Legion 08 (november 2008).pdf
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I am pleased to present another issue of Legion to the
world. The main focus of this issue is an interview with
Jay Little, the Senior Line Designer for WFRP with
Fantasy Flight Games. Many thanks to Jay for his time.
This interview would normally have gone in Warpstone,
but issue 28, which will be out soon, did not have the
space and we thought you would all like to read it now.
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Elsewhere in this issue we have Tim Eccles' listing of
Imperial street signs, Steve Darlington in praise of the
WFRP career system, William Knight's cameo inspired
by Robin Low's article on The Trust (Warpstone 18) and
Robin himself with The Spring of Eternal Life, a location
for a desert setting.
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Enjoy.
Editors: The usual suspects.
Legion is a Warpstone publication. For more info check out
www.warpstone.org
Warhammer, WFRP and the names of all prominent imagery, places and characters
within the Warhammer world are trademarks of Games Workshop Ltd. and are used
without permission. Warpstone recognises the status and ownership of all
copyrights, trademarks and registered names that may be used herein and the use of
the aforementioned within this publication should not be construed as a challenge to
such status and ownership.
Warpstone (ISSN 1465-6604) & Legion are independently produced magazines,
and not owned, licensed or approved by Games Workshop Ltd or FFG. All original
material is copyright to the respective author/artist.
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Jay is the Senior RPG Developer in charge of the Warhammer Fantasy
Roleplay line at FFG, the new publishers of the game. He kindly agreed to
answer some questions from the Warpstone team.
establish a certain comfort level, but then all the nuances and the infusion of
fantastic elements, magic, and Chaos really shaped a unique experience.
Up until playing WFRP, I hadn't been involved in a role-playing game with
such a taut gameplay experience, where the characters were frail, flawed,
and yet incredibly vibrant and dynamic. There's a certain atmosphere of hope
when your lowly rat catcher and band of peasantfolk turn back an invading
force of greenskins - even if no one else in the world ever hears of your
deeds, or believes you if they do.
Could you give us some background on yourself? What is your past
experience in games?
I think it's probably fair to say that I share an experience common with a lot
of other people who are currently working full-time in the games industry -
for a long time, I had a "Real World" job that afforded me the luxury of
working as a freelancer or part-timer in the game industry.
What is your role at FFG?
My non-gaming background includes time spent as a technology consultant,
a credentialed software trainer, a college instructor, a curriculum developer,
a senior web developer, and a variety of other roles leveraging my attention
to detail and communication skills.
As the Senior RPG Developer in charge of the Warhammer Fantasy
Roleplay line, I have a variety of duties with the core responsibility of
supporting the WFRP line and fulfilling both Games Workshop's and FFG's
goals for the vitality of the licence.
I started gaming at a very, very young age. I'm fortunate to be from a family
that saw value in gaming together, and we played board games and card
games on a regular basis. Then my older brother introduced me to the D&D
(in the red box) when I was in about 4th or 5th grade, and I was hooked on
fantasy gaming for good.
It's impossible to provide a "typical" workday, but here are some of the
things I'm responsible for: evaluating project submissions, researching and
clarifying rules questions, developing a pool of talented freelance writers,
managing projects, laying out books, reviewing and editing manuscripts,
creating budgets, writing proposals for upcoming projects, setting project
deadlines and expectations, securing contracts with writers and developers,
shepherding a project from inception to the delivery of print-ready files,
managing playtesters to assure projects are thoroughly tested, supporting the
fan base with new materials and information, helping the web team develop
content for the web site, and a variety of other tasks as they come up.
I started developing my own game designs in high school, and by college, I
started hooking up with a few people in the industry at GenCon and online. It
wasn't too long after college that I started to get some freelance work. Over
the years I've been involved with projects for Escape Ventures, Eden Studios,
Goodman Games, Wiz Kids, and of course Fantasy Flight Games. I've also
fostered friendships with a lot of great people in the game industry.
No two days are alike, and as you can imagine, these
responsibilities keep me busy and on my toes!
What attracted you to WFRP?
How have your first few months in the job been?
The grim setting was both familiar yet different from anything else I had
seen. The setting's similarities to our own geography and history helped
It's gone very well. I feel very good about the direction
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WFRP is going in, and am very pleased with the quality of the freelance
talent we're working with on upcoming projects. It's unfortunate that the
fans only get to see the slimmest glimpse of what I work on and what's been
going on behind the scenes - there is a lot of work being done!
great story. I see opportunities to strengthen the ruleset so players and GMs
can focus on creating a great story, rather than flipping through pages to
resolve a rules question.
How has the reaction from the fans been?
How much unpublished material came across from Green Ronin? Will it
all be published?
WFRP fans are active, vocal, demanding people. I've been impressed with
how welcoming and receptive the online fanbase has been. There are a lot of
intelligent, creative, and rabid fans out there.
One of our upcoming projects, Shades of Empire, is a sourcebook Green
Ronin was heavily involved in. We worked closely with Green Ronin to
leverage their experience with the setting and the system to develop this great
product. We're still reviewing a lot of the other materials that came across in
the transition of WFRP to Fantasy Flight Games.
As with anything new, there are supporters and detractors. I'm very pleased
that there seem to be a lot more supporters than detractors.
What direction would you like take to take WFRP?
GenCon was a great experience, as well. I got to meet a lot of enthusiastic
freelance writers and fans who were excited to see WFRP being supported
by Fantasy Flight Games.
I'd like to see more support for GMs to develop their own campaigns. I'm
looking at ways to provide tools so GMs can prepare exciting adventures for
their groups using less time. I'd also like to make WFRP more accessible to a
broader range of players - from new players who have never played a role-
playing game to veteran gamers looking for a novel setting and experience.
How does the relationship between GW and FFG work?
Games Workshop is great to work with. We recently had a face-to-face
meeting with Games Workshop, and I was incredibly pleased at how our
goals, expectations and processes mesh.
What are the challenges in producing and promoting WFRP?
Despite its legacy, WFRP is still relatively new as a role playing product for
a lot of people. A lot of people are familiar with the tabletop game, the wide
range of computer titles, the Massively Multiplayer Online Game, or other
titles in the Games Workshop line. There are some great opportunities to
introduce these people to WFRP.
Properly supporting and enhancing the storied Warhammer Fantasy licence
is a daunting task. Games Workshop provides invaluable support and
feedback to ensure our content and projects accurately reflect the
Warhammer intellectual property and provide a gameplay experience fans
expect from a Warhammer product.
There are also other games, especially here in the United States, that have
been around longer or have a stronger game store presence than WFRP has
had in the past. I'm really excited about some of the marketing plans being
discussed to competitively position WFRP in the role-playing market. Once
people try the game, I really think the setting and the experience can sell
themselves.
What are the strengths of WFRP that you want to build on? What
weaknesses do you want to work on?
The setting is an obvious strength. I also really like the diversity and flavor
found in the careers system. I think WFRP provides a lot of opportunities for
variety in play - harrowing combat, taut political intrigue, exploration,
mysteries and investigation.
I think some of the weaker parts may be some of the mechanics that support
the setting and licence. Sometimes mechanics can get in the way of telling a
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This encounter can take place in any urban area in the Empire that has a jail.
The PCs meet an imprisoned man who attracts their attention by his
erudition and by his rather enormous, bulbous and red/purple nose. He tells
the PCs he is an eminent botanist who has been accused of being a mutant
(which he is) due to his grotesque nose. He does not tell them that he has
more to fear than being burned as a mutant, which is also true. Needless to
say, he wants the PCs' help in getting him out.
executing him. Hans will be careful not to drop his surname, von
Salzenmund, but this can be learned from knowledgeable locals.
After articulating his woes Hans politely asks the PCs if they can help spring
him from jail. He promises nothing beyond his utmost efforts to secure an
adequate compensation as soon as he is free. Here he offhandedly mentions
that he is one of the Empire's foremost botanists and as such his opinions are
read and respected by the learned masters of the universities of Nuln and
Altdorf, as well as the intelligentsia of Marienburg, including one of the
foremost natural scientists in the Empire today.
The Initial Encounter
Just after arriving in town the PCs pass the jail and are hailed by a man
whose gigantic and unsightly nose protrudes from between the bars of his
narrow window. The nose itself is blotched in a variety of colours-reds,
purples and blues-that are not completely unnatural, but extremely
distressing in combination; it is easily the largest and the most bulbous nose
that any of the characters has ever seen, but it is hard to tell if it is infected
or tumourous or the result of a chaos mutation. The man calls to the PCs,
saying, "You're new here, aren't you?" and offers to share the local gossip
with them if they would like to come over and chat. He introduces himself as
Hans, a botanist. If asked about his career he will say that he is a pretty
accomplished botanist who has studied Imperial animals as well as Imperial
plants in some depth. Hans proves fairly helpful in giving the PCs general
information about the town and its inhabitants. His two areas of expertise
are the judicial/criminal gossip known to his jailers and information about
the local fauna and flora, including the more common monsters and many
exotic and useful plants.
Things Better Left Unsaid
In fact, as a botanist Hans von Salzenmund is an odd combination of a
classical botanist and a radical Derwinist
1
. His papers have generated
interest but not approval amongst most other Natural Philosophers of the
Empire. A few radicals, most notably Claus Derwin himself, wholeheartedly
agree with what he has written so far, which has been an attempted
justification of Derwin in terms of classical natural philosophy. This
information, and nothing more, can be recalled by any character who passes
a Very Hard (-30%) Academic Knowledge Test in whatever specialty the
GM deems appropriate. One book in particular however, the anonymously
written A Natural History of Beastmen, included some offhanded remarks
about mutation's role in Derwin's theory of Racial Origins that were deemed
blasphemous, heretical and friendly to the Dark Powers. Derwin himself had
to denounce these particular statements, for they speculated about the
arguably blasphemous heart of his ideas-that mutations had differentiated the
intelligent races. The disastrous theological/cosmological implications of this
Only when asked what he has been arrested for will Hans begin to tell his
tale. Two days ago a visiting witch hunter took one look at Han's nose,
declared him a mutant, dragged him before the local officials and condemned
him to die. However, a local holiday intervened and the witch hunter was
ejected from town. Hans has languished in prison under a death sentence for
the past week, with no one going through the trouble of exonerating or
1
Claus Derwin, who appears in Warpstone 18 in the article on The Trust, and his followers are mostly
distinguished by their views of the gradual emergence of Old World Species from one another, but are most
notorious for their assertion that all intelligent races of the Old World may share a common ancestor-"Are
you related to Orcs on your father's or your mother's side?" as the common jibe goes.
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are obvious. Fortunately, no one has connected this book with Hans, yet.
Hans has heard that the Inquisitors of Sigmar are coming to town, and he
has become convinced they will find him out as the author of the above work
and burn him after torturing him until he recants. It is this fate that Hans
wishes to escape. In fact the Inquisitors are here to persecute unrelated
heresies, but Hans does not know this.
Other than serving as a messenger for Derwin, Hans might ask the PCs to
journey into the wilds to collect specimens for his studies. Also, Warpstone
25, the Fimir issue, includes a campaign outline featuring a journey in to the
Wasteland and a subsequent appearance by Derwin.
Leaving Be
Hans might be released regardless of what the PCs do, and if they have left
him in his cell it is not likely that Hans will try to avenge himself upon them
but he is not going to be feeling very helpful when they next meet. He might
warn Derwin about them or convey an unfavourable impression to local
Verenans.
Springing Hans
If the PCs ask Hans how they should go about getting him out of jail, he
strokes his nose thoughtfully and tells the PCs that he has not been able to
come up with a definitive plan, since he has not been able to leave his cell.
He says he is not that closely guarded and his jailers are not very zealous,
but he adds that he doesn't want them harmed.
If the PCs ask about Hans few people will remember him, but those that do
will generally agree that he has either been forgotten by the town officials or
he is being held in order to extort money from some friend or relation.
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Bribing the guards might not be too hard and even relatively inexpensive, but
if PCs try a more direct approach the local authorities do not look kindly
upon people storming into the jail and freeing prisoners. In either case the
PCs will probably have to leave town. Hans will ask to travel with the PCs
at least until he can pay them back for rescuing him. However smoothly the
escape itself proceeds, the missing mutant might itself attract the attention of
the Inquisitors of Sigmar, who may ask around enough to work out that
Hans is the author of A Natural History of Beastmen. In this case they will
seek out both the fugitive and those who sprung him, whether the PCs are
travelling with Hans or not. Their reach is long, though they prefer to work
through local temples and nobles. If the party heads to Marienburg or
Ulrican lands their troubles may be somewhat delayed. Still, there is no
nation or city in the Old World that would knowingly harbour the author of a
work deemed sympathetic to the Dark Gods.
Barring any major catastrophes, Claus Derwin can loan Hans the money to
pay the PCs back with a little bonus beyond their expenses. Beyond this,
Hans can give the PCs job offers and information from Derwin, for instance
information or jobs related to the Trust
2
and Derwin's investigations of it.
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The Trust is a charitable society for the advancement of human knowledge and artifice that Derwin was
formerly involved with, but which has aroused his suspicions due to the disappearance of an expedition
funded by the organization.
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