A few things I really like about WFRP

TheSword · Wednesday at 7:28 AM

gban007 said:
Enjoyed reading this stuff, has helped firm up my desire to give WFRP 4e a go with my group, thanks to humble bundle I have a chunk of the rules and all the Empire Within campaign in PDF.
Advice side- I'm thinking trying to get hands on physical starter set may give best chance at having a successful run at the game, but interested in your thoughts @TheSword on best chances of success, or at least making best run at it to have informed decision.

On things I like, I like Cubicle 7 putting out these $5 (USD) bits such as Dark Elf pirates, or that floating city for 40k, just nice bits of lore and mechanics at a cheap price to expand the world/s.

The Starter Set is great for new players to a game. However just remember that it’s designed for folks that have never played a roleplaying game before. It was eases in very gently with a riot and the scenes progress very sequentially. If your players are very experienced or a bit jaded I would be very relaxed with that format particularly the court scene. They may find the guard rails off putting.

If the are experienced with RPGs I would suggest a more fun start to the game. I love If Looks Could Kill or Night of Blood - both available for free I think on the cubicle 7 website.

The Pregens are good but a bit more powerful than a regular starter PC. The rules are a bit simplified.

The single biggest piece of advice I can give is use Group Advantage. Or don’t use advantage at all for the first fight or two. Group Advantage is just far more fun and far less fiddly. It’s a game changer.

TheSword · Wednesday at 8:00 AM

Rexwell said:
I have been searching the internet for an answer to this: can critical deflection be used for criticals gained when wounds are zero (in addition to criticals gained by rolled doubles)? Where did you find:
"Only crits that are gained from dropping to 0 wounds can’t be deflected." ?

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v37KH8Pa1BjTfnH4QT_N4_MGK3seKMvkvQKnWiJ4u3A/mobilebasic

This is a really useful document that has lots of comments by designers. It’s not errata but it does help clarify thinking. Though designers are very keen to say play as you like.

Also the mechanics thread of the Ratcatchers Guild Discord is excellent and very helpful.

gban007 · Wednesday at 9:50 AM

TheSword said:
The Starter Set is great for new players to a game. However just remember that it’s designed for folks that have never played a roleplaying game before. It was eases in very gently with a riot and the scenes progress very sequentially. If your players are very experienced or a bit jaded I would be very relaxed with that format particularly the court scene. They may find the guard rails off putting.

If the are experienced with RPGs I would suggest a more fun start to the game. I love If Looks Could Kill or Night of Blood - both available for free I think on the cubicle 7 website.

The Pregens are good but a bit more powerful than a regular starter PC. The rules are a bit simplified.

The single biggest piece of advice I can give is use Group Advantage. Or don’t use advantage at all for the first fight or two. Group Advantage is just far more fun and far less fiddly. It’s a game changer.

Thanks for that advice

is there a simple run down for group advantage if I don't have up in arms?
To make sure understood above, given group are experienced in RPGs, better to skip the starter set, or still get the starter set butbl use above adventures instead of the starter set adventures, instead using the other bits including pregens and guide to city?

Rexwell · Wednesday at 11:47 AM

TheSword said:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v37KH8Pa1BjTfnH4QT_N4_MGK3seKMvkvQKnWiJ4u3A/mobilebasic

This is a really useful document that has lots of comments by designers. It’s not errata but it does help clarify thinking. Though designers are very keen to say play as you like.

Also the mechanics thread of the Ratcatchers Guild Discord is excellent and very helpful.

View attachment 371847

Thank you! I actually saw at that doc but missed that section somehow. I think I like this interpretation better; however, after reading that again and thinking, I don't think that is actually what is printed in my core book:

Page 172 Critical Wounds
Critical Wounds are most commonly suffered in combat when something really wants to hurt you. The two most frequent sources of Critical Wounds are when a Critical Hit is scored, or when you lose more Wounds than you have (see Combat on page 159 for more on how Critical Hits happens).

Okay...this seems clear if armor deflection is used to negate Critical Hits, like the designer's notes say.

But:

Page 299: Critical Deflection
This only occurs should you choose it to. If you suffer a Critical Wound from an incoming attack on a location protected by armour, you can choose to let your armour be damaged by 1AP in order to ignore the Critical Wound.

So unlike the designer's RAI, RAW is armor critical deflection is not the Critical Hit but the Critical Wound, which should include hits when you have no Wounds left.

I have to say; I have always thought that the RAI interpretation was what the rules actually said. And prefer that a little more (maybe). But just recently I realized that it wasn't so clear.

Very interesting!

Rexwell · Wednesday at 12:29 PM

I just thought of something else:

Having armor deflect Critical Wounds (rather than Critical Hits only) would make Plate armor/the Impenetrable quality really screwy. And strong.

Page 300 Impenetrable
The armour is especially resilient, meaning most attacks simply cannot penetrate. All Critical Wounds caused by an odd number to hit you, such as 11 or 33, are ignored.

The choice of 11 and 33 as examples lead you to think they mean Critical Hits. And that they have conflated Critical Hits with Critical Wounds.

But you could rule as written and then both Critical Hits and normal hits that would bring wounds below zero (both which result in Critical Wounds) would need to have been rolled by an even number (which could be non doubles in the 2nd case).

Anyway, sorry, this is probably not the place for my ramblings.

MNblockhead · Thursday at 2:38 AM

TheSword said:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v37KH8Pa1BjTfnH4QT_N4_MGK3seKMvkvQKnWiJ4u3A/mobilebasic

This is a really useful document that has lots of comments by designers. It’s not errata but it does help clarify thinking. Though designers are very keen to say play as you like.

Also the mechanics thread of the Ratcatchers Guild Discord is excellent and very helpful.

View attachment 371847

Guess I misread the rules in the Core book. But I still like my misreading. I'll let me players spend armor points to deflect criticals unless and until they are unconscious. IMO its RAW, even if not RAI, and I just like how my interpretation plays out in the game.

MNblockhead · Thursday at 2:44 AM

gban007 said:
Thanks for that advice is there a simple run down for group advantage if I don't have up in arms?
To make sure understood above, given group are experienced in RPGs, better to skip the starter set, or still get the starter set butbl use above adventures instead of the starter set adventures, instead using the other bits including pregens and guide to city?

The Starter Set is still a great buy. The Ubersreik setting material by itself is worth the purchase. Also, it has a number of mini adventures and encounters. You don't have to run Making the Rounds as presented.

As a counterpoint, I did run Making the Rounds mostly as presented with a group of very experienced TTRPG players. I told them that it would be heavily railroady in the beginning but is a good intro to the game and mechanics. We had fun with it.

If you want more of a sandbox and also don't want to have to do the amount of prep that running something like The Enemy Within campaign, get the starter set, one or more of the Ubersreik Adventure books, and maybe Rough Nights and Hard Days. Everything you need for a good Warhammer sandbox campaign.

MNblockhead · Thursday at 2:46 AM

Rexwell said:
Anyway, sorry, this is probably not the place for my ramblings.

Sure it is, but I certainly wouldn't object to more new WFRP4e threads on ENWorld!

A few things I really like about WFRP

TheSword

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TheSword

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Rexwell

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Rexwell

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A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site

MNblockhead

A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site

MNblockhead

A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site

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