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[[I could put these staging notes here, or in the final chapter, or dump them

altogether. This is a basic handbook/rules reference, and if we get tight for space, staging notes like this are probably the lowest priority for inclusion.]]

Designing Divine Instruments for Your Campaign: The divine instruments described above are only representative examples. Gamemasters should design their own divine instruments, using the examples above as models and inspirations.

For lesser instruments we recommend that you: 1) restrict the durations and uses-per-day as shown in the examples, 2) avoid lesser instruments with more than one virtue, and 3) limit any new virtues you invent to confer no more than a +10 bonus or similar modest magical power. Save the fancy stuff for the greater and exalted instruments, which feature more exotic magical powers, and which should be in wondrously short supply, so as to not flood your campaign with excess magic.

For greater and exalted instruments we recommend that you restrict the durations and uses-per-day as shown in the examples, and limit any new virtues you invent to confer no more than a +20 bonus or similar modest magical power.

Most of the examples given above are simple and streamlined designs, but your own designs may be more flexible and involved, so long as the instruments have a

coherent theme and limited power. There's no reason why greater and exalted instruments shouldn't have one or two associated lesser virtues in addition to a distinctive greater virtue, particularly if the benefits they confer don't affect melee combats; however, more than one melee-combat-affecting virtue in a single instrument probably makes it an uncomfortably significant factor in a character's power.

Most of our examples are designed to produce effects that are simple and easy to express in game terms. For example, the Amulet of Iron Will (see above) grants

immunity from psychological effects and a bonus of +20 to WP for the duration. On the other hand, cooler, more interesting magical effects tend to be hard to define in game terms without wasting a lot of time and verbiage on specific rules. The Amulet of the Thunderhead (see above) is a concept that didn't translate easily into simple game terms,

but that's no reason to avoid it. Some folks are more comfortable with specific rules and guidelines, but a more open-ended, flexible design lets the GM tailor the effects to the dramatic moment, and avoids the numbing familiarity of standard mechanics-driven magic effects.

How Common Should Divine Instruments Be?: Most cultists who do not follow a clerical career should not receive a divine instrument as a reward for cult service until the completion of their third or fourth career, or until they have performed a noteworthy service for their cult. Even then, the instrument should be more symbolic than powerful in its significance, an emblem of the cult's honor rather than an enhancement to a character's power and abilities. Most first-career initiates should not have one; they need something to look forward to as rewards for advancement. But many second- and third-career clerics should have one or more minor divine instruments to remind them of their cult benefits and obligations; every time they use such a device, they are tacitly

acknowledging the importance of honoring their cult's doctrines to their success.

If you like campaigns with comparatively easy access to magic items for your player characters, we recommend the majority of them be divine instruments. Divine instruments reinforce cult values and themes in player character behavior, and as such support role-playing and character development in the campaign. Sorcerous artifacts tend, on the other hand, to be tools for increasing a character's raw power -- admittedly an important theme in heroic fantasy, but less rich in role-playing potential than the narrative and moral themes implied in cult doctrines. Further, divine instruments have been

designed as magical items with relatively modest effects on a campaign's magical power level, particularly since most lesser divine instruments are usable only once per day, as opposed to sorcerous devices, which can be used as often as you have the MP to power them. If a power can only be used once per day, the tendency is to save it for later when you'll really need it -- a good gaming element in that it encourages shrewd use of scarce resources, and a good dramatic element in that it is less likely to be taken for granted, losing its magical feel for the player. And even further, since the right to employ the magical power is contingent on honoring cult doctrines, the GM has a rationale for withdrawing the use of divine magic items, either temporarily or permanently, if they are abused or if they disrupt the balance of power in the campaign.

Divine Instruments for Good Guys and Bad Guys : The Young Gods and the Old Faith are not profligate with divine instruments. Third- and fourth-rank clerics are few in number, and not dedicated to pr aying for divine instruments to be distributed to heroes and adventurers. Instead, such high-status clerics are concerned with maintaining temples necessities like breviaries and local defenses, with temple and cult

administration, and with political duties like maintaining city defenses and intriguing with nobles and guilds.

Chaos cults, on the other hand, are remarkably generous with divine instruments, viewing them as an extension of their Chaotic influence. Many Chaos cult instruments are the special creations of the individual Chaos powers, and as such are wondrously powerful and eccentric in nature; for example, consider the chaos and Daemon weapons and armors featured in the Realm of Chaos volumes. Such devices of power are also abundant temptations to seduce heroes and adventurers to the Dark Side of the Force.

When an instrument of Chaotic power falls into the hands of an adventurer, there is a

great temptation to join the appropriate chaos cult in order to wield its power. Chaos and Daemon weapons and armor are therefore effective recruitment bonuses for proselytizing chaos cultists. On the battlefields of the Chaos Wastes, where the armies of Chaos wage continual warfare upon one another, such instruments may be scavenged from fallen Champions and Warriors, or taken in challenge combats. Great heroes and adventurers seduced into Chaos worship by the corrupting promise of power represented by a Chaos instrument make excellent villains and antagonists in WFRP campaigns.

Divine Instruments and the Player Characters : [This is a topic I'd like to make some comment on here, but if I do, I'd like it to be more clearly and succinctly expressed than below. I feel the concept is useful to keep in mind for the gamemaster when

designing and releasing magic stuf f in his campaign, but I'm not sure whether an explicit discussion of it serves any purpose here in the basic game rules. Comments are solicited.]

In many fantasy campaigns magic items serve three main purposes:

1. magical weapons, armor, staves, and so forth are a conventional feature of fantasy adventure settings,

2. they are part of the loot that rewards PCs who successfully complete their scenarios, and

3. they enhance the power of PCs, serving a similar function to the experience points and advancement rules systems.

Unfortunately, player characters obsessed with gaining magical loot and power as normal rewards for fantasy role-playing is associated with a style of FRP gaming variously known as "power-gaming" or "Monty Haul" gaming. This style of gaming can be lots of fun, especially when you've just been introduced to role-playing, but many more experienced gamers (in particular, the kind of gamers attracted to WFRP) are more interested in the role-playing experience itself -- in developing the personalities of their player characters -- and in the story-telling of fantasy adventures -- and the challenge of problems presented by the narrative -- than in greedily enhancing their character's wealth and power.

Divine instruments should be more than neat loot to find in tombs or in the packs of monsters one ambushes. Divine instruments are important possessions that tie PCs more firmly to the doctrines and traditions of their cults; through their cults, PCs discover their relationship to the society around them and to the moral and political issues that comprise the major themes of good and evil in any good fantasy campaign. Unlike a magical sword which simply makes a PC a more efficient killer, a divine instrument reinforces the PC's awareness of his ties to his cult, and to the principles an doctrines it stands for. Each time he invokes his instrument it should be in the back of his mind to ask: "Is this thing I do a service and honor to my cult? or am I just using this holy device to gain my own ends? Will my cult disapprove of my actions? Do I face a rebuke from my patron on Judgment Day?" Choosing to invoke a divine instrument involves not simply the question of whether it will make me wealthy or powerful, but the question of whether it is right or wrong in the eyes of my divine patron. Of course, in a fantasy world as well as the real world, such issues are often forgotten in the heat of the moment, but the added moral significance of divine instruments makes them slightly less susceptible to Monty Haul abuses than the typical FRP magic widget.