Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Warhammer Fantasy Firearms and 5e

Continuing this Warhammer Fantasy meets 5e D&D train, I decided to move onto a very important part of the world: firearms.

The Warhammer fantasy world is best comparable to the early Modern period so things like multinational trade, roads, printing, arrival of the middle/merchant class, and the introduction of firearms into military usage. As such, the Empire from WFRP and WFB has a lot of guns. And in the roleplaying games, the PCs get access to guns (sometimes) though they are extremely expensive.

Currently, 5e does not have rules for guns let alone guns that are analogous to WFRP. Here are some rules that are mostly just doing the ratios between WFRP and 5e with a bit of massaging. I'm not sure about making them simple, but let's see how that goes. The 1d10 bit from the firearm property is very not 5e, but I don't care. I'm also pretty sure these could be made a bit deadlier, but I have yet to actually test these all out. Also it is kind of the point that these are prohibitively expensive. Knock off a 0 if you want to have players actually be able to buy these.

Weapon properties

Firearm To reload a weapon that has the firearm property, this character must take their entire turn (both action and movement). If a 1 is rolled while making an attack roll with a weapon with the firearm property that weapon is now jammed. This weapon cannot be reloaded or fired until a successful DC 10 Intelligence or Dexterity check is made as a Use an Object action to unjam the weapon. Additionally, that character must roll 1d10. On a 1 the weapon explodes, is destroyed, and does it's damage to the bearer. Unless noted, a weapon with the firearm quality needs both shot and gunpowder in order to be fired.

Weapons

Martial Ranged Weapons
Arquebus 1000 gp 1d10 piercing 8 lb. Ammunition (range 150/600), firearm, loading, two-handed
Blunderbuss 100 gp 1d8 piercing 4 lb. Ammunition (range 20/60), firearm, loading, special
Pistol 600 1d8 piercing 2 lb. Ammunition (range 30/120), firearm, loading

Special weapons

Blunderbuss The blunderbus does not have traditional ammunition and instead is just a bunch of nails and other random hard bits propelled via a bit of gunpowder.

Adventuring gear

Ammunition
Gunpowder (10) 30 gp 1 lb.
Shot (10) 1 gp 10 lb.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Rings and Challenges of Ysgard

The preview to this session was that the PCs would be traveling to Ysgard, a CG plane. In addition, this was the last session before our summer hiatus.

The session began with Bobby, Norbys, and Nearin all sitting in Plane-atary Express. I introduced the names and specialties of the two other groups working for Plane-atary Express: a group of primes that specializes in long haul caravan protection that is contracted out to the Planar Trade Consortium, and a group of planar adventurers that specializes in jobs on the Inner Planes. However, the group was mostly uninterested knowing that Kale in particular cares most about the financial affairs of the business.

After a little hemming and hawing, an old woman entered the shop looking for Balial. She introduced herself as Ingwe Alting, a Ring-giver. Ring-giver are a lesser planar sect based in Ysgard that believes that by giving everything away, even greater rewards can be earned. How this works out, mechanically, is that anyone who is given a gift by a Ring-giver has a really hard time resisting providing that person with a favor whenever they call upon it. They take the planar law of the Unity of Rings very seriously.

Ingwe Alting explained that she was an old friend of Balial and that she was hoping to enlist his aid for dealing with a little bet she had set up on Ysgard. After learning that Balial had died, she offered a deal to the party. 1000 gp each now if they'd participate in the harvest festival called the Challenges of Glory in Vanheim. If one of them places high enough, she'll be able to pay them even more. At that, she thrust a sack of gems into each person's hands.

She also told the PCs that she didn't have the portal key, but that she knew of two very good shops who's owners owed her a favor: Seamusxanthuszenus of Parts 'n Pieces and Alluvius Ruskin of Tivvum's Antiquities. The players decided to speak to Alluvius, who gladly gave them a portal key in order to settle her debt to Ingwe.

The group then traveled to Vanheim and got ready for the contest. While prepping, they spyed another team of ringers hired by the other party in Ingwe's bet.

There were four contests: archery, an obstacle race, a puzzle race, and a drinking contest. I don't recall a lot of the exact details, but all the contests were resolved as a series of ability checks until the top three contestants were found. I gave the PCs opportunities to cheat or otherwise help each other via their feats and other skills or ingenuity. It seemed to work out amazingly and the entire night was just laughter and fun.

Bobby won the obstacle race. Norbis tied the drinking contest with one of the other team of ringers. Otherwise the PCs placed in the middle of the pack, though I think Nearin was top 3 in the puzzle contest which was won by a naked amazon warrior.

Bobby placed high enough in enough events to qualify as a NOBLE WARRIOR, which earned him a bunch more gold than everyone else. It also meant he got to party extra hard and all the ladies were hounding him. Ignwe paid the party 1000 gp each and said that she'd be on the look out for them if she ever needed a hand again. She and her betting partner than gave each other 1000 gp as a result of their bet.

This session was extra fun because it involved a lot of rolling but none of it was combat. In addition, it challenged the players to think of new ways to use their powers which is always a good idea. It was a great last game before out three month hiatus.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Warhammer Fantasy Gods and 5th edition

So in addition to Planescape and Plane-atary Express, I've been slowly working on a Warhammer Fantasy inspired game. I've also recently bought the 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons handbook. In my boredom, I've decided to start making some 5th edition conversions of the Warhammer Fantasy world.

I started out with the Old World Pantheon along with a few non-human gods because it seemed easy enough. I am not providing a comprehensive list of gods, such as those of Kislev or the Slaan, but it is a decent start for a 5e game set in the WFRP world. I'm not including the holy symbols in my brief write up because that seemed unnecessary and is easy to look up (Sigmar is a twin-tailed comet, etc.). I've also been incredible lazy with the elven gods because I'm not as familiar with them as I could be.

I've avoided the Chaos gods/Ruinous Powers for now as I want to also mock up some insanity/corruption rules for that.

Human Deities

Name Alignment Domain
Sigmar, founder and patron of the Empire LN War, Light
Ulric, god of wolves, winter, and battle LN War
Morr, god of death, dreams, and prophecies N Death
Shallya, goddess of healing and mercy NG Life
Ranald, god of thieves and tricksters CN Trickery
Verena, goddess of knowledge, science, law, and justice LN Knowledge
Taal, goddess of nature and wild places N Nature
Rhya, goddess of life and fertility NG Life, Nature
Manann, god of the seas CN Tempest

Dwarf Gods

Name Alignment Domain
Gungni, god of mining, smithing, and forging LN Knowledge
Valaya, the protector goddess LN Life
Grimir, god of warriors and slayers LN War

Greenskin Gods

Name Alignment Domain
Gork and Mork, twin gods of cunning and brutality CN War, Trickery

Elven Cadai

Name Alignment Domain
Asuryan, the phoenix god and king of the gods LG Light
Isha, motherly goddess of the harvest NG Life
Kurnos, god of the hunt CG Nature
Vaul, god of smithing N Knowledge
Morai-Heg, goddess of souls N Death
Lileath, goddess of the moon, dreams, and fortune N Knowledge
Hoeth, god of wisdom and knowledge LN Knowledge
Khaine, god of war (and murder) N War

Stay tuned for more Warhammer Fantasy -- 5e cross-overs!