Customer Reviews

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: A Grim World of Perilous Adventure

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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay This book was originally published by Games Workshop to compliment their popular Warhammer Fantasy Battle miniatures game. It has long been a gamers' favourite (including this reviewer) despite the lack of supplementary material. A complete system in one volume, this book covers all the rules and background required to play: characters, monsters, combat, magic, religion, and the history and geography of the Warhammer game world. A short adventure 'The Oldenhaller Contract' is also provided to introduce new players to the game.

WFRP introduced the unique 'career' system where the players advance through progression in a series of careers. More than 100 varied careers are detailed, each with its own skills. This system allows players to create a truly unique character and offers more flexibility than the typical Fighter/Mage/Thief/Cleric choices common in other fantasy roleplaying games. Combat is deadly and realistic (at least as much as is possible in a fantasy game), which quickly teaches new players to seek less violent solutions to problems. The standard mechanics are simple percentile based which is both a plus and a minus. They greatly speed up play (no reams of tables and modifiers to consult) but have been criticised as being too simple especially as regards to non-combat skills which do not allow characters to improve over time. The magic system is the weakest section in WFRP, being slanted towards the more martial applications - possibly since it was inherited from the Warhammer Fantasy Battle game.

While the mechanics are not without its faults and the magic system could stand a complete rewrite, Warhammer fantasy RolePlay (WFRP) succeeds due to its gothic, dark fantasy background where cultists and conspiracies lurk in every shadow. It also has one of the most intriguing game settings ever published: a renaissance-era 'Germanic' Empire full of roleplaying potential. Combined with what many players feel to be the finest roleplaying campaign series 'The Enemy Within' (published separately), this game is a classic that deserves a place in every rolegamer's collection.

I can only agree with all the other reviewers: This is by far the best rpg ever! In my humble opinion..... Well, you got your skill list, about 100 careers instead of levels, 150 spells(oh, and soon Realms of Sorcery comes out too) and enough monsters for some time. But what you must remember is that this is the original dark fantasy game. Your players save the world? Yes. And get fame and fortune? No. In fact, they were the only people who knew about the grave danger. And there is a warrant on them for killing the evil demonologist, who everybody thought was good. Get it? You might prefer your politically correct, heroic rpg's, but many, including me, find it refreshing to see a realistic world, with races who hate each other, noblewomen who are beaten, and adventurers who are broke. To make it even better, the system and the world, in some way or another, outright FORCES the game to get based on roleplaying instead of combat. You may have your AD&D's, runequests, and Castle Falkensteins: I don't care. I got the real goodie.

I have played many role playing systems and I would have to say that by far Warhammer is the best system. It was recommended by a friend, I had never heard of it before.. but I'm glad I took the chance on buying it.

The system of career advancements, skills and the *one* tome of rules (not 5 different books that you need to collect) makes for an excellent game.

Buy this book, you won't regret it!

Why fix what wasn't broken?

Dungeons and Dragons wasn't my first foray into the worlds of fantasy role-play. There was a used bookstore next door to a shop my father would frequent. While there, I'd raid the used books. But finding a mint condition of this game literally changed my life. With dark story tones, wickedly evil art, and very simple mechanics (even for a n00b, at that time), this one purchase is the main reason I am today a game designer.

The mechanics are all percentile based: roll lower than your given percentile, and the character succeeds. It is, essentially, a point-based system. Players spend experience to purchase bonuses provided by their character's career. Once all such bonuses are taken (and the order in which they are taken is nothing more than player prerogative), the player can opt to move the character into a new career. With over 100 careers and a like number of skills, there's no way any two characters will be similar unless it is of purposed design.

And this is the One Book to Rule Them All. Fantastic histories, rules on commerce and trade, a disgusting bestiary (Beast of Nurgle, anyone?), a huge chapter on magic, detailed combat rules and critical hits that work well, another huge chapter on religion, and a delve into an unused asylum as an intro story line that rivals the Tomb of Horrors or the Tombs of Gersidi.

The sourcebooks are a bit hard to find, but every now and then you'll come across a few that are a bit less expensive than a semester at Oxford. Even if the books are expensive, I daresay it is more than worth it. Remember, this game is from the early 80's. Now go look at what TSR was doing in those years.

There is no comparison. Warhammer smashes all contenders.

What can I say that hasn't been said already? Well I'll start off with the basics: WARHAMMER FOREVER! This is one of the most entertaining,fun and well-thought role-playing systems ever done!! I like how It's a non-cliche'd,dark game where the p.c's can get arrested for killing that mage who turns out to be the mayor(or someone else of importance)and I also like how the magic system is geared for an evil-themed game(which the p.c's in my current campaign seem to like)I've been playing RPG's for over seventeen years and this is a worthy investment for both your time and money. PS If your playing a mage character in this game play either a Demonologist or a Necromancer and you can't go wrong!

I was on the bus one day and my friend had this book he was reading. It said Warhammer on the front. I asked him what it was and I'm gratefull I did! This book has helped me to get into the coolest game ever. I was thinking about starting D&D but with all those huge, confusing books and the restrictions to creativity, I was hesitant. With Warhammer You just by this book and maybe your army book and voila! All in all.....well, you saw my rating :-)

"On a lethality scale from 0 (a day with Barney) to 100 (first second of the game, you are seriously wounded or dead), this rpg rates a 90." I love this game. Where else will you find a character kill a stag of Korne(lesser deamon) and two Beastmen(strong men), then, after that, say, "Damn!! I lived!" Slayers are the best.

I have tried many role playing games over the years, and the only one I really enjoy is WFRP. Many people say AD&D is better, but i find that WFRP is much more realistic and not so simplified (although it is still easy to learn). If you want to buy just one role-playing game then this is the one for you.

I have played this game since I was a youth of 13 years old. Ten years later it is just as fresh and playable. The supplements that are out there are useful and well written but they are not an necessity. The magic system is complicated and difficult to get used to but that only adds to the unique nature of the experienced character. Rules do not slow down this book and the time from first picking up the book to being able to play is much reduced as opposed to other games. All in all if you play other role-playing games fine. But there simply isn't another RPG that compares with WarhammerFRP.

P.S. the cover price now is significantly better than the $35 I spent on it in 1989.

So you think all roleplaying games are the same, just imitations of the crude AD&D? Then obviously you haven't come across Warhammer! One high point OF WFRP is that it's world is so good that even if you don't like the system, you will be more than overly tempted to play in the Warhammer world. The Warhammer world is like none other- realistic, grim, dark, and with a touch of horror and despair. With yet promises of glory and fame on the horizion.

Conspiracy, corruption, and crime riddles the streets. The evils of society in general is enough to keep our heros busy but an evil, greater & darker then all others, lurks in the shadows. They are the Chaos Gods, dark fiends with hidden servants that plot to bring the world to it's knees. Even if they have to destroy the world completely to do this. Chaos is the arch-enemies of all arch-enemies, no other RPGs have any villian(s)like Chaos. Chaos, is after all, one of the other many things that make Warhammer so unique.

Warhammer has relatively easy to understand but very realistic rules that run smoothly, over 100 character careers, over 130 character skills, seven types of Magics including over 150 spells, and much much more. And unlike some RPGs, like AD&D for instance, Warhammer does not imply any ridicolous rules like: "Thieves can only wear leather armour". This is one system you simply can't let slip your fingers.