New Warhammer Old World TTRPG Announced

Cubicle 7 has announced another Warhammer tabletop RPG--this one based on Warhammer: The Old World. Press release below, more news as/when we hear it!

Celebrated game publisher Cubicle 7 Entertainment has announced development of a new roleplaying game based on Games Workshop’s recently launched Warhammer: The Old World.

Speaking in the UK at Warhammer World’s launch event for Warhammer: The Old World, Cubicle 7’s Dominic McDowall said, “Exploring a new era with Warhammer: The Old World is an honour and a privilege. As huge fans of the classic Warhammer setting we’re thrilled to be working with Games Workshop on the new chapter of such a beloved setting.”

Cubicle 7 has an impressive roster of licensed Games Workshop Roleplaying Games, including the award-winning Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, set in the later era of Karl Franz. Fans of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay can rest assured it will continue as its own game line, with many, many releases already scheduled for the coming years.

Warhammer: The Old World is a miniatures battle game set in the past of the Known World.

 

[BigZebra]

Does anyone know anything about the rules Cubicle 7 are going to use for this new The Old World Game? Reason I ask, I love the setting and the approach of having multiple professions, including lost of miscreant low life types. But I find the 4th Ed rules very complex, crunchy and slow. I have wondered how people even play it without Foundry doing all sums. I'd love to play in the Old World, with a simpler ruleset.

The rumors are that the rules are like Imperium Maledictum, which according to many are more streamlined than WFRP 4e.

 

[Edifice Head]

The rumors are that the rules are like Imperium Maledictum, which according to many are more streamlined than WFRP 4e.

Now that really interests me. I'd love to run and Old World game but I'd need a simpler, faster ruleset. Don't know if this will system will be sufficiently streamlined to suit me but I want to look that now. Thanks.

 

[overgeeked]

Now that really interests me. I'd love to run and Old World game but I'd need a simpler, faster ruleset. Don't know if this will system will be sufficiently streamlined to suit me but I want to look that now. Thanks.

You might want to take a look at Dragonbane. It's a d20, roll low, skilled-based game. A surprising number of people are talking about using it to run The Enemy Within. It's missing a few easy to port over mechanics, but it's dead simple at the table.

 

[MNblockhead]

I do love the Old World. And I love the maps they did in first few years of WFRP 4th (Andy Law). There's some real quality there. I played a campaign in Ubersriek, then played Enemy Within up to Middenheim. But the GM ran out of steam when running that chapter and he jacked it in. Very demanding on the GM, that section? He's now he's withdrawn from gaming! It was really great whilst it lasted.

I'm running The Enemy Within (TEW) campaign now. Just finished the first book with the party leaving Bogenhafen the next session and moving into the second book. Even the first book is a heavy lift for the GM. It seems every book gets more complex. More than that, it is a significant commitment for both players and GM, in that it is a campaign that is likely to take two or more years to complete with regular weekly sessions.

The overall plots are not that difficult, but the number of NPCs and how there are open investigatory sections that also tie into NPC timelines that you have to track, can make it complicated and confusing for players who don't like note-taking and are used to more straight forward adventures. At times it feels more like like a Call of Cthulu adventure mashed up with a gritty, tactical skirmish battle game.

All that said, I love running it. And I'm a glutton for punishment as I've worked in more content to fill out some of the weaker links the GM has to deal with in connecting the plot points and events without getting too ham fisted with the parts of the campaign that require some railroading. I've combined TEW with Rough Nights and Hard Days (RNHD) and have worked in patrons from Patrons of the Empire, NPCs in TEW and RNHD, and NPCs I've created.

I took us one year to finish book 1, Enemy in Shadows, but that is in large part because I also started with the the Starter Set adventure to first make sure we all enjoyed the system and I also ran three of the adventures in RNHD. We should be moving through the campaign material at a fast pace this year, but Death on the Reik is also a much longer adventure, so it will likely take a year to complete. That's based on 8 hours of playtime a month. So I'm probably looking at a 4-5 year campaign if we complete it.

 

[MNblockhead]

Does anyone know anything about the rules Cubicle 7 are going to use for this new The Old World Game? Reason I ask, I love the setting and the approach of having multiple professions, including lost of miscreant low life types. But I find the 4th Ed rules very complex, crunchy and slow. I have wondered how people even play it without Foundry doing all sums. I'd love to play in the Old World, with a simpler ruleset.

No. I have to admit that I was a bit put off about the new game as I've already invested so much time and money into WFRP4e. I will say, however, that I really enjoyed a play-to-learn session of Age of Sigmar at Gamehole Con last year. Could be fun to recreate dead characters in that system and play a short campaign in that system if we get tiered of WFRP4e or if there is a TPK.

I'm not sure that a new system set in the old world is going to attract me as a DM, but I'm open to trying it out as a player.

 

[MNblockhead]

You might want to take a look at Dragonbane. It's a d20, roll low, skilled-based game. A surprising number of people are talking about using it to run The Enemy Within. It's missing a few easy to port over mechanics, but it's dead simple at the table.

That's interesting. As a DM, I'm not sure I would want to do the work of restating the NPCs and creatures, but I'm not familiar with Dragonbane, so perhaps that system makes it easy to do so.

Another tip for @Edifice Head is using the Foundry game system for WFRP4e, which makes a lot of the crunch and table look-ups much easier to deal with. I'm running my games online, but even if I were to run WFRP4e in person, I'd likely use foundry on my laptop to run it.

 

[MNblockhead]

The rumors are that the rules are like Imperium Maledictum, which according to many are more streamlined than WFRP 4e.

That's interesting. I played a learn-to-play of that system at Gamehole Con as well. Like Age of Sigmar, it is a much more streamlined system than WFRP4e. They both use a d6 dice pool, rather than the d100 sytem of WFRP. They also do away with all of the table lookups that gives WFRP much of its gritty, chaotic charm. Low level characters feel much more heroic in Age of Sigmar and Imperium Maledictum compared to WFRP, however. They just wouldn't work well, IMHO, with the traditional style of adventures in WFRP.

 

[Crusadius]

That's interesting. I played a learn-to-play of that system at Gamehole Con as well. Like Age of Sigmar, it is a much more streamlined system than WFRP4e. They both use a d6 dice pool, rather than the d100 sytem of WFRP. They also do away with all of the table lookups that gives WFRP much of its gritty, chaotic charm. Low level characters feel much more heroic in Age of Sigmar and Imperium Maledictum compared to WFRP, however. They just wouldn't work well, IMHO, with the traditional style of adventures in WFRP.

Perhaps you have confused Imperium Maledictum with Wrath and Glory? Both games are referred to as "Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay".

IM uses a d100 system very similar to WFRP4E, whereas W&G uses a d6 dice pool. Some of the simplicity IM brings to the table is changes to Advantage, smaller set of Skills, advancement of Skills returning to +5 increments.

 

[overgeeked]

That's interesting. As a DM, I'm not sure I would want to do the work of restating the NPCs and creatures, but I'm not familiar with Dragonbane, so perhaps that system makes it easy to do so.

If you like WFRP4E, there's really no need to. But of those struggling with the system, quite a few seem to be using Dragonbane.

Dragonbane is a d20 reworking of the Swedish game Drakar och Demoner (d100), which was a fork of RuneQuest (d100), so converting from WFRP to Dragonbane is pretty simple.

All you need to do is keep in mind the Average difficulty = +20% in WFRP and count by 5s. Round WFRP skills to the nearest 5, add 20, divide by 5 to get your Dragonbane skill. That will put you within 1-2 of where standard Dragonbane NPCs would be. Armor you can convert straight or use the DB equivalent. Weapons might need updating. WFRP Wounds equal Dragonbane Hit Points. WFRP move +1, x2 = DB movement.

ETA: Converting proper scary monsters over to Dragonbane would be a bit more involved. But not that much.

As an example, here's the goblins from the core rules for each.

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

I'll keep my eyes open for what system C7 will use. WHFR4e is not only crunchy, which I can live with, but quirky and unnecessarily unintuitive in the wrong places. 2e would be ideal, but there's no VTT support for that.