The Warhammer brand is one of the few gaming IPs that has a similar cultural cache to Dungeons & Dragons. It has decades of lore that span multiple games and eras of the world. Celebrities have started to discuss painting (or neglecting) their armies. When Games Workshop released the Warhammer: The Old World miniatures game early in 2024, they wanted a fresh take on the setting that would appeal to potential customers who are new to the grim setting.
Warhammer: The Old World The Roleplaying Game, from Cubicle 7, looks to do the same on the RPG side of things. The game boasts a fresh take on the classic setting with a streamlined system meant for fast play. Cubicle 7 gave me access to an advanced PDF of the Player’s Guide for this article and allowed me to ask some questions of the design team.
“We wanted people less familiar with the lore to have an easy way in,” said Dominic McDowall, Game Designer and CEO/co-founder of Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd, “so each character has contacts. Your contacts give you advice or assistance, and also ground your character with background elements that tell you how you fit in. Besides that, we also designed the game to be easy to get your head around - simple to learn, and with a satisfying breadth and depth using those core principles”
“We considered how to make the game as accessible as possible at every step of development,” said Pádraig Murphy, Senior Producer at Games Workshop. “Even if you don’t know the name of every god or have a map of the Empire memorised, you will find the game invites you in. As Dom mentioned, contacts work really well for this. Focusing on one town, the port of Talagaad, also allowed us to show off the setting without immediately overwhelming new players and GMs. All of the depth of the setting is there once you’re ready for it, of course — this is Warhammer after all.”
Warhammer: The Old World The Roleplaying Game is set a few hundred years before its older darker sibling. Things have not gone to Hell in a handbasket like they have in Warhammer Fantasy Role Play, but you can see the basket in the process of being woven. Chaos cults and magical anomalies might be more rare but there’s still plenty of conflict in the air. There is no clear leader ready to lead the empire, which means all the city states are jockeying for power. Its through the cracks caused by these rivalries that Chaos begins to take hold.
Elements of the new game will seem familiar to fans that have played the original. The stats and skills are more or less the same. Characters still are built through class-like careers and encouraged to roll for random elements. While the company spins up content for this new line, it seems like it wouldn’t be too difficult to convert some of the more low key adventures of Warhammer Fantasy Role Play to use with this game.
“The ratcatcher was non-negotiable!” said McDowall. “One of the things that’s always important for us is capturing the feel of the setting we’re working on and reflecting that through our design choices.”
Combat and magic remain dangerous propositions. As players take injuries and summon unknowable power, they rack up a dice pool that’s rolled on a chart filled with the sort of awfulness expected in a Warhammer game. These dice can be disarmed if time is taken to bind wounds and discharge those energies but they can also quickly stack up during a battle and cause some unpleasant moments for player characters.
“We knew we wanted the possibility for players to suffer a grisly injury or two!” said Murphy. “We also wanted to keep the idea of degrees of success, and to make sure players had a chance to roll some dice when they were attacked to parry a blow or dive out of the way. Beyond that, the star of the show for me is the setting — the World of Legend is such a rich and rewarding world to explore, both as a developer and a player.”
Characters are given pieces that connect them to the setting and let them learn about it at their own pace. They get contacts, relationships and assets like businesses or holdings. These aren’t the amoral drifters expected to steal a dead man’s identity to kick off a grand campaign. These characters have homes, jobs and people they care about and, hopefully, fight for.
Which isn’t to say that this game is Warhammer: Animal Crossing. The players are linked by a Grim Portent which shows them the grave future that lurks in the dark spaces of the world. Perhaps they saw a Chaos ritual on the edge of their little town. Maybe they were drawn to a cursed location by a friend who didn’t make it out alive. They know that something's rotten in the Old World and they’ve got to stop it, whether for the greater good or simply to save their own skins.
“It’s a new take on a classic setting,” said Murphy, “with a snappy system and dynamic combat. It’s a great and accessible way to get your friends into a Warhammer Roleplaying Game if they’re not familiar with the setting, or if they aren’t normally into roleplaying games.”
“It's a great opportunity to explore a new era with its own flavour too,” said McDowell. “The new take on familiar elements mixes things up in ways you might not expect. Don’t take Sigmar’s ascendency for granted - invoking his name outside of the Reikland can land you in deep trouble if the witch hunters have recently rolled through town!”
Warhammer: The Old World The Roleplaying Game is due for a physical release in Q1 of 2026. Fans who pre-order the game can get access to early PDFs as they are completed.
