WoW RPG: Out of Game Discussion - Ludonarrative Dissonance

A short discussion about the core rulebook and how the rules clash with the overall theme, which ultimately led to me ending the adventure.

Preface

The Warcraft setting is an enormous beast of different fantasy tropes and a unique mixture of magic and technology.

The 3.5e/OGL ruleset is designed to simulate a very specific form of high fantasy.

Try to cram both of them together and you get a watered-down version of both.

The Core (Book) Problem

Roughly 400 pages promise a plethora of game content, but the reality is sadly a shallow reskin that feels rushed and incomplete.

The heart of 3.5e games is flexible character creation with a ton of available options. Flipping through the book, you'd certainly see a promising amount of choices, but what good are they if they don't invoke the theme of the setting the game takes place in?

Ludonarrative dissonance is a term used for video games, but I think it's very fitting for the WoW RPG core book. The most glaring example is spellcasting. Playing a mage in the WoW video game means having access to a large library of spells that you constantly cast in and out of combat. To create a TTRPG version of the game and make spell casters use the old Vancian magic system with spell slots is absolute madness.

Almost 100 pages of the book are spell descriptions. A strange medley of normal 3.5e spells and reskinned spells taken from the video game. 'Fireball', the most iconic spell for a fire mage in the video game, isn't even in the book!

Another example would be magic equipment. The video game is famous for its 'gear treadmill' where you constantly try to get better gear. Can you believe that the RPG core book doesn't provide ANY magic items beyond the boring +1, +2, etc.? There is a small chapter about technological items, but that doesn't even come close to replacing what's lacking.

The most glaring issue I have (and the reason for this post) is the lack of class fantasy that the core book evokes. Reading through the class descriptions clashes drastically with the actual class features they have access to. Low-level gameplay might as well not exist, with the laughable lack of abilities.

I understand that this is a 3.5e game and needs to be balanced to a certain degree, but it's really disappointing to see this wonderful setting crammed into a template that just wasn't made for it.

tl;dr: Every page makes it too obvious that it's just a 3.5e game with a flaking coat of paint.

The Supplement Treatment

Over the course of three years, 6 supplements/expansions for the WoW RPG were released. Most of them offer more character options and setting information. I have only flipped through some of them, but they don't seem to fix the foundational problems I have with the game.

At this point, I was ready to end my current adventure. Originally, I had planned a short campaign, but I was starting to force myself to use the system, which is never a good sign. Don't get me wrong, I really like the classic d20 system (PF1e was my first ever TTRPG), but it felt like I'd rather play WoW with a different system and play Pathfinder for my d20 fix.

The Fan-made Band-Aid

The community comes to the rescue once again. 'Even More Magic & Mayhem' is a fan-made supplement that tries to fix a lot of the common complaints the community had with the game.

Most importantly, it introduces revised core classes, an optional mana system, and a lot of magic items. It adds other things as well and overall feels like an x.5 edition of the game.

Conclusion

With the fan-made supplement, I might give the game another shot at some point but, for now, I'm ending the story of Uldihm Frostfavor. I enjoyed my time exploring his short narrative, but I'd rather play something else instead.