Sanzuo
First Post
I thought about resurrecting the old Warhammer thread but decided to start a new one instead.
What is Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP)?
WFRP is a roleplaying game originally released in 1986 to go along with Games Workshop's famous Warhammer tabletop miniatures war game.
To be brief; it has since passed from publisher to publisher over the years. Currently it has been picked up by Fantasy Flight Games after Black Industries shut down their roleplaying lines.
Why is this game awesome?
Look at the front cover of the book:
See those badasses right there? You're not one of them. Chances are you will start out the game as the medieval equivalent of a fast food employee or ticked-tearer at the movie theater. Among the beginning careers you can start out as are; Boatman, Bone Picker, Camp Follower, Charcoal-Burner, Fisherman, Miner, Peasant, Rat Catcher, Servant and Valet. You could also possibly start out as a semi-badass, like a Mercenary or a Shieldbreaker.
The point is; if you are playing the game right you will roll completely randomly to determine your starting career. That is because this game emphasizes working with what fate hands you. Back in the gritty days of the Warhammer universe a person didn't really choose what they were born into, it was their lot in life. That's part of what makes this game so awesome, you have to work with what you get.
But just because your character was born into the life of a fisherman doesn't mean he has to stay there. That's another reason this game is awesome – you can potentially BECOME a badass like the characters on the cover. In WFRP even a lowly fisherman can become a Captain in an army if he survives long enough.
That fact that you start off a lowly weakling – to me – is a breath of fresh air from games like D&D where your character is already a monster-smiting hero at level 1. You've got to earn your stripes in this game. Don't get me wrong, I like D&D but sometimes it's a little too epic for me. Sometimes it's the simple challenges that have the most rewards – like getting to eat today.
Careers? Levels?
There are no levels in WFRP. What there are, are careers. Careers are literally professions that all characters in the game take to make their way in the world. A character's starting career represents what he did before he decided to become an adventurer.
The way advancement works is a character gets experience which is basically points to buy stats, skills and talents. Mechanically a career is like a template with available stat-ups, skills and talents that you may buy with experience to make your character better at something. Once you've bought all a careers available options then you may not buy anymore and it is time to advance to your NEXT career. A character's general capability can be assessed by how many careers he's advanced through.
Your starting career is almost filled out completely, representing that you've spent most of your life getting good at it. There are also advanced careers which you cannot start a new character in but can advance to later. These careers are generally much more powerful. There are a total of 100 careers in the core book. The Career Compendium has a total of 220 careers from all the different sources of the game.
What's combat like?
In D&D combat is usually a solution to most problems. In WFRP, if you've gotten into combat then usually something has gone wrong.
Combat is hard and gritty. Permanent damage to characters like limb loss and insanity is common. Survivability can be enhanced by wearing armor on top of armor and being a hearty bastard, but in the long run it's usually better to avoid being hit in the first place. When conflict is inevitable clever tactics usually bring the most reward; ambushes, surprise attacks and superior numbers.
Is there magic?
Oh there's magic all right. It is incredibly powerful and dangerous. Setting-wise most people are very distrustful of magic-users – likening it to witchcraft and demonic arts. The Empire strictly controls all wizards. It is possible to start the game as an Apprentice Wizard. If you've been lucky enough to roll this starting career than you can look forward a short terrifying life – or less likely a long and terrifying one.
What's the setting like?
Oh man, the setting is pretty huge. There is so much Warhammer material out there that I couldn't possibly cover all of the main points in a single post. The best source for setting material is probably the tabletop game itself. WFRP strangely doesn't have as much of the setting covered as the tabletop game I find. I reckon there are a lot of people on this forum who have played a lot of Warhammer and are much more knowledgeable about the details than me.
Basically the main setting is the Empire. The Empire is a lot like medieval Germany in structure and flavor. The Empire consists of humans who have had an alliance with Dwarves for over 2000 years. There are elves as well, but they are largely xenophobic and stick to their trees. Halflings populate the Empire as well as second-class citizens.
The terrain of the Empire consists of mostly dense forests. All manner of horrible, horrible things can lie hidden in these forests, so the citizens of the Empire stick together in dense pockets of civilization and if they must travel, they do so on the roads.
Aside from typical baddies like ratmen, trolls and undead, the threat of Chaos is always present in the minds of the citizenry. Chaos is a demonic power that constantly leaks into the world and can affect the minds and bodies of the vulnerable people who fall victim to it. It can also bring with it demons, which are bad.
Can you play WFRP on Maptools?
Apparently you can! Emirikol gives us the lowdown:
Where can I pick up this awesome game?
Fantasy Flight Games is currently the publisher. However to my knowledge the core book along with many others are OUT OF PRINT. Though I guess you can buy them in PDF form from the website. If you're looking for a new game to try I highly recommend this one.
If you want to see an example of how a campaign plays out you can read my Story Hour Thread about it.
Also pawsplay wrote up my favorite summary of a beginning level game:
pawsplay said:
Links
Hand of Evil said:
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