Chapter IX: The Game Master
character is on the point of death, and normal recovery (“enhanced” as usual by medical attention) can begin immediately. Example: Clem Shirestock has been wounded by a weapon coated with the poison Heartkill (see Chapter 5: Equipment ). He fails his Toughness Test, so normally he would die in 2d10 rounds. With the expenditure of a Fate Point, Clem can survive the fatal dose. The GM decides that the poison was diluted, so it only causes Clem to go unconscious, not kill him. g aInIng f aTe p oInTs Fate Points are an undeniably valuable commodity in WFRP . The next question is, of course, how does a character get any more? If a character succeeds in staving off a great menace, a Fate Point may be awarded along with the usual Experience Points. The menace must be significant and it must be apparent that, but for the character’s action, an appalling disaster would have taken place. Don’t let any fast-talking players convince you that wiping out a couple of dozen cultists is the same thing. Characters may not buy Fate Points with Experience Points under any circumstances. Never, never, never. No how, no way. There’s a reason Fate Points appear in no career’s Advance Scheme. npC s and f aTe p oInTs As a rule, NPCs do not have Fate Points—part of their function, as explained above, is to distinguish the PCs from the rest of the world. However, you may allow an NPC to have Fate Points under special circumstances. Say you are developing an NPC who is going to be the bane of the characters’ lives for a long time to come: a mega-villain of the stature of Archaon, Lord of the End Times. The players may think that their enemy has been defeated, but by using Fate Points the villain
advantage. If, for example, the adventurers have missed a vital clue about the lair of the evil Necromancer, they may wake up in a small village, having been found left for dead in the forest. As their wounds are tended, the villagers will tell them about the black tower beyond the wood, where hideous screams are heard at night, and about the recently dug graves which have been found torn open, apparently from the inside... There are also some things you will have to watch. Remember, the players know that the character that expended a Fate Point isn’t dead, but their characters don’t. You must make sure that the players act accordingly. You should also avoid being vindictive yourself—if a character appears to be dead, an Orc or mutant will leave him/her and move on to another foe; they won’t generally have another few stabs to make sure the job is done. T raps and a CCIdenTs When a character expends a Fate Point to avoid being killed by a trap or by some other mischance, there are two possible approaches to what happens next: • The spikes, spears, falling blocks or whatever miss by a hair’s breadth, grazing the character’s armour, possibly destroying a backpack or some other item of equipment, but leaving the character unscathed. The character is spiked, or speared, or flattened, or whatever, but he walks away. The character may be stunned briefly, and some or all of the character’s equipment may be destroyed, but he walks away from what should have been a lethal encounter. p oIson and d Isease When a character expends a Fate Point to avoid death from poison or disease, the effects of the poison or disease miraculously stop when the •
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