Coffee, Code, and Chronicles

The fire had begun to earn its keep by the time Josef reappeared with bread and bowls of something dark and thick. Jost had claimed the hearth without asking permission. His boots were off, his cloak steamed, and he had added three logs to the coals before anyone could object. Beside him, Janderke shifted his weight, his eyes tracking the innkeeper as if chewing on a question. “Herr Haarig," Janderke finally said, when Josef set the bowls down. “The men said there's a prisoner here. Some outlaw?" Josef's whole posture changed at the question. He straightened, wiping his hands on his apron with the particular pride of a man who'd been waiting all evening to be asked. “That's right. Heinz Gerber himself, locked up out back near the privy. A bounty hunter brought him in. Lars, he calls himself. Been raiding this stretch of the Stir the better part of four months, that one." He glanced between them. “Roadwardens come in two days to see him hanged proper....

I am currently editing the prologue for a new adventure serial here on the blog. This piece serves as a prelude to my upcoming guest post for the AtoZ Challenge in September. While that guest post is already drafted, I realized it would benefit from a practical demonstration of a creative process driven by the friction of randomness using Tabletop RPG (TTRPG) mechanics. While this method is not new, I hope to introduce it to writers looking to leverage externalized prompts to resolve story outcomes. Set in the grim “Old World" of Warhammer, the prologue introduces Jost Oberholtzer, a fatherly fisherman, and Janderke “Jan" Steuben, a young boatman. Jan owns a small rowboat on the River Stir, frequently taking Jost to well-known watering holes near Tauer, their small village on the border of Talabecland and Stirland. When severe weather forces them on a week-long journey nearly 100 miles from home, Jost must guide and mentor Jan as the young man is thrust into the cutthroat, da...

A decade ago I probably blogged “C is for Career," or discussed Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay's Character development systems and subsystems—“subsystems?!, yes, subsystems, especially in newer editions." Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP) is unique for character advancement in many Table-Top Role Playing Games (TTRPGs). Most will be familiar with the phrase “leveling up." Character levels in a Character archetype, or “class," is ubiquitous in TTRPGs and even in video games. Since WFRP's introduction in 1986, when I first encountered the game in my Friendly Local Gaming Store (FLGS), where I also happened to work, WFRP stood out with Career-based advancement. There were games before it that hinted at the use of career advancement. Traveller's 1977 ruleset used a “lifepath system" famous for player's characters dying during creation. Traveller's “lifepath system" is beloved and some gaming conventions even host Traveller Character Creation ev...

 Niklos Kaunitz Tales and the Game Mechanics The Tail and The Bridge is a narrative crafted from the events of a recent game of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, fourth edition (WFRP4e). Niklos Kaunitz is my player-character, PC for short. The in-game narrative around Niklos is much more than just this first tale. We've been playing for more than a year. WFRP is built around a fantasy, pseudo-Germanic, 15th-16th century world populated by Elves, Dwarves, Men, Halflings, Magic, Gods, and a menagerie  beasts and humanoids. The game is almost as old as Dungeons and Dragons, but its world is largely a singular narrative cf.  D&D's multiverse. The game is billed as A Grim World of Perilous Adventure . It's not low fantasy nor is it high fantasy. It is "mud and blood" to borrow a phrase from my favorite WFRP "actual play" podcast of the same name . WFRP's character mechanics are built on "careers." It is the stand out difference from many other Rol...