Chapter IX: The Game Master
r oleplayIng This may seem a little obvious, but all too often, eager GMs will forcibly rush their PCs into the plot they’ve devised, instead of allowing the characters to slowly work their way into it. Let players enjoy their PCs. Give them opportunities to interact with one another, your NPCs, and the world around them, in character. This is not only a lot of fun, but it gives the entire experience a bit more “reality” if you will. Players that care about their characters’ well-being and the NPCs they interact with (who they like) are far more likely to pay attention to what’s going on with your plot. Most NPCs can usually be summed up with just a few descriptive words about their personality. If you jot these down before your adventure, along with a few “spare personalities” you’ll be good to go when the time comes to depict the surly night watch captain, or the morose toll keeper. You should consider having one or two scenes during an adventure that don’t really have anything to do with your central plot, they’re more for just exploring the various quirks of your PCs. s Cope How sweeping is the story that you wish to tell? Just how big do you intend your adventure to be? Will your PCs be trying to accomplish a relatively small task, such as saving a girl’s life or defrauding a merchant? Or are they going to be fighting a widespread Chaos cult or defeating an army? Is it going to be entirely set within a small village during a single winter? Within a big Empire city, but only over the three nights of the Festival of Fools? Across the whole of the Old World, even unto the Chaos Wastes? By deciding on the scope of your adventure, you can frame a great deal of how parts of it will go. If the PCs are all stuck in one place with no time for grandiose plans, their decisions on how they’re going to deal with the oncoming Beastmen horde are going to be very different than if they can simply ride away to gather help elsewhere. An adventure with an epic scope, by the way, is drawing on a specific style of narration, not a scale. A few simple men and women who all but lack combat training struggling against a horde of vicious mutants can be just as epic as a huge battle with a cast of thousands; it’s the manner of the telling that counts. I nVesTIgaTIons and C omplICaTIons Information is power in the Old World; however, you can get burned alive for seeking certain types of knowledge in the Empire and the kinds of things that PCs usually need to know are often the most dangerous. While some knowledge can and certainly should come from books, remember that tomes are relatively rare in the Old World and nearly always expensive. Since a number of adventures involve a mystery or two, investigations will therefore play a big part within them. Many PCs will gather the majority of their information from talking to others, which means that as the GM, you should consider in advance what each of your NPCs knows, to say nothing of whether or not they’ll be honest or forthcoming about what they do know when questioned. It’s also a good idea to think about who the local law enforcement is and how they will react to the crime of breaking and entering, as that happens to be an offence that more inquisitive PCs tend to practice with regularity. Directly linked to investigation is the fine art of problem solving. You should seldom make anything too easy on PCs; they tend to get rather complacent if you just let them get away with any sort of behaviour yet still your plot advances. Instead, throw unusual challenges at them and force them to respond. Confront them with difficulties that you know they can overcome, but only if they use their wits. Complications can make a relatively simple story far more interesting. It’s one type of problem to stop a vicious murderer by killing him, quite another when you have to bring him in alive. Sure you can hold off the Orc horde indefinitely with proper supplies, but what if the bolder rats made off with the village’s stores this summer? Some problems cannot be readily “solved” yet they’ll greatly affect your adventure, such as a
Eagle pinfeathers, across the sea to mysterious Albion in search of a portable Ogham stone and even to the terrible north to bring back one of the dread weapons of a Champion of Chaos. Along the way, they’ll see more of the Old World than most dare to dream and may eventually get around to wondering just what exactly do their wizard patrons have in mind for all the odd things they’ve acquired? w arrIors f IghT for m any r easons The PCs are approached by a group of desperate peasants who need their help. Every summer, a massive band of boar-riding Orcs attacks their village. The Empire is unwilling to station troops nearby both for the cost and the lack of strategic importance of the village. Every other soldier the farmers have approached has laughed at them, as they can offer nothing more than food and lodging to anyone willing to risk their life to protect them. If the PCs accept, they’ll have to face a terrible fight against near overwhelming odds, but then again, perhaps that is exactly what they’re looking for. Along the way, they’ll have to train farmers to defend their own and inspire courage in the long downtrodden if they wish to survive through the battle themselves. a dVenTure e lemenTs Creating a good roleplaying adventure is a challenging proposition. There is no one exact way to do it, no definite guide that will tell you what to do. Every adventure is composed of many parts and while the plot may drive the overall game, without a number of other crucial elements blended in, it won’t be particularly enjoyable or memorable for your players. The following elements are all building blocks of a good adventure. You don’t always have to have every one in order to make your story work, but you should at least consider each of them in turn whenever you prepare to run WFRP . Remember though, whatever you choose to include, as long as you and your players are having fun, then you’re doing fine.
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