[Fanzine Focus XLI] LOWBORN Issue 3

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and her group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. Most, but not all fanzines draw from the Old School Renaissance. Some provide support for much more modern games.

Lowborn is ‘An Independent Grim Perilous Fanzine for Zweihänder RPG’. As the subtitle suggests, this is a fanzine for the Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG, published in 2017 and thus modern, but actually a retroclone of another roleplaying game. That roleplaying game is the definitive British roleplaying game, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, published by Games Workshop in 1986.

Lowborn Issue 3 was published in November, 2020. It dives straight in with ‘The Spiral of Stress: An Alternative System for handling Disorders.’ Written by Irene D. B., it presents a different way of tackling the effects of shock and fear, avoiding the potential stigmatisation of mental health issues that more traditional rules systems do not always avoid. It even goes as far as using the Disorders section on the Zweihänder character sheet. Essentially, as a Player Character accumulates Chaos Ranks, his ‘Spiral of Stress’ also increases. When his ‘Spiral of Stress’ exceeds his Will Bonus, the Player Character is forced to retire. In between that, he will also gain general penalties to all of his actions. The suggested means of reducing a Player Character’s ‘Spiral of Stress’ is to go on a Personal Quest, which leads to interesting roleplaying and storytelling possibilities. The opening article is quick and dirty and could easy have been expanded to give some actual examples and perhaps to better explore the positive and (hopefully not) negative effects of undertaking a Personal Quest. This is interesting and useful where the fanzine’s regular cartoon, ‘Those Two Orx’ fails to do anything except take up space. Honestly, it if had to be kept, it could have been halved in size to double the humour, or if not, simply dropped and nobody would miss it.

Peter Rudin-Burgess’ ‘Drama Dice and Pools’ suggests another pair of alternative rules to handle the drama of play in a broad rather than a specific sense. The first is the sue of drama dice. Essentially, using a die to track the progress of the Player Characters’ failures and when the die number reaches a particular threshold, an alarm of some kind is triggered. The second is dice pools, the more challenging the situation, the fewer the number of six-sided dice in the pool. When a failure is rolled, the dice pool is rolled and any six rolled means that a die is removed from the pool. When it is emptied, the alarm is triggered. These are both quite serviceable, offering an alternative to the countdown clock device found in other roleplaying games and in the case of the dice pools, randomising it a little.

Later in the issue, Irene D. B. offers her own development of this with ‘Chaos Overclocked’. This is to roll percentile dice when the six face is revealed and an alarm is triggered, but instead of it being triggered, the Game Master rolls to see if its triggered. It is a counterpoint to the certainty of the alarm being triggered when the six face is revealed, but this really, is a boxed text for the first article given its own article, which seems unnecessary. Plus, ‘Drama Dice and Pools’ already provides a perfectly good random means of triggering an alarm or other effect with the dice pool idea.

The feature of the issue is ‘Cytoplasm’. This is a scenario by Ignacio M, a locked room mystery in which the Player Characters wake up to find themselves in the attic of a house which as they explore, they will find out that they are trapped. Designed as one-shot, but it could easily be added to any campaign, the Player Characters have to explore the house, examine its furniture and fittings, search for secret doors, and find clues as to where they are, what is going on, and how they get out. This is nicely detailed puzzle box of a scenario that includes decent floorplans of the house and good descriptions of each location. Although they do not know it initially, the Player Characters are up against the clock as the thing trapping them inside attempts to squeeze itself in through whatever gaps it can find. Fortunately, there are multiple ways of getting out if the Player Characters can find them or solve the puzzle. The scenario is let down by the fact that none of the rooms are marked with numbers to link them to their descriptions in the text, so it is just slightly more difficult to run than it should be. Anyway, good puzzle box adventure than relies on brains rather than brawn.

Irene D. B.’s ‘Perilous Tactics: The Death Hedge’ is the first in a series of article that examine the combat tactics for various creatures from the bestiary from the Zweihänder Core Rulebook. It breaks down and analyses the stats for the Death Hedge, an immobile, sweet-smelling rose bush, mutated by the Aether Winds into a deadly ambush predator. The author manages to get two tightly packed pages of material out of this one twisted plant, which surprising given that it only has the one attack, its flailing, thorny branches, does not tend to attack humanoids, and is otherwise, mindless. It is exhaustively overwritten and really could have done with advice on how to use it in a scenario as much as in combat. There are hints throughout, but really, this series could have better launched with an entry from the Zweihänder Core Rulebook that actually does use tactics and would be more of an interesting opponent than a flailing bush.

With ‘Elementalist Professions (Element Bending)’, Lilith Grishaw presents several Professions from her Homebrew Setting of Andelos. In the setting the Elementalist is an innate magic user who learns to harness control of abilities connected to a particular element— Air, Earth, Fire, or Water. Over time they can go on to embody their connected element as a Master of the Element, but their training also includes some martial skills too otherwise they would be vulnerable on the battlefield. As they further specialise, they become either a Master of Metal for an earth elementalist, a Moon Warrior for water elementalist, a Nomad of an air elementalist, or a Phoenix Lord for a fire elementalist. The article explores both the benefits and demands for each path and there is a lot to work with if the Game Master and her players want to have a combination of specialist spellcaster-warrior in their campaign. Further, despite it being taken from a specific setting, there is nothing to impede the Game Master adapting to her own campaign.

‘Grim & Perilous Mass Combat’ by A.R. Kavli gives rules for handling mass combat in Zweihänder, expanding upon a simple contested Warfare skill roll. It requires a small amount of effort setting up, considering scale, goals, the nature of the units and their Warfare values, and more, most notably the number of Success Levels required by each side in order to win. Exceptionally good and exceptionally bad rolls also necessitate a roll on the ‘Tides of War’ table that gives some random event. The Game Master is encouraged to narrate the outcome of any battle just as she would any individual brawl or skirmish, but the ‘Tides of War’ table gives a long list of options that will make the mass combat memorable.

Chuck Kranz’s ‘Random Sewer Encounters’ starts of silly with “Youthful sewer dwelling terrapin creatures” and “A rat-like master” and strays very far from that. The last quarter of Lowborn Issue 3 is devoted to ‘Grim & Perilous Saints of the Holy Roman Empire’ by A.R. Kavli which takes Zweihänder not back to its historical roots so much as the historical roots of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. It is an exhaustive list of the Catholic, Protestant, and Pagan saints found in the Germanic states of the Holy Roman Empire amidst the Thirty Years War. There is guidance on how to proclaim a saint and petition a saint, and a a list of over one-hundred-and-twenty-five saints! The idea is that every Player Characters will have been dedicated to a saint at birth, but gains no bonus from doing so. However, by attuning himself to a saint, a Player Character can petition his saint to gain Fortune Points. These can go into a group pool shared by all of the Player Characters or be linked to a particular attribute favoured by the saint, or the Player Character might have to petition directly for a boon or blessing. All this requires a roll using the Folklore Skill Focus for the saint. Every one of the saints is associated with a feast day, a Fortune Point-linked attribute or skill, and what saintly gift the saint might grant. For example, Reinold is the Patron of stonemasons, a monk placed in charge constructing an abbey at Köln, but murdered by jealous stonemasons. His feast day is January 7th and he grants Fortune Points via the Tradecraft skill, as well as the gift of being able to “Flip to Succeed all Scrutiny tests to find hidden passages, traps, or other mechanical secrets for 24 hours.” There is a delightful variety to the range of saints and their gifts listed and this could easily be ported into a Zweihänder that does not have the ties to the Thirty Year War. The likelihood is that almost no-one would notice, but if they do, it would only be a matter of changing a few names to make the list fit the campaign world. Overall, a very nicely researched article that will add to the background of any campaign as well as the individual Player Characters.

Physically, Lowborn Issue 3 is decently presented. The layout is tight in palces, but the artwork is decent.

Lowborn Issue 3 is solid support for the Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG. In particular, the scenario, ‘Cytoplasm’, is a testing puzzle box, whilst ‘Grim & Perilous Saints of the Holy Roman Empire’ can be used as is or as a model for the Game Master’s own campaign. Either way, it can add further depth and detail to a campaign and make it more interesting.

[Fanzine Focus XL] LOWBORN Issue 2

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and her group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. Most, but not all fanzines draw from the Old School Renaissance. Some provide support for much more modern games.

Lowborn is ‘An Independent Grim Perilous Fanzine for Zweihänder RPG’. As the subtitle suggests, this is a fanzine for the Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG, published in 2017 and thus modern, but actually a retroclone of another roleplaying game. That roleplaying game is the definitive British roleplaying game, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, published by Games Workshop in 1986.

Lowborn Issue 2 was published in August, 2020. The content begins with with ‘The Dark Order’ by Peter Rudin-Burgess. This is a scenario set in the chancery of Edessa, below the city of Outremer. This is a murder mystery set below the city where single-sex work gangs labour at feeding the great steam turbines. Gang Master Zangi leads a gang of twenty-four free women who, in turn, drive sixty female mutant slaves, all loading city waste into the furnaces. Gang Master Zangi has disappeared, but now her skull has been raked out of Number 2 furnace. Shortly after, a new gang leader is appointed, and then it happens again when another gang master is found boiled alive and a new gang member is also appointed. This is followed by the murder of a bar owner and then another gang master. The scenario is presented with a lot of set-up up front and then followed by the plot hooks and the various genres in which the scenario might be used on. The scenario needs a lot of work to run effectively with clues to connect the murders to the culprits and it is also only halfway through the scenario is it mentioned that it is for Dark Astral: Chapbook for ZWEIHANDER Grim & Perilous RPG, the Science Fiction equivalent setting for the ZWEIHANDER Grim & Perilous RPG. It is mentioned on the cover, though. The map of the lair is by Dyson Logos, so good.

‘New Distinguishing Marks’ by Adrian Kennelly is literally that, a table of entries like ‘No chin’ or ‘Unbending knee’. Chuck Kranz’s ‘Random Space Encounters’ provides twelve encounters, again for Dark Astral: Chapbook for ZWEIHANDER Grim & Perilous RPG. For example, ‘Just like in the TV shows.’ expands to ‘A tear in space erupts of the port barely out of manoeuvring range, but a strong magnetic pull of the anomaly pulls your ship in. A voice in your head echoes, “I have such wonderful sights to show you.” The darkness takes you after being dragged through the event horizon. When you come to your ships nav-computers are not able to gain bearing on where you are… or when you are.” These are fine and again something that the Game Master will need to develop.

It is not quite clear what Sean Van Damme’s ‘Introduction to Assassinations’ quite is, initially, but what it turns out to be is a means of introducing options for the budding assassin. The Claw of Retribution is the largest guild of assassins in the great city and puts up notices on a board at the West Wind Pub, where the guild previously operated from, of small jobs, or rather, assassinations of minor folk that it has been hired to do. Its members can perform them, but it lets prospective members undertake them as a test. There are thirteen such tasks, not always hits or deaths, such as burning down a distillery that is not guild affiliated or forcing a member of the faith to stop preaching in the docks. The Game Master will need to develop the hooks, but there are some fun options here that will support a grittier, dirtier style of play for thug and thief type characters.

‘Order And Corruption: Purity Points’ by Lyle Hayhurst gives an extension to the Corruption Points of ZWEIHANDER Grim & Perilous RPG. Corruption Points are gained for immoral acts, giving in to personal weakness, and even being injured, and will potentially force a Player Character down a dark path. This article suggests another path that a Player Character can go up. By committing acts of goodness, being tolerant of those different to himself, protecting the innocent, giving to the poor, being merciful to a villain, and more, a Player Character can gain Purity Points. Like gaining Disorders for Corruption Points, he can gain Blessings for accruing enough Purity Points like becoming a ‘Friend of Animals’ or gaining a ‘Inner Glow’ of Purity. The article suggests that a Player Character can earn both Corruption Points and Purity Points and need to be tracked, and what this does is add some flexibility and complexity to the play and reward a player for good roleplaying whatever his character’s action.

Ignacio M. writes three entries in the issue. The first, ‘Learning from Different Arcanas’, suggests a way in which an Arcane Magick user can cast magick from a Wind other than his own. For each symbol that Player Character has to pass through to get between his Wind he has studied and the one he wants to cast from, there is a penalty to the Incantation test and if the Channelling test is failed, then extra Chaos dice has to be rolled. The rule is quick and simple and potentially dirty if thing goes wrong! He also suggests ‘New Combat Actions’ with ‘Oh No You Don’t’ which enables a Player Character to study the ebb and flow of the battle and interrupt the action of a foe; ‘Goad and Deter’ to slow a foe’s action down; and ‘Leave It Open’, in which he tricks a foe to gain a bonus on his next attack. These are decent additions.

Lastly, ‘Carnival II’ continues the description of a magical carnival—a common trope in roleplaying games inspired by Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay such as Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG—begin in Lowborn Issue 1. However, unlike in many cases what lies behind the magic in the carnival is not necessarily dark or dangerous, but that rather its various members are all anthropomorphic animals. They include a middle-aged anthro-rabbit who controls his perfect puppets though his voice alone and Priscilla, middle-aged anthro-hedgehog who is also a very skilled physician, alchemist, and herbalist, and exotic dancers that somehow entice audience to buy the overpriced drinks at their show. The latter is perhaps the only real danger in the carnival, but others might see it differently and act accordingly. This adds another three tents and their occupants to add to the three previously described, so there is yet room for expansion. If there is an issue for the article, it is the inclusion of the anthropomorphic NPCs and whether that fits a Game Master’s campaign. She, of course, has the right to change such details and the various NPCs could be hiding something else instead. Bar some scenario ideas or hooks, ‘Carnival’ offers an intriguing and different type of circus, one with plenty of room for expansion and development.

Physically, Lowborn Issue 2 is a bit untidy and rough around the edges, plus it needs a slight edit. The layout is also a little tight in places.

Lowborn Issue 2 is a mixed bag with some content more useful and more interesting than others. ‘Introduction to Assassinations’ is packed with great hooks for a bruising lowlife campaign and like ‘Order And Corruption: Purity Points’, has plenty of roleplaying potential. Elsewhere, several of the articles are rough and could be clearer in their set-up, let alone their execution.

[Fanzine Focus XXXVII] LOWBORN Issue I

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and her group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. Most, but not all fanzines draw from the Old School Renaissance. Some provide support for much more modern games.

Lowborn is ‘An Independent Grim Perilous Fanzine for Zweihänder RPG’. As the subtitle suggests, this is a fanzine for the Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG, published in 2017 and thus modern, but actually a retroclone of another roleplaying game. That roleplaying game is the definitive British roleplaying game, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, published by Games Workshop in 1986.

Lowborn Issue I was published in April, 2020. The content begins with a handful of small articles. They include ‘New Doomings’ by Adrian Kennelly. These are ways in which a Player Character might die in Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG. There are four tables here, one for each season, and they offer alternatives to those list in the core rulebook. ‘Those Two Orx’ is the regular cartoon rather than cartoon strip, but at a whole page, it is taking up space that could have been put to better use, especially given the desperation of the humour. Ingacio M.’s ‘Reaction Spells’ provides a handful of spells that are variants of several Generalist Spells. For an Action Point, they can be cast as a reaction and require a spellcaster to know the original spell and then expend Experience Points to learn these ones. They include Cack-Handed Grasp, triggered when someone moves towards the caster and makes the floor in front of the caster slippery enough that the person approaching the caster might fall over and Magick Missile, triggered when someone runs away, which stuns that person, though it does not work in darkness. This is a solid section of spells, all nicely detailed, which can easily be added to a campaign.

Ingacio M. is also the author of ‘100 One Attribute NPCs’. This is not a second set of tables, but rather one table providing the very minimum of details of one hundred NPCs, including

name, archetype, attribute (value), ancestry, age group, complexion, build, and social class, and divided equally between male and female. The Game Master only has to roll once to have an NPC with a few details ready to roleplay without her having to decide a bunch of details on the spot. Or, of course, the Game Master choose one or even roll for each category to add further flexibility—if she has time. Overall, useful.

‘One Roll Combat’ by Petter Rudin-Burgess offers two things. One is an analysis of three different types of combat in roleplaying games and the other is an alternative to the complexity of combat in Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG. In turn, the author looks at Dungeons & Dragons with its use of Hit Points as a measure of combat skill rather than fortitude or endurance, the simulationist nature of combat in Rolemaster, and the slightly more abstracted nature of combat in Zweihänder. What it highlights at the end of this is the length of time that these differing means of handling combat can take. What the author suggests as an alternative in shorter or smaller combat scenes where the action does not need to play out blow by blow, is to have the player describe what he wants his character to do, the Game Master assess and set the difficulty, and then the player roll, adjusting the result with Fate and Fortune points as necessary. The outcome of the roll determines the narrative. Perhaps a little overwritten, this is nevertheless, a useful suggestion that is worth a Zweihänder Game Master taking the time to look at.

‘The Bailiff of the Problem’ is the first of two scenarios in Lowborn Issue I. Written by Sean Van Damme, it is a short murder mystery that can be prepared and played in a single session. Although it is suggested that the Game Master use the Villagers & Villains – 40 NPCs From Humble to Heroic, it is not absolutely necessary. All that is necessary, is that the Player Characters be in their Basic professions. It starts with the Player Characters having been hired by a magistrate to locate a tax collector who has gone missing whilst collecting taxes from the tiny community of Labarn. On the road to the village, they discover the tax collector’s body which has suffered some odd injuries. The scenario really consists of an investigation in Labarn, centred on interviews with several of the inhabitants. Like a classic murder mystery, they all had reason to hate the dead man. There may be a little combat involved, but this is mainly an interactive and roleplaying scenario. It is quite detailed despite its brevity and so should not be too taxing for the players and their characters to solve. It is also left up to them to decide how they resolve the situation. This is short and sweet, its brevity making it easy to add to a campaign.

‘Carnival’ by Ignacio M. is intentionally and magically odd. Descriptions of carnivals or circuses, typically the façade for a dark cult are a common trope in roleplaying games inspired by Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay such as Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG, but this is different. It is enveloped by magic even to the extent that the wagons and tents are arranged like a magical circle. What that magic hides and embraces is that the operators are all anthropomorphic animals. So, they are different and they are also not members of a dark cult. Many of the wagons and tents are, in their own way, expansive. One offers a library of thousands and thousands of books, and more—if one knows the right incantation to open up the stacks, whilst the House of Mirrors contains a labyrinth of mirrors that in turn can teleport the viewer to a desired location or give a view of a particular person and enable the viewer to cross over to them spiritually for a short time. Only three of the tents or wagons are described, so there is scope for expansion here and also, there are no stats for any of the NPCs. If there is an issue for the article, it is the inclusion of the anthropomorphic NPCs and whether that fits a Game Master’s campaign. She, of course, has the right to change such details and the various NPCs could be hiding something else instead. Bar some scenario ideas or hooks, ‘Carnival’ offers an intriguing and different type of circus, one with plenty of room for expansion and development.

The second scenario in Lowborn Issue I is Peter Rudin-Burgess’ ‘The Bloody Jack’. It takes place in the village of Gürdenstein where the inhabitants have become wary of strangers. This is not for usual reasons found in roleplaying games, but rather because they are being taken advantage. Recently, Erik Hecher arrived in the village with nothing more than a few coins in his pocket and the rough clothes on his back, but in the few weeks since, he has greatly improved himself—new tailored clothes, a haircut, and so on. He has taken up residence and similarly improved the house he has moved into. The monies for this have come from his successful gambling. There is something odd going on and it will not take much for the Player Characters to discover that Erik is in league with a demon! Upon this revelation, the villagers, incensed at their gambling losses, take their revenge on him in an act of mob violence. Unfortunately, this unleashes a curse, one that the Player Characters are in the best place to help lift. This involves a journey to a nearby monastery and the Player Characters will be plagued by demons who still want their revenge for Erik’s death. Puttng aside the question of quite where the villagers got the money that Erik was fleecing from them, the Game Master will need to provide stats and perhaps it would have been good if the Player Characters were given more of a chance to interact with Erik Hecher to learn his story. Otherwise, this is a decently dark and nasty scenario, very in keeping with the ‘Grim & Perilous’ tone the Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG.

Physically, Lowborn Issue I is a bit untidy and rough around the edges, plus it needs a slight edit. That said, it is a first issue, so there are bound to be teething problems.

Lowborn Issue I is an impressive first issue. It has decent content, which includes two, very playable adventures. And the truth is, both of those scenario would work just as well with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Fourth Edition (or whatever ‘Grim & Perilous’ roleplaying game the Game Master is running) and not just Zweihänder: Grim & Perilous RPG.

An Ubersreik Quartet

The two great features of the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set were twofold. First, in ‘A Guide to Ubersreik’, it introduced Ubersreik, the fortress-town in the south of the Reikland, and its surrounding duchy that are in turmoil after an announcement from the emperor that unseated the ruling House Jungfreud. It left the town’s burghers and minor members of the nobility spotting an opportunity to take control themselves and much of this was explored in ‘The Adventure Book’, which provided a five-part mini-campaign and more story hooks. This was the second great thing about the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set—lots to roleplay. Although Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set was in part designed to set the Game Master and her players up reader for the majestic The Enemy Within campaign—after all, almost everything is in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition is—what if instead of leaping into that campaign, the Player Characters wanted to stay in and around Ubersreik? Fortunately, and almost immediately, publisher Cubicle Seven Entertainment began publishing scenarios set in and around the Duchy of Ubersreik, so the Player Characters could not only continue their involvement in the political upheaval in the town, but also explore its surroundings.

Ubersreik Adventures III: Perilous Adventures And Grim Escapades In The Grand Duchy Of Ubersreik continues the series begun with Ubersreik Adventures: Six Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik and continued with Ubersreik Adventures II: More Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik. The four scenarios within its pages take the Player Characters around the edges of the Grand Duchy of Ubersreik, and then back to city itself, all the whilst involving themselves in the doings of the duchy’s nobility and thus skirting some of the machinations playing out in the region. In the process they will be employed to check on the attitudes of the staff at a hunting lodge whose ownership has been changed one from one noble to another, protect a village from marauding Orcs and Goblins as the inhabitants mumble about who gets to rule the village, uncover infection and ambition in a mining still suffering from a lingering sickness, and get caught up in the love affairs of the young nobility of Ubersreik.

In addition, the four scenarios in the anthology are connected and together form a sequence intended to be played in order as presented. The connections are most obviously familial in nature, taking the Player Characters from one noble relation to another and in the process encountering various members of the noble families feuding for control of the Grand Duchy. The other connections are obviously secret and link some of the nobles that the Player Characters will meet, but definitely not all, to the Ruinous Powers, some of which may come to light, some of which may not, and often when it does, the noble families want to kept it a secret lest it spoil their claim to the Grand Duchy of Ubersreik! Each of the four scenario includes advice on how to run under different circumstances, but ideally, they should be run one after another in sequence. However, the scenarios are not where the anthology begins.

Ubersreik Adventures III: Perilous Adventures And Grim Escapades In The Grand Duchy Of Ubersreik opens ‘A Tragic Tale Of Upheaval’. This charts the causes and machinations that have thrown Ubersreik into turmoil, unseated the ruling von Jungfreud family, and left both its future and its future governance up in the air. This collates information from both the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set and The Enemy Within campaign, so it does include background about both, even spoilers, so the reader be warned. The article covers the years 2509 to 2513 IC and beyond with the default period being the Occupation as detailed in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set, in each era—each era lasting a year or two—giving what is publicly known as well as what is going on behind the scenes, suggestions as what sort of adventures can be run, some scenario hooks, and rumours. Included too are lists of adventures from the differing periods and which sourcebooks they come from. There are descriptions of the various claimants to the Grand Duchy of Ubersreik too. All together, this provides a grand overview of the setting to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Station, so that the Game Master can create her own content.

The first of the four scenarios in the anthology is ‘An Eye For An Eye’. Lord Aschaffenberg, recently married into the von Bruner family, has come into possession of Grunewald Lodge, which was previously owned by Andreas von Bruner, a young scion who was subject to some unsavoury rumours. He has the Player Characters hired to surreptitiously check on the lodge staff. Once they arrive at the Grunewold Lodge, the Player Characters discover a mixture of surly and disaffected staff, only begrudgingly willing to accept the change in circumstances, and unwilling to discuss whatever happened to Andreas von Bruner. Although they do not know it, the Player Characters are up against a deadline, but the manor house is relatively small and the staff numbers low so the investigation is far from insurmountable. Ideally, they should be able to uncover some, if not all, of what has been going on at the manor house before the climax of the scenario.

Unfortunately, there is an error in the scenario. One of the NPCs gets nervous when the Player Characters lift a carpet in particular room to look for a trapdoor, but the room does not actually have a carpet or a trapdoor, or indeed anything built into the room that connects to the secret activities taking place at the hunting lodge. The Game Master will need to adjust as necessary. Nevertheless, the scenario is an entertaining manor horror mystery, playable in a single session or two. What though is really interesting about ‘An Eye For An Eye’ is that it is an adaptation to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Third Edition. In particular, it is an adaption of the scenario that first introduced Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Third Edition in its core boxed set in 2009. Hopefully, this will not be the only such adaptation as there some excellent adventures waiting to be given similar treatment.

‘Mutiny & The Beast’ is intended to be run directly after the events of ‘An Eye For An Eye’. Lord Aschaffenberg asks the Player Characters to travel to Ubersreik to deliver a letter to his wife, Ludmilla, but also stop off at the village of Geissbach where he believes there is a doctor who can attend to the wounded at the hunting lodge. A typical Reikland village, the Player Characters have the chance to alter its fate not once but twice. First, by influencing the politics of village, quietly split between the old ways of tradition and the new ways of supporting the recently built coaching inn and its support of a coach and trade route between Ubersreik and Bögenhafen. Second, by coming to its defence when it is threatened by marauding Orcs and Goblins. Bookended by an initial encounter with such creatures at the start and then rollocking fight up and down what the Greenskins is the ideal version of a Human siege tower at the finish, ‘Mutiny & The Beast’ is a good mix of roleplaying and combat. The effect on the politics in the village is nicely underplayed so that the players and their characters may not necessarily be aware of it.

‘Horror Of Hugeldal’ starts nasty and gets nastier. It is intended to be played after ‘Mutiny & The Beast’ with the Player Characters arriving in Ubersreik and successfully delivering the letter to Ludmilla Aschaffenberg. She asks them to deliver another message, this time to her cousin, Agnetha von Bruner, in the mining town of Hugeldal in the foothills of the Grey Mountains. Baroness von Bruner has recently been ill and Lady Ludmilla wants to send a message of support. The horror starts on the road when the Player Characters encounter the tail end of a very deadly bandit attack on a group of priests of Shallya. Renowned for the healing blessings, what kind of bastard would attack priests of Shallya? When they come to their rescue and aid, the Shallyans will also explain that they have been exiled from Hugeldal. Given how high the regard in which the priests of Shallya are held, who would exile them from any town, let alone Hugeldal?

One issue with ‘Horror Of Hugeldal’ is that Player Characters may already have visited the town in ‘Ash in the Wind’ from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set, so ideally the Game Master should have run several scenarios between the two. When she does run it, what the Player Characters will discover in Hugeldal is a depressed mining town which has lost many of its inhabitants to ghoulpox and most of the survivors have been marked buy it. They are all resentful for the failure of the priests of Shallya to treat the disease, but praise Doktor Vorsatz who was able to find a cure. Careful investigation will reveal that there is more going on than anyone other than the Player Characters might suspect, but who or what is behind the ‘Horror Of Hugeldal’ is revealed in a quite gloriously revolting climax.

The anthology comes to a close with ‘Mirror of Desire’, which returns the Player Characters to the city of Ubersreik and embroils them in the courtship of Esmerelda Fenstermacher by three young nobles. Ludmilla Aschaffenberg again asks for their help, this time to let the course of young love run its course, whilst fathers of two of the suitors want help in untangling their sons from the situation. Both are daunting tasks and neither potential patron is going to be happy if the Player Characters favour one over the other. This is Cyrano de Bergerac, but done Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay style, with eminently unsuitable suitors on all sides. The scenario is open ended as to how the Player Characters go about their tasks and similarly, there is scope for the Game Master to add her own content as well. Similarly, the scenario has the potential to be fairly open-ended if the Player Characters allow it to run to its conclusion. This leaves them with at least the one loose end to tidy up, and hopefully, it is one that the authors might return to, though there is nothing to stop the Game Master from writing her own sequel. If there is anything missing from the scenario it is an illustration of young Esmerelda Fenstermacher, so the Game Master may want to supply one herself. Overall, ‘Mirror of Desire’ is little clichéd in places given that it is a love story, but it is a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay love story after all, and its gets suitably grim and perilous.

Physically, Ubersreik Adventures III: Perilous Adventures And Grim Escapades In The Grand Duchy Of Ubersreik is a great looking book. The artwork is excellent and the maps are more than decent. However, it does need another edit and there are sections of text missing. Since this is a book for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, there numerous of puns such as ‘A Town Called Malaise’, but calling a pair of minor NPCs ‘Herman Vorst’ and ‘Osk Hessel’ is probably in questionable taste.

Ubersreik Adventures III: Perilous Adventures And Grim Escapades In The Grand Duchy Of Ubersreik nicely embroils the Player Characters in the web of connections between the claimants to Grand Duchy, revealing their humanity and occasionally, their inhumanity in the process. These connections give the quartet a neatly underplayed narrative that pushes the Player Characters’ involvement towards the climax of the Ubersreik plot. That though, it is yet to come. In the meantime, Ubersreik Adventures III: Perilous Adventures And Grim Escapades In The Grand Duchy Of Ubersreik is an entertaining quartet of scenarios with a good mix of combat, investigation, and roleplaying.

An Ubersreik Quintet

The two great features of the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set were twofold. First, in ‘A Guide to Ubersreik’, it introduced Ubersreik, the fortress-town in the south of the Reikland, and its surrounding duchy that are in turmoil after an announcement from the emperor that unseated the ruling House Jungfreud. It left the town’s burghers and minor members of the nobility spotting an opportunity to take control themselves and much of this was explored in ‘The Adventure Book’, which provided a five-part mini-campaign and more story hooks. This was the second great thing about the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set—lots to roleplay. Although Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set was in part designed to set the Game Master and her players up reader for the majestic The Enemy Within campaign—after all, almost everything is in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition is—what if instead of leaping into that campaign, the Player Characters wanted to stay in and around Ubersreik? Fortunately, and almost immediately, publisher Cubicle Seven Entertainment began publishing scenarios set in and around the Duchy of Ubersreik, so the Player Characters could not only continue their involvement in the political upheaval in the town, but also explore its surroundings.

Ubersreik Adventures: More Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik continues the series begun with Ubersreik Adventures: Six Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik, by collecting the next five scenarios in the series—and more, in another handsome, if slim, hardback. The five take the Player Characters in and around the Duchy of Ubersreik, but do not stray very far from the river port at its heart. In the process, they will face an uprising by the recently dead, investigate a local legend, get caught up in a whodunnit, search for a serial killer, and find themselves wrapped in a con job. The scenarios are also flexible. All can be taken and dropped into the Game Master’s campaign, used in conjunction with the Rough Nights & Hard Days campaign anthology, or used as part of The Enemy Within. However, where Ubersreik Adventures: Six Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik felt like it constantly wanted to push the Game Master, her players, and their characters onto the path that would lead into the events of The Enemy Within, none of the scenarios in this anthology do. Instead, they are standalone affairs that can be run in episodic fashion in and around the duchy, all the better to be free of any connection to The Enemy Within. One thing missing from all five is the ‘Shaking Things Up’ appendix with advice for the Game Master on running the scenario, alternative hooks to get the Player Characters involved, and a list of possible connects to not only the other five scenarios in the volume, but also other parts of the Empire. Although the lack of suggested connections means that the five scenarios in the anthology are less obviously flexible, at the same it enforces their independence away from The Enemy Within, though of course, they do work better in conjunction with the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set.

The anthology opens with ‘Deadly Dispatch’ which opens with one of the Player Characters receiving a mysterious package. Opening the package reveals that it contains a puzzle box and opening the puzzle box—the scenario suggesting either Intelligence checks modified by appropriate skills and talents or brute force as possible methods—reveals its contents to be quite probably blasphemous. Of course, brute force also destroys some of the evidence, but not all of it. Investigating the address label reveals that it has been given to the Player Character in a case of mistaken identity and investigating the addressee reveals that it should have been sent to a local river woman. She turns out to be easy to find and nervous when she is found. This is because unfortunately, she has become the front woman for a necromancer who has designs on Ubersreik. This is all a good set-up, supported by two well written NPCs in the form of the river woman and the similarly reluctant, but undead Estalian duellist who is the necromancer’s bodyguard and servant. In comparison, the necromancer himself feels underwritten as does the fact that the plot ends with a zombie uprising. Nevertheless, zombie uprisings are invariably fun and ‘Deadly Dispatch’ is a serviceable scenario that can be played through in a single session.

If ‘Deadly Dispatch’ is straightforward, then ‘Fishrook Returns’ is just a bit obvious in its plotting. The whole of Ubersreik is talking about the return of Fishrook, a notorious highwayman who has been holding up and robbing coaches and wagons on the roads around the city. What is significant about the highwayman’s return is that he is dead, having been hanged for his crimes a century ago. But this Fishrook wears the same bird-like mask and dresses just as flamboyantly, so is this the real Fishrook returned, his ghost, or someone impersonating his legend. A local noblewoman, Gutele von Bruner, bored and enamoured by the legend is determined to find out and hires the Player Characters to find out. Unfortunately, there is not really much of a mystery as to the identity of who the new Fishrook is and it is likely that the Player Characters will very quickly put two and two together and realise that it is actually Gutele von Bruner. There is a bit of a run around to capture her, but where the scenario gets interesting is deciding what to do with her, because after all, she has committed several crimes. This is particularly tricky if the Player Characters are still part of the city watch as they are in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set. Do they upset the nobility by pushing for a trial and causing a bigger scandal, get a very reluctant town council involved, or upset almost everyone else by brushing it under the carpet and letting Gutele von Bruner get away with it? At this point, the scenario opens up and becomes much more Player Character driven as they try to negotiate the way out of the legal and social mess that Gutele von Bruner has landed them in and the Game Master will need to respond as necessary. Although there is advice for the Game Master, this second half of the scenario is much more difficult to run and so needs much more preparation time to understand the various possible outcomes.

The third scenario, ‘Double Trouble’, is a classic country house murder mystery. It begins with the Player Characters being invited to visit the home of a young poet because he wants to hear of their adventures and adapt them into verse. The atmosphere in the poet’s home is tense and nervous, and not because he has invited what his mother considers to be riffraff onto the family estate, but because of the other reason that he wants the Player Characters there. The poet is also worried about the rash of recent and sudden disappearances from amongst the staff on his family’s estate and the odd behaviour of his mother, and he wants the Player Characters to investigate. When they do, the Player Characters discover similarly worried and nervous staff, hear odd movements in the night, and so on, their efforts hampered by the attitudes of the staff who do not trust them and the efforts of the murderer. With a scenario being a murder mystery in a country house and having a title like ‘Double Trouble’, it would suggest that a twin is involved—and it is. Sort of. The scenario includes a good floor plan of the family estate and some well NPCs, though again, as in ‘Deadly Dispatch’, not the true villain of the piece. There is also good advice on what to do if the Player Characters accuse the villain too early on and pleasingly, it culminates in a scene in the drawing room in which the Player Characters will have to identify the murderer, explain his actions and motives, and convince everyone of their solution to the case. In other words, a classic ‘I suppose you’re wondering why I gathered you here today…’ scene and the scenario even uses that phrase for the title of the actual scene! ‘Double Trouble’ is a cracking little scenario that puts a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay spin on a classic genre to very entertaining effect.

The fourth scenario, ‘The Blessing That Drew Blood’, is another murder mystery, but this time more procedural in nature and set on the streets of Ubersreik, with the Player Characters undertaking a lot of detective footwork as they slog from one murder site to the next and from one witness interview to the next. In fact, there are a lot of witnesses to interview and a party of Player Characters without a decent Charm between them is going to be at a disadvantage from start to finish. This is something the scenario acknowledges, noting its heavy reliance upon the Charm skill and suggesting alternative interpersonal skills to use such as Gossip and Intimidate. Throughout the investigation, the Player Characters will be watched with keen interest by a strange trio that include a cat and a dog, and beset by incidences of explosive bodily expression or sleepiness at just the wrong moment… Are they connected and if so, what is their interest in the Player Characters and their investigation? It turns out that they are working to ensure that the culprit responsible, a musician famous across the empire, succeeds, because they are all in the service of Slaanesh. The strange trio willingly because they are former daemons attempting to get back into Slaanesh’s good books and the musician half-heartedly because if she fails to kill the required number of victims, she loses the musical ability that has made her rich and famous.

‘The Blessing That Drew Blood’ is another scenario with a good set-up and a great cast of well-drawn and colourful NPCs, including a veteran agitator and muckraker, a scared initiate of Morr—who may also serve as the Player Characters’ patron for the adventure if needed, a hail and brimstone Sigmarite Warrior Priest with shameful secrets, and a bartender who attempts to avoid answering every question lest he gains a reputation as an informer! And then there is the trio of ex-daemons whom the Game Master can have some fun with inflicting horrid, if temporary, afflictions upon her Player Characters. Unfortunately, the scenario is not as clearly laid out as it should have been and some of the information does not always match in the text. Nevertheless, this is a good adventure that fans of police procedurals will enjoy a great deal.

The fifth and final adventure in the anthology is ‘The Grey Mountain Gold’. The Player Characters are hired by an ambitious young man who believes that he has got hold of a map which shows the locations of the treasures rumoured to have been left behind when the Dwarven Clan Harataki had to flee the Karak of House Harataken from constant Greenskin assaults and wants their help to mount an expedition. Only it turns out that not only is he gullible, but he has been targeted by a gang of charlatans, because of course, the map is fake. How far the Player Characters are taken in by the conmen is another matter, but complicating the problem is that the remnants of Clan Harataki are based in Ubersreik and when Queen Vilda of Karak Branar gets to hear about it, she is less than pleased to learn that someone is going after treasures that rightfully belong to her and her clan. The other dwarves of Clan Harataki, in comparison, are incensed and with their ire up, are quite happy to give the culprits a good thumping, all of which sets up a scene where the Player Characters are chased through the alleys of Ubersreik by mob of disconsolate dwarves! This is an entertaining set piece, though one not helped by the lack of a map. One of the pleasures of this scenario is seeing a con in action with the Player Characters being caught up in it rather than being the target per se, whilst another is seeing a signature Career from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, that of the Charlatan, in action. Of course, if the players and their characters are unhappy at the end of the scenario because they did not actually have a chance to mount an expedition to Karak of House Harataken, then this scenario does actually show them why it might be a bad idea.

One of the aspects of Ubersreik which is not explored in full in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set or Ubersreik Adventures: Six Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik, is what happened to the ruling House Jungfreud after it was unseated by the Emperor. This, though, is explored in Ubersreik Adventures: More Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik. House Jungfreud has fled back to its ancestral seat of the neighbouring Duchy of Black Rock, a grim and gloomy place best known for its coal or ore mines, where Graf Sigismund von Jungfreud alternates between glowering and preparing for war, wary of the Emperor’s next steps. All of this is detailed in the penultimate section of the book, ‘A Guide to Black Rock’. This details the craggy, rock-strewn moorlands, it various town and settlements, mines along with a list if miner’s slang, the site of a ruined abbey which along with its monks and nuns was put to the torch for heresy and is still haunted by a tomb banshee who was the former abbess, the source of Neufaljung ink typically used to sign death warrants, Castle Neufaljung—seat of House Jungfreud—and its inhabitants, and the various plots whirling around the castle and the duchy. Alongside this are numerous hooks and sidebars that the Game Master can develop into scenarios and plotlines, and overall, this a good introduction to the duchy with plenty of information for the Game Master to work with.

Lastly, Ubersreik Adventures: More Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik does actually return to the subject of The Enemy Within, but in an unexpected fashion. This is as consequences of the campaign, as if there is another group of Player Characters involved in it rather than those in Ubersreik. This further divorces Ubersreik Adventures: More Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik and its events away from those of The Enemy Within beyond those consequences, whilst allowing the Game Master to take them into account even if she has no intent of running the campaign herself. Alternatively, a group of players could actually play both, but with different characters, so that the one set of characters experience the events of The Enemy Within and the other characters’ activities if only vicariously. It is a nice addition and interesting to the campaign from a different angle even if it does give away a lot of detail about The Enemy Within.

Physically, Ubersreik Adventures: More Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik is very well presented. The book itself is a handsome hardback and the book’s artwork—especially in its depiction of the NPCs—and cartography are both well done. However, the anthology needs an edit to fix final errors and to make sure that some of the plots and their information is clearer.

Ubersreik Adventures: More Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik is another solidly impressive set of scenarios that enables a group to continue playing the campaign begun in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set, whilst also being flexible enough to be set elsewhere in the Empire and the Game Master’s campaign. ‘A Guide to Black Rock’ very nicely expands upon the source material in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set, but really the two standout scenarios in the anthology both involve murder—‘Double Trouble’ and ‘The Blessing That Drew Blood’. Although it is a good anthology of scenarios in general, the Game Master who has set her campaign in Ubersreik is definitely going to want to run the scenarios in Ubersreik Adventures: More Grim and Perilous Scenarios in the Duchy of Ubersreik.

1983: Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

—oOo—

Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game was published by Games Workshop in 1983. The spiritual successor to the earlier Reaper: Fantasy Wargame Rules, but produced for a larger audience that by then the game would have through Games Workshop’s magazine, White Dwarf and through the popularity of the miniatures being produced by the publisher and Games Workshop’s partner company, Citadel Miniatures. Of course, it would prove to be a success and more. It would go on to spawn multiple editions, innumerable spin-off games, multiple editions of an actual roleplaying game, and as an intellectual property have novels and computer games developed from it. On this foundation, Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game has in forty years turned Games Workshop into a multimillion-pound, London Stock Exchange-listed company that has dominated the wargames hobby and industry.

Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game consists of a box containing three books and a set of errata, which in subsequent printings would be inserted into the centre of the first book as a separate appendix. The three volumes are Vol 1: Tabletop Battles, Vol 2: Magic, and Vol 3: Characters. All three are done in black and white and illustrated by Tony Ackland. The game is designed to be played fielding regiments of figures ranging in size between five and fifty figures, though it does not say this about halfway through Vol 1: Tabletop Battles and then individual figures when the roleplaying aspect comes into play via Vol 3: Characters. Vol 1: Tabletop Battles is the longest of the three and presents the rules for mass combat on the battlefield. There is little in the way of an introduction before the basics of the game are being explained, beginning with an explanation of dice notation and the game’s turn sequence. During his turn, a player has a Movement Phase, a Shooting Phase (for all players with forces with missile weapons), a Combat Phase, a Second Movement Phase for any troops that did not fight, a Magic Phase when spells are cast and their effects implemented, and a Rout Phase when routed and pursuing troops. Movement is in inches and is determined by troop type and type of mount, and accounts difficult ground, obstacles, charging, counter charging, and so on. Psychology plays a role in unit interactions, whether that is hatred of another race, or fear, terror, or a state of frenzy. For example, as is traditional, Goblins hate Dwarves, so will always attempt to attack them and fear Elves, so need to overcome that fear to face them. Some creatures, such Ogres, suffer from Stupidity, and can forget what they are doing on the battlefield.

Units themselves have ratings for their Move, Weapon Skill, Bow Skill, (Attack) Strength, Toughness, Wounds, Initiative, and Attacks. These typically range between one and six, although some can go much higher, for example, both Weapon Skill Bow Skill range between one and ten, and can be numbers or letters. For example, Attack Strength ranges from one and Weak to six and Irresistible, whilst Toughness ranges from A for Halflings and Lesser Goblins to F for Dragons and other very large creatures. In general, once combat is engaged, whether missile or mêlée combat, the attacker rolls a handful of six-sided dice—Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game needs a lot of six-sided dice, but does not actually say this until, again, halfway through Vol 1: Tabletop Battles—and attempts to roll as high as possible. This is modified by factors such as cover and range and is done on a figure-per-figure basis, so the game really does need a lot of lot of six-sided dice in addition to the other polyhedral dice. Rolling to hit is only the first step, as for each successful hit, a second roll is made against the Toughness of the target, using the Attack Strength of the missile weapon when shooting and the Attack Strength of the figure in mêlée combat, to see whether a wound or an automatic kill is registered—in some cases some combatants only have a single Wound and will die anyway, others have multiple Wounds and take multiple hits to kill. Finally, for each successful wound or kill result, the defendant rolls more dice to make a Saving Throw against each one. The Saving Throw is based on the armour worn and its type.

And that, fundamentally, is it to the core rules of Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game. There are rules for weapons differentiation and monsters and advanced rules for things such as critical hits, follow on combat, and so on. The Appendix (or errata) runs to eight pages and adds further advanced rules like return fire and fighting defensively, throws in a few ideas like siege craft and even Warp Frenzy and Warp Spasm. The Appendix also serves as a reference sheet for the game’s core tables.

The second half of Vol 1: Tabletop Battles gives advice on both tabletop battles and fighting in dungeons, the latter intended for underground battles such as between Goblins and Dwarves through tunnels and caverns. There are rules too for flying creatures and then Vol 1: Tabletop Battles gives an introductory battle, ‘The Ziggurat of Doom’. Here, a band of six noble and heroic Dwarves led by Thorgrim Branedimm, who is armed with Foebane, an ancient and magical Warhammer. Chased by a band of Goblins, the Dwarves take refuge atop a ziggurat standing in the clearing in the jungle. They have time to collect a few rocks to throw down on the Goblins, but this is a desperate stand against wave after wave of the Goblins. The Goblin player scores points for killing the Dwarves, whilst the Dwarf player receives points for simply surviving. Variation in the Goblin type—Goblins, Red Goblins, Night Goblins, or even Hobgoblins—allow for some replicability, as does swapping sides. The remainder of Vol 1: Tabletop Battles consists of Creature Lists, including men and humanoid monsters, numerous monsters such as the Jabberwok, and numerous werecreatures and types of undead.

Vol 2: Magic defines wizards, their use of magic on the battlefield, and spells. Wizards have a Mastery Level, ranging from one and Novice/Initiate to four and Magician/Mage. Their Constitution determines how much magic a Wizard can cast before he is exhausted. Life Energy is lost whenever a spell is cast, but is a long-term factor for roleplaying campaigns rather than battlefield encounters. All Wizards possess an innate magical sense and lob fireballs back and forth between each other in Wizard duels. When casting a new spell or a spell of a higher Mastery Level, it possible for the spellcasting to be fumbled. The creation of Wizards for the battlefield is random, but is combined with the rules for character creation in Vol. 3: Characters.

A spell is described in terms of Time to Prepare, Talismans, Spell Level, Energy cost, Time to Rest, and Remarks. Time to Prepare is the number of active player movement phases a Wizard must remain stationary in order to ready the spell, Talismans or magical devices required to cast, the Spell Level is the Spell Mastery required to cast a spell, the Energy Cost is deducted from both Constitution and Life Energy, and where Constitution is recovered, Life Energy is not. Time to Rest is the number of active player movement phases the Wizard must spend inactive—but can defend himself—before preparing another spell. The combination of the Time to Prepare and Time to Rest, then, prevents a Wizard from wandering around the battlefield like a mobile field gun, blasting away at all and sundry. Vol 2: Magic then includes a full list of spells. This spell list feels proscribed with none of the flexibility or complexity of the earlier Reaper: Fantasy Wargame Rules, but there is a good range of spells given here. The rules also cover Necromancy, magic specialisation, and a list of richly detailed enchanted objects.

Vol. 3: Characters covers the roleplaying aspect of Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game. Surprisingly, there is a longer introduction to this book than there is to the whole game in Vol 1: Tabletop Battles. A Player Character looks like this, and two things are apparent from the format. First, the Player Character is incredibly fragile with just the single Wound, and second, this does actually look very similar to what a Player Character from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay looks like. Of course, this should be no surprise, given that the roleplaying game is derived from these rules. The result is also highly random so that a Player Character could end being a brilliant archer who is also a Pharmacist and a Transvestite—which really is listed under the skills!—or a Prince who is a Fisherman and a Miner!

Name: Holger Muller

Social Status: Freeman
Race: Human
Age: 18
Sex: Male
Intelligence: 5
Cool: 8
Will Power: 8
Leadership: 1

Attacks: 1
Wounds: 1
Initiative: 4
Weaponskill: 3
Bowskill: 1
Strength: 2
Toughness: B
Move: 4”

Armour: mail shirt
Weapons: Sword and boat hook
Skills: Ship’s Mate, Pickpocket

A Player Character can advance for doing things like defeating enemies, surviving adventures, defeating Wizards, and acquiring gold. As a Player Character acquires more Experience Points, he can advance certain attributes and when he passes certain thresholds, he choose to advance any of the ones previously selected. A Wizard Player Character can learn more spells and eventually increase his Mastery Level. Vol. 3: Characters suggests possible Alignments—Good, Neutral, Evil, Avarice, and Hunger—for both Player Characters and NPCs and monsters, and it also provides a means to alleviate the fragility of the Player Character, or at least avoid the possibility of certain death. Thus, if a Player Character is killed or looses all of his Wounds, the player can then instead roll for an injury, which can something that the Player Character can recover from, such as a concussion, or be permanent, like a severe wound to the arm that prevents him from using the arm. There is still the chance of death even so, and if not, the Player Character will be out of action for a number of turns and must recover for several weeks. Nevertheless, until a Player Character acquires a total of five hundred Experience Points, he is going to wander around with a single Wound, hoping that he is going to be lucky enough to survive… If a Player Character does die, then replacing him is a matter of a few random rolls, yet how many more times does a character have to die before his player gets annoyed with the game?

Vol. 3: Characters also suggests a few adventure ideas, gives a price list for arms, armour, weapons, and other goods, lists employment that a Player Character might undertake to earn a living, and gives a set of encounter tables. Rounding out Vol. 3: Characters, though, is a full scenario, ‘The Redwake River Valley’. The Player Characters are employed to find out why the town of Ath Cliath has lost contact with the settlements to the north and the envoys they sent previously. Essentially, this a broadly detailed sandbox in which the Player Characters will discover Goblins on the march and settlements being attacked and sacked, and may be in time in defend one or more, and perhaps find an ally or two and learn what is going on. It feels very inspired by The Lord of the Rings and especially The Two Towers and it is serviceable enough, though not a great adventure, you could have fun playing it. Of course, there are notes on what miniatures to order from Citadel Miniatures to be able to run the scenario.

The roleplaying game presented in Vol. 3: Characters and thus Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game is perfunctory at best, underwritten at worst. There is no real guidance on the play of this aspect of the game, there is no means of handling tasks that a roleplaying game normally would—even in 1983, there is no way of handling the interaction between NPCs and the Player Characters, and the character options are extremely limited. The player has a choice of a Fighting Man who is likely to die very quickly and a Wizard who has to stand still for lengthy periods of time to cast magic and is also to die very quickly. No objectives for the Player Characters are discussed and the idea that a player might want to bring his character onto the battlefield looks absurd given their frail nature.

There is the genesis of the Old World and Chaos in Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game, but you have to look between the cracks to find it, such as Warp Frenzy and Warp Spasm. There are some oddities too, like the Night Elves and the Red Goblins, which either have their name changed or be excised for later editions. It shows too in the attributes used for monsters, soldiery, and Player Characters, which will change slightly for later editions of the game and for the roleplaying game. The fact that the figures on the battlefield and the characters in the roleplaying aspect of the game share the same attribute is to be applauded, but the fragility of the Player Characters is not. They are not designed to survive the world that Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game suggests and definitely not the battlefield. If a Player Character does, it will be primarily due to luck and not anything that the player will have done. Of course, Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game is precursor to the grim and perilous world of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, but even that gave the Player Character some resilience where Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game does not.

Physically, Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game is in general, not too badly presented. It is easy to read and grasp, Tony Ackland’s pen and ink illustrations are good, and John Blanche’s cover is great. However, it does need a good edit.

—oOo—

Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game was reviewed in White Dwarf Issue 43 (July 1983) by Joe Dever. He awarded the rules eight of ten and said, “If you regularly wargame with miniatures, or have been wondering what additional fun you could have from your rapidly growing collection of fantasy figures, then I recommend you check out Warhammer and let battle commence!”

If the only wholly positive review was to appear in the pages of White Dwarf, it is hardly a surprise, but other magazines took a more critical assessment. Chris Hunter reviewed it in Imagine No. 8 (November 1983). He said, “My main criticism of Warhammer is that Citadel seem to have provided a mass combat system which cannot be used to the full by the characters that the role-playing section generates, at least not until they have become experienced enough to lead, rather than be led, into battle. The mass combat rules are very good, probably some of the best available for fantasy combat; but surely a better way of selling them would have been to publish them separately from the role-playing rules as a standalone supplement.” before concluding that, “Finally, then, if you are looking for a mass fantasy combat system, I recommend Warhammer; but if all you want is a role-playing game, it would perhaps be better to look elsewhere, at least, until further role-playing supplements have been brought out.”

In Dragon #85 (May 1984), Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game was reviewed by Ken Rolston in ‘Advanced hack-and-slash – Combat plays a big role in four fantasy games’, along with the earlier Reaper: Fantasy Wargame Rules. His evaluation was that. “Warhammer is exceptionally simple and playable for a miniatures rules system. The presentation is good in comparison to other miniatures rules, and adequate in comparison to recent FRP games. The rules sacrifice detail and comprehensiveness for simplicity, but most of the important aspects of tabletop battles are addressed. Though hardly a model of English usage or proofreading, the rules are well-organized and readable. The game has strong action potential, and the flavor of the fantasy elements is quite satisfying.” but like other reviews in concluded that, “The rules are not readily compatible with other published role-playing systems; adapting Warhammer to other FRP rules would be a major do-it-yourself project and of dubious value. It could be a satisfactory introductory role-playing game for a beginner or for someone willing to convert his campaign to Warhammer rules, but its most likely application is for occasional mass combat tabletop games independent of your role-playing campaign.”

This was followed in the same issue with ‘Warhammer FRP system falls flat’ by Katherine Kerr. From title, let alone the opening remarks, it was clear that she was not impressed, stating, “…[I]t’s one of the most irritating new games I’ve ever read. Warhammer has all the potential to be a good game – in fact, parts of it are very good – but overall it’s a sloppy, amateurish piece of work that needs rewriting, editing, and extending to be a playable system.” She was highly critical throughout, leaving her to ask the question at the end, “Is Warhammer worth buying? The answer depends on the potential purchaser. An experienced referee who’s discontented with the magic system in some other game might well profit from the magic rules in Warhammer. Anyone who revels in gory combat to the exclusion of all else will enjoy the game heartily. The novice gamer, or any gamer who’s looking for a complete rules system, should save his hard-earned cash. Perhaps someday the game will be revised to make it live up to its potential; until then, it will be a curiosity and nothing more.”

Edwin J. Rotondaro reviewed Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game in Space Gamer #72 (January-February 1985) in the magazine’s regular ‘Capsule Reviews’ department. He was in agreement with many of the other reviews: “Overall, I have to say that Warhammer is a good miniatures game, but a terrible roleplaying game. The system is flexible enough to be used as a mass combat module in most RPGs, but you have to decide whether it's worth $12.95 for a set of fantasy miniatures rules.”

—oOo—

Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game is an important game for the influence it would have on the wargames, miniatures, and roleplaying industries, but it is not a great game. Or rather it is both a good game and a bad game. The miniatures rules are very good, decently explained, and serve as a good introduction to fantasy wargaming, whilst the roleplaying rules are bad, underwritten and ill-explained. The concept of integrating roleplaying characters onto the battlefield is a good one, but in Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game it is poorly handled. Ultimately, the two would have split to get the best of both, and consequently Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game can be regarded as a classic game more because of its influence rather than its overall design, even though parts of it are very good.

1978: Reaper: Fantasy Wargame Rules

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

—oOo—

The origins of roleplaying, of course, lie in wargames and the development of both would weave back and forth between the two over the first decade or so of the history of the roleplaying game. They had begun, of course, with Chainmail out of which would come Dungeons & Dragons. In the United Kingdom, the interaction between the two would arguably culminate in the publication of the Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy Roleplaying Game in 1983 by Games Workshop. This hybrid between the wargames rules and the roleplaying game would form the basis for the future of Games Workshop, and both a hobby and an industry in their own right. Its origins lie in Reaper: Fantasy Wargame Rules, which like Chainmail and Dungeons & Dragons, combined mediaeval warfare with the fantasy genre. Designed by Richard Halliwell and Rick Priestley, who would go on to design numerous games and supplements for Games Workshop, the first edition of Reaper: Fantasy Wargame Rules was published by Tabletop Games in 1978 with a second edition that followed in 1981. It is the latter, second edition of the rules that is being reviewed here.

Reaper: Fantasy Wargame Rules are not mass combat rules, but a set of skirmish rules designed to handle thirty figures per side. There is no setting as such, but there are descriptions of a mini-pantheon of gods and army lists of goblins, Wood Elves, High Elves, Dragon men, and more. Notably, it is advised that battles be conducted with an umpire—or Game Master—present to not only handle results difficulties, but also set up plots, games, work out the abilities of the troops on each side, and arrange the terrain and any hidden features. This is optional, but as an option, it removes the involvement of the players from any battle until they arrive at the table and begin writing orders. What it suggests, especially with the inclusion of single hero and magic user figures, is that Reaper: Fantasy Wargame Rules could be used as ‘Braunstein’ style of wargame, although it is not explored in its pages. Really, the role of the single Hero figure is undertake great feats of martial prowess and the role of the single Magic User figure is to employ great spells, both on the battlefield.

Once a battle has been set up, play progresses in a manner similar to many other wargames rules. Players write their orders, and then from one round to the next, players take in turns to move their troops, missile fire is conducted, morale tests are conducted for troops who have suffered missile fire, mêlée engagements are fought, morale is tested again for any remaining troops who have been fighting, and the round ends. This is simple and straightforward, and will be recognised by most wargamers today. Reaper: Fantasy Wargame Rules, though, wastes very little time in getting to the rules. Troops, of all types, are primarily classified by their Strength Value. This is where the rules—and we are only on page three—begin to get a bit fiddly. A figure has a Strength Value ranging between three and thirty, but this can go higher. Halflings have a Strength Value of three, Humans have six, Medium Giants have eighteen, and Large Giants have Thirty. Mythical creatures given stats in Reaper: Fantasy Wargame Rules include classics such as Wyverns, Centaurs, Harpies, and Gargoyles, whilst the inclusion of the Tree Men shows the influence of The Lord of the Rings and of Owl Bears the influence of Dungeons & Dragons. These are joined by sillier options like the incredibly lethal Fat Corgies—one of which could win a battle on its own, if you could find a suitable miniature, that is—and Stampeding Cattle. Of course, in the second edition of the rules there are a handful of suggested codes for various figures from the then fledgling Citadel Miniatures. The listed Strength Value though, is only a base. Armour increases Strength Value piece by piece, the value depending on the size of the wearer. It takes a bit of arithmetic to work what the final Strength Value is for a figure. The figure’s Ability Factor, ranging from -10% for peasant and slave troops to +1-% for household troops and guards, modifies this further. Morale Value ranges from ‘A’ for staunch household troops to ‘E’ for disgruntled or starving troops. Most troops are rated at ‘C’. A unit of troops can be ‘Drilled’, ‘Organised’, ‘Tribal’, or ‘Levy’, a categorisation which dictates the speed at which its troops can replace (or elect) a leader lost in combat. Every unit will have leader who can be targeted. The categorisation also helps determine whether a unit is routed, force to retire, or simply okay when it is forced to make a morale check, whether due to suffering high casualties, being attacked by a superior force or foe, or even a nearby allied unit suffering a loss of morale and breaking. Non-intelligent creatures suffer a panic test instead of a morale test.

Movement allows for Walk, Trot, and Run speeds, and flying too. Both mêlée and missile attacks have a base percentage chance of striking, varying by weapon type, and a Killing Power value according to the size of the wielder. Modified by range and size of the target, the final percentage chance of striking is multiplied by the number of figures in a unit. This results in a total equal to hundreds of percentile points. A single hit is scored for each full one hundred percent and then percentile dice are rolled for the remainder to see if another hit is scored. For example, a unit of ten peasant levy troops has a base chance of hitting with their billhooks of 35%. This is multiplied by ten to give a total of 350%, to give three guaranteed hits and a 50% chance of a fourth. To work out the effectiveness of an attack, the defendant’s Strength Value is divided by the attacker’s Killing Power. This is multiplied by the number of hits to determine the percentage chance of the defendant being killing. For example, a unit of ten peasant levy troops with a Killing Power of seven attacks a single, fully armoured knight with a Strength Value of sixteen. Dividing the Strength Value by the Killing Power and then multiplying it by the number of peasant levies (16/7×10) gives a 22% chance of them killing the knight. To quote the rules, “This may sound complex but it isn’t.” In fact, it actually is because of the way in which it is worded. Thankfully, two handy charts, Chart A for determining the percentage chance of hitting and Chart B for working out the percentage chance of hitting a killing blow, both handle all of this heavy lifting for the player or the Umpire.

As you would expect, Reaper: Fantasy Wargame Rules provides rules for unit organisation, using bases, the observational awareness of units, and much more, but a third of the book is devoted to magic and spells. A Magic User is treated as a standard figure on the battlefield, but his use of magic adds a lot of extra detail. A Magic User is graded according to the type of spells he can cast, from ‘A’ to ‘Z’, with ‘A’ being the worst grade and ‘Z’ the best, so that he can be good at all spells, better at some, and worse at others. He also has a Constitution which indicates how many spells he can cast before he gets tired, sixteen or seventeen being the expected average. (It is suggested that this actually be rolled on three six-sided dice as in a roleplaying game.) The type and number of spells known by a Magic User is determined by the Campaign Organiser, otherwise known as the ‘Tin God’, by which of course, the writer means the Umpire. They are allotted randomly, but other methods are suggested to, though not in any great detail. If the rules are being used as a roleplaying game, only the one spell should be known to the novice Magic User, another nod to Dungeons & Dragons.

There are spells listed in Reaper: Fantasy Wargame Rules, as well as some good examples, such as ‘Swords into flowers’, which turns any non-magical weapon within 10” into a bunch of flowers, the rules are not just a simple listing system of spells, but by design, a costing system. They allow for the creation of spells with specific battlefield effects. Each spell takes into account nineteen factors. These start with range, and then take into account whether the effect of the spell is to kill, is on an area or individual targets, creates an object, raise the dead, inflict general or specific destruction, movement, immobilise, transmute, mind control, change the senses, illusionary, shrink or enlarge, protect against ordinary weapons or magic, raise a magic barrier, and lastly, its length of time. Each factor that the design of the spell takes into account increases the Difficulty Points value of the spell. For example, a Mind Control spell with a range of 5-15” (1 DP), affects a single target (1 DP), and influences the minds of sapient creatures (3 DP), for two throw periods (2 DP), has a total Difficulty Point value of 7. To successfully cast the spell, the Magic User’s player cross references the Magic User’s Grade, either in the specific type of magic or in general magic, with the Difficulty Point value of the spell. This gives a percentage vale that the player must roll under to succeed. Casting a spell, whether successfully or unsuccessfully, will temporarily tire a Magic User, preventing him form casting a spell again for a few rounds as well as reducing his Constitution, again, also temporarily. The lower his Constitution, the more difficult it becomes for the Magic User to at first cast spells, then move, and even speak. If a Magic User’s Constitution falls to zero, he is dead.

Alongside the rules for spell design, there are rules for variable magic and then spell specialities, including charms, necromancy, summoning, and elementalism. There is a lot of fully worked out detail in both the rules and effects of these, including imnformation about the types of creatures and elementals summoned by the summoner and the elementalist, respectively. This is followed by a set of sixteen pre-designed spells that the Umpire can pull of the shelf quickly as part of his preparation. To support the summoner, Reaper: Fantasy Wargame Rules includes a sample mini-pantheon and summoning circle of deities. The chief deity, Aarlum, sits in a circle of neutrality, but the two houses to his right, Ashra and Oona and Aleel are inclined towards law and good, whilst the two houses to his left, Calyn and Tanith, are inclined to chaos and evil. Only a true neutral summoner can summon Aarlum or his forces, and similarly, the summoner must be aligned with the other gods to summon their forces. When they are summoned, they will enter into a pact with the summoner for a number of rounds. Full details of their manifestations are given in each case. Lastly, a handful of magic items are briefly described.

The Reaper: Fantasy Wargame Rules are rounded out with a set of five appendices. These in turn covers the use of buildings and the laying of sieges, setting things on fire and its effects, several army lists and assorted monsters, some play hints, and rules for wounds and kills as well as creating heroes. A Hero has a random Strength Value and Ability Factor, with a high Strength Value also increasing his Killing Power. In general, a Hero fights in hand-to-hand combat, but there is an option for a missile specialist too. The hints in the fourth appendix are really more a collection of random ideas, such as the anachronistic inclusion of  Science Fiction weapons, the use of the scenery to set the battlefield, converting miniatures, preparing games, and so on.

Physically, the Reaper: Fantasy Wargame Rules are well presented. Much of it is also well written and the artwork, mostly hewing to a Swords & Sorcery style, is serviceable enough. As befitting that genre, there is some nudity, but it feels out of place in the book itself. However, there are points where the writing is unclear, such as in the way in which kills are worked out.

—oOo—

Ken Rolston reviewed the Reaper: Fantasy Wargame Rules in ‘Advanced hack-and-slash – Combat plays a big role in four fantasy games’ in Dragon #85 (May 1984) along with Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy role-playing game. His evaluation was that, “Reaper is not a state-of-the-art fantasy wargame. The best thing that can be said about the vague and incomplete rules is that they are flexible and open to local customized variants. The real value will be for established fantasy miniatures gamers who already have satisfactory wargame rules (like Wargames Research Group’s War Game Rules, the standard rules for ancient, classical, and medieval historical miniatures warfare) but are looking for a good magic system. With the basic principles of Reaper’s magic system and a lot of work, the spells and magic items of a local campaign can be worked into large-scale fantasy engagements. At $8, Reaper’s price is a value for the experienced fantasy miniatures gamer. For a beginner unfamiliar with miniatures wargaming, it will not be a good introduction to the hobby; Warhammer would be far preferable.

—oOo—

The Reaper: Fantasy Wargame Rules are over forty years old, but they could be brought to the table and a battle fought with them and it would provide an exciting game experience. It might not be as slick or as smooth as more modern designs, but the rules do work as intended. Whilst not necessarily complex in play, they are complex in terms of set-up, in designing units with the determination of the Strength Value of each figure and in the designing of individual spells. Nor is there any real advice on setting up a battle or specifically for the Umpire, on designing one. Yet the complexity—which has been eased between the two editions of the rules—has its benefits. The determination of the Strength Value means that a figure can be accurately represented on the battlefield according to the armour worn and the weapon wielded. Similarly, the spell design system allows the creation of individual spells to both great effect and variation, and this system really is the highlight of the Reaper: Fantasy Wargame Rules. The system was highly innovative at the time and were it to have been incorporated into a roleplaying game it would have been recognised as a great piece of design. There are hints that the Reaper: Fantasy Wargame Rules could handle roleplaying, though more likely on the battlefield in a ‘Braunstein’ style rather in the traditional fantasy roleplaying style of dungeon delving. This though, is an aspect that the rules do not explore.

The Reaper: Fantasy Wargame Rules combine classic fantasy with both complexity and choice. The magic rules and spell design system stand out and could have been a supplement all of their very own. As the precursor to the Warhammer: The Mass Combat Fantasy Roleplaying Game of 1983, the Reaper: Fantasy Wargame Rules foreshadow what was to come, but remain a playable and demanding—especially in terms of set-up—set of rules.