How would you do grim portents?

[u/massibum]

I'm reading the books and I love the idea of Grim Portents. However it says they're one campaign... how long would you run this? Spread it thinner with sidequests? Or if the players really wanna keep their characters, put a hook in the end that connects to other dark forces/grim portents? I'd love to make it a bit sandboxy/monster of the week (or year, by the rate we're playing), so the players over time take on a string of various forces that want to influence the old world. Anybody else have thoughts on how they wanna run their game?

[u/Spartancfos]

I have a plan for a campaign, and I very much think the Grim Portent is like a Session 0. The players are establishing their characters, and the GM is establishing their smorgasbord of threats (or rather an initial hook).

I would probably only have one Grim Portent in the sense of having one be a slightly more narrative, almost cut-scene introduction. But the principles of the Portent echoing through the adventure would always be in play, even when the Dark Threads lead to other threats - each threat should be introduced, hinted at, built up and then constantly adding slight tension during downtime.

I can see no reason this wouldn't work with a sandbox / west marches style game based around Taalagad.

I think the main thing I would be wary of is that characters should have an on and off ramp with a reasonable time scale. I haven't drilled down on the mechanics in a way that I am confident in saying where the line should be drawn, but like many games, I expect higher-level play will be tricky to run meaningful threats, and to avoid everyone developing careers into strange and silly directions. Which is a big WFRP problem IMO. You start normal, but inevitably you need to become some version of Sigmars special boy, or a combat beast, wizard etc.

[u/massibum → u/Spartancfos]

Ah ok. So you’d run all the steps of the portent as a collab improv-like session? I thought that was just the intro and then you have actual scenarios for the other steps?

[u/massibum → u/massibum]

Sorry, I misread. Yes the actual happening is a sesh 0, and then sprinkle various portent-related scenarios over the campaign.

[u/Spartancfos → u/massibum]

Basically yeah. My intention is that, during each Downtime, there will be hints and foreshadowing of the upcoming threats, and then the Players obviously will have an opportunity to take action against these threats.

[u/Spartancfos → u/massibum]

I did my first one as a lighter session, essentially. There were still mechanics and rules. I used that as a tutorial, honestly.

My view on the Portent is that it is more of a design philosophy. The idea is that the game has this touchstone that we keep referring back to, which ties into the Dark Threads and the wider setting stuff.

[u/Graccus1330]

I ran a first session where the players were captured during a festival and were carted off to be sacrificed in a ritual. A member of the hexengarde disrupted the ritual, but most of the cultists escaped.

Now they're hunting the evil, before it can enact revenge on them, or compete their ritual with other victims.

The dark patron that was being summoned is not forgiving and sends other assets to get his revenge. The dark patron is in league with the beastmen, so the city is not safe and neither are the roads outside of it.

[u/Express_Coyote_4000]

I think it's pretty free-form. The GP could entail Session 0 plus one session, or plus an adventure, or a side-campaign to the main, or be the main campaign itself.

I'd tend to the second option, because I don't want to force a story onto the campaign. GP happens, oh no we have to do something, get to it, on to the world.

[u/massibum → u/Express_Coyote_4000]

Yeah, I don't exactly want the GP to be like a main thing, but I definitely think it's a good way to get into the world

[u/benbatman]

I like the idea of a Grim Portent and like the idea of it having both a narrative (enemies watching from the shadows that can be used to move the story along) and also a mechanical one (the fates of the party are intertwined! they can't be more than a mile away from each other at any point without becoming terribly sick - perhaps this is due to a curse or some other foul magic). This gives the snooty noble a reason to hang out with the slovenly rat catcher in a dodgy river port, and it gives them a grander motivation (break the curse!) that they can all work towards.