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Myrthe wrote:
I do agree with you that the WHFRP "Rat Catcher" class (among others) was stupid and the game overly brutal !! I want to play a hero, not a poop pusher !! Well, maybe a heroic poop pusher ?!!!

The game was very brutal. That helped make it a dark fantasy game as opposed to D&D where your characters start out with a relative level of power. Far more characters became the hero that you are talking about than not in my experience. Some GMs will allow characters to start 'leveled up' if they want to skip the early stages of their lives, or if the challenges of the game warranted it.

I'm actually very much opposed to random character generation in general. It was fun for our trial game, and if one of my players wanted to do it then no bother, but I prefer to come up with my own concept and then flesh it out rather than letting the dice decide. I'm dissapointed that characteristics are random to be honest, the game could easily have a point buy.

As for rat catcher, I'd have no problem with it. In the skaven infested sewers of the empire it's gotta be a good thing to have a few tough as nails rat catchers around.
Dark Heresy was fun to GM as long as I kept the combat simplified and cinematic.

WFRP was a great, in depth game.
While alot of people were playing Monty Haul, we had to fight our way through numerous encounters just to get a few scraps and fight off an invasion of undead.
Then there was the little scaven infastation of Middenhiem. Good times, man... good times.

Someone probibly read through the book, but you are a little off base in your summery. You don't stay 1 class for the whole game. The classes are based on your characters " Life experience" and it usually took around three or four rolls to round out. (Rat Catcher+ Fletcher+ Watchman+ Apothacary = a well rounded healer with a perchent for violence. Maybe you took a few other skills along the way, like poisons, or night fighting. So when your down in that sewer fighting the gutter runner, you at least have a small chance to get it on with it.
Of course, going toe to toe with a skavin with a half assed weapon might earn you a death wish, but if in the small chance that you killed it, you end up with poison, a weapon that you could go give to your armorer buddy, who took it to his friend the blacksmith, and together you three end up with a poison sword.

Then again, we could get into a small village in the borderlands where you have to throw down withthe infamous seven, grail knights and everyones favorite Necromancer.
And gunning down a few road wardens and getting a price on your head. As a suggestion, try playing the game before talking about something you are speculating about.

As for your summery of DH, you are completly wrong.

Dark Heresy is pretty good for what you get. Any type of henchmen you can think of.
( try coming up with a character and then going back to your Witchhunter, or Demonhunter book.)

Include the online demonnaming thing, the " Make your own demon" article, and the adversarys...
You can go ahead and go back to having fun using your imagination to flesh out some pretty good squads with.

I'm not a big fan of GW's current going out of buisness mentality, but if they could go back and reread Hogsheads WFRP about how to convert figures to play with the RPG, they could have easily continued the game for at least four to seven years. then there is the little matter of the current continuous on line support, additionals, and BL online material.

Ork campaign... Darkwatch squad campaign... IG squad campaign.... Lets see what a tyranid can do. ( anyone ever think about coming up with the genestealer cult?)
Poo pooing about what could have been can get you a cup of coffee with two bucks. with the framework on hand with Book1, we have around five or six more to look forward to that we can read between the lines, come up with a fan related site, and do what thou whilst.

Remember kiddies, they cant jack up a discontinued game. They give it up, it's open season to hostile takeover.