Sunday, 4 January 2009
Posting block
I have a drafted post that I have been thinking about for some time.
The post attempts to compare WFRP combat against new and old D&D 3.5 combat rules. There is even a nod to how I think WFRP harks back to some old school concepts.
I can't put my thoughts to text like James Maliszewski over at Grognardia can. But I'm trying.
One thought that keeps me returning to the post is: wargaming. How all RPGs have this heritage, but so many pundits in podcasting and blogging seem to forget or outright ignore. Seed my recent discovery of World at War from Strategy and Tactics Press at my FLGS and my recent re-reading of the WFRP combat rules to create more challenging encounters for my players, and I'm distracted with wanting to say something.
WFRP has Warhammer Fantasy Battles. D&D has Chainmail and the games of the IFW. To me, I look at much of D&D today and it's various rule incarnations in 3.5 and 4e, and see this heritage in sharp clarity. Wahammer Fantasy Battles gets barely a nod in the 8 pages of WFRP combat rules. "Dr. Rotwang" over at I Waste the Buddha With My Crossbow might put it succinctly as, "... [WFRP] a lot less fiddly, a lot less 5 foot squares, a lot less attacks of opportunity, a lot less tactical blah-de-blah-blah ..." Of course the good doctor was not describing WFRP, but Castles and Crusades, yet it is so apropos to the thoughts stuck in my head.
