A few things I really like about WFRP

I think I’ve mentioned I’m converting several D&D adventures to WFRP 4e for a mash up heist campaign. I’ll have to create a thread with some monster conversions Im doing. I think the right kind of D&D adventure converts really well.

Moonsoon said:

After reading pathfinder 2nd i didn't even dare to DM it. Too clunky for me.

I've found the combat of WFRPG 4e the weak point so far. But most of sessions were without combat and the table had a blast. When combat hit it's always scarry and meaningful, as it should be.

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We played it for about three years, but enjoyed the campaign in spite of the system. We also found that the game is so heavily balanced that they had to play as a "perfect" team in order to succeed, and that was too much pressure on perfect strategy.

I've read some things about replacing WFRP 4e's Advantage with a binary +20 (either you have it or you don't), and removing the Outnumbering bonus entirely.

TheSword said:

I think I’ve mentioned I’m converting several D&D adventures to WFRP 4e for a mash up heist campaign. I’ll have to create a thread with some monster conversions Im doing. I think the right kind of D&D adventure converts really well.

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I read a post a while back about converting Masks of Nyarlathotep to run in WFRP, but unfortunately it looks like their site is down.

Xenolith234 said:

I read a post a while back about converting Masks of Nyarlathotep to run in WFRP, but unfortunately it looks like their site is down.

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It’s an interesting idea. I actually thought about converting it to Imperium Maladictum but there are so many beautiful handouts, NPC portraits and location details it seems a shame to lose all that stuff.

My Skull and Shackles campaign set in Lustria is going really well and fits WFRP perfectly in style.

Xenolith234 said:

We played it for about three years, but enjoyed the campaign in spite of the system. We also found that the game is so heavily balanced that they had to play as a "perfect" team in order to succeed, and that was too much pressure on perfect strategy.

I've read some things about replacing WFRP 4e's Advantage with a binary +20 (either you have it or you don't), and removing the Outnumbering bonus entirely.

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If you want to simplify just use Group Advantage. We have one player who tracks it for the group. There’s only one number to remember and it takes the pressure off me.

TheSword said:

It’s an interesting idea. I actually thought about converting it to Imperium Maladictum but there are so many beautiful handouts, NPC portraits and location details it seems a shame to lose all that stuff.

My Skull and Shackles campaign set in Lustria is going really well and fits WFRP perfectly in style.

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Oh my that's amazing.
Been looking at pre written adventures that could fit Lustria and that's a good idea.
You started shipwrecked as well?
But was also interested to explore a kingmaker style of "You got your small settlement", "good luck expanding it" for Lustria.

Xenolith234 said:

We played it for about three years, but enjoyed the campaign in spite of the system. We also found that the game is so heavily balanced that they had to play as a "perfect" team in order to succeed, and that was too much pressure on perfect strategy.

I've read some things about replacing WFRP 4e's Advantage with a binary +20 (either you have it or you don't), and removing the Outnumbering bonus entirely.

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It would lose a lot of the flavor and good group-based tactics (with group advantage). I love the players being able to spend more or their advantage points to do more impactful things. It really helps keeps all of the players paying attention to each others turns. It is the single best mechanical improvement over 5e combat, IMO.

Since you are playing in person, without the benefit of the Foundry automations, I would certainly recommend downloading some of the excellent reference sheets and DM screens various people have posted on Reddit and the Rat Catcher's Discord. The official DM screen is okay, but it takes up too much space for random events, etc. and is going to be missing alternative or additional rules from books other than the Core Rulebook.

I would find trying to run WFRP4e to be somewhat annoying just flipping around the Core Rulebook and the supplemental rule books. Yet, you can usually summarize things in a few lines or a table in DM screen or reference sheets that make them much easier to understand.

I'll post some of my favorite DM aids I've found, but won't be able to get to it until Friday night. I'm sure others on this thread have some favorites they can share.

TheSword said:

If you want to simplify just use Group Advantage. We have one player who tracks it for the group. There’s only one number to remember and it takes the pressure off me.

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And, if you are playing in person, just use poker chips or something similar. One color for the enemy and one color for the PCs. You then have a physical representation of the advantage. Its fun seeing your party's pile grow and scary seeing the enemy's pile grow.

Xenolith234 said:

I have Up in Arms and Winds of Magic, and I should be receiving OWB this week. My players and I play in-person and just moved on from Pathfinder 2e due to complexity and clunk and the feeling of always adding so many modifiers. I hope that WFRP 4e isn’t as bad in regards to that and playability at a physical table?

Oh, and how does the OWB compare to the monsters in the core rulebook and Imperial Zoo?

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As mentioned OWB is for 2E. The Imperial Zoo is not an equivalent for 4E but it's a nice book to have.

For beasties there are a few PDF-only releases and newer books. Tribes and Tribulations is a greenskin book that contains the contents of the The Cluster-Eye Tribe PDF along with orcs, trolls and waaagh! magic. Other PDF-only releases for a GM are The Night Parade (undead), The Warband of Bayl of Many Eyes (Chaos) and The Hahnbrandt Militia - these contain templates to help build your beasties - something that was missed/cut from the core book (similar to "creature careers" found in the 2E core book).

interestingly to @Retreater ’s point from the first page about randomising characters being a trap. I did my first session as a player in an online game. It was a lot of fun and I had a ball. But it was very noticeable that about half the players had completely randomized their characters, had put the same number of advances into their Melee skill as they had in their consume alcohol and evaluate and didn’t really have any idea how the game worked mechanically when they built their characters. Yea there are randomised elements but these are exacerbated when the bits you do have choice over are randomly assigned.

I highly, highly, highly recommend playing a short session that involved a bit of combat either before or as part of a session zero. The free module Night of Blood is excellent for this. As it’s very short and really just describes a single scenario. If it’s a big group get them to split up a bit when investigating so the combats doesn’t turn into a pile in.

In my case because all three of my players were new to WFRP as a system, I ran it for each of them solo in the month before our session zero. It took about an hour and a half. We learnt how opposed roles worked. What was tested in combat, outnumbering, charging all that stuff. They then could re-so their characters or tweak them however they liked before the campaign started.

Switching to WFRP from D&D is a culture shock. My god is it funny though.