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Introduction
I was introduced to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP) years ago when a friend goaded our group into try something beyond D&D. Since, we tended to handle most problems with brute force, WFRP (or wulf-rup as it’s sometimes called) was a shocking experience and ended with a lot of messy deaths. Several players swore to never play it again but the depth of the game world, ease of the system, and character career options hooked me. My only regret is that we hadn’t tried it sooner.
Black Industries produced the second edition of the rules in 2005 and I recently got my chance to introduce a new group to it. This playtest review focuses on my players’ impressions and uses the game session to discuss the mechanics.
Background
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is billed as the “Grim World of Perilous Adventure” and lives up to that statement. Set in the times after the Old World was overrun by the forces of Chaos and tossed into a dark age, society and the characters are trying to survive and rebuild. The world has a nicely derived European feel to it as opposed to coming directly from Tolkien or Howard like other games I’ve enjoyed. It is strongly tied to the Warhammer Fantasy Battles game and often shares some of its dark humor.
Content
The Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition produced by Black Industries is a 256 page hardcover with high production values and a nice cover piece by Geoff Taylor. The writing style is clear and concise with a number of examples illustrating the mechanics. The layout is professional and readable with a number of useful charts and tables and the in-character pieces are well done. It also includes an index.
The artwork in the book deserves a special mention. This book’s interior is color with the pages simulating parchment and there are numerous illustrations well matched with the text. Many of these are rendered in sepia (brown-tone) that compliments the tone of the writing.
The book is laid out in the following chapters:
Chapter 1: Introduction
This section opens with a short story called “Life, After Death” that is well-written and helps set the general tone of the book. There is a brief “This is Roleplaying” section followed by a breakdown of chapters and a short sample of play.
Playtest Notes
Only one of the four players were familiar with the game world and all but one were experienced roleplayers. This section wasn’t that useful to them but gave them an idea of what to expect.
Chapter 2: Character Creation
Describes the aspects of character generation including races, characteristics, and starting careers.
I really enjoyed the Career system in character creation of the First Edition and was glad to see it kept here. After choosing a race, WFRP characters randomly determine their character career which in turn provides starting equipment, skills, and a future skill path. This can be randomly determined or picked depending upon the GM’s decision. Characteristics including Starting Wounds, Fate Points, and Random talents are also rolled randomly although some rearrangement and re-rolls are allowed.
The designer’s notes mention that a number of revisions were made from the first edition to provide more balance between options and customization. In a brief comparison to the first edition, the careers seem much more balanced. Now I can finally play a Rat Catcher without feeling the character has no future.
Characteristics
Attributes WFRP are listed in a Main Profile Characteristics and represented by a percentile. This is basically the same as in the First Edition from what I can recall.
Weapon Skill – basic skill at melee attacks.
Ballistic Skill – basic skill for ranged attacks.
Strength – measure of muscle and brawn.
Toughness – a character’s resistance to injury, disease, and poison.
Agility – physical quickness, dexterity, and reaction speed.
Intelligence – intellect, insight, reasoning ability.
Willpower – mental toughness and resolve.
Fellowship – personal charisma and social skills
The following Secondary Profile Characteristics are used. These are often single or double digits derived from the first digit of a Main Profile Characteristic:
Attacks – maximum number of attacks possible within 10 seconds.
Wounds – the character’s general vitality
Strength Bonus – damage bonus derived from Strength
Toughness Bonus – damage resistance derived from Toughness.
Movement – base speed
Magic – rating of the character’s magical power
Insanity Points – rates the character’s sanity with more points being worse.
Fate Points – used to modify results and for minor story edits.
Playtest Notes
While I appreciate the justification for randomizing careers, I didn’t enforce it and let players choose how they wanted to handle it. Two of the players rolled for career while the other two chose. We ended up with the following:
An Elvish Envoy - basically a diplomat or negotiator in training.
A Human Hunter - similar to a ranger in D&D.
A Dwarvish Troll Slayer – a cantankerous death-seeking killing machine as as envisioned by the player. It just happened that the bloodthirsty player actually rolled this one.
A Dwarvish Shield Breaker –Dwarf infantry specialized to fight underground
The players read over the general descriptions of the races and worked out their personalities and characteristics on paper. They weren’t particularly happy that only four races available but it wasn’t a deal breaker and the party was ready to go within about forty-five minutes.
Playtest Notes
The Human Hunter’s initial roll for Ballistic Skill was a pitiful 17 so he used the Shallya’s Mercy rule whereby a single bad roll can be replaced with the average for the race. This gave the PC a much more respectable 31.
Chapter 3: Careers
This chapter covers the Basic and Advanced careers available to the characters
Each Career provides a brief description of the role and awards a list of equipment (trappings) and base skills the PC gets for entering it. There is also a list of incremental attribute increases a PC will earn by working through the career along with the likely career exits.
Playtest Notes
The Troll Slayer’s player liked the career path for his character but balked when he saw the disclaimer about that role’s life expectancy. He also complained that the PC would have to continue to Giant Slayer and then on to Demon Slayer where there was no career exit. The rules allow a PC to change careers to something unrelated for an increased experience point cost. I didn’t think it would be an issue for this character though.
Chapter 4: Skills & Talents
This chapter contains Available Skills and Talents in detail, some of which similar to D20 Feats. The rules also cover the basic task resolution and modifiers.
A standard task resolution is 1D100 +/- modifiers rolled against a controlling Main Characteristic with an attempt to get below the percentage of the Main Characteristic.
Example:
An Agitator (basically a professional troublemaker) with a Fellowship of 43% is attempting to provoke the peasants of a rival lord’s town into uprising. The townspeople are relatively satisfied with their lot in life so he takes a -10% penalty to his roll for a total of 33%. He would roll 1D100 and attempt to roll lower or equal to 33% to stir up trouble. A low roll will provide improved results while a failure will get the guards on him much more quickly.
Chapter 5: Equipment
Provides a wide variety of equipment, tools, services, and their respective costs. This section is well done and could be useful as a resource to other games.
Playtest
One of the players began asking for a lot of additional items (some of them sort of silly) and I wondered if he might be trying to sabotage the game or just test its limits. It’s his nature to be troublesome so I wasn’t really surprised. Besides, he was playing the Troll Slayer and I figured he’d get himself killed sooner or later. Although it’s not needed to play, my copy of Old World Armoury and GM fiat met his needs.
One thing that struck the players as odd was the tech level of the world. Swords and bows co-exist alongside early firearms and bombs. After reading the section on firearms, the player compared the cost, reliability, and damage to a standard bow, and commented that no one could possibly want one.
Chapter 6: Combat, Damage, and Movement
This section covers exactly what it says and details a number of options and a familiar table of critical hits. Considering the combat prone mindset of two of the players, I knew these rules would get a good workout.
Chapter 7: Magic
This chapter gives a view of WFRP magic, its source in chaos, and areas of specialization. There are a good number of types of magic and while I won’t go into detail here, the existing spell lists are sufficient for most of what I needed.
Playtest
The players were a bit reluctant to take on the role of a mage in favor of more physically-oriented characters. They did like that there are no artificial restrictions on mages regarding armor or weapons beyond encumbrance or a cast penalty from restricted movement.
Chapter 8: Religion & Belief
This section discusses the Gods and worship in the Old World and seemed well done.
Chapter 9: The Game Master
This section has a lot of good advice on running the game and including ways to start adventures, developing plots, and filling out villains. It also offers stylistic suggestions on how to cover fate points and combat and has a great section on insanity and treatment. I particularly like the descriptions of the disorders encounters with chaos can inflict.
Chapter 10: The Empire
This gives a rough layout and description of the Empire in the Old World. It’s well-written and provides an interesting history along with an introduction to the regions and foes of the Old World.
Chapter 11: The Bestiary
This section seems anemic considering how large the bestiary in the 1st Edition was. It spans a total of 9 pages and contains the basic foes one would expect (beastmen, goblins, orcs) and a selection of NPCs. It’s functional but underwhelming.
Playtest
One of the players wanted an idea of the other critters in the world. The Old World Bestiary made up for this but shouldn’t be needed.
Chapter 12: Through the Drakwald (adventure)
I’m going to avoid giving details away on the adventure but found it to be a decent introduction to the game world. I borrowed sections of it (the town and a few NPCs) for the session.
On to the Playtest – “Lovers Hunted”
With the characters created and outfitted, we came up with a back story and decided that three of the characters (the human and two dwarves) were traveling companions. The game opened with the trio arrested for a tavern brawl in the small rural town of Untergard thanks to the Troll Slayer and his short temper The Elf Envoy was attempting to mediate the situation on behalf of the PCs and presenting their side of the situation against a rather unnerving Witch Hunter NPC. An unfortunate profane outburst and threat by the Troll Slayer nearly tipped the decision against the PCs and the crowd leaned towards the Witch Hunter’s suggestion that they should be burned at the stake for heresy.
Provided the Hunter and the Shieldbreaker could keep the Troll Slayer’s mouth shut, it was up to the Envoy to save them.
Mechanics
The roll was based upon the Fellowship characteristic with a -10% penalty because it was rated as a Challenging task (the crowd was inclined to believe the Witch Hunter). I adjust modifiers for good roleplaying and the speech was good enough to erase the penalty and award a +10% bonus. I had no idea that the player was able to create that good of a speech!
The Elf player followed it up with another great speech that convinced the guard captain one of the locals was responsible for provoking the fight. The PCs were released with a minor fine. In parting, the Witch Hunter and Troll Slayer had brief words and the NPC stalked off.
The Troll Slayer suddenly shifted his ire to the Elf because as he put it, he was perfectly capable of defending himself. While the Elf didn’t overtly take offense, the “pointy-eared dandelion eater” (the Troll Slayer’s words) retaliated by convincing the guards and tavern owner that the Dwarves and Human should pay for the damage since they created most of it. Grumbling (and laughing out of character), the trio paid what they had but were still in debt.
GM Comments
I was afraid that this could have created tension in the party but it never appeared. It’s my policy to stay out of the way during character interactions and let the players play their roles, especially when they’re having fun. Besides, it was a good hook to use to get them into the adventure.
The Adventure
To pay for the damage to the tavern and earn a little extra coin, the PCs took a job to track down a shopkeeper’s daughter who had supposedly eloped with a boyfriend during the mock trial. The shopkeeper (brother of the tavern owner) was particularly worried because he’d noticed that the Witch Hunter had an unhealthy interest in his daughter and discreetly offered a bonus if something happened to him. Assured that their debts would be covered and a reward given, the PCs set out hot on the trail of the young lovers and the Witch Hunter.
Mechanics
The Hunter Career gave the PC the “Follow Trail” skill which is based on Intelligence. I applied a +20% bonus to the task because the trail was fresh and the prey was moving quickly. The group easily followed the tracks with the Troll Slayer loudly complaining that he was bored and wanted to kill something.
Ambush
The party easily followed the Witch Hunter’s trail mounted until the ground became too rough for their horses. Following on foot and with the Troll Slayer still griping, they found (or were rather found by) their prey as they were navigating a small waterfall and exposed on a slope.
Mechanics
The flipside of allowing good roleplay to determine modifiers is having a PC’s actions also influence events. The Hunter was doing his best to stay quiet but the Dwarf’s loud bitching about everything that came to mind more than countered it. The result? They walked right into an ambush against a prepared enemy with no appreciable cover.
The Witch Hunter was tough but the current circumstances made it all the worse. He had two loaded crossbows and got the first shot from ambush. Regular combat turns would begin afterwards.
Mechanics
Combats activities are divided into half and full actions depending upon how complicated the task is. Half actions include things like Aiming or making a Standard Attack while a full action would be an All Out Attack or a Charge. The Witch Hunter took a half action to aim and fired.
Considering the prior verbal exchange between the Troll Slayer and the Witch Hunter, he was going to be the first target.
Mechanics
The Witch Hunter had a Ballistic Skill of 42%, coupled with the aim bonus, gave him a total of 52%. The roll was a 46%, a hit. Hit locations are determined by reversing the dice roll so the bolt hit area 64, corresponding to the Torso.
I had gone out of my way to stress that the mechanics were lethal but the players weren’t really prepared for how quickly a PC could die. They were also surprised that armor tends to absorb damage as opposed to negating it as in other systems.
Mechanics
Damage is determined by rolling 1D10 and adding the damage of the weapon (4 for a crossbow) plus the Strength bonus for melee weapons. This gave a total of 8 points. Subtracting one point for the Dwarf’s leather armor, 7 Wounds were applied. This took the dwarf down to 5 Wounds and started a long streak of out of character cursing. The Shield Breaker passed a note saying that the other PCs were going to send the mouthy dwarf off as a distraction so that he’d die as soon as possible. So much for party unity.
Over the next three turns, the two PCs armed with missile weapons (Hunter and the Envoy) traded shots and the Witch Hunter withdrew after he took about half his Wounds in damage. Tossing caution to the wind, the PCs rushed after him and promptly ran into another nasty ambush that failed to injure the Witch Hunter but killed the Envoy in a single shot.
Mechanics
A character takes a Critical Hit if they take more damage than they have wounds. The results are determined by rolling 1D100 and cross referencing the number of wounds below zero the character is at to determine the Critical Effect. Higher Critical Effects obviously apply nastier effect and this varies per body area.
The bolt had struck the Elf in the head and reduced the PC to -4 Wounds. Rolling against the Critical Effect roll, I got a 33 which gave a #8 Critical Effect. The text began with “Face shattered and knocked to ground…” and ended with a 20% chance of death each round until medical attention was received.
None of the other PCs were willing to risk a crossbow bolt to get his body and the PC died on the second round afterwards. The Witch Hunter took the opportunity to move away and setup another ambush point further along the trail.
GM Comments
I had provided general area maps and was a little surprised that none of the PCs had tried to flank or do anything indirect like working around the bad guy. They kept working their way down the easily marked trail despite two ambushes.
Parley? You’re kidding right?
Further through the forest, the Witch Hunter called out and tried to dissuade the PCs from pursuing but threatened them with eternal damnation if they interfered. The response was an impromptu rush by the two Dwarves on his position with the Hunter providing cover fire. The PCs gleefully dismembered the villain with their own rolls on the Critical Hits Table and were somewhat horrified to find that the Witch Hunter had obvious signs of Chaos corruption.
GM Comments
The forces of chaos in WFRP are pretty horrific and resemble the gruesome type of squishiness one can find in Lovecraft. Mutations run the gamut from weird like an additional eye in the center of your chest or a limb becoming a tentacle to a complete transformation into a large slimy abomination. Only a few are described within the main rulebook but they’re suitably disgusting.
The PCs put the body to the flame and realized they had no idea where the woman they were trying to locate could be found.
Using that Skill Set
The Hunter decided to search the area while the Dwarves managed to staunch the Troll Slayer’s wounds and after a half hour or so of work, the Hunter found a set of tracks from two horses. The group trailed them to a clearing where the woman and boyfriend could be seen tied to a stake. It looked like they had been captured by bandits and the party made ready to attack. Several of the bandits were in the process of cutting the woman loose and the PCs expected the worst.
GM Comments
These were Chaos cultists instead of bandits and I had decided there would be ten of them armed with short swords and daggers although only five of them were currently visible. The group looked over the map and decided to go with the most direct route.
The group used the same tactic they had used on the Witch Hunter with both Dwarves charging supposedly at the same target. The Troll Slayer plowed into the cultists expecting the Shield Breaker to follow but his ally decided to abandon him and ran for the captives. The Hunter stuck to the plan and fire after taking an action to aim.
Mechanics
The WFRP combat mechanics allow decent tactical options and flow pretty easily although I can’t quite call it cinematic. it pays to have a character take defensive measure such as using a shield or enter Parrying Stance to take incoming blows. Even maneuvering to take on opponents one at a time is a good idea but all were beyond the Troll Slayer.
The Troll Slayer ignored advice from the party and used all of his actions for attacks instead of saving actions for defense. He managed to take six of the cultists with him before he fell in a spray of blood on the third round of combat. Meanwhile, the Shield Breaker and the Hunter took down the remaining cultists including a mage.
Mechanics
We got a chance to test the magic system when the cultist’s mage got involved. My main complaint about the magic system in WFRP v2 is that uses a different set of mechanics than other tasks. It’s personal taste but I just prefer to use one set of mechanics for all tasks.
Each spell in WFRP has a Casting Number reflecting its difficulty to cast (the higher, the more difficult). To cast a spell, a mage rolls a total number of 1D10s up to the number of Magic Points they have and tries to equal or pass that number. There’s always a risk in casting since a roll of matched numbers (doubles, triples, etc) triggers increasingly severe Chaos Manifestations along with any spell results. It’s recommended that a mage roll the minimum number of dice needed to make the Casting Number and reduce the chance of a problem.
Chaos Manifestations range from minor problems (milk curdling around the PC) to an automatic critical hit on the caster, or being forever pulled into a realm of chaos. Magic isn’t something to be taken lightly regardless of which side of the spell a character is on.
The cultist had three magic points and tried to cast a Power 4 (Damage 1D10 + 4) spell named “Burning Blood” at the Shield Breaker. The spell has a Casting Number of 13 and the NPC rolled two fours and a one. Not only did it fail, she also got a Minor Chaos Manifestation for her trouble. I rolled a 73 on the outcome table which dealt “Aethyric Shock” worth one wound to the caster. The PCs concentrated their attacks and killed the NPC on the next turn so it wasn’t an issue.
A Final Surprise
Both surviving PCs were a bit rattled by the descriptions of the chaos mutations (“holy crap, that’s sick!” one said) and were looking forward to getting the prisoners back to the town and getting paid. It took the Shield Breaker by surprise when he saw the male was dead (thanks to the female’s teeth) and the woman was now trying to bite him. They reluctantly killed her, packed the bodies on their horses, and returned to the town with a report and proof of chaos mutations.
Summary
We talked about the game afterwards and the players enjoyed it but didn’t care for the lethality of the combat or the fact that only four races are available for play in the official material. Other complaints included a perception that magic was overpowered and that the combat system was stilted with an oversimplified mechanic (one described it as “war-gamy”). Another player commented that they didn’t like the overwhelming feeling of doom and that there was nothing they could do to change the world.
While I don’t agree with all of my player’s criticisms of the game, I do respect them.
Here are my opinions:
Pros
- A nicely detailed world and unconventional take on fantasy roleplaying.
- Quick character generation and customization options.
- Quality writing and layout.
- Quick system mechanics with a good balance of crunch and realism.
- Good number of books supporting the product and website support.
Cons
- Small number of races to play.
- Anemic bestiary when compared to the previous version.
- Some players objected to the crunchy “wargamy” feel of combat.
- Magic system uses a different mechanic than the rest of the game.
- The depth of background detail was intimidating to some of my players.
Conclusion
I am impressed with the quality of the Second Edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and feel that the work by Black Industries on the franchise was top notch. The rich background, game system, and career options more than outweigh any weaknesses in the game system in my opinion. Here’s hoping that Fantasy Flight Games do an equally impressive job with the franchise. I give the corebook the following ratings:
Style: 5 (Excellent)
Substance: 4 (primarily because of the anemic bestiary)
