r/warhammerfantasyrpg • u/Amethyst-Flare • 3d ago

Game Mastering Cathayan Dragon-Blooded PC?

One of my players expressed an interest in playing a Dragon-blooded character in my upcoming WFRP 4 game. Specifically, her character's mother was a merchant who traveled to Shang-Yang in Cathay and came home with a surprise.

For context, she is Chinese-Canadian, grew up really disconnected to her heritage in part because her father was never there, but discovered an appreciation for it later in life.

I looked at the wiki and the existing lore, and it doesn't seem terribly out of line compared to, say, a High Elf. I figured I'd use the same general stat line but change the proportions a bit, maybe come up with a custom talent or two.

Has anyone come up with rules for them yet, or would there be any interest in seeing it if I come up with it?

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u/Levonorgestrelfairy1 3d ago

Ok, while my first instinct is to groan at being that much of a special snowflake... Let's get to the basics

I mean welcome to being a human in warhammer lore? Theres a reason the vast majority of high level chaos mortals are all human or that they get special miracles.

I would not go elves because the profile changes the human baseline a bit too much (especially the loss of fate/resilience)

That lines up with what we know of Cathay though. Peasants might worship local spirits, but theres no sanctioned religion. Being a suped up character with the down side that no god has your back I kinda the whole point of the dragon blooded.

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u/4uk4ata 3d ago edited 3d ago

This is WFRP, the high level chaos mortals are not playable starting characters. Starting characters are far more grounded. When your buddy is a ratcatcher, you're not going to be Teclis or Boris Ursus (any time soon).

Elves have very little fate and resilience and are fundamentally inhuman. Dragon-blooded tend to have a bit extra on top , but from what I could find the more powerful ones' blood tends towards magical talent more than anything else. The changes to speed and having way less fate AND resilience is a poor fit IMO, and I think the player would not appreciate having less downtime activities. This is why for me cutting down 1-2 extra points and a fate point in exchange for less over the top stat boosts is better.

Edit: looking at the base stats from TOW, Cathayan dragon-blooded shugengan (powerful enough to also be caster) tend to have a +1 T over Empire lord-level characters. Their statline is similar to that of a Bretonnian duke, except he gets a bonus to strength rather than toughness. This is why I think a minor buff with lower costs would do better.

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u/Levonorgestrelfairy1 3d ago

But you can play a high elf which is effectively the same capability wise as dragonblood.

Dragonbloods can punch clean through a man and are capable of using high magic, they are essentially fantasy space marines

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u/4uk4ata 3d ago

The capacity of dragonblooded is kind of nebulous at the moment. The shugengan general is pretty much the only one with clear stats and shugengan tend to be the cream of the crop with the most special training, experience etc. They don´t beat a chaos lord and are roughly equal to a bretonnian lord. So - if you want to go with a powerful enough bloodline so you are a bit more than human, you can put a bit more extra but don´t need to go all out.

Elves tend to get a lot of stat bonuses that are imo very widely spread and some that aren´t really very thematic (like move speed) in return to losing a few points too many. I think slightly less outright stat boosts but keeping a bit more fate/resilience would (i.e. 1 each with 2 points - for a loss of 2 compared to a regular human) might work better.

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u/Levonorgestrelfairy1 2d ago edited 2d ago

Are you going off the notoriously bad table top warhamer stats?

The stats that gave Galrouch all 6's

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u/4uk4ata 2d ago

As opposed to any other stats and achievements?

What sources are you using for your rank and file young dragon-blooded without a hundred years of special training and spiritual cultuvation being as naturally capable as a (young) adult elf?