golembane
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Registered: 08-2004
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WFRP and WHQ merge?
Curious if anyone has tried this. I know WFRP is currently due to be re-released soon, but has anyone used the realms of sorcery and main book(curretnly OOP) as a basis for character development as well as mob advancment?
It would skew the charts a bit to either way I imagine, but transfering a character made in either system would be fairly easy. Also each chracter would have mnore differences then just the hit point here and the luck token there.
This is just a thought that came to my head just now so clearly not all thought out. Figured I'd ask to see if anyone else had success with this idea or not.
Last edited by golembane, 13/Feb/2005, 12:30 am
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13/Feb/2005, 12:30 am
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PaulusWHQ
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Registered: 01-2005
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Re: WFRP and WHQ merge?
ahh hi, i wasnt aware of this.
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13/Feb/2005, 2:31 am
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BassJam
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Registered: 07-2003
Location: Philadelphia
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Re: WFRP and WHQ merge?
I LOVE the Realms of Sorcery book! I don't like the character development system in WFRP very much, so here's what I've adapted so far:
1) The atmosphere and flavor text is superior in the WFRP books as well as in other GW source books to the WHQ Roleplay book. So I take into account the "real" gritty Warhammer world when doing character design.
2) I would like to convert every spellcasting class in Realms of Sorcery to WHQ, and when I design spell lists, I convert spells from RoS and the WFRP main book. I also work from the "Encyclopaedia Arcane", a series of D&D supplements put out by Mongoose Publishing. I'm convinced they are working from the WFRP perspective as each book is explicit detail on roleplay and variations for Chaos Mages, Daemonologists, Illusionists, Elementalists, etc.
3) If you use the information on how Dark Magic refracts into the 8 Colors in Realms of Sorcery, you realize that the most flawed character in WHQ is the Wizard, who should NOT be able to cast such a huge variety of spells. (He's pretty much a Chaos Mage it seems and should start mutating or going insane using Warhammer flavor text!) Wizards can cast Petty Magic and Battle Magic, and from there have to specialize into a Color College. So if I'm designing a Bright Mage, for example, I'm going to design a spell list including all basic spells, but then the rest have to be Bright spells after a certain point. Also, I reward specialist Wizards that I design by giving them powerful spells with casting numbers that go up to 15 or 16. That ensures that there are showstopper spells that even a BL 8 Wizard can only cast a few times in an adventure.
4) Insanity Points, Mustations, and Disorders are necessary for most WHQ Professions, but I haven't figured out a real cool way to implement them yet. Mike Inside had an awesome Insanity Point chart. My idea is to have low, medium, and high-risk characters based on how much they screw with the Warp. For example, a Witch Hunter of Sigmar might get Insanity Points, but his Faith should protect him against mutations and disorders. A Priest of Sigmar would be decidedly low risk of all three effects. A Bright Mage would be medium risk. Wizards, Necromancers, Daemonologists, Chaos Warriors should be very high risk characters, with rules for possibly losing your character. I'll combine Mike Inside's list (if I can find it) with effects drawn from WFRP, a "Spells and Magic" supplement I have, and the "Chaos Magic" Mongoose book, which actually has Paths of Chaos and degrees by which people start to mutate. (In Realms of Sorcery they introduce the heads of many schools of magic, many of which have minor to major mutations they keep hidden - it is this corrupting nature of casting through the warp that is completely missing from WHQ flavor text.)
5) I use the Critical Hit charts from the WFRP game, but they are ridiculously deadly, so I use them in a very specific way. I don't like how, with a good healer, players are unafraid of going to 0 Wounds. So, I don't change how Wounds work, but I DO keep track of how many points they go below 0 just to see how bad they're hit. If someone goes from positive to -10 Wounds in one hit for example, they are treated as 0 Wounds just like normal. That is the 'buffer level'. At -11 trouble starts. If a WHQ character (or Monster if you care) goes down to -11, -12, -13, -14, -15, or more, that causes a +1 - +6 critical hit as shown on the chart on page 122. I've been using this rule for about 5 years, and it's awesome. It only comes into play once every 5-10 games or so, but when it happens the results are disastrous and dramatic. I use more normal Crits the rest of the time, the WFRP ones only exist to give players a true sense of mortality and danger and cause wounds that even Lifeforce cannot heal. (One time I brought a brand new Witch Hunter into a dungeon and there was a Minotaur in the first room. The Mino hit with his first Attack, and got max damage on his second! I was shocked to find out that the Minotaurs huge axe had taken my Witch Hunter's in the chest, rupturing several internal organs and causing death in a matter of seconds! Since there was no Resurrection spell in the party, that was the end of the game
6) WHQ Runic Magic rules, both official and non, depart heavily from the laws that govern it, as presented in both Realms of Sorcery and the Dwarf army book from the WFB game.
In short, and nothing I write is short apparently, I would advise everyone that is doing WHQ design work to buy "Realms of Sorcery" at the least, the information in there is priceless and the quality of writing is 5-star...
--- "Mine is a high art. I wound with cruelty those who would harm me." - Archillicus
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13/Feb/2005, 3:11 am
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golembane
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Registered: 08-2004
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Re: WFRP and WHQ merge?
So BassJam, it sounds by your reply, that you use the stat lines for WHQ by add just the magic changes to the game.
How do you translate the magic point cost in WFRP to WHQ?
What do you mean by quote: So I take into account the "real" gritty Warhammer world when doing character design.
?
At what point do you let your players have access to oneof the schools of magic to begin full studies?
How does your runic system work with tranlation between WFRP and WHQ? You didn't go into much detail on what you did to change that if anything.
I love how you use the crit charts. Its an awesome idea which I'm sure to implement much to my players dislike lol.
As for advancment...yeah I see how it's not very solid. Most appealing thing I'd like to work out is the use of a greater range of skills for players to use. For to long my players just ravage dungeons and castles and whatnot by just killing anything that moves.
Would seem like a great way to expand on the game if characters had to use more then WS and BS.
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14/Feb/2005, 2:20 am
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BassJam
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Registered: 07-2003
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Re: WFRP and WHQ merge?
Sadly, most of these are goals, though I have (Tolkien-style) tons of notes and ideas of just what I need to do. I haven't adapted Rune Magic yet, for example. Also, I still plan on keeping the WHQ format of just having simpler classes, and giving each one a spell-list. I represent Petty Magic and Battle Magic by including all those spells in each of the Color College lists *getting out WHQ Spell list*. But the plan is to update each of the Greywolf professions separately :S
Petty Spells in RP book:
Sting
Coughing
Drop
Cure Small Wounds
Open
Flesh Worm
Marsh Lights
Tongues
Zone of Silence
Dispel Magic
Levitate
Sleep
Battle Magic Spells in RP book:
Bloodblade
Fleet of Foot
Strength
Slip
Ogre Strength
Speed
Lightning Bolt
Heal Wounds
Fireball
Pit of Despair
Weaponmaster
Cause Animosity
Create Bridge
Wings of Power
Windblast
Notice that only Windblast has a casting level of more than 6 out of all of these. I don't tend to use the WFRP casting numbers - I keep it balanced against these spells that are used in both games and use that as a rule of thumb. Some are pretty similar to the original casting cost in WFRP - some are wildly different.
When I convert spells from D&D it's much simpler. 0-level spells or Cantrips cost 1 or 2 power, 1st level spells cost 3 or 4 power, 2nd level spells cost 5 or 6 power and so on. Thus the only balancing choice is between one number and another, and sometimes I'll lower by one if it is within a caster's specialty. This works out pretty well, and 7th-level D&D spells cost 15 or 16 points of power, insuring that they won't be used constantly.
--- "Mine is a high art. I wound with cruelty those who would harm me." - Archillicus
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14/Feb/2005, 3:40 am
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BassJam
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Re: WFRP and WHQ merge?
As far as the "real" gritty atmosphere goes, there is a paranoia inherent in all my favorite flavor text from the stoopidly named Warhammer World - The source of magic is also the source of chaos, people are prone to go mad or mutate, especially the farther north they are, the good guys are not necessarily what we call good, etc. I see this atmosphere upheld well in the source books for WFRP, all the Warhammer Battle books in the 6th Edition, and in the Mordheim flavor text. WHQ is most decidedly on the "silly" end of the spectrum, although some of the humor is dark your problems are more likely to be of the "Mitey Worrier" variety.
I see this discrepency in the rules as well. The Wizard is the most glaring example, because he can cast all kinds of powerful spells, getting far more spells than other Warriors get skills, all without an element of RISK! Players using Witch Hunters and Chaos Warriors know that they may lose their character if they're not careful, yet there are no checks against the Wizard in the original rules. This is just one example, but the most major.
I've adopted WHQ as my favorite RPG because I like the fast-paced hack n' slash element and playing with toys! I don't like the pacing of D&D games as much as I like the rules and atmosphere, so my solution is to retool WHQ with all the flavor and depth (without turning it into a pen-and-paper game) I can.
--- "Mine is a high art. I wound with cruelty those who would harm me." - Archillicus
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14/Feb/2005, 3:50 am
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PaulusWHQ
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Re: WFRP and WHQ merge?
unfortunately i never had the pleasure of growing up with anyong having D&D games, so i couldnt get into it - but i've been trying to help my friend stefan on some rules but man - there are SO many complex rules, im having trouble with them LOL
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15/Feb/2005, 1:03 am
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NYJETS147
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Registered: 05-2003
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Critical Hits WFRP/WHQ
quote: BassJam wrote:
I've adopted WHQ as my favorite RPG because I like the fast-paced hack n' slash element and playing with toys! I don't like the pacing of D&D games as much as I like the rules and atmosphere, so my solution is to retool WHQ with all the flavor and depth (without turning it into a pen-and-paper game) I can.
I couldn't agree more. We've been playing Heroquest/Advanced Heroquest and Warhammer Quest since the early nineties with about the same group. Back then I was also playing AD&D and WFRP with some other friends. Last year I bought all the WFRP stuff from the guy that was GM in those days. Best buy for my WHQ I ever made! Flavoured texts and storylines I can use very well.
Been using it too little so far, but this critical hits rule you use sounds perfectly in line with my ideas of making it more grim/dangerous.
Thanks.
--- Dont'believe everything you hear....not even in your own mind!
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15/Feb/2005, 1:14 am
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