Monday, 20 July 2009

WFRP Session ended

We had an impromptu session tonight.

The players quickly picked up where we left off a couple of weeks ago and closed with the party back together after last session where they got separated.

I think one of the best moments of the session, if devious on my part, was when the elven PC lost his elven horse[1] in a Skaven ambush. The look on the players face was shock. A rat ogre grievously wounded it with a crude spear. It was a grim moment for the player, and when the knight NPC failed two Fear tests, it was developing into a grimmer encounter.

The players agreed to record a recap at the next session, so patiently watch for the podcast!

meta-footnote-1=Ravendil was only borrowing the horse really, but having enjoyed reading and noting the many abilities of elven equine, the player felt the loss immediately.

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Posted by caffeinated at 10:45 PM in d10
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Monday, 13 July 2009

Backend update

Time for me move my engine backend to a database.

ACD may be down periodically tomorrow evening while the migration is completed. It's long overdue.

It does mean that the theme will go "default" while the migration is completed. Some "features" will be lost, but the entries should be retained.

The big feature I'll lose is my "simple photo album plugin" that was never really simple, but worked for the developer, me. This means that some old posts will lose some features, but I've been meaning to refactor that code for a long time, I'll do it when I'm eating the dog food I'm contributing to. :)

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Posted by caffeinated at 10:01 PM in kaffehaus
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Liber Fanatica, a reintroduction

As the rumor of a WFRP "4e" began to consume me, I started preparing for what would be a new dark age. A period where I would play the game that arrived in the second edition, birthed of hard working, dedicated playtesters.

In this preparation, I began hoarding resources that might disappear, or change, should a third edition radically change gameplay, removing itself from the foundations started in 1986. Say what you will about second edition, it is, IMHO, a solid, playable out-of-the-box, version of WFRP that did not lose much from the first edition of WFRP.

One resource that I returned to after almost a year is Liber Fanatica. I remain impressed with the resources this group of dedicated players and referees of WFRP have compiled. Each issue is packed with great play and WFRP v1 conversion tips, referee help, and flavor pieces (even the source of my Inns of the Empire tool written in JavaScript based on the work of Henrik Grönberg, a regular Liber Fanatica contributor).

The four volumes of Liber Fanatica include:

  • Vol 1. The Character Compendium
  • Vol 2. The Perlious Arts
  • Vol 3. The Game Master's Guide
  • Vol 4. The Academic's Handbook

I won't recite the individual articles, but the titles alone should be enough to give insight into the depth of information provided. Even if you have visited before and have not recently looked at the articles and resources available at Liber Fanatica for your WFRP game, go now and enjoy anew.

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Posted by caffeinated at 1:54 PM in d10
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Saturday, 11 July 2009

Twitter long time

I have been on Twitter for a year.

Readers of ACD would not know, because for some reason I never bothered to provide a link. Even a "recently on Twitter" roll. Today, I fix the first part. The second part is on the way.

My twitter stream is a mixed bag of programmer meets WFRP nerd. Right now, some angst too over the rumor of WFRP 3rd Edition.

Enjoy.

www.twitter.com/gefahrmaus

Oh, all followers are approved, so you're part of an exclusive club. ~o)

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Posted by caffeinated at 1:06 PM in Bohemian Breakfast
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Friday, 10 July 2009

Hoarding

I stopped at my FLGS today and picked up some key items still on the shelves for WFRP:

  1. Night's Dark Masters
  2. Terror in Talabheim
  3. Spires of Altdorf

The rumor, even the idea, of a 3rd Edition of WFRP, that feels or plays like D&D 4e, well, terrifies me and the two gentlemen looking over Dark Heresy on the same shelf. When I mentioned the rumor, both looked at me like I was insane (I did have to explain who Graham McNeill and Jay Little were, which impressed and added a dash of "authority"). Both said they wouldn't buy a WFRP 3rd Edition that radically departed from the current system, especially one that was D&D 4e wrapped in a dark fantasy setting.

And neither will I.

Taking the rumor at face value, my current belief is that FFG is doing this without talking to the players and referees that are the foundation the WFRP community. The Liber Fanatica audience. The Adolphus Altdorfer audience. FFG is so excited about the development, they are forgetting to talk to the buyers. When the internal focus groups are earning the dollar, the groups can become "Yes echoes." If internally—and folks like Graham McNeill count—all you have is people repeating your own belief of success, you may just believe you cannot fail.

It has failed. WFRP 3rd Edition is a non-starter for me.

So, I'll hoard for a new Dark Age. And continue play the game I love.

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Posted by caffeinated at 10:44 PM in d10
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Thursday, 9 July 2009

Why I will not be buying a WFRP v3

Rumors are surfacing, FFG is playtesting a new version of WFRP. Graham McNeill, author for various $GW$ properties, recently talked about playtesting a new version of WFRP:

… Jay Little very kindly did a show and tell for us over at Alessio Cavatore’s house, where we saw how much the game has changed from its previous incarnation.

…

It was in interesting evening, and the game was very different to anything I'€™ve played before, with a lot of table space taken up by character sheets, action and ability cards, dice etc. It felt like a strange hybrid of board game and roleplaying game at first…

Allow me to cite the reasons why FFG will not sell me this game. The first reason the most important.

I Don't Want To Play WFRP "4e"

I have watched a session of D&D Fourth Edition at my FLGS. And there is a reason it has been called an analog version of your favorite MMORPG. Graham's description of WFRPv3 could not be any more like a description of a session of D&D 4e. It was mind numbing. What kind of nonsense is FFG planning for my favorite, and only, game?

I Don't Own A Cane

The some 40+ pages of comments at rpg.net on the McNeill post waffle between hope and despair. There are those flat out excited, and some seeing a new "dark age." And others that think "grognards" such as myself are swinging canes in our gaming dementia at boogey men.

Frankly, I don't think it's some sense of nostalgia. It's appreciating something more about WFRP. I don't think I can say it better than the "Server Goddess" at Strike To Stun, so I point you there... Those that deride the idea of resisting change seem to want bring WFRP players down to a "level playing field," change WFRP using a perverted sense of Socialism, where WFRP is just another bland power system for acting out a high fantasy power trip. Isn't that what D&D 4e has become? Listen to the podcasts of actual play sometime. I don't want a WFRP that feels like D&D. Want to make a game that feels that way? Go mess with some other system FFG. Hell, you're pouring tons of money into Rogue Trader and Dark Heresy. Go fuck with WH40K players. Hell, you have to gut that system too before too long. Put those fans in a dark age while you gut the established system for DH 2nd. Edition.

I'm just so disgusted by this rumor I can't think clearly. I need to chill, collect my thoughts, read the boards, form a more lucid argument.

Maybe all this is just nerd rage. But frankly, I don't think a version of WFRP that looks like D&D in play will be received well. At all.

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Posted by caffeinated at 10:12 PM in d10
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Wednesday, 8 July 2009

Read a book, go insane

I've spent the better part of some background threads today listening to the WFRP session that we recorded on June 7.

It's actually pretty good. Unfortunately, maybe too raw for release. There were some interruptions that would have to be edited out and the flow might become choppy.

Otherwise, the development of the story by the players, especially where the Sigmar priest (recently licensed to perform exorcisms yet without experience to do so) negotiates with priests and others of the Cult of Verena for a book about daemons.

The description of the book was made up on the fly during the session, and another player began filling in blanks with an overactive imagination (wholly based on reading collectable GW source material and the Tome of Corruption). It added humor, but with the player on an extended absence, I recently set before him a choice regarding the knowledge contained in the book. It goes a little something like this:

The book is a first hand account of an exorcism recorded by a priest of Verena. It is written in Bretonnian. The account is so detailed, after you fumble with the translation, and accounting for what appear to be many pages stained of blood, vomit, or urine (maybe all three), you begin to realize that the aura of foreboding and dread that seems to draw energy to the book, is how the priest captured the nature of the exorcism in such detail.

You may gain the knowledge of daemonology in reading the book for 400XP. However, you may trade XP for Insanity for greater knowledge as follows:

  • For 400XP, you get only the Academic Knowledge (Daemonology).
  • If you want Speak Arcane Language (Daemonology), the book possesses a smattering of enough words, enough to earn you the skill for 1 insanity point + 300XP, but now the words burn your mind.
  • The detail in the journal of the spell used by the Exorcist will get you the Lesser Magic (Exorcism) talent, but only by trading 3 Insanity Points for XP (3 IP + 100XP).
  • You get all of the above for the 4 Insanity Point trade and you don't have to spend XP.

I think it is a fair game and character developing trade. And tempting. What say you?

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Posted by caffeinated at 9:57 PM in d10
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