"Beat the boredom!" Episode 4: "The Madness of Baron Von Richter" by... Bob?
This week's scenario is a real treat for any horror fans out there. I kid you not, this one is genuinely creepy... and it has zombies!
Before we begin - I don't really know who wrote this adventure. In the credits at the end of the PDF there's a mail, from which I've gathered that the man's name is "Bob", but that's it. So Bob - if you read this, give me a call. Oh, and you've written one, damn fine scenario!
"The Madness of Baron Von Richter", written for the 2nd edition of WFRP, takes place in a small village in Todesburg, somewhere in the Empire. The PC's travelled for a long time and they're obviously tired, hungry and thirsty - not necessarily in that order. They will surely decide to visit the "Long Rifle" inn, where they can eat a hot meal and rest their weary bones. What they don't know is that very soon they'll have to defend this place from a huge horde of shambling dead. You see, our heroes have arrived in the village of Todesburg on the very same night when a grief-stricken Ludwig Von Richter decided to ressurect his deceased wife... Needless to say, things did not went well for the ol' Baron, and the spell that he unleashed brought back all of the dead of Todesburg... and they are very, very hungry!
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| "They're coming to get you, Barbara!" |
Oh, and the poor Baron's wife is the nastiest case of them all, easily offering a challenge to even a medium-sized party all by herself.
This little adventure, which can be easily finished in a session or two, was a real joy to watch. The author clearly loves horror (he even advises watching a couple zombie flicks for a better immersion!), and it greatly shows in his work. "The Madness of Baron Von Richter" is a mix of classic horror tropes, straight from the flicks made by Hammer Studios or George Romero, as well as some much needed humor. You see, Bob knows all too well that a bit of humor can really enhance a horror story, lessening the tension when it's needed, only to be replaced by dread and terror when the time is right. To this end, this adventure works perfectly. From the moment the zombies arrive, the PCs should be aware of the fact that unless they'll find the source of this plague, there's no stopping the living dead. Especially when every killed man and woman of Todesburg joins their rank. Yeah, Baron Ludwig certainly did his homework when it came to necromantic magic...
Do I have any issues with this scenario? Well, the first encounter in the inn can be hard to run, but that is mainly because of managing large fights in WFRP (something that I always had trouble with). I suggest looking to "Lichemaster", "Terror in Talabheim" or even "The Thousand Thrones" for rules which can help with that issue. Other than that, it's a pretty linear scenario. I personally love railroading (choo choo!) and tightly scripted adventures and campaigns, but I know it's not everyone's mug of Bugman's ale. To each his own, eh?
I think that "The Madness of Baron Von Richter" is a very solid scenario, perfect as a one-shot, or maybe a filler in between some larger campaign's chapters. Bob actually managed to do something which is normally very hard in WFRP - he created a genuine horror adventure, while also not going overboard with either the gore (he even writes about advises about its clever usage during the game) or humor. For that I commend his efforts and recommend that you check out "The Madness of Baron Von Richter". It can be found here.
Until next time! Stay safe, stay healthy and remember - aim for their heads!
Xathrodox86
This comment was written by Andreas.
ReplyDelete"Okay, you gave me a reason to write a long comment again, so here it is:
This is yet another adventure scenario I had already sorted out before you wrote about it and made me look at it again, and while it's not as utterly terrible as "Everybody's looking at me", it shares some of that stinker's issues.
First of all, it's rather barebones. While it contains a couple of maps, those offer little information and do not look convincing - they're the kind of maps which make me think "_I_ could do this better" (which is very probably wrong, but that's besides the point - the point is, they're nearly useless).
It also gives short descriptions of a few NPCs, which is better than nothing, but again not a lot. Consequently, though, the scenario does not assume any real interaction between those NPCs and the PCs to happen (apart from the final combat). Also, the plot is as meager as it is linear - the often misused term "railroad" might actually apply here: The PCs come to a town where BY CHANCE something terrible is happening RIGHT NOW. They are required to flee to a certain place, then watch something terrible happen which they cannot prevent, then flee to another place with no real alternative option, and finally are being - well, yes, RAILROADED - to the climactic confrontation, where they are required to do very specific things before they once again flee watching more terrible things happen.
This could be the plot of a nice WFRP story, but it does not make for a good adventure scenario, lacking a) a more meaningful connection between the PCs and the events other than "you just happen to be there exactly when shit happens", b) opportunities for the PCs to meaningfully interact with the environment and the NPCs, and c) decisions to be made by the PCs which actually affect the outcome of events (other than "of course you don't have to stay and save the village, but then you will hear later about the terrible things that happened there and should be ashamed of your cowardice!").
The second issue is that the scenario is unoriginal and clichéd. Now, admittedly that does NOT necessarily make for a bad roleplaying session, especially if the players aren't very experienced - clichés arise not without reason, after all! It DOES, however, make for a superfluous written-down scenario unless that scenario contains actually useful information that makes the GM's task easier. This ties the second issue to the first - if there is neither a great idea, nor a great execution - what's left? Not a lot, obviously. (Maybe the NPC stats are useful to some - I wouldn't know.) Any somewhat experienced GM can make up a scenario like this out of thin air in less than 5 minutes; and any GM NOT experienced enough to do this doesn't get enough help from that publication to run the scenario.
On the plus side, the basic setup would have lent itself to a fine adventure, if more thought had been put into its plot (maybe also adding a twist to not make it totally predictable), and more effort into its execution. That makes it a little better than the aforementioned "Everybody's Looking at Me", where even the basic setup doesn't make sense in the first place, and the plot consists mainly of contradictions. The latter issue has mostly been avoided in The Madness of Baron Van Richter - thanks to its linear and clichéd setup, I guess - although the existence of a sewer in this village is definitely stretching credibility (maybe a secret passage, for whose existence any number of possible reasons spring to mind, would make more sense). So, what I'm seeing here is mostly a challenge to run a similar scenario, since the basic concept works well with WFRP; but not actually lots of help to do so."