FAL Tip: Realm of Darthon

Today I found this excellent animated short on Jeff Rient's aptly named Jeff's Gameblog. Not a WFRP blog, but still packed with good stuff.

Watch the short here, there or anywhere. Then head over to Mr. Rient's blog and read his excellent Listen up you primitive screwheads, one of my absolute favourite blog posts ever.

But enough about that, get the popcorn and watch the movie!

/Magnus

FAL Tip: Cool links (3)

I stumbled on this link the other day. It's a page of illustrations from japanese childrens' books, depiciting monsters of all kinds. While they are decidedly asian in theme I found that several of them could easily be reimagined to fit the WFRP world.

Japanese monsters galore!

/Magnus

FAL Commentary: Moving out of the comfort zone

Over the last year or so, we've been running a lot of Dungeons & Dragons 4. A lot. This means even Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay has taken a back seat to the behemoth the is D&D4, and the most startling thing to me is that I am the DM.

Why is this so startling? My perspective is one based on conflicting experiences.

My favourite RPGs are Call of Cthulhu (any edition) and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (v1 and v2, we haven't tried v3). It's all great fun.

I primarily run these games for my group, and have a somewhat similar style when doing so. Lots of social interaction, investigation, few combats, abstract battles not using minis, event based plot progression and so on.

The kind of adventures where my group chose not to play D&D. That's what I do best. I ran Tomb of Horrors, and it sucked. I ran Iron Kingdoms, and it turned into WFRP.

But the allure of D&D is always there. I've played D&D since 1984, and have fond memories of the Dungeons & Dragons Expert Set opening up outdoor adventuring and exploration on a scale I hadn't seen before. So I was a player in D&D BECM up to level 26, then in Dragonlance and Ravenloft and other classic stuff. Good stuff and bad stuff.

When D&D4 was released, we decided we wanted to try it. One DM bravely took Keep on the Shadowfell and ran us through it. The resulting experience nearly tore our group apart. We couldn't agree on how to play the game, I hated it, and the tactical parts of it were uninteresting to me. Counting squares ... argh! So I said that I would never play D&D4 again. And some said they'd never play any previous edition again, because they loved the elements I hated in D&D4. So no D&D for us.

It was a strange experience. So we went on to Dark Heresy, with another GM. Then there was a shakeup due to working schedules, and we lost our  GM. So what to do ...

I stepped up and ran a WFRP arc that was nigh on perfectly executed both by me and the players. It was loads of fun, and it had everything I love about playing roleplaying games. But it took its toll on me, and when we wrapped up the seven sessions, I was a bit burned out on deep and complex plots. And I wanted to try something different, move out of my comfort zone, to see if I could learn something that made my WFRP games a lot better. Things can always be approved, is my belief.

So I bought Dungeon Delve. We created new PCs. I concocted a flimsy campaign premise, and then we dived into it. Very much focused on tactical combat and character advancement. I was planning on running a few of the delves while we were deciding on what to do next.

Sitting on the DM side of the screen totally changed my opinion of the game. I loved it. And the players loved it. We had had our internal flame war on play styles, expectations and pros and cons and all that, and we emerged with a greater understanding of what we wanted from the game.

The delves segued into Scales of War, and then into Revenge of the Giants. Even though I'm still having trouble adapting my style to that which fits D&D4 best, the players are psyched, and we are chugging along. Before, we would change games every 7 or 8 sessions (we play once a week), but now we soldier on. D&D4 scratches a lot of itches that my players like to have scratched, while still being fun for me to run.

It doesn't play like CoC or WFRP. And for me it shouldn't. I just need to learn or even relearn how to make the game more D&D:ish, and drop some conceits I've adopted from running other games. To make the experience more like what my group thinks of as D&D. It's all possible within the rules, I just have to work a bit harder to bring it to the surface, since I'm entrenched in my primary style of game mastering.

So the short of it. I understand and respect the opinions of those who feel D&D4 is not a game for them. I've been there myself, and I hated the game. At the same time I think I understand the opinions of those who feel D&D4 is their kind of game. That's where I am now. At the same time, if someone said "show me your best game running skills" I wouldn't pick D&D4, instead opting for WFRP.

Strange that, to find conflicting views on the game, all wrapped up in one single gamer.

/Magnus

FAL News: One Ring to Rule them All

Today Cubicle 7 and Sophisticated Games announced that they have picked up the license for an RPG set in Middle-Earth. So we will have yet another version of this epic fantasy license, with lots of market speak in the press release.

Read the press release here!

It looks like it'll use a new system, but apart from that there's not much to be gleaned from the press release. Apart from the name, which is The One Ring: The Lord of the Rings® Role-playing Game, complete with an awkward ® screwing things up.

Still, I'm looking forward learning more about the game, and the inevitable discussions about whether a LOTR RPG will have the power to wrest customers from the almighty juggernaut that is D&D:

One Game to rule them all
One Game to find them
One Game to bring them all
and in the darkness bind them
In the land of Renton where the shadows lie.

Nah, kidding. I play D&D4e, and it's great fun. I hope The One Ring: The Lord of the Rings® Role-playing Game can be great fun as well.

/Magnus

FAL General: Happy New Year!

Well, a new year is approaching and I am starting to find time when I'm not working. This means I'm looking forward to another year of gaming, which I have been most fortunate too get done in spades that last couple of years.

This years it's been mostly the latest edition of Dungeons & Dragons, with mixed success from my part but a hell of a ride for the group. We're picking it up again sometime in January, tackling paragon levels and Revenge of the Giants.

I have also played several games of Citadels over the year. It is a brilliant game, quick to learn and with engaging gameplay. Look forward to an in depth review of this game and Fury of Dracula which I picked up yesterday, sometime soon.

Apart from that the big thing waiting to be tried is of course the third edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. We're planning on giving it a whirl in January, and with the arrival of The Adventurer's Toolkit the option of playing a Rat Catcher is once again open ... but the players have said they'd rather play a career that does not give me extra incentives to have sewer based adventuring, so we'll see what they'll go for in The Ongoing and Spectacular Adventures of the Wilhelms.

And of course, the iAltdorf map will be updated in January.

But until then, have a happy new year!

/Magnus

FAL: New WFRP revealed

Getting home from the pub I saw that RebelDave posted that the new WFRP has been announced. This is the link:

WFRPv3 press release

I am drunk, so I can't make a coherent statement as of yet, so I'll get back to this piece of news tomorrow!

Although I must say that this piece of marketing speak is awful:

Stances provide characters a unique venue to reference their approach

Seriously, what the fuck? But it seems cool, so I'll keep an open mind.

/Magnus

FAL News: Tales of a Rat-Catcher? Is this signs of WFRPv3?

Clicking around on the FFG site checking for clues to what the hell is going on with WFRP, I stumbled upon something called A Ratcatcher's Tale.

A Ratcatcher's Tale

Color me confused as I delve deeper into this mystery product. It's evidently set in Altdorf, which could be cool, or frustrating, depending on if the designers deigned to use my map as part of their research. If they didn't, well then I'll just have to see what they've done and adjust to that.

EDIT: found the forum and a PDF flier of the Daily Altdorfer giving more background. If this is something akin to Space Hulk, I'll be pleased as punch. Although I get apprehensive to read a lot about Altdorf ...

Forums for A Ratcatcher's Tale.

/Magnus

FAL General: Shades of Empire aquired

Just a short note to say that I have aquired Shades of Empire, the latest official WFRP book, released by Fantasy Flight Games. I've had a quick look through it, read a few chapters and looked for Altdorf locations. And there's a lot of new places mentioned in the book that will need to go onto my iAltdorf map.

I love the format, to me this actually feels more like a second WFRP Companion for WFRPv2 than anything else. And as you know I love the companion format.

It's great to finally have a new official WFRP book in my hands, after a long wait. It was a little bit over a year ago that Black Industries was closed down, and I hope that FFG picks up the pace of publishing after this first entry. I'll get back with a review in due time!

/Magnus

FAL News: Warpstone to close after 2009

In a surprise announcement over on the Warpstone forums, John Foody yesterday communicated that number 30 will be the last issue of the smashingly fabulous independent WFRP magazine.

Read the announcement here!

The current issue is 28 and is to be released any day if it isn't already out. This leaves us with two more issues to look forward to in the coming year. Well, it's a shame and a surprise and all that, but I'll keep the tearful farewell blog post in the can until the last issue is released.

Until then, use all your powers to get hold of as many back issues of Warpstone as humanely possible. You will not regret it, even if you don't play WFRP!

And so, let the conspiracy theories begin to bloom among the WFRP fans. Why is Warpstone shutting down? Why, isn't it obvious? You see ... (insert pet theory about the evils of other people/GW/BI/WFRPv2/WFRPv1/fanboys/D&D here).

/Magnus

FAL Review: Mutant Chronicles the Movie

I have now watched the Mutant Chronicles movie, and it was great fun. It feels weird to see some of the concepts I had a part in creating being made into a feature length movie. Weird but cool, of course.

Note that this review contains spoilers of the Mutant Chronicles movie. If you don't want to have the ending spoiled, just read to the end of this paragraph and no further; to sum it up the movie is a run of the mill sci-fi action horror adventure (how's that for covering genre bases?) with predictable plot development and wooden acting. Nothing more, nothing less. If you find enjoyment in movies like Dark Side of the Moon, Split Second and Pitch Black, this could be a movie for you. There are also throwbacks to Aliens and The Matrix, but compared to those luminaries, Mutant Chronicles falls rather short.

The visuals are mostly grey and drab, to good effect. The only colour to stand out in stark relief is red, as in blood red, making the cinematography vaguely reminiscent of that found in Sin City. I did love the steampunk aspects of the movie, from the large artillery guns on the battlefields to the impossibly constructed space ships carrying our heroes into the fray.

The plot is predictable and takes a lot of inspiration from the narrative structures of video games and roleplaying games; a group of hard-ass soldiers are assembled to carry out a mission to save mankind, and after a lot of one-liners and gratitious violence one of them survives and saves mankind.

The overarching themes are heroism and sacrifice. These themes carry the most weight in the scenes picturing refugees trying to get off Earth before it is run over by the mutants, and in the unflinching heroism of the NPCs ... erm ... secondary characters, or whatever they're called in movie lingo. Sure, the main characters are heroic and all that, but that's to be expected. I feel it to be one of the strengths of the movie that it lets other characters shine ... before they are killed, as often is the case.

As one of the principal writers of the original Mutant Chronicles roleplaying game, I have mixed feelings about the movie. I think that it is a solid offering for a B-grade sci-fi flick, reminiscent of the movies that was part of my growing up. At the same time it ignores a lot of the powerful imagery and plot mechanics present in the source material. The Dark Legion is only represented by some kind of machine and a bunch of identical mutants, and the diversity of the legion's threat to mankind, both from within and without, is ignored. It also feels like a wasted opportunity not to use the first encounter background from the game, and instead invent a much weaker plot vehicle to move the film along.

The tone and graphics are spot on, even though I feel that the Mutant Chronicles setting also contains polished steel, neon and plastics to a greater extent than what is shown in the move. As it is now, the film focuses too heavily on the WWI inspiration inherent in the setting, and not enough on the sci-fi tropes that also make up the background. One thing I really liked was the inclusion of religion, faith and belief, although I feel that this could have been explored much more intricately; after all, in the Mutant Chronicles setting, divine power is a reality. Or at least, mystical power is ...

To sum it up, the setting of the movie is only inspired by some of the basic ideas of the roleplaying game, but the result is still entertaining to those who find enjoyment in strong visuals and steampunk imagery. Fans of one-liner plots with dodgy acting will love it!

/Magnus

FAL News: Cover for next WFRP supplement revealed!

Just noticed that Steve Darlington posted the cover of the next WFRP supplement coming down the Reik:

The cover!

I'm of two ways about this: it's cool to see a cover because it means there's a book coming, but I also feel that this is not the strongest of the WFRPv2 covers. I think maybe a sinister merchant, a degenerate noble or a pious priest would have been my choice rather than the "pirate" which was chosen to pose for the painter's leisure.

Still, way to go FFG! Now get that thing to the printers!

On a related note, I have had two people ask me if I've abandoned the blog in the last couple of days. Just to let everyone know, I'm continuing the Altdorf Correspondent, I am not starting a new WH40kRP campaign as was the plan, and I'm still too overworked to focus on the blog.

Still, I've done some Warhammer-related writing for PC Gamer in Sweden, and I'm script doctoring a new computer game about to be released. So it's not all work and no play, because that would make me a dull boy. So it's not all work and no play, because that would make me a dull boy. So it's not all work and no play, because that would make me a dull boy. So it's not all work and no play, because that would make me a dull boy. So it's not all work and no play, because that would make me a dull boy. So it's not all work and no play, because that would make me a dull boy.

Erm ... well, be seeing you!

/Magnus

FAL General: Dungeon of Doom II (UPDATED)

At this very moment I am running the popular dungeon delve Dungeon of Doom at the Stockholm Spelkonvent, in Stockholm, Sweden, together with my friends. We've printed a map 2 meters by 2,40 meters, created by the talented Dante Algstrand and based on WotC dungeon tiles. You can catch a glimpse of it in the pictures below!

We're using the D&D 4e rules, and the players get to pick a PC at random, and then go into our dungeon facing overwhelming odds. PCs are killed left to right, and the players love it!

UPDATE: The Dungeon of Doom is a simple and very popular concept. I had the idea several years ago and together a group of friends put together a killer dungeon for D&D 3e. We had maps, kill markers, overwhelming monsters, adversarial dungeon mastering, and low level PCs. And dropin. Anyone could play, and it took about 15 minutes for their PC to get whacked. And people lined up in droves and droves.

The freewheeling manner of play, one of the basic philosophies behind my own gaming style, is a real draw. And it seems to work equally well for D&D 4e. We're running into some things that slow down play, such as Analysis Paralysis, but a firm DM hand brings things up to speed when things get bogged down.

We have one DM, one rules assistant and one player coach. One huge map, minis for the PCs and minis for the monsters. Dice, rulebooks and stuff like that. We've laminated the character sheets, so players can write on them with dry erase markers.

Works like a charm!

/Magnus

WFRP: Atypical Dwarfs (3)

Welcome to the third installment of Atypical Dwarfs, a series of posts examining dwarf demeanour and offering alternative personalities for dwarf PCs and NPCs.

Click here for installment 1 and 2!

The series is illustrated by Patrik Norrman, the talented and award-winning comic book artist and illustrator. If you enjoy his work and feel that you would like to commission his services, go to my profile and drop me an e-mail.

The Master Smith
In this third part of the series we’ll finally take a look at our first variant dwarf personality; the Master Smith. A dwarf in pursuit of knowledge about how to shape steel into formidable weapons and armour. In a world where possession of a sharp sword can mean the difference between aquisition of supreme power and ignoble defeat, and a sturdy chain mail can save your hide in the heat of battle, a Master Smith is always in demand.

And there are no greater Master Smiths than those who come from the dwarf kingdoms. The most legendary masters have even built small kingdoms of their own, where they rule by stint of their authority on the secrets of iron and fire. For those masters to carry out a commission a prospective buyer must first petition an audience and then pay a large sum of gold, silver, gems or even ancient artifacts for the task to be carried out. There are a few wandering smiths who wander the lands of man and beast, searching for the chance to express their mastery of the craft, and to add to their knowledge by observing what the other races are up to. They are the stuff of legends and are much sought after by kings and lords for their knowledge of smithing.

Adventure seed
The PCs are hired to escort a master smith to a Borderlands kingdom. The ancient master has been commissioned by the king himself to create a fantastic sword as a powerful symbol of his new reign. As might be imagined there are those who want to stop this, or who want to kidnap the smith and put his skills to their own use. When the PCs arrive it transpires that they have to travel to a dwarf hold close by to fetch high class steel ... but there are Beastmen in the mountains. The adventure continues!

PC suggestions
Create a dwarf who has the ambition to become the best smith in the history of the race. He travels around the world, accompanied by other adventurers to learn more about the riddle of steel, hoping to find ancient tomes of documented smithing procedures regarding weapons and armour. This PC should always have an appetite for new knowledge and should put a lot of time into developing his smithing skills and his knowledge of the legends of weaponmaking. He should also be a warrior of some renown, to truly understand the soul of the blade.

/Magnus

FAL Tip: Cool links (2)

And now for another reallt cool link to add to your collection of bookmarks! The following site is remarkable since it showcases how to reimagine popular images in new and exciting shapes.

Sillof's Workshop.

I especially like the steampunk versions of The Empire Strikes Back characters. What's your favourite?

/Magnus

WFRP: Atypical dwarfs (2)

Welcome to the second installment of Atypical Dwarfs, a series of posts examining dwarf demeanour and offering alternative personalities for dwarf PCs and NPCs.

Click here for the first installment!

I’ll kick this thing off by looking at the basic dwarf traits, and how to interpret them. I don’t want to recast the dwarfs as something entirely different as much as look at them in a different light. The following keywords define a dwarf in most fantasy settings, as well as in WFRP.

Short – Alright, it’s difficult to interpret this as anything other than ”dwarfs are short”. They are, it’s in the name of the race. This is one explanation as to why dwarfs have such a great need for asserting their competence and status in relation to the other races. This manifests in a tendency to never give up, and never back down from a challenge.

Beard – Face it, a dwarf has a beard. It’s a defining trait. The beard is a symbol of status, and is often groomed and adorned with gold or silver trinkets ... erm, jewellry. Whether or not female dwarfs have beards is open to individual interpretation.

Stubborn – Dwarfs are stubborn and they never give up. This means that they spend a lot of effort and time to figure out how things work, and their patience while investigating, researching or studying is as great as their pride in their finely cultivated beards.

Good memory – They never forget a wrong doing, carrying Grudges forever and ever. But they also carry the memory of a friend, or of a drawing of a bridge. Or the complex secret password to open the sealed door of the hidden dwarf stronghold.

Humourless – Dwarfs don’t tolerate nonsense, and are very focused on obatining the facts of each situation. This means that they are viewed as devoid of humour by the other races, but to the dwarf this is compensated by the fact that they very, very seldom are tricked or fooled, neither by a prank or a con.

Careful – No dwarf is ever sloppy. Or maybe more accurately, those who are sloppy don’t survive in the deep mines where the slightest mistake can be fateful. Dwarfs are careful and painstakingly thorough. This also manifests as an intense dislike of any form of chaos.

Eager to learn – Dwarfs want to know how things work. They are bad at understanding how people work on a psychlogical level, but outstanding at figuring out how things fit together and what makes them tick. They spend a lot of time observering how the world is out together to try to figure out how to control it.

Love of metals – Their love of gold is the stuff of legends, but the fact is that dwarfs love all kinds of metals. They are endlessly fascinated by gold, silver, iron, steel, all sorts of minerals and what you can do with them.

Mechanical aptitude – Dwarfs love to create mechanial contraptions. This does not necessarily mean that they things they create are complicated. They us basic physical and magical laws to create simple but effective machines and tools. For example, they prefer crossbows over a simple bow.

Okay, that’s the basic personality traits of a dwarf. So what can you do with this? Amazing things actually. The next installment will tackle the first atypical dwarf personality ... so stay tuned to this channel some time next week.

/Magnus

WFRP: Atypical Dwarfs (1)

How often don’t you find dwarfs in fantasy that are short, grumpy fellas with an axe strapped to their backs and a flagon of beer in their hand? This is without doubt the most popular image of the fantasy dwarf, popularised by countless roleplaying games, and maybe most importantly in the blockbuster Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. Even in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, we are often treated to the stereotypical dwarf, even though I must admit there’s a twist; they’re also homicidal maniacs with punk hair.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with using that image when you are playing a dwarf character, or portraying a non-player character. But maybe it would be fun to portray dwarfs with other roles and demeanours once in a while? After all, it is not just human societies that have a need for, or give rise to, different personality types among the population. Take a closer look at the characteristics of a dwarf, and you’ll find variations within the basic theme that you didn’t think were possible!

This is the introduction to a short series of posts aimed at presenting six somewhat unorthodox ways of looking att dwarfs as characters in WFRP, or indeed in any fantasy roleplaying game. I’ll start off in the next post by examining the basic traits that are associated with dwarfish culture, and show how these traits can give inspiration for other personalities than the common dwarf thug. The game master will be treated to adventure hooks and the players get suggestions for new personalities which break the established pattern of how to look at a dwarf character.

The series is illustrated by Patrik Norrman, the talented and award-winning comic book artist and illustrator. If you enjoy his work and feel that you would like to commission his services, go to my profile and drop me an e-mail.

Stay tuned for more on dwarfs next week!

/Magnus

FAL News: FFG reveals name of new WH40kRP book

Ross Watson at FFG has revealed in his latest design diary that work on a new book for the WH40kRP is going smoothly.

I am very pleased to say that the next book for the Dark Heresy line is making great progress. It is called Creatures Anthema, a tome describing Aliens, Beasts, and Daemons lurking in the Calixis Sector… and how to kill them in the Emperor's Name.

No mention of a release date, but it is good to see progress being made on new books. There's still life in the game, although when it comes to WFRP and WH40kRP, history tells us to never rejoice until a book is on the shelf of our local game store!

/Magnus

FAL Tip: Cool links (1)

In the last few months I have stumbled on links to cool and interesting material found online that is not primarily gaming related. This series of posts will highlight the links I think are of special interest, and it can be anything from cardboard models to custom-made action figures to medieval clip-art.

Well start off with a site I think I found the link to on the FFG WFRP forum, although I'm not sure. The site is extremely cool and contains cardboard models of spooky and haunted houses! I think the models are perfect to use as props for games of Call of Cthulhu, WFRP or Unhallowed Metropolis. So go for it, download one of the models and grab those scissors!

Haunted Dimensions

/Magnus

FAL Interview: James Wallis, publisher extra-ordinaire

I got back into WFRP during the late nineties, after a break while I worked at a paper mill outside of London. What brought me back was the fact that the game was picked up by a small outfit called Hogshead Publishing, who started issuing reprints and new material. The head of this outfit was James Wallis, and over the years he carried the banner of WFRP fans all over the world

Then suddenly it was all over, and James Wallis faded from the roleplaying scene. Well, faded is maybe the wrong way of putting it ... he left. Dramatically and entertainingly, as I think many had come to expect of him. But that was then, and this is now. James Wallis is back, and I hope it will be with a vengeance.

The Altdorf Correspondent (TAC): Thanks for doing this, and thanks for the picture of you with the adorable little troll on your back. That's the first time I've seen a picture of you, actually. Tell the readers a bit about yourself.

James Wallis (JW): I'm the guy who used to run Hogshead Publishing, the company that published Warhammer FRP between 1995 and 2003. I'm British, I live in London, and I've been writing and publishing things about RPGs since I was 14. My best-known games are the card-game Once Upon a Time, which has sold a quarter of a million copies now, and The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen which is about to come out in a new edition from Mongoose Publishing. I used to hold the Guinness World Record for marathon AD&D playing. I think of myself as "tall, dark and handsome", except I'm not very dark, or handsome.

TAC: What have you been up to after your exit from the scene? Burnt any more barges?

JW: I wrote a couple of Warhammer novels for the Black Library (Mark of Damnation and Mark Of Heresy), then went to work in the film industry for a bit where I scripted some documentaries and got to write dialogue for Anthony Daniels in two short films about Star Wars. More recently I helped UK ARG supremos the Hon Brothers to set up their company Six to Start, and I'm now jointly running Spaaace, a games-consultancy that works with TV companies, film companies, government agencies and other businesses to show them how to implement games as part of what they do or sell, and Magnum Opus Press which is my new publishing company. I have not burnt any barges, or bridges.

TAC: What prompted you to come back?

JW: Steve Jackson kicked my ass. Seriously. He asked me if Steve Jackson Games could release a digital version of Baron Munchausen, and I said there were some things I wanted to fix in the basic game so I'd take a couple of weeks to update the manuscript. That was two years ago. Steve never let up. The game is now twice as long as it was before, with a variant set of rules and a version for "children, the inbred and the very drunk". And as I was doing that my friend Dave Morris and I were discussing how he could get his fantasy RPG Dragon Warriors, which had been a big hit in the UK in the 1980s, back into print; and I discovered I still had all the artwork for my own aborted fantasy-parody game Frup. It looked like there was an opportunity to make some money.

TAC: What has the reception been to the new company, Magnum Opus Press?

JW: Reaction has been good. We've only launched two books so far, but the first one--Game Night by Jonny Nexus, a very funny novel about an RPG played by the gods--was nominated for an ENnie award. And a lot of people are looking forward to seeing the new Munchausen and the revised Dragon Warriors.

TAC: What's your relationship to WFRP now? Do you play the game?

JW: I don't do any tabletop role-playing these days. I'm married with a year-old daughter, which has eaten a lot of my time. I do run an excellent World of Warcraft guild and we have a lot of fun.

TAC: What was it that primarily attracted you to WFRP as a license?

JW: Mostly it was the fact the licence was available. I wasn't a Warhammer or WFRP player. I knew the game had a strong fanbase, and I was looking for a commercial property that would give Hogshead visibility and commercial security. I'd been writing RPG material professionally for ten years, I'd seen any number of UK companies start up and go bust because they believed that having a good game was the same as having a commercial game. Back in the day starting an RPG company in the UK was incredibly hard because the UK market wasn't large enough to sustain it, and it took a lot to get the US - still the largest market for RPGs in the world - to sit up and pay attention. So I knew I needed a big name with a lot of recognition, and when a friend mentioned that the WFRP licence was available, I knew that was what I'd been looking for.

TAC: What is your favourite WFRP book (any edition)?

JW: Marienburg. Anthony Ragan wrote a fantastic living, breathing city, the artists brought it to life, and I think it's a terrific piece of work.

TAC: What is your favourite WFRP fan material (any edition)?

JW: Warpstone. From its earliest days it's produced material of a quality that would put a lot of actual games publishers to shame.

TAC: A catchphrase of WFRP is "Grim'n Gritty". What does this mean to you, and how does this influence your game?

JW: Well, as I said I don't actually play WFRP. The decision to publish it was a commercial one. But in game-style fantasy, for me "grim and gritty" means realistic. I can't believe in worlds filled with treasure-seeking paladins or wizards who are basically walking flamethrowers. In games, 'grim and gritty' tends to mean that stuff like falls and poison will kill you, instead of leaving you with an easy saving-throw and often no damage at all. If I wanted to play a superhero game, I'd play a superhero game.

I know I said I play World of Warcraft. That's different. I play it for the game. I hate the background and the characters. I don't know anyone who gives a damn about the background of WoW. The Warhammer world has a depth and richness that isn't just fun, it's also believable.

TAC: What's the iconic WFRP career for you?

JW: Either Witch-hunter or Rat-catcher.

TAC: What's the iconic WFRP opponent for you?

JW: Chaos in all its forms. There's a lot talked about Warhammer's debt to Michael Moorcock, but in terms of visual imagery the Games Workshop vision of Chaos is completely original, utterly distinctive, and still terrifying. And the idea of a force of Chaos that isn't balanced by an equivalent force of Law is wonderfully bleak. The idea that the inhabitants of the Warhammer world are basically fighting a rearguard action, that Chaos will eventually win and will destroy the world, and that's inevitable... I love that kind of fatalism.

TAC: So ... Dragon Warriors. What's that all about?

JW: Dragon Warriors is a bit like WFRP, really. It's a 1980s game with a post-D&D ruleset, based in a world that's recognisably modelled on a historical version of Europe. The difference is that Dragon Warriors is a simpler, faster game with fewer character classes, and the background isn't pre-Renaissance, it's post-Crusades, so there are a lot of unemployed knights wandering the land looking for a fight.

The other difference is that the world of Dragon Warriors is very folkloric. Superstition and myth play an incredibly important part in people's lives, and that gives the setting a flavour and depth that I've not found in many other fantasy games.

TAC: What prompted the rerelease of Dragon Warriors?

JW: Dragon Warriors was written in the 1980s by my friends Dave Morris and Oliver Johnson, and I've talked to them off and on about reissuing it. I didn't do it at Hogshead because I felt the game was too close to Warhammer FRP and they'd have caused some confusion in the market. Once I decided that I missed publishing and thought about getting back into it, it seemed like a natural choice.

TAC: What are your publishing plans? Any supplements coming? Adventures?

JW: Dragon Warriors was originally issued as a series of six paperback-sized books, each one with some mechanics, a new character class, some new monsters and some adventures. We're reformatting it so all the classes and rules are in one book, and then there will be a separate Bestiary and three campaign-length adventures--nothing as epic as The Enemy Within, but still pretty cool. Beyond that, we're talking to several established games writers, including some old names from the Hogshead days of WFRP, about expanding the game in different directions. I can't announce anything yet, but there are many plans afoot.

TAC: What would a WFRP fan find of interest in the Dragon Warriors game?

JW: I think they'd enjoy the setting a lot. The tone, the sense of darkness and the fact that most of the world is unknown, unknowable and probably able to kick your ass... that's all quite similar. There are no mighty armies marching across the landscape, no legendary heroes, and the world is much less organised than in WFRP - no elector-counts or anything like that, but the feudal system of lords and barons is in place, and much of the currency isn't about gold, it's about debts of honour or fealty. It'd probably be quite simple to drop the WFRP system straight onto the DW background, it would fit well and a lot of the careers would translate straight across.

TAC: What do you think about the future of WFRP?

JW: I think it's a huge shame that Games Workshop lost faith in it and cancelled the second edition, but Fantasy Flight is one of the powerhouses of the games industry these days and the game couldn't have found a better home. I look forward to seeing what they do with it, and which direction they take it. The existence of Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, the forthcoming MMORPG set in the Old World, can only be a good thing for the potential market of a tabletop version.

TAC: What do you think about the future of roleplaying games in general?

JW: Ah... I've been doing this rant for years, it's the reason I left the industry in the first place back in 2003. There is a future for RPGs, but the games industry as a whole is not interested in following it. RPGs and video-games had their infancy at about the same time. In video-games, the state of the art is World of Warcraft, GTA4, Call of Duty 4, Braid, Rock Band, Wii Fit. In RPGs, we've got to D&D 4e. Imagine if video games had taken thirty years to produce a fourth edition of Space Invaders or Pong, and that was the most-played market-leading game.

That's where the RPG market is. And that's why a typical new RPG from an established company will sell less than 2000 copies, which is not enough to make money if you're trying to do this as a proper job. We as an industry are selling a product that's almost identical to what it was thirty years ago, except for better-quality printing and nicer art. Most of the RPG market is driven by nostalgia. The number of new players coming in is negligible. Magnum Opus is around for the long haul, but don't expect us to be focusing all our energy on publishing traditional RPGs.

Wow! I never knew, or rather never bothered to find out, that James wrote Once upon a time, one of my favourite games ever! When it comes to WFRP, it was Hogshead's endorsement of Warpstone that prompted me to check the magazine out, something I have never regretted. So in more ways than one, James Wallis has added to my library of extra-ordinary game experiences. Although I never really got the hang of Baron Münchausen. I guess I was too busy reading and rereading PuppetLand. Now, I've got to get my hands on Game Night and Dragon Warriors when it is released in October. I still remember those covers from ads in White Dwarf ...

A great many thanks to James Wallis for accepting to do this interview, and we hope to see a lot more of Magnum Opus Press in the future!

/Magnus

FAL News: ENnies 2008

The ENnie awards have been announced. You’ll find the results here.

Three lifetime awards; Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson and Erick Wujcik. Of note is that Mr. Gygax and Mr. Wujick passed away this year, so it is high time to honour those that blazed the trails of our hobby before it is too late. I’m particularly pleased that Mr. Arneson was awarded, all too often he is forgotten for his contribution to the birth of D&D.

Paizo Publishing netted seven gold and one silver award, Wizards of the Coast collected five gold and three silver awards, White Wolf picked up three gold and five silver awards. The big names scored big, as usual. It’s going to be interesting to see if Paizo can keep up with their strategy and continue to be successful with the development of Pathfinder and their relations with their fans.

As for the products that were honoured, the games I’m interested in are Trail of Cthulhu and Changeling. The first was already on my radar, but the ENnies brought Changeling to my attention.

As for best fan products, Dungeon Mastering won the gold, and Flames Rising the silver! Good work!

/M