Creating Your Own Troops

Overview

1. Make sure that you understand each stat and how it is derived.  The glossary is very useful in this regard as is the folio entitled SUBSTRUCTURE.
2. Be very wary about giving any stat over 20, beyond 22 is exceedingly rare and be vary careful about any stat over 24 as it can wreck game balance.
3. You'll note some fine print beneath the stats of in the book.  These are the "skills" that added into the abilities and equipment to make the stats what they are.  There was no room in the Battlestorm book to put all of these skills and they are the subject of many more volumes of the Fables Game System  It's not important to understand the skills to play the game, but you should have a general idea of what the skill system is if you want to design troops. 
   

About the Skills
To start creating troops you should have a look at the Weaponcraft skill as well as our complete list of Martial skills.  If you think you have devised a new skill drop an e-mail and tell us about it!  Click here to download a list of Martial skills in Word 6.0 format.) (Or click here for a Rich Text Format)

If the links above don't work for you, try one of the links here:
Microsoft Word Document.
Rich-Text (.rtf) Format.

Skill Levels
In the Battlestorm™ game, levels are used to tag a hero’s experience and talent in a particular domain. (Details on these skills will be published soon.) Skill levels are interchangeably referred to both by title (Rudimentary, advanced, etc.) and by number (level 1, level 4, etc.). The levels are:

Rudimentary — some knowledge of the skill (level 0)

Basic — knows how to perform the skill (level 1)

Intermediate — has experience with the skill (level 2)

Advanced — a professional in this skill (level 3)

Expert — an authority in the field (level 4)

Master — a role model for experts and a source of inspiration for others; capable of redefining the foundations of the skill (level 5)

Grand Master — a master of masters (level 6)

Skill Ranks
All skill levels are broken down into ranks within each level. Ranks are used to differentiate the hero’s degree of proficiency within his skill level. Ranks are numbered ordinally, as in "first rank", "second rank" and so forth. Lower rank implies higher degree of knowledge, as in first rank is higher than second rank or third rank. The skill rankings (from lowest to highest) are: Rudimentary (R0), Basic Second Rank (B2), Basic First Rank (B1), Intermediate Third Rank (I3), Intermediate Second Rank (I2), Intermediate First Rank (I1), Advanced Fourth Rank (A4), Advanced Third Rank (A3), Advanced Second (A2), Advanced First Rank (A1), Expert Fifth Rank (E5), Expert Fourth Rank (E4), Expert Third Rank (E3), Expert Second Rank (E2) Expert First Rank (E1), Master Tenth Rank (M10), up to Grand Master (M1).

Calculating the Value
Erik Rutins developed this automatic point calculator closely following the models and formula used by Will Nesbitt in the Battlestorm rulebook. This calculator is official in that it is faithful to the formula's developed by Ral Partha Publishing, but it does not take into affect certain intangibles that playtesting sometimes reveals. Therefore, this automated calculator is endorsed as very accurate for most characters, monsters and heroes, but "home-brewed" troop values are not considered official until they have passed through RPP's testing groups.

Erik Rutins writes, "This calculator uses Excel 97 formulas to give a Battlestorm combat value to just about any set of stats you can come up with! Please be sure to read the instructions on the first workbook carefully before using. I've ZIPped the files just to reduce transfer time, you can go to www.winzip.com to get the latest windows-based ZIP file extractor." Any suggestions or comments regarding the calculator can be sent to Erik Rutins or to Ral Partha Publishing.

Click here to download Point Cost Excel 97 Calculator Spreadsheet [Excel97]

If you have an older version of Excel the points value calculator might not work. Thus we offer an older version for download as well. This version has not been fully tested yet and any feedback is much appreciated and needed.

Click here to download Point Cost Excel 5.0 Calculator Spreadsheet [Excel 5.0]