Відео

I love the WHFRP system conceptually, as well as the setting, but always felt it was a bit cumbersome in practice. Also, the magic system is definitely a very, VERY weak link. It is so bad, I recently paid an arm and leg for the Realms of Sorcery book, but haven't yet had time to read it in detail. My first gut instinct on that book though is that they may have overdone it and swung the pendulum too far in the other direction. AD&D ended up with a similar problem of overdoing it, where people wanted more and more spells, but if you use the memorization system as written, too many spells for too few memorization slots becomes hopelessly frustrating. If you abandon the memorization scheme and treat it more like a spell point system, then that makes the overdone spell lists more usable, and also makes low level magic-users more useful, but then overpowers high level magic-users more than they already are. Magic is such a tricky thing to get just right as far as play-balance goes. Unless you go to the extreme of, say, the Darksword system where literally EVERY character wields magic. Wheee!!!

Rat Catcher!

Nice choice in Rye.

I remember min/max players back in the day planning their WHFRP career progression carefully to pick up the valuable skills and stat advances for the ultimate character builds. There are some beautiful touches in those careers! IIRC the Gambler career was the only way to get the highly sought Luck skill. Also, the only career that could allow a character to get the full +3 Strength was the Slave career, which could only be forced on your character and never willingly chosen..! Probably no longer suitable for modern gameplay, but it was very fitting. Cue the Conan theme song!!!

Great video. I believe the Enemy Within campaign should also take some credit for how WFRP developed. As the first published modules they encouraged the urban investigative play which WFRP seems to be known for, rather than dungeoneering.

Hey, this Composure thing you came up with is quite neat.

"Forgotten" game? I'd say that Warhammer is one of the most popular games in Europe (or at least in Poland). Only recently D&D is getting more popular here (dunno why, most likely people haven't heard about all shit done recently by WotC yet). I recall a time when you'd say RPG and the reply would be "oh, like Warhammer stuff?". I agree about the advantages of having a world similar to our historical reality, but with some twists - and the presence of those cliches actually helps build familiarity. The Old World is full of places that can be identified as parallel to our world, so the players can have instant taste of what the city looks like, what are the people, and even what the weather may be just from a single name. Same goes for the whole countries - Brettonia? Think France, but in more feudal times x100. Tilea? Siciallian mafia and mercenaries. Arabia? All those snake cults, assassins and forbidden knowledge, with strange customs and exotic spices. Easier for GM to run, easier for players to feel a part of. And it gets better - if there are hidden differences that need to be uncovered, the players would also need to uncover them from behind the veil of stereotypes, which will make them enjoyable and memorable. Eh, good times.

The "forgotten game" now on its fourth edition and hugely well supported with new supplements still coming out? That "forgotten game"?

Old School Renaissance was the original name, though Revival was discussed. I was there. Not saying other interpretations are wrong, though. And no, grognard (grumbler, from the French, pronounced approximately "GROAN-yer" in the original language) is not bad, we call ourselves that all the time. And oh, lordy, the Dragonsfoot days. That's where I learned to do layout, how to mimic the style of the classic games, all of that. It's where Basic Fantasy RPG was born. Basic Fantasy RPG was shared with the public in incomplete form months before OSRIC was announced; the author of OSRIC wanted a complete, finished-looking game, while I wanted collaborators. But OSRIC reached print first. How exactly you decide "first" determines which of us "wins." But it's not a contest, not with each other. Stuart Marshall and Matt Finch both contributed to Basic Fantasy RPG at different times... we're comrades, if not friends. And, I'll point out that "Product Identity" is a legal fiction that only exists in the context of the OGL. No OGL, no such thing as Product Identity. A lovely thing when we changed to Creative Commons licensing was that we escaped at least somewhat from the tyranny of Product Identity.

"...and also some people *not* named Dave..." Ahhh, the secret third D. Dungeons and Dragons and Daves.

Justin Alexander claimed a process invented by a woman with cancer shorty after she died. The man is a ghoul, and no one should support him.

One of the greatest mechanics of WFRP for melee is the weapon skill vs weapon skill system, where the target’s weapon skill is factored into how hard it is to hit them. Armor only factors in once a hit is scored and acts as damage absorption. This system is especially satisfying for high level play, allowing 2 high level champions to be nearly invulnerable to everyone else but fight as near equals against each other.

Running the Plains is one portion of D&D I have not done very often. Usually by the time players characters reach levels desired for planer campaign's the group is beginning to think it's time to start over

I remember having that first Warhammer box set - let's bash some skulls :-) but rarely see any info on it. I think I read through it on the bus ride back from buying it. I don't recall if we ever used it. We did play the heck out of WFRP 1e when it came out.

WFRP… ran a lot of it. It wasn’t as slow advancing or deadly as one might think just from reading it. Advanced characters would take a massive beating. I mean this was the game that had the “naked dwarf syndrome.”

I liked the looks of that Tolkien book you talked about early in the video so I found it on the website for a local used bookstore and paused your video so I could go out and buy it.

What did 3rd edition change the correct order to?

Does this mean Solo 5e adventures potentially work well with the mechanics of Warhammer Fantasy Battle 1st edition? I ask because I’ve always really liked WFRP but couldn’t find anyone to play it.

Great review! The gory descriptions are definitely not my cup of tea, but the career system looks very interesting. I’ve never met anyone who had or played Warhammer-*Anything* in my country (Brazil), and I was always curious about this system. Thanks a million for the video.

i love wfrp, and your video is great, but it is not forgotten at all, people love it

Having never even seen nor played WHF I can say it would have been a favorite as I have moved to Twilight2000 and murder hobo gaming after nukes opened the chaos gates! I now have a copy and looking for modules to warp my B/X to at lesst dark if not grim. So a timely and worthwhile review. We suppossedly had a rumbler here but I never feel them. Only once in Palm Springs was I asleep during a 5-ish? Wife was furious I slept through it as she ran around terrified, her first ever quake. And I love Rye, it is my go to! My favorite soundtrack album is Star Wars, I have one with an epic image of the Death Star and Vader, and I have several James Bond movie soundtracks with swinging 60s art!

I never played WH fantasy but the art and asthetic was so cool. It sounds even cooler than I imagined from this review!

I never got into Warhammer, because for the longest time I was under the mistaken belief that it was just a clone of the Warcraft universe on first glance. Oh, how bass-ackwards I was! I still don't know much about the setting apart from what I learned here. I think I easily tripled my knowledge about it just from this video. I have some friends who are into 40k, and most of what I know of that is that everybody calls it 40k, so if I stumble across someone talking about Warhammer Forty Thousand then there's a good chance it's sponsored by Games Workshop.

That’s a crazy clean copy you have. While mine is intact and the binding sound (which is kind of a big deal for GWs 80s output), it looks every bit of its 38 years.

what I like about Random encounters/wandering monsters is it makes it so that I as the DM have to be on my toes also. Its not just ME making stuff up for them, but makes it a little bit out of my control, and hit helps build the "story". I dont have to do what the dice say, but it can add two what I have happen. I dont always directly use Random charts but let the dice dictate ideas, which sometimes totally changes the story or creates new ideas for the story!!!!

I love Rye whiskey. I love big beers born in rye whiskey barrels too. :))

Excellent video!

Warhammer 1e completely derailed our D&D game when it came out and we rushed into it. Unfortunately we were young and we abused the class system and power gamed too much

My old group tried WH once coming from 1st ed. We weren't ready for it, lol. Thanks for covering this topic and giving it the attention it deserves. Definitely had a big influence on RPGs!

Thanks for the video! Interesting history and D&D corollaries! Never played Reaper but played some early WH RPG back in the day and then revisited WH RPG in the early aughts with whatever the edition was then. Mainly used pregens for one-shots, so never fully experienced character creation which makes this video so engrossing. It seems more extensive and yet somehow more restrictive in so far as once you make a few choices your subsequent options are more narrowed. Good point on NOT rolling for random disorders given how it might ruin a player experience or hit too close to home. I wonder if the added granularity of using percentages instead of d20s really adds that much to an RPG, and yes I understand it literally does but is it more than window dressing and needless complication? I'm not sure I have an answer. Star Trek on pressed 1,500 copies in vinyl? Wild!

The Illusionist in 1st Edition was a fully fledged subclass. With its own spells and own exp table. Equal in any way to the druid, paladin, or any other subclass. 2nd Edition erased the Illusionist class and you only have the wizard who can get a bonus to casting certain spells by specialization in schools. There is no subclass of wizard in 2nd Edition.

WFRP was a revelation in what a fantasy RPG could be!

I still have this book.

WFRP seems like it'd make for an easy and compelling transition to domain play, which always seemed to fall short in DnD. Did you end up doing much in the way of domain play, or was there something mechanically blocking that transition?

Hardly a forgotten game considering it's currently on its 4th Edition with good backup from Cubicle 7

You say that most people wouldn’t play WFRP for its mechanics, but I remember it being highly regarded in comparison to AD&D1e when released. It was a well designed set of rules and I remember many people also preferring it over AD&D2e as well. WFRP was unusual in getting a 2e that actually did a great job of consolidating and improving the mechanics. WFRP2e holds up today to other mainstream fantasy RPG rulesets.

Interesting review of an RPG I never really got into. Have you thought about reviewing Traveller and its effect on RPGs and specifically D&D?

Thanks for taking me back in time. I remember I bought those two books at the same time around 1988. Funny thing, I also bought my 2nd copy of the World Of Greyhawk boxed set at Game Empire Pasadena back in 2002!! I have fun memories going through the entire "old stuff" that Chuck had on the wall. Awesome video!

My favourite setting (Skaven!), the career system was a revelation back in the day, and the adventures were phenomenal. Shadows over Bögenhafen and Death on the Reik were probably the best gaming I've ever had. Now I kinda want to run D&D campaign using only Backgrounds, no Classes 😂

It was sad when GW killed the Old World. Also, that the magic book never got properly published for the RPG.

Cool. Have you reviewed elf quest before ?

I'm trying to get 5e2e to stick for the new books.

Quote from our thief player, some 35+ years ago: "Could we have some wandering experience'

Re ST:TMP : BOOOIIIIINNNNGGG!

You think teen girls like pets? Wait till you DM for my group of veterinarians😂

Good video, I don't know much about Warhammer, although I remember it from the 80s. Realistically though, saying that Warhammer "Inspired 5e" is an overstatement. Parts of 5e were influenced by parts of Warhammer but I don't think the entire game of Warhammer was influenced the entire game of 5e. Just my opinion.

It's really fascinating to me how Warhammer grew semi-independently out of the same soil as D&D. Despite not playing D&D until very recently, I had no problem at all understanding the concept of THAC0, because that's basically the way that Warhammer has always done saving throws (lower number is good).

Exellent review! Great content. I wonder if Steve Jackson ever met Steve Jackson? Interesting to see how the companies and content creators waltzed and tangoed together. These are the kinds of things I was oblivious to back in the day. In retrospect I always wondered certain things, like why the Fiend Folio looked different from the Monster Manual, PHB & DMG. Now I know! 😚😊

COMBAT 3000, brought to you by the same two Dicks that wrote Reaper.

I’d say the 2E kits were definitely inspired by WFRP. And these kits would later become the basis for prestige classes and the current backgrounds and subclasses. We can’t forget that Warhammer was basically D&D going back to its wargaming origins, and the Warhammer RPG was kind of like an answer to disgruntled AD&D players that wanted a grittier, more grounded fantasy rather than the high fantasy that began to define mid to late 80s AD&D, especially with the departure of Gary.