Ogs! Ogs! Ogs!

Where there’s a whip, there’s a way! The Orcs and Goblins are ready for a good crumpin’! Trials and Tribulations is the newest supplement for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying from Cubicle 7 and focuses on everyone’s favorite green-skinned, foul-mouthed fighters of the Warhammer world. If you need some inspiration for including these classic characters in your games or quick stats for deadly enemies, this book has it!

What’s in the Book?

While most of Tribes and Tribulations is dedicated to six different tribes of Orcs and Goblins (O&G) that can be encountered in various parts of the Warhammer world, it also includes rules for Troll types, Waaagh! magic, and including O&G in your games as more than just a bag of meat for your PCs to dull their swords against.

Chapter 1: Introduction

First the chapter gives us an overview of the Orc and Goblin species, with notes on their history (or lack thereof), customs, diet, and more. I really enjoyed the pages dedicated to each species in detail including Goblins (including Gnoblars), Orcs, Black Orcs, Hobgoblins, Snotlings, Ogres, and Trolls. Before you jump in saying that Ogres and Trolls are not related to O&G, you are correct, and the book acknowledges that. It’s explained that they are included because their cultures and actions closely resemble Orc and Goblin tribes or they often follow them to war, as in the case of Trolls.

This first chapter also includes templates for advancing your O&G beyond their common stat blocks shown earlier. You can make elite soldiers, skirmishers, bosses, and shamans (for some species- using the new Lore of the Waaagh! later in the book). While Trolls can’t use these templates, they have their own templates later to differentiate the various types of Trolls found in the world.

My favorite part of this chapter is the details on Hobgoblins, an often ignored part of O&G lore. They’re probably the most intelligent of O&G species, which makes them even more dangerous than others of their kind. They can make for excellent enemies of the party, or even work with them! At least until they inevitably betray them.

Chapters 2-7: Tribes in Detail

The six tribes described in these chapters include: The Cluster Eye Tribe (taken from the previously PDF only publication) of forest Goblins; The Broken Nose Tribe of Goblins that wreak havoc in the World’s Edge Mountains (also includes rules for O&G war machines!); The Black Mountain Boyz, Orcs in the Black Mountains that includes my new favorite Orc name- Yaskin Forit, Orc Chief; The Stone Snakes, Savage Orcs that fight the Chaos Dwarfs of the Dark Lands; The Wolfboyz of Oglah Khan, Hobgoblins that work for the highest bidder in Tilea; and Matthogg’s Payswords, Ogre mercenaries of Ostermark.

Each of these tribes follows the same template: brief description of the make-up and temperament of the tribe, a short story form “Old Wierde’s Incunabulum” with personal anecdotes of the tribe, their fighting tactics, three sample encounters- easy, medium, and hard, and personalities including 3-4 NPCs from the tribe. These characters are great for filling in blanks in your campaign, grabbing an elite Orc here, or a Goblin Shaman there, or even an Ogre Butcher (complete with three new Gastromancy spells).

Each tribe description includes story/adventure hooks as well as something new, like equipment, non-O&G NPC (like a disgraced dwarf), or new magic, even their battle cry! All of this information gives GMs tons of ways to include O&G in their game as more than just a one-off fight. I especially like the use of Oglah Khan’s wolf riders and how they will work for just about anybody. Even the encounters listed don’t have to solely be combat encounters. One of my favorite themes to include into games of WFRP is the idea that not only humans, elves, and dwarfs are civilized and that the ‘evil’ races are more than just a blight on the world. Tribes and Tribulations does a great job showing the more complex parts of these races that can easily be missed when playing a strategy war game as opposed to a roleplaying game.

Chapter 8: Trolls in Several Forms

Similar to the earlier chapters, this chapter focuses on Trolls; but not a single tribe, since they don’t live like that, but as disparate variations on a common fantasy creature. It starts with brief descriptions of a few types of Trolls: common, stone, river, chaos, and bile Trolls. Then another short story from “Old Wierde’s Incunabulum.” Next are templates to take your “common” Trolls from the core book into all those variants of Troll with fun abilities. In addition, you can make your Troll hungry, hulking, even a hag and use magic! Again sample encounters and ‘tactics’ Trolls might use are included, as well as a few examples including a River Troll Hag that specializes in the Lore of Death!

Chapter 9: Waaagh! Magic

This relatively short chapter adds Waaagh! Magic for your O&G along with it’s own special Miscast table! In classic O&G fashion there is the Lore of the Little Waaagh! for Goblins and the Lore of the Big Waaagh! for Orcs. Hobgoblins, appropriately can choose which Lore their shamans use. Both lores gain 12 new spell, including classics like Itchy Nuisance and Foot of Gork. Along with the spells are a few magical items like effigies of Gork and Mork and the ubiquitous Glowy Green Amulet. There’s even a new monster thrown in here that’s a common mount for shamans- the purple skullback spider.

Chapter 10: Orc and Goblin Nemeses

The final chapter of the book is full of more goodies for GMs to sprinkle into their game. It details three major O&G personalities and how they can fit into a campaign. There is also a Nemesis Traits table to roll on when making your own O&G Boss to give them more personality than krumpin’. Some of these traits include: council, vassals, boaster, raider, complacency, and legacy. There are three columns to roll on: Cunning, Brutality, and Ambition. Just rolling these three and making a story about the boss you get sounds fun on its own!

The three example Nemesis of this chapter include the fan-favorite Skarsnik, a Night Goblin Warboss, and his loyal (and masssive) squig Gobbla; Gorfang Rotgut, a huge orc leader of the Red Fangs, and Sog’Kog a massive two-headed Chaos Troll that wanders Troll Country north of Kislev.

Now Get to Fightin’, Lads!

All in all, this is a fun book with tons of lore and ready-to-use NPCs. If you like Orcs, Goblins, Ogre, or Trolls, or just some fun stories, this book is for you. The only omission that I wish was included were rules to play as Orc and Goblin Characters. But we didn’t get that option for Skaven in The Horned Rat Companion either, so it would seem we won’t see playable “evil” races in this edition of the game. Either way, I like this book and the precedent it sets, I want more supplements like this, especially for dwarfs and elves!

Until then, make sure to check out our Patreon at patreon.com/professionalcasual for all kinds of awesome content. Also, if you’re looking for any of the books I’ve mentioned throughout the article, head over to beardeddragongames.online/shop or if you’re in our Discord, tag Anthony with anything you need!