[:plant:] Warhammer Fantasy: Now with 45% more grimdark!

There are worlds where courageous heroes who stand for all that is good and righteous watch over populaces of decent folk who seek to enrich their own lives and better those of the people around them.

This isn't one of those worlds.

The Old World is one of blood, pain, sacrifice, treachery, deceit, and malice. Many of the Empire's "heroes" are dangerous rogues and blood spattered butchers. The people of the Old World are suspicious and insular, swift to believe the worst of others and slow to trust, often with good reason. Corruption is the rule, honesty the exception.
— WFRP Core Rulebook, pg. 192

The game proper won't start until I get back from Meet, but I thought I'd go ahead and open up the chat thread for any rules questions, character adjustment requests, that sort of thing.

You don't need to read all this now; just like in D&D I'll explain as we go along. But the information is here if you want it. I'll upload the Core Rulebook after Meet, but most of what we need to get started should be right here in the post.



DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Shin as Yarogni Bukoski, Kislevite butcher

and his travel companion

Hawkeye as Dazhyn Jelavic, a Kislevite goat drover.


Denicalis as Kazanin Hargundsson, a Dwarven cartographer from the World's Edge mountains.

Colonel Skills as Tanrindil Tenderheart, a gangly wood elf bandit from the forests of Laurelorn.

CetteHamsterLa as Bulkbelly Tallowman, a halfling charcoal-burner from the Moot.

Zephyrin as Hamit Tanglefoot, a halfling stonemason and sculptor from the province of Ostland.

In the event you want to swap characters with each other or change their names (within reason; these names are silly enough without the addition of a Dr. Peepants Dingleberry McFartcloud), that's fine.

SETTING

What is the Old World?

Like most fantasy games, WFRP is set in a loose approximation of Medieval / Dark Ages Europe — except with like wizards and elves. WFRP takes the setting tropes to their inevitable ends, however.

Peasants literally live in filth and routinely starve to death when their taxes leave them without enough to feed their families. Medicine is roughly half butchery and half quackery, and if you do survive a disease or a serious wound you're likely to be disfigured for life. Magic, for those few that possess it, is nearly more a curse than a blessing; even the simplest spells risk the attentions of Chaos.

Dwarves and elves loathe each other — to the extent that both races are in irreversible decline thanks to a war which crippled the ability of both races to defend against other threats. (The Dwarves call it the War of Vengeance; the Elves call it the War of the Beard.) The Elves in particular have largely withdrawn from the Old World to the island of Ulthuan in the middle of the Great Sea, though many remain in the forests of the Old World.

Lands of the Old World

The Empire of Man: The largest and oldest nation of the Old World; roughly comparable to the Renaissance-era Holy Roman Empire.

The Kingdom of Bretonnia: A massive land in its own right; a pastiche of High Medieval France (particularly Brittany) and Arthurian legend.

The Estalian Kingdoms: A loose confederation of petty kingdoms with no leaders strong enough to unite them, Estalians are comparatively safe from the perils of Chaos and so spend much time warring amongst themselves. Equivalent to Reconquista Spain.

The Tilean City-States: A collection of rival cities rather than a true nation, Tilea's natural mountain borders have protected it against invasion; comparable to Renaissance Italy.

Kislev: A cold and inhospitable land to the Empire's northeast, Kislev is the first line of defense against incursions from the Chaos Wastes. Culturally similar to Russia and the Slavic nations of Eastern Europe.

Norsca: A frigid, dangerous land of trolls and chaos spawn, Norse fighting men are infamously feared for their berserker spirit in combat. Of all Mannish lands, Norsca has suffered the worst from Chaos mutation and Norse invasion is scarcely less dreadful than an attack by orcs. Roughly equivalent to Viking-era (8th-11th century) Scandinavia.

Other lands exist, but few Old-Worlders will ever see them and visitors from these far-off places are rare. To most, they are little more than legends and campfire tales. (Araby, Cathay, Khuresh, Ind, Nehekhara, Nippon, Naggaroth, Lustria, Ulthuan)

Races of the Old World

Humanity: An ambitious, energetic, and adaptable people, Humans are far and away the most populous of the civilized races. Though mankind is fiercely dedicated to the fight against Chaos, it is also true that humans comprise an unusually large proportion of the Chaos hordes.

Dwarves: Mankind's reluctant ally against the threats of the Old World, the ancient dwarven race is in a long decline. The dwarves still hold only a few of their mighty mountain holds, with the rest overrun by greenskins, trolls or worse. Dwarves (or Dawi, as they call themselves) are a grim and literal-minded people, renowned for their skill in battle, their excellent craftsmanship, their unyielding sense of honor — and their great enthusiasm for gold and ale. The dawi have no word for "forgiveness" but many subtle variations on "retribution" and "revenge". Dwarves do not wield magic directly, preferring to imbue their weapons with powerful runes. The Chaos Dwarves, or Dawi-Zhaar, were separated from their kin in a Chaos incursion and turned to darkness rather than being destroyed, and dwell in the Dark Lands between the Old World and Cathay. The Dwarves maintain outwardly that the Dawi-Zhaar do not exist, and are hostile to the very broaching of the subject.

Elves: The High Elves of Ulthuan are famed for their mastery of wizardry, poetry and song. Though Ulthuan routinely sends ambassadors and envoys to the Old World, it is rare for the High Elves (or Asur) to truly entangle themselves in Old World politics or war except in truly extraordinary cases. Not all elves fled to Ulthuan, however; many Wood Elves (or Asrai) remain in the forests of the Old World, particularly in Athel Loren on the Empire-Bretonnia border. Wood Elves are extremely xenophobic, rarely leaving their forest homes and using magic to conceal their villages from hapless humans and rampaging greenskins alike. The Dark Elves (or Druchii) fled to the New World after a great schism, sinking into worship of Chaos and Khaine, Lord of Murder. In the Old World they are usually only encountered as pirates and slave-takers, and so present an ever-present threat to coastal settlements and traders on the open sea. If the other elves speak of them at all, it is with reluctance.

Halflings: A small, peaceful and generally cheerful race, the vast majority of all halflings dwell in the Imperial Province of Mootland (usually just referred to as "The Moot"). Compared to the other civilized races halflings have little interest in religion; the halflings have deities of their own, but they are generally considered less important than the love of one's family or the question of what will be served at dinner. Halflings have a reputation among humans as thieves and scoundrels, largely because the only halflings to leave the Moot do so because of an unusually restless and adventurous nature. Halflings do not wield magic at all, and are known to be resistant to mutation and other Chaos influences.

Greenskins: Orcs, Hobgoblins, Goblins, Snotlings, and Trolls are little different from one another in the main; all greenskins have an innate enthusiasm toward violence and war for its own sake. Hobgoblins are more cunning, Orcs more brutal, and Goblins more treacherous. Snotlings are scarcely a threat, treated with utter contempt even by the lowliest goblin, but it is widely thought that the snotlings may be a kind of larval greenskin that will grow into a more threatening form if allowed to survive. It is uncertain whether Trolls are truly cousins of the Orcs or not, but the durable beasts are seen far too often in orcish warbands to discount it.

Skaven: Do not exist. If a massive underground civilization of man-sized rats festered beneath every city in the Empire, don't you think someone would have noticed? The drunken rantings of ratcatchers and sewer jacks are just that. Anyone persistent in spreading these rumors may be deranged or even possessed by Daemons. Report them to a Witch Hunter immediately.

Chaos: BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!


PLAY


Resolution

Most actions in WFRP are resolved by a Skill or Characteric Test; a percentile (1d100) roll against the relevant skill or characteristic on your character sheet. Even combat is handled this way; rather than rolling against your enemy's AC, you'll roll against your own Weapon Skill. Occasionally you'll encounter Opposed Skill Tests, your attempt to Intimidate may be opposed by the victim's Will Power, for example. Unlike D&D, you usually want to roll low rather than high, since skill tests succeed if you roll lower than the relevant skill. If you roll below your target by 10 or more, that's a "degree of success"; if multiple participants in an opposed test roll successfully, the winner is determined by who has more degrees of success.


Example 1


Alfreda Tylo is a Human Scribe who has followed rumors of a rare book to a dwarven merchant staying at a local tavern. She finally catches up to him at supper, but the dwarf won't even humor her questions unless she drinks with him. He's only drinking ale, but for Alfreda he orders a mug of harsh rotgut whiskey.

Unfortunately Alfreda has very low Toughness (the characteristic that governs the Consume Alcohol skill) and she certainly has no training in Consume Alcohol; her Consume Alcohol skill is a paltry 12. All the same, she decides to chance it. Will she hold her liquor? With a Toughness of 24, her Toughness bonus is 2; she can hold two drinks without much worry. But on the third, she must make a test.

Alfreda rolls a 59, far too high, and begins to get thoroughly drunk. The merchant keeps hammering them down, and Alfreda decides to keep trying despite the miserable odds. Her next rolls are 48, 52, 82: all far too high, and with 4 failed rolls she's now officially Stinking Drunk. All tests involving weapons, agility or intelligence are now 30 more difficult, and there's a good chance she may be disoriented, dizzy and confused for the next few hours. Or she may just pass out in a puddle of her own vomit.

(The dwarf's Consume Alcohol is a hearty 53; thanks to that and his choice of drink, he only fails one test.)


Example 2


Conrad Braun, a human Grave Robber, wants to sneak past a watchman. Conrad has a 39 Agility and training in Silent Move, so he fancies his chances. He rolls a 38, just barely making it.

The watchman is keeping an eye out, however, constantly making Perception checks. He's pretty sharp for a Watchman, with 37 Intelligence and Perception training, so there's a good chance he might catch Conrad anyway. But he doesn't, rolling an 87 and noticing absolutely nothing as Conrad climbs over the cemetery fence.

If Conrad and the watchman had both failed their tests, one of two things might have happened: the GM can demand a reroll, repeating the opposed test until someone wins, OR it can be declared a stalemate, with nothing being gained by either side. In the case of a stalemate, Conrad doesn't manage to sneak into the cemetery — but he doesn't get caught either. Maybe the watch changed shifts a little earlier than expected and Conrad had to lay low for a bit. He can try again later.


Example 3: Combat

Gerhardt Rudelmann, a human Duelist, has picked a fight with a particularly irritating elf. On his turn, he can take one full action OR two half actions, as well as any free actions. He and the elf are already in close quarters, so he needn't spend any actions to move. He makes a Standard Attack with his sword.

As a Duelist, Gerhardt has excellent Weapon Skill (45). He rolls 17, hitting the elf without trouble. Having hit the enemy, where did he hit? An additional d100 reveals a strike to the left arm (48). But how much damage did he do? In this one case, he wants to roll high. His sword does 1d10 damage plus his Strength bonus (3), 6 wounds to the elf's left arm. The elf subtracts his armor value and his Toughness bonus from the damage; he has no armor and a Toughness bonus of only 2, meaning that the elf suffers 4 Wounds! The elf can only take 9 Wounds before suffering a critical hit; the battle already looks bad for him.

Gerhardt still has a Half Action to spend. He uses the Mount action to climb onto the bar, giving him the high ground and making the elf's chances even grimmer.

Combat is a LITTLE more complicated than other things, yes, but it's not exponentially more complex as it was in D&D. No more powers, no more magical doodads dripping off everyone's fingers. There are spells, yes, but we can save explaining that until needed.


Careers


Rather than classes, WFRP characters have Careers. You're not a "Fighter"; you may be a Soldier, with hopes of someday working your way up to Sergeant. Your starting career is randomly assigned, but if you survive to reach a second career you will have several to choose from. A Woodsman, for example, may tire of being a Woodsman; he's done slaving away and decides to become an Outlaw. To change careers, however, you must own certain things requisite to the career: these are called Trappings. An Outlaw's Trappings are a bow, a leather jerkin, and a shield. Without these three things, our Woodsman cannot enter the Outlaw career.

You may also enter (basic) careers not specified as an exit for your current career, but this costs twice as much XP. Even if a career is not specified as an "exit" for you, your current career may be listed as an "entry" on that career description which is just as good.

Each career has a different advance scheme, a selection of areas in which you can improve yourself to greater or lesser degrees. Woodsmen have no ability to improve their Ballistic Skill, for example, but Outlaws do. Conversely, Outlaws may not improve their Strength but Woodsmen may.


FATE


Every character starts with 1 or more Fate Points. You may spend a fate point when you would otherwise be killed, seriously maimed, or otherwise about to be in a deeply regrettable situation. Fate Points are no guarantee of a happy ending; an orc's axe might not kill you, but you'll probably still be rendered unconscious with no promises that you'll wake up in a better situation.

Earning additional Fate Points is possible, but very difficult: a character may earn more fate points if his presence and actions in a scenario help to stave off what would otherwise be a significant disaster. Riding all night to alert a large village of an oncoming orc horde and then escorting them to safety in a city might be worth a fate point. Ambushing some Chaos cultists in a cave and slaughtering them all is not, although it may technically be more difficult and dangerous.

NPCs generally do not have Fate Points, unless they are extremely significant and powerful figures. Emperor Karl Franz may have a fate point or two, as would the Witchfinder General (if he exists), or an Orc Warboss leading a Waaagh! If someone is important enough to merit a fate point, you'll probably know it, and even then they might not have any.

REFERENCE



Jam it back in, in the dark.

So in the second edition are all the stats percentile based or do they still follow the tabletop game format of Move being between 3 and 7 roughly, Strength and Toughness being out of ten, wounds being ten-ish, attacks being one unless you're a pit fighter and everything else being a percentile?

Also did the second edition come out after GW gave the Empire Steam Tanks and repeater rifles and the dwarves Ironclads and Gyrocopters?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Shin

So in the second edition are all the stats percentile based or do they still follow the tabletop game format of Move being between 3 and 7 roughly, Strength and Toughness being out of ten, wounds being ten-ish, attacks being one unless you're a pit fighter and everything else being a percentile?

Percentile = Weapons, Ballistic, Strength, Toughness, Agility, Intelligence, Willpower, Fellowship

Move varies from 3 (Dwarves) all the way up 10 (Eagles). Strength Bonus/Toughness Bonus is just derived from your Strength/Toughness. Wounds can technically go up to ridiculous numbers like 50 in the case of something like a dragon but for most things it's in the vicinity of 8-12.

A lot of careers can pick up a second attack but everybody pretty much starts with just one.

Quote:

Also did the second edition come out after GW gave the Empire Steam Tanks and repeater rifles and the dwarves Ironclads and Gyrocopters?

All these things seem to exist in the setting; no stats but it seems like converting over from 1st ed or WFB shouldn't be that tricky.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

In, although I don't know this system at all, so I'm going to be training wheels mode for a bit.

How ya doing, buddy?

I'd like to play, considering it feels like a year since I got any DnD action.

Where did everybody already sign up from? I've not been paying attention.


As long as you don't start still around June 20 when I'm back from annual training, though, which is only a week after the meet. Or maybe just introduce me into it after it's not far in.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Well I announced I was switching systems a while back, so most of the D&D group switched over, and Hawk and Skills popped in once I just opened up the remaining slots to whoever (the reserve list is a fun IDEA but in practice I get hold of people and it's all "Yeah, yesterday I wanted to play but today not so much! I just don't have the free time to post once every three days!").

I guess doing 6 players for a while isn't a problem with a system that has a lot less shit to keep track of in general. Character creation is pretty much screwball random in WFRP, so your input here is limited to a choice of race (Human, Elf, Dwarf or Halfling) and a 3d10 roll to pick your starting career.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

3 Dice Rolls Bones

Hrm. Halfling, then.

Additional Spam:
So. Am I a backhouse cleaner or what?

FELIPE NO

You are Hamit Tanglefoot, a stonemason and sculptor from the province of Ostland! Ostlanders are infamously stubborn.

Most amazing jew boots

You can't make me.

How ya doing, buddy?

Do you still get one free stat advance when you start out a character? In 1st ed you get all the skills for free and one stat advance plus a few random skills when you started out. It meant that anyone randomly selecting a pit fighter had a HUGE survivability advantage over anyone rolling a druid or beggar or fisherman (Although Druidic Priest, if you survived that long was an awesome career. Magic familiar and a good chance of an extra fate point each time you level up is a winner in any book).

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Shin

Do you still get one free stat advance when you start out a character?

Yeah. I spent everyone's already for the sake of streamlining, but if anybody disagrees with my choice the spent advances are documented so just lemme know if you'd rather put those 5 points in something else!

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I think I'd rather take the extra wound if that's ok with you.

How ya doing, buddy?

No way. Screw that. People need to die more. Myself included. Rolling a save throw for death is so cathartic. (we still do that, right?)

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by Shin

I think I'd rather take the extra wound if that's ok with you.

Done.

Originally Posted by Zephyrin

No way. Screw that. People need to die more. Myself included. Rolling a save throw for death is so cathartic. (we still do that, right?)

Ha, one more wound isn't going to make much of a difference. Even the most basic weapons can take 10-13 wounds off an unarmored enemy.

Saving throws in general are pretty much gone. Characters aren't really required to be unconscious anymore to die; most deaths will be from immediate trauma, shock, blood loss, that sort of thing, rather than expiring peacefully in your sleep.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Are the critical hit rules still that if you roll a double you get a critical hit, i.e. 11, 22, 33 etc? Also if you roll a six on your critical die you roll again and so on, enabling even the most insignificant of dagger strikes to remove limbs with a small bit of fortune?

Zeph, when you hit zero wounds you roll on the specific critical damage table for the body part that got hit, I think adding on how many negative wounds you're on. The results range from mild concussion to decapitation and a ton of amusing things in between. There's none of that second wind nonsense either, if you want to heal mid-fight you need to use a spell or a health potion only sadly a health potion will cost all the money you're likely to make in a year of adventuring and you need a couple of years training in the right career to learn a basic healing spell.

Compared with DnD fights, Warhammer ones go much quicker and a party can butcher their way through swarms of enemies in moments. On the flip side, you're just as likely to end up with a total team kill from even the weakest of opponents.

FELIPE NO

As I promised, here are downloads for the Core Rulebook and the Career Compendium.

Tomorrow: potentially lethal violence!

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

For the purposes of allowing a charge attack, does due north via a slight squiggle because of hexes count as a straight line?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Oh, sure. Obviously straight lines aren't really on the table, so you can disregard that rule.

Most amazing jew boots

Cool. Any chance you could drop a handy summary of the available combat moves into the first post of this thread? I'm only going to forget how long each takes and what they do otherwise and looking for the right page in the book each time will be an arse.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Good idea; done.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Do we have weapons ready, or do we need to spend an action to draw them?

I was speaking idiomatically.

HEY ZEPH REMEMBER HOW I MADE A SPECIAL EXCEPTION TO MY FIVE-PLAYER RULE JUST TO FIT YOU IN AND THEN DELAYED THE GAME FOR WEEKS SO YOU COULD PLAY?

YEAH

Originally Posted by Hawkeye

Do we have weapons ready, or do we need to spend an action to draw them?

Afraid you'll need to draw them.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Good to know. Also, my character sheet says my starting toughness bonus is 34. Which would be ridiculous.

FELIPE NO

is it +10 to weapon skill or +10% for charging? because that's a fairly large difference.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Well, +10 and +10% is the same thing, because the percentages are always based on 100 rather than your existing scores. Strictly speaking, by-the-book all your stats are percentages as well; Daz's Weapon Skill isn't 41, it's 41% (chance to hit). So naturally adding 10% to 41% gets you 51%.

Jam it back in, in the dark.