Role-playing Rants: Do we really need a Warhammer: The Old World RPG?

The newest battle game from Games Workshop just dropped and it looks like we’ll be getting a proper role-playing version as well!

Ok so before I’ll continue here’s the official info from Cubicle 7:

This was taken from their official Facebook account

Now that we have that out of the way, let me answer my very own question: do we really need a TOW RPG?

No, no we do not.

Warhammer: The Old World started out strong, is already super popular with fans, both old and new, and is generally doing fine. Cubicle 7, who are the current custodians of the WFRP franchise, announced that they will be making an official role-playing, tie-in game. You know, exploring that unique era of the Old World, thrusting heroes into a completely new setting and surroundings…

Oh wait, yeah. That’s not the case is it now? TOW takes place roughly 200 years before the “modern times” of Warhammer Fantasy. Sure the Empire is still fractured, Archaons hasn’t yet started doing his whacky, evil shenanigans and, apparently, lots of factions are just sitting with thumbs up their asses, doing nothing, but… it’s still the classic setting of the venerable Old World. Sure the Colleges of Magic haven’t yet been established and Magnus the Pious is but a young lad, but still – this is practically the same setting as the one we have in WFRP. From the broader perspective, there are incredibly few, major changes to the Warhammer World as a whole.

Why am I mentioning this? Because I can’t, for the life of me, imagine how exactly will the TOW RPG differ from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, theme-wise. I just can’t. People are suggesting that, given it’s based solely on the new hip battle game, it’ll be more “heroic”. More over the top. I am sorry but WFRP 4th edition is already filling that niche rather nicely. It’s the most heroic and bombastic edition of the game, where the PCs are practically unkillable murder machines, given the skills, combos as well as the sheer ammount of rerolls at their disposal. Plus the relative “safety” of the era in which 4e is set, makes a much better setting for this style of gameplay. Warhammer: The Old World is set during a hard time for the Empire, as well as other countries. Internal fractures, the unease concerning Chaos, Skaven and the Undead – all of those are factors which bring a sense of unease into mind. Sure the world might feel fine right now, but underneath something bad is going on and everything hangs by a thread.

Sure, you can say that in the times of 4e the feel of the world is exactly the same. However, maybe because of the overal presentation of this edition, I always thought that the Empire and surrounding regions were relatively calm, peaceful and even prosperous. Coincidentally this feeling worked well with the general style of 4e. Light, uncomplicated for the PCs, almost jolly at times. A perfect backdrop for some heroic style-gameplay. But the Old World circa 2276? Nah, don’t really think that it’s not a right setting for any sort of high fantasy approach to role-playing.

This picture perfectly sums up the entire 4th edition of WFRP (art by Sam Manley)

But for me the biggest gripe comes from the fact that C7 announces yet another game, while the current iteration of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is in such a poor state. Not only are the rules simply bad – clunky, placed across mutliple books and PDFs, but also the content itself leaves a lot to be desired. There’s no info about any new major campaign. Now that yet another version of the abused “The Enemy Within” is mercifully finished, we don’t even know if there’ll be another, big adventuring module in the near-ish future. There are no book about Chaos, the Undead or the Skaven (no, the few pages in TEW don’t count). We need more city sourcebooks - where’s Nuln? Sure, Altdorf and Middenheim are covered but… that’s not enough. Oh and don’t even get me started on other nations and lands. There’s Lustria, sure. But what about Ulthuan (supposedly in the works), Naggaroth, Albion, not to mention the more familiar places like Tilea, Estalia and Kislev.

WFRP 4th editions has been out for almost 6 years and it lacks a lot of essential content. It’s clear that Cubicle 7 simply don’t have the manpower to work on so many titles and consistently produce regular updates. Now they want to add another game to their roster while telling us that it won’t affect WFRP. I have no reason to believe that. In fact I would be very surprised if what C7 claims will turn out to be true.

There are also the enigmatic reasons as to why they’ve decided on this course of action. Did Games Workshop forced them to develop a TTRPG as a support product to their, newly released, tabletop strategy game? Maybe they wanted to jump on the bandwagon and capitalise on the huge popularity of TOW? But if that’s the case then this doesn’t really make much sense, does it? Before they’ll give us anyting, Warhammer: The Old World won’t be “new” anymore. Hell, it might go the Horus Heresy 2e way and become a sad, stale game with broken rules and few real updates (but gorgeous minis). There are so many questions here and I can’t really guess any of the correct answers to them. Nor why Cubicle 7 decided on that move in the first place. One of the more interesting theories that I read, stated that it’s because of the actual sales. Apparently, when it comes to role-playing games, only the core books sell well. Everything that comes after them doesn’t really generate any reliable profit. I never heard met with that theory before, but I must say that it’s really interesting and does make sense, in my opinion.

As for the game itself… If it’s going to be decent I may give it a shot. Hell I will probably buy the core rulebook anyway, just because it’ll still have that sweet, sweet Warhammer Fantasy label attached to it. Ok, the “Old World” label, but you know what I mean. I have no idea what kind of system it’ll use, whether the classic D100 or maybe something else. I can’t say if it’ll be more akin to the WH40K RPGs that C7 are also producing – Wrath & Glory and Imperium Maledictum. Hell, if they want to go the “heroic” rout, then why not make it like their Age of Sigmar TTRPG - “Soulbound”? There are so many questions here. All I can say is that I think this move is a mistake, even if the final product will turn out fine. We don’t need another RPG set in the world of Warhammer Fantasy, especially if it’s “so close to home”, if you get my meaning. Maybe if Cubicle 7 decided to make a game about the actual founding of the Empire, or the Sundering, or the fall of dwarven realms – maybe then I would be more thrilled about actually getting something new, fresh and innovative. As for Warhammer: The Old World TTRPG… I didn’t ask for this. No one did.

Hey, at least I get to use one of my favorite memes of all time!

Until next time!

Xathrodox86