House Rules

Pages in this section are:

+++house rules main+++

+++optional rule changes+++

+++faith points+++

+++armoury+++

<<<experience>>>

+++equipment faults+++

+++new talents+++

+++non-character rules+++

+++additional psychic powers+++

A LOT OF the stuff on this page requires a copy of the experience rules from [UK] White Dwarf 261. For convenience we've summarised the rules for characteristic advancement below, but it would be impractical (not to mention a waste of effort on our part!) to copy down the whole article with the training rules, new skills and everything. If you need a full copy of the rules try the GW Website.

Contents of this page are as follows:

Characteristic advancement (from UK White Dwarf 261)

When you do something in a game you have a chance of getting better at it. This is handled by comparing what you did in the game to the criteria for advancement; if you did that thing, you can make a characteristic test to determine if you improve at it. The criteria are as follows:

You make a characteristic test by rolling a D100: if you score over your current skill in that characteristic, you improve; add +5% to that stat (the better you are, the less there is left to learn).

Actually, we think that 5% is a bit much. We only add +1% to a stat for a passed test; we find it prevents Necromunda-style transformations from weaklings to ninja masters over a period of about two weeks, which feels silly in such a character-based game. Besides, it really makes you appreciate ever last percentage point, and it becomes very rewarding when a character survives long enough to see a significant improvement!

Then again, if you've looked at our list of rule changes yet you'll know how ridiculously picky we can be. Of course you can adjust this as you see fit; you can use +1, +5, +D3, +D6, whatever you think is appropriate for the pace of your campaigns.

Talented characters

Some characters are simply more gifted than other people. For this reason, here's a rule for talented characters.

When creating the character you can opt to check to see if the character has any innate ability in a given area. Each of the stats that can be improved with experience (WS, BS, I, Wp, Nv, Ld) has a 10% chance of being an area that that character has the potential to excel in. If a character has a talent for a particular stat, roll 2D10; the result is the bonus the character receives when making experience tests for that stat. This means they should both improve more quickly and reach a higher total ability than characters who aren't talented in that area (the 2D10 roll represents the extent of their talent).

You can record this in the Campaign Notes section of the WD261 campaign character sheet; for example, if you'd got talents in Ballistic Skill and Nerve, you could write "Talents: Marksmanship (12), Courage (8)".

Getting old

The advancement system, excellent though it is, doesn’t take account of the age of characters, which is OK because the assumption is that most characters are young to middle aged. However, if you’ve got characters of vastly different ages, one with a crap WS because he’s a kid and one with a crap WS because he’s an octogenarian, having them improve at the same rate is clearly ridiculous. The table below suggests some modifiers to use when a character takes an experience test, dependent on their age.

This effectively means that the character’s stat counts as being higher than it really is by the amount shown by the modifier; e.g. a 142-year old Inquisitor (which, you would assume, is elderly) will count as having a WS of 20 higher than his real stat when making an experience test.

This isn't just because the young are more sprightly, or because the old are crumbly and decrepit; it also represents the way in which the more experienced a character is, the more likely it is that they'll have reached their peak in a given area, and the less chance they'll discover a trick they don't already know.

Obviously, exactly what is Young or Old depends on the type of character; Inquisitors can trundle along quite happily for a few centuries thanks to their access to the highest-tech medical precesses and cybernetics, as can Tech-Adepts, whilst a Space Marine is still young at 300 and the less said about Eldar lifespans the better. It's up to the GM and players to decide which age band a character falls into. As an example, for an Inquisitor we would consider Youthful to be less than 50, Middle Aged to be up to about 90 or 100, Elderly to be anywhere up to 200 or so, and Ancient to be anything higher than that.

In a subject related to this one, GMs should make sure that characters' stats reflect their age; you shouldn't have a doddery old retired gunfighter with an Initiative of 78 and a Strength of 65 just because it's possible on the chart!