New GM. Order of the scenarios and houserules.

By player320064, in WFRP Gamemasters

Hello, I'm starting a campaign soon and have some questions regarding:

1. The order in which to run the scenarios. Are there any order that you can recommend? I consider starting with the Eye for an Eye scenario from the core set.

2. Which houserules can you recommend. Any tweeks or small changes that radically have improved your playing experience?

1. Can't really help you there since I haven't played through a lot of them, but starting with Eye for an Eye should be good. I would probably not go into Gathering storm after EfaE, I think that campaign is better suited for rank 2 PCs unless the GM tweaks some of the harder encounters.

2. I would recommend not houseruling anything until you have played a couple of sessions. But check the errata, there are some things there that are important. We've been playing for a couple of years now (on and off) but are still not using any houserules, with the exception of some self-made item cards.

Here's how I'd run them:

WFRP3D01 A Day Late, A Shilling Short (demo scenario)

WFRP301 An Eye for an Eye (Core Set, Tome of Adventure booklet)
WFRP302 The Gathering Storm – A Campaign For WFRP – Complete Boxed Set
WFRP304 Winds of Change (Winds of Magic boxed set, Liber Mutatis booklet)

WFRP3F01 Ghost of Mondstille -fan scenario by Clive Oldfield

WFRP306 Horror at Hulgedal (Signs of Faith boxed Set, Liber Infectus booklet)
WFRP3F06 The Lone Wolf (Wolfship) - fan scenario by Jay Hafner.
WFRP307 The Witch’s Song – An Adventure for WFRP – Complete Boxed Set

WFRP310 Mirror of Desire (Lure of Power boxed set, Liber Ecstatica booklet)

WFRP3F02 False Pretenses - fan scenario by Jay Hafner
WFRP308 Crimson Rain (Omens of War boxed set, Liber Carnagia booklet)

WFRP3F07 Oldenhaller Contract download from ffg (WFRP3 updates by Winterknight)
WFRP305 The Edge of Night – An Adventure for WFRP – Complete Boxed Set
WFRP3LF01 Revenant -fan scenario bv Jay Hafner (in Liber Fanatica #7)


WFRP311 The Art of Waaagh!(Hero’s Call boxed set booklet) -EPIC

WFRP3LF02 Wanted Pt 1& 2 (in Liber Fanatica)
WFRP3D02 Journey to Black Fire Pass (demo scenario)
WFRP309 The Harrower of Thanes (Blackfire Pass boxed set) --rank 2-3 very likely a total party kill!

WFRP312 The Enemy Within – A Campaign for WFRP – Complete Boxed Set

Here's a complete scenario list link for you as well: gallery.rptools.net/v/contrib/emirikol7/

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The game is perfectly playable without house rules, however I prefer a faster game, so here are some things that radically improved our style of playing experience (also see my house rulebook in my signature at bottom):

House rule #1 - Decide how replacement characters will come into the game. Same x.p. and starting coinage only? Characters DIE or go insane in this game. Let players know this ahead of time so they don't think they're playing D&D. It's not ok to get mad when your character dies. That's just warhammer. Just make a new one and shoot him into the scene.

We dumped Talent "socketing (always on now..or exhaustable per encounter). There has been zero game breakage so far and it speeds up the game.

We dumped Party Sheets (we weren't using them, they are a thinly disguised 'player parenting tool,' and talent socketing is obsolete).

We dumped 'recharge' for active defenses. Pick one and it's always on. There has been zero game breakage (even with the advanced versions), and it speeds up the game.

We don't generally use "rally steps." Combats don't last that long, and it's just 'rules bloat'.

For any character career affected by the above rules, they get an extra fortune point instead (that they can use personally or grant to another PC).

We use the basic action summary sheet instead of having all those extra cards scattered across the multiverse (download on the FFG wfrp page).

We made an actual list of equipment (see my house rulebook) based on the actual cost of things listed in paragraph form in the core books.

A couple other things:

We put the Career Sheet in the player's ID- table tent (because it doesn't need to be on the table..with all the other cards). The artwork is nice, but the rest isn't necessary until you are leveling/advancing a character anyways.

We write the career ability on the character sheet (again, to get rid of all the unnecessary cards on the table)

We don't "sort" counters. If you need to track your fatigue, stress, stance, recharge, whatever; just use a pencil, d10, or grab whatever counter works. You don't have to be specific with red or blue or green or yellow or whatever.

I've found that I rarely, if ever, use Location Cards. The modifiers are just trivial and the writing is so small people can't see it anyways. We use them more for the symbolic picture on the front instead. Most other GMs I talk to love them however so use them in good health :)

I did create Fortune Point Cards with the rules printed on them. Players actually like having one card per point that they toss down on the table in disgust as they make a failed roll ;) I allow them to use them AT WILL, rather than before the dice roll. That's more fun and dramatic anyways.

A couple last notes for you:

1. Don't let players take any of your stuff home. If they want a copy of the rules, tell them to get the PDF of the Players Guide.

2. Use a collectable card album sheet for wizards/priest action cards, otherwise they get scattered to the winds and are a menace to manage. They're also conveniently on the correct side of their stance at the same time. Use a vis a vis marker to track recharge instead of chits.

3. I highly advise using Court Dimon's GM screen (skip the official version, it obviously wasn't designed by an experienced GM and doesn't have useful information on it)

4. Keep your player stuff in gallon zyplock bags. The tuck-boxes are "cute", but that's about it.

jh

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Here's what I use for my cards. It's a little screw/hobby sorter from the hardware store:

Photo_00013.jpg

Here is a typical "Table Tent" that each player has in front of them. We put the career sheet in the front (for the picture). I made them out of leftover plastic from packing plastic from kids toys, electronics theft-protection packaging, etc.

106_0452.JPG

Here's the back: Notice the tray in the back to hold/contain the stance meter (so it doesn't get knocked around):

106_0453.JPG

Each of your players should have an album sheet to contain their cards (fits talent cards too).

106_0451.JPG

Lastly, we have a mystic in the party. To give him that "mystic" feel, I gave him a laminated sheet on the winds of magic, the warahmmer battles winds of magic dice, and a deck of Williamsburg, Virginia Aesops Fables cards. I've also got to get a crystal ball..it's on my to-do list. Also there is the OMENS pages from Liber Fanatica #7, for which we frequently make rolls when he gazes at the winds of magic and I give him premonitions about upcoming events (or false information when he gets chaos stars).

106_0456.JPG

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Thanks a lot for the help. I think I'll start with An eye for an eye.

Leave it to Emirikol to give a complete answer with images! Nice one

Pretty much agree with Emirikol here, though Eye for Eye is a fine start as well, it has a nice mix of story driven elements, mystery solving, some great characters and some really interesting fights. I think the hard part about running that adventure is to make sure no one reads about it or even looks at the images from that adventure because so much of it is spoiled by doing so. Its an adventure that really hinges on the players complete ignorance of any aspect of the plot.

I definitly think any good GM will ultimatly pull from WFRP 2.0 and player created content, which not only includes some amazing adventures but also because sometimes you can't logically steer the story where you want it to go without railroading so having extra material ready is a good thing. Gathering Storm I think is great because its a nice long adventure, by the time your done with it your players should be in full swing with the system if they where not familiar with it when they start.

As for house rules, the one I strongly suggest you avoid is "profession selection". Do the draw 3 pick 1 thing, I have found my games always turn out much better when the players aren't handing picking professions which is the natural instinct for GM's and players alike. It creates more interesting dynamics and prevents the power creep that can otherwise over take a WFRP game.

Hi,

I can shortly explain my house rule set which have been applied to several sessions already and I keep sticking to them.

Download link to pdf

Some highlights:

Page 3 - Advanced Combat Maneuvers

We've had problem of surplus unused maneuvers and this list guides players to use their maneuvers with more freedom.

Pages 7 - 24 .. work under progress on skill check success and failure guidelines

Page 26 - Monster Critical Hits

Critical wounds are too lame for most monsters and opponents - they are clearly for PCs. This table allows critical hits to be really nasty to monsters, directly affecting their stats. Narrative is completely open for GM.

Page 27 - Monster A/C/E

By normal rules, stress and fatigue causes wounds to monsters and then PCs have a lot of actions causing stress or fatigue to monsters ?? A design flaw in my view and I've targeted stress and fatigue to reduce monster A/C/E pool instead making also A/C/E die usability more effective.

Page 30 - Death check

I never liked the binary death of normal rules (wounds > threshold, critical wounds count over Toughness) but wanted to have old school probability table based on how much you are over in wound threshold and what is the severity of critical wounds. Now you can also die by not having critical wounds at all (better!) and survive with high resilience even a near-death experience.

Also, a PC may need to perform several death checks based on urgency and quality of healing he receives. Death check and Healing house rules are to be used together.

Page 33 - Healing

Normal rules for healing, first aid and long-term care were awfully messy and I put mine in a chart with one skill check per category instead of original chained skill checks. Also, no recovery of wounds based on toughness - only by skill check results. This makes having wounds more long lasting (realistic) and the quality of healing more meaningful. Also, Diablo-style healing potions are not working but they are simply boosting the healing process. Long-term care is a "super-check" but requires 3 nights. This is particularly effective for less resilient characters with critical wounds or diseases.

So, these have been really good for our group and I feel I've fixed some of the flaws in the rules I did not feel comfortable with.

Arto

I'm bumping this topic.

One optional rule that is listed in.. I think it's the GM toolkit?Any excess successes rolled on an attack (meaning, you fulfill all success lines on the card and you still have unused successes) count as +1 damage.

This makes combat damage a bit less static and a really good roll means something, even if the card used is underwhelming.

In addition, it speeds up combat as damage output is increased.

When a player or enemy rolls a heap of successes it is a bit of a letdown to still have the attack do exactly the same damage as last time, when the player only rolled 2 successes.

Awesome write up mate!

IMHO though, I'd be less inclined to use EfaE early only because of the end BBEG.

Sure the players in an EfaE can take down the BBEG but I do like building up to such impressive opponents. (even though in this case the stat line is small, the nature of the enemy is high fantasy ie he's not a Bandit).

It's like the golden rule to big secrets, big plots ie Once you've revealed a big enemy, that's it. In a way it's all over. Many players will be disappointed to return to smaller ones.

Edited by Twodogz

Agreed. The other thing to consider is if Skaven are revealed too early in campaigns, they are kind of like an enormous spoiler.

jh

Yep, agreed.

One optional rule that is listed in.. I think it's the GM toolkit?Any excess successes rolled on an attack (meaning, you fulfill all success lines on the card and you still have unused successes) count as +1 damage.

This makes combat damage a bit less static and a really good roll means something, even if the card used is underwhelming.

In addition, it speeds up combat as damage output is increased.

When a player or enemy rolls a heap of successes it is a bit of a letdown to still have the attack do exactly the same damage as last time, when the player only rolled 2 successes.

From memory this bonus is limited to how many points you have in the relevant skill.

I remember asking you jh about those images, if you still had those?

Sorry no, the images are gone.

"Court Dimon's GM screen"

Which one is this? This one: http://www.gitzmansgallery.com/docs/WFRP3%20GM%20Screen%20Replacement.pdf

or the other listed?

The GM screen was a little pants tbh.

My party are currently in the final stages of Eye for an Eye, and the event wil lbe resovled this Saturday (It doesn't look good them).
I was thinknig to suggest the Winds of magic campaign instead of the storm of chaos; but allow the group to decide where to go once they're done - (if they survive).

Any reason for Storm first?
Also, thanks for the list! Will make it easier to prepare additional scenarios as I build up my collection of expacs.

Do you have plans to continue with the published adventures after "Gathering Storm" or "Winds of Change"? If so, there are lots of good opportunities to foreshadow and introduce characters early.

If your players start with "Winds of Change", remember that they'll actually pass by Stromdorf on the way between Ubersreik and Altdorf. If you plan on running "Storm" afterwords, you can even have the players meet the merchant on their way down the river. Since "Winds" is so heavily connected to the colleges of magic, you can even create a connection between the party and Schulmann--Honestly, the character as presented is the weakest part of that adventure, so take advantage of the opportunity to make Schulmann a little bit more complicated.

If you plan on running Edge of Night (and you should, it's the best of the Ubersreik-area adventures), talk about the political situation in Ubersreik nice and early. If the party is sent to Stromdorf by the merchant's guild, use Alfred Karstadt, the guild leader, to do so. He appears as a minor character in both "Edge" and "Mirror of Desire".

If the characters wind up with Korden's Hammer, you might run the first bit of "Harrower of Thanes"--while the adventure itself is designed for higher-level characters, it starts with the characters going up the mountain to Karak Azgaraz, and glosses over the long journey to Averland. Since Ubersreik, Hugeldal, and Stromdorf are all on the way from Karak Azgaraz to Averland, you could run the Karak Azgaraz portion of the adventure and then let the PCs hit the other adventures along the way.

Here's a complete scenario list link for you as well: gallery.rptools.net/v/contrib/emirikol7/

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Link is dead for me - and I can't see to find some of the scenarios listed.. is there an active link I can use? :D

You can find it on rpggeek.com in the 3e files section.

You can find it on rpggeek.com in the 3e files section.

Thanks for the list! (Took a little while as I'm not very faimilar with rpggeek).

Unfortunately, the list I found only has a handful of links to scenarios.

Try this lin k. I guess that the BI links are all infected with bots anyways, but you can always use google cache.

If someone were to write up a linking document, that would be really handy :)

Edited by Emirikol

Try this lin k. I guess that the BI links are all infected with bots anyways, but you can always use google cache.

If someone were to write up a linking document, that would be really handy :)

Check your messages ^_^

Try this lin k. I guess that the BI links are all infected with bots anyways, but you can always use google cache.

If someone were to write up a linking document, that would be really handy :)

Sweet- are these all the adventures from previous editions?

They are all fan-written scenarios. They are easy to convert and I use them frequently. There is another huge repository out there on a site you can probably find through the strike to stun forums, but they guy who runs it doesn't share. It is a "write one and you can read them" box of lost fan written scenarios. Fan scenarios have kept this (and other game systems) running since this game was in its infancy :)

There is another huge repository out there on a site you can probably find through the strike to stun forums, but they guy who runs it doesn't share. It is a "write one and you can read them" box of lost fan written scenarios. Fan scenarios have kept this (and other game systems) running since this game was in its infancy :)

I have heard stories of that guy sometimes taking years to even get back to people.

Not sure if this been already said but the main houserule that I totally dig is that any social action that says "you influence the target" also deals one shame to the target.