Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Unfocused Thoughts After Skimming WFRP 1e

Today was the first day I was able to look over the new copy of WFRP 1e I got for $5 off of amazon.  I've only previously dealt with 2e -- which I love -- and I believe someone on G+ wanted me to say what I thought about 1e once I got it.  I've only skimmed it a bit at this point, so here are the things I noticed just flipping through the pages.

  • Holy shit! This is awesome!
  • There doesn't seem to be the same kind of unified mechanic that exists in 2e, which kind of saddens me.
  • The monster list is much more robust than the one found in 2e's corebook.  
  • Wait... WFRP rules for random encounters and treasure? I'm in love.  Does anyone know if they port over well to 2e?
  • There's a lot of... stuff in here.
  • The more I look at it, the angrier I get at my 2e book.  I think I like 2e's system better, but the amount of material in 1e makes 2e look like crippleware.
  • The art ranges from mediocre to evocative, and I absolutely love the cover.
  • There's a Jabberwock on the monster list.  I approve.
  • There's also an entry for boars.  Some may find this boring, but boars are fucking mean.
  • I like how the careers are divided up into types.  SBVD does this too, and I may make new tables for 2e that incorporate the materials from those two games.
  • There is a certain irony in the fact that my copy of 1e is less beat up than my copy of 2e; however, since it's a softcover I doubt that will last long.
  • There is a lot more info on the different states in the Old World.  It'll be interesting to read over Bretonnia to see how it's different.  From what I've heard, I think I'll enjoy the 2e version better.
  • Alignment?!
  • The organization seems a bit... off, but it's nowhere near as bad as the DMG.
That's it for now.  I'll make a more complete report after reading through it some more.

12 comments:

  1. The more I look at it, the angrier I get at my 2e book. I think I like 2e's system better, but the amount of material in 1e makes 2e look like crippleware.

    That's why I didn't look twice at 2e...

    There is a certain irony in the fact that my copy of 1e is less beat up than my copy of 2e; however, since it's a softcover I doubt that will last long.

    Hardcover bindings are rarely tough enough on gamebooks to survive more than reading.

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  2. That's why I didn't look twice at 2e...

    I find the actual mechanics to be complete perfection, though I haven't actually appraised 1e's yet.

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  3. I feel like the early GW products were like HOLY FUCK WE'RE PUNK ROCK LOOK AT OUR GAME!!!

    and the later ones were more

    'Note to subscribers: we made the wound mechanic less complicated and made dwarves an inch taller, give us cash'

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  4. There was a time in my gaming life when I thought of most of Games Workshop's (RPG) products as the holy grails of gaming. (Their Stormbringer HC, Griffin Island HC, Paranoia HC, even their Judge Dredd box.)
    And WHFRP1 was the pinnacle of that. Chaotic organization aside, this is a complete game in one book, rules, setting, monsters, starting adventure, and all. I am only sad that I missed the first HC edition! One of my players had it, and it made a nice THUD on the table.

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  5. If you ever have a spare 13 hours and feel like scanning something.. a nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat.

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  6. I'm a long-time WFRP fan, and was alone in my circle of IRL gamers in not liking 2e. Some of the 2e rules changes were kind of cool, but 1e worked just fine. There were supposedly problems like "naked dwarf syndrome" and advanced combat characters being too powerful, but few people ever wanted to run a Dwarf in an Empire game and aiming for invincibility in old WFRP is a completely nonsensical goal.

    If you can deal with and enjoy the baroque rules bugfuckery of AD&D 1e, then WFRP 1e should be a breeze. You can play a great game with just the core book and nothing else. And it has Fimir.

    What I really didn't like was the shift in canon from the grotty 1e Old World to the miniatures game setting. It wouldn't be a huge problem - you could just handwave it away and use the old setting - if they hadn't tied the magic system to the godawful "Colleges." I finally decided to hell with it, if I was going to have to retool the spell lists and refer players to the old canon, I may as well just use the old book.

    I know it's a matter of personal taste, but I can't heap enough revulsion on the setting change. I like my Emperor as a doddering idiot, my Brettonia as an irredeemable cesspool, and my conspiracies byzantine and hidden, just like real life, thank you.

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  7. The more I look at it, the angrier I get at my 2e book. I think I like 2e's system better, but the amount of material in 1e makes 2e look like crippleware.

    Yep, me too. I like what they did with the system -- magic in particular -- in second edition but in terms of content and attitude, the first edition is so much better.

    Also, this is absolutely true:

    If you can deal with and enjoy the baroque rules bugfuckery of AD&D 1e, then WFRP 1e should be a breeze. You can play a great game with just the core book and nothing else. And it has Fimir.

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  8. Is there an implied time difference or sequence of events between the wfrp1 setting and the warhammer battles minis setting? Or are they just different?

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  9. If you can deal with and enjoy the baroque rules bugfuckery of AD&D 1e, then WFRP 1e should be a breeze.

    I should note that my brief period running AD&D was more or less B/X with a few AD&D things ported over. Still, I get your point.

    I know it's a matter of personal taste, but I can't heap enough revulsion on the setting change. I like my Emperor as a doddering idiot, my Brettonia as an irredeemable cesspool, and my conspiracies byzantine and hidden, just like real life, thank you.

    I really don't like the Storm of Chaos nonsense. I like the idea of Bretonnia being stuck in the 14th century, but and I thought the 2e Bretonnia book did a good job making it a 14th century cesspool.

    The Emperor could be a bit more doddering. I tend to think of him as something like this:

    http://www.artsunlight.com/NN/N-R0009/N-R0009-007-man-in-a-golden-helmet.jpg

    A bit gussied up, but ultimately just a senile old man.

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  10. Yep, me too. I like what they did with the system -- magic in particular -- in second edition but in terms of content and attitude, the first edition is so much better.

    Yeah, I rather liked the magic system -- especially when you add the extended stuff from Realms of Chaos.

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  11. Is there an implied time difference or sequence of events between the wfrp1 setting and the warhammer battles minis setting?

    The WFB setting hanged pretty significantly after the publication of WFRP. Bretonnia went from being on about the same tech level as the Empire to being the more chivalric state familiar to current players. The first edition of WFB I ever saw had the Bretonnians in the box set, and they were knight-guys so I never thought they should be any other way.

    The 2e of WFRP ties the game into the Storm of Chaos miniature event that was going on at the time that most everyone has forgotten about. It turns the Empire into almost a post-apocalyptic setting, and it's pretty stupid. I like the rules though.

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  12. General Comment: I'm pretty sure I'm going to do a "cover to cover" of WFRP 1e to both see how I like it and to make sure I get a good sense of what's inside. Expect that to start either next week or after the new year.

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