Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, A History

Way back in 1974, DnD was released. You’ve heard of that right? I mean… who hasn’t? It’s possibly the most well-known title and product in RPG circles. Even if you have never played it, you will almost certainly be aware of its existence.

It has a long and reasonably distinguished reputation and has been in near continuous production ever since, currently enjoying its 5th edition, with its D20 mechanic having been used for many other settings and games since. Love it or hate it, it exists, and without it, we might not have any of the other countless games and systems we all enjoy today. (Heck, even Star Wars used D20 at one point!)

But there is another fantasy game, of nearly equal provenance and longevity. Originally published in 1986 by Games Workshop (a games company from that little rainy island on the far eastern reaches of the Atlantic Ocean), came Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay!

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP) – “A Grim world of perilous adventure” – was an extension of their (now replaced) tabletop miniatures wargame Warhammer Fantasy Battle (no points for originality there), and much like DnD, you could play humans, dwarves, elves or halflings, and set out on adventure to slay orcs and goblins and undead and… CHAOS!

The Chaos Gods (Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh, and Tzeentch), and the human gods (Sigmar, Ulric, Shallya and the rest), are a huge part of the flavour of the Warhammer setting; the background and in character histories of the nations and worship in Warhammer are integral to its popularity. Being both rich and detailed, but not so complicated as to be overwhelming, is what set Warhammer apart. The Old World (as it is known), is vaguely analogous to Europe, and if you looked at a map in one of the books, alongside a real world map, you’d see what I mean.

All the major nations got the same basic treatment, and anyone familiar with the setting will recognize the German, French, English, Russian, Italian and Spanish, basis for the various lands presented. Going so far in some supplements (not necessarily RP supplements), you can see Egypt and South America get similar treatment (although the Canadians are apparently the dastardly and despicable slave trading Dark Elves).

WFRP is a High Fantasy setting, where you can play many different types of magical users with plenty of risks to go with it, but the players are not expected to be the heroic saviours of the world; instead they are more commoners who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time (Peasant, Ratcatcher and Sewer Jack are all valid career choices). But you can also play valiant Knights, Powerful Wizards, or Pious Priests intent on rooting out corruption in the name of the Emperor, or a cutthroat bandit intent on stealing your way to prosperity.

Warhammer is a very particular setting, and benefited from a plethora of information on the various races and evils through the original miniature wargame it tied into, and with each new edition of an army book in that game, more detail was added to the overall world, meaning singular sourcebooks were not as important as they may be to other systems. Warhammer Fantasy Battle has since been replaced with a different game called Age of Sigmar, in which the Chaos has fully broken through to wage all-out war, and focuses far more on the Grand Heroes of the world, than the massed ranks of soldiers.

Mechanically, compared to D20, WFRP uses possibly one of the most straightforward systems you can find: D100. Every characteristic you has was somewhere between 1 and 100, and you simply have to roll a D100 (or 2D10s), and roll equal to or under your characteristic. Obviously, there are modifiers, but all they do is move the goalpost one way or the other.

WFRP has had a slightly chequered past. First published directly by Games Workshop, responsibilities were turned over to Flame Publications in 1989, but after 1992 nothing new was being produced. Then in 1995, (does anyone feel old yet?) Hogshead Publishing took over the roleplay license until 2002, when the company was sold and the license returned to Games Workshop.

The game continued with fan support and content until 2004 when GW announced the 2nd Edition, to be produced by their new in-house RPG department called Black Industries. With Green Ronin doing the publishing they produced a more streamlined version of the basic D100 mechanic. Familiar characteristics, skills, careers and talents were still there; the magic system was revamped entirely; the fat was cut away for a smoother experience, but it was immediately accessible to anyone who had played 1st edition, with very little reading.

All was good, the people were happy, the Chaos gods were kept at bay…until GW closed Black Industries in 2008 and the license (along with the 40k RPG), was taken on by Fantasy Flight Games. The fans breathed a sigh of relief, the game would continue! Huzzah!

FFG released two books for 2nd edition. And then replaced it with 3rd edition with an entirely new system; an early Narrative Dice System.

And many of the fans Lost. Their. Minds.

“How could this be?! Where is our D100?! How could you betray us?! You said you would keep it alive! And you’ve rendered all our books irrelevant! RAHH!” – and so the dark times for many began.

They crawled into their dark holes, and hissed at FFG while producing their own fan content, founding a burgeoning online community to support the 2nd Edders. I have to admit, I was a less vocal member of this party. I have since forgiven FFG, as the system went on to become the core of FFGs Star Wars line, and then Genesys, and I absolutely LOVE that system.

For this writer, I cannot attest to how good or bad 3rd Edition was, because I never bought into it. There seemed to be a lot of cards and tokens (something FFG does well), but it looked more like a board game than the RPG I had been used to, and since I had all the 1st and 2nd Edition books, I didn’t feel the need to buy an entirely new set of books, and all the associated bits that wouldn’t be compatible with everything I already had. So I looked elsewhere for my fix.

And then in 2014 FFG ended WFRP, they let it die a quiet death and in 2016 Games Workshop arrived to collect the corpse. Like a fallen soldier the license had returned home, and it was over.

We thought.

Clearly, GW had other ideas, for they had taken the remains of WFRP back to Blighty, and taken them to the necromancers of Cubicle 7, who used their magics and rituals, and in 2018 released WFRP 4th Edition.

Gone were the funky dice, the cards, and tokens of 3rd, and back from the dead was the old D100 system, but with similar tweaks and fettling that 2nd got after 1st.

And so it lives! Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay has returned to the world, and only time will tell if this resurrected being will stand the test of time. Will it capture a new audience in the face of countless other games and settings? Will its simple but solid mechanics have any chance against less binary systems like Genesys?

Watch this space.