Newbie questions after Blackfire Pass

By Dietcokeofevil, in WFRP Rules Questions

We played Blackfire Pass yesterday, actually getting a chance to use the Warhammer Fantasy rules for the first time. Only one of the players, the GM< actually had the opportunity to read all the rules through before playing. I was able to read most of the player guide, but that had been at genCon so a lot of stuff was forgotten. Anyways, we had a LOT of questions during play and referred the the rulebook a great deal. mainly, so we could get play down before our actual campaign starts next week. If anyone would take the time to answer the questions below, along with where in the rules they are found, that would be great. A few of the questions I answered myself by reading the FAQ/clarifications, but Ive listes those as well if someone has the time to say where in the rules the answer actually is found. Some of these we spent a LONG time looking for.

1) Do monsters take fatigue/stress?

I found the answer in the FAQ, but where in the rules does it say that monsters take damage instead of fatigue? Im sure it sin there, but we couldnt find it.

2) Can you substitute your action card play with a second manuever? Instead of attacking, for example, can you pull out your sword and adjust your range.

3) If you are involved in an engagement, and there are more monsters within close range of you, can you manuever directly to engage the new monsters or does it cost two manuevers; one to disenegage and one to engage?

4) If you use an action during story mode, like call of the wild, how does it recharge?

5) Is there a set penality to being outnumbered or is it just whatever the GM thinks is best? Like, is it just a flat black misfortune die, more misfortune die for being out numbered three to one, or five to one?

6) How do you change your stance during story mode?

7) How do you determine melee damage for a group of minions? I know in the rules it says they attack as one, and add one extra fortune die for each minion, but do they do base damage or enhanced damage?

8) Is having a strength of 2 really as bad as it seems in regards to encumbrance? After playing Black Fire Pass, we revisited the characters we had made for our own campaign and 3 out of 4 of the characters have a strength of 2. Because of that, no one is wearing armor (WE have a hunter, a gambler, a grey wizard, and a troll slayer) since it seems to weigh so much. My character, for example, has a longbow, a hand weapon, and some arrows. He cant carry anything else. With how deadly combat ended up being using a bunch of dwarves, we are really concerned our naked characters won't last very long at all.

A lot of good questions here and we had many of the same after our first games. I can't answer them all, but here is what I've got:

1) Do monsters take fatigue/stress?

I found the answer in the FAQ, but where in the rules does it say that monsters take damage instead of fatigue? Im sure it sin there, but we couldnt find it.

Page 46 of the ToA under Wound Threshold is what I believe you are looking for

2) Can you substitute your action card play with a second manuever? Instead of attacking, for example, can you pull out your sword and adjust your range.

This is an optional rule pressented in the GM's toolkit on page 37/

3) If you are involved in an engagement, and there are more monsters within close range of you, can you manuever directly to engage the new monsters or does it cost two manuevers; one to disenegage and one to engage?

I believe it takes two manuevers (based on my reading the rules). Of course the GM could easily rule otherwise in a situation where all of the combats are in a very close area. Maybe throw in a black die to the first attack of the engagement instead.

4) If you use an action during story mode, like call of the wild, how does it recharge?

We dont use recharge in story mode. You can just use them as you deem fit although most actions are such that their use implies moving to encounter mode anyways. There are a few though that we sort of 'wing it' and use in story mode with no issue.

5) Is there a set penality to being outnumbered or is it just whatever the GM thinks is best? Like, is it just a flat black misfortune die, more misfortune die for being out numbered three to one, or five to one?

Like most modifiers in the game, it's up to the GM. We usually give a white die for each extra combatant during an engagement and limit it based on the circumstance. If the outnumbered combatant/group has some sort of defensible area where they can't be swarmed or are willing to 'fall back' and give up some ground to avoid being swarmed, I'd limit it to maybe 2 white dice. If the attackers are falling back, I'd prolly give them a black die on their attacks and possibly a stance change away from Aggressive if relevant.

6) How do you change your stance during story mode?

Good question here and I dont really have a definite answer. We just allow players to use their discretion during story mode and use the stance mode to color the roleplay/situation. For example, if someone was trying to pick a lock in story mode (ie, no pressure from outside forces), then I'd allow them to pick their stance position and just apply the results from there. If they chose 3 Conservative and rolled any delays, I'd say it takes a very long time to pick it and possible advance a tracker or do something else to make them feel uncomfortable about waiting so long (you continue to hear noises outside in the alley...). If they picked say, 2 aggressive, and then rolled 2 banes or maybe a chaos star, they break their tools off in the lock! :)

7) How do you determine melee damage for a group of minions? I know in the rules it says they attack as one, and add one extra fortune die for each minion, but do they do base damage or enhanced damage?

I believe they do the base damage for their creature type. Of course the extra white dice give a better chance of the higher results of the attack.

8) Is having a strength of 2 really as bad as it seems in regards to encumbrance? After playing Black Fire Pass, we revisited the characters we had made for our own campaign and 3 out of 4 of the characters have a strength of 2. Because of that, no one is wearing armor (WE have a hunter, a gambler, a grey wizard, and a troll slayer) since it seems to weigh so much. My character, for example, has a longbow, a hand weapon, and some arrows. He cant carry anything else. With how deadly combat ended up being using a bunch of dwarves, we are really concerned our naked characters won't last very long at all.

Yeah, I dont think I'd encourage many people to go 'adventuring' with a 2 Str. That is just asking for trouble. :) Depending on the campaign, they are going to be pretty weak in combat. Of course from your list above, the Hunter will be using primarily Agil, the Wizard primarily Int, and the Gambler either Agil or possibly not a combatant at all. So for direct combat purposes it probably wouldnt be too lethal. But yes, they sure can't carry much. I'd stress to the players that a 2 Str is below what a common folks could do. You are REALLY pretty weak. For a roleplay or specific character concept, I'd probably be OK with it for a single character, but if people are just looking and seeing that they dont 'need' Str for their Actions and are using it for a 'dump stat', I'd enforce the Encumbrance penalties to the max.

Also keep in mind that having Fatigue in excess of any physical stat 'Fatigues' the character and with a few points of Stress, they can become Strained extremely easily and that can lead to far bigger problems... ;)

Just a few additions to the good answers above.

2) Can you substitute your action card play with a second manuever? Instead of attacking, for example, can you pull out your sword and adjust your range.

If you don't want to use the GM kit rule you could also use the Perform a stunt action to for things like that. It's of course up to the GM to set how hard it will be, but according to the design of the game he should give you the chance to try.
E.g., if you want to both move and draw your sword at the same time the GM might require you to do a Perform a stunt action with a Coordination check of simple difficulty (one purple die), things like darkness, nearby enemies, bad terrain, the sword being twohanded and so on can then add any number of black dice.

6) How do you change your stance during story mode?

In principle I don't think stances should be used in story mode, you may make an exception for well roleplayed situations, but most of the time skill checks in story mode should not have stance dice. That's how we play it at least, I don't remember if that's an actual rule or not. One should note that being able to use a stance will make skill checks a lot easier to pass for the players.

8) Is having a strength of 2 really as bad as it seems in regards to encumbrance?

Well, a non-combat character (or agi-based one), that plan on not using armour (a wizard for example) can easily make do with str 2 in my opinion. It's Toughness that you really need to worry about. Having a Toughness of 2 means that you should avoid combats completely, combat in wfrp is brutal for characters that ar not equipped to be in one.

But yes, if you plan on bringing along gear on your adventures, it will be pretty tricky to have a strength of only 2.