[Ferd] How it all started
I'm going to write (or start writing, we'll see how far it gets) a game diary for herderofcats's enemy within campaign for WFRP 3rd Ed. This is going to involve IC diaries, and OOC commentary on things about the game I find interesting/clever/disappointing. I'm only planning to comment on game mechanics, rather than the other players or the GM. Oh, and this one has SPOILERS for the introductory adventure in the WFRP books, and obviously the whole thing will spoil enemy within.
If anyone wants to read this, let me know, and I'll make a filter so I don't smoosh everyones flist with writing that they aren't interested in.
.................
Well, after that scummy barkeep stole my gold coin - gold, sure as the Reik is mean - Ranald kept pissin in my porridge. Left Bogenhafen, near starved a few times, near got caught by the watch. No way I'm starvin before I head back to Bogenhafen take some flesh from those what owes me. Never found a good crew, earnt a few brass with short jobs on undercrewed river traders.
All changed one night when a group of my mates got a bit frothy like, and decided we'd show Ranald what we think o him. Well, it seems the only time Ranald cut's a man a break is robbin his own temple. Wil's still nursing a twisted ankle, but I got away. Didn't find any gold, but I did find a saint's eyeball. So I took that. S'in vinegar, tastes a bit like a pickled onion. Keep it in a jar.
So things started changin for me about then. Met a scrawny young fellow goin on about the good he was doin these villagers. Happened to bump into him just as he was makin a swift exit, and I reckoned stickin with a man like him might lead me to riches. Should have seen his clothes - all coloured and no mendin on them at all. Found us a place on a riverboat, where this guy fell in with a man o letters and a "mercenary". Each more a peacock than the last one. Reckon that "mercenary"'s hat costs more than I've seen, exceptin my gold coin.
Well, we found we were all keen to find riches, although why someone with gold to spare wants to go lookin for trouble, beats me. We found a servant looking for someone to do a job, and he offered to feed us as well as pay 6 silver a day. Didn't really listen to the job, which isn't like me, but I was damn near starved, so I shook his hand and ordered a pie.
Leavin tomorrow to help his lord move house or somethin. He was talkin to the others about spyin on rebellios staff, I think?
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Character gen took WAY longer than I expected. When I created a character, or helped Anita with one, it took us about 30-45 minutes to be pretty much done. Mine was destitute, so no shopping. So - if you need to, you can do character gen really quickly, but if you want there is enough detail that poring over your options may take a lot longer. The process is:
Pick race, 1 of 3 careers.
Spend points on wealth, skills, actions, talents
Spend remaining points on attributes
Choose skills, actions, talents
Shop.
So far I really really like the system. One die roll for everything - so no seperate block or dodge rolls, for instance. People took a moment to get used to the system and working out what to throw, but that will get faster quickly, and it leads to a really cool variety in results. In our game an observation check to see beastmen shadowing our coach led to these results:
Success, no boon/bane: You spot something
Success, 2 banes: You spot something, jump, and tumble out the back of the coach
Failure, 2 boons: You don't see the beastmen, but you see the other characters suddenly seem edgy.
You can also interpret which dice give successes if you want, so if you succeed only on luck dice, Ranald smiled on you. If you succeed because the difficulty dice rolled no challenge symbols, the beastman just happened to pause as you shot your arrow. Etc.
The one bit I don't like so far is the opposed check rules, but I'll need to see them in action a bit more before I make my mind up - I think I see a flaw, but I'm not sure yet.
If anyone wants to read this, let me know, and I'll make a filter so I don't smoosh everyones flist with writing that they aren't interested in.
.................
Well, after that scummy barkeep stole my gold coin - gold, sure as the Reik is mean - Ranald kept pissin in my porridge. Left Bogenhafen, near starved a few times, near got caught by the watch. No way I'm starvin before I head back to Bogenhafen take some flesh from those what owes me. Never found a good crew, earnt a few brass with short jobs on undercrewed river traders.
All changed one night when a group of my mates got a bit frothy like, and decided we'd show Ranald what we think o him. Well, it seems the only time Ranald cut's a man a break is robbin his own temple. Wil's still nursing a twisted ankle, but I got away. Didn't find any gold, but I did find a saint's eyeball. So I took that. S'in vinegar, tastes a bit like a pickled onion. Keep it in a jar.
So things started changin for me about then. Met a scrawny young fellow goin on about the good he was doin these villagers. Happened to bump into him just as he was makin a swift exit, and I reckoned stickin with a man like him might lead me to riches. Should have seen his clothes - all coloured and no mendin on them at all. Found us a place on a riverboat, where this guy fell in with a man o letters and a "mercenary". Each more a peacock than the last one. Reckon that "mercenary"'s hat costs more than I've seen, exceptin my gold coin.
Well, we found we were all keen to find riches, although why someone with gold to spare wants to go lookin for trouble, beats me. We found a servant looking for someone to do a job, and he offered to feed us as well as pay 6 silver a day. Didn't really listen to the job, which isn't like me, but I was damn near starved, so I shook his hand and ordered a pie.
Leavin tomorrow to help his lord move house or somethin. He was talkin to the others about spyin on rebellios staff, I think?
----------------
Character gen took WAY longer than I expected. When I created a character, or helped Anita with one, it took us about 30-45 minutes to be pretty much done. Mine was destitute, so no shopping. So - if you need to, you can do character gen really quickly, but if you want there is enough detail that poring over your options may take a lot longer. The process is:
Pick race, 1 of 3 careers.
Spend points on wealth, skills, actions, talents
Spend remaining points on attributes
Choose skills, actions, talents
Shop.
So far I really really like the system. One die roll for everything - so no seperate block or dodge rolls, for instance. People took a moment to get used to the system and working out what to throw, but that will get faster quickly, and it leads to a really cool variety in results. In our game an observation check to see beastmen shadowing our coach led to these results:
Success, no boon/bane: You spot something
Success, 2 banes: You spot something, jump, and tumble out the back of the coach
Failure, 2 boons: You don't see the beastmen, but you see the other characters suddenly seem edgy.
You can also interpret which dice give successes if you want, so if you succeed only on luck dice, Ranald smiled on you. If you succeed because the difficulty dice rolled no challenge symbols, the beastman just happened to pause as you shot your arrow. Etc.
The one bit I don't like so far is the opposed check rules, but I'll need to see them in action a bit more before I make my mind up - I think I see a flaw, but I'm not sure yet.