Any thoughts on the Warhammer Role Playing Game?

[mearls]

anyone have any thoughts on the Warhammer Fantasy Role Playing Game? Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.

First, as I write material for the game I'm a bit biased.

Anyway:

WFRP is, as others have noted, closer to CoC than D&D. That's its biggest strength, IMO, as it breeds a much different approach to the game than in your typical D&D game. Combat is nasty, and one or two lucky shots can take down almost any critter.

The system is very simple. Roll a d100, score lower than your relevant stat (usually around 30 - 40 for starting characters) and you succeed. All skill tests are tied to a stat. If you have a skill, you typically gain a bonus to all tests that involved it. For instance, riding a horse is a Dexterity test, but if you have the Ride skill you gain a +10% bonus to your Dexterity when making Ride tests.

Magic is rare and not overpowering. Wizard-type PCs are hard to develop, but can become quite powerful.

Overall, WFRP is an easy to learn game tied to a fun, colorful, and quite interesting setting. The core rulebook is very complete and essentially combines the PHB, DMG, and MM into one volume, plus it comes with an introductory scenario. I'd highly recommend the main book and the Bill King Warhammer novel Trollslayer to get a feel for the world and its unique blend of fantasy, grim realism, and black humor.

And as a plug, I wrote a WFRP adventure due out later this year called Fear the Worst. I think it's the perfect adventure for introducing D&D players to Warhammer. It plays with a lot of the assumptions and expectations D&D has bred into RPGs.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

The world background is bloody brilliant, and it is worth purchasing WHFRP for this alone. And since the Warhammer World closely parallels our own Middle Ages, you can steal all kinds of stuff from real-world history and mythology, and nobody will bat an eye. I am currently running a GURPS Warhammer campaign, and the players seem to be having a blast.

The system is fun, but it gets a bit stale if you have played five lengthy campaigns with it - after that, you have tried out all the interesting career combinations... Now we have switched to GURPS, which comes pretty close in terms of lethality, and it seems to work fine.

And since this seems like yet another perfect opportunity to pimp my homepage, let me point you to my GURPS Warhammer Conversion Notes...

 

[Ermanaric]

thats more lke it! I knew that there were people out there that played this game! Thanks guys we need more people to post for this game!

 

[the Jester]

I've played WHFR three times, and each time it was great. I'm not superfamiliar with the world, but I love what I know. The tone is much darker than dnd (chaos is destined to win in the end, after all) and combat is much more interesting. When you die, you know exactly how it happens. I dig the career system from what I have seen (3 games, none in a campaign, all different characters)- I think it may have helped inspire 3e's prestige classes.

I've also played in a long-term 3e campaign set in the WH universe. It was a totally fun campaign, I really loved it. I lost tons of characters at one point or another, and ended up with a very studly dwarf ranger/rogue as the one that lived... We were going through a series of WH modules intertwined with converted 2e modules (the Doom Stones meets the Desert of Desolation). Much fun, but I have to say that skaven SUCK.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Much fun, but I have to say that skaven SUCK.

I hope you meant that in a good way.

 

[Thorvald Kviksverd]

Here's a good place to go to ask about the game as well...

Critical Hit Forums

 

[madriel]

Hogshead Publishing has released Realms of Sorcery. it is a sourcebook that greatly expands on magic in the WFRP game.

My boyfriend bought it today. It only took them 16 years to get it out the door.

So far it looks really cool. It describes the different schools of magic, new spells, the different varieties of familiars.

Now I really miss our old Warhammer campaign.

 

[Hand of Evil]

It was the game that should have given D&D a run for its money! But it just was not supported!

It is all about the world, which is one of the best. The mechanics are very good for low and mid-range characters but seem to break down at the higher levels (if you live that long). Combat is simple, fast, deadly, and something your players start to think about before jumping into it.

I have found it to be a great game and have had a lot of fun with it.

 

[Ruined]

We've been on hiatus for a year or so, while our GM works on thesis and subesquent career, but I've played in some lengthy WFRP campaigns. Really good stuff.

The background is just great. It's dark and gritty, and very memorable. The system's tendency to maim and injure characters adds to that feeling, and keeps you on your toes.

I always suggest it if people are looking for a break from D&D, and they want to try something else fantasy-style (unless they're looking for high magic, then I push them towards Earthdawn). We broke from AD&D back around 1990 and enmeshed ourselves in extensive campaigns such as 'Doomstones' and 'The Enemy Within'. I played those modules, but I have looked through them. They're well written, and provide a good deal of information, but they're very open and allow the GM to customize the campaigns. And well, it's one of the few games where we really screwed up and a town payed the price... permanently. =)

Anyways, there are some things to look out for. They have really cool rules for followers of Chaos (the demonic bad guys). They have lots of neat random roll tables and all sorts of cool powers that their servants can get, so it's very tempting for fledgling GMs to ransack them and make heinious enemies that are overpowered without realizing it.

And as someone else mentioned, Skaven are really cool. Unless you fight them a lot. And you get captured and enslaved. And they put warpstone into your wounds to mutate you into a better servant. And then you escape. And they hunt you down because the buggers can sniff out warpstone. Yeah, they're great.


Give it a shot. You'll enjoy it.

 

[J Lloyd]

It was the game that should have given D&D a run for its money! But it just was not supported!

That seems to be the case for all of Games Workshop's non-Warhammer [40,000k] games. Good games, but you know they'll only be around for a year or so before they move on.

Glad to see so many people into playing WFRP. It is a nice change of paste from D&D.