What did you like about Warhammer Fantasy?

[Desdichado]

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.?

The arts a bit of an acquired taste, IMO. If you like the GW style of art, then fine. If not, it may come across as very glaring and cartoony, or even clown-like at times. Myself, I've had a love/hate relationship with GW and their style on art and miniatures both. I think they're at their best point right now, but a lot of the art in that book is a bit older, when the target market of the tabletop games was firmly at the 11-12 yo. range.

 

[kengar]

I checked out a copy of the WoWH book a month or so ago. Joshua is right that GW art is definitely not everybody's cuppa. I think the text is a good place to get a general feel for the Old World and the races, but you would probably need more to go on for a full setting.

 

[mmadsen]

Re: Re: Re: Re: World of Warhammer Encyclopedia

The arts a bit of an acquired taste, IMO. If you like the GW style of art, then fine. If not, it may come across as very claring and cartoony, or even clown-like at times.

Gotcha. I'm not a big fan of mohawk dwarves, so the art might not be my cup of tea. Some of the art is great though...

 

[Desdichado]

If you want to see some good Warhammer art, albeit in black and white, pop into your friendly neighborhood game store and look at the latest run of Army Books. Chaos is brand new, and gives a great idea of what the look of those buggers is all about. Pretty creepy stuff. The Vampire Counts and Skaven book also have a great look to them. I haven't flipped through the high elves, dark elves or dwarves (and I don't think that wood elves is out yet).

There's some pretty good flavor text in some of those books as well, although if you don't play the tabletop wargame, there's really no point in picking them up.

 

[War Golem]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: World of Warhammer Encyclopedia

Gotcha. I'm not a big fan of mohawk dwarves, so the art might not be my cup of tea. Some of the art is great though...

Hi mmadsen,

I bought this book a year ago (maybe it's been 2 years already?)and don't regret it one bit. Artistically, I hate Warhammer orks, not crazy on their beserker dwarfs, but there really is a ton of great art in this book. Ideas-wise, there is a lot of nice history and flavor text to get a feel for elements of the Warhammer world. Could you run a Warhammer based campaign using just this book? Not really. But I don't think that's why you buy this book. I strongly recommend you flip through it if you get a chance.

I've bought WFRP main book, Realms of Sorcery, and this World of Warhammer book, all as ideas fodder for my D&D campaign. If I could only keep one, It would probably be the World of Warhammer book. Although, to be fair, I'm a fantasy art nut, and the art gives this book the edge over the core rulebook for me. Purely on ideas and content, the core book would probably win out. RoS was a waste of money for me.

Cheers,

 

[hellbender]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: World of Warhammer Encyclopedia

Gotcha. I'm not a big fan of mohawk dwarves, so the art might not be my cup of tea. Some of the art is great though...

Artwise, and to be fair: the mohawk dwarves are very uncommon, they are outlandish for a reason; for some trangression and/or shame, they are seeking a redeeming death, and if you were adventuring with a regular dwarf and a slayer, that lets you know which one is safe to stand next to at any given time.

For another outlook on new Warhammer art, open just about any Wotc 3e DnD book and you will see Wayne Reynolds. Also, check out Warhammer Monthly in addition to the army books. After GW got Adrian Smith back, and with the Kopinskis and Paul Dainton among others, there is really no more cartoony Warhammer art.

Settingwise: As mentioned earlier (by others and myself), the BoVD is not what one is looking for to get the point of evil across. For that, you need actual books on evil and chaos, the original Realms of Chaos books. I have mine after all these years, and they are still awesome inspiration. I was one of the detractors to the BoVD, then I saw it, and realized that I was wrong, as was the 'blood is too kewlio' crowd. The RoC are evil in book form.

Blood for the Blood God!
hellbender

 

[Desdichado]

Did Wayne Reynolds used to do GW art? Wow, he must have changed his style drastically, as I can't think of a single image from GW sources that looks at all like his D&D stuff.

Mark Gibbons did some great art. The guys they have now are also very good at getting the "dark" feeling out.

Of course, I'm talking about the art in the wargame now. I don't know what the RPG book looks like anymore; haven't seen it in some time.

 

[Maggan]

Hmmmm

Couldn't you create almost all of this in a custom setting, using d20 Call of Cthulhu as your rules base, adding in some of the better elements of the Book of Vile Darkness, Armies of the Abyss, Legions of Hell and Warrens of the Rat?

Yep, I could and I'm doing it. It's my own setting, it's called The Winter Coast, it's an island far up north (in any world, actually, its plug and play and hot swappable), and I'm hoping to capture the strong elements of WFRP, and add some of the darker norse mythology, and some ideas that didn't make it into Kult 2nd edition and Mutant Chronicles, or stuff I just want to develop a bit more.

Will be using that WFRP d20-conversion site as inspiration...

It won't be WFRP (so much lies in the book, the writing, the nostalgia), but hopefully it'll be cool in itself.

WFRP fans will be horrified to hear that I've already run a WFRP campaign using the Rolemaster rules, btw.

And a second by the way... calm down everyone, please.

Lastly a question. ME's Hunt: the rise of Evil, is that more akin to Ravenloft or to WFRP?

M.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Greetings!

Posted By SHARK:

____________________________________________________
Quote:

"Warhammer is a "Static" world, in that it is absolutely structured, and there is little room for deviation in continents, world structure, politics, technology, magic, and so on, because if one tinkers with these too much--then you have fundamentally changed the very atmosphere that makes the campaign "Warhammer" and it ceases to be "Warhammer" anymore."
____________________________________________________
End Quote.

Well, if you think about what I wrote--carefully now--you may see what it is I'm talking about. Dragonblade knows what it is, and I do as well. You may not see it or agree--but it doesn't make my view "absurd". Warhammer has many of the same static thematic problems that Dragonlance, Pendragon, Elric!, Dark Sun, and even Middle Earth have. None of these worlds have the inherent flexibility and being "Dynamic" as for example, a custom world.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

So what are these "static thematic problems? I really can't see them.

So far, in my campaign, I have chucked in Greek mythology, the Shan, the Army of the Third Eye, and the Hastur Mythos from "Delta Green: Countdown", I'll probably throw in the R.M.S. Titanic next Tuesday, and I'm going to send the party to many strange and wonderous places soon, where many colorful people will try to kill them.

As for rearranging continents... Well, OK. But is having fixed coastlines really that limiting to you? And if I had a good reason to alter those, I'd do it as well in an instant. Adding major islands is certainly not a problem for me.

And the only reason why I will stop short of altering the political structure of the Empire is because I have a co-GM who wants to run "Power Behind the Throne".

As with any publshed setting, what you find in the world description is only a baseline. You can alter lots and lots of stuff (after all, Chaos is a major force in this world), and still retain the essential feel of the Warhammer World.

And if any player throws a hissy fit because something doesn't adhere exactly to "canon" as he imagines it, I give my standard piece of advice: Smack him with a copy of Dangerous Journeys.

That will teach him.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Re: Hmmmm

WFRP fans will be horrified to hear that I've already run a WFRP campaign using the Rolemaster rules, btw.

And a second by the way... calm down everyone, please.

The horror! The blasphemy! The...

Actually, I could see that that would work.

Certainly, all those crit. tables would help to keep a PC's life "nasty, brutish, and short..."