This is very much my first (back?)stab at a set of character creation rules for Halflings in 3rd edition.

Note, I have only had this excellent game a week and am sat at work with no access to the rules, so this is more of a discussion starter than the result of much careful thought and play-testing!

Halfling:

• 15 creation points with +1 in Agility, Toughness and Willpower (if you consider that this would cost 24 points, it makes them slightly less powerful than a Reiklander at 25, which in turn is slightly less powerful than a Dwarf or Elf with 20+6, which feels right to me)

• Wounds: 6+Toughness (I think this still makes them tougher than their size would suggest, especially if using the bonus to Defence below, but given just how much less bodymass they have than the other races, I dont feel they should be able to take quite as much physical punishment)

• Small: Because of their small stature and relative lack of musculature; each increase in Strength costs one extra creation point (i.e. Strength 3 would require 4, a starting Strength of 4 would require a total of 9 and to start with Strength 5 would require all 15 points). Halflings cannot use two-handed weapons.

• Small (Alternate): Halflings start with a Strength of 1 and cannot increase it past 4 in character creation.

• Special: Considered 'Mostly Harmless': Often underestimated or even ignored by their foes, Halfling characters start with 4 fortune points and +1 Defence (really open to another intepretation of this, but want to give halflings that slightly lucky or blessed edge in a really simple way)

• It's A Big People's World: Either Resilience or Skulduggery start as trained (this gives the traditional thieving and hardiness)

• Food & Drink: Start with knowledge of one of the following advanced skills Tradecraft (Cook), Tradecraft (Farming) or Tradecraft (Brewing) are known (this is my least favourite, but want to get across their homely and industriously rural ways!)

• Allowed careers: (Please note I dont have any of the rules here at work, so these are purely from memory: Apothecary, Boatman, Bounty Hunter, Burgher, Gambler, Grave Robber, Hunter, Labourer, Mercenary, Pit Fighter, Rat catcher, Scout, Servant, Thief, Thug . I dont see Halflings as devout or really bothered enough to enter the priesthood or dedicated/capable of becominn wizards but you may disagree )

I also havent created any Halfling flavoured or Halfling-only careers yet - what could they be? Cook? Brewer? Gardener? Poacher? Reply with your ideas and rules please!

So - flame away people! )

Matt

I like nearly all of the above exept the halflings are tough or resilient. In 2ed wfrp and all the editions of wfb ive played (everyone since the first boxed edition with highelves/goblins 3/4th can never remember) halflings have never been tough in any way shape or form, they could have T1 to start but I think thats to harsh on any race due to wounds etc.

You should change the resilent option to discipline or stealth, and scrap the +1 toughness and give them twenty creation points as I feel this is a required minimum to effectively customise your character.

Everything else I loved, I have a draft of halfling stats mod I created for NPC's (I also have one for Dwarves, Elves and Ogres along with social/warrior base skill sets, as I find it really helps create a NPC on the spot) but it is nowhere near as good as I thought yours is.

The extra fortune is very characterful yet simple, defence you could mod to vs larger opposition, I could see this advantage vs a Orc or Human but not against a Goblin for example.

Tradecraft add servant and possibly thief.. you could make it possible to to swap this for something along the lines of Halflings being very cheery and fun to have around giving recovery from party tension at set times.

As for weapons unfortunately there is no easy solution I could think of, banning two handed weapons takes off the short bow and the spear the only two weapons they were ever allowed in wfb.. I think a ban based on encumberence = to str, or str +1/2 if used with two hands might work or maybe just a flat limit, its either that or give the options for increased the cost weapons of halfling size. I dont have the weapons table in front of me right now so its difficult to work out properly but i do like the image of a halfling weilding a long sword in two hands.. Im not sure what the best option would be though.

I hope that gives you some food for thought. Thanks Crimsonsun

I also made house rules for halfling. But I don't think it's good to let halflings only start with 1 STR.

In our house rules I gave halflings a starting STR of 2 but with -2 Luck Dice. That means two additional black D6. You can, of course by them off with Fortune Advancements.

Great ideas. I'll probably steal a few. Here's what I've done: dl.dropbox.com/u/167876/WFRP3%20Hafner%20house%20rulebook%20v2.3.pdf

In exchange for low toughness and strength, you could give them a small bonus to defense.

crimsonsun said:

You could just cap halflings at strength 3 or 4. This would reduce prevent a halfling with a double-handed weapon doing as much damage as a very strong human or dwarf, but wouldn't prevent a halfling from weilding a two handed weapon (which would probably be smaller than a human two handed weapon).

I'm not sure I like this... I think it's probably better to go through the list (there are not that many weapon types, after all) and ban certain ones, require halflings to use a normal hand weapon as two handed etc.

Probably easiest in fact to just write up a new set of weapon rules.

But then there's nothing stopping goblins (who are not much bigger than halflings) from using normal hand weapons with all the usual rules...

Hmm...