Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay's Core Character Stats

Cubicle 7 has previewed the core character statistics of its upcoming Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay -- Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill, Strength, Toughness, Initiative, Agility, Dexterity, Intelligence, Willpower, and Fellowship.


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"Today we’re going to tackle one of the most frequently asked questions about the new edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: what, exactly, is the stat line? So, with no further ado, here it is:
  • Weapon Skill (WS) – close-quarters fighting ability
  • Ballistic Skill (BS) – ranged fighting ability
  • Strength (S) – physical strength
  • Toughness (T) – hardiness and healthiness
  • Initiative (I) – speed of thought, reaction, and awareness
  • Agility (Agi) – coordination and natural athleticism
  • Dexterity (Dex) – ability to perform delicate manual tasks
  • Intelligence (Int) – powers of thought, analysis, and understanding
  • Willpower (WP) – strength of mind and determination
  • Fellowship (Fel) – ability to influence and befriend others
Each of these Characteristics has a numerical value, along the same general scale as those used in the first and second editions of the game. That said, as WFRP4 has no upper limit, some nasty creatures have Characteristics soaring significantly higher than 100! Whatever the number, the first or ‘tens’ digit of each Characteristic is its bonus value, which is used in a variety of different ways, including limiting Talents and defining spells, and determining Wound loss in combat.
Characteristics are used as the basis for your Skills. Much like second edition, skills come in two kinds, basic and advanced. Everyone has access to basic Skills, but advanced Skills can only be used if you have learned them, for example as part of your career.

You’ll note that we have Dexterity and Agility — why both? Those familiar with RPGs will have seen those terms used interchangeably. Dwarfs are a great example for why we wanted to include each as a discrete Characteristic. Dwarfs are known for their exquisite works of craftmanship rather than for being flexible acrobatics, and we believed supporting that difference was important, allowing Dwarfs to make intricate machines, jewellery, and artefacts, but not have a natural flair for dance. So we used Dexterity to reflect manual dexterity, leaving Agility to define nimbleness of the body.

Similarly, we wanted to differentiate between speed of body and speed of mind, so we have both Agility and Initiative. Agility is used for tests involving dodging, dancing and similar movements of the body. By comparison, Initiative is used for perceiving, reacting and intuiting what’s happening in the world around you."
 

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V

Vicent Martín Bonet

Guest
The whole, there will be further previews in the coming weeks doesn't bode well for the june release and makes me fear the AOSRP will face even further delays.
 



pming

Legend
Hiya!

Still a bit on the fence, but at least I'm not off it yet. :) Not sure I'm too keen on the "no upper limit" for attributes. I'll make my decision on that when I see stats for an Ogre, a Halfling, a Dragon, a Human, a typical Chaos Warrior, and a Bloodthirster.

Art wise...it's still too tame for me. Not horrible...just not...well...doesn't quite feel "Warhammer" to me. I still enjoy the feel, smell, background, grittiness, and 'style' of 1st edition. Then again the bar is probably almost unattainable due to my love of the art by Sibbick, Ackland and Blanche (and all of them, really, the Realms of Chaos books 1 and 2).

We tried 2nd, I have about a dozen books for it, but it all just looked and felt so...hmm... commercialized? Maybe? Hard to put a finger on it, but 2nd definitely had a different look and feel. The rules had some nice changes, not *really* necessary, but still decent enough...but the background and 'tone' of it all felt too much like some stogey old CEO was told "Sir, we're putting out a 2nd edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay next and wanted your input"...and the CEO replied: "Warhammer what? Oh, that kids game where you pretend to kill goblins and stuff, right?"..."Yes sir, Here's a copy of a couple of the old books. And here's our proposal for the new ones". [after the weekend...] "I read as much as I could of that Warhammer Fantasy game! It's so...so...violent and depressing! And you can play necromancers and demon summoners....I'm not sure I'm liking that for my grandkids. But, it makes a lot of money, so clean it up a bit, don't make it so harsh and savage, and for gods sake cover up some of the more sexual or gory parts! Just, I don't know, go over it with a sort of 'Comics Code Authority' comb or something. Oh, and no more Satanic imagery! I still remember the 80's Satanic Panic and BADD. Don't want to give them any ammunition". ;)

At any rate, I'm still on the fence with the new version, as I said. Guess we'll see how it turns out.

^_^

Paul L. Ming
 


A reply on FBook said they are still aiming for a PDF release in June, but it may make early July.

I like the stat focusing, I often house rule that sort of thing in, esp for 6 stat type DnD.
 

Yaarel

He Mage
Warhammer has a great list of characteristis:

"Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill, Strength, Toughness, Initiative, Agility, Dexterity, Intelligence, Willpower, Fellowship."



I appreciate the distinction between ‘agility’ and ‘dexterity’.

The only characteristic that seems to be missing is ‘size’, which I feel is impacting enough to deserve to be a standard characteristic that characters can invest in to represent being big and its advantages.

I assume ‘fellowship’ can be used to read emotions and motive, as well as intimidate?



Personally, in my foursome, I cluster these characteristics as follows.

Athletics
• weapon skill (close-quarters accuracy bonus)
• agility
• initiative

Toughness
• toughness (hit points)
• strength (close-quarters damage bonus, large heavy weapons)
• ≈ size (reach)

Perceptiveness
• intelligence
• dexterity
• ballistics (range accuracy bonus)

Sociability
• willpower
• fellowship
• ≈ empathy



Anyway, the fact, I can arrange the Warhammer characteristics clearly, corroborates how the system is getting the characteristics right. The definitions are clear, mutually exclusive, and useful.
 
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