The Inside Scoop on Gaming

(This is an old review I found hanging around on my hard drive, originally posted on the WFRP email list - Luke)

Having now read the whole of the new Marienburg book through from cover to cover, I now feel qualified to comment on it more fully. Overall, I have to say I'm very impressed. The style and layout is first rate and Anthony's writing style is very accessible.

Unlike a couple of other reviewers I've seen on the Internet, I personally liked the cover a lot. It has a very crisp and clean feel to it and it has a unique style to immediately set the book apart from others on the shelf.

When I first saw the map, I was disappointed. Although it is very pretty, it didn't seem very functional. I did enjoy the description of it on p156 - it's a common style for maps to be presented as though they had been drawn in-game, but that's the first time I'd seen a write-up for one aswell. However, now that I've been through the whole book, I have to agree with what appears to be a common consensus - that the partial maps in the book have come out too dark and are not functional enough. For me, the Middenheim map is probably the best example I've seen (although even that didn't have street names annotated).

BTW, before I forget - congratulations Anthony! I was expecting you to have smuggled a Snotling into the city somehow, and I wasn't disappointed, you achieved it with great aplomb. I laughed out loud when reading that section :-)

I found the background pages at the front very educational. There was a lot of information in them but it was presented in an entertaining way and certainly wasn't as dry and stilted as I expected.

Additional rules were presented in a good way e.g. the trial procedures on p42, trading in stocks and shares on p62 - this was done in a very rules-light manner which made it clear that the roleplaying of the situation was more important than rolling dice on a long series of tables like some other games/books do - the Middenheim crime procedures by comparison seem terribly long-winded.

It's a shame that there wasn't room for more descriptions of the Wards and Boroughs - and their locations and NPCs. Only 7 out of a possible 16 wards were described and none of the 13 boroughs. Admittedly some details were presumably left vague for GW-political reasons e.g. the Indic district. This means that Marienburg adventures are restricted in scope to the areas mentioned - either that or the GM will have to put a lot of effort in to detail other areas that PCs might venture into. However, in some ways it's a good move not to have included *any* details because it does, in effect, leave a completely blank canvas for future publications or a GM's own material.

I really enjoyed the majority of the NPCs and the locations. Some were unusual and different, others were well-written versions of old stereotypes (I mean, just *how* different is it possible to make the description of a city watchmen?). This was all well written material, with some hidden secrets and GM-only info and lots of interesting stories about all the featured people/places. In fact, this wealth of detail made it even more of a pity that there wasn't room to have covered more of the city.

My biggest gripe has to be the NPC profiles - IMHO, they were too high! I don't know about anybody else, maybe I prefer my games to be particularly un-heroic? I'd like feedback on what everybody else feels but here are a few examples of where I found unfeasibly powerful NPCs. For example, I found 13 cases of Very Strong and 13 cases of Very Resilient from a selection of approx 60 NPCs (depends if you count ghosts, snotlings, etc for the stats) which to me means that almost 25% of the population are Very Strong and 25% Very Resilient (a few lucky ones were both) which IMHO is an abnormally high proportion!

These skills result in some fairly high stats where IMHO they don't belong e.g. a Priestess of Manaan with T5 and A2? A mage with WS55, T5, A2? A merchant dwarf with T7? A physician with WS49, S5, I64? A pedlar with WS48, S5?

This then means that "tough" guys have to be upped a couple of notches to compete e.g. watch sergeant with WS51, S6, T6, A2? (admittedly a dwarf) The worst of all IMHO was a so-called "typical" jailer with both Very Strong and Very Resilient - doesn't sound very "typical" to me! All I can say is, avoid combat in Marienburg!!!

Actually, to be honest, now that I've actually looked back through the NPCs comparing the stats, there aren't *that* many which are freakily high, it's just that the average seems to work out rather high, there's an awful lot of S5, T5 and/or A2 stats there for non-fighter NPCs.

Also, I thought the magic items were a bit boring. There seemed to be a fair few "Bags of Middenheim" (from Apocrypha Now) floating around. Surely it would have been more original to have come up with a "Bag of Marienburg" perhaps, with suitably different properties?

Overall though, I find it a lot easier to tweak the stats to my preference than the descriptions - the NPCs background info is so well written that I can forgive having to downgrade a few stats here and there.

There was a couple of NPCs that I would have liked more info on but I guess we'd need a Realms of Sorcery supplement to describe them properly - the Haan brothers - there is no games descriptions of *how* they enchant their products, neither of them even had any likely sounding skills or spells?

Finally, there is an interesting Initiate of Shallya who is an ex-Bounty Hunter and ex-Pit Fighter! I hope that he wasn't very successful at either of those careers because the WFRP rulebook p200 states that "no character who has ever taken a human life, even accidentally, may become an Initiate of Shallya". Without re-starting the Shallya debate, I wonder what everybody else thinks of this discrepancy - I assume a Bounty Hunter or Pit Fighter must surely have killed somebody at some point in their career?

I was expecting a lot more of the Marienburg material from the old White Dwarfs to have been included but the only place I recognised was the Pelicans Perch - and even that was a stripped down and revised version. I guess I'll have to dig out the relevant White Dwarfs next time I'm in my parents' attic and see else what I can find...

Last, but not least, I enjoyed the included scenario a lot. It's certainly not your run-of-the-mill WFRP adventure and you'd have to be sure it's the kind of thing your group would like before you ran it.

To summarise, a very well written book with high production standards and lots of good background and descriptions. The only gripes were the low functionality of the map, the lack of coverage of parts of the city and the NPC stats being, on average, too high IMHO.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Marienburg: Sold Down The River
Author: Anthony Ragan Category: game Company/Publisher: Hogshead Publishing Line: WFRP Cost: £15 Page count: 160 ISBN: 1 899749 14 4 SKU: HP208 Capsule Review by Luke Twigger on 05/15/00. Genre tags: Fantasy	(This is an old review I found hanging around on my hard drive, originally posted on the WFRP email list - Luke) Having now read the whole of the new Marienburg book through from cover to cover, I now feel qualified to comment on it more fully. Overall, I have to say I'm very impressed. The style and layout is first rate and Anthony's writing style is very accessible. Unlike a couple of other reviewers I've seen on the Internet, I personally liked the cover a lot. It has a very crisp and clean feel to it and it has a unique style to immediately set the book apart from others on the shelf. When I first saw the map, I was disappointed. Although it is very pretty, it didn't seem very functional. I did enjoy the description of it on p156 - it's a common style for maps to be presented as though they had been drawn in-game, but that's the first time I'd seen a write-up for one aswell. However, now that I've been through the whole book, I have to agree with what appears to be a common consensus - that the partial maps in the book have come out too dark and are not functional enough. For me, the Middenheim map is probably the best example I've seen (although even that didn't have street names annotated). BTW, before I forget - congratulations Anthony! I was expecting you to have smuggled a Snotling into the city somehow, and I wasn't disappointed, you achieved it with great aplomb. I laughed out loud when reading that section :-) I found the background pages at the front very educational. There was a lot of information in them but it was presented in an entertaining way and certainly wasn't as dry and stilted as I expected. Additional rules were presented in a good way e.g. the trial procedures on p42, trading in stocks and shares on p62 - this was done in a very rules-light manner which made it clear that the roleplaying of the situation was more important than rolling dice on a long series of tables like some other games/books do - the Middenheim crime procedures by comparison seem terribly long-winded. It's a shame that there wasn't room for more descriptions of the Wards and Boroughs - and their locations and NPCs. Only 7 out of a possible 16 wards were described and none of the 13 boroughs. Admittedly some details were presumably left vague for GW-political reasons e.g. the Indic district. This means that Marienburg adventures are restricted in scope to the areas mentioned - either that or the GM will have to put a lot of effort in to detail other areas that PCs might venture into. However, in some ways it's a good move not to have included any details because it does, in effect, leave a completely blank canvas for future publications or a GM's own material. I really enjoyed the majority of the NPCs and the locations. Some were unusual and different, others were well-written versions of old stereotypes (I mean, just how different is it possible to make the description of a city watchmen?). This was all well written material, with some hidden secrets and GM-only info and lots of interesting stories about all the featured people/places. In fact, this wealth of detail made it even more of a pity that there wasn't room to have covered more of the city. My biggest gripe has to be the NPC profiles - IMHO, they were too high! I don't know about anybody else, maybe I prefer my games to be particularly un-heroic? I'd like feedback on what everybody else feels but here are a few examples of where I found unfeasibly powerful NPCs. For example, I found 13 cases of Very Strong and 13 cases of Very Resilient from a selection of approx 60 NPCs (depends if you count ghosts, snotlings, etc for the stats) which to me means that almost 25% of the population are Very Strong and 25% Very Resilient (a few lucky ones were both) which IMHO is an abnormally high proportion! These skills result in some fairly high stats where IMHO they don't belong e.g. a Priestess of Manaan with T5 and A2? A mage with WS55, T5, A2? A merchant dwarf with T7? A physician with WS49, S5, I64? A pedlar with WS48, S5? This then means that "tough" guys have to be upped a couple of notches to compete e.g. watch sergeant with WS51, S6, T6, A2? (admittedly a dwarf) The worst of all IMHO was a so-called "typical" jailer with both Very Strong and Very Resilient - doesn't sound very "typical" to me! All I can say is, avoid combat in Marienburg!!! Actually, to be honest, now that I've actually looked back through the NPCs comparing the stats, there aren't that many which are freakily high, it's just that the average seems to work out rather high, there's an awful lot of S5, T5 and/or A2 stats there for non-fighter NPCs. Also, I thought the magic items were a bit boring. There seemed to be a fair few "Bags of Middenheim" (from Apocrypha Now) floating around. Surely it would have been more original to have come up with a "Bag of Marienburg" perhaps, with suitably different properties? Overall though, I find it a lot easier to tweak the stats to my preference than the descriptions - the NPCs background info is so well written that I can forgive having to downgrade a few stats here and there. There was a couple of NPCs that I would have liked more info on but I guess we'd need a Realms of Sorcery supplement to describe them properly - the Haan brothers - there is no games descriptions of how they enchant their products, neither of them even had any likely sounding skills or spells? Finally, there is an interesting Initiate of Shallya who is an ex-Bounty Hunter and ex-Pit Fighter! I hope that he wasn't very successful at either of those careers because the WFRP rulebook p200 states that "no character who has ever taken a human life, even accidentally, may become an Initiate of Shallya". Without re-starting the Shallya debate, I wonder what everybody else thinks of this discrepancy - I assume a Bounty Hunter or Pit Fighter must surely have killed somebody at some point in their career? I was expecting a lot more of the Marienburg material from the old White Dwarfs to have been included but the only place I recognised was the Pelicans Perch - and even that was a stripped down and revised version. I guess I'll have to dig out the relevant White Dwarfs next time I'm in my parents' attic and see else what I can find... Last, but not least, I enjoyed the included scenario a lot. It's certainly not your run-of-the-mill WFRP adventure and you'd have to be sure it's the kind of thing your group would like before you ran it. To summarise, a very well written book with high production standards and lots of good background and descriptions. The only gripes were the low functionality of the map, the lack of coverage of parts of the city and the NPC stats being, on average, too high IMHO. Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Marienburg: Sold Down The River