Erikson is great but he's more high fantasy.

Cynical Cat said:

I don't think I'd call it High Fantasy.  I think of Forgotten Realms fantasy as falling into that category.  I think Erikson is closer in tone and style to the Black Company than to Salvatore, for example.  There is powerful magic wielded in both Erikson's work and in the Black Company series, but neither are set in a world where your average person makes use of magic, and magic is pretty dangerous in both as well.

Salvatore isn't very good at all, but Erikson has has shape shifters, flying castles, and gods walking around.  He's high fantasy.  That's not an insult or a critique.  You can do high fantasy and still have characters that are ordinary thieves or soliders.  There are strong similarities to the Black Company,  but Erikson lists them one of his inspirations so that's not surprising.  The Malazan books are a great example of high fantasy that is realistically portrayed and that the genre is not necessarily a pastel painted affair with shining knights killing dragons. 

For me Warhammer has 2 distinct faces.  You have the WFB face and the WFRP face.  WFB is where the elite of the elite fight on the front lines of battle and WFRP is where the lowly Rat-Catchers and Coachman fight The Enemy Within by uncovering the plots of chaos cults across the Old World, but away from the front lines of battle. 

WFB is where the Elf Lords and Champions of Sigmar fight side by side to defend The Empire from the forces of Chaos.  The only real plots/schemes here are enemy tactics and strategy, but more or less everything is in-your-face.

WFRP is where the lowly Beggar or the Servant overhears or stumbles upon something they shouldn't and are thrust into adventure.  Here there are lots of plots/schemes that must be uncovered to keep the Empire from rotting from within.  By the end of a campaign, after several careers, these characters might be ready to join the elite on the front lines. 

This is more or less how I saw and ran things in 1e.  However 2e seemed to push WFRP closer to WFB in terms of more combat oriented careers and fewer average joe careers and my biggest concern is that 3e is going to push things even further in that direction.

There are numerous RPGs out there that do High Fantasy and larger than life heroics.  IMO what separates WFRP from all the others is its Low Fantasy approach where more often than not characters are thrust into adventures that are over there heads.  This is where the non-combat careers are important in creating that feeling.  But when you have a party of characters that are mostly combat oriented, that feeling tends to get lost.  I've also always ran WFRP as more of a mystery and intrigue game where combat tends to be incidental rather than integral to the story and definitely not something the characters willingly seek out.  If you want a Warhammer game that focuses on combat then thats what WFB is for.

As always, this all just my opinion.

Redcrow said:

Then again, not only "the elite of the elite" can be found on the frontlines of battle. Empire Free Companies militia are mostly comprised of civilians who have dusted off the old flintlock and sword that usually hangs above the fire mantle at home and decided t go to war (or having been force drafted).