| Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
(abbreviated to WFRP) is a role-playing game
set in the Warhammer Fantasy setting. Over the
years, it has been through a number of phases and
different publishers, most related in some way to Games
Workshop. The game is currently licensed to Fantasy
Flight Games.
The first edition of WFRP spawned a
well-known and highly praised campaign known as The
Enemy Within. These five episodes were variously bound
and collected. The first three episodes generally received
the most praise; a rewritten version of the last episode, Empire
in Flames, was to be issued by Hogshead Publishing
under the title Empire in Chaos, but never saw the
light of day. |
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The second edition focused on new material rather
than reprints. A new campaign entitled Paths of the Damned
has been followed by standalone adventures, such as Barony of
the Damned and Terror in Talabheim, as well as shorter
adventures in country sourcebooks (for example Ill Tidings,
from Knights of the Grail, the Bretonnia supplement) as
well as rules supplements (for example A Brutal Finish,
from Realms of Sorcery, the arcane magic supplement).
The Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Setting
shares the same Germanic, doom-laden background as the Warhammer
Fantasy Battle wargame that spawned it. Being a game devoted
to individual characters rather than entire armies, WFRP depicts
the setting in much closer detail than does its wargame
counterpart. This change of focus also transforms WFRP into a more
grim and perilous game than WFB.
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The primary setting for WFRP is the
Empire, a region of the Old World based loosely on the Holy
Roman Empire, with a number of baronies, counties and
dukedoms fashioned after the fiefs of elector counts and
dukes. Other prominent regions include Bretonnia, based on
medieval France mixed with strong Arthurian mythology
themes; Kislev, based on medieval Poland and Imperial
Russia; and the Wasteland, based on the Low Countries. Other
lands not explored as thoroughly but still frequently
mentioned include the fragmented lands of Estalia and Tilea,
fashioned after Spain and the city states of Renaissance
Italy respectively, and Araby (a mixture of Arabic Caliphate
and Persia); and to lesser extents Cathay (China), Ind
(India), Naggaroth (Canada), Ulthuan (Atlantis), Lustria
(South America), Norsca (Skandinavia) and the island of
Albion, (a mythological British Isles). |
While the setting of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
does share traits with other popular fantasy settings (such as
Elves and Goblins); chronologically, the Warhammer setting is
slightly later than that of most fantasy games, being closer to
the early Renaissance era in terms of technology and society.
Firearms are readily available, though expensive and unreliable,
and a growing mercantile middle class challenges the supremacy of
the nobility.
One of the most identifiable features of the
Warhammer setting is Chaos, which is not Evil per se. While the
forces of Chaos in Warhammer Fantasy Battle are depicted primarily
in the form of marauding dark knights and beastmen, Chaos in
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is an insidious force gnawing at the
fabric of society. Secret cults abound among all strata of
society, seeking to overthrow the social order or to further their
own power. Mutants lurk in the forests outside the great cities,
while the Skaven tunnel beneath them.
Magic is widely feared and reviled, and not
without good reason. The very essence of magic is derived from and
thus corrupted by Chaos, and the practitioners of magic in the
Warhammer setting tread a very fine line between death,
corruption, and relative safety.
Information supplied by Wikipedia
