THE WFRP STORY XXXVII: GOOD GAME

This post continues my history of WFRP1, which started here.

While the battle game developed in full view during this period, work continued on Warhammer‘s draft role-playing rules largely behind the scenes. There were, however, some glimpses of the forthcoming title. The first came in January 1985, when, as Zhu Bajiee has noted, Citadel produced a poster featuring the cover artwork planned for the game.

1985 Warhammer poster

This poster features the cover art from the new Warhammer box, extended to include the forthcoming Warhammer Role-Play cover too! A magnificent picture poster, and a fine example of John [Blanche]’s widely acclaimed fantasy work.

– Citadel flyer*

The “new Warhammer box” the flyer refers to is WFB2, whose cover is taken from the poster’s left-hand panel. The cover for Warhammer Role-Play, as the game is called in its various mentions in WFB2, was therefore intended to be taken from the right-hand panel.

More was heard of the role-playing rules in May 1985.

WARHAMMER ROLE-PLAY

We are still preparing the Warhammer Role-Play game from Richard Halliwell’s initial draft. Things are shaping up very nicely, and we anticipate the Role-Play set to turn Warhammer into the new Role Playing [sic] game. Features include a very thorough generation system that creates a real character complete with past experiences and skills as well as basic equipment. The combat rules mesh in with the Battle Rules game, enabling players to enact spying missions, skirmish encounters and dungeon adventures within the context of a Warhammer campaign. There are many new spells, magic items and other detailed rules, all of which are fully compatible with the Battle Rules. Naturally enough we have a scenario too [sic]. So when is it going to be ready? We hope to have this in the shops by the summer of ’85.

– First Citadel Journal (May 1985), p4

Warhammer Role-Playing‘s first draft is completed – and looks to be a very interesting adaptation of the Warhammer Battle Rules system. The initial package itself will be very comprehensive. Further add-ons are expected including a campaign world.

– ‘Newsboard’, White Dwarf 65 (May 1985)

Warhammer Role-Play is here described as an “adaptation” of WFB2, which leaves it ambiguous whether it was intended to be a supplement or a standalone game. Certainly the role-playing rules had begun as an expansion set, but at some point grew into a full game.

WFRP was originally conceived as a supplement for Warhammer Fantasy Battle, rather than a game in its own right. Richard Halliwell and Rick Priestley, two of the leading lights of Warhammer Fantasy Battle set to work on it, but it grew and it grew until it became obvious that WFRP would have to be a game in its own right.

It was some time after this that GW moved to Nottingham….

– Jim Bambra, Graeme Davis, Phil Gallagher, Richard Halliwell and Rick Priestley, ‘Open Box X-tra’, White Dwarf 87 (March 1987)

I believe GW’s relocation to Nottingham took place around May 1986. Therefore, if the account quoted above is accurate, we can conclude that WFRP had already become a separate game some time before this date. Whether this was before or after the completion of the first draft is unclear.

Whatever the intended form of the game, it is evident GW considered it close to complete. The proposed summer release allowed no more than four months for GW to finish, publish and distribute it. The target would, of course, not be met, and WFRP would not appear until November 1986. The reasons for the delay have to my knowledge never been articulated by anyone involved, but there are several possibilities. The targeted date may simply have been optimistic, and a summer release was never credible. A need for further revision may have been subsequently identified. Possibly this was the point at which the role-playing rules expanded from a supplement to a full game, demanding additional work. The game might even have been delayed by the upheaval at Games Workshop following Bryan Ansell’s takeover, which seems to have taken place in May 1985 (see part XXVI).

The announcements of the first draft’s completion give some indication of its contents. Given the promotional context, it is possible there is some exaggeration, but for the most part it seems reasonable to assume that the description is accurate. It appears that the careers and skills systems were already in place to some extent. Early forms of careers had appeared in March 1984 in WD51 (see part XX), and the first draft was probably a development of this work (see further part XXXVII).

… The idea for careers was something Hal [Richard Halliwell] came up with – I remember that because he couldn’t get it to work and abandoned it. I thought it was worth persevering with, so I took the idea and expanded it massively, and I wrote up all the careers and worked out the career paths.

– Rick Priestley, interview on Grognardia (13 November 2020)

The combat system appears to have departed from that of WFB, as the rules are said only to “mesh in with” the wargame. The magic system is described as including new spells and artefacts. Unless many were rejected before the publication of WFRP1, the additions were relatively few.

The attribution of the first draft to Richard Halliwell is noteworthy. Subsequent accounts have presented an inconsistent view.

I started Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay – and I say I started, but Richard Halliwell wrote the original script for that.

– Rick Priestley, interview on 20 Sided Gamified Podcast, episode 1 (1 March 2023)

If I remember correctly the project was something we started with just me writing in-house and Richard Halliwell contributing out of house. At the time Tony Ackland was our sole in-house artist and he did all of the initial artwork. Tony and I would have bounced stuff between us as we always did on those early projects.

… I pretty much wrote the first draft.

– Rick Priestley, interview on Grognardia (13 November 2020)

When I arrived [in May 1986], WFRP consisted of a rough draft by Rick [Priestley] and a lot of notes and ideas from Bryan [Ansell] and Hal [Richard Halliwell].

– Graeme Davis, interview on Realm of Chaos 80s (10 June 2013)

It is interesting that a scenario is mentioned. This could not have been any part of The Enemy Within campaign, as work on that would not start until 1986. In my opinion it is most likely to have been ‘The Oldenhaller Contract’, which was published in WFRP1 but already in existence by June 1986 (see part XXXVII). Another possibility is ‘The Web of Eldaw’, the only other Warhammer role-playing scenario known from this period (discussed below). I consider it unlikely it was an unknown adventure, as the scarcity of content for the new game would not allow such material to languish unpublished.

The comments on the expected style of play are noteworthy. In language reminiscent of the skirmish games Halliwell and Priestley grew up with (see parts I and III), potential adventures are described as “spying missions, skirmish encounters and dungeon adventures within the context of a Warhammer campaign”. They are a long way from Shadows Over Bögenhafen or Power Behind the Throne.

Another insight to the development of WFRP came in December 1985, when GW released The Good Games Guide 1. Despite its numbering, it turned out to be a one-off publication. It was a magazine designed to introduce newcomers to GW’s range of games, and contained a catalogue, background articles and a pair of scenarios.

There is a review of its full contents here, but of relevance in this context is one of the scenarios it contained. ‘The Web of Eldaw’ was a Warhammer role-playing scenario by Rick Priestley. It was intended to be played with either the “Battle” or then-unpublished “Role-play” rules, and includes information for both systems. It was an odd decision to use an unpublished set of rules in a scenario for newcomers to role-playing. It perhaps suggests that publication of WFRP was still expected imminently. However, it now affords a unique insight into the state of the WFRP draft at the time.

‘The Web of Eldaw’, the Good Games Guide 1 (December 1985)
(Download as PDF)

The scenario is set in Albion. Grimgag, Thane of Lucanfell, has wrested the throne of North Albion from King Rynn O’Flynn, and is holding the former ruler prisoner in Castle Eldaw. Rynn’s son, Rolando O’Flynn, seeks to rescue his father. Accompanied by a witch, Raglann, and two comrades, Mickelson and Giltbrook, he attempts to enter the castle via a secret underground labyrinth, the eponymous Web of Eldaw.

This backdrop sets up a relatively traditional dungeon crawl, with monsters, traps and piles of treasure (one room contains “1d6000** silver coins”). There is again no trace of the urban, investigative style that would later characterise WFRP. The scenario is closer to the wargaming roots of the hobby and of Warhammer itself. It is noteworthy that it even suggests a skirmish-style battle as a sequel, where the players storm the castle and take on Grimgag and two hundred men-at-arms.

Although the set up is quite conventional, the story is nonetheless full of interesting twists. An ancient treasure hidden in the Web, the Crown of Kings, is still attached to the immortal severed head of King Lufric the Doomed, from whom the O’Flynns long ago took the throne. Raglann is secretly Lufric’s last living heir, and in an act of vengeance has deceived Rolando into making a binding pact to kill his father and marry her. Rolando’s cousin, Cassandria, is lost in the Web and has become the object of the Beast of Eldaw’s affection.

The tale of ancestral vengeance echoes Shakespearean drama, especially Hamlet. The characters Mickelson, Giltbrook and D’Eric are perhaps even based on Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Yorick in that play. A similar conceit is, of course, also employed in Richard Halliwell’s Tragedy of McDeath, published four months later (see further part XXXII). The two scenarios may have been under development at the same time, or perhaps ‘The Web of Eldaw’ was a forerunner of McDeath. Shakespeare is not the only literary inspiration, however. The story of Cassandria and the Beast of Eldaw follows de Villeneuve’s Beauty and the Beast (1740).

The Crown of Kings shares its name with the object at the heart of Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! saga for Fighting Fantasy (1983-5), though its properties are different. King Lufric’s severed head resembles that of Brân the Blessed in the Mabinogion.

Albion is presented in very little detail in the scenario. What little information is given is consistent with the depiction in McDeath. It is a feudal land of competing kingdoms with a British or Irish feel. Whereas in McDeath East Albion is based on historical Scotland, in ‘The Web of Eldaw’ North Albion seems to lean more on Irish and English inspirations. The O’Flynns share their name with the supposed descendants of Lugaid Mac Con, the mythical High King of Ireland. The sprinkling of place names in the adventure have an English ring: Lucanfell (possibly to be connected with the notorious Earl of Lucan), Scala-fen waterfall (perhaps influenced by Scafell and Scafell Pike) and the Witch-woods. The use of the title thane conforms to British, rather than Irish, usage.

The names of characters in the adventure are a geographical gallimaufry. They mix Irish (Rynn, O’Flynn), English (Giltbrook***), Welsh (Raglann), Nordic (Mickelson, Ragnar), Iberian or Italian (Rolando) and Greek (Cassandria) influences.

‘The Web of Eldaw’ may have little to say about the Warhammer setting, but it contains a great deal more information about the rules system of the WFRP draft. Characteristics are, with one exception, the same as WFB2. Dexterity and Fellowship do not appear, and there are no percentile scores. The only difference from WFB2 is Wounds, for which two scales are used. These scales are presumably the “minor” and “major” scales mentioned in WFB2. The minor scale is that used by the wargame, and the major scale that used by the role-playing rules. There is no explanation of how the major scale is calculated. Scores generally seem consistent with a conversion ratio of 2D6 per wound, though the scores for the pregenerated PCs seem a little high. It may be that PCs rolled 6+D6 for their first Wound.

A comment about damage supports this ratio: “In the Battle rules it will cause damage only on the roll of a 6. In Role-play it cause 1 point of damage if it hits.”. This implies a 1:6 ratio, close to the 1:7 average implied by 1:2D6.

The following chart shows the correspondence of the minor and major scale values, with bands indicating the range and mean for a 2D6 conversion ratio.

Armour rules seem to be the same as in WFRP1.

You wear your knightly armour and carry a shield…. This is plate over mail plus shield in Role-Play (2 armour points all round plus 1 point for the shield).

You wear a metal breastplate over a suit of chainmail and carry a shield…. The shield [sic, presumably an error for “worn armour”] also counts as one point of armour all round, and 2 to the chest (with one more for the shield in Role-Play).

– Rick Priestley, ‘The Web of Eldaw’

The scenario mentions 40 skills for the role-playing rules. They are one-off skills similar to those presented in ‘Watch Out, There’s a Thief About’ in WD51 (March 1984, see part XX). Indeed some overlap with the skills listed in that article. Their number, though, has been increased greatly. They present a skills system very close to that eventually published in WFRP1. All the skills mentioned would survive into WFRP1 with only minor changes of name. A full list of the skills is below, alongside those in WD51 and the corresponding skills in WFRP1.

There are several references to tests in the text, but there is no explanation of how such tests are made.

…make any Spot-trap, Disarm and Activation rolls required….

…each lock requires a successful search roll to be found….

…It can be climbed by any character with the scale sheer surface [sic] skill with a Risk test every 25 metres.

– Rick Priestley, ‘The Web of Eldaw’

The draft roleplay rules in WD51 use an inconsistent set of ad hoc tests. WFRP1 uses a more systematic percentage approach. Either would be consistent with the text in ‘The Web of Eldaw’.

Notably absent are character careers. As noted above, there is evidence that the careers system was already in existence at this point in the WFRP draft. There were also signs of the system in the WFB supplement Blood on the Streets in October 1985 (see part XXX). It seems to me most likely that its omission from ‘The Web of Eldaw’ is attributable to its irrelevance in a scenario with pregenerated characters.

Nonetheless, ‘The Web of Eldaw’ does address the award of experience points. The role-playing rules in WFB1 grant experience points formulaically (‘Characters’, pp12-13). They largely follow the standard conventions established by D&D and AD&D, and grant points for defeating opponents and collecting treasure. Bonuses are, however, also earned for “surviving an adventure or mission”.

The rules in ‘The Web of Eldaw’ seem to expand on these rules. There are awards for characters achieving specific objectives, as in WFRP1.

Rolando…. You gain 50 points if your father is rescued safely.

Raglann…. You will earn 50 points upon the death of King Rynn and 50 points should Rolando be forced to perform the deed itself. You will also gain 50 points should Rolando fail his insanity roll.

– Ibid

These awards are said to be “in addition to normal experience”. It is not explained what “normal experience” is, but my presumption is that it was intended to be a mechanism the same as or similar to that in WFB1. Therefore, at this stage Warhammer‘s role-playing rules seem to have used a hybrid experience system combining elements of WFB1‘s and WFRP1‘s.

‘The Web of Eldaw’ also makes several mentions of Insanity Points, though apparently using a different scale from WFRP1. For example, Rolando can gain up to 42 insanity points in the scenario!

The true nature of his promise will undoubtedly cause Rolando some personal grief – it may even drive him insane! (10 + d20 insanity points).

Giltbrook and Mickelson are great friends and comrades in arms. The death of either causes 1d6 insanity points upon the other.

The sight of Cassandria itself causes 1d6 insanity points on Rolando, and her death a further 1d6 points.

– Ibid

Overall the mechanics on display are close to those that would later appear in WFRP1. This is not surprising, given they would reach their final form only nine months later. There were, however, still some significant changes to come.

The next post continues ‘The WFRP Story’ with the arrival of new writers on the Warhammer role-playing project.

FOOTNOTES

* The flyer is undated, but the posters are mentioned in another flyer, which describes January 1985 miniature releases, and in White Dwarf 62 (February 1985).

** A very big die!

*** There is a village of this name outside Nottingham.

CHRONOLOGY

The following chart summarises the chronology of this post relative to others in this section of ‘The WFRP Story’.

Title and internal art by Brian Williams. Used without permission. No challenge intended to the rights holders.