Playing around with Hero Forge to mock-up some Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay miniatures. I’v used the gear and poses from the 4th edition book as vest i could, so some of them should be readily recognisable.
Its so easy, all credit to HF for creating an application which really takes the hassle out of designing stylistic characters. The only shame is these cost $20-$30 each which means there is no way I’ll be grabbing the lot.
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A random sample of artwork from the various reddit groups which reflects the flavour of WFRP. This collection is mercenaries, soldiers, adventurers, and scoundrels of the heavy armor wearing sort.
Following up my post on initial WFRP 4e thoughts – I’ve been playing for a few months now and also starting to get into the online communities. I’ve decided that while I think my first thought and feedback was right – I’m loving the tabletop game I’m playing in because of the player/character personalities. That’s good praise for the team I’m playing with, and despite some of the mechanics of WFRP which are designed to be punitive over time. These observations are primarily about the mechanics of character progression.
Your character is (eventually) dead. The fate points and general avoidance of issues will carry a character through a number of scenarios, however I feel like eventually the deadliness of the game setting will catch-up to them all. That is a major thematic point in the setting, but it is also a feature which causes players like myself to not really get inside their character’s heads, because you are only a few bad rolls or unavoidable shit-shows away from wanting to re-roll.
You will die, so how will it happen? (see the doomed trait)
Go wide then deep. As the RAW restricts skills and talents in careers, my suss is to pick-up as many broadening skills and talents as you can, before going deep. This is because having a skill (especially a rare skill like some lore or language skills) is very handy. Characters should prioritise getting at least one advance in every skill they can. Then all the talents you need, then raise your stats, then specialise into areas that are suited to your character vision, and lastly tangential talents.
e.g. A single advance in Heal grants a major addition to the skills the character offers the party. Likewise languages, lores, and many other skills which cannot be used untrained.
The reason to get skills before talents is due to the cost difference; as a skill may only cost 10 xp however each talent costs 100 xp. You will get a broader start from 10 xp spent in 10 ways than one talent.
I feel the way I advanced in the early stages of my current character’s development didn’t work well, because I took to raising a few skills which wee used regularly (often combat related) and now think some of the talents and other skills might have been better in the long run.
You cannot have everything. As a counter to the point above, I am finding that it is unlikely that any one character will be able to survive long enough to really fill out every aspect of a career pathway. Thus wide skills are handy, but it pays to pick themes.
The mechanical interaction of stats with skills supports this. A melee combat character will probably only have 1-2 combat skills they are really useful with. The rest might be good for emergencies, but deep is better. More importantly being thematic is really important. The game does not support a character concept that has deep knowledge in each weapon types, and also useful talents and skills. That means that NPCs and PCs should be designed to go deep in a few areas.
Read the lore. I can’t stress enough how much lore and material is around for WFRP. It is actually daunting to consider that some players have been reading this material for 25 years and have that body of knowledge to work form. As such, I’ve found a little reading does provide hooks into the published scenarios.
For example a character’s family in the Drachenfels novel is the same (or is almost the same) as an NPC in one of the 4th edition published adventures. That’s darn good.
Oglaf is three parts satire, and two parts morbid; and well worth your time if you play any kind of dark, moody, gritty games or table-top roleplaying games – QuackSalver this week is no exception. Please be warned in advance that much of Oglaf’s material is not safe for work.
Pure medieval satire, smells a lot like Warhammer Fantasy roleplay…
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I had a thought to trying forming an arcane tunnel between two thing which are arcane connections to each other, thereby allowing communication and spell casting between the two points at an equivalent of Range: Touch.
Why? Well those ACs might be enchanted devices which use spells to communicate.
So the “near” endpoint is not connected to the caster, but between two items that are already valid arcane connections to each other. Or the caster can target the endpoint near them as normal, and not be directly target-able from the other end. Or allow another Magus near one endpoint to target the other location. Or as a mechanism for two parts of an enchanted device to send signals to another without using the R: AC for the subsequent spells.
Opening the Intangible Bridge
Rego Vim Gen, R: Arcane Connection, D: Concentration, T: Individual
This spell opens a magical tunnel between two arcane connections, one of which is in the possession of the caster. Spells cast through this tunnel must be at least one magnitude less than the level of this spell.
(Base Gen, +4 Arc, +1 Conc, +1 additional Arcane target)
And a version to affect all the endpoints if multiple ACs are to be used, using target: Group.
Opening the Intangible Network
Rego Vim / Imaginem Gen, R: Arcane Connection, D: Concentration, T: Group
This spell opens a magical tunnel between either the caster and a set of up to ten arcane connections, or an arcane connection the caster posses and a set of endpoints. Spells cast through this tunnel must be at least two magnitudes less than the level of this spell, and may optionally use the target: Group to affect all endpoints at once.
(Base Gen, +4 Arc, +1 Conc, +2 Group)
These and other new Ars Magica spells are found in the Grimoire.
These spells were going to be invented by an ocean, wave and storm magus in a recent game hat I’ve had to exit.
Personal Ward Against Iron
Rego Terram 20, R: Personal, D: Diameter, T: Individual
The caster is warded against iron, which is deflected away automatically when it approaches their personal space.
(Base 5 to ward against dirt, +1 Diameter, +2 iron)
Swim Safely Among the Ice Flows
Muto Aquam / Ignem 5, R: Touch, D: Concentration, T: Special
The water immediately around the caster is warmed so it will no longer chill people or objects.
(Base 2, +1 Touch, +1 Concentration, +1 Unusual target surrounding the caster)
A few spells for a Magus with a strong focus in Aquam, a major virtue of Elemental Magic, and also a magical Vulnerability to Iron. On first look a boiling oil spell seems to need an additional requisite, however not for the elemental magus, who can ignore the effect of the Ignem requisite in the spell calculations. Harder for most magi to cast so they probably wouldn’t bother, but not for all magi.
I think these spells are justified as a CrAq spell could create water, optionally boiling water with an Ignem requisite at the same Base 4 as the base to boil water is also CrIg Base 4. Creating normal oil is equivalent to water as shown in the Creeping Oil spell in the Ars Magica book uses a Base 3.
I have also assumed that the example spells like Creeping Oil and the other Aquam spells show that boiling oil needs the Ignem requisite and a minimum level equivalent to CrIg4, instead of reducing the amount of oil produced downward by one more step in the base guidelines. That would make it similar to a strong acid and other highly corrosive Aquam or Terram based materials.
Jet of Bubbling Oil
Creo Aquam / Ignem 15, R: Voice, D: Momentary, T: Individual
Projects a large splash of boiling oil on a victim inflicting +12 damage.
(Base 4 “to create a liquid in an unnatural shape”, +2 Voice, +1 boiling liquid)
The Base amount created for oil is still a very large volume relative to the size of a human victim, so it is quite likely to cover a significant part of the victim which doubles the base damage of boiling oil from +6 to +12.
I initially started to consider allowing an athletics check to avoid some damage however the same should then apply to CrIg effects – and that just isn’t so. This is a conjured material so it can be automatically targeted as desired, and is resisted my MR or Parma Magica – again, just like Ignem spells.
A key risk for Aquam spells which isn’t really considered in the spell mechanics is the splash effects. A spray of oil will be potentially harmful to everything around it, and while that is not reflected in the rules in many places the same is true for many forms of direct damage.
Then moving on to more dangerous spells. Continue reading
