The Witchhunters are here

.
for your protection. The Ratter
A Rat Catchers Guild Publication
Dwarven Beard Oil
Made from Squig fat 10s

Volume 1 Number 1 August 2019 2 pennies

W ELCOME TO the inaugural edition of The Ratter, a fan-made periodical and unofficial supplement
for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition by Cubicle 7 and Games Workshop, which we aim to
release a new issue every 2 months.

Since May 27th of 2018, The Rat Catchers Guild has been your source for all things WFRP. Since
then we have grown to over 2300 members, and we just celebrated our 1st birthday by giving away a core
rulebook and a starter set for WFRP4e, both signed by Andy Law, the producer of WFRP4e. As we enter
into the second year of the server, we are starting it off with a bang, or at least, “The Ratter”!

It is our goal with “The Ratter” to provide content which will entertain the reader, as well as pro-
vide them with tools and ideas for upcoming games or characters. In this, and following editions we will
be including content like adventures or one-shots, NPC writeups and stat blocks, Homebrew rule changes,
clarification to commonly asked questions, and much more.

All content that you see on these pages is purely fan made material, and as such, we will always be
looking at gathering content from the community. If you have something that you would like to have con-
sidered for an upcoming issue of The Ratter, come join us on The Rat Catchers Guild Discord which you
can find by following this link: https://discord.gg/m9FBbR4.

Most of the names that you see here are the usernames the contributors use on Discord. If you want
to give them some positive feedback, you can find them on The Rat Catchers Guild Discord server. The
invite link is listed in the paragraph above.

We are in no way affiliated with Cubicle 7 or Games Workshop, and do this entirely as a labour of
love for our hobby. We are proud to have you join us on this journey!

~ Charlotte

Contributors
Editor Charlotte Hamilton
Art fmunoz.geo
Matt Kay
Contributors Kelyss - Bretonnian Knight
BadJuJu - WFRP2.4
Jaalib - Gerwin Waffenhalter’s Magnificent Weapons Gallery
Special Thanks Dave, Roders

1
Table of Contents
Welcome!.................................................................................................. 1
Custom Careers - Bretonnian Knight.................................................... 3
WFRP 2.4........................................................................................................... 9
Gerwin Waffenhalter’s Magnificent Weapons Gallery.............................. 13
Interview with Matt Kay............................................................................... 15

2
 Custom Careers
Bretonnian Knight - By Kelyss
WS BS S T I Agi Dex Int WP Fel have more than one Knightly Virtue and one Grail
Virtue at once. Finally, pick a Blessing of the Lady.
It applies permanently to you and doesn’t count
CAREER PATH toward the limit of Blessings you can have at once.

Knight Errant - Silver 4 Knightly Vow

Skills: Athletics, Animal Charm, Animal Care, Lore
(Heraldry), Melee (Cavalry), Ride (Horse), Pray, Heal
Talents: Roughrider, Sturdy, Warrior Born, Knightly Vow
Trappings: Leather Jacket, Mail Shirt, Riding Horse with
Saddle and Tacks, Shield, Lance
Knight of the Realm - Gold 2
Skills: Cool, Dodge, Endurance, Language (Battle), Lore
(Warfare), Melee (Any)
Talents: Menacing, Shieldsman, Strike Mighty Blow, Virtue
of Knighthood (Any)
Trappings: Weapon (Any), Full Plate Armor, Warhorse,
Barding, Saddle and Tackles, Fiefdom or Liege
Questing Knight - Silver 5
Skills: Charm, Melee (Two-Handed), Trade (Farrier),
Outdoor Survival
Talents: Fearless (Any), Seasoned Traveler, Stout-Hearted,
Questing Vow
Trappings: Bastard Sword, Tools (Farrier)
Grail Knight - Gold 5
Skills: Leadership, Intuition
Talents: Disarm, Iron Will, Strike to Injure, Grail Vow
Trappings: Band of Pilgrims, Icon of the Lady, Sip of the
Grail
KNIGHTLY VOWS
The Virtues of Knighthood, also known as the
Knightly Virtues, the Virtues of the Chivalric Knight
and the Paths of Virtue, are the ancient styles of
combat perfected by GiIles le Breton and his mighty
Companions. These virtues have been emulated ever
since by the greatest of Bretonnia’s Lords and war-
rior-heroes.
Max: 1
You can call upon the Blessings of the Lady, as de-
scribed in the next chapter. Only bretonnian knights
can pick this talent, which is only useful to charac-
ters with Fortune Points.
Questing Vow
Max: 1
The Holy Visions Talent is added to the Talent list
of any career you are in. You gain a +20 bonus to
all your Melee (Two-Handed) tests and a -50 to all
your Melee (Cavalry) tests.
Grail Vow
Max: 1
The Pure Soul and Grail Virtue Talents are added to
the Talent list of any career you are in. If you have
the Questing Vow talent, replace it with a Grail Vir-
tue. If you already have a Knightly Virtue, it must be
the same as the one you already have.
Virtue of Audacity
Max: 1
The Reversal Talent is added to the Talent list of any
career you are in. When determining Damage use
your opponent’s Strength Bonus as your Strength
Bonus if it is higher; always determine this before
any other rules modify your Strength or Strength
Bonus.
If you voluntarily decide not to oppose a melee test,
you lose the benefits of this virtue until you have
made penance.

All Knight Errants pick the Knightly Vow. Knights

of the Realm then pick one of the fourteen Virtues
they aim to embody. Questing Knights pick the
Questing Vow while the Grail Knights must opt for
the Grail Virtue corresponding to the Knightly Vir-
tue they took as Knight of the Realm. You cannot

3
 Custom Careers
Virtue of Confidence heard while helping the poor, the needy and the peas-
Max: 1 antry. If you don’t, you lose the benefits of this virtue
The Relentless Talent is added to the Talent list of until you have made penance.
any career you are in. You can challenge an opponent
in single combat. Most opponents are not obliged Virtue of Heroism
to accept (even though most do), unless they have a Max: 1
Knightly Vow. For the duration of the duel, you add The Fearless (Monsters) Talent is added to the Talent
+1SL to any successful Melee test. You cannot chal- list of any career you are in. Any opponent larger than
lenge anyone else during this fight unless you defeat- you count as being larger by one less step.
ed your first opponent or fled the fight.
If you flee from a fight against an opponent one step
If you refuse a challenge in single combat for any rea- larger step than you, you lose the benefits of this vir-
son, you lose the benefits of this virtue until you have tue until you have made penance.
made penance.
Virtue of the Ideal
Virtue of Discipline Max: 1
Max: 1 The Disarm Talent is added to the Talent list of any
The Combat Master Talent is added to the Talent list career you are in. You gain a permanent +5 bonus to
of any career you are in. You don’t lose Advantage for your starting Intelligence and Initiative characteris-
being outnumbered. tics. This does not count towards your Advances.

If you voluntarily flee a fight before other members You must uphold the tenets of chivalry and conduct
of your party, you lose the benefits of this virtue until yourself as the ideal knight in all circumstances. If
you have made penance. you conduct yourself in an unchivalrous manner (at
the discretion of your GM), you lose the benefits of
Virtue of Duty this virtue until you have made penance.
Max: 1
The Drilled Talent is added to the Talent list of any Virtue of the Impetuous Knight
career you are in. You can swear allegiance to up to Max: 1
three persons. As long as you’re fighting at their side, The Resolute Talent is added to the Talent list of any
they count as having one rank in the Drilled Talent. career you are in. If you should gain one Advantage
If none of them are present, you suffer a -10 malus to through Charging, you instead gain two. Further-
all your Melee tests. more, you increase your maximum Charge distance
by 8 yards.
Virtue of Empathy
Max: 1 If during a fight you are not engaged with an oppo-
The Gregarious Talent is added to the Talent list of nent, you must try to close the gap and engage an
any career you are in.You ignore any penalty for in- opponent. If you don’t, you lose the benefits of this
teracting with people of lesser status than you. virtue until you have made penance.

You must dedicate some of your time between ad-

ventures toward helping the peasants. If you use the
Endeavours rule you gain access to The Latests News
as a class endeavour and must dedicate at least of
one your Endeavours to it if you have three available
Endeavours. It represents the things you learned or

4
 Custom Careers
Virtue of the Joust Virtue of the Penitent
Max: 1 Max: 1
The Berzerk Charge Talent is added to the Talent list The Robust Talent is added to the Talent list of any
of any career you are in. Your Lances gain the Fast career you are in. You cannot use any magical item
quality on a turn where you charged. On a turn where and horses are the only mounts you are allowed to
you have not Charged, it counts as a Spear instead of mount. Any weapon you use count as being magical.
an Improvised Weapon.
Virtue of Purity
You must fight mounted if possible. If you decide Max: 1
to fight dismounted while you could’ve realistically The Luck Talent is added to the Talent list of any ca-
fought mounted, you lose the benefits of this virtue reer you are in. You can call upon the Blessing of the
until you have made penance. Lady without taking time to pray.

Virtue of Knightly Temper If for any reason your Corrruption increase above 5,
Max: 1 you lose the benefits of this virtue until your Corrup-
The Furious Assault Talent is added to the Talent tion is back bellow 5 points.
list of any career you are in. If you are wielding a
one-handed Sword or a Lance, it count as having the Virtue of Stoicism
Fast quality. Max: 1
The Iron Will Talent is added to the Talent list of
You must dedicate some of your time between ad- any career you are in. You may reverse any failed In-
ventures toward honing your skills. If you use the timidate, Fear or Terror test if this allows the test to
Endeavours rule you gain access to Combat Train- succeed.
ing as a class endeavour and must dedicate at least of
one your Endeavours to it if you have three available If for any reason you voluntarily flee (not retreat) a
Endeavours. If you don’t, you lose the benefits of this fight against a foe with a Fear or Terror rating, you
virtue until you have made penance. lose the benefits of this virtue until you have made
penance.
Virtue of Noble Disdain
Max: 1
The Unshakable Talent is added to the Talent list of
any career you are in. You gain a -10 malus to all your
Ranged tests and a bonus of +10 to all your Melee
tests against opponents who have used ranged weap-
ons against you or your allies.

If for any reason you make a Ranged test, you lose the
benefits of this virtue until you have made penance.

5
 Custom Careers
GRAIL VIRTUES Grail virtue of Empathy
Max: 1
The Grail Virtues are sensibly more powerful than As long as you are leading bretonnian peasants, you
the knightly ones and are one of the reasons the Grail make any fear or terror check first. If you succeed,
Knights are so highly esteemed. Only Grail Knights they also succeed. If you fail the check, they all make
can access them and they must pick the one corre- the check as normal. Whenever you call upon the
sponding to their Knightly Virtue. Both virtues apply. Blessing of the Lady, you can spend 2 Fortune Points
and grant the Blessing to up to WPBx10 peasants
Grail virtue of Audacity following you.
Max: 1
You cannot be wounded by an opponent unless you If you hear about the woes of peasants or people with
have wounded it first. You lose this rule if you spend a lesser status than you not too far away, you must try
one turn engaged with it without making an attack. to help them. If you don’t actively try, you lose the
benefits of this virtue until you have made penance.
Grail virtue of Confidence
Max: 1 Grail virtue of Heroism
As long as you are locked in a duel, any blow from Max: 1
outside the duel is at -40%. You also gain a perma- When determining Damage use your opponent’s
nent +10 to your starting Toughness. This does not Toughness Bonus as your Strength Bonus if it is
count towards your Advances. higher; always determine this before any other rules
You must issue challenge in single combat against modify your Strength or Strength Bonus. Further, if
the most threatening looking opponent each fight. If your target is larger than you, and your score a Crit-
you don’t, you lose the benefits of this virtue until you ical (see page 159), multiply all melee Damage you
have made penance cause by the number of steps larger your target is (so,
2 steps = ×2, 3 steps = ×3, and so on); this multiplica-
Grail virtue of Discipline tion is calculated after all modifiers are applied. See
Max: 1 page 341 for more about Size.
If you are outnumbered, you can spend one Advan-
tage on your turn to make a free attack. If you flee from a fight against an opponent at least
If you voluntarily flee a fight before every other allies one step larger than you, you lose the benefits of this
in the fight, you lose the benefits of this virtue until virtue until you have made penance.
you have made penance.

Grail virtue of Duty

Max: 1
As long as you are fighting at the side of the ones you
swore alliegance to, you grant them +10 Strength and
+10 Weapon Skill. If none of them are present, you
suffer a penalty of -10 to your Strength and Tough-
ness.

6
 Custom Careers
Grail virtue of the Ideal Grail virtue of Knightly Temper
Max: 1 Max: 1
You gain a permanent +10 bonus to your starting On turns where you are Charging, all your attacks are
Weapon Skill and Strength characteristics. This does at +20 WS. If you manage to wound your foe, you can
not count towards your Advances. make an immediate free attack. This free attack does
not generate more.
Simply being chivalrous isn’t enough anymore. You
must actively search for wrongs to right and evil to You don’t fight unless you mean it. You cannot deal
slain. If you fail to do so (at your GM discretion) you non-lethal blows. If you do, you lose the benefits of
lose the benefits of this virtue until you have made this virtue until you have made penance.
penance.
Grail virtue of Noble Disdain
Grail virtue of the Impetuous Knight Max: 1
Max: 1 You gain the trait Ward (9) against all ranged weap-
On turns where you are Charging, you can Disengage ons. If you already have or gain the Ward trait from
for free without test and without losing Advantages. somewhere else, increase the existing Ward by (2)
against ranged attacks.
If you start your turn without being Engaged and
don’t use the Charge action, you lose the benefits of You can refuse to benefit from any skill or talent
this virtue until you have made penance. coming from someone using ranged weapons. If you
don’t, you lose the benefits of this virtue until you
Grail virtue of the Joust have made penance.
Max: 1
All lances count as being magical and deal +SB+8 Grail virtue of the Penitent
damage when in your hands. If a lance is already Max: 1
magical, it’s damage is increased by +1 and it gains You may reverse the dice of any critical strike you
the Impale quality. suffer.

If you use any weapon other than a Lance, a Sword or You must dedicate some of your time between ad-
a Shield, you lose the benefits from this virtue until ventures toward quiet contemplation and introspec-
you have made penance. tion. If you use the Endeavours rule and have three
available Endeavours between adventures, you must
undertake one Endeavour to retreat from the world
and contemplate your faith and duty. If you don’t, you
lose the benefits of this virtue until you have made
penance.

Grail virtue of Purity

Max: 1
You can call upon the Blessing of the Lady without
expending a Fortune Point, which you can do freely
at the beginning of any fight.

If you use a Dark Deal to lose Corruption, you lose

the benefits of this virtue until you have made pen-
ance.

7
 Custom Careers
Grail virtue of Stoicism
Max: 1
You automatically succeed any Fear or Terror check
and you cannot be Intimidated. You gain +20 Wil-
power to all your tests to resist magic affecting your
mental.
If for any reason you voluntarily flee (not retreat) a
fight, you lose the benefits of this virtue until you
have made penance.
Blessed Blood
The knight gains the Corrosive Blood trait, except
it count as a magical blow and only affect undead,
demons and corrupted creatures.
Divine Stamina
At the beginning of each turn, if the knight has Fa-
tigue conditions, it can make a Challenging (+0)
Willpower test to remove one of them, with each SL
removing one more condition.

BLESSINGS OF THE LADY Gulp of the Grail

The knight benefits from a +20 bonus to any test to
Characters with a Knightly Vow can call upon the resist poison and magic.
Blessing of the Lady. Before or at the beginning of a
fight, the knight must spend a few minutes (at least Mantle of the Lady
the equivalent of 6 fight rounds) praying, implor- The knight increase it’s AP and max AP by 1 on all
ing the Lady for her grace. When the knight finish locations. This bonus AP can’t be used to deflect a
his prayer, he may spend a Fortune Point and gain critical blow.
the benefits of one of the Blessings of the Lady. A
knight can benefit from only one Blessing at once. Sovereign Wrath
The Blessing persist until the end of the fight or until Any weapon the knight uses count as being magical
the knight flee. If a knight flee, he lose the benefits of and it’s SB is increased by 1.
the Gift and can’t gain it back for the fight. He acted
dishonourably and must pay the price. Valiant Heart
The knight benefits from a +20 to resist any Fear test.
Aegis of Grace
The knight gains the Ward (9) trait. If you already
have or gain the Ward trait from another source, your
Ward is increased by 2.

8
 WFRP 2.4
A Grim Homebrew of Perilous Editions - By BadJuJu
T HIS article is the first in a series of design diaries
about my homebrewed combination of WFRP
2nd Edition (hereafter called WFRP2) and WFRP
And then there’s WFRP4. Ah, WFRP4. There’s a lot
to love about this shiny new edition of an old classic!
A much better conflict resolution mechanic (in my
4th Edition (WFRP4). If that sounds like the worst humble opinion), expanded skills and talents, a char-
thing you’ve ever heard of, you can save yourself a acter creation and progression system that allows for
lot of time by skipping ahead to some of the other a greater degree of customization, an excellent social
excellent content located within these pages - there’s Status system, a more realistic economy; the list goes
a lot of it! on and on. But like WFRP2, under the hood there’s
some things that I’m not a fan of, like the exponential
But if, like me, you find both WFRP2 and WFRP4 nature of its magic system, a glut of runaway modifi-
to be endearing TTRPGs that are fun to play de- ers and feedback loops, and what I felt to be an excess
spite some fundamental flaws, then you might want of often confusing or vaguely-written rules that often
to stick around, because we’re going to do a deep dive slowed play to a crawl in my experience.
of both and see if we can’t have our pie and eat it too,
so to speak. After months of playing, hemming, hawing, suck-
ing my teeth, and generally being stuck in a constant
First, let’s talk in general terms about what prompted state of analysis paralysis, I concluded that both sys-
me to undertake a project like this. tems had in part what I was looking for, but neither
exactly what I was looking for. What happens when
AN OLD CLASSIC, A NEW MODEL a game system doesn’t quite offer what we require to
tell the type of stories we’d like to? Or worse, when
If I had to describe WFRP2 in a single sentence, I multiple ones don’t?
would call it a lovingly-crafted, extensively-supported
roleplaying system that is, unfortunately, beginning Why we homebrew of course! We adjust, we tweak,
to show its age. I do not, of course, mean that it is no we house rule. And sometimes, we completely change
longer suitable for telling stories in the Warhammer what’s there to fit our needs (Tzeentch would be proud).
universe, but rather that it’s characterized by the era
in which it was created and written - game design What I set out to do was combine what I felt were
is a tenuous, ever-changing field, especially when it the best elements of each edition into a single sys-
comes to tabletop RPGs. Some of the tenets and sins tem, defined by my vision of WFRP at its best; a
of designing a game in the year 2019 did not exist grim and perilous marriage of WFRP2’s elegant
fifteen years ago, and vice versa. For example, the idea simplicity with WFRP4’s more-modern “crunch”.
of player agency has evolved greatly over the years, a
principle which the latest editions of Dungeons and I call it WFRP2.4 because we’re going to use WFRP2,
Dragons swear by, enabling player characters in ways with its wealth of published material as a sturdy foun-
that older editions such as AD&D and 3rd Edition dation, and then we’re going to kitbash the hell out of it.
never did (I suspect the developers of WFRP4 also
saw the value in this principle, as with DND5E, Let’s begin.
WFRP4 provides more agency to characters and
players than WFRP2 ever did). There are other is-
sues as well: the infamous ‘Whiff Factor’, question-
able weapon balance (spears being clearly superior to
hand weapons in every way is one of the most famous
examples), and a general propensity towards failing at
most tasks, especially early on, which can be frustrat-
ing to many players - especially new ones.

9
 WFRP 2.4
RANALD, TAKE THE WHEEL until I played enough WFRP4 to notice: the amount
of XP granted through this randomization was, well,
Those that love the randomness of WFRP will like- insufficient to say the least (I would even use the
ly love WFRP2’s character creation system of largely term ‘paltry’). Assuming you fully randomize every-
random dice rolls over which you have no control. thing about your character in WFRP4, your reward is
Sometimes you want to be a stalwart knight but your +120XP. To put it in context, that’s not even enough
character was born with low Weapon Skill or Willpow- to purchase your first 5 advances in one of your ca-
er, representing potential character flaws. Sometimes reer’s Characteristics. Is that worth accepting a 25 in
you want to be a bawdy entertainer but your Ballistic WS on your Soldier, or a 27 in INT on your Schol-
Skill winds up so high that you decide you’d rather ar, or not being able to start as the Witch Hunter
eventually perform knife-throwing and trick-shoot- you’ve always wanted to play? To some, yes, because
ing than juggling. The random nature of the Career there are plenty of WFRP players that enter cam-
table also helps to prevent parties of exceptional in- paigns with an open mind and a willingness to play
dividuals-- the average adventuring band is just as whatever they roll. But for those players that have an
likely to include a Charcoal-Burner as it is a Wizard. idea in their head and want to play something spe-
cific, the incentive to deviate and introduce a little
However, players that want to play certain things (or randomization into the mix still isn’t all that great.
at least, don’t want to play certain things) may well
hate this almost total lack of agency and customiza- So what’s the solution? Well, the obvious answer
tion. Now, I’ve encountered a lot of finger-wagging is that we could increase the amount of experience
about these kinds of players; about too much choice in granted from randomizing aspects of your character.
WFRP being “against the central themes” of both the But by how much? Could we double each step?
setting and the systems. I’m not particularly interested
in judging others on the kind of characters they likeSay we offer +240XP instead to fully randomize your
character. That’s enough for your first 5 advances in
to play, or why they’d like to play them. But, is there a
way to reconcile these two attitudes? To preserve thea Characteristic, plus the first rank of a Talent, for
traditional randomness of building a character while example. But it costs 100xp to switch to a different
empowering players with more choice and control Career, and an extra 100xp if it’s a career that is not in
over how they begin their PC’s adventuring careers? your class. If you wanted to play a Physician, is 240xp
worth randomly starting as an Artisan if you’re going
WFRP4’s designers seem to have asked themselves to need to spend all of it to get into the career you
these questions and decided to address the issue by wanted? Again, probably not.
incentivizing players to determine aspects of their
character randomly during character creation through
extra Experience Points (XP).

SIZABLE SUMS

When I first saw this concept in WFRP4, I

loved it. I thought it was a simple, elegant way
to encourage players to ‘let the dice decide’ to
an extent, but not force them to play charac-
ters they loathed in the hopes of someday turn-
ing them into something more enjoyable to play.

The issue with this mechanic didn’t become apparent

10
 WFRP 2.4
XP isn’t the only resource that is important to
PCs. There’s material possessions, wealth, trap-
pings, and the like. But those are even more sub-
jective. After all, some extra gold means a lot
more to a Rat Catcher than it does a Noble.
What I eventually realized was that in the end, a
meta consideration like randomization would prob-
ably require a meta resource as a reward. In this case,
Fate Points.
FATEFUL BEGINNINGS
Fate Points, as we all know, are awesome. They are
critical to surviving in WFRP, especially because
they provide you with Fortune Points which are even
more awesome. So what if, instead of making Fate
Points be defined entirely by the species you pick, we
provided them as a reward for those who allow Ran-
ald to determine the important aspects of their PC?
This way, the more random chance a player is will-
ing to introduce at this stage of play, the less random
things will be during actual play as Fate and Fortune
are both used to mitigate random outcomes. If you
sorely want to play that Elven Kithband Warrior, you
can just create that, but you used up all your good
fortune during character creation, longears. Once
play begins, you are much more at the mercy of the
dice than the randomly-generated Dwarf Messenger
beside you. And as we all know, the dice WILL have While we’re on the topic of Characteristics: I like that
their due, one way or another.
CRUNCH TIME
Let’s start with a few considerations: Halflings are attunement. But this is a minor change and I could
well-known for being exceptionally lucky, so it’s see just leaving only a single ‘Elf ’ species.
probably a good idea to represent that by giving them
a baseline of 1 Fate Point. Likewise, Humans have al-
ways felt a bit… lacking to me in WFRP (both 2 and
4), so let’s give them a base of 1 Fate Point by default
as well. Dwarfs and Elves, being both doomed races
and possessing significant mechanical differences that
often make them more desirable to certain careers/
playstyles, will begin with a default of 0 Fate each.
First, we’ll allow players to either choose a species
(+0 Fate) or roll a 1d100 and consult a chart, sim-
ilar to the one in WFRP4. If they decide to roll
and keep the result, we give them +1 Fate Point.
Then we move on to Class and Career. The most
obvious way to do this is to award 1 Fate Point to
players that keep their roll on the Random Career
Table. But WFRP4 has an interesting sub-mechanic
where it awards a little less experience for a little less
randomization. Why don’t we try the same? We can
award 1 Fate Point to players that keep their first roll,
but then allow players to roll twice more should they
wish, bringing their total choices to three. If they pick
one of these three, they roll a 1d10 and if they get
a 6+ (basically a 50% chance), they still gain 1 Fate
Point. If they decide not to pick any of the three, they
can choose whichever career appeals to them, but
they miss out on the Fate Point entirely.
For generating Characteristics, we’ll apply the same
WFRP4 style. Players roll 2d10 for each Characteris-
tic and gain 1 Fate Point if they keep what they roll. If
they’d prefer to swap some of the results to customize
their attributes a bit, they can do so and instead roll a
1d10, gaining 1 Fate Point only on a 6+. If they’re just
plain unhappy with what they rolled, they can reroll
a whole new set of 2d10s and freely assign them as
they wish, but they again miss out on the Fate Point.
WFRP4 distinguishes between High Elves and Wood
Elves a bit. To represent this, I made a ‘High Elf ’ spe-
cies that’s identical to the Elf noted in WFRP2, except
with -10 BS and +10 WP, to represent more magical
11
 WFRP 2.4
Now, on to Wounds. Seeing as we are probably going to
be using a lot of WFRP4’s elements to try and alleviate
the Whiff Factor, WFRP2’s lower Wound thresholds
are just not going to cut it. Let’s use WFRP4’s, shall
we? Strength Bonus + (2x Toughness Bonus) + Will-
power Bonus, and, like in WFRP4, Halflings don’t
add their SB to this calculation, since they’re Small.
For Starting Wealth & Trappings, we’ll need to toss
out WFRP2’s entirely, as it is utterly incompati-
ble with WFRP4’s much more grounded economy.
Roadwardens in WFRP2 famously started play with
close to 500 gold worth of trappings - far more than
even the Noble!. We’ll use the WFRP4 method of
determining of Starting Wealth based on Status,
and we’ll use Class/Career to determine the starting
Trappings. How do we determine the Status/Class of
a given Career? Well, thankfully, many of WFRP2’s
careers are analogous in WFRP4. Those that don’t
might require a bit of guesswork but shouldn’t be too
hard to match with something similar. As an exam-
ple, a Knight-Errant is pretty much just a Rank 1
Knight, and a Norse Berserker can be considered a
Rank 1 Soldier.
house rules to apply to their campaigns! If you’d like
to check out the rest of WFRP2.4 or provide feed-
back, you can contact me over on the Rat Catcher’s
Guild Discord server for the most up-to-date version
of the ruleset which is perpetually a work-in-progress.
I’d also like to take this time to thank all the amazing,
supportive, passionate folks over at the Rat Catcher’s
Guild Discord, including Roders, Pippington, Moo
Man, Baron Merrick of Hochland, and countless
others. Without their insight and assistance, I’d have
never been able to cobble together these house rules.
Next time, we’ll deep dive into Skills, Talents, and
maybe even the Economy/Equipment systems, if I
can keep from rambling on too much.
Until then, go forth and WFRP!
~ BadJuJu#0604

CLOSING ARGUMENTS

And that brings us to the end of the Character

Creation chapter, and subsequently the end of this
first design diary. Ultimately, I think these rules
provide much more of an incentive for players to
allow the dice to determine some of the more im-
portant aspects of their characters than the mea-
ger experience rewards provided in WFRP4’s core
rules. They also allow for more flexibility and play-
er agency than WFRP2’s rigid character creation
system, without completely sacrificing the element
of random chance that has made it so beloved to
so many of us. I could even see this same reward
mechanic being house ruled into WFRP4, award-
ing Extra Points for Fate/Resilience at each step of
character creation instead of a set amount via race.

Hopefully, this design diary provided some insight

into the thinking processes I used while designing
WFRP2.4, or even inspired others with some possible

12
 Gerwin Waffenhalter’s
Magnificent Weapons Gallery
A Wissenland Point Of Interest - By Jaalib
T his is the First of a series of articles by Jaalib
fleshing out a point of interest for Wissenland.
In addition to this summary of the location and NPC
that runs it, we will have a full walkthrough of the
Gallery, and some more plot hooks tied to the Gal-
lery in later issues!
around with sharp, happy eyes. He’s missing two fin-
gers on his left hand and has a slight limp. He was
once a smith’s assistant, before being conscripted to
the army of Wissenland. Spending a big chunk of his
life as a soldier, he learned about all kinds of weapon-
ry and discovered a deep passion for it. While still in
the army, Gerwin was granted an early discharge to
enter studies at the University of Wissenburg, where
he scoured tomes about history and warfare to learn
as much as possible. After writing a book on the sub-

O N a small plaza in Wissenburg stands a two-sto- ject, he was granted a stipend by the State Army to
ry pavilion. It’s built with orange bricks and has open a weapons exhibition, which he runs to this day.
a wooden shed added along one of its walls. A large
sign over the entrance reads - Gerwin Waffenhalter’s
M WS BS S T I Ag Dex Int WP Fel W
Magnificent Weapons Gallery. This establishment,
funded by the State Army of Wissenland, houses a 4 50 27 42 41 39 31 35 49 33 43 19
display of weapons from all around the Empire, along
with a small exhibition dedicated to the history of Skills: Charm 46, Consume Alcohol 49, Cool 39,
Wissenland and its army. It was envisioned and cre- Entertain (Storytelling) 54, Evaluate 57, Gossip 51,
ated by Gerwin Waffenhalter and is run by him to Haggle 48, Language (Battle) 44, Language (Bret-
this day with the help of his assistant Gertrude Holtz. onnian) 43, Lore (History) 57, Lore (Weaponry)
68, Melee (All) 58, Research 61, Stealth 36, Trade
The inside opens to a reception area with a desk, (Smith) 48
stairs to the upper level, doors on the side leading
to the shed, and an entrance to the exhibition. The Traits: Weapon +7
gallery uses two floors. The first is dedicated to the
history of the province, tools that were used as arms Talents: Bookish, Craftsman (Smith), Diceman,
in peasant uprisings, weapons from back alley crimes, Doomed (Where curiosity ends, you shall meet your
and the sidearms of nobles and commoners. The sec- end), Hardy, Read/Write, Savant (Weaponry), Savvy,
ond-floor houses weapons used by Knights of dif- Strong Back, Very Strong
ferent Imperial orders, and what Gerwin considers
the heart of his exhibition - a large room dedicated Trappings: Fine Clothing (Red and black doublet),
to weapons used by the State Armies of the Empire. Backsword, Book (Weapons of the Empire)
A tour of the entire exhibition takes about an hour.
In the shed, a small office for Gerwin and Gertrude
is located, along with a warehouse for weapons not
currently on display. This is where Gerwin does his
research, and where conservation work on older or
damaged exhibits is done. There is no way into the
shed other than doors from the main building.

Gerwin Waffenhalter is a jagged man at the age of

43. Dressed in a red robe with black accents, he has
the crest of the State Army of Wissenland sewn
over his left chest. Despite his appearance being un-
welcoming at first glance, he smiles a lot and looks

13
 Gerwin Waffenhalter’s
Magnificent Weapons Gallery
NPC Hooks
• Gerwin is always looking to expand his collec-
tion, especially with unusual or exotic weapons.
He will pay good coin, but also ask many ques-
tions, to avoid getting into trouble.
• Gerwin feels like he’s in a pickle. Recently his
gallery was visited by a group of Dwarves, who
spent a long time discussing a particular sword in
the exhibition, which was donated by the Army
of Wissenland. After doing some digging, he dis-
covered it’s a Dwarven blade that was lent to one
of the Army’s commanders by the Dwarves of
clan Herfgrund about 250 years ago named Grey
Fang and was supposed to be returned after his
death. Knowing a bit about the Dwarves, Ger-
win is afraid it might be recorded as a Grudge
and is convinced the visiting Dwarves recognized
the sword. He’s looking for someone who would
travel to Karak Hirn, last known residence of
clan Herfgrund, and arrange for the return of the
blade to its rightful owner.
• A group of political dissidents is planning to
break into the gallery’s warehouse. They hope it
would be seen as a failure for the state army, and
also supply them with weapons for future oper-
ations. They are looking to employ some extra
people as muscle, and need someone capable of
getting through the locks on the doors. It seems
like a simple job, as the museum is not guarded,
but can you ever be sure there are no spies in an
anti-government group? If it’s a trap, the night
might get bloody.

Special thanks to Sezoxeufu, for her help with under-

standing the minutiae of weapons and Vienna Mar-
tin for editorial advice. ~ Jaalib#2203

14
 Interview with Matt Kay
A S this is the inaugural issue of The Ratter, we felt
that we couldn’t have an interview section with-
out interviewing the person who made this all possi-
ble in the first place; Matt Kay. Matt is the founder of
the Rat Catchers Guild on Discord, as well as a indie
TTRPG designer, and Podcast Personality. Let’s get
to know him, just a little bit better!
Charlotte: What was your first exposure to WFRP?
Matt Kay: I’m gonna give a long answer, but if you
don’t want to read it, here’s the nutshell version: I
got lucky and found a local GM who ran one of the
Doomstone adventures using 1e. This was in the late
noughties just as 3e was petering out.
Now for the long answer!
I started roleplaying as a teenager in the mid-90s,
cutting my teeth on WEG Star Wars. Then puberty
struck and I completely stopped for about a decade.
In my mid 20s, I had grown a bit bored of playing
CRPGs, and checked out whether there were any lo-
cal groups using Meetup.com. Lo and behold, there
was an active scene in Bristol (where I lived).
After a bit of trial & error, I eventually found a great
group which were playing D&D 4e. I joined them
and made lifelong friends with the group, but I was
never satisfied with D&D (probably from being
weaned on the WEG D6 system). So I looked for
a second local group to scratch the non-D&D itch.
I quickly found a small home group being run by
Ed, one of the founders of the Meetup group, and a
long-time GM and roleplayer. The first game that we
played was WFRP 1e. I can’t remember much about
the handful of sessions we played before we moved
on, except that in the first combat encounter, we had
to roll against Fear, and my character failed every
Cool test and spent the entire combat paralysed in
fright. While this helplessness might have put many
players off, I loved this quirky game which gave me
a (semi) random character who felt very relatable,
something D&D never accomplished.
I quickly found and bought a used copy of the 1e
rulebook in a local game shop and plunged head first
into the Old World and haven’t looked back since.
Despite playing and running many other games in
the decade that has followed, WFRP 1e remains my
one of favourite settings.
15
Charlotte: How do you feel your experience with
WFRP has shaped you into the player and GM that
you are today?
Matt Kay: I now run a podcast called Mud & Blood
which is focused on dark & grim roleplaying games,
so that should give you an idea! My play & GM pref-
erences follow suit: I prefer games with dark or bleak
settings and vulnerable PC protagonists. By vulnera-
ble, I mean PCs who only get more skilled and better
equipped as they adventure, but are still as vulnerable
to a lucky peasant with a pitchfork at the campaign
end as they are at the campaign start. I also prefer
my fantasy on the lower end of the spectrum, ideally
with magic which is either non-existant or stupidly
powerful while being potentially lethal to the cast-
er. I haven’t quite found the right setting for that, so
I’m creating one on the podcast with Liam, my co-
host. Having said all that, I will still play D&D, but
in about a decade of being in a weekly D&D home
group, I have never run it. I play only because my
friends love it and it’s how we hang out.
Charlotte: What made you decide to create a Dis-
cord Server for WFRP
Matt: I had just rediscovered Discord after many
failed attempts to get into it by joining the Year Zero
Worlds server. I then looked for a WFRP server, and
to my surprise couldn’t find one, so I set one up. Bo-
ganova (a Discord veteran) was a great help in setting
things up in the first couple of days, and so he quickly
became the first mod, with FoxFyre following very
closely on his heels (about a day later if memory
serves). The rest is history.
Charlotte: Since stepping down as Owner/Admin of
the Rat Catchers Guild, what have you been up to?
Matt: The Mud & Blood podcast eats up a lot of
time, but is extremely rewarding. In addition, I am
developing games using the Year Zero Engine, an ex-
cellent game system I am pretty passionate about. I
even started developing a WFRP clone using the Year
Zero Engine, but in putting my own stamp on it, it
quickly became it’s own beast. It’s now a WFRP-in-
spired alternate-history game called Nordsaga, and
I’m hoping to get a Quickstart of it out this summer.
You can read more about it and follow the newsletter
 Interview with Matt Kay
at http://nordsaga.co.
The other big project I’m working on is Year Zero Matt: Oh man, I get asked this question a lot, and
Mini. It’s a rules-light framework using the Year my answer always changes. My ultimate decision as
Zero Engine intended to run short campaigns in any a player comes down to the campaign premise, group
setting, much like FATE, Risus, or Savage Worlds concept, and how the dice roll. But that’s not much
do. The difference is that it uses a modified version of of an answer, so let me give you my favourites from
the award-winning Tales From the Loop rules, and is each Career in 4e, since that is the edition I’m playing
designed to be quite a gritty system. In addition, the right now: Engineer, Beggar, Servant, Hedge Witch,
whole game fits on a handful of sheets, with only 1 Witch Hunter, Stevedore, Racketeer, Pit Fighter.
page for chargen, 1 for rules, 1 for GM advice, and 1
for advice on tweaking the framework to fit your set- Charlotte: What are your thoughts on how the gen-
ting. You can actually download and play it right now eral outlook of roleplaying games has changed over
at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/270948. the years?
“The first game that we played was Matt: We’re in a golden age, there’s no ignoring it.
WFRP 1e. I can’t remember much about Crowd-funding has opened the doors to innovation
the handful of sessions we played before we and higher production values than we’ve ever seen
moved on, except that in the first combat before. New people are constantly coming into the
hobby largely thanks to the rise in streaming and
encounter, we had to roll against Fear, and
new games featuring recognisable IPs (Star Wars,
my character failed every Cool test and spent Star Trek, Fallout, Alien, Lord of the Rings, etc). I
the entire combat paralysed.” got back into the scene just before the Kickstarter
boom and have been amazed at how huge the hobby
Charlotte: What do you think differentiates WFRP has grown. Although many people are saying we’re at
most from other rpgs? saturation point, the industry still is doing very well,
and I hope to see this trend continue for many, many
Matt: I think it’s setting, tone, and grittiness. years to come.
The setting is simply awesome, thanks to it’s familiar
fantasy races and recognisable geography which are You can find Matt and all that he does at some of
injected with a healthy dose of 80’s British gallows the following places:
humour (where 1e in particular shines). In terms of Web: https://9littlebees.com
tone, I love the emphasis on an Empire being gnawed Twitter: @9littlebees
at from within by corruption and threats unseen, and MeWe: mewe.com/i/mattkay
protagonists which are mired in the mud, blood, and
shit of this uncaring world. Then there are the forces
of Chaos constantly trying to destroy cvilisation. It’s
a bleak backdrop, and the protagonists are no heroes.
While people can (and do) play more heroic WFRP
games, that’s not how it’s best experienced, in my
opinion. As for grittiness, I touched on it earlier. I
love how advancement makes you more skilled and
have better gear, but not gain stacks of additional
Wounds. Add critical injuries, madness, disease, and
corruption to the mix, and you’ve got a great cocktail
of grit to slowly chip away at even the hardiest or
most heroic PC.

Charlotte: What is your favorite WFRP career and

why?

16