Mickey the (Fish) Ogre

(Image is by Jon Hodgson of Handiwork Games, who also did some work in WFRP 4e)

I’ve been reading WFRP again. For my birthday (in a few months) I’m going to run The Enemy Within (Part 1). I like to revisit old characters and put them into new settings or systems; identifying the theme of the character and seeing how that can be re-represented. The Irregulars (in Masks) ranks as one of my all-time favourites, and every character in that was dynamite. So that’s where I’m looking. I want to also look at Ogres as PCs for WFRP, introduced in Archives of the Empire volume 2.

The obvious choice from the Irregulars for an ogre would be Daisy; she’s big she’s strong she had a bad temper. But for me, the interesting thing about Daisy is the idea that she was a lethal weapon who was uninterested in being that. I’m going to make Mickey the Fish.[1] Mickey’s whole deal was that he had tremendous, colossal power alongside debilitating mutations the combination of which made him inhuman. However, as much as the world wanted him to be a monster or a freakshow, he found more fulfilment in doing normal guy stuff; when asked what you could do if you didn’t have to be afraid, his answer was to help out at the Gurdwara.

So, Mickey the (Fish) Ogre. To begin with if you check back on the previous entry in my blog you’ll see that you in WFRP you can rather roll your starting species. Archives of the Empire volume 2[2] includes a table with Ogre a random option.[3] If you roll 98 on a d100 you can be an Ogre. So you probably won’t be an Ogre by chance.[4]

Like the human and the other species in WFRP, Ogres have a set of species skills and species talents:

Ogre Species Skills and Talents

Skills: Athletics, Consume Alcohol, Endurance, Entertain (Storytelling), Intimidate, Language (Grumbarth), Lore (Ogres), Melee (Basic), Melee (Brawling), Navigation, Outdoor Survival, Track

Talents: Dirty Fighting, Large, Night Vision, Resistance (Poison (Ingested)), Very Resilient or Very Strong, Vice (Food)[5]

We’ll come back to in Step 4. For now onto class and career! Archives 2 includes a table for Ogres to roll on if they wish to randomly select career.[6] As with other characters if you take the first option you will get bonus 50 XP. I roll 65, or Guard in the Warrior class. Ogres will, weird outliers aside, be very good at fighting, so this is a great choice. But Mickey I’d like to see if I can get a broader array of inspirations, who was a reluctant superhero, transformed into something physically powerful but happier hosting his podcast. I will roll twice more to see if anything interesting comes up. I roll 19, which is a hunter, or 9 which is a Watchmen.

I could just keep rolling, or pick what I want.[7] As it is I am going to have Mickey the fish be an ogre Watchmen.[8] While the cops are a well provisioned gang, in our fantasies we can imagine them as the powerful guy who, for his own reasons, wants to help without wanting or needing to resort to violence. The fish-faced superman becomes a copper with a conscience. Mickey, as a starting character, is a Watch Recruit[9]  with the following Advancement options:

Attributes: Weapon Skill, Strength, Fellowship

Skills: Athletics, Climb, Consume Alcohol, Dodge,

Endurance, Gamble, Melee (Any), Perception

Talents: Drilled, Hardy, Strike to Stun, Tenacious

More things to file away for Step 4.

For now, we determine attributes. The attributes of WFRP are a mix of familiar and specific. To start with I will just roll straight down the line:[10]

Weapon Skill 17

Ballistic Skill 13

Strength 11

Toughness 5

Initiative 11

Agility 15

Dexterity 10

Intelligence 11

Willpower 12

Fellowship 2

 If you recall my previous blog post, you have three options when you’re determining attributes in WFRP. You can roll and keep at which point you get 50 bonus XP. You can roll and rearrange which will get you 25 extra XP. Or you can spend 100 points between your 10 attributes or reroll and arrange (but get no XP). I’m going to move these attributes around like so:

WS 13

BS 2

S 11

T 15

I 11

A 5

D 10

Int 11

WP 12

Fel 17

With these changes Mickey becomes a lot clumsier; he’s no good with a gun or at sneaking. Because he’s a little tougher he will be better in a straight up fight. It’s his Fellowship that I really wanted to bump, moving the 17 there so he is almost as likeable as the average human. I calculate his Wounds and allocate his single free point to Fate. With Species mods, Mickey looks like this:

WS 13+20 = 33

BS 2+10 = 12

S 11+35 = 46

T 15+35+5[11] = 55

I 11

A 5+15 = 20

D 10+10 = 20

Int 11+10 = 21

WP 12+20 = 32

Fel 17+10 = 27

Wounds (4+(2*5)+3)*2=34

Fate 1

Resilience 3

Movement 6[12]

Now we go back to look at Skills and Talents gained first from Species, then Career. From the Species skill list, you choose three skills to get 5 advances and a further three skills to get three advances. For his advances, I will pick Endurance, Storytelling,[13] and Brawling to get five advances and three advances can go into Consume Alcohol,[14] Outdoor Survival and Track.

Consume Alcohol +3

Endurance +5

Entertain (Storytelling) +5

Melee (Brawling) +5

Outdoor survival +3

Track +3

Ogre talents are set with one exception: you pick from very strong or very resilient. The powers in Masks are setting to reinforce the themes you want to explore; Mickey’s whole deal was that if you knock him down, he gets up again. With that in mind, I pick Very Resilient, for a +5 base Toughness.[15]

For Career skills, Characters start with a total of 40 Advances to split among the 8 Career skills they start with.[16] This means that a character can begin ready to advance to the next level of their Career if they so desire (sort of, they need trappings). I have a personal distaste for fiddling around so I am going to put 5 in each skill. Some of them are Skills Mickey already has from being an Ogre. He’s a real drinking powerhouse:

Athletics +5

Climb +5

Consume Alcohol +8

Dodge +5

Endurance +10

Entertain (Storytelling) +5

Gamble +5

Melee (Brawling) +10

Perception +5

Outdoor survival +3

Track +3

These get added to Mickey’s relevant Attributes to reach the following skill scores:

Athletics (Agi) 20+5 = 25

Climb (S) 46+5 = 51

Consume Alcohol (T) 55+8 = 63

Dodge (Ag) 20+5 = 25

Endurance (T) 55+10 = 65

Entertain (Storytelling) (Fel) 27+5 = 32

Gamble (Int) 21+5= 26

Melee (Brawling) (WS) 33+10 = 43

Perception (I) 11+5 = 16

Outdoor survival (Int) 21+3 = 24

Track (I) 11+3 = 14

Mickey can choose a single Talent from the four on offer as Watchman. Hardy, which would grant Mickey his Toughness Bonus extra Wounds, is tempting, but I like Tenacious, which allows Mickey to double how long Endurance tests[17] allow him to ignore hardships. While I’m not striving to convert Mickey’s powers from Masks[18] the ability to absorb the badness of the world around him and keep going is a nice transferability of purpose and ability.

The final element are Mickey’s Trapping, his starting equipment. The Watchman career is part of the Burgher class, so Mickey gets the following:

Burghers: Cloak, Clothing, Dagger, Hat, Pouch, Sling Bag containing Lunch.[19]

The dagger lets me talk a little about what ‘Ogres are a dominant force in combat’ means. Unlike a lot of traditional RPGs, WFRP doesn’t have variable weapon damage. Weapons add a bonus to your character’s Strength Bonus; a dagger has a bonus of +2, so Mickey’s base damage with his dagger is +6.[20] Normally, characters will add their Success Level[21] to this damage but because Mickey is Large so his weapons all gain Damaging when fighting a creature of Average size;[22] he can instead use the units die to determine damage if he hits.[23] I find this quite elegant; it makes the increased damage a property of the weapons size relationship to its target, rather than a static bonus that is in effect at all times.[24] He still uses the dice roll to determine success.

As a Watchman, Mickey also gets:

Trappings: Hand Weapon, Leather Jack, Uniform.

‘Hand Weapon’ in WFRP is a generic term, it just means any single-handed tool of war – an axe, a club, a sword. The rules don’t pay any mind to the differences; that’s all for flavour.[25] As a Watchman, Mickey probably just has a truncheon… the size of a baseball bat. A Hand Weapon does 8 (Strength Bonus +4) base damage (modified by Success Level on the combat roll); He’s more capable with his open hand (his Brawling skill, but only SB damage)[26] so his club represents a more lethal option. ‘Leather Jack’ is an armour type, granting 1 AP to Mickey’s Body and Arms locations.[27] This is added to Mickey’s impressive Toughness Bonus of 5, so any strike to his gut or his guns is reduced by 6 damage. Mickey’s Uniform is, given his size, probably a tabard/poncho with the watch badge on it.

Mickey starts with starting cash based on his Standing and Level; a Watch Recruit is Brass 3. Brass characters gain 2d10 pennies per Standing Level, or 6d10 for Mickey. I roll and 39 pennies. You can get a fair number of bits and bobs with this; you’re not getting a Leadbelcher, but you could splash out for a blanket or a bucket. However, Mickey doesn’t really want for anything except for food. Ogres require twice as much grub, costing twice as much to support themselves than an equivalent human. For safety. Mickey is going to hold onto his cash reserve to be able to spend on a big sandwich.

I have 50 XP to spend. I’m going to sink it all into 2 Advances in Fellowship; Mickey is a friendly Ogre and is not terrible at getting people to chat.

The remaining details are height, weight, and such. You can always decide these yourself but there are tables if you fancy rolling.[28] Mickey is 38 years old, stands 8’ 4” tall, with brown eyes and sienna hair. He’s called ‘The Fish’ in the Old World because he’s a ‘vegetarian’ Ogre; he doesn’t eat people or livestock but does gobble down staggering quantities of river life.

His raw Attributes on their own make him a threatening combatant; with Large, he becomes a combat encounter on his own. However, it’s worth keeping this in perspective of the WFRP rules and the way the game is structured to be played. Mickey will probably always dominate any melee he becomes part of; however, his low Initiative means it’s very unlikely he’ll be able to seize control of the battle field. Enemies will often get to act ahead of him and, if they’re even half awake, throw things at or shoot Mickey; this is where his Large works against him, because he’s much easier to hit. While Mickey’s low Ballistic Skill is down to my choices, this is something all Ogres will have to work around. Outside of the fight, Mickey might struggle to succeed and his contributions might more often take the form of ‘failing forward’[29]; circling back around to Initiative, WFRP uses this to determine awareness and perception-based skills.[30] Because of my decision to build up Fellowship, Mickey isn’t completely helpless in society; he’s a bit more perceptive than most Ogres and he has a way to meaningfully interact with people outside of threatening them for food.[31] Speaking of food, unlike other Species, Ogres start with a Talent that is a drawback; their Vice (Food) means that the Player might lose control of their Character.[32]

If you look at the adventures written for WFRP, much of the content is interaction and investigation, more in common with investigative horror like Call of Cthulhu than action fantasy; it would be disingenuous to suggest that WFRP doesn’t involve combat[33] given two of the Attributes are literally your skill at fighting, it isn’t necessarily as clear cut that the advantages Ogres enjoy in the melee are so overwhelming that they absolutely outweigh the drawbacks of being a big cannibal.

Mickey ‘The Fish’

Attributes: WS 33; BS 12; S 46; T 55; I 11; Agility 20; Dexterity 20; Int 21; Will 32; Fellowship 29.

Skills: Athletics 25; Climb 51; Consume Alcohol 63; Dodge 25; Endurance 65; Entertain (Storytelling) 34; Gamble 26; Melee (Brawling) 43; Perception 16; Outdoor survival 24; Track 14.

Traits: Leather Jack (Head/Body 6 AP); Truncheon WS 33 +8; Dagger WS 33 +6.

Wounds 34; Fate 1; Resilience 3; Movement 6

Talents: Dirty Fighting 1, Large, Night Vision, Resistance (Poison (Ingested)), Tenacious, Very Resilient, Vice (Food).

Trappings: Cloak, Clothing, Hat, Pouch, Sling Bag containing Lunch, Uniform.

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[1] I don’t think Mickey will be turning up because Ogres are hilariously more powerful than a normal character. So keep that in mind as you are reading through this but I’ll go over it again at the end.

[2] Which introduces Ogres as a playable option.

[3] I assume that rough days and hard nights which introduces gnomes has a similar table. I doubt there is an official table with Ogres and Gnomes.

[4] If I were 13 I’d be seeing an endless parade of Ogre Knights of the Blazing Sun with 100xp bonuses for random Species and Career, I’m sure.

[5] Large and Vice are new Talents introduced for Ogres. Vice is an overwhelming psychology compulsion to indulge in a specific substance, food for Ogres. Large is part of what makes Ogres exceptionally dominant in any combat situation – it works like the monster trait in WFRP.

[6] Ogres have three special Species careers: Maneaster, the iconic Ogre mercenary, Rhinox Herder, who look after the smelly rhino beasts Ogres ride around on, and Butcher, which is one part wizard, one part priest, one part… well, butcher.

[7] Ogre Wizard!

[8] Was tempted by Hunter in large part because of Total Warhammer 3.

[9] Watchmen is found on page 68 of WFRP 4th edition.

[10] The table for Ogres is on page 20 of archives of the empire 2

[11] This extra 5 is from the Very Resilient talent.

[12] Ogres are fast. The previous footrace winners, Elves, are left in the dust and any Halflings will need to ride on the Mickey’s shoulder.

[13] Up In Arms introduce a really cool endeavour for selling tales of your exploits to the Penny Dreadfuls. It’s an optional rule, but one I would almost certainly encourage use off.

[14] The most important skill in WFRP. It serves as both a punch line and a bit of historical verisimilitude. Don’t drink the water, it will kill you. Have a beer instead.

[15] That it is added to the base stat, rather than counting as an Advance, is important for XP cost purposes as a character progresses; it makes these talents even more desirable as they are both cheaper than the advance cost, and don’t make future advancement more expensive.

[16] Later Careers start with 10 Skills, to allow more variety between characters and advancement tracks. I think Archives of the Empire 3 updates the WFRP core careers to include the extra skills, but I don’t have that yet.

[17] Which Mickey is very good at!

[18] Just like Masks, I think superpowers work best as a metaphor for the actual struggle, rather than the power themselves. Superman is asking what you could do if you didn’t have to be afraid, same as Herakles all those years ago.

[19] What is in an Ogre’s lunch? Best not to ask.

[20] Ogre’s are big

[21] By default, the difference between your 10s on the test and your skill – so if Mickey rolls 09 against his Weapon Skill of 33, he would have 3 SLs on his attack roll.

[22] Against smaller foes, they gain the Impact trait, which is even more berserk.

[23] Continuing the previous example, that means instead of adding 3 to his Damage, Mickey would add 9 damage. This is probably the least of Ogres incredible combat ability. Ogres are lethal in combat; even the best, most combat focused Slim is going to struggle to compete.

[24] Also, Slayers remain better at fighting larger targets, which is a nice conservation of theme.

[25] Unless you have ‘Up In Arms’ – which I do but I’m not worrying about it today.

[26] Mickey is a savage grappler, though, with his Dirty Fighting 1 Talent, and Grappling lets him ignore armour. Knights are tinned food.

[27] There’s a simpler armour option. Leather Jack would be ‘Light’, granting 1 AP to every location, for those who don’t want to track that stuff.

[28] Which I do.

[29] A concept I like but I’ve found players respond with frustration; when given narrative control of their failures I more often see an exaggerated joke rather than their success landing them in trouble.

[30] I really, really love this design feature. For people familiar with D&D, it’s a bit of a paradigm shift, that the person who can take action is also the one assimilating sensory information the quickest but when you think a little, it’s a very compelling way to represent capabilities in the world of the universe.

[31] Though, as Intimidate is based off S and Mickey’s S is his second-best Attribute, he is still very good at threatening people.

[32] This should be handled carefully. It’s a genuine drawback but, if overused, can cause Players just as much frustration. It’s like the ‘Wis 8 Barbarian’ issue, though the GM has far more control of when it will come up (there are a lot of WIS saves in D&D; it’s only Halflings who would believably have a kilo of prime steak stuffed down their trousers).

[33] And whatever the lead up to it, most of the ones I’ve read to resolve in a fight.