WoTR/ToEE Campaign: 17 Things You Need to Know

17 things my players will need to know before the start of the new campaign:

Choosing Sides: White Rose of York or Red of Lancaster?

Setting

Recent History:

• In 1455, under pressure from the Pope (who had threatened to excommunicate the whole of England), Richard, Duke of York, leads fully half of England's nobility in revolt against the Lancastrian King, Henry VI. A weak and insipid ruler, Henry had allowed himself to fall under the sway of dark magicians and demonologists.

• In 1471, the Yorkist faction finally put an end to the Wars. The Yorkists (fighting under the banner of the White Rose) defeat the Lancastrians and their demonic allies at the Battle of Tewkesbury. Following the battle, the Earl of Angstford and his family, stout Lancastrians and fearsome demonologists, have their lands and titles placed under attainder, (confiscated), by the Yorkist King Edward IV. They flee in various directions: to France, Burgundy and Ireland.

Henry VI, executed soon after Tewkesbury

 Current Situation:

• The current year is 1481. Edward IV still rules England.
• With the great mass of English chivalry dead on the Bloody Meadow of  Tewkesbury or in exile abroad, much of the country remains ungoverned and lawless. Many heirs are still too young to inherit their lands. Other lords and knights still retain their lands but live in Exile. Brigandage is common. The monstrous creatures forced into the Wildwoods by the campaigns of Arthur and St George are now once again venturing forth into the settled lands of England.
• The seat of the Earl of Angstford remains vacant, a tasty morsel dangled before the nose of several important noblemen of dubious loyalty as a means of ensuring their good behaviour. The few castles and manor houses within the limes (territory) of the Earldom which are not razed or ruined, are held by Flemish mercenaries in the service of the King.
• Women are expected to marry and raise children or take vows as a Nun. HOWEVER, female mercenaries and adventurers are actually quite common in this period, but are viewed as abominations by most "right-thinking" folk.
• Some new items not normally found in the OSRIC rules are available, but are well beyond the means of most starting players. These include: Arquebus/Hackbutts (primitive handguns), Field Plate Armour, Full Plate Armour (better versions of Plate Mail) and Brigandine Armour (actually quite common, I'll probably post the rules for these)

Religion:

• According to the Catholic church, only humans have souls (and possibly Half-Elves and Troll-bloods, but the church isn't sure about that).  Killing animals or members of any other race is NOT considered an act of murder by Catholics. Muslims and Jews believe that Dwarves also have souls. The Muslim and Jewish religions have not had sufficient contact with Elves, Half-Elves and Half-Orcs to have formed an opinion regarding the status of these beings one-way-or-another.

Geography:

• The campaign will be set in the fictional English Earldom of Angstford. Although there are road and other physical connections to the rest of England, the territory  of the Earldom represents the physical limits of the campaign sandbox. In theory, your characters can leave at any time. In practise, please don't.

Edward IV, Yorkist King of England

Game Information:

•  Races: Player Characters may be Shidhe (Elves), Changelings (Half-Elfs), Dwarves, Humans or Troll-Bloods (Half-Orcs descended from Fomorians). There will be no gnomes or halflings in this setting.
• Class and Level Limits: Unlike the previous game, humans will not be able to multi-class. Non humans may multi-class as normal but be aware that maximum levels for non-humans apply in this setting with the following exceptions: Dwarves and Trollbloods may advance to any level as a fighter or Barbarian. Elves may advance to any level as a Magic-User or Illusionist. Changelings may advance to any level as a Houri, Thief or Ranger.
• PC Clerics may follow one of three religions: Catholicism, Islam or Judaism and may be of any alignment. However, Clerics must always act within the bounds of their religion. Carrying out actions forbidden to their religion (for example: theft, sexual intercourse or murder for a   Catholic Cleric) will result in the character losing their spellcasting abilities. Only NPC Clerics may be followers of the evil deity known by various names such as the Dark One, Satan etc. PC Clerics ALWAYS turn undead (rather than control them) regardless of their alignment. Clerics of the Dark One always control undead.
• All Clerics are Priests of their religion. However, not all Priests are Clerics. Clerics are essentially proto-saints at low-levels and actual, living saints, prophets or the equivalent by higher levels. Spell-casting priests (i.e Clerics) are said to possess Grace, as in the "Grace of God". Perhaps one Priest in ten in so blessed.
• Druids are, well, druids or witches. They are often mistaken for servants of the Dark One and burned at the stake.
• Wizards and Illusionists are, likewise, often mistaken for servants of the Dark One and burned at the stake. Most pretend to be "astrologers", "sages," "natural philosphers" and the like.
• Elves may not be Clerics. They may be Druids instead.
• Paladins do not belong to an Order of Knighthood. They might not even be knights. They do not hold any official place in the hierarchy of their religion, but may eventually be recognised as "warrior-saints" by their faiths. Salahadin and Sir William Marshal are perhaps the best historical examples of individuals who behave in a Paladin-like manner.

Do You Want To Know More?

Click the link for a good grounding in recent events.

Temple of Elemental Evil: War of the Roses Style.

Now that I spend about 10-12 hours a day painting figures for a living, the Isle of the Earthshaker campaign has pretty much died. I was largely making up dungeons and encounter locations as I went, so prep time for each weekly game was fairly considerable. I just don't have the free-time anymore to put so much work into writing a campaign.

The solution is to re-start with a published campaign, fleshed out with a few extra adventure locations from published modules. I had an inkling to convert the WFRP 1e Doomstones campaign back to it's original format (AD&D) but that would be a fairly substantial task. Plus, the story driven nature of the game makes regular attendance by the same group of players pretty important. That isn't really compatible with my current group's"sit-in when you can" style of campaign play.

So, I'm thinking of running Temple of Elemental Evil. It has it's flaws, but it should do the trick. I'll take a look through my early module collection for an alternative, but I'm thinking Temple of Elemental Evil for the main dungeon, Stonehell Dungeon as an alternative location nearby and simply sticking other adventure locations from modules on the map as and when required. Not exactly a masterpiece of creativity but it'll do.

The twist is that I'll be setting it in an alternate-earth version of Real-World history during the War of the Roses.

I have a few ideas in mind that need fleshed out. For the moment, Clerics and Paladins can be Christian, Jewish, Muslim or Servants of the Dark One. Druids are, well, druids. Wizards use coin magic (spell preparation consists of enchanting small coins which unleash the magic contained within when thrown),  Elves come from the wildest, more remote parts of Wales, Ireland and Scotland and are more British-Fae elves than they are Tolkeinesque. Half-Elf's are called Changelings, Dwarves come from Scandinavia and can be found in parts of the British Isles settled by Vikings (yes, Dwarf Vikings!). Half-Orcs are humans with an ancient Fomorian bloodline, rather than being actual half-orcs.

All humanity knows that the legendary creatures of fire-side tales and dark, ancient myths still lurk in the wildwoods, driven from the lands of humanity by the likes of the Sainted George and King Arthur in the distant past. From time to time, a village is burned, crops or beasts are stolen and children vanish. All know this to be the work of creatures from the wildwood, and every house in Britain keeps an iron horse shoe above the door and ancient runes carved on their window-shutters.

WFRP Campaign Log Update and Blood Bowl League

Dearly beloved has finished recording the last three chapters of Book 2 of the group's WFRP 3rd edition campaign on her blog, here.

Also, we've started playing in the Lead Legion Bloodbowl League. You can read the first month's highlights on the Lead Legion blog, here.

CHAMPIONS CAMPAIGN: LONDON WATCH

Copyright S. Orr.

As some of you regular readers will know, I've been taking part in an excellent WFRP 3rd ed campaign on Thursday nights, diligently recorded by my lovely wife, here.

Last night, the second story arc came to a close after we exposed a false reincarnation of the God Sigmar is suitably  dramatic fashion.

Next week, we begin a new campaign: London Watch for 5th ed Champions.

As we did with the WFRP game, Deranged Scribbler and I enter the ongoing CHAMPIONS campaign at the start of the second series. Almost a year after the London Knights foiled VIPER's attempts to mind-control the whole city (by blowing up the BT tower), London has been suffering from a lack of a dedicated hero team. The campaign of most of the London Knights, with the notable exceptions of French-born hero, Paladin, exposed as a traitor and the power-armoured hero Gryphon.

With the end of the London Knights, London's few remaining solo-heroes have struggled to contain the depredations of the U.K's villains.

HERO ROSTER:

I'm playing Arsenal, which explains why there's a little more detail about this character in the write-up. All in all, we seem to have a good mix of specialities. We have two "support" heroes (Arsenal and Chimera) who can lurk around the battleground, hindering (debuffing, in MMO terms) villains and taking on minions willy-nilly. The Gryphon is a no-holds barred Tank with a good few surprises up his sleeve. Ferrous is your typical ranged combat Energy Blaster and the Shadow is a pretty good all-round "Infantry" hero after the likes of Black Panther, Black Widow and Cat-Woman. All in all, a good, well-rounded, balanced team of heroes.

Copyright S.Orr.

A certified genius, expelled from every institute of higher learning he has ever attended, Arsenal is a vainglorious party animal who revels in his public identity. A life-long football fan, the Gadgeteer earned his name (and began his career) by saving the life of Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke. He funds his activities through a number of corporate sponsorship and advertising deals (Arsenal FC being the most notable). Subsequently, he is viewed as something of  a "sell-out" by the Hero community. Arsenal has an intense rivalry with another corporate-sponsored hero, the web-cam-broadcasting Crusader.

Copyright S. Orr.

Wealthy socialite and complete airhead, Chimera has the power to go anywhere, be anyone and make her foes see, hear or feel anything she likes. A master of illusion, Chimera is one of two mutants in the London Watch line-up. Her alter-ego is also likely to become one of the teams major backers. Her true identity (assuming Chimera really is a "she") remains secret.

Copyright S. Orr.

Ferrous is a member of one of the oldest known mutant-lineages in the world, though this is a secret he is careful to keep to himself. Gifted with the power to manipulate metal with a though, Ferrous' great power is balanced by his somewhat obvious weaknesses. His true identity remains secret.

Copyright S. Orr.

Sole survivor of the London Knights, Gryphon saved the city of London from a VIPER plot at great personal loss. Currently an employee of Am-tech boss Lord Allan Sweet, The Gryphon is an armoured hero of considerable skill and experience. Like Arsenal, The Gryphon maintains a very public identity. His former ties to UNTIL are well known.

Copyright S. Orr.

A mysterious cat-like entity, is the Shadow a mutant? An altered hero? Something else entirely? No-one knows. Extremely fast and agile (though not a Speedster, as such), villains dread the swish-crack that heralds the arrival of the Shadow and her lash. Her identity (and even her true power source) remain secret.

Warhammer 40K Featured on the BBC

Link to the BBC article:

Reading this you would think there aren't any other companies out there bar GW. But then, most non-gamers (and gamer's mums) have only heard of GW after all.

I'm Alive

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. Having started up a new miniature painting business I'm having difficulties keeping up a roleplaying blog, a wargaming blog AND a painting service blog all at once. Naturally, since my job involves painting miniatures, there's a little synergy with the wargaming blog so that tends to be updated more often than the RPG one.

However, I have not been idle on the RPG front either. I have three sessions of the Isle of the Earthshaker to write up (probably in one big summary post rather than the usually detailed write-up) and another session on Monday. Very little has been done with the Oriental OSRIC project for the very simple reason that I'm too darn busy with work and writing my Post Apocalypse skirmish rules. The PA rules might actually bring in some (modest) income while OA will be entirely free. So the money-maker has to take priority in that regard.

Anyway, I hereby affirm that I will pay more attention to this blog in the next few weeks and stop neglecting it.

See you all soon.

Flo Green: World's Last WWI Veteran Dies.

Florence Green, the world's  last surviving WWI veteran, died in her sleep at a care home in Norfolk just two weeks before her 111th birthday. She was the last surviving person to have seen active service in WWI following the death of British-born sailor Claude Choules in Australia last year. She died on February 4th 2012.

Florence Green served with Britain'sWomen’s RAF (WRAF), which she joined in September 1918. Although she did not see front-line action, the charity Veteran’s Aid said she qualifies as a veteran of the war.

Mrs Green, who turned 109 in last February and was a great-grandmother-of-seven (as of January 2010), worked as a waitress in the officers' mess during the war at RAF Marham and Narborough Airfield, both in Norfolk.

Her story came to light after Andrew Holmes, a British correspondent for the United States-based Gerontology Research Group, traced her name using the National Archive. Mr Holmes tracks and validates the ages of people over 110 and also keeps track of British men and women who are older than 107. He was amazed to locate a service record on the National Archive for Florence Beatrice Patterson, Mrs Green’s maiden name. He traced the records further and found that Florence had joined the WRAF in September 1918 - two months before the war ended on November 11, 1918.

Mrs Green, who was born on February 19, 1901 and joined the WRAF aged 17, said she had been unaware of her status until very recently. She said:

''I enjoyed my time in the WRAF. There were plenty of people at the airfields where I worked and they were all very good company. I would work every hour God sent but I had dozens of friends on the base and we had a great deal of fun in our spare time. In many ways I had the time of my life.
It was a lovely experience and I'm very proud.''

Until recently, Mrs Green, who was born in London, lived with her daughter May, 89, in King's Lynn, Norfolk. She was married to Walter Green, a railway porter in 1920, for 50 years until his death in 1970.

Last year, when her status as a WWI veteran was discovered, Wing Commander Hugh Milroy, from the veteran's charity Veterans Aid, said:

“This goes to show that there is a huge variation in the type of veterans we have in this country.  ''Women like her played a vitally important role in the British war effort and the fact she is now the last surviving veteran is some achievement.”

Before the discovery of Mrs Green's service history, it was believed that British-born Gladys Powers, who died in Canada in 2008, was the last female veteran.

Harry Patch, recently known as "The Last Fighting Tommy" from Somerset, was previously the last surviving British World War One veteran and died in 2009 aged 111.

The penultimate survivor was Henry Allingham, who also died in 2009 aged 113. Henry famously survived the Battle of Jutland.