(Art is from Midjourney AI)
I have developed something of a fondness for Warhammer in the past few months. I started playing Total Warhammer 3 when they released Immortal Empires and Vermintide 2 when that was free. Perhaps that’s what was on my mind when one of the players in my ongoing New Rome game commented that it would be fun to play a ‘League of Losers’,[1] effectively characters who aren’t really very good, or very suited to, the adventuring life. Perhaps it was the combination of the two that had me crack open Warhammer Fantasy Role Play (4th edition).[2]
The world of Warhammer Fantasy, or the Old World, is somewhere between a pastiche and a straight play of a fantastical version of our world. While it draws from the (now? Currently? No longer?) defunct Warhammer Fantasy Battle,[3] it is a much more grounded experience than WFB. In WFB, powerful wizards and warriors command legions of brightly clad warriors, decked out in items of power under banners imbued with rallying magics. In WFRP, you don’t play those commanders, or even the soldiers under their command. Most often, you will be playing the person that carries the bucket that the surgeon treating the soldiers puts their amputated toes into. It’s a heady experience.
That rules for three of the four editions are a d100 system, familiar to anyone who has played Call of Cthulhu, or anyone who read my little adventure in Runequest.[4] It’s a quite old-fashioned system, spruced up for the modern age. For funsies, I’m going to have a go at making a character.
Character generation takes a quite flexible approach – you can generate your character randomly or you can just pick. You can do this at every stage of generation too, so you can let the dice decide your Species, but pick your Career and allocate your stats. As a sweetener, letting the dice decide grants bonus XP – this makes the characters overall more powerful but is probably important if, for example, you end up rolling something that’s unable to contribute or will be unfun to play. And you can always throw the whole thing out and make a Halfling Flagellant if you want.
Because I like random character generation, I am going to let the dice decide. There are five[5] species in WFRP: Human, Halfling, Dwarf, High Elf, and Wood Elf. You can pick, or you can roll on a little 1d100 table. Most of the time, if you roll, you will be a Human but nets you +20XP. I get 06 on my dice, so I will be a Human. In the core book, Humans are Reiklanders – the people of the western part of the Empire. There are other cultural/tribal/ethnic groups in the Empire, and even more outside of it, but these are not dealt with in the corebook. WFRP is a pretty straightforward fantasy setting[6] so Humans are ambitious, energetic, on the rise, all that stuff. Humans, like all Species, get certain traits and such, but that’s not dealt with yet.
WFRP is a skill based game but characters skills are defined by their Class and Career. Class is, I think, a new categorisation for WFRP but it doesn’t equal D&D class – it’s a lot more like, well, class Class. It determines your social standing and how much you can expect to earn from doing your job.[7]
In WFRP you can be a Soldier or a Wizard, but you can also be a Townsman, a Lawyer, or even a plain old Peasant. It’s the signature feature of WFRP; much like Call of Cthulhu is, for better or worse, very much defined by it’s particular mechanics for dealing with stress, or World of Darkness for having a 1-10 range for morality/power/stuff, Career is iconically WFRP.
I get three choices when picking my Career. I can roll 1d100 on a table, checking my Species line, and doing that, and a bonus +50XP. I can choose to roll twice more, picking from one of those three, and getting +25XP. Finally I can keep rolling or just pick, for no XP. While today I am just going to roll, I think that the second option is pretty good for an actual game – it preserves the randomness that is characteristic of this method, while giving players a feeling of control. My dice come up 70, so my Human is a Seaman (Riverfolk). Pretty cool!
Characteristics[8] next. Some of these are familiar – Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity. Some of them are like what you might be used to or analogous to other terms – Willpower, Toughness, Fellowship – but then there’s things like Weapon Skill and Ballistic Skill, where they cross over into what, in other games, we’d think of skills or proficiencies. This is probably an artefact of WFRP growing out of WFB but it does also give an impression of the game – your stabbing ability is as core to your fundamental capabilities as how clever or tough you are[9]. I bring this up only because I think that Attributes inform us what the expectations of the game are.
Anyway, I get three choices again: roll 2d10 for each characteristic, recording them as I go and also getting +50XP; rearrange the numbers to my taste, getting +25XP; or allocate 100 points across the attributes, with a minimum of 4 and 18, but no bonus XP. For actual play, I think that option 2 is the sweet spot, as it includes the randomness but still let’s players have some control over what they come out as.[10] For today, though, I am going to roll!
Weapon Skill 2+6+20[11] = 28
Ballistic Skill 4+10+20 = 34
Strength 2+5+20 = 27
Toughness 6+9+20 = 35
Initiative 6+9+20 = 35
Agility 1+4+20 = 25
Dexterity 8+4+20= 32
Intelligence 10+6+20 = 36
Willpower 10+2+20= 32
Fellowship 10+9+20= 39
So our human Seaman is overall pretty good. They are tough, quick though a touch clumsy, smart, and very likeable. Interesting!
I also calculate my characters health, or ‘Wounds’ at this stage. Characters in WFRP are capable of avoiding or weathering a lot of hurt through skill and army, but the amount of punishment they can withstand is relatively static throughout their adventuring career. I calculate Wounds using Strength Bonus plus 2 x Toughness Bonus plus Willpower Bonus; there are arrived at using the ‘tens’ of the relevant Characteristic, so SB 2 + 2xTB 3 + WP 3, or 11 Wounds, which is pretty good.
My character also has 2 Fate and 1 Resilience, representing spiritual and physical fortitude and, effectively, luck, and 4 Movement – faster than a Dwarf or Halfling, but slower than an Elf. I also get 3 ‘Extra Points’. It takes a bit of searching, but these are explained in ‘Determining Fate and Resilience’; they are to be distributed between Fate and Resilience at my discretion. Nothing to roll here! I would tend to balance them out, so have 3 Fate and Resilience.
I also need to pick a Motivation, which is what the character uses to restore the Resolve (their luck/will to succeed). The books advises that you might want to leave this until I am at the end of character creation, ‘bringing them to life’ – but I have an idea: “Fetch me the horizon”. This Reiklander is driven to see new things, go new places, explore the world.[12] Having this in mind will help me when I must pick rather than roll. I decide that the Reiklander is a she, Heidi Schwarzenn.[13] That will make it easier to refer to her from now.[14]
The last part of generating characteristics is to pick 5 free ‘Advances’. Advances increase the relevant Characteristic by 1, but also make increasing the Characteristic cost more XP later. These must be picked from the list for your Career. For a Seaman, this means Agility, Dexterity, and Fellowship are viable. I am going to put all 5 into Agility; while this will make increasing Agility more expensive later, it also shores up a weakness, which I always prefer to do. I record that Heidi has +5 advances, and her Agility is now 30.
Next is Skills and Talents. As I mentioned, WFRP is skill based, but those skills are based on your Species and your Career. Every Species gets a list of skills and gets 3 skills with 5 Advances and 3 skills with 3 Advances. Everyone gets Riekspiel (language of the Empire) for free/don’t need to roll for it. Species also get Talents; Talents are features like Night Vision or Very Strong, traits that individualise and differentiate.
As a Reiklander, Heidi gets to pick from the following Skills: Animal Care, Charm, Cool, Evaluate, Gossip, Haggle, Language (Bretonnian)[15], Language (Wastelander)[16], Leadership, Lore (Reikland), Melee (Basic), and Ranged (Bow).
As I know Heidi is a keen explorer and traveller, I am going to start by having 5 advances in the two available languages, Bretonnian and Wastelander. The other 5 Advance skill will be Evaluate; Heidi isn’t what you would call educated, but she is smart and she has an eye for finding treasure among the trash. For her three 3 Advance choices… well, remember how I said that Characteristics tell you what to expect of a game? Two of Heidi’s stats are her skills with fighting, so I’m going to pick Melee (Basic) and Ranged (Bow); Heidi can handle a blade and also knows how to shoot fish from the bow. For her final pick I’m going to go with Charm; Heidi’s Fellowship is very high and I imagine she’s used to chatting to other people with the languages she’s picked up.
The talents for Humans are Doomed, Savvy or Suave, and 3 Random talents, rolled on a d100. My random talents are Coolheaded (18), Strong Legs (80), and Savvy (69[17]) which helps me with my pick. Some Talents can be selected more than once, but Savvy and Suave can’t, so Heidi will be both Savvy and Suave, sparing me the agony of choice.
The effects of Heidi’s talents are:
Coolheaded: Permanent +5 to Willpower (does not count as Advances)
Doomed: Doomed is a fun, world Lore specific detail. Priests of the Death God Morr wander around, telling people the nature of their death as part of a coming of age (at 10). The player should work with the GM to come up with a suitable Dooming. These can be cryptic or, I suppose, straightforward – anything from “Red sky, beware her tears” to “A pirate will stab you in the face and you will die.” The benefit of the Talent is that if you die in a manner that matches the Dooming, your next character gets bonus XP equal to half of this character accrued during play. It’s fun and fluff. So you want to have it open to interpretation and abstract, rather than to be very, very specific. For Heidi? Mother’s cry, calls you to bed. Spooky!
Savvy: Permanent +5 to Intelligence (does not count as Advances)
Strong Legs: Add level in Strong Legs (1) to Success Level in any Athletics Tests involving leaping
Suave: Permanent +5 to Fellowship (does not count as Advances)
Heidi’s Characteristics are amended to the following, due to these changes
Intelligence 41
Willpower 37
Fellowship 44
Wounds 12 (as WPB increased by 1)
I then move on to Heidi’s Career Skills and Talents. Each Career gets a list of 8 Skills and Talents per level of the Career; these aren’t the same as D&D Levels, as there are 4 per Career, indicating different ranks of social standing. Career ‘levels’ are new for 4th edition WFRP.[18] A Character can Advance in any Skill, or obtain any Talent, in their Career level or lower – so, if Heidi advances in the Seaman Career she can still Advance skills and pick talents from the Landsman.[19]
Characters get 40 Advances to allocate between these skills, with no more than 10 Advances can be allocated to a single Skill.
Heidi, as a Seaman of the Landsman level (the starter level) has the following skill list: Climb, Consume Alcohol,[20] Gamble, Gossip, Row, Melee (Brawling), Sail, and Swim.
I am going to be thoroughly unoriginal here and put 5 Advances in each. I could specialise but I don’t want to. Incidentally, I am informed, this will make Heidi ready to progress to level 2 Seaman, or ‘Seaman’. She cannot straight away – she would need to get the Trappings for that career (on that later).
I get to select one of the Talents available for a Landsman: Fisherman, Strider (Coastal), Strong Back, Strong Swimmer. I’m going to select Strong Back; Heidi is relatively weedy (SB is only 2) but for very specific things she’s able to apply force. She gets a bonus Success Level to Row and Swim in any Opposed Strength tests and can carry additional Encumbrance equal to her level in Strong Back. She be wee but she be fierce.
To reach the final value in any skill, you add the Characteristic associated with the Skill, plus any advances in the Characteristic and in the Skill. Heidi’s charm, for example is equal to her Fellowship of 44 plus her Charm Advances 3 for a final of 47; to succeed at a Challenging (so no modifiers) Heidi would need to roll 47 or lower on a d100.
If a Character doesn’t have any Advances in a Skill, they can attempt the a check against the Characteristic if it is a Basic Skill. For example, even though she has no Advances in Haggle, Heidi can still try against her Fellowship. However, she can’t make a Language test to speak, say, Khazalid[21] because she has no Advances in it. She doesn’t know her Gromril from her Grobi.
Next up is equipping your character, based on Class, Career, and Social Standing. You get the Trappings from your Class, from the first level of your Career, and your spare cash from your Social Standing (based on your Career).
As a Riverfolk Career, Heidi starts with a Cloak, Clothing, Dagger, Pouch, and a Sling Bag containing a Flask of Spirits. As a Landsman she also has a Bucket, Brush, and Mop. Glamourous it isn’t! She is a Silver 1 standing, so gets 1d10 silver shillings.[22] I get 2 – Heidi is, relative to where she could be, a bit hard up.
This is the only time a character gets their trapping for free; to advance to the next level of their Career, or move to another Career, they will need to obtain the relevant Trappings; the clothes maketh the human in WFRP. For Heidi, this means she wants to be on the lookout for a Boat Hook and a Leather Jerkin if she wants to make a full Seaman.
I can use her 2 pennies to buy something. Remembering what sort of game this is, I flip forward to the equipment chapter but can’t afford anything, so Heidi will hold onto her Shillings.
The last bits are filling in details and then Advancement. I already have Heidi’s name; she’s 21 (1d10+15) years old, 5’ 8” (4’ 9” + 2d10), with pale grey (11) eyes, and black hair (17). She needs a short- and long-term ambition. These must come from the brain, there are no tables. She short term ambition is to visit Brettonia – she knows the language but hasn’t been. Her long-term ambition is to have a ship of her own. Ambitions are important as they are a source of XP for the character.
Thanks to her random origin, Heidi has 120 bonus XP to spend. XP can be used to improve Characteristics or Skills, gain Talents, or to change Career. This can only be spent to increase the Characteristics, Skills, or purchase Talents from Heidi’s Career. I am therefore going to be a bit inefficient and increase Dexterity by 3 and Fellowship by 1 and Gossip by 1. This leaves Heidi with 5 XP that can’t be spent – I am assuming it is banked rather than vanishing into the air!
Here we go. Heidi, a chatty, intelligent, and curious Reiklander is ready to step out into the world. If you compare her to the characters from the Starter Set, you’ll notice that she is far, far less competent – but that’s fine, as they all have roughly 2000xp where Heidi really is just fresh faced and keen to adventure.
Heidi Schwarzen, Human (Reiklander)
Class: Riverfolk
Career: Seaman – Landsman
Stadning: Silver 1
Motivation: Fetch me the horizon
Short-term ambition: Visit Brettonnia
Long-term ambition: Have a ship of her own
Characteristics
Weapon Skill 28
Ballistic Skill 34
Strength 27
Toughness 35
Initiative 35
Agility 30 (5 Advances)
Dexterity 35 (3 Advances)
Intelligence 41
Willpower 37
Fellowship 45 (1 Advance)
Wounds 12
Fortitude 3
Resolve 3
Move 4
Skills
Charm (Fel) 48 (3 Advances)
Climb (S) 30 (5 Advances)
Consume Alcohol (T) 40 (5 Advances)
Evaluate (Int) 46 (5 Advances)
Gamble (Int) 46 (5 Advances)
Gossip (Fel) 51 (6 Advances)
Language (Int) 46 (Bretonnian) (5 Advances)
Language (Int) 46 (Wastelander) (5 Advances)
Melee (Basic) (WS) 31 (3 Advances)
Melee (Brawling) (WS) 33 (5 Advances)
Ranged (Bow) (BS) 37 (3 Advances)
Row (S) 32 (5 Advances)
Sail (Ag) 35 (5 Advances)
Swim (S) 33 (5 Advances)
Talents
Coolheaded, Doomed (Mother’s Cry, Calls you to bed), Savvy, Strong Back (1), Strong Legs (1), Suave
Trappings
Bucket, Brush, Cloak, Clothing, Dagger, Pouch, a Sling Bag containing a Flask of Spirits, a Mop. 2 Silver Shillings.
Combat
Dagger (31) – Very Short Reach – Damage +4
Dodge (30)
5 XP
[1] “GURPS 50 point starter characters” says Dabdown. And, says I, that would require buying and, more importantly, learning GURPS and that I will not do.
[2] I’ve played both 2nd and 3rd edition, as well as had a little test with 4th. I made a character, but did not play, in 1st edition.
[3] Not Age of Sigmar, which is a pretty funky glossy fantasy setting and system. I AoS RP is better at D&D high fantasy than D&D – certainly a more robust rule system. But I’m not here for that today.
[4] I don’t know the history here, whether this is just a coincidence or if one (Runequest I would guess) inspired the other. Given the other similarities, I’d guess it’s the latter?
[5] Six if you have Archives of the Empire, which introduces Ogres. Ogres are great. I love my fat lads in TW3.
[6] What if Tolkien but with piss!?
[7] I believe it also determines your advancement opportunities – it’s easier to move career in-class than cross class. This might not be true; it’s outside the scope of today’s little experiment.
[8] Ability Scores in D&D language.
[9] When the apes descended from the trees, they made tools to brain each other!
[10] Conversely, it would be a tough sell to get me to agree to the point buy. Not because of min-maxing but because I am too used to that sort of bean counting leading to paralysed players and nothing getting done.
[11] Humans get +20 to all stats, meaning a range of 24 to 38 for point buy guys – random rolling gets higher rewards but also low dips.
[12] Slaanesh (god of genital warts) will be pleased.
[13] WFRP names are always awful, so I am right at home. It is probably down to it being by British people using a veneer of ‘foreignness’ to write about themselves.
[14] Even though you, Dear Reader, will have been spoiled by the post title.
[15] The French
[16] The Dutch
[17] Noice
[18] This is markedly different from older WFRP, where each Career stood as its own thing but had several other Careers marked as Career exit. Heidi might have started as a Landsman, but from that she might go on to be a Seaman, a Stevedore, a Trader, a Sailor, or so on. If I remember correctly, it cost more XP to advance to a non-Exit Career.
[19] In older WFRP, with its more silo’d Careers, I think they just repeated skills and Talents if they were relevant – Sailors and Marine could both Sail.
[20] Skills also tell you about what type of game you are playing. WFRP involves spending time in pubs and getting into fights. It is also, really, reflective of the time and place it was written, where characters getting drunk and getting into fights was such a laff. I like its inclusion.
[21] Dwarf
[22] WFRP’s monetary system is pre-decimalisation, so a bit of a headache.
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