D&D vs WHFRP

[brainstorm]

I've run a 3.x game now for five years with my current group. Now one of them wants to run a game, which I'm totally cool with, as I've been itching to play a character for a while now. However, he wants to run a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay game. I'm not too happy about this, as I've been wanting to play D&D, not some other system. But, since I've never played WHFRP, I guess I should give it a try before I pass judgement. I'd like to solicit comments comparing D&D and WHFRP, pros, cons, general thoughts on how the systems differ and are similar.

 

[Crothian]

It is grim and grittier

 

[Ourph]

You should find it very easy to understand the rules for WHFRP 2nd ed. if you are already familiar with D&D. Not only is WHFRP a very easy game to learn, but there are significant "networking externalities" between it and D&D.

I'm not going to go into a point by point comparison of the systems, but I will say that overall (IMO) WHFRP copies a lot of what the d20 system does well and takes stuff that d20 and D&D 3e in particular do poorly and fixes it. The combat system is quick, easy to learn and full of tactical options. Character creation is quick but still has a lot of depth. The magic system is one of the best I've ever seen in an RPG.

The main difference you will probably notice is that the power curve is much shallower in WHFRP. An amount of play that might advance your character from 1st to 10th level in D&D (a huge difference in power level) might see your WHFRP character double in relative power over the same time period (perhaps the equivalent of going from 1st to 3rd level in D&D). IMO this is a strength of the game, but some players used to D&D's rate of advance might find it difficult to adapt to.

Overall, I think it's a system well worth trying, even if it doesn't end up being your cup of tea.

 

[Marchen]

I love WFRP. The 1st Edition of the game is the first tabletop RPG I ever seriously played, so it holds a special place in my gaming heart, and is still my favorite gaming system (even though it has some serious balance issues). The flavor is WFRP is very grim, dark, and dirty. It is really more of a horror game than a traditional fantasy RPG. It is NOT D&D. Your characters in WFRP are usually nobodies; rat catchers and peasants compared to paladins and wizards. Magic is forbidden, dangerous, and can easily kill a party and/or drive a spellcaster insane.

Combat in WFRP is much, much more dangerous and deadly than it's D&D counterpart. It's also harder to properly judge the difficulty scale on some encounters, without CR's and character levels.

If you and your players are of the right mind to enjoy this style of game, then you should certainly look into the new WFRP.

 

[Darkwolf445]

I have played and enjoyed both. I mostly DM for 3.5 and act as a player in Warhammer.

As mentioned, the rules are smoother and the power curve is more grim , gritty, and "realistic." Unless you are a wizard. They are just down right scary as they progress in careers.

As an example, after a year of playing every other week, 6-7 hours each, my dwarf, who began as a miner, progressed through that career, through the Engineer career, and was on the verge of his third career. He was very tough, with full plate, a magic axe, a blunderbuss, and a pair of pistols. Not much physically could touch me (except the rare demon, giant, or ogre. These you tend to run from though, if you can). Magic, which pretty much bypassed armor and/or toughness was frightening.

Characters learned very quickly to take out the spellcaster first, at all costs.

Done right, as our GM did, with a good amount of role play to fluff out our backgrounds and Middenheim over time, made the game a great experience. A good amount of battle with social interaction made it one of my favorite gaming experiences.

 

[scourger]

I'm running WFRP now using the very cool module Karak Azgal. I got excited about it from reading several previews & reviews of the game and module. You can find those easily enough, and I recommend it. I actually gave it first to a friend who is "D&D only" hoping he would run it both to get him (and our group) out of the D&D rut and to deliver the very cool WFRP game to us. That didn't work, so sometime later I got the game in trade and decided to run Karak Azgal. A city-based campaign works on several levels for our group. A dwarfen city atop ruined caverns is too intriguing not to run. I think of it as exploring (and retaking) the Mines of Moria.

Mechanically, WFRP uses all d10s. That is a very interesting change. I was interested in the concept of carrying & using many fewer dice for the game. You choose a race but roll abilites and starting career. From there, you have certain skills, talents & equipment. You roll characteristics, including a name. Then, you're ready to go. Combat is pretty easy once you get into it. As noted above, some of it will feel familiar to d20.

The only change I've made so far is to reduce all the mooks to zero wounds and make them immediately subject to critical hits. Significant foes, usually the named ones, still have wounds. That change makes my job easier since I'm not tracking all the foes' wound (hit) points, which makes the game more fun for me to run. It also makes the heroes significantly more powerful, which makes the game more fun for the players to play. I think it's appropriate that chaos minions are relatively weaker but more numerous. There haven't been any heroic deaths, but a couple of fate points have been spent to avoid character deaths. The heroes have hacked apart dozens of skaven in the process. Even so, they need numbers (about 4) and armor to keep them facing the hordes of chaos.

If your GM doesn't make such a change, then avoid melee. Shoot things from a distance. And run away. Also as noted above, WFRP with its RAW is much more grim & gritty than D&D. But it is very flavourful, too. You'll have fun with it.

 

[the Jester]

WHFR is the game where you think you're playing dnd, but gradually you discover that you're playing Call of Cthulhu.

 

[The_Universe]

You should really see if you can get Rel over into this thread. We played in a preview of his WHFRP campaign at the NC game day in September - he ought to be able to weigh in with knowledge.

Having only played WHFRP once, I certainly don't consider myself an expert. However, my impression is that it's a perfectly fine system. I certainly had fun playing.

Is it an improvement over D&D 3.5? I don't think so. It does some things remarkably similar to D&D, and even the things that are different are not disconcertingly foreign. It simplifies some aspects of combat and spellcasting, but complicates others. I certainly felt the loss of some of the granularity in the combat system when playing Warhammer, and while it was easy to tell if I hit or missed when swinging a sword, I much prefer the way D&D handles the same things. In all, I'd say your DM is trading over, not trading up. It'll be fine, but I wouldn't let your expectations rocket skyward.

 

[Aaron L]

If you understand D&D and you understand Call of Cthulhu, then WHFR will be a snap. When I first played last month, I couldnt shake the idea that is was those two games combined, both mechanically and thematically.


(not that Im saying that its a rip off of those games, but that it has that "feel" )


While I wouldnt ever want to ditch D&D for it and if given the choice of the two Id take D&D, I like it very much and would play it anytime. Ive been playing in a campaign for about a month now and its a blast, the only gaming Ive had in over a year.

I really like the skill based unlimited spellcasting. The damage reduction armor system is neat too. The list of combat actions reads like 3E, move actions and attack actions and the like (probably have the terminology wrong.) Like I said, it plays a nice combo of D&D and 3E.

Its a great game.

 

[brainstorm]

Miniatures

Is miniature use considered in the rules? Are there attacks of opportunity-type actions?