TheSword
Legend
Just as a counterpoint to @CapnZapp and @overgeeked who have some pretty strident views on 4e. Not everyone agrees with them.
There is a really well subscribed discord for 4e called the Rat Catchers Guild. Join the Rat Catchers' Guild Discord Server! About 1500 subscribers. Mainly it covers 4e, with some discussion of earlier editions and Warhammer in general. Full of many people loving 4e and cracking on with it!
Advantage is the central mechanic of combat, that speeds up the fight and makes it more than just taking it in turns to bang people over the head. It does require everyone to engage with it though. It’s fundamentally different to 5e’s mechanic which just involves rolling two static numbers. It matters if you’re fighting a weapon master or a peasant. The book is full of suggestions for balancing advantage depending on the party. I limit it to maximum 5 and that seems to work fine. I personally love it, and it didn’t take too long for my players to get used to tracking it. I also find Advantage is really good for me as a DM when narrating the fight.
Meta-currency again is really useful. It’s the answer to people who say WFRP is too swingy or random because actually you have 2-4 get out of jail cards that keep you in the game even if you die. Overgeeked’s criticism of conditions sounds bad until you realize that one of the metacurrencies removes conditions so actually they don’t stack very often. Stacking conditions is very similar to PF2. I’m ok with being slightly on fire, or in a blazing conflagration.
Magic is very good when it works and difficult when it doesn’t. The rules are definitely ripe for house rules. Until then it is more than possible to tweak Magic by being generous with ingredients as treasure and considering some of the optional rules like partial channeling. There’s a magic supplement coming out early next year.
My biggest issue with the game is that if you’re an optimizer you can break the system. If your players are going to ignore the lore and are the type to squeeze every ounce out of a ‘build’ they’ve found on the internet or select the most powerful talents multiple times and ignore the rest, then they will rip the game apart. It’s been the same for every edition of WFRP, in fact every d100 game I’ve ever seen. If your players are pretty easy going though and don’t play that way then I think it’s a beautiful game. Full of cool abilities, interesting characterizations and great encounters.
One thing that worked well for me, was I ran two players individually through the module, Night of Blood, with a pregen from the starter set. It was perfect for learning the rules, how advantage works etc. not only is it a fun little scenario with a few combats and skill tests it is a nice introduction for the setting. The whole thing takes about 3 hours to run and works fine solo. When everyone gets together for the first season they’ll have a better understanding of how to create a character they’ll like and how everything works.
NB. Shields are fine. You can use them to oppose an attack at -10 Melee basic skill but you get to add +2 to your Armour for any location. Or you can use Melee Parry skill if you have it at +10 and get the +2 as well, though melee parry is a lot rarer than melee basic. You can also use them to deflect crits and take hits from ranged.
NBB. The Enemy Within and it’s companions are absolutely amazing. There is substantial extra stuff and the last two books are a tour de force. Worth every penny.
There is a really well subscribed discord for 4e called the Rat Catchers Guild. Join the Rat Catchers' Guild Discord Server! About 1500 subscribers. Mainly it covers 4e, with some discussion of earlier editions and Warhammer in general. Full of many people loving 4e and cracking on with it!
Advantage is the central mechanic of combat, that speeds up the fight and makes it more than just taking it in turns to bang people over the head. It does require everyone to engage with it though. It’s fundamentally different to 5e’s mechanic which just involves rolling two static numbers. It matters if you’re fighting a weapon master or a peasant. The book is full of suggestions for balancing advantage depending on the party. I limit it to maximum 5 and that seems to work fine. I personally love it, and it didn’t take too long for my players to get used to tracking it. I also find Advantage is really good for me as a DM when narrating the fight.
Meta-currency again is really useful. It’s the answer to people who say WFRP is too swingy or random because actually you have 2-4 get out of jail cards that keep you in the game even if you die. Overgeeked’s criticism of conditions sounds bad until you realize that one of the metacurrencies removes conditions so actually they don’t stack very often. Stacking conditions is very similar to PF2. I’m ok with being slightly on fire, or in a blazing conflagration.
Magic is very good when it works and difficult when it doesn’t. The rules are definitely ripe for house rules. Until then it is more than possible to tweak Magic by being generous with ingredients as treasure and considering some of the optional rules like partial channeling. There’s a magic supplement coming out early next year.
My biggest issue with the game is that if you’re an optimizer you can break the system. If your players are going to ignore the lore and are the type to squeeze every ounce out of a ‘build’ they’ve found on the internet or select the most powerful talents multiple times and ignore the rest, then they will rip the game apart. It’s been the same for every edition of WFRP, in fact every d100 game I’ve ever seen. If your players are pretty easy going though and don’t play that way then I think it’s a beautiful game. Full of cool abilities, interesting characterizations and great encounters.
One thing that worked well for me, was I ran two players individually through the module, Night of Blood, with a pregen from the starter set. It was perfect for learning the rules, how advantage works etc. not only is it a fun little scenario with a few combats and skill tests it is a nice introduction for the setting. The whole thing takes about 3 hours to run and works fine solo. When everyone gets together for the first season they’ll have a better understanding of how to create a character they’ll like and how everything works.
NB. Shields are fine. You can use them to oppose an attack at -10 Melee basic skill but you get to add +2 to your Armour for any location. Or you can use Melee Parry skill if you have it at +10 and get the +2 as well, though melee parry is a lot rarer than melee basic. You can also use them to deflect crits and take hits from ranged.
NBB. The Enemy Within and it’s companions are absolutely amazing. There is substantial extra stuff and the last two books are a tour de force. Worth every penny.
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