Hello all, I just got done running my first game of WFRP and it went well. I've found the game to be light on the rules and more about just telling the story, a few times my players took hold of the story and that was a fantastic feeling. Anyway, I was looking through the books and haven't found magical items in there except for the cards that have items on them, are those the only magical items we are supposed to use? Thanks for any help!

Magic Items have historically been somewhat thin in quantity in this setting and the ones that do exist are usually quite powerful and in the hands of an Emperor, Great Hero or some horrid monster. I think (read: hope) magic items are going to be handed out pretty rarely in published material so if you want to increase the quantity of them in your game (or at least the magic item quantity to choose from) you will probably have to generate them yourself.

As new as I am to this edition of the rules (16 years GM'ing the other two editions), I don't think it should prove too daunting to add in custom items as you see fit. For example I have some Paizo item cards that have sat in a dark corner of my game closet for like two years and they are perfect, as they have a picture on front and a blank spot on the back for some fancy penmanship and useful game stats. I plan on making a pile of custom items myself.

The short answer to your question, at least for my opinion, would be NO. Don't limit yourself to what is published if your game needs something more. Warhammer has always thrived on fan-made content/tables/scenarios/cookies/etc so don't be scared to try it and most importantly...don't forget to share with the rest of us (especially if there are cookies)

Thanks alot for the quick response, I appreciate it, I will think about making my own then!

I always liked the WFRP1 approach where you needed a successful WP-check to bond with an item. If none of the players succeeded the item just wasn't for them.

An easy way of creating minor magical items is to add some of the allready existing special effects to them. That way the players can just add the special trait to that line on their character sheets and be done with it.

Like:
Sword of Swiftness - A longsword (hand weapon) with the fast trait
Dagger of Piercing - A dagger with Pierce 1
Cursed Great Axe of Slashing - Add 1 to the DR (So DR8) and make it unreliable 2 (and if the unreliable effect ever triggers, make it do something nasty)

Adding DR or lowering CR is also an easy way to create magical weapons.

A more fun way can be to make the weapon better agains certain groups of creatures, like Acitus (or whatever the sword in TGS is called) and:
Spear of Chaos poking - Pierce 1 and +1DR against chaos followers.

Same goes for armour, just add some defence or soak or lower the encumberance rating and you'll can pass it off as a minor magic item.
Or again, make it better against certain creatures, like:
Shield of Orc deflection - A kite shield with +1 Defence against Orcs.

You can use scrolls as magic items, one use and they are gone and it is very difficult to use them. Me as GM will not give mighty magic items to my group, i give out relics and luck charms, some may be of use, some not and one shot magic items like the candle of wisdom or the seal of healing. My players know that those items are rare and cannot be bougth, so they use them with care and are very stingy.

I am inclined to agree with magical items being limited, I have been running games for over twenty years and have recently converted to the FF line of games. One of the things that attracted me to the system was the fact that it is not gear orientated. I have played games such as rolemaster, d&d and pathfinder and the party just want the loot. I think an interesting character development system far outweighs the short term 'loot' fix. It can also be quite tricky sometimes to avoid overpowering characters with too much kit.

Think very carefully before bringing items in and always ask yourself what impact this item will have long term. I agree that specific one use items or items designed for a specific part of the campaign add a lot of flavour. Also when the party do find an item of power it makes it so much more satisfying for them. One use potions are something that are fun to throw in as well.

I like the wiilpower bonding idea as well, will give that a try

The Strange Eons utility has item cards amoungst the cards that you can create. They may not have the exact same artwork as original cards but it is of exceptional quality and would be one route in creating your own cards whether magical items or any other that you can think of.

Alp

I look in the warhammer fantasy battles books for what they use for magical items and I've set up a very simple system (with "value") on the final pages of my house rulebook: dl.dropbox.com/u/167876/WFRP3%20Hafner%20house%20rulebook%20v3.1.pdf

I broke it down by # of uses per session and by the type of bonus die used. It's become very handy.

For example: in the Beastman book, they had The Fur of Sharrgu, which I set to give constant 2 black defense against ranged attacks.

It's not really that different from other game systems in that regards, but the cards make it seem very limiting.

Also, don't forget to "hand out" the occasional superior item (bonus white or blue die) rather than making players think that there's only magical OR normal..there should be a third category of non-magical superior that will keep a better balance in a lower-magical-item world.

jh

Emirikol said:

+1 yahtzee

In the last two campaigns we've run in Warhammer Fantasy I don't think any characters even had magic items by the end (aside from minor trinkety type things). They DID have finely crafted equipment though, and their combat oriented gear was peppered with heirloom items, and special materials. It was enough to make them feel special as I carved their souls into little bits with monstrous things that should not be.