A "BasementHammer" approach to rules fixes, core scenario options and expanding the game, both for Warhammer Fantasy and Mordheim.
The Objective: enrich the Core Rules with more narrative and story, and add more options for even richer games.

This is our game, and we should strive to make it as good as we can.
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Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Mordheim Roleplay part 4 - Personality and Social Exchanges

Finally, after more than a year, I finally got this out. It has been sitting on my hard drive half-finished for too long.
The Gods bless Yuletide and giving us peasants a break from work, so I can have more time to write rules :)


Previous Mordheim RPG posts:
Post: Intro and analysis
Post: Basic Rules
Post: summary of possible Careers and their special rules (work in progress)

Well met, folks, and I'm happy to show you this so you can hopefully put it to use.
This Part 2 or Mordheim Roleplay rules presents players and GMs the ability to turn the Leadership characteristic (a very one-dimensional representation of a character's mental ability) into a series of mental characteristics. The diverse combination of mental characteristics defines the personality of the character, and GMs will be able to use them as a vehicle for storytelling, and also as a roleplay challenge for players.

Mordheim Roleplay part 2 - Personality and Social Interactions (click to download)

In true Mordheim style, who wouldn't wish to see a party of adventurers trying to hold their Dwarf Slayer back from a fight with the Count's guards, and the player controlling the Slayer (who also DOESN'T want to fight the guards!) miserably fails its Self-Control test and all hell breaks loose.

There are seven Mental characteristics that make up a character's personality:
Generosity, Forgiveness, Humility, Self-Control, Free-Spirit, Logic, Willpower.

Personality tests are taken whenever a character would presumably do or say something against their personality. They are 2D6 characteristics tests against the Mental characteristic in question (much like a Leadership test). If the player fails the roll, they cannot help but act according to the character's personality.

Social Exchanges: The rules also show how engage in arguments with NPCs, where players use arguments in order to test the NPC's Mental characteristic most likely to give them a positive result. Depending on the arguments, the Mental characteristic they target and the NPC own Personality, the GM may allow bonuses or penalties. This encourages players to engage in roleplay and real argumentation, which itself feeds the game mechanics.

It should be noted that generating the Personality of a character is something that a players must be comfortable with: this system is meant as a guideline and a roleplay challenge, and no player should be stuck playing a character with a personality they don't enjoy.
I hope you enjoy it, and it can be of use after spending so long in the making.
I certainly cannot claim to have truly come up with this system myself, as it was heavily influenced by the Pendragon Roleplaying Game's Personality system. But to my mind I believe it is a good addition to Mordheim RPG, as it puts fate (once more) in the hands of the dice, much to of the dismay of the players, but also helps brings the characters to life. This has the added benefit of allowing beginners to the roleplay genre to take cues on how to act their character from the Mental characteristics it possesses.

NEXT: expanded Skill lists for different Careers (bussiness skills, social skills, exploration skills, etc).

Roll high and prosper!