Ruinous Reactions—Fear, Terror & Insanity in WFRP2e

I have a lot of issues with fear, terror, and insanity in…basically every roleplaying game. Some games, specifically in the storygame variety, do it much better, but on the whole roleplaying games have a lot of room for growth in this area.

This is my attempt to grow on this issue in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition. This is also my submission to the Three Page Fiction Contest over on /r/WarhammerFantasyRPG!

I hope you enjoy Ruinous Reactions!

Ruinous Reactions is an overhaul for Fear, Terror, and Insanity in WFRP2e, because a) being frozen isn't fun game play, and removes player agency, and b) RPGs tend to have a very ableist view of mental health. This new system intends to fix both of these issues, and turn Fear, Terror, and Insanity into interesting game play opportunities, rather than agency sucking moments!

Download Ruinous Reactions now!

Edit: As a side note, between this post and the last, versamus reached 100,000 views, and this post was actually our 200th! Lots of milestones for the new year!

D&D 5E: Legendary Resistance Revamped

I've discussed this before, but it's so pressing for me whenever I run D&D 5E battles, that I think about it often. I dislike Legendary Resistance. A lot. It is probably my least favourite thing about D&D at the moment, and I've never been a massive fan of the system. I like 5E more than most, and am now coming to the end of my 3rd year running it, but Legendary Resistance keeps me mad.

I won't labour the point, but the main reason I dislike Legendary Resistance is that it needlessly takes away a player's shiny thing. They get to use an ability, and the GM just gets to tell them that it doesn't work.

I tried, in my last article on the subject, to fix this with a few different methods. I've now scrapped all of those workarounds, and come up with a new alternative which I prefer a lot more.

Legendary Resistance (3/day). [Creature] gains advantage on a saving throw of their choice. This advantage may be in addition to advantage they already had, allowing them to roll up to three dice, and choose the highest result.

Simple.

Sorted.

And just in time for Strahd.

Hammer & Anvil—Crafting in WFRP2e

In 2014, I wrote a blog post called "I Hit It With My Hammer... Constructively" in which I outlined a hack for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition. At the time, I was very happy with it.

But I have grown since then, as a GM and a game designer, and as such it's time to release a revision. This revision started small, and quickly grew into a mini fan-supplement much like my last one, Tides of War.

And here it is! I hope you enjoy Hammer & Anvil!

Hammer & Anvil is an unofficial fan supplement for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition focusing on crafting. This system seeks to add a deep yet simple system to the core rules of WFRP that enables crafters of any variety to ply their trades. With some small substitutions, this system could be used with any roleplaying game.

Download Hammer & Anvil now!

#200WordRPG: DOGMA

#200WordRPG is one of my favourite yearly traditions, despite how young it still is. This is my second year entering - last year's entry can be found here. If you're not sure what #200WordRPG is, well, it's a challenge to write an entire tabletop roleplaying game in 200 words or less, with no graphics or special formatting. It's all about the words (all 200 or less of them).

This year, I present to you DOGMA!

You and at least two others (there is no maximum) are an entire religion, throughout its timeline - from inception, to corruption and subversion.

Your religion is growing. It will do great things... Before it is twisted, and made rotten. We play to see it fester.

The first player describes a moment of SPIRITUALITY: a fact about the religion at its founding.
//Thou shall not kill.

The second describes a FABLE that explains it: written long after, it obscures the spirituality from morality into rote learning.
//St. Cain didn't kill the sinner, but cut off their hands, feet and tongue so they could never sin again.

The third describes a MISINTERPRETATION: long after the fable is written, how is it subverted and corrupted for personal gain?
//King Auger cut out the tongues of all non-believers, stating they were now, or would become, sinners. He declared their exsanguination was God taking their deaths into Her own hands.

A player who hasn't described a Spirituality begins again. New Spiritualities must reference or retaliate to a previous Myth or Misinterpretation.
//Suffer not the sinner to live.

The religion stagnates when everyone has misinterpreted something.
//Religion fades when spirituality is forgotten.

Record everything.

I also did pretty it up a little, and uploaded it here (and put it on my portfolio here).

If you play it, let me know!