This is an idea I have to possibly help me and any other new WH/GM's who are about to embark with this amazing new system! I'm well seasoned (going on 30 years) as a DM of many systems. I have no problems with coming up with the story arcs, but I'm wondering what pitfalls this new system might have for someone trying to run his first adventure.

I'd love to hear the issues you had with your first games and how you learned to work through them as well as any ideas, and I mean ANY ideas you have seen, or made on your own to make the game easier, or more effective. This is obviously a broad and open thread, so take it and run with it. I'm sure there are plenty of new GM's that would value your input as much as I will.

Thanks,

Wookie

Planning tactics (and rolling initiatives) for NPC groups a head of time.

I tend to do this in general terms for all games I run, but because of the many NPC and card actions available, I find it useful to work out what the NPCs are likely to do in the first few rounds of combat, at least working out what their preferred actions are etc.

This is perhaps more needed than in other systems as an NPC is at least likely to have a couple of melee or ranged options plus a support option to choose from that have specific rules (dice results) that you need to have access to and reference.

I think that takes a bit more decision time than it does to decide what to do with a full action or a couple of half actions, as in 2nd ed.

Its a good thing, don't get me wrong, as i think the actions provide much more variety to the combat, but it does take a bit of planning to keep the combat from getting bogged down....

ah just thought of something I did the other week.... prevented the use of the party sheet talent sockets.

Basically the players weren't working well as a group and everyone wanted to go off and do their own thing rather than working as a group. Group splits are always a pain to deal with as you always inevitably end up with people sitting around at the table doing nothing, waiting for the other half of the group to have "their turn". Its ok for in small doses, but i always try and do my best to avoid it in which ever system i play, although sometimes it canot be helped.

In this instance though i felt the group could be pulling more together, they just weren't and so i told them that they effectively weren't working as a party and lost all use of the party beenfits except the tension meter, which i put up a notch or two anyway!

Once they had come together as a group and formulated a group plan on how to proceed (even if that then meant splitting up again, I didn't mind so much..), they got access to the party sheet again.

Thats actually a great idea and one of the best uses of the party sheet I've read about.

i've only run FFG stuff up until now. From what i've seen, as a GM, you will need to adapt fight encounters to meet the challenge level your group can take. Same with the Social & detective stuff (but you still need to keep both very present)

It is like walking on the edge of a blade. You will fall very quick in the TPK or a "way too easy". (see the thread about the beastmen encounter in TGS in this forum). Your Smuggler + Merchant + Scout will get owned by beastmen encounters (unavoidable strong melee opponents)
Don't run the combats in published material "as is" if your player group is "full warrior" or "full social" styles (up or lower the difficulty by tailoring the encounters)

For the non-combat part, anyone can RP his character well enough around the table for you to want to give out the informations they seek, but you will have to impose checks (Observation, Charm, etc.) to give clues and whatnot so that the non-combat Career are valued AND needed.

Edit : Also, don't hesitate to come up with funky ideas/comments to describe certain exceptionnal rolls, that dice system is way too fun not to do it. Usable Sigmar Comet or Chaos Star (don't have to do it each time though, but once here or there when an idea pop on a critical moment). Those scene/moment descriptions may stick in the memories or even have permanent mark : a player was lightning struck and drop uncounscious in the process by a Wargor hitting him and having a Chaos Star with the effect to hit the engagement with lightning. Both were droped at the same time, so i took a few sec to think about it and describe it. Once they manage to survive and come back to town, the next day that character woke up with a permanent mark : a lock of hair and beard (he's a dwarf) became light blue/white and some people call him <name> "Thunderstruck"
The dice system is fun, use it.

One thing I have taken to doing is writing down the enemy stats in a notebook. So much easier if you are running a mixed encounter where all the enemies aren't in one book. Some of the fights in "The edge of night" had this problem where it cross referenced itself and the Tome of Adventure. Having enemies soak values, hit points, etc. on one page made things MUCH easier than referencing two books at the same time.

Cwell is correct in telling you not to run the combat/social encounters "as is". Tweaking things in the modules is always needed. I have run all the modules for my group and I have had to "tweak" them all in certain areas. One thing I have found useful in making the social characters more appealing to play is the lore of the game itself. If you were a commoner who would you rather talk to: Bright-wizard-likely-to-flambe'-you-for-living, Priest-of-Morr-likely-to-kill-you-from-presence, or guy-with-charming-grin-and-dice?

If your players throw you for a loop with a really clever idea reward it liberally with fortune dice. Conversely if your players want to do something monumentally stupid punish them with the misfortune dice. They are a great way to say "Yes you can do that but...".

Finally remember that enemies can take additional maneuvers to close distance quickly, if willing to take fatigue which turns into wounds on all but nemesis. I have lost track of how often this small rule helps keep battles exciting. Hope this helps!

I believe that having yourself prepared is the first and foremost thing to consider. Prep things like:

Dice pool interpretation; take a couple of minutes to imagine different types of encounters and then have a few goes with the dice and try to come up with flavorful descriptions.

Progress Tracking; come up with a few stock ways in which to use this, I like to use it as a supply tracker, a weather tracker, and an inebriation threshold (got a drunk for a dwarf in my party)

and like Slysher said, enemy combatants; look up the stats, know the terrain that the encounters will take place around and develop tactics and descriptions thusly!

Reading a few wilderness survival articles can help you with not only describing wilderness based events, but it can also lead to great ideas for the encounters themselves.

Oh and my Girlfriend, who is playing a Wardancer, likes to play Soul Calibur 4 to get an idea for describing her actions in combat!

Prep an NPC list so you can have an abundant pool of random NPC's., just a couple of lines of description and maybe a one liner or two. Pointing out what kind of NPC they are incase statistics become important.

Just a few things there but I believe that they are helpful, I find if I'm not prepared that the game can bog down, however I'm still new to running games of WHFRP 3rd edition, and it can only become more smooth with time and effort.