Blogging my WFRP campaign

Out of papers and hungover I set out to write my first 'At the table' report, about Sunday's WFRP. This is just too much to take. I need to go out in search of supplies...

Meanwhile readers who are interested can follow these links:

• Trollslayer forums
  
• Blogslayer

A wee bit of hunting around and you will find some of my earlier comments about the Old World, WFRP2, and my own campaign.

Sunday's session was the 7th I have run since WFRP2 inspired me to rally a new roleplaying group to get my GM's teeth into, and part 6 of my Old World campaign (I ran the opening of 'A Fistful of Credits' from Bill King's Waste World Lite as a 1-shot tryout of the quickstart). IIRC this is already my single longest consistent run as GM in 25 years as a roleplayer. So writing this first piece about this game is a bit of a thrill for me, all the more so since the game is going great guns.

At the same time, I find myself clueless about how to proceed. Why? Mostly because I'm not really all that sure what a feature like this should be for. I mean, a boardgame or ttg battle report can introduce gamers to interesting mechanics and crucial tactical conundrums of the game that is their subject, as well as providing an entertaining account of some gamers having fun playing an actual game.

There is milage in this approach to a roleplaying recount no doubt, but the kicker is the story element. I mean, I can tell you what the players and their PC's said and did; I could even write it as a credible piece of narrative prose; but that would still miss the point I feel, because, in the end, it's not my story to tell, it's theirs.

I'm not going to labour these points. They are just some random musings on what I'm trying to offer my readers in this feature.

So, this group started with 2 PC's

• Grundi: the oldest member of the party (played by the youngest player, a neat twist!), a talkative dwarven coachman with an unusual gait
• Alane: that elven witch, and- it turned out- the 2nd oldest member of the party

Meeting on the road south out of Gersdorf, they happened on the Strutting Cock inn, where they met the hapless captive whose plaintive cries distracted them as they crossed the yard towards the front door. Long story short: they did the right thing, and in the process made some friends and helped someone get a job and a new home for his family.

Joining this unlikely pair next time were (by age again)

• Mordrin: hotheaded young runerunner played by a widely acknowledged real-life dwarf
• Siegfried: human thief from Middenland
• Dieter: human roadwarden from the Reikland
• Berthold: human scribe from Stirland

Together this party rescued young Gretel and returned her to her keeper; spent a rough night in the Leaping Frog; then, hitting the road to Middenheim so that Siegfried could visit his old mum, found themselves guarding a refugee train from Untergard on that same road.

Through these 4 sessions our group bonded and began to develop its dynamics very nicely; the players began to get into their characters; and I started to get to grips with the Old World and with the tricks and trials of GM'ing. I enthused with friends and on appropriate places on the net about how much fun I was having. All was well and good. Then I had to cancel a session for Worldcon and my players turned up for their next session with bonus xp up for grabs if they had read my new blog (20 in all were handed out IIRC). And so here I find myself still trying to figure out what it is I really want to say about Sunday's game to open another new feature of RD/KA!

I mean to say: this particular corner of cyberspace is not going to be a campaign resource base for myself and my players- a Yahoo or similar group is much more suitable for that purpose it seems to me. Nor do I intend this blog to create some kind of online environment in which me and my players can do game- blogs might be good for that kind of thing, but so also should be bulletin boards, and there is already one devoted to WFRP, so that base seems to be covered right now.

So even though I hope that my players will be regular readers of RD/KA!, what I am trying to do here is to give my account of what happened in a refugee camp one night in sight of the shattered city of Middenheim amid the carnage of the aftermath of the Storm of Chaos. Not just that: I am trying to turn that account into something that will be of use to roleplaying readers, be they GM or PC, and whether or not they're actually playing WFRP. I have to say that I'm finding it difficult to get a handle on this!

Well, at least I got something written about the game, even if it's not the first 'At the table' report that I was aiming for.

Related@RD/KA!
Prologue: Getting to Middenheim
- A Rash of Enthusiasm...: the colour of Magic!
- My little Old World: at the gates of Middenheim.
- My little Old World: mission accomplished?
- My little Old World: clearing the cludge: the GM gloats.
- Index:- My little Old World: Ashes of Middenheim