It always rains in Nuln

Allow me to take you on a journey into the grim and dark future of endless war, blind zealotry and cynicism - the dystopian world of Warhammer 40,000 awaits. Even though WFRP is my default go-to game, I do play other titles as well... occasionally. One of them, and one that I enjoy a lot, is the Fantasy Flight Games' 1st edition of Dark Heresy. Now it wasn't always that way, as those who read my blog for some time, know already. I used to dislike DH a lot, but that was a long, long time ago. Currently I only have fond memories of this game, and would very much like to run it in the near future. Anyway, my players created quite a few and interesting characters during our times together, when we were discovering the many and varied dangers of the 41st Millenium. I want to tell you about a few of them. 1. Solomon Victus, a ruthless and ambitious arbitrator (played by Martin) Sometimes you just find the perfect artwork for a character. This picture just screams ...

A lot is happening right now in the RPG/wargaming world, so I've decided to share a few thoughts about various stuff, that's going on right now. What a time to be alive! I love that so much is going on, especially with relation to Warhammer and Games Workshop in general. First of all, we have "Total War: Warhammer 2" is just around the corner, and it looks just as good as the first game. I'm pretty sure that it will be as good too! I simply love that they've included not only Ulthuan and Naggaroth but Lustria as well, since Lizardmen are one of my all time favourite Warhammer races. I can already see the awesome DLC's as well - the undead pirates of the Vampire Coast, the Amazons and maybe even the fantastic Tichi-Huichi's Raiders. The possibilities are many, and these are just for Lustria. Imagine what Creative Assembly will be able to do with the eternal war between the two elven races. Hooooly shiiit!!! "TW: Warhammer 2" is not...

Some time ago I've decided to share a bunch of fan-made materials for WFRP. Now it's time for my 40K RPG's resource collection. I've played a couple of FFG's role-playing games, set in the grim darkness of the far future. Despite a rocky start (a shitty player was its cause), from the perspective of time I consider them good games. Sure they have a number of flaws, but all in all they're very decent titles and work well in introducing others to the universe of Warhammer 40,00. Not to mention that the Dark Heresy is a perfect way of showing people that the galaxy of 40K is more than just "only war". It's also about looking fabulous, even in a heavy rain! But I digress. Even tough the FFG's 40K titles are much younger than WFRP, fans from all around the world still created a lot of quality resources for these games. The now-defunct sites like Dark Reign and Roll for Heresy were a great source of hundreds of various, fan-made files for ...

For a few weeks now we know that Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay will return. GW sold the rights to their venerable RPG, and it looks like Cubicle7 will be the distributer of all things grim and perilous. But is it really a good thing? There's no doubt that WFRP is a timeless classic, no matter how you look at it. From the ancient, but still viable 1st edition, to the controversial, almost-like-a-board-game 3rd - this game raised thousands of avid roleplayers, over the course of a couple decades. Sadly, as its parent franchise got killed off, it too fell into oblivion. Long before the End Times, Fantasy Flight Games, which held the rights to the franchise, after Black Industries, ended their developement of the controversial 3rd edition. A few books and card decks (sigh) were only available on demand. Some time later, Games Workshop decided to withdraw their license from FFG and... it all went quiet. Until Licensing Expo 2016 in Las Vegas, where they were spotted, while they were offe...

Would you look at the time? It's rant-o-clock and now I'm going to speak about one of the most popular wargaming franchise ever made - Warhammer 40,000. I love WH40K. For me it's one of the most ineresting fictional settings out there. The right ammount of miliatry fiction, sci-fi, mysticism and humor, make it so goddamn awesome. It also has a major presence in popular media, like video games, which actually means that even non-players usually know what 40K is. Robbie MacNiven written in one of his blog posts that 40K is probably the biggest, fictional science fiction franchise aside from Star Wars, and I tend to agree. It's simply huge and fantastic. The world, the lore, the mythology, the endless possibilities for creating new stories and fantastic tales - Warhammer 40,000 has it all and more. I used to hate Dark Heresy with a passion, but only lately did I realised that with the ammount of background information, and the presentation of everyday life in the Imperi...

The biggest lie one can hear in today's world is that you can do anything, no matter what. This is true not only in real life, but also in various hobbies, including role-playing games. I love playing RPG's. This hobby really did gave me a lot of good things. I've met fantastic people, trained my imagination and greatly improved my self-esteem. Altough I always read a lot, my book count increased greatly, after I've begun to roleplay regularly. I could go on and on, how awesome this hobby is, but chances are that if you're reading this article, you already know this. You probably also know, that RPG's, just as any thing really, can be a source of intense frustration for everyone involved in them. From the so-called "problem players", about whom I'll write later, to the dreaded "Gamemaster's Withdrawal" - there are many things that can be extremy irritated about narrative games. For me, one in particular can be irksome: a player'...

Didn't had one of these in a while, so I've figured that I'd write one. Today I want to share with you my opinion on overthinking players and Gamemasters. In RPG's, just like in real life, people tend to overthink a lot of things. Even when there's a clear, straight path to the finish line, some folks will still opt to take the longer, winding road. Why's that? Why choose the more difficult way? "Because it's more interesting you Twit, it'll hurt more! (R.I.P. Alan Rickman)" I honestly have no friggin' clue, but I do know one thing: overthinking things can be disastrous. In my long and prosperous career as a Gamemaster, I've encountered many people who were too cunning for their own good, and eventually ran into self-made obstacles or even death traps. Because that's what happens when you try to be too smart for your own good - you end up screwed, literally, by yourself. I can think of a couple of examples. One time...

And now for something completely different. I've decided to talk about an issue that is very commong in RPG's - reinventing the wheel. Every Gamemaster out there knows that familiar feeling of euphoria after successfuly running their very first game. You suddendly realize that memorizing all the details, the drawing of maps, memorizing every detail about various NPC's - that it was all worth your effort. Then comes the inevitable idea of making your own adventure, or even camapign! After all if you've ran your first module without breaking a sweat, then it shouldn't be that hard to make one of your own, right? It sure is Generally yeah, it's true. However there is a one, very distinctive trap, that most new GM's (myself included) usually fall to. I call it the reinvention of the wheel and it can really put a dent on your gamemastering for a very long time, if not forever. So let's say that you've discovered a brand new game system, fell i...

I couldn't help myself and decided to start yet another category on my blog, focusing on role-playing games. I've been into RPG's for more than 20 years now, and during that time I've learned a lot about PnP's. Why not share some of that knowledge with others? Bear in mind that this articles will be long and rant-like so prepare yourself for some heavy reading. I hope you'll find my opinions both entertaining and usefull, should you ever decide yourself to try some good old fashioned PnP. One of the things I love the most about RPG's is being the Gamemaster, or GM as we are sometimes called. This mainly stems from the opportunity to create your own world, where you can do whatever the hell you like. Also I suck at playing. No really, I'm a terrible player whose every character is basically the same, no matter what system I end up in, and in the end I tend to do goofy stuff like headbutting important officials or ripping rat's throats. Also...