What did you like about Warhammer Fantasy?

[SHARK]

Greetings!

Goddamn Theuderic! Have you ever thought about how abrasive you sound? Why are you trying to argue some stupid point? Joshua made a statement with some cool suggestions, and mmadsen steps in and CORRECTS YOU--and yet, you are still being all pissy with Joshua. I mean, c'mon, there. Think about the words and the tone you are using, and ask yourself why are you trying to debate something?

Mmadsen nor Joshua made any kind of statements that would suggest that that would be the desire. They did make general remarks about it, and mmadsen--who started the thread--even said that Joshua was right on target.

Just some thoughts though.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[Theuderic]

Not as eloquent as most of your speeches, but just as far off the mark. I 'm not upset or"pissy" in the least but I suspect you are and quite sensitive too I might add.

 

[mmadsen]

I 'm not upset or"pissy" in the least but I suspect you are and quite sensitive too I might add.

Perhaps you're having a bad day, Theuderic, or perhaps it's just not clear from where you stand, but you are most definitely coming across as extremely abrasive and "pissy". If you don't want to come across that way, I suggest you think over each post for how we may all misinterpret you, then revise it before hitting "submit reply".

At any rate, I think this meta-argument can end. Let's get back to what people liked about Warhammer. It was a very positive thread.

 

[Theuderic]

OH my god LOL! Can you quote what part of my post is abrasive and pissy? Please enlighten me so I can end this misconception.

 

[mmadsen]

Again, I think this meta-argument can end. Let's get back to what people liked about Warhammer. It was a very positive thread.

 

[SHARK]

Greetings!

Go ahead, mmadsen, repeat yourself again!

I think Warhammer has great atmosphere, and good characterizations of races. The magic system is very weak though, and Realm of Sorcery helps, but it doesn't really make any significant changes to the underlying problems with the magic system.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[mmadsen]

If I may summarize the strengths so far:

• Setting -- OK, this is a fairly big umbrella, but there's a lot about the setting people seem to like. It's a detailed and flavorful world.
• Grim -- People like the colorful critical hits, and they like the fact that heroes aren't immune to grunts. They also like the grim mood -- Evil/Chaos can/will win, treachery at every turn, etc.
• Low Magic -- It's clearly a magical world, but wielding magic isn't safe and easy.
• One Book -- It's a bit of a "meta" concern, but the game comes in one book with everything you need, and they didn't revise it endlessly (in sharp contrast to other Warhammer product lines).

And weaknesses:

• Scales Poorly -- Careers leave nowhere to go after a certain point; everyone becomes homogenized.
• Low Magic -- Even the most powerful spellcasting specialists never get to wield much magic.
• Static Conflict -- The unstoppable forces of Chaos are...unstoppable. It gets old.

 

[mmadsen]

Re: Re: World of Warhammer Encyclopedia

I have it [the World of Warhammer encyclopedia] and I like it.

That's one "pro" vote from Voadam. Anyone else have the World of Warhammer encyclopedia? If I don't hear any "con" votes, it may end up on my Christmas list...

If you wanted to use it as a campaign basis it will give you a world, its history, the atmosphere and tone and details on the various big power groups and races in most of the world. It does not give you any city information, only has the four chaos gods, (I think there are something like 30 non-chaos gods in the WFRP) but does have a monster and famous npc dictionary. It only deals with two of the human cultures in depth ( a brittanic one and the germanesque empire) giving only hints about the norse and arabian ones. It also goes in depth on the high elves, the wood elves the dark elves, the dwarves, the chaos dwarves, the green races, the skaven (ratmen), the lizardmen empire, the four factions of chaos and the undead kingdom.

There is a lot of good stuff and I really like the full color art.

It sounds like it might be worth it just for the art! If you were going to ditch the Warhammer game mechanics entirely, would you be able to reconstruct the basics (in d20) with the info in the encyclopedia, or would you need the RPG to even know what spells are out there, what a sorcerer can do, etc.?

 

[mmadsen]

A few more strengths:

• The original Enemy Within campaign -- I hear this is one of the best adventure series of all time. (Would it work in D&D?)
• Fate Points -- I like the whole notion of grim/realistic combat with an explicity "out". I also like the notion of balancing the more powerful, dwindling races with the younger, vibrant races via Fate Points. It would work well in a Tolkien-esque game too.

And a few more weaknesses:

• Random Character Generation -- You could easily get stuck with a useless character, and the joke gets old fast.
• Flawed combat system -- I hear tales of invulnerable Dwarves.

 

[Voadam]

Re: Re: Re: World of Warhammer Encyclopedia

It sounds like it might be worth it just for the art! If you were going to ditch the Warhammer game mechanics entirely, would you be able to reconstruct the basics (in d20) with the info in the encyclopedia, or would you need the RPG to even know what spells are out there, what a sorcerer can do, etc.?

You could build a very fun campaign using the encyclopedia as the background world. I wouldn't even worry about getting the exact WFRP class and magic specifics feel right.

These are fairly different from d20, if you want their feel you will need the WFRP to get a sense of them before adapting. The classes have weak basic ones and then later pseudo prestige class advanced classes that are much more powerful. For instance you can start as a rat catcher where your big ability is a better resistance to disease. You can start as a beggar, a tax collector, a runaway farm boy or fisherman's son etc. The advanced classes are things like slaver, knight templar, duelist, judicial champion, and the coolest of them all, the witch hunter. Magic you can start off as a scholar and then progress to learn cantrip magic and then move on to either battle magic (think evocations) demonology, necromancy, illusions or elementalism. It takes a while before you even have one combat spell. Necromancy and demonolgy have serious negative costs for the practitioner.

The encyclopedia was in Borders and Barnes and Nobles the last time I was in those stores so I'd recommed flipping through it. I think I saw it in either the rpg sections or the big book fantasy/sci-fi section.