For most people, fantasy tabletop settings share a lot of common elements, such as timeless elves, powerful wizards, and fantastic magic. Some players, however, like their fantasy a little darker, with corruption everywhere, rat people digging beneath castles and a world where good is never guaranteed to triumph over evil. Many of these fantasy fans have found Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay a bit more to their liking. Currently, a massive collection of PDFs is available over at Humble Bundle ready for old fans to fill in their collection or new fans curious to try something a little different come game night.
Warhammer Fantasy is one of Games Workshop’s most famous worlds, spawning several miniature, video, tabletop and role-playing games. The setting differentiates itself from standard fantasy in a few ways. It mixes in a dash of the Holy Roman Empire to the usual medieval setting. It also takes a few more cues from Evil Dead than Lord of the Rings. That pushes the timeline a bit forward into a world where black powder weapons have started to replace bows and crossbows as the ranged weapon of choice. Chaos is also a malevolent force that seeps into everyday life in the world. It also happens to be the main source of magic, so magic-users have to balance their quest for cooler spells and magic items with becoming a servant of evil.
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is also notorious for chewing up characters and spitting them out, which is why character creation is entirely random. When one character dies, a new one gets rolled up in a few minutes and can end up with a career ranging from an Agitator to a Zealot, with 60 careers in between. Characters hardy enough to make it through their initial career can end up cycling through advanced careers such as Witch Hunter or Politician. The percentile system offers an excellent amount of flexibility, but most Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay veterans have at least one story where the dice failed them and left their character in a terrible position.
The Humble Bundle benefits Action Against Hunger and ends on September 26th. It has several donation tiers, each one including all the books at all lower tiers. One dollar grants access to the second edition of the game as well as several adventures that will get players involved with the intrigue of the setting. Donating $8 adds more adventures and books detailing aspects of the setting. A $15 donation opens up several player options including more weapons, more spells and more curses when spells go wrong. The highest level, $20 opens up even more sourcebooks, including several more careers and the original 1st edition for the first time in PDF.
That’s less than a dollar a book at the highest level. Even the lowliest rat-catcher can afford taking a chance on that.
Feature Image Credits: Games Workshop
Rob Wieland is an author, game designer and professional nerd. He writes about kaiju, Jedi, gangsters, elves, Vulcans and sometimes all of them at the same time. His blog is here, his Twitter is here and his meat body can be found in scenic Milwaukee, WI.