[RPG] Are there any rules for Blood Bowl careers in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Second Edition

The WFRP2 system is close to WFRP1, but better balanced. It still uses a percentile D100 as the basis, character's characteristics are pretty much the same, the career system is still present, etc.

Major improvements or evolutions are on:

• The magic system is completely new, runs properly, and does not require as much xp as was the case in WFRP1.
• A list of basic skills is defined, based on characteristics scores - Skills now give a bonus when attempting to use that skills action.
• Special abilities or feats are no longer Skills but are now Talents.
• Careers are better balanced (in WFRP2 most of the basic careers offer the same amount of skills, characteristics enhancements, etc. - Unlike the wild variance in starting careers in WFRP1)
• There are many optionnal tactical rules for fights (special abilities for weapons, different postures for attacks: quick attack, brutal, defensive, etc.)
• A few characteristics have been merged (for instance WP in WFRP2 covers Cl and WP from WFRP1)

These are the major technical differences I see, there are probably others.

At the background level, WFRP2 takes place a few years later than WFRP1, after the chaos incursion led by Archaon. The Empire has been partially laid to waste and is under reconstruction. The background closely follows the Warhammer Battle background from when WFRP2 was released, meaning there are differences from the WFRP1 background:

• Magic is divided in 8 colors (fire, light, death...)
• Some gods are no longer part of the background (Malal, Arianka and globally all the Loyal gods...), Chaos gods are the 4 one well-known (Tzeentch, Khorne, Slaanesh, Nurgle - rememeber WFRP1 core book did not even mention Tzeentch), Sigmar is now a 'playable' religion for priest characters (in the same way, Sigmar got barely a mention in the core WFRP1 book)
• Some races and creatures are not part of the background anymore (fimirs, slanns, zoats...)
• Background (The Empire, cities...) are much more consistent and coherent in WFRP2
• There is an "undead-vampire" region (Sylvania) in the Old World of the Empire

At the player level, you can access a few new and exotic careers (flagellant, Estalian diestro, Kislevite kossar...)

The line of products has been quite well managed with a good balance between scenarios and background information. There are books for the major themes (The Empire, Chaos, Religions...). A few books explore other regions or countries (Bretonnian, The Skaven, etc.). There are three new campaigns, but none achieve the same level of reputation as The Enemy Within did for WFRP1. WFRP2 books are nice looking (the majority are printed in color with lavish illustrations) and contain a lot of ambiance text.

The Corebook of WFRP2 is not quite as complete in comparison with the WFRP1 corebook: a bestiary in the core rule book is incomplete (it is instead a dedicated supplement), the background overview is not nearly as detailed... However, the WFRP2 corebook contains all that is needed to play.

If you know WFRP1, WFRP2 is not mandatory, but will give you 'fresh' material to use with both WFRP1 or WFRP2, and offers a more balanced system.

A lot of wizards are inherently imbalanced in WFRP from a combat perspective. This is supposed to be counterbalanced by Tzeentch's curse, but in my experience, that seems to trigger less often than it should. Even an Apprentice wizard can hit harder and more accurrately than a fighter of equal experience, thanks to their magic missle attacks, and it only gets worse when they become Journeymen. I am familiar with this problem, though my party usually doesn't focus on tactical combat. I know of no "simple" Slaughter-Margin like solutions, because the imbalance in combat capabilities is big and I presume you still want the other characters to stay relevant. My solutions, some aspects tried and some theoretical:

Smart enemies

Wizards can cause damage easily, but the enemies should know that, or find it out early in the fight. So they concentrate on the wizards. After the first or second crossbow bolt most wizards are barely standing on 1-2 Wounds, which is a very good incentive for the rest of the party to defend them, and for them to frantically try to stay alive. A few goblins with bows pose minimal threat to any fighter in medium armor, but they can knock a wizard down a few pegs in a single sneak attack salvo. So enemies being reasonable and not stupid, and trying to take out major threats can do wonders for combat encounters. I used this several times with a Journeyman Light wizard and his insane Eye-laser.

Not-smart allies

Wizards are supposed to be feared and hated in most of the Old World, so play with that. Have allies or bystanders around, or simply set up circumstances where blatant and flashy magic use would cause problems. This incentivizes planning on part of the players and makes them think twice about using magic to solve all problems. Because if you are allied with Sigmarite zealots while fighting orcs, subtle magics might remain unnoticed, but a burning missle of death would cause questions, which could lead to burning death on part of the caster. I also did tries out this one, the end result being the party slaughtering both the attacking goblins and the caravan they wanted to save. It was pretty interesting combat- and roleplayingwise as well.

Hordes of mooks

Most wizards don't get real AOE attacks until later careers, and while mooks pose only moderate threat to a well-equipped character, most wizards would have trouble with a lot of zombies/skeletons coming their way. A single one, or even half a dozen pose no real threat to a wizard, but a dozen or two would pose enough of a threat. The important part is that they are unable to blast enough of them in time, so they need tactics and strategy to win. Hordes of mooks are one of the things that armored fighters with Parry and Dodge can handle much easier than wizards, at least in my experience.

A boss with adds

A wizard might be able to cause a great deal of damage, but anything that can take it due to armor and high Toughness (Rat-ogre, Minotaur, etc) can stall them for several rounds. If said boss has minions of their own, especially ones who are smart, combat gets interesting again, as the wizards have to choose between blasting and trying to survive, while the others have to balance themselves between defending the wizards and killing things. I sort of tried this, though the wizard opted to go full blasting and ended up burning a Fate point.

What not to try

Wizards vs wizards. Because rocket tag is not fun or tactical, and the winner usually comes down to luck. It is very much in-line with WFRPs spirit, but it doesn't make for interesting or tactical combat.