Best Edition of WFRP so far, building on the foundation of the best previous Editions.

This is an absolutely excellent book, packed full of wonderful atmosphere which captures the Warhammer world brilliantly. The artwork is my favourite in any RPG. Careers are splendid; rules enable a lot of characterful options but are perhaps somewhat over-complicated. Nevertheless this is an impressive book and an extremely faithful update to a beloved RPG.

For a (much) more in-depth review, see: https://illmetbymorrslieb.wordpress.com/2023/10/18/review-fourth-edition-rulebook-part-1-system/

Beautiful and well-written, I cannot get enough of this book and the continued support Cubicle 7 provides. It is a constantly growing, evolving system with a lot of support by people who care. The rules have a lot of wiggle room and plenty of optional variations, and the layout makes sense. This is honestly one of the highlights of my bookshelf and I cannot recommend it enough.

This is in many respects a good update of the WFRP rules system. It is, however, in my opinion let down somewhat by excessive crunch and unclear exposition of the rules (especially the lack of examples).

For more thoughts on the book, see: https://awesomeliesblog.wordpress.com/2018/12/23/going-fourth/

I haven't played the previous editions of this game, but I do come from Blood Bowl and Warhammer Fantasy Battles, and I have 18 years experience as a Game Master, and I must say that this is the best RPG I've ever play. If you love the Warhammer Fantasy World, or grim dark fantasy in general (be it Dark Sun, Ravenloft or Cthulhu), you will love this game. It has just the ammount of comedy that grim dark needs, like when you add a sprinkle of salt over a good bitter chocolate.

I have been pining for the 4th Edition. But after one and a half years of regular playing I am unfortunately disillusioned. On the one hand, I'm still angry that C7 released the ruleset the way it is now: with a bunch of mistakes that wouldn't have been necessary if you had just taken more time. They waited so long, I could have waited even longer for a good product. On the other hand, the combat system is just really bad (all five players in my round think so, too). While reading through it I thought: "Wow, how innovative! And I still think it's good that you always roll the dice for defense in a fight. This is really a significant improvement. But Advantages? And the conditions? I don't want to have to do any accounting to depict a fight. Without COVID and therefore Roll20 I would probably have given up already... But it's not that easy, because there are powers and talents based on the fact that you use them. I think I'll finish my campaign and then it's over with the 4th Edition.

On the positive side, I would like to praise the careers and how they work now. I like that very much. The rest is also good to very good in my opinion. But when fights are no longer fun, then something goes wrong.

Beautiful wrapping and renewal of an old system. Lots of stuff avalible already. both on DriveThruRPG and on Cubicle 7's pages. I have bought everything and are currently kindly nudging my son towards trying the Warhammer FRP 4th edition out.

I did a video review of this title:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hRsjaatnU0&t=25s

The return of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying Game to the hobby is something that I welcomed with a cheer, and I’m glad that Cubicle 7 did a fantastic job at bringing back the game. Not only did they restore the black comedy gold of the setting, but also introduced some mechanical streamlining that made it work better overall.

Sure there are some old mainstays, such as the incredible number of tables, but that’s part of the experience. Warhammer Fantasy always played well with people who enjoyed all sorts of risk-taking, and both good and bad things happen to player characters all the time.

Art and Layout

The art of the book is nothing less than stunning, and the layout is clean and readable without losing the feel of the game. Cubicle 7 has always excelled in this aspect, and they continue their winning streak here.

Language and Mechanics

The rules are on the middle to high range of mechanical difficulty, and will require a test game or two to really get into, but every rule here has a place. There are no odd mechanics that don’t reinforce the feel of the setting, and that’s something that I find very admirable.

Extra credit for having a book that knows how to best use language to push for the feel of a setting, then shifting to provide clarity in mechanics.

Conclusion

If you’re a fan of fantasy RPGs, you owe it to yourself to have this in your collection. The world and mechanics of Warhammer Fantasy RPG has a unique fingerprint in terms of both rules, setting and even feel that makes it stand out in the most crowded of fantasy worlds.

There’s a reason it’s lasted this long, and in the hands of Cubicle 7, this might be the best edition yet.

I was really hyped.

Now, that me and my friends finished our first 4e campaign, I must say: I think this project was rushed. Some rules are just vague or not included at all which leads to annoying but necessary discussions while playing which is unfortunate. Also the golden rule "change or ignore elements if you don't like it" is... Well you can't do it in terms of combat. Combat is some kind of gear mechanism and if you remove one thing (ADVANTAGE), the whole system is unplayable. In the end, we spent hours to homebrew a combat system we could enjoy (a bit) but this new "critical wounds" and insanely high critical hit rate with criticals even when defending and stuff is just overkill. While combat takes an eternity, you still have limited options what you can do during combat. Our experience was: you either Attack (opponent tries to dodge or parry) or you go defensive stance. That's about it. Sometimes you are able to do a charge attack and in really rare cases you can activate frenzy or something but... Yeah.

Tldr: This new combat approach feels very complicated. While it sounds great on paper, it feels like a burden while playing.

The overall quality is really good though. The art is nice but a little bit too repetetive. Even though this review sounds really negative so far, there are still many elements that I love about the 4th edition. Those are:

• Dark deals (A really interesting and sometimes game changing mechanic)
• the career system (it is easy to create homebrews and add missing stuff)
• magic and everything that comes with magic (the lore specific effects are a great idea and work really well. There is a Lack of chaos magic though which is unfortunate)
• height and it's effect on combat

Conclusion:

If you are a hardcore fan of the 2nd edition, you might hate this system. While all of the mechanics SOUND great, they didn't really convice me in the end. Me and my group played this version for about 6 months, had a blast but we can't wait to go back to our favorite edition of WFRP. All the best to Cubicle 7. Love you guys and I really want to love the 4th edition but I can't :(

This has taken the best parts of all the previous editions, and improved it in so many ways.

Beautifully illustrated and presented with a good, focussed take on the Reikland portion of the Empire and return to some of the feel of 1e. Updated ruleset which sets out to address the main complaints of the previous editions systems and succeeds in many ways but is marred a bit by errata, patches of extra complexity for little payoff in enjoyment and a sense that some of the rules (shields, falling damage, the Hardy talent) aren't particularly well thought out or playtested fully, so while they've fixed frustrations of editions past, they've introduced a few new ones. Close to / arguably the best edition, but seems to have stumbled a bit in a rush for publication.

As a 40 year old WARHAMMER veteran (1st,2nd,3rd Edition RPGS) i must say i am very impressed with this game.

The production quality is high and the content well written and engaging - hitting the right tone in regards to grim and perilous dark british humor.

The art work is inspiring and matchs the tone of the game.

The rules are fun and pay homage to the original edition but with modern design elements supported with great optional rules.

The game may have a steep learning curve for new rpgers but that is overcome with the starter set recently released by C7.

C7 are a brillant company who have produced a great game - the Old World lives on and is safe in their hands. I must say that i look forward to the upcoming Age of Sigmar RPG.

It is a golden age of RPGS with fantasy games in there many variations very much at the fore to the point it can be difficult to distinguish wheat from the chaff - if you want something engaging, gritty, inspiring and ultimately fun then pick this up.

WFRP 4th edition is kind of like an OSR game. Yes, it doesn't use those mechanics but the spirit of ye olden days is there. The system is reminisent of the first and second edition but weirdly different in a way that you really need to learn all of the rules again before you can go on an adventure in the Old World.

Visually it is one of the most stunning rpg books I have ever had the pleasure to read and only rarely do these illustrations hinder the reading process (which isn't usually the case in rpg books in my opinion).

I might have been spoiled by the indie games in the past years but WFRP is not for all. There are loads of rules of all kinds of stuff but it still feels like some of them have been intentionally left out to justify the later expansions. It's not as bad as it was for WFRP3 but it is still there.

WFPR4 is a great escape from Dungeons and Dragons to a more vibrant world and interesting gaming experience - if you want to view it in that way.

I wrote a much longer post about it in our blog: https://blog.guildredemund.net/2018/10/25/review-warhammer-fantasy-roleplay-4th-edition/

The good: Cudos to C7 for going back to the original setting from 1st ed and for the great artwork. The bad: An overly complicated and poorly explained edition of WFRP.

I wish 4th ed could have been a modern take on Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay that could have included many of the great things in roleplay that has developed since the beginning of this millenium. Instead this comes across as an even more complicated oldschool version of WFRP with very little guidance in the book as to how the rules should work in play.

Who should buy: Fans that must have everyhing WFRP related or those who like to tinker with houseruling of WFRP. Who should not buy: People new to roleplay or those looking for a modern roleplay system.