My hopes and expectations for WFRP 4

CapnZapp · Jul 28, 2018

Once upon a time I posted my hopes and expectations for the new edition of Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play (though not on this particular forum).

Let's see how C7 fared:

Now that the game is out it is time to see how I fared...

1. Choosing between moving and attacking has been fixed, ie eliminated or heavily curtailed. In fact, hopefully the focus lies on what you can do in addition to making your attack(s) and moving about a bit; in essence making the unimaginative player that just wants to stand there and whack lose out on the extras and the flourishes
2. You can stay in an (advanced) career, ie no more switching to Sea Captain just because that's the only way to advance your Int or whatever
3. 2E toned down the importance of armor (compared to 1E). C7 improves support for "skirmishers" (lightly armored melee combatants) even further.
4. The blanket assumption all trained arcane casters share the exact same education is scrapped totally. Specifically: you can be a Wizard without having visited Altdorf or even having heard of the Colleges.
5. 2E toned down the battle focus of arcane magic (compared to 1E). C7 improves support for non-overt casters even further. This includes balancing spells for more than their combat utility.
6. 4E acknowledges playability as the primary focus for healing rules. That is: don't make me choose between "natural" healing (too slow for 90% of published adventures) and "magic" healing (too fast and too cheap).
7. 4E introduces separate subsystems for Insanity and Corruption with a focus on subtle and gradual descent rather than sudden unplayably debilitating effects.
8. 4E reintroduces the monetary system of 1E: 1 gold crown = 20 silver shillings = 240 brass pennies
9. 4E is the definitive "Enemy Within Edition": GW allows C7 to completely sever the ties to the now-defunct tabletop game and its larger-than-life hero focus, allowing the game to be described completely from the seminal campaign's perspective: without any references to über-elves, the plainly fascistoid "I'm Emperor because I can whup your ass" idea, or childish Arthurian Brettonia.
10. The game's sole focus is on starting out as a mud peasant or rat catcher. That does not mean "misery porn" at all - who says you need to stay that way? Warhammer is about the underdog. Not the loser. Witch-Hunter is an example of a career that crowns your adventures - the game need not worry about supporting progressing much past that point. Super-hero shenanigans like Sigmar & buddies is right out. I have high hopes this will mean little change compared to 2E.

First off, this ruleset is surprisingly crunchy, so forgive me if I quick-draw the wrong conclusion.

1. It appears you get your Move for free each combat round, and that you can't normally exhange that for more attacks. My grade boils down to how common the talent Furious Assault is: if virtually every warrior character takes it, then it's little improvement over 2E. Engaging in melee still "sticks" you to that opponent, but in all these case gaining Advantage allows you freedom of movement. Undecided.
2. This has been solved, except the mystery of the career network has been replaced by overt classes. I'm inclined to dislike this (since really only tier III classes needed a solution) but since I haven't yet played the game, let's go with undecided for the moment.
3. Given the punishing armors of The One Ring, I probably needn't have worried. I can't find out whether you can wear multiple layers of Armor Points, so for the moment I'm judging by the Quick Armor option where all my wishes have come true: heavy armor has been reduced to 3. (Possibly talents up this back to 5?) Tentative pass.
4. Immediate and total fail.
5. Analysis forthcoming.
6. Analysis forthcoming.
7. While I don't like mutations with numeric penalties (WFRP characters are usually fail-prone as is), it seems like C7 has gotten the right idea. As for insanity, it appears they've left the sensitive subject up to each group (or a future supplement). Cautious pass.
8. YES Solid pass.
9. Fail. Who was surprised? Not me. Le sigh. At least the rulebook restricts itself to Reikland, so the main damage comes later.
10. It sure looks like a pass...

Ancalagon · Jul 30, 2018

I am looking forward to full reviews on this.

My fundamental question is "is it worth it to switch from 2e?"

Eubani · Aug 1, 2018

Ancalagon said:
I am looking forward to full reviews on this.

My fundamental question is "is it worth it to switch from 2e?"

That would depend on what you want it to do that 2e does not do or does not do well.

CapnZapp · Aug 3, 2018

The jury is still out.

It adds an enormous amount of fidliness like advantage chits here and +1 increments there.

Some of these new things might actually be justified in making gameplay better (faster, more exciting...)

The rules for spellcasters are currently taking heavy flak. The impression is Wizards are useless in combat.

Ancalagon · Aug 3, 2018

CapnZapp said:
The jury is still out.

It adds an enormous amount of fidliness like advantage chits here and +1 increments there.

Some of these new things might actually be justified in making gameplay better (faster, more exciting...)

The rules for spellcasters are currently taking heavy flak. The impression is Wizards are useless in combat.

Where is the discussion occurring?