July to September Rotation

In 1981 a game called Castle Amber was released by TSR to be run with the Expert D&D set. In a nutshell the characters get stuck in a mysterious mansion and have to find their way out.

Castle Amber has been updated to 5th edition and is described as the perfect old-school “funhouse dungeon”. However, I can assure you that Pat Sharp will not be making an appearance!

Follow this link for further information about the game.

I have a couple of ideas for a game next rotation and thought I would see if there was any interest in either of them.

As most of the game s run over the last couple of rotations have been D&D I thought I would see if there was any interest in a sort of “try a game” rotation.

I thought three settings , three systems in three months might be fun.

If there is interest I thought I would run Call of Cthulhu D100, Conan 2D20 and Traveler 2D6.

Each month would be character creation and a simple scenario for each system / setting.

Alternatively happy to run a Pulp Cthulhu game if there is more interest in that.

I have the Two Headed Serpent partially prepped for another group so could easily run that but it may need two rotations if that is possible depending on how things progress.

Travelling to the City of Nuln a group of adventures form, their desire to make connections, get employment and more importantly, earn some Crowns being all too enticing. Finding a job in the city of opportunity isn't too hard, but the deep swill of the city's heart is as dark and rotten as the dangers it contains. How will you face these dangers and flourish with your lives, body and mind intact?

WFRP 4e uses a D100 system with bonuses for targets, D10s are recommended. The system itself is mid/high-fantasy and far more brutal than D&D. Prepare to lose stats, fingers, limbs, sanity and characters on your adventure. It would be recommended to have a basic understanding of the lore at a high level, there are plenty of resources around for free that can be read in a few minutes

Background

The Warhammer world drew inspiration from Tolkien's Middle-earth, but also from Robert E Howard (Conan the Barbarian) and Michael Moorcock, as well as history, particularly European history. What is recognizable as the Warhammer World began with the expansion material to the first edition of the game Warhammer, but was formulated as a distinct setting with a world map in the second edition. The Warhammer World borrowed considerably from historical events and other fantasy fiction settings. The Old World is recognisably Europe approximating to a variety of historical periods including the Renaissance - the Empire being set over what is modern Germany - medieval France, Roman Italy and Celtic Britain. Many events are lifted and modified directly from real-world history, including the Black Plague and the Moorish invasion of Spain, and others from original fantasy sources. Like Middle-earth, Warhammer's Dwarfs are declining in population, the Elves have mostly departed for homelands in the West, and a Great Necromancer is reborn after the defeats in his Southern stronghold.

Races and Nations There are numerous nations and races in the Warhammer World. Mankind, the most prominent, often proves to be the most susceptible to the corrupting influence of Chaos. Most of the featured human nations are based in the Old World (analogous to real world Europe): The Empire (Holy Roman Empire), Bretonnia (France and King Arthur), and Kislev (Russia). Further east of them is another powerful human civilisation known as Grand Cathay (corresponding to China). Many factions, such as the Elves, the Lizardmen, the Ogres and the Halflings, have been created by the Old Ones: star-travelling gods responsible for the creation of most of the setting's sentient races. These Old Ones were brought low by the daemonic forces inadvertently unleashed by the collapse of their Warp Gates (one on the North Pole and one on the South Pole), leaving their creations to fend for themselves. This backstory also provides an easy explanation for the presence of a variety of familiar fantasy races. Ogres and Halflings, for example, are closely related. Both are resistant to the mutating effects of Chaos energies (fuelled by hearty appetites and efficient metabolisms), but have opposite physical templates.

The Elves were the first civilized race to walk the Warhammer world. Brought into creation by the Old Ones, the Elves showed a natural talent for magic and superlative martial skill. The once thriving civilization of the Elves was torn asunder many thousands of years ago by a bitter civil war, resulting in the sundering of the race into three distinct kindreds: the evil, twisted Dark Elves, the proud, noble and magical High Elves who continue the ancient traditions from before the sundering, and a third group as the rustic, sylvan and mysterious Wood Elves. The High Elves inhabit the magical island of Ulthuan (analogous to Atlantis), while the Dark Elves inhabit the continent of Naggaroth (correspondent to North America in the real world), a desolate icy wilderness and the Wood Elves live in the forests of Athel Loren in the Old World. Many races have fallen to, or been corrupted by Chaos. The barbaric Warriors of Chaos (formerly called "Hordes of Chaos") invade the civilized nations from the far northern Chaos Wastes. Beastmen, the human-animal hybrid products of Chaos are found in the dark forests of the entire Warhammer world.

The Chaos forces are the personified flaws of sapient beings; the inner daemons of living things come back through a magic medium as literal daemons to torment and kill. The ultimate victory of these forces is often hinted at, highlighting a strong assumption that sentient beings are fundamentally flawed and will eventually bring about their own destruction via the forces of Chaos. The possibility of the victory of Chaos is a major theme in the End Times campaign. Dwarfs are an ancient, gritty, and determined race integral in the founding of the Empire. Dwarfs are the greatest craftsmen in the Warhammer World, a skill largely matched by the Chaos Dwarfs who split from their brothers after being corrupted by Chaos. In the jungles of the Lustria continent (Central and South America) are the Lizardmen who were created by the Old Ones to aid in their great works. The Slann, who act as leaders and priests, now lead the Lizardmen blindly, via ancient prophesies containing almost incomprehensible instructions left by the Old Ones. The culture and aesthetic of the Lizardmen are heavily inspired by those of the Aztec and Mayan cultures.

Orcs and Goblins, and their kin (also known as Greenskins), are relatively primitive and disorganized, but their instinctive belligerence threatens the various nations. Their violent nature commonly causes wars against not only the neighboring peoples, but also their own kind. They are found predominantly in the forests and mountains of the Old World, as well in the jungles to the south and stretched across the steppes to the East, but their kin can be found all over the world, inhabiting almost all continents and adapting to their environments. Thus there are many sub-species of Orcs and Goblins such as Black Orcs and Night Goblins. Living underneath much of the known world are the Skaven, diabolical ratmen living in a subterranean dog-eat-dog machiavellian society, called the "Under-empire". They are divided into clans such as Clan Eshin, master assassins, or Clan Skryre, master engineers. It is believed that they are so numerous that if they worked together they would be able to destroy the world, however their innate predilection for cowardice and betrayal makes long term cooperation unlikely.

Besides these, there are the Undead, who are a result of the black sorceries of the first necromancer, Nagash, in the long distant past. His legacy has left the Tomb Kings, who are the resurrected armies of the first human civilisation, in the hot desert lands of Nehekhara to the south of the Old World (based on Ancient Egypt), the Vampire Counts in the Old World (based upon Dracula which is set in Transylvania), the zombie pirates of Luthor Harkon's Vampire Coast found on the eastern coast of Lustria (based on stereotypical pirates of the 18th century), and Nagash in his own city of undead. Prior to Games Workshop retconning the backstory, there was previously a unified Undead Army.

Horizon is a Science Fiction adventure set on the wreckage of an intergalactic colony vessel. The starship Horizon was stricken by disaster long ago, when one of the SENTINEL supercomputers that ran the ship went rogue.

The characters may be colonists recently awakened from cryosleep, or descendants of the crew that somehow managed to survive.

Think of it as The Poseidon Adventure in space, except the ship is an intergalactic colony vessel 54km long.

Much of the ship is uninhabitable, or infested with killer robots or cannibalistic savages called 'vent rats'. Most survivors live in fortified communities with infrequent contact and trade between them.

Now there is a new threat to the ship, the robots are on the move, the vent rat tribes are amassing.

Simple survival is not enough, it's time to solve the mysteries of what happened to the ship, and find out if it ever reached it's destination.

It's time to fight for Horizon.

The game system is a lightweight system rolling a few D6s somewhat inspired by GUMSHOE and World of Dungeons.