The Creature Vault for Warhammer FRP 3rd condenses all the creatures, NPCs, and actions from the Creature Guide down into cards that can be easily accessed at the table. Or at least, that was the goal. To save space, many creature abilities had to be keyworded, and the definitions left off the cards. Some of those definitions can be found on a one-page insert that comes with the guide, and the others (and some important errata) can be found in the official WFRP FAQ. (Available from their product support page.)
While that's certainly reasonable, it doesn't exactly match the "everything on a card in front of you / no need to search through rulebooks at the table" ethos of the WFRP3 system. So I used the Strange Eons program to gin up some Talent-card-sized reminder cards. For the most part the actual text comes straight from FFG products or pdfs. No challenge to copyright is intended in any way, and you'd need a copy of the Creature Vault to make use of any of this. The cards are intended mostly as references and reminders, but in theory there's nothing stopping you from using them as actual Talents for monster group or nemesis sheets if you feel it's appropriate or interesting to do so.
Undead Abilities
Dead Earnest ability. Source: Warhammer FAQ
Nurgle Abilities
I did not make a card version for the "Mark of Nurgle" ability mentioned in the FAQ, since card versions of that ability already exist in other supplements for the game. If you want it on a card, you should go buy the Signs of Faith / Liber Infectus boxed set.
Swarm Abilities
Swarms have a ton of miscellaneous abilities that aren't obvious from the cards in the Creature Vault, so the FAQ proved extremely helpful here. Without these rules, a swarm ends up feeling like any other single monster or squad of henchmen.
Once I typed up Filthy Vermin from the FAQ, I remembered that I'd seen a similar, but distinctly different, ability in an adventure somewhere...
As it turns out, The Edge of Night has completely different stats for Rat Swarms than the Creature Vault does. I'm not privy to the reasons for that decision, but this Infected Wounds power from that adventure seemed like a decent alternative power for either rats or possibly Nurgle critters of some sort.
Swarm! ability. Source: The Edge of Night adventure
This is another ability possessed by the rat swarm in that adventure, but noteably lacking from the Rat Swarm in the Creature Guide. I included it here in case a GM wanted to upgrade or mix it up a bit.
Filthy Vermin very mildly alternate version
Alternate version of the Filthy Vermin card from the FAQ, labeled as a talent to give the GM a little more flexibility. Functionally the same except not necessarily restricted to rat swarms.
Giant and Troll Abilities
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Printing this may actually be irrelevant and pointless. It's just a more clearly phrased version with less chance of misunderstanding, so only useful if the text on the Giant card seemed too vague to you.
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An alternate version I contemplated while I was typing that one up. Suitable for a really large giant. I probably should have labeled it as an NPC Talent, instead of a house-rule. Hindsight is 20/20.
Poison
Used by a variety of creatures, from giant spiders to particularly vile skaven.
I wrote this up in two functionally-identical versions, except that one is labeled as a racial ability of whatever poisonous monster you want, and the other is intended as a Talent or Equipment option for intelligent NPCs. I'm not sure the distinction really matters, in hindsight.
Movement Abilities
These are used by multiple creature types, but especially beasts.
Technically this should have been listed as a racial ability, but I got sloppy and didn't notice it till I'd already saved it with the wrong label. The distinction has no mechanical difference, really, as NPC Talents officially don't exist anyway.
Again, technically should be a racial ability, if anyone cares.
Generic form of the next three abilities.
Specific forest-version of the ability, in case anyone finds that more convenient for sorting or gameplay purposes.
Specific swamp-version of the ability, in case anyone finds that more convenient for sorting or gameplay purposes.
Specific fenbeast-version of the ability per the FAQ, in case anyone finds that more convenient for sorting or gameplay purposes.
Observation Abilities
These are used by multiple creature types, IIRC.
Again, technically should be a racial ability, if anyone cares.
Again, technically should be a racial ability, if anyone cares.
Again, technically should be a racial ability, if anyone cares.
Those are all of the keywords from the FAQ, and most of them from the insert in the Creature Vault. The insert also included Fear, Terror and Nemesis keywords, but since each has it's own elaborate rules, I'm not sure I can fit them on a single card. I suppose as a monster talent or upgrade a card that just says "Fear 2" might be helpful, but it certainly wouldn't meet my main objective of being a functional reminder of how that rule or power works.
I'm almost certain that there are other keywords on creature cards that could/should be made into reminders like this. Such as when two creatures have the same ability, but space restrictions only allowed the full rules to fit on one of them. I may or may not get around to hunting those down, making them into cards and posting them to the blog. Don't hold your breath.
Once I got started making all these reminder cards, it inspired me to also make a bunch of original NPC Talents for upgrading and customizing monsters and villains. I plan to share them on the blog, but that will definitely have to wait for some other post and time.
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