OSR How Would You Convert WHFRPG to OSR?

[Retreater]

To my knowledge there are no charts to reference, except for unusual skills like Leadership say.

p 152 "The Outcomes Table" which details 8 different degrees of success or failure.

This is only for advantage - which players would normally track themselves.

It is calculated after every opposed roll. Which is basically every attack roll in every combat, constantly in flux based on if you failed to gain advantage that round, get outnumbered, spend it to disengage, have skills or talents that change it, and probably a host of other situations. Do I track this for enemies? Along with wounds, armor ratings, toughness modifiers, lingering injuries, etc.? I don't want to have to keep a spreadsheet to keep up with this stuff.

 

[TheSword]

p 152 "The Outcomes Table" which details 8 different degrees of success or failure.

It is calculated after every opposed roll. Which is basically every attack roll in every combat, constantly in flux based on if you failed to gain advantage that round, get outnumbered, spend it to disengage, have skills or talents that change it, and probably a host of other situations. Do I track this for enemies? Along with wounds, armor ratings, toughness modifiers, lingering injuries, etc.? I don't want to have to keep a spreadsheet to keep up with this stuff.

Ah yeah, you don’t really check a table. That just tells you that the amount of success or failure can flexibly affect the outcome... if you want. Normally SLs are self evident.

Advantage is one of the new and controversial things in the game. Cap Zap will tell you it’s boinked. Others will tell you it’s fine. There is lots of advice about simplifying it. You can scrap it altogether, or run group advantage for enemies, or limit it to a fixed number. 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. personally I don’t mind it. As I said in the other thread I use the red circles on a token to track the advantage.

If you drop it, you just have to tell players that advantage based talents don’t work, and slightly modify some creatures attacks that use advantage but it’s not hard.

Foundry VTT completely automated everything. It’s very good as an alternative to Roll20 and it has a lot of support and an amazing designer Moo Man who is very active and is constantly developing WFRP resources for it, available at cubicle 7. It’s not too dissimilar to Roll20 but has some nifty features like Players being able to open doors - that you can lock or hide.

 

[Michael Linke]

p 152 "The Outcomes Table" which details 8 different degrees of success or failure.

It is calculated after every opposed roll. Which is basically every attack roll in every combat, constantly in flux based on if you failed to gain advantage that round, get outnumbered, spend it to disengage, have skills or talents that change it, and probably a host of other situations. Do I track this for enemies? Along with wounds, armor ratings, toughness modifiers, lingering injuries, etc.? I don't want to have to keep a spreadsheet to keep up with this stuff.

All of this is why we never recommended 4th edition in the first place. 1st and 2nd edition don't need to be adapted for OSR, because they're already OSR.

 

[Mannahnin]

Or rather, just Old School.

 

[TheSword]

Having played 1st and 2nd Ed extensively, 4e definitely sorts several issues. Including the Whiff factor, the ridiculous OP combinations dwarf slayers for instance, drawn out combats early into campaigns. It’s madness not to give the current edition a go.

 

[Delazar]

My groups are moving more and more to OSR systems and away from trying out "new" systems. Not to mention we're also playing on VTT that aren't ideal for teaching new systems and implementing ruleset idiosyncrasies. A goal I've had for a few decades is to run Warhammer Fantasy's well-regarded "Enemy Within" campaign, and I've started collecting the 4e WHFRPG's revised books. Only problem is, I don't see us being able to play it in that system. (I GMed a handful of sessions using that ruleset before moving players and the pandemic broke up the group.)
What would be some easy to implement rules changes - if any - to give OSR systems a Warhammer feel? My gut-reaction is that we limit non-human PCs to reflect a more humanocentric world, maybe allow being reduced to 0 HP having a critical injury chart instead of instant death, put in some kind of roll mechanic for magic. I'm thinking that AC can maybe work the same way, even though it wouldn't be as DR - it just makes a low roll be a non-hit.
What do experienced WHFRPG and OSR GMs think?

I've done this in the past, with BECM. In all honesty, I didn't add any rule, I just played the module, but we used DnD rules. We were all quite versed in WH lore, and that was really all that was needed.

The cleric prayed to Sigmar, the wizard selected mostly spells related to his wind (Aqshy), the fighter was a fighter, and the rogue was a rogue.

Worked like a charm.

I could see it working perfectly also with DnD 5e free Basic rules, if you feel like giving it a shot.

 

[Ancalagon]

IMHO, you can get close enough for government work by cutting and pasting what you think is best for you from previous efforts:



Have a good look at those and see what you can port over that works best.

The Important thing to maintain the WH feel is to not have hit points that increase by level.

Going to a Fixed Hit point total changes "D&D" a lot. And leaving in the hit point level inflation is the main reason d20 games got a rep for not fitting the genre's they were churned out for.

But if you fix the HP at a low amount you can get a very gritty feel to the game.

... you do gain wounds (ie "HP") as you go up in career. A "first level" fighter might have 10-12 wounds. A 3rd career one might have 20.

However, your toughness ablates damage, your armor ablates damage, and you are better at parrying and dodging blows. All these skills/abilities go up as you improve, so even though a "high level fighter" only has 8 wounds more than a low level one, the high level fighter is much tougher/survivable!

... but a lucky shot can kill even the most hardened veteran, so you can never "ignore" arrows, the way a high level fighter in D&D can ignore a few goblin arrows.

 

[Ancalagon]

Having played 1st and 2nd Ed extensively, 4e definitely sorts several issues. Including the Whiff factor, the ridiculous OP combinations dwarf slayers for instance, drawn out combats early into campaigns. It’s madness not to give the current edition a go.

I'm very concerned about the death spiral built in the new system.

 

[TheSword]

I'm very concerned about the death spiral built in the new system.

Because of advantage or the critical hit system?

 

[chuckdee]

I'm very concerned about the death spiral built in the new system.

What is this 'death spiral'?