Difference between revisions of "Talk:WHFRP Reboot"

Revision as of 12:04, 1 August 2007

--Matts 16:33, 31 July 2007 (MST)Cleaned up the old discussion.

Two things: First, the group should have a relatively common goal, or better yet, shouldn't neccesarily have a goal. It's my job as the GM to ensure that the plot hooks the group collectively and the characters individually. It's your job when making a character to make my job possible. If your goal is "Rule the world", or "Turn the moon into my balls", then you'd better have ready for me more attainable short-term mechanisms by which I can hook your character, and you'd also better accept that such a grand goal may be out of the scope of this campaign (may be). If need be, I'll reccomend some Spiritual Attributes that make sense for your character and also hook in to the plot, though, you're free to change those at any point.

But I've got little tolerance for in-group squabbles, and the Western Empire, dangerous a place as it is, doesn't allow much room for discord. Fair warning; adventurers adventure together because the world is a dangerous place. Successful (ie alive) adventurers come to some base level of understanding quickly, because to argue a point about honor with bandits bearing down on you is as good as a buy-one-get-one-free coupon to Morr.

Second, you're all smugglers, right? Well here's your starting point, at least the starting point for the prologue: Wissenland is a haven for smugglers; ships that leave tilea are invariably taxed the ports they put into, but the passes over the mountains between Tilea and Wissenland and the Border Princes are innumerable. It's difficult, but sometimes worth it, to bring goods through the mountains rather than by sea, and it's also easier to avoid customs posts.

Kreutzhofen is a small town that serves as something of a smuggler's clearinghouse; goods are often purchased from freelancers here, or stockpiled by major operators, before shipping them downriver to Nuln and the large markets there. Word is, to anyone who listens hard enough, that there's a man there named Gunter Golbsfahren, and he needs some help working his ferries.

Feel free to riff on that stuff if working for a guy named Golbsfahren doesn't sound like what you want to be doing at the start of the prologue.

--Edmiao 10:42, 30 July 2007 (MST) Having not recieved any return input, I pose again the question of what kind of dudes are we?

• smugglers for illicit goods: really bad stuff like drugs and chaos artifact or chaos magic supplies.
• smugglers for illicit goods: not bad stuff, for example religous supplies from non-altdorf approved religions.
• smugglers of legitimate items avoiding tarrifs and taxes: fine goods from araby that are hard to find and taxed heavily, rugs, spices, jewelry.....
• Robin Hoodish: the noble smuggler bringing in some necesities of life to sell to poor folks who can't afford the huge taxes placed by the empire. medical supplies and educational materials are taxed at huge rates in order to keep the peasantry suppressed, and the group smuggles these and sell them at more affordable prices.
• dirty dock hands who will work for any old smuggler or pirate like Gunter Golbsfahren who will pay us coin, we care not for anything but getting a gold coin at days end.

--Matts 17:42, 31 July 2007 (MST)Illicit goods are:

• books of heretical or dangerous knowledge
• seditious letters or texts
• heathen religious items
• chaos artifacts(Though you don't want to smuggle those, believe me...)
• weapons(to ship weapons is something reserved only for the Imperial military; most weapons are smithed on-site in a town)
• psychoactive drugs
• poisons
• strange or exotic livestock (ie, baby manticores, tigers, crocodiles, etc)
• raw gold

Licit goods that generally get smuggled through Wissenland to avoid tarrifs:

• Wines (tilean wines are valuable and highly taxed to Reikland wines favored amongst the Inner Empire's nobles)
• Cheeses
• tobacco
• other spirits
• books (books are generally subject to thorough inspection at a customs point; the time of the scribe must be compensated, and sometimes the closest scribe is a week's journey distant)
• jewelry
• textiles
• livestock,especially horses (traditionally, the best horse from every 10 is the tax on horses; this keeps the breeding stocks of the Imperial Equites replenished)

--Dieter the Bold 11:04, 1 August 2007 (MST) I vote no animals, peoples, poison or chaos artefacts. I think a primary focus on 'licit-but-avoiding-tarrifs' smuggling would be nice, with a little of the illicit thrown in when the money's too good. Drugs and weapons seem like a (relatively) safe thing, gold and books seem like they could really call down the heat. I'm not too worried about dealing with the fuzz, but the Inquisition (heretical books) and Imperial spies (gold, maybe weapons) are more than I want to be tangling with. So I'd vote we're either an independent crew that engages in some collective bargaining to establish ground rules with Golbfahren, or we don't ask questions but discourage Golbfahren from using us to move certain items.