We recently started our WFRP3 campaign and after playing the demo adventure a couple of weeks ago we began Eye for an Eye this Sunday. We all had great fun and my players especially seemed to enjoy the large amount of characters and investigative nature of the adventure.

You can read the whole thing over at my blog, Fire Broadside . I'll continue to post session reports as we go along. The plan is to continue with The Gathering Storm, although I might insert the adventure from Winds of Magic first. We'll see...

Thanks for the write-up! Since my group will be entering Grunewald lodge this week I would be interested to hear what you thought were the most tricky parts – were they particularly dumb or sceptical about a specific aspect?

Well, we're all seasoned roleplayers in my group so the only thing I felt I had to adjust was to basically hold back a little bit and send out some red herrings here and there. If I'd played all the characters exactly as written I think they'd figured it out much too soon. This is of course not a flaw of the adventure. On the contrary I think this is a very good starter adventure! But it seems to be aimed towards slightly less experienced players who are new to the Warhammer world.

Thinking about it now I probably should have pulled it back even more. Maybe stretch it out over two days and make it a bit more mysterious. If you know what to expect (ie. being familiar with WFRP) it's not that difficult to figure out what's going on since basically anything or anyone that seems suspicious actually is suspicious! I mean, the first thing they stumble across was the deamonic painting, and who wouldn't look behind the drapes in a room where they feel uncomfortable and their breath mists?

Im running Eye for and Eye this comming Weds and this has been really helpful to see how another group faired through it. What was the run time for the whole adventure? I am just hoping for a ball park so I can decide if I need to break it down into multiple sessions and where I might need to make a cut off point to continue the next session.

Outta curiosity, how long did this take to run?

This was all in one session. From maybe 6 o'clock to 11 in the evening, so not that long at all.

Again, I think it comes down to how experienced your players are. In my case they were suspicious almost to a fault, paranoid actually, so the actual investigative part of the adventure went by fairly quickly. Finding the painting almost the first they did and then the catacombs very soon afterwards.

I do think it's a really good adventure, but if I ran it again (with similar players) I'd try to draw it out a bit longer. Make the cultists more discreet and put the painting in a harder to find place. If you play it as written I think many of the mysterious are a bit too obvious.

Right I can see what you mean about things being a bit too obvious, the good thing is I have a group of very experienced players in different settings and game systems. Since this is a demo game which is going to grow into a full campaign (my players are hooked they just dont know it yet ) I chose to ask people with different types of experiences to play (one is an old White Wolf Player, another is a child of D&D 3.5, another is a well rouded fellow, and my last is a crusty old school AD&D 1st ed player who hasnt had a chance to roleplay a VERY long time) so that I can see what different types of folk think about the system.

In context to and Eye for an Eye it means they have very few expectations beyond the little I have explained about the mood and basic details of the game system and setting itself so I am hoping the few glaring hints to seasoned WHFRP folks might be a little more ambiguous to the untrained eye but just the same Im thinking that I might tone down the unnantural feeling with the painting early on and have it become more prevalent the further along the progress tracker that pesky little cult preperation token gets to fruition.

I was also thinking that I will use Kurgen's ramblings to good effect and Sonja being at least partly insane (zealot and all) to throw a few red herrings if need be and if I can find a way to make it work Id really like to convey that feeling of something in the corner of thier eye and the unease of being watched and use that aspect of the storyline to best efffect rather then them finding a daemonic painting right away (kinda lacks a certain amount of build up).

@Poe if you were to move the painting where would you move it to? and i know its a matter of different strokes and all that (couldnt help the pun it was there) but how did you PC's react to the painting when they did find it? Did they know exactly what was up with it from the get go or was it less obvious than it is to one of us whose read the adventure, cause that part concerns me as glaringly obvious.

well, you and yours players have done a great job by what i've readed

Instead I tried this adventure like a one-shot for a demo group aaaaand.....it turned up pretty screwed...

In first session we had a lot of roleplaying and explaing, so we ended after the beastmen attack near the gatehouse. The combat was bloody, so that 2/3 of pcs ended critacally wounded, and all the party was near passing out. (and now my players are pretty scared just by the word "beastmen" ahahahaha!)

In second session i planned to run the investigation and the final confrontation...i could not get any wrong than this!

i think the biggest problem is the strict timing of the events...in just a day the party have to travel to Grunwald, repeal beastmen, investigate, and deal whit the drugged dinner...but my party was so beated up, that after the lord briefing they asked for medical assistance: i didnt want to be too harsh, so i let dr. Sieger attempt first aid checks, but despite several fortune dice the wounds removed was just a fews, so that my party just wished to stay in beds, an arranged to be awaked just 1 hour before the dinner.

So the cult progress token was avanced just one space before the dinner...and they failed every observation/intuition check in the (VERY)few rooms they visited. Just by piety from myself i let them stumble by chance on the "goose is good" paper AND the painting room. So the dinner was served, but the pc avoided poisoning. Now they only suspects Dr. Sieger as the poison-guy, but really have no evidence in hands...the cult token have reached the final space and the investigation token have not yet passed the first event space, before ending the session.

IF there will be the third session, i plan to just throw the "deamon/cultist" or "beastmen assault" combat encounter against them, since i think is the only thing left for them to sort this mess out. (anyway i think they will just die...)

In the end, for other GM that want to try this adventure, i suggest to slow the pace down, so that if the PCs gets beated up "for good" by the first combat, they can have a full night of rest and a full day of investigation before the dinner begins...

OMG...i'm soooo shamefull of my players!!

Are they in the hospice with the sister, Korden, the doctor & the wounded guardsmen?

I think you might be able to work some with that, there's plenty to go round.
- Have the sister suggest they pick up a few books in the library to pass the time > chance to catch Otto in whatever he's doing.
- Have Korden & the sister be a little more upfront than scripted with their side of the story. (For example, a flash of normalness from Korden could do wonders, even if he sinks into madness again after only a few moments)
- Have NPCs visit *them* instead. I'm thinking of Piersson, several servants, captain of the guard, the kennelmaster, ...

If the Moses won't come to the mountain...

Nah...i dont care about making things too simples for them, even if sometimes is just bad luck (for example, the mage visited the library once, but failed the education check to find the strange books) i like to put characthers in an enviroment where things happens according to theirs actions. After all, if they acted stupidly or poorly, they deserve to face the worst odds. For example, if they dont find the blunderbuss because they dont even bother to check the stables even if the location card is in play, it is supposed to be in cultists hands at the final confontation, no?

Anyway I still have the feeling that starting the investigation heavly wounded just made them start on the wrong foot...