Warcraft RPG...any good?

[Zappo]

I'm running a Warcraft campaign and so far it's been a blast! Plenty of good background, and the rules are quite solid (though technological items could use some clarifications). Be warned that the races, feats and PrCs from the Warcraft RPG tend to be quite high-powered for D&D standards; you might want to tone them down for use in standard D&D games.

 

[Impeesa]

What stuff can you borrow to use in your regular D&D games?

Pretty much everything. It's designed to be "D&D in the Warcraft setting," so the reverse is pretty easy. The revised core book will be introducing some variants that may not port over so well (mana-based spellcasters, for example), but the existing books have plenty of lootable stuff.

--Impeesa--

 

[maddman75]

What stuff can you borrow to use in your regular D&D games?

Honestly, most of it. The PrCs, base classes, and feats would work fine if you wanted to include them. The power level is a bit higher.

I'm playing a Panderan Monk right now, and that race is BAAA-roken for monks! You get +2 Dex and Con, no negatives, +4 nat armor, natural attacks, +8 to climb checks. The sole drawback is a base speed of 20, which a monk quickly makes up.

Plus who can resist playing a kung-fu panda bear?

 

[Robert Ranting]

WarCraft: the RPG is fine in and of itself, but there are some balance issues if you transfer things wholecloth into another D&D setting.

Be warned that the races, feats and PrCs from the Warcraft RPG tend to be quite high-powered for D&D standards

Some people have suggested that WCRPG enforces an "Invisible +1 LA" for some, if not all of it's races. Consider that the Humans, who are the baseline of any setting have all the standard D&D benefits as well as a bonus to 3 charisma based skills and a +1 attack bonus against Orcs, and it gets kinda iffy as to whether the Tauren or High Elf's +1 LA is relative to the ECL 0 represented by the standard D&D Human, or this revised WCRPG Human. Mainly, I just don't think the LA's are consistant with the norms of standard D&D, and thus, are kinda iffy for inclusion in a standard game (But then again, I have the same problem with Oriental Adventures)

Now, keep in mind, that in April or Early May, we expect a 2nd edition, re-titled "World of WarCraft: The Roleplaying Game" to come out, and it will be using a racial levels system, much like Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed/Evolved, which should remove Level Adjustments from the core playable races in favor of a 3-level Racial Class progression.

Aside from this gripe, however, most of the spells and feats are fine for import and export. If nothing else, Mysterious Purple Blast (from the Magic and Mayhem core book) makes a nice alternative to Magic Missile, which is good for at least a couple laughs. (One when you read it's descriptive text, another the first time your caster announces that he's using it)

Robert "WarCraft Fan" Ranting

 

[Voadam]

The monster book is great, good pictures and useable monsters.

A few quibbles include monsters duplicated from core (gnolls, harpy variant, dragon and manticore variants, etc.) and very low LA on jungle trolls (+1 LA for +4 str and con, -2 cha and int, fast healing one, +2 natural armor, natural claws, and 1HD monstrous humanoid).

That and lands of conflict are the only warcraft books I own so that's all I can comment on, although I'm slated to play in a warcraft PBP soon and looking forward to it as a jungle troll barbarian.

 

[Seeten]

Oh, and also, I love love love World of Warcraft, but not enough to quit tabletop rpg's. I play BOTH! Woo!

 

[Gundark]

Be warned that the races, feats and PrCs from the Warcraft RPG tend to be quite high-powered for D&D standards; you might want to tone them down for use in standard D&D games.

What would you suggest? Our group tends to be a bit heroic in our stats and power...however the 2 DMs in our group try to make sure all is balanced.

 

[Ghostwind]

For one of my campaigns, I'm am using a blend of Warcraft RPG and Iron Kingdoms. So far, it's turning out pretty good. I can't recommend the Warcraft books enough. As for power levels, I haven't really had an issue, but I run a higher power game than the average by the book DM.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The books are great -- the Warcraft goblins and the accompanying Tinker class are far more interesting and fleshed-out than the goblins in baseline D&D -- and there's a lot of lootable stuff.

But they're mostly good as a lore resource. Even with WoW out, there's a lot of extra details you can find in the books, particularly "Lands of Conflict" or "Shadows & Light," but also in the monster book, that either aren't available yet in the MMORPG or are just hinted at. (What's going on in Gilneas, for instance.)

Having said that, I'd definitely wait for the new edition of the core book unless you were just going for lore. There's some wonky stuff in the first few books and some serious discrepancies.

Having said that, I think it's the best computer game adaptation to date. The Diablo II adaptations almost scared me off from picking this stuff up to begin with. /shudder

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

The Warcraft books are worthwhile for their gorgeous art alone.

I find them difficult to get locally (I have to drive about an hour to get them, and then I have all those gorgeous miniatures to buy at that store...), so sadly I don't own any to date. However, they're high on my list of to-buys.

I love the Warcraft world (especially the orcs), but my present campaign has almost no use for it. The next time I run Spelljammer, I'll buy up the Warcraft books and send PCs there to justify the purchase.