Day 17 of RPGaDay asks what is my favourite Fantasy RPG?
Although I do really like Mouse Guard, my favourite Fantasy RPG would have to be Warhammer Fantasy Role-play (now out of print). If you insist upon an edition, I’d have to go with 3rd because that’s all I own, but I do reference 2nd edition materials extensively.
The reason would be the setting. I really love the grim Fantasy world where magic is dangerous, corruption is everywhere and there’s a deep history. There’s a ton of adventure to be had and perhaps most importantly, there are no canon characters whose history you have to tread lightly around.
In Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, you’re the main characters exploring a world that you might have heard about, might have read about, but there’s no one that overshadows the rest of the setting. It’s for you to make your own. And what a setting to do that in. The skaven, the winds of magic, the witch hunters… it’s just a great setting.
In terms of Fantasy RPG game system, I’d have to say Dungeon World, as I love the Apocalypse Engine. It’s just so elegant how it gets out of the way of the story just enough, but still has enough crunch to keep it grounded.
These choices are probably why I am currently running a game I’m calling Warhammer World, combining the best of the Warhammer setting with the Dungeon World mechanics (and a few other games’ mechanics thrown in for good measure).
Justin Schmid
Justin started tabletop gaming in 1983 with Basic D&D (red box) and never looked back. He runs and plays in a wide variety of games, including Savage Worlds, Dungeon World, Trail of Cthulhu and many, many more.
He also writes professionally for role-playing games, including writing and creating Night's Edge an Alternate Reality Universe for Cyberpunk 2020. He went on to write eight more adventures and sourcebooks in the Night's Edge line, adding vampires and other supernatural perils to the already dangerous world of Cyberpunk.
As a freelance writer, he wrote The Bermuda Triangle for Call of Cthulhu, Shadows of the Mind, and Psi Wars for Conspiracy X and contributed to Last Unicorn's Star Trek RPG, as well as to Cybergeneration sourcebooks, and many other games.
When he's not creating imaginary worlds for his daughter, he's running games for his friends and writing new adventures or designing new game systems. He currently lives in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.