Chapter 3 - Character Conversion ================================ When the choice was made whether to adopt the tri-dimensional game rules ( with a few changes, such as an increase of PC wounds), or to adapt the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay rule set, after a lot of game-testing, the second option was chosen. Rather than by the imminent release of the italian translation, Martelli da Guerra, this choice was affected by the possibility to exploit the available advancement system for characters (the careers), that had been already tested by many RPG players. Actually, no-one wanted "to put too much meat on the fire", at the same time retaining some coherence with the GW production. In spite of this, the work immediately showed itself to be rather large. The list of all the new basic and advanced careers of the 41th millenium, with their Advancement Schemes and descriptions, would take some time to work out. Thus a set of rules was formed which allowed you to start playing at once, but only using characters based on the Army Lists created for the wargame. Obviously, since both simple soldiers and very powerful characters are presented in the Army Lists, and since their cost is virtually useless in the RPG, the gamemaster will have to state some criteria to select the characters suitable for the scenario you're going to play. Let's start to convert a character step by step, drawing it from an Army List; the sample character for each section of this article is an ex-Space Marine, based on the Codex of the second edition of WH40K. 3.1 The Character Profile =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= As all the players of WH40K know, the profile of each character (i.e., its base characteristics, as Strength or Intelligence), be it a commander or a soldier, is expressed by mean of its stats, ranging from 0 to 10. We have now to convert such stats into percentage terms, making reference to tables 1 and 2. +--------+--------------+--------------+-------------+--------------------+ | Stats | WS | BS | W | Ld, Int, Cl, WP | +========+==============+==============+=============+====================+ | 1 | 17 (13+d8) | 9 (6+d6) | 5 (1+d6) | 2 (d4) | | 2 | 25 (21+d8) | 17 (13+d8) | 11 (7+d6) | 6 (4+d4) | | 3 | 33 (29+d8) | 25 (21+d8) | 17 (13+d6) | 10 (8+d4) | | 4 | 41 (37+d8) | 34 (30+d8) | 23 (20+d6) | 14 (12+d4) | | 5 | 49 (45+d8) | 43 (39+d8) | 29 (26+d6) | 18 (16+d4) | | 6 | 57 (53+d8) | 52 (48+d8) | 35 (32+d6) | 24 (20+d6) | | 7 | 65 (61+d8) | 62 (57+d10) | 41 (38+d6) | 29 (26+d6) | | 8 | 73 (69+d8) | 72 (67+d10) | 47 (44+d6) | 43 (29+4d6) | | 9 | 81 (77+d8) | 83 (77+d10) | 53 (50+d6) | 66 (49+5d6) | | 10 | 90 (5+d8) | 93 (89+d8) | 59 (56+d6) | 89 (78+2d10) | +--------+--------------+--------------+-------------+--------------------+ Table 1: Stats conversion table NOTES: * The first value is the mean of the characteristics, which can be rolled following the method between parenthesis; * The Movement, Strength and Toughness remain the same; * The Initiative is ten times WH40K I; * Attacks (A) remain unchanged. Remember the Attacks are used only in melee, never for ranged attacks. * Dex and Fel have no corresponding characteristics in the WH40K rules, and will be determined randomly (see below). If you want to use characters from the Army List of WH40K, Second Edition, you also need to roll some characteristics, fundamental for the RPG, which lack in the new edition. These are: Cl, Int, WP, Dex and Fel. To determine these five characteristics, make reference to table 2. Optionally, you can also base yourself on the Ld score and use the previous conversion table to generate also these other characteristics. +-------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ | | | Space | | | | | Humans | Marines | Eldar | Squat | +=======+===========+===========+===========+===========+ | Dex | 2d10+20 | 2d10+30 | 2d10+30 | 2d10+10 | | Int | 2d10+20 | 2d10+30 | 2d10+40 | 2d10+20 | | Cl | 2d10+20 | 2d10+30 | 2d10+40 | 2d10+40 | | WP | 2d10+20 | 2d10+30 | 2d10+30 | 2d10+40 | | Fel | 2d10+20 | 2d10+20 | 2d10+30 | 2d10+10 | +-------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ Table 2: New stats generation table ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EXAMPLE Kurt Kruger is an ex-Space Marine, who fought in the ranks of the Blood Angels. He left his company against the will of his captain (he is, in short, a deserter), because he was tired of killing Space Orks on all the fronts of the galaxy, with the sign of the Chapter printed on his armour. Now he just wanders through the darkest streets of the most corrupt cities of the most infamous planets of the galaxy, searching for a purpose for his life, different from the blood streaming from the wounds of his enemies. Kurts' original Profile is the following: M:4, WS:4, BS:4, S:4, T:4, W:1, A:1, Ld:8. After rolling the dice according to the previous tables, Kurt new Profile is: M:4, WS:43, BS:35, S:4, T:4, W:6, I:40, A:1, Dex:33, Ld:44, Int:38, Cl: 40, WP:35, Fel:29. In this case we didn't use the previously described optional rule on the Ld: Int, Cl WP and Fel were rolled. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.2 Classes and Skills =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- We divided all the categories of characters in four large classes matching, more or less, those of WFRP: the Soldiers, i.e. those who work (or have worked) in some army; the Rogue, i.e. those who live on the fringe of the society, careless of the laws of their home planet (not people out of the jurisdiction of the Empire, otherwise all the Eldar would be Rogues); the Explorers, i.e. those who have space voyages, such as the colonizers and the settlers; last, the Academics, comprehending beings with psychic powers, the technicians and generally the cultured people. First of all you have to decide which of these four classes the character you want to play belongs to. Logically speaking, each character taken from an Army List should belong to the Soldier class, and serve in an army, but we suggest some flexibility: even an Inquisitor, before the Imperium enlisted him, can have had a Rogue past on his home planet. Moreover, he is certainly also an Academic, because he has psionic powers. In practice, he has characteristics from each of the three classes. With a bit of imagination we can suppose, for example, that an Imperial Guard, tired of his life as a soldier, deserted and started exploring the space with a stolen spaceship: here we have an Explorer born from the stats of an Imperial Guard! Think of each character as belonging to the class corresponding to his current job, but also feel free to create multiclass characters, with more skills and trappings at hand. However, try to not use very powerful characters, usually indicated in the Army List as unique pieces, because they quite always have remarkable role-playing problems, and troubles in joining a group (think about playing the role of an Eldar Avatar, the incarnation of a god!). To determine the number of skills available to your character follow the procedure on the WFRP manual, once the age of the character has been determined. Every Space Marine should have therefore, on average, 3-4 random skills, rolled on the Soldier Skills Table. Each player can also choose for his character three more skills, from all the WFRP skills and the ones we describe below. The skill table for each career class can be found in Chapter 2, but they here repeated here for clarity. For skill descriptions see the WFRP rulebook, and for the new or modified skills, the previous chapter. --Soldiers-- +---------+----------------------------+---------+----------------------------+ | D100 | Skill | D100 | Skill | +=========+============================+=========+============================+ | 01-06 | Ambidextrous | 07-13 | Specialist Weapon | | 14-15 | Disarm | 16-20 | Luck | | 21-25 | Drive Motorcycle | 26-30 | Spot Ambush | | 31-33 | Read/Write | 34-39 | Very Strong | | 40-44 | Very Resilient | 45-48 | Silent Move Rural | | 49-52 | Silent Move Urban | 53-55 | Fleet Footed | | 56-62 | Pilot | 63-68 | Lightning Reflexes | | 69-75 | Repair (Weapons/Armours) | 76-80 | Sixth Sense | | 81-85 | Scale Sheer Surface | 86-91 | Marksmanship | | 92-96 | Acute hearing | 97-00 | Excellent Vision | +---------+----------------------------+---------+----------------------------+ --Explorers-- +---------+----------------------------+---------+----------------------------+ | D100 | Skill | D100 | Skill | +=========+============================+=========+============================+ | 01-04 | Ambidextrous | 05-10 | Heraldry | | 11-16 | Astronomy | 17-22 | Culture Classification | | 23-25 | Luck | 26-28 | Drive Motorcycle | | 29-35 | Read/Write | 36-40 | Operate Complex Vehicles | | 41-42 | Very Resilient | 43-50 | Space Navigation | | 51-55 | Warp Navigation | 56-63 | Direction Sense | | 64-65 | Fleet Footed | 66-70 | Pilot | | 71-72 | Lightning Reflexes | 73-77 | Linguistics | | 78-83 | Repair (Vehicles) | 84-85 | Climb Sheer Surface | | 86-90 | Sixth Sense | 91-94 | Acute Hearing | | 95-00 | Technology Evaluation +---------+----------------------------+ +---------+----------------------------+ --Rogues-- +---------+----------------------------+---------+----------------------------+ | D100 | Skill | D100 | Skill | +=========+============================+=========+============================+ | 01-04 | Ambidextrous | 05-08 | Blather | | 09-10 | Sing | 11-15 | Bribe | | 16-17 | Dance | 18-20 | Forgery | | 21-25 | Luck | 26-30 | Flee! | | 31-34 | Drive Motorcycle | 35-38 | Very Strong | | 39-42 | Very Resilient | 43-48 | Silent Move Rural | | 49-53 | Silent Move Urban | 54-57 | Fleet Footed | | 58-65 | Pilot | 66-68 | Lightning Reflexes | | 69-75 | Street Fighting | 76-79 | Scale Sheer Surface | | 80-86 | Dodge Blow | 87-91 | Sixth Sense | | 92-96 | Acute Hearing | 87-00 | Excellent Vision | +---------+----------------------------+---------+----------------------------+ --Academics-- +---------+----------------------------+---------+----------------------------+ | D100 | Skill | D100 | Skill | +=========+============================+=========+============================+ | 01-03 | Ambidextrous | 04-08 | Heraldry | | 09-12 | Astronomy | 13-17 | Blather | | 18-23 | Bureaucracy | 24-25 | Sing | | 26-30 | Custom Lore | 31-35 | Warp Lore | | 36-40 | Cryptography | 41-42 | Dance | | 43-50 | Luck | 51-53 | Flee! | | 54-58 | Super Numerate | 59-65 | Read/Write | | 66-67 | Very Strong | 68-69 | Very Resilient | | 70-72 | Silent Move Rural | 73-75 | Silent Move Urban | | 76-80 | Pilot | 81-85 | Lightning Reflexes | | 86-90 | Scale Sheer Surface | 91-95 | Sixth Sense | | 96-00 | Acute Hearing +---------+----------------------------+ +---------+----------------------------+ The heroic characters, as described on page 68 of the new Rulebook of WH40K, must have, of course, more skills than the common ones, because of their longer experience on the field and their superior abilities. To simulate this, each Champion will choose 2 more skills, each Hero 4 more ones and a Mighty Hero (an Imperial Assassin, or a Commander, for example) will choose 6 more skills. The same is for the Psykers: +2 for the Psyker Champions, +4 for the Master Psykers and +6 for the Psyker Lords (the Inquisitors!). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EXAMPLE The player, with the GM, decides that Kurt Kruger, as a deserter, belongs to the Rogue class. Rolling 1d4+1 (Kruger is 29 years old) we get a 3, which is the number of skills to be randomly determined on the Rogue Table. So, rolling three times the percentage dice we get the following skills: Drive Motorcycles (33), Flee! (30), and Very Resilient (41). Now the player can choose three more skills; in our case, they are Repair (weapons and armours), Dodge Ranged Weapons and Survival. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.3 WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENT =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= This is perhaps the most important section for those who want to roleplay a warrior of the 41th Millenium. What would have remained of the brave Inquisitor Sabathius, surrounded by ferocious and pitiless Genestealers, if he hadn't had by his side a snarling Chainfist and worn his reliable and impenetrable Terminator Armour? [[editors note: this is not actually possible, by the way. Only Space Marines can wear Termie armour.]] This is the moment to equip and to arm your character, at least enough to let him survive in the hostile recesses of a galaxy haunted from every kind of monstrosity. Let's try to avoid making the WH40K RPG a game exclusively of violent and fruitless combats, which, in the long distance, tires in every roleplay game. Everybody would like, at least in a first moment, to be able to transform their character in a walking arsenal, but we think it is more correct to equip the character following their field experience. The system here presented requires from you a little good sense, because of its flexibility. Approximately, you've only to browse the tables in the Wargear chapter (chapter 5) and choose the weapons you most like, then you roll to see if your character has them. And here please use your common sense, since, if you want to role-play a Space Marine on active service, you should choose a simple Bolter. You have, for your character, five [[D6? D4+3?]] choices available that you can distribute among the various categories of equipments (Pistols, Armours, etc.): this means that a character can also take with him more than one equipment piece belonging to the same category. You've then to roll a percentage dice for each choice, consulting the availability column for that piece of equipment (taking into account also the character race): in this way you can determine whether you obtained what you wanted or not. If the result is negative, you are free to roll for a new object, always remaining in the same category. It can happen also, but it is very improbable, that you try all the equipment pieces within one category without succeeding to take even one because of unlucky rolls: in this case you have to change category and try again all the options, following with the same criterium until you get a success, or until you have again to change category. The character is not obliged to get two equal weapons; if this happens, simply re-roll the dice choosing another weapon, excluding from the list those already in your hands. If the character has been taken from the Army List and is a Champion, Hero, or equivalent, you have more options available, as follows: * Champion +2 options * Hero +4 options * Mighty Hero +6 options NOTES ON CHOOSING EQUIPMENT * For the equipment belonging to specific troops, such as the Terminator weapons and the Banshee Masks, you have to use a bit of the good sense we told you about. Let's make an example: if your character belongs to a Terminator team he will surely own Terminator armour, you only have to determine the weaponry. If you instead want to roleplay a deserter Space Marine, it can be fun to randomly determine if he still has with him his Power Armour. If the characters are bandits or mercenaries you can also assume they have had, during their career, the possibility to steal a bit of special equipment, and so feel free to roll the dice to see if you get into some specially effective weapon or armour. Remember however that the Terminator Weapons can be used only if you wear Terminator armour, and to wear Terminator armour you must have the right biomechanical implants! * There exist many weapons requiring the Specialist Weapon skill to be used, so we suggest to GameMasters to allow players, after they have determined their actual weapons, to change a skill previously chosen, or rolled with the dice, so as to get the wanted specialization. * As an optional rule you can suppose that a character can retain a weapon or a piece of equipment as heritage of his past experience in an army corps (e.g., the Terminator Armour for Terminator Space Marines), at the cost of 1 Fate Point. Obviously, following this system, the more powerful characters will have to randomly determine all their weaponry, unless the game master decides for a different solution. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EXAMPLE For the Fate Points of Kurt Kruger, since he is a Space Marine, we follow the procedure of Chapter 2 and roll 1d3-1, for a result of 2. We decide to use the optional rule, which states Kurt can keep his Blood Angels Power armour without rolling the dice, at the cost of 1 Fate Point. So, Kurt remains with 1 Fate Point. As Kurt has already got his armour, our first choice will be the attempt to get a heavy weapon (of course!). With an incredible 06 at the fourth attempt (after having failed the roll for Las Cannon, Multi-Laser and Heavy Plasma Gun) he gets an unexpected Multimelta, a weapon of ravaging power, which Kurt will, we suppose, hide under the capacious saddle of his four-cylinder chopper (if the generous gamemaster allows him to have one, since he has the Drive Motorcycle skill!). Since the Multimelta is a Specialist Weapon, Kurt will have to sacrifice one of the skills he has chosen, unless he wants to shoot with a poor 10%. We then waste the Survival, so that Kurt can use the heavy weapon at his normal BS. As base weapon, Kurt gets a Boltgun at the first attempt (44 the dice roll). On the table of the melee weapons, Kurt is unlucky and succeeds in getting only a sword at his third attempt. Kurt gets also a Bolt Pistol, this one at the first attempt on the pistol list. We exploit the fifth and last choice to obtain for Kurt a Force Field as additional defence: with a lucky 25 at the first dice roll we get a Refractor Shield. Finally our pitiless deserter is properly equipped, ready to face all the thieves, the assassins and the hate merchants which will appear before him. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------