As I said before in my fake review of WFRP2 it is the best edition of WFRP by the numbers. That doesn't mean it can't be improved. I think I got a bit hasty in that review in throwing babies out with bathwater. So I'm scubbing my houserules or rebuild or what have you I presented in that review (leaving it there for posterity). Let's start fresh. As I touched on to in this rant, There is a gimmick mechanic in WFRP2 which WFRP4... deproved on? Worsened? Impaired? They sucked dick at it.
WFRP2 on left, WFRP4 on right.
As you can see, the percentages are totally fucked for the new version, but that's besides the point as the chief gimmick of the mechanic which was tenuous in WFRP2 is complete nonsense in WFRP4. Breaking it down
WFRP2 --> WFRP4
Head: 15% --> 9%
Right Arm: 20% --> 20%
Left Arm: 20% --> 15%
Body: 25% --> 35%
Right Leg: 10% --> 11%
Left Leg: 10% --> 10%
Right Leg: 10% --> 11%
Left Leg: 10% --> 10%
As you can plainly see, a retard wrote the WPRP4 percentages. It's worse than that, though. Considering how the mechanic works it exists to improve the "ones" die to make it more relevant. That means that as you increase percentage of ability, you increase your chances of hitting less likely targets. So the items aren't in the correct order in the chart. Neither of them. Bizarrely 4E is closer, but I think it's a complete accident, like any and all improvements in 4E. And as I've shown the percentages are flatly eyeballed and insane. And at least partially made to soften the game by funneling hits into either the body or right arm and away from the head or left arm. You know, the important bits.
My suggested fix:
Head: 00-09
Body: 10-39
Left Arm: 40-59
Right Arm: 60-79
Left Leg: 80-89
Right Leg: 90-99
Which can be shortened to just looking at the second percentile die (the "ones" die) and not doing any swapping or calculations whatsoever:
0: Head
1-3: Body
4-5: Left Arm
6-7: Right Arm
8: Left Leg
9: Right Leg
So that's the start for WFRP2E. Remove the gimmick mechanic.
Second thing is actually a takeaway from 4E and it's only improvement on the system: Success Levels in skill rolls are based on the "tens" die instead of any math of determining how much you succeeded by via subtraction. The math is identical but easier to just flip it and use it like a blackjack mechanic. So rolling a 07 is probably a success but isn't great (0 success level), and rolling a 35 is only great if your skill is 35 or higher because it's the best possible success level you can get (3). If you roll higher than your skill, you still fail. If you still need failure levels for any reason, subtract your skill's tens place (+1) from your roll's ten's place and you'll get that too. It's also an easier calculation, and basically never necessary, but there you have it.
So there's me improving the game without removing any mechanics, just adjusting them to play better.
On to Initiative:
The closest we get to good is WFRP4's final word on the matter, but because it's WFRP4 there's an "initiative bonus" which is derived from an Initiative ABILITY SCORE. This is excessive dumb design for the sake of excessive dumb design since Agility works just fine and has uses outside of initiative. The best solution for WFRP Initiative is d10 + Agility Bonus (IE the tens digit of the Agility score). That's it. And obviously no Initiative ability score. I do also support WFRP2's stance on side initiative for enemies (or grouped initiative) to save time. This is the best of both worlds and allows chaos to reign in combat instead of the ability score really being the meat of the "Say" as to when a character or enemy goes.
This is part 1 in a series where I fix the game. No idea how many parts we'll end up with.
