Depends. I mean, they tend to dress pretty.. weirdly. But yeah, it is not like the peasants will instantly know he's a wizard, and they will have little understanding of the different schools of magic. So they will probably see, as long as he dresses the part, that he is someone at least a couple of steps higher up the social ladder than them. Which means someone they should be deferential to but try to not get entangled with, as it can easily lead to problems.

Someone in the village might whisper about how he heard wizards dress like that and word might get around. But nothing will be confirmed until he uses magic or actually says he is a wizard.

Notice that this can also happen to someone who is not a wizard but just happens to like robes

It is really up to you and what you feel fits the story best. Some villages will have a very "burn the witch!" attitude towards magic users, while others will just be in awe.

Great, i think my friend was mostly worried about "the hate". He played a psyker in 40k and...psykers are easily recognized and a huge problem if you're not prepared for it. I'll defineatly talk to him about it, I take it going in anything else then the robes will get him into HUGE problems if caught, right?

One thing though, is there any way for an ignorant onlooker to tell the difference between a wizards magic and a priest perfoming a "miracle"? Maybe I should mention, is there a way to "fake" it? As in, for a wizard try to appear like a priest?

I am not sure how much trouble a wizard would get into for not dressing the part. I think it never occurs to wizards to NOT dress the part. A wizard has basically dedicated his life to the study of his school of magic and spent his formative years within the schools walls surrounded by other people who dress the same. Dressing as a wizard is part of his identity as well as a uniform of office.

It would be like a military officer who only wears civilian clothing because some people might dislike the military.

The wizard is the one in power and he can dress however he **** well likes and those stupid peasants should be happy he even bothered to visit their hole of a town.

It is also a matter of the wizards having a presence in the world. To have political clout, they need people to know they exist and are keeping an eye on things. A wizard is a representative of his college.

I think other wizards would be surprised at seeing one of their number not dress in his robes unless he was on some kind of secret mission. Is he embarrassed to be associated with his collage? Rumours about stuff like that can make a wizard ostracized within the community, making it very hard to climb in ranks.

Peasants can't tell the difference between spells and invocations (according to a lot of fluff, there isn't an actual difference. It's the same stuff.), however a priest is obvious in the way he dresses and talks. And peasants know of the gods of the Empire and their symbols, so priests of those gods are pretty easily recognizable. Not to mention that they are even less inclined than wizards to hide who they are.

Great, thanks! That was what I was looking for. It was mostly in the effort of being inconspicuous or "undercover" and then noticed by another wizard. I'll take it as...a disturbing event in need of a **** good reason. I'm mostly used to 40k and inquisitors and the...problems that arrise when a puritan and radical meet, or simply two of the same philosophy but different approaches meet. Like, acolytes found infiltrating a cult instead of burning it to the ground? I'll treat them the same i think.

Okay, grand. Nono, just in case he wants. My players are asking questions and...I'm somewhat worried about what they're planning. They tend to do imaginitive stuff, which is fun and i seldom have to put my foot down.

I am not sure how much trouble a wizard would get into for not dressing the part. I think it never occurs to wizards to NOT dress the part. A wizard has basically dedicated his life to the study of his school of magic and spent his formative years within the schools walls surrounded by other people who dress the same. Dressing as a wizard is part of his identity as well as a uniform of office.

It would be like a military officer who only wears civilian clothing because some people might dislike the military.

The wizard is the one in power and he can dress however he **** well likes and those stupid peasants should be happy he even bothered to visit their hole of a town.

It is also a matter of the wizards having a presence in the world. To have political clout, they need people to know they exist and are keeping an eye on things. A wizard is a representative of his college.

I think other wizards would be surprised at seeing one of their number not dress in his robes unless he was on some kind of secret mission. Is he embarrassed to be associated with his collage? Rumours about stuff like that can make a wizard ostracized within the community, making it very hard to climb in ranks.

A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins! And he always dresses the part!

I believe battle wizards (those of the colleges of magic that acompany the troops) actualy have medium to high military ranks to. How inconspicuos they look depends a bit on what college they are from: the grey ones dress plainly, they are basically Gandalf, the bright wizards on the other hand, dress in bright reds and yellows and take "fiery redhead" literally. An Amethyst wizard might be able to bluff people thinking he's a priest of Morr.

I see i need to read up more on wizards. I'm mostly familiar with bright wizards, tabletop and all. Anyway, more questions!

One: Some of the items say they include...stands? Is that like small tabletop stands in case you want to use that for combat or? I'm confused. Also, judging by the system it seems to favour narrative combat (which I prefer but has...issues in terms of player and GM awareness of where everything is in relation to eachother.

Two: Wizard character asks a broad question: What's it like pretending to be a wizard/wizards apprentice in warhammer fantasy? I think he's mostly asking due to his first encounter with warhammer was Dark Heresy 2nd edition, and we oversold psykers. Psykers in DH2 are...bland. So, what are they like? Do they risk blowing up? Cool magic? Cool hair?

1: Not quite sure about what you are referring to, but there are standups for the characters and NPCs in the game used mainly for keeping track of combat encounters.

2: Well, there is the Miscast effects which makes it risky to fling magic around willy-nilly. As time goes on, wizards become more and more marked by the magic they use. It is not a coincidence that Bright Wizards are red-heads. They also get the "cantrip" action which is basically all kinds of minor improvised tricks they can do with their school of magic. For example making a light with a flame(Bright), a star(Celestial), a glowing skull(Death) etc.

1) I don't really know what it is so it's not easy to try to explain! I'll give an example: The creature vault has the follow items:"131 action cards, 105 creature stat cards, 14 creature category sheets, 3 small standups, 42 medium standups, and 13 large standups" What's a standup? Is it used for iniative order?

2: someone's skull or A skull they find? Or do they create a glowing skull? Either way, that sounds awesome! I'll be sure to bring it along to him and hopefully he likes it.

1:

The standups are the creature tokens you can use to represent them on the tabletop. They are basicaly stand ins for miniatures. They are called Stand-ups because, well, If you put a base on them, they stand up

2: They create it with magic, though I am sure some Amethyst wizards carry skulls around anyway

Yeah, it's something to remember when roleplaying a warhammer wizard. It is all about the lore. Everything you do with the magic should be fitting the chosen magic lore of the wizard. Everything a bright wizard does will be related to fire in some way, everything a grey wizard does has a smoke or shadow theme and so on.

In most cases where you use larger spells, it will be action cards which are clearly descriptive of the lore they are from. Bright wizards get "Fireball", "Cauterize Wound" and other fire stuff for example. But there are some more generic stuff that can be done with magic where you use your imagination to describe how the wizard uses his lore to achieve the desired effect. Cantrip is a big one for this, but there is also "Magic Dart" which is a basic magic missile attack. But a bright wizard would throw a small ball of fire, a grey wizard dagger of pure shadow, a light wizard shoots a beam, an amber wizard conjures a bow and shoots an arrow etc. Mechanically they work identically, it's up to the player to come up with a description that gives it the right flavour.

The more powerful a wizard gets the more they begin to look like the wind of magic they use. Also their robes at any level, reflect their wind. Consequently wizards are always instantly recognisable, as a general rule, apart from perhaps the Grey Order. This also mollifies the Sigmarites and their witchhunters, as it makes spotting a wizard that is going off the rails or a warlock that is not part of any order that much easier.

I Personally do not think that wizards are instantly recognised. It relates at least as much to the ignorance of common folk than the attire of a wizard. But think about it: students, scholars, priests etc. all dress in robes. And what about the staff then? It is the cheapest reliable weapon available and can be used as a walking aid. Sure there are a lot of pouches on his belt, then what?

That all is of course just part of how I personally do it. I do agree that master wizards and such are more easily spotted to be what they are, but that is because of the embroidered symbols, very ornated staffs, odd odours and the fact that the magic slowly leaves its mark (or mutations =D ). More educated or experienced people will have easier time to spot a wizard for what he is, but those people are usually as far apart in the Empire as the wizards themselves.

Okay, so then I take it a commoner will only KNOW a wizard if he's seen one before and knows that's how they look? Like a state trooper recognizing a bright wizard after seeing one in a battle. And otherwise he'll suspect, at most, that the there's something odd about the character. I presume everyone has HEARD of wizards, but simply heresay and most likely more fiction then fact in the stories being told.

I'll go "easy" on him compared to psykers in 40k I think.

And what about the staff then? It is the cheapest reliable weapon available and can be used as a walking aid.

While I mostly agree, the staff is most likely an attuned item:

"During his training, an apprentice wizard is often given the

Okay, so then I take it a commoner will only KNOW a wizard if he's seen one before and knows that's how they look? Like a state trooper recognizing a bright wizard after seeing one in a battle. And otherwise he'll suspect, at most, that the there's something odd about the character. I presume everyone has HEARD of wizards, but simply heresay and most likely more fiction then fact in the stories being told.

I'll go "easy" on him compared to psykers in 40k I think.

Yeah, it can actually work better if he isn't always instantly recognizable. This will make him avoid flaunting his magic to avoid unwanted attention.

I'll go "easy" on him compared to psykers in 40k I think.

Yeah wizards in warhammer aren't so feared/big a threat as 40k psykers. (Don't think they can get possessed like psykers either.) but they are no liked and respected like d&d wizards either. The Bright wizards once burned part of Altdorf when one of their fire spell experiments went bad. Gold wizards have been known to fand out fools gold that later turned back in to lead, and the amethyst wizards- they are the ones cosplaying as the grim reaper, people are usualy to afraid to complain about them.

And what about the staff then? It is the cheapest reliable weapon available and can be used as a walking aid.

While I mostly agree, the staff is most likely an attuned item:

"During his training, an apprentice wizard is often given the

task of creating his own, personal attuned item. Attuned

items are arcane talismans that assist the wizard in channelling.

Because attuned items must be held in a hand to work, they

are often crafted to serve a dual purpose as a weapon. Many

attuned items are staffs, though some wizards and orders

prefer to wield attuned swords."

I would expect that with the work involved in creating an attuned item, most wizard would go for an appearance more impressive than just a big stick.

Yeah, you are probably right about that... Have not had this play a major role in a game so far. Probably because I tend to keep everything even remotely magical very rare. Still a valid point.

As an example, I play a white wizard in a game and I used a simple spell to create light, thinking it would help others see (in the middle of a night, and the inn being on fire). The random people around were already a bit panicked and my spell only made it worse. No one tried to hang me or anything, but I had to let the spell go and move a bit away so that the inn could be saved. Great roleplaying, even two other players described their characters feeling panic and mistrust etc.

Yeah, I also try to keep magic a bit rare. I grew allergic to magic items through D&D where it seemed like magic was so common that a farmers wife would be cutting the bread with a +2 Knife of Bread Slaying

in Warhammer, many "magic" items come with a bad side too. for example in TGS.

Almost better to have mastercraft equipment than magical ones that have some bad stuff attached to them

By the way, one question came up yesterday. How easily recognized is a wizard? I know he gets a staff, no idea if it looks...special? And robes denoting his school of magic, but do peasants know? Or is it just fancy'ish clothes? I know witch hunters will know, but what about other folk?

I think it mainly depends on the use of attuned wizard items. Since those items (staff, sword, wand) are different from their normal counterparts, it would sure lead at least to the question: nice item, where did you get that?

I'm sure it would lead to questions thePREdiger, or at least interest/suspicion. Most peasants probably don't want to get too involved with random strangers more then neccessary. But of course, the reactions will vary.

Got my core set yesterday and only got a chance to skim over the content and it seems good so far! There are three small boxes I don't know what I'm supposed to do with but I'm sure I'll figure it out. So far, so good. Hopefully we'll have our first session soon.

Got my core set yesterday and only got a chance to skim over the content and it seems good so far! There are three small boxes I don't know what I'm supposed to do with but I'm sure I'll figure it out. So far, so good. Hopefully we'll have our first session soon.

The small boxes are for the players to keep their characters, cards, and stuff in. The boxes are kind of small to fit that purpose aftter a while though.

That's actually kind of neat! Not neccessary, but a nice little piece of content to bring the proper look to the tabletop.

Any last tips before I try GM'ing the old world for the first time?

Make some notes about random negative stuff that happens when someone rolls a Chaos Star. It's often really hard to come up with something on the fly. Try to make it a bit thematic to the adventure you run and try to avoid too many slapstick results or it'll start getting silly when the characters keep tripping or loosing their weapon every combat.

Make some notes about random negative stuff that happens when someone rolls a Chaos Star. It's often really hard to come up with something on the fly. Try to make it a bit thematic to the adventure you run and try to avoid too many slapstick results or it'll start getting silly when the characters keep tripping or loosing their weapon every combat.

Or say "you have a sudden feeling of dark forboding, as if somewhere in the world your doom has come a step closer to you."

Nothing really happens, but it tends to freak out the players, wondering what you (the gm) has planned.