quick & dirty WFRP Karak Azgal

[scourger]

This excerpt is from another thread, but it explains my new game:

"Last week, I started the Warhammer Fantasy RPG that I thought was dead in the water. I'm running it fast & loose (or quick & dirty). I'm not putting a lot of my time into it. I've already invested time in reading the main book and the module, Karak Azgal. It was too much work to convert it to Savage Worlds or d20, which I might have preferred, and none of the players were too interested in those options. So, I made some small changes to the game to make it easier & more fun for me to run and more epic & enjoyable for the players to play."

The small changes are that the no-name mooks have zero wounds and are subject to sudden death criticals. In the one combat encounter, the 3 heroes took out a rat ogre & 2 skaven packmasters with only 1 wound among them. It was definitely more fun for me to run because I didn't have to track wound points, and it seemed fun for them because they are significantly more powerful than they would have been under the RAW. Also, I don't pay much attention the bad guys' feats (or talents or whatever they're called in WFRP). This is also easier for me, but I probably will use those more as I get more familiar with the game.

Anyway, I wanted to start a thread for discussion.

 

[Darkwolf445]

What are you looking to discuss, if you do not mind?

I have been playing in a bi weekly Warhammer game for a year now, in addition to the 3.5 games that I run myself on opposing weeks.

I actually find the rules are already quicker and easier than 3.5, and the kill count rises quickly (thanks to mooks like Beastmen, effects like Ulric's Fury, etc). It is by no means a power gamer paradise (although the wizard is getting scary powerful of late).

I do not run this game, but I am familiar with, and do have the rules.

 

[mhensley]

You might want to check out my house rules for speeding up combat in WFRP2.

http://www.hackslash.net/?p=29

 

[pogre]

You might want to check out my house rules for speeding up combat in WFRP2.

http://www.hackslash.net/?p=29

Very nice. However, I like Ulric's Fury. The chance of taking out something big with one shot is one of the charm's of the game for me. Technically, you have to look up the hit location on a table in your system too. I don't find reversing the "to hit" roll for location to be very cumbersome.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Interesting mook-rule. I could see that working; life is cheap in the Old World, right?

I've been thinking about finally diving into Warhammer. I've had the new books for a while and I've wanted to run a game using them for some time.

 

[Hand of Evil]

You may want to check out:
http://www.blackindustries.com/default.asp?range=wfrp&template=fanmaterial
and
http://www.blackindustries.com/default.asp?range=wfrp&template=game-aids

 

[mhensley]

Very nice. However, I like Ulric's Fury. The chance of taking out something big with one shot is one of the charm's of the game for me. Technically, you have to look up the hit location on a table in your system too. I don't find reversing the "to hit" roll for location to be very cumbersome.

Here is a way of doing Ulric's Fury with the one roll combat system. I have used it in play and it works pretty well.

If you roll the first digit of your WS attribute or lower (eg. WS of 32
would have a range of 01-03) on your to-hit roll then your damage is
automatically 10 and you have the chance of invoking Ulric's Fury. Now
roll d100 again. If this roll is <= WS then Ulric's Fury occurs and you
hit for 10 plus the sum of the digits of the roll. If the roll is <=
the first digit of your WS attribute again, you add 10 to your damage
and roll again.

Impact weapons have double the range for Ulric's Fury. So if you have a
WS of 40, normally you would have a range of 01 - 04. With an impact
weapon, the range would be from 01 - 08.

Now that probably sounds confusing, so here are some examples-

A soldier with WS 38, SB 3, and a sword tries to hit an orc. He rolls a
02 for his to-hit which is in his range for Ulric's Fury (01 - 03). So
his damage is 10 instead of only 2 and he gets to roll again. This time
he rolls a 42 which is above his WS so he gets no more damage for this
hit. He will do 10 + 3(SB) = 13 damage to the orc's right arm (use the
last to-hit roll for hit location).

Another soldier with WS 32, SB 4, and a halberd is fighting another
orc. He hits with a 05 which is in his UF range (01 - 06 because of the
impact weapon). So his damage is 10 instead of only 5 and he gets to
roll again. This time he rolls a 12 which is below his WS so he gets to
add in the damage from this roll of 1+2=3. No more rolls are allowed
because he failed to roll within his UF range again. He will do 10 + 3
(second roll) + 4(SB) + 2(impact dmg. bonus) = 19 damage to the orc's
left arm (use the last to-hit roll for hit location).

After killing that orc, his luck continues as he attacks the next one.
He hits with a 06 which is in his UF range (01 - 06 because of the
impact weapon). So his damage is 10 instead of only 6 and he gets to
roll again. This time he rolls a 01 which is below his WS so he gets to
add in the damage from this roll which because it was in his UF range
becomes 10 again. And he gets to roll again. This time he rolls a 29
which just does hit so he get to add that damage of 2+9=11 as well, but
the rolling ends. He will do 10 + 10(second roll) + 11(third roll) +
4(SB) + 2(impact dmg. bonus) = 37 damage to the orc's head (use the
last to-hit roll for hit location). Yuck... that's going to be hard to
clean up.

 

[scourger]

What are you looking to discuss, if you do not mind?

Experiences like the ones shared below and comment on my little changes are appreciated. I'm trying to make the game a little more fast, furious & fun like Savage Worlds. One thing I really like about SW is that the mooks are either up, shaken or out of the fight. I don't want to track wounds in WFRP, either. Zeroing out the mooks' wounds seemed liek the easiest way to do it without redoing the system.

 

[scourger]

...I like Ulric's Fury...

Me, too. The name and the mechanic. I'll probably just make the d10 for damage open-ended, though. You keep rolling as long as you roll 10s.

 

[scourger]

You may want to check out:
http://www.blackindustries.com/default.asp?range=wfrp&template=fanmaterial
and
http://www.blackindustries.com/default.asp?range=wfrp&template=game-aids

Good links. Thanks.