Here’s my “first-impressions” review of Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game, taking it on its own terms and then comparing it to my current fantasy standbys.
The engine is clean and decisive (dice-pool, target-under). You build a pool of d10s equal to a Characteristic (typically 2–6), roll them, then each die ≤ your relevant Skill rating is a success. Basic Tests read quickly at the table; Opposed Tests compare totals; and Exacting Tests are group “clocks” where you stockpile successes against a stated total (4 is a push, 8–12 is a real grind). It’s intuitive once you see Characteristics = pool size and Skills = “target number” on each d10.
Combat = tests + consequences, not long hit-point tick-downs. Attacks are Tests (often Opposed), with outcomes flowing into Wounds & Conditions rather than incremental chip damage. The Wounds Table generates specific fallout (e.g., Staggered, Prone, lingering injuries) and feels very Warhammer, brutal outcomes without drowning in sub-systems. NPCs come in Minions/Brutes/Champions/Monstrosities, which pairs nicely with Zones for range/speed and a short list of attack modifiers (outnumbering, charging, high ground, etc.). Net effect: scrappy, readable fights that can turn ugly fast.
Fate is your table-facing safety/tempo dial. PCs can spend Fate each session to make a Test Glorious (reroll failures) or take a second, different action in their turn. Burning Fate is rarer: succeed outright, negate a just-suffered Wound, cover a retreat, or go out in a heroic last stand. It reads like a thematic buffer, mitigates bad beats, lets you spike a key moment, but it’s finite per session and doesn’t feel like a “narrative currency” you spam.
Magic is risky in a Warhammer way. Casting can “Miscast,” producing backlash and dangerous side effects; the book also leans on the setting’s magical cosmology (e.g., the “Rule of Nine”) and distinguishes formal vs. improvised spellwork. It reinforces that magic is potent, weird, and never entirely safe, tone over spell-list crunch.
Careers, Status & Coin, and Contacts ground you in society. The game wants you tied to a place and people. Origins (Human/Elf/Dwarf/Halfling) set starting Characteristics, Talents, Lores, and Fate, then Careers and Status Tiers/Coin situate you in the Old World’s class reality (resetting to your tier’s coins at the start of an adventure is a nice “you’re not hoarders, you’re hustlers” signal). Contacts are explicit tools with rules support, not hand-waved allies. All of this pushes play into intrigue, obligations, and favors, not just monster murder.
Campaign play is the headline. The GM book gives you structure: start with a Grim Portent (a shared, can’t-ignore inciting disaster), then unspool a web of Dark Threads (factions, “knots,” and ties) that the PCs will yank on for months. It’s overt advice for building conspiracies and recurring nemeses, with Downtime/Endeavours paced to table cadence (e.g., roughly one Endeavour per weekly session), plus ideas for handling Endeavours “on the road.” It’s very much “scaffold a living campaign,” not just a one-shot engine.
Setting support is strong and specific. You get a textured Talagaad hub (districts, law, docks, movers), a slate of Contacts with motives/secrets, and a brisk Empire primer (claimants, factions, simmering conflicts). It reads like a ready-to-run city campaign with obvious escalation paths (Chaos, Undead, Beastmen, scheming nobles).
Tone: grim but playable. The advice keeps hammering “dangerous world, but fun at the table”, content guidance, “no random fights just because,” and emphasis on stakes that matter to the characters. It even nods to minis & Zones if you want that visual oomph, without requiring a wargame.
Crunch vs. fluff. I’d call it rules-medium with purposeful knobs: concise core tests; strong outcome tables; a few currencies (Fate, Status/Coin); and campaign scaffolding. There’s less build-optimization churn than class-talent trees, but more procedure than ultra-light games. The GM procedures (Grim Portent → Threads → Downtime) are where most of the “crunch” lives, and they’re good.
At the table, it reads like it will play as: investigations and social scenes that frequently become Opposed Tests, short, mean fights where a single Wound swing changes the room, and campaign arcs driven by faction webs and obligations. You’ll spend Fate to seize a moment, win ugly, and then deal with repercussions via Downtime and Contacts. That’s Warhammer.
Comparisons to my current fantasy go-tos
Dragonbane. Dragonbane’s d20 roll-under with boons/banes and pushes (risking Conditions) is breezier moment-to-moment; it excels at quick, tactile combats and low-friction adventuring, with Willpower fueling talents/spells. Old World is a notch crunchier, trades d20 for dice-pools, and leans harder into campaign scaffolding and social texture (Contacts/Status). If you enjoy DB’s pace but want more political/grim fallout and risky magic, Old World fits; if you live for push-test grit and super-fast rulings, DB stays king.
MÖRK BORG. MB is ultralight, lethal, and vibe-first: d20 ability tests, Omens to skew fate, and the world’s Miseries ticking toward apocalypse. Old World is much heavier on procedures and campaign continuity, still grim, but it’s about conspiracies and obligations more than doomed metal album crawls. If you want tables-driven chaos and fast death, MB; if you want a living city, factions, and recurring nemeses with structured downtime, Old World.
Shadowdark. SD shines at procedural dungeon adventuring: clear DC bands, torches as timers, Luck tokens, and death clocks. Old World could do a crawl, but its heart is city/faction play and story escalation. If your fun is time pressure in the dark and loose-but-sharp OSR procedures, SD wins; if you want Warhammer intrigue, corruption, and campaign arcs, Old World is built for it.
Potential rough edges / questions for long-term play
Fate pacing. Because Fate refreshes per session, expect PCs to spike key moments reliably. It’s thematic, but if you prefer zero cushions, you might tune Fate availability.
Injury volatility. The Wounds Table can swing a scene hard; I like it, but it means “close-run fights with lingering scars” over attritional stability.
GM load sits in campaign tools. Running Grim Portents → Dark Threads → Downtime is fantastic, but it does ask you to tend the web, great for groups who enjoy ongoing intrigue, less ideal for purely episodic dungeon romps.
A verdict of sorts…
If you want Warhammer’s grim politicking + hard-edged fights in a system that’s rules-medium, outcome-driven, and explicitly built for campaigns, this lands. I suspect it plays faster at the table than its toolkit heft suggests, and the Contacts/Status/Threads triad gives you something many fantasy games don’t: reliable social stakes.
For pure crawl nights I’d still grab Shadowdark/OSE; for breezier fights I’d still love Dragonbane; for metal-doom one-shots it’s MÖRK BORG. But for a long Old World campaign of schemes, scars, and grim victories, this is absolutely compelling.
It probably requires a stable group to make the most of it – I don’t think it fits the episodic Open Table vibe I’m into at the moment. But I can see a future where I make room for it with a small group of players who’re into it.
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