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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set Review

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I thought it was about time to write up my Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set Review.

I got the starter set for the 4th edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay a while ago and gave it a read at the time, but there is nothing like using the materials to actually get a good idea of how good they are and what they contain. Having now run most of the main adventures from the Adventure Book using a mix of pregen and rolled up PCs, and I have also started using the Ubersreik material to plan out a sandbox campaign, so I now have a good enough understanding to provide a reasonable review for others.

What’s in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set?

First let’s see what you actually get! This is from Cubicle7’s site:

With 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, this boxed set is the perfect starting point for anyone interested in WFRP.

The Adventure Book invites players of all experience levels into the rich, roleplaying playground of Ubersreik. For beginners, the starter adventure, Making the Rounds, introduces the harsh realities of life in the troubled fortress-town and takes you step-by-step through the rules. For more experienced hands, there are 10 scenarios aimed to expand your WFRP games, offering new locations, new characters, and new horrors to uncover. Coming in at 40 pages, The Adventure Book is the ideal launching point for any new campaign, and can keep your WFRP group busy for several months.

The 64-page A Guide to Ubersreik highlights the bloody history and recent invasion of Ubersreik, examines more than 70 locations in the troubled town, details the surrounding fiefdoms, and introduces a wide array of antagonist cults at large in the area. In addition, each entry comes with two adventure hooks, meaning every location, character, and political pitfall the book presents has examples of how to use them on your games of WFRP.

The quality of the materials is great. The dice are very useful and well designed, and the punch out Advantage Tokens are a must for this game. You can also use the box lids as a makeshift GMs screen – they have a map and some basic rules on the inside. Also there are some useful handouts for players: rumours, basic info on how to play, information about the Empire, which is good if players are new to Warhammer, and also a players and GMs map of Ubersreik and the surrounding area.

The Adventure Book

The Adventure Book contains introductory adventures to get your party started if you are new to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, or roleplaying in general. The first part of it involves the PCs getting involved in a big fight, which provides a great way to introduce some of the basic combat rules. They are then accused of a crime they did not commit (in true WFRP fashion!) and are press-ganged into joining the Ubersreik Watch. After that a number of adventures are presented that the PCs can get involved in. There’s no particular order to these, but the idea is to start of with some fairly minor events and then gradually increase the complexity and threat. There’s quite a lot of opportunity for GMs to treat this as a sandbox. I was a little disappointed with this as I would have thought that a new GM might want something a bit more structured. I thought that with the intriguing political situation, the PCs would be thrust into a thrilling conflict of intrigue, but it’s not like that. You could though use the information in The Guide to Ubersreik booklet to introduce such a campaign.

The adventures included are OK in my opinion. There’s some interesting NPCs there and situations, but I didn’t feel that any of them really grabbed my attention. Maybe it’s my failing as a GM, but I felt that they could have been a bit better. Some of the extra adventures presented near the end might prove to be more attending – the littlest Waarghh! looks fun for instance.

The Guide to Ubersreik

For me this is the more useful resource in the medium to long term. I doubt I would run the adventures again, but the background material for Ubersreik is very rich and contains loads of plot hooks – perfect in fact for the sandbox campaign that I have planned out and am about to start soon. There is some great detail on the political situation, which hints at what is happening more and prompts some ideas for a GM. To me it feels like this was designed to give GMs ideas for their own campaigns – which has been the result for me at least.

I was a bit disappointed not to see the political situation in Ubersreik developed further in the adventures provided, perhaps a missed opportunity to provide an opening campaign, but I can see why the writers perhaps didn’t want to inhibit a GMs own plans either. I have also heard that there is some link with the wider Enemy Within campaign as well with regards to the Emperor taking over Ubersreik – so maybe that will make things clearer.

A Note on the Pregen Characters

For my group we used two of the pregen characters, while the other player rolled their own. Unfortunately, as released it’s not clear how much starting XP and advances the pregens have. They’re not full character sheets and miss off some skills. This has now been rectified with an update to the PDF. But that update was some time after I had started running the adventure. I did guess though that the pregens were quite overpowered, so allowed the other PC some extra XP.

Upping the level of the pregens feels like a curious decision. I would have expected them to be starting characters, but they’re actually a bit overpowered. The lack of explanation also makes them hard to run if you have the full rules or are thinking of taking the adventure further.

On a positive note the pregens do come with a load of back story and also ways to link them with other members of the party, which I liked. The gatefold character sheets look very good as well. There are even mini-adventures in the Adventure booklet for each of the pregens as well,

Conclusion

For your money the Starter Set is a great resource. Although I think you would need to get the main rulebook pretty soon after if you liked the game. The biggest negative is the lack of detail on XP and advances for the pregens. The main positives are the great background material for Ubersreik and all the plot hooks.

Great value for money in my opinion.

You can get the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter set from Cubicle7, Amazon, and most other RPG retailers.

I hope you enjoyed my Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set Review!

Games, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay

Rothgogen’s Tower – Blanca Rothgogen and Franke Kauffman

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This post adds some more background depth to my post about the NPC Victor von Ferlangen, and his interest in Rothgogen’s Tower.

Blanca Rothgogen

Blanca Rothgogen is a demonologist and previous owner of the tower. Rothgogen’s Tower.  

Blanca was born over a hundred years ago. She was a wealthy heiress who murdered all of the suitors her father selected for, and eventually killed him, so inheriting a fortune. As she kept trying to run away from her family, she was imprisoned in a tower on a remote family estate. Suitors visited her there. But none ever returned. The father lost contact with the estate – no one came back so visited himself. Blanca had discovered a small warpstone jewel and the tower’s library contained tomes on how to use it. The servants and guards had been mutated by her and turned to her will. Her father was appalled, but did not have time to do anything about it. 

A few weeks later, Blanca made her last trip down from the Howling Hills, visiting Delberz to claim her father’s fortune. With his wealth safely secured, she and her strange adherents retreated to the Tower.  

Rothgogen is a merchant family with the main house in Delberz. It was sold by Blanca as were all of the family’s assets.  

The story got around to avoid the Tower and Blanca Rothgogen in general. Suitors lost interest, but it is said that some bounty hunters and witch hunters ventured into the hills to investigate. None ever returned.  

Blanca continued her studies uninterrupted. She had her freedom at last, but did not know what to do with it. She was perhaps insane—abuse from her father and the proximity to Warpstone had driven her to seek revenge over mankind—men in particular being anathema to her. One of her first acts was to kill all the male servants. She made it seem like an accident—a Beastman and Mutant Gang were invited by her to the estate and did the deed, sparing the women. She recruited them to be her new guards secretly. They and their descendants prowl the hills nearby and intercept any who come near the Tower. Blanca promised the women who remained a sanctuary from men, and when required sent trusted agents to recruit new servants from villages and towns – tempting away women who were downtrodden and abused by their menfolk. In return her favoured agents became initiated into her chaos cults. Those who followed her, treated her almost like a demi-god. All her servants were treated fairly under her rule, and were free from the abuses of men. Those who missed male company were allowed to take men prisoner for a short term to satisfy their lusts in Slaanesh-inspired orgies, or to take pleasure from each other. Blanca had no such yearnings herself, but tolerated those who did.  

But things could not last. Blanca was getting older, and even her pacts with demons could not sustain her. In her dying wish she passed rulership of the Tower and her secrets to a young apprentice, Franke Kauffman. Franke had arrived ten years ago, fleeing an unhappy marriage to a noble from Ostland (Victor von Ferlangen).  Franke knew what she wanted to do—she didn’t want to wait around in the Tower for ever. She had business to attend to in the outside world—a score to settle with her husband.  

Franke fell in love with the handsome Victor when she first met him, but his pleasant and dashing personality was all an illusion to win a pretty bride, and her fat dowry from her merchant father. Through further tricks, Victor conned her family out of all their wealth in order to sustain his own extravagant and curiously expensive lifestyle. This drove Franke’s father to drink and early grave. When she took issue with Victor, he verbally abused her and told her to be quiet. Eventually she had enough and fled. Her only regret being that she could not take her sons with her.  

Franke knew that Victor dabbled in magic and decided to use that as a way of tempting him to the Tower. He didn’t care anymore about getting her back, but when he received her letter he was interested. However, Franke did not reckon with her husband’s powers. He came and soon defeated her in a magical duel, leaving her suspended between death and life (her body is sustained only by a powerful warpstone force—Victor thinks she is dead). Victor left the area when he realised a chaos creature was in the tower –doubting even his own powers, which had been sapped by the duel. Instead, he decided to send a company of mercenaries back to the Tower to salvage what they could—hopefully avoiding the creature. However, if they can defeat it that would be even better as it means he could take ownership of the place.

Games

Not One but Two New Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP) adventures!

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And even better they are both free!!

The wonderful bods at Cubicle 7 have released two free adventures for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th edition – an effort to keep the baying masses at bay! Cubicle 7 have produced a wonderful new edition of the WFRP rules, which fans seem to like. The only problem is that we can’t get enough of it, and things have been a little slow getting the Starter Set out. The Starter Set we now hear has as many as 11 new adventures – that’s what the ad for it says in the back of “If Looks Could Kill”. The Starer Set starts PCs off in the city of Ubersreik, and its interesting to see that Cubicle 7 are branding their adventures with different settings – so for instance If Looks Could Kill is an Ubersreik Adventure, while Night of Blood (a classic from White Dwarf that I actually recently for WFRP 1e), is branded as an Old World Adventure. I assume that the forthcoming Rough Days from Graeme Davis will be branded the same as its a remix of old material? It looks like Cubicle 7 are pleasing us old grognards with updates of old material for WFRP 4e, but also producing new material. A great approach in my opinion.

Both of these are available for free via DriveThruRPG. Here’s more info about each one and links etc!

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 WFRP 1stedition, and was published in White Dwarf 87 in March 1987. Later, it was republished in the WFRP 1st edition supplement, The Restless Dead, and has been a firm fan favourite ever since.

It’s a dark, stormy night, and the forest creaks as foul creatures howl through the undergrowth. As freezing rain slices from the roiling sky and attack threatens from all sides, the desperate adventurers stumble upon the warm glow of a fortified inn. But everything isn’t as it seems, and soon the unwitting heroes face deceit, betrayal, and horror as they strive to survive a terrifying Night of Blood.

 

 

Legends claim the Beast of Ortschlamm stalked the marshes near Ubersreik for centuries. But few believe it…

When the adventurers agree to help Rutger Reuter, a charismatic, young merchant from Ubersreik, little do they realise what’s in store. What starts as a simple job guarding building supplies, soon turns to tragedy, horror, and murder. The Characters will not only need their wits about them to negotiate the double-dealing camp of Reuter and his business partners, but also the Beast they have unwittingly stirred…

Ubersreik Adventures: If Looks Could Kill is an adventure for Warhamer Fantasy Roleplay Fourth Edition, written by WFRP veteran Dave Allen. It 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.

Games, Oldhammer, Weird and Wonderful

Death on the Reik – Similarities with The Shadow over Innsmouth

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WARNING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR A 1936 NOVELLA AND 1987 RPG ADVENTURE!

I’m a big fan of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP for short) having played it extensively as a teenager in the 80s – I GMed the Enemy Within campaign and several other adventures too. WFRP is going through a bit of a revival at the moment with a new fourth edition due out in 2018 from Cubicle7, and I have even started GMing 1st edition WFRP again with some old friends.

For those who don’t know it WFRP has a gritty, realistic feel to it – it’s set in an Old World much like late medieval Europe and was grimdark before grimdark was a thing (I hate the grimdark tag to be honest – to me it just seems an excuse for violence and misogyny, but really should be about realism and the darker side of human nature, but that’s for another day).

Apparently one of the requests from Games Workshop management for their new RPG game when it first published was to make it more like Call of Cthulhu – the RPG set in Lovecraft’s world of dark horror and ancient evils that lay hidden. WFRP’s Enemy Within campaign certainly took on that atmosphere, with chaos cultists hidden within normal human society, ready to conjure daemons into being – much like the dark forces lurking in Lovecraft’s fiction.

I’ve only started reading Lovecraft recently having got hold of a collection of his work. It’s hard going, but also mesmerising in a way, and also very influential on other horror writers who followed.

Death on the Reik is the second main adventure in the Enemy Within campaign – in it the party follow a trial leading them to Castle Wittgenstein overlooking the river Reik. I have listed all the published adventures for WFRP 1st edition on my site – in the future I’m aiming to flesh out a few more details on each – publication history synopsis etc.

The Shadow over Innsmouth involves a traveller interested in the history of New England who makes the journey to the coastal town of Innsmouth, a place that has fallen into decline and has a bad reputation.

So what about Death on the Reik and The Shadow over Innsmouth? You’d expect with that name the influence might be more for the first main adventure in the campaign – Shadows over Bogenhafen? But actually I think there is some conscious or perhaps subconscious borrowing by the authors of Death on the Reik (Graeme Davis, Jim Bambra and Phil Gallagher) from The Shadow over Innsmouth. Here’s what I think the similarities are:

  • The town of Wittgendorf and Innsmouth have fallen into decline – no one visits anymore – in fact people avoid each town
  • The inhabitants drink rotgut
  • The inhabitants are mutated in some way – chaos mutations in Wittgendorf, the Innsmouth look in Innsmouth – i.e. turning into frog creatures
  • The rulers of each place (the Marsh family and the Wittgenstein family) are recluses, undergo mutations themselves and have brought the decline of their towns upon themselves
  • In the past one of the rulers ancestors brought something back – this has resulted in the mutations – warpstone and something unexplained in Innsmouth (as far as I can tell)
  • Both towns are by the water (bit tenuous!)
  • It’s possible to travel to both places – but visitors are made to feel unwelcome. I.e. these aren’t places that are forbidden, but they are shunned by most outsiders.

There are also plenty of differences of course – but I do think the atmosphere and theme are quite alike – have a read of The Shadow over Innsmouth and see what you think – it was my favourite of the Lovecraft stories I read recently. And if you don’t know WFRP and Death on the Reik – get to it immediately – check out the PDFs on DrivethruRPG, get some friends together and start playing – you won’t be disappointed.