WFRP'd: Eureka!

We return, after a fairly long absence, to the world of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, to once again tred the dangerous paths of the Old World. This adventure was originally published in White Dwarf 93 (alongside a little game called Rogue Trader) and doesn't come chronologically (publication-wise) after my last post in the series, The Night of Blood, for reasons I will explain.

Between issue 88 and 92, Games Workshop pumped out a plethora of random articles in support of their new fangled roleplaying game; 'Hand of Destiny' concerned itself with fate points; 'Onwards and Upwards' chronicled character advancement; 'Practice Makes Perfect' dealt with careers in more detail; 'Ooops' combat fumbles; 'Nobelese' explained how to roleplay noble and royal characters; 'No Psychos Needed' proved rules for racial psychology and a 'Fistful of Misprints' cleared up the clutter from the rulebook itself. 

Quite a jumble of ideas and themes that I guess just couldn't fit inside the main rulebook. I have decided to bypass this little collection of articles as the nitty gritty and fine tuning of rules just doesn't interest your author. For me, WFRP was (and is) all about the narrative and the opportunities the story provides for good, old fashioned roleplaying. Hence our sudden skip to this adventure, that doesn't mean I won't one day return to these articles, as long time readers will no doubt know. 

During my Games Mastering days, this adventure passed me by as I never managed to get a copy of it. Apart from its original publication, it also saw the light of day as part of the Restless Dead campaign - and incidentally Graeme Davis has written a short piece about this book on his blog here - and getting your hands on a copy in the pre-eBay days was practically impossible. In fact, even when I re-collected my White Dwarf stash back in the early 2000s, I never actually read through this adventure and it resided in my mind as the 'one with the funny inventions'. 

So today, I will be reading through the adventure for the first time and sharing my thoughts with you lot. How lucky you are, eh? Now before I do that I will point out that the material that follows WILL contain a large number of spoilers, so if you are a WFRP fan or player and want to do justice to this rarer adventure - stop reading now! 

Have you stopped? 

Good. Now I imagine that if you are reading these words you are already familar with the adventure or never plan to play in through as a PC. Or you are a power-roleplayer (do these people even exist?) drunk on victory and the need to feel superior over your fellow players. I'll leave it up to you to assign exactly who you are. Thanks to the singular Matt Kay (whoever he is) we have the entire adventure published on scribd in a handy article. Here it is for your reading pleasure... oh and there is a second edition version available also, if you are unfortunate enough to use second edition - poor souls. 

WFRP1 - White Dwarf 93 - Eureka - An Inventive Adventure for WFRP by Matt Kay on Scribd

The adventure kicks off, like a great number before or since, under the boughs of the Deutz Elm in Nuln. The beginning of the adventure suggests we see our PCs in their natural state - unemployed and lacking in cash and lingering around looking for adventuring work. As always, the GM needs do no more than give them a gentle push towards an advertisment among many nailed to its trunk. It reads 'Capable persons needed to protect valuables. Well paid, food and board supplied. Contact Uwe the Barman at the Misthaufen Tavern.'

Anyone with a smattering of German will no doubt blanch at the chance of visiting a inn named after a dung heap, but our PCs are no doubt desperate and will have no qualms at all about lowering their standards to such a degree. A fairly swift session of roleplaying will see our players standing at the threshold of the establishment (a shabby little beershop located down one of the city's many insalubrious back streets) asking to be introduced to Uwe. This fat, good natured man could be played several ways by the GM. Over generous and genuflecting (he does, after all, offer them free beers) or a shady and underhand individual - the choice is most definitely yours, depending on how you want the players to feel. It won't be long until they discover that Uwe is just a go-between for another client, and it will be this individual who is after the capable persons and will have their mits on the purse strings. 

Depending on how you want to play the interaction between the contact and the PCs, our players will soon be wandering down Gummisteifelstrasse (Rubber Boots Street?) looking for a house named Der Gerflugesalat (Chicken Salad? Oh, those WFRP witticisms!) under instructions to tell whoever they meet that 'Uwe sent them'. Soon our players will have the pleasure of Fatboy's company (the proprietor of the house's cook and general housekeeper) and the chance for more amusing roleplaying. After a little kerfuffle, depending on how the PCs play it, they will be standing before their mysterious would-be benefactor, Wolfgang Kugelschreiber (ballpoint-pen?), undoubted genius and inventor. I would imagine that this part of the scenario would be great fun to GM, as the PCs learn that the valuable objects are not infact precious metals, arcane magical items or sacks full of cash, but the rather shabby looking Fatboy and his erstwhile master. They are to be hired as mere bodyguards, as a gang of roughs have been hassling Kugelschreiber recently over whether or not he is willing to be part of a protection racket. Clearly not it seems by our players sudden employment and promise of 100GCs each. 

This entire scene is set in one of those cliched 'mad professor' laboratory stroke dungeon rooms and can be played for laughs if you so wish. Hargreaves' text plays with a cod-German accent reminisce of nearly every episode of 'Allo 'Allo, that seminal 1980s favourite. Alas, there is no 'Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies' here, just a dramatic unveiling of his new invention; the Old World's first submersible, only Kugelschreiber hasn't considered how he will be able to remove it from his workshop! 

So far so good. We have seen plenty of scope for humourous character interaction between the players and the GM. At this point, they will have little choice but to carry out whatever bizarre and perculiar orders Kugelschreiber may have, and the sadist GM might well use this opportunity to have some fun, setting up the PCs for long, fruitful nights guarding the house as Fatboy and Kugelschreiber snooze with impunity until launching the 'storm episode'. As you see, once the thunder and lightning begins to strike, Kugelschreiber declares the perfect opportunity has arisen to experiment with the elements in the perfect pastiche to Mary Shelley's famous novel. He will disappear into his laboratory and the PCs can either give up for the night, observe or patrol the house. At some point, Helmut Weishund the government spy will arrive to carry out a fruitless, and ultimately fatal, attempt to steal secrets from the inventor. 

Hargreaves provides a lovely little scenario where the PCs need to pursue the spy onto the gothic roof of Der Gerflugesalat, amid the lashing rain, lightning strikes and rolling peals of thunder. With a 50% chance of slipping from the roof it is almost certain that a PC will fall off and injure themselves, especially considering there is a 15% chance of being hit by lightning too. For Helmut, alas, the fates are much, much unkinder, as we see him falling to his death at the GMs discretion, no doubt at the most dramatic point. 

This is a wonderful little loop-plot scene, and could be used as a hook for further homebrew adventures if the GM is creative enough. Whatever, this episode is merely a false alarm of the red herring variety, though it serves well to keep the players on their toes. Searching Helmut's body could be a risky business, what with him dying of a lighning strike and his body will electrocute anyone foolish enough to handle it. A rummage of his pockets will reveal next to nothing of course, and leave our players wondering. I was always a fan of unexplained loose ends when I was GMing, as I found that explaining every detail never fed that sense of awe and wonder essential to any roleplaying game.

More opportunities for roleplaying will present themselves in the morning, as the PCs are gently lifted from their slumbers by the delicious smells of bacon and eggs frying. Fatboy will provide them with a hearty break to their fast and Kugelschreiber will offer to stitch, bind and generally tend to anyone's wounds. The rest of the day can be spent indulging in the highlight of this adventure - Kugelschreiber's zany inventions.

Take a look...

With the whole day empty of incident, the GM can give their players a little time to explore the  Kugelschreiber's bizarre inventions or head out into the city for a little shopping. Whatever they choose to do shouldn't be too dramatic in my opinion, as the real fun will begin as soon as it grows dark. At an opportune moment (perhaps as the PCs settle down for their evening fare) an aggressive banging will be heard from the front door. Reminded of the importance for not fighting inside the property, the PCs watch as Fatboy gingerly opens the front door to admit a brace of rather perculiar looking rogues, brandishing a motley array of weapondry.

With the players able to do little beyond posture in a (hopefully) nonchalant way,  Kugelschreiber will hand over a pouch containing 75GCs and forbid any violence in his home. Such restrictions are essential to the plot of the adventure, though encouraging the PCs out into the night to follow them should be easy enough. And so starts the 'main 'event' of this scenario; a long, tensioned filled exerice in tracking the evildoers through the streets, and if I was GMing the game, practical use of the cardstock buildings from my beloved Warhammer Townscape would help manage and set this scene wonderfully. 

I am sure that creative players will devise all manner of cunning plans to keep on the trail of the local thugs, though whether or not these turn out to be fruitful should be down to the GMs discretion, and I am thinking that Baldrick would be a better template for the player's successes than Hannibal Barca. However the GM runs this episode, or indeed the players too, the eventual discovery that our villains are no more than a group of corrupt City Watchmen on the take will come as a shock, and will probably prevent sensible players from launching a full scale assault. 

Whatever they decide, the adventure suggests the result of any actions against the ne'er-do-wells should result in a chase. Preferably a high octane and dramatic one, and having the Watch in hot pursuit was a regular and popular occurance for my adventurers when I ran WFRP campaigns. This would make a perfect companion piece to the slower paced stalk through the night's streets, and again would be an excellent opportunity to field those lovely card buildings. Sadly, this is where 'Eureka' begins to suffer, especially if run straight off the page, as the ending of the adventure is more than a little week. 

Kugelschreiber and Fatboy will seek to escape the Watch in the submersible, despite it being constructed in a laboratory well away from the river. There is a suggestion that they would use gunpowder to blast through the laboratory's walls, but Hargreaves gives us little in terms of action. And quite why would they wish to escape anyway - they didn't commit any crime against the Watch, beyond employing the PCs! Perhaps we should just accept guilty by association, but then again, these are corrupt City Watchmen! 

Instead 'Eureka' leads the adventurers to succeed where Daedalus failed, and encourages them to escape from the highest point of Der Gerflugesalat on homemade handgliders, providing a quick and neat ending to the adventure but one that just doesn't satisfy. Personally, if I were running this adventure I'd have tweaked the submersible description and allowed the PCs to enter it, using Kugelschreiber as the captain of the vessel, fatboy as the first mate and the adventuerers as the hapless able (or not so able) seamen, busting their guts out keeping the ramshackle device afloat. Only after the mad, yet dramatic, plan of blowing up the walls and launching the submersible into the depths of Nuln's sewers had come into play, of course. And who knows what dangers lurk in the nether-regions of Nuln? 

They would certainly be safe from the Watch down there. 

To conclude, Paul Hargreaves' adventure (did he do anything else?) has a great deal going for it. Amusing characters, silly inventions and lots of opportunities for narrative roleplaying. Of course, it is dreadfully linear and is perhaps suited to entry level PCs and inexperienced GMs if used in its published form. For the more ambitious and creative GMs however, there is a great deal of useful material here to help craft a memorable and rewarding adventure for any group. 

WFRP'd: The Night of Blood

The Night of Blood was Jim Bambra's first solo effort (as far as I can tell) for WFRP. As we have previously seen, the other authors of this exquisite game (namely, Phil Gallagher and Graeme Davis) had already had a crack at crafting articles for the system and issue 87 of White Dwarf saw Bambra join the club. 

Years ago, when I was an avid roleplay supplement reader, I always took the moniker 'Bambra' to be a sign of quality and as we have learnt over the years Jim was part of the TSR crowd that jumped from a sinking ship to join the GW Design Studio in the mid part of the 1980s. This scenario bears all of the hallmarks of Jim Bambra's reliable workmanship for here we have a solid, well written adventure that provides plenty of opportunities for roleplaying, action and PC death and dismemberment. It is also noteworthy for having been illustrated by the great Russ Nicholson of Warlock of Firetop Mountain fame. 

The introductory paragraph describes this adventure as being set within the Empire (and the republication of the scenario in The Restless Dead decreed the adventure as being perfect for players in the early part of their careers) and takes place on one of the many desolate roadways (or rivers) of that gigantic nation. Though I have never run this scenario myself, I would consider it to be a pretty tough situation for any PC to be in, and the fact that Night of Blood was later advertised as being for players just starting off, reminds me how WFRP (or Jim Bambra himself) was very, very tough on players at times. 

Now before I continue I really must warn about SPOILERS. I shall be discussing the characters, narrative and outcomes of this scenario in some detail and I wouldn't want to spoil the enjoyment of this adventure for others, so if you would prefer to remain in the dark over the events at the Hooded Man Inn then simply stop reading now. 

The scenario starts like many a classic Warhammer tale - along a forest road as night falls. There is, of course, a strong sense of Lord of the Rings in these episodes, with the terrified hobbits (and Bill) being replaced with our grubby adventurers, while beastmen step in to play the fell Ringwraiths of Sauron's legion. Classic fantasy fodder. 

The poor weather and rumbling thunder adds to the natural foreboding of the adventurer's plight. Strange noises and unnatural cries can be heard from the undergrowth as the two beastmen and four mutants hunt an unfortunate stag. Looking at the scenario afresh, and thinking about the players I had under my auspices, this little group of blighters would have made a dangerous situation far worse and character deaths (or at least hideous injury) could have been likely. The Hammer House of Horroresque flash of lightening, with all of its distant illumination of possible safety, would have sent my players scurrying towards the Hooded Man with haste. 

Knowing my PCs, they would have headed straight for the main gates and would have been somewhat thwarted by the fact that doors were securely locked. If they had been adventurous enough to resist the urge to bunk over the wall (my players always had a tendency to thieve, rather than being stalwart citizens of the Empire) and went on to discover the ferry, even their suspicions would have been aroused. 

This whole sequence builds up superb atmosphere. The driving rain, the thunder and lightening and the mysterious nature of the coaching inn's entranceways would no doubt raise many questions and possible theories. I would have encouraged this immensely and putting on my best Tregard from Knightmare voice would made several 'Ooo nasty' like remarks. With paddling across the river in the ferryboat the only option for dignified PCs, the slight of the lights in the inn's windows would have been welcome indeed. 

More seasoned adventurers would perhaps make a recce of the inn's environs before approaching the inn's doorway. Again, this sequence would be wonderfully atmospheric if handled with care. Desolate outbuildings, the bric-a-brac of living in a coaching inn dotted here and there, the ubiquitous rain and the odd squeaking gate flapping in the wind all adding to the tension. Horror, like chaos, is the spice of such adventures and game systems and one of the biggest mistakes of GW post Ansell, was overegging the pudding when it came to the Ruinous Powers. They became so common place as to lose their impact. The scene involving Grat and the stable boy is horrific and so well designed by Bambra as to invoke that dramatic sense of dread classic slasher films produce. To save you reading through the scenario yourself, I will run through the situation as perhaps my PCs would have proceeded. 

They would have heard the unsettled noises of the horses long before they reached the doorway, though I doubt they'd have been careful enough not to prevent the horses stampeding out into the pouring rain without a bump or bruise or two. Their almost ritualistic need to pilfer and loot would have overcome them even inside a stable and the inevitable 'searching for traps' swiftly followed by 'searching from treasure' would have burst forth in quick succession. They would have found neither, though the sound of something moving above them may have been heard. Exploring the upper hayloft would have caused them to discovered the mutilated form of the stable boy, his stomach no doubt torn open and his entrails half consumed. 

Gruesome stuff, and the sort of macabre horror the more child friendly version of Warhammer would swerve swiftly away from post '92. My players would have explored the hatch leading to the roof and found the blood leading into the thatch. I would have made a great deal out of the fact that 'something' had been eating the lad, but their natural cowardice would have prevented them going any further I suspect. I would have suggested visiting the inn itself to report the grisly find, though explaining the loss of the horses and the fact they'd been lurking around in someone else's property would have unsettled them further. 

The tone of the adventure switches as soon as the PCs enter the inn proper, and this again provides evidence about just how good a scenario writer Bambra is. After the horrors of the night, the situation now shifts to the charade of the inn's company. Otto the enormously fat landlord stand in (the occupants of the inn are in fact Tzeentch cultists in disguise), would fuss about anxiously while Hans, the would-be roadwarden, would eye the PCs suspiciously. Good roleplaying would really come to the fore here, with the GM acting out the roles of Otto and Hans with suitable gusto. As the players talked over their plans, I would have dropped in various red herrings about not wanting to mention the fact that you've found the body of a dead boy to the powers that be. 

Looking over the sequence of events so far only furthers the fact that this is an outstanding adventure that could easily provide everything that makes WFRP wonderful in an evening's play. Combat outside in the forest, stealth and mystery as the PCs explore the inn's compound and the unusual roleplaying inside the coaching inn proper. As a GM, I would have particularly enjoyed bringing these two characters to life, and confusing my players in the process. Knowing them, they would have played along with the act for a while as they thrashed out what to do next. 

At some point the GM needs to have Hans accuse the players of being bandits and the threat of exposure due to the death of the stable boy would have wound them up further. I would have made them work hard to prove their innocence and then set up the situation for the PCs to expose the skullduggery going on. 

By now, even the most inept PCs would have fathomed that something was wrong at the Hooded Man Inn, though whether or not they would have discovered the threat of Kurts or not is best left to the imagination. As with all of the best scenarios for WFRP, The Night of Blood adds additional background to the game - and kurts is a powerful sedative drug useful for further adventures. The cultists plan to use the stuff to knock out the adventurers and add their sleeping forms to the sacrifices-to-be currently locked in the cellar. 

Fagor, the bulging eyed mutant, would make the perfect waiter to bring out the drugged food Julie Walter's style and this scene could be played for sinister laughs  ( I think it would be a cruel GM who wouldn't allow their players to cotton on to the fact that the inn's occupants are trying to do them in here). Whatever happens, and Bambra is careful to let toughness tests give the PCs a chance to overcome the drug if they are foolish enough to consume it, everyone retires to bed as the evening draws to a close. The sound of the lock trapping the PCs into their filthy room as Otto bids them goodnight would no doubt set forth another bout of player discussion. Here, Bambra gives the GM so many options with the narrative - if your players know nothing of the kurts in their food you could opt to tell them that they feel a strong pull of sleep as they talk. Perhaps several players should suddenly doze off, leaving the others bewildered and frightened of what to do next. 

Wonderful stuff. 

Bambra's climax is as excellent as the rest of the adventure and provides so many possibilities for players and GMs I am now regretting never running this scenario. As night falls proper, the cultists descend to the hidden shrine beneath the coaching inn to begin their ritual. What the PCs might do at this point is full of possibility. Do they remain in their rooms all night weapons drawn? Have they fallen foul of the kurts? Will they break free of their entrapment? Will they explore the inn during the dark hours? 

The sound of the ritual chanting would have no doubt brought my PCs out of their room if they opted to remain. Even they would have noticed the splashes of blood across the inn and discover the bloodstained beds. Again, Bambra provides us with a second session of atmospheric stealth as the PCs roam around the property discovering the horror of the place. This gives canny GMs an opportunity to allow the players to put the pieces together. Descending into the cellar provides myriad possibilities for the narrative to end spectacularly. Will the PCs disturb the ritual and prevent the summoning? Will they smash the statue or become transfixed by it? What about the surviving occupants of the inn? Do they live or die?

All of these questions just go to show how each different group's journey through this scenario would vary. I doubt no two run-throughs would ever be alike. Again, this is testament to Bambra's design. What strikes me about the scenario here and Bambra's concept is that the PCs just cannot avoid avoiding the daemon once it is summoned. Poor old Hans, though he has the wit to bring the daemon from the warp, he cannot control it once it has arrived. The entity goes on an immediate rampage upon arrival (though it grows weaker every 100 metres from the shrine) and will stalk the rooms of the coaching inn until it is destroyed or fails its instability test, killing all who it finds. Looking back, those PCs who have chosen to remain inside their room, weapons drawn, would overhear this process until the daemon either breaks loose or return to the ether.

Imagine trying to understand what went on after they emerge at dawn? 

So many possibilities. Truly a superb scenario. 

Even after the 'Night of Blood' and however the players choose to proceed, Bambra leaves a neat little postscript to the adventure. As dawn breaks, a group of roadwardens make their way into the inn and will have some difficult questions for the players, especially if the mutilated bodies of the previous occupants are found. Adventure hooks lie here aplenty and will take the PCs onwards to other places and other dangers. The ramifications of the 'Night of Blood' may well have a long shelf life and could haunt the players long into their careers. 

WFRP'd: Tony Ackland's hidden GW portraits in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay rulebook

The author of this blog with the Grand Master of Chaos himself.

Here is a short and very sweet post in part of my WFRP'd series, celebrating 30 years of the seminal Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. As many enthusiasts have pointed out, nothing conveys the look and feel of the Warhammer World in 1986 like Tony Ackland's artwork. As the prime illustrator of so much of the early Warhammer mythos, his work illuminates the world we love like no other. The sweeping landscapes, the grimy backstreet taverns and the dank, desolate dungeons of the Old World spring to life (stirring our imaginations with myriad possibility) with each stroke of his pencil. 

Having had the pleasure of meeting this remarkable man several times now, I consider myself privileged to have spent some hours in his company. He is very much a walking, talking version of one of his wizardly drawings. The long beard, the twinkling eyes and the chaotic cackle that serves as his laugh. He remains a man of endless story, absentminded genius and anarchic, subversive humour. 

These elements are often present in his work, if you know where to look. If you get the chance to spend any time with Mr. Ackland and he has his portfolio of work with him you can expect detailed explanations for each piece. Some of these explanations reveal trinkets of knowledge that will fascinate the enthusiast of Old School Warhammer, others will reveal amusing anecdotes of life in the Design Studio and the (sometimes rather dubious) goings on in the background of things. 

At other times they reveal what modern folk call 'Easter Eggs', little hidden facts and tributes in artwork and background, often secreted away in pieces of work we have been familiar with for decades. When these hidden secrets are revealled to us those pieces of work suddenly take on a new and unexpected light. 

I have three such pieces for you today! 

All of us are probably familiar with the careers section of the WFRP. If you were anything like me, you'd spend hours perusing through the entries imagining characters with prolific careers in agitating, tomb robbing or coach driving. For me, it was the sheer normality of so many of the careers that made them so appealing, you could imagine people like this living in a fantasy world far more than a bunch of longhaired tight wearing men with impossibly white teeth. 

It was the artwork that accompanied these careers that would often fire the imagination, with some of the illustrations speaking more about that career path than any amount of text could. Well it seems that a number of these illustrations were caricatures of well know Citadel staff. Tony Ackland explained to me:

TA: "There was Richard (Hal) Halliwell as a beggar, Rick Priestley as a scribe, John Blanche as a cripple, and Bryan Ansell as I can't recall what. Richard Ellard was a cleric wearing the amulet of the double Volkswagen. He had two Golfs at the time. John Stallard was also featured. I can't recall any others offhand."

Now, Tony still has three of these caricatures in his possession and I can share then here with you thanks to him.

Rick Priestley the scribe. I love the tiny xerox gag on the edge of the table. 

The double Volkswagen endowed Richard Ellard masquerading as a cleric.

The mighty John Blanche brought low as a cripple. 

As for Bryan Ansell, Richard Halliwell or John Stallard I have yet to discover which illustrations they may be. Or indeed if any other GW alumni lurk amongst the pages of WFRP waiting to be discovered. 

Perhaps YOU dear reader could be of help? Get flicking through that rulebook!

Thanks to Tony Ackland for his contributions to this post. 

Orlygg.

WFRP'd: What the @*&% is WFRP'd? The History of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay

Hello all. You may have noticed me waffling on a great deal about Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay recently and if you didn't know, the game is now in it's thirtieth anniversary. With such an august event looming large in my mind, I thought it appropriate to get blogging about this marvelleous game as quite frankly, no-one else seems to be! 

Now, we shall be continuing through the history of the game in much the same way as I have been doing with the Acceptable in the '80s series with Warhammer Fantasy Battle Third Edition. Only, I have blogged about several parts of the WFRP canon in the past under the title WFRP'd. As you have no doubt gathered, I am going to be continuing with this series in the coming days and I thought it apt to make reference to some of the other articles I have published relating to the game. 

And there are three. 

The first concerns the first supplement for WFRP, namely the Enemy Within Box and the starting adventure 'Mistaken Identity'. This is one of my favourite ever supplements that GW released. 

http://realmofchaos80s.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/wfrpd-enemy-within.html

Out of the garden deals with the background of the Warhammer world's gnome population and provides details to allow players to roleplay these diminutive characters. Phil Gallagher's article if bustling with detail that many of you may not know about Gnomes in Warhammer. 

Well worth a read!

http://realmofchaos80s.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/wfrpd-out-of-garden-or-roleplaying.html

And finally, Graeme Davis launches the game in morbid style with 'On the Road' - the first two scenarios (if you can call them that) published for WFRP. 

http://realmofchaos80s.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/wfrpd-on-road-warhammer-fantasy.html

Enjoy! 

Orlygg

WFRP'd: The View from the Design Studio

In my last post I began to chronicle the 30th anniversary of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and judging by your response this looks to be a popular series of blog posts. Today, I want to delve into a curious little article published in late '86 in our beloved White Dwarf of old. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with the magazine in the dark days of the last century, it ran a series of semi-regular columns called 'Open Box' in which new RPG releases were scrutinised by members of the editoral team.

If you got into Games Workshop in the later part of the 1980s this may seem curious to you, as the magazine I discovered in 1988 ran only in house adverts (mostly). Before Bryan Ansell decided to just focus on GW products, the magazine served as the voice of roleplaying in the UK, and had done so for over ten years by the time this article was published.

Of course, the cynic will no doubt point out that the authors of the Open Box columns were in fact employees of Games Workshop LTD, and this was indeed true, but judging by the Open Box columns I have flicked through, other manufacturer's items seem to have been reviewed quite fairly and the GW bias is slight. Looking back, the influence of GW's first decade as a retailer of fantasy games is still evident in it's waning years.

Anyway, onwards and upwards. This particular issue of Open Box concentrates in 'reviewing' (if such a verb is appropriate) our beloved RPG, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Unlike the material we looked at last post, which set to advertise the product to us screaming fans, this piece seeks to explain a little about the development of the game and contains some interesting nuggets of information the Citadel historian would find interesting.

It is well worth reading. Take a look!

The first paragraph contains an interesting remark and I paraphrase when I state that WFRP was originally intended as a supplement for Warhammer Fantasy Battle. Well, I didn't know that it had it's origins there, and always assumed it was begun later. Of course, I know that lots of different hands shaped the game and different projects were merged or adapted to ease it's creation.

The second paragraph goes on to make light of the demise of TSR UK and the establishment of the famous '80s Design Studio. The BIG NAMES of WFRP are ticked off here too. If you are curious about this period of GW's history, then Paul Cockburn's interview we us is well worth reading. The link is here.

In an age before GrimDark the term 'grubby fantasy' seems to have described the background to the game and reference is made to the 'shiny, heroic' style of roleplaying prevalent in many D&D supplements and imitators. If you read on, the link between the 'rot of chaos' and the religious turmoil in Renaissance Europe is made explicit and is one that is now frankly blooming obvious, but has always alluded me. Another reference to the Lustria campaign is made here, and that it would be one of the first releases for WFRP. We all know how that one turned out.

Under the 'Chaos' subheading is evidence enough to trouble GW's lawyers in later years. Frank, unclouded admittance that Chaos and all its terrifying glory is directly inspired by the work of Michael Moorcock. 

Both Realms of Chaos (which saw release in two volumes) and Realms of Sorcery (which never saw release, at least until Hogshead did a version years later) get a mention on the second page. It is easy to laugh now at the admission that Realms of Sorcery would see print in 1988 but it is obvious now that a great many projects were planned, even developed but ultimately never saw the light of day. 

Where they all are now is a mystery. 

Orlygg

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: 30th Anniversary

This month is Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay's 30th anniversary. Way back when, in October 1986 Games Workshop's own roleplaying game slipped loose it's rancid moorings to set sail across the world, and its been spreading it's peculiar chaotic illumination ever since. What strikes me is that no-one seems to have noticed (well, at least in the journals and blogs I frequent) that such crucial event is now upon us. 

It was, ney still is, one of the greatest roleplaying games of all time, with the Enemy Within often heralded as the greatest adventure ever spawned. Whether or not you agree with this is irrelevant. This is an important anniversary and one that Realm of Chaos 80s will be exploring in greater depth in the coming weeks. 

But where to start? 

How about a world of perilous adventure? 

Issue 82 of White Dwarf contained one of those 'pull out' centre pieces popular in the 1980s. Flicking back through the magazine, its certainly looks impressive when compared with the other pages on offer that month, what with it's jet black background and chunky iconography. You were certainly informed that the long awaited game had arrived. Not that regular readers would have been strangers to the game - talk of it had been brewing for some time and work must have been frantic in the studio from the mid eighties onwards. Think about it now. Within about a year, development of not only Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, but Warhammer Fantasy Battle Third Edition and Rogue Trader: Warhammer 40,000 reached fever pitch. All three titles were released and later received a huge amount of supplements and support in GW publications.

It is also worth remembering that all three systems were (technically) compatible with each other - with WFB3 and WHFR sharing the same game world and many of it's idiosyncracies. In fact, it is due to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay that the background to the Old World, basically the Empire, was so wonderfully fleshed out for later generations for writers, gamers and design studio members.

What is obvious looking back, is this is very much a dark fantasy world. GrimDark has not yet become a cliche and the more British feel of the background material is a refreshing change to D&D's 'derring-do' performed by long haired men in tights. Probably with white teeth. Sure, WFRP has it's fair share of longhaired men, but reading through this early material makes you feel like they are more likely to give your syphilis than an honest helping hand.

Production values also seem high. Esoteric symbols boarder the top and bottom of the pages, along with the striking margin detailing that would become common for WFRP publications in the years to come. The pages are well arranged and peppered with artwork from the High Lords of Fantasy- Ackland and Blanche. It looks high end. I always admire the work of 'paste-up' artists, especially considering it's practically dead as a job now. All of that text, those images - the lot were most likely put together manually ahead of printing - it is now wonder that these graphic artists were called the 'fuzzy felters' at GW towers. 

The dark fantasy theme continues as we read on. This short story exemplifies the dark and dangerous Warhammer world well, complete with chaos worshippers and witchunters, showing that these themes have been with the game from the very beginning. This opening salvo is also important because it contains a neat little overview of the Warhammer world's history and includes detail about the Gods of Law, who sadly went largely unrealised during the Ansell years, and so are lost to us. 

Ultimately, Gotter's hallucinations fail to unearth the true horror waiting in the dark future for our heroes. It wouldn't be the bitter civil wars of man, elf and dwarf that would go on to destroy the world, nor would it be the malign manipulations of the warp that brought about the end. No, it would be an accountant's penstroke. Both for WFRP itself, and later the Warhammer World. 

Reading through the story again, I find it hard to have sympathy for the fanatical Gotter. Being dragged from a prison cell to the bowels of some skaven tunnel complex is certainly a dreadful end, but somehow I imagine that Gotter broke free - probably by spending a fate point. Still, the idea that human society is rampant and corrupt with chaos worship is a familiar one to any who have spent time with the game. I have said it before, but I found this view of the Warhammer world much more satisfying than what came later. Chaos became too visible. Too, well, familiar - not only the inhabitants of the Old World, but to us players in general. The concept worked best when the general population just got on with their lives, totally unaware of the awful doom that was brewing far to the north.

Chaos should always been the 'spice' of Warhammer. Not the main ingredient.

Speaking of recipes, the rest of the launch article goes on to explain the game in greater detail. Again, the art quality is ramped up and the the now iconic front cover painting (which I tracked down to Canada, some years ago) for WFRP makes more than one appearance. When I got back into GW stuff in the year 2004, I really missed the vibrant art from the 1980s. Sure John Blanche still knocked out a few good 'uns but the house style that developed for big publications was somewhat lacking. 

It looks like whoever wrote the description of the 'Background' section has been imbibing heavily on a bottle of Lovecraft - what with all the brooding, loathsome long words and abomination. Sadly, the 'projected supplements' that promised to cover the rest of the known world never materialised and Richard Halliwell's 'Lustria' campaign remained unpublished.

The careers section is what made WFRP different. Rather than just being a cleric or the ubiquitous magic user, the character you developed could go on a professional career, and if you were anything like me, you'd spend hours and hours reading through the different entries. I must have created hundreds of characters over those early years, all of whom I have long since forgotten. Actually, that is not quite true and one surly chap springs back into my mind - 'Lightfingered Rob', the house burglar and emerged from the cloudy recesses of my mind. I created him when I was GMing the Enemy Within for a school friend.

Perhaps I should reproduce him in miniature form one day?

There is a  quote on this page that I love: 'developing Warhammer into the most complete and enjoyable fantasy game available.' There always seems to me to be an undertone of this attitude ringing through our period. Though commercial requirements would no doubt have dominated motives at GW, there was at least an earnest opinion on producing high quality, versatile games that stood out from the fore. WFRP does this in droves.

Having had a great number of conversations with gamers the world over about WFB3 (and by extension WFRP) the general opinion can be generalised into a single world. Potential. These two games gave the player almost total freedom to design, adapt and play a huge variety of games and scenarios. You are limited by your imagination alone. Obviously, to the causal gamer this reeks of trouble. There is little balance, and some of the option available are game-breakingly powerful. Restraint is a key part of old school style gaming, as many of us have learnt, though sadly there will always be those 'powergamer' types whose sole purpose when rolling dice is to win.

And no lamentations of the women for those players either, just an ever decreasing circle of associates, until squalid and alone, they exist solely alongside the other greasy oiks of their creed. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay often strikes a problem chord with these types, for the game quite clearly states its Warhammer but with little or no meta (or cheesey lists) the game can seem empty and confusing. After all, WFRP is a social game. It is about not only character interaction in an invented universe, but about people pretending to be other people for mutual enjoyment. The shared experience is key here, as it is in early versions of Warhammer, only with WFRP the spectacle is in the mind alone.

Looking back on a near twenty plus year love affair with Warhammer's roleplaying game, I can certainly recall plenty of spectacular moments. Unlike with my miniature endeavours, these affairs are on a much smaller scale and have been far more intimate. I can recall leading my adventurers through the grimy corridors of Castle Wittgenstein as GM, feeling creeped out by the story I was weaving. My old wooden stereo speakers choose this as the moment they would collapse from my bedroom wall in an almighty thud. My players and I nearly jumped out of our skins in fright, so enraptured by the game were we. 

Just one of many, many fine moments of gaming. 

Looking back over this article with fresh eyes brings that word back into my mind. Potential. Just reading through the blurb on offer her inspires me all over again and encourages me to once more delve into my dusty old tomes to enjoy the adventure again. But some of that potential is, alas, forever unfulfilled. Glancing across the 'coming soon' text above the coupon reveals another one of those 'lost projects' we have become accustomed too here at Realm of Chaos 80s. 

And I quote.

"Blood for the Blood God - a battlepack for use with Realm of Chaos. The army is camped in the chaos wastes preparing to raid the empire, but dissension is growing and blood must be spilled before the differences can be resolved. Scheme and battle your way to supremacy of the chaos army in this unique adventure which combines Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay rules with Warhammer Fantasy Battle rules."

How intriguing, eh?

WFRP'd: Out of the Garden or Roleplaying Gnomes

Writing about Little Ron, my unfortunate Gnome crossbowman, recently reminded me of the part the more unusual races once played in Warhammer. Gnomes, pygmies, fimir, zoats... Sure, they had no armies as such, but they added a flavour to the game that later editions lacked, and a wild unpredictablilty of what you actually might have to face if you play a properly GMed game of Third Edition. 

Delving into the past background of the game reminded me of my WFRP'd project. It has a similar mission statement to Acceptable in the '80s, as it is essentially a history of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, with added thoughts about how the huge source of material produced for the game might be applied to Oldhammer. 

So dusting off the WFRP rulebook I delved deep into the next article, one that concerns the previously mentioned Gnomes. Its called 'Out of the Garden' (a quip perhaps to the greenfingered?) and was written by Phil Gallagher and originally published in WD 86.

You may be aware that Citadel produced a number of figures at that time and Graeme Davis has gone on the record to state that he attempted to include all the races that had figures available in the WRFP rulebook. Background material was slight, as I found when I painted a gnome for my Warhammer Bestiary painting challenge- which I must get back to one day! So this article gives us much more information about the Gnomes. 

Reading the first page gives us the usual excuse of variation within the Warhammer World for the player to create their own background,using what is provided as a template. What is interesting to a scenario writer (like me) are the references to gnome pedlars and engineers, with the latter being the perfect way of slipping a gnome into a game. Give him cannon to command or a bridge to destroy!

The second page continues with the in-jokes that made Warhammer so different to Dungeons and Dragons in the 1980s, with mention of the gnomes' love of fishing, and of course the dreadful 'metro-gnome' joke. Humour aside, it does provide us with some useful information about where gnomes live, so if you do have a handful of minis kicking about in your collection its fairly easy to create a setting in which to use them. 

The article goes on to describe the then new Gnome Jester career option. And provides yet more scope to include them in your Oldhammer games, perhaps part of some 'gnobleman's' (get it?) retinue, or as a character within a village or remote inn. 

The third page chronicles the the gnome deity, Ringil, the god of smithying and practical jokes. My eye was immediately drawn to the note about the trials that members of the religion must undergo if they offend the teaching of Ringil, namely the application of some bizarre practical joke! What a fascinating secret mission for a player in a larger game who has a gnome character, eh? 

Now that's an idea I will most definitely develop in the near future!

If you want to know more about Gnomes in Warhammer then perhaps you should pop over to Where the Sea Pours Out and have a read of Richard Irvine's academic piece about them. Graeme Davis also wrote a short piece on their history here.

It was nice 'gnoming' you!

Orlygg

WFRP'd: The Enemy Within

John Blanche's cover painting for the Enemy Within is probably as famous as the game itself. It remains a wonderful relic of a more subtle Warhammer World. A world before the skulls, spikes and the corporate stink. 

The Oldhammer zeitgeist seems to be learning towards Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay these days, and to be honest with you, I am not really surprised. For many of us fantasy fans, WFRP was our only source of information and background for the Warhammer World in the late '80s and early 1990s. Hidden amongst the great many articles that were produced in support of the game are some absolute gems, many of which can be used to base interesting scenarios for games around. 

We have discussed the first 'proper' WFRP article already in this series - On The Road by Graeme Davis and that seems to have been published around the same time that the first supplement for the game was released- the now legendary Enemy Within with its first adventure, Mistaken Identity. 

But what does this first seminal release actually contain? And does it deserve its title of 'one of the greatest adventures ever written?'

The best way to find out is to actually have a little look at what the release contains and look at the first adventure, Mistaken Identity, in a little more detail. A word of warning though, there will be spoilers in this article, so if you are hoping to play the Enemy Within Campaign one day you may well want to stop reading now and leave the horror of the Warhammer World for another day. 

A quick glance at this page will provide a solid overview of what the supplement contains. The first 34 pages present the player and GM with a wealth of detail about the Empire as well as tips on running the campaign. Its also noteworthy for the great picture of the authors posing outside on a set of steps. Rock 'n' Roll roleplayers indeed!

To put this material into context, both the WFRP and WFB3 rulebooks had done a little to flesh out the background to the world we would be playing our games in. Gone was the local view presented by the scenario packs of the mid 1980s and in their place we had a broadsheet with a more national view of how the Empire functioned, not just in the corridors of power, but in the corridors of the inns, temples and dwellings that made up the place. 

There is quite a lot of detail to be absorbed and I would recommend the supplement to anyone who has an interest in the original history of the Empire, as well as its early visual appeal. I have selected a few of my favourite pieces of this tapestry to discuss in more detail below.  

This page is significant for two reasons, firstly it gives lots of background detail to one of the most important pieces of background for anyone playing WFRP in the Empire - the Coaching Houses! If you have played WFRP then you have no doubt spent loads of time sitting on the top of one of these wooden boxes (most likely in the driving rain) or annoying the toffs within. Mentioning them here as a ubiquitous sight in the Warhammer World on the 1980s make me think that I really should go about producing a couple of models of them, with the appropriate bade painted on the side mind you, to help populate the gaming worlds I create with my scenery. 

Anyone know a good model available that could be converted for such a job? Please let me know if you do! 

The other significant fact on this page is the fleshing out of the legend of Sigmar, a character we now know was created by Phil Gallagher. Though the legend was discussed briefly previously, this is the most detailed take on the story seen to date. Its funny just how much has now changed in this particular piece of fluff, isn't it?

I have selected this page as its best illustrates what everyday people would have looked like in the Warhammer World of the 1980s. There is a gritty historical realism that I have always appreciated, largely due to the fact that fantasy works best when it is presented in a believable world. That is where 8th Edition went so horribly wrong for me, with every tree a dangerous spirit, undead incursions sweeping the land endlessly and the geological layer of skulls beneath the ground. 

How was the Empire supposed to function? How was food grown? Etc? Etc? 

I often return to these pages when I am researching colour schemes for my miniatures as the fluff presented here makes the perfect starting point. 

Something that is easy to overlook is that the original characters for the Enemy Within make their first appearance in the Enemy Within. They are beautifully presented with lots of original art to show them off to would be players. I wonder how many adventures these characters have been on over the years? 

As I just mentioned with the PCs, there is a great deal of quality art to be found in this publication, and much of it cannot be found elsewhere. I have selected these two works by John Blanche as examples of what can be found within, so it really is worth chasing up a copy if you have any interest in 1980s Warhammer art. The sense of wacky humour is evident in the two pictures as is that subtle mix between historical possibility and fantastic improbability. 

The two images show off what the military of the Empire should look like and indeed many of the knights you can see in the second image certainly made it into miniature form by the late 1980s. I have a large number of these models kicking around in my collection and one day I intend to do them justice by painting them up in a similar baroque style to these. 

Another favourite section of mine from the Enemy Within is this page detailing some of the herbs that can be found out in the wilds during this adventure. I used to hand this out o Harbull and Wanda in their packs at the start of the campaign and I always enjoyed the gathering of herbs and other resources as a player. In fact, when I play the Elder Scrolls games to this day I often spend hours and hours out and about collecting all sundry of things to become a master alchemist. Its a bit harder to do that in WFRP but a little medical knowledge is vital in this dark and dangerous world!

A nice touch this. 

Now we are on our way to having a look at the 'Main Event' of this first supplement, the first scenario - Mistaken Identity. To me, the ideas presented here, though small in scale when compared with later adventures, make for quality gaming as well as exciting GMing. Having done both in my time, I can honestly say that the moment your coach stumbles upon the mutant ambush your blood is up, either with the thrill of taking on a role or controlling the action.

The scenes set in the Inn at the start of the adventure allow you to spend as much time as you wish developing your characters before the off, with plenty of opportunity to offend the noble patrons who you find within.

Without giving too much away to those who haven't yet have the chance to get to grips with this first supplement, the rest of the adventure contains a mixture of dopplegangers, bountyhunters and ships called Berebelli. The plotline gives your players, or your GM skills, just enough space to begin to florish if you are new to the system as well as setting up the rest of the campaign.

Interestingly, there is another proto version of the mutation table that would later see the light of day in Slaves to Darkness. Obviously, its far simpler than the resource many of us now know and love but it has its uses if you need to create 'quickie' mutants on the spot.

To conclude, this first release is an excellent start to the Enemy Within campaign, and is many ways an excellent start to roleplaying in general. It is packed with loads of information that will help you expand your knowledge about the background to Warhammer Third Edition. With a good mix of social roleplaying and sinister actions there is plenty to sink your teeth into here.

Highly recommended.

Orlygg