Line #47 TabletopGame/WarcraftTheRoleplayingGame


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7802e65ba1d52bf4f1b88dd7214edff4.jpg]]
2	A tabletop roleplaying game using the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' ruleset, set in the ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' setting. Part of the Franchise/WarcraftExpandedUniverse.
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4	During the interval between the release of The Frozen Throne expansion pack for ''Warcraft III'' and the first release of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', Creator/BlizzardEntertainment approached Creator/WhiteWolf with a deal; while most famous for their ''TabletopGame/WorldOfDarkness'', ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' and, later, ''TabletopGame/{{Scion}}'' gaming lines, they also had a branchline called "Sword & Sorcery", which worked in D20 gaming lines, such as the 3rd edition revamp of ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' and their own ''TabletopGame/ScarredLands'' campaign setting. The result was a tabletop game allowing players to use the familiar rules of Dungeons & Dragons 3.x to play in the world of Blizzard's Warcraft setting.
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6	In addition to the corebook and the natural monster manual (called "Manual of Monsters"), a number of splatbooks were released:
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8	* Alliance & Horde Compendium: An array of new rules, races and prestige classes for better emulating the diversity of the Warcraft experience.
9	* Magic & Mayhem: New Warcraft-based spells, caster prestige classes and magic items.
10	* Lands of Conflict: A "setting gazetteer" covering the lands of the Eastern Kingdoms in the wake of the events of The Frozen Throne.
11	* Shadows & Light: A "high tier" splatbook covering TheMultiverse of Warcraft, details on the various god-like entities, or Eternals, (the Titans, the Ancients, the Elemental Princes, the Dragon Aspects), rules for creating new Eternals, the rules to serve as the Warcraft RPG's version of the Epic Player's Handbook from D&D, and prominent figures from the videogames, such as Thrall, Jaina Proudmoore, Arthas, etc.
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13	Eventually, ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' was released and so an updated version, "VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft: The Roleplaying Game" was released. Rather than replacing the original game, this was intended to be used as an updated version, moving on several years in-universe and being set around the same point in time as ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' was when the books were released. In addition to the updated corebook and monster manual ("Monster Guide"), the new splatbooks released under its banner were:
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15	* More Magic & Mayhem: New Arcanist and Healer paths, and a new spellcasting class, the Runemaster, plus new spells and new magic items.
16	* Lands of Mystery: A follow-up to Lands of Conflict, covering the lands of Kalimdor, Northrend, and several islands.
17	* Alliance/Horde Player's Guide: Two separate books focusing on fleshing out the races of the Alliance or Horde respectively. Included new races, creature classes (allowing a player to play more powerful beings, such as Dryads, Abominations, etc), spells, feats, items and other such details.
18	* Dark Factions: An equivalent to the Alliance and Horde Player's Guides focusing on the neutral or antagonistic races of the setting, such as satyrs, Dark Iron dwarves and dragons.
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20	However, eventually, Blizzard Entertainment chose to stop promoting the line, and so it ended after those final seven books, being rendered obsolete by the videogame it was meant to cash in on, with Dark Factions (2008) as its final released sourcebook. Blizzard has also declared in 2011 that the role playing game should not be considered canon anymore.
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22	!!Tropes:
23	* ActualPacifist: In the ''Shadows & Light'' manual, it's stated that Elune, the goddess of the night elves, is a pacifist (in fact, if one observes its stats she has no attack bonus, only grapple bonus). She has abilities like a song that will make everyone that hears it drop their weapons and cease to fight.
24	* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Therazane (the earth elemental lord) is portrayed here as the [[OnlySaneWoman most reasonable of the elemental lords]], who is constantly being bothered by her brothers (as they are all trapped in the Elemental Plane) and just wants to be left alone, and only ever gets violent when [[MamaBear her creations are threatened]]. The version of her in ''World of Warcraft'' is much nastier and has few sympathetic qualities, though still the least hostile (eventually).
25	** The elementals in general are a lot more sympathetic in the tabletop game. As this was before the Old Gods and their servants were detailed, the story here is basically that the elementals were the original inhabitants of Azeroth, and the Titans basically just kicked them off their own planet and trapped them in a prison plane so they could use the planet for their own creations, and that is the whole reason elementals are hostile to the titan created races. ''World Of Warcraft'' would [[{{Retcon}} make this a lot more complicated]], having the elementals (lords included) being slaves of the evil [[EldritchAbomination Old Gods]], as well as making the Titans seem look a lot better as what they do seems more like liberating the elementals from their cruel masters and the Elemental Plane seeming more akin to a safehouse than prison (with the Titans even being nice enough to give each of the four types their own living area rather than, say, forcing the fire elementals into the water part).
26	* AdaptationalSelfDefense: ''World of Warcraft'' lets us know that the bandit kingpin Van Cleef was originally the leader of a guild of stonemasons who turned to thieves when the nobles of Stormwind refused to pay them for rebuilding the capital. Even though it was ultiamtely made clear in the expansions that the corrupt nobility was to blame, the rpg retconned the event into Van Cleef demanding insane amounts of gold for the work and flipping out when the king refused to pay him extra.
27	* AdaptationExpansion: What the RPG basically tried to do with a lot of elements, given how few a lot of details were in the actual games. Now CanonDiscontinuity, leaving various things without canon descriptions, until exposition is dropped in canon works.
28	** Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game gives us a definitive list of Titans and their responsibilities, at a time when the only one mentioned in-game was Sargeras.
29	** Brann Bronzebeard was expanded from a character mentioned in a single [[StopPokingMe click-quote]] from Muradin Bronzebeard into a major character.
30	* AlternateUniverse: Arguable as to what extent, but the constant development and {{Ret Canon}}s of the videogame mean it is quite different to the world presented in these tabletop games.
31	* AlwaysNight: According to the pre-[=WoW=] sourcebooks, the lands of the Night Elves were said to be in a perpetual night.
32	* AmazonBrigade: The Sisters of Steel, a faction of warrior/blacksmith women who spend so much time at the forge that they [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower become immune to fire and can transform themselves into stone or metal.]]
33	* ArmedWithCanon: Blizzard and Creator/WhiteWolf tend to come into these kinds of conflicts from time to time, with Blizzard vying to keep the story faction-neutral, and Creator/WhiteWolf adopting a noticeably pro-Alliance standpoint, often having little to say (or only negative things to say) about the [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman non-human]] or [[BeautyEqualsGoodness non-attractive races]].
34	** One of the more infamous examples is with Alterac Valley, a battlefield where dwarves and orcs fight for ownership of the titular valley. Blizzard had always advocated that which side truly had the right to the Valley was ambiguous, but then Creator/WhiteWolf, in one of their sourcebooks, officially declared that the dwarves were the rightful owners. Whilst this is technically true, since the orcs ''are'' literally a stranded race of fantasy alien invaders from another world, the problem is that the orcs inhabiting the Alterac Valley are members of the Frostwolf clan. Which is to say, the TokenHeroicOrc subfaction of the original Orcish Horde, who are normally characterized as peaceful, honorable, and the last bastion of the formerly benign orcish culture, but who here are presented as the same bloodthirsty invaders who deserved to die as more hardcore "Old Horde" factions. Needless to say, both Blizzard and the fanbase were not amused.
35	** There were a number of other issues where Creator/WhiteWolf took a distinctly different stance from Blizzard:
36	*** The setting of Warcraft revolves around the conflict between arcane and divine magic (Sourcebook: Magic & Mayhem).
37	*** Humans are the dominant race on Azeroth (first edition core book)
38	*** All Warcraft undead are free-willed (Manual of Monsters)
39	*** The Blood Elves are only a small faction of the survivors of Quel'thalas and care about nothing but magic (Sourcebook: Alliance & Horde Compendium)
40	*** Illidan was trying to become the new lich king in order to conquer Azeroth (Sourcebook: Alliance & Horde Compendium)
41	** It should be noted that these are all from the original, pre-''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' sourcebooks, so these differences are partially attributable to [[RetCanon changes in the game-lore that developed as further expansions were made]].
42	*** Indeed, ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' was even the source of some {{Retcon}}s in the bookline, such as the Horde Player's Guide noting that the Darkspear and Revantusk Troll tribes are more open to female independence due to their membership amongst the Horde.
43	* AutoRevive: The [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Pit Lords]] have an ability that automatically resurrects them as soon as they die. It takes a minute (10 rounds) to recharge, meaning if one gets killed again in that time, they are KilledOffForReal.
44	* BadassBookworm: Brann Bronzebeard. He's a member of the Explorer's Guild, which makes him a dwarven AdventurerArchaeologist. He's also a Mountain King in-game (like his brother from ''Frozen Throne''), he's a veteran of the Second War (the events of ''Warcraft II''), and by the time he's finished writing Lands of Conflict & Mystery, he's been across every part of Lordaeron, Kalimdor and even Northrend, rubbing shoulders with very powerful figures indeed.
45	* BearsAreBadNews: Played straight with the corrupted Furbolgs, but subverted with the non-corrupted ones and the twin Ancients Ursoc and Ursol, who were renowned for their love of art and brewing.
46	** Though being on the wrong side of a rampaging Furbolg Totemic certainly doesn't make non-corrupt Furbolgs look like an aversion.
47	* CanonDiscontinuity: As the ''World of Warcraft'' creative department team [[http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2721372142?page=1 said themselves]]:
48	--> '''Q:''' Are the Warcraft and World of Warcraft RPG books considered canon?
49	--> '''A:''' No. The RPG books were created to provide an engaging table-top role-playing experience, which sometimes required diverging from the established video game canon. Blizzard helped generate a great deal of the content within the RPG books, so there will be times when ideas from the RPG will make their way into the game and official lore, but you are much better off considering the RPG books non-canonical unless otherwise stated.
50	** Before this statement, Blizzard went back and forth on the issue. In the end, the tabletop RPG just had too many errors and ideas that did not reflect Warcraft as it is or was. When Blizzard finally released ''Chronicles'', a consolidated lore book that covered everything in the lore, it served as a death knell for the RPG's use as a lore manual.
51	* CanonImmigrant: Quite a few concepts and [=NPCs=] may have originated here; the worgen race, in fact, originated in the pages of "Lands of Conflict", though it was the videogame that made them truly playable.
52	* CreatorThumbprint:
53	** The authors have a tendency to favor the "classically good" races of humans/elves/dwarves vs. the "classically evil" races of orcs and trolls. The first edition's core book only had orcs and tauren as playable Horde races (with half-orcs also being more common in the Horde than the Alliance), and even the second edition, while claiming to contain all the essential information in its core book, didn't even touch on the Horde's faiths beyond shamanism until the release of ''Horde Player's Guide'' in 2006.
54	** The background lore emphasizing the conflict between "arcane" and "divine" magic, with arcane magic emphatically described as irredeemably evil, with its practitioners being doomed to corruption - despite many good arcane spellcasters being present in lore.
55	* {{Crossover}}: The first edition encouraged crossovers between ''Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game'' and other D&D-based settings, even introducing many D&D monsters such as mephits or umber hulks that never appeared in any other ''Warcraft'' works. The second edition aimed to be more self-contained.
56	* DisproportionateRetribution: The Defias Brotherhood from "Lands of Conflict" were exiled from the city of Stormwind after rebuilding it in the wake of the Second War and demanding payment from the nobility, who refused to pay the amount they demanded. They promptly became bandits and, even now that Lordaeron has been annihilated by the Scourge, they continue harassing the human survivors and looting everything they can, completely ignoring the undead and other monsters stalking the land. Brann Bronzebeard, InUniverse, regards the Defias Brotherhood with disgust, especially when, as a sidebar notes, he gets to meet and talk to one of the Brotherhood face to face. This one individual is demanding a payment of ''one million gold pieces'' for his work to restore the eastern merchant's block of Stormwind.
57	* ElementalEmbodiment: The elemental monsters, plus the four Lords themselves from Shadows & Light.
58	* ExpandedUniverse: What the game was created to be, as a way to help flesh out the world beyond the roleplaying games. Sadly, lack of communication between Blizzard and White Wolf's writers combined with retcons means it's now exiled from continuity.
59	* HalfHumanHybrid: Half-elves and half-orcs are introduced as playable races in the Alliance and Horde Player's Guides respectively.
60	* HumanNotepad: Runemasters completely cover themselves with runic tattoos, which are the source of their powers.
61	* InstantRunes: Subverted. Inscribers, Dark Inscribers (a variant that can use Warlock or Necromancer spells) and Runemasters all need to prepare their magical runes ahead of time, or at least be given a minute to draw it on something convenient; no runes or time to draw runes, no magic.
62	* LoadsAndLoadsOfRaces: And how. Just looking at the corebook and "faction books" for the [=WoW=] RPG line alone, we have: three kinds of dwarves (Ironforge, Wildhammer, Dark Iron), two kinds of elves (High and Night), humans, gnomes, goblins, orcs, two kinds of trolls (Jungle and Forest), the Forsaken, tauren, mok'nathal, nagas, pandaren, satyrs, tuskarr, quilboars, murlocs, dragonspawn, furbolgs, half-elves and half-orcs.
63	** And then we have the "creature classes", which allow characters to play more powerful beings like dragons, nerubians, centaurs, ogres, etcetera.
64	*** Don't forget the races from the Monster Guide or Lands of Mystery, either.
65	* MagicAIsMagicA: As part of the World of Warcraft RPG update, a single "Arcanist" and "Healer" class were created as the sole repositories of arcane and divine magic, respectively. The various in-game classes (mage, necromancer and warlock for Arcanist; druid, priest and shaman for Healer) were "paths" chosen when taking levels. This ultimately meant it's possible to be "multi-classed" as, say, a mage/priest or a warlock/necromancer or a druid/shaman.
66	* MoralMyopia:
67	** The Defias Brotherhood, at least in the eyes of Brann Bronzebeard, who at one point calls them "whiners who charged too much for their work in the first place", noting that he did his work and he was paid what he, a dwarf, felt was decent compensation for it.
68	** The Syndicate, ex-nobles of the Alterac Mountains turned bandits and raiders who hate the Alliance for ousting them and the Horde for betraying them, completely ignoring that they were exiled from the Alliance for turning traitor and trying to deliver the Alliance to the Horde, and that the Horde's ignoring them was a non-lethal case of RewardedAsATraitorDeserves.
69	* NonHumanHumanoidHybrid: Mok'nathal are half-orc and half-ogre crossbreeds.
70	* NoWomansLand: [[AllTrollsAreDifferent Female trolls]] are just breeding stock and property used to make more trolls. ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' {{Retcon}}s this however, as there are many female trolls leaders like Arlokk, Mar'li, Lor'khan, Jeklik, and Primal Torntusk in various troll tribes, various troll males [[http://www.wowhead.com/quest=3822 treating]] [[http://www.wowhead.com/quest=7842 their mates]] [[http://www.wowhead.com/npc=28902#comments with respect]], and troll mooks coming in both genders. In the [=WoW=] line sourcebooks, this is {{retcon}}ned to being [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain an aspect of evil troll tribes only]].
71	** It also states this about [[PigMan quilboars]] who are practically matriarchal in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''.
72	** This may be because Warcraft III only had models for one gender.
73	* OurCentaursAreDifferent: They're purportedly the offspring of Zaetar, one of the children of Cenarius (a PhysicalGod in the guise of a giant stag), and Theradras, a daughter of the Elemental Lord of Earth. They're also one of the AlwaysChaoticEvil races of the setting.
74	** There's also the Magnataurs, which are half-giant, half-woolly mammoth.
75	** Dragonspawn are humanoid dragons from the waist up and quadrapedal wingless dragons from the waist down.
76	* OurDragonsAreDifferent: Being based on Warcraft dragons, it's to be expected.
77	* OurGoblinsAreDifferent:
78	** Whilst accurate to the portrayal of goblins in the video-games, the tabletop RPG introduced them as a PC race long before the MMORPG did.
79	** Likewise, this line introduced its own take on hobgoblins long before the MMORGP did. In the tabletop RPG, hobgoblins are presented as goblins mutated through an alchemical process to create elite bodyguards and soldiers; the process turns their skin purple and makes them grow into muscular giants, as well as endowing them with acidic sweat and vicious claws, but it also dampens their intelligence and drastically shortens their lifespan. Goblins simply shrug off the moral implications of this.
80	* SacredHospitality: Subverted. In a short story in the "Lands of Conflict" sourcebook, a group of soldiers find refuge in a peasant's home in post-fall Lordaeron. Having been fighting the Scourge for days, they are grateful for the hot food and beverages the peasant offers. Unfortunately, the peasant is actually a Scourge agent who was using hospitality to fish out information about troop movements. Once one of the soldiers lets slip some details, the peasant [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness kills all the soldiers]].
81	* RetCanon: Well, more like Canon Marches On, but a lot of elements that players of the MMORPG take for granted are missing from the tabletop RPG, because they came out after it was concluded. These include, but are not limited to, draenei as player characters, the dubiousity of half-orcs (these were based on the now-retconned idea of Garona being a human/orc hybrid instead of an orc/draenei hybrid), the existence of the Naaru, details on Pandaria...
82	** This is also a notable source in some of the canonicity issues (trollish gender attitudes, for example); the gamebooks came out before the videogames created those details, meaning the writers had to make it up more or less whole-cloth.
83	* SpecialSnowflakeSyndrome: Explicitly discussed when it's mentioned players are almost certain to want to play things like a multi-classed character, a "multi-pathed" Arcanist or Healer (both of which are technically impossible by game lore), or a half-elf with Night or Blood Elf lineage (despite the fact that the game is set too soon for such half-breeds to have occurred).
84	* UndergroundMonkey: A rare example of player-races being based on them. Forest Trolls are literally nothing more than Jungle Trolls with a different language (which is explicitly stated in the Horde Player's Guide), while Sand and Ice Trolls possess an equally minor difference.

Context TabletopGame / WarcraftTheRoleplayingGame