven combats will often have this award. Both combats here were probably pretty light in difficulty for a “proper” combat award, but I didn't want to run a new party over without meaning to.

10 experience points each for minor non-combat objectives – saving Marven (Hans Fermahn), gathering information at the Portly Porter & finding the shipping logs for the Earl of Harwich

5 experience points for a lesser non-combat objective – saving Sandra Abicht at Grunberg

events driven by player-driven goals get smaller awards
10 experience points for defeating the boars & 5 experience points for finding the thirsfen that Magda needs

50 experience points for completing a Short Term Party Ambition to find the shipping manifests for the Earl of Harwich – we never formally declared this, but looking back on things it is obvious you guys had such an ambition.

To total it all up:
50 participation
50 for two GM-driven combats
30 for three minor non-combat objectives
5 for a lesser non-combat objective
15 points for player-driven events
50 for a short term party ambition
200 xp total – which I didn't think would come out so evenly

New players: yes, we'll be getting some. I'm planning to have that happen back in Grunberg though, and we're not quite back there yet.

Still need to settle on how to handle Axel's suggested book hunt, but I'll try to have more coming soon. If you have any questions about how you can spend your experience, say so!

One possible consideration is that I'm planning to have a Downtime segment shortly after you get back to Grunberg. Some of you might be interested in saving xp for Training options & such when that happens.

Appreciated... on many counts.

Attributes Increase
TGH +2 - 50xp
WP +3 - 75xp

Skill Increase
Swim +4 -40xp
Stealth Rural +2 -20xp

15xp banked.

Getting close to being able to get out of career...

I'm not sure I'm following your advances notation on your character sheet well, Axel. Did Toughness start at 37 and Willpower start at 38?

Also, it looks like you are taking 4 Swim advances with 40 xp, but Witches don't have access to Swim in any part of the Career. Any skill that isn't on your class list costs double the xp to buy. If you are worried about swimming, just having one advance is probably efficient, allowing you to make a Test against the Swim Advanced skill. (See page 48, non-career Advances sidebar)

Alternately, you could save the XP and use the Training Endeavour during Downtime to buy Swim advances at the normal rate. See page 192 for Downtime generally & page 199 for the Training Endeavour. This assumes nothing horrible happens to you when we determine Downtime Events.

I'm probably fairly described as obsessive when documenting my WFRP character, but in case it helps anyone, the spoiler below has been invaluable in helping me track Landolf's advancement. If you are looking for suggestions, this is a good way to keep everything straight:

100 Xp spent on Bookish Talent
75 xp for +3 Willpower
25 Xp for +1 Dex

I'm not sure I'm following your advances notation on your character sheet well, Axel. Did Toughness start at 37 and Willpower start at 38?

Yes

Also, it looks like you are taking 4 Swim advances with 40 xp, but Witches don't have access to Swim in any part of the Career. Any skill that isn't on your class list costs double the xp to buy. If you are worried about swimming, just having one advance is probably efficient, allowing you to make a Test against the Swim Advanced skill. (See page 48, non-career Advances sidebar)

My bad there. I saw a single advance and thought it was a witch skill. I'll save those 40 xp. They'll be needed.

Alternately, you could save the XP and use the Training Endeavour during Downtime to buy Swim advances at the normal rate. See page 192 for Downtime generally & page 199 for the Training Endeavour. This assumes nothing horrible happens to you when we determine Downtime Events.

I'll look into that... I do need down time training for other skills like melee etc.

GM Netherpongo wrote:

I'm not sure I'm following your advances notation on your character sheet well, Axel. Did Toughness start at 37 and Willpower start at 38?

Yes

GM Netherpongo wrote:

Also, it looks like you are taking 4 Swim advances with 40 xp, but Witches don't have access to Swim in any part of the Career. Any skill that isn't on your class list costs double the xp to buy. If you are worried about swimming, just having one advance is probably efficient, allowing you to make a Test against the Swim Advanced skill. (See page 48, non-career Advances sidebar)

My bad there. I saw a single advance and thought it was a witch skill. I'll save those 40 xp. They'll be needed.

GM Netherpongo wrote:

Alternately, you could save the XP and use the Training Endeavour during Downtime to buy Swim advances at the normal rate. See page 192 for Downtime generally & page 199 for the Training Endeavour. This assumes nothing horrible happens to you when we determine Downtime Events.

I'll look into that... I do need down time training for other skills like melee etc.

Looks like I also need to buy 5 in WS, and 3 in gossip

125xp needed for WS and 3xp for gossip, WS will help with Melee at least...

Attributes Increase

TGH +2 - 50xp
WP +3 - 75xp

Skill Increase
Swim +4 -40xp
Stealth Rural +2 -20xp

15xp banked.

Getting close to being able to get out of career...

Actually... changing all that.

Might as well buy rank 2 Instinctive Diction for 200xp

Ludger (Stevedore Career)
Information about Stevedore Career
Career Skills: Athletics, Climb, Consume Alcohol, Dodge, Endurance, Gossip, Melee (Basic), Swim
Talents: Dirty Fighting, Strong Back, Sturdy, Very Strong (1 Taken)
Characteristics: Weapon Skill, Toughness and Initiative

To date, Ludger has the following Skill Career Advances
Athletics = 10 Advances (from the 40 Stevedore starting advances)
Climb = 3 Advances (30 XP Spend)
Consume Alcohol = 0 Advances
Dodge = 10 Advances (from the 40 Stevedore starting advances)
Endurance = 10 Advances (from the 40 Stevedore starting advances)
Gossip = 0 Advances
Melee Basic = 10 Advances(from the 40 Stevedore starting advances)
Sail = 1 Advance (Note this is not a Career Skill so cost 20 XP for 1 Advance)
Swim = 2 Advances (20 XP Spend)

200 XP to spend
Skills
Climb = 2 Advances (20 XP)
Gossip = 5 Advances (50 XP)
Swim = 3 Advances (30 XP)
Consume Alcohol = 5 Advances (50 XP)
That should be all of the Skill Advances needed at Level 1

Characteristics
Weapon Skill = 2 Advances (50 XP)

Two topics of discussion:

First, there's one more thing I want to have happen in-game before we start recruiting again, but that makes it a good time to ask what direction the party wants to take the campaign.

When we started, part of the idea was to have a less-than-legal campaign focusing on river travel. I think we're doing a decent job of that so far. Is everyone still happy with that general theme? It would be good to confirm that before we start inviting more players on.

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Second, my assumption was that the party would just take the notes back to Grunburg and hand them over to Lutz and the Greater Reik Trading Company. I was thinking you get back to Grunburg and have Downtime while Lutz sorts out the next step.

You definitely don't have to do that though. Axel's recent post in Gameplay alerted me to the notion that you could just try to find the Earl of Harwich on your own. See the less-than-legal theme above.

If you want to try going that direction, you can. Just vanish before or after arriving at Grunburg, find an alternate means of river travel and use the information you have on hand to try to locate the ship & its rumored treasures yourselves.

One thing you might consider if we go this "even less legal" path is Marven's compass he showed you during the meeting with Lutz. It was supposed to be useful in tracking down the wreck once you get close enough. You could either try to acquire it or leave it in the hands of the Greater Reik Trading Company.

Two topics of discussion:

First, there's one more thing I want to have happen in-game before we start recruiting again, but that makes it a good time to ask what direction the party wants to take the campaign.

When we started, part of the idea was to have a less-than-legal campaign focusing on river travel. I think we're doing a decent job of that so far. Is everyone still happy with that general theme? It would be good to confirm that before we start inviting more players on.

-----------

Second, my assumption was that the party would just take the notes back to Grunburg and hand them over to Lutz and the Greater Reik Trading Company. I was thinking you get back to Grunburg and have Downtime while Lutz sorts out the next step.

You definitely don't have to do that though. Axel's recent post in Gameplay alerted me to the notion that you could just try to find the Earl of Harwich on your own. See the less-than-legal theme above.

If you want to try going that direction, you can. Just vanish before or after arriving at Grunburg, find an alternate means of river travel and use the information you have on hand to try to locate the ship & its rumored treasures yourselves.

One thing you might consider if we go this "even less legal" path is Marven's compass he showed you during the meeting with Lutz. It was supposed to be useful in tracking down the wreck once you get close enough. You could either try to acquire it or leave it in the hands of the Greater Reik Trading Company.

Ludger would vote to stick with the plan figuring that the 3 of them alone aren't qualified to chase down the EoH without help

Axel doesn't want MORE enemies. I'm with Ludger. Stick with the plan.

Being quite useless in a fight, I'll avoid more foes as long as possible.

So stick with the majority

I’m thinking our fearless GM is busy in RL as he’s not posted for a few days in the game i run and he normally is one of the most active posters.

Yes, I've gotten very busy at work especially. Not so busy that I couldn't post, but time and energy went elsewhere.

The work busyness looks like it will last for quite some time. I don't intend to quit on anything, but I may need some additional patience. I'm trying to figure out how to better manage my schedule so I don't keep dropping the ball here.

I've caught up on my other two games for the moment (one of which is Aubster/Ludger's game) and this one will be my next focus. The current scene is hard and unplanned for, but I didn't want to just leave Ubersreik without having something about Ludger's family.

The good news is I'm getting a much more solid idea of where I want to go with the campaign after this. I'm planning to roll in a recent Cubicle7 release: Something Knocking with adaptations, so if you have access to that and haven't looked at it yet, it may be best to avoid doing so for now.

Cool

Sorry for the delay, bit under the weather. Hope to post tomorrow.

All good

no problem, things happen!

Was sick last week. I feel like I'm back in running order again now.

For the current encounter: I didn't go into this with much of a plan, and the idea wasn't for it to turn into a major brawl, though it could head that way. At present, three more combatants are about to jump in on Ludger...all but the boss himself.

We should probably see how Axel's Intimidate attempt resolves, which could change things substantially if he gets really lucky. Aside from that, Ludger should decide whether they want to throw the fight or take some other approach.

More annoyance with the rules here...the amount of time a character can hold their breath without testing is Toughness Bonus * 10 seconds. The problem with this is that nothing else is expressed in seconds, and especially not combat rounds. The book says:

Rounds: A Round is enough time for all characters to attempt a Test and move into position. It’s normally a just few seconds, the GM can decide exactly how long if necessary.

So the amount of time a character can hold their breath is really just whatever the GM decides...

I'm accustomed to six second rounds from d20 style games, and Warhammer FRPG characters don't seem to be able to do much more or less than a d20 character in a single round. So we'll make rounds 6 seconds. Even if the Riverfolk has a TB of 3, that should give 5-6 rounds before they have any actual breathing-related problems. They may well make their Swim Test before that (although I've been forgetting that they should be taking a -10 on their tests).

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Separately, there's Advantage. I don't think it causes problems at all really in the +1 to +2 range. +3 is hit fairly normally right before a given combat ends, but that isn't happening here. So I'm interested to see just how distorted the fight ends up seeming now that Ludger has escalated beyond that point.

No intended changes yet, but in terms of Advantage house rules, I'm not at all a fan of stripping out Advantage altogether. I don't really buy the argument they make in favor of Advantage (prior editions involved a lot of missing, but the Opposed Tests seem to cover that nicely) but Advantage is woven into a bunch of talents and monster abilities. It'd be hard to take it out of the game completely. Some of the more moderate house rules like capping Advantage seem much easier to implement.

Again, just watching right now. I don't think in our other game we've ever seen Advantage escalate much past the point we're at now.

Don't forget holding breath in casual circumstances is greater than trying in combat...

More annoyance with the rules here...the amount of time a character can hold their breath without testing is Toughness Bonus * 10 seconds. The problem with this is that nothing else is expressed in seconds, and especially not combat rounds. The book says:

Core Book page 156 wrote:

Rounds: A Round is enough time for all characters to attempt a Test and move into position. It’s normally a just few seconds, the GM can decide exactly how long if necessary.

So the amount of time a character can hold their breath is really just whatever the GM decides...

I'm accustomed to six second rounds from d20 style games, and Warhammer FRPG characters don't seem to be able to do much more or less than a d20 character in a single round. So we'll make rounds 6 seconds. Even if the Riverfolk has a TB of 3, that should give 5-6 rounds before they have any actual breathing-related problems. They may well make their Swim Test before that (although I've been forgetting that they should be taking a -10 on their tests).

----

Separately, there's Advantage. I don't think it causes problems at all really in the +1 to +2 range. +3 is hit fairly normally right before a given combat ends, but that isn't happening here. So I'm interested to see just how distorted the fight ends up seeming now that Ludger has escalated beyond that point.

No intended changes yet, but in terms of Advantage house rules, I'm not at all a fan of stripping out Advantage altogether. I don't really buy the argument they make in favor of Advantage (prior editions involved a lot of missing, but the Opposed Tests seem to cover that nicely) but Advantage is woven into a bunch of talents and monster abilities. It'd be hard to take it out of the game completely. Some of the more moderate house rules like capping Advantage seem much easier to implement.

Again, just watching right now. I don't think in our other game we've ever seen Advantage escalate much past the point we're at now.

I think your right about the other campaigns. We normally don’t get to this level of Advantage because you all are really good about hanging up on a foe, earning the +40 for that, and then taking them down quickly. And of course rolling critical hits…still mad about killing my river troll in Ubersreik in 1 round ;)

There's more to do before you return to Grunberg, but we're close enough now that I'm going to get recruiting going, starting with the other game. So we'll likely see some posts about that here.

Hi there! Had an invite to join in. How much XP are we starting with?

Species: 1d100 ⇒ 29 Human (20xp)
Class: 3d100 ⇒ (21, 17, 14) = 52 (25xp)
I think that I'd like to go with Wizard. Have never played one before! I'd like to go with Lore of Life.

Stats (25xp)
Stats: 2d10 ⇒ (4, 2) = 6
Stats: 2d10 ⇒ (1, 8) = 9
Stats: 2d10 ⇒ (4, 9) = 13
Stats: 2d10 ⇒ (2, 2) = 4
Stats: 2d10 ⇒ (9, 6) = 15
Stats: 2d10 ⇒ (7, 8) = 15
Stats: 2d10 ⇒ (8, 8) = 16
Stats: 2d10 ⇒ (4, 5) = 9
Stats: 2d10 ⇒ (8, 5) = 13
Stats: 2d10 ⇒ (1, 8) = 9

16/15/15/13/13/9/9/9/6/4

Talents: 3d100 ⇒ (68, 28, 83) = 179
Doomed
Savvy (+5 intelligence)
Resistance (Mutation)
Hardy
Sturdy
Petty Magic

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Looking at this, with Hardy and Sturdy I picture him being a rather large person. So I think that I'll go with this...

WS: 33
BS: 24
Str: 33
T: 35
Init: 29
Ag: 29
Dex: 26
Int: 40
WP: 36 + 4 (40)
Fel: 29
Fate: 4
Resilience: 2
Wounds: 17

Skills:
Select 3 skills listed for your species and gain 5 advances in each.
* Melee Basic, Animal Care, Cool

Select 3 other skills listed for your species and gain 3 advances in
each.
* Haggle, Gossip, Lore-Reikland

Allocate 40 advances between the 8 skills listed, with a
maximum of 10 advances in any one skill.
* 10x Language (Magick)
* 10x Lore (Magic)
* 10x Channeling (Life)
* 6x Dodge
* 4x Perception

Petty Magic Spells:
* Dart
* Animal Friend
* Protection from Rain
* Spring

XP from character creation: 70 (holding onto it for now, as if there is more XP for new characters, then he could get a talent). Would also like to pick up the skill Sail, if allowed.

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Background:

Hans Schäfer hails from Rottfurt, a small village in the Reikland famed for its shepherds, wool and mutton. Hans' parents were both shepherds, like so many others in the sleepy region. The only thing that set them apart was that they were Druids of the Old Faith. Kept secret to avoid the ever present eyes of the Cult of Sigmar, his parents raised their sheep by day, and on summer and winter solstices, as well as the spring and autumn equinoxes, they held religious services in the wilderness with the purpose of blessing the livestock of their neighbors.

When Hans came of age, he began to manifest signs of power over nature. Namely, being able to calm scared animals, call forth water from the land, turn aside rain, and even create minor vegetation. These innate powers were taken by his parents as being signs that he was destined to follow their path. They had high hopes for their son...

Unfortunately, this situation was not meant to last. For after the prayers of the autumn equinox, a neighbor's flock had an outbreak of sickness. The shepherd blamed the Druids and demanded recompense. When that was refused...the man went to the Cult of Sigmar. A decision which proved to be deadly. For the people of Rottfurt took their flocks seriously, with a very organized militia being present with the sole purpose of protecting them. When news came to the Sigmarites that a family of witches was cursing the sheep, a request was sent for a Witch Hunter to come.

Hans was out searching for a lost sheep when the Witch Hunter came. His mother's last act was the casting of a spell to send her son a message: run. That night, their small cottage was burnt, along with both of his parents. The flames coming from his home gave the young man urgency to flee, for while he did not see what happened, only a fool would not know.

He fled into the wilderness, and took upon a new name: Ludwig Schröder. Wanting to stick to his cherished wilderness, but being terrified at the prospect of ever staying in one place, Ludwig took upon a new life: that of a boatsman. For in that way, he would be able to forever stay on the move, so that what happened to his family would not happen to him.

Short Term Goal
To be accepted as a Boatsman and to learn the trade.

Long Term Goal
To understand his innate powers and learn how to use them. Whether this takes the form of being recognized as a wizard, starting his own worship of the Old Faith, or joining the Cult of Taal/Rhya all depends on how his story goes.

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Anyways, that's the idea. If this character is not allowed for any reason, no problem. Can always make changes as needed.

Not disallowed, but having a Wizard and a Witch in the party could have interesting ramifications.

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Hans, I had the rest of the party use 120 point buy. See item 3 of Determining Characteristics on page 33. You still get the 50 xp for the Characteristics stage though.

I could use him to make the transition. Two spell slingers could be fun.

Eh...looking it over we have a witch and a physician. So having a life wizard, as I had planned...feels like it would be stepping on the toes of two people. Not exactly good form for joining an AP.

Given this, I think that it's best to just go with Merchant. Given the party makeup and the story thus far, it should fit things the best. I'll get a profile up and a new background as soon as possible.

A trader shall join the party!

Starting Silver, 3d10 for trappings and 2d10 for wealth table: 5d10 ⇒ (3, 10, 5, 4, 4) = 26

Check out daddy wallbucks here...

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