Hey guys,

I have a few questions I need help answering, or at least need confirmation on what I have in my head is right.

First cab off the rank:

Specialisations.

I get that having a specialisation alows you to add an extra fate die to your dice pool, but what I am unsure of is what a specialisation does. To make my question clearer, A specialisation in First Aid list Specialisation Options: Combat Surgery, Long Term Care etc... What in-game effects would Combat Surgery have and where would I find it in the rule book? If it does have an effect and is in the rule book, can I safely assume that all specialisations would be in the book?

Secondly,

When a PC is rolling for a skill check unopposed, say Balistics Skill, how do I as GM, modify it? Do I simply say "Well, as the day is over-cast and the occassional stiff breeze is blowing through, You have to add one or more Challenge/Misfortune/Any Combination of the two die/dice to the roll to represent the added difficulty of trying to make the shot"?

And finally (for now anyway )

Target Defence:

Is this simply the total of the Target's Toughness and Soak value or the rating of the armour (so leather armour would give a Target Defence of 0)? Or is it something else altogether?

If it's the just the armour rating, would a Character with Ag 4 using Accurate Shot (Ag Vs Target Defence) not add any misfortune dice agaisnt a NPC in Leather Armour (Defence 0)?

Sorry to bother people with what are probably some very straight forward questions (I am a complete noob at WFRP and a novice at RPG's in general)

Cheers,

Krusader

Well, I'm a bit new to WHFRPG3E myself, but I'm sure if my answers are wrong someone will pop in and correct me.

First: You've already described exactly what a specialization does. In a particular circumstance, you get an additional fortune die to your skill check in addition to the expertise die or dice provided by training in the skill. In the case of Combat Surgery, if the character is making a First Aid roll in combat, they get an extra fortune die on the check. If that were their only specialization in First Aid, and they were rendering aid after all opponents had fallen and the encounter was over, they wouldn't get that fortune die. It's as simple as that. As in most games, the GM has final say as to whether a given specialization applies. Our group usually fines the specializations listed are sufficient but I'm sure our GM would approve extras not covered in the book as long as the scope of the specialization was close to those established in the rules.

Second: Again, you pretty much hit the nail on the head. Keep in mind that all attacks are considered a 1d Challenge by default. Normally circumstantial modifiers only add misfortune dice, but again there's no reason as GM that you can't increase that assuming it seems reasonable to you and your group. A friend out of town has a player who has done the number crunching and claims that one Challenge die is roughly equal to three Misfortune dice, but I haven't seen the math myself. Also keep in mind that players appreciate it if you describe the day as particularly windy before combat begins, to avoid the appearance of assigning arbitrary penalties, and that any environmental penalties should affect all combatants as equally as possible.

Third: This one's a little trickier because I don't have my books right in front of me. IIRC, Defense and Soak are two different properties of armor. Defense indicates the armor's ability to deflect a blow entirely and adds misfortune dice to the attacker's roll. Soak represents the armor's ability to protect you from a solid blow and is added to Toughness to reduce damage on a hit. So for example, leather armor (0/2) won't deflect a blow, but will absorb some of the impact if you are hit. The steel links of a mail shirt (1/2), on the other hand, have a chance of protecting from a blow entirely, but if an opponent lands a solid hit, the links combined with the lighter padding underneath only protect the wearer about as well as hardened leather would. Your specific example is again completely correct (see, you're getting the hang of it already ); the archer firing at a target in leather armor suffers no Misfortune dice for the armor. Naturally, environmental factors and the difficulty of the maneuver itself (indicated in the upper left corner of the action card if applicable) may still add Misfortune dice as normal.

Thanks for the quick reply Haggard!!!

Glad to hear that I have got Specialisations pretty much locked down.

The second question I had was more to do with skills being used outside of combat. Thanks for the help though, it helps solidify my knowledge off the game.

And thirdly, thanks again! Glad that someone was able to help out so quickly!

Krusader.

Haggard pretty much summed up the specialization thing perfectly, and I'll reiterate his point that they're really all about what the GM 'feels' is right as far as what does and does not qualify as being covered by the specialization.

An important aspect of WFRP as a whole is this GM freedom. A lot of what goes on in this game numbers and rules wise comes down to how the GM feels about a situation. The rules have really been written in such a way that a lot of specific situations are not covered and it's really more about general rules and ideas, which gives a lot of freedom to the game and allows the GM the ability to simply say "yes" to players more and just determine the dice needed to be rolled given the proposed action by the player. This freedom is one of the greatest attributes of this game, but can also be somewhat confusing to players who are new to roleplaying or are coming from a more rules heavy game. The key to remember is that most things are not specifically covered by the rules, but the players should be able to do anything that seems reasonable to you as the GM.

Sorry about that digression from answering your question, but I thought as a new player/GM it would be a good thing to think about.

As for your second question, you use the example of a Ballistic Skill test and you asked for an example outside of combat, so let's use an example of shooting a bow at an immobile target. The challenge rating would be determined by at least two things: the distance to the target and the size of the target. Misfortune dice would be added based on things like weather, wind and any other outside factors. Don't forget you can also add fortune dice to any test if the player attempting the roll comes up with some reason to give him some. Adding fortune dice for smart thinking is a really great way to reward players for good play. Using the target as an example again; the test could be against 1 or 2 challenge dice (or more, if it's really small or the shooter is at a really great distance) and a misfortune die if it's a bit windy and maybe another if it's raining. You could easily say that the number of successes determines how good the shot was. For example, 1 success means the target is hit, 3 is a good shot and 5 (or maybe 3 with some boons) means a bullseye. Remember, one success means the action was successful, but more successes means that the action was better in some way. Again, the roll is to determine if the shot hits the target only, a success doesn't automatically mean a good success.

A further point about this Ballistic Skill test to hit an immobile target is that a player is entirely within his rights to declare that he is attempting to hit the bullseye (in essence, he is calling his shot), this would change the structure of the roll from more successes equaling a shot closer to the bullseye and instead would create a roll with more challenge dice (this would most likely be a 3 or 4 challenge die roll, depending on the distance) and at least one success would mean the bullseye was hit. This issue with handling it this way is what to do if the roll fails. Does it mean that the shooter missed the target completely or simply hit the target but not the bullseye? I would suggest the former, otherwise a player with BS 2 and a player with BS 5 both missing the same shot end up with the same results. An alternative would be to have boons/banes determine how badly the miss was. I think you can see here that the system is really open about how to handle situations and it involves a lot of GM decision making on the fly.

As far as armour defense rating is concerned, you are absolutely correct. Each point of defense rating adds 1 misfortune die to attacks against that target. It actually makes more sense than systems that have armour making it harder to hit someone. Full plate really does not make someone harder to hit, but it could make it harder to land a meaningful blow.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

1) They are left up to the GM as to when they apply. So, "Combat Surgery" applies when the GM says it does. It's probably best discussed when the PC is taking the specialization so tehre are no surprises. Any check related to a skill that a PC has a specialization in gains a [W] to that check.

2) Yes, that's pretty much it. The GM decides what the base difficulty of the task is and adds an appropriate amount of Challenge dice. Then, for other factors, the GM can also add Misfortune dice.

3) Defense is a "stat" separate from both To and Soak. It is a value primarily determined by what armor (including shield) being worn, but there are other talents (Slayer career ability, for example) and actions (Active Defenses, for example) which can increase Defense too. If you look at the Armor/Shield tables you'll see a listing for Defense, and that is the Defense value provided. Agility has no effect on Defense either. Yes, a 0 Defense means that 0 misfortune dice are added to the attackers roll. It does not matter what the attacker's skill is, # Defense = # of misfortune dice added to an attacker's roll.