The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Fans of the Warhammer Fantasy RPG setting (known as WHFRP, Warhammer Fantasy Role Play, to differentiate it from the tabletop game, Warhammer Fantasy Battle, or WHFB) had to suffer through a dry spell from the early 1990s until the late 1990s when there was very little available to satisfy their appetite for the Warhammer world. The RPG setting had failed as a commercial project, partly as a result of Games Workshop’s over-extension which forced the company to concentrate on its miniatures business. (Many fans remain, however, and Hogshead Publishing in England even continues to publish the old WHFRP materials as well as some new supplements.) With the opening of the Black Library, the fiction publishing arm of Games Workshop, in the late 1990s, however, there has been a burgeoning number of titles available to add to the library of any Warhammer fan. Most notable have been the Felix and Gotrek novels (soon to number five!), detailing the travels and travails of the Warhammer world’s most famous duo. More important for the diversity of the setting has been the appearance of a small number of additional works of fiction set in the Warhammer world. One such book is the anthology entitled Realm of Chaos. For those unfamiliar with the Warhammer fantasy universe, the books could best be classified as dark fantasy or fantasy with horror elements. At the same time, however, epic heroism is a recurring theme in Warhammer books, so do not be surprised to see a champion mow down goblins like a John Deere combine mowing down wheat at harvest time.

The book, edited by Warhammer icons Marc Gascoigne and Andy Jones, consists of twelve short stories by various authors. Like most fantasy anthologies, this one suffers from inconsistency in the quality of the work—some stories are simply better than others. For the most part, however, the stories are good to excellent, and the book as a whole certainly matches up to any other fantasy anthology on the market. In general the editors have done a good job in presenting tight, readable stories. In two cases, however, they seem to have gone astray. One over-long story, "Paradise Lost" by Andy Jones (the editor himself), is a whimsical story of the authors favorite group of characters. The story itself could be a little bit shorter, but the real problem I have with the story is that it simply does not fit the mood of the book. The rest of the stories in the book dwell on the strong themes running throughout Warhammer products: horror, fear, conspiracy, evil, and even despair. While whimsy and dark humor are as much a part and parcel of the Warhammer setting, this story just seems terribly out of place with the others. It is actually a fun story, and well-written, so some readers may be happy to have it in there. Another story, which shall remain nameless so as not to spoil it, inexplicably commits the sin against which every writing teacher preaches: the main character is killed at the end. We all know that life is unfair and ironic, but there are a thousand better ways to portray that than by killing the main character. In fact, up until the end when our hero dies within sight of his goal, I found the story to be entertaining, but the end left me questioning the whole point of the story. Stories in which the main character dies simply do not make for good stories. Even the story in which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle kills off Sherlock Holmes—and the Sherlock Holmes stories are some of the best formulated, well-written stories in the English language—is a pretty bad story. A warning, also, to fans of the Warhammer universe. Despite the title, many of the stories in the book do not focus on the conflict against Chaos (the evildoers of Warhammer). In some stories the traditional followers of Chaos simply do not appear and antagonists instead include pirates, skinks, orcs, evil wizards and the undead.

But these issues are relatively minor when compared to the bulk of excellent stories in the collection. In particular, "Hatred" by Ben Chessell and "The Blessed Ones" by Rani Kellock are well worth the price of admission. "Hatred" highlights all the ambiguity and uncertainty of life in the Old World. The story combines several elements which are afflicting a small town, including the savage murder of a citizen, the sudden arrival of a Witch Hunter (those sworn to discover and destroy Chaos and its followers), and the estrangement between the town cop and his mistress. Combines with the eerie inner thoughts of an unknown character which are interspersed through the story, the reader is left guessing what will happen. "The Blessed Ones" combines the traditional fantasy motif of the down-on-his-luck thief with the common Warhammer element of a conspiracy within a city. In this story, a secret cult of Chaos followers is seeking to acquire a powerful relic from a reluctant merchant, and our roguish hero soon finds himself in over his head. Many of the other stories successfully draw together the threads of horror, conflict and conspiracy which permeate the Warhammer universe. Readers will notice again and again that appearance does not always equal reality.

In short, Realm of Chaos is definitely worth it for fans of the Warhammer fantasy setting, and could be used for adventure and hook ideas for any fantasy DM. Most of the stories do an excellent job of portraying the traditional themes and mood of Warhammer, and several of them are quite good short stories in their own right. If you like to add an element of horror to your campaign, or simply need ideas for an adventure focusing on intrigues or conspiracies, then this book could also help you out there. The Warhammer world is chock full of intrigues and conspiracies. If you are completely unfamiliar with the world created by Games Workshop, then this may not be the best book for introducing you to it. If you can get one of the older anthologies (particularly Wolf Riders), it would be better. But since these are out of print, I would recommend Realm of Chaos as the next best thing. I should also mention that the cover artwork is superb and invokes the horror and conflict motifs which are the hallmarks of the Warhammer setting. You can almost hear the Chaos hordes chanting in the background: Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Blood God!