Heyas,

This weekend I am starting a brand new campaign of WFRP. The group consists of 5-6 people + 1 me the GM. I am to be considered a novice with the whole GM thing, but I did recently run this same group through a number of sessions of Vampire: The Requiem. We decided as a group to switch (of course I influenced them =) to Warhammer due to some of the things it seems to offer and some of the things that Vampire lacked. So I have since acquired all the boxed materials for the game except for Black Fire Pass (some of the vaults and guides I didn't bother with either).

Besides a brief demo i did of "A Day Late..." no one has exposure to the game otherwise, and not the full group was even there. Then we did a character creation session. I am sure mistakes were made, and most have probably forgotten their character as that was months ago.

Now the delay has been long enough so we are hoping to get into it this weekend for real.

So knowing that some MAY remember some of the demo scenario...where should I start?

I was thinking of starting with the demo but changing it up a bit...I would probably get rid of the NPCs there to facilitate the character, and have something in the stage coach that would lead them to something that is not part of the premade content, in the end though I want it to lead us to "An Eye for an Eye". This could take a few sessions before that, and that's fine.

My goal is to make use of all the premade stuff and mix in my own adventures to link them together.

What would you do? How would you begin the group/campaign?

I would get the players to the Inn at the beginning of Eye for an Eye where they can be recruited by Lord Aschauffenberg's minion as soon as possible.

The demo really isn't that great of a start to a campaign, but it does allow for "what's in the box?" as a side-plot.

I've been running a bunch of old 2e scenarios (they're a snap to convert b/c the systems are so alike for skills, difficulty of checks, and monsters). There are a whole lot of scenarios available for free on ScribD and elsewhere.

As for running an official series, you may want to instead start with The Gathering Storm and then move to Eye for an Eye.

Here are some other things to consider before starting:

* Does each player have a copy of the Universal-head rule summary?

* Do you have enough dice?

* Does each player have a character generated and ready to go?

* What is your house rule for dealing with replacement characters (when one dies)?

* Do you recommend that your players have a back-up character made-up (when their original dies)?

* Are you going to conserve space by having players write their talent slots on their character sheets instead of having your career cards on the table?

* Does each player have a copy of the basic actions on a sheet (or cards if you don't care about space)?

* Do the spellcaster characters have a copy of the spellcaster process?

* Does each player have a copy of available maneuvers (list)? (note this is in the UHead rule summary or they should have a copy of that page of rules)

jh

Check out Liber Fanatica 8. It has a scenario called Wanted that might provide an interesting and unusual starting point.

Hm, it seems I am doing nothing but disagreeing with Emirikol lately but I think that A Day Late, A Shilling Short is a great way to kick off a campaign and can quite easily lead to An Eye For An Eye.

Have the obstinate Klaus von Rothstein be tasked to transport the last of Aschaffenbergs' belongings from Altdorf via Bögenhafen and Ubersreik to Grunewald Lodge. Naturally it depends on the background of the player characters but it should be relatively easy to have them stumble upon the beastman ambush and hopefully assist Klaus in some way (or you know, kill him and take his stuff).

Romus posted some excellent notes on An Eye For An Eye: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=165&efcid=3&efidt=537601

As for the order I would start as outlined above and then have the PC's follow a lead to Stromdorf, the missing merchant suggested is a solid reason, and from there to Edge of Night, followed by Horror at Hugeldahl. Perhaps after this it's time to give back Korden's hammer? Or travel to Altdorf as the trusted retainers of Aschaffenberg?

I personally found that this order will allow the various events to create ripples and tie in with the favour and motives of the various noble families, foremost amongst them Aschaffenberg from An Eye For An Eye. I find A Gathering Storm to be the odd one in the bunch but it can be made to work without much difficulty.

All the questions that Emirikol lists are good to answer before you begin.

On top of that I would also consider what focus you want your campaign to have. If it's mainly standard fantasy "hack n slash" you do not need to worry too much about connecting the various adventures and plot lines. I've tried to tie everything together in a political campaign centered on the power struggle between the various noble families from Edge Of Night, which means more work.

There's also a lot of other major plot lines of interest. Mainly the Skaven threat.

Some good comments, I especially like the thoughts from bladerunner. These fit more in line with what I was thinking. The group needs to start small. As myself being the GM, I am not going to fool myself in thinking I can jump in and run a huge campaign like Gathering Storm just yet...so I too need to start small. But overall we work well when we have a continuous story to play through, one that can string together pre-made and self made modules.

To answer some of the questions though:

* Does each player have a copy of the Universal-head rule summary?
NO, I'm not going to fool you guys into thinking that my players care about rules...they just want to play, so the onus is on me to know what the rules are. Plus I'm the one with all the material. Maybe in the future I can provide them with material of their own so they can learn some of the rules...but for now its all up to me =/

* Do you have enough dice?
I have the base set plus 1 or 2 of the separate extra dice sets, so I think I am good to go

* Does each player have a character generated and ready to go?
Yup! They just remember what they created as it was a few months ago =(

* What is your house rule for dealing with replacement characters (when one dies)?
No house rules yet...I'm not PLANNING on killing them...though if one does manage to find their early grave I will work in their replacement somehow.

* Do you recommend that your players have a back-up character made-up (when their original dies)?
No (see previous)

* Are you going to conserve space by having players write their talent slots on their character sheets instead of having your career cards on the table?
Nope - its all going to be out on the table. The whole draw of us playing WFRP is that they don't need to know much in the way of the rules as all their options are laid out in front of them

* Does each player have a copy of the basic actions on a sheet (or cards if you don't care about space)?
Yep, cards

* Do the spellcaster characters have a copy of the spellcaster process?
We only have 1 wizard and 1 priest character, and I will explain the basics to them

* Does each player have a copy of available maneuvers (list)? (note this is in the UHead rule summary or they should have a copy of that page of rules)
No, not yet, but i have some reference sheets I will print out for this.

Hey! Your group sounds a lot like mine, so I thought I'd give a couple of suggestions. Personally, I wasn't worried about the players' relying on me for rules, but ultimately, mine became reliant on me for too much. People who rely on the GM for the rules can also get overly reliant on the GM for plot hooks, pointers through the story, etc., and that can hurt RP.

When you made mention of the fact that they didn't know the rules, the one thing I would be sure they know how to do (and do consistently) is to interpret and narrate their own dice rolls. Make them explain what they mean to do first, then make them narrate the outcome based on what they rolled. It's easier in many cases just to narrate outcomes for them, but it's FAR more rewarding if everyone has a say in the outcome, and the gem of the WFRP experience is that the dice make that easy to do.

And before you even start a scenario, I'd give them some time out of character to introduce their character concepts to one another. Personally, I love using Burning Wheel's Beliefs and Goals and having the players write/rewrite and share those with each other before every session. (Beliefs are a sentence that describes what the character is all about at this point in his life--what's his major personal ideal or driving passion? Goals describe the things he wants to accomplish during this particular part of the storyline, usually written after the GM goes through the plot hook.) You'll share these as meta-game, because the PCs wouldn't necessarily know all this about each other in-game, but sharing Beliefs and Goals does give everyone a sense of how s/he might play off of the other players at the table. The Warhammer world so quickly engages characters that they sometimes forget to put energy into thinking about developing their own personal RP. Plus, a quick bit of writing (one sentence for each) and a bit of sharing are good way to ease into a session. At the end of the session, you can refer back to these and talk again meta-game about how each character developed and who played particularly well.

Finally, I agree that you might do a short session before Eye for an Eye. I'm fond of monkeylite's The Prisoner one sheet, although you'll have to do a lot of the statting for that yourself. I do wish it'd been around for me to use, though, because I think it's a great introduction to the "grey areas" that make up the majority of interactions in the Warhammer world.

Good luck! I think you'll love GMing this game. I hope your group has a great time with it!