Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay

[Joose]

I went almost fully random generation for mine, and I'm quite pleased with the result. I would never have made that character myself, and he is certainly not optimally built (his most important stat for his career is one of his weakest), but he ended up quite interesting. The character questions bit I did myself, obviously.

[Roman Totale]

I'm halfway through mine, but it's wholly randomly generated so far - Elf mercenary with a penchant for the longbow.

[Dog Pants]

I've been thinking about why random gen works in this game where it's generally fairly unpopular. I think it's because your character doesn't start as what you want to to be, like in other games. Here you start as a nobody and work to become the character you want to be. It doesn't really matter what you start out as, you can cross careers until you get on the path you want. It's a sort of underdog fantasy.

[Joose]

I've been thinking about why random gen works in this game where it's generally fairly unpopular. I think it's because your character doesn't start as what you want to to be, like in other games. Here you start as a nobody and work to become the character you want to be. It doesn't really matter what you start out as, you can cross careers until you get on the path you want. It's a sort of underdog fantasy.

I think you are right, there. Most games start you off fairly badass, which can often be a problem in itself (for example: I find it really hard to pick things to upgrade in SLA as my characters tend to start off superawesome at what they do). This gives you a nobody and lets you turn them into someone interesting. Or, more likely, a corpse.

Its a neat idea that I might steal for Things™.

[Dog Pants]

It's looking like three and an NPC at the moment. I'd like another player, ideally, but I can kick off with that and see if anyone fancies it once it starts. Anyone else interested?

[buzzmong]

Sort of, I know *nothing* about original Warhammer though (outside of Blood Bowl :D), all my Warhammer knowledge is for 40k.

[Dog Pants]

There's probably enough to get by in the book. It's not too far detached from your typical fantasy setting, just darker and more Warhammer.

[FatherJack]

Sort of, I know *nothing* about original Warhammer though (outside of Blood Bowl :D), all my Warhammer knowledge is for 40k.

That's exactly the same for me, although I'm not actually that clued up on 40k beyond the computer games, either. Apart from the odd thing I recognise from 40k, like the word 'Lictor' popping up in both of them, a lot of the WHFRP background seems to be standard fantasy fare - elves are snobby, dwarves like beer and halfling's only religious festival is Pie Week. You probably know more than you think you do, just from Blood Bowl.

The main difference from D&D or Tolkien fantasy at first glance seems to be that because it's the same universe as 40k, it has the same concept of Chaos rather than 'evil', so you have to be a bit careful to not to say "I love a bit of chaos". I shall enjoy learning more about it as I play, though.

[Dog Pants]

Ho-kay, for those interested and who aren't familiar with Warhammer Fantasy, here's a brief rundown.

The world looks geographically similar to our own. Landmasses are the same size and rough shape, and the Old World in which most of the action takes place is the equivalent to Europe. Humanity dwells here in the highest concentration, and most are part of the Empire. The Empire is much like our very own Holy Roman Empire - i.e. German. That's why everything sounds German. There are other Human nations - Albion off the coast to the North, and the Northern barbarians (a lot of Chaos people come from here), Kislev wedged between the Empire and the great mountain range to the North East. Estalia, Brettonia, and Tilea all hang around the south, representing Spain, France, and Italy respectively. Wood Elves live in the forests among the Human lands, being pretty much their own nations by virtue of the fact that the Humans can never find them, and at any rate they're better than Goblins, who also dwell in the forests. Dwarves live under pretty much every mountain range but have been steadily losing ground to the greenskins for centuries in a never ending war of attrition. So they like to come out and hob-nob with the Humans, and since the Empire is based around a Dwarven religion (of sorts, Dwarves don't actually seem to worship it, but then they never talk about religion so who knows) they don't have a problem with that. The Halflings were given the Moot somewhere around where Slovakia would be for no apparent reason, possibly because they make nice pies.

So that's the good guys. The bad guys are a lot like WH40k. Goblins lurk about pretty much everywhere, Orcs live in the forests in small numbers, and in the wastelands past the mountains in large numbers. They still do WAAAGHs, and still talk like Millwall fans. The horses of Chaos also dwell past the mountains in the Chaos wastes. Here be beastmen, demons, and even nastier shit. People don't go there. Down in the south there are some swamps, then the deserts where the Khemri (mummies) live. Lots of nasty lives beneath the surface of the Empire too. Chaos pervades in secret, cults and pacts and conspiracies. The Skaven are stuff of urban legend, rat-men who worship their own spin-off Chaos god and who very much do exist. Across the water is the New World. Not many humans venture there, but the High Elves fucked off there a while back, and the Dark Elves live there polishing their bondage gear and hanging out with giant lizards. Lizardmen, Slann (big, one-eyed lizardmen), and amazons also come from over there.

From the point of view of the player characters, the Empire is pretty much the world. It's a standard medieval shithole where religious fanaticism rules, witch hunters search out unregistered wizards (and quite rightly, as they have a habit of attracting demons), and only the nobles and the rich aren't filthy and sick. Which would be a pretty good reason to be unimpressed by the Empire (and its holy Emperor Karl Franz), were it not for the fact that for the last year a huge army of Beastmen and Chaos gribblies has been on the rampage and destroyed half of it. They've just started being pushed back, thanks to some hitherto unknown descendant of the Imperial god turning up and putting a stop to it. That's all a bit political now. And as it turned out, not that I expect many who were there would admit to it, but in typical Warhammer style it was a fucking orc who flattened the Chaos leader, spouted some shite, then left again. I have no idea how that came about.

So there we have it. The characters find themselves in one of the recently liberated front line towns as the invading horde is driven back. It's wrecked, most of the population are dead, and so there's probably adventure to be had. Once we're ready to start I'll write a more elegant description of that situation.

[buzzmong]

Ooooh, alrighty then. I'll have a look at the character creator in a bit.

I assume there's a book that has been neatly placed on a handy shelf after someone carelessly dropped it on the floor?

[Dog Pants]

We're nothing if not tidy.

[HereComesPete]

Was the orc grimgor ironhide? I'm trying to recall all my warhammer knowledge, it's been a few years.

[Dog Pants]

Apparently, yep.

[Dog Pants]

Any more, or anything from Roman or Buzz? No pressure particularly, I just don't want to lose the small amount of momentum we have.

[TheJockGit]

I'd be up for this if you can send me a linky for the files.

Thanks Dogger.. got the link now.

[Roman Totale]

I'll be finishing mine this week.

[buzzmong]

I'll be finishing mine this week.

[Dog Pants]

We any closer? I'm ready to start as soon as we're done with character sheets.

[buzzmong]

Ooops, sorry, completely forgot to do it. Er, if you can wait, I'll knock one together tomorrow.

If you can't wait and want to get going, then start and don't worry about me.

[Dog Pants]

I can wait, no big rush.