WFRP Old World Armoury & Old World Bestiary

Warhammer fantasy Roleplay has always been a very distinctive system, with a very gritty take on fantasy - it's one of the few fantasy RPGs where characters are likely to include "Rat-catcher" or "Sewerjack" as their profession.

I'd bought the old rulebook and some of the "Death on the Reik" adventure series back in the 90s, but never really played it. However, I recently picked up a big bundle of PDF adventures and sourcebooks for the new edition from black industries / cubicle 7, and overall I've been favourably impressed

I thought I'd review two of the books - The "Old World Armoury" and "Old World Bestiary", Both are 128 page books, and both were far better done than I expected

The "Old World Armoury" is both mis-named and much more useful than I expected. Along with a detailed discussion of weapons and armour, it also provides not only a comprehensive selection of all the types of equipment an adventurer is likely to need. Even better, however, it provides well thought out sections on topics as diverse as currency, transport and land and property, helping really flesh out how the world works.

The "Old World Bestiary" is effectively the "Monster Manual" for the system, but it is very neatly done. The first two-thirds of the book is for the players, and has a number of "in universe" stories and comments about each of the beasts, divided between "The common view" (ie what everyone "knows") and "The Scholar's Eye", giving the view of the more learned...which may or may not be more correct. The comments come from a variety of characters and are of variable accuracy, giving players an idea of what their characters are likely to know (or think they know) rather than the hard stats.

I particularly like that one of the characters giving his opinions on each creature is a Skaven assassin, and his comment in each case is simply the appropriate poison and method of application for that particular creature.

The last third of the book is then referee only, and gives the game statistics for the various beasts.

Overall, I'd strongly recommend both books

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