ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous RPG - a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay retroclone

mach1.9pants said:

Wow that combat chapter looks really good, I like the art style.

So what are your plans reference releasing it? Kickstarter, lulu just PDF???

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Well, my art costs have exceeded my budget. I have considered a Kickstarter.

I am going to do PDF releases at $5-7 a pop and a B&W version of the book through LuLu.com. I have a local distributer here in Missouri and Kansas, both shops which are huge Warhammer fans. Print on demand is definitely an option, but I'm not so sure how sales work.

Regardless, here's an example of the artist's other work for the book - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/34934670/GangBoss.png

Sweet that art is so evocative! I hope you do a Lulu PDF/print bundle this is looking reallly good, so just a solo effort? Have you many playtesters running the numbers outside your group?

mach1.9pants said:

Sweet that art is so evocative! I hope you do a Lulu PDF/print bundle this is looking reallly good, so just a solo effort? Have you many playtesters running the numbers outside your group?

Click to expand...

I technically have two groups, with me running all of the testing. We have a total of 12 individual play testers.

This has been a solo effort for me over the years. It wasn't until late last year that I decided to actually start the publishing effort.

All print copies will include the PDF for free.


Best,
Daniel

Today, I present a story that reflect the grim and perilous tone of the system. Meet Wilhelm Eckhardt -

FOR MATURE READERS ONLY
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/34934670/Wilhelm_Promotion.pdf

Moniker said:

Today, I present a story that reflect the grim and perilous tone of the system. Meet Wilhelm Eckhardt -

FOR MATURE READERS ONLY
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/34934670/Wilhelm_Promotion.pdf

Click to expand...

I liked it. I felt like you kept the character close but distant to the reader at the same time, showing that kind of wandering despair and fatalism that he has learned. Well done!

If you ever need any help with writing some fiction pieces for filler I'd be happy to help!

A grim NPC to yoink into a campaign right there!

The concept art for Professions is coming along nicely! Here are a few pencil sketches depicting a Beggar, a Berserker, the Mercenary and the Busker!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/34934670/4.jpg

Also, I am working on a website for ZWEIHÄNDER. You can preview it at GrimAndPerilous.com!

I have officially commissioned Outland Creative (Outland Creative |) to create the look and feel of ZWEIHÄNDER!

Note that some of the illustrations are going through revisions, but should give you a look into the "grim and perilous" nature of ZWEIHÄNDER's design:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/34934670/concept_careers.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/34934670/4.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/34934670/5.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/34934670/6.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/34934670/7.jpg

very impressive stuff

One of my favorite items that WFRPG 2e offers is the Fortune and Fate Point system. It provides a "get out of jail free" card for rolls and situations that result in maiming or death, gives options to tempt fate with a re-roll and most importantly, gives players a sense of hope against terrible dice results. WFRP 3e further evolved this into the Fortune pool. But it still didn't get a few things right (like the group dynamic contribution and player punishment system that's engendered into the rules).

Using this as inspiration, I've redefined the way Fortune works, eliminating the need to track Fate points whatsoever. It needs to stay "grim and perilous", while embracing the group dynamic. This is the sort of way I envision the function of Fortune working in ZWEIHÄNDER.

Here's what we've adopted around the table for our play testing. I'd love to get your feedback on it!

The Fortune Pool
Fortune is not only the function of the individual, but also group dynamic. At the beginning of a session, each player contributes Fortune Points to the pool, based on what tier they are in their Profession (Basic Tier contributes 1 FP, Intermediate Tier contributes 2 FP and Advanced Tier contributes 3 FP).

Fortune can be used in several ways:

1) A player can use a Fortune Point to re-roll a failed skill or damage roll, as long as it's not a critical failure. Fortune Points cannot be used in this manner if the player fails the re-roll.

2) A player can use a Fortune Point to force the GM to re-roll a successful skill test or damage roll, as long as it's not a critical success. Fortune Points cannot be used in this manner if the GM succeeds the re-roll.

3) A player can use a Fortune Point to gain 1 Action Point. Fortune Points cannot be used to gain more than 1 Action Point per turn.

4) A player can use a Fortune Point to escape maiming or death. However, a player cannot use more than 1 Fortune Point in this manner per session.

Fortune "refreshes" during the session whenever the players successfully conquer a session-based obstacle, adding a number of Fortune Points back to the pool equal to the number of players around the table. This can range from winning a combat encounter, succeeding a social encounter, conquering a major environmental obstacle that required players to test their skills or any other sort of situation the GM deems as a story or session-based challenge. This helps extend the use of the Fortune Pool for long sessions.

Similarly, a GM maintains his own Fortune Pool. He receives 3 Fortune Points at the beginning of each session, to be used in the same manner that the Fortune Pool functions for players. However, unlike the player's Fortune Pool, his never refreshes during the session.

Fun ways Fortune Points can be tracked is using a bowl with wrapped candy in it. One of our players introduced Rollos candy to track, and it's sort of became a weird dice ritual to eat the Rollo before re-rolling (or "re-Rolloing" as he likes to call it).