Characteristics

• Movement (M) Determines speed at which you move
• Weapon Skill(WS) % Ability to fight in Hand to Hand Combat, either to strike or parry.
• Ballistic/Bow Skill (BS) % Ability to use any ranged weapon.
• Strength (S) Determines damage you can cause – number from 1-10
• Toughness (T) Ability to resist damage – 1-10
• Wounds(W) – Hit Points, how much damage the character can take. 0 does not mean death, but serious injury results after this stage
• Initiative (I) – % - Speed of Thought. Determines who acts first in combat
• Attacks (A) – The number of blows a character may strike in a combat round
• Dexterity (Dex) – % Ability to perform manual tasks
• Leadership (Ld) - % Ability to lead others and inspiring confidence
• Intelligence (I) –% Ability to think and understand
• Cool (Cl) % Ability to remain calm, collected and even sane under severe psychological stress
• Will Power (WP) % Mental and magical resistance.
• Fellowship (Fel) % social skills/appearance/ability to empathise

The WH system is slightly different from other systems in that each character starts a career class, either Fighter, Ranger, Rogue or Academic, and within that class they have a career. This starting career is their job before they went adventuring. It provides them with basic skills and equipment.

There is no level system in the game. As the character advances with experience, they increase their abilities from a selection allowed, determined by their career. For example, an Outlaw has an advance scheme on WS +10, BS +10, W +2, I +10, A +1 and Cl +10. Each advance taken costs 100 xps and increases the stat by +10 or +1. Once you have advanced as much as you can in your initial career, you can change career to something more advanced, and the GM will tell you your options when the time comes. One of these stats was taken during Character Creation, so you all have a start towards developing on to the next career.

The beauty of this system is that your character can become anything, if they have the required stats and the opportunity. Given enough experience and a high enough Intelligence, a Dwarven Troll Slayer can become a Wizards Apprentice, or a lowly Tomb Robber can rise above his station to become a Judicial Champion.

Weapons

The Weapon system in WH works very simply. Anyone can use any Hand Weapon (sword, one handed axe, club, mace etc etc) using their WS with no penalty. Other weapons, such as Two handed, flails, polearms etc require a Specialist Weapon Skill to use with competence. Without the skill, your WS (or BS in the case of Specialist bows or firearms) becomes 10% and there is a risk of injuring yourself at the same time. So, if you get your hands on a loaded Blunderbuss, think twice before you try to use it!