Wrath & Glory

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Wrath & Glory
RPG published by Ulisses Spiele
Rule System	d6 pools
No. of Players	3+
Session Time	10+ minutes
Authors	Ross Watson
First Publication	2018
Essential Books	Unreleased

The new 40K RPG, to be published by Ulisses Spiele. It is completely separate from the FFG RPGs, and will be far more streamlined, using D6 pools instead of D100s as well as several mechanics designed to make the game simpler to play and easier to pick up for newcomers. Additionally, the game will take place during the "present day" of 40k (I.E. after the appearance of the Great Rift and the conclusion of the Indomitus Crusade). There is an introduction comic here revealing multiple game mechanics. A second and slightly more fluffy introductory piece is available here.

What We Know

• The Core Rulebook will contain rules for Humans, Space Marines, Eldar, and Orks. There may be future expansions with other alien races such as the Tau or Dark Eldar.
• There will be "Adventure Path" style releases. The first release will follow a group of Imperials in Imperium Nihilus, the second following Ulthwe Eldar.
• The game uses a d6 dice pool system. Rolls of 1-3 are failures, 4-5 are successes, 6 is a double success, and if more successes than needed are rolled a 6 can be shifted from the total successes for extra bonuses to the roll effect (such as a boost to damage rolls in combat or allowing a task to be completed faster). One of these dies must be the Wrath die, which is a blatant ripoff of the Ghost die from Ghostbusters RPG or the Wild Die from D6 System: if you roll a 1 on the Wrath die, bad shit happens, but it can also generate wrath points (a consumable resource, like Edge in Shadowrun - for example, you can spend a wrath point to re-roll all failures on any single roll).
  • You can't reroll the Wrath die using wrath.
• "Failing forward" is the name of a deliberate attitude the developers took towards the entire design, meaning that even if a roll is failed, no one failed roll will be enough to lead to a TPK situation; it will still have negative consequences, however.
• After choosing a species and character Archetype, characters pick Keywords, suggesting allegiance ("Imperial Guard", "Inquisition", "Ganger", etc.). In addition to fluffing a character out, they have crunch effects like making it easier to get rare gear or aiding in getting help from another faction.
• The game has a player "Tier" system, from I-V, which reflect a combination of a given character's combat ability, authority, and wargear access, among other things. A Tier I character would be a Guardsman, Eldar Corsair, or Ork Boy (grunts, essentially), while things like Space Marines, Eldar Warlocks, and Commissars would be Tier III. Any given campaign will have an agreed-upon Tier set for it, which will dictate limits on Archetypes, dice pool limits, and the overall challenge level of the campaign. This ensures that a given campaign won't pit characters against anything too easy or too hard for their expected power level- an individual Genestealer that would be the "main villain" of a Tier I game session would only qualify as a basic mook in a Tier III game, for example.
  • Characters of lower tiers can join higher tiered games through Ascension, wherein they pick up a new keyword, some form of memorable injury or a number of corruption points, some better starting equipment that would allow them to stay competitive (like plasma weapons), and a boost to attributes, skills, and talents that would bring that character up to the equivalent of a starting character for that tier.
• Initiative order is decided by the players "agreeing" instead of rolling. They take turns with the GM (i.e. Player 1, GM monster 1, Player 2, GM monster 2 etc...). HOWEVER, DMs can spend a resource called Ruin to go first, while players can spend Glory to go back to back. In the likely case of disagreement or uncertainty as to who goes first, the characters simply roll their Initiative attribute and compare icons, with the highest number of icons acting first. In the case of a tie, player characters win over NPCs, and if the tie is between two players or two NPCs, the players choose who goes first (or the GM does, in the case of the NPCs).
  • Individually weak enemies can form a mob- a single group that acts as if it was an individual. Mobs gain bonus dice to attack rolls equal to half their size (e.g. 5 dice for a 10-Ork mob) rather than rolling one die per attack, can divide their attacks across multiple targets, and may split into smaller mobs on their turn.
• All damage is calculated by adding the weapon's base damage to a roll of at least a single die. This narrows the range and prevents a bolter from rolling a 2 in the same turn a lasgun rolled a 12.
  • Extra damage and special effects can be added by moving exalted icons. So far the only thing we have confirmed is extra damage die which can do a max of +2 damage.
  • Your damage rolls are done the same as Icons/successes. (1,2,3) give you nothing but disappointment. (4,5) give you one piddly bit of extra damage. Roll a 6 and you get 2 extra damage.
• Basic number of successes needed to pass is 3 with difficult tasks taking more. Because the average number of successes per die is 2/3, this means "average" tasks need a pool of at least 5 dice for you to succeed on average - anything less, and you should expect failure. In general, you need 1.5*target DC dice to succeed at least half the time, rounding down.
• At release, there will be 32 archetypes divided amongst the four races (Humans, Eldar, Ork, Space Marine)
  • archetypes will be added with the campaign sets (really leaning into the Paizo revenue scheme, aren't we?)
• Archetypes By Tier
  • Tier 1: Ministorum Priest, Sister Hospitaller, Imperial Guardsman, Inquisitonal Acoltye, Inquisitorial Adept, Hive Ganger, Cultist, Elder Corsair, Ork Boy
  • Tier 2: Death Cult Assassin, Sister of Battle, Tempestus Scion, Space Marine Scout, Sanctioned Psyker, Rogue Trader, Skitarius, Scavvy, Rogue Pskyer, Eldar Ranger, Ork Kommando
  • Tier 3: Crusader, Imperial Commissar*BLAM*, Tactical Space Marine, Tech-Priest, Desperado (read John Wick), Chaos Space Marine, Heretek, Elder Warlock, Ork Nob
  • Tier 4: Inquisitor (sick!), Primaris Marine Intercessor

• There will be Savage Worlds style Campaign Cards, which are distributed at the beginning of the session, one per player. At any time during the game, a player can use the Campaign card to change the flavor of the encounter. The example given was a card which made diplomacy two steps more difficult, but gave every player an additional Wrath point.
• A "Framework" system exists for mixed groups, which gives them their reasons to work together when the individual party members might not be inclined to do so.

Gallery

• 

  The resolution system in action

• 

  Even success doesn't protect you from the Commissar's fury but on the bright side it takes more than one shitty roll to justify a TPK

• 

  Psykers heads pop so fast their only screen time is post face/cranium, hopefully they have something closer to the later editions of ffg 40krpg's where psykers can last at least one session without rolling a greater deamon

• 

  Entry level SPESS MEHRINE's better throw a daemonhost at them, hope you bought your ascension gear guardsman cause a standard issue flashlight ain't gonna cut it.

• 

  Initiative order, combat, and damage rolls. Nothing plays the same as previous 40kRPG's. Is this the next Iphone or are they reinventing the wheel? Either way it's HERESY!!!

External Links

• The official Wrath & Glory website (such as it is)
• Revelations; a preview document explaining what the system is planned to do and giving some example scenarios
• Blessings Unheralded; a preview module containing some of the core rules and a sample adventure
• Bell of Lost Souls plays Wrath & Glory with the lead game designer
• Part 2 of the Bell of Lost Souls game