35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just a quick overview:, May 23, 2006
This review is from: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: A Grim World of Perilous Adventure (Hardcover)
I've seen a lot of fantasy games, and a whole heck of a lot of RPGs in general. Probably over a hundred. And this is the best fantasy game I've ever seen (and easily the best I've ever played).
It supports political intrigue, mystery, horror, adventure, even black comedy, all with a strictly defined setting. It does not do "epic" fantasy, a la Lord of the Rings, but all it's tropes still apply. People used to more epic fantasy should definately not try to take metagame logic from that system to WFRP (if, say, a band of goblins that outnumbers the party approaches, it's alright to outright attack them in most fantasy games. Better to negotiate or hide in WFRP, as combat is quite debilitating).
The combat system is detailed enough to give the tactics one wishes for, but also light enough that one doesn't fall asleep waiting for his/her turn. Even better, the incentive to dodge combat all together, as it tends to be quite deadly. WFRP doesn't have the reputation of "Call of Cthulu: The Dark Ages" for nothing, though this title is a bit misleading.
In Warhammer, it's good to keep in mind that even the weakest peasant with a rusty dagger can still kill the mightiest hero in the land in one stab (it's possible, just highly improbable)
The magic system is corruptive and elegant. There is a price to pay for the powers one wields in the game. The magic system is not of the "Fire and Forget" variety (see D&D).
All the standard fantasy monsters are present, from Orcs to Dragons, some with very similar intentions, some with a twist. I highly recommend getting the Old World Bestiary with this product, should you buy it, as the bestiary in the core is serviceable but not very wide in scope (Mostly orcs, mutants, and undead)
There are a few flaws with the game, mostly due to this reviewer's pickiness. I have an all-or-nothing policy when it comes to randomness in character creation. This game has the vast majority of character creation as random roll (stats, careers, etc), but still allows the player to pick a very important aspect: Race.
Looking at the races, it is obvious that there is a succession of power, where Halflings/Humans are at the low end, and Elves/Dwarves are at the high end. For this reason, the first game of WFRP I ever played involved only Elves as characters. It wasn't even fully intentional, I'm sure, but everyone's powergaming roots were showing. So I decided to make Race random roll, placing the odds heavily in favor of everyone playing Human (around 60% chance), and my next, more mixed party made more sense.
That's another quick perception one must make, while balance (game balance that is) really doesn't have a place in Warhammer (where one character can be a Noble and another a Peasant), nor does powergaming.
After this, and utilizing all the random roll options in the book, WFRP chargen (character generation) was fun to my players. Chargen usually isn't fun, most veteren RPGers can tell you, but WFRP is. I still catch myself rolling up a character now and again in my spare time, just to see what I'll get.
It also seems much easier to GM/write up NPCs than other fantasy RPGs. I find ideas flow to me pretty quickly once I "got" the setting.
Overall, if you're unhappy with other fantasy games and want to try something grittier, or just want to try something new, I'd recommend WFRP. Until I played WFRP, I was completely burned out on fantasy roleplaying.
If you don't like WFRP after playing it, you are more likely an epic fantasy lover, at which time I'd recommend either DnD, Everquest, or World of Warcraft (either the RPGs or the MMOGs). If you find you like the character's roles to be "larger than life" heroes, I wouldn't recommend WFRP. In WFRP, a character starts as Joe Average with a tattered cloak (perhaps even Joe Belowaverage). He or she builds the role of "Hero" from scratch. It's a hard journey, one that most character's won't finish. If this concept doesn't appeal to you, I wouldn't recommend getting WFRP.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thoughts, July 25, 2005
This review is from: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: A Grim World of Perilous Adventure (Hardcover)
I played the original version of this game briefly in the 90's, and I actually got the oppurtunity to playtest this version about 4 to 6 months before the release, and they have made some very nice changes since the first version. A LOT of stuff that was tested that never made it to the original, but that's irrelevant in this review. I think one of the most important changes from the original was the magic system, it's a whole lot easier to use now, and generally more fun than it was in the first version.
One thing that I was extremely happy about was the fact that they kept the percentile system (D10's) instead of moving to a D20 system like most games have recently. It's a really good change to the normal everyday D&D type gaming. Personally I like the Warhammer lore and world much better than D&D, but that's just me. They also implemented this with the current rule set of the miniatures, so it's completely compaitable with all of Games Workshop's current miniatures rules.
For those of you that have never played Warhammer, it's a bit different than your normal leveling system. It uses careers to advance instead of levels, so for an example let's say you get 200 Experience at the end of your adventure, you can use 100 of that to advance skills (Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill, Strength, Willpower, etc...) and the other 100 to change careers, or use all 200 to advance skills, or advance two careers. As you advance careers, new options for other more advanced careers open. Definitely a great concept. A refreshing change from your typical D20 systems.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
WFRP: A Clean System for a Dirty World, September 9, 2006
This review is from: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: A Grim World of Perilous Adventure (Hardcover)
This second edition of the WFRP ruleset is a simple, yet fun, role playing game (RPG) system. The rules footprint is a tiny fraction of d20, yet it covers all the basics of fantasy adventure in a clean system that consistently reminds the players they are in a dark and perilous world.
The only dice used are d100 and d10. Combat can be very dangerous, and even the most experienced character is at risk every combat. Should a player die or loose a limb, there are fate points which can save the character. However, fate points are very, very hard to get.
Magic is hard to control and dangerous, yet powerful and useful enough that the players will want to use it. They may pay the price in loss of sanity, attracting the attention of deamons, or getting their deity annoyed with their constant petitioning.
The Warhammer world is deep and twisted, with plenty of lore coming from the table top miniatures game of the same name. The default setting is The Empire, a fantasy take on the Holy Roman Empire. The dark forests are full of beast-men. The underground is teeming with rat-men. An army of chaos demons has ravaged the north. Chaos cultists lurk in every city, in every social class. The technology level is pre-baroque. There are black powder weapons and printed books, but swords and illiteracy are much more common. The world is corrupt, and powerful threats to The Empire exist within, as well as without, it's borders.
Game balance and fairness are given short shrift in favor of mood, atmosphere, and dark humor. One player might start out as a rich noble, the other a rat catcher. Yet if the party finds themselves searching for clues in sewers and tunnels under Middenheim, it might pay to be the rat catcher.
If you have played d20 for years and want something different and grittier, or if you've never tried a RPG, and want to start with one whose rules are easy to grasp, I would recommend this game.
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