Too Damn Cold!

Can someone tell me why I agreed to leave nice warm (ish) Houston and go to the arctic for Christmas?

AccuWeather.com - Rapid City, SD - 15 Day Weather Forecast

Warhammer Fantasy: A peak at the future

Earlier today Fantasy Flight Games published a PDF (view online) file giving everyone a peak at what is in store for the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying game.  I am very interested in this game, and very interested in reading what is in store.  The file is a bit of a riddle though, I wonder if we can figure it all out?

The PDF reveals the thoughts of Gavius Klugge, renowned Master Wizard of the Grey Order.  As is to be expected, not all is well in the Empire.  Klugge is shown four glimpses of the future, and from these we can make some guess as to what is coming.

"...revealed to me that a storm is brewing. A terrible storm. A raging storm filled with difficult decisions and dire consequences."

The first upcoming item is The Gathering Storm, a campaign box set that has already been announced.  Not too much secret here.

"...more assistance is coming, more tools and resources to help me manage my affairs, to help me organise my thoughts, and ultimately allow me to prepare for what is coming in the year ahead. A trove of wisdom, the shadow promised, and more."

The second upcoming item is a bit trickier.  From the above quote it would appear that a second toolkit of some sort will be released.  This vision does go on to talk about a revealed nemesis though.  There is a picture of some sort of demon of Nurgle on the page which makes me think that perhaps this second item is some sort of magic item reference, with some chaosy bits thrown in for good measure.

"...it did not take me long to solve my third shadow’s riddle. Before he could whisper in my ear, I had deduced his meaning – the very winds of magic were blowing..."

Like the first vision, the third is easy to decipher.  The third expansion will be a magic sourcebook, presumably covering the remaining colleges of magic (and perhaps necromancy and demonology as well).  I can only presume that this will introduce more advanced careers for magic users to work with.

"I heard a scurrying of vermin and smelt the stench of dead things, woven into the fabric of the shadow’s words. The shadow placed in my hands a mask, a trifle, a noble’s amusement of pure shadow that melted and twisted and evaporated before my eyes."

My first guess on the fourth clue was a Skaven sourcebook, but after reading it a few more times I think it is another campaign.  More importantly I think it could be a reference to a remake of The Enemy Within campaign.  I don't mean an update of the classic, but rather a new campaign updated for the new edition of the game.  There are many clues in the text of this section, but the part about the mask seems particularly telling to me.

All in all this was a great way for FFG to build excitement for the product.  I am having a hard time focusing on my 4th edition D&D campaign with this system sitting on my shelf.  As for everything above, my predictions?  Even good Herr Klugge writes "...it seems everyone sees something different from the signs and portents".  This is what I see, only time will tell if I read the signs correctly.

Visual Roleplaying in the Warhammer World

The newest release in the line of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying games was released this past week by Fantasy Flight Games. This new 3.0 version of the rules takes a much larger departure from the original rules than the 2.0 version from Green Ronin and Black Industries did.  If you are not familiar with the new game I suggest you check out the games page and read many of the preview articles which explain the components and mechanics of the game.

What I wanted to write about as I have just finished reading the main rule set for the game is how I think this version of the game is innovative in the way that it helps players to roleplay their characters and visual the mechanics of the game in such a way as to help them roleplay those mechanics. To provide some background on my thinking, let me discuss a few things from my recent time playing 4th edition D&D.

In the D&D game I am DM'ing, based in a world of my creation, Ogres are rare and scary creatures. When the party of brave adventurers saw the Ogre for the first time they drew swords and charged straight in. In the Forgotten Realms organized play game I played in, my PC encountered some creatures of shadow. Shapeless beings from another plane, but I was not scared. I charged right in without thinking twice about this horrible creature. Roleplaying fear is hard. I am not the most prolific rpg'er, but I don't recall ever being in a situation where the DM said, you see a large red dragon, and any of the PC's said we cower in fear at the monstrosity in front of us. Sure D&D is more heroic, but hopefully the point is made.

A few other things I find it hard to roleplay are injuries and attitude. When you finish a battle with lot HP's in D&D all you need to do is rest for a few minutes and all is better. Not very realistic, which makes it easy to not roleplay the fact that you were just in a fight with a Grick who tore huge rakes into your flesh. I also, I recall playing a very gruff dwarf cleric in 3rd edition. I was mad at the world, and chased into any fight without issue. However, if I needed to negotiate I instantly changed tact to meet the needs of the current encounter. Now this is a problem on my part of not staying in character, but again I hope it makes a point that is hard to roleplay.

So four paragraphs in and we get to the point. In Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd edition (WFRP 3.0), Fantasy Flight has addressed the roleplaying issues I mentioned above by making a game with visual roleplaying components. These components, along with the unique mechanics of the game, help players to play more in character without making the mechanics feel board gamey.

A couple of examples of how the rules help address the issues above:

• Chapter 8 of the rule book discusses conditions and effects.  In addition to discussing insanity, which is a staple of WFRP, it discusses the rules for fear.  When you first encounter a fear causing creature you have to check vs. your discipline.  Failing the test means that you are stressed (a mechanic in the game).  In addition, and this is where the custom dice are a benefit, if you roll two Bane results you will also be frightened.  Now inside a quick mechanic of rolling some dice you know exactly if you are frightened, and how frightened you are.  Mechanically you may also be on the way to having a bit of a break down.  If you encounter horrible, fear causing creatures all day long you will cower with fear and eventually go insane.
• The end of chapter 7 discusses injuries.  In this game you have multiple levels of injury from very basic cuts and scrapes to critical wounds which could impair your PC for life.  The use of criticals in WFRP or Rolemaster have long been considered to be both a fun and realistic way of dealing damage, and WFRP 3.0 does a great job with this.  One of the nicer mechanics is that when you are knocked unconscious one of your normal wounds, visualized by cards, is converted to a critical wound.  This is done by turning the card from it's normal wound side to it's critical side.  This is done randomly, and helps to represent the damage done as you fall to the ground with your body beaten.  Perhaps nicer though is that when you rest you do not auto recover all of your wounds.  You recover some wounds overnight and on rest periods based on how tough you are.  You can also test your resiliency, which can help you to regain additional wounds.  People can assist you using first aid, but watch out for bane results or the healing attempt could do more harm than good.  All of this combines to make combat deadly and make players feel as though their characters are actually injured and at risk.
• The stance meter in the game is perhaps one of the most unique elements.  The stance meter lets you adjust the mindset of your character from reckless, through neutral, to conservative.  Everything you do in the game is at least somewhat related to your stance.  If I am three steps in reckless and the encounter changes from combat to diplomacy it is going to be very hard for me to calm down enough for effective negotiation.  Mechanically, it forces me to think about how I will act in the game based on my current demeanor.

As I read the rules I kept thinking to myself that this game has tried really hard to encourage people to roleplay.  It provides a simple card and dice mechanic to help players understand what their PC's are doing and how the game world affects the PC's.  I am very anxious to try the game out, and am thinking of converting Shadows over Bogenhafen for use with this version.