A look at another forgotten scenario for WFRP1….

MAYHEM IN THE MERMAID

This scenario was published in WD96 under the twin titles of ‘Bar-Room Brawl’ and ‘Mayhem in the Mermaid’. To my knowledge it has never been reprinted.

Warning. Spoilers follow.

It has quite an unusual set up. First of all, the players are required to take on the roles of pregenerated characters, with their own distinct storylines. Secondly, the individual characters have conflicting objectives and have to give separate written instructions to the GM each round. All of this makes it a difficult scenario to include in a campaign, and probably explains why it has never been more popular.

Nonetheless, it reads like a fun one-off. The themes are familiar. There is an obnoxious, misbehaving aristocrat, a revolutionary, smugglers, the inevitable troll slayer, etc. In aggregate they make an explosive mix, and are guaranteed to generate the mayhem promised by the title. There are also lots of nice details to add to the chaos: pigs, rotten fish, a press gang, buckets of muck, pot plants on the balcony which make convenient weapons, etc.

Were it easier to incorporate into a campaign, I could see this being a good filler encounter. As it stands, though, it is a location and collection of NPCs to plunder, and less than the sum of its parts. To my mind it highlights just how successful ‘A Rough Night at the Three Feathers’ was at getting PCs involved in multiple NPC storylines.

The next post in this series can be read here.

Title art by Matt Morrow. Used without permission. No challenge intended to the rights holders.