Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay vs Warhammer Age of Sigmar Roleplay
TheSword
Legend
There really are two completely different games and settings with some cross overs in names and a couple of characters but really not much at all.
The Old World is a gritty Grimdark, Holy-Roman empire, low magic setting. The game is very similar to the 1st and 2nd editions of the same game. The setting is very similar. This is the exact world described in Total Warhammer to be honest, very few lore changes (though the timeline in TW is slightly advanced of the current 4e). Fans like the politics, the corrupt nobles, the cults, the mutants in the dark forests. How recognizable the world is.
Age of Sigmar (I’m gonna try very hard to be impartial here) is based on the universe if the Chaos Gods won and destroyed the universe. However Sigmar and the other avatars of the 8 winds of magic rebuild the universe but thousands of year later. It’s based on 8 different realms which are themed around the 8 winds. So there is a realm of the heavens where Sigmar lives, one of death which is full of undead etc. There are cities in these realms where normal people live too. Most of the races from the Old World have survived in some form. Though many have been changed. All link to a HRE inspired empire is gone and the world is like the old world dialed you to 1000%. Fans like the originality.
[Edit: Okay I can’t help it… Long live the Old World!]
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Mercador
Adventurer
Well, then I prefer the former. I guess Zweihander is also based on the former.
The way you described it, it's like AoS is the Fantasy version of WH40K.
I'm trying to find lore on Total War Warhammer and stumble unto this, I was a bit surprised to see two core rulebooks from the same universe but totally different. From what I gather, they wanted to redo minis as well so it could explain the end times ?
The way you described it, it's like AoS is the Fantasy version of WH40K.
I'm trying to find lore on Total War Warhammer and stumble unto this, I was a bit surprised to see two core rulebooks from the same universe but totally different. From what I gather, they wanted to redo minis as well so it could explain the end times ?
Crusadius
Adventurer
I think Zweihander is based of WFRP 1E and/or 2E' system but a completely different setting. I think the developer had intentions to get the WFRP license to publish but was not successful so published the system with a "numbers scraped off plus new terminology" setting. If you're looking for something Warhammer-y but not WFRP you couldn't go wrong looking at Zweihander.
I would describe Age of Sigmar: Soulbound as a mix of WFRP and Exalted. It has a lot of setting stuff from WFRP but characters are meant to be awesome like Exalted. You also are correct in comparing to WH40K - the AOS Stormcast Eternals are basically Space Marines.
I would describe Age of Sigmar: Soulbound as a mix of WFRP and Exalted. It has a lot of setting stuff from WFRP but characters are meant to be awesome like Exalted. You also are correct in comparing to WH40K - the AOS Stormcast Eternals are basically Space Marines.
MGibster
Legend
I much prefer the Old World as well and was a little upset when they cancelled it. But I had to cut GW some slack given that I wasn't playing WH Fantasy at the time and I was unlikely to pick it up any time soon. GW has lot more freedom to work in AoS and they're putting out more interesting miniatures than they are for 40k in my opinion. Though I still miss the Old World.
TheSword
Legend
I think there were a few reasons. They wanted to protect IP by having a property that was cut off from its inspirational roots. You can’t sue someone for using the name ‘The Empire’ or ‘Dwarf’.
They weren’t selling Fantasy as well as 40k, so instead of investing some time and effort into it they decided to nuke the setting and sell a lot of ‘grand finale’ models. This worked but kinda just showed if they’d put their efforts into the models in the first place they would have been more successful.
They felt constrained by the existing world and wanted to expand it to something more fantastical. Which is a shame because they could easily have had realm gates leading to the homes of the Avatars of the Winds pop up all over the normal Old World, without destroying it.
They wanted to end the cycle of ever present threat of chaos which they found couldn’t advance the story line (not the main reason I think that this is incidental). However the ever present threat of destruction is one of the things that gives the old world its style.
The old world is awesome and while Total Warhammer is bringing it to a whole new generation and has expanded the world and the lore, Cubicle 7’s WFRP 4e is giving it a lot of detail. I’d give it a go. Zweihander is just a spin off of 2e, without the release schedule. It’s a bit locked in time. I’d give the new edition a look first.
Aldarc
Legend
I tend to agree. As a fan of lizardmen, I found the shift from lizardmen lore to the seraphon lore in AoS to be a real head-scratcher.
aramis erak
Legend
He never mentioned such where I could see at the time he was doing dev on it.
It was a case of he didn't like 3rd, and did like parts of 1st and 2nd, so hybridized. (I might still have the playtest copy on a drive around her...)
He may have later tried to get the license for 4th... but IIRC, he announced after 3rd was already assigned and announced to be leaving the d100 behind....
My friends playing Zweihänder have all tried WFRP 4th, and want to return to Zweihänder.
Crusadius
Adventurer
I'm likely wrong with the timing. Now that you mention it the attempt could have been after FFG lost the license.
MGibster
Legend
Fantasy skewed towards an older audience many of whom were essentially done purchasing models. i.e. Even the hard core players who owned 2 or 3 armies weren't likely to pick up many more models in the future. I honestly don't know if just coming up with new models would have attracted a lot of new players to WH Fantasy. I don't think it would have attracted younger players and the older players likely wouldn't have bought new models both because they already had a ton of them and the newer ones wouldn't match their older ones in aesthetics. It was a ballsy calculated move on their part knowing they would alienate long term fans with the goal of attracting newer younger fans and it worked.
I've never been huge on lore when it comes to my war games and I tend to select my factions primarily on the ones I think look the coolest. After all, I will be spending far more time painting my models than I will using them for any game. That said, one of the Seraphon boxed sets was the very first thing I purchased for AoS. I recently purchased the Dominion boxed set and had a lot of fun painting my Stormcast models but I didn't particularly care for the Kruelboyz. The models look cool but I much prefer the goofy malevolence of old school orks.
