WHFRP Reboot
Here's my thoughts on the reboot. I'm changing some of the rules because I like what I saw in some other systems.
The bulk of the rules stay the same.
Characters
Character creation can be done in several ways:
- Points: You get 85 points to distribute to your various attributes.
- Roll Choose: Roll 2d10 8 times and write down the values. You can choose which rolls go to which stats. You get no Shallya's Mercy.
- Roll: Roll for each stat. You get one standard Shallya's Mercy.
Careers can be chosen or rolled for, but in both cases you get only one free advance.
Spiritual Attributes
So, one of my goals is to enhance the narrative aspect of WHFRP. This isn't hard, as Fate and Fortune points put a lot of narrative control in the hands of the players. So, I'm replacing Fate and Fortune points with a cool system I'm stealing from the Riddle of Steel: Spiritual Attributes.
In short, Spiritual Attributes describe your characters beliefs, the reasons they're willing to fight, or what they fight for. They're also the primary mechanism for describing an individual's evolution and progression.
The Basics
A Spiritual Attribute is defined by the player. A character gets any three Spiritual Attributes of their choosing. All Spiritual Attributes are rated on a 0-to-3 point scale, and start at 0.
There are a few basic types of Spiritual Attributes available to a character:
- Passion: A strong attachment to a person that drives you - hate, love, loyalty. When acting on or in defense of the subject of your passion, you are ablaze with an inner fire. When choosing a Passion, the player must specify what the subject is - e.g., "Passion: hates von Teumar", or "Passion: boundless love for Helga".
- Conviction: An unshakable faith that the world should operate in a particular way. When fighting for your Conviction, you are filled with zealous resolve. Religious beliefs often fall under Convictions. When choosing a Conviction, a player must specify the belief, e.g, "Conviction: only the strong survive", or "Conviction: Shallya offers mercy to all".
- Conscience: The desire to do the "right thing". When doing the right thing (as defined by the player) you are possessed of a righteousness that is hard to deter. When choosing a Conscience, the player must specify what the ethic the Conscience embodies: e.g. "Conscience: All men should be free".
- Drive: A consuming desire to accomplish a goal. When working towards the end of your Drive, you are relentless and resourceful. When choosing a Drive, the player must specify what the goal is, e.g "Drive: Own a boat", or "Drive: prove self as the best fighter in the world".
- Fate: A point that you know will be reached, a destiny that will come to pass. When working towards your eventual Fate, events conspire to propel you forward. When choosing a Fate, the player must specify what will happen to the character, e.g., "Fate: will die fighting", or "Fate: will free a people."
- Luck: A tendency to benefit from coincidence in a given situation. When in certain circumstances, Luck may intervene miraculously. When choosing a Luck, a player must select the lucky situation, e.g., "Luck: I thought you were dead", or "Luck: I've never been injured on horseback".
As stated above, a character gets 3 spiritual attributes, and they can be any combination of the above.
Use
Any time a character acts in accordance with a Spiritual Attribute (as determined by the GM), they gain re-rolls equivalent to their Spiritual Attribute's value for the action/scene. At the conclusion of the action/scene, that Spiritual Attribute also increases by one, to a maximum of 5.
Any time a character acts against a Spiritual Attribute (as determined by the GM), they lose a point from the given attribute.
Relation to Experience
Experience won't be earned 100 per session anymore. Instead, you spend your Spiritual Attributes to gain advances, at the rate of 3 points per advance. Bonus advances may be earned at the end of arcs and such.
For example, Mickael has just increased his Drive: Be the Best Athlete to 3 after beating Havlick in fisticuffs. He elects to spend those 3 points in Drive (reducing it to zero) to take the Street Fighting talent on his advance scheme.
Changing a Spiritual Attribute
A Spiritual Attribute may be replaced at any time with a newly selected one - for instance, if Anjou has lost his Faith: in the Lady, he may wish to change that Spiritual Attribute to a Conscience: defend commoners from injustice.
Any new Spiritual Attribute starts at zero, so it's advisable to spend your SA before changing them.
Replacement of Fortune Points
I don't think that replacing Fate points outright is appropriate; but the Spiritual Attributes obviously replace the Fortune system.
Everyone starts with 1 fate point, and 1 is probably the maximum. Spiritual Attributes give you a great degree of narrative control, but only in appropriate situations; it's up to you to ensure that if your Spiritual Attributes don't apply, you bring other advantages to bear in combat.
But, I obviously don't want everyone dying before the kinks are ironed out of the system.
Ulric's Fury
Since Ulric's Fury has the ability to knock your character out in a single blow, I'm thinking Spiritual Attributes should be able to bail you out if neccesary. There's two ways:
- If your character is a victim of Ulric's Fury, you may remove your character from the scene (and prevent further damage dice from being rolled) at the cost of all your SA points. This works basically like a fate point; you're out of the scene and unconscious more or less. You may employ this even when none of your SA are active. Yes, this could set you back one or more advances.
- Spiritual Attribute re-rolls may be spent to force an opponent to re-roll dice; this includes an Ulric's Fury result on damage dice. However, this obviously only works when you are pursuing one or more of your Spiritual Attributes.
The Lucky Talent
The Lucky talent now grants you one extra re-roll per session.
Setting
The setting would remain in my fucked-up Old World remix. If you wanted to play a "Not Elf" or a "Not Dwarf", you could go for it, it'd just be on the down-low like the examples you met were. The characters themselves would be new ones - I'm already thinking of hooks, but if you guys want something specific, like "everyone's a military man" or "we're bone pickers trying to escape Gabe's Mom", then put it on the discussion page. Your old characters would be NPCs - I'd ask you guys for input occasionally on how they'd respond to things, but on the whole I'd use them for my own nefarious ends. The time frame would probably be a few years after we stopped the last game.
The World
The Prologue will be set chronologically a little before your old characters were captured: Midway through the year 1111.
By the time the game proper starts, it'll be the year 1114, and the Empire will be a different place.
[[State of the Empire in 1114] [State of the Empire]]
Races
Not-elves and not-dwarves are uncommon enough that those who meet them figure they're probably just physically odd humans, unless they hear of their history or people. However, even amongst the non-human races, their concept of history, of their own people, isn't defined by them being "not human" or "elf" or whatever; it's defined by the aspects of life important to those people. A 'not-elf' would probably describe himself as a "Person of the Forest", while a 'not-dwarf' would describe themself as one of 'they who guard the deep places' or something similarly obtuse.
Not-Dwarfs
Not-Dwarfs use the Dwarf stat set, but have two of their Spiritual Attributes capped at 2 instead of 3.
Note that a critical part of the Western Empire setting is that the time of these other races seems to have passed.
Not-Elves
Not-Elves use the Elf stat set, but have all three of their Spiritual Attributes capped at 2 instead of 3.
Note that a critical part of the Western Empire setting is that the time of these other races seems to have passed. Not-Elves in particular have for the greater part left the world of Men to, er, Men. But they're around, like Lorn or the jerk who wouldn't introduce Anjou to the Lady.
Not-Halflings
Oh, God, why hast thou been so cruel to me????
Magic
I'm going to try and tone down the overt magic that we had lots of last time; my favorite kind of magic is the sort from Lord of the Rings - not necessarily flashy, but a really big deal.
I'm changing the way cast dice and rerolls work to help implement this, and if this rule doesn't work, then we'll change it:
- Cast dice can be rerolled as any other dice. However, if any of cast rolls (including the original) indicate Tzeentch's curse, the results of the curse are calculated.
- If, through hideous circumstance, you roll more than one Tzeentch's curse during your cast die rerolls, only the one greatest in magnitude is calculated. i.e., you take three rerolls on your 3-magic casting roll: the first is two 2's and a 1, the second is three 1's, and the final is three distinct numbers that hit your target number. A magnitude-3 tzeentch's curse is calculated by the GM.
- The effects of Tzeentch's curse may be rerolled normally, assuming appropriate SA's are in effect.
Prologue
The Prologue will be the first few sessions of the game; this is where the players establish the hook, develop their initial ties to each other, and describe how their backgrounds went from a few sentences to fleshed-out reality. It also gives us a chance to have the development of the second career span more than a few months like last time.
Starting Advances
Your character gets a free advance, just like normal. On top of that, since people have expressed a preference for more-seasoned adventurers, once the prologue's done, you'll have enough advances to take you into your second career (probably 10 or 11).
Prologue Scenes
Each scene in the prologue will focus on one character, specifically, the span of time when that character learned one of the starting advances they're taking. The prologue progresses in rounds, with each present character stating the start of a scene where they gain an advance. So, if Pootsworth the Apprentice Wizard, when starting, wanted to move to Journeyman Wizard, he'd need to take +1 Magic, and one of the prologue scenes would be how he advanced his magical knowledge. Since Pootsworth has Drive: Utilize That Which Scares Lesser Men, his player (and this is in no way a requirement) opts to start the scene by saying, "I'm tracking down 'Deadly Sundries II: More Magic Recipes Your Parents Don't Want You to Know About'".
Once the scene has been set, any other players who wish to participate may. If the scene becomes more involved, either by player or GM intervention, then other players participating may elect to have it represent one of their advances as well. Back to the example, Pootsworth has tracked this rare book to Old Quarter of Miragliano. Lo and behold, in this very bookstore, Smartsright the scholar is also browsing, and is quite interested when, in hushed tones at the counter, a discussion about said volume takes place. He inserts himself in the conversation, and the two characters have met. The GM, in his magnamity, sets Witch Hunters on the two, and they flee, until, when cornered in the Floating Slums, the Southman, famed gladiator, offers to help them out... for a price. A fight ensues, and the Southman stabs several of the Emperor's agents of righteousness. It's a good time to get out of town.
Such an example would lead to advances for the players of the Southman, Pootsworth, and Smartsright. Afterward, the next person in line states where their scene starts, and the process begins again.
If a player is at a loss for a good scene, the GM will feel free to reccomend one.
I anticipate each "advance" scene to be at least 10 to 15 minutes of gameplay, increased if other players get involved.
