Thursday, June 30, 2016

The Legionnaire Faction

Veteran Captain of the Legion

Legionnaire of the West Anglypur Company:
When the West Anglypur Company won the contract to administer the Crown’s Hold Colony, they spread the word for their need for tough and steadfast men. This drew veterans of the Imperial Consolidation, former Household and Imperial troops alike, and restless youths too young to remember the horrors of the conflict finished over a decade ago. With enough finances to outfit their new hires, the Legionnaires are well prepared for the insidious dangers of the fallen Mageregime. Whether heavily armored assault units or the gun-wielding dragoons, the Legionnaires of the West Anglypur Company are truly formidable.

To advance, the Legionnaire character must learn all the generic skills, and all the skills in one of the paths, either Assault or Dragoon. The paths are not exclusive to one another, and all skills are available, completing a path’s skills is only needed for promotion.

For those using the Grim Hack, skill availability depends on the Faction Score of the character. Once enough faction points are gained, the Legionnaire 1st Class title is bestowed despite the fact careers are not used.


Legionnaire 2nd class.
M
WS
BS
S
T
W
I
A
Dex
Ld
Int
Cl
WP
Fel
-
+20
+20
+1
+1
+4
+20
+1
+10
+10
+10
+20
+10
+10

Skills:
Consume Alcohol
Dodge Blow
Gamble
Specialist Weapon (polearm)

Dragoon Skills:
Marksmanship
Ride
Specialist Weapon (firearms)

Assault Troop Skills:
Specialist Weapon (2 handed weapons)
Strike Mighty Blow
Very Strong

Trappings:
Hand weapon and shield.
Polearm or firearm with 20 rounds of ammunition.
Helm, chain shirt, leather bracers, sturdy boots.



Legionnaire 1st class.
M
WS
BS
S
T
W
I
A
Dex
Ld
Int
Cl
WP
Fel
-
+30
+30
+2
+2
+6
+20
+2
+10
+20
+10
+30
+10
+20

Skills:
Specialist Weapon (Lance)
Specialist Weapon (Artillery)
Strike to Injure

Trappings:
Full Plate or Chitin Armor
War Horse
Lance


Faction points gained by:
·       Finishing the intermediate career
·       Acquire a piece of high-tech weaponry
·       Fight in a legionnaire contract battle
·       Publicly defeat a champion in personal combat
·       Find a significant resource or treasure

Example faction benefits:
·       Legionnaire career
·       Legionnaire hirelings
·       Equipment discount
·       Access to Legion Chitin-smiths
·       Legion intervention

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Hirelings in Grim Hack Expanded

Space Thugs, maybe more than just hirelings, but that's the closest thing I had drawn up and scanned...
Hirelings rules for my Grim Hack of WFRP inspired by this wonderfulness:
These are for your standard (unskilled/amateur) torch-bearing types who are willing to go into danger with the party in adventuring/dungeon-delving/exploring type situations. This does not include professional types such as artisans, mercenary companies, etc., which are hired at a much higher rate of pay.
Quantity: The maximum amount of hirelings a party can hire is equal to the first digit of the Fellowship score for the character with the highest Fellowship attribute. For example, if the character Hurst Halberd has a Fellowship of 48, and his is the highest score in the party, the party can have maximum of 4 hirelings.
Benefits:
Light: All hireling provide light as a torch, leaving the party members free to carry weapons and shields, or cast spells without hindrance.
Hauling around crap: Considered to be lightly encumbered while carrying torches and basic supplies including extra rations. They can carry additional loot such as 1 large item each, or 3 small items each, but they are then considered encumbered.
Combat assistance: Hirelings that are not encumbered provide additional attacks in combat for characters using the Expanded Grim Hack rules in the following manner: Each hireling gives a single extra attack to the party, giving one to the character with highest Fellowship attribute, then one to each other character in a descending attribute order. For example, a party of 5 with 4 hirelings, but with one hireling encumbered, would get 3 additional attacks. The first extra attack would go to Hurst Halberd with his Fellowship of 48, the second to Anatoly Klaus with his score of 37, the last goes to Percy Zachariah, who’s Fellowship is 31. The other 2 party members with lesser Fellowship scores would not receive an additional attack.
Note: In my forthcoming Expanded Grim Hack rules, there is NO Attack attribute. All characters are given a single attack, but rolling doubles (a crit) on a successful attack or parry, an immediate additional attack is gained. Exploding damage still applies in these rules.

Friday, June 17, 2016

Spider Mounds map.

Man, these are some busy termites.

I’ve been working on something I’m calling Grim Hack Expanded. In a nut shell, doing some moderate changes in WFRP’s stat lines to allow for slightly more even advancement distribution from my Grim Hack rules. I’m also working on a spell list for my particular world, a play report from my Star Wars one shot I used to warm up my gaming group for my version of WFRP (even though I used the slick River of Heaven rules. I’m a percentile dice nut.), an introduction to my Corporate Space setting, and etc., etc.
So here’s one of the maps my players have encountered already. Some spiders, one Tyranid, and a Hive Mother, which should have been quite the challenge. But add a barrel of gunpowder the players had found and you have a crazy encounter that was ultimately cut pretty damn short.

Sunday, June 12, 2016

The Inquisition, what a thrill...

The Inquisitor ends a Mageregime Wizard. ..or does he?


Church Inquisitor:
Magic is the anathema to mankind, and the Church will not stand for it! Their rivalry with the Guild can sometimes be bloody, each jealous over the influence they have with the noble and powerful. They preach in their golden Cathedrals about the eternal corruption of magic, yet no one mentions the fact that Inquisitors wield unnatural powers of their own. While Inquisitors wander the empire to seek out Pure Ones to convert to their cause, and stray mages to burn them at the stake, they always take the time to collect their alms from poor and rich alike. With the fall of the Mageregime, the Church has sent the Inquisition to Crown’s Hold to stamp out the threat from Anglypur once and for all.

Protector of the Innocent.
M
WS
BS
S
T
W
I
A
Dex
Ld
Int
Cl
WP
Fel
-
+20
+10
+1
+1
+4
+10
+1
+10
+10
-
+20
+20
+10


Inquisitorial Magic Spells: Detect magic (5), Steal Magical Power (7)*

Skills:
Cast Inquisitorial Magic Level 1
Disarm
Follow trail
Read/write
Shadowing
Silent move rural
Spec weapon lasso
Spec weapon net
Theology

Trappings:
Pot helm, Chain hauberk, Plate bracers.



Defender of the Holy Trust.
M
WS
BS
S
T
W
I
A
Dex
Ld
Int
Cl
WP
Fel
-
+30
+20
+1
+2
+6
+20
+1
+10
+20
+10
+30
+30
+20


Inquisitorial Magic Spells: Dispel Magic (10), Drain Magic (13), Zone of Magical Immunity (15)*

Skills:
Cast Inquisitorial Magic Level 2
Frenzied attack (vs Magic users)
Mageregime Lore
Magical awareness
Public speaking
Silent move urban
Strike to injure
Torture

Trappings:
Full plate armor.




Faction points gained by:

·       Finishing the intermediate career

·       Capture a non-Guilded Wizard

·       Participate in a Purge

·       Publicly defeat a Wizard in personal combat

·       Convert a Pure One to the Church.



Example faction benefits:

·       Defender of the Holy Trust career

·       Lay and secular hirelings

·       Equipment discount

·       Anti-Wizardry training

·       Inquisitorial intervention






*See Restless Dead supplement for spell description. Number in parentheses are the required Inquisitorial Faction points required to be taught the spell.

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Sci-Fi and Modern Skills in WFRP

Combat Shuttle, no Corporate markings.

Sci-Fi and Modern Skills in WFRP
Here are my preliminary Modern and Sci-Fi skills for WFRP. This list may be contracted/expanded in the future…
…a grim and perilous future! Mwahahaha!
Computers (Int): Allows character to perform advanced operations with coputers and AI type devices, including programming and hacking.
EVA (I)[Agi]: With this skill, all physical activities in micro-gravities are at a -10% penalty. Without this skill, all physical activities are at a base 10%!
Hyperspace Navigation (Int): Allows for the proper plotting of courses through hyperspace and dealing with potential issues therein (but those never happen).
Pilot (Dex): Helicopter, plane, jet, Aerospace Fighter.
Pilot (Int): System Craft (Includes Shuttles, Landers, Drop Ships, and Launch Vehicles), Interstellar Craft.
Security Systems (Int): Bypassing and developing security systems.
Specialist Weapon (BS)[RS]: Submachine Guns, Machine Guns, Energy Weapons, Direct Fire Heavy Weaponry. Pistols, Rifles, Assault Rifles, and Sniper rifles are already covered by Special Weapons: Firearms.
Specialist Weapon (Int): Indirect Fire Heavy Weaponry (Artillery), Planet Based Missiles, Space-Born Weaponry (Naval Rail Guns, Missiles, Anti-Missile Systems).
Technology Repair (Int): Fairly self-explanatory I think.

*Attributes in brackets are for me to keep track for my (possibly) forthcoming Grim Hack Expanded, a full rules-lite conversion of WFRP.

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

The Baby-Headed Spider

What a beautiful baby!

Stumbling across an abandoned hold in the mountains north of Crown’s Hold, the party hears the plaintive cry of a baby, echoing from the shattered entrance. Cautiously investigating the darkened foyer, they find it covered in spider webs. Knowing the evil machinations of the GM, they start sprinkling lamp oil when something large and horrifying drops among them. A couple of failed Cool tests along with a couple of hits that just bounce harmlessly off the thing’s chitin, the party barely escapes a TPK by withdrawing out into the bright morning sun of the courtyard. Luckily, it doesn’t follow them outside, merely disappearing up into the darkness of the foyer’s ceiling. Finding discretion to be the better part of valor, the party uses one of their precious explosives they were able to wrangle from the Monk Technologists in town.
              Now the party shudders at the sound of a baby’s cry.
Revisiting my previous post on reskinning, this is perhaps one of my favorites. Meet one Giant Scorpion, but with the Fear effect caused not by size, but by the head and cry of a baby. I added an additional rule for color, as Baby-headed Spiders do not go out in direct sunlight. Nothing supernatural here, it’s just that the ultra-violet rays causes the baby head to rot. Plus, it gave the first-career players a tactics advantage if they could figure it out (and they did). As my campaign is a nominally a hex-crawl (except in town, where it’s a back-stabbing, every-faction for itself, politico-drama), sometimes my players find encounters that are quite a bit out of their league. I had assumed the path of least resistance would be going down the eastern road, especially following the rumors offered by one of the first factions they came across, the Legion. Alas, they never even talked to the Legionnaires except to find the tavern in town (the Slut & Brew), ending up sending them north into much 'hotter' regions far earlier than I had expected.