Warhammer Fantasy RPG
Posted on behalf of John Grigsby, d20 Magazine Rack Staff Reviewer
Initiative Round
Warhammer Fantasy RPG is a fantasy role-playing game system from Black Industries and distributed through Green Ronin Publishing. This is a 256-page full-color hardcover by Chris Pramas, based on original material by Jim Bambra, Graeme Davis, Phil Gallagher, Richard Halliwell, and Rick Priestly. The cover art by Geoff Taylor depicts a quartet of adventurers doing what they do best, and Toren “Macbin” Atkinson, Steve Belledin, Caleb Cleveland, Dave Gallagher, David Griffith, John Hodgson, Carl Frank, Ted Galaday, Janine Johnston, Karl Kopinski, Pat Loboyko, Britt Martin,Val Mayerik, Torstein Nordestrand, Justin Norman, Erik Polak, Scott Purdy, Wayne Reynolds, Rick Sardinha, Adrian Smith, and Greg Staples contribute to the interior art. Warhammer Fantasy RPG retails for $39.99.
As a veteran gamer, I’ve long been aware of the existence of the Warhammer Fantasy RPG, but until recently, I just never got around to playing it. I never had an interest in it until about six months ago, when a friend introduced me to it for the first time. I must admit, it’s an experience; entertaining enough that when the revised edition came out, I knew I’d have to procure a copy. This review takes a look at the revised edition of the Warhammer Fantasy RPG, recently released from Black Industries and Green Ronin.
The Warhammer Fantasy RPG takes place in a setting called the Old World; more specifically, in the Empire. The Empire is the largest and oldest nation of the Old World, and a human bastion against the ever-present threat of Chaos. The Empire is further divided into ten Elector Counts, each presiding over a province. The Empire also counts four great city-states, which though technically under province of the Elector Counts, are ruled by cartels of Burgomeisters in league with other organizations. Beneath the counts is a dazzling and confused array of minor nobility, ruling everything from large tracts of countryside to their own castle walls. Finally, there is the Moot, the homeland of the Halflings. To the chagrin of many of its inhabitants, the Moot is considered part of the Empire and has a voice at the court of the Emperor.
The world is a dangerous place, of course, and the Empire is threatened by many enemies. Chief among these are the minions of the Dark Gods of Chaos. Constant incursions by the armies of Chaos leave the Empire weakened and lessened, and most recently, two provinces have fallen to the darkness. The Beastmen are the twisted and mutated Children of Chaos, and represent a constant threat to the Empire. And besides this ever-present threat are the occasional raids by Northmen, the rat-like Skaven, the savage goblinoid races, and the restless dead.
Clearly, the Empire needs heroes.
The Warhammer Fantasy RPG uses a unique system of mechanics for gameplay; simple, yet elegant and effective. The system uses exclusively 10-sided dice. Even for new players, character creation should take no more than about one half-hour. The character creation system is summed up in eight steps (actually seven, since the eighth is “Start playing WFRP!”).
WFRP has four races available to player characters; humans, dwarves, elves, and halflings. Each is pretty much the typical fantasy stereotype; dwarves are dour warriors, elves are known for their archers and wizards, halflings are largely homebodies (save the rare few that go off seeking adventures), and humans are, well, humans. Each character has eight Main Profile Characteristics and eight Secondary Profile Characteristics. Main Profile Characteristics are Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill, Strength, Toughness, Agility, Intelligence, Will Power, and Fellowship, and these are generated by adding 2d10 to a base number determined by the race of the character. Secondary Profile Characteristics are Attacks, Wounds, Strength Bonus, Toughness Bonus, Movement, Magic, Insanity Points, and Fate Points. Of these, all characters begin with one attack and zero magic or insanity points. The other Characteristics are determined either by die rolls and based on race (Wounds and Fate Points), a predetermined value (Movement), or are derived from the character’s Main Profile Characteristics (Strength and Toughness Bonus).
After the characters’ Main and Secondary Profile Characteristics have been determined, it’s time to jot down the character’s racial features; skills and talents awarded by race. All characters gain certain skills common to their race. Human, for example, gain the ability to speak the language of the Empire (Reikspeil), common knowledge about the Empire, and Gossip (useful for picking up information). Dwarves, on the other hand, usually learn a useful Trade skill in addition to knowing how to speak Khazalid and Reikspeil, and possessing a common knowledge of things dwarfish. Talents are special abilities, such as night vision, knowledge of how to use certain weapon groups, resistance to magic, and the like. For dwarves and elves, these talents are predetermined and largely unchanging, but humans gain two random talents, while halflings have one random talent and three predetermined ones.
From here, it gets interesting. Each player must then roll on the Starting Career table to see what his or her character did before becoming an adventurer. WFRP has a whopping 80 starting careers (and another 53 advanced careers), though not all are available to all races. Each career offers certain adjustments to the Main and Secondary profiles, as well as additional skills and talents, and the character’s starting equipment. While the skills, talents, and equipment are gained right off, the adjustments (called the Advanced Scheme) form the crux of the advancement system in WFRP.
In the Warhammer Fantasy RPG, character earn experience points, just as in many fantasy role-playing games. However, instead of collecting experience to progress in levels, characters spend experience points to by new Talents and Skills, learn Skill mastery, and advance in their career. Experience points can also be used to switch careers if you have maxed out an advance scheme.
Advancement is the primary motivation for characters to adventure. As I noted above, every career has an Advancement Scheme. For example, the Advancement Scheme for the Hunter is: Ballistic Skill +15%, Toughness +5%, Agility +10%, Intelligence +5%, and Wounds +3. For every 100 experience points spent, the character can advance +5% or +1 in the Characteristic of his choice. The downside is that you can advance only in those Characteristics listed in your Advance Scheme, and only as far as the Advance Scheme goes. Our Hunter, for example, could never put any points into Fellowship or increase his number of Attacks, because they aren’t on his Advancement Scheme. In a similar vein, when he has put +15% (300 experience points) into his Ballistic Skill, he cannot add any more to that Characteristic until he switches to a new career.
Most careers offer one or more Career Exits. For the Hunter, possible career exits are Bounty Hunter, Charcoal-Burner, Fieldwarden, Kithband Warrior, Miner, Scout, Soldier, and Targeteer. A Career Exit provides a logical venue for the character to pursue. It is perfectly logical for a Hunter to take up any of the careers listed in his Career Exits. Changing a career to one of your Career Exits entails two things. First, the character must collect all of the trappings (equipment) that the new career would normally provide for free. Second, it costs 100 experience points to make the change. It is possible to switch to a career not in your Career Exits (our Hunter might choose to take up the path of the Squire, for example), but the cost is 200 experience points. On the plus side, you don’t have to max out your current Advancement Scheme to do this.
Changing careers does not entitle the character to automatically take the Skills and Talents of the new career. Instead, these must be purchased through the expenditure of experience points. What is more, if an Advancement Scheme offers advancement for a particular Characteristic that is less than the one from your previous career, you cannot improve that Characteristic. That is, if our Hunter switched careers to Bounty Hunter (Advancement Scheme: Weapon Skill +10%, Ballistic Skill +10%, Strength +5%, Agility +10%, Willpower +5%, and Wounds +2), he would not be able to add anything to his Ballistic Skill (nor his Agility or Wounds), because the advancement from his old career was +15% and the new advancement is only +10%). In order to advance that Characteristic, he has to find a career that offers an Advancement Scheme of +20% or better in Ballistic Skill.
Skills are tied to a Characteristic, which is used for Tests. Rather than use varying levels of skill, WFRP simply assumes that a character possesses a skill at the same level as the Characteristic to which it is linked. If a character gains access to the same skill through different careers, they may pay 100 xp to gain an additional +10% (this is called Skill Mastery) when using the skill. This may be done twice, granting a total bonus of +20%. Some skills also have related talents, which give bonuses either all the time or else under certain circumstances.
Making a Skill Test (and this mechanic also covers Characteristic Tests, used when a character attempts something that isn’t covered by a skill) involves having the GM choose a level of difficulty, from Very Easy to Very Hard. The player then rolls percentile dice. If the roll is under the Characteristic tied to the skill (or the Characteristic being tested), the test succeeds. Easy tests temporarily modify the Characteristic upward, while more difficult tests modify it downward. It is also possible to make an Extended Skill Test, when a complicated task takes extra time, and Opposed Skill Tests, where two characters roll against one another (possibly using different skills, such as Concealment versus Perception).
Some Talents, as already noted, serve to modify skills. Other talents may grant a bonus on damage rolls, allow you to reload ranged weapons with greater speed, or even enhance your magical ability (if you have any). The ability to fight with certain weapon types are also considered Talents.
Combat is a simple Characteristic test, made with either Weapon Skill (for melee weapons) or Ballistic Skill (for ranged weapons). If you hit, you roll percentile dice to see where the blow lands, and roll a 10-sided dice and add your bonus for the weapon you are using. The opponent will then modify that roll by his Toughness Bonus and any armor he is wearing that protects the area hit, and will deduct the remainder from his Wounds. It is also possible to attempt to dodge and parry blows, but only one attempt per round is permitted, and both cannot be attempted in the same turn.
In general, you want to keep your Wounds as high as possible. How badly wounded you are affects how long it takes to recover. In addition, any time a character takes more damage than he or she has Wounds remaining, the attack is a Critical Hit. The effects of Critical Hits vary with where the blow falls and the result of the percentile roll against the Critical Hit table, but in general, vary from a minor nuisance effect to outright death (usually in some suitably gory fashion).
As noted above, weapons come in a variety of types. Ordinary weapons, such as daggers and spears, can be used by anyone, without special training. However, to use weapons such as the rapier (a Fencing weapon) or the longbow (a Longbow weapon), you must have the appropriate Talent or else your appropriate skill is halved! The craftsmanship of a weapon can also affect it’s usefulness in combat. Well-made weapons offer a bonus, while poorly-manufactured weapons give a penalty. Finally, weapons may have different qualities, such as a weapon designed for precision, which increases the impact of a Critical Hit (and thereby, the chances of instantly killing a foe).
Armor can be handled one of two ways. Basic armor is assumed to protect all areas of the body equally well. Light Armor (leather) grants 1 Armor Point, Medium Armor (mail) gives 2 Armor Points, and Heavy Armor (plate) gives 3 Armor Points. The preferred system, naturally, is advanced armor, in which only certain parts of the body benefit from the armor (which is why you roll a hit location after a successful attack). Like weapons, armor can be of varying craftsmanship.
Magic in WFRP is divided into eight “winds,” each of which has an associated color, runic name, common name, college, and lore. It is further divided into two types; Arcane and Divine. Besides the cosmetic differences, Divine Magic tends to be safer because it is highly structured and ritualized. The subsets of Arcane Magic are Dark Magic, very risky and powerful workings that tap secrets best let untouched, and High Magic, used by only those Elves with the skill to master it. Both of these magics draw on the power of all the winds, instead of just one.
In order to use magic, a character must have an appropriate Talent (Arcane Lore, Divine Lore, Dark Lore, or Petty Magic), must speak an Arcane Language, must have a Magic Characteristic of 1 or more, and must know the Channeling skill. Lores allow the character to select a single Lore (Wind) in which to specialize. A character can know only one, and thereafter can cast spells only from that Lore. The choice of Lores is somewhat limited, particularly for Dark Lore, but future expansions are promised.
Magic works a little differently from the other skills. Each spell has a Casting Number that must be met in order to cast it; the more powerful the spell, the higher the Casting Number. When a character attempts to cast a spell, he rolls a number of 10-sided dice up to equal to his Magic Characteristic. If the total result equals of exceeds the Casting Number, the spell has been successfully cast. Making a successful Channeling test before casting and using the correct ingredient (specified for each spell) can increase the chance of a successful casting.
Magic is not to be called upon for trivial purposes, however. First, there is the danger of failure. If all of the dice used in the Casting Roll come up 1, not only does the spell fail, but the caster must succeed at a Will Power Test or gain an Insanity Point. (As should be obvious, gaining Insanity Points is not desirable in most cases. At 6 Insanity Points, the character must make a successful Will Power Test or develop a mental disorder.) Even worse, magic is susceptible to the whims of Tzeentch, the Chaos God of Magic and Change. Rolls of doubles, triples, or quadruples on a Casting Roll draw the undesired attention of Tzeentch, and the results can be ugly. Divine casters don’t have to worry about Tzeentch’s Curse, but instead may suffer the Wrath of the Gods. The effects are not quite so extreme as the Curse of Tzeentch, but are still less-than-desirable.
There is one other form of magic in the Old World; ritual magic. Ritual magic requires more time, exotic ingredients, intensive study, and special circumstances, but is also more powerful. Ritual magic carries not only the same consequences as regular spells (Tzeentch’s Curse and the Wrath of the Gods), but also carries penalties of its own for failure, unique to each spell. Only two sample rituals are provided in WFRP, with a promise of more in future supplements.
As might be expected in a world where magic is unpredictable, dangerous, and largely frowned upon, magical items tend to be extremely rare. There are no hordes of +1 longswords lying about in musty old tombs in this world; a character with a single magic item is considered lucky. The greatest heroes of the Old World might have as many as three! And even when a magic item is found, the powers and abilities it offers are usually slight. WFRP describes two magic items, but states that more will appear in other sourcebooks and adventures.
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay does put forth a fair amount of detail into the game world, with lots of good info on religion and festivals, religious orders and forbidden worship. The GM’s section offers up some adventure seeds, as well as good advice on running the game. The subject of insanity is broached in detail, with 20 different afflictions described (and not in confusing medical terminology, either), along with methods for curing the afflicted (and the methods that don’t work). An introductory adventure is also included.
WFRP describes not the typical happy world of fantasy where heroes protect the downtrodden, kings rule with benevolence, and magic is a part of life. No! Here, corruption and violence are the norm, and honesty the exception. Magic is feared by those who do not understand it (and to some degree, even those who do). This is a setting where the “heroes” band together not out of a desire for common good, but rather because there is strength in numbers. This is the world of Warhammer Fantasy Role-Playing!
Critical Hit
You know, in a world obsessed with political correctness, it’s not often you see a game that offers up rules for alcohol abuse, and that’s something that stood out for me about Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. WFRP treats drinking a series of Skill Tests (yes, there is a Consume Alcohol skill). So long as you limit yourself to a number of drinks equal to your Toughness Bonus, you’ll be fine. After that, each drink necessitates a Test, and failure moves you down the path of drunkenness. Fail four Tests, and there are a number of things that could happen to you, from being merely staggering drunk to taking a dirt nap for a few hours. And of course, the type of alcohol you’re consuming sets the difficulty of the Tests. So if that Dwarf challenges your Elf to a drinking contest with spirits, better think twice (Elves tend to have a lower Toughness than Dwarves).
Beyond that, the whole idea behind Warhammer offers up something refreshingly different. As I noted earlier, this is not a typical fantasy setting. It’s grim, violent, and dangerous. Death is commonplace here, so much so that a mechanic exists to help players avoid it (to a very limited degree). And when it does happen, it’s pretty much permanent. No running down to the local temple for a quick resurrection. It’s this kind of unconventionality that makes it not only different from what you’re used to, but entertaining as well.
Critical Fumble
For everything that has been packed into these 256 pages, they could have found room for a few more foes. The monster section is woefully inadequate, and provides just a bare minimum of possible encounters, thus prompting the GM to buy the Warhammer Fantasy Bestiary, which is conveniently on sale now. Described here are Beastmen, Daemon Imps, Lesser Daemons, Mutants, Orcs, Skaven, Skeleton, Wights, and Zombies. This is supported by a handful of common animals and a fair set of NPC archetypes, but in all, I’d rather they have dropped the NPCs and added a few other foes, such as Giants, Trolls, and Dragons. For that matter, a few additional magical rituals would have been a nice addition.
Coup de Grace
Despite the seeming complexity, Warhammer is actually pretty simple and plays quite well. Newcomers will be impressed with the detail that the world is given, while those who are familiar with the original rules will find that some issues have been cleared up and balance restored in several places where it had been lost. If you’re seeking a break from D&D, then this is definitely worth your time, and even if you’re not, the setting can always be converted (with considerable effort) to present a much grimmer and darker campaign than what your players are used to.
Final Grade: A-
