Introduction
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Small But Vicious Dog (B/X+WFRP hack), ver0 3 Introduction Welcome to a fantasy world where the men are Baldrick, the dwarves are punk, and the dogs are small but vicious. Welcome to a world of bawds, grave robbers, excisemen and witch-hunters; a place where “Blather , “Flee" and “Mime are legitimate skill choices; and where all material on the insidious threat of Chaos is officially interchangeable between settings. Welcome (back) to the Grim World of Perilous Adventure. Whisper it (that fanboys may not hear and descend a-squealing), but for all the charm of its skewed-familiar 1,th century milieu and the lurking horror of Chaos, Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play was little more than a modcop of classic Dungeons & Dragons . -es, our beloved WF.P was yet another /fix 0102 fantasy heartbreaker, albeit one which had the clout of the biggest name in British gaming behind it. Whole chunks of the system were lightly disguised 010 mechanics adapted to a roll-under d3 system 1, and many setting elements not gleefully ripped off from Tolkien, 5eiber or Moorcock were already established 010 tropes by the time WF.P was published. 2 But that7s ok. Indeed, that7s part of why all right-thinking people 9 Brits, Italians and Poles especially 9 love WF.P. To paraphrase a better man than I: we took an American invention, soaked it in a witches7 brew of Bosch, 0urer and 0or;, Mervyn Peake and Tom Sharpe, Blackadder , The Young Ones , pints of bitter, cheap weed, Iron Maiden and The Damned , and then we played the hell out of it. And that2s what this ill-considered rules hack is about. -our humble author 9 a dirty little yahoo from a rainy, grimy, post-imperial isle in the northern seas 9 decided to have a go at welding 010 and WF.P together. Why? So I could play games of WF.P-ish misery and despair with rules of B/X-ish brevity, thus achieving personal gaming nirvana. This here resulting travesty is a 903 pure game mechanics kitbash with minimal background material or context. I won2t even pretend I can pr;cis 20-odd years of background material into 32 pages or so. If you want all that good stuff you should hunt out a copy of WF.P itself; it is worth your time. I hope you enCoy my little love letter to DrealD WF.P (the one that came complete in a single fat book). But “If you know a better hole, then go to it. Note: This is not-for-gain fanwork which requires access to both B/X 010 (either in the form of the original TS. games, or as Goblinoid Games2 fine simulacrum abyrinth ord ) and WF.P (1E or 2E) for full use and enCoyment. It is not intended as a replacement for either game, or as a challenge to any copyrights. A Note on Abbreviations Most people reading this will know what all these acronyms mean, but Cust in case: O010 - Original 0ungeons 1 0ragons (1974-77), published by TS.. B/X - Moldvay/Marsh/Cook 0ungeons 1 0ragons (19I2), published by TS.. BECMI - MentJer 0ungeons 1 0ragons (19I,), published by TS.. WF.P - Warhammer Fantasy .ole-Play (19I,). .eprinted by Hogshead Publishing 1995. WF.P 2E - Warhammer Fantasy .ole-Play (2005). Published by GW2s Black Industries imprint. WF.P 3E - Some boxed collectible dice-and-card game that claims to be Warhammer Fantasy .ole-Play. Oh, how we laughed" Published by Fantasy Flight Games (2010). d20 S.0 - The d20 System .eference 0ocument (2000), published by WiJards of the Coast. 55 - 5abyrinth 5ord, published by Goblinoid Games. 55AEC - 5abyrinth 5ord Advanced Edition Companion, published by Goblinoid Games. Credits WF.P created by Meisters Bambra, 0avis, Gallagher, Halliwell and Priestley. B/X 010 created by Meisters Gygax, Arneson, Moldvay, Marsh and Cook. SBM0 from the pen of Chris Hogan, a lowly ink-stained wretch. Proofreading by Nelvin Green. Playtesting by OTBCP 1 Said system being a heavily .unequest/Call of Cthulhu-influenced elaboration of the one prototyped in Games Workshop2s 19I5 Judge Dredd RPG . 2 Even the people who wrote Warhammer novels in the early 1990s were quite clear on the derivative nature of the WF.P world. See, for example, Steven Baxter2s 2002 retrospective article “Freedom in an Owned World: Warhammer Fiction and the InterJone Generation . 1 of 36 Small But Vicious Dog (B/X+WFRP hack), ver0 3 Ability Scores A character2s Primary Ability Scores are Movement , Strength , Toughness , Agility , Intelligence , Willpower and Fellowship . I2m sure anyone familiar with B/X and WF.P will be able to work out what2s whatQ Movement (Mv) R B/X speed in feet/turn divided by 30. Why the change-for-the-sake-of-it? Because a single digit Movement score (Mv 4, Mv3, etc) is 1) more WF.P-ish, and 2) much simpler than fiddling about with “so many tens of feet per round . Other Ability Scores are generated 3d6 in order , for such is the way of righteousness (although see “5aughter of 0ark Gods rule below). Primary Profile Mv Str Tgh Ag Int Wil Fel Ability Score Modifiers, and use in play, are per B/X unless indicated otherwise. Ability Modifier Affects Score General Mod Init or Reaction Str WS, melee damage 3 -3 -2 Tgh Wounds per die 4-5 -2 -1 Ag AC, BS, Initiative ,-I -1 -1 Int Additional languages 9-12 0 0 Wil Save modifier vs. magic 13-15 S1 S1 Fel To.U of retainers, their morale, 1,-17 S2 S1 TPC reactions 1I S3 S2 A character2s Secondary Scores are other game-relevant numbers. These are a bit of a mish-mash in that some are randomly generated, while others are either fixed, or accumulate/decrease over time. These are: Secondary Profile WS BS Att W Mag IP FP Weapon Skill - (melee attack bonus) See Combat, pp1,-17 Bow Skill - (ranged attack bonus) See Combat, pp1,-17 Attacks - (per round, generally 1) See Combat, pp1,-17 Wounds - (a.k.a. hit points) See .aces and “Careers, pp3-, Magic - (max U of casting dice) See Magic, pp19-20 Insanity Points - See Insanity, p14 Fate Points - See Fate Points, p7 A character2s Saving Throws are determined by their class and level, as normal for B/X 010. Saving Throws Death Petrify Breath Device Spell Death - also poison, disease, drug addiction, suffocation and drowning, etc. Petrify - also paralysis, polymorph, sleep, entanglement, terror . Breath - also adverse weather, avalanches and suchlike natural force ma%eure . Device - wand, rod, stave, trap, explosion, falling into heavy machinery, etc. Spell - also non-magical fear effects. Laughter of Dark Gods At character generation a player may replace one 9 and only one 9 3d, Ability Score that makes them sad with a 10. Players who do this may be freely mocked as soft, gurly and sorely lacking in moral fibre. True followers of the WF.P Way may instead replace their highest rolled Primary Profile ability score with a 10. This latter choice earns kudos for being “Totally WF.P" and, at the GM2s option, gains the character an additional d3 Fate Points. 2 of 36 Small But Vicious Dog (B/X+WFRP hack), ver0 3 Races Choice of playable races is one area where SBM0 (and all its source material before it) show a notable debt to that erudite I00lb gorilla of 20th century fantasy, V.....Tolkien. Humans are the vast maCority in SBM0, with non-humans being the designated butts of both superstitious preCudice and a blatantly unfair tax regime. Those who elect to play a non-human don7t get the unalloyed Coy of rolling for a career; instead they play a professional stereotype straight from Central Casting. Use the demi-human races of B/X as written. Dwarf (0,2 per party. Wounds: ISdI/lvl Attack as: Fighter Save as: 0warf 5ikes: gold, Cewels, honour, combs. Preferred MO: axe to the knees, or over-complicated death-machines (“Pull the lever" ) Trappings: scruffy clothes, chainmail, hammer or axe, tankard, lantern, helmet. Huge beard, dour mien. All dwarves are beer-soaked beards on legs who stop mining only to fight, drink heavily and/or sing about mining. They consider everything they say and do to be S.S BXTX and nurse a grudge like a Bretonnian nurtures a fine vintage wine. All perceived similarities between 0warves and -orkshiremen are coincidental. There2s a 103 chance that any dwarf character created is a Troll Slayer, a kamikaJe no-pants dwarf with a big orange mohawk, prison tats, a two-handed axe and a burning desire to ragequit life as violently as possible. Elf (0,1 per party. Wounds: ,Sd,/lvl Attack as: Fighter Save as: Elf 5ikes: wine, art, singing, anything you haven2t heard of. Preferred MO: peppering with arrows, then singing beautiful songs about same. Trappings: fine clothing, lute or lyre, bow and arrows, sword, smug expression. All elves are metrosexual minstrels and archers who fly into fey rages when provoked. The elven ability to lose it in spectacularly violent fashion has been clocked at “Tought to Feanor in 4.2 seconds . Most PC elves are filthy tree-hugging pseudo-Celtic Wood Elves, although the Sea Elves who hang out in coastal cities seem to be a kind of Elven gap year backpacker. To one2s quite sure what the mohawked, spandex-wearing paramilitary .iverdance troupe known as Wardancers are supposed to be, apart from FABU5OUS" .umour has it that the Elven homelands are contested in an endless war between two mighty and ancient factions: the louche-and-arty vs.