il ritorno di martelli da guerra!!!!!!!!!!!

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Designer's Notes

There's only one RPG for which I can tell you the exact date I first
gave it a try: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. I was a freshman at New York
University. For some reason, I had gotten it into my head that I'd stop
gaming once I got to college. Finding a good group of people can be a
challenge and I was more interested in the NY punk scene than trying to
locate gamers. Luckily for me, I practically tripped over NYU's nascent
game club. I was returning to my dorm after a punk show at CBGBs and
there in the common room were about a dozen people roleplaying. I
watched them for a bit and when there was a break in the game, I
introduced myself; by the next week I had joined the Society for
Strategic Gaming. We played various RPG and board games that fall and at
semester's end most everyone went home for the holidays. A few of us
were left in the nearly vacant dorm and we were looking for something to
do. Dave had gotten a copy of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and the first
installment of the Enemy Within Campaign, so we decided to try it out.
Pat, Gene, and I made two characters each and we played all evening
long. It was December 23, 1987. I know that because I still have the
character sheets for those adventurers, faded photocopies with rusting
staples holding them together. On the back of my Elf Outrider, I started
writing down amusing quotes from our sessions. The page starts with this
notation: 12/23 the first session.

The game was an instant hit. When the rest of the group got back from
Xmas, we told them they just had to try it. Soon the whole club had the
WFRP bug. We usually met once a week on Sunday nights in Hayden Hall,
but soon we were playing extra sessions during the week. There were
several occasions when members skipped studying for important tests or
blew off doing term papers so we could play more Warhammer. I can't
really speak for the rest of the group, but fate ultimately proved I
made the right choice. After all, 16 years later I got the amazing
opportunity to design the second edition of what was still one of my
favorite RPGs of all time. You hold the results of that effort in your
hands.

A Fateful Meeting

It turns out December is a good month for WFRP and me. On December 11,
2003 I was attending GenCon SoCal with my company, Green Ronin
Publishing. That evening we had a meeting with Marc Gascoigne of BL
Publishing and Simon Butler, the newly appointed head of Black
Industries. This meeting was the culmination of two years of
negotiations with Games Workshop. After about an hour of conversation
and questions, Marc said, "We'd like to work with you." And that's when
this process really began. A month later we were whisked off to
Notthingham for a week of meetings at GW headquarters. We mapped out a
strategy, a process, and a schedule. We met with key people like Alan
Merrett and John Blanche. We got to know Simon (another old punk, as it
turned out) a lot better. By February I was back in the states with the
most important job I'd ever had in the game industry staring me in the
face. Now that the fate of WFRP was mine to control, what exactly was I
going to do?

First Steps

In some sense, the first decision was the easiest. Do we update the old
rules and just throw everything out and start again? I knew right away
that I wanted to keep key elements of the original game, the career
system in particular, so from the beginning it was a matter of updating
and streamlining more than starting from scratch. The only thing I
wanted to jettison outright was the old magic system. That had always
been meant as a stopgap, but somehow it was a stopgap that lasted for
nearly two decades. WFRP fans had long been dissatisfied with it and a
much clearer picture of what Warhammer magic was all about had developed
over the years in the minis game, books, and novels. I wanted to create
a magic system that reflected Warhammer magic properly, one that made it
perfectly clear when you used magic you were manipulating nothing less
than Chaos energy (with all that implies). I sketched out and rejected
several different ideas before coming up with the system now in place.
The new rules are, as one playtester put it, "Faustian" and that's
exactly what we were striving for. There's power to be had, but when
Chaos is involved, nothing is certain.

But now I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. The first two things I
tackled were Characteristics and Skills. The old stat line had quite a
few Characteristics derived from the minis game of the era (such as
Initiative and Leadership) that seemed either unnecessary or redundant.
I streamlined those down to the Profile you see now. I also added in
things like Insanity Points and Fate Points to the Profile, so all the
key numbers for a character could be taken in at a glance.

Skills were the next challenge. The original game had quite a large
number of skills, except many of them (like Fleet Footed and Very
Strong) weren't really skills at all. They were more like special
abilities. To make things more clear, I decided to break them out into
two categories: skills and talents. I was able to fold the standard
tests into the skills, so everything would work the same way and with
the same rules. I also added rules for Skill Mastery because the
original system was binary (you either had a skill or you didn't) and
the only way to get better at a skill was to increase your
Characteristic. It's now possible to be an excellent Navigator, for
example, without having Einstein's IQ.

Skill Mastery was important for another reason: I wanted to slow down
the rate of advancement. One common criticism of the old rules was
eventually every non-spellcasting character became a warrior. I didn't
want characters blowing through three careers quickly and then running
out of options. With Skill Mastery, going into multiple careers with the
same skill became a bonus. I also decided to make advances on the Main
Profile come in 5% increments instead of 10%. Thus not only it harder to
zip through a career, it also allowed me more flexibility in designing
the careers.

Another old WFRP saw was so-called "naked Dwarf syndrome." The basic
problem here-certain Dwarf characters in the original rules were tougher
unarmored than humans in plate mail-was easy enough to fix. I just made
armour more effective and kept an eye on the Toughness advances of key
careers. This worked hand in hand with the streamlining of dice use. The
old game used all the different polyhedral dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12,
and d20) for reasons that had more to do with history than good design.
I wanted to try a design using only d10s and the change in armour worked
quite well with that idea. Now Dwarf Slayers are tough, and rightfully
so, but they are not 4' tall tanks anymore.

The Heart of WFRP

To me, the career system has always been the heart of WFRP and I
definitely wanted to preserve that. However, I had seen my share of
problems with the original system. You had some careers, like
Roadwarden, that only had one skill, while others, like the Outlaw,
could have up to 15. While I did want a character's Starting Career to
be at fate's whim (hence the random roll), I didn't want some careers to
be blatantly awful. It's no fun to be the guy playing the useless
character, who only gets to watch the other players have all the fun. To
that end, I tried to make the Basic Careers similar in the number of
advances, skills, and talents they had. There remains a great deal of
difference between them, but now you know every Starting Career has at
least some redeeming features.

With the Advanced Careers, I want to create distinct paths that could be
used with different styles of play. Now, for example, there's a Master
Thief career young cutpurses can aspire to. Or if politics is your
thing, you can become a Courtier or a Guild Master. The Warhammer World
may be grim, but that doesn't mean every campaign is going to be about
fighting. I wanted the careers to support a broad array of character
types. I also wanted to show off a bit of the other cultures, which is
why there's at least one career keyed to each core race and nation of
the Old World. This book is definitely Empire-focused, but I wanted new
players in particular to get a sense of the wider world.

Setting, of course, is absolutely crucial to WFRP so we had to make some
hard decisions early on about how much to cover in the core book.
Although reviewers rarely admit it, we do not have an infinite amount of
time and space to spend on each book. We knew when we started that this
one was going to be 256 pages. It thus made sense to make the core of
WFRP the Empire. Future books will, of course, flesh out other nations
and races.

The real challenge was to get the tone right. Of course, there are
literally thousands of people with different ideas of what is "true"
about the Old World. We tried to evoke the setting not just with rules,
but also with fiction, art, and graphic design. John Blanche was
particularly helpful here, providing much inspirational reference from
both the real world and other Warhammer projects. We were also lucky to
get the talented Dan Abnett to do the opening fiction piece. That really
kicks the book off with the right mood and sense of place.

Pulling It All Together

They say that in war no plan survives first contact with the enemy. The
same can be said of game designs and playtesters. What's in your head is
never as clearly explained as you might like to think and some things
that seem like good ideas on paper just don't work out in play. Thus the
playtest process was key to getting WFRP into the shape it's in now. Our
response to the open call was amazing, with groups the world over
getting involved. There were also many internal groups at Green Ronin
and Games Workshop. As you can tell from the playtester credits in the
book, we had quite a lot of help in getting it right.

The development stage of the book was also where our relationship with
Black Industries really blossomed. Simon Butler, Ewan Lamont, and Kate
Flack were all key in making the book gel and we've developed an
excellent working partnership. Which isn't to say that we always agree,
but our vigorous debates helped make sure that game was one we could all
be proud of. Once Hal Mangold, Green Ronin's Art Director and primary
graphic designer, started putting together PDFs of the nearly finished
book, we could really see how all the elements were working together.

The Once and Future WFRP

It is now December 13, 2004 and we are less than a week from going to
print. December strikes again! I have a real feeling of accomplishment,
but I'm afraid there's no time to get all teary-eyed. I am already deep
into work on follow-up products for the WFRP line. Now in the past WFRP
has not been the best supported RPG out there, but things are about to
change. You should see at least 8 WFRP books per year. By this time next
year there'll be as many new books done as were released in the previous
decade. That means there's never been a better time to be a WFRP fan.

I hope you enjoy this game. More than that, I hope you play it. The Old
World has a lot to offer and we're just getting started.

Chris Pramas
Green Ronin Publishing
December 13, 2004

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Straight from the Horse?s Mouth

Playtester Review by JodyMac

?Before I launch into a description of what I've seen of second edition
(and note that doesn't include the scenario or the world guide), I'd like
to state my bias so you can filter it out. I love WFRP -- for its adventures
and tone. I see the rules as a mish-mash, with good stuff like the careers
system and percentile stats mixed up with an awkward magic system, a skill
set that's a catch-all for all kind of abilities and elements like alignment
that hark back to D&D more than I'd like.

Now, on with the show.



CHARACTERS

The Characteristics have changed for the better. Holdovers from the war
game that hardly ever got used -- Leadership, I'm looking at you -- are
gone. Most of the Characteristics are the same, WS and BS are still there
and now every Characteristic you'll need to test on is percentile. Also,
dwarfs and elves have been toned down and there's definitely a better balance
between the races.

Careers are still there (hallelujah!), but the selection process has changed.
Career classes are gone (too D&D I guess) and instead there's one big table
to roll on if you want a random basic career. It's suggested that you roll
twice in case you get one you don't like and, as before, you can always
just pick the one you want. The careers themselves are a mix of old and
new -- don't worry, the Rat Catcher is still around and so is his small
but vicious dog -- Agitator, Grave Robber, Pit Fighter, Protagonist, most
of the old favourites are still here. The new careers include some for immigrants
only, such as Norse Berserker and Kislevite Kossar, there are also Vagabonds,
Zealots and others. Each career now has something to recommend it and skills
are more plentiful all round. None of the careers seem useless.

On the subject of skills, they've been split into skills and talents. Anything
you test on is a skill; once again old favourites are still here like Blather,
Consume Alcohol and Dodge Blow. There are separate categories for basic
skills that anyone can attempt at a penalty even if they haven't paid the
XP for them, and advanced skills that are only for professionals. Talents
are those things that alter your Characteristics or abilities in other ways,
such as Very Resilient and Strike Mighty Blow.

Alignment is gone.

On the whole I'm happy with the way characters are handled in WFRP2. Literacy
is still uncommon, many people start out with jobs a sane person would hate
and the balance has improved. I'll probably be choosing my own career, though.

MOOD

This is one of the most important elements of the game for me. Does WFRP2
get across the grim, blackly humorous tone of the game? The opening fiction
is gritty and rough -- it's by Dan Abnett, and though I'm not a fan of most
of his work, this is good stuff. The insanity rules reflect the mood better
than ever; where before they read like something written with a Psych 101
textbook for reference, now they read like something an Old Worlder would
write. Manic depression is called 'Wheel of Dread and Pleasure' and other
insanities include 'Knives of Memory' and 'This Glorious Corruption'. The
GM's chapter suggests the use of humour and contains this text:

"There are worlds where courageous heroes who stand for all that is good
and righteous watch over populaces of decent folk who seek to enrich their
own lives and better those of the people around them.

"This isn't one of those worlds."

The mood gets two thumbs up from me.

COMBAT

The basics of combat are the same. Roll under WS to hit, reverse the numbers
to determine hit location, roll for damage, add modifiers, repeat until
Critical.

The major change is that everything you can do in a round is now described
as either a full action or a half-action. Full actions take up an entire
round, half-actions obviously only take half a round. Moving is a half-action
and so is a single attack, so a lot of rounds will involve the typical move
and hack, just like first edition. If you have multiple attacks you now
have to spend a full action to use them all. Using two attack half-actions
in a row to get two chops when you only have one A listed in your Characteristics
isn't allowed. This caused a lot of the discussion on the playtest forum
-- it's either unintuitive and clumsy or simple and balancing depending
on how you want to look at it. There are a variety of manoeuvres for combatants
to try, all with action cost. Now you can feint, aim and making guarded
attacks.

Another change is that initiative is randomly rolled on the first turn of
combat. The roll is only a d10 added to a percentile so it's still the character's
speed that's important, rather than how well they roll; it just shakes things
up and adds to the unpredictability of combat.

MAGIC

Magic has changed the most. Spell points are gone, replaced by Magic as
a Characteristic like Move or Attacks. For each point of Magic wizards have
they get a d10 to roll when casting, adding the total together to beat the
chosen spell's target number. Optional things like spell components, the
Winds of Magic and a skill called Channelling all influence the roll. Best
of all, bad rolls can lead to Insanity Points or other disasters called
Tzeentch's Curses -- we didn't see the final version, but what we did see
was flavoursome and imaginative. Priests have a similar system, risking
the Wrath of the Gods every time they cast a spell.

Spells are organised using WFB's colour system as expected and rather than
each spell costing XP to learn, an entire colour's worth of spells is learned
at once. Priests have separate spell lists for each God. This achieves two
things; it fixes the problem of spell casters advancing so slowly they never
get anywhere and it allows for wizards to take risks in casting spells out
of their league. A young wizard gets theoretical access to a whole lot of
spells at once but doesn't have a high enough Magic Characteristic to cast
the more powerful ones (you have to study, represented by moving through
careers and increasing Magic, to do that). However, if our young wizard
is in the right magic-soaked place, or the Winds of Magic are blowing right,
he can try to cast spells that would normally be beyond him -- with Tzeentch's
Curse waiting in the shadows to claim him.

The idea of learning most of your spells at once (it's possible to learn
spells outside your Colour College, but they have to be bought individually)
is very unlike the old system, but the two advantages described above outweigh
any initial trepidation. I wholeheartedly like the new magic system.

Even though ranged attack spells are still called 'magic missiles'?

MISCELLANEA

I haven't even mentioned Fortune Points yet, or the fact that only d10s
are used, or the only-the-essentials Bestiary, but this is so long that
only the grognards will read it now. To conclude, I'm happy with what's
been done to the first RPG I ever played; it's been dragged out of the 80s
without losing what I see as its core. It's still a Grim World of Perilous
Adventure and that's what matters to me."

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Scritto da: Dwarfolo 02/02/2005 23.31
Altra mail ... da parte di DragoRinato (che potrebbe postare certe news anche da solo .... ma è fetente) :D

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Straight from the Horse?s Mouth
[...]

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cercherò di essere meno fetente in futuro ;)

posterò direttamente qua le news dal sito della Black Industries.

Approposito correte al sito a guardare la gallery ci sono delle belle immagini!8)

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Scritto da: Dwarfolo 04/02/2005 16.46
Bene bene .... caro DragoRinato penso che la nostra campagna a MdG durerà mooooolto a lungo!!

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Scritto da: Dwarfolo 07/02/2005 8.45
Effettivamente un'evoluzione dei fatti da te citati sarebbe auspicabile. Io cmq mi accontento anche solo di avere un regolamento un pò meglio. Anche se adesso stiamo giocando con GURPS, si sente un pò la mancanza di quel "sapore" che anche il regolamento da a MdG.

Che dire? .... Sperem!

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Scritto da: Dwarfolo 07/02/2005 8.54
Non lo mettevo in dubbio. Il mio "sperem" era per le regole ... sperem che siano effettivamente meglio.

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Scritto da: Dwarfolo 07/02/2005 8.45
Effettivamente un'evoluzione dei fatti da te citati sarebbe auspicabile. Io cmq mi accontento anche solo di avere un regolamento un pò meglio. Anche se adesso stiamo giocando con GURPS, si sente un pò la mancanza di quel "sapore" che anche il regolamento da a MdG.

Che dire? .... Sperem!

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Scritto da: Dwarfolo 07/02/2005 20.25

[cut]

Un esempio su tutti sono i colpi critici con quelle spassosissime tabelle, e poi alcune meccaniche derivanti dal wargame, come il +10 in mischia (e qui c'è l'ovazione dei miei player) quando si è vinto il round precedente.... piccole cose se vogliamo, nulla di irrinunciabile, e forse più una questione affettiva e nostalgica che altro.

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