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Ever since I finally got core rulebook for WFRP 2nd Edition, I've been toying with various ideas for adventures and a mini-campaign I could run. I'm going through the rules now and I would like to know are there any glitches or peculiarities of the system I should be aware of.
For example: I know that the combat in WFRP is more lethal compared to D&D, but how lethal is it? On average, how many fights in a day could party of beginners possibly take? On the other hand, I'm also interested in how useful are the rules for social interaction, knowledge or research skills.
Then there are careers for which I'm not really sure how balanced are they: it seems to me that mechanically the player of Noble or Soldier has a definite advantage over Rat Catcher - which is all the more reason to be interested into practical in-game value of various skills and talents.
So far, I like what I've seeing from WFRP: the rules seem refreshingly simple compared to the D&D 3.5: far less magic and magical items to take into account, for example. On the other hand, basics of the combat seem quite intuitive and similar to D&D, which is great 'cause it means less times for new players to adjust.
As previously mentioned , combat is "swingy" , from easy NPC kill to Player death its only one confirmed critical hit away.
Investigative and player oriented scenarios work best - have the players map out their career path and you\ll have lots of of story hooks. Think call of ctulhu in the middel ages:)
Economic systems - guns and weapons in general are ridiculusly expensive - enabling the players to sell their own and their victims weapons and buy themselves out of trouble, not very heroic:)
We divided weapon cost by 10 and it helped.
Go easy on skilltests- a starting PC has about 20 - 40 % chance of success with an unmodified roll.
Fear tests - see skill tests- they make combat with monsters even more random - use sparingly.
Insanity- players rarely enjoy being told how to play their charachter- you might consider upping their IP total or use minor disorders before they eventually go insane:)
liberfanatica.net has fan made rules you might want to check out, and blackindustries.com have free scenarios - enjoy!
ok; some things to consider:
first; you start out very weak; a fly can kill you; the old wfrp game had peeps roll up three starting characters for example and healing is not all that common. It is a dark and gritty world, but try to get some good rp in; as this world is very developed; use it and ask for advice here if you need adventure threads; be glad to put some out for you.
elves are insanely fast; they will almost always go first; humans are very slow and sometimes are dead before they get to go; just things to consider. In this world humans are not even close to being tough enough to survive on their own; so you might want to give them a bit of help in the way of commeradie; humans are gregarious after all and in this world I would think they would help each other out over the other races; that world is a pretty prejudice place.
Are you starting in the Empire or where?
ok; your end game; played in a game where my character had finished 14 careers; there just wasnt much else left to do; started as a squire and did the fighting route; even at the end of all that; by looking at the base profile of the knight of chaos in the choas book; well he would waste me pretty easy; sheesh they get more attacks than any other character types.
start thinking about what your going to do for mages that max their level and start wanting to be higher level casters and start quoting the mages in the WH world that are higher level casters; guys like tecklis and the Slann high mage are two off top of my head for instance.
I suggest you read the Storm of Chaos book from WHFB and read the section on Middenheim if your going to play in the Empire and take at look at the maps of Middenhiem; good source material and talks a lot about gifts and stuff from Ulric you may wish to consider.
have you thought about how your going to run combats; are all your monsters going to have the same wounds for example; it should be pretty easy to put this on a database to track guys but if your doing it by paper; you might want to think about things; I dont suggest you do group initiatives for your monsters; but give it some thought about how your going to handle it; not sure how familiar you are with the system; peeps are probably going to want to use miniatures also.
when I get a chance, i will ask a friend of mine what rules questions came up so you get a preview; i have a bud who tracks that kind of stuff and can probably tell me off the top of his head; we played for along time through lots of advances and used almost every skill and spell in the book; will see if I can come up with some you might want to preview how your going to handle.
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As previously mentioned , combat is "swingy" , from easy NPC kill to Player death its only one confirmed critical hit away.
Investigative and player oriented scenarios work best - have the players map out their career path and you\ll have lots of of story hooks. Think call of ctulhu in the middel ages:)
This is, a part of the appeal of WFRP for me: both the Cthulhu Mythos part and the fact the game encourages investigation, research and social interaction. In my last D&D campaign, I routinely spent way too much time preparing combat encounters, only to realize I'm bored to tears with that.
Economic systems - guns and weapons in general are ridiculusly expensive - enabling the players to sell their own and their victims weapons and buy themselves out of trouble, not very heroic:)
We divided weapon cost by 10 and it helped.
Interesting. This is complaint I heard on other message boards, too. I'll take that into account.
Go easy on skilltests- a starting PC has about 20 - 40 % chance of success with an unmodified roll.
Fear tests - see skill tests- they make combat with monsters even more random - use sparingly.
Insanity- players rarely enjoy being told how to play their charachter- you might consider upping their IP total or use minor disorders before they eventually go insane:)
Thanks for the tip about skill tests. As for Insanity, I was also thinking about upping the level of Insanity Points (10 instead of 6) or removing them althogether. I don't like the idea of disfiguring PCs just for the heck of it - I sure didn't like it as a player in a Ravenloft game - and god knows there are enough ways of that happening in WFRP already.
liberfanatica.net has fan made rules you might want to check out, and blackindustries.com have free scenarios - enjoy!
I'll check them out.
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You don't want to fight too often. Combat is far more lethal and healing beyond a couple of wounds is not readily available. Social interaction I think is a large part of the game, the scheming of Nobles etc, Charm and Bluff come into that a lot, knowledge skills also handy
This sounds cool.
Are you starting in the Empire or where?
It will be in the Empire but not in any pre-made location. I have a bunch of ideas and plot hooks centered in and around a medieval town I'd set somewhere along the Stirland/Averland border.
start thinking about what your going to do for mages that max their level and start wanting to be higher level casters
I don't think I'll have to worry about that, at least for a while. :-)
Characters would start in their first careers and I have no idea how long or how often will I actually run the game.
have you thought about how your going to run combats;
I'm planning to do a test run or two with couple of friends just to get the feel of the combat, so that there are less suprises when I actually start running the campaign.
when I get a chance, i will ask a friend of mine what rules questions came up so you get a preview; i have a bud who tracks that kind of stuff and can probably tell me off the top of his head; we played for along time through lots of advances and used almost every skill and spell in the book; will see if I can come up with some you might want to preview how your going to handle.
Thanks!:-)
http://www.blackindustries.com/?template=WH&content=scenarios
try "with a little help from my friends" :)