RPG Review: Warhammer RPG: A Day Late & A Shilling Short

I’m going to avoid talking much about the specifics of the plot, since I’m sure there’s plenty of people out there who would love to give it a try.

To begin, you won’t be able to just pick this up and play it without owning the game proper. It doesn’t explain the rules, or (naturally) provide the dice. This is an adventure designed to get a campaign going, and explain why it is the characters are together, or introduce new players to the game. The game has a few pre-generated characters, including a road warden, an elven envoy, a dwarf troll slayer and an apprentice wizard.

The game begins in a tavern, but only as back story. By the time the players are running their characters, they’re on the road to investigate why a merchant’s wagon is a day late into town. Each character is given a good reason for coming along (except the dwarf troll slayer, but I think that’s just because they felt obligated to include him.) There are a series of combat encounters, which, if run right, could be dynamic and exciting. If the players keep their eyes open, there are some things they can do to tip things in their favor.

The non-combat encounter that follows up all the fighting could be really entertaining and fun. The NPC provided could easily become the most detested character your heroes have ever faced, if pulled off right. I used a voice and facial expressions for this character to really bring home the utter horribleness of him, and it went well. I could see him as an ongoing annoyance to the heroes in a campaign.

In all, it’s a good scenario, and I really enjoyed running it at GenCon.