Warhammer FRP: Surprisingly Solid

Now that D&D 2024 is out, Warhammer FRP 4th Edition looks much better.

I used to be lukewarm about this edition, preferring the traditionalist 2nd Edition of the game and, by extension, Zweihänder. Now, Zweihänder does have a more open license (the product must require the use of the paid-for book), so it is the more community-friendly version of the rules.

But the 4th Edition Warhammer did not seem needed when it came out, and it felt a touch modernized for a game I played the original version of. I had Zweihänder, which was an OSR clone of 2nd Edition. I did not need much else.

In hindsight, the team at Crucible 7 did not turn the game into modern D&D 5E, as I had feared. The new edition is faithful to the original feeling, and they are not trying to modernize the game to the point where the Chaos factions are just misunderstood good-guys at heart.

If Wizards did it, I can see the game, happy Chaos cultists, alien Dark Elves, and goofy Skaven alongside Dwarves, Humans, and Elves, with brightly colored hair and visiting planar coffee shops all day. There are plenty of furry races, vampires, dragon people, skeleton races, ghosts, and half-demon tieflings in WotC Warhammer. Pathfinder adds the tired football-headed goblins, living puppets, and plant people. I swear, mass-market roleplaying is like eating at a horrible buffet where all the food is garbage and tastes the same.

By rejecting tradition, modern games have no foundation and look like AI art, bad anime, and Tumblr. A player has told me that 2024 D&D looks stupid now, and some have told me they don't know what the art is supposed to be.

Warhammer's tone has been kept.

4th Edition Warhammer is not a bad game.

The art is more melting-pot in tone and style, but if the tone is kept, I don't care since we can assume this is a later era when trade and travel have mixed the urban areas to an extent, with cross-cultural travel. It helps the game more since you can do stories of new people coming to the land, and those who have lived there are suspicious of them, with Chaos cults taking advantage of the strife. Players must solve these problems; that clash of cultures is good storytelling material.

And the slightly more diverse art, I don't really care. This is a horror game at its heart; all of them will be victims of some terrible fate, all the same. Heavy set or thin, dark skinned or light, male or female, no matter your personal preferences or culture you originate from, all are equally consumed by the Eye of Chaos.

There is an important message there.

And you can't escape it by pretending you are a cartoon.

Warhammer has leaned into the collector's market, which is a flaw. The game is playable with one book, though. Companies must stay in business, keep the books coming, and pay the license fees.

Zweihänder is still the better choice for historical games and my own world, along with a community where anyone can write expansions and adventures for the game. It has a defiant community with a chip on its shoulder. Zweihänder gets a bad rap, but it is a good game with a good community. Yes, I know you can buy the second edition of Warhammer, but can you publish books for it? Community options and gaming are good, and supporting them is worthy.

With Warhammer, you are playing in the Warhammer world, hands down. Why change the main attraction of the game? You are going to Disney World here. This is the premium experience, and it is easy to sell to others. "Hey! Want to play the Warhammer RPG?" My players said, "Warhammer? Yes!" These are more "normal people" players, not gamers who know the hobby inside and out. They know Warhammer. It sounds cool. They will jump at the chance of being in that world.

As a D&D 2024 alternative, or being stubborn with 2014, Warhammer 4th Edition is a worthy option to wash your hands of identity gaming and walk away.