NUI Maynooth Games Society

Creatures of the night

I drop in a middle of a campaign, which has already been running for a couple of years. Whether all sessions form some sort of epic tale or if they are connected to one another by the mere fact that the game master is Aido, I don't know. I'd guess that he is running campaign Ashes of Middleheim, into which he has implanted the adventure Barony of the Damned. Anyway, last time I was guided through a character creation phase and had a change to meet other players. I was very determined to make a realistic inhabitant of this grim & gritty fantasy world, and as the game was set to the swamplands of Mousillon, I decided to make a frog-hunter. The second profession is sort of a peasant warrior, yeoman, due to the GM's strong recommendation. As I have learned that "realistic" rpgs have rather lethal combat system, I try to stay out of combat and act more as a scout or an outdoors expert.

We had a little delay before we got started, but then we were in the eye of the storm: our group's host (and my character's liege) turned out to be a vampire lord and was butchering our characters. Barry lost his character right during the first turn - I don't know how common that is, but Barry took his loss rather calmly. I suppose he went to the next room to play MonsterClix or Magic for the rest of the session. It become clear that Aido runs the game with the dice results: critical hits cause brutal results. As it was clear that our characters were lacking muscle to match the vampire, we fled to the swamp. But it so happened that we ran right into the hands of beastmen. These weren't too much of a trouble, so the GM kept on throwing minotaurs at us. I heard that this was a consequence of a previous adventure, where the characters destroyed beasts' lair or something, but the GM openly admitted that the real reason was to strip our characters from extra fate points. They work as extra lives, so I guess that Aido believes the game to be more interesting when there's a real danger to lose one's character permanently. We players reacted towards the attack somewhat differently. Thomas guided his warrior-priest to the battle, even if it almost killed him. Mark concentrated to use shadow magic, while Henry spent most of his time reading Warhammer supplements. He did take his chances against the vampire lord, who was still chasing us, which seemed pretty suicidal behaviour. He survived, however. I on my behalf made sure that my Swamprat-Tom would not get killed aka remained in the back row.

Our characters were indeed between rock and a hard place. I suggested splitting up, partially because that might save us from a total party kill and because that would show if the enemies had something personal against just one or two of us. Mark had a better idea - let's make the bad guys fight against one another - and even means to achieve this. As his character is a mage (or whatever they are called in Warhammer), he changed himself to look like the vampire lord, attacked the minotaurs, ride to the vampire lord and cast invisibility. Even if the trick demanded several successful dice rolls, he managed to do it. At the same time I sneaked away (01! Critical success: play the Mission: Impossible tune!) with the prisoner, who we freed from the vampire's castle. So we got off pretty easy, even if the GM killed one character, Ulrich, whose player hadn't showed up lately (this seems to be rather usual in this gaming culture). So as the curtain came down after 90 minutes of play, the swamp glade resembled a slaughterhouse - Aido likes to describe a lot of entrails pouring out of mutilated bodies. My character is heading home and the rest are still close to the glade. Thomas' Grunttle and Henry's Francis have just a few hit points left; Mark's Rudigar seems to be the only one still standing (I, of course, didn't take a scratch). The vampire lord was described being surrounded by swarms of beastmen, but as we all know, some NPCs are pretty hard to kill. The problem is that as far as I can tell, we didn't have to use fate points. Therefore the next session can be likewise battle-oriented, at least if others' won't listen to my idea of simply erasing extra points. We'll see.

By the way, we played the last 20 minutes of the session in the Student Centre's café. I normally have nothing against public role-playing, but the café is an awful place for this. It's just one big space, so there are no nice corners where to retreat. You have to nearly shout to be heard and the tables are too small. Well, the meeting rooms serve role-players very well.

Auccassin flicked his steaming longsword through the air, casting the last flecks of the minotaur's innards off with a flourish, the stinking black droplets had frozen to small dark blobs of ice before they pattered into the surrounding swamp water. He had turned away from the minotaur, it didn't take any amount of skill to tell the beast was finished, patterns of frost spread across it's exposed skin, shrivelling it and turning it near white. The beast keeled forward into the swamp water, sending a great splash of feotid water over the already blood drenched Vampire Lord. The droplets froze as they coursed down the monster's right arm, forming a bizzare freckling effect on his plate mail.

The undead warrior considered his surroundings. Already the dim light from the petty wizard's false marsh lights was fading, displaying the inherent weaknesses of the living frame. In the shadows he could see the beastmen, the new threat, scuttling and sneaking through the swamp water. Auccassin nearly laughed, he could smell them, he could smell the rancid blood flowing in their veins, they could not hide from him in the darkness.

Darkness was all he had known for six long centuries now.

Darkness.

Darkness as some great bulk interposed itself between the wizard's petty cantrips and the Vampire. Something big enough the cast the creature completely back into shadow. Auccassin turned to address this new pest. What bore down on him would have caused anything with a pulse to rapidly viod it's bowels. A massive stinking mass of flesh, horns and metal carried towards him by gravity and brute force, with the intention of vioding Auccassin's skull to complement what it thought would be lumpy britches. He had already used this attack hundreds of times before, and he was a master of it. He had used it to outwit the previous keeper of his heardstone and master of the mass of minotaurs who now followed him, it had worked but scant moments ago when he had used the massive black maul in his hands to cave in the petty pistol carrying human's skull. This would be no different, this pale fighter in armour would have it's brains laminated across the swamp, and he would consume his warm soft flesh.

The Doombull had made two critical mistakes in his assesment. The first was that the frame which housed Auccassin's damned soul had not known warmth for many years. The second was that against an opponent who's unlife had been ruled by combat for six centuries, his attack would only serve to insult the Vampire's skill.

There was a breif clash as Auccassin swung his blade up and deflected the great steaming mace, almost casually, followed by the whine of vibrating metal. Before it had finished, Auccassin turned into the Doombull, ducking under his leaping form, bringing his longsword with him and tracing a long line up the great minotaur's side, opening a great rent in it's body as it went. The beast roared in agony as the frostblade slowly turned it's innards into chunks of ice. He turned try and crush the puny human that was now behind him, but his leg collapsed out from under him as Auccassin's reverse stroke cleaved into the back of it's knee, slicing tendon and shattering bone. As the beast toppled to the side, Auccassin's magical blade was already in the air and ready to strike, and this time, with the lightest flick of his wrist, the Doombull's head plunged into the dank swamp, and black arterial ichor sputtered from the clean cut stump on his shoulders.

Auccassin could feel a storm of hatred and rage as the beastmen closed in on the slayer of their leader, a great throng of sweaty flesh closed in around him like a living vengeful wave. As they charged, the Vampire's balde whirled over his head, opening great rents in flesh and bone, sending corpses spinning to the swampy ground. The minotaurs, however, had arrived to redress the balance, their anger over their fallen leader, had been inflamed by the rich stinking taint of blood in the air. This time, two of the great beasts hurled themselves at the Undead monster. Great cleavers held high in the air. The vampire would surely be split in half now. He could not defend himself against both creatures at the same time. His acknowledgement of this fact came when he hurled himself at one of the beasts, ignoring his fellow.The minotaur watched as his comrade was carved up in a series of lightning blows, and snorted with glee as it raised it's great blade to hack into the Vampire.

Auccassin turned, his first target choking on the frozen blood clogging his wind pipe, as his second foe was caught and fell face first into the swamp water. It looked down in horror at the headless corpse of it's former leader, gripping tightly onto it's ankle. He felt a cold blade press against his throat, and looked up into the burning pale blue eyes of a Lord of the Undead.

"This is my land beast, those who trangress against me in life shall serve me for enternity in death."

As said, some NPCs are hard to kill. And maybe pitting these monsters against one another wasn't such a good idea.

Hey, you haven't been killed so far because of it have you?

True. We had only bad options - which we didn't even know at the time - but we (or the credit really goes to Mark) chose the best one of them.

Yes, the best was made of a bad situation.

As far as your concerned, Auccassin is toast, nothing could possibly have survived a fight with that bloody great doombull...

Right?

Well, I would be surprised, if you didn't bring the vampire lord Aucassin back to tease us. When a GM creates a creature which he / she finds cool (you can tell this by the amount of description the GM gives), he/ she is not going to let it appear only once.

Our characters are naturally fully unaware of this. But then again, this enemy is in the power category against which you just cannot prepare yourself. He'll face us when the GM sees fit.

Re-group!

This time we had only Thomas and Henry with us: I don't know whether Barry got enough of the game, but Mark was probably just ill. I actually like playing with a smaller group, because it gives each player more time to participate in the game. However, this time I stole the spot lights. It's nothing to be proud about; I believe that role-playing is a group activity and ignoring others is just plain... stupid (my golden rule of role-playing).

We didn't achieve much this time. My Tom took the prisoner (who was actually a weaver of tapestries) back to his village, locked her in a storage room and then went to report about the battle in the swamp to the castle. For some reason the second in command just ordered his ghoul-guards to kill me. Luckily other characters, Grunttle and Francis, had also arrived to the castle in order to loot it and they saved my character. It's interesting that even though there has been no apparent friendship developing between the characters and my struggling against the monsters would've provided perfect diversion for them (they could've sneaked into the castle), the players came to my aid without hesitating a second. It seems that one of the implicit game rules is that the group is never betrayed. Interesting, because this neglates most of dramatic tensions in the character group and means that the game is about we versus the GM's adventure.

Anyway, after the monsters were slain, my Tom ran back to the village to make sure that his family would be ready to leave this cursed hamlet, where the master has turned against his loyal subjects and the swamp is filled with monsters' army, heading towards the village. Meanwhile the other characters looted the castle, but got pretty little out of it. And so we travelled to Mousillon city. At this point the GM explained something about the other characters' motives or reasons to be in this adventure: Henry's Francis seems to here to reclaim his family's status and Thomas' Grunttle seeks a stolen jewel, which in wrong hands is a powerful weapon. It was apparent that Tom didn't fit into this: his main concern is the welfare of his family (a wife and a daughter). This is what defines his character concept, what he is about. This is his story, and clearly it doesn't fit with the GM's adventure. As a result, I have to change the character into something different.

In order to avoid the lengthy character creation I could just change the character on the fly: rename him and change the personality, while keeping all the stats and skills. But this works best only if I can come up with some other character story, which would be in accord with Aido's adventure. The initial idea is to make an antagonistic traitor: a character who is in the group only because it works for his benefit and seize the opportunity as it would appear (read: when the jewel was reclaimed). The problem is that this is in a gross conflict with the aforementioned rule about the unity of the character group. It seems to me that other players are very keen to this rule: Thomas' character smacked Henry's almost unconsciousness, but later no animosity was noticed between the characters. Likewise Henry joked about having sex with the freed prisoner during the trip to Mousillon city, but as the GM said that the woman would become pregnant, Henry's initial answer was abortion. As the whole group, I and Aido at least, signaled a strong opposition to this kind of behaviour, Henry took it all back. My point is that this was another situation, with which to create tension among the character group and also show what kind of man noble Francis is. I as a player thought it would've been cool that the noble cares nothing about human life, while my peasant Tom would've represented the family values. But, again, the game was steered so that nothing happened.

Conclusion: other players seem to play like this was some sort of D&D adventure, where you just go forward, kill the enemies and loot their treasures. They are not interested in telling their characters' story, especially if it conflicts with the unity of the character group (which again conflicts the basic rules of drama). To avoid any misunderstanding, there's absolutely nothing wrong about this: the right way to role-play is the way which pleases all participants. I'm merely trying to understand how they play and, therefore, how I should play. The problem is that if I go with this, I probably have to re-create my character a lot. As most challenges the GM pits at as are about fighting, I ought to create a good fighter instead of a frog-hunter / outdoor survivalist. I could then even sacrifice this new character for the sake of the group (like pitting my character to meet the stupendiously strong enemies, while others run away). In other words, D&D teams are successful as long as they can avoid total party kill; of course they should also achieve the objectives made by the GM. I have to hear what other players and the GM has to say about the game style they have, but I'm pretty sure I'll go with making minor changes to my character (more challenge) and then protect the group, while trying to achieve the goal stated by the GM's adventure.

I wouldn't worry to much about scientist, he can be...convinced to roleplay well, just don't give him any ammunition to act the prat and he's generally ok.

Also, I need to talk to you regarding a new character don't I?

I don't even pretend that I would've understood a word.



If you feel like it. In my opinion I'll just re-generate some of the personal details of the character and change some of the skills & talents to something remotely more useful (like that talent of using nets and stuff is totally useless: I want my new character to have at least some sort of edge). Nothing that couldn't be done in the beginning of the next session.

Knee deep in filth

Once more we started somewhat lazyly, as the players didn't feel like showing up on time. Maybe this is again one of the ways things just are in Ireland, but since we have only two hours of play time, losing 40 minutes of it is quite a big loss. Anyway, I reformed my character: Swamprat-Tom, an easy-going family man, was changed into Bas the cursed, selfish hero-wannabe. Bas has had it hard, and there's clearly a reason for the fact that he is the black sheep of the family. However, he really wishes to be a celebrated and respected hero, so he really tries to do good. I didn't even change any of his talents or skills, as he now complements well the group as a sort of scout. In other words, he fits well into the adventure: no own concept or story (dramatic tension), except the need to get things done. Enough to color the adventure, but nothing to compete with Aido's story. This is not exactly my favourite way of playing, but I can take it (and enjoy of it) for a change.

As we were waiting for Mark to show up, we started the game slowly, Aido doing his best by describring Mousillon city. Our, mine and Thomas', characters started to follow The Big Plot aka the guy, who stole the jewel and entered the city. As we have been quite straight-forward in the game this far, it was quite nice to change the pace and really imagine, visualize the imaginary world. Unfortunately we had to imagine Mousillon city. The Warhammer FRPG is set into a grim fantasy world and this place is like the grimmest place there. It's the sewer of humanity, to say the least (and yet tens of millions real human beings live in such conditions today). It's clear that Barony of the Damned -supplement could provide lots of information and colourful details about the city, but we are just passing through (or maybe not; but I mean that there seems to be enough information to set a whole campaign in Mousillon city, somewhat like a poor man's Ptolus).

As Mark finally arrived, the game started really get going. We followed the adventure's lead to a butcher, docks and finally to a captain, who send us to a mini-scenario: beat up some thug so the captain will direct us to the men we are seeking for. The mini-scenario was actually pretty good: the target was Breaker, a member of a harbour gang, who hangs out in an inn called Fallen Heaven. How to get Breaker away from his mates, so that we don't have to fight against the whole gang? Thomas comes up with a pretty witty plan: his Grunttle makes a job offer to Breaker about which he'd like to discuss in private. Things go well, until Mark starts to hold back. In a sense I think it's admirable that he didn't wish to maim the guy just like that, but then again, that's why we're here for. The result is messing with a warp stone and causing some minor mutations to the poor man - after which he sounded like a stereotypic mentally handicapped person, which at least got my sympathies - but which really doesn't help us to fulfill the given mission. I clearly should've been there, but I had placed my character on guard. Finally the man insists that he isn't Breaker - we just messed up an innocent bystander's life. This would be a good topic for our characters to discuss next time, but my character has grown up in this city, so he knows that sometimes Oops hits the fan and there's nothing you can do about it, so he won't rise the issue. Then again, the GM could make the city really alive by showing us the poor man's crying sister / mother / wife / daughter.

Anyway, as my character is totally unaware of the man's real identity, he follows the wrong man, who is now being arrested for causing disturbance. The inn guards throw him to a torturer and I try to ask when he's done (the thing is that we have to break Breaker's arms or something). To my huge surprise this torturer attacks me. I try to back off, cool the situation, pull out my sword - nothing helps. He comes right at me, clearly ready to beat me into a pulp. My character really isn't a fighter (even if the GM said he's the second best in the whole group), so I retreat. The sociopathic bull-dozer follows, of course, and the inn guards are just about to join it. Once more I've been saved by the other players: Thomas' Grunttle cleaves the torturer down with a single blow while Mark's Rudigar casts shadow knives at guards. I'm genuinely surprised. Neither of the players nor their characters had anyhing to do with this incident. They could've turned away and I wouldn't have blamed them: heck, that's what I expected them to do. But no, they glide right in and save my butt again. The unity between the players is far more stronger than I ever supposed. This issue I am going to rise in the next session - it's interesting to see how they'll react to my character's overwhelming gratitude. The conclusion is joyous: the slain torturer happens to be Breaker and the inn guards think that we are too strong to be fought against. Breaker's own gang probably will try to settle scores with us at some point, of course, but still we got off easily with this mini-scenario.

And then the captain told us that our destination is the catacombs, a meeting place between him and the person we hunt, a place from where his men didn't return.

Correction:

You are not the second best fighter in the group.

Your are the best fighter in the group.

Surprise!

As you can see, WHFRP PC's don't get much the way D&D character's would, life is fun that way.

Also, your character needs integration, I think the best thing to do is to introduce you to some of the groups old freinds.

It sure is. Back in Stormbringer - which runs with Basic Roleplaying System similar to Warhammer FRPG - warrior characters started with 50/50 % fighting skills. Nothing bad having characters who actually cannot fight, except that you keep on throwing combat situations at us all the time. Yeah, we've survived, but two PCs have been killed as well.



Integration? The other characters just saved my character's butt. I'm pretty well adopted to the group, so no need for... oh wait. You probably mean that old friend. Well, it fits, going to the catacombs and all.

Not all the time, but yes, I do likes me combat. There will be more social interaction when you meet...

Oh, that's right, I can't tell you who that is...

Dungeons & monsters

I'm slightly bit late this time - not that anyone of you would care, but this is because of Aido's request. Or actually he asked me not to mention some things, but I decided that I write it clean but post it just before we're going to play the next session.

We started by fixing our characters, assigning experience points and stuff like that. As Mark couldn't show up, Aido gave his maniac laugh and fucked up Mark's Rudigar fundamentally. I've got no idea whether this is normal here, but it seemed pretty bad. He even re-rolled several times to get enough bad results. If Mark had some sort of character concept or image in mind, the GM just rammed it - with a tank. By the time he got his diabolic job done and Henry had arrived, we started the session.

The first third of the session was dedicated to Henry's Francis. As he wasn't playing last time, it's sort of fair to resolve what his character did on the mean time. In previous sessions it has become evident that Francis isn't much of a fighter, but according to what happened here he might have a promising career as a politician up ahead of him. He seduced the female tapestry-maker, who now lives at the docks of Mousillon city, and managed to gather some personal goons with his gambling skills. As one can guess, Henry was more delighted of the goons than the tapestry-maker: after all, it's the goons that are going to keep him alive in the battle.

Then it was our, mine and Thomas' turn. I first thought that the GM was tossing another "let's get familiar with the Mousillon city" random encounter, but it turned out to be a blast from the past. Three skavens, rat-men, came to visit us and had a little talk. They seemed to be after Francis and Rudigar especially, but they were also interested in our mission. At the moment our plans are in accord, so no problem yet. The scene as a whole was, I'd say, there just to show the skavens. The GM clearly enjoyed bringing in these characters, kinda like director's favourite actors making a quick turn at the stage, as it's obvious that he wouldn't dare to risk them by sending them into a fight with us. Anyway, after the monologue was over, Francis and Rudigar showed up. But as we failed in the Perception-check, Rudigar seemed to be just fine.

Finally we got on our way to the catacombs. For me this was especially exciting, as this was the first time my character got the spot lights because of his scouting skills. To my great delight the dice were on my side and I was able to avoid an encounter with zombies. As Thomas and Mark have saved my character already twice, I feel strongly obliged to do my share for the team. So we arrived to the catacombs and had our first real in-character discussion about the order in which we should enter the dark grave. I tried to suggest that the cannon fodder goons would go in first and I'd secure the second wave with my bow, but Thomas was adamant that my Bas should lead the team. I gave up - I really didn't want us to get stuck with this question - and went in next to a goon.

Then started the action part of this session. The first enemies were a bunch of ghouls, who really didn't stand a change against us. Or, against everyone else in the group. Even a NPC goon was more successful to deliver damage than me. Then again, I didn't get that much of a change either. Considering that there seems to be fighting in every session, I was somewhat surprised to hear that Thomas' Grunttle's kill count is only five. Yes, all players keep kill counts - this probably couldn't be anymore D&D. Not that it would be a bad thing; I have practically never played dungeon crawling, so all this seems like a fresh thing to me. After we got rid of these creatures, we continued deeper into the catacomb, down through a crypt and into another fight scene. This time we were up against a horrifically reeking toxic monster. It tried to drown Francis right on top, but my Bas and his lassoing (and Grunttle's raw strength) kept his head above water. Then the monster decided to show its ugly face and they went right in. Henry never stops to amaze me: his character has the lowest changes of hitting anything and just a few hit points left, and what did he do? Attacked and sliced a huge critical hit. My initial plan was to use bow and stay alive, but I just cannot let Francis die. He has had too much luck to die now or here. Oh, and Mark's Rudigar suffered some sort of break-down. It's interesting how I find the weakest and in a way the smallest character the most appealing. I guess it's because Francis is not the typical dungeon crawler and because he continually surprises me: the eccentric persons are amusing.

Also can be noted that WFRPG doesn't have the fastest combat system available. Those two combats, and the toxic monster is still standing, took 90 minutes, whereas the rest or the beginning of the session took 60 minutes.

Dungeons & Ghouls

This time our group grew back to it's initial size, as David joined in. I don't know if he was there just to see the game or spend his spare time or some sort of GM's trick. He took the Francis' bodyguard goon as his character without a mention of making one of his own. James was also there, but he was satisfied just watching us playing. Mark was very happy to see all the mutations caused to his character. It seems that they didn't ruin his character concept and if it was about being tough mage, he is that now more than before. Who cares about looks, as long as you are powerful enough to beat enemies?

We continued killing the sewer monster and it become evident that it's the kill count why we are playing the game. Henry kept on going with his half-dead character and managed to deliver another critical hit. As the actual killing was done by Thomas, the voices rose a bit. As there were so many people in the room the whole playing was somewhat distracted (failed Perception-checks give the best laughs, I tell you). We managed to keep on going, however. There was an interesting situation as we came to a T-junction: which way to go? We actually couldn't make the decision for a moment, even if it was plain clear that there was no decision to make; either way would lead to wherever the GM wanted us to go.

Mark's character Rudigar took a quantum leap to a chaos realm. This clearly wasn't the first time, but aside from that it wasn't too interesting watching him having a dialogue with his demon. The problem was that Aido tried to make the scene majestically and creepy, while Mark levelled this down with constant jokes. Of course Aido couldn't do much else (it's really hard to scare people, if they decide not not be scared), and finally Mark's character was dropped back to the sewer with the rest of us.

The rest of the time, 45 minutes, were spent by killing ghouls. Henry and David encountered them first and started to chase them, ending up into their hive. The rest of us joined in as soon as we got a chance. I was still able to keep my kill count clean, and even shot David's goon in the back due to a botched Ballistics-check. Not the way that it would've caused anything; these things happen, you know, I didn't do it on purpose.

After we had killed a few ghouls and the GM had drawn on the board a hefty amount more of them, their leader decided to show up. We started asking about the fellows we were after and he agreed to take us to meet the real boss of the underworld (stinky sewers), the cannibal knight.

This is the problem with a strong plot drive: there's nothing to be worried about as everything is going to be part of the plan anyway. Did we just accidently step into a ghoul hive? No. Are we going to die since there is so many of them? No. Is the cannibal knight going to eat us? No. Are we going to find what we are looking for? Pretty certainly no. Then again, it's the same thing as you watch a movie or read a book. You really cannot argue that Moria-sequence in LotR was bad, because the reader knows they are going to make it or that it was bad that they couldn't destroy the ring in Rivendell.
"Do you want to hear this story or not?" "Yeah, we do." "Then mouth shut and ears open." [no real quotations, just making my point here]

I certainly hope this game isn't about a kill count, because if it was, mine isn't high enough, so I'd better notch it up a bit.

*glares*

The whole kill count thing is a horrible running joke. I try not to award experience based on kills, but on what the various characters do.

Also, yes, I don't award alot of experience, as far as I'm concerned your all pretty shining powerful as is for WHFRP characters, so I'm not going to advance you at any great pace, secondly, I really need to take a look at what I'm sending up against you, it really isn't cutting the mustard anymore.

As for plot drive, I had two major decisions for you guys to make, go deeper into the sewer, or go back, relay the information to Rik and Tik, and see what they can do with it. You guys charged in. Fair fucks to you. Especially Henry, whom I can see developing an irrational fear of water and who was at that point one good hit away from taking critical hits.

Next session, hopefully less combat and also some time to do your own thing, which I haven't really allowed for in this campaign, but unfortunately, I'm on a bit of tight timetable.

I might have understood the whole situation wrong, but it seems to me that there is certain tension in the group about what we are doing every Thurday afternoon. You are telling a story, while some of the players play "D&D". If you kill a character, it might reinforce the "D&D attitude", because you just added a good challenge into it. On the other hand the players might interpret it as a judgement against their play style. The problem is that letting all characters live probably won't change the players' behaviour either. The basic question is: Do you, or someone else in the group, notice this same tension between the game purposes? A matter that should be discuss with everyone present.



Unfortunally this doesn't seem to help. You see, experience points is what the group considers high value and worth striving after. Most of us seem to find the kill count much more valuable than actual WFRPG exp. points. Just compare how strongly they react to the kill count and and how vaguely to the actual exp. points.



Hm. I see the experience points as the GM's thanksgiving or encouragement and also what I said just previously, something what the players value. So after a session I kinda like look how well I did by checking how much exp. points I got. The problem is that what I do doesn't seem to correlate to the amount of points. I'm not looking for to make my character bigger and better, but to get feedback about my playing. So for me the situation is sorted with straightforward feedback: "there you did well, that was cool, what the hell was that all about, that wasn't too bright".

This, of course, is just my opinion. I'm not demaning you or others to start dancing under my command, but just telling what I'm naturally looking for. If I'm looking for wrong things, do let me know. And I do admit that I myself am pretty slow to follow my own ideals. I haven't given that much feedback to others. I try to do better.



Really? So leaving the sewers would not have "ended" the scenario? There was other ways to keep on seeking the fellows we were after? We could have decided that the jewel was lost for good and go on with other matters in our characters' lives? And wasn't Rik 'n' Tik supposed to contact us when they saw fit, not the other way round?



Yeah, I really cannot tell what he's up to. His actions seem irrational at best. We should ask himself.



Don't worry, this far only one player has voted with his feet against your game. The rest of us have stayed, so clearly you are going good job.

You weren't abandoning the artefact, just figuring out a different way of getting to it. I won't go into details because it might spoil things.

If you want feedback, I'm all for it, a little after-game chat is always helpful. Henry does stupid stuff. But it makes sense to his half-wit character, so I'm good with that. It also gives me ample excuse to kill him.

Hey, watch it! Henry arrives lojally to play the game and really plays it instead of sitting there passively (what I seem to do most of the time). It's most unwise to mock your players behind their backs. I suggest that as his style seems to bug you, talk about it with him. That's the best way to sort things out in my experience.

Yeah, we shouldn't be mocking sir "eh are you finished width... thath..." with the sentence being ended with your dinner coming out of his mouth cause you got up for a glass of water!

Or exclaiming that he has a black-hole for a stomach!

Which he does btw.