Seriously considering Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (2nd edition)

Chainsaw Mage · Apr 25, 2007

Going through some RPG soul-searching in light of the death of Dungeon/Dragon and other "sky is falling" stuff going on lately. I've decided to take a look at the mysterious Warhammer Fantasy RPG in its current incarnation, the 2nd edition released in 2005.

Does anyone here play this? Anyone know anything about it? I've checked out the homepage for Black Industries (are they connected to Games Workshop?) here:
http://www.blackindustries.com/?template=WH

And also the Green Ronin page here:

http://www.greenronin.com/warhammer_fantasy_roleplay/wfrp.php

[BTW, what's the story with the Black Industries/Green Ronin thing? Which company actually makes Warhammer FRPG? And how does this relate to Games Workshop?]

Anyway, tell me everything you can about this game. Begin.

whumfleet · Apr 26, 2007

Warhammer is a great game. I played it in it's original version and I own most of the current products. Good mechanics and pretty straight forward.

Ourph · Apr 26, 2007

Chainsaw Mage said:
oes anyone here play this? Anyone know anything about it? I've checked out the homepage for Black Industries (are they connected to Games Workshop?) here:
http://www.blackindustries.com/?template=WH

And also the Green Ronin page here:

http://www.greenronin.com/warhammer_fantasy_roleplay/wfrp.php

I've switched almost all of my gaming activity to WFRP 2e and I really like it. The system is innovative but still close enough to d20 that someone coming from D&D shouldn't have any problem picking up the rules fairly quickly. Combat is full of options without being overly complex. The setting is superb and provides lots of obvious avenues for adventures. I would highly recommend the game.

[BTW, what's the story with the Black Industries/Green Ronin thing? Which company actually makes Warhammer FRPG? And how does this relate to Games Workshop?]

Anyway, tell me everything you can about this game. Begin.

Chris Pramas and Green Ronin worked with Black Industries to create the core game. As far as I can tell, that was where Green Ronin's involvement ended. Black Industries is a separate entity that licenses the right to produce material for WFRP from Games Workshop.

I WISH Chris and Green Ronin were more involved with the ongoing development of the WFRP line. The core book is excellent (more typos than I would like, but still, on the whole, excellent). Subsequent releases have been disappointing, both in the quality of their editing and the quality of their content. IMO, most of the supplements are about 20% "GREAT STUFF!", 30% "Eh, this is OK", and 50% "Ugh! My 10 year old nephew writes stuff that's better than this (and with fewer spelling errors)". The notable exception so far has been the Old World Bestiary, which I highly recommend.

I love the game and still buy Black Industries supplements that I think will interest me or give me useful tools for my game, but I refuse to pay the full cover price for anything they print because IMO it's simply not worth it. I buy stuff used or at a heavy discount if I buy at all. If typos and contradictory fluff within the same chapter of a book don't bother you, then this won't be an issue.

I would definitely encourage you to check out the core book though. It's got everything you need to run a WFRP game in one book (with Old World Bestiary, you've easily got enough to run many, many campaigns) so the initial investment to try it out is quite low.

rgard · Apr 26, 2007

Chainsaw Mage said:
Going through some RPG soul-searching in light of the death of Dungeon/Dragon and other "sky is falling" stuff going on lately. I've decided to take a look at the mysterious Warhammer Fantasy RPG in its current incarnation, the 2nd edition released in 2005.

Does anyone here play this? Anyone know anything about it? I've checked out the homepage for Black Industries (are they connected to Games Workshop?) here:
http://www.blackindustries.com/?template=WH

And also the Green Ronin page here:

http://www.greenronin.com/warhammer_fantasy_roleplay/wfrp.php

[BTW, what's the story with the Black Industries/Green Ronin thing? Which company actually makes Warhammer FRPG? And how does this relate to Games Workshop?]

Anyway, tell me everything you can about this game. Begin.

Some friends of mine play it occasionally. They like it. From what they've said the combat system sounds very lethal; lots of pc death, but they enjoy playing it.

I don't think that I've heard anything bad about the system.

scourger · Apr 26, 2007

It's fun, but it gave out for our group. I ran the adventure Karak Azgal about 3 months last year. I changed the combat system a little. I made the unimportant bad guys have zero wounds and subject to immediate critical hits. It made the heroes more powerful, but there is still a lot of dice rolling in combat due to dodge & parry. It is interesting in that it uses all d10s. The game has a lot of flavor, too. Unltimately, it just wasn't for us, I guess.

Professor Phobos · Apr 26, 2007

It's like Terry Pratchett writing the 30 Years War, only darker.

Hmm. It's the game where you start out thinking you're playing D&D, only to discover you are in fact playing Call of Cthulhu.

Dr. Prunesquallor · Apr 26, 2007

Professor Phobos said:
It's the game where you start out thinking you're playing D&D, only to discover you are in fact playing Call of Cthulhu.

Seconded. Especially in the first edition, where setting equivalents to Balors, Pit Fiends, etc., were more plot devices for the DM than monsters. Second edition WFRP has increased PC power somewhat, but PCs will almost always be small fish in big ponds.

Also, if D&D alignment is black and white, WFRP is mostly grey with smears of black.

frankthedm · Apr 26, 2007

The host and his best friend in my group expressed concerns on how deadly arrow fire seemed to be.

the Jester · Apr 26, 2007

WFRP is great! I play in omrob's campaign, which is amazingly fun, amazingly dark and totally gripping. I love the characters, the level of randomness, and the ease of learning the (at least basic) system.

Add me to the "you think it's dnd but discover it's CoC" crowd, too.

Professor Phobos · Apr 26, 2007

frankthedm said:
The host and his best friend in my group expressed concerns on how deadly arrow fire seemed to be.

If someone is shooting arrows at you, you should run and hide under something.

Actually that's probably a good plan for most threats in the WFRP world.