New Campaign - But Which System?

[Retreater]

So I'm finally getting a group together who is willing to try my dream adventure - The Enemy Within campaign. I have this campaign for the new Warhammer Fantasy 4e, but here are the issues: I don't know the system and don't feel comfortable with it; I am running for (mostly) new gamers who are not especially comfortable with anything other than 5e.

Should I do substantial re-writing of the adventure, perhaps making a few costly blunders that could disrupt the campaign, by converting it to 5e? Or should I attempt running it in the current Warhammer system?

(I'm not putting down an option to run it in a previous edition, since those rulesets aren't available on our VTT.)

 

[payn]

Take Warhammer for a test drive. Find a one shot or two with pregens and have everyone jump in. If the system seems too daunting during the test run you may have to slide back over to 5E.

 

[Marc_C]

Do a test drive of Warhammer with the quick start rules and pre-gens. D&D is not really designed for grim dark fantasy unless you introduce house rules.

 

[GMMichael]

Go Warhammer. Sounds like your players need help breaking free from their chains.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Learning a new system together as a group can be a lot of fun!

 

[Fenris-77]

Take the system for a spin. It works and it really isn't that hard to grok. If things don't gp well you can always mpve back to 5e.

 

[Numidius]

My suggestion is to concentrate on story and setting, adding 4e rules during play as you see fit.
Yeah, in the beginnig means almost freeform. Especially in combat. When in doubt ask for a stat check, maybe an opposed roll, and make liberal use of Critical hits tables.

 

[aramis erak]

Warhammer FRP 4, or an easy port to Zweihänder or WFRP 2e.
WFRP 4 isn't a hard system, and if you ignore the "winning" mechanic, not too far from 1E nor 2E.
D&D 5 won't have the mechanics which make the setting work -- the corruption, the dangerous magic -- and its sanity rules are pretty weak,

 

[DrunkonDuty]

DnD doesn't do the tropes that would make the campaign worth the playing.

 

[aramis erak]

DnD doesn't do the tropes that would make the campaign worth the playing.

To be fair, It does have rules for some of them --
It has an optional sanity score (DMG 265), a (not technically optional) madness system (DMG 258), horror and fright checks (DMG 266), lingering injuries (DMG 272). But they're not well integrated. (The madness system is able to be triggered by some PHB spells, so it's technically not optional.)
The relationship of these to character capabilities is quite different.
It doesn't have the corruption nor mutation mechanics. Characters at level 1 are about as tough as 2nd to 3rd career characters in WFRP 1 or 2.
Even with most of the options, A D&D character's ability to take damage is handled very differently, as well.

And risk... A WFRP character, thanks to righteous fury (Open ending of damage), of any level of expertise can be one-shotted by any opponent... and with max wounds in the low double digits for PC races... I've had a PC get lucky and do 60+ damage in WFRP... he needed it, too... because the demon he faced had 50 W and T10... and one-shotted it.
Even with the 5E massive damage optional rule, which says hits over half HP need a DC15 Con save to avoid being hit, a max-con fighter is immune to non-magic weapons doing insta-kills .by 7th level or so.

D&D5 healing is much faster, too.
Even with the slowdown options, the tone will not be the one of "constant risk of death or dismemberment" that even high experience WFRP character has...