Winds of Chaos

Over the past two years this site has never been very far from my mind, but unfortunately I have had next to no time to devote to it. I keep hoping I’ll scare up some moments to finish the first chapter of my 2nd Ed campaign “Stones & Sigils,” but so far it hasn’t worked out and this site has remained silent.

Fortunately, Seann McAnally has come through with a very useful tool: a convenient online critical hit generator, complete with critical effects compiled from this site. Try it out, kick the tires a bit, and let us know what you think. Thanks, Seann!

So I’ve been looking around for ways to expand the site’s offerings without compromising the quality of the site. The perfect solution hit when Seann McAnally emailed me about Masquerade of Horrors, his award-winning entry for the 2005 BI Scenario Contest. He sent me a revised and updated version, which is up right now on the Scenario page, ready to be downloaded and enjoyed.

He’s hinted at sending me more scenarios in the near future, which given the quality of Masquerade of Horrors, I’d be honored to host as well. You might help encourage this process by leaving him some feedback on Masquerade in the comments.

Wolph42 has sent me updates on some of his useful tools, including Ex Libris, 3 versions of his Inn Generator (2 for PC and 1 for Mac), and a new version of the Trade Tool. These tools are pretty polished, so further updates should be few and far between. Apparently, the new Ex Libris generates a “GUI Library” for players, and the Inn Generator contains a room builder with groups of people and descriptions.

So check out the updated versions in the Downloads Section!

Remember when Black Industries had a yearly WFRP scenario contest? Well, Strike to Stun is hosting one for 2009 and I’m a judge! Head on over to the StS Contest Page for more information.

Here’s hoping we get a ton of entries!

I spent the last week elbow-deep in code, adding the material from Dave Graffam’s Encroachment of Chaos site. You can find it all under the new, aptly-named “Encroachment” tab, along the site’s link bar above. Or you can just go here and start downloading all of Dave’s WFRP v2 goodness.

I think the addition of Dave’s material makes Winds of Chaos one of the best one-stop resource sites for WFRP v2 on the net. Based on that, and the feedback I’ve received from all of you, I’ve decided to keep the site online for the foreseeable future. In addition, I’m thinking about doing something special for the WFRP v2 community. So keep your eye out here in the next week or two for another exciting announcement.

I really don’t know what to make of the new system from FFG. I doubt I’ll buy it, and that makes playing or GMing it nearly impossible. So, what happens to this site, which has been dormant for over a year?

I don’t know. I’ll probably keep it online, although I’ll have to transfer it back to my previous hosting service in a few months. I may dust off my old Stones & Sigils campaign and begin work on it again, now that there won’t be any more official supplements for WFRP v2.

Maybe I’m just getting too old, and the hobby I loved along with my favorite game within it is passing me by. Maybe younger fans will take up the torch. I’m just not sure I care all that much any more. A few years ago I was keenly interested in the v1 vs v2 debate. Now, even the thought of debating the relative strengths and weaknesses of any of the WFRP incarnations is enough to make me nauseated. I mean, I suppose I understand FFG’s need for peripherals like cards and proprietary dice in this age of digital piracy, but I don’t understand why FFG’s customers would need them.

I wish FFG success. Who knows? Maybe custom dice, interlocking cards with “sockets,” and party tension meters are the wave of the future, and not merely the last gasp of print media desperately trying to avoid being replaced by digital.

Good news everyone! Two more tools from Wolph42 today. This time the excel spreadsheets are based on two of Henrik Gronberg’s Liber Fanatica articles from the GM Toolshed.

The first is a book generator, complete with, among other things, quality of writing, age, condition, notable features, and peculiarities of penmanship. It’s perfect for the GM constantly put on the spot by players searching through libraries or (gasp!) private homes.

The second is something we’ve seen before in another form: Henrik’s Inn Generator. This tool is extremely handy for those of us who don’t have internet access while GMing and so are limited to offline tools. It will generate the name, type of establishment, size, costs, what the inn is known for, and even random “inn-cidents.”

Both tools can be found in the Downloads section.

Wolph42 has developed a few tools for the computer-savvy WFRP Gamesmaster who owns a copy of Microsoft’s Excel. The first is a trade tool based on the rules found in “Death on the Reik,” complete with MadAlfred’s Imperial and non-Imperial Gazetteers (used with permission). The second tool is handy for keeping track of large combats, quickly resolving blind opposed tests, and quite a bit else.

Check them out in the Downloads section!

Have your PCs ever stood in front of a tavern, squinting at the shingle to read the faded print, while you cast about in a desperate search for an appropriately WFRPish name for that establishment?

joe.caffeinated does you one better. He constructs the entire inn for you, complete with number of beds, price of food and drink, and even gives ideas for events within — based on Henrik Gronberg’s wonderfully detailed Liber Fanatica article and the fantasy names found at hackslash.net, all wrapped in a gorgeous Web 2.0 interface.

So head on over to Inns of the Empire and kick the tires. It’s the kind of thing I wish I had back when I was actively GMing, and it’s one of the first places I’ll go when I take it up again.

Josef recently sent me a rough draft of his work in progress, a revision and expansion of his prior Critical Hit Charts, which were already amazingly detailed. Instead of hunting through multiple pages of various forum threads, you can find it in the Downloads Section, or here as a direct link.

Keep in mind this is only a preliminary version. I’ll keep you posted on the final version, as soon as I hear from Josef.