So why have I posted a WFRP Character Creation Checklist? Well it seems that my D&D Character Creation Checklist is popular, so I though it might be good for WFRP 4e as well. Also I do find the process for making a WFRP character can be complex sometimes. And finally there’s no option like D&D Beyond that will automatically generate a WFRP 4e character for you.
(I’ll refer to Warhammer Fantasy Role Play as WFRP thoughout this by the way!)
So, get your WFRP 4e book ready and let’s go through what you need to do!
Grabbing a character sheet is probably a good place to start. There are a number of sources for character sheets. You can find some here.
- Choose species – or roll on the random table and gain some XP. Throughout the early parts of the process WFRP 4e allows you to either choose what you want to be or randomly decide. But the great thing is if you go with the dice then you get more starting XP, which you can spend straight away on improving your stats. The species options are limited to Human, Dwarf, Halfling, Wood Elf and High Elf.
- Choose Career. Again either randomly or select what you want. There’s an extra option here in that you can roll 3 times and choose the one you prefer – not as much XP as one roll though.
- Determine Attributes: WS, Strength etc. You can do this randomly for each one, roll but then assign to each attribute or roll again – with a declining number of XP for each option.
- Skills and Talents. Things get more complex here. You get some skills and talents based on your species, but then you also get to spend up to 40 advances on skills from your Career, and also get 1 Talent from your Career as well. No more XP bonuses!
- Trappings. You get some trappings as part of your Class (which is determined by which Career you are). You also get some as part of your starting Career. For money you look at your Status Tier and roll based on that. A bit complicated, but adds realism as well.
- Adding Detail. This is all the personal information about your character like name, eye colour, hair etc. But hidden within this is choosing Short Term and Long Term Ambitions. These are important because if you succeed in these you get XP, so they do actually mean something and are important not to overlook.
- Party. Together with the other PCs in your Party, you will now want to select Short Term and Long Term Party Ambitions. Again there’s XP waiting for those who achieve these!
- Bringing Your Character To Life. This is all about adding in the background details for your character. The rules suggest 10 questions to act as prompts, but you can do this however you want. Some people might prefer a bit less than this, others like to get into this detail from the start.
- Advancement. You haven’t even played yet, but you can already spend some XP! You can use any of the XP you accrued during the character creation process to buy Skill Advances or get a Talent, or even level up in a Career.
And that’s it you’re finished. This list is actually shorter than the D&D Checklist and to be fair to the WFRP 4e writers this is numbered in the book as well. However, make sure you spend some time particularly on Ambitions as they are important. Also beware that the Skills and Talents section will take some time. You will probably want to read up on what the different options can do in the game.
You may also find the page I have created that collates Character Sheets for WFRP 4e useful.
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It would have been nice if you shown an example process of creating a character as the book is a bit weak in some aspects of character creation. For instance, does a character get all the Talents associated with their species (except where an OR occurs) as that is not clear but seems to suggest that.
Hi Dennis
Great idea – I’ll try to get a few examples posted!
Thanks
Mark