How do you handle replacement characters when a PC dies?

Do they come in with the same number of experience points earned as other PC's, starting from scratch, some mix (e.g., a Rank's worth behind)?

Rob

Replacement characters
Always have a replacement character handy. Replacements get bonus advancements equal to the advancements of your dead character. They have beginning wealth plus 50 silver per 5 advancements of the last character. The bonus advancements are earned on a 1:1 basis, when spending regular advancements, until they are used up.

That's our house rules. Replacements start from scratch but get double xp until they catch up.

When I started GMing Warhammer, it was decided by the group that all players get equal exp and if they miss a season or two they still get the exp to keep everyone the same, but don't get get the share of the spoils. If a character dies the replacement character will have the same exp as the dead character had making the power level still the same

This rule make it easier to know what level of power the players are at and less paper work for the lazy GM (me)

Thanks for thoughts both of you, hope more will come.

On the missed sessions front, my houserule is that you can take an experience point for that session but you roll a challenge die and if it comes up Chaos Star you draw a random Critical Wound or Corruption Point. Otherwise everyone else has their critical wounds and misfortunes they accumulated but not the character whose player was absent.

In previous editions I never really liked the idea of Hero-mart replacement characters (equal xp/power/whatever). Now I don't have a single problem in the world with folks that do equal replacements . In the past, though, I have tended to enact an xp penalty for a new character. In 1st and 2nd edition it was hard because not all abilities cost the same amount and at 3rd or 4th career some characters got penalized harder for loss of xp than others, so I always took them as a case-by-case deal.

I am still in my infancy with 3E but it seems like it would be easy enough to do something like charge 5 advances per death and if a character dies before they even get to 5 then you generate a new starter character as normal. People could get super unlucky and die over and over and end up playing starting characters for the duration of the campaign, but if people are dying that much something is badly wrong on some side of the table.

A character living long enough to reach their 4th career should be something to crow about in and of itself. A player who has stuck with their one-eyed, monkey tailed and insane original character shouldn't be inferior to the shiney new character from the guy that dies once per session. It should be more like "yeah Herschel may only have two fingers left on his right hand, but have you seen him shoot the horns off a bestigor from a quarter mile?"

Other games like D&D have a much stronger case for replacing a character with an equal analogue in order to keep from being completely worthless. In Warhammer you typically pay for being high level with insanity, mutation and mutilation...ain't no free rides....no cutting in line.

But I may also just be a draconian stooge who needs to power trip on the corpses of dead characters so YMMV

Hi,

I usually round exp up to nearest lowest rank completed within the party. Ie 3 surviving adventurers on 16, 21 and 24 exp then a new char completes rank 1 and starts with 10 advances. Then they can buy 2 advances for a corruption pt or disease card, or 1 advance for a crit.

I do this partly because I dont like the previously mentioned aspect of replacement chars turning up with the same exp but nothing nasty to show for it, and because I honestly feel if you miss the lowly ranks of a characters journey you miss out on a part of the RP for that character. I also havent really noticed the difference in 5-10 exp producing gulfs in pc capabilities yet (which I really like!).

I give 75% xp earned (rounding up).

I do this, because I also think there's not a huge difference between a 20 xp char and a 15 xp char, it's the first 5-10 xp you spend that really matters. But at the same time it means that dying has a consequence, really a very delicate/tough balance.

Also they risk getting disease/critical wounds, if they're in wizard career line, they also risk corruption.

Critical:

For each rank they draw one critical wound, then they get one recovery roll per critical wound (no fortune points allowed), only one purple dice. The rolls are not tied to a specific crit, ex. they DON'T roll vs. severity 4 crit, and end up with 3 useless succes', these can be used to get rid of a severity 3 crit.

Tested this, works fine.

Disease:

For each rank they roll one Misfortune Dice, each toughness point (and resilience) lets them roll one Fortune dice. After the result is seen, if they get a bane they "win" a disease... only ever one.

Tested this, no diease yet

Corruption:

Each rank of wizard careers means roll of two misfortune dice, each bane equals a corruption point.

Havn't tested this yet...

In the beginning I let the players have the same XP on their new characters as the ones that died. However, I enacted some tough rules after some of my players wasted far too many characters (one player has died 12 times since last summer) because of careless behaviour and stupid decisions with their characters. Now they only get to re-roll races and careers once per rank their old character had. That's right, they begin with 0 XP if they die. They also have the right to not be able to roll one race they absolutely don't want to play. I created that rule because one player really don't want to play Dwarfs, and I figured that he would only play badly and be unhappy if he rolled a Dwarf. I still let the players roll their race and draw their careers randomly so that they can't always get the "best" careers like the Ironbreaker.

This may seem harsh but some of the younger players in the group (and one that is older than me) plays a bit recklessly and, one could say, childishly. I'm not sure if it's my new rules or because their new careers are more peaceful or a combination of the two, but it seems to be working (somewhat) better in my group now.

Kopesh said:

I also like the characters starting from scratch, as it gives then incentives to be careful and they I think having veterans and new characters in the same party can be quite fun. I do let them advance at double speed however until they catch up. Still with rank 3 characters, catching up would still take 10 sessions, so I feel it's a good solution.

Kopesh said:

I think this goes a long way towards expanding on how to treat player death and replacements as an evolutionary thing for every group. Instead of a hard and fast rule that "everyone" should always use. As GM's we have to gauge the group and, if required, entice new players to stick around long enough that you can "drop the hammer" so to speak later on without them pulling away and wanting to go back to playing Medieval SIMS instead. Replacement character starting XP is a good way to throttle that. Instead of "welcome to warhammer hos...time to die and play from the beginning over and over" it becomes more of a "dang Pete you got tooled by that commoner with a pitch fork...let's make a new guy real quick." Then after they have died a lot (12 times in 9 months is fudging crazy lol) you crank up the "stop making bad choices" meter and impose xp penalties. If they have stuck around this long they'll be able to rationalize why it is lame to start at full xp over and over.

And the guy that dies all the time? It get's funnier if he is simply referred to as Ensign Ricky from Star Trek. My little brother is famous for his horrid dice luck in any game we've ever played...so in my world he is the red shirted ensign and it has lead to some pretty hilarious roleplaying moments of cowardice, heroism and a little light hearted black comedy over the years. Beginning as a Commoner when the other characters are Witch Hunter Captains can be fun if you choose to let it. Yet another brilliant facet of WFRP in all editions.

I am lucky enough to have had the same group of scallywags to play with since I was knee high to a frog's eye, and I don't have to worry about them getting turned off by warhammer's grittyness and doom n gloom (play Dark Heresy sometime and WFRP will feel like a vacation in the sun ...at least when my evil cousin is running it...). When we suit up for Warhammer (no not LARP'ing! just a figure of speech) we are ready to walk up hill both ways and fight the orc warboss with a spoon when we get there.

My hope is that for all new comers to WFRP...that in 16 years you'll still be dying of the plague and giggling as you replace your Raven Knight of Morr with a fat tavern wench destined for grim and perilous adventure in a world that hates you

I like the advance double speed to catch up.

Maybe with an added "earn up to 1 more advance a session if Fortune refreshed" to encourage good roleplaying,

and/or

"Learn by pain" an extra bonus advance each session you begin play with a critical wound, madness or disease.

My logic behind double advancement speed is that the new characters will learn a lot from the veterans. It makes sense for me both from a mechanics point of view and in terms of fluff.

Yes, double xp untill the new character is back on the XP the old would have. "The new guy learns fast" works well. Then dying hurts, but won't make you lag behind forever and ever.