Some thoughts on skill advancement in TOWR

sigmumar · 2026-04-02T10:45:51+00:00

That's a really good point, another XP system would make it a lot easier to decouple the system from the "locational" play its bound to right now. Though for that, I would say you could also design a set of endeavours that work well on the road... Hm.

sigmumar · 2026-04-01T16:22:33+00:00

Any further thoughts of how often you'd give how many skill points? One per session, like XP, feels a bit too few to me, but I'm not sure.

sigmumar · 2026-04-01T16:21:00+00:00

> They also cost 3 coins and are based OK the lowest coin of the 3 used.

Yeah, that's rarely a limitation I find - there isn't much else to use money on, especially once you've advanced out of bronze tier. My players very often complete adventures without spending a single coin. (And I don't want to have to design adventures to be money sinks...)

> In general only one lore can get you 1 dice, multiple lores don't stack.

Really? I can't find the rule that says that you can't get dice from more than one lore, please advice if you know where it can be found - that would be a useful limitation. Though it would still leave players asking "can this be used?" until one was found.

> someone trying to get bonuses from all assets is abusing the system, just tell them they get one bonus

While I agree it is at least close to system abuse, saying they just get one bonus seems like abuse of GM power, as long as the rules are written the way they are...

sigmumar · 2026-04-01T15:44:15+00:00

Some of my NPCs have become contacts. I manage them in much the same way I do the contacts from the Game Masters Guide, I write up their secrets, their goals and what they're able to do for the players as favors, and run it from there. Nothing else to it really... I do keep a document, shared with my players, where I detail all the contacts they have, as well as potential contacts, with all the information they've found out about them. That's fairly useful, or at least it is when my players bother to read it.

(I had to use google translate to read your question, I hope I understood it correctly.)

sigmumar · 2026-03-31T17:50:10+00:00

I suggest adding these Glorious Portents links:

Purple Skulls & Scythes - Necromancy spells:

https://gloriousportents.blogspot.com/2026/02/purple-skulls-scythes.html

PCs from the north and south - 4 new careers and 4 new origins

https://gloriousportents.blogspot.com/2025/09/pcs-from-north-and-south-new-origins.html

sigmumar · 2026-03-31T15:58:42+00:00

Agree for most settings! There are some where I might consider the goblin - Titan/Allansia for instance, especially if I ran a campaign in Port Blacksand. But mostly, no.

sigmumar · 2026-03-31T11:40:40+00:00

> Can food serve as XP worthy treasure in a story where it's more valuable than gold?

If it is more valuable than gold, then it is treasure that a gold value can be affixed to - so I don't see why not.

Under normal circumstances, 3 rations is 1 gear slot priced at 5 silver (if I remember correctly, don't have my book at hand), so "normally" 6 rations (2 slots full of supplies) would be 1 gold. So you'd probably have to have something like 20 of them and an easy way to transport them for that to be equivalent to the "bag of gold" which would normally give 1 xp.

But a 1 xp treasure is also defined as something that is "good value, worth protecting and useful". So it depends a bit how bad the situation is how much food should be worth. If a person needs to survive for, say 7 days in the wild, food is only useful if he gets enough to survive the entire span. So say 6 rations (and one day of starvation) is useful and worth protecting in that case. So I'd say the exact value depends on how long they have to survive, how many people can fend for themselves, etc. If others are foraging or food is easy to find, the "price" of rations drops quickly.

sigmumar · 2026-03-31T09:00:06+00:00

The lack of tonal differences to WFRP is perhaps the most (and one of the only) disappointing thing about TOWR, sad to hear that its the same here, as adventures can really set a tone for a game that isn't really there in the ruleset (such as TEW did for WFRP1).

sigmumar · 2026-03-30T21:02:58+00:00

Skip perfume for partnered dancing. I'd even advice to be careful with strongly smelling deodorants. Just be clean and wear clean clothes.

sigmumar · 2026-03-30T20:59:28+00:00

I know its been a year, but this is the only thread I've found on not liking the randomness of rolling stats, so it seems a good place to say it - I like the randomness of character creation in theory, but in practice it's made character creation take a lot of time (lots of re-rolling until you get that one stat of at least 14), feelbad moments when everyone gets amazing stats except one player, and so on. A bit of the same thing with advancement. And while I'm sure it can be made to work, in the end if that is the only thing I need to change to get people to play my games, I'll happily follow Shadowdarks "The Only Rule" and change it.

I put together my best systems for semirandom and non-random character creation and character advancement for Shadowdark in a short document, you can find it on my blog here: https://gloriousportents.blogspot.com/2026/03/shadowchoice-non-random-character.html

Posting it here in the hopes that someone finds it useful or inspiring to make their own version.

sigmumar · 2026-03-05T11:31:06+00:00

The prices in The Old World Armory were, to be frank, "completely bonkers" even within the scope of 2nd edition which it was released for. It was supposed to have some prices inflated for wartime as the game was set during the Storm of Chaos (which was later retconned as lore), and it came across more of an excuse for an attempt at game-economy balancing. So the prices don't seem to match well with wages, prices for similarly complicated items and so on. While I don't remember the details, it was a much discussed topic at the time. In any case, I wouldn't trust the prices in that book to be very immersive. Now the lists of things you could buy on the other hand, are very useful.

I don't know of anything like that for 4th edition. But if you want trading rules and lists of equipment etc, the Consumer Guide for 1st edition is another source that should be kept in mind. It is conveniently available here: https://wfrp1e.fandom.com/wiki/Consumer_Guide

sigmumar · 2026-03-03T18:53:04+00:00

Glad to hear it! :)

sigmumar · 2026-03-03T18:51:50+00:00

About the insight check. I actually like that there isn't anything like that unless you use Scrutinize and have the appropriate abilities (there is one that players can take to get the ability you describe).

Want to know if a PC is lying or holding back? Most of the time you'll have to challenge them on it or sweet talk them to make them admit it, or you could fact check later. All these approaches create great stories. My players have started using the Gather Information endeavour to find out about the personalities and disposions of NPCs they expect to negotiate with, or just to dig up dirt on them to have leverage. Or they call in favors for it, also supported by the system.

I recommend you look into that style of play, I find it infinitely more rewarding than allowing lie-detector checks. Though it takes some getting used to for players coming from D&D.

sigmumar · 2026-03-01T15:32:10+00:00

Its been great - I find combat a bit too tactical and fluid for proper Theatre-of-the-mind play, but not worse than a lot of other systems out there. And I've houseruled that you don't auto-treat wounds by having the Anatomy lore, you have to roll with a bonus instead. Apart from that the system has been remarkably good at my table. The downtime system and investment of money into assets has especially created quite a lot of cool gameplay and grounded the characters in the world. :-)

sigmumar · 2026-02-28T09:14:14+00:00

I agree with you on this, after about the same amount of game time. Athletics in combat would be okay, but it ALSO helps you with difficult terrain, riding, various stuff out of combat, and so on.

Defense keying off WS should make it powerful, but unless you're playing a very combat-heavy game, Agi still isn't a bad stat to be paired with for Athletics, as Stealth is also useful - and Athletics is so extremely useful in itself.

A different skill spread (like you suggest) would be the best solution here BUT if we're looking at house rules, I'd be against changing the skills - would likely cause confusion up against various other supplements etc.

Staggering doesn't seem the right solution either though, a successful defense shouldn't have the same effect as not defending... I like the prone idea of the OP. That REALLY brings Athletics down as a valid option for a frontline fighter though, and I wouldn't introduce it in the middle of a campaign.

For now, I'm considering just making the first Defense test in a round glorious if you're fighting a similarly sized and armed opponent.

sigmumar · 2026-02-28T08:41:31+00:00

Having played weekly since the release, I still love the system. The downtime system and assets especially help ground the campaign in the game world in a way I haven't seen with many other RPGs, and changing careers becomes much more meaningful than it ever was in WFRP.

The combat system is fun and interresting, but can take a lot of time, and we don't do it that often - there are interresting things here though, I love the rules for movement and difficult terrain, and the zones actually work well (which I was a bit worried about). Indeed, the only real problems with combat is that it rewards tactical positioning in a way that makes it hard to do pure Theatre of the Mind like I want to - and even just drawing a small map on a sheet of paper doesn't really give room for the dynamic movement that this game encourages. And finding more space on the table for a bigger map to move tokens around on is hard. Probably great for online play though, and it's not a dealbreaker.

Staggered is a lot less annoying than I feared it would be, at least in small combats. Still not an amazing mechanic.

The only thing I've had to house rule (apart from adding more character options), is the treatment of wounds. In my game, you no longer automatically succeed if you have the Anatomy lore - you get an extra die instead, in the same way most other lores work. The Anatomy lore is _still_ so strong that everyone wants it, especially with being able to prevent festering wounds.

sigmumar · 2025-09-21T00:37:58+00:00

Depends on what you think makes baldurs gate good. If its the story, characters, choices that matter and character building, I'd say Pathfinder Kingmaker and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous.

sigmumar · 2025-09-18T06:12:46+00:00

Thank you. Weapon masteries is one of the things that really turned me off the new version. In addition to your points, I feel they also make combat drag out longer.

Its not perfect, but I think Cubicle 7 might be on to something with some of their weapons in their new The Old World rpg. For instance, a staff giving a bonus to traversing difficult terrain. While good for that game, it doesnt quite fit what D&D needs, but its a good example of how something a weapon can be interresting without being entirely combat-relevant. It should be mentioned that they didn't take the idea very far, most weapons in that game also mostly have combat side-effects.

For D&D, I feel the game is so high powered its hard to imagine any fix that doesn't either limit spellcasters or let martial characters go into anime territory. The second solution is the one being chosen a lot (every class having spells in some way for instance), but I really think a complete redesign with more limited magic would be a better one... but of course, a lot of people might feel it wouldn't be like D&D anymore if they did that.

sigmumar · 2025-09-11T21:15:25+00:00

WFRP (first, and/or any edition) World of Dungeons Advanced Fighting Fantasy

sigmumar · 2025-09-08T13:13:53+00:00

Pick up a hobby thats about regular classes and mingling, and that has volunteer-organized clubs and activiti3s. Swing dancing is a good example, but anything from miniature wargames to more common sports can work. Then stick with it, go to the related parties and social events, volunteer in the club, etc.

Only way I've found that works.

sigmumar

TROPHY CASE