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The Enemy Within (Warhammer FRP) 5.44
Our group finally reaches the military picket line, protecting the realm from the chaotic forces of the Brass Keep, but are rather concerned about the state of affairs. Although the leadership accepts their presence, the group is restricted to the camp, and forbidden from exploration beyond the lines, leading to some investigation within the camps. A few new plots and mysteries are discovered, but before much detail can be determined, events to unfold. From the Brass Keep, world-changing events are started, changing the direction and urgency of the group.
Of note, we are slightly altering the house rules again, specifically around the presence of NPC character “hirelings” and the use of Battle Tongue. In the case of NPCs – quite a few careers include a requirement to have a band of NPCs. For example, a Wizard is required to have an apprentice. In the past, we have handled this as a need to have an NPC “pet”, who has to be leveled up successfully in order to fulfill the requirement. Small scale, this works. For our group though, it tends to bulk out the group extensively – with at times having 12+ characters in the group.
As of this session, we have changed that policy, and discontinued NPC characters. Instead, we will determine personal quests and tasks needed for each career, which will be tuned to the story instead. This prevents the character bloat, but still covers the intent of a requirement for advancement. As such, early in this session the Road-Warden troops were retired from the group.
The other change is with Battle Tongue. Previous mechanics restricted the group from open discussion during combat – untrained characters are too distracted to effectively coordinate unless they have Battle Tongue skill. That worked but has led to non-intuitive cases. Instead, our new mechanic is that conversation during combat is perfectly fine – any such statements are assumed to be in Reikspiel and said out loud by the characters. That means that although players can coordinate, it also means that any foes can understand the conversation as well and will naturally react to such conversation.
Battle Tongue, in order to provide a value, instead becomes a “party shorthand” language, allowing whatever that specific character to say to be not able to be understood by enemies. Party members can understand the conversation automatically, regardless of if they have Battle Tongue themselves or not. Thus, in our group, anything the Wizard states is “secret”, but anything anyone else states is open for opponent reaction.
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