Ok, so this version (3e) is my first foray into the Warhammer fantasy world.

My familiarity of Warhammer really revolves around the games Mordheim and Blood Bowl. That being said, to me, the whole Mordheim location is a perfect setting to build small adventures, social adventures and can be a hub location for upcoming adventure possibilities, NPC introductions and plot hooks.

So my general question is, Is Mordheim in sync with the overall Empire timeline as presented by the 3e rule set?

Would potentially adventuring in a location like Mordheim potentially cause conflicts with other aspects of the WFRP empire?

As far as I recall the Mordheim game was set a couple of hundred years before the timeline in the RPG.

Shouldn't be any problems setting your game there though - other than it's probably a lot more likely that PC's are going to run into trouble!

I'm not sure if, canonically, Mordheim was ever rebuilt, cursed as it was. Not that it would stop people living there, but they'd be outposts on the edges of a broken shell of a city. At least, in my mind. You could decide Mordheim had been completely rebuilt by now...

Mordheim, and the three settlements aroudn it, where burnt to ashes by Magnus the Pious and never rebuilt. Offically, anyway...

Exactly Jadrax! We really have no idea what Mordheim is like in the current setting. 200 years is a lot of time, and the Ostermark is something of a backwater. One could see a small settlement springing up, particularly one that doesn't adhere to the usual superstitions rife in the region. Strigany might be a good candidate, or something or someone that *understands* what happened there.

Not having strong knowledge of the overall Warhammer world setting, to me, Mordheim and all its stories and adventure hooks just seems like a GM's buffet of ideas.

This is where I'm setting my campaign. The year is 1999 spring, one year before the comet hits.

I think the current year in warhammer is 2532.

Mordhiem isn't far from the van carstiens which will be a subplot as well.

My wife wants to play a sister of sigmar. The other players haven't decided yet.

WFRP 2nd and WFB 6th pushed to about 2532, WFRP 3rd and WFB 7th dialed back to 2521 or so, before the Storm of Chaos.

A 1999 game would be quite a bit of fun... especially if your players don't *know* anything about the setting.

simpatikool said:

Mordheim would propably be a overgrown ruin by now, at best a site for wary travellers finding shelter, at worst a site for chaos cultists doing excavations in search of warpstone or chaos artifacts.

most maps of the Empire refer Mordheim to either the ruins of Mordheim, or the Dead city of Mordheim. In Sigmar`s Heir under Ostermark I fund this reference to Mordheim:

"In the south, along the banks of the Stir, the expanse of the Great Forest near Essen, when spoken of at all, is referred to as the Dead Wood, for the dead city of Mordheim lies in its midst." ..."The Woods have ahd a frightening reputation ever since Mordheim`s destruction. None live there, and few willingly enter it. Locals swear that they can hear screams coming from the wood at night, and that any who enter it will come back mad and mutated - if they come back at all."

Although its been over 500 years since "fire fell from the sky and destroyed the city", very few have ever visited the ruins of Mordheim after its destruction. In that statement lies the biggest difference from the WFRP and the miniatyre game Mordheim.

in the game Mordheim, gangs of treasure hunters fought for the possession of wyrdstone or warpstone, in the warhammer setting, there is little evidence for that did happen. In fact very few adventurers have ever made a sucessfull forray into the doomed ruins of Mordheim. The Sigmar`s heir even tell of a band of adventurers that tried but returned as horrible mutants and where killed by the authority.

in the same way the game Bloodbowl, don`t excist in warhammer, no way you are going to get chaos warriors to play a game of ball, admist a cheering audience.

Ofcourse I am only referring to the official setting. But your idea of a campaign centred around the myths of Mordheim, is very good. In fact placing your campaign to the eastern part of the Empire (ostermark read hungary, slovakia, poland), is a very good choice. Closest town to Mordheim is Essen, and that is a perfect place to start such a campaign.

Essen, an isolated town...sits in an unenviable place between the portion of the Great Forest known as the Dead Wood on the west, the Eerie Downs on the East and the Hel Fenn across the river to the south...has the reputation as the most haunted village in the Empire. Tavern tales say that ghosts are common...zombies till the fields, and Sylvanian Vampires hunt openly in Essen.

Have a good campaign

Thanks for the information. Your response is exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping to garner.

I think I am gonna have to start getting background information on the whole empire and its timelines.

The more I dig into this game, the more I am getting drawn into the whole Warhammer world.

I for one am a big fan of Mordheim as a setting, but were I to run it I would want to run it in the ruined city in the year 2000 myself.

For those that are looking at the city in the modern times, there is a Warhammer Army book that referenced it on the map, the (older) Skaven book. I wouldn't doubt it if Skaven still occupy the area (at least underground area) and have been mining the warpstone underneath the ruins for the past 500 years.

Back to the City of the Damned setting, I think it makes for a wonderful backdrop. The three encampments that sprang up around the city are rife with politicing and infighting from the rival gangs, and are almost as dangerous as the city itself. Then there's the corruption that happens to those that enter the walls or the ones that actually find Wyrdstone.

And while the city was burned down by Magnus the Pious, that was not until after it had its mark left on history. Vlad von Carstein cast his Ritual of Awakening in 2010 using power from warpstone gathered from the city. Not only is Sylvania very close to Mordheim, but anybody interfering with the Undead acquiring warpstone is likely to attract the attention of Vlad himself! Now that is a powerful adversary!

One of my players wants to play a sister of sigmar. I'm fudging quit a few events (as far as when they happen) but bascially my campaign outline is.

1. Players are hired to take some astromony equipment to a professor in a backwater town. He's contsrtucted an observatory there.

2. He discovers the twin tailed coment and it's relation to mordheim

3. The players are asked to take the news to atdorf, then mordheim.

4. Bunches of religious zealots travel with the heroes (making the heroes uncomfortable) to Mordheim.

5. The road to morheim becomes ripe for bandits, the heroes are hired for Mordheim to make the road safe for travelors.

6. There are too many people attending services as the sister's of sigmar temple, they decide to build a bigger church. The want to import stone from Slyvannia. (Here's the part I fudged) Otto Van Drak is still in charge. The heroes go to meet with him.

7. The count's madness sets in while the heroes visit.

8. Undead break out othe family crypts of the Von Drak. The hero's have to rescure Isabella from there clutches.

9. With the count mad, and the undead coming back to life, the witch hunter claims that a great darkness has falled on the Von Draks. His investigation leads him to the conclusion that it was the heroe's arrival that caused these events. He wants to put one or more of the heroe's on trial.

10. A heavy fog sets in on Castle Drankenof.

11. Otto makes his deathbed statement, he would rather see his daughter marry a demon of chaos, than his brother Leapold inheirt the kingdom. No sooner has he said that, then a black coach arrives through the fog. Out steps Vlad Von Carstien.

12. Carstien asks for Isabella's hand, Otto Agrees, but leapod challenges the count to a duel.

13. During the duel the peasants, arned with torches and pitchforks lead by the Witch Hunter demand the heroes be turned over to them for a trial.

14. Vlad kills Leapold, marries Isabelle, Otto passes. Vlad tells the heroes that they are his wedding guests and while here, they are under his protection. He then steps out on the balconey and explains to the peasants that he will comply with their wishes but he has recently be made count and wishes them to return in the morning.

15. The next morning the heroes are given a letter by isabella written by Vlad, explaining he was called away and can not attend breakfast. He offers them the stone for their chapel at a low rate and says they will have no more trouble with the peasants.

16. As they leave they are eyed by the peasants like they are a great evil. they learn that the witch hunter and the village elders have gone missing. A few miles on their return trip home they are attacked by giant wolves. There are other bodies here. Those of the village elders, mauled by wolves, and the witch hunter, drained of blood with two puncture marks.

17.. When the heroes return there's been a notcible difference in the people in Mordheim. More and more taverns are being buiilt, the crime rate goes up, less and less religion. The heroes are asked to become deputies.

18. The grand theogonist arrives, making sure his "brand" of simgar gets worshiped over thoses "whores" the sisters of sigmar.

19. The heroes witness public drunkeness, Sex in the streets, drugs, etc... This is all tied to a cult of pleasure (slannesh) growing in Mordheim. They heroes have to stop the cult. Even once they manage to do so, it does little to bring back the religion in the town.

20.The grand theogonist is stoned (not killed though) while making a passionate plea to attend services. He and his men cut a path of blood on their way out of the city. He declares the city "Damned" and says it is beyond hope.

20. The city is hit by the comet. The heroes are saved by being in the Sister's of Sigmar chapel when it happens.

21. The heroes discover Wyrdstone. The sisters beg them to help in the holy quest to gather it and keep it from the evil of others.

22. The Grand Theogonist proclaims it is the "whores" the sisters of sigmar that allowed this to happen, he sends his witch hunters to eradicate them. In truth, this is just a cover story. He wants the wrydstone and needs a public reason to send people to the "city of the damned"

23. Magaritta of Marrienburg arrives, once allied with the sisters, her warband demands their cache of wrydstone, they sisters refuse and bloodshed erupts in the temple.

24. The skaven arrive.

25. Vlad arrives.

26. The heroes must contend with all these factions, keeping the wrydstone from them.

Of course this is a basic outline of my plot, there are many details still to be figured out.

oh a very interesting idea.

I think the information found in WFRP and WFB have a different view on Mordheim. In any case you`re unsure what to do or what setting you want to follow I would recommend going with WFRP and not WFB.

but as Sinister pointed out you can create a blast of a Mordheim campaign having the WBF army books available as well.

I wonder what else is different from the wfrp setting and wfb? Do you guys have an opinion on it?

Mal Reynolds said:

Well for sure the whole von drak thing happened in 1797 not 1999, I fuged the hell out of that. But I liked the idea. I also liked the idea of having political and social tension in the world. I have some 1ed material for WFRP but I'd admit most of the stuff I pulled off a wikipedia and my old various army books. I do suspect at some point I'll add an adventure around a blood bowl game. Mostly because I'm a fan, and the guy that writes the blood bowl novels is a friend of mine. Could be goofy fun.

I respect some may want to be purists but my group only has 1 warhammer player or fan in it, so it's really a bunch of people that won't even give the official cannon a second notice. It's the perfect group to fudge some events with.

Sinister said:

yes indeed that seems like fun, and the best part of any rpg is that you can do with it as you please. And yes I am kind of a purist when it comes to warhammer.

My previous advice was for any that are new to the warhammer world, to avoid confussion, and to point out that the are differences between the wfrp and wfb.

A better advice would be: take what you want for your campaign and leave the rest out.

it didn`t occur to me that you were fudging , but fudging seems fun. alternative history can be quite fun to play.

Mal Reynolds said:

If you don't mind mal, I'll might send you a private message when I have a timeline question. Seems you are pretty much all over it, which means you could be a vauable resource, since this is my first time running in the warhammer world.

Sinister said:

Sure no problem, I be happy to help. I use this excellent forum to get help myself from time to time. Like I am relative new to the whole Dark heresy, so I got bunch of help, when running my DH campaign.

I`ve been playing warhammer as a GM for 6 years now, and own pretty much everything from the 1st and 2nd edition.

At your service

the norwegian dude

Thanks for the pointers on Mordheim. I can't help but want to bring my adventurers to the city of Mordheim.

We just finished the Eye for an Eye (Good Starter).

I introduced Mordheim in the following manner. (We only have one Warhammer junky/purist in our group..It would not be me) Like, I have no idea who the Von Drakes are, but they sound menacing.

In my setting, I chose to use the current timelines suggested in the book, but I am building Mordheim out to be the ruined hulk of a city that it is, as a setting I can introduce adventures against.

Back in the day, my Undead Warband was the bomb. There is no reason why a Vampire can't be the arch villian in the current ruins of Mordheim. I have a semi Epic planned.

After Eye for Eye, the Lord of the manor introduces the party and their respective powers to a Lord in Altdorf. (In my world, its the Ragnarocke family) The party gets commissioned to recover an artifact. The catch is the artifact was stolen from the Family by a vampire. Following the clues will eventually lead the party to the ruins of Mordheim. I have not decided on the amount of cessions or adventures it will take the party to get to Mordheim at this point. I am busilly converting my old stand bye DnD adventure Bone Hill into a suitable interlude adventure as it stands anyway. But once at Mordheim, they will have to explore the ruins uncover the Vampires hideout and or motivation. This alone will also give me the oppurtunity to intriduce other NPCs and plot hooks. As a side to also give motivations, I gave out personal plot motivations to various PCs that give them various reasons to respond in some manner to my story designs.

So in WFRP 3e speak, my progression is going

1. Social encounter in Altdorf intro to the NPC, accepting the task of the mission.

2. Social encounter doing research following clues. Potential encounters for flavor

3. Story Mode through Stirland, following clues. Potential encounters for flavor

4. Town in Stirland with clues and evidence. (converted module Bone Hill, with plot hooks to support my story) Did I go on about how I loved the module Bone Hill?

5. Story mode to Mordheim.

6. Uncovering Vampire Lair. Epic Battle, Vampire will get away, to fight another day.

The result will be then that the party is in the area of Mordheim, and I can introduce more stories. Using the hulk of a warp ruined city as my back drop.

In one of the maps at the back of the WHFRP3 main rulebook there is a skull symbol on the map labled "Former site of Mordheim." So - yes - that's a ruin and its a dangerous place in the current timeline - great place to set an adventure IMO.

hmm I mentioned that I have been a GM in warhammer for 6 years...that was wrong I meant 16 years.

your campaign sounds great. let me know how it goes.

I'm unfolding my campaign slowly. The players are delievering astronomy equipment that will see the twin talied comet and the comet that will hit mordhiem. Should be great fun.