C&C, WFRP, RQ Review: Appendix D. Creating Warhammer FRP characters

With Warhammer more of the character generation process is driven by the dice than the D20 games as a characters' career and personal characteristics can be almost entirely generated using the charts in the start of the book. This is an example to go with my comparative review of Castles & Crusades, Warhammer FRP 2 and Runequest II.

Name: Udo
Race: Halfling

	WS	BS	S	T	Ag	Int	WP	Fel
Original	25	42	25	16	38	27	32	48
Adjusted				21		37
Advance				+5%	+10%	+5%	+5%	+10%
Advance Used						+5%
	A	W	SB	TB	M	Mag	IP	FP
Original	1	10	2	1	4	0	0	2
Adjusted		11		2
Advance		+2
Advance Used

Applying Shallya's mercy to his Toughness gives him an average score of 21, this will also increase his TB to 2 on the secondard characteristics.

Skills: Based on race in WFRP
Academic Knowledge(Geneology/Heraldry), Common Knowledge(Halflings), Gossip, Speak Language(Halfling), Speak Language(Reikspiel), Trade (Cook)
Career Skills:Animal Care, Charm, Gossip, Haggle, Perception, Search, Speak Language (Brettonian) - so his final skills end up with Gossip (+10%)

Talents: Mostly racial features in WFRP
Night Vision, Resistance to Chaos, Specialist Weapon Group(Sling)
Randomly rolled: Savvy +5% to Int
Career Talents: Dealmaker, Flee!, Seasoned Traveller, Hardy (+1 wound) - a better choice than Suave as a +5 to fellowship would reinforce an already very good characteristic

Starting Career: I rolled 10 for a Camp Follower and 25 for a Grave Robber and selected Camp Follower with Udo being a cook following the armies to look for plunder. As a career this concentrates on the social and intellectual development of a character meaning that Udo will generally talk rather than fight and if he has to fight it'd be at a distance with his sling.

Physical Features (as there are tables for them I'm rolling them):
Height: base 3' 4" roll 8 so add 8 inches to get 4 feet 0 inches - a tall halfling
Weight: percentile roll - 88 on the table gets me 120 pounds so Udo is big and tall in halfling terms - able to look a dwarf in the eye!
Hair colour: Eye colour:
Distinguishing Marks: only one roll I've decided - Missing nail
Siblings: 5
Star Sign: The Big Cross Age: 26
Birthplace: The Moot Name: Udo
Purse: 12GC - 4GC for sling gives 8GC
Trappings: Clothes (worn shirt, breeches, boots and cloak), Pack containing Blanket, Wooden tankard, Wooden utensils, Trade Tools(cook), Tent, Pouch, Cleaver (Handweapon), Dagger, Purse

Weapons:
Handweapon (Cleaver) Damage SB(2)
Dagger Damage SB-3(-1) only the damage die will actually give any damage
Sling Damage 3

For purchase one thing stands out: a sling as his high ballistic skill and specialist weapon group talent mean he's going to be a lot more effective with that than going into melee with a sword. I made his handweapon a cleaver as being appropriate for a cook.

C&C, RQ, WFRP review: Appendix B Creating C&C Characters part 2

C&C Character 2 again has his stats assigned by the player.
Alfar "the average"
Human Wizard Level 1
AC: 10

Strength:	9		+0
Dexterity:	9	Prime	+0
Constitution:	9		+1
Intelligence:	13	Prime	+1
Wisdom	11	Prime	+0
Charisma	9		+0

Abilities: Spells - Alfar will get a bonus first level spell for having an intelligence of 13. His spell book will contain spells to match the number he can cast per day of 4 for level 0 and 2 plus 1 for level 1. I actually selected these rather than rolled for them to avoid making his list too weak.
Level 0: Detect Magic, Mending, Detect Poison, Dancing Lights
Level 1: Read Magic, Sleep, Magic Missile

Attacks:
Staff +0 1D6
Dagger +0 1D4
Thrown Dagger +0 1D4 10ft range increment

Move: 90ft(120ft base minus 25% for light encumbrance)

Equipment:
Starting gold 90 good for a Wizard, but they have still plenty of options on equipment.

Item	Cost	Encumbrance Value	Location	Comments
Staff	-	4	carried
Dagger	2gp	1	Belt
Spell Component belt pouch	10gp	1	worn
Backpack	2gp	2(w)	worn
Bedroll	1sp	3	pack
Map or scroll case	1gp	1	pack
10 sheets paper	10gp	-	scroll case
Robe	1gp	2(w)	worn
Belt	6sp	-	worn
Cape	8sp	-	worn
Shoes	2sp	1(w)	worn
1 oz ink	8gp	-	pack
Quill	1sp	-	pack
Waterskin	1gp	3
Bar soap	5sp	1	pack
Bullseye Lantern	12gp	2	pack
2 oil flasks	2gp	2	pack
Flint and steel	1gp	-	pack

Alfar has 35gp 7sp left after buying his equipment
To work out Alfar's Encumbrance Rating the base value of 10 is not adjusted for Strength modifier or primes so remains 10.

The Encumbrance Value of the items with a (w) suffix is reduced by 1 when worn so this means that Alfar's clothes are ignored and as an Wizard he has no armour to worry about. The items in the pack and belt pouch have their total EV reduced by 2 so the pack containing a bedroll (EV3), Scroll case (EV1), Soap (EV1) and lantern oil(EV2) has a total encumbrance of 5 for contents (7-2) and 1 for the pack itself (2-1) giving an EV of 6. Alfar's total EV then is 16:

• Staff 4
• Dagger 1
• Pack 6
• Component Pouch 1
• Robe 1
• Waterskin 3

As this is greater than his ER, but less than twice his ER he is lightly encumbered and has his move reduced by 1 quarter and a +1 to the challenge level on all dexterity based tests.

C&C, RQ, WFRP review: Appendix A Creating C&C Characters

A Tale of two characters...

Rolling the dice and then assigning the numbers as per the core rules I got two sets to work with.

Character 1	Character 2
9	11
9	12
13	15
11	10
9	9
9	9

I'll do Character 2 as a separate post to avoid these becoming too long.
Geoffrey Borecutt
Dwarf Fighter Level 1
AC: 14

Strength:	15	Prime	+1
Dexterity:	(10-1) 9		+0
Constitution:	(12+1) 13	Prime	+1
Intelligence:	11		+0
Wisdom	9		+0
Charisma	9		+0

By putting the die roll of 12 into a demi-human's characteristic that has a positive modifier I'm able to boost a second characteristic into having a positive modifier.

Abilities: Weapon Specialisation - this gets a +1 to hit and to damage with a selected weapon. I'm going to go with the fearsome bearded axe though that does mean not being able to use a shield. Because of the +1 to hit and damage from his strength, Geoffrey will have a +3 to hit from his BAB, Strength and Weapon Specialisation and +2 to damage. With the bearded axe he'll do 3d4+2 damage giving a minimum of 5 and an average of 9.5 which in C&C will be lethal to low level opposition like Orc's and Hobgoblins.

Attacks
Bearded Axe +3 to hit Damage: 3d4 +2
Dagger +2 to hit Damage 1D4+1
Sling +1 to hit Damage 1D4 Range 50 ft

Movement: 20 ft

Equipment:
Starting gold 110 - not great for a fighter who will always need armour and weapons at first level.

Item	Cost	Encumbrance Value	Location	Comments
Bearded Axe	20gp	4	carried
Scale Mail	50gp	4(w)	worn	Includes a Leather Coif
Dagger	2gp	1	Belt
Sling	-	1	Belt pouch
Armour and Weapon oil	1gp	2	pack
Backpack	2gp	2(w)	worn
Bedroll	1sp	3	pack
Large Belt Pouch	1gp	1(w)	worn
4 Bandages	2sp	-	Belt pouch
Crowbar	2gp	2	pack
Canteen	2gp	1	pack
Pipe	5gp		Belt pouch
1 lb tobacco	5sp	1	Belt pouch
Flint and steel	1gp	-	Belt pouch
Belt	6spp	-	worn
Heavy Boots	1gp	1(w)	worn
Cloak	5sp	1(w)	worn
Trousers	4sp	1(w)	worn
Tunic	3sp	1(w)	worn

So Geoffrey ends up with a few GP remaining: (110gp - 89gp 6sp) 20gp 4sp

His total encumbrance is not the sum of the encumbrance values of his equipment, armour and weapons as putting items into the Belt Pouch and Pack reduces the total EV and the items with a (w) have the encumbrance reduced when worn.

To work out Geoffrey's encumbrance his Encumbrance Rating has to be calculated which has a base 10 with any Strength modifier applied and with plus 2 for either of Strength or Constitution being a Prime. So Geoffrey with a Strength modifier of +1 and both of those attributes as Primes has an ER of 15. The maximum possible would be an ER17 with a Strength modifier of +3.

The Encumbrance Value of the items with a (w) suffix is reduced by 1 when worn so this means that Geoffrey's clothes are ignored and hsi armour only has an EV of 3. The items in the pack and belt pouch have their total EV reduced by 2 so the pack containing a bedroll (EV3), crowbar (EV2), canteen (EV1) and armour and weapon oil(EV1) has a total encumbrance of 5 for contents (7-2) and 1 for the pack itself (2-1) giving an EV of 6. The pouch with two items with an EV of 1 in it, sling and 1lb of tobacco has an EV of 0 (2-2 for contents, 1-1 for pouch). Geoffrey's total EV then is 14:

• Bearded Axe 4
• Armour 3
• Pack 6
• Dagger 1

As this is less than his ER he is not encumbered and moves normally.

Podcast Review: Security Now

Security Now is a IT security podcast presented by Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte. There is some controversy about Steve Gibson in the IT security community, but I'll discuss that as a separate issue once I get my IT blog running.

Content
There are two main types of show: Listener Feedback and Themed podcasts, the split is 50/50 between these. Listener feedback includes a lot of Question and Answer content often related to the previous podcasts. The themed podcasts are usually about a few topics, such as the Phorm behaviour tracking software, Microsoft's Windows Steady State, Open ID and TruCrypt. There is a reasonable level of IT knowledge assumed which is appropriate for the content.

Leo Laporte acts as the facilitator for the show with Steve Gibson explaining issues and replying to the listener feedback that Leo reads out. This works well and Leo plays the role of an informed layman on the show.

There are a fair number of plugs for the companies that support the show, such as Astaro and Steve Gibson's company GRC with its product SpinRite. These are not too intrusive and reflect the reality of needing to support a podcast commercially unlike many of the others that I've reviewed.

Technical
At the GRC site there is an option to download a low bit rate version that is small and of a listenable quality. The high quality version can be downloaded from iTunes and the other usual sites such as Feedburner.

Overall
This is a useful podcast with plenty of sound advice amongst the product promotion. If you do dislike frequent mentions of sponsors or the presenters' own products you may not like it. I do listen regularly to this which shows that I do consider it worthwhile, but remember to look at other useful sources of security information like Bruce Schneier's blog.