Rossi's WFRP Weblog

New it is, but is it grittier, too?

warhammerfrp — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 21:05:37 +0000

Hi folks,

just a quick note that the new publisher of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, FantasyFlightGames, made a new web site for both the WFRP game and the fourm. Her are the links:

FantasyFlightGames home page:

http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/index.asp

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay sub page:

http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=51&enmi=Warhammer%20Fantasy%20Roleplay

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Forum:

http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_temas.asp?efid=71&efcid=3

Oh, and you have to re-register, if you were registered to the old FFG forum.

Cheers,

Oliver

Google Empire – in less than an hour

warhammerfrp — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:00:12 +0000

Hi guys,

here’s a step-by-step guide to create your own deep-zoom-able map of The Empire “Google Earth”-style using a large-scale map of the Empire (like I did) plus any city map that you can get your hands on.

(a) Collect a large map of the Empire and any large city map you can get and save these to your local hard drive. For example, downloadable large maps of the following cities can be easily found on the web: Middenheim, Praag, Erengrad, Kislev, Talabheim, Salzenmund, plus others…

(b) Download and install the Microsoft Deep Zoom Composer at
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=457b17b7-52bf-4bda-87a3-fa8a4673f8bf&displaylang=en

(d) A new project window opens up and you’ll find yourself in the Import layer. Now, please import all your nice maps by clicking on the “Add Image” button. Start with the Empire map.

(e) After you added all of your maps, you can see them in the thumnail list on the right. Now, switch to the COMPOSE layer and drag’n'drop the big Empire map into the empty space.

(f) Before you drag and drop any further maps, scale and position the map according to the screen dimensions you like best.

(g) Now, get used to the controls at the lower end of the screen. By clicking on the “Hand” you can navigate on the map, by clicking the magnifier glass, you can zoom into the map.

(h) Now, navigate to first city that you have added a map for and zoom to a level where you can see the city icon on the map filling the whole screen.

(i) Drag’n'drop the map of that city onto the city icon and position and resize it according to your wishes. Note: I find it best, if the map does NOT cover all of the city icon, but only a small part, so that the original flair of the big Empire map is preserved.

(j) Now, zoom out of the map and repeat steps (h) and (i) with all cities and maps that you have.

(k) Make sure in the “Layer View” on the “Compose” screen, the city map layers are above the Empire map (which is the case, if you work according to this guide).

(l) Switch to the Export screen.

(m) Choose “Silverlight Export” on the upper right part of the Export screen.

(n) Choose a name for the Silverlight map. Best practise: “Only use numbers, letters and space.” No minus, or other special chars here, especially if you choose to export to PhotoZoom instead !

(o) Choose an Export location path – and note it down.

(p) On “Image Type”, choose “Export as Composition” and leave “PNG” as Image Format.

(q) As for “Output Type”, choose “Export Images and Silverlight project”.

(r) Click the “Export” button.

(s) After successful export, you may click on “Preview in Browser” or just say “Close”.

(s) Save your project by clicking “File” menu -> “Save Project”.

(t) Close the program.

(u) You can find your Google-style zoomable map under the path you chose:

…\\DeepZoomProjectWeb\ClientBin\DeepZoomProjectTestPage.html

(v) As long as you keep the structure of this project Dir together, you can move this even to other computers.

(w) Navigating the Silverlight zoom-able image. Left-click means zoom-in. SHIFT+Left-click means zoom-out. Left-Click+Move-Mouse means navigate the map.

(x) Here you go. “Google Warhammer” in less than half-an-hour time.

(y) Remember to keep this map for your own private use only if you use copyright material here !!!

(z) Leave your comments at http://warhammerfrp.wordpress.com/

Cheers,

Oliver

Zoom in on the Empire

warhammerfrp — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:17:08 +0000

Hi folks,

I am very sorry, that my life kept me from doing any updates for this blog.

I did some experimenting on zooming in and out of WFRP maps and found a cool’n'easy (!) way for everybody to use this.

You can find out what I did within a few minutes if you visit this web page:

http://www.wfrp.de/hosted/deepzoomempire/

I would love to hear your comments on this blog and I would even more love to inspire you to use it in your own way.

Top ten signs that you are a WFRP fan

warhammerfrp — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:13:31 +0000

Top Ten signs that you are a WFRP fan:

#10 – Everytime you meet a person with a German surname, you keep asking him where the hidden pun is in his name.

#9 – When discussion comes to historical maps of Great Britain you insist that the Albion map from an ancient White Dwarf magazine must be considered.

#8 – When you local wheather station forecasts fog, you think of Fimir.

#7 – While the counsel for the prosecution pleads, you ask your attorney if you are allowed to use a fate point instead.

#6 – You’re against animal experiments with rats as you think these were responsible to produce Skaven.

#5 – You laugh at all the idiots who think that Area 51 is America’s top state secret. Instead you wonder how they managed to hide the Apollo astronauts’ mutations who landed on the moon and brought Warpstone back to earth.

#4 – In a serious letter you warned Laurence Tureaud (who is playing Mr. T in the TV series A-Team) from getting recorded in the Book of Grudges for pretending to be the first black Giant Slayer.

#3 – As our WFRP publisher stops production of WFRP material and since you are getting used to this you create an adventure plot from it.

#2 – In your local travel agency you ask for pleasant holiday resorts near Castle Wittgenstein or if you need to have any identity papers if you travel to the world Edge Mountains.

#1 – You get fired from work when your boss notices that you are asking your colleagues to take part in your current The Enemy Within campaign.

Oliver Rosenkranz

WFRP veteran and host of www.wfrp.de

P.S.: Have fun…

Trawling the net… the WFRP web radar (Part 3)

warhammerfrp — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 17:11:41 +0000

Ladies an Gentlemen,these are uncertain times. Once more, a publishing company of the WFRP game drops stops publishing material for this game (as you can read here). And just perhaps, another publishing company may step in… this is far from being a fact, but you can make up your own mind when you read this.

While new official material may become rare again in the foreseeable future, let us have a look on what WFRP fans created and offer to us:

Recent mentionable updates of English WFRP web sites…

Black Industries offers a number of additions to the WFRP world in terms of new material: a new Marienburg district called Goudberg is online, the old scenario “The Oldenhaller Contract” from the first rulebook got an overhaul to v2 and another scenario called “Stage Fright”has been silently added to the scenario page.

Mad Alfred‘s web site got updated once more: two maps (Dwarven settlement of Karak Hirn and its surroundings) have been added there (and Alfred gives a hint that he wants to produce a Karak Hirn sourcebook and a sourcebook manuscript on the city of Pfeildorf can be found here.

A new weblog called “whrp_chronicles” introduces a new WFRP campaign called “Favours and Fortune” set in Wurtbadt.

The Liber Fanatica web site is not only up and running again, but also has seen some new material and new sections: Hidden Addenda, Apocrypha, Inner Sanctum guestbook, the development forum. Three Old world slang documents, three new maps (Leicheberg, Riverside Town plus Ruined Village and Castle) and a new flooplan of a Fortified Inn.

A new forum for WFRP and Dark Herey has been brought online…

On the U.K. Shadow Warriors web site, the first few bits on a new campaign called “The Outsiders” can be found. And there are new bits’n'pieces on the “The Petrum Expedition” campaign.

The author of the KALEVALA HAMMER web site remains very active (compliments, man). The Nuln map and its Checklist text have been update to v1.3, the document on Old World animals got updated, too (v1.7), as well as the one on Norscan religion (to v1.2). Many of the WFRP Web radar links have been pasted into that site’s link index (which is fine). A brand-new section called “Beastiary” contains two documents on Kraken and Liches. Finally, the Alcohol & Tobacco document got a grammar refresh and a small update on Dwarves brews (v1.2).

Then there is a nice web page (thanks for the hint) which gives an overview about all WFRP v2 careers linked together by exits and entrances. Please visit it to see if it is of use for you.

Recent mentionable updates of Non-English WFRP web sites…

To catch up with the material available on the German “Die Alte Welt” Forum, I present the following to you (please remember to register to access most of these pages): Der Highwayman (short story), new additions to a campaign narration thread, an Errata web page for German WFRP products, the adventure “Die rosa Feder”, an artifact called “Ring der sicheren Hand”, an introductory scenario for The Enemy Within (Der Innere Feind) campaign called “Eine Nacht im Wald” (A night in the woods), and an encounter called “Blutige Strassen” (Bloody Streets) which is meant to be played during the course of The Enemy Within campaign, too. Finally, a document containing a sermon of a priest of Ulric.The German Feder und Schwert web site offers a new download for WFRP gamers: nicely designed sheet detailing the Slave Hunter career.

While I am not sure whether this is actually new material, I did not want to miss to present to you a German list of all starting careers with restrictions and alternatives.

The Italian fanzine AnonimaGidierre web site announces issue 59 of its paper magazine and foretells that it will contain a WFRP adventure with the title “Sono tutti miei figli”. If you want to contact Sandro to order this issue, you can write him an email or try to write him a letter (Sandro Campatelli, via di Brozzi 352, 50145 Firenze, Italy) and you can preview the title page of that fanzine issue.

Good news also from the Italian web site Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay – La Locanda delle due Lune. They released PDF documents on three new Elven and two Human careers, five pricelists (or lists on equipment), a Nehekhara background article, plus articles on Chaos abilites, Arms, Dwarven religion and Chaos creatures. Finally, a nice and huge map in which most of the famous Andreas Blicher maps are merged into one big map can be downloaded, too.

Good news on adventure material also from the French frontier: The SDEN web site holds three new scenarios: Le silence est une Vertu (set near Bordeleaux in Bretonnia) in Word format (PDF download here), Les Epouvantés (Word, PDF download here) and Las Plagas (again, Word format, PDF download here). Also, the French The Outdreamers web site holds two scenarios called “Un Rat peut en cacher un autre” and “Une Chasse glaciale” which comes as an Adobe Flash document.

The Spanish IGAROL web site presents some new documents for download: Chapters 1 and 2 of “La vida de Sigmar”, a scenario called “Esta vieja casa” (This Old House) and a new rules document called “Tabla de comportamiento durante el sueño”.

Recent mentionable updates that just did not happen…

… still waiting for the latest “Heraldo de Altdorf” (HdA) and “Warpstone” issues. Rumours have it that Warpstone is at the printers at the moment.

… we can drop Black Industries and Liber Fanatica from last months lists. BI announced, that their last WFRP product “Thousand Thrones” will come out later this year and then they will stop RPG production. Liber Fanatica web site is online again (see above).

… News on FFD taking over WFRP publication (yet?).

Thank you for your attention

Oliver Rosenkranz

WFRP veteran

Plot making at its best/worst/weirdest…

warhammerfrp — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:46:22 +0000

Hello folks,

I posted this to the BI WFRP forum, as I have still to learn that I could use the weblog for that…

Top Ten signs of a WFRP fan:

…

#3 – Your WFRP publisher stops production of WFRP material and since you are getting used to this you make a plot out of this.

…

Sounds strange?

Well, here we go…

After a decision of the city council has been proclaimed to stop publication of “Middenheimer Zeitung” – a monthly newspaper – since all writers will be needed to write and copy the Imperial Army chronicles (by an emperor decree), the intellectual minority of the city is in moderate civil disturbance (well, those who actually can read and have some money left to spend on !!! paper !!!). By now, normal folks don’t care much (if at all), since they cannot read all this wish-wash and they get better (ie. more related) news from their neighbour or at the weekly market.

But of course, Bruno Schreihals, a local agitator, recently took advantage from this. Seeking personal fame and seeing a chance to outpace his old rival Gregor Gernegross, he is trying his best to gather forces to overcome this decision. Two of the soon-to-be-closed gazette’s authors secretly write most of his pamphlets and Bruno is using his talents as an Agitator to cause civil uprise among the city’s population. Right now, he’s becoming more and more popular, but not quite popular enough to draw attention on himself by Middenheim’s law.

Of course, Gregor cannot stand back and watch the rising popularity of Bruno. So, he’s trying to find a clever way of reviling Bruno while capturing his topic and his popularity.

What only few people know: There’s more behind the city coucil’s recent decision than meets the eye. One of the council’s members has a half-brother whose business plans got hampered by an article written by Theodor von Taktstock. Theodor – unaware of what his article had caused – wrote a series of articles about the city guard and their equipment. The last article contained mild criticism on the guard’s weaponry (poor quality of short swords) and Bert Brichtleicht – the aforementioned half brother of one of the members of the city coucil – had delivered those short swords few years ago. The city guard captain postponed a new to-be-signed contract with him about delivering further weoponry. He first want a guarantee that the weapons will be of a certain quality.

So, Bert influenced his half-brother and they used an Imperial decree that every city has to “deliver” a number of writers to the army to help in an “Imperial Army chronicles” project to stop Theodor from writing further articles. Bert plans to take care of Theodor in a more final manner later on.

His very next step will be trying to get rid of the city guard captain’s demand either by cleverly bribing him or to – even more cleverly – bringing him to fall by accusing him of not being competent enough as he’s not catching those agitators.

How you let the PC’s step in is up to you… but you may add further sub-plots, create NPCs to your liking, or do something completely different….

…. but maybe you want to write about this here?!

** weirdo mode off **

Oliver Rosenkranz

WFRP veteran

http://www.wfrp.de

http://warhammerfrp.wordpress.com

Trawling the net… the WFRP web radar (special issue)

warhammerfrp — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:01:19 +0000

*** SPECIAL REPORT *** SPECIAL REPORT *** SPECIAL REPORT ***

According to an announcement of Black Industries – publisher of English WFRP material – BI will stop producing game material for the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay very soon. Dave Allen stated in the BI forum, that they will release “Thousand Thrones” as a final WFRP product.

At the moment, it cannot be said, if Green Ronin or some other company will step in, or what will happen to the WFRP publishing license…

Bad news, sad news… BI did a good job on publishing WFRP stuff, but it seems they weren’t as successful (commercially compared to the novel publication of Black Library) as to continue publishing WFRP game material.

*** END OF SPECIAL REPORT *** END OF SPECIAL REPORT ***

Trawling the net… the WFRP web radar (Part 2)

warhammerfrp — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 13:16:49 +0000

This column is back again. Thank you for all the positive responses/comments. It’s nice to know that you actually use the WFRP web radar.

With the second issue of the regular column “The WFRP web radar” which you are reading now, WFRP web sites have been added to the radar, so please bear with me if some of the additions from those sites are not brand new, but new enough if you missed them.

To save me from the witch hunters, let me say that the owners of the web sites mentioned below and authors of new material all credit that belongs to them. They deserve it. I send all of you a big hug.

Okay, let’s roll…

Recent mentionable updates of English WFRP web sites…

…leads us to the Kalevala Hammer web site with just one more update to the famous Norsca map (v1.6 this time), a list of carnivals & festivals which the author just started to collect plus the initial version of a map of Nuln plus an agenda of sources for this map.

The great tool NPC generator was updated to version 1.22 (from 1.19) with bug fixes and weapon stats listed with an NPCs weapons at the Malleus Maleficarium website.

Someone at the forum of the Black Industries web site came up with a great fan work about witchery called “Children of the Wyrd” (PDF direct link here).

The Shadow Warriors Role-Playing Club presents two additional session summaries for their ongoing Tim Eccles’ campaign “Things to Do in Carroburg Before you Die”. Plus, Tim started just another campaign: “The Petrum Expedition”.

Big announcement at the Warpstone magazine website: Issue 27 of my all-time-favorite fanzine for WFRP will be out “soon”. You can see the title page plus a summary page already.

Recent mentionable updates of Non-English WFRP web sites…

The German website Imdacil added three german documents to their download section: a character sheet, some basic tables for stats and fitting translations for most of the WFRP-related vocabulary. You have to be registered to download something though.

On the German WFRP forum “Die Alte Welt” a short skirmish game for Warhammer fans was posted: Gangs of Altdorf (main document plus additions).

IGAROL’s (Spanish web site) downloads are working again, so they are on the radar now with an NPC called Karlten, a couple of Spanish translations of rules material already available in English and a Spanish character sheet for WFRP. There are further additions, but those were blatantly copied from other sources.

The French web site Chaodisque contains three new WFRP downloads: the game supplement “Camps Nouveau”, a short story and fourty maps. The first two items can be downloaded from La Scénariothèque, too.

There, you can find new additions for our favorite game: three character sheets (one for WFRPv1 and one for WFRPv2, plus one from another source, plus those mentioned above.

Again, the Italian WFRP resource web site Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay – La Locanda delle due Lune offers many new PDF downloads. Since the last web radar, six articles hit the shelves: two elven careers, one dwarven career, an official Italian Q&A document, the first part of an equipment price list and a Timeline. And there’s a map for use with Warhammer, though the summary on the download page says that it’s not compatible with WFRP.

The Spanish web site Heraldo de Altdorf (HdA) registered a new web domain for easy reference: http://www.heraldodealtdorf.es .

And there’s news from the Scandinavian frontier: I discovered (but cannot read) two new Finnish – rather active – WFRP web sites, the web log “Kirottujen sivupoluilla” and a campaign journal web site. Please judge by yourself if they contain anything worth your attention.

Recent mentionable updates that just did not happen…

Well, actually this is slippery ground, so I want to say sorry to anybody who does not agree to the following:

Okay, everything mentioned at that point in the last web radar column is still true. Black Industries did not do any WFRP preview of 2008 WFRP products (though a fan-initiated forum thread thread can be found about this), and other games seem to have BI’s main focus right now. I haven’t heard anything from Roysten Crow and the ending of his Fragments of Twilight campaign, and Liber Fanatica is still down. I saw a note on a BI forum proposing that this would only be the case for a short number of days, but time tells us otherwise.

The glorious exception and therefore duly complimented is the Warpstone magazine.

Further updates that just did not happen: I am still looking for volunteers who scan certain WFRP web forums for interesting items which may be mentionable for all. Those groups or individuals should be able to provide a summary every month or so.

Have fun.

Oliver Rosenkranz

WFRP veteran and host of www.wfrp.de

Trawling the net… the WFRP web radar (Part 1)

warhammerfrp — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 21:29:00 +0000

What is best about the internet for a WFRP gamer? It’s XXXL, you can find hundreds of web sites, dozens of blogs and forums for your favorite game.

What is worst about the internet for a WFRP gamer? Yeah, you guessed it… It’s XXXL. If you want to hunt down the latest WFRP web material, you have to visit hundreds of – often infrequently updated – websites, read dozens of blogs and scan numerous web forums not to miss any new material for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

With the debut issue of the regular column “The WFRP web radar” which you are reading now, I want to give you a brief summary of What’s New for WFRP on the net for assorted web sites.

To save me from the witch hunters, let me say that I don’t want to cover all possible WFRP web sites – only the ones that have had a number of updates in the not-so-far-away past – and that I want to give the owners of those web sites and authors of new material all credit that belongs to them. They deserve it.

Okay, let’s roll…

Recent mentionable updates of English WFRP web sites…

…include The Altdorf Correspondent with its’ iAltdorf update in December 2007 (iAltdorf is a cool PDF map of Altdorf with layers if you don’t know it yet) and a new Altdorf NPC in November 2007.

The makers of the Black Industries web site bring us the final results and downloads of the 2007 scenario contest, updates to the Paleisbuurt district and to Guilderveld of the online supplement for the city of Marienburg, plus a great new map of Kislev.

The Grim and Peril campaign blog got updated in November 2007 with a new session report titled “The Mask of Slaanesh”. Please leave a comment if you have something to say.

A web site called Kalevala Hammer brings us a new game master supplement about tobacco and alcohol (version 1.1), updates to their Gotrek & Felix timeline plus a brand-new version of a map of Norsca (version 1.5, please read this learn about all the fixes and expansions of this map version).

Last month Mad Alfred created two more of his excellent maps: Pfeildorf and its surroundings.

Two RPG session posters, some item handouts of a magical box, various updates for the NPC generator (version 1.19), some artwork and a description of the fortress of Castle Lenkster were added to the Malleus Maleficarium website.

The Shadow Warriors Role-Playing Club presents three new session summaries for their ongoing Tim Eccles’ campaign “Things to Do in Carroburg Before you Die”.

In the forum of the Warpstone magazine website, Robin Low posted what he did as an Ostland sourcebook proposal for Hogshead Publishing which he never introduced to them.

The Encroachment of Chaos website delivered some blank sheets of parchments as a PDF as basis for your own handouts.

The Winds of Chaos website reported about an online tool called “Warhammer Fantasy Crit Roller”.

Recent mentionable updates of Non-English WFRP web sites…

The German website Dimension of Roleplaying added a revamped version of their WFRPv2 campaign “Nach dem Sturm” to their download section.

The German paper magazine Mephisto presents its issue #39 which contains the WFRP scenario “Endspiel”. This issue as well as other back issues containing WFRP scenario can be ordered via an online shop.

The pearls of several years of WFRP publications in the French RPG magazines Casus Belli and Backstab can be downloaded here as PDF.

Five game supplements have been uploaded to the French website Le Gazette de Nuln: two about combat, one about sorcery and an add-on for an old Casus Belli scenario, plus a document titled “Feuille de personnage En couleur graphique”.

The French web archive La Scénariothèque is home of legions of game supplements and scenarii. The lastest scenario called Le Roi de l’Hiver was uploaded in November 2007.

The French SDEN website holds two new WFRP articles since December 2007: the French translations of the final installment of Roysten Crow’s Lustria campaign and of the short story “Birth of a Slayer”.

The Italian WFRP resource web site Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay – La Locanda delle due Lune offers many PDF documents for user download. Many articles were added in November/December 2007 / January 2008. Most of them being career descriptions (Nipponese, Elven, Prostitutes, Military captains, for example), but also a stat conversion document for the official adventure The Dying of the Light for WFRPv2, an article on Khypris, a magic addendum, the official errata, etc…

No news from the Spanish web sites I know. I do not scan for Polish web sites, but I know that the Polish WFRP community is a very active one. Feel free to contact me if you want to contribute further sites that are regularly updated.

As for the various WFRP forums, I don’t regularly scan them, so if anybody wants to volunteer to summarize the latest highlights of his/her favorite WFRP forum, please contact me, too.

Recent mentionable updates that just did not happen…

Well, actually this is slippery ground, so I want to say sorry to anybody who does not agree to the following:

- Black Industries website: Preview of 2008 WFRP products, one product per year seems a bit odd, even with WH40K-RPG and other RPGs on their schedule.

- Roysten Crow’s website: Final installment of The Fragments of Twilight campaign. The campaign is great, but where is the big final ending of it?

- WFRP.de website: A final answer to the question: Is the WFRP Adventure Collection dead or not? Well, oops, this belongs to me… I’ll write something about this at a later point in this weblog.

- Liber Fanatica website: somebody missed to renew the domain name registration, so the domain expired and is not available at the moment.

- Most non-english web sites for WFRP: web site and content is non-english in almost all cases. Google translation service is not yet prepared to cover this, maybe we can lure somebody into translating certain highlights?!

- Warpstone magazine website: The upcoming Warpstone issue is overdue… isn’t it?

Well, that’s it for the premiere issue of the WFRP web radar. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it.

Have fun.

Oliver Rosenkranz

WFRP veteran and owner of www.wfrp.de

Welcome to a WFRP veteran’s Weblog…

warhammerfrp — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 01:00:41 +0000

Welcome to this “blog”. It’s mainly about Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP). This is not a typical weblog where I write about about my personal gaming experiences.

This WFRP weblog will be filled with news in a number of categories.

One of them will be “WFRP Web Radar” where I will report changes of certain WFRP web sites that report their updates here. I will contact the owners of web sites that got under my radar

Another one will be “WFRP review zone” where I will write short summaries and reviews of what I think of WFRP material that can be downloaded from the net or bought.

I do have a couple of other ideas that I am playing with. I will write about them when they get more concrete…

Oliver Rosenkranz – WFRP veteran and owner of http://www.wfrp.de