Well....I have found the replacement for DnD before I even really got started on Dnd.
Has anyone played this PnP RPG before?
What I have read so far, I really like it. The Career system is really cool. Plus the setting is just great, along with the magic system. Really, pretty much everything.
This afternoon, we got our characters all created. My wife is an Elf Hunter, my oldest boy is a Human Charcoal-Burner, my youngest boy is a Dwarf Seaman, and I am a Dwarf Militiaman.
Warhammer is a very dangerous world, with the critical hits being able to just simply annihilate the enemy ("fatalities"). No real need for miniatures, either.
The only thing, I wish that I had went with this one before I got into DnD...would have saved me money!!
Chris
There are many systems I prefer over DnD simply because DnD has always been about stats, not RPG. My fav system is Ars Magica, but Warhammer RPG would be my second bet for fantasy roleplay. I've got a first edition HB version on the bookshelf behind me.
Of course, the fact that you've got your family in on the action is freakin' awesome to begin with. If I could be so lucky. Well, at least they'll play my euroboardgames with me.
jorune
yeah...I am lucky...even my wife will play. I always tell her that the reason God makes women like her, is because He needed someone to put up with men like me.
As far as DnD goes...we played one time. And I really didn't push to play it again. The leveling system is so....oh, monotone. The Career system in WFRP is a very cool concept.
I find your lack of nerdiness appalling.Originally Posted by MythicalMino
Eh.. Really though, either buy a bag of bases or cut some markers from cardboard and use those as stand-ins, before writing off minis. Even if the whole "look, isn't it cool? And I green-stuffed & painted it too!!" Isn't your thing, you'll almost certainly find the combat more enjoyable using avatars of some sort. Even if it's cardboard ones.
WFRP is pretty excellent, but I'd say it scratches a different itch than D&D. It's sort of the Call of Cthulhu of fantasy games.
All WFRP games involve someone burning a barge at some point. Universal constant.
I remember having a hilarious warhammer session once, we found out our ability to shoot our bows were so low , we actually had a bigger chance of hitting our own guys.
I hit my friend in the foot when he was charging chaos.
In the end the GM got tired, and sendt in a bloodthirster and killed us all :)
Yeah, I have. In fact, it's the system which I played my single longest teenage campaign with, and as such have terrible affection for its low-magic brutality.
God knows how much it's changed between then and now, but Fantasy Roleplay's incredibly downbeat and gritty compared to the direction where Fantasy Battle went. The aforementioned Fantasy Lovecraft is really the best way to describe it.
My favourite part of the system is the careers part of it. There was something pleasing about my Halfling starting as a Herbalist and ending up as a Demagogue, via Doctors and Lawyers and god knows what else.
KG
I played quite a bit back in college (90-92ish). Loved the system, but moved onto other systems. I just started back into all my old hobbies and picked up D&D 4e and I have to say I'm really loving it. But then I'm a Warhammer Fantasy/40k gamer too, and we used minis and tactical battles back when I DM'd 2e so it just feels like home to me.
WHFRP is the reason -- combined with cheap beer -- that I graduated 2 quarters after I should have...
From 1990 through 1994 I played more Warhammer roleplay than is legally considered healthy. It's the reason I'm such a Warhammer geek -- much more so than the ho-hum miniatures stuff from GW (outside of Blood Bowl, of course).
It's a brilliant game.
The system is good, I guess, but the world and its history makes for some truly excellent storytelling. I really dislike what GW did to the Warhammer world, mainly making it more high fantasy than the grim, dirty and moderately realistic setting of the old role-playing game, but yeah...the old RPG brings back a flood of good memories.
Some of the old, hardcover modules are excellent as well. The Enemy Within, Power Behind the Throne, and a few others are right behind me at work as well.
I enjoyed the Doomstones a lot as well as the mini adventures in Death's Dark Shadow.
But yeah, the Enemy Within Campaign is pretty epic stuff.
So, for those of you with a lot of fondness/WFRP, what version would you recommend? Does 2nd edition lose any of the fantasy lovecraft vibe or is generally considered a net positive? My game group has a sort of revolving GM order and I'm trying to decide if I want to run a WFRP or Shadowrun 4th campaign for the next time I'm up.
I haven't played much but mechanically 2nd ed seems a bit more coherant. Also, it makes mage careers viable. Yes, you could be a mage in 1st ed, but you'd constantly be choosing between character advancement and spell purchases with your EXP and lag behind everyone else as they progressed in their careers. You still have all the fun of inviting horrors from beyond while spellcasting and having village mobs turn up with torches and pitchforks the moment a cow miscarries, but that's just how it is.
What a gyp, the WFRP books aren't available free like the other Warhammer property offshoot games (Gorkamorka, Necromunda, Mordheim). I've been meaning to bind some Necromunda books from downloaded PDF and start a campaign I just haven't had the time. I miss those more RP/character driven Warhammer offshoots, I liked the persistence and consequences of each game rather than 25,000 point armies versus 25,000 point armies. I couldn't afford that kind of crack habit anyways. One model, one squad? I can handle that.
The reason you can't download the manuals is that WFRP was revived & re-created by FFG, and remains very much alive. Same thing with Necromunda.
Some guys are maintaining a less-fucked version of the Mordheim rules (Google), but really, if you're considering either of those three, you should go with Necromunda. Alternatively, check out Inquisitor. WFRP is a 'proper' RPG, not a mini-mini battles game. Oh and.. You might want to check out really old versions of WFB or 40K. There were these 2 Realms of Chaos books for both WFB and 40K that had persistent warband type rules. Again though, the old rules are pretty bad. And that's an understatement.
... I still have my old warleader with Mark of Nurgle and my first-ever mini mod, a crown of thumbs (which did absolutely nothing besides looking silly, if memory serves).
I bought WFRP the very day it came out. They ran this four page center insert in Dragon magazine that was a short story that was, if I remember correctly, the last thoughts of a witch hunter who had been captured by the corrupt local authorities and was being turned over to the skaven. After reading it I called up Books And... (my local little bookstore that carried all the gaming stuff) to find out when it was coming in and started to save my meager after school drugstore stock boy wages for that week to buy the book.
The game itself was great, and the pre-made adventures for it were far and beyond any typical D&D module.
I really like what I am seeing with the game. I need to do just a little bit more reading of the rules, then read the first adventure in the core book, then, we are set and ready.
Already got the characters all rolled up and ready to go.
Chris
ROFLMAO
Soooo true! Sounds like you are playing the newest addition, as some of the careers sound unfamiliar. This is one of my favorite RPGs of all time, alongside Earthdawn, and Torg.
I've been playing some Dark Heresy.
Same system, basically, but I'm just more of a 40K kind of guy.
we finally got the characters all rolled up...finally.
Tomorrow evening we plan on having our first actual session (the starter adventure in the core book).
My wife is an Elvish Apprentice Wizard.
My oldest son is a Human Toll Keeper (who only wants to be rich) from a town in Nordland.
My youngest on is a Dwarf Thief.
Anyways...I am pretty excited about finally getting started. Tomorrow evening, hopefully.
Oh, and I also bought some of the books for Dark Heresy...very interesting stuff.
Never played it but know the warhammer world very well. Have to say the classes sound hilarious (compared to the usual warrior/wizard/cleric stuff). Charcoal-burner? Toll-keeper?
"You encounter 4 orcs and an ogre."
"I'll try and sneak up and pile charcoal around their feet and then light it before they notice me"
"While he's doing that I'll show them what it costs to pass through that gate over there. An ogre counts as a heavy goods vehicle and will cost 4x as much!"
haha....yeah, does conjure up some humorous images.
But, I think that the point of it is...regular people being thrust into a life of adventure.
Chris
The Necromunda, Mordheim and other GW specialist game rules are all up for free download on the GW website.
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