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

WFRP 4e House Rules 2

 

Fear & Terror

Fear and Terror inducing entities cause their opponents to make all rolls with disadvantage, that is take the worst combination from any percentile dice roll; a 39 becomes a 93, a 13 a 31 etc.

An entity suffering from fear can attempt to overcome it at the end of each round, provided:

• They are not within striking distance of the source of the Fear
• The source of the Fear is not getting closer

Overcoming fear requires an Extended Cool test equal to the Fear or Terror rating of the source, for Fear the difficulty is Average, for Terror it is Challenging.

Corruption

Convert the old value to a percentage by multiplying it by 10.

Every time a character's Corruption score increases to 50 make a % roll; if the roll is less than or equal to their Corruption score the character must succeed at a Challenging Endurance test or gain a mutation.

Upon mutating the character's Corruption is reduced by their Willpower.

Awesome Points & Plot Armour

 

I came across 2 really interesting mechanics this week, I'm not sure either would really suit the whole grim-dark Warhammer thing, but I want to file them away for potential future use anyway...

Plot Armour

From the alchemistnocturne blog, the rule is that a player can turn a failed roll into a maximal success by answering a relevant (to the situation) question about their character's background, for example a missed roll to hit during a fight could be fixed with 'What was that important lesson you received from your master?' The idea is that PCs should start out with minimal background detail and have this serve to both flesh them out and provide some extra protection when their characters are low level and weak. I really like this idea, and wonder if it could be applied more in the abstract, i.e. not requiring strict relevance to the situation but more just in a building future trouble manner, a bit like how taking 'disadvantages' function in some character generation systems; 'What gang in the city holds a grudge against you?' Ideally you would want a set of questions related to career or some key background aspect, or maybe even just some very leading questions 'Where did you bury the tax collector?' I also think, probably given all the 're-roll' systems we currently employ (Luck and Corruption) that this might be better used to save a character from actual death rather than a failed roll and limit it to one or two uses.

Awesome Points

From the Old School Hack, which I sought out courtesy of Chris McDowall's interview with Reynaldo Madrinan. At the beginning of a session the GM lays out a bowl filled with 2 and a half times as many chits as there are players in the game. These are the Awesome Points. Anyone can reach into the bowl and award them to another player for doing something cool, or even just saying something funny. They can be spent on bonuses to die rolls, reducing damage or even, by spending several at once, creating a useful NPC that the character knows. Each player tracks how many awesome points they have spent, and when everyone has spent 12, everyone levels up. 

I really like the sound of this, incentivizing fun and linking character progression to it. Maybe we could use this as part of our current xp system (which is barely any system at all), so the players effectively reward each other from a set pool as we play, though I find myself immediately wanting to tack more conditions on to it (each player can only hand out one or only one can be granted for any given thing etc). With respect to WFRP I am thinking about this purely for XP, not as some kind of gameplay resource for modifiers or narrative control.