Here are some characters I prepped for an upcoming game convention.

I simplified a couple issues for convention play:

• no listed characteristic fortune dice
• Listed characteristic dice as blue, yellow or white on the character sheet with the actual NUMBER of blue characteristic dice
• condensed most career abilities into skill specialization equivalents,
• Eliminated talents: built talents into skill specialization equivalents,
• made defense standard (non-recharge)
• Gave humans 5 fortune dice (instead of three plus 2 at the same time human ability)
• We won't be using party sheet for convention play

That way players only have to learn how to track: Wounds, fatigue, stress, stance and action card recharge. It also minimizes the amount of cards that have the potential to be lost at the table.

Some do not have backgrounds as I'm using the ones from the following pre-printed WFRP scenarios [edit: they have backgrounds and motivations copied from the original pre-gen characters]:

Pig, Witch and her lover

Journey to Blackfire Pass

Question of Breeding (I'm just running a " Deepwatch" scenario in Altdorf using this scenario)

dl.dropbox.com/u/167876/GHENGIS%20CON.zip

Any thoughts are welcome on simplification or enhancement.

jh

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Sounds good, but I think its a bit of a shame if the characters dont have atleast a minimum of description regarding: background, relations to the other characters, general outlook on life and goals .... doesnt have to be huge (thought last time we ran a one-shot the characters were 1 page, the background 3 pages...) but then again thats not for everyone ....

Emirikol said:

What's a deepwatch scenario?

Boehm said:

I'd agree with this. My best con/one-shot scenarios involved characters with established backgrounds and motivations that played against not only the scenario, but the each other as well.

Yes, the characters will have motivations and backgrounds (I'm using the ones from the pregens in those scenarios listed), however I'm not going to type them in. I'm just clipping them from the original printings and stapling them to the sheets I'm a HUGE fan of roleplay (and hence also why I removed so many roll-mechanics from these characters), so they will in fact have backgrounds

A deepwatch scenario: These are scenarios based on the "Deepwatcher"career (remember the Career from the 2nd edition Career compendium by Fantasy Flight Games?). They are basically a "guild" that keeps the cities of the Empire safe from threats (originally started in Tobaro). In this case, I'll probably run "A question of Breeding" but keep it located in the city. I would consider it the equivalent of the Pathfinder Society

jh

Looks great and all the characters look fun! I'm really looking forward to Black Fire Pass... I think my top choices would be the scout or agent.

E.P. I made the gangbanger dockhand just for you!

BTW, I'm running A Question of Breeding for the Deepwatch scenario, which you've already played, so don't sign up for that slot.

jh

Emirikol said:

Heh. I don't think I can pull of the skanky dwarf as well as someone else I know...

convention report spoilers

Convention report: SPOILERS

duplicate

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Convention report: SPOILERS

I GMed WFRP3 using the following scenario adaptations:

1. The Pig, the Witch, and her Lover - I added and initial encounter with some mutant pinworms (10' long..yes, disgusting..and you know what they came out of!!!), as well as some piglets that escape into the woods at the end.
2. Journey to Blackfire Pass - Unchanged except to add a 5th character (a clanless dwarf docker gangbanger that was born and raised on the streets of altdorf).
3. A Question of Breeding : I added that the crypt has a petroleum leak into the lower area and gas fumes throughout. Of course, dropped torches, smashed lanterns and and blackpowder weapons cause it to ignite and burn the floors..and eventually start wooden caskets on fire, etc. As the PCs get locked in, they have to crawl through the rat warrens and fight (or more likely flee from) an enormous mutant rat that has stalks with pods containing the two missing agents. The rat thing is an offspring/pet of Felix von Kleist.

CONVENTION PLAY:

I put all necessary action cards in album sheets and taped the tops shut so we wouldn't lose them and gave copies of the appropriate career descriptions and backgrounds to the players. Otherwise all they needed were character sheets, a basic action sheet, and tracking stuff. I used the universal defense (highest defense is always on) and that was a BIG hit, even with experienced players. I built talents into specializations for skills and did not drag out the career ability cards, party sheets, or career sheets. I attached a maneuvers list and dice chart for them, but they really weren't necessary.

Players commented that they wished they had more special action cards, although they did a good job of using their imaginations otherwise.

AS A PLAYER:

There were also three sessions that Sequoyah ran and he had everything out. Each card was in a sleeve and he had packets put together for each character and he had a wooden card stand for everything (which was nice for organization). I was there with experienced players and only played one session, so I'm not sure how the noob's did (I'm sure they did fine). The GM did great, but I'd still be leery about having that many components in the hands of teenagers, etc. (One of my teenager kids bent the **** out of one of my action cards in my game because he had his elbow over it on the side of the table multiple times..but at least it wasn't lost.)

Overall, all I really needed was the chits/stance, dice, standups, module and the creature guide. The player packs took care of everything on their end.

Good fun had by all...and the trollslayer died in glorious battle against a black orc!

jh

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I also wanted to report on teaching the game:

1. handed out pregens and told them the careers

2. reviewed the components of the character sheet, basic action sheet, and special actions.

3. reviewed what you can do in one round

4. Went over how to make a skill check, including how to make an attack

5. Went over how to advance the stance (90% of the noob's did not effectively use their stance in all games I ran or played in)

Its become a lot quicker to teach the game, now that i've done it so many times. I skip over details on wounds, critical wounds, etc. until they are needed.

I used the insanity cards for fear/terror in A Question of Breeding rather than just another Stress.

jh

How did you use them?

Fear/Terror check failed -> gain insanity? Or needed a degree of failure to gain it?

And I suppose a check was made afterwards to decide on whether it became permanent?

Nisses said:

Yes. It was a fear/terror check. On the failure, I just had them draw 3 and keep one that was relevant. The main check was when they saw the "ghost" of Felix. one guy failed on that and then the 2nd ghost later. He drew "dont' leave me" and "Nagging doubts" which left room for lots of roleplay fun. As a young kid, he really hammed it up and had his dwarf-agent clinging to the side of the grave robber the whole time.

No permanency check as it was just a convention scenario. When the PCs arrived back in Altdorf at the end of the scenario, I reminded them that there was an asylum waiting to 'serve their needs...'

jh

Emirikol, thanks so much--Had a lot of fun with the Black Fire Pass scenario! I thought the convention-lite rules were terrific and allowed us to game instead of spend all our time learning/teaching mechanics.

And yes, at the end of the scenario getting cut down by the Black-Ork warboss was totally epic!