Warhammer RPG

hi there,

me and my mordheim group are looking for a suitable RPG for days we rather feel like roleplaying rather than doing classic mordheim. So the warhammer RPG comes to mind of course.

We are looking for something with rich background and are rather out for the ROLEPLAY aspect of the game than merely fighting monsters (thats what mordheim is for among other things )

also the rules system may be complex but should allow makeing some mistakes until you die or be crippled forever. So be somehow kind to beginners of the game.


so I would like to ask you guys what you think of Warhammer Fantasy RPG, especially the third edition. I heard that it would be rather a board game and I heard the opposite also...

1) So what do you think of it, what aspects do you like, which not?

2) Which edition would you suggest and why?

3) Is it suitable to intertwine it with mordheim battles (not explicitly necessary but would be nice as it has the same background)

I only have gotten a chance to play W.F.R.P.G. a couple of times. However, I was impressed with the way the game played; it compared favorably with A.D.&D., with which I'm MUCH more familiar. The games I played were rather combat oriented. As a swashbuckling freak, that also appealed to me.
The games books/modules have a ton of GREAT background fluff that would enhance the W.F.B./Mordheim settings very nicely.
Boreas_NL's group plays an RPG (not sure if it's W.F.R.P.G. or not) using his Mordheim terrain: https://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/scenery-and-terrain-f4/my-own-little-corner-of-mordheim-t2693.htm .

Now, im new to Mordheim and COMPLETELY a stranger to the rules in W.F.R.P.G. but what i had in mind for my little campaign was to bring in the "fate points" from the rpg for the new started warbands. Say the 2 first battles.

That way I can keep the beginner even if their leader gets killed. Something that, what ive read, is a thing that scares away the newbies (in witch i count myself..)

Sure, thats more for Mordheim than the RPG but its just my 2 cents...

Please do update what you use for rules and how the games turns out!

I have the second edition WHFRP book although I havn't had a chance to play it yet. I does say that combat is prety lethal so if you want more survivable characters it may be worth increasing their starting hit points or alowing them to heal a bit faster.

DeafNala already pointed it out, our group mixed Mordheim with WFRP. I don't know which edition it is, but it's not the latest, it's the one before that (from around 2005, if I'm to make a guess, I would say second edition).

After a long and bloody (= fun and rewarding) Mordheim campaign we were a bit reluctant to just discard our warbands, so we transfered the most prominent heroes and hired swords into WFRP charachters. We picked some relevant careers and just went for it... It does make a huge difference, playing with a small band of adventurers instead of just one, but the fact we developed the personalities of the warbands during the campaign really helped...

thanks a lot for your answers so far

@Boreas_NL: good idea but isn't one problem that you are quite restricted in which characters to choose? We have dark elves, beastmen, orcs and undead. so in this constellation none of us could transport their heroes into WHFRPG...

I intend to do the following: I want to introduce them into WHFRPG as a way to get deeper into the warhammer background (as most of us are not too familiar with the world and the fluff in general) and as an inspiration for future mordheim scenarios...

(some event in the role play sessions could lead to a scenario which is played out in a mortheim-game (or maybe a mini-campaign of a few games)... and of course vice versa...

but the main problem is that there is somehow a very loose connection still between the two kind of games as we would be forced to choose some completely different races in the RPG as we have in Mordheim... e.g. what is the connection fluffwise between -say- a dwarf slayer and a dark elf warband...

Turquoise Dwarf wrote:

I have the second edition WHFRP book although I havn't had a chance to play it yet. I does say that combat is prety lethal so if you want more survivable characters it may be worth increasing their starting hit points or alowing them to heal a bit faster.

that's exactly what I heard too. Very lethal fights so not exactly the thing for beginners (or at least we all had a looooong break rpg-wise) without any modifications.... So one bad roll might really kill the character (roughly)... wouldn't it?

Today I spent quite a few hours reading reviews of the 2nd and 3rd edition. That's really a tough decision. The most important aspects to me are:

1) the rule system should reflect the grim non-black-white warhammer world as well as possible.

2) the rules system should support roleplaying at least to the same extent as covering battles.

I wonder which version does this job best...

any (more) RPG veterans out there?

btw. is there some background for mordheim apart from the mordheim rulebook itself? (has gw / black libraries ever released a supplement about or including mordheim?)

where lies mordheim within the empire anyway? I could not find it on the map of the imperium at all, so any hint is highly appreciated

Importing Elves and Dwarves into roleplay and Mordheim isn't that hard, with a bit of effort you could even use Orcs and Beastmen (or all other races if you want), getting the fluff right could be a bit more difficult though. Maybe you could play one or two try-out games to see if you can get the different races and charachters right.

Fights can be very lethal in WFRP, a starting charachter will have to battle for his life if he encounters anything more than a single zombie when he's alone (insert warbands or some companions)... Equipping him with a decent weapon and maybe some armour can really help (maybe an idea for a little side quest?).

As for choosing the right edition... Getting your hands on most of the 2nd edition books will get increasingly harder as they won't be printed (or reprinted for that matter) and there will be no more new books... As for me (and that's just something personal), I would pick second over third any day of the week, mainly for the looks and presentation...

Quote :

btw. is there some background for mordheim apart from the mordheim rulebook itself? (has gw / black libraries ever released a supplement about or including mordheim?)

where lies mordheim within the empire anyway? I could not find it on the map of the imperium at all, so any hint is highly appreciated

Some of the WFRP books (Sigmar's Heirs and Tome of Corruption for instance) contain snippets of information on Mordheim, but nothing special... I do have this map for you...



Mordheim can be found near the river Stir, in the Dead Woods, Ostermark...

EDIT: Depending of your settings, the map may be a little vague, just click this link to view the map at a larger size... Hope it helps.

thanks very much, that map was exactly what I was looking for

I'm also tending towards 2nd edition by now. on the one hand because there is a lot of published material whereas it will take years until the third edition will catch up. on the other it seems that the background of the 2nd edition ruleset is less bipolar black and white /good-evil dichotomy... but that might be a prejudice on my account...

I found that most of the books of 2nd edition are still available over ebay for example (at least those which I regard as the 6-7 most important ones to get started (core rulebook, armoury, bestiary, realms of sorcery, etc...)

thanks a lot!

Fortunately enough I've been abe to secure the whole second edition... Most books don't get used in our games (not yet at least) but they are a great read and a huge source of inspiration. At the moment I'm deeply immersed in Night's Dark Masters and Shades of Empire before that... It's a real shame they stopped with this edition (they even cancelled a book). The last few books were really hard to come by as there are only a few places to get them in my country (Netherlands)...

As for the few 'core' books, they are a must have. Also, the Career's Compendium was a great resource when we converted our Mordheim warbands into WFRP charachters, there are just soooo many cool careers in there...

Here you can find a complete list of all the WFRP books of the second (and first and third too)...

And a pic from my own WFRP shelf...


All the second edition books and some other background volumes. I'm quite proud of this selection, as most of these are pretty hard to come by where I live... I've read most of these books from cover to cover, using the bits and pieces I wanted for our own campaign, but most of all I just enjoyed the depth and richness of the Warhammer world, from the fact that Stirlanders drink their ale hot and Averlanders just looooove sheep to the depths of Karak Azgal and the monsters that lurk there...

I really enjoyed 1st and second ed. You can even see my snotling knight turned DP over on Rules and Gameplay.

However 2nd ed felt that combat got to the point where it made characters TOO powerful too quickly. With a party consisting of a Drunken Human Mercenary, a Wood Elf Emmissary, a High Elf Protagonist, a Human Bright Wizard apprentice and something else that escapes me... the combat got to the point where nothing could hurt the Merc, the wood elf hit almost every time with her bow, the High Elf had a 60+ ws but rolled bad... and the wizard used cantrips to turn the tides of battles. Great fun but hard to GM.

There are many ways to balance it out, but i have to say I REALLY like the new 3rd ed. Still not had a chance to play it as our group kind of broke up (some got married some went 2000 miles away to college) the very week I got it.

It looks very confusing at first since lots of dice and 4 seperate books in the set. But once you boil it down it is a very smooth system to quickly and easily take all sorts of modifiers into account and allow for more uninteruppted play. It is geared towards combat but works well still for story stuff. I would recommend at least reading up on it.