What I'd Do, Warhammer Edition

Back in May 2019 Games Workshop was looking for a new CEO. I had some ideas of what I would do if I was CEO and re-reading them they were mostly crap. What I'd do now that I'm older and wiser i have some other ideas that may be mostly crap but...

I'd create a skirmish game. I know they already have a few like Mordheim to start with so most of the work is done. The problem is their previous skirmish games have been stand-alone. Buy it and Games Workshop never supported it. I'd support the game with campaigns full of modules like every RPG system does. This breaks down the cost of each, allows a stream of new products to draw attention, and means the newbie doesn't need a massive army to start playing as they do with Warhammer Fantasy Battle. For example: 

The Dwarven Vault campaign is about a Dwarven vault being besieged by Goblinoids. Each module would have 20ish miniatures. Different modules would cover different regions of the vault. The first could be fighting over the mines and crypts in the lower levels of the vault, a second is around the ore smelting furnaces, the third is fight in the great hall. So if you bought them in order you'd have a lot of mini's by the time you got to that big battle in the great hall. Each module would have some special tactical issues to deal with and a few additional miniatures. 

The Mordheim Campaign would do the same thing but use different parts of the city with different factions. The work has mostly been done on Mordheim already so this would be cheap and easy follow-up.

Continue that until you've given a taste of all of the major Warhammer Fantasy armies. Then when folks basically have built up a few armies over time the cost of putting together a Fantasy Army will be trivial.

I'd stop the silly lawfare Games Workshop has been waging against everybody (as if they own the term Space Marine, please) and release the skirmish game under the Creative Commons license and let others create content (knowing my, that is Games Workshop miniatures are the best and folks would buy them to play out these other games). Probably crazy but that's what I'd do.

Some thoughts on 5E

I was a little late getting into 5E. My players and I cut our teeth on AD&D so that is something to think about during this post. Also for the first few sessions every player wanted a fighter (the most popular character class in polls as well) which creates a somewhat unique dynamic. A group of four fighters, two of which are archers, provides a pretty devastating attack.

My players prefer to get increases in to hit rather than the fiddly benefits at each level. They were constantly reminding each other not to forget class features. It all felt meta gaming and I didn't like it. Also it adds a level of complexity to the GM who has to keep track of what they can do. This I think dates back to AD&D when your fighter got better at fighting, and there were no extras per level.

This next complaint is not a 5E issue but an issue with every game. After a particularly successful mission the players were the toast of the village they saved. Playing out the events of carousing are dull and awkward. Also going door to door looking for plot hooks as seems to be expected in Lost Mines of Phandelin is dull and stupid. It would be much better to mix the two. Have the players take out the Redbrand Ruffians and then while drinking the rumors come to them.  A Carousing mechanic would work easily enough handle the celebration and hand out rumors. Then the players can have a more targeted search for info the next day when sober again. Carousing tables were a fun idea but they are just under-used when used for experience (or just used for experience). 

Another one that is not strictly 5E, but... I thought I liked platform leveling. That is mission complete you go up a level. This avoids counting XP like a bookkeeper. I'm a GM not a bookkeeper! But we had a session where two players didn't make it. They may join half way into this next adventure. So do they go up when the group goes up, that doesn't seem fair.

Lastly, for now at least, 5E and Lost Mines level the PCs up too quickly. I think if the pace of leveling slowed down the players might get a chance to get use to their new Class Features each level instead of just collecting them and forgetting about them.

Some Thoughts on Roll20

We continue to have problems with the video and audio. It seems random. Everyone can hear everyone and then a lot of I can't hear Mike, Mike are you there. The new kid in the group says people use Discord at the same time to handle these problems. I've heard about Discord servers but never paid much attention so I'm gonna let him figure it out for all of us.

Roll20 has a problem with NPCs. If I try to roll Initiative for the NPC Cleric and then try to roll Initiative for the enemy Goblins it will often over-write the Clerics initiative with the new roll. Closing and opening the Goblin Character sheet right before I roll their initiative seems to work but it shouldn't require that.  I also not sure I like that all Goblins share the same initiative in the Initiative tracker, I'd at least like the option to split the goblins into two groups and have each roll initiative. 

I really don't like that all Goblins share the same sheet (and all the ruffians share, and all the Orcs share) and have the same weapons, armor, and HP. This is really an issue with 5E and the way Lost Mines was literally translated exactly as written and it would have been nice to mix up the weapons and armor and hit points. 

The group went into Cragma castle, while it was still daylight out, hoping to catch some Orcs asleep. The Dynamic Lighting for Roll20 isn't really set up to handle light on the outside coming in. Or I simply don't know how to do it which is very likely. So I have a Dwarf NPC with a light that I moved around outside to make light come through windows and such. Hardly ideal but serviceable.

We found out that if you roll a critical hit the result shows in green which is really nice. Also we figured out how to turn on automatically roll damage and critical hit damage which is also very nice.

A few years ago I read a blog post called Dungeon Brawls about having encounters pile on instead of waiting in their rooms for the players. I really liked this and Roll20 makes this super easy for a GM to manage. The GM just has to be careful to not overwhelm the players. That means prep them, if necessary, about tactical consideration like choke points and difficult terrain and such so they can use it to their advantage. Also keeping an eye on HPs so they don't get wiped out without a chance. It really makes for a funner, and more believable combat when enemy reinforcements start arriving.