Chapter IX: The Game Master
T he g ame m asTer “Peasants pray to Ranald for good fortune, but they’re wasting their breath. I am the hand of fate around here and their lives and deaths are mine to control.” —Vasiliev, Talabheim Crime Lord
C hapTer IX
T he Game Master is the most important member of the group. It is the GM who runs the game, the GM who prepares the adventures, the GM who adjudicates the actions, the GM who brings the Old World to life, and the GM who is ultimately responsible for ensuring that everyone has a good time. While this may seem like quite a burden, sitting in the GM’s chair should be fun and rewarding. If you’re the GM for your group, this chapter should help you in several ways. First, it provides some general advice on being Y our job as the GM is a bit like that of a movie director. You must assemble a cast (your players), scout a location (the Old World in WFRP ’s case), prepare a shooting script (the adventure), ready props (handouts, miniatures, tactical maps), create an atmosphere (a grim world of perilous adventure), and then drive the whole production to make sure everything goes off. If that sounds like a lot of work, it can be, but it’s good, satisfying work. And just as an audience appreciates a good movie and gives the director the lion’s share of the credit, so too will your players laud you if you run a good game. Before you run your first game, there are a few things you should do to prepare yourself for the job: • Read this rulebook. As the GM, you should know the rules better than anyone else. It’s your job to referee the game and the rules are your guidelines. While you don’t need to know every rule by heart, you should at least know where to look when a question comes up.
a GM, including overviews of adventures and campaigns. Second, there is some practical advice on adjudicating tests and fate points. Third, there is a system for insanity, which ties back to the Insanity Points introduced way back in Chapter 2: Character Creation . Lastly, there is a section on rewards, including experience points and how to hand them out. All this material should help you understand your job as Game Master and ensure that a good time is had by all.
— T he gm’ s J ob —
your own adventure. This is a much larger undertaking, but also has its rewards. In either case, you should read over the adventure several times and make sure you know it well. Ready any props. Many adventures come with handouts, which are in-world documents or other clues to give to your players. You’ll want to make sure you have photocopies of any needed handouts ahead of time. If you’re using miniatures, you’ll also want to collect up the figures you need for the adventure and make sure your tactical map is ready. If you have time and you are using a wet-erase map, you might want to draw out the location of the first combat in advance to save time. Then when the fight starts, you can simply roll out the map and get going. Ready accessories. You will need at least two ten-sided dice to run WFRP and some scratch paper and pencils are always handy. You may also want to invest in a GM Screen. You use the screen to hide the adventure, your notes, and your dice rolls from the players. This helps maintain the air of mystery and ensures the players will never know what’s going to happen next. The WFRP GM Pack includes a screen, a short adventure, and useful referee aids. Once you’ve completed these steps, you are ready to begin.
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Prepare an adventure. Before you can run a game, you must have an adventure ready. Black Industries has several adventures available (including an intro adventure in this very book) and these have the advantage of being pre-designed and ready to play. Your other option is to make up
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