Usually I would be in bed by now, but I have had too much caffeine - so I must type!
After a brief stint in Sylvania our company has moved upriver to the dwarfen city of Zhufbar. This has proven to be quite satisfying as we have a number of nearby hotspots that can be used for adventures; Karak Varn, "Laketown", the Black Lake, the many unnamed valleys and mountains surrounding the area and of course Zhufbar itself.
In our vision of the zone we have large enemy forces occupying the interesting areas - a squabbling mass of goblin tribes in and under Karak Varn and a swirling horde of chaos marauders that refuse to be drawn into warfare with anyone other than the goblins (who they periodically displace onto the dwarfs). Skaven have recently been introduced as mysterious manipulators of the goblins although what they are up to remains to be seen. Add to all this the machinations of rival dwarf nobles and the whole place is ideal for adventurous mercenary types... such as the player-characters!
We have agreed that next week will be a special session which Ken will run for us where we gather the materials and reputation required to have a Master Rune inscribed on an item of our choice. Personally I would like to see each of us use a Fate Point during the adventure so that the rune really means something - rather than just being another piece of loot (as magic items tend to be in 'other' roleplay games). The feeling is that we have reached 6000 xp and we deserve something special for it (other than the many advances those experience points have paid for of course).
Speaking of 'other' roleplay games I haven't been back to the RPGA since Gencon Oz. On balance it seems better to play frequent and regular ongoing games with the same characters and the same players using the same game system (ie Warhammer RPG) but I still have Grognard the Cleric in his folder ready to go if no other gaming is available and I feel a great urge to go back to an RPGA table for 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons.
Showing posts with label Warhammer RPG. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Warhammer RPG. Show all posts
Friday, November 13, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Warhammer RPG: Captain
I felt obliged to publish an update given that it has been a month since my last post. Usually that's a very bad reason to write anything!
Today we played a few sessions of Warhammer Roleplay which resulted in my character finally reaching his destination; Captain. This is a deep career that has many advances which will occupy my xp for a long time. He's already a competent fighter although with Captain he'll slowly evolve into something quite impressive.
Today also saw the return of Suzy and her Wizardly character to the table - once we applied her backlog of xp she landed squarely in Journeyman Wizard (or should that be Journeyperson Wizard...?). It's interesting to see how the flavour of games change slightly when someone has Magic Sense, Magic Points and a handful of spells that are useful, effective and reliable. We only had one miscast and despite being gruesome (blood flowing from nose, ears and eyes) did not result in any player deaths!
...and now for some sleep...
Today we played a few sessions of Warhammer Roleplay which resulted in my character finally reaching his destination; Captain. This is a deep career that has many advances which will occupy my xp for a long time. He's already a competent fighter although with Captain he'll slowly evolve into something quite impressive.
Today also saw the return of Suzy and her Wizardly character to the table - once we applied her backlog of xp she landed squarely in Journeyman Wizard (or should that be Journeyperson Wizard...?). It's interesting to see how the flavour of games change slightly when someone has Magic Sense, Magic Points and a handful of spells that are useful, effective and reliable. We only had one miscast and despite being gruesome (blood flowing from nose, ears and eyes) did not result in any player deaths!
...and now for some sleep...
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Warhammer RPG: Sergeant
After a long break (caused by a holiday in Melbourne) we had a game yesterday. Attendance and spirits were high - although we have lost a member due to a timetable clash with Uni classes. Sadly she is our healer!
My character had his first chance to use the extra Attack he picked up prior to the break; I forgot how much of a power-up that extra swing is! As he's equipped with spear and shield there are plenty of opportunities for miming "300" hoplite moves (lol). As he will be moving into a "Mercenary Captain" role we have hired a few of the local peasants as axemen/slingers/torchbearers with a view to forming a professional unit of soldiery types - although the lack of Command ability makes things suitably confusing in the heat of battle :)
It's good to see players back at the table with a sparkle in their eye - and everyone describes their character in terms of what careers they want to move into - so hopefully my earlier lamentation regarding a game that has died will not be justified for a long time yet!
My character had his first chance to use the extra Attack he picked up prior to the break; I forgot how much of a power-up that extra swing is! As he's equipped with spear and shield there are plenty of opportunities for miming "300" hoplite moves (lol). As he will be moving into a "Mercenary Captain" role we have hired a few of the local peasants as axemen/slingers/torchbearers with a view to forming a professional unit of soldiery types - although the lack of Command ability makes things suitably confusing in the heat of battle :)
It's good to see players back at the table with a sparkle in their eye - and everyone describes their character in terms of what careers they want to move into - so hopefully my earlier lamentation regarding a game that has died will not be justified for a long time yet!
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Warhammer RPG: Shieldbreaker -> Sergeant
The Warhammer group seems to be running out of steam with attendance dropping below the minimum of three required for comfortable gaming. Chris and I spent the session chatting, catching up and eating cherries (which was nice) but with only two of us roleplay was not desirable. I anticipate the project being grounded. My character just made it to Sergeant prior to what seems (at the time of writing) to be the end of the campaign.
I prefer Warhammer RPG to 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons so even if this group has faltered hopefully a fresh campaign using the system can be sifted from the ashes. There are some mumurings of interest in Hackmaster (lolwut?) with a copy being brought to a previous session and discreetly pointed at people with enthusiastic prodding but I must say I DON'T find the idea of retro roleplay appealing.
I prefer Warhammer RPG to 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons so even if this group has faltered hopefully a fresh campaign using the system can be sifted from the ashes. There are some mumurings of interest in Hackmaster (lolwut?) with a copy being brought to a previous session and discreetly pointed at people with enthusiastic prodding but I must say I DON'T find the idea of retro roleplay appealing.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Warhammer RPG: Smuggler -> Shieldbreaker
Friday was our weekly meet for the round-robin Warhammer Roleplay campaign. Having finally acquired enough skills and talents from Smuggler (and having purchased all of the required gear) my character progressed to Shieldbreaker. Finally, a career that is competent at fighting! To be fair, lingering in low classes has the benefit of providing useful skills such as Secret Signs (Thief) and Gossip ~ but it's nice to move onto a 'combat career' now that I have a few tricks up my sleeve.
Honouring our sportspersons agreement to avoid increasing our Attack attribute for as long as possible I instead chose Strike Mighty Blow and Dodge Blow to buy with saved experience points. During my character's downtime I will be working for the local Dwarf as a "soldiery type" (to justify the career of Shieldbreaker) and meeting up with the other player-characters on weekends for our adventures.
Honouring our sportspersons agreement to avoid increasing our Attack attribute for as long as possible I instead chose Strike Mighty Blow and Dodge Blow to buy with saved experience points. During my character's downtime I will be working for the local Dwarf as a "soldiery type" (to justify the career of Shieldbreaker) and meeting up with the other player-characters on weekends for our adventures.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Warhammer RPG: Bone Picker -> Smuggler
Another one of my many gaming commitments is a weekly meeting for Warhammer Roleplay. For the uninitiated; the word "Warhammer" is usually associated with the miniatures wargame (either the Fantasy or Science Fiction versions) however in this case it refers to the tabletop Roleplaying game - so cooperative play with only one character each rather than competitive play with a whole army each. I won't go into much more detail as I'll assume the majority of this blog's readers will require or desire no further clarity.
We agreed at the start that we would only play 'lowest class' starting careers. I rolled a few nice starters such as Soldier and Marine but passed on them until I finally hit a suitably low career: Bone Picker! The other players have started with Peasant, Charcoal Burner and Hedge Wizard. Yeah that last one is 'a bit good' but the character concept is of a midwife that lurks amongst (and is a fellow member of) the lowest citizens; she'll be moving up through healing careers rather than Wizard careers - although we'll see if she's not tempted away by more magic points :P
We've been playing multi-adventure sessions for a few weeks so the characters are just getting ready to finish their starting career and move into their second. Our Peasant will be having a wash and becoming a Servant (with a long term view of going through Valet and Squire to Knight) our Charcoal Burner will continue to develop his outdoor/wilderness skills - from memory he has Woodsman lined up as his next career. I plan to go from Bone Picker to Smuggler which will line me up for Shieldbearer and access to the warrior careers. I don't have my rulebook next to me so I'm not sure that I've used the correct career names in this paragraph; but you get the idea!
For this campaign we have revisited a format that I championed a few years ago when we were playing the science fiction version of this game (Dark Heresy). Each of us takes turns in a round-robin fashion of running a short adventure for the other players. Usually one member of the group commits to being the Games Master for the whole campaign and they are responsible for much of the story - but in this format the hat is passed around the table and the duties of 'world building' are shared.
We had problems making it work with Dark Heresy as each GM fell back on old habits and started running "arc" adventures that continued from their previous adventures; the result being that characters would suddenly find themselves back on Mudworld for part 2 of "Mudworld adventure" despite having just completed part 4 of "Deathworld adventure"; then they'd jump back to another continued adventure before coming back to Mudworld 3... as that campaign progressed the warping became too jarring and the whole thing crashed. After careful consideration we concluded that the trick is to ensure that adventures are short, sweet and have just enough hooks to spawn new independent adventures. Ideally each adventure is comparable in structure to a mid-season Buffy or Dr Who episode; nothing too major happens but characters can still develop.
Having said that it has been suggested that we may move from our collaboratively designed village to a town when our characters become middle class citizens. Perhaps we could consider this the end of Season One? ;)
We agreed at the start that we would only play 'lowest class' starting careers. I rolled a few nice starters such as Soldier and Marine but passed on them until I finally hit a suitably low career: Bone Picker! The other players have started with Peasant, Charcoal Burner and Hedge Wizard. Yeah that last one is 'a bit good' but the character concept is of a midwife that lurks amongst (and is a fellow member of) the lowest citizens; she'll be moving up through healing careers rather than Wizard careers - although we'll see if she's not tempted away by more magic points :P
We've been playing multi-adventure sessions for a few weeks so the characters are just getting ready to finish their starting career and move into their second. Our Peasant will be having a wash and becoming a Servant (with a long term view of going through Valet and Squire to Knight) our Charcoal Burner will continue to develop his outdoor/wilderness skills - from memory he has Woodsman lined up as his next career. I plan to go from Bone Picker to Smuggler which will line me up for Shieldbearer and access to the warrior careers. I don't have my rulebook next to me so I'm not sure that I've used the correct career names in this paragraph; but you get the idea!
For this campaign we have revisited a format that I championed a few years ago when we were playing the science fiction version of this game (Dark Heresy). Each of us takes turns in a round-robin fashion of running a short adventure for the other players. Usually one member of the group commits to being the Games Master for the whole campaign and they are responsible for much of the story - but in this format the hat is passed around the table and the duties of 'world building' are shared.
We had problems making it work with Dark Heresy as each GM fell back on old habits and started running "arc" adventures that continued from their previous adventures; the result being that characters would suddenly find themselves back on Mudworld for part 2 of "Mudworld adventure" despite having just completed part 4 of "Deathworld adventure"; then they'd jump back to another continued adventure before coming back to Mudworld 3... as that campaign progressed the warping became too jarring and the whole thing crashed. After careful consideration we concluded that the trick is to ensure that adventures are short, sweet and have just enough hooks to spawn new independent adventures. Ideally each adventure is comparable in structure to a mid-season Buffy or Dr Who episode; nothing too major happens but characters can still develop.
Having said that it has been suggested that we may move from our collaboratively designed village to a town when our characters become middle class citizens. Perhaps we could consider this the end of Season One? ;)
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