29: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay fourth edition
(Bias note: I know the art director.)
29 is the average a human has in a percentile statistic they’re not particularly good at in WFRP...
WFRP is the classic grimdark fantasy RPG, which looks like Renaissance D&D but plays more like Call Of Cthulhu with its apocalyptic cults and various risks to life and limb. The fourth edition goes back to basics, complete with a revamped and heavily supported update of the classic Enemy Within campaign.
The first edition had pretty random character generation, notably with Careers ranging from Beggar to Noble. The first edition Character Pack includes tables to randomise all the way down to birthplace, family members and name.
I haven’t had a chance to play the new edition yet, so let’s see how random I can go...
Olaf Bauer
Human Herbalist
Well, we start with an optional random species table, which is a tad weighted towards humans...
1d100 Species
01–90 Human
91–94 Halfling
95–98 Dwarf
99 High Elf
00 Wood Elf
50: unsurprisingly I get a human. Accepting this gets me an extra 20 XP.
Class And Career
Likewise, the random class and career table gives you 50 XP if you take the first result, 25 if you choose from three, and nothing if you take your own pick. Since I’m not worrying about party niches...
40: Herbalist.
Attributes
Ten percentile Characteristics and other Attributes like Movement and Wounds.
Characteristics are also totally random with an XP bribe, can be swapped with a smaller XP bribe, or point buy. 2D10 ten times...
11, 11, 8, 8, 10, 3, 4, 12, 15, 10
I’ll reserve the option to swap them once I find out where that 3 goes. 25 XP
As a human, add 20 to those and get the results.
Weapon Skill 31
Ballistic Skill 31
Strength 28
Toughness 28
Initiative 30 (23) (28)
Agility 23 (30)
Dexterity 24 (27)
Intelligence 32
Willpower 35
Fellowship 30
Wounds 9
Fate 2
Resilience 1
Extra Points 3 (into Dexterity)
Movement 4
Since Agility determines dodging and being a Herbalist is not going to get me much in the way of armour, I’ll switch it with Initiative.
Career advances: Each Career has three Characteristics you can advance, to a total of 5. So I then put my 5 Career advances into Initiative, bringing it most of the way back up. Add 40 points into Skills, up to +10.
Starting Career level
Herb Gatherer - Brass 2
Skills: Charm Animal, Climb, Endurance, Lore (Herbs) +10, Outdoor Survival +10, Perception +5, Swim +5, Trade (Herbalist) +10
Talents: Acute Sense (Taste), Orientation, Rover, Strider (any)
Trappings: Boots, Cloak, Sling Bag containing Assortment of Herbs
Skills And Talents
Skills are additions to the percentile, and Talents are unique bonuses.
As well as Career Skills, Reikland Humans also get to advance the following Skills, with 3 +5 and three +3:;
Animal Care +5, Charm, Cool, Evaluate +3, Gossip, Haggle +3, Language (Bretonnian), Language (Wastelander), Leadership, Lore (Reikland) +3, Melee (Basic) +5, Ranged (Bow) +5
Talents: Doomed, Savvy or Suave.
Savvy
3 Random Talents
Suave, Super Numerate, Very Resilient
Career Skills And Talents
Allocate 40 Advances to your eight starting Skills, with no more than 10 Advances allocated to any single Skill at this stage. See above.
Trappings
By Career as above.
By Class: Peasants: Cloak, Clothing, Dagger, Pouch, Sling Bag containing Rations (1 day)
Status Tier Starting Wealth: Brass 2
2d10 brass pennies per Status Level
18 pennies.
Adding Detail
Choose name, age, hair and eye colour, height, Psychology, and Ambitions.
Name: Flipping a coin for gender to be extra random, male. No random name table this time except for elves, so pick an initial at random O. Olaf. Olaf Bauer, as he comes from a rural family.
Age: D10+15. 17
Eye colour: Blue
Hair colour: Dark Brown
Height: 4’9”+2D10. 5’8”
Ambitions: short and long term.
Short: Learn to read and write.
Long: Send enough money back home to buy out the farm.
Party
Skip this part.
Bringing Your Character To Life
Ten questions:
Where are you from? Delberz. You won’t have heard of it.
What is your family like? A farmer and her husband, close with the town bakers. Resisting the temptation to get the first edition Character Pack to work out who’s still around and whether I have siblings.
What was your childhood like? Long lazy summers, slightly hectic harvests.
Why did you leave home? A small war came through the area, he set out to help.
Who are your best friends? One of the more competent fighters from the militia.
What is your greatest desire? A settled life.
What are your best and worst memories? Those bright summers, and that winter of war.
What are your religious beliefs? He prays to Rhya for the herbs he finds and over his meals.
To whom, or what, are you loyal? To town and family, and friends.
Why are you adventuring? Just unlucky I guess.
Advancement
Going mostly random netted me 95 XP. I’ll hold onto it for now.
So we have a teenage would-be herbalist who is reasonably handy in a fight. As random WFRP characters go that’s perfectly serviceable.
No comments:
Post a Comment