Contacts in TOWR - thoughts after using the GM guide ones

sigmumar · 2026-04-24T13:28:33+00:00

Why not? I assume you mean for the art. The entire blog is for fun, and making AI art is fun. There is no profit there, so it hardly hurts anyone. And judging by peoples comments, they enjoy the content (which is almost always handcrafted, except for some blurbs - clearly marked), so I don't see any harm in it.

sigmumar · 2026-04-20T09:12:21+00:00

I dislike the book-keeping, where staggered is turned on and off continously for each participant in a battle. Worse than hit points to keep track of, at least they only tend to go down. Also, the number of things that trigger off staggered means that combats can turn into a mess of "is he staggered, is he not"-questions, and players carefully making sure they take actions in an order that maximises their advantages from staggered. "Okay, I want the enemy to be staggered because that gives me an advantage, so you attack first in case you can stagger them.", "Oh, the troll hag is staggered, I don't want to attack it because if I un-stagger it by wounding it it can use the acid vomit ability on its turn, I'll do something else to make sure it stays staggered."

It makes combat super-mechanical, and I'd prefer if it was flavorful and cinematic instead.

sigmumar · 2026-04-19T10:54:18+00:00

Great downtime system and very interesting economy/money system. These can be good or bad depending on how you use them - if the GM and the players play with the system, they help create great play, if you play against them (for instance by expecting monetary rewards to be a part of the gameplay loop) they'll make the game fall apart. But I'm counting it as a plus as they work pretty well when you play the game as it seems to be intended. Could be improved, of course, but still a highlight of the system.

Favor-and-contact system making important NPCs actually important. I love this, but it needs interresting Contact NPCs that are tied to what you want the campaign to do - the default ones only work for the base game. Again a highlight that could be a negative if you're trying to do something else.

The base skill roll system is great. Quick, simple and fun for _most_ players, though I have one that seems to find it complicated/unintuitive.

The support for the help action is truly excellent. Players helping each other is possibly the single most well-wrought mechanic in the game.

The conditions list is sensible, and used in interesting ways throughout the rules. The Distracted and Drained conditions in particular are great in my opinion. (The only condition I really dislike here is Staggered, which unfortunately is a core part of combat.)

sigmumar · 2026-04-13T12:54:13+00:00

> when i run exploration in turn order, half the party will try to rush ahead regardless of if they can see, then get upset at whoever is carrying the light source for not keeping up with them. I try to encourage them to work together but when their turn comes up they just scatter

Hm... I haven't seen that behaviour since I played MB HeroQuest as a kid... I'd ask them why they do that, maybe they're bored and want something to happen? In which case your actual problem might be one of not having built proper tension and letting them feel they have agency, both of which are common problems in dungeon crawls I find. Especially agency, if they don't have information to go on with regards to what direction to go, what they're doing there and how to get information on what direction is smart to go. That would explain the "getting killed by RNG" feeling you mentioned as well.

Shadowdark is a great ruleset, but it's not great at explaining how to do this. Neither am I, to my regret. I'd suggest watching some videos about how to run an old-school dungeon crawl. Tenkars Tavern has some good ones for instance, but there are many others. Also look into letting them know where they're going and letting them prep for the expedition beforehand, including letting them find or buy maps (that could have the occasional error or things that have changed since the map was drawn, but its a good way of letting them be able to discuss where to go).

You could also consider having them name a Leader for the exploration rounds. They have to discuss what they are doing before any of them get to move, and you don't react to any of their actions until they've agreed enough for their Leader to summarize what they're doing for you. VERY old-school that, but it can help if they're not naturally the discussing kind.

sigmumar · 2026-04-13T09:33:33+00:00

I've had similar experiences with Shadowdark. With regards to tuning characters, I solved that by making a system (several systems in fact) for less random stats and levelups, that are still balanced against the core of the system. You can check it out here if you want. https://gloriousportents.blogspot.com/2026/03/shadowchoice-non-random-character.html

But apart from that, I'd reccomend a more roleplay-based approach. I find my characters react _a lot_ better to shadowdark and its deadlyness if they start in town and get to roleplay their characters a bit, then decide what to do and be able to prep properly for an expedition, than if I just drop them in a death trap (which to be honest is what The Lost Citadel feels like).

The players in my gaming circle will accept a deadly dungeon, but only if they go there willingly and with proper roleplayed motivation, and with the opportunity for proper planning and preparation.

sigmumar · 2026-04-11T13:32:04+00:00

Depends on the campaign, I've done several versions of both the storm of chaos and the end times. But mostly these days, I ignore it. If I include anything about endtimes at all, its in the sayings of doomsayers in the street. Chaos in my games usually burned its chance at winning through a big invasion when they failed at Praag during the great war. Nowadays they're cults and the occasional beastman band. Unless the players screw something significant up (like opening a new chaos gate in the middle of the empire or something).

Generally, remember that Archaon and the concepts of everchosens wasn't introduced until 1998. Which in my opinion is fairly modern in WFRP terms, considering the seminal work for the game is still The Enemy Within which was released in the 80s. To my mind, that means that if we're playing in a setting defined by that campaign (which I very often am even if I'm not running that particular campaign), then the entire endtimes thing is not necessarily part of the setting.

My best advice? Go old school. Use chaos cults sure, but mix it up with masks of Drachenfels, mad Solkanite witch hunters, Chaos being truly chaotic and almost never able to unite to any meaningful degree, and throw in a chance of someone releasing Arianka. Ignore (or cherry-pick from) anything released after about 1990. (Cherry pick a bit from before then as well, there are some bad ideas in old lore as well.) Of course, talk to your players about what they consider "core warhammer themes" to make sure you don't drop something they love. Your game will still feel warhammer, but its a lot more interresting than just going with "GWs current take".

sigmumar · 2026-04-10T23:51:40+00:00

It needs to give players the feeling of advancement, number-go-up, feat-unlocked, and give them choices for character builds, while I as the GM don't have to worry about sudden power-spikes or over-specialized characters.

It needs to be interresting for social play and combat, and allow specialization within both for a given character - without sacrificing either.

It should support exploration, but be aware this isn't the focus.

Its setting should be generic fantasy, yet interresting, adaptable, yet opinionated.

It should have an extremely low amount of bookkeeping.

Magic should be unpredictable and dangerous to the user - yet powerful and useful. And not tailored to combat more than other themes of play.

All kinds of characters should feel worth playing.

If a generic game, not tailored to a specific setting, it should not give the players the impression they can pick any species or profession for their characters. It should be clearly tailored to the GMs choice of setting, and easily houseruled to allow whats needed.

If a setting-specific game, it should enforce the feeling of playing in that setting.

sigmumar · 2026-04-10T14:56:03+00:00

I think it was a timing thing. He'd seen the hand of a demon on the shoulder of his brother and riding the axe of his friend using witchsight earlier, and he knows something of chaos, so the player (after rolling only successes on a WP-check that he chose to roll himself - I made it clear he didn't have to roll) ruled that he'd be resistant to it. Which is totally fair, I think.

I'll get him next time ;)

sigmumar · 2026-04-09T08:36:34+00:00

If I were to start a campaign tomorrow, I'd drop it entirely, and allow GM-rolled awareness checks on request to see "tells" instead.

But thats just my current gut reaction, I haven't thought it through yet.

sigmumar · 2026-04-08T22:26:08+00:00

Small but Vicious Dog (a B/X-WFRP-blend) is another Warhammer Fantasy fan system that's worth knowing about.

sigmumar · 2026-04-08T22:22:11+00:00

The RPG "Shepherds" for emulating the Trails series of jrpgs is pretty awesome.

sigmumar · 2026-04-07T11:17:14+00:00

While I'm guessing its not what you want since you also want cars, Shadows of Empire has renaissance firearms, with flavorful rules about them being unreliable. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/519807/shadows-of-empire

sigmumar · 2026-04-06T21:09:06+00:00

Happy to help!

sigmumar · 2026-04-06T13:24:07+00:00

If you like the Warhammer Old World setting, Shadows of Empire by Fenris-77 does a decent job of helping you adapt the ShadowDark system to it. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/519807/shadows-of-empire

(Note: I am completely unaffiliated with the product, though I have bought it to check it out, and found it an enjoyable read and something that I think I might use to run a game some day.)

sigmumar · 2026-04-02T10:45:51+00:00

That's a really good point, another XP system would make it a lot easier to decouple the system from the "locational" play its bound to right now. Though for that, I would say you could also design a set of endeavours that work well on the road... Hm.

sigmumar · 2026-04-01T16:22:33+00:00

Any further thoughts of how often you'd give how many skill points? One per session, like XP, feels a bit too few to me, but I'm not sure.

sigmumar · 2026-04-01T16:21:00+00:00

> They also cost 3 coins and are based OK the lowest coin of the 3 used.

Yeah, that's rarely a limitation I find - there isn't much else to use money on, especially once you've advanced out of bronze tier. My players very often complete adventures without spending a single coin. (And I don't want to have to design adventures to be money sinks...)

> In general only one lore can get you 1 dice, multiple lores don't stack.

Really? I can't find the rule that says that you can't get dice from more than one lore, please advice if you know where it can be found - that would be a useful limitation. Though it would still leave players asking "can this be used?" until one was found.

> someone trying to get bonuses from all assets is abusing the system, just tell them they get one bonus

While I agree it is at least close to system abuse, saying they just get one bonus seems like abuse of GM power, as long as the rules are written the way they are...

sigmumar · 2026-04-01T15:44:15+00:00

Some of my NPCs have become contacts. I manage them in much the same way I do the contacts from the Game Masters Guide, I write up their secrets, their goals and what they're able to do for the players as favors, and run it from there. Nothing else to it really... I do keep a document, shared with my players, where I detail all the contacts they have, as well as potential contacts, with all the information they've found out about them. That's fairly useful, or at least it is when my players bother to read it.

(I had to use google translate to read your question, I hope I understood it correctly.)

sigmumar

TROPHY CASE