Tomboys and Troublemakers Part V: Zut Zut Zut and a Bottle of Bordeleaux

[MrAbdiel]

To be clear, he's not exactly visible clinging to the underside as much as scuttled to the underside where the construction of the crossing conceals ambushers from view. Schlapp, even from his vantage point, would have seen him go under but then become obscured.

[LarsWester]

Rune of Fury I think

Correct Attack Characteristic 3 plus rune of fury = 4 attacks with hammer. 3 otherwise.

[wilphe]

Wighard will be delaying until after Gimgroth goes, hopefully he can get this last guy

[LarsWester]

Wighard will be delaying until after Gimgroth goes, hopefully he can get this last guy

Let's hope so but to be clear it's Jasmine and then some bad guys before Gimgroth's mop up attempt. Also Gimgroth will be heading back to stunned Lefty to collect some of his teeth. A dwarf keeps his word.

[MrAbdiel]

Let's hope so but to be clear it's Jasmine and then some bad guys before Gimgroth's mop up attempt. Also Gimgroth will be heading back to stunned Lefty to collect some of his teeth. A dwarf keeps his word.

Haha, I figured. “Stunned for ten turns” is basically “killed later on” anyway.

[wilphe]

Well if he or anyone else is still alive after everything else Wighard will stabilise him

Of course he might not survive impromptu dwarven dentistry

[LarsWester]

Not sure what a 100 means as far as fumbles go with your games MrAbdiel. If there is a way to avoid a potential weapon breakage then I'd use a fortune point if possible. Which raises the question are we currently using your modified fortune point rule or not?

[wilphe]

If the assailant is dead and if its ok Wighard will spend his banked XP to go up a Wound and then chug a Healing Draught

[wilphe]

Not sure what a 100 means as far as fumbles go with your games MrAbdiel. If there is a way to avoid a potential weapon breakage then I'd use a fortune point if possible. Which raises the question are we currently using your modified fortune point rule or not?

If we are still doing it fumbles then it shouldn't be straight 5% chance, but scale with skill:

To borrow from Chaosium:


0-10 96+

11-30 97+

31-50 98+

51-70 99+

71+ 100

Also people with extra attacks shouldn't be penalised with more chances to fumble, because that's stupid

So only your first attack can ever fumble

This doesn't apply to Unreliable and Experimental Weapons, and it doesn't apply to defences

[MrAbdiel]

I guess the question is do you guys like fumbles? We could do something milder, like the fumble table in 4e. Maybe only on rolls of 100?

I don’t want to overcomplicate it, but things going from bad to worse is a very WFRP experience.

Maybe we leave the misfortune off the hit rolls so dangerous and experimental weapons remain the only rolling risk.

I’m thinking of something like a generalised misfortune event that occurs after the party has spent, say, 5 or 10 fortune points.

[BananaPhone]

If there is going to be a "critical failure" roll, making it just on a roll of 100 would be simplest and easiest to remember. There's already new set of combat house rules to keep track of, so maybe less is more.

[MrAbdiel]

I agree with not overcomplicating it. I reserve the right to complicate your lives with natural 100's to out-of-combat checks, but don't worry about combat fumbles for now. Unless you want for dramatic purposes to break a weapon or something. I love that stuff.

[wilphe]

Wighard wants to take himself and Gimgroth back to the (South?) side of the bridge where they came in on, whilst Bruno and Bertelis secure the other side

Right now is Sherlock Scanning to evaluate the situation and Bertelis' mental state

[MrAbdiel]

Wighard wants to take himself and Gimgroth back to the (South?) side of the bridge where they came in on, whilst Bruno and Bertelis secure the other side

Right now is Sherlock Scanning to evaluate the situation and Bertelis' mental state

Gotcha. We'll see how cleanly Bruno chops down this second-to-last guy, and then I'll unfold that plan for you.

[wilphe]

Well other people might have other ideas, but it seems like a plan

I didn't mention Jasmine because it makes sense to keep W and G together, which leaves the two Bs as the second and third best melee guys to pair off and after that it doesn't matter where she goes

Ideally he can stay where he is and be sniped and magiced or come out and be chopped

[farothel]

Does Bruno still have people to fight? There's two goons still moving if I'm not mistaken. Or have they moved off?

[wilphe]

Flanker7 is down and knocked out. To be left or executed at your preference. Flanker8 still up and on Bruno and Bertelis. Flanker 9 paralyzed with indecision near Jasmine. Bruno and Wighard still to go this sequence

[11] - Sang Flanker8 - Critically Wounded - B2, delayed 1 turn. BRUNO AND BERTELIS

[9] - Sang Flanker9 - 10 wounds - Heavily Wounded REGRETTING HIS CHOICES IN THE VINCINITY OF JASMINE
.

[wilphe]

Presumably her specialness manifests outside the realm of raw stats - which is just fine

I didn't consider Miner because she was sent there by her parents after her powers manifested - she was not, like she initially said, daughter of a miner

It is also possible that she was studying under Olga...


I shall assume half the XP of Wighard (like she started with 500 and then grew) and I won't assign all of them


WS 31 0/5
BS 35
S 32
T 36
AG 35 0/5
INT 38 10/10
WP 39 0/5
FEL 32+5 0/5

W 11 0/2
FP3

Common K: Empire +10
Drive
Evaluate
Gossip
Haggle
Perception
Read/Write
Search
Speak L: Reikspeil



Sturdy
Suave

Free advance into INT+5

500 xp into:
Speak: Breton, Tilean
INT +10

Transition to Hedgecraft Apprentice

Looking at this again; given that Wighard has own order and ideas about a 9th College would a custom career progression be in order for which she is the prototype?

[farothel]

damage: [roll0]
to try again

[farothel]

stupid delay in posting and then the roll didn't work, so trying again.
(1d10+4)[14]

[MrAbdiel]

stupid delay in posting and then the roll didn't work, so trying again.
[roll0]

Well, that’ll do it - feel free to roll out the Fury results for bragging rights though!

[MrAbdiel]

Looking at this again; given that Wighard has own order and ideas about a 9th College would a custom career progression be in order for which she is the prototype?

I’m happy for the flavour of Wighard’s splinter college - and the RP to get it off the ground - but I feel like you can probably get it down mostly by doing what Wighard did and taking the healer rout before going to Wizard. Is there something that is lacking specifically from those careers that would greatly enhance the Wighard School?

[wilphe]

We'd still be laying groundwork, as we haven't even begun on the Treasure Hunt yet and this would require a lot of money.

His thinking:

1) A College that is more Female friendly, as outside the Jade Order the Colleges skew heavily male. This seems mostly a selection problem, as female candidates are simply less likely to be picked up and instead killed outright

2) His order is about applying mundane medical knowledge not just so you don't have to cast so much but also so you get synergy. The most powerful spell is the one you don't cast. That's an ethos you could apply to any College, not just the Light. You could also apply it to non-spell casters in a "This is what magic can do for you 101"

3) Be conspicuously loyal and useful to the Empire, this would mostly be in direct support to the military. Also note there is no Veterinary college or Guild in the Empire and t seems this would be helpful.

4) The existing Colleges treat apprentices very badly, sequester them and exploit them, this is only partially because of the restrictions of the Articles of Magic. Its also most true of the Light College with whom his Order has poor relations and that does inform his viewpoint.
This is also a discouragement to talented but independent casters to turn legitimate and lose their autonomy for decades, which, like women, is a severe loss of spellcasters who could be potential assets to the Empire

5) Assume that the existing 8 Colleges are *******s and will use this opportunity to direct anyone they don't want towards you so you are now Charles Xavier but running Police Academy


His most immediate issue it that he is only breveted Magister, and that status can be easily revoked and everything taken from him - including Siobhan

So by the next trip to Altdorf, which won't be for a while, he needs to be ready to be a full Magister.

This might well be by being too powerful and scary to say no to (Killers of the Dead get Menacing and Unsettling which Wizard Lords don't) and whilst he doesn't have the finesse of most experienced wizards he's willing and capable of beating them by mundane methods whilst knowing their tricks.


Then all he has to do is:

Suck up to the Emperor and as many politicians as he needs

Find a base for it (he doesn't want it to be Altdorf)

Demonstrate his loyalty and utility to the Empire and by extension those of his students

Make a good case

Get Teclis on board because its a change to a structure he set up

Have a whole bunch of money


So you know, a few years work in game and out

[BananaPhone]

Wighards college will probably need to be centred on a mixture of winds of magic. The Colleges of Magic are split into studying the different colors of magic, as humans, with their shorter life-spans, can acquire mastery of just 1 type of magic in their lifetime. This his how Teclis taught humans back in the day and helped to found the Imperial Colleges of Magic. There is also a method to the madness of potential apprentices being treated poorly - they need to be conditioned, because mastering magic beyond a few cantrips is a lifetimes dedication of discipline, and error on behalf of the soft spellcaster can cause utter disaster for all around them. The harsh treatment weeds out the non-committed and toughens up those in for the long-haul.

From the sounds of it, Wighard would be blending Green and White magic, which he can use as his base. However, it does get tricky because humans grow more affinitive to their studied wind of magic, eg Jade Wizards start growing flowers/leaves in their hair, retain fantastic physical health even into their elderly years etc.

If, however, he wants to just stick to White magic, then his strongest competition will be from the White College of Magic, because he will be a direct drain/siphon of potential apprentices and funds from them. Every apprentice he acquires and trains is one they miss out on, every gold coin his college attracts is a gold piece they miss out on, and every responsibility and job his academy accrues is one they miss out on. They'll be his fiercest rivals and borderline out for blood, and it wouldn't be surprising if they don't secretly slip the word to the witch hunters that you're kinda a heretic so maybe better burn you just to be sure lol. The other colleges, save perhaps the Jade, will likewise be hostile to you, but to a lesser extent though for the same reason: if you can make your own college, what's to stop one of their own powerful practitioners giving them the finger and starting his own college if he's politically connected enough?

Not trying to dissuade you, mind you, but just stream-of-conscious thinking the problems Wighard will encounter. I think that might be the most methodical way for him to go about it: decide on whether he's going to try and 'blend' two winds of magic, or stick with one (white, in this case) but form his new philosophy/training around it that's compatible and supportive of Imperial orthodoxy. There's also every possibility that he might need to do it outside of the Empire, for reasons mentioned above.

[wilphe]

The Institution would use more than one Colour; but students and faculty would be limited to using one each.

I will drop you the brief backstory on Wighard's order because that was a while ago, though you can read up on it starting here:

https://forums.giantitp.com/showsing...&postcount=840


Aetius the Bright was a member of the Light College but also a talented physician, when most members of the College, if they bothered at all, would just zap people full of Hysh and call it a job done.

The College of Light is a giant glowing pyramid where there are no shadows in an extradimensional space accessed from Altdorf, Aetius' did some experiments and observations (originally and paradoxically on the effects on humans living in dwarfholds) and came to the conclusion that it's really bad for people to live like that and that what the Light College think are the signs of mastering Hysh are actually mental and physical degradation from being divorced from the day-night cycle and seasonal cycle.

It also means they can be uncomfortable leaving the College to enter the real world

This was not a particularly welcome message, but they couldn't prove it heretical and he was otherwise competent and strictly orthodox.

As such the Order of Aetius the Bright is based outside Altdorf to the south but still under the College of Light for administrative and disciplinary purposes.

There has been some doctrinal and practical drift since then, as Aetius was big on learning medicine in the world and not from books and that has bled over into how they teach magic.

This tends to mean that relations between the two are at best formal, distant and polite; at worst they still resent us.

This is why Wighard initially thought that him being promoted, and being given the wand was him being given power they thought he wasn't ready for in a move to discredit his own Order when he effed up.


His "small" solution is to get his order out from under the Light College, he is thinking bigger though

[wilphe]

if you can make your own college, what's to stop one of their own powerful practitioners giving them the finger and starting his own college if he's politically connected enough?

I believe it is in ROS, but I can't find it, that a few nobles are in the process of doing exactly that in another city

[wilphe]

Jasmine doing her best Lord Humungus right now

[MrAbdiel]

Wighard could always set up in Saulx. Imperial/Bretonian relations are at their best ever, and since the Fay do their own filtering of local casters, Wighard would be attracting only those who could make the journey from the Empire or Southern kingdoms to learn in a realm that is outside of Ducal oversight and only really answerable to the King, and then only sort of.

On the other hand… Mousillon.

[BananaPhone]

Hey MrAbdiel, is it possible to buy a 'compound' bow that goes up to your SB after the Bows damage of '3', by paying a bit extra for it?

[MrAbdiel]

Hey MrAbdiel, is it possible to buy a 'compound' bow that goes up to your SB after the Bows damage of '3', by paying a bit extra for it?

Nyyyyyeeeeh... No, sadly.

I have to keep unnaturally stomping down the part of my brain that wants a realistic simulationist system (why aren't maces the best against plate armor? How do you fight with a lance after you've charged with it at all? In what world does a sling cost 4gc, the same as a main gauche?) and try to stay within the fantasy conventions where we must. Sadly, such a weapon would upset the weapon ecosystem.

Basically bow family of weapons gives you damage 3 attacks out to robust ranges and the ability to swift attack at range with Rapid Reload. From there you can 'budget' some weapon function, but adding SB to the damage has to come at a cost. Otherwise a compound bow very quickly becomes more attractive than a rifle because it's more devastating in the hands of a strong man. If you want to factor your SB into a ranged attack, you're looking at some kind of thrown weapon (Throwing Axe, Throwing Dagger) or the Ordinary weapons that one throws but are not considered throwing weapons insofar as requiring the skill - yeeted weapons, like Spear and Javelin. Javelins are far and away the most effective throwable weapons (Cheaper, longer range, more damage), but Axes can be used in melee at their full profile rather than as a improvised weapon like javelines; and throwing daggers are a fraction of the encumbrance of either.