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Style
The art in this book is, as is to be expected, highly uneven in quality. The best pictures are easily of professional standard, but quite a lot of it is mediocre at best. All of the artists seem to get the gritty, dark atmosphere of Warhammer right, but quite a few of them lack the technical skills to pull it off successfully. For a fanzine, this is probably to be expected. Overall, the mediocre and the bad outnumber the good throughout the book. Sadly, the cover painting must be counted amongst the former, giving the book a very amateurish look that will probably put some people of. The layout of the book is serviceable, but nothing special. It’s held firmly within the WFRP-style, but doesn’t have the professional touch of the Hogshead products. All in all, the style of this book is decent, but not outstanding.
The Game
The first part of the book is titled “The Game”, and gives us four general articles on various aspects of the game itself. The first one is called “Fighting Chaos: Why Bother?” an opinion piece which argues that chaos has become so prevalent among the published adventures for Warhammer that it seems like there’s just no point in fighting it, it’s bound to win anyway. The article writer the laments Games Workshops Warhammer Fantasy Battle, which he thinks has led the Warhammer world astray, and argues that the side of “law” needs strengthening in WFRP so as to stand a chance against chaos. An interesting piece which I think rests on very wrong assumptions; firstly, what GW does to WFRP really doesn’t have more bearing on the game than you let it (which in my personal game means: absolutely none), and secondly, a published adventure, in order to be just that, necessarily has to do with extraordinary and singular events. I.e. the fact that Bõgenhafen has a secret cabal of unknowing chaos-cultists doesn’t mean that all towns have one. The next two articles are called “To fight, or not to Fight” and “Volatile Magick”, and gives opinions on alternatives to combat and some ideas on magic weapons with a twist. Both decent articles which may be helpful to beginning players/GMs but doesn’t have much to offer to the experienced reader. The last article in this section, called “The Secrets of the Warhammer artists”, is written by none other than Graeme Davis, one of the original WFRP-writers, and gives some insight into the in-jokes that litters the drawings in various WFRP products. Interesting stuff, but not an article that you’re likely to read more than once.
The Old World
The next section gives various background articles, the first, and largest, being “Templars”. 18 pages with a very detailed look on various templar orders in the old world, this is well written and good background for anyone wishing to run campaigns where religious soldiers feature in some respect. Could have been shortened, though, by removing some of the excessive background history that some Warpstone writers are fond of padding out their articles with. “Low-Life on the Highway” is next, a good article on road-travel and road-encounters. Solid material that would be of use to just about any GM out there, as any group of PCs is more or less bound to hit the road sooner or later. “Disease in the Warhammer World” gives some nice background and rules for just that, and details a multitude of diseases which an evil GM can inflict on the PCs. Slightly too many, in my opinion, as I think abut half would have been more than enough. “Player’s Guide to Marienburg” is meant as a handout to PCs visiting that city, and is written in a pamphlet style by a citizen of the Empire. A nice little treat for those who own the “Marienburg” sourcebook, but of little use to anyone else. “Prosthetics in the Old World” gives rules to help out those poor unfortunate victims of the WFRP critical-hits charts. Solid stuff, although a few of the offered remedies seems silly to my eyes. Lastly in this section comes an article on Witch-hunters called “Mankind’s Last Best Chance”, where this much-maligned profession is defended, along with some background on their organization in the Old World. Perfectly Ok material, but this has since been made superfluous by the material in “Realms of Sorcery”, which is clearly superior.
Fiction
Warpstone has, regrettably, always set aside a few pages for Warhammer short stories, and have chosen to include one of them in this book. A very unnecessary call in my opinion, but then again I have an almost irrational hatred for bad fan-fic. This one is called “The Final Adventure of Ursula Urjingraad”, and is four pages of utterly unforgettable plot and characters.
Scenarios
This section is called Scenarios, but only five of the eight articles really fit that description. Some Cameos are included, and two articles describing people and organizations that, even though they’re full of plot-hooks, aren’t really scenarios per se. “A Hundred Years of Trade” is the first one, describing a traditional trading company, it’s owners and employees. Not badly written at all, and offering plenty of scenario-ideas, but I just can’t seem to get excited about this one. “The Greys”, however, is more my cup of tea. This is an organization that tries to help those unfortunate individuals who are afflicted with chaos-mutations. “The Greys” really showcase one of the main strengths of Warpstone, which is taking the Warhammer world and exploring the darker aspects of it, the grey zones (no pun intended). These are articles that would never be printed in official releases, not because of lack of quality, but because it doesn’t fit the official black-and-white of GW Warhammer. “Cameos” are next, a few short ideas for encounters that can easily be fleshed out. Good, solid ideas here. “The Eternal Guard” is the first of the proper scenarios in this book, and sets the tone nicely with a mummy-hunt in Marienburg. Good, if not great. “One Hour (to) Mórr” is next. John Foody, Warpstone editor (and writer of this particular scenario) states somewhere that he doesn’t really like this scenario, but that it’s included in the book because it came out on top in the reader’s poll. I think I’ll have to side with Mr. Foody on this one. A hunt for cultists with a time limit, this is a variation on a theme that we’ve seen all too many times before. “The Cannon Ball Run”, however, is really great stuff, and the best-illustrated piece in the entire book. This is set in Nuln, and concerns a kidnapping and a smuggling operation. A solid scenario that follows the much to be applauded guidelines of Warpstone of not including chaos-cultists at all. “The Missing Children of Regensdorf” is a scenario set in the titular village, located wherever the GM needs it to be. An incredibly fun scenario that in my opinion is the best article in the entire book. It contains such elements as missing children (of course), scarecrows, a mad blacksmith and animated armour, and is certain to deliver a whole handful of trouble to the unlucky PC party who stumbles into the cursed village. “A Buried Past” is a the name of the short scenario that rounds out this section, also set in Nuln, and concerning a theatre and a noble with dark secrets in his past. I don’t really like this one, as it’s mostly about the NPCs and not the PCs, and doesn’t really give any reasons for them to care.
Miscellany
This last section contains the handouts for the adventures, all the covers for the first nine Warpstone issues and an index.
Conclusion
Is this book worth the price? That depends. As a whole, it doesn’t stand up to the standard of official WFRP products (uneven as they might be), but parts of it certainly does. Out of 18 articles (not counting the short story), I’d say that nine of them are certainly worth the money. My answer, then, to the question is a slightly hesitant yes.
