This guide is very unofficial. The rules aren't; they are
the ones that you find in the WFRP books. However, they
are used in combinations and for purposes that the
designers probably never meant them to be used. But well,
the limited imagination of designers is not our fault, is
it? The rules are there, it is for us to use them. And
below you can find some ways to use them efficiently -
more efficiently than they were intended to.
If you ever try to pull some of this shit at my table, by the way, you'll find that a GM's munchkin powers trump those of the players easily.
If you ever try to pull some of this shit at my table, by the way, you'll find that a GM's munchkin powers trump those of the players easily.
Champion on the cheap
Champion is the munchkin career of WFRP 2,
even more so than Spy in WFRP 1. So the first entry
of this guide is about becoming a Champion quickly.
The trappings for Champion list "Any six weapons (all of best craftsmanship)." This is often mentioned as a significant impediment to becoming a champion; with the x10 price modifier for Best Craftsmanship, in a world where even a common sword costs 10 GC, you'll need a lot of money to get into the career.
However, the trappings say that you need any six weapons. They don't specify swords. Looking at the price list on p. 108, we find that we can buy a Quarter Staff for 3 shillings. And they are plentiful - so best craftsmanship quarter staffs are still Common, and thus found rather easily.
So our six best craftsmanship weapons can be five quarterstaffs and a lasso (which is also handy for binding the staffs together - the package becomes so unwieldy otherwise), for a total cost of 25 GC. And the way to the +40 modifiers for WS and BS is open.
The trappings for Champion list "Any six weapons (all of best craftsmanship)." This is often mentioned as a significant impediment to becoming a champion; with the x10 price modifier for Best Craftsmanship, in a world where even a common sword costs 10 GC, you'll need a lot of money to get into the career.
However, the trappings say that you need any six weapons. They don't specify swords. Looking at the price list on p. 108, we find that we can buy a Quarter Staff for 3 shillings. And they are plentiful - so best craftsmanship quarter staffs are still Common, and thus found rather easily.
So our six best craftsmanship weapons can be five quarterstaffs and a lasso (which is also handy for binding the staffs together - the package becomes so unwieldy otherwise), for a total cost of 25 GC. And the way to the +40 modifiers for WS and BS is open.
Jack and the beanstalk
Remember the story of that farmer's boy who went to
the market with a cow, and bartered it away for
stuff of lesser and lesser value, until he came
home at the end of the day with only a magic bean?
Well, that boy was strictly following the WFRP
bartering rules.
Page ten of the Old World Armoury states that you can barter any item of a given rarity for another item of the same rarity. So you could buy a Repeater Crossbow (very rare, 100 GC) and exchange it for a Repeater Handgun (very rare, 600 GC). Sell the handgun and have 500 GC profit. Nothing restricts you to very rare items, of course; buy a buckler (average, 2 GC) and trade it for a crossbow (average, 25 GC) for a more modest profit. Or, if you have three beans and you see a farmer's boy walking a cow to the market ...
Page ten of the Old World Armoury states that you can barter any item of a given rarity for another item of the same rarity. So you could buy a Repeater Crossbow (very rare, 100 GC) and exchange it for a Repeater Handgun (very rare, 600 GC). Sell the handgun and have 500 GC profit. Nothing restricts you to very rare items, of course; buy a buckler (average, 2 GC) and trade it for a crossbow (average, 25 GC) for a more modest profit. Or, if you have three beans and you see a farmer's boy walking a cow to the market ...
That canny tradesman, Dr. Rudolf
von Richten, came up with this
idea.
Why WFRP doesn't have a Currency Trader career
The tip above showed
how you can make money by bartering. But once you
have money, what should you do with it? Well, make
more money, of course. And one of the best ways to
do that is to play at the currency market.
The Old World Armoury gives a table with exchange rates between the different currencies of the Old World, at the top of page 9. A forum poster, Alakazam, found a way to buy and sell money to increase your riches. However, this may be a bit impractical, since it involves travelling to far away countries like Kislev or Tilea. We can do it easier, though; just find any Imperial city with a large Dwarven quarter, where the dwarfs use their own coins, rather than the Imperial ones. Altdorf or Nuln would do.
The OWB tells us that the exchange rate from GC to Dwarf Gold is -15% (that means that you get 85 Dwarf Gold for 100 GC). The inverse rate, from Dwarf Gold to Imperial coin, is +30%. And so, when you have some 100 GC, you can go to the Dwarven quarter, sell them for 85 Dwarf Gold, take those back to the human part of the city again, and sell your 85 Gold for 110 Karls, plus ten shilling. You can take that back to the Dwarven quarter again ...
You could find even better rates in Kislev. Trading Kislev ducats to Dwarf Gold and back again will give you a 26% profit every time.
The Old World Armoury gives a table with exchange rates between the different currencies of the Old World, at the top of page 9. A forum poster, Alakazam, found a way to buy and sell money to increase your riches. However, this may be a bit impractical, since it involves travelling to far away countries like Kislev or Tilea. We can do it easier, though; just find any Imperial city with a large Dwarven quarter, where the dwarfs use their own coins, rather than the Imperial ones. Altdorf or Nuln would do.
The OWB tells us that the exchange rate from GC to Dwarf Gold is -15% (that means that you get 85 Dwarf Gold for 100 GC). The inverse rate, from Dwarf Gold to Imperial coin, is +30%. And so, when you have some 100 GC, you can go to the Dwarven quarter, sell them for 85 Dwarf Gold, take those back to the human part of the city again, and sell your 85 Gold for 110 Karls, plus ten shilling. You can take that back to the Dwarven quarter again ...
You could find even better rates in Kislev. Trading Kislev ducats to Dwarf Gold and back again will give you a 26% profit every time.
Witchcraft without the penalty
The Witchcraft talent is quite a good one - it
allows you to cast spells from different colours.
However, you have to pay for it; when you cast a
spell, you have to roll an extra die which only
counts toward Tzeentch' Curse. Ouch.
The munchkin way out is already given in the description of the talent, though: "Once you learn an Arcane Language and an Arcane Lore, you no longer have to roll the extra die." (RoS p. 128). The Apprentice Wizard career gives you the Speak Arcane Language skill, as does Seer in the Tome of Corruption - and that latter career has a direct exit to Witch. Arcane Lores are much more restricted, though; the only career that has that talent is Journeyman Wizard. However, Black Industries has a "questions and answers" forum which is very helpful to munchkins: warlocks are presumed to have that talent as well, according to topic_id 7300.
Seer - Witch - Warlock is thus a preferred career path if you want to cast spells of many colours without penalty.
The munchkin way out is already given in the description of the talent, though: "Once you learn an Arcane Language and an Arcane Lore, you no longer have to roll the extra die." (RoS p. 128). The Apprentice Wizard career gives you the Speak Arcane Language skill, as does Seer in the Tome of Corruption - and that latter career has a direct exit to Witch. Arcane Lores are much more restricted, though; the only career that has that talent is Journeyman Wizard. However, Black Industries has a "questions and answers" forum which is very helpful to munchkins: warlocks are presumed to have that talent as well, according to topic_id 7300.
Seer - Witch - Warlock is thus a preferred career path if you want to cast spells of many colours without penalty.
The familiar multiplier
In RoS, in the chapter on familiars, it is stated
that a wizard can have more than one familiar. It
also states that a familiar gets half the XP that
the character gains, for free. This allows for a
nice hack:
1. Bind and/or create eight familiars
2. Gain 600 XP
Your gaining 600 XP means that each familiar gains 300 XP. The book gives eight familiar abilities which significantly increase a wizard's powers. Each familiar can buy one ability, and your wizard is set.
1. Bind and/or create eight familiars
2. Gain 600 XP
Your gaining 600 XP means that each familiar gains 300 XP. The book gives eight familiar abilities which significantly increase a wizard's powers. Each familiar can buy one ability, and your wizard is set.
Raise your Mag stat!
If you have a Wizard PC, there are several
opportunities to increase your Mag stat. Take them!
And often! The easiest way to do this may be the
familiar ability "Magic Power" (RoS, p. 191) - get
this ability several times by using the familiar
multiplier, above.
The goal here is not to roll many casting dice - the good munchkin doesn't want to do that, as it only invites Tzeentch' Curse. A high Mag score is useful for other things. Several magic missile spells, for instance, create a number of missiles equal to your Mag score. Other spells have a duration, toughness or whatever that is dependent on your Mag score. Next to this, you can use Channelling to add your Mag score to the casting roll. So there is a definite advantage to raise the stat to ten or so.
The goal here is not to roll many casting dice - the good munchkin doesn't want to do that, as it only invites Tzeentch' Curse. A high Mag score is useful for other things. Several magic missile spells, for instance, create a number of missiles equal to your Mag score. Other spells have a duration, toughness or whatever that is dependent on your Mag score. Next to this, you can use Channelling to add your Mag score to the casting roll. So there is a definite advantage to raise the stat to ten or so.
Thanks to Lord Malachdrim for this
one.
Concentric circles
The rulebook describes how you can minimise the
risk of Tzeentch' Curse by using a protective
circle. The true munchkin will note that if one
protective circle is good, two concentric
protective circles will be better. And so on.
Nothing in the book forbids this.
In an attempt to make it more difficult to create such a circle, the book mentions that the materials required to make such a circle are scarce and cost a number of gold crowns equal to the casting number of the spell. Nowhere is it mentioned, however, that the items themselves decrease in value, or that they cannot be reused again. I'd suggest to get a few yards of Best Quality rope. Normal rope is Common and one GC per 20 yards, so Best Quality rope is Scarce, and one GC per two yards. You can easily measure how many yards you need to fulfil the requirements. The mathematical munchkin would get one piece of two yards, one of four yards, one of eight yards, and so on - or twice or thrice as much if he wants to get multiple concentric circles of protection.
In an attempt to make it more difficult to create such a circle, the book mentions that the materials required to make such a circle are scarce and cost a number of gold crowns equal to the casting number of the spell. Nowhere is it mentioned, however, that the items themselves decrease in value, or that they cannot be reused again. I'd suggest to get a few yards of Best Quality rope. Normal rope is Common and one GC per 20 yards, so Best Quality rope is Scarce, and one GC per two yards. You can easily measure how many yards you need to fulfil the requirements. The mathematical munchkin would get one piece of two yards, one of four yards, one of eight yards, and so on - or twice or thrice as much if he wants to get multiple concentric circles of protection.
Eat some warpstone
So you saved 200 XP and you want to switch to the
career of Hedge Wizard, but there is one problem.
Your character is a halfling or a dwarf, and these
races cannot use magic. Bummer.
The Tome of Corruption helps. At the start of chapter III, at the bottom right of page 25, the book states that "any character that gains a mutation [...] immediately changes his race to Mutant." Problem solved. There are no racial drawbacks to being a mutant (well, aside from the obvious one, that is) and the drawbacks to previous races don't count anymore. Chapter II lists a number of ways in which you may get a mutation, and if you're lucky, you roll a mutation that doesn't immediately signal that you're a mutant. You just want to be an innocent hedge wizard, right? They'll burn you anyway if they find out.
Due to the nature of mutations, this rule is only advisable for relatively short campaigns.
The Tome of Corruption helps. At the start of chapter III, at the bottom right of page 25, the book states that "any character that gains a mutation [...] immediately changes his race to Mutant." Problem solved. There are no racial drawbacks to being a mutant (well, aside from the obvious one, that is) and the drawbacks to previous races don't count anymore. Chapter II lists a number of ways in which you may get a mutation, and if you're lucky, you roll a mutation that doesn't immediately signal that you're a mutant. You just want to be an innocent hedge wizard, right? They'll burn you anyway if they find out.
Due to the nature of mutations, this rule is only advisable for relatively short campaigns.
Credits for discovering this
loophole go to Glorthindel
Oh, and if you know some good munchkin tricks, please contact me and let me add them to the list.