The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Hogshead, the publishers of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay years ago published a sourcebook called Apocrypha Now, a collection of old out of print material and a dash of new material. The successor to this original has been released: Apocrphya 2: Chart of Darkness, and is considerably better than its predecessor. Not only is the art better, but their is now more new material in relation to reprinted material - a vast improvement over the old.

The first thing I noticed about it was the cover. The choice is a curious one - a picture of a man standing before a tower. This same image has been in the WFRP rulebook. Furthermore, the very same piece was used again, this time as a cover for the Flame Publications WFRP sourcebook Castle Drachenfels. The use again of this same image is problematic and possibly confusing. Apparently Hogshead is going for a theme, since the castle on the front of Apocrypha 2 is the same as the one on the front of Apocrypha 1. If and when a third is produced, Hogshead will apparently commission art for the third one continuing the same theme. However, it seems that they could have commissioned new art for the entire series rather than reusing old cover art from other products for their new line.

The content in this supplement is quite useful. It is divided up into five categories:.

Section One: Crime and Punishment

This section details new careers for beggars and provides a bit of atmosphere to poverty in the Old World. It also provides some new skills and illustrates how the old WFRP careers can undergo a little tinkering and provide some intriguing possibilities for the Old World. Following that chapter is a chapter making picking pockets more realistic. It serves to complicate the game, but of more interest are some of the tactics used by pick pockets to rob their prey. A number of spells for Ranald, the god of thieves is offered next, and this is followed by the strongest chapter in this section, an article describing prisons in the world - four to be precise and each of a different type. Furthermore, the author, Anthony Ragan goes provides a history relevant to the world, and introduces, for the first time, more information on the Southlands in WFRP. All in all, a solid chapter, and all new material to boot.

Section Two: Requiescant in Pace

This is another strong chapter, opening with an indepth treatment of the Cult of Morr, the worshippers of the god of Death. The article provides examples of how other careers are integrated into the church and shows how broad membership within a cult is and provides details on the church Templars. It also describes funerals, both human and non-human. The following chapter is immediately relevant: it provides some much needed spells for the clerics of Morr, and provides us possibly with a glimpse of the forthcoming Realm of Sorcery, by presenting us with 'rituals' along with 'spells'. Continuing the theme, the next chapter briefly touches on the dead and the law in the Old World. This brief article is followed by a location for Marienburg, a funeral home which details the location, its inhabitants, and provides some adventure themes. Concluding the chapter is an article detailing a number of graveyard encounters. This entire section is the most useful in the book and enhances the game.

People and Places

This chapter was a disappointment - largely because it is primarily reprinted material - but for those who have never seen this material it is bound to me more useful. It details a printshop and a magical pawnshop (both printed originally in White Dwarf). Following these is an article detailing an Orc warband for characters to fight. The article is full of attitude and humor, yet this is not enough to save the article - it feels like something that belongs in Warhammer Fantasy Battle - after all, it is an encounter with 80+ orcs! A carnival (new material) is detailed next, the best element in this section, and the section ends with two characters: Gotrek and Felix, characters from Warhammer novels; extraneous material with little value to anyone.

Section Four: Of Divers Matters

The most useful part of the entire book begins this chapter and is incidentally a reprint: The character booklet from the original WFRP character pack. This section provides names, birth place locations, character quirks, families, eye and hair color, and other details in random dice tables. Although it is entirely unnecessary to have players roll for build, hair or eye color, weight or height, it does go along way to at least focusing attention on PC personalities and histories, something woefully lacking in the WFRP rulebook. In addition, there are articles on new herbs and rules for divination which include not only new divination skills but new careers as well. The divination chapter finally, after 13 or so years of existence, provides a reasonable task resolution system showing the degree of success and accounting for critical success or failure. The absence of such a system in the WFRP rulebook indicates its age: the introduction of this in this section does alot to bring WFRP up to date with changes in the gaming world over the last decade or so. This chapter concludes with another disappointing reprinted article on archery and enchantment: detailing different types of magical arrows, with no less then ten different charts.

Section Five: Adventures

Lest I give away spoilers, I'll only hint at the various adventures: The first, The Ritual, is another disappointing reprint revolving around the all too common bogeyman of the Old World: the secretive forces of Chaos that seem to be in every city, town, village, and thorp in the Old World. Another reprint: The Affair of the Hidden Jewel is a melodramatic adventure. Its different feel and attitude simply can't make up for its general mediocrity. The next adventure is out of place - a reprint again - it is an adventure for Doomstones (although it could be used anywhere) and a tough one at that. Essentially a dungeon bash - it does offer two new Illusionist spells. The last adventure is the only new one: and this one as well is out of place, being a suggested interlude in the Doomstones Campaign: 'Deep Trouble in Karak-Zulvor: An Adventure in a Traditional Style' (i.e. a Dungeon Bash). Lo and behold, this one weds the stereotypical adventure of the late 70's: Ye Olde Dungeon Bash with the stereotypical villain of WFRP: Ye Olde Servant of Chaos. It does provide Warpstone Sickness rules - yet these seem to contrast with early published material by other companies. Oddly enough, to resist Warpstone one needs to make a Disease test, when maybe a Will Power test should be made instead? Regardless, the inclusion of the last two adventures in the book seem a bit out of place: The suitable location for both would seem to be the Doomstones Campaign. Now, the material for the Doomstones Campaign covers not only their two published books (originally published in four books by GW) and a forthcoming book, but Hogshead's newsletter Hogwash and now Apocrypha Two. This oversight, in conjunction with the average quality of the adventures make this chapter the worst in the book.

The last two pages are a character sheet, which looks nicer than the other ones produced. My only complaint is that hit location numbers are a bit hard to read, and that it is no longer possible to doodle a little picture of your pc there whilst bored.

Despite the shortcomings of the last chapter, the book overall is good. The interior art is good and varied, the material is divided up in a reasonable fashion and the amount and quality of new material does alot to boost the value of this book. The reprinted material is of, at best, average quality however. Any GM interested in running WFRP, whether new or old will find this book to be useful - for those who don't run WFRP, it may be worth looking at since some of the material could easily be extrapolated and used in other game systems as well.

All in all, a solid effort by Hogshead and book that does much to enrich and evoke a feeling of the Old World. A far superior product to the original.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Apocrypha 2: Chart of Darkness
Author: Graeme Davis, editor Category: game Company/Publisher: Hogshead Publishing Line: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Cost: 17.95 Page count: 128 ISBN: 1899149179 SKU: HP214 Capsule Review by Garett Lepper on 10/13/00. Genre tags: Fantasy	Hogshead, the publishers of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay years ago published a sourcebook called Apocrypha Now, a collection of old out of print material and a dash of new material. The successor to this original has been released: Apocrphya 2: Chart of Darkness, and is considerably better than its predecessor. Not only is the art better, but their is now more new material in relation to reprinted material - a vast improvement over the old. The first thing I noticed about it was the cover. The choice is a curious one - a picture of a man standing before a tower. This same image has been in the WFRP rulebook. Furthermore, the very same piece was used again, this time as a cover for the Flame Publications WFRP sourcebook Castle Drachenfels. The use again of this same image is problematic and possibly confusing. Apparently Hogshead is going for a theme, since the castle on the front of Apocrypha 2 is the same as the one on the front of Apocrypha 1. If and when a third is produced, Hogshead will apparently commission art for the third one continuing the same theme. However, it seems that they could have commissioned new art for the entire series rather than reusing old cover art from other products for their new line. The content in this supplement is quite useful. It is divided up into five categories:. Section One: Crime and Punishment This section details new careers for beggars and provides a bit of atmosphere to poverty in the Old World. It also provides some new skills and illustrates how the old WFRP careers can undergo a little tinkering and provide some intriguing possibilities for the Old World. Following that chapter is a chapter making picking pockets more realistic. It serves to complicate the game, but of more interest are some of the tactics used by pick pockets to rob their prey. A number of spells for Ranald, the god of thieves is offered next, and this is followed by the strongest chapter in this section, an article describing prisons in the world - four to be precise and each of a different type. Furthermore, the author, Anthony Ragan goes provides a history relevant to the world, and introduces, for the first time, more information on the Southlands in WFRP. All in all, a solid chapter, and all new material to boot. Section Two: Requiescant in Pace This is another strong chapter, opening with an indepth treatment of the Cult of Morr, the worshippers of the god of Death. The article provides examples of how other careers are integrated into the church and shows how broad membership within a cult is and provides details on the church Templars. It also describes funerals, both human and non-human. The following chapter is immediately relevant: it provides some much needed spells for the clerics of Morr, and provides us possibly with a glimpse of the forthcoming Realm of Sorcery, by presenting us with 'rituals' along with 'spells'. Continuing the theme, the next chapter briefly touches on the dead and the law in the Old World. This brief article is followed by a location for Marienburg, a funeral home which details the location, its inhabitants, and provides some adventure themes. Concluding the chapter is an article detailing a number of graveyard encounters. This entire section is the most useful in the book and enhances the game. People and Places This chapter was a disappointment - largely because it is primarily reprinted material - but for those who have never seen this material it is bound to me more useful. It details a printshop and a magical pawnshop (both printed originally in White Dwarf). Following these is an article detailing an Orc warband for characters to fight. The article is full of attitude and humor, yet this is not enough to save the article - it feels like something that belongs in Warhammer Fantasy Battle - after all, it is an encounter with 80+ orcs! A carnival (new material) is detailed next, the best element in this section, and the section ends with two characters: Gotrek and Felix, characters from Warhammer novels; extraneous material with little value to anyone. Section Four: Of Divers Matters The most useful part of the entire book begins this chapter and is incidentally a reprint: The character booklet from the original WFRP character pack. This section provides names, birth place locations, character quirks, families, eye and hair color, and other details in random dice tables. Although it is entirely unnecessary to have players roll for build, hair or eye color, weight or height, it does go along way to at least focusing attention on PC personalities and histories, something woefully lacking in the WFRP rulebook. In addition, there are articles on new herbs and rules for divination which include not only new divination skills but new careers as well. The divination chapter finally, after 13 or so years of existence, provides a reasonable task resolution system showing the degree of success and accounting for critical success or failure. The absence of such a system in the WFRP rulebook indicates its age: the introduction of this in this section does alot to bring WFRP up to date with changes in the gaming world over the last decade or so. This chapter concludes with another disappointing reprinted article on archery and enchantment: detailing different types of magical arrows, with no less then ten different charts. Section Five: Adventures Lest I give away spoilers, I'll only hint at the various adventures: The first, The Ritual, is another disappointing reprint revolving around the all too common bogeyman of the Old World: the secretive forces of Chaos that seem to be in every city, town, village, and thorp in the Old World. Another reprint: The Affair of the Hidden Jewel is a melodramatic adventure. Its different feel and attitude simply can't make up for its general mediocrity. The next adventure is out of place - a reprint again - it is an adventure for Doomstones (although it could be used anywhere) and a tough one at that. Essentially a dungeon bash - it does offer two new Illusionist spells. The last adventure is the only new one: and this one as well is out of place, being a suggested interlude in the Doomstones Campaign: 'Deep Trouble in Karak-Zulvor: An Adventure in a Traditional Style' (i.e. a Dungeon Bash). Lo and behold, this one weds the stereotypical adventure of the late 70's: Ye Olde Dungeon Bash with the stereotypical villain of WFRP: Ye Olde Servant of Chaos. It does provide Warpstone Sickness rules - yet these seem to contrast with early published material by other companies. Oddly enough, to resist Warpstone one needs to make a Disease test, when maybe a Will Power test should be made instead? Regardless, the inclusion of the last two adventures in the book seem a bit out of place: The suitable location for both would seem to be the Doomstones Campaign. Now, the material for the Doomstones Campaign covers not only their two published books (originally published in four books by GW) and a forthcoming book, but Hogshead's newsletter Hogwash and now Apocrypha Two. This oversight, in conjunction with the average quality of the adventures make this chapter the worst in the book. The last two pages are a character sheet, which looks nicer than the other ones produced. My only complaint is that hit location numbers are a bit hard to read, and that it is no longer possible to doodle a little picture of your pc there whilst bored. Despite the shortcomings of the last chapter, the book overall is good. The interior art is good and varied, the material is divided up in a reasonable fashion and the amount and quality of new material does alot to boost the value of this book. The reprinted material is of, at best, average quality however. Any GM interested in running WFRP, whether new or old will find this book to be useful - for those who don't run WFRP, it may be worth looking at since some of the material could easily be extrapolated and used in other game systems as well. All in all, a solid effort by Hogshead and book that does much to enrich and evoke a feeling of the Old World. A far superior product to the original. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Apocrypha 2: Chart of Darkness