I have been asked by One Horse Town to post my impression of my playing experiences of the Doomstones campaign.

First, the Doomstones are probably the least regarded WFRP campaign. They were originally a D&D campaign but were converted to WFRP. This means they contain things that many WFRP have allergic reactions too, like dungeons.

Second, I am a player in this campaign. We have been playing monthly for some around 4 years. We have played through the Paths of the Damned and Terror in Talabheim before Doomstones and were getting to third careers when we started.

Originally we were planning to move on to Thousand Thrones but the power level was all off. Three years of hard play made the PCs into Murderhobos of the highest order and we would have just blown a hole in Thousand Thrones and left it dying in a pool of its own blood and bereft of any portable wealth.

The Doomstones were chosen as they were much more robust in terms of power level and structure. In this regard, the campaign has proved well fit. They are frikkin tough and require intense concentration, immense greed, ruthless tactical display and extreme prejudice to survive and succeed.

The dungeon crawling aspect has had a mixed reaction. From the two old school D&Ders we have loved mapping out the environments and dealing with traps. But one player is not that keen on it, though the other parts of the campaign have still kept him interested and engaged.

We did cut down part 2 quite a bit though which was a bit repetitive, focussing more on the Ogre/Goblin conflict. However, part 1 and part 4 (especially) were played in full. Part 4 in particular was an excellent dungeon crawl with a massive Dwarf civil war as a back drop. It also felt natural to the story and nothing in the dungeon felt out of place.

Part 3 is the stand out part, though it is a clue hunt which will annoy some people, requiring some player skill.

The growing magical power and the ominous sense of something very bad about to happen has been fun and novel. It hasn't undermined the WFRP flavour. In fact, it sort of adds to it.

Conversion from 1e to 2e has been mostly seamless.

Overall, the cause for its ill repute is obvious but probably not justified. Part 3 is an excellent adventure and part 4 a superb dungeon. I recommend it for higher powered WFRP groups that are firmly on the path to sociopathy.

We have yet to tackle part 5 yet, which was written much later by Robin Laws and received wildly differing reactions. I am guessing it will be a blast.

Thanks for sharing.

Yeah, i remember part 3 being awesome and annoying in equal parts, really. The clues aren't what you'd call that easy.

Dwarf Wars is the most d&d like adventure of the lot, i think. I seem to recall a lot of nasty traps which ate a few Fate Points up.

I think you're in for a treat with Heart of Chaos. It's bloody hard and not very forgiving, but is packed with memorable set-pieces.

Sadly, Doomstones are the one line of stuff for WFRP 1e that I don't own. The nagain, I'm not a big fun of dungeon crawls :/.

Quote from: One Horse Town;498860Yeah, i remember part 3 being awesome and annoying in equal parts, really. The clues aren't what you'd call that easy.

More than ever GM skill makes or breaks this part.

Quote from: One Horse Town;498860Dwarf Wars is the most d&d like adventure of the lot, i think. I seem to recall a lot of nasty traps which ate a few Fate Points up.

My PC almost lost 3 Fate Points in the last session! But for PCs at 4,000XP played as astutely as we do, the part felt like a good challenge.

Personally I find part 2 to be more D&D like than part 4, as the Dwarven Civil War is very prominent and very WFRP (especially when you solve it the way we did).

Quote from: One Horse Town;498860I think you're in for a treat with Heart of Chaos. It's bloody hard and not very forgiving, but is packed with memorable set-pieces.

I know it by reputation. It may the end of the campaign too. Its hard to fit any prewritten adventures after it except maybe Power Behind the Throne and The Enemy Within.

We are tempted to try Karak Azgal (even more ill reputed than Doomstones) given developments in Dwarf Wars

Quote from: Rincewind1;498915Sadly, Doomstones are the one line of stuff for WFRP 1e that I don't own. The nagain, I'm not a big fun of dungeon crawls :/.

As said, Doomstones contains dungeons, so that's probably fair. However, there is more in Doomstones that there might appear, so I wouldn't dismiss them purely on that ground.

On saying that, they are probably quite hard to find these days unless you collected them when they were released, which given it was over 10 years was a tough call.

The doomstones are generally the most underrated WFRP campaign.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;499421The doomstones are generally the most underrated WFRP campaign.

Yeah, my actual play experiences agree with you.

Incidentally, which crystal does your character have?

Quote from: One Horse Town;499513Incidentally, which crystal does your character have?

Earth, which has been the most used too, given all the dungeon crawling Fortunately as a priest of Sigmar I have the highest WP (currently 63)

Interestingly, I got Earth by chance. It was going to go to our Dwarven tank PC but he was taken out in the fight for it and my PC had to grab it.

Quote from: Skywalker;498817I recommend it for higher powered WFRP groups that are firmly on the path to sociopathy.

I understand this line is intended to be humorous, but since you also mentioned murder-hobos earlier, I was wondering.

Is there anything about the adventures themselves that fits the "murder-hobo" style of play other then things being set in dungeons and being a "find the Doomstones" quest?  Because those two things by themselves have nothing to do with being a murder-hobo.

Quote from: CRKrueger;499655I understand this line is intended to be humorous, but since you also mentioned murder-hobos earlier, I was wondering.

Is there anything about the adventures themselves that fits the "murder-hobo" style of play other then things being set in dungeons and being a "find the Doomstones" quest?  Because those two things by themselves have nothing to do with being a murder-hobo.

They are set outside of civilised areas, which at the power level of the PCs tends to allow them to be murder hoboes in a way that WFRP doesn't normally allow (as the law will likely catch up with them). This iscopy pled with high antagonism from bad guys doing pretty much doing exactly what the PCs are doing in looting and killing their way across the landscape. It's like a massive treasure hunt race for psychopaths

These two things combined make it well suited to a group of PCs on this path, both in terms of embracing it but also raising serious questions about the approach.

That is not to say it couldn't be run on other ways. I am sure it could have a heroic tone. It just seems well suited to PCs that are on that path, which many WFRP PCs do.

1. How powerful were the PCs?  I don't know how "strong" 4,000XP characters are.

2. What are doomstones and what do they do?

4000 XP is about 3rd/4th profession.

Quote from: B.T.;4997831. How powerful were the PCs?  I don't know how "strong" 4,000XP characters are.

2. What are doomstones and what do they do?

1. 40 Advancements. Starting 3rd career.

2. Powerful magic items capable of controlling each element. Also come with serious consequences and costs.

QuotePowerful magic items capable of controlling each element. Also come with serious consequences and costs.

Such as?