This is a page where tropes, story elements and themes posted on the TVTropes wiki can be discussed, identified and pointed out as existing in this campaign. Sure, There Is No Such Thing As Notability even there, but it seemed to make a whole lot more sense to put this stuff here instead. Be careful though, because TVTropes Will Ruin Your Life.
We'll break this page into sections. But first, we'll provide links to the TVTropes pages for WFRP and the Warhammer Fantasy setting in general, to save space here. Most of the tropes there apply to this campaign, though we'll examine some of them individually here as they pertain specifically to these story lines and this particular version of the setting.
Note that major cast members that have their own pages do not have their tropes listed here, but on their pages instead.
Setting Tropes
Always Chaotic Evil - Played with and subverted fairly frequently, unlike the core setting. Our players and GMs don't really buy into the concept. Skaven, Beastmen et cetera are portrayed as having evil and brutality as a default setting due to a combination of the taint of Chaos in their blood and cultural/religious/upbringing factors, but they are still capable of choosing to go against the grain. Some of the more recent WH stuff has pointed out that the Chaos-worshiping Norse aren't so mindlessly evil as they used to be depicted, so maybe the main setting itself has made some moves in the direction this campaign has been all along.
Card Carrying Villain - Mostly averted. Almost the only important villain that really self-identified as evil was Constant Drachenfels, and he only appeared once. Most Chaos villains don't really identify themselves as evil - they mostly are just horribly selfish and depraved bastards.
Character Alignment - Since this is a WFRP1 campaign, we used the 1st edition alignment system, which is a simplified and modified cousin to D&D's system running from Lawful > Good > Neutral > Evil > Chaotic. Characters' alignments are noted in their own pages, but we'll also list their rough DnD equivalents on this page, since it can vary a bit. Of course, the Warhammer World tends to use Black and Gray Morality.
Culture Clash - So, so much, and there's lots of Cultural Posturing going around to help keep it clashing.
Defector From Decadence - One of the recurring themes of the campaign has been redemption and the ability of an individual, even one deeply embroiled in a particular course of action, to choose another path. Several characters went through Heel Face Turns to become one of these. However, the campaign does maintain that though one can return from falling far indeed, there is a point of no return.
Helmets Are Hardly Heroic - Averted. Partially because armor is not useless, pretty much every major character that fights in armor in the first place also wears a helm when in battle. In many cases it's even a closed-faced or visored helm, even if they're major heroes or villains.
Most Common Super Power - Popular among major female characters in the campaign. Author Appeal, much?
Scars Are Forever - More than a few characters in this game are missing limbs, eyes or the like. Even player characters and major villains. There is a player character with impressive healing powers, but those abilities have their limits.
Scary Impractical Armor - This is the Warhammer World. 'Nuf said.
Tin Tyrant - Again, this is the Warhammer World, so these guys are a dime a dozen. The most notable examples from this campaign would be Gaynor, Daffydd, Octavius Mors Gunderit, Malekith and Josef Kastermann.
Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism - Fairly far down the slope towards cynicism, but probably a notch or three above the default for the setting because in this setting it seems to actually possible for a few dedicated individuals to make an actual difference. The campaign doesn't necessarily take itself all that seriously, though. Like Warhammer itself, in that regard.
Values Dissonance - The Warhammer setting is just absolutely full of this, and it's entirely deliberate. Heck, this is part of what makes the Warhammer World so GRIMDARK (in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way, of course)
Character Tropes
The Aragorn - There've been a few of these. One of the most notable was Graf (later Emperor) Heinrich Todbringer, who led the Ulrican faction during the Imperial civil war, but was involved in sending the PCs off to find Ghal-Maraz to bring the whole thing to a stop by finding the true emperor. Funnily enough, it was himself that the hammer was meant for.
Badass - There are a lot of these in the campaign. Most of the PCs qualify to varying degrees, as do most of the major villains and a fair number of the supporting cast. Quite a few of them (notably all but one of the major male PCs) are also bearded.
Battle Couple - Let's see... Uhlrik/Cassandra, Cedric/Richelle, Erich/Rahann... Possibly even Ludwig/Kreeshana if you squint hard enough.
Big Screwed Up Family - the extended Gunderit clan, which almost but not quite borders on tangled family tree. While they're not all wealthy, almost all of them are screwed up: Cain and Abel (Octavius and his brother, then later Uhlrik and Carpathian), The UnFavorite Dutiful Son (Carpathian), with his associated Well Done Son Guy (Octavius). Uhlrik, the family White Sheep/Chosen One, Called the Old Man Out and then killed him. For his part, Octavius was the Black Sheep of his respectable merchant family and murdered his own brother then abandoned his parents, sold his soul to Khorne and started his family line down the road to ruin - also guilty of domestic abuse (habitually brutalizing Magritte as a matter of course and later murdering Redfist in a fit of pique) and parental abuse (including Parental Incest followed by More Than Mind Control with Rahann). Later on, he learned that Uhlrik existed and set out to find him. His actions provided Freudian Excuses for both Carpathian and Rahann. It definitely Runs In the Family. That's before we even start figuring in Uhlrik's own bizarre wives and children...
Character Development - all of the PCs and most of the major NPCs that have had much screen time have undergone at least some of this.
Dark & Troubled Past - common among both PCs and NPCs (this is the Warhammer world after all) but not universal. Ludwig, Uhlrik, Rahann and Kreeshana are notable examples. Richelle, Cassandra and Tanis were aversions, however, as of course are some characters that had no backstory at all.
Ensemble Darkhorse - Yorri & Gurni, totally.
Empty Levels - It's tough to really classify what happened in the late game with the PCs... it doesn't actually fit this trope, quite. WFRP characters tend to die young, and so most of them don't run into this problem... but in a campaign that's gone on for several years with mostly the same core cast, you're going to start running out of things to spend experience points on, especially if you're not a spellcaster (they've got magikarp power instead).
Linear Warriors Quadratic Wizards - Played mostly straight, but with some subversions. Uhlrik is probably the baddest mortal warrior on the planet, but pretty much any high-level wizard with the right spells up their sleeve could probably take him, assuming he didn't get the first action and smite them (probably once is all it would take). Rahann, on the other hand, may be weaker than he is in most respects, but no wizard in their right mind would want to go up against her unless he's very skilled at indirect magic (most WFRP wizards are pretty much just nukers). It's notable that most of the long-term player party were at least capable of casting a few spells by the time they transitioned out of the direct limelight.
Loads and Loads of Characters - Look over the cast pages of this wiki and see for yourself.
Long Lost Relative - There have been a lot of these shenanigans over the course of the campaign, and the reveals have sometimes come fast and furious. The primary subjects of this have been Uhlrik and Ludwig. Uhlrik discovered along that Octavius Mors Gunderit is his father, both Carpathian and Rahann are his half-siblings and even Countess Emmanuelle of Nuln is a semi-distant cousin on his mother's side. Ludwig got the joy of finding out that the father who raised him was in fact his uncle (on his late mother's side, no less) and eventually it came out that not only was Robert MacRae Ludwig's father and Claire his half-sister (dang!) but Daffydd was his uncle. Both the Gunderits and the MacRaes might qualify as badass families, to boot.
Named Weapons - They're everywhere. Not every PC has a named weapon but many do, as do many of the villains.
The Obi Wan - Duke Oswald, Heironymus Blitzen, Albrecht Der Rot. Oswald also counted as the Big Good for a while. Albrecht has somehow survived all this time despite being the mentor-strategist type.
Person of Mass Destruction - Cedric and Uhlrik definitely qualify, as do a few of the heroes' antagonists.
Ragtag Bunch of Misfits - The group most certainly began as this, like most RPG parties. The core group is definitely a Nakama now
The Red Baron and The Magnificent (two closely related tropes) - More than a few characters in this campaign (good, neutral and evil) have nicknames based on how awesome, or horrifying, they are, and these sometimes are appended to their name. Notable examples include Rahann "Man-Killer", Uhlrik "The Dragon/The Great Dragon," and Gaynor "The Damned."
Villain Exit Stage Left - Most antagonists don't get this privilege since Warhammer heroes routinely kill their foes, but those that do make a point of milking it. Imrian, for example has ignominiously fled twice (one of those, he covered his retreat with a Vortex of Chaos and the other he slunk off after Cassandra let him go out of pity) and made a tactical retreat on one other occasion when he realized that they had him badly outnumbered.
Major Cast Members
Major cast members with pages to themselves: Cassandra Gunderit, Cedric Enric, Derelek Caravan, Erich Brauer, Imrian Shadow-Weaver, Kreeshana Jewelhand, Ludwig MacRae, Richelle antoinette Enric, Soulslayer/Gaynor & Uhlrik Gunderit.
Rahann 'Man-Killer' Brauer
Action Mom - she's a mom and she kicks lots of butt. However, she went back a bit on this when she lost her hearing, trying to go back to the kitchen. It didn't take.
Anti Magic - Rahann has a potent, always-on defense against magical powers that directly target herself: if a spell allows a saving throw, then she is utterly immune, period. If it does not normally allow a saving throw, then she can roll a save (with hefty bonus) to completely ignore its effects.
The Atoner - averted. She does feel some regret for having wasted so much time serving Chaos, but she doesn't feel especially guilt-ridden over it or have any overwhelming need to make up for her past crimes. She mostly just wants to move on. Oh, and kill lots of bad guys because that's still fun.
Beastess - She's big, brawny, brutal, bestial and buxom. Oh, and she's a berserker from a roving, warband-based tribal culture. Yeah, she fits this trope.
Being Evil Sucks - this is a major part of why she had her Heel Face Turn.
The Berserker - Blood for the Blood God!
Big Brother Attraction - Rahann has admitted to being sexually attracted to her big half-brother Uhlrik, but she doesn't act on that for a number of reasons: his own sensibilities, the fact that both of them are now married to other people, and the fact that she has grown over time to love him as a brother.
Black Widow - She acquired her sobriquet "Man-Killer" for a combination of two things: her marked and pathological preference for male victims in battle, and her habit of murdering her assorted lovers. This would probably have made her a Complete Monster if the lover-murdering didn't mostly consist of Offstage Villainy - the only one of her former lovers that the PCs have encountered, Vindar of Khurman, was very much alive when last they heard from him (though she has said that if she got a clear shot at him again she'd take it on general principle) ... and she hasn't tried to off Erich since well before they became a couple. Maybe the "actually being in love with this guy" part has kept her from falling back to her old habits.
Blade On A Stick - Though she does own a magical sword, she prefers to fight with a spear even though hers is not enchanted. The sword is her backup weapon, for use against especially tough opponents. She doesn't even remotely fit the reserved and calm Lady of War image most spear-wielding female characters have, so she can be considered a subversion of this trope's usual expectations.
Blood Knight - She loves to fight. Like, really loves it. The more brutal and gory, the better.
Dark Action Girl - Yeah. Interestingly, she did have a pretty straight up Heel Face Turn, but hers was connected with a Deliver Us From Evil scenario - Her son Artag was already born before she really started thinking about redemption, but the infant definitely functioned as her Morality Pet. Further, she was in an Enemy Mine situation because she wanted to draw her brother over to Chaos and decided to go after somebody that was theoretically mutual enemies so that she could try to woo him over or get him Drunk on the Dark Side.
Dating Catwoman - Averted, but only because she had given up on outright villainy before she and Erich hooked up.
Does Not Like Men - Up to 11. Rahann went for years absolutely detesting men on principle, and she cheerfully killed them at the least (or no) excuse. She wasn't lesbian, though, and quite liked sex - she just didn't like men.
Female Success is Family - She tried oh so hard to subvert this, Calling the Old Man Out and going it alone for years. Then she found out about her brother. She's totally an Action Girl, but she's got a steep hill to climb. First, she's not a PC. Secondly, she's the daughter to the late Grand High Warlord of Khorne and the sister to a Rebellious God-Spawn. She eventually realized that she Can't Catch Up, but also that she still has an important part to play.
Fiery Redhead - So fiery that she's got red hair all over her body.
Freudian Excuse - She was raised by a psychopathic and abusive champion of Khorne, who murdered her mother in front of her for talking back to him over his treatment of Rahann (not that mommy was much better, mind you).
Heel Face Door Slam - Her Jugger mount tried to bring this about preemptively when it sensed her conviction wavering. It helped push her over the brink, subverting the failed Heel Face Door Slam into a Help Face Turn.
Hot Blooded - She's this trope, personified and weaponized.
Khorngor Eyes - Having eyes that are blank and white is a trait common to Khornate beastmen, and Rahann is typical in this respect. Rather than being a demonstration of psychic abilities or extrasensory perception like many instances of the plain white eyes, Rahann's are mostly a symbol of her heritage and of her anti-magical nature.
Long Lost Relative - Rahann is Uhlrik's younger half-sister, and they met as adults - and enemies.
Love Redeems - Love for her son, love for her brother and eventually even love for Erich.
Mage Killer - As a Khorngor, she has a long history of deliberately seeking out and killing mages, and she was blessed with potent yet passive Anti Magic as well, enabling her to No Sell nearly any magical attack. Heck, even magical weapons wielded against her are treated as if they're completely mundane.
Pink Boy Blue Girl - This is a mild case. It's not so much that Erich is effeminate, it's more that Rahann is orders of magnitude more butch than he is - it's more that she's a whole lot more "blue" than her husband is. Erich is a lean, athletic man and a skilled fighter, but he's cerebral and social, and he places a heavy emphasis on finesse and cleverness. Rahann, on the other hand, is a Khorngor. If it came to a fight between the two of them, Rahann would completely pwn her husband and both of them know it.
Real Women Never Wear Dresses - As a scary Hot Amazon who disdains the weak and generally looks down on men, it's not surprising that she tended to see things this way.
Token Evil Teammate - She was this originally, but has mellowed. After she mellowed, another token evil teammate made an appearance...
Rusikis Gunderit
Bloody Murder - One of Rusikis' Chaos Attributes is Blood Substitution. In this instance, her blood is electrified and can zap anybody that's foolish enough to get her blood on them (or their metallic equipment). This electricity sometimes arcs off her fur in little static shocks as well.
Deliver Us From Evil - but with a cruel twist: she was kidnapped shortly before she gave birth and the baddies took her baby/ies immediately upon delivery, and the heroes have never been able to figure out where they were taken. So she got the Face Heel Turn part, but didn't get to actually keep the kid.
Dual Wielding - Rusikis uses paired weeping blades (skaven-specific cleaver/dagger/shortsword like things forged with a steel/warpstone alloy that constantly drip a horrible corrosive venom when drawn) named "Murder" and "Mayhem" to great effect.
Intelligent Rat - That's what Skaven are.
McNinja - She's a Skaven member of Clan Eshin. Which means that she's a rat ninja. So yeah.
Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot - Rat Ninja Sorceress.
Stalker With a Test Tube - the reason that she bred with Uhlrik while he was entrapped comatose in the Jailor-demon's tendrils was apparently to create one or more Tykebombs.
Other Cast Members
Albrecht der Rot
A Father To His Men - More than a few of the other officers in the Dragon Brethren consider him to be a mentor. He's an interesting case in that he's been one of Uhlrik's subordinates for most but not quite all of the campaign: He was his sergeant when Uhlrik first became a mercenary but recognized the big guy's talent and decided to go with Uhlrik as his advisor and right hand when the big guy started up the Black Dragons.
The Aragorn - He was frequently the man leading the military forces that were acting to support the action of the ongoing campaign in one way or another. For example, as the Heroes rushed ahead to get into the bowels of Castle Drachenfels and get the Great Enchanter himself, Albrecht was leading their slower-moving troops that were on the way to demolish the place and really clear out the monsters therein. As they were trying to find the missing Uhlrik, Albrecht was ably leading their troops in a dangerous game of maneuver and delay against the Dark Elves' superior forces.
Baleful Polymorph - subverted rather nastily thanks to a combination of the Random Number God and the Rule of Cool. Imrian tried to inflict a baleful polymorph (which was meant to be simultaneous with a killing curse - the polymorph was supposed to add insult to murder) on Albrecht, but he managed to survive the curse and the magic behind the transformation was highly Chaotic and random in source... with an associated D1000 chart. Most of the entries like gerbils and sheep on that chart would have fit this trope completely - a very few were powerful - such as a dragon. Guess which one was rolled for Albrecht. The transformation is permanent. When Imrian realized how his plan had gone horribly wrong, he wiped the smug smirk off his face and bailed, leaving Albrecht to enjoy a painful, gruesome and traumatic transformation sequence. In this case, the transformation took several minutes rather than being instant and inflicted a fair amount of damage to the castle in which it took place, and it also bought time/provided a distraction to allow Imrian's escape. It was meant to be a Player Punch since this NPC had been working with the party for years of real time, and was well loved by characters and players alike. He is a mentor figure, after all - aren't they supposed to die? Anyhow, this event took an already cool side character, created a story arc about helping him deal with his new condition, and made him even more awesome and integral to the story.
Flaming Sword - Human!Albrecht had one of these, given to him by the Heroes after they plundered it from an enemy. What was done with this sword after his draconification has not been addressed.
Old Soldier - Albrecht was introduced as a middle-aged mercenary sergeant who took a young, cloaked and curious bruiser under his wing. His second nickname (after "Red," of course) was "The Old Warhorse".
Sergeant Rock - He started out as this, but as the Black Dragons got their legs under them he advanced rapidly in the ranks.
The Strategist - Albrecht flirts heavily with this trope, but subverts it in a few ways. Firstly, while he is possessed of a very fine tactical and strategic mind, he doesn't necessarily make the Black Dragons' battle plans if they're involved in a battle. He does advise them in their plans, however, and he does get personally involved in his plans on the forefront of battle if that will be necessary. In fact, he was initially introduced as the leader of a unit of heavy cavalry. He DID, however, mastermind the growth and logistics of the Black Dragons, as that was his job for when the heroes were off adventuring. One major plus for this trope is that being a middle-aged mercenary meant that his physical fitness wasn't what it used to be (a problem that was not carried over to dragonhood), and it was implied that it was his advancing age that led him to developing his keen tactical mind in order to keep him competitive in his chosen profession (which is also part of why he was just a sergeant when he was first introduced - he didn't display the same brilliance when he was younger). He was also Uhlrik's mentor and teacher in tactics and strategy, and he is still regularly consulted even though (perhaps even especially because) he's now a dragon.
Daffydd MacRae
Anti Magic - Like Rahann, Daffydd had the ability to No Sell incoming magical attacks.
Complete Monster - Daffydd was an utterly horrible man, and he quickly won the ardent hate of the player group through overt and brutal villainy. Where to even start with the grief that this guy gave the party?
The Dragon - Daffydd was Gaynor's right fist, and he thoroughly enjoyed doing his master's bidding. He's the reason that most of Gaynor's villainy occurred offstage - Daffydd was the one handling most of the visible villainy.
For the Evulz - Daffydd (like many Chaos Warriors) at least started out with real motives, but the Motive Decay inherent in being a Chaos Warrior increasingly led him into sadism and cruelty for their own sake and for a laugh. Of the major recurring villains of the campaign, he's probably the best representative of this trope.
Invisible Jerkass - Daffydd lived and breathed this trope with gusto, and he relished using his powers for the Stealth Hi Bye, seeming instances of Offscreen Teleportation and to help justify Surveillance As The Plot Demands, among other uses.
Ludwig I Am Your Father - Zig zagged. First subversion: hints were dropped that Daffydd might be Ludwig's father but this turned out to not be the case. The second subversion comes in because it was revealed that while Daffydd was not Ludwig's father, he was in fact his uncle. Third: these hints didn't start appearing until after Ludwig had actually killed Daffydd already - Daffydd himself had no idea of their relationship. Justified because Daffydd sold out Clan MacRae to strike at his brother and fled, then actually forgot his own origin story.
Signature Move - Daffydd was inordinately fond of skullcapping his adversaries' backup and any convenient bystanders with his absurdly sharp blade.
Delean & Lorelle Laurean
Big Fancy House - Delean's got a palatial residence in Lothern as well as a beautiful estate in the country. His Lothern residence is somewhat more stately.
Blue Blood - the Laureans are from a looong line of elf nobility. Delean suffers a bit of Moral Myopia, but fortunately his wife Lorelle is slightly Closer To Earth. Of course, you're not allowed to call him on how snotty and arrogant the guy is.
Daddy Didn't Show - Thanks to his mobility issues, Delean is not exactly a constant fixture at the court of the Phoenix King, but he is a known figure there and he does come to important events or when he has business there. His Daughter's triumphal arrival at court with her husband and the leadership of their mercenary army to present themselves before Finubar, an event of which Delean was advised ahead of time, was apparently not an occasion that he considered his business. And yes, she noticed.
Eyepatch of Power - Subverted a bit in Delean's case, since for him it (and his gimpy leg) symbolize not so much how tough the bastard is, but the fact that his ambitious military career was cut short by being crippled and his bitterness over this fact. Double subverted because he's back.
Handicapped Badass - During the Siege of Lothern storyline, Delean's home was attacked by a manticore. He shot it through the eye at point blank range with his daughter's magical bow and killed it. All without rising from where he was sitting on a low staircase, unable to stand under his own power.
I Coulda Been a Contender - Delean's initial primary pursuit as a young married elf was battlefield glory as one of the prestigious Silver Helm knights, and his ambition was to use his military prowess, keen tactical mind and successes to win a way much higher into the halls for power than his birth alone would allow, since his own title of kinlord is a relatively modest one. Then he was grievously wounded and disfigured in battle against the Druchii, and he was too young and obscure at that point to get a position as a strategist or the like rather than a battlefield knight, so his military career ended outright. He has never gotten over this fact. Even his many successes at turning his keen mind to investments and commerce that have multiplied his wealth tremendously have not given him sufficient satisfaction to blot out that great loss.
I Have No Daughter - This was Delean's reaction when Cassandra refused to annul her marriage to Uhlrik. It was well over a year before he even spoke with her again, and the two are still not completely reconciled some six years later, though they are on speaking terms again (note that she's still cut off from his will, however).
I Want Grandkids - averted, sort of. Delean was absolutely horrified at the very idea of his daughter reproducing. But then, given the nature of her husband this is highly understandable. Once the twins showed up and had cute little wings instead of three heads (and grandma got to play with them) things got a bit better.
Parental Favoritism - Cassandra (not only the sole daughter but the youngest child) was her Daddy's favorite. That's one part of why he was so infuriated at her life choices. Lorelle is much more fair in general.
Parental Marriage Veto - Delean tried to pull one of these on Cassandra, but he was a bit late since his daughter had already been married for more than a year by the time Delean even found out about the nuptials, and a bit longer still before he met the groom and discovered he's a Beastman. Note that pretty much nobody on the planet other than Cassandra thinks that Delean is out of line for being angry at Cass over the pairing, or at least over having left him in the dark about it for so long after the fact.
Well Done Daughter Guy - Delean is this for all of his children, partially because he's so hard and uncompromising and partly because he has instilled impossibly high standards in them. Filtholindel, the middle child, had it the toughest from Delean because he was the only one that pursued the military as an actual career and his dad wanted to live through his successes. This drive to impress his father is part of what made Filtholindel reckless and got him killed. This leaves Malavandrel (the soft, gentle scholar, poet and illusionist) and Cassandra (who, while a mighty and successful warrior but whose moral choices have left much to be desired) to go on disappointing Delean for the foreseeable future.
Where Did We Go Wrong - Given how his kids turned out (in order: soft, dead and crazy), Delean has been known to express this sentiment. Lorelle has too, though she hasn't got any problem with Malavandrel given that he's so much like her in temperament and interests.
Josef Kastermann
The Collector - Josef has a very odd collection. He collects wizards by means of magical circlets that are placed on some part of their body, usually but not always the head or neck. These wizards still have personalities of their own, but are totally subject to his desires. They become his agents for various schemes, usually serving as a gang to use for killing or capturing yet more wizards. Note that he usually only prefers to collect wizards who are already near the pinnacle of their profession. His "coven of Ten" when he first appeared in the campaign consisted of himself plus nine 4th-level wizards, each with a different specialty.
Wild Card - Josef is only on one side: his own (well, theoretically Tzeentch's as well, but given that Tzeentch will cheerfully oppose his own schemes...). He'll work for any side of a conflict as long as doing so will serve his own ends, and then just as cheerfully betray it once he's gotten what he wants. He's an interesting case of this since he is absolutely and utterly evil, unlike most wild card characters, but he's pragmatic enough to play on literally any team.
Octavius Mors Gunderit
The Dark Side will Make You Forget - Literally, in this case.
Disk One Final Boss - He was the one that the players were really really scared of, and killing him was a major achievement... but also established Gaynor as the real big bad.
Domestic Abuser - Holy mackerel, yes.
Oswald Aran
Badass Beard / Badass Long Hair - Oswald totally had these going on, and appearances did not lie.
BFS - The aptly named "Death-Fang"
Cool Old Guy - Oh yes. Also, his "official" character portrait was drawn using a painting of Mark Twain for reference.
Eye Patch Of Power - Oswald was the first major NPC in the campaign to sport an eye patch, and he could have kicked the butt of any of the PCs at that time.
Heroic BSOD - He suffered a serious one of these when his only living relative Tanis died. He uttered a Big No, shot his great-nephew's killer with a magical flaming arrow (turning the moat into a huge conflagration and forcing the enemy to fall back) and then mentally shut down. He had to be escorted to his bed, and fell seriously ill. There he remained for the next several days as the siege wore on. It took the failure of Lord Vargo's suicidal charge (and thus the loss of many of his most elite forces in a pointless genture)
Like a Son to Me - Duke Oswald never quite officially adopted Uhlrik despite wanting to (it wasn't feasible due to certain factors in Kislev), but he was kind and welcoming to him and took him under his wing as the two grieved together over the death of Oswald's great-nephew Tanis (who was the old Duke's only heir and closest living relative as well as a close friend of Uhlrik's). After that, Uhlrik sort of filled the void that Tanis had left. Uhlrik is on record as saying "I wish that he was my father," and the sentiment was mutual. On his deathbed, Oswald left his ancestral sword to Uhlrik's infant son, who was named after the old duke's nephew.
Old Master - Apart from being The Big Good during the Siege on Bachendorf Keep scenario, Oswald was a mentor figure to Uhlrik. And he was a seriously tough-as-nails old knight.
Randle
The Archer - Oh yes so very much. Though the cool and collected thing tended to go out the window whenever Sir Georg Hegel found him.
The Bus Came Back - Long after Randle's apparent death, he was played in one more session, detailing what had happened to him in the long time that he'd been on the bus and the incident where Erich (as an NPC) found and recruited him for The Shadow Dragons.
Dropped a Castle On Him - Randle's death came about due to an oversight by the other players while Randle was incapacitated, and in a castle infirmary. Said castle got undermined by Skaven and collapsed. With Randle helplessly bedridden inside. Much of the collapsing castle toppled off a cliff face, to really seal the deal. Note that his player was absent from this session, despite having been present for the session that landed him in said infirmary. As the party stood a safe distance away watchign the castle collapse, one of them blinked and asked "What about Randle?" Everybody, GM included, had forgotten about him. Due to a Fate Point accounting error, the GM was under the impression that Randle was Out Of Continues, and ruled him dead but used the opportunity to narrate precisely what had happened: as the Heroes had moved to the Inner Bailey, the powerful undead warrior George Hegel, whom they had met but left sitting alone in his tower after they decided he'd be content to remain there so long as nobody bothered him, decided that he was not in fact content and emerged to butcher their bandit allies. Hegel reached the infirmary where Randle was laid up and stood above him, about to deliver the coup de grace, at which point the roof collapsed on both of them. It wasn't the most satisfying explanation for the poor player, but at least it was a spectacular demise.
Good Hair Evil Hair - He has the rather ambiguous mustache and chin tuft variant, rather like Errol Flynn...
Identical Stranger - Kastor Lieberung. See Mistaken Identity, below.
Loveable Rogue - Yep. And his replacement was another one too! On the plus side, at least Erich was a spy rather than an arrow-shooty-guy. Bonus points for being dressed rather like a certain other loveable rogue.
Mistaken Identity - Randle looked identical to Kastor Lieberung, whom he found dead at the side of the road after a mutant attack. Upon discovering a note on the corpse's person indicating that the poor fellow was supposedly about to come into an inheritance, Randle decided to run with it. Unfortunately for Randle, Kastor Lieberung was a nasty fellow from the Cult of the Purple Hand, and the inheritance was in fact a scam intended to draw him out where he could be eliminated. The "Who was Kastor Lieberung?" arc was dropped after Randle "died," but the heroes were already up to their eyeballs in duking it out with his compatriots in the Cult of the Purple Hand by that point anyways so that side plot vanished with hardly anybody even noticing its disappearance.
No One Could Survive That - The reason why the heroes didn't spend a whole lot of time searching for Randle's body. They went over the rubble a bit, decided that he was assuredly done for, and gave up. Fortunately, it turns out that Randle was...
Not Quite Dead - Several real-life years after Randle's splattery yet slightly ambiguous demise, his player and the GM were discussing the situation and how the player felt no closure over it. GM notes and Fate Point expenditures were reviewed. It turned out that, due to an accounting error, one of Randle's Fate Points had gotten lost in the shuffle. So we agreed to take that into account, exploit the fact that they never found the body, and ret con things to say he had in fact survived but been unable to hook up with his former compatriots for a variety of reasons despite his attempts to do so.
Tanis Aran
Back For The Dead - He left the group to go back to Kislev for family reasons, and then hooked up with the heroes later for one more adventure with them, and fulfilled this trope to a T.
Heroes Prefer Swords - Unsurprisingly, given that to first impressions he was The Hero... except that he wasn't.
Nice Guy - Tanis was a decent, noble and friendly fellow, without major character defects or sharp edges, so although he was an effective fighter and useful chap to have around, he got shuffled out of the group for being a bit too boring.
Standardized Leader / The Hero - Both pretty heavily subverted. He was exactly the sort of character that somebody looking at the group in their first appearance together would assume is the generic Party Leader Guy... except that he wasn't the leader. So he had the disadvantage of not having enough conflict within himself or with the others, and without having a distinctive enough personality to really stick around, and he wasn't even calling the shots. In essence, he was too nice and not interesting enough to live.
You Shall Not Pass - Tanis sacrificed himself to hold a chaos horde at bay and make time for the defenders of Bachendorf Keep to retreat to the inner bailey.
Thrudd
Big Eater - This is ogres' hat in the Warhammer world, and like all other ogres he combines it with extreme omnivore.
The Big Guy - Thrudd's an Ogre, so of course he's the biggest player character the group has ever had. Nowadays he's The Brute to Uhlrik's faux Big Bad.
Boisterous Bruiser -He's big, he's jovial and cheerful, and he loves eating, fighting and drinking - but not necessarily in that order. Bonus points for absolutely being a Large Ham with No Indoor Voice. With his chipper and somewhat goofy demeanor, it's easy to forget that he's spent time as a professional jailer and torturer.
Carry A Big Stick - His initial weapon was an oversized club, before his tastes became a bit more refined. He still has a nasty spiked mace, but it's a backup weapon.
Catch Phrase - "Oi slim!"
Cold Blooded Torture - His second career, which he took at about the time he left the party, was as a torturer... He's really good at interrogations. Plus, he's perfectly content to eat a prisoner's fingers or limbs as an inducement to talk. Or just because. He's not exactly a sadist, he's more of a brutal professional with few no qualms about inflicting pain and suffering. Plus he's hungry.
Demoted to Extra/Put On a Bus - When Ryan (Thrudd's player) moved away just after the story arc where the group had been pursuing Thrudd's escaped prisoner Erdrick the Blooded was completed, the character was retired rather than switching players like Derelek did. He returned to his job. Quite a while later, he turned up again and took a new job with the Black Dragons, becoming a supporting NPC.
Dual Wielding - Thrudd is naturally ambidextrous, which obviously leads to him fighting with a huge flail in one hand and his terrifyingly nasty whip in the other. If he's fighting in formation with other troops, he often forgoes this practice in favor of a shield.
Dumb Muscle -
Epic Flail - Thrudd is very fond of using a wrecking ball huge spiked flail as his primary means of turning his opponents into chunky piles of goo.
Hulk Speak - yes, but with a heavily gastronomic cast.
Mighty Glacier - Slightly subverted. He's really big and not very agile, but in a straight foot race on a straightaway it pays to bet on the guy with the really long legs. He also likes weapons that give significant boosts to his already impressive reach.
The Nicknamer - He calls everybody smaller than him "Slim" most of the time. Which is just about everybody that isn't a Giant. The two exceptions are Uhlrik (whom he has called "Boss" ever since Uhlrik picked him up and bodily threw him during a sparring match between the two of them) and Cassandra, whom he calls "Cap'n."
Sergeant Rock - Thrudd was this under Cassandra's command.
Stout Strength - The default build for Ogres. They're huge and strong, but are wide and have a low center of gravity.
True Neutral - Thrudd is pretty much amoral. He doesn't care about morality, just about doing his job (and doing it well at that) and having plenty to eat along the way. So while he's perfectly willing to torture sentient beings to death for information, he doesn't feel any malice towards them. Hunger, sure. Malice, no. Also, he values friendship, jovial company and military discipline.
Whip It Good - Thrudd's signature weapon is a huge bull elephant whip, made with exotic and particularly tough leather. It is not like those sissy little whips that humans use. It's for either keeping huge and nasty beasties in line or horribly maiming and killing people. One observer described this instrument of pain as capable of "peeling the armor off a knight at twenty paces" after observing him unhorse a man with a single whipcrack. Naturally, for noncombat situations he also has smaller and more conventional whips as well as a cat-o-nine tails to be used in punitive floggings.
Organizations
The Dragon Brethren
Army of Thieves and Whores - Despite being an extremely disciplined, efficient and heavily trained organization, the Black Dragons had a reputation for being a bit of this due to their extreme openness to ethnic, racial and cultural diversity. Now that they have swelled their ranks with thousands of the Dark Elves' former slaves that have joined their cause, a significant portion of their force isn't too far off from this trope after all - though the DBs have every intention of training those newcomers up to their usual standards.
The Arquebusier - The Dragon Brethren make an increasing use of these, as well as Gun and Sword types especially in their navy (Vanye is an example of the latter).
Command Roster -
Siege Engines / BFG - One of the answers that the DBs have proposed and begun to implement for the Dark Elves' repeater crossbows and spear-and-shield phalanxes? Cannon. Lots of cannon.
Death From Above - One of their favorite tactics, which they picked up after they had to face it from Imrian's control of Athgorond.
Fighting For a Homeland - they became this after a deal they cut with the Asur. Prior to that they were just mercenaries.
Floating Castle - Their headquarters, Schloß Drache, is a massive castle built previous to the Sundering. It started out as Imrian's type 3 Ominous Floating Castle (Its name was even Athgorond, Flying Palace of Degradation). When the 'Dragons stormed it, they subverted the usual expectation for these places: Though they did temporarily disable its steering stone and send the castle plummeting towards the earth, but they managed to get the thing working again before it hit. Imrian housed a fair number of manticores aboard it, and the Dragon Brethren have been trying to outdo this by collecting griffons, giant eagles and, yes, even a dragon. They've also installed a lot more artillery and stone droppers to the thing than Imrian ever had.
Horse Archer - The outriders and some other skirmishers that they deply fir this trope (and a great many of them are kislevites, for obvious reasons), though they're startign to transition to using firearms.
It's Raining Men - They're looking for a way to do this efficiently. So far they have to settle for ferrying men down on their relatively few flying steeds, using flying casters and a series of lifts to do the job, but their inability to quickly move large numbers of troops to the surface from their fortress is something that they regard as a major weakness.
Men of Sherwood - the Black Dragons /Drachen-Brüder are this, though they do have occasions of crossing over to Badass Army. If they were still mostly fighting against human forces instead of Dark Elves and Chaos nowadays, they'd probably be the latter trope all of the time.
Million Mook March - The Dragon Brethren do like to line up the troops for review and morale-building with lots of inspiring speeches. However, when they wanted to impress Finubar with their forces, they opted for a smaller scale version of this: When Uhlrik came to officially announce himself to the Phoenix King, he took several units of his most elite and most visually impressive troops to the meeting with him, and had them march in behind him in perfect formation. Including a large number of heavily armored and carefully polished Ogres for major extra points.
Nonuniform Uniform - The practice of making an entire army wear identical uniforms hasn't really developed yet, though there are liveries and the like. The Dragon Brethren do have a set of guidelines on how their men are to dress for battle, and they do have tailors that make pretty uniform stuff so they do have a cohesive look as an overall force, but individuals (especially officers) are perfectly free to customize their look so long as they're recognizably Dragon Brethren. Now, each clan is developing its own distinct identity and variations on the uniform themes, often involving color accents that reference the thematic name of their clan.
Praetorian Guard - The Great Claw Sentinels, a unit of Ogres that serve as the bodyguard for Uhlrik and the top leadership corps. Ogres that are highly disciplined, tightly drilled and heavily armored plus led by a former PC that dual-wields a humongous morning star and an obscenely large whip. They're every bit as scary as they sound.
Private Military Contractors - It didn't take an especially long time adventuring for Uhlrik to twig to the idea that his profession was basically being a hobo that hires out his sword or otherwise engages in a bit of compensated heroism as he travels about. He decided to take it to the next level, gradually building a mercenary force and hiring them out too. Of course, they've since morphed into an entirely different animal.
State Sec - The Dragon Brethren are starting to develop this sort of thing, between the Shadow Dragons' espionage corps, the Gold Dragons' magistrates (one of whom is Kreeshana) and internal security forces and the Storm Dragons' overarching administration.
Tactical Rock Paper Scissors - They've been studying up hard on how the Dark Elves fight, and they think they've figured out how to take apart their vaunted formations and fearsome weaponry. Whether or not they have remains to be seen.
The Dragon Wolves
Five Bad Band - They're posing as a pretty close equivalent to this. There are seven of them, but all five of these roles have representation. The only character that can't be said to be one of these is Grim.
- The Big Bad - Gorlord Whiteflame (Uhlrik)
- The Dragon - The Cleaver (Karl) is presented as this. In actuality, he's only this if you consider Rikkish as separate from the group's main structure.
- The Brute - Convincer (Thrudd) and, to a lesser extent, Eric Eathshaker.
- The Evil Genius - Rikkish (Rusikis).
- The Dark Chick - Rikkish again, but Ironclaw (Berrik) fits the mold to a certain extent as well, being the contemplative yet animalistic one.
The Forged Elves
Anatomy Arsenal - Almost the whole catalog appears here: Arm Cannon (Gaifol), Armed Legs (Hvrath, Korlian and Torias), Blade Below the Shoulder (Imrian, Hvrath, Torias and Korlian, who combines this with Multi Armed and Dangerous by having his mounted on a third arm), Breath Weapon (Yeurl has an acid projector in his mouth), Power Fist (Imrian, Hvrath and Yeurl, who combines it with Epic Flail), Rocket Punch (Imrian's Power Fist) and Spider Limbs (Korlian - though his are attached in place of his lower torso rather than to the small of his back).
Clingy Costume - justifying their 24-Hour Armor.
Disney Villain Death - Subverted in the case of the defeat of Yeurl of Hag Graef; he was knocked off a ledge to plummet off into the Escherian nightmare that was Hotek's Column. Not only did they find the body, but he survived the fall, albeit badly battered and unconscious.
Helicopter Blender - Hvrath can reference this stunt with his blade-hands, and Yeurl can pull a variant with his flail.
Quirky Miniboss Squad - A group of Dark elf minions of Hotek with a unifying theme of being magical cyborgs. They were a more serious and legitimate threat than the usual QMS (being individually more powerful fighters than most or all of the party due to their various magical enhancements), but the essence of the trope was there.
Magitek Cyborg - These guys were put back together after Hotek found them dying, using bits of magical armor and weaponry to replace lost or damaged body parts., often in very different forms than they started. One even had a metal dragon's head, fully capable of breathing fire, in place of one of his hands. Hotek also built in the Required Secondary Powers like extra reinforcement on body parts other than strengthened limbs etc. All of these guys have . It's been implied but not stated that these fellows have lost some of their empathy in the process, making most of them even worse than they already were as Dark Elves.
Psycho For Hire - both Hvrath of Har Ganeth and Korlian of Black Crag. This first a raving, cackling psychopath and the second an ice-cold assassin and sadistic sociopath.
Stationary Wings - Torias had an interesting and justified variant: he had rigid metallic forms shaped deliberately like wings attached to his back. They were enchanted to enable him to both fly and hover, rather than making any effort at mechanical flight. Also, they were small enough that they didn't get in the way of his arm movements. So they were pretty much a fantasy jet pack.
Villainous Valour - His gallant display of grit, honor and resourcefulness are what established Yeurl of Hag Graef as a sympathetic Antivillain, to the point that the heroes deliberately released him from captivity. When the party encountered him without his teammates, he refused to back down in the face of their superior numbers and firepower, and he tried to turn the tables by challenging them to take him on one at a time. He then committed what they termed to be dirty pool by deploying a weapon in said duel that emits a cloud of poison gas (he honestly didn't think it was unfair since that was in fact his primary weapon and a part of his body), so they rushed him en masse. He called them out on it and took them all on like a man. Then, after he awoke in captivity he told them to just execute him already, which offer they declined and they released him after securing his oath not to fight them again.
Plot Tropes
Anyone Can Die - It's tough to say this was really a game that matches this trope in full, but, it's worth noting that Cedric, one of the core characters in the original nakama, did die though he did manage to pull off an Indy Ploy that caused his death to just be the beginning. Also, six other PCs got Killed Off For Real. Randle managed to subvert this by turning out to be Not Quite Dead after all.
Babies Make Everything Better - Invoked, but alternately Repeatedly subverted, double-subverted and then some. For example, Uhlrik and Cassandra had hoped that having kids would somehow help their dysfunctional relationship. After Gaynor's brutal beating of Cassandra caused her to miscarry, things took a nosedive. When she finally had the twins, things seemed better for a little bit - then the kiddies got kidnapped, used for evil experiments and rescued but Cass blamed Uhlrik for what had happened even though he had earned no more blame for the situation than she had - and they started dancing that dance again. Her pregnancy with Katarina was a major catalyst in the reconciliation that got them past the worst period of their dysfunctionality, and caring for the sickly little one together was actually good for them. The twins' birth looked like it would be an inversion of this trope, breaking the relationship of the Gunderits and the Laureans even further, but then Uhlrik convinced Lorelle to at least see them and her heart melted a bit - then grandma got on grandpa's case until he relented as well.
Character Magnetic Team - This motley group of adventurers and mercenaries sure did an astounding job of collecting compatriots and loyal allies (sometimes briefly, and sometimes not) even from among their enemies. Just about wherever they went, they picked up allies to the point that they were the leaders of a mercenary army. This trope is part of why there are loads and loads of characters in this campaign. See also the picture on the front page of this very wiki.
Defeat Means Friendship - This happened twice, sort of. The first instance was Vindar of Khurman, a Chaos Warrior of Khorne that Cassandra defeated in a solo duel then spared. He swore that, for the remainder of the siege, he would fight to defend Bachendorf Keep. Once the siege was over, he went on his way. He'd try to kill her if they met again (Warrior of Khorne, after all), but he was a staunch ally for that brief period. The second instance, and even more borderline, is Erich. He very nearly got into a fight with Cedric, but realized immediately that he had zero chance and defected to Cedric's side.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu - several times, the heroes have defeated Greater Daemons. Cedric and Richelle have each outright banished one using magic, and the collected might of the party (and, the first time, help from the Knights Panther and the Hammer of Sigmar - the second time they did it on their own) was enough to beat Sheerargetru the Lord of Change. They have also fought and (barely) defeated a Grand Abomination (Gaynorite Greater Daemon). Heck, Uhlrik managed to solo a Keeper of Secrets once - though to be fair those are the weakest canonical Greater Daemons out there (see here for an examination of his surprisingly good chances against a lone greater daemon based on where his stats are now). However, they know better than to try anything funny on the likes of Soulslayer or Lungscraper - their standing orders if they encounter a Daemon Prince (or Greater Daemon if they aren't prepared and operating in force) are simple: RUN!
Foe Tossing Charge - These have occurred several times. Notably Uhlrik after his father cut Cassandra down at Bachendorf Keep, Derelek trying to barrel his way through to Kozakawa in Cathay (shield-bashing and literally trampling hobgoblins speed bumps unlucky enough to be in his path). Gideon got one of these in Shadows Over Bögenhafen, steamrolling Nickolai and Vanye to get at the rest of the party.
Genocide Dilemma - This got played for quite a bit of drama, and after they helepd with actions on the ugly side of this decision, the Heroes' desire to take a third option has radically altered the course of the campaign. See Leave No Survivors, below.
Humans Are Warriors - The Asur hired the mostly-human Black Dragons/Dragon Brethren to help alter the balance in their millennia-long stalemate with the Druchii... yeah, this trope is currently a very major part of the ongoing campaign.
You All Meet In An Inn - or in this case,the original party met on a barge headed for Nuln. It happened circa 1991, though.
Inevitable Tournament - At least twice, one or more of the heroes took part in one of these. In one case, they did it to remove the Graf's champion (who was being manipulated by an enemy) from his position as a way of striking at the manipulator's influence on the court. The other time was pretty much over bragging rights.
I Want My Beloved to be Happy - zigzagged in the case of the love triangle between Uhlrik, Cassandra and Astarielle. Cassandra tried to chase Uhlrik into Astarielle's arms both so he'd be happy and she'd be rid of him. Then Astarielle subverted that, playing this trope straight herself and persuading Uhlrik to reconcile with Cassandra. Later on, Cassandra decided that a type 2 Tenchi Solution was a better idea...
Love Dodecahedron - Try to follow this. U loves C, who is crazy and goes hot and cold on U. C has affairs with T, S and a couple of others (like AL, who dumps her and marries somebody else) but has the occasional reconciliation with U. After C breaks up with U, he has a (totally sanctioned of by C) affair with A. A shoves U back to C and flees the scene, now pregnant with U's baby. Along comes E, who is married to R (U's half-sister, who at one point has told C that if U weren't her brother, she'd be all over him). E finds out about A and her pregnancy and tells C, who by now is back with U (E didn't know C knew about A at all, but at least the pregnancy was news to her). C forces U to marry A on threat of divorcing U herself if he doesn't comply. He does. Then, E gets separated from everybody and meets K, who wants a piece of E. E wants a taste too, but ultimately stays loyal to R. E brings K back to the rest and introduces her to L, who is still smarting from the death of his own wife. L isn't interested in K's advances but befriends her and comforts her in her several romantic misadventures with assorted other men. C, meanwhile, tries to get RE to seek comfort in U's arms after RE's husband becomes undead but both U and RE aren't interested and C tries to pair K with U later which doesn't work either. U gets kidnapped and RU ravishes him while he's enchanted, and she gets pregnant. RU has a falling out with her boss and C convinces U to take her in and marry her too though he doesn't love RU. RU accepts and tries to win U's love. G wants K but she's just not into him. L, meanwhile, has unsuccessfully pursued C (until he realized she was with U) and had near misses with M and two others. L wanted H at one point, but found out that she is his sister. L, who has been trading commiserations over romantic dust-ups with K for a while, decides to try a relationship with K after all. Confused?
Cleaning Up The Romantic Loose Ends - So after all of that, we have the following: L is with K and E is with R while U is with all three of C, A & RU.
Interspecies Romance - Almost every PC has been involved in at least one, or had one proposed for them in character (usually by Cassandra, of course). There are several hybrid creatures around as a result.
Leave No Survivors - It's Warhammer, so this trope was bound to turn up sooner or later. The Heroes took down some soldiers that indulged in murdering POWs during the Imperial Civil War. This is generally assumed to be the default setting when fighting Chaos minions (twisted psychopaths and mercy don't mix well) though there are some notable exceptions during the course of the campaign, and the heroes in general found it extremely distasteful but regrettably necessary. Eventually, after allowing themselves to take part in acts of outright genocide, the Heroes decided that they were being hypocrites and repudiated this doctrine. The fact that their forces were finally large enough to actually be able to do something with Dark Elf prisoners rather than just slaughtering them out of hand had nothing to do with this change in policy. Nothing,
Make up or Break Up - Cassandra and Uhlrik, repeatedly. They've chosen both options at different times, but are currently together for what looks like the long haul. Cedric and Richelle, sort of. See I Want my Beloved To Be Happy and Resurrected Romance, above.
Mayfly December Romance - Strangely, Uhlrik is in three of these, and not always on the same side of the equation. His two elf wives will surely long outlive him, but his Skaven wife Rusikis is already well into the prime of her life at the ripe old age of fifteen.
Mentor Occupational Hazard - Used, abused and subverted. Graf Boris and Hieronymus Blitzen played it straight, Albrecht subverted it strangely as detailed in his own entry and Duke Oswald died peacefully in his home of natural causes.
Official Couple - Uhlrik and Cassandra were this well before they actually started courting and eventually got married. Even though an elf/beastman pairing's pretty squicky to most folks, the rest of the cast saw the massive Belligerent Sexual Tension and debated Will They or Won't They for a while. (They're also a somewhat subverted case of Beast and Beauty - how is it subverted? Years spent dancing the Masochism Tango, that's how.)
Opposing Combat Philosophies - It's the Warhammer world, so naturally you'll find lots of this. Of particular interest are the contrasts between the Dragon Brethren and the Elves (both High and Dark, since the differences between those two are much finer and more subtle). The Elves tend to favor a combined arms approach with spear-and-shield troops holding back and protecting their deadly missile troops while lightly armored, very fast cavalry and shock troops break the enemy. The Dragon Brethren, while they also focus on combined arms, prefer more heavily armored troops at the expense of a certain amount of mobility (since Elves will always be faster than humans anyways) with highly aggressive infantry formations such as pikemen and halberdiers (and of course very heavily armored cavalry) plus massive firepower via cannons and other siege engines, aerial bombardment using both cannon and dropped stones using a flying castle as a firing platform and of course copious regiments of hand gunners, crossbowmen and longbowmen. The Brethren don't have the finesse of the elves, but they've got endurance, firepower and an all in all more aggressive methodology.
Storming the Castle - The heroes have done this several times, with or without an army at their back. The bad guys did it to them at Bachendorf Keep when Chaos got tired of waiting them out.
Sword of Plot Advancement- Ghal-Maraz, the Hammer of Sigmar. They had to acquire it to stop an imperial civil war.
They Do - Four PCs and a number of significant NPCs have gotten married during the course of the campaign, and this did nothing to slow down the story, and in fact made it a lot more complicated and even messy.
Thirty Xanatos Pileup - These have come about more than once over the course of the campaign. For example, the enemy Within Campaign contained intersecting plots by the following agencies: Tzeentch (with competing conspiracies by and within the Red Crown and Purple Hand cults as well as the schemes of the daemons Sheerargetru and Gideon, making for at least 4 Tzeentchian entries alone), The Slaanesshi Cult of the Jade Sceptre, two different Wittgenstein plots, Johannes Teugen's Ordo Septenarius, Gaynor's own Xanatos Roulette, the often conflicting schemes of Imperial potentates like Karl Franz, Boris Todbringer, Gustav von Krieglitz, Ar-Ulric and more. The later Daemon War storyline had conflicting or at least divergent plans from Finubar, the heroes, Gaynor, Lungscraper, Malekith and Aglareth.
Walking the Earth - The heroes spent a lot of time traveling around but eventually they did get a base of operations... from which they frequently traveled for specific reasons, and which they shifted from one place to another several times...
The War Sequence - The heroes have been involved in these numerous times. sometimes they have been just trying to make it through the area where a war was being fought, sometimes they were fighting their way through the battle itself trying to reach some objective and sometimes they have been in command of one of the opposing forces. Occasionally the matter has been all up to them, and at others it has not or their own part of the story was apart from the battle itself.
We Help the Helpless - Adventuring party. Yeah.
Metafiction Tropes
These are tropes that pertain to the metagame aspects of the game as well as things that pertain to the rules themselves.
Continuity Creep - The campaign started out episodic and with mostly handwaved connection (if any) between adventures. Later... it edged in towards Continuity Porn (witness the existence of this wiki and its detailed timelines... the original hardcopy calendars actually specify what days children were conceived). The focus on references to old, old stories tailed off around the time that the game switched continents, and for obvious reasons.
Growing The Beard / Cerebus Syndrome - Less about removing comedy, though the game did take an overall more serious tone after its initial few adventures. More about dropping the episodic dungeon crawls and moving on to having overarching story arcs with some serious conent and examination of social issues.
Long Runner - Over 15 years, and it's an RPG campaign.
Memetic Mutation - "You can get all kinds'a neat stuff at the Schlaffenfest!" - don't ask.
Also, innumerable variations on "This/You is/are number <insert number here>", which were references to the "1001 Uses for Blast" Grimoire that Cedric is carrying in one piece of gag artwork. "It's the all-purpose spell!" was occasionally invoked instead.
"Dwarf Beat!"
Metaplot - partially averted. Time marches on, as has GW's metaplot for the WH world. Many or most of the changes (insignificant or temporary though they have often been) that have happened in that metaplot have not been incorporated into this campaign.
- The Verse - There's a curious sort of internal metaplot, however, in that several smaller campaigns or one-off games have been set in the same AU as the Legacy of the Gods campaign itself, with the occasional continuity nod though generally happening well out of the orbit of the original campaign's characters and involved in mostly unrelated adventures.
Shared Universe - somewhat. A couple of different GMs have run games set in this particular verse and their actions have impacted the continuity, though they have always respected Hal (the campaign's original and primary GM) as the final authority on matters of the setting's overall form and direction.
Cast Composition Tropes
These are tropes about the numbers, role and membership of the core group of cast members in terms of both players and characters.
An Adventurer Is You - As is typical for WFRP, this is somewhat subverted in that there isn't the strict enforcement of roles via character classes but rather an ongoing progression of skills and development in branching paths. However, as time went on the characters did fall into something like the classic dynamics. In MMORPG terms, Cassandra's a Speed/DPSer with some ranged abilities, Uhlrik's a particularly hardcore Tank/Scrapper DPS, Cedric's a Nuker, Richelle's a Healer with a dash of mezzer/debuffer. Derelek's probably a Jack with a side helping of Tank. Ludwig' probably a Scrapper DPS. Erich's one of the hardest to pin to these categories: he's perhaps most easily described as a Nuker/Mezzer/Ninja and so on in combat and adventure terms, but overall He's really more of a stealth/social trickster with plenty of nuking potential. See the party composition spreadsheet for a detailed list.
Ascended Extra - Rahann fits this trope. She originally appeared as a violent cameo part during a side-game about a lone villain protagonist. She later went on to become a major member of the cast and was revealed to be Uhlrik's half-sister. She was even played as a PC during a one-session flashback game that established her Freudian Excuse.
Blonde Brunette Redhead - Cassandra (Blonde), Richelle (Brunette) & Rahann (Red, er... fur). Later, Kreeshana took the redhead slot when Rahann retired from active adventuring.
Cast Calculus - Very complex and dynamic over the course of the campaign. We constructed a spreadsheet to illustrate.
- In their very first adventure, they were pretty clearly a Five Man Band. Uhlrik was The Hero (even though he was an outcast, Dark Is Not Evil type) with shades of The Big Guy, Cedric was The Smart Guy, Derelek was The Big Guy (Dwarves are allowed to be this even though they're vertically challenged), Cassandra was The Chick and Tanis was The Lancer. When Tanis left after their first adventure, Cassandra absorbed his role as The Lancer though she was still arguably The Chick. One interesting quirk of this is that Tanis was the one that matched the look and personality of The Hero, but he just didn't fall into that role - he was better as a more upbeat foil to Uhlrik's dourness.
Changing of the Guard - The campaign saw a fair bit of this, especially in its later stages. The initial 4 characters stayed fairly constant for most of the campaign's history, but eventually the characters started to retire from actiuve adventuring. The current focus characters are no longer the team of Uhlrik, Cassandr, Derelek, Cedric, Richelle and Erich. As time went on, several of these characters began to settle down from the adventurer's lifestyle and new characters stepped up to fill their shoes. The key focus character now would probably be Ludwig, with Uhlrik acting more as his mentor and commanding officer than his fellow adventurer - and more recently, Uhlrik himself set out on a separate mission entirely with a specially-chosen team and left Ludwig in charge outright. Erich is still adventuring, but is off on solo missions away from the main action and everybody else from the older main group is functionally retired from being an adventurer. Ludwig's own nakama is a Power Trio composed of himself, Kreeshana and Tovril. They regularly consult the original characters, but they're much more in the center of the action now.
Commuting on a Bus - as mentioned in Changing of the Guard above, several former main characters have been demoted to regular or recurring characters. Cassandra, Cedric, Derelek and Richelle have all befallen this fate. Meanwhile, Uhlrik and Erich were each Put on a Bus, allowing each of them to get their own Spin Off series (theoretically type 1), as it were.
Demoted to Extra - This will happen to long runners like this campaign. Examples include, of all people, Richelle.
McLeaned - This happened to a couple of PCs whose players only showed up for a couple of sessions and then dropped out due to geographical issues (they lived far away and weren't in the main core group). Rather than their characters being Put on a Carriage, their characters were horribly murdered off-camera between adventures. Most longer-standing characters averted this when their players left, however - they became the Other Derelek instead.
Put on a Carriage - Tanis got this for a while but came back and died not long after returning. Fritz Reikwald (who's been gone since 2511 IC though he left on good terms with the rest of the party), Lester (he was taken out in a mission that was resolved using Warhammer Fantasy Battle rules, but they never found the body so he's MIA rather than necessarily dead - he's not likely to return, however), Randle (a quirky case - Randle went through a Nobody Could Survive That sort of thing by being bedridden inside a castle when it crumbled and most of it fell off a cliff. Several real-time and in-game years later, it was revealed that he was Not Quite Dead and had crawled out of the rubble, but had been a step or two behind the party all this time) His return came about because his player, over a year after the fact, had a question about his character's demise and we reviewed an accounting of his Fate Point expenditures... finding that due to an error, we had believed him to be out of fate points at the time the castle collapsed but he actually had one left so he was retroactively ruled to have survived after all, but there was by then no way to have him rejoin the party at an earlier time and his player had long replaced him anyhow. Thrudd left the campaign for a long time, then returned as a relatively minor supporting character.
Depending on the Player - There was sometimes a certain amount of Character Derailment when characters switched players, and they always shifted slightly in the smaller ways, which is actually inevitable anyhow above and beyond organic growth. One particularly notable example was two-pronged: When Ricky took over Cedric and Marissa took over Richelle, the two characters became romantically involved though this had never been a factor in their prior characterization. This was related to the players' own romantic interest in one another, and they eventually did start dating. That particular instance worked out though (for the characters - their players split up later but had already left the game by then), and made for some good stories.
Revolving Door Casting meets The Other Derelek- A quirky case. While there were a considerable number of party members that came and went, there's also historically been a core group of characters that stuck around for a very long time. For several of these long running characters, however, the players were the ones that changed. Cedric, Derelek, Cassandra and Richelle all changed hands at least once. Derelek is the king of this trope in the campaign, and is a particularly strange case, explained in detail under Suspiciously Similar Substitute below.
Sixth Ranger - The campaign has had a lot of these:
Suspiciously Similar Substitute - In the very first session of play, the one that included the period before the PCs even got to Nuln, there was a dwarf tunnel fighter in the party that was played by Drew Christensen. Drew wasn't part of the second session but Ryan Powell was. He had also made a dwarf tunnel fighter: Derelek. He replaced the other dwarf without any explanation whatsoever and the continuity (what little there really was at that point in the campaign) went on without noticing that he had replaced his predecessor. Derelek was a permanent fixture of the campaign from that point on. Before long, this plot hole was sort-of cleared up by declaring that the first dwarf had actually been Derelek anyway. To muddy the waters a bit further yet thoroughly cement this change in continuity, when Ryan moved out of town Drew took over playing Derelek without skipping a beat. On one notable occasion when Ryan returned to the area for a few weeks, Drew stepped back and let him temporarily return to his former role. The actual players don't even remember the original dwarf's name. Once Drew moved away, Andrew took over playing him (and eventually he departed as well, leaving the character an NPC). Talk about messy, drawn-out provenance for a player character!
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