GM Netherpongo's Warhammer Fantasy

Game Master Nathan Goodrich

Alphonso: the big thing we need to do for you right now is decide why you are joining up with the rest of the party.

The original party were friends with Hans Fermahn, the main person who began the whole treasure hunt thing.

Hans (the player) joined because he was already part of the Greater Reik Trading Company and needed to recover from some recent losses.

Zarine was harder to roll in, but we decided that she has a Wood Elf interest in the Earl of Harwich, as it may be carrying an artifact that is important to the Wood Elves. (Or something like that...I could be missing a nuance)

Sooner or later, we'll want your character to be interested in the main treasure hunt plot. Do you have any ideas for what Alphonso's interest is?

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I took a look at Alphonso's character sheet and I want to clear up one thing that you might be misunderstanding. It looks like you noticed the function of the Test: entry on talents, but your notation suggests that you have a +10 on Evaluate & Gamble due to having the Super Numerate talent, just as an example. That isn't quite right.

The skills mentioned in the Test entry get +1 SL on a successful test. Successful meaning that you already rolled at or below your skill number. So if you had a 42 in Evaluate and rolled at 43, you wouldn't get any help from the Test part of Super Numerate. If you rolled a 42, however, you would get +1 SL on the test instead of +0 SL. Obviously this doesn't help for Simple Tests: it's for Dramatic/Opposed/Extended and the like.

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I'm also not seeing that Alphonso claimed his advances from Character Creation from the Advance Characteristics step of page 35. If you didn't claim those free advances, you should do so.

Where you had what advances can get complicated as the game progresses, so I recommend finding some way to keep track of exactly how all of your Characteristics and Skills got to the way they are. You don't have to do it like I did, but my old character from another campaign might be a decent example.

I went back to review the Gameplay thread for your income so we could settle up there. This is what I found:

* 5g total for salvaging the patrol boat
* 10/- each for those who helped carry cargo from the wreck of the Trandafir (Zarine, Axel, Magda & Hans) Hans's 'last' post was before this, but was very close in time so I'll grant it.
* 7/- each for those who helped dig up the ogham stones (Axel & Magda) - Zarine declined this work for RP reasons & Hans wasn't posting by then - I don't really know what to say about what he was up to here...
* 2g total for attempting to hunt down the murderer of Rutger Reuter

The only costs I'm aware of are:
* 1/- total for getting across the river after fleeing from the basilisk
* 1/- each (including Zarine's servant) for a ride back to Ubersreik from the Reuter/Stiegler project

It would be helpful if someone took over as treasurer.

I'll be treasurer... thanks for digging this up for me so I can start out on top of it. :)

Anything in the party fund will get stashed along with Zarine's money so that we don't lose it.

...and my profile is gone. I have no idea why. Will need to rebuild it. Will get that done as soon as possible. (Eugh)

Well there are several ways for Alphonso to get hooked into the quest. First the knight he is looking for is interested in learning more about what is going on here and assigns him to go with them.

Second he gets lost on the way to find that knight to work for and meets them on the road where he decides to join the treasure hunt because he is a young man and it's glory and such to do so

Third the treasure hunt has something of Britonian nature as well or rumored to might have and Alphonso thinks it would help him be knighted to show up with it.

I did make miss the five advances not marked and will add those now thanks.

What order is he from?

Is he an Imperial Knight?

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Knightly_Orders_of_the_Empire

Or a Freelancer? A knight who inherited little more than his name and gear

https://mordheim-warband-skirmish.fandom.com/wiki/Freelancer

A Bretonnian Knight Errant seeking enough glory to earn his land?

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Knights_Errant

I was Noble during my last campaign & also was our treasurer. I know you are in the process of dispensing with your servant character right now, but Landolf's servant alias actually became my reliable way to track money. I posted with Yvonne Kehrer infrequently enough that it was easy to find prior bookkeeping posts.

Your implementation doesn't have to match mine, but something similar might help.

I am a Bretonnian seeking knighthood and glory mostly so I can have an attitude and french accent

Very good reasons. And probably makes the most sense from a rp choice of why someone is a knight who is slumming.

Though from this point on this is what I envision

Exactly my friend, exactly...

I'll just keep it on my character sheet.

Right now we have this:

* 5g total for salvaging the patrol boat
* 2g total for attempting to hunt down the murderer of Rutger Reuter
minus expenses of 6 shillings leaves
6 gold, 14 shillings

Previously Distributed:
* 10/- each for those who helped carry cargo from the wreck of the Trandafir (Zarine, Axel, Magda & Hans)
* 7/- each for those who helped dig up the ogham stones (Axel & Magda)

Does that sound right?

If so, we can distribute an additional gold to everyone if anyone needs to use it. Otherwise we'll stash it and couple it with our earnings for shopping during the next adventure.

Sounds right to me.

Just to repeat my question, can Hans sell his mule and cart? It would mean alot when it comes to buying gear. I'm looking to get a hand weapon, buckler, light armor and the miscellaneous needed for guard. Would rather use his own merchant equipment rather than the party stuff if possible.

I'll just keep it on my character sheet.

Right now we have this:

* 5g total for salvaging the patrol boat
* 2g total for attempting to hunt down the murderer of Rutger Reuter
minus expenses of 6 shillings leaves
6 gold, 14 shillings

Previously Distributed:
* 10/- each for those who helped carry cargo from the wreck of the Trandafir (Zarine, Axel, Magda & Hans)
* 7/- each for those who helped dig up the ogham stones (Axel & Magda)

Does that sound right?

If so, we can distribute an additional gold to everyone if anyone needs to use it. Otherwise we'll stash it and couple it with our earnings for shopping during the next adventure.

Sounds good.

In fact VERY good. I didn't know we were sitting on 6 gold. That's a number worth investing...

I'm gonna go work, work, training for pennies in pole arms and buy a quarterstaff... and possibly some clothes. My remaining coins if any will go to our banker.

At that point I'll have a staff, sling, dagger, and leather Jack. I won't look like a nobody newb... my ability to benefit from them is debatable BUT I should present well for future opportunities.

Just say the word for work rolls... and training.

+5 pole arms will cost me 50xp. Not so bad. It will also cost me a whopping 5d10 pennies.

Edit after checking personal funds? I can afford a quarterstaff and clothes. I have enough pennies to pay for the training but a good work roll will buy some useful items like rope etc

Also have a few ideas for short term goals about coming out of the magical closet. Will shoot the GM a DM

So many things I'm forgetting...

First, Alphonso's Event results are...both bad:

* Roll 17 - Oi! You Spilled my Pint! - A petty argument in the local area has developed into a feud - the GM decides who you offended and how. This person will not pass up an opportunity for petty revenge, probably during the next adventure...

* Roll 40 - Festivities - A celebration is called! Decide the nature of the event with the GM. Possibilities include a local wedding, a bountiful harvest or a public execution! You are caught up in the event (and its aftermath) and lose an Endeavour.

The Endeavour loss would only apply to Alphonso. Technically the same is true for the petty feud, although its ramifications could be broader. Choose one!

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Axel: it's a little odd to use Training for a skill that's in both Witch II and Wizard I, but you can definitely do it. Remember that the armor will give you -1 SL on your magicks.

Hans: just checked the prices on that stuff and...geez they load up Merchants will valuables at character creation. Let's say it takes an Endeavour to do the necessary busywork to get your things out of impound. We'll say the spent Endeavour also covers the necessary work to formally resign from the Greater Reik Trading Company without making anyone angry (assuming you want to do that).

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Everyone: go ahead and resolve any Endeavours you can do with a simple roll like Income. I think Magda's Consult an Expert Endeavour is the only one that is complicated by nature, but if you need a ruling on something, let me know. Also if you want to Haggle on anything.

I'm going to try to write up something to start moving the story forward today, so hopefully by tomorrow? We'll see.

It would probably help out Zarine if everyone re-declares any purchases & income they are doing in Discussion, with amounts.

The celebration seems the better of the two and easier to meet someone whom might direct me to this treasure hunt

Any preference on the type of festivity? I'm currently thinking wedding, though that may change by the time I try to write it up.

Rebuilding character wealth rolls: 26 silver

Trappings: Cloak, Clothing, Dagger, Hat, Pouch, Sling Bag, Abacus, Mule and Cart, Canvas Tarpaulin, 26 silver shillings

* 10/- each for those who helped carry cargo from the wreck of the Trandafir (Zarine, Axel, Magda & Hans)
* 7/- each for those who helped dig up the ogham stones (Axel & Magda)

Going to work off the assumption that I don't have the mule, cart and canvas. It hasn't come up at all in the campaign and we've been traveling by boat. If he has it, then it isn't here...it's alot of gold gone (25 gold value!) but I can't reasonably expect it to pop up out of nowhere.

43 Silver total.

1 gold crown (1GC) = 20 silver shillings (20/–) = 240
brass pennies (240d)
1 silver shilling (1/–) = 12 brass pennies (12d)

2 gold 3 silver.

Hand Weapon = 1 Gold

So 1 gold and 3 silver left.

I'd like to buy:

Leather Jack 12/– (jerkin required for class, but best to cover arms too)
Leather Leggings 14/–
Leather Skullcap 8/–
Storm Lantern 1 GC (required for class)
Buckler 18/2 (required for class)

I think that it would look really weird to have a leather jack without the leggings. So I'll just get the sword for now and save my 1 gold and 3 silver for when I can afford some armor.

I was assuming the cart & mule were all part of your impounded possessions. See my post from this morning. If you want to spend an Endeavour getting them back, you can.

Wonderful! Can't believe I missed that. I'll get a post up as soon as I can.

Hans -- Okay, I will add your 1 gold, 3 silver to the amount we are stashing, then return it to you after downtime. Let me know if that amount changes based on the potential recovery of your cart from impound, above.

Axel -- Your post sounded like you were spending everything you have, but let me know if there is any left over you want me to stash.

It's sort of in the spirit of the game to be broke. I figured this time round? Might as well start broke but clean, decently dressed and confident.

If the DM will allow me to retcon the armour purchase, I'll stash the 12 shillings with you. I want to lean into the casting in the near future.

Yeah, you can un-purchase the armor.

Ok, finally getting around to Magda's earlier desire to spend an Endeavour learning about basilisk poison. After looking at it more, I can't tell whether you intend to use Consult an Expert (page 197) or Research Lore (page 201).

Consulting an Expert would start with a Gossip test to find someone knowledgeable about the matter. Not just any Shallyan will be able to help.

Research Lore would involve a Lore or difficult Intelligence Test.

Depending what you want out of it, I could also imagine you making an Invent! Endeavour to craft a new, basilisk poison-specific antivenom. That might be complicated since you don't have a sample though.

Do you have in mind a mechanical benefit you want Magda to get from this, or is it just an interest of hers?

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Separately, if Magda iis in the second tier of her Career now, she should take some time to get her Guild License. That wouldn't take a full Endeavour, but we could work it into her roleplaying.

I didn't roll for my starting coin nor my fate etc as you said to hold off rolling for character creation. Once that is done I can get a header up and posted

Go ahead and roll for coin. Your amount of Fate & Resilience is never rolled. Humans begin ply with 2 Fate, 1 Resilience & three more points they can assign as they wish between Fate & Resilience. So 3 of each is fairly common.

Remember to roll on your Income Endeavours to see if you get the full amount. See pages 198 in Downtime and page 51 for Earning Money with Status.

(I hadn't thought of Income Endeavours this way before, but Axel rolled on his which got me looking into it and I think he's doing it correctly)

Question for Zarine: what are her house colors?

3S: 3d10 ⇒ (4, 10, 3) = 17

Make it the great seasonal apple festival dance or some such

Uhhh... silver and midnight blue?

Also, mentioned this in my gameplay post I believe, but there is nothing to roll for income at my level unless I am misunderstanding. It isn't a range of money, it is just one gold, period.

“ Not sure of Warhammer fantasy background... are there real naiads? Are they known to be good or evil? Would a wood elf know of them if they exist?”

Naid

From this it seems like Naiads are thought to be a legend by humans. But for wood elves:

“ Wood elves are living with those creatures such as Argwylon is a land of light and wonder, where the rivers are alive with naiads, and the waterfalls sing with ghostly voices. [2a]”

I think that it refers to the waterfalls in Athel Loren. Given that Zarine’s people don’t live near waterfalls or rivers, I’d doubt that there would be many (if any) around there. But I could be wrong on that.

Some good info here too

Thanks. :)

My pleasure. :)

Uhhh... silver and midnight blue?

Also, given that these are her colors, here is Hans in his new outfit.

Hans in more or less House Brightbow colors

If he is going to be her Guard, then he should look the part.

I'm more about consulting an expert about the basilisk poison.

She is just acting out of concern for others, and wants to warn travelers and citizens

She hasn't enough xP to change or upgrade careers, but Bankig some money to pay for her future license make sense!

Everyone

OK, it's nearly time to do some cleanup for the Downtime so we can get back on the way to Grunberg. Here's what I have for everyone. If I'm wrong about anything, let me know.

Events:
Alfonso – Oi! You Spilled my Pint! Or Festivities (choose one)
Axel – Blister on the Foot
Hans – Pedlar
Magda – Arcane Auction
Zarine – Local Crop Failure

Endeavours:
Alfonso – none declared
Axel – Income (Stevedore, test failed, -/14)
Axel – Income (Stevedore, test succeeded, -/46)
Axel – Training (Stevedore, polearms, spent -/34)
Hans – Special: Retrieve Goods
Hans – not declared
Hans – not declared
Magda – Information about Basilisk Poison
Magda – Income (not yet rolled)
Magda – Income (not yet rolled)
Zarine – Elf Improvement
Zarine – Income (not yet rolled)
Zarine – Banking (stash successful)

Zarine had a question earlier about her not needing to roll for Income, and she's half-right/half-wrong. I didn't realize it until Axel made his Income Endeavours, but I'm fairly sure he did it correctly. So, Zarine doesn't roll at all for the amount of money she gets on an Income test. Gold 1 = 1 crown. But she still needs to make an Average (+20) income test, which for her would be based on Leadership (the italicized skill in her first career tier). Passing the test means that you get full your full income roll (or not roll in Zarine's case). Failing the test means you get half that amount. An Astounding -6 SL failure means you get nothing. See page 51 (bottom right).

So everyone needs to roll for the Test part of Income, even if they don't roll for the amount of money.

Be sure to complete any purchases you need to make! There's time to buy stuff after Income/Money to Burn, so you might be able to buy more than you thought earlier. Please help Zarine out & make sure she knows about any interaction you make with the party funds.

*

Magda – Consult an Expert for the Basilisk poison involves rolling:
Step 1: Gossip (Challenging +0) – to even find an expert on basilisk poison. If you succeed, go to Step 2. If you fail, I'll let you know what happens.
Step 2: Charm (Average +20) – to persuade them that you know anything to talk about
I don't think a Shallyan priestess (or whoever you find) would require a favor for anything you are trying to accomplish here.

Also, I looked up the price for your guild license and there isn't one listed. You won't have to pay, but you do need to reach career tier II first.

There is still time to react to your Downtime spoiler if you think Magda would do so.

*

Alfonso – besides completing your Downtime, we need to firm up how & why you are getting on the Flatbottom. I think we've given you a basic reason to be heading to Grunberg, so you can pursue your quest to find the wreckage of the Earl of Harwich. I forget exactly what Alfonso thinks that will accomplish, but he considers it part of his squire duties.

You aren't aware that anyone else in the party is also looking for the Earl of Harwich, though that might be resolved pretty quickly depending on how things go. If Alfonso is more than happy to talk about his goals, that will probably get the party's attention quickly.

None of that explains why he's able to board the Flatbottom though. The easiest explanation is probably to try to pay for passage. That might be somewhat costly since the barge's captain is already annoyed at having to bring along passengers. And you'll have a horse. I'm open to other suggestions though.

Finally, at some point we're going to have Axel trying to deal with his Witch-ness and the rest of the party. I spent a bit of time looking up how such things work in Brettonia, and it's entirely different than how things happen in the Empire. What Alfonso would know is that special women are sent to Brettonia by the Lady that are blessed with her divine power. You'd be aware that the Empire sees things very differently and imposes tight controls over their Wizards. You may not even regard those to be the same thing. I mean, obviously the Lady wouldn't send her chosen daughters to the Empire, right?

There is still time to react to your Downtime spoiler if you think Alfonso would do so.

Also, before I forget: Your Fortune refreshes!

And you get a second slot for Party and Personal Short Term Ambitions.

I thought that my endeavors were (1) class change and (2) selling his cart.

Also I’ll think of some goals! Thanks for the reminder.

It's been a little bit but I answered the career change thing here and here.

In short, I banned the Change Career Endeavour but you don't need it too much. So long as you finish Merchant first, the career change itself should only cost 100 xp (like normal for leaving any career tier).

I'm not keeping track of everyone's xp expenditures...did you manage to finish Merchant (Trader) first?

Either way, that's only two Endeavours so you have one more you can use for Income or something else. I'd allow you to use The Latest News to go along with your Event even though you aren't in Ranger/Riverfolk, if you'd prefer.

Oh…I misunderstood. Damn. I’ll do a rebuild tonight or tomorrow morning and figure it out. Sorry for my misunderstanding

Leadership (60): 1d100 ⇒ 8

Too bad there are only penalties and not bonuses for rolling well. You can fumble horribly, but not wildly succeed. :)

(In any case, that result was already narrated in the gameplay thread, so glad it worked out and I didn't have to retcon, pointing to unsuccessful negotiations.)

Part 1: Fixing the character to ensure that merchant is finished

1. Merchant (Trader) has Agility, Willpower & Fellowship Characteristics. You'd need to have 5 advances in each of those. You'd start with 5 advances toward your career Characteristics just due to character creation.

5x Ag (character creation)
5x Willpower (125xp)
5x Fellowship (125xp)

5x Animal Care, Bribery, Charm, Consume Alcohol, Drive, Gamble, Gossip, Haggle (character creation)

3x Melee (Basic), Cool, Ranged (Bow)

Read/Write (character creation), Savvy (character creation)

Total XP to finish merchant: 250xp
XP to switch to bodyguard: 100xp

75xp left

2x Melee Basic (20xp)
2x Toughness (50xp)
5xp left

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WS: 20+15=35
BS: 20+7=27
Str: 20+15=35
T: 20+18=38 +2 (xp) = 40
Init: 20+10=30
Ag: 20+15= +5 (cr) = 30
Dex: 20+5=25
Int: 20+15=35 +5 (savvy) = 40
WP: 20+15 + 5 (xp) = 40
Fel: 20+15=35 +5 (xp) = 40

WS (35) BS (27) Str (35) T (40) Init (30) Ag (30) Dex (25) Int (40) WP (40) Fel (40)

Part 2: Fixing Endeavors to make sure that downtime if finished

I have 6 gold left. I remember now that it can all be lost...so spending 3 gold coins on a mail coat. +2 Armor for body and arms. That is 3 gold left.

Income: 1d10 ⇒ 1 Weee...3 gold and 1 silver!

Banking: 1d100 ⇒ 92 Which thankfully is not lost.

And with that, I should be good to go.

1. Merchant (Trader) has Agility, Willpower & Fellowship Characteristics. You'd need to have 5 advances in each of those. You'd start with 5 advances toward your career Characteristics just due to character creation.

5x Ag (character creation)
5x Willpower (125xp)
5x Fellowship (125xp)

5x Animal Care, Bribery, Charm, Consume Alcohol, Drive, Gamble, Gossip, Haggle (character creation)

3x Melee (Basic), Cool, Ranged (Bow)

Read/Write (character creation), Savvy (character creation)

Total XP to finish merchant: 250xp
XP to switch to bodyguard: 100xp

75xp left

2x Melee Basic (20xp)
2x Toughness (50xp)
5xp left

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WS: 20+15=35
BS: 20+7=27
Str: 20+15=35
T: 20+18=38 +2 (xp) = 40
Init: 20+10=30
Ag: 20+15= +5 (cr) = 30
Dex: 20+5=25
Int: 20+15=35 +5 (savvy) = 40
WP: 20+15 + 5 (xp) = 40
Fel: 20+15=35 +5 (xp) = 40

WS (35) BS (27) Str (35) T (40) Init (30) Ag (30) Dex (25) Int (40) WP (40) Fel (40)

The point buy looks 10 points overspent by your notation there. Is Agi only supposed to be +5 rather than +15? The math works out to your final of 30 that way.

Indeed. Typo, but the final accounting is right

Back but trying to catch up on stuff across-the-board on multiple things after a few days of a nasty bug

Gossip +0 (45): 1d100 ⇒ 92

no success here

Zarine, have you decided whether your character comes from Laurelorn forest or Athel Loren? I'd been mostly forgetting about Laurelorn and may have even implied that Zarine was from Athel Loren. The Core rulebook does a decent job of explaining the difference on pages 28/29.

My horse shall be named Kathrine after his younger sister who died in child birth bwaa ha ha drama and tragedy finally!

Definitely Laurelorn. Her background was discussed here at least to some extent when I rolled up my character and is based on this article that Grumbaki, er, Hans, shared with me:

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Eonir