Lots of talk on here about it, but I know nothing. I would like to change that. I'm interested in everything anyone has to contribute, but I would also like to know a few specific things:
How easy is it to seperate the game from it's setting- can you use your own setting without fucking things up?
How complex are the mechanics.
What is the magic system like?
What is the setting like?

Thanks-

PS i encourage thread crapping, drama, flaming and OT banter in this and all my threads, so have at it.

It's a steaming pile of gnu crap, and it made me kiss your Mom.

Actually, I don't know a damn thing about it, Aos, but I sure didn't want to disappoint.  Actually, I hear it's quite good and I hope you like it.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!It's a steaming pile of gnu crap, and it made me kiss your Mom.

Actually, I don't know a damn thing about it, Aos, but I sure didn't want to disappoint.  Actually, I hear it's quite good and I hope you like it.

if you really did kiss my mom, I suggest you get your ass to doctor. Dickrot is a horrible thing.

Okay, first let me say that I don't own any books beyond the rule book (and the  first edition one), so I'm going to deep into the background (never liked the miniatures game all that much, too).

The mechanics are pretty simple. It's percentile-based, roll under to achieve a success. Character generation is mainly random-roll for your base stats (adjusted by race) and then you'll branch into 'careers'. Most of them are pretty mundane (ratcatcher, gamekeeper), so they really encourage a rather realistic background. Each career has some possible modifications to the base stats, which you earn by adventuring. If the career doesn't have the option, you can't take it. You can switch careers, either by completing all the advancement options your current careers offers, or by immediately starting a new one. The latter has some disadvantages. For one, you'll have to pay a little extra, and you'll never get to the neat advanced careers (mercenary captain, wizard, assassin).

An example should clarify that:
Let's say you want to become the ultimate fighter. You start out with a statistic called 'weapon skill', which determines your ability to fight in a melee. Let's say you're human, so you roll 2d10 at the start, add 20 and that's your starting skill. Assume you've rolled average, now you start your game with a Weapon Skill of 31. So you basically got a 31 % chance of hitting your opponent. Not too good.

As your first career, you'll pick "militiaman". One of the advancement options this class has is "Weapon Skill +10%". You'll get one advancement for free at the start and percentage increases have to be taken in 5% increments. So you'll pick that and start adventuring with a WS of 36%. Now after an exciting trip slaying some rabid rats, you got some experience points. You spend 100 of them and buy the next 5%, so your WS ends up as 41%.

You can't go further as a miltiaman (of course you can increase your missile skill and other stats), so you'll want to get into another career with a higher WS add. The "Militiaman" career has a list of other careers you can take once you taken all the advancement options. One of them is "Seargent", which has "WS +20%". Once you completed Miltiamen, you can take that and increase your WS up to 51%.

Skills are pretty basic. All careers have some, and they're rather binary. The Militiaman has "Outdoor survival" as a skill, so if you want to build your tent somewhere safe, you'd roll a d100 below the associated attribute (Intelligence in this case).

Other than that there are Talents, which are similar to D20 feats or advantages in point-buy systems. Basically some neat abilities you can use. Some of them increase your chance with some skills, too.

Combat is pretty easy. Once again, roll percentile under your Weapon Skill (or Ballistic Skill) and if you succeed, you hit. Now the defender can parry or block, with a similar roll. No margins of success are used. Damage is rolled and subtracted from a few precious hit points. Once those are exhausted, you've achieved a critical hit and it gets nasty. Armor subtracts from damage rolled.

The combat systems has all kinds of actions you can take or not take and is rather tactical. I'd say it's a little bit easier than D20 combat, but not by much. At the start of a game, the low chances of success can be a bit frustrating for players. The system is rather deadly, running unarmored into a horde of brigands will get you killed fast.

The magic system of the second edition is rather interesting. You have some fixed spells in the book (no free-form magic), all with a certain target number. Every magician has a magic attribute (starting at 1, with 3 you're a master). You can some ten-sided dice equal to or lower than your attribute and accumulate points per round. If you reach enough, the spell ist cast.
If all your dice roll a 1, you've failed and have to start again. If you roll doubles, triples or quadruples, your spell might succeed yet you've got some more or less catastrophic side effects (either from Chaos or your god). This potential danger is the main limiting factor of magic (as opposed to "mana" or spell slots).

The setting is based on late medieval Europe, with a big invasion of "Chaos" creatures coming from the east. You've got your basic clones of medieval France, Italy, Germany and Russia plus the usual fantasy races (elves, dwarves, halflings). The religion is polytheistic.
The fake Germany ("The Empire") is the main player region (at least in the core book) and isn't all too inspired, if you ask me. At least the second edition isn't as atrocious with its use of German in the naming of NPCs any more.

All in all, the rules could be lifted from the core setting pretty easily. Maybe you'll have to limit the careers (no knights) or invent some (e.g. paladins), but all in all, there's nothing to settings-specific. The magic system works quite well, too.

If there's anything missing or to unclear, please ask.

Quote from: Aosif you really did kiss my mom, I suggest you get your ass to doctor. Dickrot is a horrible thing.

Uhhh...

...

...what?

Quote from: Aosif you really did kiss my mom, I suggest you get your ass to doctor. Dickrot is a horrible thing.

YOUR JERK FU IS INSUFFICIENT

The setting for WFRP is what sets it head and shoulders above other low fantasy, IMO.

The Old World is a post-apocalyptic Sci-Fi setting.  In prehistory, a starfaring race called the Old Ones (or Slaan, if your edition of WFB is early enough) colonized the world.  They harnessed the power of the Warp, a dimension of unimaginable energy, to fuel their technology.  They fucked right up and everything went blooey.

The explosion (a) seeded the world with magically radioactive fallout, creating races of monsters and demihumans and (b) ripped a hole in reality. Now the north pole is blasted hellscape of demons and the barbarian mutants who worship them.

South of this you have the societies of the "civilized" peoples of the world: the Empire, Cathay, various other, smaller human nations, the Dwarf strongholds (so poor they had to sell off their letter "v") and the Elf island nation of Ulthuan.

Set against these you have the Skaven, descendants of rats who ate the aforementioned fallout, Orc and Goblin tribes, Norscan raiders (who worship the Chaos gods, rulers of the Warp), Demonic armies, Aztec Lizardmen, evil Babylonian Dwarfs, Dark Elves, Ogre Mongols, Vampire counts and Mummies.

There's always one war or another going on, no one trusts anyone and everyone's pretty sure the total genocide of the human race is only a century or two away.

In most games you're a hero who goes off looking for adventure.  In WFRP you're an average Joe just trying to see the next sunrise.

Quote from: fonkaygarryThe setting for WFRP is what sets it head and shoulders above other low fantasy, IMO.

Meh. A copycat Europe where the enemy is a cross between Sauron and Chaos a la Moorcock? Yes, there's quite some war, but that's to be expected considering the roots of the setting.

The everyman aspect has nothing to do with the setting itself, but with the decisions of the RPG makers, mainly regarding the "careers". If you don't start with fighters and rogues but camp followers and grave robbers, the emphasis moves away from epic heroism. But I could easily play Epic D20 in the setting. The Eternal Hero would feel right at home...

Quote from: fonkaygarryYOUR JERK FU IS INSUFFICIENT

This has never been the case in the past.

Quote from: SosthenesMeh. A copycat Europe where the enemy is a cross between Sauron and Chaos a la Moorcock?

The thing is, I never liked Moorcock enough to read very much of his stuff, leaving me ignorant of his influence on the Old World.

I would agree that the fluff does support epic god-heroes.  You've got twinkery like Teclis and Egrim von Horstmann running around in canon, and they're six or seven lightyears past WFRP PCs.

I would, however, contend that even the most powerful figures in the Old World will always succumb in the end.  The setting doesn't take to happy endings well at all.  A 26th level fighter with a keep and full army will probably end up with an Eshin assassin's dagger in his back while his armies die of plague.  The bad guys always have something else up their sleeves, that's what they do.

I always liked the fact that the designers of WHFRP considered the game  (the first ed, anyway) as "grubby" fantasy . What really brought the setting alive was the whole The Enemy Within campaign.

TEW highlighted aspects of the game that really made the Old World interesting :

Shadows Over Bogenhafen and The Power Behind The Throne were investigative pieces that were an unholy mix of, twisted ambition, corruption in high places, mistaken identity, and really bad puns

Death On The Reik the massive link to the above two, was a sprawling jaunt up the river Reik - the rotting vein of the Old World - that used the corruption of an ancient family as a backdrop for a series of bitchin' action adventures that led to a showdown in a haunted house straight out of the Hammer series, great messy fun

The new edition, is cool, because it allows for so much more. Although I'm not really to keen on the whole Storm of Chaos stuff, I still collect the WHFRP books, because there is so much there I can use .

Regards,
David R

I agree that the TEW campaign is pretty good, but it really doesn't have much to do with the setting specifics. Any pseudo-medieval background would be fit to run most of it unmodified.

I'd have to give the RPG authors full credit for making the adventures memorable, the setting as imposed by the wargame is still only mediocre. Its medieval trappings make it easy to delve in our own history for the depressing details. But I'll stick to my opininon that a lot of the re-implementation of the real Europe is pretty half-assed. (Worst city names this side of "Verbobonc", too)

Well, I do like the ide that it is in some kind of crazy post apocolyptic future. I'm not sure about playing a rat catcher or an accountant, though. I may buy it to read over Thanksgiving break (late November)

The best thing about WFRP is that it's one of those few games where the setting is actually mirrored and supported in the mechanics.  They tell you such and such is tough - well fuck it's tough.  Your starting characters can't go in with D20 mindsets and think Oh it's just an Orc.  There is a very real chance they'll get gutted.  The beauty is that even in later levels it only takes one lucky shot to drop anyone.  I've never experienced a momment in WFRP where I looked at the enemy as folder.  Nor have I ever created a situation as a GM where I used enemies as folder against the PC's.  Every battle in WFRP is an accomplishment and can bring you to task.

That is the beauty of WFRP you don't need to go monty haul with the players to reward them.  Every challenge they overcome will be a reward in itself.  The whole quest for the next best magic item just doesn't exist.  You get a suite of Full Plate and you are doing extremly well.  Hell a masterwork quality weapon is something to be prized and guarded.

WFRP is simply one of those games that once you play it you just get it.