Behind closed doors

Posted by  | Wednesday, October 26, 2011  at 8:32 PM  

As mentioned in the previous entry we recently gained a Witch Hunters player in our test campaign. Brother Klaus zealously smashed our custom cultists gang of Stromfels Reavers in the last round. The dark buccaneer Scurvy Dick and his crew of Wreckers took it all it good humour of course, I hope!

Periodically fellow enthusiasts ask me how the campaign development is progressing. This suggests I need to reveal more insights about the current state of my mutinous setting's plot here! Bearing in mind it took the best part of 5 years for Border Town Burning to be completed, I am in no hurry to reach the finishing post with Mutiny In Marienburg. However, knowing progress is happening always makes for great bulletins.

The frustrating thing about the playtesting we're doing (for me) is that we're not testing out any new Exploration or Random Happenings (yet!) so we're utilising the original Mordheim lists. I have notes drawn up for them but for various reasons it's not the right time to work on these chapters. This means the test campaign feels looser in theme than I would like. On the upside there are less questions being raised. I'm still devising campaign plots (for warband objectives) and this will be ongoing. It will probably be influenced by player decisions somewhat I feel. The main reason the Random Haps & Exploration are on hold is because Border Town Buring was conceived somewhat back-to-front and I don't want to have to pick-apart work and put it back together again as we did back then. LoL. We learned a lot about the game by making mistakes that couldn't be helped at the time. In the long run it all came good.

In my test campaign we are at the stage where we have some outstanding scenarios that are working. One has its own built in Random Haps meaning it functions similarly to Last Orders! scenario (from Border Town Burning & Nemesis Crown) which I hope everyone counts as a favourite because there are lots of taverns in Marienburg on the waterfronts.

I have 7 functional warband list drafts for the Marienburg gangs which players in my gaming group have been happily using. These have been tailored to waterside adventure of course. I have leaked early drafts of these documents internationally to guys who are committed to modelling & painting to a very high standard or GM's who are running their own gaming group. A gentlemen from the forum contacted me this week asking to see a copy of the rules for Sea Elf Rangers. He and others have the impression this is a Lothern Sea Guard warband! It is not. Without sounding like an ass, I'd hope for obvious reasons I cannot just dole out copies of incomplete rules and unfinished work. Please only ask if you can help!

I will take a look through folks scenario suggestions if I think they are relevant to Marienburg. We have been playing a new scenario with a rescue element that features a lagoon monster. It's not exclusively about rescue and the damsel is actually an NPC. The objective isn't to destroy the monster either which makes it far more conducive to developing tactics than other decent scenarios I've seen on the forum which share similar themes.

Got another rescue scenario in mind. At first I simply wished to include a jailbreak scenario to choose to play when warriors are being placed under arrest by the watch. The first theme that I imagined being useful was an escape proposition, based on the the prison island Rijker's in the mouth of the Reik. The subsequent idea was to employ a gallows for an execution scenario in the Hangman's Square where coaches entering the city by either gate terminate their journeys. It's one of the few open spaces in the ward, on the island of Luydenhoek. I want to use evoking themes when creating scenarios, not just employ sets of rules.

I love a lot of old Town Cryer articles so I have been reprocessing (data-cleansing!) various materials to clarify them for appropriate use and improve campaign play. On top of scenarios & warband lists, the support documents for my current test campaign are split into the following resources;

Published here under Rules:
- Corrupted Characters (mutation, tainted goods, all aspects of Chaos activity)
- Swords Of The Empire (players easy reference of HS to be more inclined to hire)
- Miracle Workers (options for holier Heroes)

Unpublished:
- New Rules (charts or guidelines that don't fit elsewhere yet)
- Marketplace (post-battle sequence rules summary revitalising aspects of Encampments)
- Infamous Haunts (post-battle sequence rules for underworld location visits streamlining aspects of Encampments)

As for the new warbands, there isn't a Fimir warband list to speak of because it's virtually impossible to devise an original one that accurately reflects the lore. However, the Forge World team pledged in some official capacity at UK Games Day to release Fimir Warrior miniatures which is great because I did previously mention this to a few of their staff. New rules are slated for the 2nd Warhammer Forge book. It is said to be being released under the name 'Monstrous Arcana'.

I must compose some sort of grand introduction for the Gangs of Marienburg. Until I do reveal more on gangs these shadowy characters will continue to fight their battles behind the closed doors of their shady gambling den hide-outs.

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