Alternate Rules for Warhammer Quest

Everyone has house rules, right? This page is a collection of some of the house rules I've heard. All of these rules are optional, and none of them are sanctioned by Games Workshop. Use what follows at your own risk.

If you have house rules that I could add to this list, please email me and let me know. I'd also like to hear any comments you have regarding the usefulness of these rules.

Table of Contents

Mixed Warriors' and Monsters' Phases

The concept here is that it's entirely possible for some monsters to attack and move before and between the warriors, as well as after. Instead of the usual 4 turn phase, the turns have only 3 phases:
  1. Power Phase
  2. Movement Phase (Combination of Warriors' and Monsters' Phases)
  3. Exploration Phase

Monsters and Warriors move in order of initiative from highest to lowest. This has worked well in my games, although it does make the minotaurs more challanging. :-)

Experience Points vs. Gold

Here is what T. Jordan "Greywolf" Peacock says about his house rule:
[...] I have a set of house rules I've been using which differentiate between "gold" and "experience points". Generally, I translate any gold earned from killing Monsters into "experience points", which are kept in a separate column. Experience may be spent toward gaining Battle-Levels in the same way as gold (and can be mixed with it if need be) but it cannot be "spent" on anything else, and hence is less flexible than gold. However, you cannot /lose/ experience to the various Hazards and Events that seem to part a foo-- er, Warrior with his money so effectively.

Addendum to the Experience point rule:

Additional Professions

The Warhammer Quest FTP site contains a number of additional/alternate professions in ftp://ftp.indirect.com/pub/rpg/miniatures/WQ/professions.

No Unexpected Events in Battle

Will Pattison suggests this optional rule: 
 Unexpected Events in Battle: 
       	When in battle, a 1 on the power phase roll will not result in an
        unexpected event.
 Reasoning: 
        Things are usually bad enough.

Shared Gold for Shared Kills

Will Pattison suggest a way to handle group gold: 
        My group of W.Questers ran into a problem with gold from monsters.
I was playing the wizard, and like mentioned before, I could simply cast my
lightning bolt after the others had taken enough attacks to bring it low,
then collect all of the gold for myself.  So, here's an optional solution:

Rule: 
        If one warrior kills a monster, he receives all of the gold (as
        normal).  However, if two or more warriors wound a monster, it goes
        into a different tally, called group gold.  At the end of the
        adventure simply divide the group gold by the number of surviving
        warriors, and give each warrior that amount. 
Reasoning: 
        This prevents a warrior with an ability or item from taking the
        majority of the gold.  

        I'll share another bit of thinking that we did on the subject.
Making everything go into the "group gold" is a bad idea, because it removes
some of the individual incentive to take out those monsters.

Casting time restrictions

Rule:    The Wizard can not cast an attack spell except during his turn during 
         combat.  Healing and defense spells may be cast at ANY time.

Reason:  We developed this rule because our wizard, armed with both Freeze
         and Finger of Death was "stealing" kills from the rest of the party. 
         Not only did he get an inordinate share of experience from this, but
         it also ruined the fun of the game when the other warriors didn't get 
         a chance to kill anything.

Group Gold (another approach)

Rule:    Any warrior who inflicts at least 1 Wound on a monsters gets a share
         of experience.  If 2 warriors take down a monster, they each get 1/2
         its experience value.  If 3 warriors contribute, they all get 1/3,
         and so on.

Reason:  It seemed more fair this way than to have whoever got the killing
         blow get ALL the experience.  With our [casting time restrictions]
         (above), the barbarian (leader) would have an unfair advantage.


Standing Guard

hello folks, this is Teppe with some quest stuff.

A few minutes ago I came up with another kind of artificial rule for Warhammer Quest. It is most useful when you are playing a role play (I'm not sure whether it can be used in an ordinary game) and here it is.

When you are in a room, the rules don't pay attention to what you are doing in the beginning of the monster phase. If you are digging your way through solid rock, opening a trapped box or standing in front of the door waiting for someone to come in, it's all the same. That's why I got this new rule.

If there are no monsters on the board and your warrior doesn't feel like searching because he thinks that the large wooden gate with the daemon on it is going to burst open, than he can go on overwatch (yes, this is a rule I got from 40K and Necromunda). If your warrior is on overwatch he can't search or move, he's just standing there waiting for the inevitable to happen. Place the model faced to the door or gate or whatever he thinks the monsters will be coming from, and place something next to the model to show it is actually on overwatch. If nothing happens during the monster phase your warrior missed outon some gold or treasure, but if the monsters do come, there is a possibility he might hit it.

As the monster enters the room, your warrior can parry the attack, and hit the monster, if he's good enough. Roll 1D6 for both the monster and the warrior it is attacking and that was on overwatch, and then add their weapon skill. Also add +1 to the monster's score, and subtract -1 from the warrior's score if the warrior was looking in the wrong direction. Also note that the monster doesn't have to attack the warrior that was on overwatch, so place your models carefully (a monster isn't going to attack a warrior ready for the fight, if there is somebody else with his head stuck in a barrel so to speak). The one with the highest result wins the fight, and is able to hit.

This procedure has to be carried out during the monster phase, so that the other monsters can attack the other models in the room without any penalty (as a GM, feel free to give the monsters a +1 to hit if the model is doing really weird stuff that isn't appropriate for battle).

Also note that the warrior doesn't have to test for fear during the overwatch phase. Something is coming at it, and he doesn't even know what he's hitting before it is actually there. You might also weaken terror down to fear.

If you want to put a model with a bow or the like onto overwatch, then he gets a free shot during the monster phase IF HE DIDN'T SHOOT DURING THE PREVIOUS TURN (you have to get another arrow, reload the pistol,...). If the monster is coming from another side then you can add a -1 or -2 modifier to the to hit roll at your leisure.

I think that's about it.

Greetings
Teppe

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