A collection of tools, house rules, and accessories for use with our current and ongoing GURPs based Warhammer Fantasy RPG campaign. We meet every other week at one of the players house, and the campaign is intended as a free-form open-world sandbox type campaign – there is no pre-written overall plot to the storyline.
Character Sheets and Forms:
House Rules:
- Base Test Dice mechanics –
The plan is to modify core GURPs mechanics, and use a d20 for test resolution, instead of the default 3d6 test. In the past, my experience has always been that due to the bell-curve nature of 3d6, some tests become trivial, while others become semi-impossible. This leads to some challenges in situations, especially combat, where you can have opponents that can never strike each other, or creatures which are impossible to defeat until they are far into negative health. As such, with a change to a linear d20 scale, this makes those extremes far less of an impact.- Revised – after the first session, a d20 mechanic just felt “wrong” for GURPs, and seemed to exaggerate the failure chances, rather than improve the system. Admittedly this is mainly a subjective impression, but for now, we are back to the default 3d6 mechanics. To resolve the issue of the extremes of the bell-curve, I will entertain several other game mechanics options.
- Winds of Magic/Chaos – one of the staples of the Warhammer FRP is the risk involved in the use of magic, however GURPs has no such methodology. In Warhammer, each spell is “cast” by rolling a number of d10 dice. If a 1, or a multiple of the same number turns up, then there is a miscast, with varying degrees of danger. The total of the dice also determines the success of the spell, so it is possible to successfully cast, and also encounter a mishap.
- For GURPs, our process will be similar, but based on the player’s Magery rating (or Power Investiture rating for Priests). In GURPs, Magery provides a skill bonus when casting spells – it makes the spell cheaper to use, and easier to cast. For our purposes, it also contributes a d10 to the miscast chance – For each level of Magery “used” when casting a spell, roll an extra d10. Magery 0, 1d10. Magery 1, 2d10, etc. If the d10 result in either a 1, or a multiple of the same number, then follow the default miscast rules as presented in the Warhammer FRP.
- High Skilled Combat –
Referencing house rule #1, it is not uncommon for a combat between skilled fighters coming down to a near endless series of strike and defends, with neither side making progress giving the high chances of success. Defense rolls higher than a 14 or so, tend to rarely fail.If an attacker opts to elect a penalty on their attack (their choice of how big of a penalty), and their attack still succeeds, this will apply half the penalty to the defender’s defense roll. For example, an attacker has a skill of 18-, and the defender has a defense rating of 14-. The attacker opts to take a -6 penalty on the attack (using skill to overcome defense), and if the attack is successful, the defender suffers a -3 penalty on their defense roll.- Turns out my “house rule” was actually an optional rule already built into the system, so no need for anything special.
