Hi there,

I've recently bought the WFRP 3rd ed core set, and it looks bloody impressive, and I look forward to GMing a session with some friends in the near future and having some fun. (I'm probably going to start with A Day Late as a taster session with the pre-generated characters, and then get them to create their own characters for a new campaign after that, so that they don't have to fiddle around with the character generation system from the off--unless anyone has other suggestions?). I've GMed a handful of times in the past with various quite random systems, but not very often, and never with WFRP.

The group of friends I'll probably get together to play with have not, to my knowledge, had much dealings with the Warhammer universe before. (I know that at least a couple of them have never played tabletop RPGs before.) Whilst I think I can sum up the important rules (basically the dice mechanics) quite quickly in the first gaming session, I'm not sure how to present the appropriate information about the Old World setting to them without spending hours reading from a book to them!

How much background knowledge do they need to know in order to roleplay successfully in the Old World? Players won't have bought copies of the game box/books before playing. The intro to A Day Late suggests players read Chapter 10 of the Player's Guide, so I was half-thinking I should photocopy those pages and send them round the players before they arrive to play, but that seems a bit too much like homework! Of course, after a session or two they will hopefully want to read up for themselves, but I want to make the first session as non-threatening and as information-lite as possible , if you understand me.

What do you think? Are there some essential facts about the setting that players need to know? Can they be thrown right into it and find the world out for themselves?

Any help and guidance would be really appreciated!

You can send them “A Rat Catcher’s Tale” nice short story published for free by FFG – this could help them get into the mood.

I have also recently started a new group where four of the five players are complete RPG newbies and none now anything about the Warhammer setting. To not overwhelm them with information and instead get them into playing, I am introducing the background info slowly. The first two sessions we created characters and played a customized version of A Day Late, where I only introduced them to the fact that they are not superheroes and that the woods are really, really dangerous places and that Beastmen are not clean and nice hybrids of man and goat, but corrupted, mutated creatures riddled with smaller or larger deformations.

They also learned that they are poor commoners who will be commanded around more or less at whim by wimpy, but rich and powerful people that are obviously no match for them in combat but that they better not mess with if they are not ready to face dire consequences.

I also introduced them to grumpy innkeepers and a not overly friendly Vern Hendrick (from An Eye for an Eye). Before the next session starts, I will read them an introductory paragraph from The Enemy Within campaign that sets a nice mood, I hope – corruption is everywhere and the end times might be close!

The first background thing that I have told them about is the iconic figure of the Witch Hunter. Fear him, for he could burn you too. Also fear the mob, for it could lynch you faster than you would think!

I think you have an amazing chance to introduce the Old World to your group through playing. Just make sure they create basic human characters with mundane careers (guard, ratcatcher, scribe, priest etc.). They can all be from the same backwater village, maybe a group of drinking buddies. Now explain the world as being as Europe during renaissance. The religion has a strong hold on society. Corruption reigns in politics and life is cheap. Wilderness is a dangerous place with all sorts of wild animals and bandits lurking in the woods.

I guess if you introduce a ratcatcher character to the game with the following it puts the whole setting into a perspective: "You've spent the whole day and part of your evening in the city sewers, but managed only catch two thin rats. The crop was bad and it seems this year even the rats are starving. After selling the rats to Shmitt the piemaker for a couple of copper coins you decide to invest your meager earnings into a pint in your local tavern instead of going home to your nagging wife and that brat of a child..."

All the chaos intrigue, Skaven infestation etc. ongoing cliche Warhammer trademark plots and hooks are SOOOO much more effective when introduced to a group who don't say "Oh, that's a ratogre and that one is a grey seer. They are Skaven, lets kill them".

Here's a decent quick intro to WFRP pdf:

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Looks like it was made for 1st ed, but it's mostly all relevant.

Here is a version that was written up for GURPS as well:

www.scribd.com/doc/9575409/Gurps-Hammer-20

I was in exactly the same boat a few weeks ago with a group of players who hadn't got a clue about the world.

To get them into the game quickly, I gave a brief overview of the mechanics, told them that they were playing in a dirtier, more dangerous version of medieval Europe, then played A Day Late... with them with them using pregenerated characters. They were surprised by and scared of everything they met - which admittedly, was only beastmen - because they didn't know what kind of things could happen to them.

At the end of the session, the setting had already got to them, and they were all promising to go out and find out more about the world themselves. I told them a little about it and they felt equally appalled and excited by the fact that it felt like humanity was being attacked on all fronts.

So although their characters would know all about beastmen, for this starter/taster adventurer, I felt that it was more important for the players to get a feel for the game and the dangers rather than get too bogged down with the rich - or should that be filthy, poor and violent - history. When we start to play Eye... they'll have lots more background (thanks to their research and me sending them stuff like scans from the book) to create their characters. They're hooked on the game, and to me, that was the first obstacle to overcome. It means they'll appreciate all the flavour stuff a lot more now which I can start feeding to them slowly but surely.

So in short, get them playing first!

Even shorter, what mordjinn said.

Well with near to 30 years of collected writing on the Warhammer world there is more than enough to please anyone. As already mentioned there is no need to throw it all at them at once. The true nature of many of the enemies they face is only known to a handful of poeple in the Old World (and a good portion of them are insane). As such I see no point in giving away too much; hold some things back so you have a few nasty surprises for them.

I remember ages ago, I was running a session for four PC's, mostly mundane careers; cetainly nothing too high powered. They stopped at an inn and one of the characters was flirting with the inkeepers daughter, I let him arrange for a rendezvous then revealed that she was a chaos mutant. The second mouth on her back almost killed the poor PC, when she died the mouth disolved and he was charged with murder... made for an interesting couple of sessions.

At any rate, it seems like you are doing fine. Lead them along and feed the lore to them one piece at a time. Black Library put out a series of products written "in character", there was the Liber Chaotica on chaos, the Vile Ratmen on the Skaven. I use scraps from those to feed my players information unfortuantely most of them are no longer in print.

There was an introduction I read to a group a while back, it described a world of upright nobles watching over hard working peasants and guarding against the obviously evil villians. It then went on to explain that, that was not the Warhammer world; that this world was a dark and dangerous world of grim, and perilous adventure. That introduction went over quite well with the group I used it on but I can not remember for the life of me which Warhammer book it was from. Perhaps someone else remembers?

regards,

ET

as is starting to become a bit of a tradition the last few days I really agree with Errant Thought in regards to gradually bringing the pc's into the fold if you have players who are unfamiliar with the setting (which is as Mordjinn but it an "amazing chance" for a WHFRP GM since everything is new to thier eyes and du to thier ignorance allows for a lot of plots that jaded, grizzeled veterans of the setting would see comming a mile away, case and point Eye for and Eye in the Tome of Adventure).

I am starting my first campaign with the new edition this week with four players who dont know the setting from Azarbaijan and are used to the high fantasy heroics so commonly inculcated throughout modern roleplaying systems so for them all I have really told them is that where some fantasy settings are based around the concepts of good and evil, the Old World is steeped in shades of grey, that there expectations on archtyping is best left at the door, and that the adventures and stories told in the Old World can have some pretty heavy plots dotted with black humour.

I also have sat down with each of them and given them a basic feel for the core mechanics of the game, which has really excited all of them quite a lot and I noticed that by just talking over the way the mechanics of the game works it really sets the mood of the setting far better than I would have anticipated.

As of right now they have each gone through the careers and read the descirptions on the back of the cards, chosen what they will play (roadwarden, agitator, scout, and troll slayer is what the party turned out to be (not bad choices at all for a first time visit to the Empire). They each gave me in broad terms the kind of characters they were thinking about running, for instance the roadwarden player wants to run the ex-lawman type (think clint eastwod was kinda how he put it to me) who has walked away from the roadwardens, the grim looking guy who sits in the back of the tavern who can no longer justify the inefectual nature of his career but when someone needs help cant ignore it despite himself (which for a guy who has no concept of the setting is pretty spot on). With that I went through and put together the mechanics of the character, his trappings, and am writing up short biographies based on thier general concepts which will give them all the background into the world they need (or i decide they need) to effectively run thier characters.

In the above example the roadwarden character will know a bit more about the dangers of the road than some, the reason he left the wardens which gave him his feeling of ineffectiveness was because his partner was taken by beastmen while on patrol between Ubersreik and Bogenhaffen a few months before the start of the campaign (which will tie into the beastmen attacking Grundewald Lodge who will then tie into the beastmen in the Gathering Storm) and the only way he survived himself was the timely aid of a dwarf troll slayer who was stalking the beastmen. Now from the troll slayers point of view the roadwarden saved HIS life (even if that wasnt what the slayer really wanted to happen) and is now oathbound to return the favor before he finds the foe that will absolve him of his dishonor and send him to back to the ancestors in Grungni's Halls. So basically I am giving each of them a few pieces of what the Old World is (but not the same pieces) in thier back stories so that each of them have a feel for thier characters and how they fit with each other and the setting so that each of them at some point of another will be able to have that moment of "i know whats happening somewhat" without oersaturating them at the fore or giving away the really evocative parts.

@ Solomonhiram

Well they do say that great minds think alike (course they also say there is a thin line between greatness and madness... )

I have to say reading about that roadwarden all I could think of was the Man with No Name, "You shot at my mule" and "Get three coffins ready". A perfect fit for a grim world of perilous adventure. I might have to steal the idea for an NPC

and moving back towards on topic...

The first time the PC's encounter one of the many dangers or realities of the Old World is always memorable, and I do envy some of the new groups forming up. My PC's tend not to pick things up in Chaos lairs anymore; however a little cunning and reverse-psychology on my part can get them into all sorts of trouble. The Old World is plenty dangerous even for experienced adventures... one of the things I love about the setting; characters may gain more experience and become more powerful but this is balanced by the accumulation of insanities, injuries, and mutations. It leads to some truly unique characters that have been damaged by their fight against evil and often serve as mentors to new characters my players create...

...anyway enough rambling from me. But be sure to let us know how all these new players like the system I am always interested in new ways to introduce the Warhammer world, and I am always looking for new stories to inflict on... I mean share with... my players .

regards,

ET

I have just finished getting my gaming room set up for the comming session, and on the topic of surmising the setting and introducing new players in general I figured Id share one of the things I like to do to set the mood for a given game which is to use the enviroment to the best of my ability. In fairness I live with a number of ex-ren fair circut folks so my prop supply on hand is pretty solid (unless everyone has a heavy crossbow just sorta hanging around). Anyway with this setting and the visceral feel of the new components in particular I really wanted to take the visuals a step further and have it so when the players come into the gaming room they immediately can get a feel for the game. In this case I've gone with the idea of the Red Moon Inn (or anyother Inn in the Old World really) and put together a gaming space that I think will really grab the players before I even open my mouth. So anyhow this is a link to pics of the space, any comments are more than welcome! rantingsoverbogenhaffen.blogspot.com/

Solomonhiram said:

That looks very cool.

Your mini painting looks excellent, too.

I'm currently in the middle of making some terrain for some warhammer style urban skirmishing, and was thinking of blogging it, but then didn't get round to it.

Thanks a lot monkeylite, im glad you approve! Terrain is my real joy when it comes to the wargames side of things but the tricky bit is where the heck you store it all when its finished!

Solomonhiram said:

Yeah, I just converted the loft into a wargames room, which I was only allowed to do on condition I get rid of all my crap from the rest of the house.

I figured I would give an example here of what I was talking about in regards to relating some of the setting to first time players through the use of back stories. I've posted on my WHFRP blog rantingsoverbogenhaffen.blogspot.com/, all four of my characters backs stories. Since they are going to be reading them there, I figure I'll break down my thought process here where spoilers wont damage my game.

As I said early I had them each go through and choose a career based on the information presented on the cards and give me a broad idea of what kind of character they wanted to play and since none of them have any real knowledge of the setting itself I would write thier back stories to reflect the concepts they had shared with me as well as give them a feel for the mood of the setting. These characters have not had easy lives up to the start of the game and for the most part they are sad stories but mixed in thier are some attempts to show that very warhammer style black humour (Adel's back story is my favourite in that regard, but there is also something to be said about the sort of irony of Burgrim's position too)

Now as a GM one of the greatest assests I had doing things in this manner is that I could put in little things here and there that I know will come up in future sessions without them realizing it (the brother of Adel's "Uncle" Aldous Randulf Mourn is none other than Lazerus Mourn, Burgrin the troll-slayer almost met his end at the hands of a wargor called Izka, Valdrid the scout is from Stormdorf originally, and his family aquired an old inn on the cheap a few decades ago called the Three Feathers, a bit of a nod to one of my favoure 1st edition adventures).

Another benifit to this method is that I was able to write in tie ins between each of the characters which helps give the party some common ground and makes thier comming together all the more sensible. (Burgrin owed Odwin's father an honor-debt, Valdrid was given a message from Adel's father and happens to be the older brother of Odwin's fallen partner Vigo, and for one reason or another they are all in Ubersreik and flat broke... Herr Hendrick's offer is going to look all the tastier)

With each of the back stories I have sent the players a few of the proverbeal 10 questions from ever WHFRP rulebook every published for them to answer for themselves about their characters, mostly concerning how religion plays in thier lives since certain occurences in their back stories, where and how they give thier loyalties, the significance of certain possessions to thier pc's (Burgrin carries an old tarnished locket with a painting of his wife in it, Adel has her father's wedding ring, Odwin his father's old battle-worn sword). These are some of the things I want them to decide for themselves now that they have backgrounds for thier characters firmly rooted in the setting.

I have also left all of the aesthetic details up to my players, exact ages, appearences, mannerisms, sayings, etc. These are all things that they can make educated decisions on based on the information I've provided them. So anyway thats where I was comming from as a GM for writing back stories for my players based on what they expressed they want to see in thier characters personalities and the career choices they made. Please take a look, id love to know what other people think of the back stories and they are fairly entertaining reads at the very least.