Quote from: Casey777Stuff about the freebies at BI

Speaking of which, are people snapping these bad boys up and saving them somewhere (I know I have a lot of the articles/adventures on my mahcine here at work...oops, did I just say that)?

I do hope those things aren't lost for the rest of the folks out there once the BI site goes tits up.  And is FFG doing anything similar for WHFRP on their end?

I can't offer any opinions as per supplements to purchase as I greedily grab any and all that I can get my sweaty hands on.

Fantasy Flight Games has put up the Dark Heresy website now and it's got a lot of the downloads that where on the BI site on there.  So I imagine that when they get around to doing the Fantasy site they will duplicate a lot of BI's info there.

The first thing to remember is that either edition of WFRP can be played with just the corebook. It is a complete game in one book, but it also has a remarkably high amount of good quality books produced for it. All of the 2e books look great with very high production values, but more importantly many of them are excellent rpg supplements.

One problem is that while there are a lot of books and they tend to be very good, they were released in an order which, it seems to me, assumed that they would continue coming out for the forseeable future. I think it's safe to say that if a three year run with a limited number of books had been planned from the start that we would have seen books on Elves, Dwarfs and probably Marienburg, Tilea and Estalia long before we'd have seen a book on Vampires or Karak Azgal.

That said, the only really significant hole is the book on Elves. Tilea and Estalia have never really been central to the setting, there was a book on Dwarfs for first edition and Marienburg has both a first edition book and a load of free stuff on the website. Perhaps now that the licence has been picked up, we may see books on this stuff.

Black Industries covered Magic and Religion, they covered the Empire and a range of alternative settings (Norsca, Bretonnia, Kislev) and they covered the signature antagonists of the setting, Chaos and Skaven as well as a general monster book. Plus many other things which while they aren't as obviously of core interest were at least generally done well. That's a lot more than the vast majority of games get and it's a lot more than we had for first edition.

So let's take a look at the 2e supplements.

Semi-core supplements:

These are all good and are perhaps the most obvious additional purchases.

Tome of Salvation: This is a very high quality look at religion in the Old World. It is extremely useful if you have an initiate, friar or priest in the party but it is also of much wider use. It integrates religion into daily life in the Old World and I particularly like it's take on minor Gods and illegal but non-Chaotic cults.

Realms of Sorcery: Like it's religious equivalent this is obviously great if you have a magician in the party. It is perhaps of less obvious general use outside of that, although there is still plenty of good stuff in there. It has a few rather unnecessary high fantasy touches which are perhaps best ignored. The magic system works and it fits well with the setting.

Tome of Corruption: The book on Chaos is probably the closest thing the game has to an "essential" purchase, given that your can run the game forever quite happily with the corebook alone. It is a success throughout.

Regional books

These are a bit mixed in quality. Essentially if you want to run adventures in the region concerned they are of great utility. If you don't, they aren't.

Realm of the Ice Queen: I've heard good things about it, but haven't read it.

Knights of the Grail: The writing is ok, but the reconceptualisation of Bretonnia is one of the few disimprovements on the first edition. The ultra-decadant France just before the revolution analogue was a much more interesting setting than the more Arthurian version.

Renegade Crowns: This is a toolkit rather than a gazetteer and your reactions to it will depend very strongly on which you prefer. Personally I really like it.

Sigmar's Heirs: Not the most wildly exciting of WFRP books, but it was competently done and as it covers the default seting it will be of interest to most GMs.

Antagonist books

In terms of quality this is probably the best category. All of these books are really, really good but how much use you will get out of them depends very much on your campaign. The Chaos book has already been dealt with above.

Night's Dark Masters: The most obvious example of the problem I've just mentioned. This is arguably the best book BI produced. It's a model of how to produce an engaging book about fantasy antagonists. But how many WFRP campaigns feature vampires heavily? Quite a few more now that this book is out, I would wager, but still not all that many.

Children of the Horned Rat: Another excellent book, which will only be of use if you plan on using the Skaven. At least Skaven are a core part of the setting though and they tend to show up at some point in many campaigns.

Old World Bestiary: About the best "monster manual" style product you will come across for any game. I still don't get much use out of it though as for me most of the charm of WFRP is in its human antagonists.

Scenario books

I won't bother listing each one seperately. Oddly for a game which has perhaps the most celebrated set of campaign books ever produced in its past (The Enemy Within for 1e)  as far as 2e was concerned these were probably the weakest part of the line. They weren't terrible, but the only one I'd really recommend is Plundered Vaults, which as others have noted is mostly, but not entirely, excellent.

Maybe The Thousand Thrones will rectify that when it comes out. Or perhaps it too won't escape the long shadow of Enemy Within nostalgia either.

Odds and Ends

Warhammer Companion: Another peculiar book. More a collection of interesting but random bits and pieces than a book with any particular focus.
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Try to get your hands on The Enemy Within a 1st Ed campaign. IMO one of the best published campaigns around. Shadows of Bogenhafen, Death on the Reik and the stunning Power Behind the Throne are the must haves. Empire in Flames in best forgotten.

Regards,
David R

Some of my best rpging memories are from that campaign, the enemy within et al. Good fun.

I own both games, but I prefer the original - it just feels like a more complete game. Both work equally well.