Theodore shifts his prodigous weight. "Ah, that should be well within my remit, getting the affairs in order. I will have such a notice written up and sent to you, along with the aforementioned document, master dwarf." He stands up. "Now I really must depart. I'd be obliged if you'd convey my goodbye and condolences to the young lady." And with that, he leaves.
Nicoletta makes it back down the stairs and into the salon, carrying a small trunk made from dark wood. It's iron banded, and has a solid-looking lock on it that looks like it matches the key you've been given. Her makeup also bears some sign of having been refreshed.
She places the chest on the table with a thud. She fixes Wanda with a smile. "No, it's no trouble at all; I'd be glad to have you take the books off my hands. And we'll find some rooms for you to sleep in, I couldn't possibly pawn you off to fend for yourselves when you're here to help me."
She's been holding it together all day, and the offer for help is almost more than she can bear. She stares at Uwe dejectedly, and when realizing she's being rude, she looks away. "I don't think there's anything... Maybe you should take the trunk. I'll get it." She gets up quickly, and hurries out of the room.
"Naturally miss; I will have a copy sent along. And as parties mentioned, you have of course the right to look at the original, which will be filed at the town hall," sniff, "The clerk will read it to you for a minor fee."
"I fear you misunderstand - there is no offer for a job here, legally speaking" he sniffs at the dwarf "My duty was to convey to you a request from the deceased, which I have now done, and as far as I am concerned, the matter is thus closed. If there is nothing else?" He's halfway out of his seat already.
On the way, Nicoletta makes rudimentary, distracted introductions. Apparently the overweight nobleman is Theodore von Kreutz, and is effectuating her father's will. He greets you with exacting politeness, but you don't get the feeling he's eager to maintain your acquaintance.
The walk back to town is otherwise without incident. The Lorrimor residence is both old and large which is a rarity in town due to the constraints of the outer wall. Three buildings are arranged in an open square, with the most impressive being the middle one. Nicoletta leads you up the steps, and bid you inside the front door.
Inside, she flags down a servant, "I believe we'll take tea in the salon," before leading you onwards.
Once you're all settled down, Theodore takes charge of the gathering. He produces an official looking document from his satchel, and after placing them on the table in front of him, he takes pain to adjust them so that they are perfectly lined up.
“There were certain provisions made in the late professor's will that pertain to you. In the interest of clarity, I will now read them to you;
"I, Petrus Lorrimor, being of sound mind - and so on and so forth," he pauses. "Then there's provisions as to the appointment of the estate, which has been taken care of, as well as a list of individuals that should be informed on the event of his death, such as yourself -" the papers rustles as he turns one over and clears his throat with a wet noise, "ah, here we are; Yet beyond the bequeathing of my personal effects, this document must serve other needs. I have arranged for the reading of portions of this document to be delayed until all principals can be in attendance, for I have more than mere inheritance to apportion. I have two final favors to ask.
“To my old friends, I hate to impose upon you all, but there are few others who are capable of appreciating the true significance of what it is I have to ask. As some of you know, I have devoted many of my studies to all manner of evil, that I might know the enemy and inform those better positioned to stand against it. For knowledge of one’s enemy is the surest path to victory over its plans.
“And so, over the course of my lifetime, I have seen fit to acquire a significant collection of valuable but dangerous tomes, any one of which in the wrong circumstances could have led to an awkward legal situation. While the majority of these tomes remain safe under lock and key in the care of appropriate authorities, I fear that a few I have borrowed remain in a trunk in my Graustonhain home. While invaluable for my work in life, in death, I would prefer not to burden my daughter with the darker side of my profession, or worse still, the danger of possessing these tomes herself. As such, I am entrusting my chest of tomes to you, posthumously. I ask that you please deliver the collection to the guild hall of the Amethyst College of Wizards in Talabheim, under whose aegis they were initially procured.
“Yet before you leave for Talabheim, there is the matter of another favor; please delay your journey one month and spend that period of time here in Graustonhain to ensure that my daughter is safe and sound. She has no one to count on now that I am gone, and if you would aid her in setting things in order for whatever she desires over the course of this month, you would have my eternal gratitude. From my savings, I have also willed to each of you a sum of two hundred golden crowns. For safekeeping, I have left these funds with Magnolia von Eidelberg, one of my most trusted friends in Talabheim. She has been instructed to issue this payment upon the safe delivery of the borrowed tomes no sooner than one month after you hear this will.
"Then there's some more formalities. I expect you'll be wanting the key, and if you have any questions?" He produces a small brass key from his satchel, and places it on the table before your group with a click.
With that, the ceremony comes to an end. Nicoletta thanks everyone for coming. As people are leaving, she rounds up the five of you, as well as the pudgy looking nobleman. "Would you mind escorting me home? You were mentioned in the will, and I'd like to get everything sorted."
There we go. I hope I'm not hurrying you guys along too fast, but I'm sort of eager to get you guys off the railroad. If anyone wants a more lingering pace where I don't push as much forwards during updates, feel free to chime in with that. I've never done much play by post before. I feel like I have a good handle on pacing face to face, but this feels weird, not gonna lie.
He seems to briefly weigh the option of taking you on his own. Still, his gaze lingers on Ghorza's axe, and he comes to a decision. "On your head be it." He moves aside, putting his back to the wall, and staring at you as you pass. He glares daggers at you all the way to the wrought iron gates by which you make your entrance. "I can't believe they'd have the gall to show up like this," the innkeeper mutters as you pass through.
The cemetery beyond is a maze of hedges and old tombstones. You cleave to the main gravel path, until you reach a junction. Just past the hedge beyond, you spot a wizened man in black robes. The dome of his head is bald, ringed by a crown of close-cropped white hair. He does not smile as you approach, but looks at each of you openly.
While his body is wizened and crooked, his voice remains smooth and strong. As you place the coffin on the two slats laid across the grave, he starts speaking. "This group is gathered here today to steward Petrus Lorrimmor, father, brother and friend on his final journey. He was a man of admirable purpose, and the world is lesser for his passing. These people would beseech the black god, that he might give him succour in the next life."
He holds his wrinkled hands out over the head of the coffin, speaking a few lines with the intonation of a verse. None of you understand what he's saying. As he breaks off, a gust of wind seems to blow outwards from the coffin, although it does not rustle clothes or blow at hair. The father staggers, but as soon as he regains his balance, he continues the ceremony as though nothing happened.
Academic Knowledge(Theology)*, routine(+10%):
The priest's ritual is a common Morrite ritual, and in fact a core part of the priesthood's service to the community. It invokes Morr's protection, remanding the spirit to raven god's embrace, and prevents the body from rising beyond the grave. The rush of air you felt is not what usually happens when this ritual is performed, even by powerful priests. It may be a sign that the god's attention drifts near this particular blessing, or it may be a mark of the god's displeasure, as sometimes happens when priests invoke the gods in ways that are not well received.
Academic Knowledge(Magic)*:
What just happened was a spell working. The priests of Morr know a spell that can ward a corpse and its soul against necromantic workings. Normally this effect is quite subtle to anyone without the second sight, but if you were to guess, this more powerful release was probably the ritual driving out some necromantic working or corruption present within the body.
"Nicoletta Lorrimor has asked to say a few words."
She walks up to take the priest's place at the head of the congregation and speaks, her voice already heavy with tears.
"I remember the day I first saw my father. He was headed home from an expedition up the big river south across the sea. Barely half of them had made it back, and they didn't have near enough funds left for the journey home. His clothing was barely rags, but he still had time for a little girl. He always made time. I wish we'd had more. Goodbye dad." She chokes up. As she walks back, she drops a small silver raven pin into the open grave beneath the coffin.
The priest asks, "Does anyone else wish to say something?" Leaving a pause for someone else who may wish to step in.
Although the coffin they're carrying makes for a portentous memento mori, it does somewhat inhibit the dwarves' ability to loom.
Gretchen makes eye contact with several people in the crowd as she makes her appeal, and more than one has to look away, shamed.
"I'm not your ploughing good sir. We're not gonna let some stranger tell us what the gods'll like, are we?" the scarred man tries to rekindle fire the righteous anger of his congregation. From the sheepish shuffling behind him, it seems the crowd is indeed considering letting you speak for the gods. The spectre of Morr displeasure is not far from anyone's mind.
The crowd begins to fray at the edges. Only the scarred man at the front, as well as a few stragglers remain in your way, although his attention has turned to staring down the people leaving, grinding his teeth.
I feel compelled to remind y'all that you have fortune points to spend if those rolls seem concerning to you. That said, i'll post an update when i get home tonight.
"You may. It is custom that any who knew the deceased and feels called, carry him to his final rest." The acolyte's voice is surprisingly high pitched for his apparent age.
Seeing the newcomers, the young noblewoman stammers out a greeting. "Thank you all for coming. As some of you knew, I'm Nicoletta, his daughter. He'd have been glad... You all knew him." She trails off.
Eventually, the innkeeper takes up one of the remaining spots at the pall, and if Uwe does not take the last, the pudgy nobleman will in his place.
"It is time." says one of the acolytes. All three of them have lit their censers, and the sweet smell of incense follows the funeral party as they pass beneath the northern gate and leave town for the cemetary.
The it is a chilly spring day, and the sky is grey with rain yet to fall.
As is custom, the dead are buried outside the town proper; the cemetary has its own wall. The enclosure is more symbolic in nature than the practical approach of the town fortifications. They're composed of grey slabs of stone stacked five and a half feet high. Judging by the length of the wall, the graveyard must be a sprawling affair.
The entrance is not on the southern side facing the town, and the funeral party has to make their way around.
As you round the corner, you come face to face with what must be the what passes for the village toughs. A group of fifteen or so hard-looking men and women, the men either just old enough or just lame enough for the army recruiters to have passed them by. Still, they look threatening enough for all that, and a man run through by a pitchfork might not care much that there's a woman at the other end of it, under the circumstances. Not all of them carry sharp instruments - most are mostly scowling at you.
They're plainly barring the cemetery gate.
A man near the front seems in charge. One of his eyes is covered with a patch, clearly courtesy of a bad burn to the upper right side of his face.
"That's far enough," he gravels, "Whatever the man disturbed up there, we reckon we don't want no part of it on consecrated grounds - you can bury him outside!"
Nicoletta snaps a breath in fury, clearly about to speak up.
The first post is up in the IC thread, feel free to start posting! With apologies for the "couple of hours" estimate.
@Yesult, feel free if you want to. Though don't feel forced, you'd still be unique as a combat specialist with your current build, especially if you did duelist -> champion.
A day's journey north off of the Old Forest Road, nestled between the foothills of the middle mountains lies Graustonhain. The town is heralded by several miles of fields lining the road, green with the new growths of spring, with rocky hills rising in the distance on either side.
The town walls are impressive for the size of the village you expected to find; steep earthworks twice the height of a man, crested with wall built from large grey stones. As you near the gatehouse however, you note that the stonework is ill maintained and even crumbling in places.
Along the streets, quite a few windows and doors are boarded up, the houses they belong to in disrepair. Here and there, buildings have been demolished entirely to make room for small fields of vegetables. The locals ignore you pointedly, although you can tell they're staring when they think you're not looking.
You find lodgings either at the hospital next to the fairly impressive temple of Morr, or at a nameless boarding house across from the town pub, run by a bustling ample-bellied woman insisting you call her Karla. She's as interested in you and your story as the rest of the town seems wary. Either way, you are near enough the only tenants; the hospital's only other occupants are a badly injured young man in a tattered uniform and a taciturn roadwarden who stays but a single night.
While obviously having seen better days, it is clear that the town has somehow been spared the recent Storm; the only mark of the war is the dearth of men of fighting age.
All of you find yourself making your way to the northern gate at first bell past noon for the funeral procession. Aside from yourselves, a handful of people are present. A pair of noblemen, judging by their clothes, one elderly and the other pudgy and middle aged. A balding bhurger you may or may not recognize as the owner of the pub, holding the hand of a young boy. There's also a pair of women; one a young daughter of a bhurger or noblewoman, with black hair, olive skin and puffy eyes, the other more obviously a native of more common means, with short hair ragged in places, and whose mourning dress appears somewhat wrinkled.
A trio of acolytes dressed in the grey robes of Morr are attending the professor's coffin; the bereaved are meant to carry it from here to the professor's final resting place where the priest awaits.
Welcome to the start of the campaign! Do you want to help carry the coffin?
Well, there you go. A lot of the stuff *I* know is word-of-mouth stuff, aside from the stuff I read up on for this campaign specifically, I'm bound to get stuff wrong.
“ FYI, I know very little about the setting or lore for Warhammer, so please let me know if something I write doesnt make sense!”
* Empire: Holy Roman Empire Germany. Sigmar is the main God (first emperor, God of duty and honor). Main setting, we are in a province known for the worship of Ulric, the god of winter and wolves. Several other lessor Gods. Sigmar is only worshiped in the Empire. Beware Witch Hunters, who are empowered by the Church and State to torture/kill anyone found (by them) to be a Heretic
* Bretonnia: Medieval France mixed with King Arthur (to the south). Worship the Lady of the Lake. They aren’t very nice to peasants.
* Kislev: Russia (to the North) First line of defense against chaos. Tough SOBs.
* Estalia (Spain) Tilea (Italy). Very minor powers. Constant civil wars.
* Dwarves: What you expect, except much more hardcore. Entire culture is centered around Grudges. They can’t forget and their language has no word for forgiveness. Lost their empire because of a generation long war against the elves. They “won” but not really. Elves and dwarves rarely get along.
* Elves: High (British Empire) Dark (Emo slavers) Wood (Murderous tree huggers. Don’t go into their forests if you want to live). All categories tend to be jerks. Most humans will never see one. High elves see themselves as being the only good guys.
* Orcs and Goblins: Literally grow from mushrooms. They live to fight, and fighting makes them release spores so more can grow. Irredeemable. Luckily they fight each other too. But at least they’re happy.
* Skaven: Ratmen. The empire says they don’t exist. More numerous than mankind, mad-scientists, irredeemable evil. Have machine guns, rockets, flame throwers and poison gas. All of which are more dangerous to themselves than the enemy. Luckily for them they outnumber everyone else to the point where it doesn’t matter. Luckily for everyone else they are usually too busy fighting each other.
* These two races are driving the dwarves to extinction.
* Chaos: All gods...
I finally went back in the thread and looked at stuff that I didn't respond to before, this is all correct (except IIRC the mushroom greenskins, that's specific to Warhammer 40K, although it's funny enough that many people bring it over) but more importantly is to note that your characters pretty much don't know any of this.
Before you get to any of the setting particulars, it's important to understand that knowledge isn't shared super freely in warhammer fantasy. Tales of Skaven for instance has specifically been supressed by the church of Sigmar. Most people who saw a skaven would assume it's a beastman. People generally have legends about monsters and nonhumans that live near them, but that doesn't mean that they're all like "yeah, we know the difference between Strigoi and Cursed One vampires, here's the list of traits and yadda yadda.". A scholar might know a lot of stuff, but he'd also likely get tracked down by the witch hunters if he didn't have powerful friends, because they heard about a man interested in corpse who traffics in rare books and other questionable materials.
A good way to think about knowledge is in terms of mysticism in religion in the real world. There are religions where the whole of their beliefs, texts and insight is shared with anyone and everyone, and then there are religions where certain ideas and insights are only bestowed on the initiated, and which might have more tiers where moving up can mean you get access to different knowledge. You might also have to learn stuff through personal trials and revelations. Scientology is a meme example of this in the real world.
Organizations which hoard knowledge usually function a lot like this in the Warhammer fantasy world. And mobs are distrustful of people who know strange things. At best this can inspire awed respect, in the case of lawyers or anointed priests, but at worst it can garner distrust and even animosity, incentivizing the tendency to not flaunt what you know or learn.
Chaos, its relationship to gods and emotions and the source of magic especially, definitely isn't something that's well known anywhere.
What's your opinion on casting two flame blade spells? I know you can't usually cast two of the same spells targeted on yourself, but technically flame blade doesn't target you, so presumably you can summon one for each hand?
Ian was born in Numeria, but has few fond memories of the place. He thinks of himself having been rescued from his tribe, who were a clan of slavers vassals to the local representative of the technic league.
To his reckoning, getting taken captive by a small roving group of clerics was the best thing that ever happened to him. He has since joined them, and taken up their mantle as lawbringers. He has since drifted south, and with Brego his trusty steed, he does his best to bring civilisation to the untamed lands southwest of Brevoy. Wherever wrongs have been committed, he does his level best to right them. And where the law has been broken, he hunts down the responsible. Sometimes, he gets the feeling that his activities are depressingly close to bounty hunting, or worse, mercenary work.
His criss-cross wanderings take him back to the Broken Broadsword intermittently, and he’s spent many a night there, enjoying himself. On several occasions, when a band of bandits has seemed too large for him to handle on his own, he has recruited people at the Broadsword.
Appearance:
With symmetrical features and pearly white tusks, Ian is a handsome half-orc. He can muster a decent murderous scowl, and loom like nobody’s business. By contrast, his smile comes off as guileless and slightly goofy, which many people have found disarmingly charming. He bears a tattooed likeness of the key of Abadar prominently on his right cheek.
On the road, he wears a heavy oilskin cloak over his armour to protect it from rain and dust, as well as a wide-brimmed hat to keep the sun out of his eyes.
Whenever he has time to kick back and dress up, he prefers tunics in pastel colours, the more riotous the better, often with the top clasps left hanging open to show off some of his curly chest hair.
I'd have loved to use the Sacred Servant archetype with the Travel domain, since I think it's really appropriate, but sadly it gets rid of the Divine Bond class feature, and I think this character really needs a scaling mount. He's a cowboy with a sword after all.
Sorry that took so long, been waffling indecisively since forever.
There's some houserules on the first page I use for runesmiths. On the upside, you can start with 1 permanent runic item being 1d10 days from completion at the start of the game. On the downside, I also have a houserule that permanent runic items cost 250gc worth of materials(on top of whatever best craftsmanship item you're using) to create; since you don't have the money for that, you'll have the opportunity to start out owing money to someone. Temporary runes only take 1 pence in materials. Anyway have a look at the houserules section again.
With the starting one you will be able to at least reach journeyman runesmith, and there'll be at least 1 opportunity to loot, find, seek out, buy or steal at least 1 more permanent runic item during the campaign, which would let you reach master runesmith if you can convince the party to let you keep it. No guarantees you'll be able to reach runelord, but then again it's entirely possible you won't get that much xp anyway.
You can also start the process of making a second permanent runic item as soon as you're done with the first, but of course that deprives you of the ability to create temporary runes which is where a lot of the power of a runesmith comes from. And depending on the pace of the adventure, you might not have time to complete more than one or maybe two additional permanent runes total during the whole adventure path.
I think runesmith trade tools are just a subcategory of normal trade tools, which are listed as 50gc with 50 encumberance in the core rulebook. But remember it's a trapping of apprentice runesmith, so you get it for free if it's your 2nd career (again, due to homebrew rules).
It looks like you guys may need some more time to get characters ready. I was planning to start sometime tonight, but that may not fit. I'm headed to bed fairly soon though.
@Eschie and Edelsmirge, what do you guys think is a good timeframe? Wednesday? Later?
@Grumbaki, gotta stick with ride. Trade really isn't appropriate for the protagonist career.
Well seems I want cool things but mechanically won't work round Three Change lol
A runesmith is absolutely playable, especially if you focus on temporary runes after you do your first permanent runic item. Just read up on the rules for runesmithing, you'll be fine.
Don't let yourself be discouraged out of that one if you want to play it, no reason you shouldn't.
Alright then. I would like to go for my second career as a bear tamer and then go to squire and knight with an idea of having been a bodyguard for a Kislev knight who rode a bear into battle and he died so I inherited the bear.
Easily the most out there concept I've ever ran into. I really want to say yes to this, but at the same time, I gotta question the practicality here.
Like, what if it eats people you don't want it to? How hard should I make it to not eat people you don't want it to? Is the party just gonna permanently not be allowed into towns? If I was a peasant I certainly wouldn't let it inside the walls. It can stay with the circus wagons outside, thank you very much. At the same time, leaving your bear tied up outside the walls seems like the start of a bad idea, too.
It also looks like I'll have to do a lot of the heavy lifting for making up rules for how to control the bear, and what training can do and stuff. The skill rules for charm and training are really bare bones.
... There's guidance on how to give Brettonian knights griffon mounts, I guess that's similar on the wild animal eating stuff it shouldn't front, as well as what to do about settlements. I should go read up on that.
@Bolvar Stonefoot, as far as I can tell those mechanics look good.
@Imrik, I think I will leave this running until sunday evening. Warhammer characters are fairly mechanically simple to put together, and this will give you guys and everyone else that might want to apply time to write up some fluff.
@Escharid, look forwards to seeing the rest of her.
Here's Brainiac's character, a vagabond/entertainer. I think I did things right. Spent all 2000 XP and primed to enter an advanced class soon. Please let me know if anything looks incorrect!
It looks great! Although I think you added +10 to gossip from vagabond on top of the one you get from being a human? That doesn't quite work, the free skills you get from your first basic career can't be used to add training to ones you already know. It is possible I counted it up wrong and you're somehow using the gossip that it's possible to take from Entertainer.
As far as I can tell you did everything right, although I notice that Entertainer is one of the basic exit careers allowed from Vagabond, and I want to make sure you've seen the house rule that you can change to *any* basic career for 100xp during character creation, not just the ones listed as exit careers.
Her name is lovely.
DM Lil" Eschie wrote:
Career (using Careeer Compendium) [dice=career]1d1000 Dilletante or [dice=career]1d1000 Initiate.
Both are very interesting careeers.
Yes, they're both quite interesting. If you want input, since this is an undead/gothic style campaign (a bit too on the adventure side for me to feel comfortable classifying it as 'horror') an initiate of Morr could be very appropriate. But so could other stuff of course.
This is Malinor. I am building the fleshed out character sheet in here.
I don't want to leave my career path, but stage two is an Advanced class. Can I just save experience for whatever point you open up access to Advanced classes?
No, you can't save it; the reason you have all that extra xp is to diversify your characters, or for people who rolled careers that they're not super into to define themselves as something they want.
That said, you won't have to leave your career path as such; you keep your old career exits when you change careers, so once you finish your next career you can go right back into journeyman wizard. The rules for this is on the grey box of page 29 of core.
The power play, if you're into that, is to find a career progression that takes exactly however many xp you have left, so that when you start playing you can spend your first 100xp to enter journeyman wizard. Or maybe get dodge blow, or optimize what you're doing with the half-action that isn't casting, assuming you don't want to channel all the time. Parrying stance is a great option if you boost your WS a bit (or even if you don't), and so is getting good at ranged combat with that longbow proficiency you have. If you can find mighty shot and rapid reload, you could cast as a half-action and make a ranged shot with your bow with your other half action each round.
You could also consider whatever Imrik has been doing that isn't studying wizardry. I imagine his teachers are pretty distant, so he must've been getting up to *something* while he's not with them.
You can also just toss whatever xp you didn't spend on advances and extra skill/talent options if you really really want to be a pure wizard.
Yeah I am not at home and couldn't remember. Very Strong adds to the current percent and stacks on top of career stat advantage, yes so my str gets +5 for body guard and +5 for very strong
Aight, that's good then. Looking through your sheet, remember that you get 1 advance for free as part of character creation, on top of the extra XP you get.
You also don't have to pay for the skills or talents of your first career (but if it says "or" between two options, you have to pick one. You can take the other too by paying xp for it).
It looks like you're paying 100xp for the entire +3 wounds and 100xp for the +10% WS. You have to pay them in increments, so 300xp for the +3 wounds and 200xp for the +10%WS (% stats are bought in increments of 5%).
Aside from those notes, you look like you're off to a good start. Do you have an idea for your second basic career?
You've recieved word that your friend, professor Petrus Lorrimor has died, and has invited you to his funeral at his hometown village in midland. Making haste, you arrive just in time.
I've been hankering to play some Warhammer Fantasy RPG 2e for a while now, but I think the only way I'm going to get to play is if I run it. So I'm stealing an idea I saw somewhere else and converting a pathfinder adventure path to the Warhammer Fantasy 2e setting.
Backstory wise, your characters need to be someone that Petrus would trust with a somewhat strange and sensitive job in return for promised pay, probably either former colleagues, friends or employees. You also need to be physically close enough to the area around Talabheim that you could feasibly make the journey to the funeral within a month or so; his hometown is in eastern Middenland, 10 days journey on foot from Talabheim. This doesn't mean you have to be from there, you just need to be in the area for whatever reason.
about the Professor:
The professor is thus known because of his professoriate emeritus at the Royal University of Talabheim. He's also a renowned explorer and archeologist, which is likely the capacity you know him in; he has organized many expeditions within and without the boundaries of the empire. His field of study is somewhat esoteric, but includes a lot of history, and when he could be wrangled into giving lectures at the university it'd primarily be on history and anthropology.
He's a fairly honourable, jovial sort, and if he has vices it is probably his willingness to court danger in pursuit of knowledge.
You may or may not know that he is also an apprentice to the Amethyst College of Magic. Many apprentices don't have the skill with magic to become journeymen wizards, and are doomed to linger at the college in perpetuity with little hope of advancement. A few who can be trusted, both to control their arcane talents and in a more political sense, are let back out into the world to serve the college in ways that full wizards are for whatever reason unable or unwilling to. If you know that Petrus is an apprentice wizard, you suspect he's one of these.
He's well past his prime, but not yet elderly; his adopted daughter has recently come of age.
About the setting:
We're using the warhammer fantasy setting as described in WFRP2e. Among other things, this means we're just coming out of the Storm of Chaos. The armies are slowly being stood down and veterans are trickling back home. It might be interesting to know what you were doing during the Storm, if you need a direction for your backstory.
The game will primarily be set in the northern parts of the Empire. We might swerve into Brettonia briefly. Characters with ties to these places might find interesting interactions, whereas people like elves and dwarves and other foreigners will spend a lot of time as strangers. That can also be interesting.
A final thing to note, just to set expectations for anyone new to warhammer fantasy, is that society is fairly stratified compared to something like Golarion. Being adventurers from all walks of life, you'll likely find that you'll be breaking some social boundaries, and be unwelcome in certain places.
Character creation:
Stats: Roll 2d10 in order for your stats, and 1d10 for wound and fate points, as normal. Then you can apply Shalaya's mercy (take 11) to one stat, and Ranald's fortune (re-roll) to one stat.
Race: Pick your Race.
Career: You'll roll your first career randomly. You can roll twice, either on the core rulebook table or one of the tables from the Career Compendium book. You can pick different tables for each of the two rolls if you want, just write which table you're using before you roll.
Advancements: Apply the 1 free advancement at character creation as normal. From there, you get 2000xp to spend. As a special rule, you cannot enter advanced careers at character creation, but you can swap to any basic career you want (regardless of your first career's exit options) for only 100xp.
Gear: You start with the trappings of your two first basic careers for free. You also start with standard starting equipment (set of clothes, dagger, backpack, blanket, mug & cutlery, a hand weapon and a purse holding 2d10gc). From there, you get an additional 100gc to spend. During character creation, you can buy at full the listed price and sell stuff at half.
Houserules & clarifications:
We're using the Advanced Armor and Carrying Capacity variants. Remember that this means that Heavy Armor loses its speed penalty, except for whatever penalty the encumberance ends up giving.
We're using the Distinguishing Best Craftsmanship Hand Weapons and Great Weapons variant rule from Old World Armory. (if anyone doesn't have this, ask about it and I'll explain. It just means that Best Craftsmanship hand and great weapons get some specific abilities depending on if they're swords, axes or hammers)
We generally won't bother with tracking rations when travelling.
The -20% penalty for off-hand weapons applies to the free offhand parry you get from dual wielding. Generally I find that dual-wielding is a bit too powerful, this makes the Lightning Parry & Ambidexterity talents and Parry Stance more worthwhile options, and dual-wielding less of a nobrainer.
If anyone wants to play a runesmith, you'll have to pay 250gp for materials for each permanent rune you want to craft(on top of whatever Best Craftsmanship object you're going to put it on). Temporary runes will only cost 1pence in materials. You can start out with a loan for whatever you need to afford your first permanent runic item. You'll start with the item being 1d10 days work away from completion, with the loan due in two months. You've agreed to pay back double whatever you borrowed, and if you can't pay the creditors have the right to lease your journeyman's piece for 100 years and a day at the cost of 1gc. Materials needed for the creation of runes are considered of Uncommon availability; a lot of it is gems and metals, but there's also some rarer incense involved.
Generally, when it comes to trappings I will work to make the stuff you need available, although some things may require some work on your part to get your hands on.
A quick check to see if I understand how Demi-Gestalt works with the "free archetypes" variant.
Say I want to play a Vigilante, with Zealot and...we'll say Warlock for free. The second option doesn't really matter ATM.
I would need to spend a Boon Feat (gained at levels 1, 2, and 4) to get access to the first three spell levels of casting for Zealot, and I could spend another for Warlock's if I wished.
I would also need to spend a Feat if I wanted access to its the Domain/Inquisition it gets.
I'm pretty sure on this.
The thing I'm most unclear on is: how would Zealot Talents work?
Zealot Talents is a feature that just adds new options that the Vigilante can take with their Vigilante Talents class feature. Do I need to buy entry to "count as" a Zealot? If so, would I gain a talent as well, or is my whole Boon Feat eaten up just gaining access to the list?
No. You can't access spellcasting for your subclass, regardless of if it's a different class or archetypes.
The thing you can do is access the spell list with spells you got from the main class (main class includes normal, compatible archetypes, but not archetypes from subclass). So if you took the Spellcasting advancement, you would gain 1-4th level spells as if you were a ranger or paladin or bloodrager, with a list you work out with the DM. From there you could spend a boon feat to add access to the 1-3 level spell list from zealot, and another boon feat to add access to the 1-3 level spell list from Warlock. You would not gain additional spells aside from the paladin/ranger/bloodrager progression from your Advancement, but you would be able to access the Zealot and/or Warlock spell lists using your existing casting.
If you do not take the Spellcasting advancement, Vigilante on its own has no spells, so if you spent boon feats to access the warlock or zealot spell lists you would not be able to use them.
You could use a vigilante archetype that gets spells as part of your main class (trading out features as normal) and then add 2 more archetypes as your subclass, which may conflict with the archetype of your main class.
Edit: Question: If you use Advance on combat, and your wizard/sorcerer gains proficiency in light armor, does that obviate the Arcane Spell Failure chance?
Yes, there's a note in the excel sheet.
Okay, I have narrowed my ideas down, I think. Either
a skald(magus),
a wizard(cleric) of nethys who feels like he has been denied access to whatever true reality lies behind this one that's been cordoned off by the gods, and wants to ascend so he can leave and go see what's real,
@Adamwarnock, heavy armor/shield + tower shields lives in Exceptional base attack, not Good base attack. Good Base Attack is Medium Armor + All martial weapons + shields, but not tower shields. You got it right in the step-by-step but not in the text after it. On the upside, you get to cast spells in medium armor from level 1 due to picking the combat advance.
I just had a look at the boon feat notes, that's a lot more generous than I'd have assumed at first.
Are the levels in the "access subclass spell level" spell levels or class levels? Like if I was a wizard that wanted druid spells, would I pay 7 feats(20/3=~7) or 3 (9/3)?
That's actually a really cool concept, I think I might run a cleric of nethys that has magus or wizard spells or something.
Edit: Let me just look up on whether Nethys has a strict stance on heresy or if I'm going to have to use oracle for what I'm after.
Did we settle on where the game is taking place? I'd prefer Varisia of the options listed, I think the potential hooks there are a lot more interesting.
My first instinct is to do something with dwarves.
