#bogenhafen

[adelaide-lanshasaa]

Scenario 1 : Arachnids

Quick note : you will notice a mistake, as the Schaffenfest takes place outside of Bögenhafen. I did not know that when the characters played the scenario, thus, I apologize. This scenario takes place after the adventures of Chef, but the reading order does not matter much so far. Both are included in the first scenario as an introduction to the players. Some might recognise two scenario hooks from the 4e bood "Adventures afoot the Reikland".

Maria and Selgrim are walking in the Reikwald toward the wood exploitation of Willibert Klemm. Giant spiders made their nest in the trees, and the merchant has been loosing profit since, but decided to make money out of the situation, and asked for someone to get him some of the creature's silk for him to sell.

The young woman and the dwarf met on this occasion. They quikly found out that they both wished to travel to Übersreik, and that they needed a guide and some money. Maria traveled from her village in Tabalecland in hopes of becoming a knight for the Empire's army, and believes that the now politically unstable city will offer her opportunities to get noticed as a hero. As for Selgrim, he grew up in Bögenhafen until now, and wishes to travel as well, hopeful to find something interesting in Übersreik.

As they make their way on the path, voices catch their attention.

"Are you sure that's a good collet ?"

"I don't know, I'm a blacksmith, not a hunter !"

As they come closer to the voices, they discover a ginger haired dwarf and a young man trying to prepare a hunting trap, before noticing the two curious person.

After a short conversation, it turned out that this duo, Günther and Ökri, met today as they accepted a job offer for Doctor Malthusius. The man runs the Malthusius Zoopopée but his creatures have fought and killed each other, and other problems caused him worry for his business. With the Schaffenfest starting in a few days, he needs new creatures to present the public, and thus, Günther and Ökri are now trying to hunt for monsters.

"Well, we are going to collect silk from giant spiders for a merchant. If you joign us, we can help you capture one of them, and you can help us gather the silk, perhaps we'll make more profit this way."

Everyone agrees on collaborating, and soon, they arrive in the wood explotation. The trees are covered in silver threads, and the group starts gathering the silk, trying not to break the delicate strings. Unfortunately, spiders soon begin to carwl their way.

"Giant spiders ? These are merely larger then big rats !" complains one of the dwarfs. But soon, their number is overwhelming, and the fight becomes a real struggle until Maria kills many of them in a precise blow. Suddenly, they notice a man eating Drakwald in the tree crown above them, much bigger then the small critters that they struggled with a moment ago. Very much larger.

"We have to catch that one..." mutters Günther.

They begin to plan a way to trap it, using a rope and one of them as a bait, but when they finally look back up, the monster is gone.

The drakwald spider jumps on one of them, who barely rolls away from it, before running to his newly found comrades that hurried to settle the trap.

The quartet returns to Bögenhafen, victorious. Their hunt was fruitful, and the Drakwald they captured should satisfy Dr. Malthusius. As for the silk, the quantity is consequent. However, as they arrive by the city's entrace, another problem arises : guards are there, and walking in a city with a giant man-eating insect is not acceptable. Günther walks ahead, ensuring his companion that he can distract them. The uninterrupted flow of his words as he speaks to the two men drowns them into incomprehension. Meanwhile, Maria and the two dwarfs walk behind the two men, with their illegal catch.

However, as they make their way toward Mathusius' caravan, a guard notices them. A fight in town would draw too much unwanted attention on them, but a few Silver Shilings often makes a man willing to remain silent. With their purses a bit lighter, the four adventurers arrive at the caravan, and receive their pay. They also find Herr Klemm to trade the silk for silver shilings, and all return to a tavern, planning their leave for Übersreik.

All they need is a guide, but the next day, the bad news arrive : Selgrim, who lives in Bögenhafen, has to remain for a few more days, as he has been called to joign the jury for a lawsuit.

Scenario 2 : Death to the witches !

[oldschoolfrp]

Welcome to Doctor Malthusius’ Zoocopeia  (Ian Miller, Shadows Over Bögenhafen, The Enemy Within campaign for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Games Workshop, 1987)

[vintagerpg]

I love the first three volumes (or four, depending on what editions you’re looking at) of the original Enemy Within campaign for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. The last two chapters, not so much — Kislev is fine, but a digression; Empire in Flames is a linear, ex machina mess. I’m lukewarm on the system for 4e WFRP from Cubicle 7 (too many meta currencies!) but I was extremely intrigued by their announcement that they were renovating Enemy Within for the modern era. 4E is its own thing in many ways, but I think it manages to bridge a gap to the sensibilities of 1E in regards to the presentation of the Old World. We’re never getting the early 1E-era back, but this is a good modern equivalent. If they can pull it off. Can they pull it off? What we have here is the collector’s edition of the first set of two books — the core campaign chapter and a companion expansion — of a gigantic ten-volume series. Holy wow. I am already impressed.

Enemy in Shadows (2020). The core book contains the set-up adventure “Mistaken Identity” and the entirety of Shadows Over Bogenhafen. The companion has the equivalent of the sourcebook material from the original Enemy Within, lots of road encounters and NPCs, a short adventure and another weird carnival (there is already one in Shadows). Nearly everything is useful. In sum, it feels like the original, just polished up to a modern standard, similar to Chaosium’s recent treatment of Masks of Nyarlathotep. Which boils down to this being a brilliant adventure made more so. We’re off to a good start here!

[demi-demilich]

Just realized I never posted the Bogenhafen Buffaloes 2.0. I lost the old team by leaving the box on the roof of my car 😭 don't put stuff on the roof of the car while waiting for your spouse, folks!

Anyway, I did these guys slap-chop instead of traditional because I'm lazy and I think it looks a lot nicer.

[skunts-own-truth]

Finally getting around to play a bit of Total Warhammer 3. I like it better than 2 by far, the campaign is a lot of interesting off the rip- however, the “build your own daemon prince” feature in the campaign has truly gotten me jealous. I’d like to make my own “my dudes” for every faction! Me own warboss, my own general of the Empire, etc. Would be preeeetty neat. Couldn’t find any mods for that on a quick glance, either. 

Though, I have hit a few bugs, nothing has really ruined my fun. Can’t wait till Immortal Empires is outta beta, then I feel like this game will just be golden. 

This weekend my rp party is onto session two of part two in the Enemy Within. They just got a river boat and are sailing their way towards Nuln. One player is seeking a teacher of magic, while the others are out trying to make names for themselves in this cutthroat world. We all had a blast with Shadows Over Bogenhafen, and the second part of the campaign seems to be a total change of pace from the skulking around in trade town politics. Now the players are the traders themselves, and are about to sink their teeth into the game’s river trade rules. 

Sticking with my Warhammer Fantasy feast, I have also been reading the classic novel “Vermintide,” which has been a fun little read so far. The skaven are just a delight to read, as in the same book you get these guys going from laugh-out-loud funny to actually creepy in just a span of a few pages. Love me some Skaven. 

[open-hearth-rpg]

#RPGaDay2024

RPG with well supported campaigns

I’m not sure how to answer this. I’ve been playing for close to five decades. In that time I can think of exactly three pre-written campaigns I actually ran substantially. The first of these was a chunk of The Enemy Within campaign– mostly Shadows Over Bogenhafen and Death on the Reik (Power Behind the Throne crashed and burned quickly). But even with these I cut significantly, adapting it to our existing fantasy world and using Fantasy GURPS. So a partial version played second hand. 

Parts of it felt good, great even. But I never ran it such that it felt like a coherent and evolving campaign. 

The second was running a chunk of the Legend of the Five Rings City of Lies campaign set up. I used the handouts and NPCs, but even then we only partially touched on things. Even as a freeform, sandbox campaign, we only got a skeleton of the original. That game was also embedded in a different version of Rokugan and also used a different system (a hack of Storyteller). 

So really the only campaign I’ve legitimately and fully run from a campaign book is Fearful Symmetries. I think its pretty dynamite. I’ve read several other campaign books for GUMSHOE The Armitage Files, Bookhounds of London, Dreamhounds of Paris, and the Dracula Dossier. I used flavor from the last of those for my Night’s Black Agents campaign, but I really didn’t run a legit DD campaign. I enjoyed reading the first three– offering lots of interesting ideas for Trail of Cthulhu. In particular a lovely and variable open approach to setting up a campaign. 

But it was Fearful Symmetries which grabbed my attention and made me think I actually wanted to run it as a full campaign. It has evocative ideas, lovely folk horror themes, and pushed me to read and research a ton of things (not least of which was William Blake). There’s a great scenario kick off for the campaign, with a loose and adaptable arc. It then offers a ton of great ideas for how to move on to the following arcs. 

It’s a wonderful read and the pitch of magician occultists in 1930s England really resonates.  Think the beginning of Sandman. Every time I re-read the campaign book I find something new and interesting. I’ve run two arcs of a campaign using it and I honestly think it is some of my best work. 

If it has a flaw, that lies in the supplemental book for it. Like the other ToC campaign books I mentioned above, it has a player-facing document. In this case it is The Book of the New Jerusalem which is a collection of folk myths and history from across England. It’s a fun read. However it's too loosely connected to the main campaign book. 

Fearful Symmetries has a guide from improvisationally building mysteries based on the ideas presented therein. But it's very loose. I would have loved more connections made in the FS sections on creatures, folklore, the adventure arc, the guide to England, and even the Aethyrs to things presented in TBONJ– some cross referencing, some suggestions as to where to point the players. 

I would have also liked another section, a whole chapter looking at the Book of New Jerusalem with some ideas about themes, discussing connected details, giving more examples, and basically making it a much more usable and important element of play. As it was, it became an add-on we largely ignored because I couldn’t easily find pieces to make those connections. It think Steve Dempsey did an amazing job with Fearful Symmetries, but I can see where this supplement could have been more vital and exciting. 

[ozingfr]

Blood Bowl 3 nous propose du gameplay inédit

#BloodBowl3 #Nintendo #PS5 #PS4 #XboxOne #XboxSeries #PC #Nacon #Cyanide

Après cette 57ième édition du SuperBowl nous avons eu un match d’anthologie avec une victoire des Chiefs de Kansas City. Par contre du côté de Nacon et du studio Cyanide, on a décidé de mettre en avant le match des Bogenhafen Barons aux Thunder Valley Greenskins. Orques vs Trolls donc, voici l’affiche du match dans cette nouvelle vidéo de gameplay. Constatons que des tartes sont distribuées, des…

[boardgametoday]

Bogenhafen Barons vs Thunder Valley Greenskins enter the pitch in this Blood Bowl 3 trailer

Bogenhafen Barons vs Thunder Valley Greenskins enter the pitch in this Blood Bowl 3 trailer #BloodBowl3

If US TV News channels are focused on the annual final playoff football game which takes place this Sunday, let’s not forget that the biggest sport event is currently in full swing, broadcasted exclusively on Cabal Vision! Featuring the Bogenhafen Barons VS the Thunder Valley Greenskins, the first half of the match was dominated by the latter. Orcs and Trolls used their might to prevail, crushing…

[misskiwigurke]

I can't wait to play my Warhammer character again. Also @flohpelz and @morrsreject rebrushed their Hochland costumes and I can't wait to play with our group together again. 💚❤️💚 In 2021 people will look even more awesome after the quarantine, since anybody have so much time. 😂 My next project will be my Skelliger. Finally I have time to add some details and nice embroidery! After that I will take care of my weapons as I have a few new ones. 😊 Photo: Del-Ink / Fotografie Con: Die Legende von zwei Dörfern, 2019 at @bogenwaldlarp, Germany

[zedecksiew]

Kriegsmesser

When I received Kriegsmesser in the mail I finally googled "kriegsmesser", and found out it meant "war knife". Which makes sense; Gregor Vuga's ZineQuest 2021 project is a tribute to "roleplaying games named after medieval weapons".

I love Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay's piss-renaissance Old World setting. I tend to pick up WFRP-a-likes sight unseen:

Warlock (quality);

Small But Vicious Dog (yesss);

Zweihander (which I have come to hate); etc.

Anyway: I backed Kriegsmesser without really knowing anything about it. So Kriegsmesser surprised me.

+

Kriegsmesser grew out of a Troika! cutting. Its 36 backgrounds are compatible with that system: each come with a couple of lines of description; a list of skills and possessions; an a visual cameo cropped from actual 16th-Century woodcut art.

Cohesive and competently flavourful. My favourite is the Labourer, who always starts with "an empty pine box":

"You've spent your life breaking your back, working hard for other people's profit. You have nothing to show for it but a spectre of the future."

(The obligatory ratcatcher-analogue , called the Vermin Snatcher, is here -- check that box!)

+

Kriegsmesser also comes with its own ruleset. Hits all the notes it needs to, with lots of orientation and advice for how to run a game -- but ultimately super-simple, mechanically:

Roll d6s equal to the value in a relevant skill, look at the highest result. 6 means you get what you want; 5 or 4 means you get what you want, at a cost.

It's not quite a dice pool, since only the highest result matters. No opposed tests.

+

Kriegsmesser intends to have this base mechanic handle fights, too. The combat rules - with armour, toughness and weapon values -- are nested in an optional section.

For a WFRP-a-like, this feels like a purposeful departure.

Many of WFRP's most celebrated adventures are celebrated for bits that their underlying ruleset does little to support: the investigative structure of "Shadows Over Bogenhafen"; the complicated timetable of "Rough Night At Three Feathers".

Ludwig von Wittgenstein never needed a statblock to be memorable.

Not to say that lethal, hyper-detailed fights isn't super Warhammer-y. (Kriegsmesser includes an injury table, broken down by body-part -- check that box!)

But here it feels like Gregor is saying: "I'm not Games Workshop and Roleplay isn't an ancillary of Warhammer Fantasy Battle; we can evoke grim-and-perilous-ness even if we fork away from heavy combat rules."

+

It has become ritual for me to read my partner Sharon to sleep.

Sometimes I read her RPG things. The other night, after I read her Kriegsmesser's introduction --

" The Empire wages an eternal war against Chaos. Its priests preach of Chaos as an intrusion, something unnatural ... These men see Chaos in anything that does not buttress their rule. They call it disorder, anarchy, corruption. They say that to rebel against their order is to rebel against god and nature. That the current arrangement is natural, rather than artificial.

" Meanwhile, the common people look to the Empire to deliver the justice that they were promised and they find none. They look to the Empire and do not see themselves reflected in it. They look around at what they were taught was right and good and see only misery.

" Their world begins to unravel. Chaos comes to reside in every heart and mind sound enough to look at the world and conclude it is broken. "

-- Sharon remarked: "Nice one."

The RPG things I read her generally leave Sharon lukewarm. She has enjoyed a couple -- but, yeah: for many of these books, text isn't their strong point.

Kriegsmesser is the only time I can recall Sharon praising the writing of an RPG book without my prompting.

Nice one.

+

That introduction surprised me. It underlines Kriegsmesser's biggest departure from its WFRP-a-like pedigree: how it characterises Chaos.

Corruption, a mainstay of most grim-dark-y games, is made an optional rule, like combat. Explaining this, Gregor writes:

" Kriegsmesser partially subverts or deconstructs the traditional conceit of Warhammer where the characters are threatened by the forces of Chaos. In this game it is the player characters who are the agents of 'Chaos': they are likely to become the 'rats' under the streets, and the wild 'beast-men' in the woods bringing civilisation down. It's the Empire and its nobles and priests that are corrupt ... "

Describing the Empire, Gregor writes:

" The Empire encompasses the world yet is terrified of the without. It enforces itself with steel and fire yet considers itself benevolent. It consumes the labour of others with bottomless hunger yet calls its subalterns lazy, or wasteful, or greedy. "

Holy shit this is the first time I've seen the word "subaltern" in an RPG thing, I think?

I love this.

+

Rant incoming:

With every passing decade Warhammer abridges its Moorcockian roots more and more; nowadays it is "Order = Good" and "Chaos = Evulz", pretty much.

Gone are the days when chaos berserkers are implied to grant safe passage to the helpless (because Khorne is as much a god of martial honour as he is a god of bloodletting); Or that the succor of Papa Nurgle is a genuine comfort to the downtrodden; Or that Tzeentch could unironically embody the principle of hope, of change for the better.

As Chaos is distilled into unequivocal villainy, Order goons get painted as Good Guys by default --

Giving rise to Warhammer's contemporary problem, wherein fans are no longer able to recognise satire.

+

When I was introduced to 40K, it seemed pretty clear that the Imperium was a Brazil-esque absurdist-fascist bureaucratic state: planets are exterminatus-ed due to clerical error; the way it stamps out rebellions is the reason why rebellions begin in the first place.

Tragi-comic grimdarkness. That was the point.

Nowadays that tone has shifted -- and you're more likely than not going to encounter a 40K fan who argues that the Imperium's evils are a justified necessity, to prevent worse wrongs.

We went from:

"Space Nazis because insane dumbass fuckery, also chainswords vroom vroom rule of badass!"

To:

"Space Nazis because it makes sense actually, and also chainswords make sense because [insert convoluted rationalisation here]."

+

Even Fantasy Flight's Black Crusade line, which ostensibly offers a look at 40K from the perspective of Chaos, never truly commits to its conceit.

With prep you could play a heroic band of mutant freedom fighters, resisting the tyranny of the Evil Imperium --

But I don't remember Black Crusade giving that kind of campaign any actual support. Its supplements service the relatively more conventional "You can play villains!" angle; the Screaming Vortex is a squarely Daemons-vs-Daemons setting.

+

This tonal drift culminates, in my mind, with Age of Sigmar, Games Workshop's heroic-fantasy replacement of the old WFRP / WHFB setting.

Here's the framing narrative for AoS's recently-launched Third Edition. Let's see whether I've got things right:

A highly professionalised, technologically-superior tip-of-the-spear fighting force (the Stormcast Eternals);

Backed by an imperialist military-industrial complex (Azyrheim);

"Liberating" rich new territories (Ghur) for exploitation by a civilised settler culture (Settlers of Sig-- I mean, Free Cities);

Justified because the locals are irredeemable heathens (Chaos and Kruleboyz).

I mean, that's a sweet-ass Warhammer setting. It's contemporary, laser-guided lampoon. Except it is played totally straight.

In AoS, a literal crusade is justified as the moral good.

+

I think Kriegsmesser surprised me because its framing of Chaos -- as a promise, as the light of hope shining through cracks of a broken world --

It feels so fucking right.

Yes: its a subaltern deconstruction of the conventional moral universe of Warhammer -- but it is a take that is also already implied / all but supported in the various depictions of the setting: from WFRP to the modified title-crawl of Black Crusade.

I'm annoyed I didn't think of it, myself. Damn you, Gregor!

And I'm annoyed that more Warhammer fans aren't thinking it, also.

+

lmagine if Kriegsmesser's perspective stood on equal standing as the GW orthodoxy. Imagine if, instead of simplifying stuff into "Order = Good" and "Chaos = Evulz", GW did a Gregor Vuga.

You'd have a Rashomon-ed Warhammer, where villainy depends on perspective:

You are fearful villagers, huddled around your priest, muttering prayers against the wild braying coming from the trees beyond your gates.

You are Aqshyian tribeswomen, defying the thunder warrior towering over you, the foreigner demanding you bow to his foreign god.

You are a Tzeentchian revolutionary cell, desperately trying to disrupt a Inquisitor's transmissions so your home planet isn't destroyed by fascist orbital fire.

+

Get Kriegsmesser HERE.

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( Image sources: https://theenemywithinremixed.wordpress.com/2021/05/21/thoughts-on-the-4e-death-on-the-reik/ https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/59-brazil https://www.deviantart.com/faroldjo/art/Warhammer-40k-Black-Crusade-273596035 https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/06/09/fancy-a-new-life-bringing-order-to-the-mortal-realms-join-a-dawnbringer-crusade-today/ https://www.nme.com/blogs/the-movies-blog/team-america-15-anniversary-south-park-2558750 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palestinian_children_and_Israeli_wall.jpg )

[spikeybits]

Blood Bowl 3: New Teams & Rules Statlines SPOTTED Blood Bowl 3 is back as the center of attention, checkout the new team and statline rules for Bogenhafen Barons and Black Orcs as well as some new minis. Read More The post Blood Bowl 3: New Teams & Rules Statlines SPOTTED appeared first on Spikey Bits . https://spikeybits.com/2020/08/blood-bowl-3-new-teams-rules-statlines-spotted.html

[scalefantasy]

I was looking for some informations about my new miniatures and that's what I've found:

Ranlac the Black, Games Workshop 1986, a miniature from the game The Terror of the Lichemaster, a Warhammer 2nd edition campaign released in 1986.

Ifan Bareshank, Warhammer 1986 Citadel

Jagreen Lern Eternal Champion, Pan Tang army, 1984

Johan Rowlocks Dassbut, Citadel, from The Enemy Within: Shadows over Bogenhafen, WFRPG.

Grenadier Miniatures 1. picture Chrome Queen, 2. picture Rockergirl

Both from Cyberpunk 2020: The Roleplaying Game of the Dark Future" about 1992.

A member of the Human Street Gang, Ral Partha, from the game Shadowrun.

And this little squire is definitely a Games Workshop miniature from 1987, but I think he lost his knight...

[vintagerpg]

Warhammer Campaign (1988) collects two books under its cover – The Enemy Within and Shadows over Bogenhafen. The first is essentially an in-depth sourcebook of the Empire – sort of a fantasy version of the Hapsburg Holy Roman Empire – primarily detailing its history and political and military factions. This is the foundation material for the multi-volume Enemy Within campaign, which starts with the brief scenario Mistaken Identity, in which a PC is unwittingly mistaken for an agent of a Chaos cult.

Mistaken Identity leads the players to Bogenhafen, where a diabolical plot is nearing completion (you can see the lovely cover art in yesterday’s post). A powerful local politician and merchant sold his soul to a demon and time is nearly up. He has bamboozled other powerful local merchants into performing a ritual. He thinks it will save his soul, they think it will make Bogenhafen the economic seat of the Empire. They’re both wrong and, hopefully, the players can figure things out and stop the plot before catastrophe strikes. It is an excellent yarn, full of Call of Cthulhu-style investigation and growing dread as Chaos exerts itself into the town.

I usually think of Warhammer as bombastic in its dourness, but Enemy Within is all about restraint. Death comes easy in WFRP, so there is not a ton of combat. Real world consequences for violence discourage derring-do. There’s also a surprising amount of humor. For instance, the big bad, through the influence of Chaos, has grown pointy canines and an aversion for daylight. He also loathes garlic, not because he’s a vampire, but because his demon companion is addicted to garlic bread and eats it constantly. What?

Lots of great art sells the whole thing, particularly the amazing Ian Miller. I also particularly like Will Rees’ terrifying grotesques in Bogenhafen (dig that manifestation of Tzeentch!). Other GW mainstays like John Blanche, Tony Ackland, Dace Andrews and Martin McKenna also have work inside.

[demi-demilich]

The Bogenhafen Buffaloes are finished! 3 weeks late for my league but better late than never. Now on to the Orc team I started literal years ago!

[skunts-own-truth]

Cup of Mercy update:

The greenskin Down Dreg Gitz played their 2nd game of the season, and slaughtered the Old World Alliance Bogenhafen Stonebloods 3-0.

On the same night, the lizards of the Maka’roni Mountain Monsters had a brutal, no quarter given match against the East Wastes Impalers. The Chaos team put up a hell of a fight, but in the end, the swiftness of the skinks netted them a 2-1 victory. If they weren’t playing at the Temple of Mercy stadium, however, things may have ended in the Dark Gods’ favor.

With these games set, the League has a leader with the Gitz at LP 4 over all. Close behind is the Mountain Monsters at 3. The Stonebloods and the Impalers will be facing the Argathi Arsonists and the Drakwald Daggerz soon, and after that three new teams will enter the Cup for even more carnage.

It’s been an exciting few rounds of the Cup of Mercy, sports fans, and I for one can’t wait to see who takes home the Temple of Mercy’s grand prize!