Ah, napokon.... druga edicija ovog legendarnog RPG sistema. Warhammer je svakako najigriviji, najbolji fantasy RPG sistem koji sam ja ikada igrao, ujedno i moj prvi sistem ikad. Kad sam ga prvi put djuskao, pre 13 godina, bio mi je zanimljiv (sa svim mitolosko-socijalnim-religijskim implikacijama), mocan, mracan i prejebeno savrsen sistem za igranje. Danas, iako ga godinama aktivno ne igram, ostaje fantasy favorit no. 1.
Druga edicija je ove godine pokupila sve bitne nagrade na konvencijama, a sa rulebook-om u paketu ide i par knjiga expended pravila, ali nista mamiparski - vec samo ono sto je ovom sistemu oduvek bilo neophodno, a ne nalazi se u glavnoj knizi + par kapmanja i avanturica.
Korisne linkove postujem kasnije, kad profiltriram brojne prikaze. Znam samo da su svi moji drugari old school frpovci odlepili na ovo reizdanje.
Cim se skupi neki kes za igranje, ovo cedo pada na astal i vracam se korenima RPGa.
REVIEW OF WARHAMMER FANTASY ROLEPLAY (2ND EDITION COREBOOK)
When looking at Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, I had to decide ahead of time if I was going to review it in comparison to the previous edition or, as it's own thing. As someone has already beaten me to the comparison review, I'm going to try and remain focused on Warhammer as a new game.
Before I start the review though, let me save some people some reading time. Who should be looking at the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying game? People who want a fairly simple system that is entrenched in a grim world where black humor pops up at odd intervals where the world can be run in a wide variety of styles. It's not meant for those looking for the all-powerful NPC to save the day. The base assumption isn't on grand heroism or how to make the world a better place. It's not a politically correct pseudo-fantasy Europe where all the ills men committed back then are white washed over in some hippy love feast.
As the cover notes, it's "A grim world of perilous adventure."
First off, let's talk presentation. At 256 pages, the book might seem overpriced at $39.99. Then again, one looks at almost any hardcover from say, Malhavoc press outside of Arcana Evolved (Beyond Countless Doorways, Arcana Unearthed, Complete Book of Eldritch Might), and you'll see a 222 page black and white book. Now that means this book is larger than those and more expensive. The good thing though, is not only is it larger, it's in full color. What's better, is that it's not afraid to use artist who've made their bones in the field with the recent flood of d20 products over the past few years.
That gives us numerous fan favorites like Torn Atkinson, David Griffith, Scott Purdy, Wayne Reynolds, Adrian Smith and Greg Taples, among many other talented hands here. What's even more impressive than the list of artists and the great art, is that the pages are all full color. The only other products I've seen come close to this layout and design, are the Forgotten Realms ones with their faded scroll look. Here, each page is bordered with scroll work and in full color. It's a great looking tome.
The only thing I'd hold against it, is that some of this art has seen use before. I'm one of those people that feels that in a new edition, especially one over ten years in the making, that the art should be all new to go along with the new rules. Minor quibble as the art reused is still good but it's something noticeable for those looking.
I'm not saying the book is cheap. It's $40 bones after all. I am saying that compared to almost any other book in the industry, it's competitively priced.
The book uses fiction through introductions and sidebars to give us a look into the world. For the most part, as noted above, it's grim. A terrible event known as the Storm of Chaos, recently struck the most ancient of human controlled lands, the Empire, and things are in the process of being rebuilt on one side by the humans and their allies, and being torn down again by the terrible forces arrayed against them.
It's a world of darkness. Most people don't leave their homes. It's a world of misinformation. Many of the most dangerous enemies that plague the lands, are nothing more than a myth. It's a world of corruption. While priests of the god Sigmar feast and grow fat and rich, the common man suffers in the field under attacks of beastmen and worse things.
The world isn't described in detail. Instead we get a focus on the Empire and the lands surrounding it. The Empire is the first real kingdom, founded by Sigmar Heldenhammer, a human who allied himself with the dwarves in the old days against the menace of the Orcs that threatened to wipe out all civilization. In time, Sigmar grew old and left to visit his dwarven comrades once more before dying and faded from the realm of man, but emerged into a regional deity of the Empire.
One of the nice things about the book is that in it's section on religion; it acknowledges the 'regional' deity concept. While Sigmar plays a huge part in the Empire for example, we also have Myrmidia, the goddess of War whose native to Tilea and Estalia. Other gods include Ulric, the old god of war and one of the most powerful churches in the City of the White Wolf while others gods, like Ranald, the God of Tricksters whose also given homage by merchants and gamblers.
While there are no city maps, more troubling is the lack of a timeline of any sort. It'd be nice to have a quick reference to see when certain events happened. There's also no 'general' world information all collected in one place. For example, there are numerous holy days and other holidays mentioned, but the name of the world isn't, and the fact that there are two moons is a hidden nugget in the text that someone just reading the book and has no background in the setting, can easily miss.
One of the worst offenders in this area, is the two moons of the campaign setting. While some of the terms and events aren't defined, a new reader can pretty much guess what they mean. Knowing that the setting has two moons, and that that information is found only under the section on religious festivals, means that it's easy to skip over a pretty unique feature of the world.
In terms of game mechanics, let's start with character creation. There are seven steps to starting a character. First, choose your race, from dwarf, elf, Halfling or human, then generate your stats. There are eight primary stats and eight secondary ones. The primary ones or 'main' ones are weapon skill, ballistic skill, strength, toughness, agility, intelligence, will power and fellowship. These cover most of the basics of how your character interacts with the game world. Want to know how well you deal with your fellow man? Check your fellowship. Want to know how dangerous you are with a sword? Check your weapon skill.
Stats are all determined by rolling 2d10 and adding them to your base. Your base varies depending on your race. For example, dwarves are in general, good melee warriors with a base of 30+2d10 for weapon skill while elves have the same for their ballistic skill, representing their skill with bows. Humans are a straight 20+2d10 for all stats. One of the nice things here is that there is Shally'a Mercy. If you roll poorly on a stat that you want to be at least average at, because your stats are recorded in the order you roll them, you can get the average for one stat.
Secondary vary a bit. See, everyone starts with one attack or A, a static movement based on race, no magic, and no insanity points. For wounds and fate points, you have to consult some tables which rely on a d10 roll cross referenced to your race. Dwarves are the most robust of the races with a potential of 14 wounds, while halflings are the least with 11. Fate points are special and are used to save your character from death and come in very short supply. The most any starting character will have is 3. Now some of the other stats, like Strength Bonus and Toughness Bonus, are derived from your 'main' stats. In this case, SB is equal to the first digit of your strength and TB is equal to the first digit of your Toughness.
After generating your stats, you have to get your skills and talents. Skills are things like cooking or trading while talents are special abilities or training like night vision or skills with a longbow. Humans and Halflings get random talents, humans two and Halflings one.
Once you copy that information down, you're ready to roll your career. Your race and a percentile roll determine the career. Each career represents what your character did prior to becoming an adventurer. For your starting career, you get to copy down all the skills and talents. Each career also has 'advances' for your stats. These advances are bought with experience points and represent you becoming better at a certain field. To showcase your adventuring nature, you start off with a free advance.
For example, if you were a dwarf and rolled a 57, you'd be a Rat Catcher. You'd look through the careers, arranged in alphabetical order, because the table doesn't have a page reference, and note the background of the Rat Catcher, copy down your skills and talents, written down your starting trappings or equipment, and then decide what advance you wanted to take. This could be +1 Wound or +5% to your Toughness or Weapon Skill.
For those new to roleplaying, the section, "Bringing Your Character To Life", can be very helpful. This includes ten questions you should ask yourself to help flesh out your character. Unlike a level based game, Warhammer characters are fairly competent when first starting and are worthy of more details than a 1st level Rolemaster or D&D character who might get killed by a lucky Orc strike with a greataxe.
In terms of time, character creation, if done randomly, can be over in as little as twenty minutes, less if you've got everything already copied ahead of time and can just go from a starting point.
Me? I personally don't like random character generation. It's disappointing that with games like GURPS and Hero out, and even point built options for D&D, that no point build options were included here. While it is optional to pick your career, no such option is present for talents, nor for characteristics. This leaves some character more powerful than others and allows the tyranny of the dice to rule over character creation. In some ways, this is a good thing as it gives the starting player something to struggle for, but on the other hand, it makes creating certain types of characters, even if you can pick your career, more work than someone experienced with a point built system is used to.
Why struggle to create a strong fighter when your roll is low and your GM is going with random rolls and you get excellent vision and fleet footed for talents and apprentice wizard for starting career when you can go to a point built system and just create it? Well, one reason is that it gets you thinking as to why this wizard with good eyes and a talent for running away wants to be a fighter in the first place. Still, an optional point system, even in an appendix, would've been nice.
The main stats are in % form. Each time the character wants to pay for an advancement, they gain 5%. Other stats like Wounds or Attacks are a straight 1 per advancement. Advancements come through the spending of experience points (xp). You gain experience points from adventuring and the GM determines the number at the end of the session.
In your career, you have career exits. After you finish buying all your advancements, or if you're willing to spend a little extra experience points, you can move onto another career. Let's say you're a miner. You can move onto something like mercenary, scout, or shieldbreaker, among others. To move onto the next career, you have to get the trappings of that career, and pay 100 xp, the standard for an advance, unless you're moving on before finishing all advances, in which case it's 200 xp.
There are sixty basic careers, enough to keep character generation going for many moons. However, there are also advanced careers, of which we have fifty-three. The advanced careers represent things that characters wouldn't start off as, but would aspire too. These include things like specialized thieves like cat burglars and guild masters, to high priests and master wizards.
Skills are simple to use. If it's not an everyday situation, you need to make a skill test. A skill test is based on a statistic and you must roll % under your statistics. For example, let's say you're a dwarf and have a 40 Toughness and are called on to make a Consume Alcohol check. If you roll 40 of under on the percentile dice, you make the check. If you've taken a skill several times, you get better at it, so in this case, if you'd taken Consume Alcohol twice, you'd have a 50 or under chance of making it.
The difficult level of the test can also affect the roll. For example, if it's easy, you'd get a +20% to your change and if it's very hard, a –30% to the roll.
I mentioned that your character gets some starting trappings. These fall under the section on equipment and here you see another difference in the Warhammer world. It's relatively poor compared to other fantasy settings and the coins are big. Each coin weighs about an ounce and there are generally, only three types, gold crown, silver shillings, and brass pennies. A single gold crown is worth 20 silvers or 240 brass pennies and single silver is worth 12 brass pennies. It makes things a little more complicated than traditional systems that use a factor of 10 for coin values.
Equipment is not very detailed. In some game system, the weapon list is pages and pages long. Here, many weapons are categorized under Hand or Great, meaning a one handed or two-handed weapon. That's good in saving space, but bad for new gamers who might want a more comprehensive list. While the full-page illustration on 110 is fantastic, it's not labeled so one wouldn't know the name of most of the weapons there.
Weapons belong to different groups. Everyone has ordinary, so they can use things like improved, spear, unarmed or hand weapon. Others like the buckler and main gauche belong to parrying, while others belong to two-handed or flail.
Weapons also have qualities. These change what the weapon does. For example, impact inflicts more damage while slow gives your enemy a bonus to parry or dodge the weapon.
One nice thing about the game is that the only dice you need are d10s. Each weapon inflicts 1d10 modified by strength and further modified by type. For example, a dagger does SB-3 so you'd roll 1d10, say a 5, add your strength bonus, and then subtract 3.
In terms of protection, there are two types. You can go with basic, where armor is broken into four categories (none, light, medium, and heavy), where your armor points go up on the type of armor (0, 1, 3, 5), and this is subtracted from the damage you take. Advanced armor breaks down armor types into leather, chain, and plate, and has locations covered for those using location hits.
Since I'm talking about weapons and armor, let's look at combat. Combat starts with initiative. Each character rolls 1d10 and adds it to their Agility. Highest goes first. Characters take turns and can perform a number of actions based on what they are. For example, experienced wizards will probably cast spells, while skilled warriors will probably make swift attacks, using all their attacks while rogues trying to get out of a crypt will make a skill check to open a locked door.
In combat, a standard attack is a skill check against either your weapon skill or your ballistic skill. Roll under your skill and you hit. If using the hit locations, you inverse the roll. The example given is a 37 to hit, resulting in a 73, which is the Body. You then roll damage. Damage here is open ended so if you roll 10, you roll again until you stop rolling 10. Your enemy then takes their toughness bonus and armor points off the damage, and records the damage. To end combat, someone dies through critical hits, which happen when you start taking more damage than you have wounds.
The critical rolled is modified by the amount of excess damage you've taken. The example given shows someone with 2 wounds taking 9 points of damage, giving a +7 modifier. The highest is +10 modifier so you know this guy is hurt. The person who inflicted the critical then rolls % and compares it to the modifier, in this case, +7. The example shows an 85 for critical effect 7. In this case, a knock out.
For players wishing to speed up combat, they may just want to go with sudden death options. If an enemy suffers a result of 6-10 on the cross reference, they're finished. Ironically enough, on these critical hit tables, the lower the roll, the worse the effect. Let's say you've suffered a +1 critical and the GM rolls a 01 on the head. This is a 5, not quite enough to kill you (if it had been +2, it would've been a 7), but bad enough to knock you to the ground and wind you with a huge penalty.
While it may not be a huge part of many games due to the random nature of starting careers, there is a generous section of magic here. Magic is tied into the background. The Chaos Wastes to the north of the lands leak magic which as it moves south is weakened and is visible to humans at least, as different colors. So humans draw power from the "Winds" of magic. There are eight colors of magic, each with a common name and a runic name and as associated college of magic with an associated lore. Halflings and dwarves don't have standard spellcasters and Elves have a better innate understanding of how to use magic, and indeed, are the ones who taught humanity how to use magic.
To learn magic, you have to have a Magic Characteristic of 1 or more. This means that no one innately starts with magic. If you're lucky enough to roll a career with an advance in the Magic Characteristic and take your free advance in that, you're on your way. Then you must know the Channeling Skill, speak an Arcane Language, and have access to spells.
To cast a spell, you have to meet a target number. You can roll as many dice as you have in your Magic Characteristic. If you have the proper spell components, you get a bonus to your roll from +1 to +3.
The bad news is that if all the d10s you roll come up a 1, the spell fails and you have to make a Will Power Test or gain an Insanity Point. More bad news is that if you're casting Arcane magic and roll the same number on the dice, doubles, triples or quadruples, you have to roll on the Tzeentch's Curse table, which are three tables with bad effects for spellcasters who've angered the Chaos God of Magic. For divine spellcasters, they don't have as bad a time, but they can still suffer the Wrath of God, they get one table, regardless of how many dice come up the same number.
For a starting book, you get a lot to work with. You've got things like petty magic, where spells like Sleep with it's Casting Number of 6, requiring a half action to use, are found, to the divine petty magic for Blessing of Speed, where you get a small bonus to Agility and Movement. Lesser Magic isn't broken up into divine or arcane and can be learned by anyone. Things like Magic Alarm, where you create a silent alarm, or Blessed Weapon, where a weapon is augmented to count as magical against certain types of monsters.
Those moving higher in magical knowledge can learn Arcane Lores like the Lore of Death, where you can find spells like Final Words where you ask the slain a question or Win of Death, where those effected lose 1d10 wounds, regardless of Toughness or armor. For those not satisfied with the standard Lores, there are Dark Lores, including Chaos and Necromancy. This includes things like summoning daemons or undead, you know, the not so friendly stuff.
For GMs looking to start a game right away, the book includes a brief adventure, Through the Drakwald, where the players are fleeing from a ruined town to seek sanctuary from the beastmen gathering to destroy the remains of the town. See, I told you this wasn't a heroic game. During the course of the journey, the characters get to meet some odd ends of the Warhammer setting and learn that despite appearances, things are rarely what they seem.
For those more interested in winging it, the book doesn't provide as much help. While it includes a bestiary, it's a slim one that will be quickly used up. While support is coming, a few more critters would've been nice to hold over Game Masters until then. Thankfully the book does include numerous bits of advice to help a new Game Master learn the ins and outs of not only running a campaign, but also running a Warhammer campaign.
Some favorite standards are there, like playing it fair, where you don't try to screw over one character, to keeping the pace brisk, to prevent boredom. Some adventure seeds are also included and some bits of adventure elements are noted. This is important because while it touches on things like the scope of the game and having a worthy foe for the characters, it mentions humor. This is a black humor game and setting but there are some things that are serious in the setting, but humorous outside it. Take the saying, "By Sigmar's Sausage." How can you not chuckle at that?
A few quibbles effect the book. The layout of information is a bit odd at times and the world is so rich in details and history, that sometimes words and phrases are thrown out that have no accompanying description so the reader really doesn't know what the author is talking about. Sometimes some big elements of the setting are so glossed over that a new player might be completely lost if he were to dip his toe into the massive world that is Warhammer.
For the most part, that elusiveness is not in the rules, but in a few places there've been online conversations talking about advancing from one career to the next because it's not precise in moving onto the next career.
Thankfully, there is a ton of web material out, in addition to a healthy line of fiction (with good and bad points to it), miniature games (Warmaster and Warhammer), and a lot of fans willing to share their stories and opinions.
Warhammer isn't for everyone. Those who must have black and white morality or who must have point generated characters where everything is balanced, will not like many aspects of this game. Those who want their characters to be shinning heroes who use magic like a master of all magic or who wield weapons without ever having to worry about losing limbs to critical hits will not like this game.
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay promises to be a fun game for those tired of semi-psuedo European settings where everything has the moral trappings of modern day values. For those tired of heroism and all its varied standards being touted about. It's perfect for those looking for quick character generation where the core book includes an adventure to get you and four friends started for a night. It's good reading.
-----------------
review sa www.rpg.net -a
Lurde, jednom si hteo od mene da kupis Orpheus RPG, i tad sam te odgovorio od toga. Mislim da je ovo pravi RPG za tebe. Cijena prava sitnica: $39.99
Imas na netu gde god hoces.
:cry: Hocu gamemastera za drugu ediciju!!!!!! Imam knjigu, volju i ekipu za igranje, samo nam gamemaster fali!
Bah, jos kad bih mogao da se setim kod koga mi je prva Warhammer knjizica... davno bese, ali su najvece izmene, cini mi se u magiji, po ostatku opisa ne vidim (tj ne secam se) da su napravili neke velike razlike. Nyarl, ako nabavis i bude se igralo, voleo bih, bar malo, da upotrebim kockice koje, vec par godina, samo skupljaju prasinu.
Nikol@, a sto neko, recimo ti, ne vodi?
Quote from: "Melkor"Bah, jos kad bih mogao da se setim kod koga mi je prva Warhammer knjizica... davno bese, ali su najvece izmene, cini mi se u magiji, po ostatku opisa ne vidim (tj ne secam se) da su napravili neke velike razlike. Nyarl, ako nabavis i bude se igralo, voleo bih, bar malo, da upotrebim kockice koje, vec par godina, samo skupljaju prasinu.
Nikol@, a sto neko, recimo ti, ne vodi?
A ja se lepo secam kod koga je moj Embrouz Birs. He, he... :wink:
A moj izakani Warhammer prvenac lepo ukoricen cuci na polici pored raskupusanog i pozutelog MERPa. Relikvije.
Da, upravo tako, koliko sam provalio i ja - jedine velike razlike su u magiji i u "zverinjaku"... a magijski sistemi su sigurno bili najslabija tacka starog Warhammera. Necu kupovati, sigurno, ali cu skinuti sken sa neta.
Sad sam nesto prepun snage i mozak mi bubri (odlucio sam da se bacim na duuuuzu apstinenciju od THCa), pa mozda opet sednem i skrpim neku ekipu za djuskanje. Ali, verujem da bi to onda 99% bio KULT... jedino me taj sistem moze vezati za sto da spravim i sredim kompletnu kampanju. Obecavao ekipi sa foruma i ranije pa nista, sad necu da obecavam - mozda bude neceg onda.
Quote from: "Nikol@":cry: Hocu gamemastera za drugu ediciju!!!!!! Imam knjigu, volju i ekipu za igranje, samo nam gamemaster fali!
Pljucni u prste, sinko, pa list po list - i bice od tebe gamemaster. Niko drugacije GM nije postao.