The Horror in the Darkness

It was probably inevitable that once I got back into playing tabletop RPGs I'd take up collecting and painting minis again. I'm sure the magical allure of these detailed little critters was a crucial part of what drew me into the hobby in the first place. 

After my first year or so of rediscovering this nostalgic joy I found myself increasingly customizing the models. Back in the day it was all lead or white metal, so the only modelling I ever did was the bases and that was usually with a tub of my dad's Polyfilla. But the plastic minis of today are easy enough to rework with a scalpel, a file and a pack of Green Stuff. 

I started to wonder if I could model something from scratch, inspired by articles in (the brilliant and totally free) 28 magazine and awesome content on YouTube like this video here. But what to make?

The game gave me the answer. I had dropped the WFRP adventure The Horror in the Darkness into our play through of The Enemy Within, it features a mine with this huge, vicious monstrosity called a Brood Horror lurking in its depths. After one gaming session in March I realised the Player Characters would encounter it at the next one in ten days. 

We usually play with minis, though it being a fairly low combat game there is rarely much call for them, so its always novel and fun to use them when we can. However I didn't really have anything appropriate for the Brood Horror, I mean it is pretty big. I thought maybe with ten days I could have a go at making one?

 

Illo from The Horned Rat Companion, copyright Cubicle 7

The illustration in The Horned Rat book seemed like a good place to start - I like the pose. A quick trawl on Artstation turned up some pics useful for thinking about other angles. I did a few tiny pencil sketches to get my head around the leg positions then got to work...

Plasticine

I started out by making a simple, very rough model in Plasticine. This was really just to get a sense for what size the underlying wire skeleton would have to be. It had no detail at all and lacked the solidity to even really stand up, but it totally worked for what I needed. I used another mini in a fairly neutral pose for scale reference. 

Wire

I actually ordered 2 lots of wire from Amazon, but I know nothing about wire gauges so both were essentially unusable, one far too thick and the other too thin. In the end I used a small roll of steel wire I had laying in a tool box. I cut one long piece which I shaped into the spine, going from end of the nose to tip of the tail. I then took another piece and wound it round where the hips would be to form the legs. Tying them clearly wouldn't be enough to hold them in place, especially when I started shaping them into the leg pose so I dropped a splat of super glue on the join. 

Its worth mentioning at this point that I used a longer piece of wire than I thought I'd need, so I could cut it down to size once shaped. I couldn't get a sharp enough bend at the knees just using my fingers so I tried combining the use of a pair of multi-tool pliers I had with a pair of (just googled the name) Pump Pliers. That obviously wasn't going to work so I ordered a 'mini pliers set' from Amazon for about £19 - I could have got something cheaper, I mean its not like I'm applying a lot of pressure or serious wear to them. There are 5 pieces in the set though and they are perfect for what I wanted - especially the bent ones.

After the legs I added another long piece wound around the spine to make the arms and fixed with superglue then twisted these into rough shape with my new pliers. 

Shaping and trimming the final pose didn't take place until I bound the skeleton on to some kind of base. Without the feet being pinned in place it would too easy lose the pose. This was where I started using cut up sprue. I have been keeping offcuts for a while now in case they could be used as bricks, shaped into small objects or just to bulk out minis or their bases. 

Often once I've remove all the minis from a sprue I will take a pair of clippers and snip the sprue up into strips. These are easy to store and make a great modelling material. So I took a strip and using my too-thin-for-skeleton brass wire I bound what will become the feet on to a piece of sprue. Then I drenched that in superglue.

Sprue 

Other articles I've read recommend padding out from the skeleton with more wire, crumpled tin foil or some other malleable material before applying modelling clay. I decided to go with sprue.  This was definitely slower than many other approaches would be, but it was a satisfying way to work, and I felt confident about building up the form this way. Cutting, gluing, sanding, trimming. It took a wee while but eventually I had a solid framework which admittedly at this point looked more like it belonged to Horizon Zero Dawn than the Old World. 

The final step before moving to clay was adding the only details I did not make myself - an upside down jawbone to frame the top of the mouth from a Citadel box of Skulls and the tongue from a Demon of Khorne. I thought the shape and detail of these would be too tricky to do. In the end the actual teeth were just little shards of plastic whittled with a scalpel.

 

Milliput

 The biggest quantity of modelling clay I used was Milliput, a 2 part epoxy putty - 'moulds like putty sets like rock'. Its not great on the hands and it makes a real mess, but it adheres to plastic well. It takes hours to dry, and once dry it can be shaped with a scalpel or file. I think I bought my first pack of it ages ago for modelling bases for which it is perfect. 

I apply it in little lumps and push these into place, then mold and scrape with a set of stainless steel tools which look like dentist's implements. With the lumps I try to follow the underlying structure, big clumps of muscle mass or prominent bones. The Brood Horror also features a lot of gross pustules and tumors, these were added once the main form had hardened. I save all the little hardened crumbs of Milliput for applying as base details.

Green Stuff 

After the Milliput comes the Green Stuff. When you pull a piece of Milliput apart it tears like a kind of crumbly clay, there is almost a moistness to it. Green Stuff like Milliput is a 2 part epoxy (one strip blue, the other yellow) but it doesn't so much tear when you pull it apart as stretch. It is like a sort of super malleable plastic. 

It is great for details, you can roll out thin shapes and spread them on, then push them with a knife to create hard edges. It stays in this pliable state for a half hour or so after its mixed and takes hours to fully dry. I bought a cheap set of silicone and plastic modelling tools for working it which proved invaluable, especially for spreading the material and eliminating fingerprints. You can cut and mold Green Stuff, but not really sand it.  

 

Hopefully you can see from the pics that the tail was created by rolling out thin strips then wrapping them around the rough Milliput form. Its a bit much, I'd try do something more subtle if I was to do it all again. 

 

Details & Zenithal

I stuck the model to the unused oval base from a larger Citadel mini, smothered it in Milliput then encrusted it with sprinklings from my bag of scraps. 

The final gross details for the Brood Horror were warts created by gluing on some of the tiny beads you find inside plastic water filter cartridges, a tip I picked up from one of the insanely talented Roman Lappat's pdfs. I applied some Liquid Green Stuff over these to better merge them with the body - that's the dark green on the back on the picture on the left.

Then it was time for a quick Zenithal pass - i.e. spray the miniature black, then white from above. And that was as close as it got to finished before being used in the game. All in it took 10 days to model from scratch, doing at most a couple of hours a day. 

 

 

Painting

I did the painting at a more leisurely pace, it took less time to paint than make and those hours were spread out over a month. I started out by working up the zenithal coat until I had a complete monochrome version of the mini. Then a thin coat of flesh colour, followed by dry brushed white and successive washes of contrast paints, applying reds, purples and yellows in localised areas.

I'm fairly pleased with the finished result. The tail could be a lot better and those folds of skin around the neck could be better integrated with the muscles writhing up across the throat, the hands are ugh and half the face a bit meh, but for a first effort at modelling a mini from scratch I'm pretty happy. It was a satisfying project to undertake, even if the Player Characters did dispense with it in one session. Might try a Troll next.

 

Mountaineering

 

These rules govern traveling through hazardous mountains where there are no actual roads. They are used alongside the WFRP 4e rules for camping, hunting and foraging utilizing the Outdoor Survival skill and an actual Random Encounter table which is not reproduced here.

Procedure

• Each day choose route or direction 
• Make a Navigation Test for the distance traveled with the units die used for the Encounter Roll

Movement Rate 

• Base movement rate = 1mile/hour 
• Can travel for 8 hours/day with 30 min break every 2 hours, so 10 hours total
• Can push on for weakest party member's Toughness Bonus in hours
• All make Average Toughness test (adjusted by weather and encumbrance) or Fatigued till sleep  

Navigation Test

There are 2 grades of route delineated on the map; solid and broken (pink lines in header image).

Solid is considered to be terrain which can be walked or potentially ridden on, though slowly. Mostly these are along the bottom of the great valleys. 

Broken may be up mountain stream beds or broken ground which involves scrambling and occasionally some climbing. Generally mules can be lead over broken routes.

Set the Navigation test difficulty as follows:

• Solid route = Average (+20)
• Broken route = Challenging
• No route = Hard  (-20)
• Increase Difficulty by one step for Bad weather
• Increase Difficulty by one step if no Knowledge of route 

Success

A Critical counts as an additional 2 SL (Success Levels).

SL can be spent on:

• 1 per extra mile traveled
• +1 SL Outdoor Survival test to find/set camp 
• +1 SL Outdoor Survival test to forage/hunt
• +1 to Encounter Roll
• +1 SL to Track tests
• Gain Knowledge for next day's travel 

Failure

If  Fumble the party will be Lost in addition to all other penalties.

Suffer all that apply:

• FL 1- 3: -1/FL to miles traveled
• If No route an Average Extended Climb test with Target = FL is required by the poorest climber
• A fumble means fall - lose something or take 1d10 wounds 
  
• For every roll required -1 to miles traveled
• FL 4: Roll Mishap 
• FL 5: -1 to Encounter Roll
• FL 6: -1 SL Outdoor Survival to find/set camp

Encounter Roll

• Use units die from the Navigation test
• If an encounter takes place a second d10 is rolled to determine distance, the skill test dictates who sees who first
• SL & FL from the Navigation Test can push the encounter roll up or down
• The actual encounter content is rolled on another table
  
• If it is important when an encounter takes place roll % of days travel
• if critical it will be at best time, fumble at worst

WFRP 4e House Rules: Character Levelling

 

Improving Skills & Characteristics

• Drop all use of Advances.
• Characteristics only effect Basic Skills on character creation, and Advanced Skills when taken.
• Skills cost 5xp * current tens score per point to increase, so a skill of 42 would cost 20 to raise to 43 (4 tens * 5).
• Characteristics cost 10xp  * current tens score per point so, a Characteristic of 32 would cost 30 to raise to 33 ( 3 tens * 10)
• Non Career Skills and Characteristics cost double to increase, so it would cost a 1st level Nun 40xp to raise her Strength from 23 to 24
• The minimum xp cost for increasing a Skill is 5/point i.e. a skill of 7 would cost 5 to raise to 8
• The minimum xp cost for increasing a Characteristic is 10/point

 

Level Completion Requirements

• 1st level - a 1st level Career Talent and Career Characteristics: 3 @35
• 2nd level - a 2nd level Career Talent and Career Characteristics: 3 @40, 1 @35
• 3rd level - a 3rd level Career Talent and Career Characteristics: 3 @50, 1 @45 & 1 @35
• 4th level - a 4th level Career Talent and Career Characteristics: 3 @55, 2 @50 & 1 @40 

 

Level Completion Costs

• to level up in current career when criteria met or move to another career within Class: 100xp
• Changing Career without completing current level: 200xp
• Changing to a Career in another class costs an additional 100xp
  

These changes were made principally to simplify things, having 3 values on the character sheet for every skill seemed messy and made things look more complicated without actually adding much. I'm sure, as with many aspects of WFRP 4e that the RAW version works just fine playing online, but in person with bits of paper not so much. At least for us who need reading glasses these days.

Removing Advances required new criteria for leveling, and given it also makes improving Characteristics less significant making them be the criteria hopefully helps balance this out. It is also handy from a GMing point of view as it makes NPC Characteristics more predictable - i.e. a 3rd Level Guard must have have at least 40 WS.

I did do some basic spreadsheet maths before making these changes, just enough to go this is ballpark ok, but looking at them now I don't really entirely understand what I did, or how valid they are. In play this all feels ok, though the players may say otherwise...

 

 

WFRP 4e House Rules: Chases

 

For city based chases.

• Set an Extended Athletics Test with SL Target, probably 5+ (1d6+3 if stuck).
• The first side to reach the target wins - note this is not an opposed test.
• Add Player Character Bonuses/Penalties for
• Movement Speed (+/- 10)
• Knowledge of Environment (+/- 10)
• If a Critical is rolled, apply result and get a free extra roll
• If a Fumble is rolled the opponent gets a free extra roll

If both parties reach the Target SL at the same time a new context is encountered where the quarry can attempt to hide/fit in.

• Determine the Target SL (1d6+1 ish), 
• Now run an Extended Opposed test where the difference in rolls matters, i.e. if the quarry succeeds by 1SL and the  pursuers fail by 2 the quarry gets 3 points towards the Target SL.
• If nighttime use quarry Stealth vs pursuer Perception.
• If daytime use quarry Intuition vs pursuer Perception and roll on the New Context table for detail...
• If this one results in a draw the quarry is caught.
  

 

I had recently jotted down the idea of using Extended Tests for chases after reading the brilliant TEETH rpg, which being a Forged in the Dark system uses Clocks for managing chases; each side has their own 'clock' which is filled in on succesful skill tests and the first to fill theirs wins. The clock is drawn as a circle with segments, maybe more like filling in a Trivial Pursuit pie. 

The opportunity to try this out came up in our Saturday WFRP session, with a Player Character being chased through the streets of Middenheim. I think it worked fairly well, something about each side 'racing' to reach the target felt just right for a chase, we used d6 for each side to track the numbers clocking up. 

I had nothing prepared for what happens if they both fill at the same time, which is of course what happened. As a spot rule I had both sides make an Endurance test, which annoyingly both passed so we reset the clocks and they started over. This wasn't quite so great as it felt like it was just drawing out the dice rolls without anything new happening or any decision point being reached, hence the additional rule above. 

There was one other ruling wrinkle which provided some extra drama; given the PC was fleeing criminals in their territory we had a 10% accumulating chance that the pursuers had other gang members cut them off, accumulating every time another roll was made towards the SL target. He was lucky though and got away.

WFRP 4e House Rules: Reaction Rolls

 

This is my third attempt at coming up with a system for reaction rolls. I don't quite remember why I didn't like the first two, maybe because I was prone to ignoring the result  when it didn't fit or because I'd been inspired by reading some new OSR rule set or issue of Knock!  rather than by the needs of the game itself.

 
The first system was the classic 2d6 table from B/X D&D, the second mapped the same spread of results onto playing cards (when I first got mad into using cards for everything). I think in these instances I was mostly using them for Innkeepers and merchants of one sort or another, at one point I even came up with a 'what am I thinking right now table' as a more useful prompt for playing out a situation, which I also generally ignored whenever I actually remembered to roll on it.

This current version was provoked by the game. The Power Behind the Throne is a social investigation adventure, it is all about talking to people. I felt I needed some 'objective', random way of setting the mood of NPCs when they were encountered so that not everybody would be too stingy or generous with information. A critical difference from my previous attempts is that this is player facing, in fact I get the players to roll the actual dice, with the addition that they can spend Luck to re-roll. Twice this has resulted in one player character turning on his heel and walking away in the face of a bad (then worse) outcome, which is not ideal but I would contend that a strong enough approach could overcome a bad roll, and success in such circumstances would net more XP from the encounter. 

I am still not 100% happy with this, having fun locked away behind bad dice rolls never feels great.
 

the old, never really used table...

What am I thinking?

1. Feels poorly, is coughing
2. Thinks the last customer might  have shortchanged them
3. Laughing at something they just witnessed
4. Really hungry and needs a break
5. Realized they've made more money  today than yesterday
6. Someone they dislike was just here, possibly still are
7. Just remembered a strange dream they had this morning
8. Is tired and just wants to sit down
9. Happy that their next break is imminent
10. Is worried about something they forgot to do earlier
11. You remind them of someone
12. Just saw someone they fancy, is flustered
13. Just saw someone they fancy, is distracted by them
14. Is angry with boss or employee
15. Feels harassed
16. Is bored, desperate for novelty
17. Is feeling mischievous
18. Is worried about money
19. Just heard something they want to pass on, rumour or joke
20. Is thinking about quitting

WFRP 4e House Rules: Bar Room Brawl

 

• Run brawl as Extended Melee Test 
• Determine SL according to circumstances  or roll 1d4+1.
• If have Melee(Brawl) or relevant hand-to hand talents Difficulty is Average, otherwise Challenging
• For each roll required to complete test take 1 Wound
• Roll on following table for criticals & fumbles:
  

Following the brawl determine if there is any effect on the bar, roll 1d6+ SL used for Extended test:

WFRP 4e House Rules: Magic

Channeling with Blood

A magic user can amplify their channeling by drawing blood and sacrificing Wounds. They get +1 SL to the channeling test for every:

• 2 Wounds of their own sacrificed 
• 4 Wounds of another 

Succeed at a Toughness test at the end of the channeling or suffer a Bleeding condition. The difficulty is:

• Average at 2 Wounds
• Challenging at 4 Wounds
• Difficult at 6 Wounds
• Hard at 8 Wounds
• Very Hard at 10 Wounds

  Using blood in this way will cause other colors to seep into the magic, with it tending towards Dhar, and is thus seriously frowned upon by Certified Wizards.

The effect can be further enhanced by invoking Chaos; Roll under your corruption and if successful the blood SL bonus is doubled. Gain 1d10 Corruption regardless of success.

Damage & Magic

As per the rule changes regarding combat where Strength & Toughness are no longer used for calculating damage excepting that a Strength greater than 50 confers a +1, so to WPB is not added to spell damage (where relevant) except to the extent that having a Willpower score greater than 50 confers +1 to spell damage.

Cartomancy

Characters with precognition related talents and fortune telling skills may use a Tarot deck (or some similar prop) to try read the future.

This can be done once per day, the Cartomancer must prepare before hand (by meditating or similar) and the reading must take place in a situation propitious to their background.

Process:

• The player asks a yes/no/maybe question of the cards
• The GM deals the player and themselves 3 cards (from a normal deck)  
• The GM then randomly determines what the answer will be if the reading is wrong
• The player reveals their cards
• If the total of the players cards (each card being worth 2-14) beats the GM's cards the GM tells them the truth, otherwise they use the randomly determined answer.
• The player does not get to see the GM's cards either way.

 

Miracle: King of the Wild

• The animal summoned understands and obeys summoner until Sunset or Sunrise, whichever comes first
• The miracle can only be performed once/day
• The animal will arrive in 1d6 minutes
• Commands must be simple, generally no more than one 'and' or 'if'
• The animal will flee (ending miracle) if wounded while doing anything other than defending summoner
• On miracle success roll on the relevant environment table, adding 10 for every SL

Default Forest Environment

Roll     Animal
1-9         Squirrel
10-19     Rabbit
20-34     Snake
35-50     Boar
50-64     Hawk
65-79     Stag
80-94     Wolf
95-119   Bear
120+      Great Stag