# Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay *A Grim World of Perilous Adventure* - Work: Tabletop RPG - Date: 1986 (1st edition) - Houses: Games Workshop, Fantasy Flight Games - Platforms: Hardback rulebook - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/works/warhammer-fantasy-roleplay/ > Games Workshop's 1986 roleplaying game swapped heroic dungeon-delving for rat catchers, plague, cults and mud — a grim, darkly funny Old World where Chaos hides next door. **Why it matters:** WFRP defined a British alternative to American heroic fantasy: low-born characters, a career system instead of classes, lethal combat and corruption-from-within, with The Enemy Within still hailed as one of the great campaigns. ## Quick answers **When was Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay first released?** Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay was first released in 1986 (1st edition). **Who published or developed Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay?** Games Workshop and Fantasy Flight Games. **What kind of work is Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay?** Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is a tabletop RPG in the Tabletop Roleplaying Games, Dark Fantasy and Low Fantasy tradition, released for Hardback rulebook. **Why is Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay important?** WFRP defined a British alternative to American heroic fantasy: low-born characters, a career system instead of classes, lethal combat and corruption-from-within, with The Enemy Within still hailed as one of the great campaigns. ## Overview Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, or WFRP, is a [roleplaying game](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/tabletop-rpg/) published by [Games Workshop](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/games-workshop/) in 1986, set in the same Old World as its miniatures game [Warhammer Fantasy Battle](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/warhammer-fantasy-battle/). It was designed by Richard Halliwell, Rick Priestley, Graeme Davis, Jim Bambra and Phil Gallagher, with John Blanche as art editor, and it wore its attitude on its cover: *A Grim World of Perilous Adventure*. Where [D&D](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/original-dungeons-and-dragons/) heroes plundered dungeons and grew mighty, WFRP characters were ferrymen, grave robbers and failed students scraping a living in a muddy, plague-ridden Empire loosely modeled on the Holy Roman Empire. The real threat was not the monster in the cave but the respectable burgher who secretly worshipped a Chaos god — and the danger of becoming corrupted yourself. ## Origins WFRP was Games Workshop's first new publication after Bryan Ansell took control of the company around 1985. It was conceived as a companion to Warhammer Fantasy Battle, whose 1983 first edition had already included rules for individual heroes. It inherited the battle game's setting — including a Chaos mythology with clear debts to [Moorcock](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/michael-moorcock/) — but its designers pointed it toward intrigue, investigation and gallows humor, a mix critics would later compare to [Call of Cthulhu](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/call-of-cthulhu-rpg/). The launch was followed swiftly by *The Enemy Within*, a six-volume campaign published between 1986 and 1989 — *The Enemy Within*, *Shadows Over Bögenhafen*, *Death on the Reik*, *Power Behind the Throne*, *Something Rotten in Kislev* and *Empire in Flames* — by Bambra, Gallagher, Davis, Carl Sargent and Ken Rolston. It sent players by riverboat across the Empire, tangled in a conspiracy of Chaos cultists that ends with the Empire itself in flames. In 1989 roleplaying material was handed to Flame Publications, a Games Workshop division devoted to RPGs, but the company increasingly found miniatures more profitable than books. ## How it plays A roleplaying game has no board and no winner. One player, the [Game Master](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/game-master/), describes the world and voices everyone in it; each other player controls one [Player character](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/player-character/) and says what that character attempts. Dice decide the uncertain outcomes. WFRP's dice are percentile: two ten-sided dice read as a number from 1 to 100. Every character has eight main characteristics — Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill, Strength, Toughness, Agility, Intelligence, Willpower and Fellowship — rated on that scale, and succeeding at a task means rolling equal to or under the relevant number. It is a system descended from the percentile approach of [RuneQuest](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/runequest/) and Call of Cthulhu, and it makes odds instantly readable. In place of D&D's [character classes](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/character-class/) and levels, WFRP uses careers. A character begins as, say, a rat catcher or a farmer, gains skills and characteristic increases specific to that career, and later moves through a career exit into another — thief, wizard's apprentice, and eventually mercenary, explorer or witch hunter. The result is a life story rather than a level chart. Combat is lethal. Most human characters can survive only one or two hits before suffering a serious injury, and critical hits can maim or kill outright. Fate Points, a scarce resource representing destiny, let a character escape death, and Insanity Points track the mental toll of confronting Chaos. ## Reception & impact Critics liked it at once. In *Dragon* (August 1987) Ken Rolston recommended it strongly, noting that it "deliberately aims at adventures and settings with a less elevated tone." Stewart Wieck gave it 9 out of 10 in *White Wolf* in 1988. *Arcane*'s 1996 reader poll ranked it fourth of the fifty best RPGs, describing it as a cross-breed of D&D and Call of Cthulhu. *The Enemy Within* acquired legendary status, reportedly voted the best RPG campaign ever by the French magazine *Casus Belli*. Commercially, Games Workshop lost interest as its miniatures boomed. In 1995 James Wallis's Hogshead Publishing licensed the game and reissued the rules and campaign volumes, adding new material, until Wallis returned the license in 2002. ## Legacy WFRP has repeatedly outlived its owners. A second edition (2005), designed by Green Ronin for Games Workshop's Black Industries, won ENnie Golds for Best Game and Best Production Values before Black Industries left roleplaying in 2008. [Fantasy Flight Games](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/fantasy-flight-games/) published a radically different third edition in 2009 with custom dice and cards. Cubicle 7's fourth edition (2018) returned to percentile roots, won the 2019 ENnie Gold for Best Writing, and reissued *The Enemy Within* as a revised "Director's Cut." Its influence is tonal. WFRP showed that fantasy roleplaying could be about survival, social satire and moral compromise rather than heroism — a line that runs through [Dark Fantasy](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/dark-fantasy/) games and the [Grimdark](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/grimdark/) sensibility. The same Old World it fleshed out later hosted video games such as *Warhammer: Vermintide* (2015). ## Facts - Characters start in humble careers such as rat catcher or farmer and move through 'career exits' toward mercenary, explorer or wizard. - Most human characters can take only one or two hits before suffering a serious injury; Fate Points are the only thing standing between them and death. - The Enemy Within campaign was reportedly voted the best RPG campaign of all time by the French magazine Casus Belli. - Arcane magazine's 1996 reader poll ranked WFRP fourth of the 50 best RPGs, likening it to a cross between D&D and Call of Cthulhu. - Hogshead Publishing's James Wallis licensed and reissued the game in 1995, keeping it alive for seven years after Games Workshop moved on. - Its fourth edition won the 2019 ENnie Award Gold for Best Writing. ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_Fantasy_Roleplay) - [Wikipedia — The Enemy Within Campaign](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Enemy_Within_Campaign) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.