 |
| I think the village of Tallerhof will have looked similar to this after the goblin raid. |
Hidden beer in the alley
The group assembled around the casket of ale left earlier by guard recruit Gorgor. Kylael spent some time helping stricken villagers before joining the rest. The hidden casket contained the only ale in town as the goblin spider riders made off with the rest. The presence of ale seemed to work as a magnet on the town's mayor Smokkel. He advised the group to consider two options. One, they could try and check out where the spider riders where coming from. A very dangerous task. Or two, they could escort the by now healed but tired baron back to his castle.
The best decisions...
The group nodded along with the mayor and kept drinking ale. Alcohol has some interesting effects. As you keep drinking it gets harder and harder to resist the feeling that you are making excellent decisions. Two members of the party felt true Marienburgher Courage setting in. Two others went teary eyed, exclaiming how much they valued having such excellent friends around them. In this state the group decided not to spend a night in the village, electing to track down a (larger) group of spider riders with dusk setting in...
Spider forest
The group took the casket along and kept drinking until it was finished. By now they found themselves deep in the forest north of their village. It was eerily devoid of life. Huge strands of spider silk tied branches, bushes and even entire trees together. As it was getting rather dark, the group huddled together and upended sling bags and pouches to discover a grand total of two rations and one blanket to be shared with four persons. No tent was found among their possessions. Apparently drunks should not go camping. They did get lucky. The drunk dwarf managed to improvise a strong shelter out of spider silk and the halfling craftily lit a safe, warm and well hidden fire to heat it up.
A lost hunter
Amazingly, even with their sentry promptly falling asleep, the group managed to have a restful and uneventful night. By the new light of day Kylael looked up and discovered cocoons in the shapes of animals big and small hanging from the trees. He managed to take down a man sized cocoon and opened it. It contained the dozing form of Ulrich, the castle's master of the hunt. As he came to, Ulrich chatted with the group, warning them against touching spiders webs. "It attracts them!" He shared some rations and his blanket and hightailed it back to the castle. The group tried (and failed) to ignore their pretty improvised shelter...
Drums
Meanwhile the group heard the sound of far off drums starting. They decided to check it out. Using clever woodcraft, they arrived at a hidden ridge overlooking a forest goblin camp. From their position they could see the camp sprouting from a cliff at the edge of the Grey Mountains. The cliff's edge itself was filled dozens of large holes through which spider's walked in and out. Against the cliff small huts housing goblins where suspended by spider silk. On the ground a larger hut stood. It had a small altar in its opening that proudly displayed a glassy black orb.
The ritual
Several goblins hung suspended against the cliff's edge, working on a primitive painting of a giant spider. On the ground, next to the large hut, the group saw the leader of the goblins. The creature stood on a large wooden dais. The dais curiously had all kinds of large straps hanging off it. A group of goblins danced around the goblin boss while chanting. In the background a smaller group of goblins was banging on a couple of enormous drums.
 |
| Now that was a bit of an unpleasant surprise, but it did explain what the wooden dais with straps was for. |
Theft and flight
Micky did not take the time to reflect and decided to sneak down directly to the black orb. Kylael took one look at the goblin horde and retreated back into the forest where he picked a great hiding spot. Gorgor and Barnard looked on from the ridge. Micky arrived at the large hut and took the orb. As he looked up, he saw the nearby goblin boss look straight back at him. The boss tried to warn his minions, but suffered from a severe case of bad timing. Exactly at that instance the ritual completed and the cliff side burst open, revealing an enormous Arachnarok spider. Micky, Barnard and Gorgor took one look and started running.
Run!
As they entered the forest Micky threw the orb towards Gorgor, who actually managed to catch it. Kylael, worried about all the noise, looked out of his hiding place and decided that running might be a better idea. The giant spiders picked up their riders and scuttled after the group at a frightening pace. In the back, the Arachnarok was decidedly slower. The only creature even slower then this humongous spider was Gorgor the dwarf. She was quickly overtaken by forest goblins spider riders and actually saw the first legs of the Arachnarok land close beside her. Barnard and Kylael split from the halfling, running into different directions, hoping to throw off some of the pursuers. To the dwarf's amazement nothing happened. The goblin boss, riding alongside the Arachnarok, kept screaming at his fellows and pointing at the halfling. Apparently this creature was quite convinced that Micky still had the black orb.
Safe?
Nothing runs quite as fast as a seriously motivated halfling. And nothing is quite as motivational as an army of giant spiders. The hobbit managed to use his small size and woodcraft to outmatch the spiders on their own territory. Eventually the entire group managed to escape the forest alive, they met up (far) from the forest's edge. After a quick deliberation they agreed that a high walled castle might be a nice place to be around now.
Micky did not take the time to reflect and decided to sneak down directly to the black orb. Kylael took one look at the goblin horde and retreated back into the forest where he picked a great hiding spot. Gorgor and Barnard looked on from the ridge. Micky arrived at the large hut and took the orb. As he looked up, he saw the nearby goblin boss look straight back at him. The boss tried to warn his minions, but suffered from a severe case of bad timing. Exactly at that instance the ritual completed and the cliff side burst open, revealing an enormous Arachnarok spider. Micky, Barnard and Gorgor took one look and started running.
Run!
As they entered the forest Micky threw the orb towards Gorgor, who actually managed to catch it. Kylael, worried about all the noise, looked out of his hiding place and decided that running might be a better idea. The giant spiders picked up their riders and scuttled after the group at a frightening pace. In the back, the Arachnarok was decidedly slower. The only creature even slower then this humongous spider was Gorgor the dwarf. She was quickly overtaken by forest goblins spider riders and actually saw the first legs of the Arachnarok land close beside her. Barnard and Kylael split from the halfling, running into different directions, hoping to throw off some of the pursuers. To the dwarf's amazement nothing happened. The goblin boss, riding alongside the Arachnarok, kept screaming at his fellows and pointing at the halfling. Apparently this creature was quite convinced that Micky still had the black orb.
Safe?
Nothing runs quite as fast as a seriously motivated halfling. And nothing is quite as motivational as an army of giant spiders. The hobbit managed to use his small size and woodcraft to outmatch the spiders on their own territory. Eventually the entire group managed to escape the forest alive, they met up (far) from the forest's edge. After a quick deliberation they agreed that a high walled castle might be a nice place to be around now.
 |
| Not Schluesselschloss, but its a Mighty Fortress. |
Schluesselschloss
Castle Schluesselschloss is a rather rickety looking construction build on an island in the Teufel river. It controls all traffic through the valley by dint of two drawbridges that connect the road running through the castle. A small dock sits at the side of Schluesselschloss and is able to hold about two river barges. The castle turned out te be teeming with soldiers. The baron was assembling an army to join a campaign in Wissenland. A river barge called De Vreugde was docked on the castle's dock.
Social encounters
Kylael was very familiar with the castle as he spend a lot of time practicing his swordsmanship here. He met with the castle's cook, a halfling called Pansie Lepelmuil. The cook told him that the barge contained coffee from Araby and wine from Bretonnia. He hinted at a nice reward if some of that coffee and wine would make it into his food cellars. The rest of the group discovered that both the blacksmith and the fletcher where rather too busy supplying soldiers to have a chat with local villagers about arms for sale. They went to quartermaster Friedhelm who was rather busy trying to accommodate the large number of soldiers. He turned out to be rather worried about Pansie's overenthusiastic cooking as well. Supplies where dwindling at a dangerous rate and all the while the cook just said: "We need a feast to keep up morale."
Martial deliberations
Kylael finally mentioned the spiders to Friedhelm. He sent the group on to Seneschal Reinhart who in turn brought them to the war room to report directly to the baron. Inside the war room the group met both the baron's sons as well as some of his captains. Among the captains they recognized the baron's right hand man Andreas von Averbach. The oldest son Erik tuned out to be a rather arrogant warmonger. The younger son Mathaus was ignoring all the war talk and kept prattling on about the use of wine in religious ceremonies. The baron had to sent him from the room. Ordering his son to the library to find information on giant spiders and goblins.
Insolent plebs (part 1)
Unused as the group was in dealing with their betters it took them no time at all to get ushered out of the war room on account of being insolent plebs. You should not tell the baron he is wrong if he's unwilling to listen to tales of enormous mega-spiders. As the door closed, the group heard him say: "Spiders in the forest, an excellent drill for the men." Kylael guided the group to the castle's library. They found Mathaus there. Spiders forgotten, he was reading even more fascinating details about wine use in religion. The group tried telling him of the frightful ritual but all he wanted to know was whether the goblin boss had used a spirit and if so, was it wine? Sitting on the other side of the reading table was a high elf. Mathaus introduced him as Cenoc Ithlovel. Not very well versed in wine or human relgious ceremonies I'm afraid.
The army moves out
Slightly bored with all the introductions and academia, Kylael stepped onto the balcony and watched the baron assemble his men and order the march. Meanwhile Barnard conversed with Cenoc about an ancient war that was ended hundreds of years ago with a battle in Teufeltal. He learned of Otto III, count of Wissenland, who fought in this 'Night of the Restless Dead'. Otto managed to defeat Karlmann the Red during an extended battle at the river. The river turned red with blood and was named the Teufel (Devil) from that point on. In time the valley was renamed Teufeltal (Devil's Vale). Barnard nodded along, but actually had more interest in a picture on the same page of the book the elf was reading. It was of a glassy black orb. He asked Cenoc about it. In very typical high elf style he told Barnard that his fragile human mind could not comprehend such fascinating knowledge.
Insolent plebs (part 2)
After a quick huddle, the group decided they needed the book for themselves. But how do you part an elf from his tome? Micky knew just what to do. He left the library and sat down on the staircase. There he started an extremely bawdy song about the lineage and conception of Cenoc. Inside the library the elf first turned red and then slowly went white. He got up in silent fury, walked into the staircase and punched Micky. Hard. On the nose. Leaving the halfling bleeding, Cenoc turned and - still without uttering a single word - walked back to the library. He passed a bent over Barnard on the way. The initiate had to walk with a stoop as he was concealing a rather large book underneath his robes.
The refectory
Kylael asked Pansie for some food, and got a veritable feast (it keeps up morale!). The group sat down in the (by now) almost empty refectory. They ate while Barnard read from the book. Otto III died while defeating Karlman the Red. He gave his life to put a vampire out of action. In honor of this valiant deed Otto III was entombed in Teufeltal holding a captured black glassy orb as a war trophy. The book failed to specify where Otto's tomb was or what happened to Karlmann the Red's remains...
Unwanted romance
After the reading, while gossiping with the few soldiers left in the castle, the group learned that the barge De Vreugde had not sailed on for a reason. It turned out the captain of the barge was a rather pretty and free spirited Marienburgher woman named Alida Siegel. She turned down the avances of Andreas von Averbach. He had decided to demand extra taxes and a thorough check of all papers out of spite. As long as the taxes went unpaid, the vessel went nowhere.
Fire on the horizon
Standing on the battlements the group discussed the deplorable acts of Andreas, started speculating on vampires in Teufeltal and complained about the general ickyness of spiders (especially of the enormous variety). Suddenly smoke and fire filled the horizon. It came from the direction of Tallerhof! Wasn't that where the baron and his men where headed?
Yes if at all possible, games session should end with a cliffhanger.
I had to end the previous session just prior to the act 3 of the first encounter, luckily this time I did reach act 3 of the castle scene (a rather large social encounter). I started the game skipping act 3 from the goblin raid. A climax is an odd way to start a new session so I started with the aftermath of the encounter, stepping over a big confrontation between priest and initiate and at the same time testing the new miracle rules to see if I could heal a character without fudging dice rolls. You can. But not if you are an initiate. I had a lot of fun with players enthusiastically missing their consume alcohol checks and roleplaying the results from the table in the book with gusto. As to the planning and GM'ing of this session I think I'll ramble a bit about story planning and Game mastering social encounters and situations. Maybe somebody gets something of interest out of this.
Dividing the story
I like to give players full control of what they do and where they can go, but I also rather enjoy working from planned material where possible. On the flip side of the coin, players like choice, but tend to get lost if you don't hand them at least a few lines to follow. Planning for what they do requires to work out what the plot is, how you are going to share it with the players and keeping that plan very flexible so the players get to fill in the detail like where and how exactly. I've always rather liked the Baldur's Gate style of 'pick where you want to go from the map' computer adventuring and I try to bring that to a pen&paper session. So the first part of this session revolved around giving the players a few options.
Plot lines
To keep everything running more or less smoothly (and avoid the most glaring plot holes) you need to set up plot lines. In other words divide bits of information over different encounters and scenes. If you have to choose, which of these two scenario's would you like:
To help myself keep a grip on the chaos that is a campaign, I've divided the main story into three chapters (and a prologue). The prologue was the goblin attack on the village (in three acts) and chapter one opened this evening. Each chapter contains multiple scenes, and each scene is split into three acts (roughly: setting the scene, playing the scene, climax). This last part I picked up in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd. As play progresses and the players decide what to do and where to go I can pick which scene to play in response. Ahead of time I can place plot hooks in different scenes and tie resolutions and encounters together throughout the chapters. If all goes right (it never does) the campaign will run smoothly.
Rule #1: Player don't notice when nothing goes according to plan
I used the mayor to give the players a few hints as to where they could go next (forest or castle). If they had been in the mood to do something different, well if need be I've got scenes prepared for most of the locations in Teufeltal. Otherwise I can always shift one or two things to suit the flow of the session. For instance turning a cliff face in the north of the valley into a freaky set of holes in the ground in the center, requires little more than reworking my notes after the fact. As a game master one of the easiest things to forget is that your players don't know what has been planned, what has been shifted and what has gone absolutely 180 degrees from what you expected. Just put on a brave face, always give them the feeling that their actions dictate the course of the evening and roll with the punches. If the gigantic mess works out in the end, claim it was your plan all along...
Using theme, background and maps to plan the story
As the theme of my campaign is a Waagh slowly but surely streaming into Teufeltal I had to take some time to figure out where all these orcs and goblins are coming from, when they will arrive and what they will do. To properly tie it into the Old World I used the Gitzman's high res map and looked at differing tribes around Teufeltal, deciding how the horde could assemble. I used the old 8th edition Battle Tome to get a feel for different army compositions. From that I roughly planed five elements that would form the Waaagh (each with its own specific collection of creatures). Having a location and a composition of the forces I could project how the different elements would reach Teufeltal. After that I could plot on the map of Teufeltal what they would do on arrival, which NPC's would be affected and basically make a rough timeline of the Waaagh and its effects on Teufeltal.
Dividing the story into chapters and scenes
With this information I could split my story into the three chapters. In chapter one access to Teufeltal from The Empire will be cut off. In chapter two the exit to Bretonnia will be closed and Karak Azgaraz will be put under siege. This chapter will end with the main host marching into Teufeltal from a secret path in the Grey Mountains, hopefully motivating the players to take cover in the castle. Chapter three will deal with the siege itself (assuming my players don't get creative and plan a daring escape from Teufeltal in which case, I'll have to rewrite chapter three). Chapter one is divided into five scenes, two of which the players played in the session above (1.1 Spiders Everywhere! and 1.2 Schluesselschloss (I like to give my scenes names)). The fun part here is that if they had decided to go to the castle first, I could've easily persuaded them to go to the forest next (they would probably have been better equipped and prepared in that case). The scenes work on themselves and it's (usually) up to the player's when they get to a different part. Equally important the scenes (as implied by their name) lay out a scene, I don't consider resolutions or paths for the players to take. They are confronted by a situation and get to respond to it as they want. That said, the remaining three scenes in chapter one are rather more linear (their choices effect how the scenes play out, not whether they happen) and mostly serve to set up the player's roles in chapter two and expand the main plot (hint: it revolves slightly more around Otto and Karlmann then around Orcs).
Setting up plots and subplots
As to building up a second plot. Having seen a single reference to a vampire my entire group is utterly convinced it is time to buy garlic and holy symbols. They are not fools. On the other hand it is my experience that players tend to miss subtle plot hooks. You also need to keep attention span in mind, especially as this story will be played out with two week (and sometimes monthly) intervals. A hint of something interesting should be followed by something happening within the same session or at the most one session later. Otherwise most of the group will have forgotten it. You can escape this by rehashing hints at the start of every session (a bit school masterly). Giving cards with important hints (they get ignored, and make what is important slightly too obvious) or by managing to make players really worry about the hint. Vampires in Warhammer tend to do the trick. So I hope the group will start acquiring holy symbols and lose sleep over the perceived vampire threat. They may forget the orcs between sessions (I'll reintroduce them with a cutta to the face) but by that point they won't forget about the ancient battle. It should make the overarching plot feel less like a deus-ex machina and more like a proper (if unorthodox) climax.
Giving the players a choice while keeping control of the plot (mostly)
The second chapter will be the longest, featuring (for now) eleven scenes. The fun part of this is that the player's get to pick where they go and get a response depending on their choice. I can hint with books and NPC's as to what will happen and I can shorten this chapter by striking off options if my players take a long time getting to different scenes. Scenes have an effect on how follow-up scenes play and each scene has a planned effect on the final chapter (recruitment of allies, gathering of supplies, making fresh enemies, etc.). It should give the player's a nice feeling of accomplishment (or occasionally punishment). The final chapter will have eight scenes, ending the campaign with a nice finale. But that is all for later.
Social interactions in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th
A last bit of rambling before I sign off on this post is about social interaction in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, especially in fourth edition as Cubicle 7 clearly spend time thinking about this. For those of you just writing down gold, silver and brass coins D&D style (as an accountancy exercise followed by a complaint about short equipment lists), Warhammer traditionally (in my very humble opinion) offers a rather different way to play with money. Yes there is still money, but the color of your money matters more than the amount as it is tied to your social class and that affects what you can buy and who you can buy it from. Also gold weighs a lot, players lugging around 500 gold pieces need a chest and a cart and the same also goes for silver and brass.
Class warfare: the gold, silver and brass tiers
People reside in the gold, silver or brass tier. It determines their class. A rat catcher and a watch recruit are brass tier. They happily say 'hi' to each other on the streets. A regular merchant resides in the silver tier, he expects deference from the brass tier members of society and most likely tries to cut down interaction to a minimum (that's what shopkeepers are for). The Watchman (the second level in the watchman class, first level is the watch recruit mentioned above) is silver tier and could have a normal interaction with the merchant. At the top of this pyramid are people like nobles, wizards, watch captains and master merchants. They reside in the gold tier, expect deference from the silver tier and under normal circumstances stay as far away from brass as possible. As an extra twist nobles tend to resent everyone they have to share their tier with, especially snooty wizards who may have started life all the way down in the brass tier.
Interaction between social classes
Aside from a tier color Warhammer Fantasy 4th adds a number to your class. Making it easier to figure out rougly where to people in the same tier stand. For instance a Watch Sergeant is Silver 3, but a Town Councillor is Silver 5. Meaning the councillor will feel slightly snootier than the sergeant in a conversation. The (perceived) standing characters and NPC's have translate to an in-game effect on social interaction rolls. The right trappings are required to lay claim to certain careers and their social benefits. Its hard to be treated like a noble lord if you walk around penniless and in rags. By the same token it is rather difficult to successfully beg if you are wearing a nobleman's garb and jewelry (unless you're begging for a fiefdom that is).
Planning social encounters by tier
In practice I plan out the larger social encounters (like a visit to a castle) by listing available NPC's by tier, followed by what you can get from them (and also determining who can get where according to class). In the above session for instance the castle's contact for brass players is Friedhelm the quartermaster, seneschal Reinhart is silver tier and the baron is gold tier. As the player group was mostly brass it took a conversation with Friedhelm to get to Reinhart who in turn took the players to the baron. All that effort to report about spiders threatening the valley. If a noble scion (gold 1) had been in the group, he would've been recognized at the gates and taken to the baron directly. Also he would not have been thrown out for suggesting an alternate course of action in the war room (an explanation as to how much he had to learn, would've been more likely). On the flip side a gold tier character would not have been able to talk Pansie out of food. "I'm working on the feast m'lord. It will be brought up m'lord.".
Class warfare
Playing around with social class and making it matter in context of the game gives a nice extra layer to the story. "We could've prevented that, if only those foolish nobles would listen to their loyal subjects!" It will also make for a lot of fun if the group ever comes into contact with traders and merchants. "Show my beautiful wares to a penniless miner? I think not." or "Take your stolen gold elsewhere before I call the guard!". It will also make forthcoming interactions with the Dwarves of Karak Azgaraz interesting. They may not be fully clued in on the intricacies of class in The Empire, but a hierarchical bunch like them will act from what they assume. For the same reason the snooty high elf Envoy (Silver 4) saw no reason to hold back his utter contempt for humans when talking to a lowly Initiate (Brass 2).
(Temporarily) abolishing class
Of course, as soon as danger rears its ugly head and the upper classes start failing for differing reasons (death, arrogance, obliviousness and not being there-ishness) class differences quickly start fading away (right up until the danger is gone and credit is about to be doled out).
There ends another long ramble. Maybe I should try to be a bit shorter on the next one (or maybe not, feel free to let me know ;) ).
Castle Schluesselschloss is a rather rickety looking construction build on an island in the Teufel river. It controls all traffic through the valley by dint of two drawbridges that connect the road running through the castle. A small dock sits at the side of Schluesselschloss and is able to hold about two river barges. The castle turned out te be teeming with soldiers. The baron was assembling an army to join a campaign in Wissenland. A river barge called De Vreugde was docked on the castle's dock.
Social encounters
Kylael was very familiar with the castle as he spend a lot of time practicing his swordsmanship here. He met with the castle's cook, a halfling called Pansie Lepelmuil. The cook told him that the barge contained coffee from Araby and wine from Bretonnia. He hinted at a nice reward if some of that coffee and wine would make it into his food cellars. The rest of the group discovered that both the blacksmith and the fletcher where rather too busy supplying soldiers to have a chat with local villagers about arms for sale. They went to quartermaster Friedhelm who was rather busy trying to accommodate the large number of soldiers. He turned out to be rather worried about Pansie's overenthusiastic cooking as well. Supplies where dwindling at a dangerous rate and all the while the cook just said: "We need a feast to keep up morale."
Martial deliberations
Kylael finally mentioned the spiders to Friedhelm. He sent the group on to Seneschal Reinhart who in turn brought them to the war room to report directly to the baron. Inside the war room the group met both the baron's sons as well as some of his captains. Among the captains they recognized the baron's right hand man Andreas von Averbach. The oldest son Erik tuned out to be a rather arrogant warmonger. The younger son Mathaus was ignoring all the war talk and kept prattling on about the use of wine in religious ceremonies. The baron had to sent him from the room. Ordering his son to the library to find information on giant spiders and goblins.
Insolent plebs (part 1)
Unused as the group was in dealing with their betters it took them no time at all to get ushered out of the war room on account of being insolent plebs. You should not tell the baron he is wrong if he's unwilling to listen to tales of enormous mega-spiders. As the door closed, the group heard him say: "Spiders in the forest, an excellent drill for the men." Kylael guided the group to the castle's library. They found Mathaus there. Spiders forgotten, he was reading even more fascinating details about wine use in religion. The group tried telling him of the frightful ritual but all he wanted to know was whether the goblin boss had used a spirit and if so, was it wine? Sitting on the other side of the reading table was a high elf. Mathaus introduced him as Cenoc Ithlovel. Not very well versed in wine or human relgious ceremonies I'm afraid.
The army moves out
Slightly bored with all the introductions and academia, Kylael stepped onto the balcony and watched the baron assemble his men and order the march. Meanwhile Barnard conversed with Cenoc about an ancient war that was ended hundreds of years ago with a battle in Teufeltal. He learned of Otto III, count of Wissenland, who fought in this 'Night of the Restless Dead'. Otto managed to defeat Karlmann the Red during an extended battle at the river. The river turned red with blood and was named the Teufel (Devil) from that point on. In time the valley was renamed Teufeltal (Devil's Vale). Barnard nodded along, but actually had more interest in a picture on the same page of the book the elf was reading. It was of a glassy black orb. He asked Cenoc about it. In very typical high elf style he told Barnard that his fragile human mind could not comprehend such fascinating knowledge.
Insolent plebs (part 2)
After a quick huddle, the group decided they needed the book for themselves. But how do you part an elf from his tome? Micky knew just what to do. He left the library and sat down on the staircase. There he started an extremely bawdy song about the lineage and conception of Cenoc. Inside the library the elf first turned red and then slowly went white. He got up in silent fury, walked into the staircase and punched Micky. Hard. On the nose. Leaving the halfling bleeding, Cenoc turned and - still without uttering a single word - walked back to the library. He passed a bent over Barnard on the way. The initiate had to walk with a stoop as he was concealing a rather large book underneath his robes.
The refectory
Kylael asked Pansie for some food, and got a veritable feast (it keeps up morale!). The group sat down in the (by now) almost empty refectory. They ate while Barnard read from the book. Otto III died while defeating Karlman the Red. He gave his life to put a vampire out of action. In honor of this valiant deed Otto III was entombed in Teufeltal holding a captured black glassy orb as a war trophy. The book failed to specify where Otto's tomb was or what happened to Karlmann the Red's remains...
Unwanted romance
After the reading, while gossiping with the few soldiers left in the castle, the group learned that the barge De Vreugde had not sailed on for a reason. It turned out the captain of the barge was a rather pretty and free spirited Marienburgher woman named Alida Siegel. She turned down the avances of Andreas von Averbach. He had decided to demand extra taxes and a thorough check of all papers out of spite. As long as the taxes went unpaid, the vessel went nowhere.
Fire on the horizon
Standing on the battlements the group discussed the deplorable acts of Andreas, started speculating on vampires in Teufeltal and complained about the general ickyness of spiders (especially of the enormous variety). Suddenly smoke and fire filled the horizon. It came from the direction of Tallerhof! Wasn't that where the baron and his men where headed?
Yes if at all possible, games session should end with a cliffhanger.
GM's perspective
 |
| If you made a map, wrote a plot and then watched your players discard all hints as they took off in the wrong direction, congratulations: you're a game master now. |
Dividing the story
I like to give players full control of what they do and where they can go, but I also rather enjoy working from planned material where possible. On the flip side of the coin, players like choice, but tend to get lost if you don't hand them at least a few lines to follow. Planning for what they do requires to work out what the plot is, how you are going to share it with the players and keeping that plan very flexible so the players get to fill in the detail like where and how exactly. I've always rather liked the Baldur's Gate style of 'pick where you want to go from the map' computer adventuring and I try to bring that to a pen&paper session. So the first part of this session revolved around giving the players a few options.
Plot lines
To keep everything running more or less smoothly (and avoid the most glaring plot holes) you need to set up plot lines. In other words divide bits of information over different encounters and scenes. If you have to choose, which of these two scenario's would you like:
- Scenario 1: A random troll jumps out at the group.
- Scenario 2: The group is warned by a fisherman to watch for trolls. They proceed to talk to an old lady in a cottage who complains about trolls in the area. They then spot large web toed footprints leading underneath a bridge, but decide to cross it anyway. A troll jumps out at them.
To help myself keep a grip on the chaos that is a campaign, I've divided the main story into three chapters (and a prologue). The prologue was the goblin attack on the village (in three acts) and chapter one opened this evening. Each chapter contains multiple scenes, and each scene is split into three acts (roughly: setting the scene, playing the scene, climax). This last part I picked up in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd. As play progresses and the players decide what to do and where to go I can pick which scene to play in response. Ahead of time I can place plot hooks in different scenes and tie resolutions and encounters together throughout the chapters. If all goes right (it never does) the campaign will run smoothly.
Rule #1: Player don't notice when nothing goes according to plan
I used the mayor to give the players a few hints as to where they could go next (forest or castle). If they had been in the mood to do something different, well if need be I've got scenes prepared for most of the locations in Teufeltal. Otherwise I can always shift one or two things to suit the flow of the session. For instance turning a cliff face in the north of the valley into a freaky set of holes in the ground in the center, requires little more than reworking my notes after the fact. As a game master one of the easiest things to forget is that your players don't know what has been planned, what has been shifted and what has gone absolutely 180 degrees from what you expected. Just put on a brave face, always give them the feeling that their actions dictate the course of the evening and roll with the punches. If the gigantic mess works out in the end, claim it was your plan all along...
Using theme, background and maps to plan the story
As the theme of my campaign is a Waagh slowly but surely streaming into Teufeltal I had to take some time to figure out where all these orcs and goblins are coming from, when they will arrive and what they will do. To properly tie it into the Old World I used the Gitzman's high res map and looked at differing tribes around Teufeltal, deciding how the horde could assemble. I used the old 8th edition Battle Tome to get a feel for different army compositions. From that I roughly planed five elements that would form the Waaagh (each with its own specific collection of creatures). Having a location and a composition of the forces I could project how the different elements would reach Teufeltal. After that I could plot on the map of Teufeltal what they would do on arrival, which NPC's would be affected and basically make a rough timeline of the Waaagh and its effects on Teufeltal.
Dividing the story into chapters and scenes
With this information I could split my story into the three chapters. In chapter one access to Teufeltal from The Empire will be cut off. In chapter two the exit to Bretonnia will be closed and Karak Azgaraz will be put under siege. This chapter will end with the main host marching into Teufeltal from a secret path in the Grey Mountains, hopefully motivating the players to take cover in the castle. Chapter three will deal with the siege itself (assuming my players don't get creative and plan a daring escape from Teufeltal in which case, I'll have to rewrite chapter three). Chapter one is divided into five scenes, two of which the players played in the session above (1.1 Spiders Everywhere! and 1.2 Schluesselschloss (I like to give my scenes names)). The fun part here is that if they had decided to go to the castle first, I could've easily persuaded them to go to the forest next (they would probably have been better equipped and prepared in that case). The scenes work on themselves and it's (usually) up to the player's when they get to a different part. Equally important the scenes (as implied by their name) lay out a scene, I don't consider resolutions or paths for the players to take. They are confronted by a situation and get to respond to it as they want. That said, the remaining three scenes in chapter one are rather more linear (their choices effect how the scenes play out, not whether they happen) and mostly serve to set up the player's roles in chapter two and expand the main plot (hint: it revolves slightly more around Otto and Karlmann then around Orcs).
Setting up plots and subplots
As to building up a second plot. Having seen a single reference to a vampire my entire group is utterly convinced it is time to buy garlic and holy symbols. They are not fools. On the other hand it is my experience that players tend to miss subtle plot hooks. You also need to keep attention span in mind, especially as this story will be played out with two week (and sometimes monthly) intervals. A hint of something interesting should be followed by something happening within the same session or at the most one session later. Otherwise most of the group will have forgotten it. You can escape this by rehashing hints at the start of every session (a bit school masterly). Giving cards with important hints (they get ignored, and make what is important slightly too obvious) or by managing to make players really worry about the hint. Vampires in Warhammer tend to do the trick. So I hope the group will start acquiring holy symbols and lose sleep over the perceived vampire threat. They may forget the orcs between sessions (I'll reintroduce them with a cutta to the face) but by that point they won't forget about the ancient battle. It should make the overarching plot feel less like a deus-ex machina and more like a proper (if unorthodox) climax.
Giving the players a choice while keeping control of the plot (mostly)
The second chapter will be the longest, featuring (for now) eleven scenes. The fun part of this is that the player's get to pick where they go and get a response depending on their choice. I can hint with books and NPC's as to what will happen and I can shorten this chapter by striking off options if my players take a long time getting to different scenes. Scenes have an effect on how follow-up scenes play and each scene has a planned effect on the final chapter (recruitment of allies, gathering of supplies, making fresh enemies, etc.). It should give the player's a nice feeling of accomplishment (or occasionally punishment). The final chapter will have eight scenes, ending the campaign with a nice finale. But that is all for later.
Social interactions in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th
A last bit of rambling before I sign off on this post is about social interaction in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, especially in fourth edition as Cubicle 7 clearly spend time thinking about this. For those of you just writing down gold, silver and brass coins D&D style (as an accountancy exercise followed by a complaint about short equipment lists), Warhammer traditionally (in my very humble opinion) offers a rather different way to play with money. Yes there is still money, but the color of your money matters more than the amount as it is tied to your social class and that affects what you can buy and who you can buy it from. Also gold weighs a lot, players lugging around 500 gold pieces need a chest and a cart and the same also goes for silver and brass.
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| Mental note: I should take some filler images, can't keep rehashing this one... |
People reside in the gold, silver or brass tier. It determines their class. A rat catcher and a watch recruit are brass tier. They happily say 'hi' to each other on the streets. A regular merchant resides in the silver tier, he expects deference from the brass tier members of society and most likely tries to cut down interaction to a minimum (that's what shopkeepers are for). The Watchman (the second level in the watchman class, first level is the watch recruit mentioned above) is silver tier and could have a normal interaction with the merchant. At the top of this pyramid are people like nobles, wizards, watch captains and master merchants. They reside in the gold tier, expect deference from the silver tier and under normal circumstances stay as far away from brass as possible. As an extra twist nobles tend to resent everyone they have to share their tier with, especially snooty wizards who may have started life all the way down in the brass tier.
Interaction between social classes
Aside from a tier color Warhammer Fantasy 4th adds a number to your class. Making it easier to figure out rougly where to people in the same tier stand. For instance a Watch Sergeant is Silver 3, but a Town Councillor is Silver 5. Meaning the councillor will feel slightly snootier than the sergeant in a conversation. The (perceived) standing characters and NPC's have translate to an in-game effect on social interaction rolls. The right trappings are required to lay claim to certain careers and their social benefits. Its hard to be treated like a noble lord if you walk around penniless and in rags. By the same token it is rather difficult to successfully beg if you are wearing a nobleman's garb and jewelry (unless you're begging for a fiefdom that is).
Planning social encounters by tier
In practice I plan out the larger social encounters (like a visit to a castle) by listing available NPC's by tier, followed by what you can get from them (and also determining who can get where according to class). In the above session for instance the castle's contact for brass players is Friedhelm the quartermaster, seneschal Reinhart is silver tier and the baron is gold tier. As the player group was mostly brass it took a conversation with Friedhelm to get to Reinhart who in turn took the players to the baron. All that effort to report about spiders threatening the valley. If a noble scion (gold 1) had been in the group, he would've been recognized at the gates and taken to the baron directly. Also he would not have been thrown out for suggesting an alternate course of action in the war room (an explanation as to how much he had to learn, would've been more likely). On the flip side a gold tier character would not have been able to talk Pansie out of food. "I'm working on the feast m'lord. It will be brought up m'lord.".
Class warfare
Playing around with social class and making it matter in context of the game gives a nice extra layer to the story. "We could've prevented that, if only those foolish nobles would listen to their loyal subjects!" It will also make for a lot of fun if the group ever comes into contact with traders and merchants. "Show my beautiful wares to a penniless miner? I think not." or "Take your stolen gold elsewhere before I call the guard!". It will also make forthcoming interactions with the Dwarves of Karak Azgaraz interesting. They may not be fully clued in on the intricacies of class in The Empire, but a hierarchical bunch like them will act from what they assume. For the same reason the snooty high elf Envoy (Silver 4) saw no reason to hold back his utter contempt for humans when talking to a lowly Initiate (Brass 2).
(Temporarily) abolishing class
Of course, as soon as danger rears its ugly head and the upper classes start failing for differing reasons (death, arrogance, obliviousness and not being there-ishness) class differences quickly start fading away (right up until the danger is gone and credit is about to be doled out).
There ends another long ramble. Maybe I should try to be a bit shorter on the next one (or maybe not, feel free to let me know ;) ).
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