I want to stress how much I really do love this edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. I love the vibe of it. Jon Hodgson, the art director, does a fantastic job of establish a world that is grim, that harkens back to 1E without slavishly reconstructing it, that doesn’t shy away from modern aesthetic but also doesn’t turn into bland, uninspiring mush like D&D 5E. Art in RPG books is meant to fill my head with ideas, and I have an excess of them after flipping through any given WFRP book.

I digress, sort of. This is Rough Days & Hard Nights (2019), the first set of scenarios for WFRP4E. It is uniformly awesome. My desire to run these crashes directly into my hesitance about the system and, I think, the scenarios stay standing. That good.

Which, they’re all by Graeme Davis, an old hand at the Old World. Each involves a web of seemingly connected plots that, in the end turn out to be separate. Each has its own timetable, the clock ticking away, events happening whether the players act or not. All of them are a mix of grim, gruesome and hilarious. The second scenario is probably my favorite and a good example of all of this. It takes place at the city courts. There are seven different potential plots unraveling that day, the prime of them involving a judicial duel. That duel is the subject of constant interruption in a way that is just comedy gold. All of these scenarios are NPC and roleplay heavy, the sort of games that ask a lot from the GM, but the pay offs are clear. I thinkn that makes this book is an instant classic.

Also, gnomes! Now a playable race. That’s neat. Lots of nice art, as I said. I still love the WFRP1E tradition of having maps featuring building facades. Such a good aesthetic choice.