Chapter IX: The Game Master
s oCIal s TaTus Experience points are a mechanics-based award, but in-world rewards can be just as important. As characters move through different careers, they may have the opportunity to raise their status in Imperial society. Gaining social status, membership in exclusive orders and organisations, and leadership positions in various groups are all great rewards for PCs. Oftentimes, the play of the character will suggest these awards to you. Some players are quite forthright, so they might just come out and say things like, “I really want to be a templar of Ulric.” If this works for your campaign, it’s then your job to work that subplot into the game and make it happen if the character does the right things. Other players are either more shy or they simply don’t know what they want. A player might, for example, want to get into the Knight career, but have no idea what kind of Knight he wants to be. As the character is getting ready to switch careers, you might give him the chance of joining the Knights of the Blazing Sun in recognition for his heroism in a previous adventure. This not only makes his new career make sense, but also gives the character increased status in the world. s peCIal T raInIng Normally, characters cannot learn skills and talents that are not part of the current careers. This is intentional. If characters could pick and choose whatever skills and talents they wanted, the entire career structure would break down. When choosing a new career, a big consideration is what skills and talents can be gained. That’s one of the exciting parts of making it to the advanced careers in particular. That said, you may reward characters with special training that lets them buy skills and talents outside their careers, but this should be a rare occurrence. You also must make sure that characters justify these acquisitions through their actions. Characters must seek out teachers, spend time training, and pay often exorbitant prices for the lessons. Even then, such skills and talents should cost 200 xp instead of the normal 100 xp. You may relax some of these strictures under special circumstances, but don’t make it too easy. Your players should never assume they can acquire whatever skill they want regardless of career. w orldly g aIn Money is one of the classic motivators and it works well as a reward, particularly for characters of a larcenous bent or those with a lower class background. It’s easy to see why such characters would prize money. For other characters, access to new equipment or rare items is more attractive. An arquebusier may dream of the day he can get a Hochland long rifle, for example. You need to be careful with money and goods, however. The Old World is a harsh place, so it should not be easy to amass piles of money or buy the most expensive equipment. It’s also important to remember that the Empire is full of dangerous criminals who’ll do anything to redistribute your wealth (to themselves). Characters who flaunt wealth are asking for the wrong kind of attention and you, as the GM, should give it to them. Rich characters should have to deal with Racketeers, blackmailers, Thieves, and cutthroats. It’s the price they pay for their good fortune. The rarest rewards of this type should be magic items. WFRP is not an RPG in which every character will be loaded down with magic items after a few adventures. A PC will be lucky to have one magic item. The most powerful characters in the Warhammer World may have three magic items if they are lucky.
T he d eTaIled m eThod As the name indicates, this is the most time-consuming method of handing out xps, but it also gives you the greatest control. When using the detailed method, you break the adventure down into its component parts and give out an xp award for the successful completion of each section. Essentially, each step of the plot has its own reward. Awards can be as little as 5 xp for a minor event and as large as 50 xp for a major one. When considering an appropriate reward for each scene, you can use Table 9-5: Encounter Difficulty . This breaks down each scene using the basic framework of the Test Difficulty table. Example: In one session, the PCs followed a trail of clues down into the sewers, in the hopes of finding a band of Thieves. They ran into a small band of Ratmen while blundering about and a vicious fight ensued. After the fight they managed to find the Thieves’ headquarters. The Thieves weren’t there, so the PCs set up an ambush and the session ended on a cliffhanger as the Thieves returned. For this session, the GM awards 10 xp for figuring out they needed to head into the sewers, 30 xp for the fight with the Skaven, and 15 for finding the Thieves’ hideout. Next session they’ll get the award for the ambush, assuming they survive a fight with brutal Thieves on their home turf. As with Test Difficulty, you should try to be fair when determining Encounter Difficulty. Was the obstacle easily overcome or was the victory dearly bought? Were the PCs at a disadvantage (perhaps due to magic or numbers)? Did any characters spend Fate Points to survive? These are all questions to consider when assigning Encounter Difficulty. You should also consider the importance of the encounter when award xp. If the PCs pick a random street brawl, that is hardly worthy of an award. The climactic encounter at the end of a long adventure, however, is worth extra xp, perhaps up to double the normal award. r oleplayIng a wards In addition to the story-based experience points awards, you may also want to hand out individual awards for good roleplaying after each session. Roleplaying awards should generally be in the 5-30 xp range and they are by no means automatic. The idea is to reward players who do an exceptional job portraying their characters. What “good roleplaying” is can be quite subjective. There is a temptation to reward the boisterous and entertaining player, but you should try to consider the personality of the character being portrayed. A brooding Dwarf mercenary is not going to dominate social situations, but effective roleplaying of that personality is still worthy of an award. As the campaign goes on and the characters evolve, everyone in the group will gain a greater understanding of the personalities of the various PCs. This ought to make judging roleplaying easier as time goes on. f aTe p oInTs As discussed previously in this chapter, Fate Points can be granted to characters after completing major story arcs. They are the ultimate award in WFRP , since each one essentially gives a character another life, so you should be sparing when handing them out.
212
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online