Zweihander

[Anderlith]

So i stumbled upon his game a while back & gave it a flip through. It seems like Warhammer FRPG 2nd Edition, with the serial numbers filed off, a few rules/mechanics/fluff changes.

What does the playground think of this game? I want to run a Not!Europe game full of grimdark & noble heroes. Should i just use Warhammer 2nd & refluff or go with Zweihander? Is there any big changes between them? I saw that Zweihander only has three slots for professions, does this mean a character can have three professions ever? Also trappings are barely there, with only a small line saying that the GM should give PCs iconic gear based on their starting profession, but none of them list iconic gear. Should I just eyeball what is fair? Is a bit of plate equal a grimoire? Or a small but vicious dog??

[Jorgo]

I think Zweihander looks AMAzing, but I have also wondered about the iconic trappings. If you come up with a list of trappings, please send it this way.

[Zweihander]

So i stumbled upon his game a while back & gave it a flip through. It seems like Warhammer FRPG 2nd Edition, with the serial numbers filed off, a few rules/mechanics/fluff changes.

What does the playground think of this game? I want to run a Not!Europe game full of grimdark & noble heroes. Should i just use Warhammer 2nd & refluff or go with Zweihander? Is there any big changes between them? I saw that Zweihander only has three slots for professions, does this mean a character can have three professions ever? Also trappings are barely there, with only a small line saying that the GM should give PCs iconic gear based on their starting profession, but none of them list iconic gear. Should I just eyeball what is fair? Is a bit of plate equal a grimoire? Or a small but vicious dog??

Hi there!

This is Daniel Fox, creator of Zweihander Grim & Perilous RPG. Glad to see interest for Zweihander has bled over to GitP. Here's a breakdown of what Zweihander is, and how it differs from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay:

ZWEIHANDER is a 'greatest hits' album for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Zweihander has an old school approach, written through the lens of new school design. It takes the last 15+ years of WFRP in every edition, cleans up the rules and better balances them against themselves. It uses bounded accuracy, and exceptions-based design.

The hallmark of WFRP has always been its Career system, and Zweihander is no different. In fact, Zweihander puts forth that every Profession (our analogue to a Career) has a unique trait that sets it apart from all others. Although Skills, Talents and Bonus Advances may be shared between Professions, they're given something specific to them that makes them stand out. The three Tier system follows the traditional story arc approach of novels, thus a Character will move through three major Professions over the course of the campaign.

It's also open-ended and world agnostic. Effectively, you could use the game without any changes to support the Not!Europe game you want to run. You could also plug this system into the world of the Thirty Year War, Game of Thrones, the Witcher, Black Company, Lies of Loche Lamora, Darkest Dungeon, and yes, even the Old World of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

For iconic trappings, the goal was to leave it open-ended. We didn't want to bind the player or GM's hands in this regard, because we know that starting gear should fit both what the player wants of his Character from the start and what the GM wants to have in their world. Bottom line: don't worry about the prices, just give players what makes sense. For instance, if you're playing a Smuggler, you may want a river barge to start with. For a Coachman, a stagecoach and horses may make sense. For a Diabolist, a grimoire would make sense. Rat Catcher needs a small but vicious dog, but what about a lazy but intelligent cat? For a Slayer, 2 one-handed axes may do the trick. Maybe the Reeve needs a pair of flintlock pistols, and perhaps your Militiaman has a broken old blunderbuss.

[Anderlith]

I can totally get behind the three act idea of career advancement, that's actually pretty clever, but if the heroes somehow survive long enough is there an option to keep growing or is it like real life where you just sort of stop developing new talents/abilities?

I guess i can eyeball trappings. So it's possible to have a sellsword landsknecht with a zweihander, or a hedge knight with a breastplate?

Is there any guideline for monotheistic clerics? I was thinking each god could be a saint/servitor entity of my Not!European religion I've cooked up.

[Zweihander]

I can totally get behind the three act idea of career advancement, that's actually pretty clever, but if the heroes somehow survive long enough is there an option to keep growing or is it like real life where you just sort of stop developing new talents/abilities?

I guess i can eyeball trappings. So it's possible to have a sellsword landsknecht with a zweihander, or a hedge knight with a breastplate?

Is there any guideline for monotheistic clerics? I was thinking each god could be a saint/servitor entity of my Not!European religion I've cooked up.

Great questions!

It's pretty easy to control the pace of which Characters grow in Zweihander by using the baked-in rules for 50-100 Reward Points per session.

I ran the GRIMDARK beta edition of the game before taking it to Kickstarter. We played virtually every week for 4-6 hours, and the characters never reached the end of Advanced Tier.

For the sellsword and hedgeknight - yes. This would make perfect sense. Go with your gut, you aren't going to upset balance by giving a character a more 'expensive' item out the gate. My goal was to encourage narrative appropriateness.

Nothing for monotheistic priests, but you could easily create custom spell lists! We provided some guidance in the Bestiary for Daemonic magick, but kitbashing together a specific list for a monotheistic faith wouldn't take too much effort, given the flexibility of the Magick system.

[Anderlith]

Great questions!

It's pretty easy to control the pace of which Characters grow in Zweihander by using the baked-in rules for 50-100 Reward Points per session.

I ran the GRIMDARK beta edition of the game before taking it to Kickstarter. We played virtually every week for 4-6 hours, and the characters never reached the end of Advanced Tier.

For the sellsword and hedgeknight - yes. This would make perfect sense. Go with your gut, you aren't going to upset balance by giving a character a more 'expensive' item out the gate. My goal was to encourage narrative appropriateness.

Nothing for monotheistic priests, but you could easily create custom spell lists! We provided some guidance in the Bestiary for Daemonic magick, but kitbashing together a specific list for a monotheistic faith wouldn't take too much effort, given the flexibility of the Magick system.

You are incredibly helpful, & I want to thank you for taking time to answer my questions

[Zweihander]

You are incredibly helpful. Thank you very much.

Of course! And if you decide to pull the trigger on a print on demand version of Zweihander, ping me beforehand. I'll swing you a discount!