Welcome again gentle readers to another episode of the Evil von Scary Show, bringing you stories of political intrigue,social curiosities and strangeness from the fringes of the internet and the overpasses of society.
Today’s topic will be Role Playing Games (RPG’s) and my secret obsession with (the) Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying Game. A special shout out today to the crew at “Old World Podcast” for inspiring me to do this article and get back into W.F.R.P.
Links will be included throughout the article to various points of interest. WFRP, Warhammer and any other Intellectual Properties (IP’s) mentioned is the property of the various IPs. I have no financial incentives,inducements nor attachments to any of the IP’s mentioned. Opinions my own. Thanks EU for your ridiculously draconian copyright laws that makes me put this crap in for our EU audience. Something else to sort out after Operation Overlord II.
As to religious sensibilities: Im not the guy to come to for that, ask someone else. RPGs are no more evil or good than the people who play them. I saw and experienced the Dungeons and Dragons scare in the 1980s firsthand and the ignorance that was alive and well then (and now ,to a lesser degree). Its like asking if driving a Ford makes one a good Christian. Only you can answer that for yourself.
Role Playing Games for anyone who doesn’t know is pretty much a table top board game but very open ended and with alot of different types of dice. One player is the Referee (or Game Master, GM, Dungeon Master, DM, etc,etc) and is the prime story teller or author of a story/mission. The other players act out and make the decisions of the main characters in that story/mission. The game master takes care of the rest of the secondary characters, monsters, obstacles and over all plot line. The GM introduces challenges and guides players by describing the situations giving them options and the dice rolls take care of the random factors in the story.
Its a great way for people to get together, use teamwork, problem solving, have fun and a few good laughs along the way.
RPG’s (role playing games) have primarily been the domain of the “geek” (or nerds of my generation) or “something I tried in college”. “Normies” have always played too but not until recently would many have admitted it. Sadly outside of my social group I would never bring up RPG’s in mixed company as with some things it just doesn’t feel worth it to explain them to regular folks. Then again walking into some specialty game shops when you can smell the “nerd smell” (social anxiety and body odor) it puts people off. Increasingly though nerds are climbing the social strata of acceptance and discovering deodorant and increased hygiene.
The world of RPG’s have left their parent’s basements and moved into the main stream. As the 80s geeks started having surprisingly normal children, and pop culture embraced the world of geek, RPG’s are becoming a social norm (but still chic enough to be fringe-ish). There are as many types of RPG’s as there are categories of tv/movie shows, varying in complexity and style. There are actual Youtube shows that show people playing RPG’s and celebs are even in on the action (Elon Musk and Vin Diesel for starters). Not that we need validation of celebs but its some fodder to point out for any naysayers of RPG gaming.
The one that Ive settled on for now is called W.F.R.P. aka Warhammer Fantasy Role Playing Game. Its considered a “Gothic” or “dark fantasy“ game. Imagine the Hobbit (considered “high fantasy”) or Dungeons and Dragons, but for grown ups. The endings aren’t always happy and there really might be something under the bed looking to eat you, after torturing and disemboweling you.
It takes place in the “Warhammer World” that is like a twisted version of our own world in the middle ages. The various kingdoms and territories range from early medieval to early Renaissance times. The world itself is grim and hard bitten by war and has tons of evil creatures bent on destroying civilization. There is magic in the game but its extremely dangerous to use and can have bad results for everyone involved and those not involved. Even hand to hand combat has fumbling results that can be deadly and entertaining! Death comes in many forms and often. There is a dark gallows humor throughout the game which I find appealing. Ive also read alot of the various book series set in the Warhammer World which I really recommend! I’d describe it as Quentin Tarantino (and HP Lovecraft) meets JRR Tolkien. Players start off as “regular” people who decide (or circumstances force them) to adventure. Beggar, Rat Catcher, Miner, Troll Slayer, Jester, Gambler, Druid, etc are just a few of many potential careers.
A few months ago I started listening to a podcast called “Old World Podcast“. They’re a great group of folks who cover the 4th Edition of the WFRP game (there are 4 editions of the game) and explain all of the in’s and out’s of the game, offering insights and explaining things in such a way that can appeal/be of use to any level of player or game master. They also have episodes of them playing the game. The information they give even though focused on the 4th edition is still relevant for all the versions.
I was sitting on the fence about getting back into this game (it had been over 25 plus years) but listening to the Old World Podcast inspired me to buy some PDF’s of the game and get them printed off. The old versions cost a ridiculous amount of money but they have been out of print for decades. However one can get the PDF copies of the game for pretty cheap online and take to a print shop to print them off.
I got lucky and had a few guys I served with (who bring a different outlook to tactics and survival) and some friends/family that play RPG’s suckered into to playing WFRP. I GM (or referee the game). Typically we play a game from 10 till 1600 when we can. Real life (kids, family, work etc) complicates schedules but the upside of RPG’s is you can “hit pause” or wrap it up till the next game. With that in mind, 4th edition has one mechanic that I use (beauty of pdfs is i can print what I want/need only) for my notionally 1st edition game: “Between Sessions Rules” has scenarios laid out (rolled randomly) for what happens to characters in between adventures (losing or investing money, mysterious favors called in, training, doing their “day job”, etc) while they are healing up from fighting bad guys and not adventuring. Now “a good GM” would have had that figured out but were not all super heroes.
These scenarios are interesting and employ gallows humor, keeping in the tradition of the grimness that is WFRP! The Between Sessions Rules are really handy for our group (covering an area about 200 km/ 124 miles) that has local and travel games with some players gaming infrequently around a small regular group. This way nobody’s characters are left out as something will still happen even if they aren’t able to adventure for awhile.
The beauty of most RPG’s is that if a rule doesn’t work out for your style of gaming you can (and are encouraged by the designers to) change, amend or disregard said rule. Warhammer is really good example of this. Different versions offer some rules you can use interchangeably.
Thanks to my friends and family who game with me and put up with my cheesy voice acting in game and who also have great senses of humor.
Also thanks to Old World Podcast for responding to my inquiries and not calling the police lmao. They can be found on various podcast services, online, twitter and on Facebook. @OldWorldPodcast. A great resource for anyone that enjoys or is thinking of getting into WFRP (especially 4th edition).
Thanks for tuning in, EvS