Gamesmaster

Warhammer Quest doesn't necessary have to be a game where you enter then dungeon, kill all monsters
you can find, solve quests and gain money as well as treasures. You quickly get tired of playing if you're
going on like this. To help preventing the game from getting boring you can introduce a Gamesmaster!

Those of you who have played Dungeons & Dragons already knows what the Gamesmaster is good for.
It is simply he who run the game and controlls the dungeon. The easiest way of explaining what the
Gamesmaster do is to read the Roleplay book that came with the game, but I guess that those of you
who are reading this haven't got WH Quest and therefor it might be hard for you to read it.
Therefor I'm simply gonna write of the chapter that explains what a Gamesmasters duties is.
I belive this is better than me trying to make up my own story, still I won't write word by word
since this would fill several pages. I'll just try covering the most interested and important parts.

What exactly is a "Gamesmaster"?
It is important to realise that the Gamesmaster is a new addition to your gaming group.
Where once you had four players, each controlling one warrior, you now have five players -
four warriors and a Gamesmaster.

When you play WH Quest without a Gamesmaster you determine what the dungeon is like,
what the warriors' objectives are and what monsters they meet by drawing cards, rolling dice
and follow a set of strictly defined rules. From now on all these activities are handled
by the Gamesmaster. The Gamesmaster doesn't have a warrior to move around the dungeon
at all, as he is the dungeon! Instead the Gamesmaster controls the monsters - yes, all of them!

By introducing a Gamesmaster your WH Quest games become much more flexible. They are no
longer limite by the scenarios and situations laid down in the rules. The Gamesmaster runs
each gaming session, setting up unique challanges and traps for the players to overcome.

As Gamesmaster, you have a challenging task ahead. You have to set up the adventure and run
the game, acting as a referee when the players argue. You must keep them on their toes by making
them guess what's lurking around the corner and stop them getting too confident by maintaining
the knife-edged tension that makes for a good game.

What does a Gamesmaster do?
The Gamesmaster runs the whole game, calling out each new phase, making sure that the players
follow the turn sequence, and perhaps nudging a player if he has forgotten something really
obvious (like his warrior drinking a healing potion before the end of the turn if he is flat on
his back at 0 wounds). The Gamesmaster also places the monsters on the table, deciding where
they move to, who they attack, etc.

Interacting with the players
A big part of the Gamesmaster's job is to interact with the players. It is up to him to describe what
the warriors can se in the dungeon: what a room looks like, what item it contains, exactly how big and
nasty that monster really is. In this respect he is the eyes and ears (and even the noses)
of the warriors.

Beeing sneaky
The easiest way to build up tension and keep the players guessing is for the Gamesmaster to keep his
dice rolls secret from them, while insisting that he see all of theirs. Another great ploy is to
look worried as one draw a card or look up a table saying things lika "Are you really sure that you
want to go in there?" There are all sorts of trick that you as Gamesmaster can use to keep the
warriors on their toes.

Controlling the Dungeon
As Gamesmaster it is very important that you play WH Quest a few times and read the Roleplay-
as well as the Rule book throughoutly, because the players will ask you all sorts of questions about
the game and what they must do next. More than any of they other players, it is important that the
Gamesmaster knows the rules! When playing, it is customary for you, as the Gamesmaster, to sit on
the opposit side of the table to the other players, with the game box lid propped up in front of
you so that the other players cannot see exactly what you're doing. Behind the cover of this screen,
the Gamesmaster can scribble mysterious notes, roll dice, look up the tables and mutter to himself
as the game progresses. This is all part of the "art" of gamesmastering.
The more one keeps the players guessing, the more they'll want to come back for another crack of
the Gamesmasters adventures.

Setting up the game
As Gamesmaster it is your job to get everything ready for the gaming session. For players, there is
nothing worse than sitting around for an hour or so while the Gamesmaster sorts everything our.
The Gamesmaster should try to make sure that evertying is set to get going as soon as the players arrives.

Playing the game
As a rule of thumb, you control anything that happens that isn't a direct action of one of the warriors:
you control Events, Monsters, what the warriors find etc. The players are now only allowed to roll dice to
decide the outcome of things which they themselves do, they no longer roll the dice for the monsters,
for example.

Now that there's a Gamesmaster in the party, the warriors can do much more things that they haven't been
able to do otherwise. The Gamesmaster simply asks the warriors what they would like to do and then it is
then up to the Gamesmaster to decide whether this sounds logical or not.
For example, the Elf might state that he would like to try and barge aside the Skeleton infront of him
and then try hitting the Necromancer that stands behind the Skeleton. And then the Barbarian says that
he'll grab the chair that stands next to him and then throw it on the Skeleton Archers that stands to
the right of Necromancer. Almost everything is possible now that you have a Gamesmaster!