Goto [ Index ] World of Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game is an Open Gaming License pen and paper RPG and a substantial revision on the original D20 Warcraft RPG released in September 2003. There is a conversion PDF available at www.sword-sorcery.com, along with some other free Warcraft downloads. I do not possess the original D20 Warcraft, so this review does not compare anything between editions. All of my comparisons will be with standard Open Gaming License (henceforth referred to as OGL) content in the System Resource Document.

The presentation and layout of the book are nothing short of spectacular. The artwork falls right in line with the characters in the computer game, the game user manuals, and the website concept art. The table of contents is followed by a page listing of every table in the book (armor, aging, spell slots, combat modifiers, etc… etc…) – extremely handy. Except where illustrations or maps interfere, the top of each left page lists the chapter and the top of each right page lists the chapter section. I haven’t done a cover to cover read-through, but thus far spelling and grammar are flawless and the only formatting error I discovered was neglecting to put a section subheading in bold.

The introduction starts with a section on their decision to revise the game so soon after launch due to the release of Blizzard’s World of Warcraft computer game, fan feedback, and some innovative ideas they wanted to include. Then a brief overview of the rules changes is detailed, and they give credit to Monte Cook for letting them borrow some ideas from his Arcana Unearthed products. Basic roleplaying terminology is covered along with the steps to take a character from concept through creation. Last, the Warcraft history, races, factions and faction relationships, geography, and cosmology are described in pretty solid detail. This setting info looked complete to me, but it is possible someone more versed in the setting would find errors or omissions.

Ability scores follow the OGL standard in all respects save naming, where they fit the World of Warcraft computer game. Dexterity becomes Agility, Constitution becomes Stamina, Intelligence becomes Intellect, and Wisdom becomes Spirit.

With races, racial class levels are used in place of the level adjustments of the previous edition. The Ironforge Dwarf, High Elf, Night Elf, Jungle Troll, Tauren, and Forsaken Undead each have an associated racial class with 3 levels that they may take at their own option at any point in their career. The racial levels include adjustments to base attack bonus and saving throws, skill points, and class abilities just like advancing a level in any other OGL class. Humans, Orcs, Gnomes, and Goblins do not have racial levels.

The Forsaken Undead race are a nice addition, but their lack of bonus hit points from Stamina and their inability to benefit from most forms of healing look like a problem. I imagine most Forsaken PCs will be forced to take a few levels in Necromancer if a Necromancer doesn’t already exist in the party, just so they may heal themselves.

The classes are: Arcanist (with the Mage, Necromancer, and Warlock paths), Barbarian, Healer (with the Druid, Priest, or Shaman paths), Hunter, Paladin, Rogue, Scout, Tinker, Warrior. The Warrior is the OGL Fighter renamed, and the Barbarian and Rogue don’t vary too much from their OGL counterparts. Every other class is pretty heavily revised or completely new so as to capture World of Warcraft flavor.

Prestige classes are: Archmage of Kirin Tor, Assassin, Beastmaster, Berserker, Duelist, Elven Ranger, Fel-Sworn, Gladiator, Infiltrator, Mounted Warrior. The Fel-Sworn gains a very nice selection of demonic powers in return for his allegiance to the Burning Legion. The remaining classes are pretty self explanatory from their names.

The skills section is pretty standard fare. The Craft skill has details for flintlock firearms, gunpowder, and other Warcraft-specific steamtech and alchemical items. There’s also the skill Use Technological Device, a pretty straightforward analog to Use Magical Device.

There are a respectable number of Warcraft-specific feat entries, like Storm Bolt, Pulverize, and Drums of Courage, in addition to most (maybe all) of the OGL fantasy feats. I didn’t count, but it looks like at least two dozen new feats are included.

The weapon tables are slightly different. Instead of following the usual format that a long sword acts as a one handed weapon for Medium size PCs and a two-handed sword for Small PCs, the tables list different damages for weapons built to be wielded by Small races and those built to be wielded by Medium size races. The change is logical – someone 3′ tall would find the handle of a long sword made for a 6′ man too thick to use even as a two-handed weapon. But I’m still not sure why that change was made.

Chapter 11, on Technological Devices, covers all of those amazing Gnomish and Goblin inventions. The rules are pretty complete except for the curious omission of items to boost skill checks. I don’t know why that option isn’t available. Other than that, there are tons of choices. I took the section for a test drive and whipped up half a dozen pretty normal items. It worked well, although it would have been nice to have more sample items to check against and some GM fiat is involved. The items a Tinker PC could create, even with helpers, seemed mildly to moderately underpowered compared to the capabilities of an equivalent level spellcaster. But the gap wasn’t terrible, and the Tinker is a better combatant and has tons of skills. Most importantly, at least to me, it’s a nice change of pace from the silly old man with the pointy hat and stick.

The spell lists have lots of Warcraft-specific entries (Moonglaive, Blizzard, Starfall, etc… etc…) and strip out a lot of standard OGL spells. There is a list of arcane spells available to all Arcanists, and then three seperate lists of spells available only to Mages, Necromancers, and Warlocks respectively. The divine spell lists follow the same format.

The Campaigning section details another Arcana Unearthed import, Hero Points, which are similar to Karma or Bennies in other games. Some of the normal Dungeon Master topics are covered: campaign types, NPC classes, affiliations, major enemy factions (The Undead Scourge, the demonic Burning Legion, and others).

The last chapter details the creation of communities, complete with a unique way of tracking community levels and community ability scores, special abilities, and skills. Generally, these levels, abilities, and skills give a feel for the general populace. A community with a high Resilience will have a populace not easily brought low by plague or natural disaster. The special abilities usually describe community features, like fortifications, a shipyard, or caves. While the chapter has lots of unusual material, I’m not sure how important it would be to map out community scores in a normal campaign. A GM could grow a community and use the bonuses and penalties from different events to effect game play, but despite my love for computer strategy games I would rather abstract that kind of thing. Besides, if anything I would have preferred a set of rules for mass combat in this section.

So what’s bad about World of Warcraft RPG?

First, the book makes frequent mention of existing Warcraft supplements for additional information. While the references are usually quick and inobtrusive, page 364 is entitled (I am not kidding) “But Wait, There’s More!” I would have much preferred a seperate brochure in the pages.

Second, and more importantly, the back cover states “All the rules you need to play the game now”. That’s true for the players, but not the GM. There are no rules for the accrual of experience points, no bestiary or mechanic for choosing foes appropriate to the PC party, no stats for any of the well known NPCs, and no magical item list. The GM must either adopt the OGL System Resource Document, convert material from the previous edition, or make things up on his own.

I bought the book sight unseen, so I did not expect for it to be a complete RPG in one book. But for someone who read the cover and flipped through in the store, they could make the purchase without realizing there’s more work to do. This would especially be a problem for someone new to roleplaying games.

Other than that I just have a few minor nitpicks. The Tauren Totem is a very powerful two-handed weapon, and barring GM intervention I would expect most PCs that preferred two-handed weapons to use it regardless of race. It would have been much easier to have the third Tauren racial class level carry an increase to size Large and make the Totem a size Huge weapon. Then only the Tauren would wield them. I’m puzzled at the omission of racial levels for the Orc race. I would really have liked to see Naga, Furbolg, and Centaur PC races and the Death Knight class (or prestige class) in the main book.

Still, the book is gorgeous, is superbly organized, has tons of new material compared to standard OGL or the previous edition, and covers the topics it does address very thoroughly. This was money well spent.