A Challenge for WFRP 4 Fans
In 2020, shortly after WFRP 4th edition was released, I wrote up a number of creatures from the darker corners of Warhammer’s history with 4th edition rules and stats. The series proved quite popular, with some entries attracting as many as 7,000 views.
Then, as deadlines loomed on the final instalments of The Enemy Within Director’s Cut, the series petered out. The posts are still popular, and I’d like to do more. So I’ll make you a deal:
Simply put, I would like this blog to have more followers. Currently it has 457, which is no real reflection of the traffic it gets. So, here’s what I propose:
In the comments section below this post, tell me about any creatures from any edition of Warhammer or WFRP, or any never-statted Citadel/GW miniatures, that you would like to see for WFRP 4. Whenever WordPress tells me that the blog has 500 followers, I’ll do one. I may run a poll to decide which, or I may just choose. I’ll do another at 550 followers, another at 600, and so on. As well as stats and rules, I’ll throw in any memories or anecdotes that come to me as I’m writing.
Of course, nothing I post on this blog is official – here, I’m just another fan and I’m not challenging any rights held by Games Workshop, or Cubicle 7, or anyone else – so take them for what they’re worth, and feel free to use, modify, adapt, change, and generally play around with anything from the links below, here, and anything I’ll write up in the future.
So go on – tell me about that Warhammer monster you’ve always wanted to see for WFRP 4. Or – heck, why not – tell me about the WFRP 4 monster that you’d like to see adapted for one of the previous editions. And then, follow this blog and tell all your friends to do the same.
I’ve no idea where this will end up going, but let’s find out together!
The Monsters so Far:
Zoats
Ambull
Viydagg
Mardagg
Mabrothrax
Jabberwock
Gargoyle
Toad Dragon
The Spectral Claw
The Mud Elemental
Ngaaranh Spawn of Chaos
Leaping Slomm Two-Face
Zygor Snake-Arms
Independent Daemons
Chaos Snakemen
Menfish
Golems
Giant Bats and Fell Bats
Lesser Daemon of Malal
Greater Daemon of Malal
So vote with your follows, and let me know what you’d like to see!
And while you’re here…
Since 2020, I’ve been a director of Rookery Publications, a new indie TTRPG studio that I co-founded with some names that WFRP fans are sure to recognize: Andrew Law, Lindsay Law, Andy Leask, and Mark Gibbons. Our first product is available from DriveThru, and has garnered some good reviews so far. There is much, much more to follow.
If you like the idea of new, system-agnostic roleplaying products (which means that they have been designed to be used with any edition of WFRP, and indeed with any other ruleset) from our merry band, check the Rookery out on any of these platforms.
Discord is the the hub of a vibrant and growing Rookery community.
YouTube and Twitch each have a Rookery channel where you can find our weekly Inside the Rookery streams, where we chat with big-name guests from across the industry about all manner of things.
Inside the Rookery, along with the occasional Beside the Rookery streams, are supported by our Patreon campaign. If you like what the Rookery has to offer and would like to be part of our story, you can support us for a very low monthly commitment (and if you can afford more, we have higher tiers, too!), and get access to exclusive content like the Rookery masterclasses on game design and development and special publications like the just-released Mother Hoarfrost PDF.
And you can also find us on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RookeryPublications
Twitter: @RookeryP
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rookerypublications/
We think it’s pretty cool.
Graeme Davis 
Settra the Imperishable !
Khemrikhara, The Great King of Nehekhara, King of Kings, Opener of the Way, Wielder of the Divine Flame, Punisher of Nomads, The Great Unifier, Commander of the Golden Legion, Sacred of Appearance, Bringer of Light, Father of Hawks, Builder of Cities, Protector of the Two Worlds, Keeper of the Hours, Chosen of Ptra, High Steward of the Horizon, Sailor of the Great Vitae, Sentinel of the Two Realms, The Undisputed, Begetter of the Begat, Scourge of the Faithless, Carrion-feeder, First of the Charnel Valley, Rider of the Sacred Chariot, Vanquisher of Vermin, Champion of the Death Arena, Mighty Lion of the Infinite Desert, Emperor of the Shifting Sands, He Who Holds The Sceptre, Great Hawk Of The Heavens, Arch-Sultan of Atalan, Waker of the Hierotitan, Monarch of the Sky, Majestic Emperor of the Shifting Sands, Champion of the Desert Gods, Breaker of the Ogre Clans, Builder of the Great Pyramid, Terror of the Living, Master of the Never-Ending Horizon, Master of the Necropolises, Taker of Souls, Tyrant to the Foolish, Bearer of Ptra’s Holy Blade, Scion of Usirian, Scion of Nehek, The Great, Chaser of Nightmares, Keeper of the Royal Herat, Founder of the Mortuary Cult, Banisher of the Grand Hierophant, Tamer of the Liche King, Unliving Jackal Lord, Dismisser of the Warrior Queen, Charioteer of the Gods, He Who Does Not Serve.
These are a select few of this titles.
This is an NPC rather than a monster, and they take a lot more work. Maybe, if I find myself with enough time on my hands.
Fair enough. I forgot myself in my enthusiasm, hehe. Settra may is not entirely a standard monster indeed.
Well you offered it so I might as well get the ball rolling with a request for demigryphs for 1st edition
For 1st edition? I hadn’t thought of that. Certainly I’ll add them to the list.
Anyone else want creatures from 2nd-4th editions adapted for 1st?
Any and all for 1st edition please. Running a campaign right now. We are in the Border Princes and possibly The Land of the Dead some. Planing on reworking and using Terror of the Lichemaster. Sorry, off track there, 1st edition stats are always welcome.
So I would like to propose Werewolf from 1st ed. of WFRP.
I’ve added it to the list.
Splendid ! 🙂
Fomoroid Crusher as some kind of Mutated Fimir?
I have the mini, so I could use some nice stats and story 😀
It’s on the list, though I’m not familiar with the AoS rules so that will take some research.
I would like to see the Chaos Snakemen as they’ve been mentioned in the more recent lore as the Naga and Snakemen of Khuresh (and again the in the recent lore from TWW when Andy Hall was talking about Cathay having Khuresh as a threat from the south). I’ve been working on a project alongside three others to develop Khuresh which I’ve linked below.
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/warhammer-fan-concept3A-hinterlands-of-khuresh-furious-ming
Hopefully you enjoy the lore and art!
I would pick the Chaos Snakemen as they appear in modern lore as the Naga and Snakemen of Khuresh and again even more recently in TWW (Andy Hall in a lore interview mentions them as a southern threat to Cathay).
I’m working with a project to flesh them out and make them a real part of the world. Plenty of themes from the simplistic (evil Lizardmen) to more advanced (Khmer Empire and Southeast Asia influence).
https://www.worldanvil.com/w/warhammer-fan-concept3A-hinterlands-of-khuresh-furious-ming
Hopefully the lore and art gives you some inspiration!
I’ve already covered them here, as their original designer intended them. The new lore should be easy enough to adapt.
If there’s a lot of interest I might return to them later, but I’d prefer to do creatures that I haven’t done before, at least to begin with.
*quickly grabs WFRP1E* I can only pick one?
Grin. You can pick as many as you like. I’ll only do them one at a time, though.
As a non-roleplayer I’ve especially enjoyed those posts from a literary folklore/fantasy perspective as well.
Remembering some of the citadel stuff, though, I was wondering if such things as the magician’s familiars have been dealt with ? The mannikin, walking-tome/spell book, etc (was there a jack-o-lantern as well ?). Some might fall under the ‘chaos spawn’ -type, like the great monday-mutants/Pantagruel pieces you did.
Others have more of a developed identity, like jack-o-lantern.
There’s also a lot of creatures from folklore/mythology that may never have had models but would have been good candidates, (there are some great old WD articles such as on monsters from the Philippines that Graeme has written for anyone who hasn’t seen them), so I for one would be interested in seeing any you might have in mind yourself from anywhere else that might be compatible with but not necessarily drawn from GW or Citadel sources.
On a related subject, is the bestiary book still planned ?
I can’t speak for Cubicle 7 and I don’t know whether they are planning a bestiary book. Everything I do on this blog is unofficial JAFW (Just Another Fan Work).
The familiars are a nice idea. I’ll definitely think about them. I may see if I can get Andy Law to collaborate, since he’s been doing so much on magic lately (http://lawhammer.blogspot.com/).
I love having the Jabberwock back, I feel the Michael Palin film ‘Jabberwocky’ has a certain Warhammer comic/grimdark feel and I’ve used it for WHFRP inspiration frequently.
I’m also a fan of RE Howards snake-people from his various fantasy and horror tales and always enjoyed having them in Cthulhu scenario’s so I’m glad to have them in the WHFRP world somewhere.
For other creatures, I haven’t got 4th edition WHFRP so I don’t know what’s missing (still using 2nd when I, rarely, get to play). I am a fan of undead as opponent’s for PCs, so if there are any stats for mummies, wights, wraiths, spectres, or other corporeal undead, I’d like to see those.
Thanks for all the work so far.
I do like undead (blame Ray Harryhausen’s skeletons on “Jason and the Argonauts” which I saw at a highly impressionable age). I’ll definitely add these to the list.
When after Ist edition of WFRP I started playing 2nd edition, all my favourites races plus fluff I liked remained. From this list Zoat, Jabberwock, deamons of Law gods, not on your list – Fimirs, Gnomes, Lizards living under mountains.
Basic Fimir are covered in the WFRP 4 core book, and Gnomes in Rough Nights and Hard Days.
“Lizards living under mountains” – can you point to a particular published source for these?
In Polish 1st edition of WFRP they were called Reptillion – I used word lizard instead by mistake (I guess that in original Reptillion was also used for them) – they were similar to troglodites, living in deep, natural caves, sometimes attacking lower levels of Dwarfs or goblins fortresses. They lived in small societies up to 50.
Hmm – that’s new to me. Can any Polish fans shed light on where they might have come from? There were Troglodytes in WFRP 1, strong but dumb servants of the lizardmen, with a stench but (I see now) no rules for it.
I will try to find it in English, Lizardmen are not mentioned there. They seems to lived separately from any civilization. I can do photo of they picture, as it is next to they description. There are troglodites as well, so it help – I’m pretty sure now that Polish reptillion are just lizardmen in English😉.
Was it maybe Cold Ones? I think they were from the early Battle books though.
I recall Harpies being a challenge to stat a few campaigns back. I also miss the humble but problematic monsters – goldworms, lashworms, and the like. The Doppelgänger as NPC or party member is also great fun, would love to have stats and abilities for its natural form, as well as tips to identify one.
Lashworms are covered in Death on the Reik, but I’ll add the others to my list.
Ah! Thanks for the ref. I’ll thumb back through it
hello and thanks a lot for the work done so far! were-creatures seems to be missing off your list! 😉 i wondered why not a single one was included in the 4th ed. rule book. i had a look at the one in 2nd and that seemed a bit lacklustre too. also, some ideas on lychantrophy infection would be swell! 🙂 in your own good time! — hey hi from Denmark -Christian
The dread maw, terrifying beast and some cool burrower rules would be a must.
https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Dread_Maw
Not monsters but an update to the Dark Disciples of the Red Redemption and Avenging Knights of the Cleansing Flame story to 4th edition would be great! Just unearthed my Two fave regiments of renown from the attic!
To go with the unusual elementals, there was the more demon-like Wisentlich from An Element of Risk in White Dwarf.
WFRP1 also had the basilisk (has that made it to 4th edition?) and WD gave us the cockatrice too – what is the relationship between them? I like monsters with a RW background in folklore and legend and creatures like the amphisbaena also appeal.
Finally, what of the Carrion undead bird? Where might they fit in these days?
Carrion were moved to the Tomb Kings army lists in times past. I gave them WFRP 4 stats in “The Return of the Gravelord”, an adventure in The Horned Rat Companion.
Basilisks are in the WFRP 4 core book. I’ll add the others to my list.
I’d love to see more depth on some of the existing creatures that have been barely covered. For example, your creations the fimir exist in WFRP4, but only just. It would be great to see them developed further in a piece (or series of pieces) like Dragon’s ‘Ecology of…’ articles.
I agree, it would be great to see something like that. I don’t know what C7 have planned for the Imperial Zoo book, but fingers crossed!
Fimir, always fascinated me and I’m sure I see little call outs to them in some of the 4th edition material.
They are mentioned, and for that reason I’m leaving them alone. I wouldn’t want to step on anything that GW or C7 might be planning to do with them.
I would love to see anything you would care to do for 1st edition. I’m starting up a homebrew campaign this week and all the players are psyched we’re playing 1st edition.
How about Lizardmen and/or Troglodytes?
I wouldn’t want to tread on any plans that GW/C7 might have for Lustria.
I may have missed them but I really liked Bloodsedges, Wolf rats, Hobgoblins and Black Ors. I’m also curious to see more about the Chaos Snakemen and Zoats….
Chaos Centaurs, as they went MIA after WHFB 3rd edition, so you won’t be stepping on GW/C7 toes!
And, on the same line (Warhammer Armies, I’m looking at you!): Ki-rin and Temple Dogs.
Half-Orcs, perhaps (they won’t be back, like, ever)?
Malignancy of Malal (lesser daemon of Malal) for 1st and 4th editions, please!
Yea would like to see Malignancy of Malal
Yes! Lesser daemon of Malal
Malal’s demons were never published, so I don’t think that fits here
The idea here is to convince Graeme to recreate his work from 30 years ago and actually publish one of those daemons 🙂
lesser daemon of Malal – DO IT!
Well, this is a little outside the box, but I’ve always been fascinated with these old chaos space marine guitar heroes Citadel did way back that got an article in WD in the early mid 90ies or so. still got them somewhere…
So I would like a Chaos Bard, and probably more aligned wiht whimsical folk esoterica than with anything rocknroll.