Hi all,

A few days ago Jackdays posted some nice house rules for runes spreading along the 1st, 2nd and 3rd editions of the game. Today I post what I started a few weeks ago after finishing my project of the High elves.

I extended briefly for my games the rules for runesmithing in order to cover the crafting of runic items with master runes. I also added three new careers, the Journeyman Runesmith, the Master Runesmith and the Runelord. I translated most of the runes covered in previous editions of the role play game as well as in Warhammer Fantasy Battles (a part from the Engineering runes), and put them into card format (if anyone is itnerested I can provide better resolution ones). Finally, I also included the Tradesman and the Artisan careers which I developed for my High Elf fan supplement, since they bear some relation to the crafting rules presented in the Book of Grudges.

For the fans of Slayers, and since I am aware there is no epic career for Slayers in Hero's Call, I included the Demon Slayer career card.

Cheers,

P.S: As always, feedback is very well welcome!

Well, I'm a fan Great work - Beyond mine (have to say)!

I kind of taught that eventually someone would start turning those missing runes. Mine are mostly - Well, my own runes / versions. I love your ideas.

Yepesnopes said:

Yes - Interested.

My email: [email protected]

This is awesome!! Well done!

I would love some HI-Res ones as well [email protected]

By Grungnis golden Bells!

That is great Stuff, the runes sound very solid to me. Also the Rules to set them on different Levels, R1 to MR. Especially I like the way of Cutting and Cleaving. Same mechanism but different intensity.

The R3 Runes also have some drawbacks which are also nice. Also how the Spellbinding, Spellbreaking and Valaya Runes works into the Rune Lore Action Card, just great.

So FFG could just use them and put them as they are in a Print on Demand.

The Career rules for the Runesmith are also great, and exactly on how I thought I will use them when my PCs Runesmith gets past Career 2.

I definately need the high res version!

schulz-florian[atski]web.de

Thank you all for your support.

Since some of you ask for it, I just put here the hi-res version of the runes. It is quite a heavy file, for that reason I am not going to keep it permanently.

Additionally, I got some help from Treehorn who have told me a bit more from the Elite (tier 4) careers appearing in Hero's Call. I have updates the Demon Slayer and the Master Runesmith accordingly. They new version of the careers are included in the whole zip pack .

I hope you enjoy it.

Cheers,

Yepes

Is there any resource like for for the Ironbreaker progression? because is awesome!

Tarthonis said:

If you are asking if I did something for the Ironbreaker, the answer is no. But in Black Fire pass you have the official natural evolution for the Ironbreaker, the Ironshield and the Iron beard careers.

My recommendation though, is that you make the Ironbreaker an intermediate career you have to access through completion of a "Dwarf Warrior Basic" career. After this Dwarf Warrior basic career you would progress to the Ironbreker career, leaving it as it is now. The big difference being that you have to win the fantastic Gromril armour through role playing, instead of just getting it by the face. Convert then the Ironshield career to an advanced career, may be adding to it another talent slot. Then you can leave the Ironbeard as it is, and after the Ironbeard just move naturally to Champion elite career from Hero's Call.

Cheers

Yepesnopes said:

That Idea is used by a lot of GMs who think that the Ironbreaker is to hard to start from. If you want some kind of startingcareer then take the warrior career or make it a different approach.

I'm currently thinking of a specific career which is before the ironbreaker. In the german roleplaying game "Das Schwarze Auge" there is a dwarven race suplemental. There is the archetyp, or career of the "Schachtkehrer" or "shaftsweeper". Actually he is not a black clad dwarf who brings luck, but a one dwarf lone wolf army. His job is to check all the small shafts for air, watter and light which leads into the hold which are usually only big enough for one person to crawl in them. The shafts have to be cleaned, the runetraps checked, portculis and Doors checked and vermin, small and big ones which dwell there taken care of.

More than once these shafts where used by assassins to kill dwarven nobles.

So it is something like the apprentice version of the ironbreaker when they later travel the more dangerous parts of the underway.

The shaftsweeper is usually clad in Chainmail and has his repairtools, climbing gear, Helmet and trusty axe for the bigger rats. And of course some chimney brooms for cleaning the shafts.

I've created a preliminary career track of Basic: Shieldbreaker, Intermediate: Ironbreaker, Advanced: Foebreaker, Elite: Grudgebreaker. Each one has a slightly different flavor while staying true to the elite dwarf warrior theme. Shieldbreaker is the rank and file dwarf soldier (a cut above the warrior who is essentially a dwarf militiaman). The Ironbreaker is a specialized force of dwarf tunnel fighhters. From here the character can take veteran or sergeant, advance to captain or choose to take an oath and advance to the Foebreaker who specializes in battling a certain type of dwarf foe or who has taken it upon himself to end an ongoing conflict. After this the dwarf can go to captain, advance to champion or take another oath and advance to Grudgebreaker where he will seek to resolve a particular grudge held by his clan or hold.

On character Creation I pulled Soldier, not Ironbreaker so starting with Ironbreaker as my basic was an issue. My PCs back story explains that he is searching for the greenskin who slew his father and took the family Gromril. So i may advance into the Ironbreaker career path and not have the armor yet, which adds a tons of flavor in my opinion.

I think my question is more general though... How do you deal with a PC who has hit the end of a progression, and really doesn't want to do anything else? By rank 4 this PC will be an Ironbeard, provided he lives that long, and with the exception of being granted "Thane" status the natural progression for the character stops. How do you deal with a PC at the end of the line like that?

It is a good question , but in the example you propose, he can still go to Champion.

Afterwards you have to options I guess.

-Retire the character.

-Move to a completely different line. May be he has done some merits to become a Dwarf Noble, or he wants to start some commerce line with the Empire, a wandering duelist...

Champion? I've not seen that as an option. So as to not hijack your thread any further, back to runesmithing.

WE will be petitioning our GM to adopt your addition, because it is full of awesome.

Tarthonis said:

Thank you for the comment.

Champion is a career appearing in the official supplement Hero's Call.

Hey Yepesnopes have you considered making house ruled careers for continuing along the Engineer track?

Nabikasu said:

Yes I did, and also creating more invention following the same line as the ones which are presented on the book.

But at the moment I am a bit busy, and I have not too much time. I have just finished two Dwarf Careers for the noble path because with a friend we are trying to house rule more in deepness the rules covering nobles. In the fan material we did for the high elves we already tried to cover nobles which are in foreign lands. Now we are trying to use the rules to cover nobles which families lost their lands or power. I think we are reading too much Game of Thrones

But if I have some time and inspiration, I will try to do one more career (or may be two more) for the engineer "path"

You are some kind of meat miracle, my friend.

which plugin did you use for the demon slayer and sorts, since i can seem to add a 4th talent to my careers, my best is advanced with 3…

nephtys said:

No plugins there, just photoshop

ah nice, gonna do that too now

Love the look but it looks like WHFB runes a system where you could have the hammer of Sigmar.

I think some of these runes are way to powerfull or is there a rank system that restricts some runes to a Master etc.?

LoveSkylark said:

For runes marked with R1 to R3 the character must be of rank 1 - 3 the same as for spells. For master runes you must have the Master Runesmith or Runelord career abilities (see the cards for details). Master runes also, cost two talent advances to learn. Moreover if you want to craft an item with a combination of runes and a master rune, you still have to spend 1 advancement to craft them (you can find this in the short pdf file).

Nonetheless, you are right. I created the runes based on WFB and previous editions of the WFRPG and with them you can create very powerful items.

The idea I had in mind when I translated the runes to WFRPG 3rd ed was to extend the mechanics of rune crafting (and eventually give the tools to my players) to create very powerful magic items (and more variety). This does not mean that I will give them the access to the each and every rune they want, that is up to the GM choice.

I firmly believe that, although Warhammer can be a world as grim and perilous as you want and as low fantasy as you wish, still powerful runes, magic items, dragons, deamons, High Magic and the like does exist (if you have Hero's Call, you will find also very powerfull spells there, see for exaple Breath of Life from the Jade Order, The final transmutation, Cure Mutation, Tears of Mercy…). With these runes, I created just a tool for my campaings, but I will still be the final referee to it. How hard can be to found a Runesmith and to convince him to teach you a master rune? or to find the scriptures from which you can learn it? A campaing by it self maybe.

I hope all these rambling was a bit clarifying.

There are also runes in 2nd edtion in the book "Realms of Sorcery", they are more balanced toward RPG.

LoveSkylark said:

I guess agree, but it is important to look into some details

The second edition, similar to the 3rd ed, presented a limited set of Dwarf runes, and I guess all of them where more balanced. Still some of them can be mentioned to be "unbalanced" like the Master Rune of Alaric the Mad or the Master Rune of Steel.

Regarding your concern of "balance" Do you referee to a particular rune? or just the master runes in general? I may look into it.

In my opinion, the balance in a RPG is a very personal thing and it is created by the GM to suit his gaming style. See for example the thousands of threads regarding the Ironbreaker, some GM find it totally broken, while others find it ok. It depends on your GM style and in the focus of your campaign. For example, in my campaign, in the way it is designed, the stipend that a noble character receives every month is a big unbalancing factor, so I had to put a limitation to it.

Said that, in my opinion, Master Runes in general must be very powerful in order to suit the background of the Old World. If you place weak Master Runes in your games just to preserve RPG balance, better do not allow them in your games at all, since in my opinion it goes against the flavour of runesmithing. For the set of runes I made for my games I had in mind that, me the GM will be the referee of what players can and cannot obtain, when and where. The same for everything else, a GM for example could handle the Ghal-Maraz to his players, or give them griffons to ride into battle or a set of healing potions, the War Crown of Saphery, an unlimited amount of gold…these are all things that exist in the Old world and will be, in most of the situations, "unbalanced" towards RPG, yet if the GM finds it appropriate for his campaign, why not?.

Nevertheless, if you have some particular cases you want to discuss, like this rune or that other, and you have a different idea, feel free to use the forums or email me. I will like to hear your point of view

Cheers

As Yepes has pointed it out, a Masterrune or better the discovery of a Masterrune is the pinacle of a Runesmiths life.

Finding and recovering just ONE is an achievement a Runesmith will dedicate his life to. So if you want to use one of the Masterrunes just take one of the lots and lots of good ones yepes have made. And then send your PCs on a quest to recover the wisdom of the making. And then at least another dangerous adventure to gather the ingredients to strike it ONCE.

With the costs of experience points involved they are reasonable leveled imo. But you should really make them scarce and wonderous.