Sunday 23 September 2012

Slave to Darkness: Blood for the Blood God


Ian (I later did Shrek) Miller's intricate illustrations communicate the twisted horror of the Realm of Chaos, '80s style.
So it begins.

I have just received my first miniature for my Slave to Darkness campaign. Unfortunately, my camera isn't charged so you will have to wait for an update about what I am using as a basis for the first champion.

I can tell you it will be the Khorne champion with the pinhead mutation though!

This leaves us with the interesting question of who this champion actually is. What was his journey to chaos? Why did he turn from the security and safety of more benign religions and beliefs?

Back in the day, I used the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Character Pack to create characters in detail. Sadly, I no longer own a copy of this seminal release and had to make do with the inferior 2nd edition version. If you don't know what I am talking about have a look at this link...

http://www.scribd.com/doc/48266959/Warhammer-Fantasy-Roleplay-Character-Pack

Additionally, after searching through the (many) similar resources on the internet I also found this simple little name generator that creates instant names from human characters in the Warhammer World. Useful, considering that all of the characters in the campaign are currently human! Again, here is the link...

http://www.smoothspiral.net/heretic/tools/ow_name.htm

I feel as this is 'old school gaming' I need at least one chart to roll on. So I invented one of my own to determine where in the Warhammer World each of the champions would originate in.

D100 Human Origins Table
01-50 The Empire
51-65 Bretonnia
66-70 Norsca
71-75 Kislev
76-80 The Wasteland
81-85 Tilea
86-90 Estalia
91-95 Araby
96-99 The Wider World (Cathay, Nippon etc)
00 The Chaos Wastes itself!

Obviously, the Empire has the highest percentage, being the largest human region, followed with Bretonnia being the second. The remaining values were pretty much equally spread out among the remaining locations.

So lets roll...

I rolled 55 which gives us Bretonnia as a birth place for our first champion. Now, what's the chance of the character being male or female? Certainly not 50%. In a post-medieval world few women would have lead a life of arms so I'd suggest a gender test of...

D100 Gender Test
01-90 Male
91-99 Female
00      Haemaphrodite

I rolled 39, so our first champion is very male.

Next, let's use the smoothspiral name generator to find out what this Gallic soul is called.

Yves Jeandeau is the result! Well I'd never have come up with something like that on my own. The character pack is useless for Bretonnia so I'll have to pick a birthplace of my own.

The Warhammer World. Not quite the 80s version, but it will do for now...
Roll d100 for place of birth
01-11 Brionne
12-21 Bordeleaux
22-50 Parravon
51-70-Gisoreux
71-80 Mousillion
81-95 Languille
96 -00 Invent your own

I roll a 60, so our champion, Yves Jeandeau, spent his early years in and around Gisoreux. Now, we need to determine what it was he did as a profession. The character pack will help with this as it contains a useful chart about careers that can be applied to the background to a Realms of Chaos character.

I roll 06 which means Yves used to be (or came from a family of) a barber surgeon. I suppose we need to know his age, if we are going to be able to explore his background in any real detail. When I used to GM the Enemy Within I used to use the formula 3d10 + 15 to establish the age of any NPC, and I think the same formula will be useful now. I roll 6+1+3 = 10 + 15 = 25. So Yves is 25 years old as he enters the Wastes. With such a young age, I doubt he would have qualified as a barber surgeon so I'm going to go with the idea that his father was.

Well, I suppose I better get that camera charged and dunk the miniature I am going to use as a basis in the old dettol. Next time, a full write up of Yves back story and some images to show how I am getting on with the conversion.

Orlygg

8 comments:

  1. huh...thats a fun way to do things...thanks for pointing out those sources...I will use them myself in the future!

    Blue

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  2. All well and good but where are the pun names on the name generator? ;)

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  3. D100 Gender Test

    00 - Hermaphrodite

    ...I would have fudged that one.

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  4. "D100 Gender Test

    00 - Hermaphrodite

    ...I would have fudged that one."

    Agreed!!!! Very cool none the less.

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    Replies
    1. I must admit, it is very hard not to fudge... but this is old school Realm of Chaos proper so everything needs to be in the hands of the gods (well, dice anyway!)

      Delete
  5. Heh aye i was also hoping for a Hermaphrodite from Bretonnia.. would be quite fitting for the girly garlic munching knights lol

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