It’s here! The newest Warhammer RPG core is now complete with the Gamemaster’s Guide (GM Guide). If you read my review of the Player’s Guide here, you know I’m really looking forward to playing this game. With this book, the core of the game is all here now, including things like Corruption, NPCs, Monsters, Contacts, details of Taalagad, and (a surprise to me) Magic Items!

I’m not going to go through the whole book in order, but focus on the things I was most curious about after my read-through of the Player’s Guide. The two main things I wanted more on were Grim Portents, and enemies- and we got both in spades!

The Player’s Guide doesn’t go over Grim Portents much, but hints to how important they are to beginning a game of The Old World. It makes more sense now, because a Grim Portent is really the GM’s job.

After looking this section over in this book, my best description of a Grim Portent is playing out how the characters met, and why they’re together. This can often be a difficult part of an adventure RPG to make sense. Sometimes it’s easiest to just say, “Hey, you’re all together, doing odd jobs and such. This is your current job.” I like to write adventures with a strong theme, so there’s a reason the party is together, or an inciting incident to bring them together. That’s essentially what a Grim Portent is. What happened to bring a handful of disparate people of the Warhammer world together, to risk their lives in deadly combat, often against their best interests. A Grim Portent is essentially the opening scene to your adventure, setting up the story in a way that makes sense and feels natural to the players. I’m thinking of this like the hook of a novel- this should be within the first 1% of the story, to let the reader know what the point of it all is. The same is true for an adventure/campaign. Of course, you’re not telling the players everything, but teasing them with a glimpse of what could be.

This book gives a handful of potential Grim Portents set in and around Taalagad, but can easily be changed to wherever you want your adventure to take place.

Contacts, another important aspect of TOWRPG, is given much more detail here as well.

21 Contacts based on Taalagad are detailed here, with a quote, their Primary Skill, Motivation, Meeting Place, Favors, Needs, Allies and Enemies, Gossip, and Secrets. This gives great depth to each of these characters, ranging from the Baroness herself, all the way to Valda Kracht, a Sigmarite trafficker, helping people into and out of Taalagad who can’t usually afford it. By the way, the people of Taalagad are not a fan of Sigmar or his worshippers, so Valda is always on the edge of discovery and death.

This relationship of religions, a strong theme in the Warhammer world, is detailed well in the first section of the book, which is like a gazetteer of Taalagad.

But Who Do I Fight?

Nearly 50 different enemies are detailed, ranging from typical people like members of the City Watch, all the way to terrifying monsters like the mighty Ghorgon or Orc Warboss. Here the game has many similarities to another Cubicle 7 game- Soulbound. Enemies have a simplified sheet compared to PCs, naturally, and many unique skills and abilities. If you’re not a fan of looking up half a dozen keywords to know exactly what your monster does, you’re in luck- they’re all on their stat block.

The stat block here looks very similar to those found in Soulbound, with the information laid out logically and easy to reference. At first I thought the “Default” Skill was a typo, something leftover from formatting, but then I realized it was to sum up the Skills they don’t have bonuses to! A minotaur has a base Skill of 2 for anything not listed after, like Melee 5- they’re really good at hitting stuff with weapons! I appreciate how their attacks and defense (Protection) are laid out, though it will take a little bit of experience to read all those numbers, dashes, and slashes. Their abilities below are nice, because even common ones, like Fearsome, are explained. There’s no big list of traits to forget what they mean and have to look them up, they’re all right there! These stats can easily be tweaked as well, if you wanted to make a Doombull Champion Minotaur. Bump up a few stats, give them the Champion trait instead of Brute (so they suffer Wounds like Characters). Which reminds me, enemies come in four forms- Minons (one Wound suffered and they’re out), Brutes (takes a few Wounds suffered, but no roll on the table, their block tells what happens as they take Wounds), Champions (see above), and Monstrosities (suffer Wounds like Brutes, but can take more of a beating!). Looking at these stats, combat is going to be swift, deadly, and tense!

For those curious, Beastmen, Orcs & Goblins, Undead, natural monsters like dragons, and typical peoples of the Old World (like wizards, Witch Hunters, thugs, knights, State Troops, and examples for elves, dwarfs, halflings, and ogres are all included (sorry- no Skaven or Daemons).

Corruption, which is handled more narratively than mechanically, and is not tracked by a point system, is different enough that I want to spend more time with it before I comment on it too much here. Tests are made at the end of a day in which a character was exposed to Chaos, instead of right when it happens like other iterations of Warhammer Fantasy. This really leans into the slow, creeping menace of corruption in the world. At this time in the Old World, Chaos is in a weakened state, and its corrupting influence isn’t as strong as veteran players might be used to. Either way, the shift to a more narrative focus for Corruption is cool, allowing the player to really understand what’s happening to their PC, for better or worse.

Give Me the Magic Stuff!

I was very surprised to find a plethora of magic items in this book. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is often seen as a low-fantasy game with minimal magical items which are usually more subtle than other fantasy RPGs. I really love that they’ve taken classic magic items from the miniature wargame and gave many of them stats for this game. Your characters won’t have only a dagger for long, but they might have to earn the item in battle first!

For an example, the Headsman’s Axe is a venerable weapon from Warhammer Fantasy Battles, known for it’s “Killing Blow” ablitity, which is represented here by the axe’s Trait. This isn’t to say that you’re going to have a party festooned with magical items after one adventure, but their inclusion here, with a list of nearly 30 in this book, tells me that they’ll be a bigger part of the game than say, WFRP 4th Edition. Here’s hoping to more included in future supplements, because more options is always better!

Does it Belong On My Shelf?

Resounding “Yes.” This book adds exactly what I was hoping for, along with some nice treats I didn’t expect. I hope a larger Bestiary and Armory follow soon, but this game doesn’t feel barebones by any means with these first two tomes. A reader could get lost just learning about Taalagad and the Contacts, let alone all the monster stats and ways to have your PCs become Corrupted. The only thing I really think is missing is rules on Psychology and Disease, a mainstay in Warhammer RPGs. Hopefully we see this in the near future.

I can’t wait to see what else Cubicle 7 has for us for TOWRPG, and I can’t wait to run it! If you’re interested in checking it out with me, I’ve got a few One-Shots scheduled on Start Playing Games here and here for another time-slot. I’ve written a delve into Karak Eight Peaks (which I can now populate with official monsters- mine were quite close). For a discount on your first game, here’s a referral link!

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