From blanchard@nmsnp4.nmsu.eduMon Aug 14 08:46:35 1995
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 1995 15:40:44 -0700
From: blanchard@nmsnp4.nmsu.edu
Reply to: The wfrp mailing list <wfrp@gojira.monsta.com>
To: wfrp@gojira.monsta.com
Subject: Naked Dwarves


	The "Naked Dwarf" syndrome was a problem when I first played Warhammer
several years ago (I had to give it up in favor of grad school).  I recently
started playing again and have been kicking around a few rule modifications,
one of which is meant to deal with this problem.  Keep in mind these rules
are still in the development stage and haven't been play tested much.  
	In order to cure the "Man of Steel" problem, I've eliminated the
toughness attribute all together.  To compensate for the increase in damage
a character will take from a blow, I have also changed the wounds rules 
slightly.  Each hit location now has its' own wound value.  This value comes
from the old wound statistic.  For example, if a character has W=7 under the
standard rules,  he can now take 7 wounds of damage to each of his six hit 
locations.  If a specific location should fall below 0 wounds,  the character
then begins taking criticals on that location only.  Should he be hit in a 
different location, the damage is subtracted from the wounds left on that 
location seperate from all other damage.
	The change in wounds doesn't quite balance the lack of touhgness.
This leads to two more changes that I felt fixed other problems I saw with 
the combat system in Warhammer.  One is the relative ineffectiveness of shields
in the game.  I currently give everyone with a shield or off handed parrying
weapon a free parry each combat round.  (Off handed weapons users may choose 
to use this as an extra attack instead.)  Shields and weapons still use their
respective modifiers when these parries are attempted.  I use the following 
modifiers for shields:

	buckler		+10
	normal shield	+20
	large shield	+30
	
	I also felt that armor was not effective enough.  So I've modified 
armor values in the following way.

	Heavy Plate w/chain, full Helm w/coif		8
	Heavy Plate, full Helm, pot helmet w/coif	6
	Brigandine, Metal Scale, pot helmet		5
	Chainmail					4
	Leather						2
	Heavy Clothing					1

I chose these values by examining the average amount of damage an average
begining character could do with a hand weapon.  (3.5 + 3 Str. = 6.5 damage)
Note that I'm not considering the possibility of rolling extra damage.
I'm also considering that each hit location has an average of 6 wounds 
before critical hits are taken.  
	I'm still toying with these rules along with a few others.  I'm 
usually pretty busy, but any coments would be appreciated.

Sean Blanchard
(blanchard@nmsnp1.nmsu.edu)

"That which does not kill us, must have missed us..." - Miowara Tomokata
"When things are blackest, I just tell myself 'cheer up, things 
 could be worse!' And sure enough, they get worse!" - The Great Skeeve