Xathrodox86 reviews: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th edition, part 4: core mechanics, part 1

Let's take a look at WFRP 4th edition's core game mechanics and see how well they work. Is the current iteration of this venerable game better than the previous ones, especially the much loved 2nd edition?

First of all we have Success Levels now. What are they? They're similar to succcesses from the 2nd edition, but more important, if that makes sense. Every full "10" that goes above your character's stat is a success. The more of them, the better, and they're especially important during combat. During the fights each opponent counts the levels of successes in a counter test, and then, based on the ammount each of the combatants had gathered, SOMETHING happens. You see, there's no more "I hit you, you hit me back" type of combat, present in this edition. Now even if both of the opponents miss, some damage will be dealt. It's a great way of making the encounters more cinematic and intense, albeit with a lot more tracking and keeping score of Success Levels.

Combat is much, much more intense now. I love it!

But there's more! You see, there are advantages as well. From combat manuevers to certain weapons, you can get an advantage over your opponent in combat. Each of these grant you a 10% bonus to stabbery, but you can also lose them really easily. Fail an opposed combat roll or take some damage, and your hard-hoarded advantages go down the drain. I really like this system, as while it does add a lot to remember during fights, it also makes them  much, much more interesting and cinematic, and I love cinematic feel in my games above all else.

Damage works similar to the 2nd edition system. You take a critical hit or suffer more damage, than your total number of wounds, it's critical wound time. Take more critical wounds than your toughness bonus and its game over. Some crits can, of course, kill you faster, but the core gist is that the combat in 4th edition is much bloodier, nastier, as well as tactical and strategic. I think it just might be one of my favorite things about the 4th edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

Magic has been changed rather drastically, in my opinion. No more rolling above the power level of a spell, which you want to cast. Now you're just counting Success Levels and compare them with your Comprehend Languages (Magick) skill. You can also just channel magick each turn, accumulating successes until you match the Casting Number of the spell, in which case it goes off automatically. There are ingredietns to help you with doing magical shenanigans, as well as the good, old channeling. There are miscasts as well, although once again WFRP proves to be rather light on their effects. I love the Perils of the Warp in Dark Heresy games, as they're really dangerous and potentially fatal to both the psyker and his mates. Here the miscasts are suitable grim, but not really that perilous. Oh well, here's hoping that someone will make some excellnt, fan-made miscasts tables, which will make casting spells much more hazardous, as they should be.

All in all the mechanics of the game, which I've just described, are really well made. My only complaint is that the magic miscast system is a tad too light for a world as shitty and dangerous, as Warhammer's. Still, that's not something too terrible and the excellent combat mechanics really make up for it, in my humble opinion of course.

In my next, and probably final part of WFRP 4th edition review, I will describe the corruption, psychology and disease mechanics, as well as the very cool idea of the Downtime. After that I think I'll need to switch my article focus to something else, at least for a while. After all, variety is the spice of life, right?

Until next time!

Xathrodox86