tabletopgaming.co.uk 77elements together makes it all the more
disappointing that the rulebook itself is
so di cult to recommend.
If you read a page of rules and have to
spend a few minutes squinting at the words
before it makes sense, it’s probably badly
written. In Wrath & Glory this seems to be
the rule rather than the exception. Good
ideas are weighed down by confusing
explanations and weak layout that hides
important details within walls of text.
All this is made in nitely worse by the
sheer quantity of mistakes. Large rulebooks
from small studios almost always have a
few problems here and there; however,
the sheer volume of errors and typos in
Wrath & Glory could strain the patience
of even the most charitable observer. Is
there a di erence between ‘shock damage’
and ‘shock’? Does a Wild Card keyword
just mean you can just pick one you
want? None of the most obvious issues
are too tough to adjudicate for a con dent
GM, but it’s another layer of complication
in an already perplexing rulebook.
ere’s a good game somewhere in
Wrath & Glory – probably the best 40,000
RPG released so far – but if you want to
nd it you’ll need to sort through a fair
amount of confusing mess rst.
RICHARD JANSENPARKESO
f all the RPGs based in the grim
darkness of the Warhammer
40,000 universe, Wrath & Glory
probably come s the closest to pinning
down its chaotic, customisable and often
contradictory tone. However, this comes
packaged alongside a rulebook stu ed
with confusing design decisions and a
worrying amount of outright errors.
e 40,000 universe is a mish-mash
of a thousand di erent sci- and fantasy
tropes that ips between outrageous
power fantasies and unrelenting horror.
It’s a setting that blends the aesthetics
of Soviet tenements with death metal
album covers, where regular humans
ght alongside gene-spliced demigods,
the nominal good guys are xenophobic
fascists and mystic powers have a
decent chance of melting your brain.
As you might expect, this can throw up a
few challenges when it comes to creating an
RPG – if you tried to slot in a traditional D&D
party the elf would be instantly murdered
while the paladin could conquer a small city
single-handed. Earlier 40,000 games have
aimed to capture the blood-soaked world
of Games Workshop’s agship wargame a
piece at a time, but Wrath & Glory instead
goes for an all-encompassing route.
It avoids the issue of pairing up nigh-
on invulnerable Space Marines with the
famously fragile human grunts of the
Imperial Guard by breaking out the game
into ve separate tiers of play that will
last an entire campaign. At rst tier theparty could be made up of a few soldiers
or thieves dealing with problems that
impact a town or city, while fourth and
fth tier campaigns see famous heroes in
millennia-old powered armour set out to
save entire star systems.
While it’s possible to run long-form epic
campaigns in Wrath & Glory, the system
seems best-suited for comparatively short
adventures. is not only allows you to
jump between tiers of play, but also gives
scope for playing around with factions
that don’t see eye-to-eye, which range
from Aeldari Corsairs – think space-elves
with their traditional arrogance dialled up
to 11 – to gloriously silly Ork Kommandos.
Once you hit the table the game is
chunky without being too ddly, with a
major focus on combat. is is another
area that 40,000 RPGs have often struggled
with, as the ction of the universe often
has huge gaps in the strength between
di erent species and factions. When it
comes to overpowered heroes taking on
legions of disposable minions, Wrath &
Glory allows the GM to bunch of several
enemy troops into mobs that e ectively
act as one bu ed-up foe, giving players
the chance to be suitably awesome while
still presenting them with a threat. On
the other side of the coin, when weaker
players confront tough opponents, they’ll
almost always be faced with defences
that are near-impossible to overcome.
e fact that Wrath & Glory does
such a good job of bringing these trickyFor the glory of the Emperor?
WARHAMMER 40,000
ROLEPLAY: WRATH & GLORY
TRY THIS IF
YOU LIKED...
WARHAMMER
40,000:
EIGHTH
EDITION
If you’re a fan of
40,000, you’ve
probably spent
countless hours
dreaming up
adventures in the
grim, dark future.
Wrath & Glory is
the best way to live
them out.452 11+ £48PLAY IT? MAYBE
Come for the great ideas, stay
because you’re not sleeping until
last an entire campaign. At rst tier the you’ve found all the typos.