October 1986

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**reds8n**

... and the WD below came out.

30 years ago, good grief where does the time go ?!

Great game that still -- by and large -- holds up well today.

From a rules/technical POV I do prefer the 2nd edition -- never played 3rd.. all the counters etc etc kinda put me off -- as well as the (related) huge shipping costs.

Some truly wonderful published adventures for this game however -- in all 3 incarnations.

One would suggest the "....slayer" archetype for dwarves/dwarfs has been very influential too, they seem to be everywhere ever since.

Given the end of the Old World et al guess we won't see anything similar for quite some time -- if at all.
Which does strike me as a shame.

Not quite sure that AoS has the same sort of RPing potential as such ?

**squidhills**

I'm currently running a short WHFB RPG campaign on Tuesday nights, using the 2nd edition rules. Overall, I think it's going okay, but everyone has expressed extreme dismay at how character advancement was handled. Those who have played this game know exactly what I'm talking about.

**reds8n**

. I always kinda dug the whole careers path.

Obviously sometimes a few oddities along the way occurred, but in my experience it's more the different "scale" of the game that causes some problems for players.

Due to the setting & combat method it's quite a lot different from, say, D & D or Pathfinder.

It's more GoT than Dragonlance , say.

http://italwaysrainsinnuln.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/a-wfrp-30th-anniversary-special.html

Fortunately, thanks to a gaming buddy (thanks Andy!), I've managed to land an interview with one of the original game's creators, Graeme Davis himself. It's really short, but for a WFRP geek like myself, who grew up with the game and had so many experience with it, both good and bad, this is a huge thing and a huge honor.

Without further ado, here's the whole thing. Enjoy.

Xathrodox86: Which edition of Warhammer Fantasy did you enjoyed working on the most?

Graeme Davis: First edition, definitely. For the others I was a freelancer working at home on material that others had created, but for first edition I was deep in the creative craziness that was the GW Design Studio in the 80s. It was a unique time and place and a unique team, and a fantastic experience for me.

Xathrodox86: How big was your input in the "Enemy Within" campaign for WFRP 1st edition?

Graeme Davis: Jim and Phil took the lead in creating the campaign; after Shadows Over Bogenhafen, my role became one of developer and editor. However, I was able to contribute as a writer to Death on the Reik (the River Life of the Empire section), Warhammer City (adventure seeds and other small contributions), and Something Rotten in Kislev (I added so much to Ken Rolston's manuscript that I was given credit as co-author).

Xathrodox86: What do you think about the differences between the classic, 1st and 2nd editions of Warhammer Fantasy and the 3rd edition?

Graeme Davis: Second edition did a great job of improving the game mechanics and smoothing out some of the clunky systems from First. Personally, I think the decision to set it in the aftermath of the Storm of Chaos limited the game's appeal. Third edition was so different that many existing fans were put off by the array of components - which actually worked well and cut down a lot on record keeping - and the unfamiliar dice pool mechanic.

Xathrodox86: What was the most interesting part of working on WFRP? What did you enjoyed the most? Similarly, what was the least enjoabyle thing about writing these games?

Graeme Davis: The most enjoyable part, for me, was creating new locations and characters. In particular, I had a lot of fun writing and developing material for the Marienburg series in White Dwarf. The least enjoyable... well, I had a lot of ideas that I wanted to write myself, but I was always needed to edited and develop other people's work instead.

Xathrodox86: Which adventure or campaign from Warhammer Fantasy 1st and 2nd, is your all time favorite?

Graeme Davis: Power Behind the Throne is my absolute favorite: the characters, the politics, the plots - it covers everything I like in a roleplaying adventure. "A Rough Night at the Three Feathers" is my favorite out of the adventures I have written. I wrote it as an experiment, not really knowing whether multi-plot adventures could work, and it did!

Xathrodox86: What was your opinion on Games Workshop's cancellation of Warhammer Fantasy franchise? What do you think about the Age of Sigmar and its role, as the continuation of WFB?

Graeme Davis: The Age of Sigmar is a departure from the Warhammer setting of the previous 30 years, but I can only guess that it serves GW's current needs better than the older setting. I haven't looked at it, so I don't know enough to have an opinion worth sharing.

Xathrodox86: Aside from Warhammer, what game system did you enjoyed writing about the most? Vampire: The Masquerade? Dungeons & Dragons?

Graeme Davis: Vampire was a lot of fun to write for, but the writing I have enjoyed most has not been for a specific system. I have always been interested in historical fantasy, and down the years I have been able to write articles on the Celts and Ancient Egypt for Imagine magazine, the HR1 Celts sourcebook for AD&D second edition, GURPS Vikings, Middle Ages 1, Crusades, and Faerie, and other historical fantasy titles.

Xathrodox86: Once again thank you for your willingness to answer these questions. It's an honor to write them to you.

Graeme Davis: I am the on who is honored, when so many people feel so passionate about something I wrote, even thirty years later.

So there you have it. It was a great honor and great fun to interview Mr. Davis. I also wanted to thank Andrew Dyer, with whom I play Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay over Roll20. Without him this interview would never have been possible.

Also be sure to check out Graeme Davis' blog: graemedavis.wordpress.com. There you'll be able to find a lot of memories about Games Workshop, as well as annoucements for his next projects. He recently written a couple of books for the "Dark Osprey" series, such as "Nazi Moonbase" and "Werewolves: A Hunter's Guide". These are perfect for anyone who loves conspiracies and Urban Horror genre alike. Check 'em out, you won't be dissapointed.

As someone who just had his 30th birthday, this is one of the best, possible presents that I could have imagined. Keep on rocking Warhammer Fantasy, you beautiful and sexy beast.

Until next time!

Xathrodox86

**Gomez**

I didn't actually own that issue, but that artwork speaks to me in a way that no other RPG art ever has. I bought a copy WFRP 1st ed. as a 13-year-old on a whim with some of the birthday money that was burning a hole in my pocket, and my friends and I must have played hundreds of hours of it over the next year. And that cover (and the artwork inside) was just different enough from the stuff associated with D&D at the time (i.e. super shiny magicky high fantasy stuff) that it was like a paradigm shift for me as a young gamer. The grittiness, the grounded realism, the feeling of discovery crossed with the sense that something ominous was just around every corner... So awesome.

squidhills wrote:
I'm currently running a short WHFB RPG campaign on Tuesday nights, using the 2nd edition rules. Overall, I think it's going okay, but everyone has expressed extreme dismay at how character advancement was handled. Those who have played this game know exactly what I'm talking about.

Sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about. The career path mechanic was absolutely my favorite part of WFRP - the journey from lowly schmuck to... well, less-lowly professional and onward was great. It might have helped that we pretty much always hand-waved the transition from one career to the next (we just made up a plausible between-session story for how we had moved from, as an example, "Footpad" to "Outlaw"), but having a realistic set of growth areas to work through that made sense for an actual in-world profession really resonated with me.