Hello,

first time poster here. I'd like to ask for some suggestions to some High Elvesish backgrounds, mainly for Swordsmasters. What would their reason be to travel the old world? Kind of a rookie RPG:er so any advice in general on how to roleplay those pesky high elves in the human society would be appreciated.

Thank you in advance. :-)

A few possibilities.

First, in keeping with the core rulebook's suggestion of dire times and the career card's interest in martial techniques, the twin-tailed comet seen, disparate races coming together, the sword master has come seeking out new martial techniques. This is a young swordmaster as elves judge such things, not blooded against goblins etc (born or at least coming of age after the attempted invations of Grom the Paunch in 2425 or so), the swordmaster comes to contend against beastmen, goblins, chaos warriors etc. in order to improve technique and learn any new martial techniques. Perhaps wielding a greatsword, he is interested in the Zweihander technique some imperials master (Omens of War).

Or, perhaps he is older and related to a warrior who accompanied Teclis, Finreir and Yrtle to help humans in the Great War Against Chaos 200 years past and is here to find something lost, expatiate an old guilt (maybe his kin was a guard to Yrtle who fell in the stuggle and was buried with great honours, but he still feels a "blood debt" to avenge himself against the servants of the evil responsible for this failure [pick ruinous power to figure in your campaign]. In a typical campaign, I think it would "pierce the veil of PC ignorance" too much for him to actually have been part of that effort.

He could be on a mission he does not himself understand, being instructed to look for certain "signs to follow" (GM cookies) by his Loremaster in the Tower of Hoeth and being sent into the Empire without knowing more. If using Gathering Storm, the fate of certain waystones might be part of the mission or it is simply a mission to "assess the spread of corruption among the humans, can we still rely on them really or not".

In terms of high elf attitudes it can run from "well, they're useful guard animals these humans, to have between us and chaos, as long as too many of them don't turn rabid" to "cruel world, that we have sacrificed so much, the glory of our civilization, saved the world, and now it comes down to these clever monkies" to "some form of [with apologies] white man's burden, have to do our best to civilize the natives though of course there's only so much we can do".

One thing for a Swordmaster of Hoeth, he will have seen daily in Hoeth evidence of just how far elf high magic is ahead of the tinker toys that humans use as spells.

Rob

You can also check Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy Battle armybook for High Elves or/and Warhammer Online (MMORPG) both have quite a lot of fluff for Swordmasters. There's also a fan book for elves in the progress. I think I might even be released during this year if you have the nerves to wait.

Hm, very interesting stuff. I liked the idea of going there on a mission he himself does not understand / there to gain experience fighting against foul creature and learn new techniques.

On how to portrait this High Elves I'm split, don't know if I should make him spiteful against them humans. Sent there on a mission against his will to then learn to tolerate those low life creatures.

Is there a good character development / creation forum around for WFRP? Or is it just generally accepted to write your character here, backstory and all the technical mumbo-jumbo for potential feedback?

Like, if one were to build a Swordsmaster what should one keep in mind or is it kind of just, go with whatever cause everything works to a certain degree? Also, advancements for Swordsmasters? Where do you go when you're done with this career?

Guess that's it for now. Cheers.