Hi,

I am a new GM and I have never roleplayed before. I have played mostly warhammer over the past 10 years and decided to diversify with a few mates. My question so to speak is for a little guidance on running a campaign. I have the core set, heros call to help get to higher levels, two extra dice sets and a copy of the GM and players guide hardback books. I have not bought any published adventures other then the 'edge of night' because I liked the idea of mutating things and the skaven theme.

I ran the two published adventures as one shot testers to get use to the rules and did a test expanding of the edge of night into skaven tunnels which I wrote myself. My question is however this….can someone please suggest a campaign theme for me…..for example a 12 week (12 X 4 hour sessions) campaign thread to start me off….I dont really want to spend any more as I have spent practically £150 quid already.

cheers

What type of adventures do you like to run? What's your GM and game group's style?

Or if you don't have on yet what do you want to be doing?

Also If you don't have signs of faith, winds of magic and omens of war (the priest and magic supplement and war supplement) you should get them in the future. (I forget their proper names if I got any of them wrong). You'll need those for the future.

You can do without them but put them in the shopping cart for the future as disease, mutation and severe wounds are the core value of warhammer and without them it's just not the same.

AND check out the RDP podcast . They're a wfrp3 podcast who run episodes about the rules and the world and do live play sessions of the system which are actually entertaining to sit through. If your completely new to RPGS you can listen to those and steal ideas from all the different GMs on there (that's what I do!) plus learn a little on how and what to do as a GM and as a player (if your players are new as well).

Since you have the GMs guide, you have everything essential from Signs of Faith and Winds of magic (including all disease and corruption rules) as well as the Players Guide. Otherwise, I'd just PDF some of the "Liber" books for the adventures in the back. Horror at Hulgedal is pretty good, as is witch's song.

Anyways, the best way to go about this when you are relatively new is to get your hands on some scenarios. The biggest job of the GM is not knowing all the rules, it's having a scenario (or a sequence) to play and ongoing material for players.

Here are some things that I highly recommend:

* The Gathering Storm. Its a nice boxed set scenario that you will get a lot of use out of. It will give your players enough ongoing play to help them and you get a better feel for how to keep a campaign together. This will cost you a bit, but it will get you about 8 sessions of play.

* Get a hold of some FREE adventures

* If you're running low on 3e scenarios, convert some old 2nd edition adventures (all you have to do is swap out the skill checks, monsters, and use a lot lower "gold" reward..I recommend not more than 75 silver pieces found/rewarded during any 4 hour scenario). 2nd edition had several hundred fan scenarios (free) written for it. (see list above).

* Get your players a COMPLETE equipment list so they have something to spend their money on and improve their characters outside of just advancements. Go ahead and use the ones in my house rules , or download LIBER FANATICA 8 .

In regards to sequence, I'd like to ask, what Careers are the players playing?
* If they are heavy combat, then go with the adventure in the back of Liber Carnagia (you can get the PDF at drivethruprg.com) -$5

* If they prefer mysteries, then look at the scenarios in Liber Mutatis, Liber Infectus, and Liber Ecstatica. The adventures in Liber Fanatica 7 may also appeal to you. There is a free download of a 3e scenario here too: False Pretenses.

In my last campaign, we had mostly thieves in the party so we wanted low combat. I ran the following (converted from 2e):

Rough night at the three feathers, Dog Eat Dog World, Worse than the Disease, Unfinished Symphony, False Pretenses, The Pig, The Witch, and her Lover; and Karls & Scents. You could substitute Trouble at the Gloating Boar Inn as well.

Lastly, I'm spearheading the 2012 WFRP3 scenario contest. Mid-October, there will be several new free scenarios available to you

Best,

Jay h

..

Firstly thankyou,

Fanastic and comprehensive answer!! The house rules and equipment list is fairly fantastic and I will use lots I am sure. (Cheers Emirikol/Jay H)

My gaming group are 3 lads who have never before done roleplay either, the careers that have come out are mercenary, soldier and wizard. They have gone for the mercenaries for hire team card and this worked well for 'eye for an eye'. They took apart the first beastmen attack on the way to the lodge easily, which was good fun and I ramped it up for the final fight at the end making it more difficult…..almost killed the soldier :s haha…. I am quite happy with the game mechanics and it is a very fun game to play. I appreciate the reckless dice podcast of Hugendal excellent example of how to talk with players. Thanks also for the extra scenario links excellent help

All the best

Daniel

Further to the equipment list….can you give me some guide to how you handle the money you give players at different ranks…..eg at what point might they consider buying a house as a base of operations etc? How should I give them earnings as well without repeating the line 'someone wants to hire you' ?

Hi,

Welcome to WFRP, glad to hear you're enjoying it!

Regarding the money thing, its down to group taste so this may well not apply for where you want to take your game. However, I dont really worry about cashing up the players. Some adventures I run will come with a built in reward (You are being hired by….), but many just happen around the characters using npcs and elements from the characters back story to get the players 'buy in'. Also some rewards may dissapear (The man you are hired buy died in that cultist uprising?murder spree/etc so theres no cash available. A reward you say? Well his assets are being processed at the merchants guild, if you could come back sometime in the spring this should all be settled…). I do allow players to create their own cash through ingenious and well structured plans during the game. This gives the warhammerish low and dirty feel that works for our group. The choice of using your purse for some new armour, or a physician to tend that broken arm…

That being said I GM for a bunch of players who seem to delight more in thievery, extortion and blackmail than saving the Empire. They really do deserve nothing more.

If you wish to have your players well funded but not use the 'hiring' intro, you could have them just finished a job for an employer and give them X coins?

Hope that helps.

Cheers for that

I like the idea of starting them weak and struggling to even survive, but as they progress to second career and third eg rank three I want them to have a sort of we've been about the place sort of feel and no longer are we broke. I then want to set them up for some epic save the day/empire final chapter at rank 5 or 6 where they kick ass but will still probably die. I think I might try to come up with what I want to happen for my main story arch then decide funds based on this (approximately anyway)

Cheers

Daniel

Cool input here! I have a related question, so I won't start a new thread for this:

I'm comparatively new to WFRP3 (have the core box, two guides and two supplements, but had no chance to use them so far). Of course, I'd like to GM at least a one shot (for a longer scenario or even campaign I simply have no time right now). What part of the rules could I leave out to keep it a bit more simple for the players as well as for me? I think I might cut out party sheets (less to think about for all of us, and more space on the table). But beyond that, I'm flustered. I'd like to retain the stance meters, and am undecided about critical wounds. Stress etc. seem to be much more interlocked. Any other ideas how to simplify the rules for a one shot?

My suggestion:

For a one shot use pre-generated characters - either the Day Late, Shilling Short download or ones from the fan-created liber fanatica.

Avoid spell and blessing users as PCs to start as magic adds a step of complexity (not that much really but it's a bit).

If not houseruling (and I would not at start before seeing base rules in play), fatigue/stress/critical wounds are very fundamental to the core engine of the game and its flexibility (the idea you can run out of breath and be weak as kitten without a scratch on you).

Yes Party Sheet can safely be left aside (gets forgotten half the time anyway).

Stance Meter is the next easiest to downplay. You can just put it in front, note everyone has default stance and leave moving around in stance till people are ready for it.

Leave out insanity, corruption, disease. You can mostly leave this out just by not targeting them (e.g, don't impose lots of stress inducers).

My experience (with experienced role players) was that people took to everything pretty easily and quickly. I didn't have to leave anything out really to start. The stuff people had most difficulty getting into right headspace about was the abstract movement and narrative time (e.g., how long is a rally step, well it's as long as suits the dramatic situation that's how long).

Hi! Also I am new to roleplay/GM. We have played our first session in wich i let them familiar with the game, For friday im starting the Eye for an Eye, However, last session one of my PCs were asking if he could serach for flowers and such, something with potetial poison to use with his arrows. I didt let him this time cus my own lack of any knowlage about herbs in warhammer world.

So after this session i started looking through the web for some listing of herbs and relevant info and i stumbled over this http://ratujmywfrp2pl.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/herbalism.pdf

It seems to be from the 2nd ed but i figgured i could implement it to the game anyway quite easy.

Then i found HAFNER House rules, (Epic stuff dude!) where there is a trade section of herbs. The thing is all herbs are exclusive to the other "rules", i do prefer the herbalist pdf i found cus of the various information about them like in witch enviroment they can be found and rarity.

What im asking is simply if any of u guys here have any suggestions what to use?

Edit: Also! so far we have the core set and GMs Toolkit and are planning to expand. One of my PCs play dwarf and realy like the slayers so he will buy the Black fire pass, i also found some cool "expansion" for the black fire pass that i havent told him about yet =D

Anyway what are your suggestions to what i need as a GM? Scenarios i found plenty free from various sites for both 3rd and 2nd. Im leaning towards the adventurers toolkit cus of all cards and careers but im open to suggestions =)

sauce said:

There is some information in the Liber infectus (that's part of the Signs of Faith supplement, but you can also buy the PDF separately für $5). But it's not much, and it only looks into healing herbs, not poisons. Although it says where some of the herbs can be found (woods, mountains…), it doesn't say anything about how rare the plants are.