Hey guys! I just got together a group of friends and I just ran them through the "One Day Late, One Shilling Short" intro adventure with the pregen characters. After that I allow them to choose their own race and career and one guy in the group immediately jumped to the Elf Swordmaster.

This brings me to my dilemma. The player feels more like a munchkin and he will not take the elf roleplaying seriously AT ALL so I won't be surprised if he'll just get the Swordmaster to start doing stupid things or just something un-elflike, but just want to be an elf to inflate his ego. Also, he doesn't care about his background and I seriously can't think of background for elves. Should I let him play it and see how it goes, or should I make an excuse for him to roll a human or dwarf character?

Lesson learned: use the random race generator.

I didn't allow elves in my campaign.

What I'd suggest you do is tell him if he really wants to play a swordmaster he can. On one condition: Write up a serious background and help you find a reason for him to be in the party. If you have trouble thinking of a reason why a swordmaster would be in the party you can do as one of my friends did.

In his group one player wanted to play the swordmaster but mostly because of the way of the sword cards. They solved the 'problem' by making him a human mercenary who had spend some time in campaign with high elven swordmasters and therefore learned some of their ways. Remember anyone can use the way of the sword action cards and the swordmaster doesn't even have a specialty that affects them like the wardancer does. That might change in later ranks though.

You make it sound though that he is not a serious RP'er in any event. If that is the case I would not allow him in my campaign at all. Its OK to have fun and joke around from time to time, but if he's gonna be goofy all the time he's just gonna ruin it for the other player's let alone you. I play a DH group where that is the case and for me its just turned into story telling tactic game. No fun to roleplay if part of the group is not giving it a serious go. You'll never get a chance to get in character.

Remember this is you game and you are spending hours on preparation for all to have fun. Including yourself.

Enfid said:

I have no elves in my group but if someone behaved like the player you describe I doubt he would be in our group for long. Role playing takes up a lot of time and we seriously don't want to waste time with people not interrested in adding to the enjoyment of everyone.

But a background for an elf could be an exile for some reason. But the easy solution is to make his actions count and let him face the consequences. Let him run into some elves... if he doesn't behave they may just have to cleanse the world of the tainted kinsman.

I'd do two things.

First, either pull him aside, or with the whole group, outline your expectations for RP. If you've got other players whom you know well, you might get them to chime in so that it's clear that peer pressure's on your side.

Second, if you decide to let him be an elf and he acts crazily, let the game world respond harshly. People may be wary of elves in the first place, and elves who act strangely will cause even more ire. The Warhammer world isn't accepting of non-conformity, so it will be easy to have townspeople decide he's a heretic or a lunatic or somesuch. Make his life harder. Use the party tension meter.

Ultimately, it's up to you how much you want to put up with. Personally, I have space for a crazy character if he's entertaining my entire party with his antics. On the other hand, having played D&D with one of the worst roleplayers in the world for years and years, nothing can kill a game so quickly as someone who just doesn't get the party's or the GM's dynamic. I'd say try to have your boundaries clear in your mind, and try to let the player know what your expectations are up front so that when you enforce them, he won't be able to say that you didn't tell him what you wanted.

I have to agree with everyone else. The problem here isn't the choice of playing an elf, but rather a conflict of gaming interests. If you are looking for in depth roleplay and for the players to take the game seriously, you cannot have anyone in the group that doesn't at least get that. It sounds like you have a player that is much more interested in the mechanical aspects of the game than the storytelling, and I had a similar player for years so I can understand the disconnect. Point him towards Warhammer Fantasy Battles and find a replacement player.

Also, there's been suggestions and I'm using it that the Swordmaster (and the Ironbreaker) are Advanced careers, requiring completion of something appropriately military (like Soldier career) before they can be taken.

keltheos said:

This is the best option I have heard. I assuming the guy is part of the gaming group and you do want him to participate. The reason this optio is best is that you explain to him he must roleplay into the career of a swordmaster. You do have to explain to him your expectations, but now he has a goal that fits you group. The other alternative (based on how you wrote about him) is give him an alternate career like a troll slayer.

My party of 6 players has 3 high elves. The biggest problem has been their dislike of humanity, which is being role played well, but sometimes their lack of compassion for such an inferior race does make the adventure difficult. Eventually they tow the line but only after a few snide comments about "how suprising it is, humanity has even made it this far"

Thanks guys! Great ideas here. I really should have thought about only allowing Swordmaster as an advanced career.

Just to stray a bit, I specifically mention (or implied my annoyyance) against people playing elves simply because, in my experience, no elf player has ever roleplayed an elf well. They're just simply tall human with pointy ears that can pwn things like Legolasz!!!111one. Never have I seen a person roleplaying an elf commenting things that Sinister mentioned.

Speaking of elf roleplaying, I'm wondering how it would be like to play an elf who is actually fascinated by human and its culture, and find inferior human craft and culture amusing rather than primitive (even if it is).

I'll try to talk to him and make sure he understands what playing an elf means, especially an elf under the path of the sword master, or maybe let him decide if he wants to be an exile and be treated unwell by other elves. And if he finds it a bit too challenging, I'll convince him to roll something else. I'll come back to tell you how it goes.

My elves are also obessed with being clean, not wanting the stink of humans on them. The spend alot of time bathing. course I like to throw a chamber pot at them every chance I get.

Sinister said:

Are you playing the Old World Matrix? 'the stink of humans' Agent Smithllydra

We did starting careers randomly but I'd have allowed a Swordmaster if it was drawn for an Elf. I have two elves, 2 humans and soon to have a dwarf in our party so I'm ok with elves. I allowed them to pick races, but they decided to pick race without knowing what the others were taking so we would have to write a good backstory for why they are adventuring together.

Sounds like the issue is more the player rather than whatever character he picks. Is he a proper fit for the group? Do you care that he doesn't care about the RP at all? If not, then just let him play and have RP fun with the other players and he loses out during that time I guess. If you run a 50/50 (or whatever) split between RP and combat does he just sit quietly for half the time? I'd let him (well the whole group) try a game together before making a decision or maybe telling him that xx% of the game wil be RP and asking him to really think about if this is the kind of game he wants to play in.

Mark

Enfid said:

The False Pretenses WFRP3 fan scenario specifically addresses this matter...ridicule the heck out of him and give him black dice to any checks that would be elf-related, human-related or otherwise. Create checks specifically to that.

If he really wants to be a renegade elf, go for it. No elf bonuses, only penalties..and he'll quickly realize that he doesn't fit in. Then create a 'higher rank' swordmaster that he can envy or get info from and start to drip it his direction. If he's interested, he'll bite, if not, then he can eat black dice

BTW, my house rulebook only allows one elf per party..so far, nobody's interested in playing an elf anyways.

jh