There is no shortage of systems and settings in which to play tabletop roleplaying games. Some people play one system indefinitely, and some people try to play them all, there’s no wrong way to do it. I personally like to play as many as I can, in the occasional event that my group is willing to humor me, and actually play a new system. I have my favorites of course, as well as one’s that I can’t stand. I find I tend to gravitate towards fantasy settings, as I haven’t had much fun playing in science fiction games like star wars. Instead preferring games like Dungeons and Dragons, and of course my favorite, Legend of the Five Rings. However, just because a particular setting is good, doesn’t mean it’s been paired with a great system, or vice versa. In this Post I want to talk about one game in particular that happens to be, in my opinion, one of the best roleplaying settings out there, but unfortunately suffers from a lackluster, ultimately dreadful game system. That game is Warhammer Fantasy 2nd edition.
The game was first brought to my group by a player who had played to game in high school, and thought we would enjoy it. We sat down one Saturday evening to make characters for our upcoming perilous adventure, only to find that the character creation for the system is, as a gentleman might say, utter codswallop. It’s impossible to make a character that is not only not terrible, but mediocre at any basic skill that the average person might possess. While some may see this as a hallmark of the system, for our group it meant that any hope of doing something heroic, or accomplishing anything more difficult that putting on pants, was futile. My character from Call of Cthulhu, a 55 year old psychology professor, could have moped the floor with our entire party. I eventually decided to play a noble, as the significant lack of numerical skills and traits, would surely be made up for with money. Oh how my former naivety amuses me so. No, this would prove to be pointless, because despite my higher status, and wealthy family, I still had less money that every other individual party member, one of whom was homeless. However, perhaps the worst aspect of the system, and the one that caused not only me, but everyone else in the party not return to the game, is the leveling system. You have to pay gold…to gain skill points…in addition to experience. Not a little gold, a lot. The amount of gold that it would cost for me to get to second career, was comparable to purchasing a house. This created a quite sizable balance gap between players, making it very difficult to do most adventures together as a group. This made the game completely pointless, and lead to the demise of our Warhammer adventure.
The system of Warhammer Fantasy being hot garbage is truly a shame, as the lore and story for this setting is not only rich, but also very engaging and exciting. Many character concepts like the Witch Hunter, and Dwarf Giant Slayer, sound like some of the most fun characters you could play. I really REALLY want to play a Witch Hunter in this setting. Sadly, the game in nigh unplayable for my group and I. I have looked into the more recent 3rd edition of Warhammer Fantasy published by Fantasy Flight Games, but feel it’s not a good fit for my group either. In fact, it seems more like a board game than a roleplaying game. I’d consider playing the game in the GURPS system, but no one in my group is familiar enough with both the setting, and the system enough to GM it. Have you had a bad experience with a game system in a setting that you loved? Tell me in the comments!
-Goluptious Geek
Goluptious Geek Blog 
Despite all being dedicated Warhammer players, my group was also so turned off by this system that we just played the original Warhammer Quest instead. Sad to say, a D6 based Heroquest like game was far more enjoyable than this outing.
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