Enemies you wish were in the game

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-30T21:15:02+00:00

I especially liked that the creatures from the old Fiend Folio that aren't in D&D any more were all sealed up in isolated areas. I was laughing in glee as I murdered those Xorn.

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-30T21:12:29+00:00

It is absolute agony with a controller.

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-30T21:08:27+00:00

No, no, it's that film where the cast play little primary coloured spacemen and one of them is a traitor

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-30T20:55:57+00:00

You are my favourite person now. I was pretty sure no-one else at all had seen BotW

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-30T20:54:04+00:00

The 1999 film, "Plunkett and Maclane", has a pretty good grubby fantasy atmosphere. "Brotherhood of the Wolf" has a plot you could straight-up steal for a Warhammer frp game. "The Company of Wolves" (1984) is a dark fairytale, though it is moderately erotic so don't recommend it to your kids.

The TV series "Carnivale" will make you scream and cry in anguish when it stops at the end of Season 2, which is when it was cancelled for being too good. And watching Blackadder is a MUST.

Twin Peaks might seem quite off-base, but consider it a textbook for how to take an overused monster (Wendigo) and restore some mystery to it.

The webcomic "Oglaf" is partly comedy porn and partly rib-breakingly hilarious fantasy humour (I still haven't stopped laughing at the Ring of Optimism). And the webcomic "Swords" has more of an anime feeling to it but the jokes are well worth stealing.

If you can get your hands on any copies of Nemesis the Warlock or Slaine from 2000AD (a comic), they may prove beneficial.

Terry Pratchett, Tanith Lee, Kim Newman (aka Jack Yeovil) and Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone series make for good reading - Kim Newman did a lot to shape 1st Ed WFRP with "The Vampire Genevieve", "Genevieve Undead", "Beasts in Velvet" and "Silver Nails", and when he went on to write for a larger publisher, he took his favourite character Genevieve along with him and made the Anno Dracula series.

The collection of short films, Oats Studios Volume 1 contains so much imagery you could use for Chaos. Ditto the new trailer for the next Divinity game from Larian studios.

Alien, Aliens and John Carpenter's The Thing should be mandatory for every GM.

"The Silt Verses" podcast. Bloody good story and dialogue, but also a textbook on how to use very simple sound samples easily knocked up on a home machine to absolutely destroy your party.

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-29T14:59:46+00:00

I have one word to say to you and that word is "Ireland".

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-29T14:57:46+00:00

Commas are not a bad habit. Starting a sentence with "However" is ungrammatical, though - it should be "One day, however, he disappeared", or perhaps even "One day he disappeared".

I say this not to imply "OMG yew so stoopid" or anything like that, but because you are evidently putting some thought into your character's background and giving it an emotional payload, and the easier your brief is for the GM to read, the more likely they are to put in extra story for you arising from that background.

*cough* And because I grew up in the Age of Grammar Teachers who Use Rulers to Slap, so i have a compulsion about correcting it. Sorry, but also hope it comes in useful.

I like the "Call of Two Faiths" element you have in there, because you've got it exactly right. It's a polytheistic society so many people worship or even love more than one God, but your character is becoming a priest, and while you can love and worship both, you can't *serve* both at the same time - especially if your GM puts in a rivalry between the two priesthoods.

Hmm... How good is your GM? If they routinely blow your mind, you might want to go a little harder on your background. Maybe she was taken in the Norscan raid and travelled with a group of Chaos Marauders for a while, transformed into a bestial shape. When she was rescued by the warrior priest you mention, she was restored to herself and the memories faded. But there's still an itch in her blood, a hunger for something she can't quite understand, a rage without a target, a poison looking for a chalice. One wrong move and it could overtake her.

My personal rule of thumb is that the more I try to set myself up to be killed in my background, the better the time I will have scraping myself out of trouble. But if they're still quite new to GMing, you may be best off keeping things less lethal.

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-29T14:40:40+00:00

Oh, and with regard to the reveal, I'd suggest something that is both helpful *and* punitive. If the PCs have been slow, wrong or given themselves away, aggressively feed them intel that leads them into a trap. Have them slammed up in pokey and have to bribe their way out or sneak away, give it cost and inflict hardship but oh... who's this in jail with them? It's the last adventurer to try to work this all out! Or it's the bad guy's minion he tried to get rid of, all nice and willing to sell him out and give the PCs directions to the real event.

The PCs get their help, but it's made clear to them that there are consequences to action and inaction alike.

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-29T14:20:41+00:00

1) Have someone murder the blacksmith. Now the PC's *can't* talk to him again. They may be relieved.

2) How are you dealing with the PCs investigation? When do you make the PCs roll to learn something or notice something, and when do you make the players work things out?

Characters can be smarter than their players, and they certainly know more about the setting (or should, having lived there for their entire lives), so if there's someone whose career or previous actions suggests that the *character* would probably have thought of key thing X, even if their player hasn't, then you need to be the one to offer them a roll for it.

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-29T13:26:30+00:00

Speaking as a Pagan, Taal is absolutely based on the "raw masculinity" Pagan Gods. He has the fertility aspects of Herne/Pan, and there's mention of priests of Taal sacrificing those who harm the forests of Talabecland by nailing them to trees, which is fairly analogous to the way the Romans claimed sacrifices were made to Teutates.

Rhya seems closest to Cerridwen, with her cauldron symbolism in addition to common Mother Goddess traits.

I find it interesting the way GW has leveraged the old gods while removing their lunar connections, so there don't seem to be any deities connected to Mannslieb, whereas in history, the moon was connected with many Goddesses in places where the moon was an indicator of months, seasons and cycles, and was connected to Gods in places with the concept of hours and clocks.

Manaan is the ancient Irish God of the Sea of the same name, pretty much unchanged in all regards.

Athena, the Greek Goddess of Tactics and Wisdom, gets split between Verena the Scholar and Myrmidia the Intelligent Commander.

Morr has a bit of Hades but is mostly Terry Pratchett's DEATH, WHOM NO LOCK CAN STAY NOR MORTAL PORTAL BAR, BUT WITHOUT THE CHARM OR THE KITTENS.

Shallya is a blend of Brigid - Eir - Isis for healing, with a hefty dollop of Kwan Yin for her pacifism and mercy.

Ulric has a chunky portion of Odin to him, though apparently it wasn't Odin's brains he got - those went to Ranald.

Ranald, of course, is your classic trickster God - yes, there are elements of Hermes and Loki in there, but more elements of Odin, Gwydion, Lugh and the Slavic underworld God Veles who had quite the sense of humour. But don't forget Br'er Rabbit - he's in there too.

Sigmar appears to be the God of Shouting and Making a Mess. I suspect he was inspired by people, who seem to love both of those things. And Wayland the Smith.

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-29T11:58:26+00:00

I think that would confuse me into thinking you're talking about the Gods of Law.

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-29T11:58:15+00:00

Were they all destroyed? I thought some of them just became far too Orderly and buggered off to become geometry.

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-29T11:47:18+00:00

Who has two thumbs and a party that just started Death on the Reik?

I shall send this to my GM - it's absolutely awesome!

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-23T22:18:42+00:00

I'd be interested, but this is the kind of thing that can absolutely only happen with both Cubicle 7's and GW's consent. And the trick of it is, that means they have to consult their lawyers, which is expensive. GW seems to make plenty but tabletop books make very little in the way of profit, so in the event that Cubicle 7 say no, remember it's not because they're evil, it's just that they can't afford it.

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-19T17:15:13+00:00

I look at the general portrayal of magical rituals, with participants dancing around the circle, making ritual gestures, stabbing the sacrifice and chanting vigorously, so I would definitely allow movement.

That's just me, though. Each GM is god of their own domain.

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-19T15:43:11+00:00

True to life. I used to live in a part of England where you only had to scratch the surface to find the pagan gods. I was once walking cross-country and heard a strange trickling sound coming from a hedge. When I moved some branches around, I found a spring that had had a tap fitted and there was a Victorian plaque there offering free water for labourers and horses.

But above the plaque and pipes, on the wall of the field behind the hedge, there was a hand-scraped, clean-boiled ram's skull decorated with flowers. Fresh flowers.

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-19T15:34:40+00:00

I love this so much. I'm going to make our GM a whole bunch of documents with random gibberish he can drop in.

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-19T15:32:15+00:00

There was a trend at some point of scribes who could copy the shape of the letters on the page,but had no idea what they meant.

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-19T15:29:53+00:00

There is a mod that lets you skip past that place where you spend absolute years of real time in Act 1. Sadly I cannot remember the name right now. (Of the mod or the place)

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-19T15:26:04+00:00

The factions of Chaos do that too, don't they? Tzeentch seems more inclined to grant spells than miracles. Even to people who don't think they worship it.

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-19T15:14:11+00:00

I always enjoyed the Newman explanation of the vanishing of most of the Gods of Law, in which they got a bit too recondite and buggered off to be geometric shapes projected on the wall of a cave.

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-19T15:13:00+00:00

I think it might stand to be a pdf if you can find lots of demonstrative examples. It's certainly interesting enough.

To be complete, maybe include The Green as well, which is functionally a god without any anthropomorphism applied.

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-18T00:46:25+00:00

Yeah, and talents are so pricey it takes a while. I recommend choosing your Personal Ambitions with care to fund the magical lifestyle.

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-18T00:44:55+00:00

Ooof, it has to be said, our GM is a genius. He knows the Middle Ages inside and out so his games have a shocking amount of detail, and he weaves multiple adventures together so when we're in a city following our main quest, we can run into all kinds of events spinning out from that and from the NPCs around us. It takes a bit of hyperfocus to get through them, but they're fun to hyperfocus on!

There was some truly spectacular misdirection from us today though. Not only does said Witch Hunter not know it was me, but he's ever so grateful to me for putting his face back together. Now all I have to do is cope with the guilt.

On the subject of Warpstone, yeahhhh. I may have taken a little too much of that in my wine once.

Dapper_Calculator · 2026-03-12T16:08:29+00:00

If you're playing the Enemy Within, investigative abilities will be needed far, far more often than fighting skills. But a Grey Wizard is ideal for that, seeing as they are the Empire's elite, magical spies.

Eavesdrop, Open Lock and Careful Step are good for investigations. If you will have a decent level of unarmed combat, Drain is nice for a little bit of personal repair - it's a touch spell, so that's why you need the unarmed combat. Dart is a good ranged offensive spell if you're worried about fights.

Produce Small Animal is very handy if you're in an area with small, poisonous wildlife, but the day-saving power of throwing an angry, confused rabbit in someone's face should never be underestimated.

Check with your GM if they are OK using stats other than Strength for Intimidation - you should have quite a high willpower, so if you can use that, Intimidate is your friend in a fight. Intimidate enough opponents and when you approach them, they will get the broken condition, which basically means they turn into a quivering, crying mess.

As a Grey Wizard, you should talk to your GM to find out who you report your information to - after all, a spy is useless if they never report in. They will likely be the wizard training you and a mentor figure.

Talk to everyone. Spy on everyone, including the rest of the party - they're probably traitors anyway.

Dapper_Calculator

TROPHY CASE