A wilderness adventure for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying
The Gamemaster’s eternal conundrum is creating the adventure that they themselves want to play in, but must GM. Well, herein is the adventure I want to play, chock full of design wish list grooviness.
I’ve been hankering for an adventure in the great outdoors where the players felt like they could take any route but the GM was able to manage the scenario without a zillion locations to moderate. And there must be some big monsters to fight cos, y’know, it’s fantasy role slaying playing- but there had to be some way of giving the PCs a believable chance of winning, or at least surviving the encounter. A ‘frontier boondocks to palatial high society’ story arc was on my radar, along with a few jump scares, and a twist ending or two.
The scenario nearly wrote itself – an expedition into the Middle Mountains to snatch a Griffon egg for an Elector Count. Gamers can expect to encounter the denizens of the mountains (aka big frikken monsters) as well as rival egg hunting parties just as deadly as any creature; high altitude hi-jinks with mountaineering tropes up the wazoo, including a cold case murder mystery with bonus avalanches & plummeting to one’s doom; heroically facing off versus a swooping Griffon on a windswept pinnacle (the ‘money shot’); defending a frontier hut from ravenous humanoids; a chase scene whilst shooting the rapids; getting caught up in a Warhammer Fantasy Battle; montages as PCs traverse the high and low roads of the Empire; dashing highwaymen; fiendish assassins; tactical challenges; bureaucratic assholes; certain death…the usual stuff.
The adventure progresses in a non-linear format, however the quest nature of the McGuffin, along with mountainous terrain, steers the characters’ paths in several likely directions. The scenario beginning allows for believable grouping up of characters who haven’t met before. The precipitous terrain and primary opponents at the climax also allow the GM to implement an ‘obscure death’ rule for both PCs and NPCs.
Ideally the gamers will experience classic mountaineering and exploration themes in the wild frontier backwoods of Hochland, along with the usual Warhammer dark fantasy intrigue in rustic villages, along spooky high roads, into bustling townships and finally high society! But enough blather – have a read and see what you think: click on this Griffons of Greyfang link or just go to the Warhammer drop down menu at the top of the page.
Armchair Corporal 