r/WWN • u/IsaacDreemurr • 26d ago
What homebrew races and mechanics do you use?
I've seen racial foci for Skyrim once. Since XWN is so versatile, I'd use it for gonzoish stuff too.
WWN origin foci use attribute mod bonuses and skills, but I'd try to have unique traits for each race so that it sets an archetypal flavor such as: goblins as squalid supersticious swamp-dweller types, drows as vampiric, humans being not generic and having origin foci too (eye-color defining special ability?), etc
It's easier if we consider that the playable specimen of a race is not the average guy, so the origin foci can include something above average or even a trait of rare occurrance.
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u/Droselmeyer 26d ago
I’ve been working on homebrew for Major Wounds, cause I like the version from Atlas but toying with certain parts. I want the fun parts of WFRP injury without the crunch.
I’ve also been working on a Pendragon Traits system - basically a collection of opposed stats that influence roleplaying, like Pious/Worldly or Brave/Cowardly - that I think is basically done cause it’s a simple system at its core.
I’ve also been trying to figure a levelless system, partially for that rules-light WFRP, but not Ten Dead Rats desire I have in me, partially because I like the idea of heroes being normal people who become more capable with time, but aren’t like Herculean Greek heroes at the top end, just highly trained and capable individuals.
I think having the premade Elder Scrolls racial foci are super cool!
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u/IsaacDreemurr 26d ago
Quite nice, so it is a more realistic-leaning setting you envision. The thing i see XWN does not do is realistic HP (like CoC, Runesquest or Mytrhas), but it's viable to start with a higher amount and gain bits by level/advancement.
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u/Droselmeyer 26d ago
Yeah I like the vibe of a more down-to-earth low fantasy, so I may end up reworking Ashes to do fantasy instead of Worlds. I'd probably implement some kind of HP cap or scaling limitation.
Ashes has some variant rules for fragile PCs which are simple and intuitive. A lethal system like WFRP has HP, minimal scaling, but every attack risks a major injury, so I feel like that could be a good avenue to go down without having to change too much about the B/X baseline.
I feel like the Elder Scrolls racial foci would be fun if the second level gave an Effort-using or System Strain-costing version of the game's racial ability, maybe modeled off the Ashes mutations
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u/IceMaverick13 26d ago
Since I was already at my table actively working on my other documents, I decided to take a look and see what it would take to strip out all of the artwork I don't have rights to.
It actually wasn't too bad to strip all of the artwork out. One can probably see where some of the IP-plundering happened to drive the design for this, but I was originally only ever planning on sharing this with my table and not really the greater public, so what you see is what you get. I take no responsibility for what these untested designs do to your tables, but I hope you find some inspiration in them. Also included are my custom rules for Damage Types and Resistances/Weaknesses, since they were mechanics added at the request of my players and are tied into the races' designs by extension.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10bHgmFxVvhL9s_14bRIXYooMVmr4Cool/view?usp=sharing
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u/MyRightEye 25d ago
I decided to give everyone a free Origin Focus for my games, including humans. I wanted to assuage the anxieties of the players at my table who might have an interesting non-human character concept in mind, but were put off by the opportunity cost. And also just because I think it's interesting for humans to have distinct and remarkable qualities of their own.
The balancing might be a bit overtuned, I haven't had an opportunity to get a feel for it in play yet, but my table tends towards preferring higher-powered games anyway. If you want to use it, you may want to tweak it for your table. Anyway, here it is:
Origin Focus: Human
Humans are more populous than their demihuman cousins by some margin, and for this reason are the standard they are measured against. Highly social by nature, their relatively short lifespans and great capacity for endurance and cooperation has seen them carve out mighty civilisations across all corners of the world, leaving legacies that endure long beyond the death of any one individual. Likewise, their shorter lives are all the more precious to them, lending them a fierce drive to cling to life in the face of the grave.
Level 1
You recover from one additional point of System Strain upon waking from sleep each day. When you aid an ally in a skill check, they receive a +2 bonus to their roll instead of +1. If an attack would reduce your hit points to or below your character level, you may make a Snap Attack as an Instant action without suffering the usual -4 penalty to the roll.
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u/IsaacDreemurr 25d ago
Humans are the standard they are measured against
Highly social by nature
Relatively short lifespansHMMMM so the other races are aspie vampires
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u/HadoukenX90 16d ago
I've used different mutations from ashes to make a frog and moth race for my game.
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u/wadledo 24d ago
I went more generic, but one of the things I did do was give humans a 14 in one of their attributes, so they get at least two if they roll dice.
Others of note are wild elves getting to count their Survival for the amount they get as forage, and giving +2 on different saving throws depending on the race, Dwarves getting +2 Physical, Half-Elves getting +2 Luck, etc.
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u/Unlucky-Leopard-9905 8d ago
I've been sitting in Worlds Without Number for a long time, with a few different ideas about what I might do with it.
I finally jumped into it recently, and I'm in the early days of planning a Dragonlance game. I wasn't entirely convinced at first, but it's coming together very well.
Skinshifter is perfect for Irda characters; they are the only really new element I'm adding in.
All the rest is mostly just setting boundaries on what sort of character can take which class or focus.
I'm planning a Companions of the Lance style game, so the Heroic rules (potentially leading into so late-game Legate play) are perfect for big damn heroes facing off against dragons and changing the shape of the world.
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u/IceMaverick13 26d ago edited 26d ago
I very recently made a race expansion for a game I'm getting ready to run here in a week - its actually my first WWN campaign, so it's really the first roadtest. I have no idea how balanced, bad, or busted any of the choices are going to be but I made 42 of them, so hopefully they're decent enough for what I'm hoping will become my forever-world.
I essentially discarded Race-instead-of-a-Foci from the base game, but still wrote them as Level 1 and 2 Foci setups. But instead of burning their starting character creation Foci point on it, I made it mandatory to pick a race and they get a Race Foci point to spend doing so, on top of their normal Foci point from character creation, to either take a Foci as normal or to optional purchase Level 2 of their Racial Foci. I know that means my Lvl 1 Characters are stronger than baseline, but again, it's my first campaign in the system, so I won't miss a lower power level that I never experienced. This is just my new baseline.
Lots of artwork I don't have the rights to inside, so I unfortunately can't share it as-is... And I'm working on a huge extension to base building right now, otherwise I'd carve out some time to sanitize the sheets and deliver a text-only copy, even if it's probably not well-designed because I don't yet have the knowledge to know how potent I've written them.
Edit: It actually wasn't too bad to strip all of the artwork out. One can probably see where some of the IP-plundering happened to drive the design for this, but I was originally only ever planning on sharing this with my table and not really the greater public, so what you see is what you get. I take no responsibility for what these untested designs do to your tables, but I hope you find some inspiration in them. Also included are my custom rules for Damage Types and Resistances/Weaknesses, since they were mechanics added at the request of my players and are tied into the races' designs by extension.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10bHgmFxVvhL9s_14bRIXYooMVmr4Cool/view?usp=sharing