Everyday Heroes and Villains: A Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st Edition Review

Cublicle 7 (John Sibbick)

While Dungeons & Dragons struggled with Satanic Panic driven controversy throughout the 80s, famous British wargaming property Warhammer took a very different approach. Published in 1986 by Games Workshop, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay invited players to explore "A grim world of perilous adventure." That doesn't even begin to describe the horror and bloodshed the system captures or the all too human adventurers that stands against certain destruction.

WFRP 1st edition was released while the mass combat game Warhammer Fantasy Battle was still in its early years. At that time, it was simply known as Warhammer and much of the game's background, rules, and identity was still in flux. Even three editions by that point, the game was an interesting mix of Roleplaying elements and more contemporary wargaming mechanics. WFRP 1st edition would end up bringing a lot of clarity to Warhammer Fantasy as a whole. Besides the wargame aspect, it also proved to be one of the most atmospheric RPG systems ever published and my all time favorite.

The usual Warhammer tropes are all in force in WFRP. Reality is poised to be destroyed by the extradimensional forces of Chaos, who take the shapes of gods and daemons. Besides the direct threat they pose, their plans have left mortals at each others throats. WFRP frames this conflict in a fantasy setting that's a mixture of real world history, Michael Moorcock's Elric series, Tolkien fantasy, Conan, and the other usual suspects.  

WFRP 1st edition was very much a setting driven game, with most of the background information is restricted to games set in the "Old World," which roughly conforms to Medieval Europe geographically and culturally. While the scope was somewhat limited, what they did cover was well explored both in and out of game.

This might not sound very original but what set WFRP apart from the rest was the presentation of these well worn inspirations. There's a strong punk atmosphere to early Warhammer, as traditional fantasy tropes were placed in a corrupted world that drew inspiration from Thatcher England and Cold War fears. Most importantly, WFRP 1st edition was all about playing the little guy. You didn't make heroes, you made characters who could be heroes.

That distinction makes all the difference in the world.

WFRP 1st edition is a game where no matter how strong or experience a character is, nearly anything can kill them: goblins, wild animals, carriage crashes. Meanwhile, the more supernatural threats and the corrupt institutions that rule over the Old World represent an ever greater danger.

The inherent risk of the setting is reflected in a rule set hellbent on tearing life and limb away from the characters. Most of the mechanics stem from a percentile system. For an action to succeed, a player just needs to roll a d100 die below the relevant characteristic, after difficulty modifiers (+10, -10, so on). Easy to learn, hard to actually pull off, much like the rest of the game.

A Twist of Fate

Cubicle 7 (Tony Ackland)

The way you build characters in WFRP is a major contributor to the overall lethality of the game. It's also my favorite part of this system. As I said before, you're making potential heroes. You start by picking one of the four available races, Human, Wood Elf, Dwarf, and Halfling. They're all what you expect.

I often hear people say Elves are too powerful in WFRP 1st edition. They certainly have some notable advantages compared to the other options but in my experience it doesn't matter much. Frankly any mechanical advantages are nullified by the unforgiving nature of the game and the setting's harsh cultural norms.
Elf Player Characters in my campaigns have their eyes gouged, bones shattered, and lives cut short just as much as anyone else.

Most importantly, they generate the least fate points of any species. Fate points are one of the few weapons player characters have against a world hellbent on their destruction. They can be spent to ignore a killing blow, representing that while they might not be legendary heroes, fortune has smiled on the adventurers in some way. However, fate points can never be restored, so players shouldn't test their luck.

After picking your species, you randomly generate your characteristics. Humans represent the "average," rolling 2D10 against a base of 20 to get their results. Despite having distinct mechanics, WFRP 1st edition does take a lot from the mass battle game it was meant to be somewhat compatible with. Most of the characteristics are taken directly from the wargame.

The two notable product of that approach are strength and toughness, which are single digits like in the wargame. There are some other clunky aspects, most notably certain characteristics that could be grouped together. In fact, they were merged in later editions, specifically the "Cool" and "Willpower" characteristics.

Players also randomly determine details like height and age. The latter has an actual mechanical purpose, as older characters have a chance to get more random skills at character creation. If your character is past a certain age though, they lose skills instead. 

Careers are the last part of WFRP's relatively simple character creation. Players get to pick one of four career classes: warrior, rogue, ranger, and scholar. After that, the players roll on the corresponding career charts, each with 17 different options. That's staggering for any game but they're pretty bare bones mechanically. Each career is little more than a modest set of characteristic advances, skills, and gear. However, the careers are also the most unique aspect of the system.

The Abnormal Lives of Normal People

Cubicle 7 (Tony Ackland)

In WFRP 1st edition, your starting career is meant to represent what your character was doing before they decided to slaughter mutants, orcs, and local nobility. Potential basic careers include herdsman, beggar, and pharmacist. If you're especially lucky you'll get the legendary ratcatcher, gifted with a resistance to disease and poison, as well as a "small but vicious dog."

There are more standard ones like thief, soldier, and mercenary, alongside some true oddballs, like hypnotist and excisemen. Warhammer's early emphasis on comedy is very apparent here, with gags like the Clint Eastwood-esque bounty hunter art and labourers starting with "Strong Herbal Tea."

While this system might seem restrictive to the modern roleplayer, it forms the core of WFRP 1st edition. The player forced into the roles of regular people and that means you have to get creative if they were hoping to fall back on just the usual RPG stereotypes. Players can spend hard earned experience points to switch to a prefered career but generally it's easier to accept what you end up with.

The largely random nature of the career system encourages players to get into the heads of their characters and figure out what's driving these largely normal people to start a life of adventure. You can go into a character with a story in mind but you have to make it work with the random career, which is in turn an extension of the larger setting. Few other games are forcing you to be a regular person and I don't think any of them pull it off as well as WFRP 1st edition.

The career descriptions draw directly into the widespread injustice at the heart of Warhammer, giving the player plenty of potential reasons why their character has abandoned the relative comfort of home. Often times they might not have a choice at all, as they find themselves on the wrong side of the law, even if they didn't make the "choice" to break from a broken system.

Even the entry for the noble career (financially gifted but lacking everywhere else) details how most are forced into the adventuring life by their cruel relatives, a taste of the mistreatment the more average career characters get from them on a daily basis.

Alternatively, they might be trying to escape a life of thankless toil and boredom, as is the case with the various "apprentice" careers. Or even just make some more money, as economic opportunities are hard fought in the Old World, upward mobility is almost unheard of, and the cost of living is often, well, your life.

More than Just a Job

Cubicle 7 (Tony Ackland)

 
The players immediately get a sense of the institutions and industries upholding these kingdoms and empires because until recently their characters were a part of them. That adds a sense of believably all the mechanics in the world can't replicate. The characters are more relatable this way, as their backgrounds, struggles, and goals are closer to our own, especially compared to what's offered in more traditional fantasy RPGs.

The career system also helps justify the difficulty. It's not surprising that characters have so much trouble in extraordinary circumstances when they've led mostly ordinary lives. Additionally, there's more options to try out when a character perishes, with the 68 different starting careers. The book says you can let more experienced players pick their careers but I find finding out your career randomly is half the fun.

In almost every version of Warhammer, the mortal characters stand against impossible odds, so they tend to be monstrous, alien, or superhuman to compensate. In WFRP, it's scribes, sailors, and poachers confronting unimaginable horror and endless corruption, adding to the sense of tragedy. Chances of victory become even slimmer, so the few triumphs feel truly earned.

Moving Up in the (Old) World

Cubicle 7 (Tony Ackland)

By that same merit, character progression also feels more genuine. Characters gaining "experience" after brushes with certain death doesn't just feel like an arbitrary mechanical advancement here. Player characters can eventually reach advanced careers, which are more in line with traditional RPG classes.

There are still some more novel ones, like lawyer, artillerist, and witch-hunter. Admittedly, I don't pay advanced careers much mind. The career rules are a little labyrinthine and the campaign either ends before they really come up or the characters' lives are cut short. You get through advance schemes slowly and players usually have to exhaust a few different careers to get the advance they want.

There are also fiddly rules where completing the advances of your current career isn't enough on its own. To enter a new career, a character needs to own the gear listed in a career before starting it and you don't get any advances or skills for free from a career you enter. That makes more sense for some careers than others, as I'm not sold that a character necessarily needs "D6 hats" to become a raconteur.

In addition to all these barriers, the rules stress that a character's progression should makes narrative sense, to compensate for how weird advancements can get. That's something I wish more systems engaged and frankly all Game masters should be doing that, regardless of their preferred system or play style.

Risks and Rewards. And More Risks.

Cubicle 7 (Tony Ackland)

Skills lack the nuance of the career system, which is admittedly the most developed aspect of WFRP 1st edition. The many skills function as bonuses or similar effects, things that would qualify as talents in most games, with a few representing more "traditional" skills.

While most skills add 10% to relevant checks or eliminate negative modifiers, a few represent very specialized knowledge. Surgery is the most obvious example and it's a very useful skill in such a dangerous system. Theology and hypnotism fall into similar categories, though they lack utility. Read/Write represents literate characters, something of a rarity in this setting. As superfluous as the skill system might feel, it at least helps alleviate the difficulty of the system and the random nature of character generation.

Unlike a lot of systems, most characters don't need to be "skilled" to accomplish a given task. However, it's more difficult than it would be for a specialized character. For activities like climbing mountains, riding horses, and driving carts, a risk test is used in place of a characteristic one. These base 50% checks inflict small amounts of damage upon failure.

Risk tests represent a variety of minor hazards, so that base 50% is modified depending on a variety of factors. It's a brutal approach to task resolution but it certainly simulates the setting well. It also creates a sense of difficulty out of combat without needing the characters to constantly fail at even the most basic tasks.

Non-risk tests typically involve just rolling against the relevant characteristics. A few of them, like the very useful dodge blow and the capricious gamble, have their own mechanics. Even some of the non-skill tests players will have to roll vary wildly and often require the GM to make them in secret.

Those hidden tests help hide how often players are likely to fail early on. However, it also puts a lot of the work onto the GM and they have to be mindful of whether it feels like everything is happening behind the scenes.

The way skills and tests work is where WFRP 1st Edition's mechanics really show their age. Relatively simple mechanics in modern RPGs are divided into a few different, overly complicated categories.

Game Master Guidance

Cubicle 7 (Tony Ackland)

There's more mechanics on the GM end, though most are optional. There are situational but useful mechanics covering the usual dangers: fire, disease, poison, swimming and whatnot. There's also a handy guide for determining overland travel times, determined using the movement characteristic.

More conventional is advice for writing out your own sessions, along with relevant rules like treasure tables, creating NPCs, and random creature encounters. It also details how experience points should be distributed. Most of it is pretty standard, fundamentally based on how many objectives the PCs actually fulfill. GMs are encouraged to reward good roleplaying, as part for the course.

Some good advice is also imparted, something not every system does. The writers encourage GMs to avoid causing competition or reward spotlight hogging behavior. It also gives substantial guidance on how fast characters should advance.

There's also some very Paranoia-esque advice to give individual players secret assignments with experience points as a reward. It might break up the action but it helps build characters as individuals instead of members of an ensemble cast.

GMs are also reminded that this needs to suit the players' needs. On that note, they also stress RPGs should be fun, inventiveness should be rewarded and GMs shouldn't constantly kill PCs with no hope of escape, lest they run out of players.

The Alignment Problem

Cubicle 7 (Tony Ackland)

There are some very basic adventure ideas. Most are pretty vague without being very inspiring. Most of them involve the PCs looting temples, assassinating, kidnapping or otherwise just making a mess of things. It definitely reflects how PCs don't have to be shining heroes, even if they aren't serving Chaos.

That makes the inclusion of an alignment system even more confusing. Warhammer Fantasy would get even more "grimdark" as years went on but even here it's difficult to describe WFRP as being a game about "Good vs Evil." The alignments are the standard, lawful, good, neutral, evil, and chaotic.

The last two categories are definitely more relevant, considering all the pawns of Chaos players find themselves up against. But even before the "Order" factions received more flaws, I struggle to apply any of these alignments to them aside from the nebulous neutral.

Overall, it feels like a bad fit for WFRP 1st edition, where such restrictive categories feel even more inappropriate for the wide array of backgrounds available to a character. It's one of the elements that harken back to WFRP's original purpose as a competitor to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

The holdovers from that vision, like the alignment system, conflict with the gothic, story driven system the rest of the book establishes. It's especially ironic when you consider 1st edition writer Graeme Davis said the writing team intended to make WFRP the "anti-D&D." Drawing on their backgrounds in archaeology and military history, they set out to make a fantasy setting that wasn't populated by superheroes or "people who still have all their original teeth." They certainly succeeded in that regard, despite oddities like the alignment system.

Swordwind

Cubicle 7 (John Blanche)

As you've probably guessed, there are plenty of ways to die in WFRP 1st edition. It'll mostly happen in combat, the part of WFRP 1st edition that takes the most from its wargaming heritage. The basic principals are recognizable to most RPG players. Combat is divided into rounds, in which every character is allotted a single action.

Initiative is determined by the initiative characteristic. Actual combat is a matter of rolling beneath your weapon skill or ballistic skill depending on the nature of the weapon. Damage is determined by rolling a D6, plus the attackers strength and the defender's toughness. Projectiles have a set strength instead. Any roll of 6 for damage triggers a critical hit, which can lead to additional hits depending on if they pass a weapon skill check for each 6 rolled.

There's some more complexity than that but it rarely gets more complicated than this. There are some rules meant for miniature based combat involving facing but these can be entirely ignored. Similarly, rules for mounted combat and flying combatants are succinct but rarely come up. Like too many other RPGs, there are barely coherent but thankfully brief grappling rules.

Most of the complexity comes from the various bonuses and penalties you can gather, based on things like elevation and relevant skills. One of the more notable elements is the concept of "winning combats," a convention from the wargame. A character or creature that deals the more damage than their opponent counts as "winning," which grants them a +10 next round and a chance to escape without retaliation as their adversary stumbles back.

To keep in line with the wargame the weapon and armor list is short and tame compared to similar systems. Most basic weaponry, swords, axes and maces, falls under the broad category of "hand weapon." There are profiles for knives, spears, two handed swords and other more "specialized" weapons. It's not a lot to keep track of. Personally I'm not the biggest gearhead when it comes to RPGs, so I appreciate how WFRP 1st edition restricts itself to the bare essentials.

There's not much else to the combat besides that and even by the standards of older systems this might all seem pretty tame. But the real fun comes with the critical hit chart.

Farewell to Arms

Cubicle 7 (Tony Ackland)

In WFRP, Every hit will strike one of four areas of the body (heads, arms, legs, chest). Weirder monsters get their own charts. Usually hit locations only come up for armor but once a creature rreaches zero wounds, it becomes very important. Attacks that blow past a  remaining wounds prompt a roll on the critical hit chart with a D100. Obviously strong blows have a better chance of killing a character but even going 1 wound over can devastate anyone.

Most of the results are incredibly gruesome, going into graphic detail about the fates that befall the character. The mechanical effects on the chart are pretty nasty as well, higher results see characters lose various body parts, assuming they weren't killed instantly.

The critical hits are incredibly over the top and make every combat memorable, ensuring that the end of every combat is decisive. My personal favorite is the maximum result for the head chart: "Your opponent's head flies off in a random direction, landing 2D6 feet away."

Defense becomes even more important in light of that but its hard to come by. Armor is unimpressive in this game, even if you stack it, so it falls to specialized skills like "Dodge" to help increase your survivability. Characters can sacrifice one or all of their attacks to try and parry a blow but besides leaving them disadvantaged it also only blocks a fraction of the damage.

The simplicity of this system works well with WFRP 1st edition's atmosphere driven stories. When combat does happen, it tends to be short and brutal. It's also lethal enough to discourage "murderhobo" behavior, as needlessly starting fights is a great way to lose an arm. However, it does have a serious issue with "whiffing," in which there multiple rounds happen where both combatants struggle to hit each other. Game masters will have to figure that one out on their own, unfortunately.

Medic!

Cubicle 7

Healing times are almost as severe as the injuries themselves. Lightly wounded characters only heal 1 wound per day. Characters with less than 2 wounds or any critical hits need medical attention before they can even start to recover normally.

That wait time can be shortened with medical intervention, but it takes a while to get better regardless of the circumstances. Critical hit effects like terminal bleeding and limb damage also require immediate medical tests, which if failed can lead to losing an arm or dying outright.

If you play the healing rules as written, characters spend a lot of time bed ridden for days or even weeks of in game time. It really hammers home the tone of the system but it precludes proper "dungeon crawling," as PCs regularly find themselves hobbling back to civilization to survive. It's unforgiving but like the rest of combat, it gives players and GMs an incentive to explore the setting instead of mindlessly seeking out new foes.

Needlessly Obscure Arcanum

 

Cubicle 7 (Tony Ackland)

The magic system of WFRP 1st edition is unfortunately the weakest part of the game. The mechanics don't work very well, even if the actual spells are easy to pull off. Casting magic leaves the user vulnerable in combat, but otherwise only drains their magic points. The only person who has to roll anything is the target, who tests against their will power to resist the spell's effects. Of course, that doesn't help in the case of physically manifested spells like fireballs.

The problems come from how you acquire spells. Warhammer Fantasy is difficult to fit into the (admittedly reductive) low/high magic paradigm. Mainly because while the world is suffering from an excess of magic, it's still an alien, unknown force to most. To represent this and maintain some semblance of game balance, the only magic using starting classes are initiates or apprentice wizards, who have access to meager abilities.

In addition to completing careers like every other character, magic users also have to go out and actually learn spells from a wizard or spellbook. After that, they have to test against intelligence to see if any of it sticks. If they fail the test, they can try again but not from the same source, so they have to earch elsewhere.

To actually raise their capacity for more spells, PCs also have to complete the same advance scheme multiple times to go up a Level (1 to 4). There's a long list of spells and most of them are useful and entertaining. The later ones get very powerful. But it doesn't justify the drudgery of playing a wizard.

Regardless of your particular breed of spell caster, whether their powers are standard, alchemical religious, or even forbidden, they all have to go through this convoluted process. Additionally, each variety of magic user comes with their own set of headache inducing restrictions.

Regardless of the specifics, the whole system just doesn't work that well. It's needlessly complicated and require far more bookkeeping and effort than any mundane career. Spells are useful but characters are still just as vulnerable as anyone else.

Additionally, I feel like wizards don't really mesh with the rest of the game's dynamics or tone. Other characters can gain improved skills and positions in society but that's still a far cry from magical powers, even if WFRP 1st edition's abilities are fairly tame and come with a huge price. I've thankfully never had players that have rolled a magic using class or gone through the effort of advancing into one.

Rules are also provided for magical items, ranging from potions, armor, amulets, and weaponry. While these are a huge part of the wargame, once again I feel they clash with how average most WFRP characters are. Even so, they have less baggage than magic users and logically PCs should encounter them eventually. WFRP 1st edition gives you solid mechanics to make your own, my favorite being the very Elric-esque detail that magic weapons have to let someone pick them up.

It's unfortunate that magic is such a mess in WFRP 1st edition and this is one of the only parts of the system that's genuinely not worth the trouble. At least the art in this section is entertaining.

A Pantheon Out to Get You

Cubicle 7 (Tony Ackland)

In line with the superstitious inhabitants of the world, WFRP 1st edition dedicates a whole chapter to "Religion & Belief." Besides detailing the more common gods, it also explains how faith actually works in most Old World societies. In an pre-industrial setting riddled with supernatural entities, people take the divine very seriously and don't take well to characters who disrespect any god.

The section fleshes out the nine most worshiped gods of the Old World. There aren't any particularly novel ones, though their inspirations are an interesting  mix of Greek mythology and European folklore. Even so, a lot of care is put into establishing each god's personality, the disposition of their worshippers, and their areas of influence. This section also throws in a few curve balls, as the antiquated "savage" war god Ulric has the most stringent requirements for his followers.

More minor deities are described, though in less detail than the rest. This was before the non-human pantheons were established and that's apparent from how each non-human playable species only gets one god. Long time Warhammer fans might find some of it strange, especially since the Empire's resident deity Sigmar is given a single paragraph.

The last deities described are the iconic Gods of Chaos- and the later forgotten Gods of Law. Warhammer's early inspirations are very apparent in this book and this part reflects how much of Fantasy's cosmology was taken from the Elric series. The Chaos Gods are fairly undeveloped at this point, to the point that only three are listed. Nurgle, Khorne, and Malal.

If that last name sounds unfamiliar even to Warhammer fans, that's because legal issues caused Malal, the embodiment Chaos' self destructive nature, to be made essentially non-canon. Slaanesh and Tzeentch weren't even introduced to the game until the legendary Realm of Chaos books. It's quaint to see such a cornerstone of the franchise in such an early stage.

While the Chaos Gods' meddling is prominent in every version of Warhammer, whether the other deities actually existed would be questionable in later editions. In WFRP 1st edition, all the gods are able to physically manifest in the Old World or more commonly curse those who displease them. Asking for divine intervention might be a character's only recourse for the ailments and challenges they face, though even the most benevolent of them expects something in return.

I tend to keep the gods distant in my game, even if players constantly have to deal with their followers. Even so, the attention to building a coherent setting in this section shows what made WFRP initially successful and still so notable. Even if it's derivative, the setting and social dynamics of WFRP were far more developed than its peers, leaving GMs plenty to work with to make their adventures feel substantial.

Attempts at Monster Hunting

Cubicle 7 (Tony Ackland)

Even more in depth than the Faith & Belief chapter is the bestiary. Here GMs can populate their stories with horrific monstrosities out to kill the players and even characters to assist the players. While the stat blocks offered are helpful, more interesting are the descriptions, which further flesh out the setting.  Particularly comical is the entry for Ogres, which goes into detail about how their boundless hunger has informed everything from combat to diplomatic relations.

The D&D influence is once again apparent, especially for the more monstrous foes. Manticores, griffons, wyverns and the like all make showings, along with Gygaxian (and subsequently forgotten) oddballs like Chameoleechs and Doppelgangers. The former group at least consists of creatures that make strong showings as mounts in the wargame.

That being said I rarely set any monsters against my players, as they can easily pulp an entire party of experienced adventurers. This is not a system built for monster hunting and humans will give your party enough trouble that a GM doesn't have to bombard them with wyverns and basilisks.

The rest of the creatures are conventional animals, alongside usual fantasy or Warhammer staples. You have the many kinds of orcs and goblins, the mutant ratmen Skaven, and the fearsome warriors of Chaos. Some of the more infamous "Oldhammer" creatures make a showing, namely gnomes, fimir, and zoats. A whole section is given to a variety of undead, each one more durable than the last until you reach nigh-indestructible vampires.

The bestiary finishes up with demons, who are closer to their biblical and tolkien inspirations than the more modern, god-specific variations. It's specified that demons can belong to any god, as unsurprisingly there are no angels in Warhammer Fantasy. 

Like monsters, Demons are a little much for PCs to deal with, especially the larger ones. Usually I find lesser demons are more than enough of a challenge, as I struggle to visualize a traditional WFRP campaign where players can kill something like a Greater Demon through conventional combat. Of course their apocalyptic arrivals can make great story beats, which was put to great use in the adventure book Shadows Over Bogenhafen.

WFRP, like most Games Workshop products, was intended to help push a constantly growing miniature range. You definitely get that impression from the bestiary, which has an odd assortment of creatures, most of which rarely come up in the standard intrigue-driven WFRP adventure. Published adventures, particularly the famous Enemy Within, focused more on the evil that men do than any one monster conveniently represented by a £5 lead miniature.

Ancient History

Cubicle 7 (Tony Ackland)

By the time newcomers reach the World Guide chapter, they shoul have a good sense of the setting. Here, most of the remaining mysteries are cleared up and a few new ones are brought into the fray. It's also where the game's winning marriage between oppressive bleakness and dark humor is given proper attention.

For its derivative nature, Warhammer's "creation myth" shows how the hodgepodge of influences make it something unique. In a unreserved science fiction driven approach, Warhammer's timeline starts with the Old Slann, Aztec themed toad aliens, building interdimensional gates throughout the world. From there, they start terraforming the surface and altering the prehistoric ancestors of the "present day" species.

Much of the Slann's motivations and even nature are left ambiguous but the outcome is explicit. Something causes the warp gates to collapse, tearing holes in the fabric of reality. This topples the Slann's powers and allows the Chaos gods and other extradimensional entities to infest a world long denied to them. While later editions would be more outwardly dark, the lot of the Warhammer World was abundantly clear even here. No matter what, Chaos was eventually going to win, dooming even their creations to be conumed in the world's death throes.

Chaos' inevitable triumph defines the setting, specifically the slow process that will bring the world to that point. Chaos' influence is everywhere, through obvious manifestations like mutation, cults, and rampaging armies to more insidious forces. Entire species, namely Beastmen and the Skaven, owe their existence to the warping powers of the Chaos gods. Not everyone serve the dark powers but they've wormed their way into everything. An interesting angle that gets later sidelined is how chaos has corrupted the mindsets of every species, encouraging their worst behaviors.

An interesting concept introduced here is that Chaos' influence is responsible for humanity's development. Dwarves and Elves are more resistant to mutation and worshiping the Chaos powers but they're also sliding towards extinction. Meanwhile, humans are more adaptable and innovative, partially because Chaos has such an easy time swaying their emotions. In WFRP 1st edition, even the devil can bring some good to a damned world, showing a complexity absent from later Warhammer titles.

The Geography Lesson

Cubicle 7

After that, the less cosmic parts of the setting's history are fleshed out. A civil war splits the elves, their Old World colonies are abandoned after a conflictwith the dwarfs, and the dwarfs themselves are laid low by natural disasters followed by constant invasions. As those two species waste way, humanity starts to gain traction. In the Old World's distant pass, the legendary warrior chief Sigmar unites scattered tribes against occupying goblins, forming the Empire after his triumph and later deified once he disappears.

After a few millennia of Chaos incursions and civil wars, we reach the present day. Elves and Dwarfs stand on the brink of destruction, while an ascendant humanity succumbs to the taint of Chaos. A few centuries out of the fractious "Age of Three Emperors," the Empire has now resembles the Holy Roman Empire during the late medieval/early Renaissance, a fragmented collection of provinces and city-states. While no longer at war with itself (for the most part,) they now face extreme corruption, mortal as well as supernatural.

While the Empire gets the lion share of the focus as the main human faction, the other countries of the Old World get some attention. Despite the brief descriptions, some areas get more development now than they will for the next 30 years. Like every other human faction they're modeled after real world countries (Tilea is Italy, Kislev is Russia, Estalia is Spain, etc.) though not every European country is covered.

One thing Warhammer Fantasy has always benefited from is a remarkable consistency over the decades. Other than some spelling changes and additions, most of this information has remained unchanged over the years. While each edition of the game has a different tone and approach, WFRP 1st edition marked the point at which the foundations were properly established.

The major departure is Bretonnia, which is completely unrecognizable. Instead of the Arthurian inspired kingdom built on a lie, it draws from pre-Revolutionary France, as decadent nobles ignore the squalor their subjects live in and the taint of Chaos. With no shining knights to offset their usual massive oppression, Bretonnians refuse to confront or even acknowledge their fate.

This version of Bretonnia works much better with WFRP 1st edition's themes of inescapable corruption and its commentary on Thatcher England (more apparent in the Enemy Within campaign). Even then, the later, King Arthur inspired version is too important to the franchise for me to ignore it in my own games.

Besides establishing the Old World, WFRP 1st edition's identity comes into shape here. Chaos is everywhere, people suffer under cruel rulers, but there's still hope. Even with so many threats, people's lives have improved overs the years. Chaos' ultimate vicory can't be truly stopped but it can be delayed. The way player characters make the best of a bad situation reflects how the setting itself is defined by a refusal to give into certain doom. They'll manage to make some sort of difference along the way, hopefully for the better.

On the Road Again

Cubicle 7 (Tony Ackland)

While WFRP 1st edition covers an entire continent in an admittedly broad brush, there's still a lot for a GM to work with. Besides the important contextual information, there's enough to get a sense of what distinguishes each country from their neighbors and their cultural dynamics. There's also a lot of good adventure ideas buried in the descriptions of various cities, provinces and even rivers.

The section ends with a guide covering how players actually get around the Old World. A lot of content is provided, from the various transportation services to mechanics for generating the settlements surrounding cities and major rivers. This brings in rules for boats and carriages in combat, though they're simplistic. There are also maps and details for locales PCs might encounter, like inns, temples, and toll houses.

On top of that there are guides for handling languages, currency, hirelings, and purchasing conventional services. Overall, GMs are given more than enough to actually build the Old World in a coherent way and give the PCs' journey more complexity than moving from point A to B.

The setting guide is one of the most developed sections of the book at a little less than 38 pages, mainly because it prioritizes quality over quantity. WFRP gained notoriety for introducing a setting that was well developed and convincingly represented through the mechanics. It doesn't matter to me how obvious the inspirations are because the book does a far better job explaining it to me than systems with more "original," less vivid settings.

Fine Print

Cubicle 7 (Tony Ackland)

WFRP 1st edition would produce some of the best adventurers ever published but unfortunately the one contained in this book is a little weak. The Oldenhaller Contract sees the adventurers retrieving a magic gem for a noble, leading them into trouble with a cult. I think the opening sequence is very strong but I'm also a big fan of its setting, Nuln, the industrial center and former capital of the Empire.

It's an entertaining sequence of events that sees the adventurers encounter all sorts of trouble, from thieves and seedy inns. It gives the players a good sense of what the rest of the world has in store from them. They'll be running into trouble long before they have to fight anything extraordinary. Their trip to the Reik platz, an ancient tree that's become a hiring post for the adventurers that mob Nuln, is also very atmospheric.

Unfortunately the scenario loses a lot of steam once the players encounter Oldenhaller. Working with the nobility is in stark contrast with later published adventures. The series of basements and mines the players go through also feels a bit too D&D for my tastes and don't have much opportunity for roleplay.

The cultists they eventually encounter can end up summoning a Beast of Nurgle. That's cruel even for me, considering it can give the players the nastiest diseases in a game full of them, Nurgle's Rot. This problem and every other are small but they add up. Unfortunately the adventure doesn't mesh with the best parts of WFRP 1st edition, to the point where I rarely run it.

The art for The Oldenhaller Contract is far better than the actual adventure, providing enough to give a better sense of the characters' personalities and short vignettes that give the scenario a strangely cinematic feel.

Illuminations

Cubicle 7 (John Blanche)

WFRP 1st edition benefits from some very strong art direction throughout the book. The vast majority is done by Tony Ackland, who's style is very restrained but a perfect fit for this game. Some other Warhammer staples also make contributions, Dave Andrews, Colin Dixon, John Sibbick, Jes Goodwin, and John Blanche.

The art can seem antiquated in terms of technique as well as subject. However, all of it gets the job done and conveys the tone WFRP 1st edition. The art largely focuses on the mundane nature of most characters and creates a strong contrast with the fantasy elements. Even then, the two aspects still feel natural next to each other.

Even if the quality can fluctuate, the atmosphere is consistent and overpowering. There's also a good sense of humor to it, as best shown by the art for the torture skill being a feather tickling a shackled foot. Modern games might benefit from a wide variety of artists and techniques but they almost entirely lack the personality and consistency you get from older books like WFRP 1st edition. The art actually contributes to the setting and mechanics described in the text, something I wish more contemporary games did.

That being said, there is some genuinely great art in this book. Blanche's art was a little more conventional at this stage but was still exploding with personality and strange influences. A flying ship with Jesus Christ on the sail doesn't really make sense in this setting but in some way still feels quintessentially Warhammer. That perplexing, hard to place aspect of his art is what has made him one of my favorite tabletop game artists.

Final Thoughts

Cubicle 7 (Tony Ackland)

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st edition is a product of its time and its hard to overlook that. And that goes for more than just the mechanics. Some of the language, particularly the few passages describing the non-European inspired humans, is uncomfortably dated or outright ignorant, as are some of the tropes.

The gender representation is lacking as well but considering when it came out that's not exactly surprising. Unfortunately, that's something Warhammer's many variants are still figuring out. While this book is lacking in that regard, it doesn't do as badly as some later Warhammer works. WFRP also never gets close to anything as unfortunate as AD&D's gendered characteristic limits.

The time period and larger context of WFRP's release doesn't completely excuse these issues but that at least puts it in perspective. RPGs are still struggling with all these problems and WFRP 1st edition had its heart in the right place. It depicts a horribly flawed, unjust world. In doing so it can come off as ignorant in places but the game does so to try and condemn issues in our own world.

At the end of the day, WFRP 1st edition is about playing relatively normal people in a well-developed fantasy setting, a fundamnetally unfair, doomed world. That's what makes me keep coming back to this game, there's true humanity beneath the ultraviolence and otherworldly horror. It's not perfect but it's still my favorite RPG because it can maintain that balance, even after all these years.