Retro Recall: Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play
July 23, 2019 by brennon
My first roleplaying experience was with Dungeons & Dragons. It didn't last very long and it was mostly railroaded by the Dungeon Master and so by extension wasn't very good. However, my second dive into roleplaying came with the original Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play and it spawned a massive campaign!
I still remember my friend coming back with this massive tome. Honestly, the original 1st Edition book was massive but it was insanely interesting to a fledgeling Warhammer fan who was just starting to collect his first proper Empire army. When it arrived with us we sat in his bedroom, made characters and went off on an Old World adventure.
The Mighty Herr Bane!
My first character was the very heroically named Ronan Bane. He was an Empire soldier with the traditional sword and board configuration. He lasted a heroically awesome...one session. We were travelling with a band of merchants down one of the roads through the Drakwald when we were waylaid by beastmen! We managed to finish most of them off but had to flee as the sound of the brayherd could be heard over the hills.
We made our way down into the darkness of a dank cave whereby we were set upon by snakes who slithered from a pit! Ronan got bitten and poisoned, slowly losing health as we tried to work out how best to escape the cave. Unfortunately, he died...dragged down into a pit of snakes to become one more skeleton. It was only after I'd died and the other escaped that we looked at my friends Hedge Wizard character sheet and realised he could have saved my life. Doh.
Second Time Lucky
The second time we played the game I got to be the Game Master. I led a group of three on their adventures, Drago The Wizard, Conan (original I know) the Pit Fighter and Brother Guilbert the Warrior Priest of Sigmar.
These heroes had a seriously epic time of it. I led them down the rivers of the Reik where they held off a dastardly attack from a powerful squad beast that had been dredged up by Chaos cultists. They ventured down into a Dwarfen hold where they befriended the lord and helped them fight back against a Goblin invasion. They even ventured north towards Norsca and the Chaos Wastes where eventually their party was split after killing a Bloodthirster!
Conan took the Bloodthirster's axe and went off to become a Chaos champion, leading his own warband in the wastes. Drago set up a Wizards Tower and lorded over the lands of Norsca as a strange threat to all and Brother Guilbert...well, he was killed by Conan and left to die. So, whilst this wasn't something that I'd have finished off with nowadays it seems suitably 'Warhammer' and for once, was the end of a proper campaign!
Why Was It So Awesome?
I think the thing that made Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play such a strong role-playing game for us was the fact that it allowed us to dive deeper into the world we were wargaming in. We could take on the role of individual heroes and tell some of the stories that we'd read about in White Dwarf and Black Library books.
Added to that, it was brutal! The critical hit table was something none of us had truly understood until someone's arm flew off or an eye was gouged out! It really added a lethal amount of awesomeness to close combat and meant that every hit felt like it had taken a toll.
The career system was also a nice way of seeing character progression. Instead of just levelling up from three to four you were getting better at your job and developing in it to become one of the amazing classes out there like a Witch Hunter or a Reiksguard Knight.
From 1st To 2nd Edition
This love affair with the game carried us through from 1st Edition into 2nd where we played probably our best campaign. I got to play again, taking on the role of Leopold the Empire Soldier who met his end fighting a mutated version of one of his former comrades.
He was then resurrected and found faith, serving as an Initiate and then Warrior Priest under Sigmar. This campaign really engaged us and we had an amazing time, developing characters that I remember to this day.
Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play will always be the first RPG that really hooked me so it retains a very special place in my heart.
What are your memories of Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play?
"My first character was the very heroically named Ronan Bane..."
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"The critical hit table was something none of us had truly understood until someone's arm flew off or an eye was gouged out!"
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I think I can sum up warhammer role-play in the three words that everyone that played it understands… The Enemy Within…
Sadly our DM went to university and took the game with him before we completed the campaign. I still have the character sheet tucked away in a box somewhere and it’s 30 years since I played that game.
I know the campaign is being rebooted for the new edition, but there is no way in hell I’m paying 600 quid for a campaign that has been padded out to extort cash from my memories.
It’s only the special editon, with the early previews and such like, that costs £600.
Standard edition will probably cost 30-50 quid per book, so still £150-250 for the campaign which is a lot of money.
They do collate together a lot more stuff than the originals though, but yeah I can see why you might want to just grab one of the old PDFs and run through that with a few tweaks.
Still the greatest RPG system I have ever played.
I’m glad that they tweaked the d100 system as it could be a little shite sometimes. They’ve really brought in a lot of mitigation now which is good, making it more player-driven. But otherwise yes, it is good/
It being one of the first (of many) RPG books I would collect. Definitely remember it being gritty. I think I build a character creator of sorts in GW Basic or MSX Basic. Never finished, but learned a lot about writing code. This would be followed by CP 2020 (almost everything), D&D itself (gazetteers and campaign settings) and loads of World of Darkness books (including the original Wraith). I did use a few of the WFRPG adventures when I had a chance to be a DM for the group I was playing AD&D with. It began by having the party… Read more »
I found the ruleset to be quite unforgiving and dark/gritty (not a bad thing, mind you). Only ruleset I ever used where the first (home-brewed) adventure (i.e. I was pulling punches) ended with a TPK.
It was very unforgiving! One wrong move and a Beastman would have your arm! Very fitting I guess…
The Old World was dangerous and violent… it’s what makes it fun.
With a lot of modern games death is rare, sometimes the GM has to make a real effort, but Warhammer 1 & 2 it was a possibility all the time. So was mutilation and mutation.
Still there in 4th, they’ve just made it so you don’t just whiff your hits/tests all the time haha
the closed I got to playing Warhammer fantasy was heroquest and the likes off Zork on computer a great read.
I have such great memories of this game. FFG went deep with the source books in 2nd Ed and as a result I had the most amazing adventures with my Norseman Berserker who travelled the length of the Worlds Edge Mountains and retired a wealth Mercenary Captain in Barak Varr. I fought monsters in Norsca, Trolls in Kislev, twisted Wood Elves in the forests of Stirland, Skaven in Mordheim, Vampires in Sylvania, Orcs and goblins in the mountains and greedy humans everywhere. Ahhh, when Warhammer had back story that was to die for……
I have this book, i have alot of the scenarios and have yet to play it, it makes me want to but unsure my friends would enjoy this (as non warhammer lovers)
I am really sad I never got the opportunity to play this. However, I do currently have the office copy of the latest edition rule book and I’ve been coming up with ideas for a game to run.
Brace yourself for a TPK… but that’s the fun of the old world.
Played a campaign of this over 4 years at University, the GM based it on the Wheel of Time series. We played all night at the end of the academic year as after 4 years we were all moving on to different things – still keep in touch with some of the guys from that campaign. I think I had two characters one a Slayer died in a suitable way, the other was an Empire Wizard who ended up as the most senior Wizard in the Empire (it helped that one of the characters became Emperor). We had a blast… Read more »
I have the PDF at home and I’ve had a look through it. But 3rd edition was the one I started on and have been running for the last two years. The tone has changed a lot since 1st Ed. but I still dip into the old material for ideas.