Really, Really Oldhammer

Part of the reason for this blog is the surge of interest in recent years of gamers going 'old-school'. Having had a look at some of the OD&D stuff out there (took me straight back to 1982 and my first RPG purchase of 'red box' basic D&D), and seeing the complete fluff-fest that 'Dungeons & Dragons' has become in recent years, I too yearn for the days when rule books were printed in black type on white paper, when illustrations were dodgy looking line drawings, and rules were explained in as few sentences as possible (ok, so some of them made no sense...).

Anyway, shortly after buying D&D, I ended up in the Games Workshop store in Birmingham (my memories of this visit deserve a dedicated post...) for my next big purchase. This was during the summer holidays in 1983, I'd saved up my pocket money and went for 'The Mass Combat Role-Playing Game'....WARHAMMER.

That's right, 1st edition Warhammer! The one in the flimsy box (with the awesome John Blanche art) with 3 black and white books of fantasy goodness that not only covered mass combat, it also detailed a coherent magic system and (gasp) gave you rules for long running campaigns and characters for role-playing!.

Chaos Warrior whacks a skellington with a hammer.

Whats not to like?

That last bit probably makes no sense to the 'modern' gamer. I'm sure you've met at least one, or read their inane ramblings on other blogs/forums. You know, the urchin that's been suckling on corporate teet its entire life and asks the "what manufacturers miniatures am I allowed to use with this game?" question at wargames clubs the world over. The kind of gamer that uses the term 'Games Workshop Hobby' without a hint of irony or condescension, and needs to ask the question "Is it a wargame or a role-playing game?". But I digress...

At its inception, Warhammer was a role-playing wargame. Yup, sounds weird, but it works. The rules for mass combat were simple and fun, magic went in to just the right amount of detail (most spells requiring some kind of talisman, the more interesting of which inspiring quests to obtain them), and the role-playing rules were basic and open to  tweaking/development. I've read a few reviews that see the lack of a detailed fantasy role-playing (FRP) element to the rules as a bad thing. I think they missed the point.

To understand what I'm getting at you have to put 1st edition Warhammer in the context of its time. When RPG's first became established in the mid 70's they were an extension of wargaming. Read anything from that period and you'll see the two terms were pretty much interchangeable (but role-players and wargamers were starting to fall out). By the early 80's most role-players/wargamers had extensive collections of miniatures, both historical and fantasy. So Warhammer was a natural extension of this situation. For its time it wasn't that forward thinking (D&D had been around for years, was even on its 3rd edition with clearer and more professional looking rules), but it did cater for its typically English audience. It allowed gamers to develop their own ideas (it had no background) and create characters that could seek their fortune by hacking and slashing through dungeon and battlefield alike.

Bringing things back to the present, it appears I'm not the only one who thinks this kind of thing is a good idea. The chaps at 2 Hour Wargames have a whole range of wargames rules with a role-playing element, one of which is of particular interest to what is being discussed here. 'Warrior Heroes - Armies and Adventures' is a great set of rules that neatly combines campaign and very simple FRP rules in one.

Warrior Heroes - who'd a thunk it?

So with all the above in mind, and a desire to get back to the thrill of FRP'ing that I enjoyed in my youth, I have decided to go back to 1st edition Warhammer and see what I can get out of it. I aim to combine the campaign system of Warrior heroes with the FRP and combat rules of Warhammer (I'll detail how I did this in a later post). I'm also putting the finishing touches to an island realm as a setting, a fantasy 'Albion' that I started to create 20 years ago, that I will share with you (when I've finished some maps and a gazetteer of its settlements/population/armed forces).

To get your appetite whetted I include a link to a Warhammer character sheet of my own devising in MS Word.

Warhammer 1st Edition Character Sheet