Liber Etcetera: Idle Hands

"Idle. I remember how my peers would call the peasants 'idle'… 

By the Gods, I am certain, in my younger years, I was as guilty of that as any. As we sipped at Southlander coffee, and sat in our Cathayan silks, we remarked at the squabbles of the idle serfs. We lounged as they broke their backs for every scrap of wealth we leeched from them. We may as well have been supping on their blood.

And then there were the vagabonds.

The cowed peasantry are an unfortunate sight: not because they themselves are foul, but because they show to us — their 'betters' — the crimes we commit by perpetuating their sorry states. But the vagabonds, the drifters, the adventurers. They are our worst sin, and our greatest resource. By their blood, our lands were kept safe. By their sweat, our petty concerns were met. By their disease ridden corpses, our wars were truly fought.

Who then were we to denounce their Idle Hands?"

Introducing Liber Etcetera: Idle Hands!

Liber Etcetera: Idle Hands is an unofficial fan supplement for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4^th Edition, focusing on Downtime. Idle Hands replaces the Between Adventures phase from the core rulebook, and offers a more brutal impetus for adventure — disease, starvation, and the dismissal of your peers await those unfavoured by Handrich! For more information, and for the download link, head over to the Itch.io page now! Idle Hands is also available in French!

Beware: Idle Hands

Whilst Idle Hands is an all-new supplement, it comes from a long lineage of Downtime rules that I've been trying to refine since 2^nd Edition. I'm not so arrogant to say that I've nailed it, but this is the happiest I've ever been with a Downtime system, and I think it's pretty great.

Whilst I do enjoy the core Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4^th Edition, and I wrote the Travel rule in The Enemy in Shadows Companion, I didn't feel either reflected the games I was running. Both presented Downtime rules for campaigns framed around normal people who, when not adventuring, would return to normal lives. In my experience, that's just not what WFRP looks like! Adventuring shouldn't be something that happens as a side project, nor should it be something that is engaged in lightly. The Characters become adventurers because they don't otherwise fit into the world. So I needed to make the world reject them: hence these, rather brutal, rules.

Liber Etcetera: Idle Hands is the fourth of the "core releases" I intend to do through Liber Etcetera. These releases are all designed as larger-scale supplements — compared to my Little Liber series, and the Warhammer Cultures series (and any other series that starts up!), each detailing a larger aspect of the rules.

Until next time (and the next release), I hope you have more Warhammer in your life.

Liber Etcetera: Rhya's Gifts

"But it wasn't all bloodshed. No, I remember innovation, too. 'Progress,' they called it. 'The March to the Grave' may have been more fitting, as folk ripped Rhya's Gifts from the land… 

I remember, clearly, 'guardians of the wilds', wise women, great Druids, and other keen folk peddling their potions and tinctures, cure-alls and elixirs. At first, it was just 'the way things were.' The world was harsh, and civilisation was about protecting us from the outside world. Then, with the advent of industry, these same wise folk called their mixtures 'Natural' and 'Clean', as opposed to the filth of cities and urban living. So much for the march of progress.

It's not all doom and gloom, though — well, it wasn't up until relatively recently. Only a fool would say that the apothecaries were hacks, or that they didn't do immesurable good for countless folk before the end. But it still leaves me with questions:

Where would we be if we had left well enough alone Rhya's Gifts?"

Introducing Liber Etcetera: Rhya's Gifts!

Liber Etcetera: Rhya's Gifts is an unofficial fan supplement for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4^th Edition, focusing on Herbalism and Potion Making. Rhya's Gifts allows your Characters to craft potent magical Potions, and gain tangible benefits from travelling far, and hunting terrible monsters — Potion Ingredients! For more information, and for the download link, head over to the Itch.io page now! Rhya's Gifts is also available in French!

Rhya's Gifts are Here

Rhya's Gifts was actually one of the first hacks for 2^nd Edition that I ever wrote, many many years ago. I posted the old version on my old blog versamus, which I have no idea if it still exists. If it does, I'm certain the old link won't work for the download, anyway. Which, in truth, is for the best: this new one is so much better!

I completely overhauled the old system, added in a bunch of new types of Ingredients, based off of the Spell Ingredients in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4^th Edition and completely changed… well… basically everything from the original. It's, essentially, all brand new.

This system is rather niche, and should give a lot of utility to those Players who like to finagle with interesting mechanics (like me).

Until next time (and the next release), I hope you have more Warhammer in your life.

Liber Etcetera: Petty Piety

"Piety. Where would we be without piety? Probably much better off… 

Such terrible crimes have been committed in the names of equally foul Gods — and I don't just mean the Ruinous Powers. Our own patrons and 'saviours' use Humanity like a child uses their rag dolls: smashing them against each other until their heads roll from their shoulders, and a smile creases the lips.

You will forgive my simple heresies, dear reader.

And yet, it's not the common folk — the lay folk — who were the issue. No, the everyman's relationship with their deities was rather innocuous: a prayer here or there, a ward from a wasting sickness, a wish for things to improve. The problems were in religion itself — in the priests and the power structures and the politics.

Perhaps all this would have been avoided had we stuck with out Petty Piety?"

Introducing Liber Etcetera: Petty Piety!

Liber Etcetera: Petty Piety is an unofficial fan supplement for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4^th Edition, focusing on Religion. Petty Piety allows all Characters to engage in Prayer and the Sin mechanics — from lowly prayers in a gutter, to mighty requests for divine intervention! For more information, and for the download link, head over to the Itch.io page now! Petty Piety is also available in Spanish!

Petty Piety has Come

Petty Piety is an all-new supplement, with rules I've never written down before. Exciting!

Everything in it was born out of a frustration with the core Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4^th Edition rules: I love the Sin mechanics, and the Pray Skill, (and the themes of religion in Warhammer in general), but I didn't like that they were reserved solely for Bless Priests. It felt… decidedly unWarhammer.

So I fixed it!

It's my hope that this system will be able to be worked into any Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4^th Edition campaign, so that you can really feel the themes of religion and corruption in your home games. If you do work these rules in, please let me know!

Liber Etcetera: Petty Piety is the second of the "core releases" I intend to do through Liber Etcetera. These releases are all designed as larger-scale supplements — compared to my Little Liber series, and the Warhammer Cultures series (and any other series that starts up!), each detailing a larger aspect of the rules. The last release — Tides of War — can be found here!

Until next time (and the next release), I hope you have more Warhammer in your life.

Liber Etcetera: Tides of War

"War. That's what I remember. Belching smoke. Fire, from cannons and worse. And blood. So much blood… 

War wasn't the beginning of the End, nor indeed the end of the End, either. War was always there. That's not to say it was inherent, or Human nature, or any of that misanthropic nonsense. No, war is no more natural than the swirling darkness that closes in now. War is a symptom of a far greater disease.

But that's pointless philosophy, now. Merely the ramblings of an old scholar, staring oblivion in the face. The most curious thing is, however, that now, at the end, I don't hear the cries of the Blessed come to raise us from Perdition, nor the wailing of the damned as daemons tear at their flesh… Instead, I hear a memory of a time now faded.

Even still I can hear the Tides of War."

Introducing Liber Etcetera: Tides of War!

Liber Etcetera: Tides of War is an unofficial fan supplement for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4^th Edition, focusing on Mass Combat. Tides of War allows your Characters to experience high-stakes warfare as a lowly soldier, all the way up to a grim war leader. For more information, and for the download link, head over to the Itch.io page now!

The Tides of War are Back

Many dear readers may have tried out the old version of Tides of War, which worked but I was never truly happy with it. This new version simplifies things a lot, whilst integrating the 4^th Edition rule set much better than 2^nd Edition ever worked with it. Furthermore, I finally got a chance to add in Artillery Units!

Liber Etcetera: Tides of War is the first of the "core releases" I intend to do through Liber Etcetera. These releases are all designed as larger-scale supplements — compared to my Little Liber series, and the Warhammer Cultures series (and any other series that starts up!), each detailing a larger aspect of the rules. Some of these releases, like Tides of War, will be an adaption of older fan material I had written for 2^nd Edition, but other pieces on the horizon are all new!

If any of you get the chance to run the system, please let me know, as I'm keen to hear how it handles in others hands.

Until next time (and the next release), let me know in the comments if there's anything you'd like to see added to the game!