Welcome to the Old World - Warhammer Fantasy Role-play Explained

WELCOME BACK TO THE OLD WORLD.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP) takes you back to the Old World. Get the gang together, create your (anti)heroes, and set off to make your way through the vile corruption, scheming plotters and terrifying creatures intent on destruction. Prepare yourself for the struggle of the gutter, to fight for your survival, and to face corruption on all sides. Prepare yourself for danger, as lethal threats are everywhere, and you can’t face them alone. And, most of all, prepare yourself for the grim and perilous adventure of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay!

The fourth edition of the original dark fantasy roleplaying game, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay takes you back to the world where Chaos never sleeps. Drawing inspiration from the legendary early publications of the grimdark RPG, WFRP brings innovative twists to build on the beloved classic.

THE SETTING

The Empire of Karl Franz stretches from the Sea of Claws in the north to the Black Mountains in the south, and beyond that perilous range, the wild and untamed lands of the Border Princes. It is a beacon of civilisation in an untamed world. Sigmar, its founder, is now a god, his influence still shepherding his chosen peoples. From mighty Altdorf, all are fairly ruled, from the poorest citizen to the most luminous noble, each a proud heir to Sigmar’s glorious destiny.

That, at least, is what the child and the sycophant claim. The truth of life in the Empire is rarely glorious, often short, and never without peril. If you wish to climb out of the gutter, you better have the coin to pay for the privilege, or failing that, a blade to cut your way free. The Empire itself is a fractious mess, a handful of Great Provinces vying for power and always with a keen eye toward snatching any advantage from a neighbour. The nobility are witless hedonists, or scheming misanthropes, heedless of the suffering left in their wake. 

This cankerous state cannot go on, and indeed revolutionaries whisper of a better world. Some preach that ancient and terrible gods, the ruinous powers of Chaos, offer the only hope of change. They whisper sweet succor and velvet promises, embracing the witch, the mutant, and the heretic. Their secret plots and unseen deeds suffuse the Old World, and patiently they await that prophesied day when they will arise from their secret places and throw down the works of Man, and Elf, and Dwarf, to usher in a terrible age of Chaos.

From this tangle of political machinations, hidden cults, and foul ambition, a scant handful dare to hope for something more. Ordinary folk who refuse to accept their lot in life, who dare to hope for a better life. Whether by sword or by flame, by hidden betrayal or by tremulous sin, they mean to claim it. Most will perish, and a few will wish they had. The rest? Well…

There are no heroes here — only those with the mettle to survive and prosper. How will you fare in the Grim and Perilous Fantasy world of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay!

The world of Warhammer has a decades-long legacy of great games, spectacular storytelling, and awesome adventures. Our creative team are lifelong Warhammer fans and hobbyists — we haven’t just played all three previous editions of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, between us we’ve worked on many of them too! We love Warhammer, and hope it shows through the game.

So, stick a feather in your hennin hat, grab your zweihander, and unleash your small but vicious dog; it’s time to stand against Chaos — or at least put a few pfennigs in your pocket.

FREE ADVENTURES & RESOURCES

To get started, why not download some of our excellent free adventures? Ubersreik Adventures: If Looks Could Kill, written by Warhammer veteran Dave Allen, is designed with beginner Characters in mind, and concludes in the fortress-town Ubersreik, where the Characters’ adventures can continue with the WFRP Starter Set.

Download If Looks Could Kill from our webstore for free here or from DriveThruRPG here

Night of Blood is one of the most played WFRP scenarios of all time. It was originally written over thirty years ago by Jim Bambra for the game’s first edition and has been a firm fan favourite ever since. 

Download from our webstore for free here or from DriveThruRPG here. 

You can also download our handy free Conversion Tables for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay here. This document is a useful addition for any Grognard who wants to dust off a beloved Character and take them through a new adventure in the Old World, or for newer players who wish to delve into some of the earlier edition PDFs Cubicle 7 has made available!

Check out our free resource section here for character sheets and more!

THE SYSTEM 

WFRP provides a deep, flexible system that allows for fast paced combat without sacrificing detail. Armour covers specific hit locations only, and devastating critical hits can leave arteries severed, fingers mangled, and heads flying… A single roll system lets you know if you have hit, and how much damage you’ve achieved, with just one throw of the dice. The Advantage system lets you gain the upper hand against outmatched opponents, quickly bringing combat to a thrilling and satisfying conclusion.

Skill tests are quick and straightforward, with an intuitive percentile system giving you a quick pass/fail answer to Simple Tests. Dramatic and Opposed Tests allow you to test the degree of your success or failure, and compare that to an opponent to see which of you is victorious and by how much.

Magic in the Old World is pure, distilled Chaos, and it is an ever perilous pursuit. While the Channelling system allows a Wizard to gather their power for a devastating onslaught, all those who wield the Winds of Magic must remain wary of a Miscast that can result in unpredictable, bizarre, and potentially deadly effects.

OUR WFRP PRODUCTS

The Bad Moon rises, the Winds of Magic blow, and ears are turned by the murmurs of the ruinous powers… The Old World is famed for its originality and richness, and we’ve brought that to the fore. From our Starter Set, to the award winning Rulebook, the GM Screen, and the Enemy Within Campaign, there is something for everyone. We’ve highlighted a few titles below to get you started and you can find all the products on our webstore here. 

WARHAMMER FANTASY ROLEPLAY RULEBOOK – OUT NOW!

Our ENnie Award winning Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Rulebook contains everything you need for grim and perilous adventures in the Old World. The fourth edition of the original dark fantasy roleplaying game, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay takes you back to the world where Chaos never sleeps. Drawing inspiration from the legendary early publications of the grimdark RPG, WFRP brings innovative twists to build on the beloved classic. 

Order Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Rulebook from our webstore here and get the PDF straight away!

WFRP STARTER SET – OUT NOW! 

Our jam-packed WFRP Starter Set contains everything needed to bring the grim and perilous world of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay to life. Whether roleplaying for the first time or preparing for your next epic campaign! Check out this interview with Cubicle 7’s CEO Dominic McDowall as he talks you through everything that comes in the box set! 

The Starter Set includes over a hundred pages of adventures, rules, and setting, as well as maps, handouts, custom dice from Q WORKSHOP, Advantage tokens, rules references, ready-made Characters, a simple GM Screen, and more! The Adventure Book invites players of all experience levels into the rich, roleplaying playground of Ubersreik. Order the Starter Set from our webstore here.

ROUGH NIGHTS & HARD DAYS – OUT NOW!

Rough Nights & Hard Days offers five interlinked scenarios for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay written by series veteran Graeme Davis. These can be played as stand-alone adventures, or combined into an epic five-part campaign, where the Characters become embroiled in a bitter dispute between two of the Empire’s quarreling noble houses. 

Order Rough Nights & Hard Days from our webstore here and get the PDF straight away!

Enjoying Rough Nights & Hard Days? Have you read Graeme Davis’s series of blog posts on adventure hooks? You’ll find links to them all here. 

ENEMY IN SHADOWS – ENEMY WITHIN CAMPAIGN DIRECTOR’S CUT VOL. 1 – OUT NOW!

The Enemy Within is the revised and updated Director’s Cut of one of the most highly regarded roleplaying campaigns ever written. Enemy in Shadows presents the first part of the epic Enemy Within campaign, the five-part series of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplayadventures that inspired a generation of gamers. Enemy in Shadows is available to buy in local games stores and from our website here. We also created a beautifully finished, exclusive Collector’s Edition set that includes Enemy in Shadows and the Companion presented in a slipcase.

So, gather your heroes as you take them from humble beginnings as penniless adventurers to the halls of the great and powerful, where every decision can change the fate of the Empire! 

ENEMY IN SHADOWS COMPANION – OUT NOW!

The Enemy in Shadows Companion is an indispensable guide to the first part of the epic Enemy Within campaign! Packed with additional rules, optional NPCs, tantalising adventure hooks, and wise words of advice for new and veteran GMs alike. 

Order the Enemy in Shadows Companion here. 

WFRP GAMEMASTER’S SCREEN

Gamemaster’s Screen provides a succinct summary of WFRP’s important rules alongside an essential range of Gamemaster’s tools. With breathtaking artwork of the Old World’s festering cities on one side; important tables, references and rules on the other — the GM Screen is an ideal component to keep all your nefarious plans hidden from your players’ prying eyes. Accompanying the screen is the Gamemaster’s Guide, a 32-page booklet packed with practical tips, clever tricks and optional rules, and indispensable articles for GMs both new and old. 

Order the Gamemaster’s Screen here.

LOOKING FOR MORE?

To browse all of our WFRP releases check out our webstore hereDeath on the Reik, Volume 2 of the Enemy Within campaign is now available to pre-order here and the PDF for the Companion will be available soon! All orders include a PDF.

Death on the Reik carries on from where Enemy in Shadows left off, taking your unlikely heroes on a grand adventure up and down the remarkable Reik, the largest river in the Old World and trade route to the heart of the Empire.Death in the Reik includes a selection of ‘Grognard Boxes’ that add entirely new ways to play through the adventures, ensuring even those who have played the Enemy Withincampaign before will find Death on the Reik new and exciting.

Looking for more WFRP content, advice and information? You’ll find lots of blog posts and articles from the C7 team on adventure hooks, weapons, magic, and more  here. 

KEEP IN TOUCH!

We share regular updates via our social media pages, especially on #WarhammerWednesday, Why not check out our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages now and join the chat?

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