Useless Careers - more of them?

A quick question to all readers of this blog - do you think that we need more interesting but rather useless / helpless careers? And if yes - do you have some ideas of new careers? I'm completely clueless what could be added into MFRP.

List of skills

Here you are - list of all skills from the game. Skills marked with asterisk are common skills and can be tested without proper skill, but with halved stat.

Acrobatics
Acting
Animal Care
Animal Training
Arcane Lore
Athletics (*)
Awareness (*)
Barter
Blather
Bribery
Carouse (*)
Cast Spells
Charm
Chemistry
Climb (*)
Command
Concealment (*)
Concentration
Contortionist
Craft
Cryptography
Cure Disease
Disarm Traps
Disguise
Dodge (*)
Drive Cart
Engineering
Etiquette
Evaluate (*)
First Aid (*)
Gamble
Haggling (*)
Horsemanship
Interrogation
Intimidate
Lip Reading
Literacy
Lore
Meditate
Navigation
Performer
Pick Locks
Pick Pockets
Secret Tongue
Set Traps
Shadowing (*)
Sleight of Hand
Speak Language
Surgery
Survival (*)
Stealth (*)
Swim
Torture
Tracking (*)
Trade

Have I missed something?

Advanced Careers - initial list

Very first version of advanced careers list. As usual, Everything May Change.

Accountant
Alchemist
Archer
Assassin
Brigand
Captain
Charlatan
Cleric
Craftsman
Demagogue
Doppelsoldner
Duelist
Engineer
Executioner
Fencer
Forger
Gunner
Inquisitor
Knight
Landsknecht
Lookout
Mate
Mercenary Officer
Merchant
Minstrel
Officer
Outlaw Leader
Physician
Racketeer
Raubritter
Scholar
Scout
Seneschal
Slaver
Sorcerer
Spy
Supervisor
Templar
Witch Hunter

Useless Careers

One of the most remarkable elements of the Original Game was tons of rather weak or even useless careers. Classes like Boatman, Herdsman or Servant has almost nothing to offer both skill- and stat-wise. But I don't know any other game that offer opportunity to start gaming with real "no one" and evolve into someone important. And as it was one of the most appealing elements of WFRP (at least for me), I plan to incorporate these "ideas" into Morgenstern FRP. At the beginning of work I thought about more DH-ish career paths (of course with possibility to change the path) but later I realized that multitude of not-so-awesome careers was one of the most important element of Warhammer FRP.

Basic Careers - Exit Careers

You should be accustomed with fact that everything I present here is preliminary version and may change in the future. Also - if you have any additional ideas - feel free to drop me a comment.

Apothecary - Apprentice, Charlatan, Physician, Student
Apprentice - Alchemist, Sorcerer, Physician, Charlatan, Craftsman
Beggar - Cutthroat, Spy, Thief, Mugger, Rat Catcher,
Boatman - Outlaw, Smuggler, Mate
Bodyguard - Mercenary, Bounty Hunter, Mugger
Bounty Hunter - Slaver, Assassin, Witch Hunter, Outlaw Leader, Brigand
Butcher - Executioner, Trader, Peddler
Coachman - Scout, Roadwarden, Outlaw
Cutthroat - Assassin, Bodyguard, Racketeer, Thief
Dustman - Militiaman, Mugger, Bodyguard
Entertainer - Thief, Spy, Troubadour, Student, Instigator
Fisherman - Outlaw, Sailor, Peddler
Gatekeeper - Watchman, Militiaman, Mugger, Soldier
Gladiator - Landsknecht, Outlaw Leader, Duelist
Gravedigger - Mugger, Laborer, Militiaman, Jailer, Grave Robber
Grave Robber - Student, Apprentice (Alchemist, Sorcerer), Cutthroat, Mugger
Guardsman - Lookout, Mercenary, Soldier, Outlaw
Herbalist - Apprentice, Apothecary, Charlatan, Instigator
Herder - Outlaw, Scout, Rustler
Huntsman - Archer, Mercenary, Scout
Instigator - Charlatan, Demagogue,
Jailer - Supervisor, Executioner, Slaver, Gravedigger, Rat Catcher
Laborer - Supervisor, Engineer, Bodyguard, Mugger
Mercenary - Soldier, Landsknecht, Mercenary Officer
Militiaman - Jailer, Cutthroat, Supervisor, Lookout, Watchman
Monk - Priest, Instigator, Herbalist
Mugger - Cutthroat, Beggar, Entertainer, Bodyguard
Noble - Squire, Accountant, Fencer, Student
Outlaw - Outlaw Leader, Slaver, Huntsman, Brigand
Pander - Fencer, Mugger, Bodyguard
Peddler - Trader, Laborer, Outlaw, Rustler
Raconteur - Charlatan, Demagogue, Pander
Rat Catcher - Dustman, Gravedigger, Grave Robber, Beggar
Roadwarden - Outlaw, Mercenary, Militiaman, Scout
Runner - Roadwarden, Militiaman, Scout
Rustler - Outlaw, Peddler, Coachman
Sailor - Mate, Smuggler, Mercenary, Soldier, Slaver
Scribe - Forger, Apprentice, Scholar, Accountant, Monk
Seer - Charlatan, Instigator, Monk
Servant - Thief, Supervisor, Coachman, Laborer, Seneschal
Smuggler - Boatman, Sailor, Trader
Soldier - Outlaw, Officer, Mercenary, Gunner, Gladiator
Squire - Knight, Raubritter, Mercenary, Brigand
Student - Apprentice, Instigator, Scholar, Accountant, Scribe
Tax Collector - Accountant, Trader, Thief, Outlaw
Thief - Charlatan, Spy, Forger
Toll-keeper - Militiaman, Lookout, Tax Collector, Outlaw, Thief
Trader - Accountant, Merchant, Thief
Trapper - Huntsman, Scout, Outlaw,
Troubadour - Minstrel, Fencer, Instigator
Watchman - Lookout, Mercenary, Officer
Woodsman - Scout, Lookout, Outlaw

Career-related Traits

Here is a list of traits related with careers. These traits are considered as "normal ones" and can be purchased with XP. Other traits (will be presented soon), such as Inhuman stats or abilities of monsters and other creatures cannot be bought.

Updated 2012-08-22

Acute Senses
Additional Dodge
Additional Parry
Additional Strike
Adept of Magic
Ambidextrous
Armor Proficiency
Backstab
Battle Frenzy
Brawler
Cavalier Training (thanks to Jonathan Black)
Clarity of Mind (thanks to Lindsay Law)
Disarm
Disease resistance
Fast Healing
Fast Reload
Favored by Gods
Fearless
Flee
Grappler
Hatred
Highly Alert
Immune to Pain
Knockdown
Lethal Charge
Lightning Reflexes
Linguistics
Lucky
Marked by Fate
Marksman
Master of Magic
Master Orator
Mighty Blow
Nerves of Steel
Night Vision
Pain Resistance
Poison resistance
Precise Blow
Pure Soul (thanks to Lindsay Law)
Sense Danger
Sense Magic
Sharpshooter
Shield Expert
Shield Master
Silk Hands (thanks to Jonathan Black)
Silver Tongue (thanks to Jonathan Black)
Sixth Sense
Sneak Attack
Spellcaster
Stunning Blow
Takedown
Tenacity (thanks to Jonathan Black)
Unremarkable
Very Strong
Very Tough
Weapon Proficiency

Career groups

As I mentioned in one of the previous posts, I do not plan to add career classes, as I view it as absolutely unnecessary. However, lack of career classes leads to problems with determination of starting career - one huge table will lead only to confusion and almost no chance to hit a career desired by a player, even with multiple rolls.

Idea is simple - there will be several career groups, roughly divided by the nature of particular careers. No stat level requirements - any player may choose any group.

Preliminary list of the career groups:

• Academic - educated men, or pretending to be educated.
• Working Class - peasants, servants and various laborers, both from urban and rural environment.
• Military Men - professional fighters.
• Nobility - rather obvious group. Still I'm not sure if it will be included, mostly because of lack of many noble careers.
• Professional Criminals - from beggars and grave robbers to cutthroats and thieves.
• Townsfolk - various residents of towns and cities, from tradesmen to scum.
• Rangers and Woodsmen - hunters, poachers, roadwardens, toll keepers etc.
• Entertainers and Scroundels - always ready to entertain you. Or entertain themselves at your expense.

As these groups are very general and have fluent limits, some careers will appear in several groups. In example, Mugger may belong to Townsfolk and Professional Criminals groups, while Roadwarden may be picked from Rangers and Woodsmen and Military Men groups.

Basic Careers - initial list

Initial list of Basic Careers. Feel free to suggest me something more :) Also, it's very possible that this list will be greatly expanded during making career descriptions and stat blocks.

EDIT: I have a strange feeling that this list will change several times - still nothing is sure.

Apothecary
Apprentice
Beggar
Boatman
Bodyguard
Bounty Hunter
Butcher
Coachman
Cutthroat
Dustman
Entertainer
Fisherman
Gatekeeper
Gladiator
Gravedigger
Grave Robber
Guardsman
Herbalist
Herder
Huntsman
Instigator
Jailer
Laborer
Mercenary
Militiaman
Monk
Mugger
Noble
Outlaw
Pander
Peddler
Raconteur
Rat Catcher
Roadwarden
Runner
Rustler
Sailor
Scribe
Seer
Servant
Smuggler
Soldier
Squire
Student
Tax Collector
Thief
Toll-keeper
Trader
Trapper
Troubadour
Watchman
Woodsman

Skills, careers and traits

Some initial thoughts about these three very important aspects of the game mechanics:

• As in the second edition of the Original Game, skills and traits will be divided into two separate groups. Skills can be tested, traits only affect some aspects of the PC / NPC / monster.
• It doesn't make sense to divide talents (i.e. Very Strong or Ambidextrous) and traits (such as Inhuman stats or some monster abilities) into two separate groups as game mechanics treat these two in the same way. Even mutations are traits (but these will be listed separately, mostly because their impact on the role-playing aspect of the game).
• There will be no career class in the MFRP - now dumb PC can be a healer of wizard, just very bad one :D
• I'm not sure how to make random career determination without career classes, but I'll figure it out. Maybe one big table and three (or more) rolls and picking one result - what do you think about it?
• I want to keep the idea about basic and advanced careers - In my opinion it's very important aspect of the game. And it's absolutely logical.
• I'll use simple method of posting career descriptions: one post - one career.

Sorry for the lack of more creative posts - I'll try to post some career lists later today.

No fate, just luck

I thought a lot about using Fate Points and / or Luck Points in the Morgenstern game. Here are some initial thoughts and ieas about using luck in MFRP:

• PCs may use Luck Points to re-roll any one failed test, such as characteristics check, skill check etc.;
• PCs may use Luck Points to add one degree of success to the result of the test (even after rolling a dice);
• Starting number of Luck Points is equal to one plus one per each stat score ended by number seven;
• Dying PC may "push his luck" to avoid death but must have at least one Luck Point still available. I will make an appropriate table with some effects of such deed (see below);
• I don't know how Luck Points should be restored - in WFRP style, once per game session, or maybe during some extraordinary deeds / purchased with XP. Any help with it will be appreciated :)

I'm still not sure how to handle the role of Luck Points as Fate Points - it's fairly powerful option to not decrease number of LP by one, but if I create the table of "death and avoiding it" correctly, it may be enough. Basic ideas about table entries:

• It wasn't your day - you die anyway (result of 00 on d100);
• Bonus 100xp for surviving near-death experience;
• Additional insanity points;
• Demon or maybe even Chaos God sensing the "disturbance" and centering his attention on the PC;
• Wrath of god?
• Additional critical effect?
• Nasty mutilation?
• Your luck is ending - permanently decrease number of Luck Points by one.

If you have better / additional ideas about it - feel free to drop a comment :)

Why choose Morgenstern, not house rules?

There are several reasons why I started to write Morgenstern ruleset instead of house ruling the Original Game. I think that same reasons may apply to any possible users of MFRP.

• As I mentioned before, there are good ideas in both editions of the Original Game. Carrying that amount of rulebooks and jumping between them is really annoying...
• ...and leads to stat incompatibilities. It's not a problem with most RPGs, but WFRP has tons of professions which stat blocks needs to be rewritten to apply more invasive house rules. Such massive modifications will be very time-consuming so I thought that making a separate rules system should be only little longer and more satisfying task.
• Setting-less rules system may be used with almost any other game.
• Some basic ideas, such as determining hit locations or luck system can be used with almost any other percentile mechanics. Unfortunately I don't believe that Morgenstern FRP will be modular enough to use all of its ideas in other games, but who knows?
• Many people (including myself) finds complete rules systems more attractive than just several pages-long hacks.
• I hope that there will be an awesome artwork in the MFRP rulebook!

Differences between the editions

Click to enlarge

Short explanation of the differences

• Skill advances are now dependant on the selected profession - you can't just buy +10 advance for 100xp like in the 2ed WFRP.
• There are no Fate Points but players may "push their luck" to try avoid death (it will be explained soon).
• There are no mixed scale for the basic stats - all abilities are percentile.
• There are no Magic Points in Morgenstern FRP - all magic spells are based on Hit Points.
• Basic ideas about Hit Points were explained here.
• Corruption track (Taint Points) will have mechanics similar to the Insanity Points (and similar to the corruption rules from Dark Heresy).

Character creation - stats and so on

HUMAN

MC d20+20
RC d20+20
STR d20+20
CON d20+20
DEX d20+20
PER d20+20
INT d20+20
WLP d20+20
FEL d20+20
HP d6+4

DWARF

MC d20+30
RC d20+10
STR d20+25
CON d20+25
DEX d20+15
PER d20+10
INT d20+20
WLP d20+25
FEL d20+15
HP d6+6

ELF

MC d20+20
RC d20+30
STR d20+15
CON d20+15
DEX d20+30
PER d20+30
INT d20+20
WLP d20+20
FEL d20+25
HP d6+3

HALFLING

MC d20+15
RC d20+25
STR d20+10
CON d20+20
DEX d20+25
PER d20+20
INT d20+20
WLP d20+15
FEL d20+25
HP d6+4

Alternate methods of stat determination

There are several additional methods to determine starting stat levels of the PCs. All of them are strictly optional:

• 2d10: "classic" option. Slightly bigger chance for rounded score.
• Roll 3d10, keep two highest numbers: good option for total wimps, afraid of playing crappy PCs.
• 3d6: bigger chance for better scores but without option to hit starting stat of 40 (or 50, or 35, or... whatever).

Hit Points option for wimps

If a player is afraid that his PC will have low HP, he may re-roll "1" scored during determination of Hit Points. But there is a price for being a coward - if six is scored, he (or she, but ladies are often more courageous than males and don't choose such wimpy options) must subtract one point from the result.

Purposes of the Morgenstern FRP

There are several reasons why I started this blog (and writing of the Morgenstern Fantasy Role Play):

• I was extremely dissatisfied by the second edition of WFRP, especially even more broken rules and shitty world changes. Form of the game (tiny and empty rulebook + tons of crappy supplements) was even worse. Third edition is just too different and too expensive for me (imagine how much I must pay with up to seven, eight players!).
• Re-writing the whole system seems to be simpler than adding tons of house rules to the rulebook(s), especially when both editions have good and (very) bad things inside.
• I know that there is a Zweihander (still unreleased tho) but it seems to be more "2.5 edition", while I want to make Morgenstern as more "1.5" edition.
• We really need WFRP OSR and someone need to start it, along with Zweihander and Small But Vicious Dog.

About Hit Points

Contrary to the WFRP, there is no Wounds in the game. Purpose of the Warhammer Wounds was only a "life points counter", describing physical damage. Hit Points, originating from the earliest editions of D&D, are much more abstract - aside from physical condition they may depict almost every aspect of the character's status - effects of fatigue, magical drain or even hangover. Here are some more straight examples of additional purposes of HP in the mechanics of MFRP:

• Casting spells (1e-style spells, not 2e / WFB style) cost you certain amount of HP. There will be appropriate talents helpful in reducing the cost.
• Fatigue, aside from the negative test modifiers, may reduce HP (really screwed up CON tests).
• Character at 0 HP is not dead but just critically wounded / exhausted. Critical Hits are very important aspect of Warhammer FRP so they can't be missed :D
• Characters exhausted to the level of 0 HP are unconscious until they can regain at least one Hit Point.
• If critically injured characters become fatigued, they drop unconscious as well.

These ideas are still in very experimental stage and will be extensively tested in the next few weeks.

More information about the abstract Hit Points can be found here.

Stats and bonuses

In Morgenstern FRP, there are nine basic percentile stats that can be used to describe every living being (monster, NPC or PC) in the game. Their purposes are rather obvious.

MC – Melee Combat

RC – Ranged Combat

STR – Strength

CON – Constitution

DEX – Dexterity

PER – Perception

INT – Intelligence

WLP – Willpower

FEL – Fellowship

Also, each stat has a modifier associated with it. In most cases, stat bonuses are used in non-test actions, such as dealing and resisting damage, spell effect modifiers, initiative in combat and so on. Each bonus is equal to the tens digit of the statistic (for example, if someone's Strength is 37, his Strength modifier is 3).

Using stat modifiers
Melee and Ranged Combat - stat mods are almost always unused.
Strength - damage modifier, (encumberance).
Constitution - reduction of received damage, duration of sickness and toxin effects.
Dexterity - initiative in combat.
Perception - some skills.
Intelligence - some skills, some spells.
Willpower - resisting insanity, duration of many spells.
Fellowship - social tests and skills (in most cases number of people affected by them).

Inhuman abilities
Some monsters (especially demons, mythical beings and creatures of Chaos) are much more powerful than ordinary mortals. They are much faster, stronger and / or extremely hard to kill. To depict it, some of their stats are at inhuman level. Inhuman ability has modifier multiplied by two (or three or even more). In example, Rot Demon has CON 52 and Inhuman Constitution x2, which means that its Constitution modifier is 10, not 5. In addition, GM may add one or more degrees of success in test of inhuman stat or skill based on it but of course only if test is passed.

The Beginning

General purpose of this game is to re-create gaming system similar to older editions of Warhammer Fantasy Role Play (especially 1st edition, published by Games Workshop in 1986), with percentile mechanics but simplified and more intuitive rules. Emm, am I supposed to write something more about it? I think that no one gives a shit about pointless rambling so almost all next posts will be about the rules itself.

Also, forgive me my bad English - it's not my primary language.