Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game Gamemaster’s Guide is the counterpart to the Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game Player’s Guide. What Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game Gamemaster’s Guide gives the Game Master is a toolkit with which to run a campaign, backing it up with Game Master specific rules and a bestiary of allies and antagonists, creatures and monsters, and more, that all together takes half of the book. It opens though with a description of the setting for Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game—and it is a very specific setting. This is the fortified, if ramshackle river port of Talagaad, perched between the Talabec River and the towering walls of the Taalbaston—the giant crater in which the nearby city of Talabheim sits, which stands on the Wizard’s Way, the road that crosses over the bridge known as the and up over the walls of the Taalbaston and is the only legal route into the crater. Control of Talagaad is important since it is a source of much wealth, whether from the taxes levied on the goods going to Talabheim and from lower prices paid for goods being smuggled into the city. Consequently, the town is rife with crime and corruption, petty and otherwise, whether committed by its ordinary citizenry, criminal underclass, or even its excise officers.
Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game Gamemaster’s Guide expands upon the description of Talagaad given in the Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game Player’s Guide. This covers the port’s origins and current state, law and order, and descriptions of two notable districts—the docks and the Markebundt, where all the trade occurs. There are descriptions of various NPCs, but more importantly, the tensions and points of conflict within Talagaad. These are primarily political and criminal, but all to do with the wealth that flows through the port. Not just the corruption between the Talagaad Watch and the criminal underworld, but also between Magistrate Raggusera and the local nobles and merchants and between Magistrate Ragguser and Duke Ludwig XII, ruler of the Grand Duchy of Talabec, over what Magistrate Ragguser tells the duke when he is secretly in his employ. There are tensions too between the state army regiments in Talagaad. On the one hand there is the local Talagaad Longsights, which occasionally backs up the Watch and is partly trusted by the locals, and on the other, there is the Talabheim 11th, recently posted to the port by Duke Ludwig following the assassination of several nobles from the neighbouring Duchy of Osterlund, and not at all trusted.
Spread between the Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game Player’s Guide and the Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game Gamemaster’s Guide, the description of Talagaad is far from complete, but the Game Master should get a good feel for it from the details so far. This is helped by the numerous hooks and scenario ideas spread through the description, but what really helps are the Contacts. These are really only mentioned as part of the character creation process in the Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game Player’s Guide, but here they come into their own as fully rounded NPCs, complete with descriptions of who they are, what their motivations and needs are, what favours they might bestow, their allies and enemies, and what gossip and secret they know. They are each based on a different archetype—a lord, a conspirator, an old soldier, a vagabond, a heretic, and so on—and linked to several of the character types in the Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game Player’s Guide as well as the other Contacts. These are designed as a Game Master tool, a cast of characters that can link the Player Characters together (since there are only twenty and each Player Character has two contacts, there is bound to be some crossover), hook them into a story or plot, bring the world to life, tie the Player Characters to the setting, and more. Above all, they give Talagaad a personal touch and differing views of what the town is like and what is going on.
What is going on in Talagaad is explored through what Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game calls ‘Grim Portents’ and ‘Dark Threads’. Some of the latter may be connected to the former, and some of the Contacts are connected to both, but ‘Grim Portents’ are really events that initiate a plot and bring the Player Characters together—no matter what their background, confronting them with a situation that they cannot ignore and cannot deal with alone, whose consequences will endure long after the problem has been dealt with. Three examples are given, each with a detailed opening scene and then descriptions of what happens next as the plot thickens and its instigators move against the Player Characters, and then grim reminders of that opening scene that will haunt the Player Characters as the plot plays out. The three include an incendiary encounter with an Osterlund noble with a very, very dark family secret; suffering a curse from beyond the grave from a witch whose fiery execution the Player Characters witnessed; and the aftermath of escaping a fearsome band of Beastmen ritualists who captured the Player Characters and were about to sacrifice them. The three are backed with a good explanation of what a ‘Grim Portent’ is, what it is designed to do, and how to run it. This includes how to get the Player Characters involved—either at the start or later with a new Player Character, what to do if the Player Characters just decide to run away, and so on
‘Dark Threads’ are the network of links and bonds which together link and bind the various NPCs—including the Contacts detailed earlier, and factions in and about Talagaad. This includes not just the Grand Duchy of Talabec and Talagaad, but also the neighbouring Grand County of Osterlund and Principality of Reikland, the Red Eyez Tribe of Goblins, the Hexenguilde, a devious band of warlocks, The Sheltered Flame, a band of fanatical Sigmarites, and more. These are all mapped out on a diagram and then further detailed in the Contact descriptions and in entries in the bestiary that makes half of the book. Of course, the Contacts, ‘Grim Portents’, and ‘Dark Threads’ are designed around the default campaign for Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game, set in and around Talagaad, and if the Game Master wants to set her campaign elsewhere, she will need to adapt these or create her own.
In addition to the advice on handling the Contacts, the ‘Grim Portents’, and the ‘Dark Threads’ as a Game Master, the general advice in the Warhammer: Old World Roleplaying Game Gamemaster’s Guide is also good. Whilst it makes clear that Warhammer: Old World Roleplaying Game could be run as a one-shot, it is designed to be run as campaign, and certainly, the Contacts, ‘Grim Portents’, and ‘Dark Threads’ are all designed to facilitate that. The advice compares the advantages and disadvantages of a sandbox versus a directed campaign, gives guidance on portraying memorable NPCs, help with Player Character creation—especially with tying the results into the Game Master’s campaign, designing adventures, how to create a mystery, and more. The advice on creating mysteries is a good list of ‘do’s and don’ts’ as is that for creating one-shots, and there is excellent advice on handling fights in the roleplaying game to make them challenging, but fun, and also on how to make the game more ‘Warhammer’. The advice on combat includes setting stakes to make the fight both interesting and worthwhile, allowing enemies to run away rather than just be lambs for the slaughter, and knowing when NPCs will decide that it is better to retreat rather than simply give up. The section on making the roleplaying game more ‘Warhammer’ gives fun little pointers, like the eerie green light of Morrslieb appearing from behind a cloud, bathing the street in its baleful glare or the sound of a trumpet heralding a troop of Knightly Order cavalry, trotting down the Wizard’s Road whilst mere commoners scatter to avoid them.
Just as with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Player Characters in the Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game can suffer Corruption and fall into the swirling, betentacled arms of Chaos. Indeed, the Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game all but pushes the Player Characters down this path to Damnation as they are drawn into events by a ‘Grim Portent’. When a Player Character is exposed to corruptive influence, whether that is fighting a battle against Beastmen or mutants, witnessing a Chaos ritual or minor daemon, reading a passage from the Liber Chaotica, or becoming possessed by a daemon, a Willpower test is required. Failure means suffering a condition such as being ‘Drained’ by an unnatural malaise or ‘Deafened’ by the sound of demonic laughter and also becoming Vulnerable. The Player Character has been touched by, but not yet embraced Chaos. At this point the Game Master presents the player and his character with a boon that will give the character an advantage in return for accepting a darker aspect of their character. If this is accepted, the Player Character no longer Vulnerable, but Tempted, and puts him on the Path to Corruption. There are five of these paths described. Four of these—‘Blood Must Flow’, ‘Secrets of Sorcery’, ‘Enduring the Unendurable’, and ‘Dark Obsession’—equate roughly to the four Ruinous Powers, whilst the fifth, ‘Child of the Forest’, takes the Tempted down to the route to transforming into a Beastman! Each path describes the benefits and downfalls gained, all ultimately leading to the Player Character becoming Damned and either lost to Chaos or a new and dangerous, but familiar NPC for Game Master.
There is guidance on gaming and roleplaying with a Player Character on of the five paths, but this most comes down to the other Player Characters not wanting to associate with such a Player Character for very long! Also discussed is the possibility of a Player Character finding his way back up a path, but this is a daunting challenge as you would expect. What is surprising is that throughout all of this, there is only the one die roll—the first Willpower test. After that, it is all down to the choices made by the player and his character. In other words, beyond that first Willpower test, it is about roleplaying and whether the character will give into temptation or not, and not about relying on or blaming the dice for the outcome. The player decides, not the dice, and that has great roleplaying potential.
The penultimate chapter describes some thirty or so magic items—weapons, armour, talismans, and arcane items, but no potions of any kind. Nor are there any rules for creating potions or healing draughts, or for crafting items. The entries are all neatly detailed and many illustrated, but it is noted that they should be difficult to get or find. Given that, their inclusion given the lack of potions and rules for crafting, whilst it is interesting to see what such magical items look like in Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game, they are so far out of the reach of the Player Characters that their inclusion seems out of place.
The last section in the Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game Gamemaster’s Guide, ‘Allies and Antagonists’, is the longest in the book. Although it does categorise its entries as Minion, Brutes, Champions and Monstrosities, this is no mere bestiary, since it is designed to do two things. One is to provide NPCs and threats for the Old World in general, allowing the Game Master to use them in her own scenarios and campaigns, whilst the other is to provide NPCs and threats for the default campaign and its set-up for the Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game, much of it tied into the Contacts, the ‘Grim Portents’, and ‘Dark Threats’. So for Grand Duchy of Talabec, there is a description of the noble house of Feuerbach, it goals and methods, what it is like as an enemy, and what might be the cause of the feud with it, and then there are stats and details of citizens and subjects of Talabec—from peasantry and footpads to the nobility and state troops, knights, Ogres and Halflings, Imperial Dwarfs, and more. It then does the same for the Grand County of Osterlund and the Principality of Reikland, adding different groups and NPC types, so that a Priest of Ulric and Knight of the White Wolf are described under the Grand County of Osterlund, whilst the Sigmarite Cultist and Witch Hunter are described under the Principality of Reikland. This does mean that entries are not organised alphabetically how a bestiary might arrange it, but rather done thematically.
There are other sections of ‘Witches and Warlocks’, ‘Pets and Mounts’—the latter including the Giant Spiders that Goblins might ride in the woods, but also enemy groups which are effectively organisations and so presented treated in the same format as those for Grand Duchy of Talabec, Grand County of Osterlund, and Principality of Reikland. Thus, for the Beastmen there is the ‘The Slaughtered Stag Warherd’; for the Orcs and Goblins, the ‘The Red Eyez Tribe’, and for the undead, the ‘Dominion of Dusk’. There are some really nasty creatures here, especially amongst the ‘Dominion of Dusk’ and the ‘Monsters of the Great Forest’ which in the case of the latter mean that the Player Characters are really not going to want to go down the woods with each other, let alone. All of the entries in the ‘Allies and Antagonists’ section have very clear and simple stats accompanied by a lot of useful information about how they might be used in a scenario or how the Player Characters might run into them. What is missing from the options available, are any real Chaos creatures beloved of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and the Old World, although some of the ‘The Slaughtered Stag Warherd’ do count. This is intentional, since the threat of Chaos is not a big part of the setting, which instead focuses on internal conflicts and tensions. Overall, this really is not just a good bestiary, but a further source of background material and advice on use the contents of that bestiary.
And yet, for all that is presented in the pages of both Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game Player’s Guide and the Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game Gamemaster’s Guide, there is something missing, and that is an adventure. An adventure that comes complete with a plot and a beginning, a middle, and an exciting end. In other words, we do not quite know what a Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game scenario looks like. There is no denying that the Contacts, ‘Grim Portents’, and ‘Dark Threads’, combined with the contents of the bestiary, are all really good. Yet they only lay the groundwork for the campaign to come, whether that is the one published by Cubicle 7 Entertainment or the one developed by the Game Master. To be clear, an experienced Games Master will be able to take what the Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game Gamemaster’s Guide provides and develop that into the start of a campaign, but a less experienced Game Master is likely to have some difficulty without more of a helping hand.
Another issue with the Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game Gamemaster’s Guide is the way it is organised. The ‘Grim Portents’ are followed by the Contacts, followed by the advice for the Game Master which after a few pages covers the ‘Grim Portents’ and the ‘Dark Threads’. Then there is a table of ‘Events in Talagaad’ placed oddly at the end of the section on advice for the Game Master, when ideally that should have been placed earlier in the book with the description of Talagaad. Given that this book is for the Game Master, the advice and the subject of that advice could have been better placed, ideally following on from each other rather than sperate. Everything is there, but simply not in the right place to use as easily as it should have been.
Physically, the Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game Gamemaster’s Guide is very well presented. The artwork is excellent, and the book is easy to read. However, it could have been better organised in places, and it does need an edit here and there.
If you want to play Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game, then the Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game Gamemaster’s Guide is absolute must. It provides a setting, it provides the beginnings of stories, and it provides friends and enemies as well as solid advice for the Game Master. However, it does not provide a ready starting point for Game Master and that limits its utility to Game Masters who are less experienced, and it very much focuses on Talagaad as a setting, which limits its utility to the Game Master who wants to set her Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game elsewhere. That said, where it shines is in the tools provided to make Talagaad and the beginnings of the campaign come alive—the Contacts, the ‘Grim Portents’, the ‘Dark Threads’, and numerous entries in the lengthy ‘Allies and Antagonists’ section. The Game Master will need to do some development work in terms of actual adventures and even a campaign to bring all its great content into play, but the Warhammer: The Old World Roleplaying Game Gamemaster’s Guide gives the Game Master all that she needs to work with to make a start.
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