Last weekend I got into a discussion about RPGs with my girlfriend and a friend of hers, and was left with the impression that they wouldn't be all that averse to trying it out and would probably enjoy it as long as I keep it light-hearted and more focused on story and not stat-lines, rules and card management. And WFRP, with it's nice printed cards and visually snazzy dice, seems just the thing to use for an introduction session.

From that conversation, and from having watched my girlfriend play through Mass Effect and Dragon Age, I'm pretty certain about what they'll want to play. My girlfriend will want to play a magic-wielding woman, and her friend who's not quite as fantasy/scifi nerdy is going to want to play a Legolasesque character.

So an Apprentice Wizard and a Waywatcher seems like the most natural choices. I'll create the characters beforehand, except maybe give them a few choices that can affect what cards or skills they get, to make them feel like it's characters they created. I'll write a short backstory for both of them with an explenation for how they know eachother and why they're traveling together.

I thought about running the "A day late, a shilling short" adventure but that adventure doesn't really go anywhere, which might leave the players with a bit of an unfulfilled feeling after the session. In addition there's just a bit too much fighting. Knowing my gf, I'm pretty certain she (or her friend) won't be particularly interested in the combat mechanics. And a large combat easily eats away a lot of the playing time without having much RP to it. I might still use it, but tone down the beastman-bit and try to come up with an actual conclusion.

So, what I'm basically asking is if anyone can come up with an explenation for why an apprentice wizard and a waywatcher are friends traveling together and what kind of short adventure they could be mixed up in where they both get to shine a bit?

Which College do you think she will be? Coz a Jade Wiz will be a lot easier to work with an elf than, say, an Amethyst.

I don't have the Winds Of Magic box yet, so it's either Bright, Grey or Celestial. Personally, I'm leading towards Celestial but I'm considering letting her choose.

The wizard could be being pursued by a particularly mad witch hunter who believes all magicians should be killed. Then she could hire the elf to protect her. Then they could try and find evidence of this witch hunters madness to expose him to the local authorities (maybe he has been arresting villagers for whistling too vigorously, suspecting Slaanesh).

That's just off the top of my head.

For a "plot" it's the package - jperhaps make it something that cultists are waiting for back in town or somesuch and add another encounter resolving that thread.

Simply have them find the same plot lead, and realize they're both hunting the same man. Example:

The elf is patrolling the woods and comes across a deer carcas. Its headless, but no animal will approach it. There are bloody footprints leading away. As he begins to follow he realizes the footprints have dying worms, and small insects eating them inset into each one, and the plant life touched by the feet of this is turning withered and black. Worried for the plants/wildlife he'll probably seek to investigate.

The wizard, gaining her apprentice robes is sent home by the college, and asked to investigate rumors of strange fires seen on certain nights at the ruins of a burnt down abbey on a hill above the village. She gathers some info, uses the sky to figure out a mystically significant time for a possible rite etc.

The elf and the wizard bump into each other near the ruins. After a tense moment they both realize the other isn't the source of the sense of wrongness. Could be the giant pillar of multicolored flames coming from some walls in the abbey, and the figure in robes chanting and holding up a scarred deer head covered in insect parts.

Cue quick combat with a cultist mutant (feel free to gush streams of biting insect corruption, and have his chanting come from the many mouths on his body) which should be over in short order since well ... its 2 pc's and one cultist. Introduce them to some terror and stress mechanics.

Have them realize that the ritual has been happening for a while at some different localles (maybe with some magic sight) and have both of them strike off to smitenate the threat to the forest, and the obviously corrupt casters, possibly with some interaction in town, and in the next village over which is having similar problems.

Voila! Pleasant afternoon adventure, one combat, lots of creepy.

shinma said:

Good stuff, I was thiking along similar lines, but couldn't quite make it "fit". The only thing that this plot has that I'm trying to avoid is having the characters meet eachother for the first time in game. I have problems with doing those scenes myself after having been a player in quite a few RPGs. It easily becomes a bit akward and you become more selfconcious when you're RPing at another player than with the GM. It might go just fine, but I'm trying to avoid any hickups in the session to leave them with as positive an experience as possible. So I'm trying to set up the adventure so that they allready know eachother and have a reason to travel together.

For this story, that might just mean skipping ahead a bit and starting the adventure at the point where they've met eachother and are approaching the temple, I'll have to see.

Let us know how it goes!