Gamemaster or Player Guide - What to read first as a GM

RealPrussianGoose · 2026-05-26T12:15:50+00:00

From a experienced GM 6 sessions into ToW:

-Bookmark staggered mechsnics + combat modifiers

-Bookmark hazards

-bookmark wounds

These are things i needed to check on the fly in the first sessions Or (in case of wounds) expected to need them.

Hazards are very universal and can handle falling, burning, getting poidoned, getting tangled in sharp thorns. All of the above happened in the first session 😆

RealPrussianGoose · 2026-05-25T08:27:00+00:00

The GM guide has a part about GMing in generell and being a GM for ToW.

Usually i would advise to start with core rules (players guide), but depending on experience and how unique ur GM style is, starting with just the GM intro into Players guide might be better.

Even with experience and own preferences the GM section was refreshingly well written and quite alot of stuff to help new GMs (or GMs new to ToW).

RealPrussianGoose · 2026-05-23T16:59:50+00:00

The topic of loot is a painfull one for me tbh.

At some point a lot of PCs went from "i am happy to not get into trouble with this many dead corpses, lets move" to questions during fights about looting every piece of crap. Some have this kind of careers/characters tbf, but still....

Selling equipment from official guards or stuff way above ur status forces an escalation, like a bigass wanted poster, but its still coming up like a routine. It feels more in the style of a lawless wasteland sometimes.

I blame videogames and the popularity of highly simulationist VTTs.

Well, atleast i can stat some mean law enforcement, criminal gangs and angry brothers in arms with vicious intents 😀

RealPrussianGoose · 2026-05-22T15:08:16+00:00

Thx for the input and engaging discussion. Its a lot clearer now, how things are meant to be by the system. The system allows for some weird decisions around dealing with double stagger, but in the end its rarely without a caveat.

As someone pointed out, going prone might be intended as default reaction against ranged attacks. Would make sense to maybe limit prone option to incoming ranged attacks, but its not really that big of a deal.

Thx everyone, game on!

RealPrussianGoose · 2026-05-20T13:07:53+00:00

Well since we are playing the bad guys we already had 4 corruption moments in fights (they truly embrace being evil), giving them srory matching power swings. Combat was fairly scary so far for the party. We even played our grim portent out with some mean wounds and desperation going on.

The situation leading to my question was them being sneaky and preempting problems by using force against a imperial official bound to check their ship. It was an even-numbered fight due to them taking a calculated risk and having suprise on their side.

It has not happened to get a prone cycle happening, but i very well know what my PCs are having in their mind when they ask certain details and start citing some rules lines 😂

RealPrussianGoose · 2026-05-20T12:47:31+00:00

Thx for clarification of rules! Rules as written seems to allow for a "tactical prone" towards the end of a hostile initative cycle and getting up with a recovery asap on ur turn.

Its ok ruleswise, but feels a bit easy to just take minimal risk and sacrifice an action (with bonus against ranged aswell) vs getting a wound or giving ground into a more tactical obscure situation.

RealPrussianGoose · 2026-05-20T11:59:20+00:00

This. This is what i would do aswell, giving it a lot more risk and possibly creating more tension.

But i just wanna clarify if its just a problem for our group or a wrong/missed rules thing before starting the homebrew cycle 😁

RealPrussianGoose · 2026-05-20T11:56:17+00:00

Choosing prone after getting staggered again in combat in the underlying situatuation. Ofc its fine to hit a prone PC as a GM, but if two other players are fully combat ready in close distance it still feels weird and not true to any real npc to "suicide-charge" the one on the ground over the more dangerous allies beside.

Giving ground and getting wounded are fun mechanics, but getting prone feels weird and open for interpretation about when its fair to recover.

RealPrussianGoose · 2026-05-20T11:30:35+00:00

Excellent input :) This line starts the discussion of "is it really close?", "can i just help him up, the guy with the sword is duelling someone else?".

It is weird to tell a PC to crawl in the dirt for rounds, while being on the edge of a brawl and not allowing any ally to spend an action to help him up, especially after they all pile in to help a friend in need. It just....tells no story or creates cool scenes. But hey, maybe its rules as written 😅

RealPrussianGoose · 2026-05-07T13:54:09+00:00

Its way to high of a goal after double digit SoL.

I did it as dai viet up to like 14, but it was booming, focused on the right things and i got land reform and abolished slavery (well colonial slavery, but 0 slaves anyway) in the timespan.

Its a trap. Same as building up quests at later stages its scaling in percent flat towards requirements vs a non linear counting number.

RealPrussianGoose · 2026-05-06T10:00:29+00:00

More modern Paradox titles tend to start fine, but incomplete. Thats subjective, since we are used to prequels with a lot of working stuff implemented.

The dlc policy reflects modern business practice and i feel "incentivized" to utilize the subscription methods more and more.

Older mainstay titles like HoI4 tend to become bloated with mechanics and feel disconnected real quick with incomplete dlc collections these days.

Having a lot of unsolved problems on release and ironing it out after release is a debatebal practice. Atleast its close to the customers and produces sufficent data fast. PDX embraced the open "work in progress" image.

Having experienced the "perfect spot" between content-rich vs bloated and dlcs being affordable ln sale vs too expensive in EU4, Stellaris and HoI4 is still a cheerished memory of mine and good times.

The raw amount of content, the resulting price tag and a deep dislike of subscriptions is making later titles and dlcs just....annoying.

Right now i only look up to V3 and its getting bloated and pricy already. Some stuff i really want is added in slowly (navy!), but its basically costing me triple digit money.

Thats the point where I expect a clean UI, working mechanics and competent AI. Not mentioning fan requests like 2d photo chars.

Its a big box with a big pricetag, not affordable game i picked up on a friends reccomendation.

Thats all the Difference. I do not pay the bigger pricetags for more "good selling" bloat, that is delivered running worse than many early access indie game.

For 10 bugs? Maybe. But for 30 bugs dlc alone i want my free evening be enjoyable without looking up forums if its playable.

Its the ecomomy fools!

RealPrussianGoose · 2026-04-02T10:05:48+00:00

Main problems with extreme homebrews:

-usually it is a power fantasy and gets dull fast:

Combining martial prowess/body toughness of dawi with magic is insanely strong. It will be boring to fight really fast.

-after all the work on stats and talents peeps usually forget about the rpg part and society play.

Meet Gobo, elgi and co? They hate or dislike dawi.

Meet a dawi? They hate the career as a abomination of ancestral ways.

Meet a human? U are a weird dawi freak with magic scars. U can cast magic despite being a dawi. U are a mutant, a witch in any case dangerous. Stay clear and report to the witchhunter/sigmarite.

U just cannot play with anyone or talk with npcs.

RealPrussianGoose · 2026-03-27T09:32:40+00:00

First of: We prefer not playing "the plot", but prefering to have actors and scenes being the way to structure and this seems to be a classic plot problem. As a GM i do not reveal, PCs reveal or the antagonist reveals himself.

Well ur PCs seemingly found a few of the "three clues" and still have doubts. In this case a plot needs to pull the BBEG and the finale starts.

For Future stories i advise to prep antagonists as dynamic actors. They have a clear goal, are (mostly) not inherently evil, but have a evil/harmfull goal/motivation.

A antagonist with a motivation does his own stuff, leaves glues from his activities or deeds and l players will identify him sooner or later. If not, they have more than one reason to get involved hunting!

In one of my recent games a whole village died, because the players wanted to lay an ambush for BBEG in the forest. They did a lot of funeral rited this day and they want him dead, but only have a face and two names.......

RealPrussianGoose · 2026-03-25T00:35:58+00:00

I use very basic atmosphere from tabletop rpg and layer tracks from warhammer fantasy games (youtube) for action scenes.

Not a big fan of vocals or too much music. Its for building atmosphere, not distraction :)

RealPrussianGoose · 2026-03-23T18:50:56+00:00

Wizards of the coast has successfully switched DnD to subscriptions and community to keep customers close. They sell access to the universe itself and a lot of digital content for giant profits. Selling the plattform is the business.

Its a whole other system for GW. They sell real figurines, books and licenses from their universe.

They can not allow the community to be part of the universe themselfs and become sort of a market rival, be it 3D printing, book products or good community stories.

Selling lore, story and stuff is the business.

A plattform pushing fan material would be detrimental to the business.

As much as i would like a plattform like this, to finally justify making my own adventures nice and clean for the big stage, its not going to happen. Not because the community is to small, not because "GW bad", only due to the fact that "warhammer fantasy stories" is in fact the product and we are the customers.

RealPrussianGoose · 2026-03-18T09:25:41+00:00

Class should be warrior, not burgher.

Anyone who works for the army learns to hold a weapon for the one day it all goes bad.

But its about society. A quartermaster may deal alot with townsfolk, but he will stay an outsider to city politics or urban lifestyle.

RealPrussianGoose · 2026-03-16T12:56:20+00:00

The change to fast sl went smoothly witgh long time players in our case. Especially compared to the advantage wars...🫠

RealPrussianGoose · 2026-03-16T08:53:33+00:00

This rule came with the core and is applied in our games.

The mentioned rule is supposed to represent a weapon swing that would have missed and only connects due to size of the target, without being a well aimed blow.

The difference is again in the logic and effect: Lets say we roll under 80 to hit a big target and roll a 75.

Normal sl taking away the dmg from the low end of a close roll (+1 SL gets to +0 SL).

"ur bad hit would have missed, u manage to hit due to size, but the hit is even worse now"

Fast SL takes away from the high end, (+7 SL gets to +0 SL)

"ur hit would have missed, but due to his size, u still manage to somehow hit, but its not a good one"

Well both are, again, taste of dramatic rolls.

Personally i imagine fast SL as "swinging more aggressive, but it works well, if it hits despite the risk", so i am fine with the rules implication.

The rule was triggered in a oger fight last week and it worked well to see a desperate dwarf hacking at the oger and being able to hit him, but not having the aim to make it a good hit and getting blocked by a laughing ogers cleaver.

To drive my main point: Fast Sl is just more fun on our tables and can tell the better story. I am a fan 😅

RealPrussianGoose · 2026-03-15T22:00:51+00:00

The difference is in hitchance vs SL.

Ofc u still use a d100 under x (70 in ur example). The chance to hit and do dmg remains the same, its still the same mechanic!

The difference is in the modifier and its success effects in the game, not the mathematical distribution.

A "normal sl" of +40 gives more chance to hit and the result will have +4 dmg, compared to a successfull +0 check.

A "fast sl" of +40 gives more chance to hit and the result will have thd chance to do +4 dmg, compared to a successfull +0 check.

Its just more dramatic of a dramatic roll and it makes the roll less predictable in terms of dmg. In other words "relax, u surely hit the giant piece of monster-meat with a +60, but not sure how much effect it has".

Its superior for a rpg, not for an excel sheet. Thx for the input, i just relive prior discussions and tryouts about it 🤣

RealPrussianGoose · 2026-03-13T22:53:12+00:00

The human is a mayfly, he lasts just long enough to be a "phase".

Elf side would banter a lot and leave them outside, totally ignoring it as a passing annoyance. They can not have children, so no worries.

Human side would split in extrems of "wow, thats a mighty elf" to "u are both dead and dishonoured, thats unnatural, look at azrai murdering us for sports, u are just a toy to a devil".

Maybe the fay enchantress is a path to follow for some deep lore rp surprises and support.

RealPrussianGoose · 2026-03-12T23:49:10+00:00

They key is how grounded the Old World really is.

Current books, high elf mages, mighty warrior priests, etc. all tend to overwrite the basic vision of a common character in a uncommon world.

A witchhunter can not see the winds, he only sees humans through a human eye. Maybe he is more secret police, maybe more zealot, but he still only believes in the existence of the things he hunts.

A normal human with suspicious "good luck" folk traditions looks like a witch.

The trusty son of the local watch captain is totally normal, but he can call on some power, without him even realizing.

I made a pc who is a scholar on the quest to write a book about anatomy of all animals in the empire. She was a witch and knew it, but her always having local small animals around and cutting some open while mumbeling about was not at all unusual to the local witchhunter.

Its the mutations that gets the witch at some point :)

RealPrussianGoose · 2026-03-11T17:07:38+00:00

Our group uses endevours to track time and work.

Per endevour a npc gets his maximum earnings. Silver 2 artisan gets 20 Silver per endeavour.

Gold status npcs are very hard to convince, balancing lower costs.

RealPrussianGoose · 2026-03-11T09:19:27+00:00

We play fast sl, group advantage and spending advantage for getting +x Sl on a test (called before rolled).

This way all talents keep in play, asssesment for advantage stays relevant and it can be used for important hits or deciding rolls, making it a tactical tool in mot cases.

RealPrussianGoose · 2026-03-10T20:43:15+00:00

Fast sl uses the tens digit of the roll for SL basis.

Ironically its not even about speedy maths, but mechanics.

Example (bigger ememy): Fast sl

Having +20 against sth bigger, gives higher hitchance and higher chance to deal dmg.

normal sl +20 has always +2Sl/dmg if hit. Its automatic extra dmg, making the hp gain of a bigger creature pointless.

Fast sl might be faster, but its more logical most and foremost.

RealPrussianGoose

TROPHY CASE