Granted, large chunks of the 2e setting information and bestiary critters were repurposed from WFB armybooks and Black Library fluffbooks, and there wasn't always care given to RPG-specific considerations in the conversion process. Overall it was more evocative and less 'generic fantasy' than the 2e art.ДЄlthough the 1e corebook contained more setting information than the 2e corebook, overall as a product line 2e provided more setting information than 1e. Some of the 1e artwork was fairly bad, but there were also many gems. Minor Manifestation spamming, lower Insanity risk with more Casting Dice). Magic and Insanities are more flavourful in 2e IMO, although the 2e Magic system has a couple of quirks (e.g. 2e combat can bog down in combat-heavy scenarios, or if a large number of NPCs are involved, but if combat is reserved only for important encounters it's not so bad. WFRP2e combat provides more options, but is also slower due to increased Parries and Actions. All things considered, a houseruled 2e core mechanic is my preference, mainly for the sake of accessibility to players.

Skill percentages are also generally lower in 2e, increasing the whiff factor which was already pretty high before. WFRP2e core mechanics, although more streamlined, feel a bit 'D20-clone / generic fantasy'. WFRP1e task-resolution mechanics were more opaque, with all the unique sub-systems and poor organization of the Skills and Standard Test chapters. There's an awesome 'Let's Read' thread of the 1e corebook here, if you've not read it already. The unification of the skills mechanic made things easier but at the cost of a lot of flavourful quirkiness, whereas the introduction of combat actions got away from 'I hit it with my axe' style of 1e but didn't really offer as many tactical options as it seemed (Swift Attack was always better than any other option) and made the rounds take longer. On the other hand 1e's horribly unbalanced beginning careers nicely reflected how unfair the OW was with people's different birthrights. I liked the 2e fixes to advanced careers, so you don't have to be an idiot to pick something other than Assassin or Spy. Mechanically, I felt 2e often made some things better while losing other things that worked. 2e was definitely more serious than before. I prefer the feel of 1e, at least as filtered through the first 3-4 parts of TEW: it contained a lot of 2000AD/Terry Pratchett-style silliness-as-satire, or just silliness for its own sake. It'd seriously recommend getting that instead of any 2E adventures. Still, nothing beats the Enemy Within campaign. Then again, not that many supplements for it, so you definitely needed all that, and some of the 2E material is quite stellar (Renegade Crowns, the Reich sourcebook.). It's got quite a few pages more, a decent introductory adventure, setting description etc. As this includes quite a few pages of careers, it's probably worth buying the new corebook, as just 'backporting' the changes would lead to way to many pencil and/or post-it notes.Д«ut there's one thing I liked more about the first edition: The book just feels more complete standing on its own. It fixes a few problems with the system and streamlines things slightly, but you still recognize about 95% of everything. Unless you count the slightly improved German surnames, which probably aren't a big deal to most people.ДЄs for editions, it's evolutionary, not revolutionary (as opposed to 3E). I think the tabletop might be a bit more tongue-in-cheek, especially when you get to some of the vehicles, but I didn't notice a big difference between the first two WFRP editions in this regard.

Warhammer 1 vs 2