The following review is broken down into three major sections. Character, Skills, and System representing a brief dive into those areas. I will be concentrating mostly on the changes with respect to the Third Edition rules and an overall impression from the material presented in the book. I have not yet had a chance to run or otherwise use the system but have done several^[1] simulated dice rolls with a computer dice program.

CHARACTER

Character Creation remains unchanged, which is both good and bad. It is good in that those already familiar with it will be able to jump right in to trying out the new, redesigned Clans and Schools. It is bad in that L5R characters tend to be even more cookie-cutter at the start than any other game I have thus far encountered. Thematically, this fits in well. Rokugani culture is not the Western culture of the Individual. Vary too far outside of what is expected, you may end up like the fence post and pounded on until you do fit in.

In any case, the schools of each clan are what you would expect and don’t vary much from Third Edition. As for the claim that has been repeated by the designers that these Schools and Clans represent an “Iconic” version of them. I am not so certain. Iconic to my mind would mean to stray a bit from having the same set of schools for each Clan or possibly changing out the current schools for something from the Advanced list which deeply embraces the “concept” of the Clan stated succinctly only a few pages before the rules start. If the Crane are so good at diplomacy and intrigue then why is there only one Courtier school available? And why does it lack the charismatic oomph the Clan is famous for?

Advanced schools and alternate paths are an interesting addition but after having examined them I am left wondering what the point was. The Advanced Schools strike me as only half-completed and could have easily been turned into another full school to be included with the rest in the Clans section. Alternate paths seem more like a scattering of ideas which didn’t fit in with anything else and that the designers didn’t want to throw away. Would it have been too much to see these ideas congealed into full blown Schools and placed with the Clans? As it stands, it leaves me with the impression that this was a halfhearted effort to bring some choice to an otherwise dull character system.

Finally, would it be too much to ask for a graphic walk through of character creation or an example of a finished character? There may be caveats that character creation depends on the campaign but having a completed character from each of the character schools (Bushi, Courtier, and Shugenja) would certainly help smooth out many of the conceptual hiccups that those who are unfamiliar with L5R and Rokugan are inevitably going to have.

SKILLS

Skills have undergone a reworking of their core mechanics. Skill Emphasis and Mastery have been changed to remove many static bonus to rolls. Also gone are the Insight bonus given for reaching the higher ranks. In a more positive vein, characters are no longer dinged for having only a single rank in a skill. Buying a skill Emphasis now gives you the ability to re-roll 1s once per skill check instead of adding the rank of the skill to the roll. More about how this impacts the game statically below. Masteries vary but have been standardized to occur at ranks 3,5 and 7. However, their usefulness to characters is questionable at best. Overall, the change to skill rolls is a step to a previous editions. There is little reason for players to invest in their character’s skills beyond buying the initial rank and possibly an Emphsis, if they have the experience to spend. Instead, it appears that players are supposed to be hoarding the experience earned to spend on raising Rings, which now have the greatest impact on all parts of the game.

Masteries also feel restrained in what little bonuses they grant. Many give a token 1k0 bonus, usually at rank 3 or 5. None give any free raises and only a few grant a 0k1 bonus at 7. A couple, exactly two, give an insight bonus. Otherwise, that’s it. Mechanically, this leaves the skills lacking a bite and conceptually hollow. Take the Defense skill, for instance. The rank 7 mastery gives the character the ability to use a simple action while maintaining their defensive stance. Except it can’t be used for an attack. It seems to me that this is less a reward for dedication to the skill and more like an afterthought. If a character gets so good at defending, or looking like they’re defending that it creates the opportunity to attack I fail to see any reason for not letting them do so. I’m not saying that it has to be free of a mechanical penalty, but to specifically call out specifically useful actions as being verboten, as this system does often, it does something to the player’s mentality. I think it makes them want the obvious use more and forces them to seek ways to get around the arbitrariness of the rules.

Worse, I think it causes the careful, thoughtful GM to question the rules they were handed. Forcing them to spend time retooling things which they shouldn’t have to deal with.

After using a computer dice roller to check some statistical calculations, I can’t say I’m happy with where players now stand. The lack of flat bonuses related to the Emphasizes resulted in many more failures than with. What’s even worse is that players are going to be guessing at their effectiveness. Without the flat bonus, you’re tied directly to the whims of the dice — no matter how much or how little the skill has been trained. The distinct lack of predictability strikes me as odd. Having characters who have bothered to train a skill and yet can’t know with any certainty that they are going to be successful? It’s not a good place to be as a GM. In my experience it make players less likely to engage in the sorts of risky behavior needed for heroics, or more likely to lie their way through encounters, or both.

If flat bonuses and free raises were a particular issue, and I’m not convinced that they were, then wouldn’t it have been easier to say that only X amount of bonus or N free raises apply to any given roll? As it stands, the bonuses were arbitrary and making a further arbitrary cutoff doesn’t require an extraordinary leap in logic or justification, the way taking them away does. The flat emphasis bonus also fueled a reason to invest in skills, making them a useful experience sink and gave players another way in which to make their characters unique. The insight bonus at rank 5 gave players a good bang for their experience buck.

The change in fourth edition doesn’t provide this same motivation. If anything, all it tells players to buy as many rank one skills as needed and save the rest to boost rings as fast as they can.

Were I to start a campaign today, I would have to fall back to the previous edition’s rules. This is not to say that 3rd edition skill rules were perfect but they achieved a good balance in the game. There was a motivation for raising them to the higher ranks and gave real reason for investing in more than a token Emphasis. They also gave players an alternate path to advancing their characters’ Insight rank. Despite its faults, that system felt more real and far more intuitive than the new one does. If this is the way to fixing some of the abuses that players used, I remain wholly unconvinced that it is a good, working solution.

SYSTEM

Stances provides one of the more interesting aspects of this new version. You get five to chose from, each with a different set of bonuses granted for their use and a couple have restrictions. However, as with the skill Masteries, some of the bonuses seem stingy. For instance the Full Defense stance only gives half of Defense/Reflexes roll to TN to be hit and is pretty much the only thing that character gets to do. Actions have also been tweaked and now come in the standard RPG flavors: Complex, Simple, and Move. Rounds give you a single complex action or two simple with whatever free actions. This doesn’t mean you’re out of luck if what you want to do isn’t already defined in the rules. There are a few maneuvers to pick from which can be executed with additional raises, including another attack. But these come at a steep cost in raises. Again this idea that there were too many free raises or flat bonuses seems to have raised its ugly head.

The dice get a minor reworking as well. As with previous editions, only ten dice are ever used and that for ever 2 dice rolled beyond the first ten, you get to keep an extra. For example 12k4 is turned into 10k5. What is new however is when you already have 10 kept dice, you instead get a bonus of 2 to the roll for every 2 dice kept or rolled beyond the first ten. 12k10 turns into 10k10+2 and 12k14 turns into 10k10+6.

TL;DR

The good: If you liked the previous versions of the L5R system, you’ll find a lot to enjoy in this edition as well. Characters can be easily converted as most of the same game is present from previous versions. The roll and keep system, the Clans both great and small, and their respective schools that you’ve had access to before are all there. Casting and spells have gotten a much needed upgrade in ease of use and focus. Combat is given additional depth with the new Stances.

The bad: Uniformity right down to the bonuses given in each school. A quicker attack at rank 3 or 4 for the Bushi. A 5k0 bonus for the Courtiers at rank 5. The exact same list of spells, varied only by element choice. At least the Phoenix gets to pick theirs. There can be such a thing as too much balance and this system blows past that point and heads for a whole new level. Beneath the veneer of flavor text, the Clans and Schools are the same with a lack of rulesy crunch.

The ugly: The new skills rules means that unless your players are good liars, they’re going to be failing more than they did with 3rd. Expect to see a lot of Rank 1 skills once players figure out the statistics don’t change that much with higher ranks and that experience cost to insight ratio is not good at all. With the greater weight put on primary attributes characters are going to look greatly alike and be equally effective no matter the Clan and School.

[1] Methodology: Assumed an “average” roll of 6k3 in both 3rd and 4th editions with an emphasis. Rolled this 15 times. It is of no surprise that 3rd edition rules produced higher totals, a higher average, and a higher median value. What is of particular interest is that of the 12 times that a 1 got rerolled under 4th edition rules, the total was increased only twice. In both times, it was increased by 1 — an 8 was replaced by a 9 and a 5 was replaced with a 6. In no cases did the 4th edition re-roll push the total past a 5 point TN marks. This is opposed to 3rd edition +3 bonus which did push the roll total over a 5 point mark 11 of 15 times. In fact, 6 of the 15 rolls under 4th edition rules came up 1 point short of a 5 point mark. This new re-rolling of 1s may reduce catastrophic failures but it also has the effect of reducing totals.

• Finish BigBang original fiction. I’m about half way done with the first draft. Due before GenCon.
• Have 8 pregenerated characters for WFRP v2.
  • Actually, I may make 10 and give people a variety to pick through.
  • Make copies in case people want to take their new characters with them.
• Have all three mods printed and ready to go.
  • Get some folders to hold them separated in.
• Need to play the revised version of “A House in the Woods” once.
  • That’s going to be fun to manage at this point. I’ve got two of the five weekends coming up already spoken for.
• And at some point try to find some time to get the next mod written.
  • Outline is done and I’ve roughed some of it in, but there’s a long way to go, still.
• Then it’d be time to go to PAX.

So yeah, July through early September is going to be booked solid. Lots of things left to do and that’s hoping that work doesn’t go crazy on me.

Dark Sun
This year, Wizards of the Coast put out a Dark Sun preview, Bloodsand Arena, and it’s quite a production. Inside the shrink-wrapped package there is the adventure booklet, a large poster which doubles as a map for the minis, and six premade characters. The premade characters are on a light and glossy cardstock with blank boxes to keep track of action points, healing surges, and the other cruft of fourth edition. Tiwaz, on our way back, went through the characters were making notes on some of their interesting points. The Thri-Kreen, one of the base races for Athas, has six limbs. Four that acts as arms and two legs. The arms are split between two “strong” limbs and two smaller limbs that are used for finer manipulations. With these smaller limbs, the character is able to draw or store an items as a free action once per turn. It makes for a pretty good balance against mutli-attacks while still giving the players some interesting options.

The adventure booklet is 24 pages long and makes no assumptions about what you may or may not know about the Dark Sun setting. I am looking forward to playing through this at some point. Dark Sun was one of the more imaginative settings. Little metal, magic that requires a sacrifice of life to make work, and the Dragon Kings, my favorites. The Dragon King were the unholy triumvirate of arcane, divine, and psionic powers. While 4th Edition rules are far different from Second Edition that it was originally done in, I have high hopes that they designers are able to keep the same feel and themes going.

WH40K
Fantasy Flight has been delivering yearly updates for the Warhammer 40K RPG line since they took up the mantle back after Games Workshop abandoned everything RPG back in 2008. This year’s update is called Deathwatch. In it you take on the role that I think many have been clamoring for since the release of Dark Heresy, the Space Marines. Printed on semi-gloss stock with color splashed here and there the booklet is 40 pages long. It has a basic breakdown of the system (which appears at a quick glance to be keeping with the DH d10 base) with pregenerated characters and a good deal of background information in the first half of the book. The adventure prep begins on page 22 and you finally get to it on page 30. It doesn’t appear to the world’s longest adventure but probably going to give the experienced DH player enough of a taste to know if they’ll be adding this to their collection.

Not sure if I’ll be getting around to playing this or not. I never did much other than read my copy of Dark Heresy thanks to GW saying they were dropping it. And then the conflict I feel over Fantasy Flight for what they did to Warhammer Fantasy this past year.

Legend of the Five Rings
This is a preview adventure for the recently released 4th Edition that goes by the title Legacy of Disaster. It has a light cardstock color cover with 32 full color pages inside. It is interesting in that I didn’t see an announcement from AEG until yesterday so one has to wonder if it was planned that way or if they were trying for a surprise.

The booklet goes straight into the rules, no messing around with explaining the setting. I’m guessing this is being aimed at players of the previous edition rather than trying for new ones. This view is reinforced with the number of rule revelations that people have been waiting for such as what the new stances do (page 6) and spells (page 27). The adventure goes from page 8 to the pre-generated characters on page 16 making it even shorter than the 40K adventure. Most interesting are the characters themselves. One of the disappointments from this preview adventure is the formatting of the characters and the lack of character sheets. The characters are found as mere columns of text with some bullet points of interesting abilities or advantages making this feel like this was indeed slapped together at the last minute.

I’m going to be going over this module with a fine eye for the next week getting what information I can from it before the actual L5R book arrives later next week but first impressions are not good. They could have spent more effort to turn this into something just as good as the Deathwatch or Dark Sun efforts.

Exalted
White Wolf released a mod for Exalted this year called Under the Rose. Glossy, full color exterior with 32 page interior done in simple black and white.

The story for this mod picks up at the end of their recent storyline of civil war and the return of the Scarlet Empress and sets up their next one according to the description on the first page. In flipping through it, I find it hard to tell where the introduction and explanation of the system is and where their story goes. But it is the usual quick and flowing writing that is a hallmark of the Exalted line. Designed to work for players who only have access to the core book, the references to other books are followed with a quick way to get the same or similar result if you only have the core book. Pregen characters start on page 25 and have a good amount of text for each one. It should be easy to play should I ever get around to it.

Pathfinder
Master of the Fallen Fortress pulls double duty in being a module for the Pathfinder system and for the Pathfinder Chronicles. The six pre-generated characters also constitute a preview for the new classes from the upcoming Advanced Player’s Guide.

Coming in at a very thin 16 pages (18 if you count the back of the last page and the optional Pathfinder society record on the inside of the back cover), the adventure beings on page 2 and concludes on page 9. Overall a nice production with glossy full color pages and a light cardstock cover. The artwork features prominently and is the usual high quality, action filled works we’ve come to expect from Paizo’s work.

Not sure when I’ll get a chance to play through, but having the new character classes to look through is a nice touch and something I’ll take a closer look at later on.

I’m of two minds. On the one side, I’m justifiably thrilled that my hobby of twenty five years is pervasive enough that even the Scouts have to recognize it as a cultural force. On the other, I am disappointed that they did so. Gaming, despite the wonderful social interaction one can experience through it, focuses a great deal on the individual sometimes in an unhealthy way. To me Scouting exists in part, to get boys and young men away from their computers, video games, and other aspects of pop-culture. To expose them to the wider world, to help them develop an appreciation of the natural wonders and of their community. To get them away from themselves.

In my opinion the requirements for the beltloop award and the Academic pin do neither and instead smack of a commercial exploit of the scouts.

The three requirements for the Belt loop include the following:

1. Explain video game ratings and why they are important
2. Create a schedule for yourself that includes time to play video games
3. Play video games

I’ve paraphrased them, if you’re curious, here are the official requirements.

Those seem simple enough, right? The thing is, these aren’t aimed at the scout. They’re being aimed at the parents of scouts. Why does an eight year old even care about ESRB ratings, let alone be able to explain why they are important?

It also dodges a lot of questions about what role video games, and gaming in general, play in our culture as well as being gracious in play. Having fun also seems to have escaped the scouts with the way this has been organized for the Cubs and Webelos.

All in all, this is a step forward in recognizing that gaming is an important part of our culture but lacks important cultural contexts that gaming creates for both the parents and for the kids playing them.

For some time now RPGs include various classifications for items and then link them to certain mechanical benefits or detriments in the rules. For example, the GURPS system not only had types of weapons and damage but also Tech Levels, describing the point in history where the game was taking place and what sort of items could be found there. Obstinately, this was to keep laser guns out of the medieval fantasy, but in my experience, it served only to confuse the players and cause trouble. You can see where Tech Levels get silly quickly with the addition of half levels and the +/- which modifies the meaning of a given TL in an attempt to make it more customized.

Another good example can be found in D&D. Here you find weapons classified as either Exotic or Common, slashing/bashing/piercing, and by their damage die. In purpose, these are all present to give players a strategy to work by. Certain types of weapons do better or worse against certain types of foes. In practice, this causes parties to be concerned not with the story and its elements but often with the contents. How many times have you sat down to start a game session and are hit by a barrage of questions? “Are we going to be engaging undead?” “What sort?” “Skeletons or zombies?”

From such, or because of such classification, RPGs have rules which limit what characters can do based solely on them. Proficiencies, Skills, and Talents are layered with caveats giving players access to one or two of the categories but not all. But do these classifications do anything for the roleplaying experience? Do these rules enhance the drama and the player experience or end up restricting Players and their imaginations?

Here are two situations of high drama which Characters can find themselves in.

Situation 1: Your character has been kidnapped and put in a locked room. You’ve been able to escape your bonds. There’s nothing in the room but a chair, the rope the character was tied up with, and a table. Your character hears the kidnappers coming down the hallway talking about how the ransom hasn’t been paid and they’re going to murder them.

Situation 2: Your character is in the middle of a large battle, both sides have people dying all around you. Your weapon is broken and you’re suddenly faced with an opposing champion. Your only choice is to grab a spear-like instrument currently impaling a fallen comrade.

Both of these situations can apply to a whole party, not an individual. Both have the same problem when having rules reinforcing classification systems. Can the Character take up that spear or grab that chair and make good with their life? In both situations they should be able to because it makes sense dramatically. The system should be focusing on the drama of the situation and not the objects lying about the characters. These are not the plot macguffins you put in there. This is a Character in life and death. The drama of these situations does not lie in the materials but in how they are used.

When creating a system of classification for item you create a certain intent. If that intent is to limit or restrict then you have limited and restricted how your players imagine and react to the situations presented. Does that make for good roleplaying or not?

I’m assuming you know what Mage is and the part it plays in White Wolf’s new World of Darkness. So briefly, I’m hitting the highlights of what I think are a good steps forward.

First, the separate base World of Darkness book, from which every other book in the set draws from is a great idea. It might be a bit much for some gamers to handle financially (adding another twenty-five dollars on top of the forty laid down for the particular WoD book you did want for a complete set of rules) but it provides one incredible advantage that the old series doesn’t. Continuity. You as a Player or GM can be assured that everyone you’re playing with is going to have the same description of skills and base mechanics. No more wondering if Alertness or Awareness (or sometimes both) is going to be the skill needed for spotting the tail you have. This continuity also produces another favorable effect that of leveling out the power level between the different lines.

While that may have been something of a shock to old Mage players, such as me, as a GM I am completely for it. No more having to adjust Vampires upwards to make them a threat to Werewolves or to Mages. No more having to mess around with trying to figure out how to balance things myself. It’s been taken care of.

Finally, there is the last half of the book. Completely filled in with Rotes and explanations of what dot of each sphere can do, it provides a far better idea as to what is and is not permitted than the previous editions ever tried to. It helps that the designers have explicitly stated that these are supposed to be used as a guideline and not as absolutes as players had previously used them as such.

It is going to take some time to find everything but this new Mage has potential. I’m considering getting the base WoD book to have a complete version of the new rules. If you haven’t checked out the new WoD (and if you’re anything like me, you haven’t), suck it up and take a gander. See if you can’t borrow a friend’s copy, it’s worthwhile.

So, here’s my resolution. I’m gonna try to post once a week.

My current plan, is to start developing stuff for New World of Darkness games. Today’s contribution, Homebrewed Keys and Manifestations for Geist: the Sin-Eaters

Geist has Manifestations (the sin-eaters special magical powers) associated with 7 of the 9 core attributes. Naturally for me, I would like manifestations for the other two attributes.

Also, Keys bend how a manifestation works, flavoring how the power works. I’ve started work on several new keys, to add new flavor to the powers.

Here’s what I have so far.

New Keys and Manifestations.

Manifestation 1 – Dexterity based – The Fetter – Imposes penalties, binds target
Cold Wind Fetter – Cold disables target, may create Ice to bind
Grave Dirt Fetter – Zombie hands grasp at targets legs – Try to grapple/Trip
Pyre Flame Fetter – Flame Lashes parry, drive back enemies
Tear Stained Fetter – Target is affected as if moving against water.
Industrial Fetter – Conjures rusty chains. Binds and slows target
Passion Fetter – Emotional bindings, Fear and Sorrow
Phantasmal Fetter – Illusory chains
Primeval Fetter – Vines and or other plants
Stigmata Fetter – Open pseudo wounds, no damage (til rank 4) but cause wound penalties.
Stillness Fetter – Locks targets Joints
Widow’s Kiss Fetter – Venom disables target, Shuddering/shakes.
Dirge Fetter – Wraps target in metaphysical bounds of words. Target becomes socially awkward, confused, and says wrong words or odd things.
Phlogeston Fetter – Strangles the enemy with tendrils of nothingness.

Manifestation 2 – Composure based – The Pall – Provides Social Defense, Hides intentions.
Cold Wind Pall -
Grave Dirt Pall -
Pyre Flame Pall -
Tear Stained Pall -
Industrial Pall -
Passion Pall -
Phantasmal Pall -
Primeval Pall -
Stigmata Pall -
Stillness Pall -
Widow’s Kiss Pall – q
Dirge Pall – q
Phlogeston Pall – q

KEYS
New Key 1 – The Widow’s Kiss – Poison focus. Both physical Poison and Emotional poison
Widow’s Kiss Boneyard – Grants additional power and insight over poisonous things in area, works best in poisoned land/wastelands.
Widow’s Kiss Caul – Changes body to be toxic to others, adapt to poisons. Also take on aspects of Venomous spiders or reptiles. (Especially Black/Brown/Red Widows)
Widow’s Kiss Curse – Target gets poisoned by incidental contact with normal things. Salmonella from eggs, Mercury from his fillings, his mail is contaminated with Ricin or Anthrax, Etc.
Widow’s Kiss Marionette – Creates a poison that does will damage. If will <= 0, then subject is bound to the sin-eater’s will.
Widow’s Kiss Oracle – Drink poison to gain ecstatic visions, forsight. Also allows you to ’see’ poison in things.
Widow’s Kiss Rage – Each use creates a single dose of poison whose damage and toxicity is based on successes on activation. Lasts for a length of time based on rank.
Widow’s Kiss Shroud – Bonus defense against Poisons and Disease.

New Key 2 – The Dirge – Tilts all manifestations to the Social, All word related.
Dirge Boneyard – Constant Chanting, Boneyard extends to all in earshot. Extra effects in locations associated with Oratory or Amphitheaters, or where a Eulogy was recently given.
Dirge Caul – Changes the body to become a better orator, more impressive, better manipulator.
Dirge Curse – Target suffers various mental disorders that cause social problems. Especially Aphasia and/or Tourette’s syndrome.
Dirge Marionette – Subject believes the Bounds words are his own thoughts, behaves appropriately.
Dirge Oracle – Automatic Writing, Bibliomancy.
Dirge Rage – Can be used to inflict damage as an area attack instead of single target.
Dirge Shroud – Adds to social defense, confuses others socially(Manipulation).

New Key 3 – The Phlogeston – Aethir, Fifth Element, Void. Creates vacuums?
Any manifestation where Elemental Keys function the same, Phlogeston key follows the same functions.
Phlogeston Boneyard – allows them to force other elements out of an area. Works best in area’s that are devoid of most of the classic elements. Works exceptionally well where non-breathable gasses are prevelant, or in outer space (unlikely but hey, it could happen)
Phlogeston Caul – Become an archon of nothingness
Phlogeston Curse -
Phlogeston Marionette -
Phlogeston Oracle – Must suffocate self with smoke or inert gasses to activate.
Phlogeston Rage – Damage from Vacuum Suffocation, causes perception problems
Phlogeston Shroud -

Certs and Handouts:

HitW_Handouts

HitW_Certs

A House in the Woods by Matthew Parmeter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at brewngames.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://brewngames.com.

The Faire

The Faire by Matthew Parmeter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at brewngames.com.

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Campaign Character Guide

Story: Does there have to be an overarching story? Yes, but more than that I think there should be up to three story lines going at any given moment. This way you can address the three elements most people seem to be interested in: Combat, Diplomacy, and Roleplaying. The overarching story ties the entire season or whatever you want to call it together and the other two side stories to keep people interested in playing. Ideally, I think that the overarching story has a mix of the three elements in each adventure as a way of making sure all players have a stake in what is happening. In your two off stories you can concentrate on one of the elements more to your liking. In attempting that mix you have to realize that Combat and Diplomacy are closely related. If you are not careful in using them much of what gets decided is decided by the dice and not your players. So this gets extra attention in how much it affects the story’s outcome. Also attempting to keep as many players involved in the game itself, you have allow for the different character archetypes to each get a chance to shine. While WRFP does not formalize them as much as, say, L5R has, carving out some time for the Burghers, Politicians, and Courtiers to practice their silver-tongued deviltry is something I try to keep in mind as the plotting moves along.

Survivability: The survival of the characters is a major concern that I come back to when writing WFRP modules. The reasons it comes up is twofold. WRFP is a system which can be very lethal to PCs. One good Ulric’s Fury and you’re staring at a dead table. This can be a serious detriment for players. Part of having a living campaign is to give your players a chance to step deeply into their character’s world. Having the character investment be shallow means you get the same shallow buy-in to your campaign. That is not something I want. Secondly, Fate Points are there to help counter this but they are an extremely limited player currency. I don’t want to force my PCs to use them unless it is completely necessary and I don’t want to hand them out continually. Unless the drama of that module calls for it, the use of FP is something I actively look to write around. This tension between the system’s lethality and the needs of a long term campaign can be a difficult balance to achieve. If this was a system that was still being actively published, a better understanding of creatures and how to craft combat encounters is something that I would take to the developers. As it stands, having to refine it takes a backseat to the many other tasks as the series keeps going forward.

Rewards: Rewarding players and character in an ongoing campaign effectively is the final tough point. In the campaign, I am terming the rewards as “Opportunities”. These include the ability to create new characters in races not set forth in the campaign guide, careers created for the campaign, experience, items, and of course Dwarven Magic, er, gold. In this WFRP campaign, one of the first decisions I made was to make all starting characters human by default and to take away a few of the careers. Not to get into all of the reasons for doing such, but the big was that this is the human Empire. I want this version of it to be populated and saved mostly by them. In doing this, it made setting up a dwarf or elf character as a reward. And in the first module, The Faire, (soon to be out, just give me another day or two) part of the rewards are careers which are specifically created for the campaign. Experience is something I’m working on standardizing. On the whole my thoughts are that a single session should have the potential for one advancement. In doing so, it should be become predictable in how far characters are able to advance at any given point in the campaign. The same goes for items and gold. It may seem cheep to want to control these things but this goes right back to player enjoyment and trying to have a certain sense of fairness.