Gitzman posted our first session with the new campaign, Buried, but not Forgotten.

It's a sandbox style, home-brew adventure with the surviving characters from Underworld Rising. We were also joined by Leila, playing the apothecary, Ella.

The party travels off to Ostland to start a new life and all seems well, but some secrets never stay buried.

I hope you enjoy.

Oh I do enjoy! And i'm in love with your maps. Just sayin'...

Gitz

yes wow great map !

The Maps are great for sure. Did you use any tool for the Townmap?

Good is also that you used the Streetnames with Strasse and used an Umlaut (ö) in the Name of the City name. At first sight I thought the Map was complete in german.

But actually the correct form of writing Street in german (reikspiel) is Straße. The Strasse is only used if it is put into a database or used in marketing as most Fonts dont have the sharp S (ß).

There is Leo.org with a good german to english translation and also back for single words.

http://dict.leo.org/ende?lp=ende〈=de&searchLoc=0&cmpType=relaxed&sectHdr=on&spellToler=&search=strasse

Got to finish Horror at Hugeldal and then I will go for Buried, but not Forgotten.

Glorian Underhill said:

Thanks.

I considered the Eszett, but since I was setting the street names in small-caps most English speakers would have read it STRABE rather than STRAßE. Plus, Warhammer has a history of mangling the German language, so I felt like I had license.

To make the maps, I scanned in elements that I drew and then assembled and colored them in Photoshop.

The area map has a "fog of war" on it, with the unexplored areas being that parchment yellow and the places the party knows are in color. The parchment version also may not be entirely accurate. As the party explores the area, more colored in locations will appear.

Doc, the Weasel said:

Plus, Warhammer has a history of mangling the German language, so I felt like I had license.

Thats right, in this universe you are consistent. Also dont forget to give NPCs german names with their secret role as their surname translated into german.

My PCs where rather suspicios when Bertram Betrüger (Cheater) offered them a job.

Glorian Underhill said:

Oh, I never thought of doing that. Not ever. Nope, not me.

...

(there's one already on the city map, but that subplot has only been barely hinted at as of Ep 1)

Glorian Underhill said:

Google Translate is your friend

Just dont make it too obvious .... but its part of the tongue in cheek tradition of WFRP I love

Doc, the Weasel said:

Just got throught the podcast last evening - sounds like you had a good time and I like your play and GM style ... so keep up the good work and if you ever by chance find yourself moving to my part of the planet and need someone to play with let me know

In any case I look forward to the next installment of your campaign....

These are the best maps produced thus far for wfrp3 (official or otherwise).

jh

Emirikol said:

Wow. Thank you.

I totally don't think that is true, but I'm flattered that you think so.

(unless Gitzman is reading this, then I do believe it is true)

Like i said, im having a love affair with your maps.

Gitzman said:

Slaaneshi cultist!!!

jh

Doc, I am currently listening "Buried, But Not Forgotten". That's great to learn how to better GM, especially how you come up with stories on the fly (or it seem like it when listening), and with ideas for boons, banes, chaos star and sigmar's comets. It's definitely a fun group of players as well.

Would you be willing to expand on your system of distinctions/torments. It seems to draw your players to more roleplaying. Almost, you mentioned using a specific travelling system, but I couldn't hear what.

Thanks

Ceodryn

Ceodryn said:

Thank you, Ceodryn. It's the wonderful group of players that makes it all work.

I lifted Distinctions straight out of Cortex+ (Leverage, Smallville, Dragon Brigade, Marvel Super Heroes. They are awesome games. Check them out.). They are up to three short statements that define a character in a way that the system doesn't accommodate. They can be anything from physical traits (Bigger than most, Always moving, Tiny craftsman's fingers, Needs a bath) to social/behavioral (Paranoid, Never smiles, Air of authority) to catchphrases ("It's clobberin' time," "I swear I didn't do it"). Ideally, they should be double edged swords that could either help or hinder a character depending on the circumstances.

The way they work in play is that they can be invoked by the player or GM on a roll that applies to the Distinction. If the Distinction would help an action, then add a fortune die. If it would hurt an action, then add a misfortune die and add a fortune point to the pool. The player chooses if it applies, and if it helps or hurts (though, the group can override the decision if they feel it doesn't work).

The idea behind the mechanics is using the carrot (rather than the stick) to encourage roleplaying beyond the stats. I've been trying to move towards having the fortune pool be driven completely by player actions (so if the players want more fortune points, they have to have their negative traits start mucking things up), but I haven't taken it that far yet.

Torments are four traits that specifically define a character. I based them on what I believe are the four core impulses/drives for people in the Warhammer setting: Desire, Hatred, Fear, and Ambition. Mechanically, I treat them as super Distinctions; they deliver double the bonus/penalty as normal Distinctions. Metagame-wise, they codify the character's motivations outside of "complete the quest." They also have another purpose that savvy readers may catch. It's not a brilliant surprise or anything, but I want a little revelation for my players – who haven't figured it out – when it comes into play (and I expect it to later in the campaign).

I've been reworking my travel system. What we used last time was loosely based on my mis-remembered rules from The One Ring (Check that one out too). In play, I didn't like how it all seem to be a Nature Lore-fest, and am looking to have roles that allow for a better spread of Skills and Abilities.

Thanks for your explanations! I'll make sure to check Cortex+ games to learn more about distinctions.

I am now listening to "Underworld Rising" (I realize it takes place before Buried... but it feels like a flashback), and continuing to enjoy your group. Hopefully, the Reckless Dice and your group will continue posting adventures online.

Cheers

Ceodryn

Hello Reckless dice !

I have listened with great enjoyment to all your podcasts up to now.

I want to risk a little constructive criticism here, but each to his own and all that of course !

My comment is aimed at the live play sessions podcasts.

I get the feeling that the GMs involved are very worried about rythm and momentum and take a lot of air time overall. We don't hear the players roleplay that much and very rarely does the game zoom in on the situation.

What I mean by that is that players tend to talk out of character or say things like: "I tell the innkeep that he must keep filling my mug all night and I throw him 4 Schillings". A very easy way to get everyone zoomed in and talking in character, as GM, is to talk in character as the innkeep (or any NPC). This will automatically make the players respond in character and makes for a more enjoyable and entertaining game, in my experience.

My two cents would be this : stop worrying about the pace and the clock and roleplay those interactions in a more zoomed in, more detailed way, and these live playsessions podcasts will be even more entertaining for all involved.

Anyhow, that's just my opinion and keep up the great play !

Ceodryn said:

We will be recording the next 2 podcasts this weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing how the party deals with their separate agendas on the walk back to town.

We are always up for criticism! =)

I hear where you are coming from and offer this as my explination for how we've run things to date:

• We have a few different GMs we are fortunate enough to play games with. These GMs tend to have a different background in gaming, and different skill levels at running different types of games. This tends to lead towards a variety of stylistic approaches to GMing, which is exactly what we are hoping to highlight in the live play sessions.
• Similar to having differently skilled GMs, we have a very wide variety of PC skill levels. Some are roleplaying for the first time ever with WFRP3, others are veterans of other systems.
• I find that skill level and comfort with roleplaying in general is what leads to 'first person' dialogue. Michael, as we saw in episode 3 and 4 of Burried but not Forgotten is quite good at this and very comfortable. Many of the other players on the other hand are not (myself included).
• I'm hoping we can get to that 'first person dialogue' at some point, but at least for now, its a bit much for some of my players.
• Thanks so much for the feedback!

Gitzman

I'm really excited for this one, seeing how aggressive people will be in order to get their hands on the chest will be a riot. I’m glad I have the chest and can react to the others instead of having to come up with a devious play to get a hold of it.

Lol i'm glad i'm the only one who doesnt need it! Looking forward to Saturday.

Gitz

Doc, the Weasel said:

the extended challenge rules presented in Hero's Call could be used to represent travel. by these rules the dice pool is not simply effected by individual skills. nor do they rely on a series of repeated skill checks. in your podcast your players were tracking goblins and spiders dragging horse corpses. first you need to determine what the pool represents. tracking and travelling only? tracking, travelling and stealth? tracking, travelling and initial confrontation with the enemy?

throw some challenge and misfortune dice into the pool representing the antagonistic elements:

nasty forest

trail crosses series of streams

dark (this may add protagonistic dice too if attempting stealth)

spiders (if confrontation is part of the result)

goblins (if confrontation is part of the result) (this will add protagonistic dice too if there are a large number of them to be tracked)

failure to be prepared for the trek

existing party tension

then direct the players to come up with reasons to contribute the protagonistic elements for fortune, expertise, conservative, reckless and attribute dice:

dragged horses

grimpy

successful blessing that allowed scent of the victim to be followed

someone trained in nature lore

any successful action cards played that are relevant

trained in observation

someone describes how they use their athleticism to blaze a trail

apocrathy herbs to ease muscle ache

Episode 5 is going up in a few minutes.

Gitzman

Guys (and Leila), I would like to congratulate all of you on this one. It's been really great fun to listen to you playing the game! Great character interaction, great pace, it's a wonder!

I'm specially thrilled everytime a player makes a decision based more on the character's personality and way to see the world than on tactics. I'm also seeing the GM take this way of making decisions ofr NPCs, which is great! That's what makes RPG fun for me, to create a tangible fantasy reality.

I'm also wanting to point out Doc's disponibility to describe different roll approaches to the same situation, when he says right up front what ways he imagines a character could go to resolve something. It increases the complexity, gives opportunities to different descriptions and helps the player to get a better feel of what his or her character can and cannot do in terms of how skilled he or she is to handle each situation. It's a inspiration for me!

On another aspect, I'm seeing how the terms of the game sometimes facilitate the description of what is happening, such as when the GM says that a character comes close and engages. The terms are themselves descriptive, but I'm thinking that sometimes I want to focus more on narrating what's happening, and then connect that narration to the game terms just to give the players the ground for understanding what is happening mechanically. It's great to hear how other people are playing the game to get this type of inight on what I'm wanting to try. This preoccupation on trying to get the mechanics work for the story, interconnected, has been a good field of experimentation with 3e in our group.

So, once and again, thank you very much for such entertaining hours!