Thinking about Warhammer?

[Donovan Morningfire]

You've made your feelings about this game pretty well known. I'm curious as to what is compelling you to post further in this thread.

Quite probably the same sort of mindset that made people continuely participate in the edition wars during D&D 4e's release.

As for running a WHFP game and not falling into the "stereotypes," a fair amount of that falls on the shoulders of the players as well as the GM.

From the campaign I played in, not a single inn was burned down (in fact, we stopped an inn from being burned down) and there were zero trips into a sewer. So by NovaLord's logic, we must not have been playing WHFP Our GM, being a veteran of the minis game, knew the tropes and did a pretty good job of avoiding the more heinous ones. Truth be told, the most fun session we had was a festival that one of the local Imperial lords was holding to for his son's 9th birthday, though there were a few nefarious plots of varying degrees to be unraveled (assassin to kill the lord, a treacherous Imperial knight determined to win the joust at all costs, and a low-down flithly blighter that tried to spike the ale kegs with mad cap mushrooms).

I can't really speak as to "party wealth" seeing as how our group consisted of a Elf Kithband Warrior, a Bretonnian Knight-Errant, a Human Entertainer dancer/knife-thrower, a Human Apprentice Wizard, a Human Roadwarden, and a Dwarf Troll Slayer (together we fought crime; crime and orcs, lots of orcs). Not a single magical item was found, but then again we weren't exactly starving for money either and started out with pretty solid equipment, which I gather from posts in this thread isn't typical. Or maybe our GM wasn't quite that petty with starting equipment (it was servicable and in fairly decent condition). We also didn't try and loot the orcs' gear, mostly since there was a bounty on orc heads that paid well enough.

For adventures, click the MediaFire link I posted earlier in this thread on page 4. There's a sub-header on that page called "Adventures" and has a wealth of material, both to run as is or to use as inspiration to draw from.

 

[arcanaman]

I have not been able to find any sourcebooks at my local bookstores (to be fair I have not checked them all) so where is the best place to buy them borders does have them I could try barn an nobles or comic and rpg shop here in town know as Mayhem were did you guys get yours

 

[pawsplay]

So, i'm thinking that if i run WFRP, i might not run it as dark and grim and loathesome as the default. I might give the players a few more magic items and potions than typically done (with the chance of backfiring and poisoning them, as per the charts in Realms of Sorcery!).

I appreciate the grim nature of the game and the hopeless battle against Chaos and beastmen and skaven, but if i was a player, i would want to have some trinkets to boost me above the average scummy citizen doomed to a life of failure, pestilence and superstition. No vorpal blade, nothing like that (unless it was cursed), but more like balms and salves and small hedge witch baubles for luck and whatnot.

Does anyone else inject a dose of less-lethal magic into the game? Stuff that can actually help your character without being a "once in a lifetime magic item"? Maybe i'm just too nice.

WHFRP does not have to be an endless Monty Python sketch based on a Kafka story. Keep in mind, the setting does have heroic knights, legendary weapons, miracles, and priests who can (sometimes) cure plague with the touch of their hands.

 

[LoneWolf23]

WHFRP does not have to be an endless Monty Python sketch based on a Kafka story. Keep in mind, the setting does have heroic knights, legendary weapons, miracles, and priests who can (sometimes) cure plague with the touch of their hands.

That's what I was wondering about... Is the Utter Crapsack World bleakness absolutely necessary to run a Warhammer game, or is it possible to run a game where the PCs can actually win, even if it's one of those "well, everyone else is dead, but at least we made it out" kind of Horror movie endings?

 

[ValhallaGH]

That's what I was wondering about... Is the Utter Crapsack World bleakness absolutely necessary to run a Warhammer game, or is it possible to run a game where the PCs can actually win, even if it's one of those "well, everyone else is dead, but at least we made it out" kind of Horror movie endings?

It's setting appropriate for the party to win, in the short term. The world is screwed, and at best the party can hold that off for an extra century through the effects of their entire adventuring career. However, they can cause the world to have that extra century of only semi-Chaos corrupted life.

So, yes.

 

[pawsplay]

That's what I was wondering about... Is the Utter Crapsack World bleakness absolutely necessary to run a Warhammer game, or is it possible to run a game where the PCs can actually win, even if it's one of those "well, everyone else is dead, but at least we made it out" kind of Horror movie endings?

Warhammer characters can and do win. It's just that death, dismemberment, and insanity are also possible outcomes. It's not utter bleakness so much as the fact that the adventuring business is dangerous, and Warhammer treats those risks seriously.

As for the big picture... maybe Chaos is going to win, who knows? But there are plenty of people in the Warhammer world who believe it can be beaten. Warhammer really isn't all that much bleaker than Lord of the Rings. Both have evil hordes, insidious collaborators with the Enemy, and the good guys starting the fight on the defensive.

I think the archetypal Warhammer is a game in which some characters die, but not all, and one or more characters end with a nasty scar or war wound. It's also possible for everyone to end up being mutated into mindless horrors. It's also possible for the PCs to literally make off like bandits, living the high life while daring lord, church, and the fiends of Hell to take it from them.

 

[Mokona]

You start as a peasant, but you get to take cool careers with names like Witch-Hunter. The art in the 1989 Games Workshop Ltd version is really inspiring but the rules are overly complicated. The Warhammer Fantasy world is very flavorful with some overtones of Europe/Earth so it feels slightly familiar.

 

[Treebore]

OK, I have a fair amount of play time under my belt, enough to have earned over 400 EP's. I joined a game in progress so started at 1300 EP's and just getting into the Pistoleer profession after starting/finishing the Noble "profession".

As for the question about how do we make money. We have a haggler in the party, so we make good money off of equipment. I just got a full set of plate mail the session before last, due to how much we made off of equipment. We are fighting stuff with average quality weapons and even a few full suits of chain mail. I would say for every 100 gold we have been "earning" so far we have made 300 from selling equipment, books, etc... With a haggler at 50% we have been doing well on prices.

Is the game deadly? Yes, but still much like D&D is. Once you get good gear and your weapon skills start getting to 40% and higher. Like my PC is a dwarf, and his toughness just advanced to 51%, so he now, with his armor, negates the first 10 points of damage . Since all damage is on a d10, I now only take damage from only their strength bonus, and only when the damage dice is high enough.

Still, it can be deadly, like tonight I still got hit often enough and well enough to take 8 wounds, with only 3 PC's fighting 12 beastmen and two of their leader types, so almost 5 opponents each. Could we have died? Yes, but with our toughness scores, and armor, reducing the damage, even though we got hit often enough we shrugged most of the damage off, allowing us to kick butt.

So this game allows for you to start in the dirt, literally, but with luck, you can survive long enough to eventually get a lot of gold (my character has almost 2000 gold coin worth of gear and coins now) and be well equipped and skilled enough to be pretty darn tough, but still know death is very possible despite being as tough as you are.

In other words it feels very realistic, you feel like a soldier who stays alive due to his wits, skill, and luck. A feeling you don't always keep in a game like D&D.

So even though my character is pretty darn tough, with great armor, and nice weapons, he could still die, just now the GM likely needs to get in 4 to 5 hits with max damage in quick succession. Not very likely, but still possible, and you know it. So the feeling of risking your life is still there.

Plus this is without the GM throwing nastier creatures at us. Like he hasn't thrown Trolls at us, and they are pretty nasty. Then there are Chaos demons, which are worse. Far worse.

One thing I am really liking about this particular game is I feel like we are playing out those cool scenes from movies. Our superior equipment, training, skill, and teamwork, with a decent dose of luck, allows us to kick butt, take names, and still take a beating and still come close to losing a companion or three. Fortunately our group has managed to stay alive, and we now have a healer!

So yes, you can make WH as gritty a struggle in the mud you want it to be, but you can also make it anything above that, and you'll have fun.

Just realize that WH is a percentile system, where rolling low is good, and all damage is based around the D10, but is as gritty as you can imagine, but you can also drag yourself out fo the mud and become a respectable hero.

 

[frankthedm]

well, here is the cone templates for wfrp 1e and 2e.

WFRP 1E cone


WFRP 2E cone



warhammer fantasty battles 3rd edition 10 & 5/8th" flame template.

 

[Rel]

So even though my character is pretty darn tough, with great armor, and nice weapons, he could still die, just now the GM likely needs to get in 4 to 5 hits with max damage in quick succession.

Or else just one Ulrick's Fury that rolls a couple 10's in a row. Not likely but...ouch!