A new year, a new plan. 2017 is going to be hot! Plus a reblog.

Wow, it's the middle of january 2017 and only now I'm actually posting something here. No excuses of course, but I just wanted to say that I'm very happy to kick off another year on my little slice of internet.

I think that most of us can agree on one thing: 2016 sucked major ass. Not to get into many details, but for me, it was especially bad. Personal stuff was bad, my mindset was bad, job tensions and social contacts - it was all bad, bad, bad. That said, I don't think that giving up is the way to go, at least, not yet and hopefully not ever. That's why I've decided to make 2017 a year to remember for all time, for all the good reasons, of course.

It's gonna be epic!

So for starters I just want to present you with a post from one of my players, Sean, who decided to upload his notes from our last session. You see, when I run any RPG, I urge people to take notes about different stuff: locations, people they've met, strange occurences, etc. That way, no important information will be lost by the party. However Sean really upped the quality of note-taking. His writing was crisp, interesting, dramatic and simply wonderful. Far from being a dry recollection of events, it read like a good drama. So here is a link  to his blog, Sean's Wargames Corner, where you can read the whole thing. I hope you'll like it, just like I did, and many other people on the Oldhammer in The New World Facebook group. In all honesty, for me as a long time GM, this is very humbling, to see my players wanting to share their experiences with the whole world. It is a really, really great thing to see.

However that's not all. Another of my players, Jason, made a few, awesome sketches, portraying the player characters. He now muses about drawing scenes from the party's adventures, and I honestly can't wait to see them done. His style reminds me of the old, 1st edition WFRP drawings, which I like tremendously. I'll take the liberty of posting them here, with author's permission of  course.

Genaro Vesuvio and Salvatore "Sally Balls" Sabatino. An unlikely pair of Tilean ne'er-do-wells (picture by J.Brisken)

I've decided to make 2017 a year, when I'll finally run all the stuff, that I always wanted. Among all the campaigns and adventures is, of course, the venerable "The Enemy Within", a legendary module for WFRP 1st edition (that I'll be running, using the rules for the 2nd one). At the beginning of the month I've begun looking for a team to run it for and... ended up with two! Yup, 2017 is the year when I'm going to run "The Enemy Within" twice. Can I handle it and manage my timetable with my Roll20 group and my old team, now playing the cWoD's Vampire: The Masquerade? Sure I can, it's all a case of planning your time and being determined to achieve success.

Oh, for one of the groups, I will also run the "Lichemaster" campaign, another gem from the times of 1st edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. In fact we've already had our first session yesterday evening, and it was good to know that after almost 3 year hiatus from running WFRP "in real life", I still have what it takes to make my players happy.

Lukas Kohler, Talabeclander and Charcoal-Burner. One of the most resilent bastards, this side of the Reik (picture by J.Brisken)

I should also add that my Roll20 group will no longer enjoy any more, one-shot adventures. It's finally time, after playing for more than 1,5 year together, to test them against a real challenge. That's right - it's time for yet another campaign! Which one? I cannot say that just yet, for it is a mystery and a surprise, and my players frequent this blog from time to time. I don't want to ruin the suspense for them.

So that's it for my RPG plans for this year, running 4 campaigns. Some might call it overly ambitious, I just think and hope that they will turn out to be heaps of fun. I also hope to play a bit more tabletop games, including new ones like Malifaux and Frostgrave. If everything goes right, I will attend the Eurobash event, organised by the wonderful Warhammer-Empire community in may.

Vincent Deriosh. On a first glane, a simple servant. During combat, however, he turns into a whirlwind of death and fury. Man of duty and a servant of Morr, the god of dreams and death (picture by J.Brisken)

Aside from that, I plan to make this blog more Warhammer Fantasy-centric, so to speak. I honestly think that now, after all the fuss with End Times and the Age of Sigmar, good, old WFB/WFRP deserve to get some love and be kept afloat, if you excuse the metaphor. Sure, they're not perfect, and yes, I will post more about what irks me with both of these games in the future, but the thing is... they just work for me. Despite all their flaws and problems, they are THE titles that I love and cherish the most, when it comes to both role-playing and tabletop games, and I certainly plan to help in keeping their flames alive.

That, and the fact that 40K is apparently going down the shitter. But that's a rant for another time, after I'll finish "The Fall of Cadia". Already halfway through it and... well, let's just say that I have a bad case of deja vu. Like I've seen a similar thing, done by this company, a while back. It didn't end well.

Leopold Boselmann. Once a dirty grave robber, he recently found a new purpose in life. However, old habits die hard... (picture by J.Brisken)

Next post will contain a review of the novel "Warrior Priest" by the Gemmel Award-recepient, Darius Hinks. I've read it last year and I think it's... oh, you know how it works. Just tune in next week, to read about my opinion on this title. Also it will be the first ever review of a Warhammer Fantasy book on this blog. About damn time, eh?

Until next time!

Xathrodox86