Legion 09 (december 2008).pdf

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Another month, another Legion. This issue's high-

light is an interview with David Chart, author of

Knights of the Grail and Spires of Altdorf . This is in

support of the Bretonnian mini-theme in issue 28 of

Warpstone , due out soon. Elsewhere you will find

cast-offs ( The Hinge Factor ), Bees ( The Bee

Keeper ) including a new monster among other bits,

and The Long Shot , which looks at Archery in first

edition WFRP. This was scheduled to be printed in

Warpstone , but as many readers no longer player

WFRP1 we decided to print it here. Nevertheless, I

recommend WFRP2 players check it out as there are

plenty of good ideas there. In a similar vein is The

Vengeful Marksman. Finally, there are rules for

pulling out arrows and bolts.

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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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David Chart has long been associated with the Ars Magica RPG. He wrote

part two of the Paths of the Damned campaign, Spires of Altdorf , and the

Bretonnia Sourcebook, Knights of the Grail . We caught up with David as

part of our look at Bretonnia in Warpstone 28. Many thanks to David for his

taking part.

was some years ago now. Since a central part of the concept is no longer part

of the official background, I don't think it will ever see the light of day.

When you first started to write Knights of the Grail how aware were you

of the WFRP 1e material or the fan material? Did you appreciate the

controversy among WFRP fans that had accompanied changes to the

Bretonnian background over the years? Why do you think the subject of

Bretonnia evokes such a passionate response in many WFRP fans?

I was aware of the 1e material, naturally, but not really aware of the fan

material. I had rather missed the controversy, but it was immediately obvious

that Bretonnia had changed quite a bit from what I remembered. I'm not

surprised it was controversial.

Could you give us some background about yourself?

I was born, raised, and went to university in England. I started role-playing

when I was twelve, but didn't start writing professionally until I was at

university. I studied philosophy of science, which has proved less useful in

earning a living than writing RPGs. About five years ago, I moved to Japan,

where I currently live in the Tokyo sprawl along with about 30 million other

people.

As for why it evokes such a passionate response, doesn't everything? I think

WFRP fans are a naturally passionate group, used to keeping the game alive

through prolonged periods of

corporate neglect, so they tend to react

strongly. Since Bretonnia was,

essentially, completely re-imagined

between 1e and 2e, even more so than

Karl-Franz, it's hardly surprising that

it got a particularly vigorous reaction.

How did you come to write for WFRP? Were you a fan of the game?

Yes, I was a fan of the game right back to when Games Workshop were still

thinking about calling it WARP. I sent the White Dwarf articles back when I

was a teenager, and still have the encouraging rejection letter I got back

about one of them. I had another go at writing for the game while it was at

Hogshead, and got as far as James Wallis buying me breakfast. He was still

looking at my proposal when GW pulled the licence.

So, when Games Workshop commissioned Green Ronin to develop a second

edition, I expressed my interest. It's a bit ironic that, by the time I got to

write for the game, I was living in Japan and working through an American

company.

Another element is that it's very

different from the Empire, but I'll

come back to that in the question on

WFRP feel.

What was your proposal to Hogshead?

An adventure, set in one of the Reikland towns, in which the Lawful witch-

hunters of Solkan were as much of a potential threat as the (entirely genuine)

group of Chaos cultists. I seem to remember that there was a ritual

connected to Ranald involved as a possible way to prevent catastrophe; it

Did you like the new Bretonnia (i.e.

Arthurian version) when you first

read it?

Yes.

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How closely did you work with the writers of the WFB Bretonnia books,

if at all?

Not at all. I had the book and some extra design notes, but that was it.

WFRP is "the enemy within"; the hidden corruption in a society. Thus,

hidden corruption, or at least corruption that is not immediately obvious, is

an important feature of Bretonnia.

Was there anything you wished was included in Knights of the Grail that

was missed out, for space reasons or otherwise? Looking back is there

anything you would have done differently?

I would have liked to include Grail Maidens as a career path; I'm sure we

could have done something with their lack of autonomy to make them viable.

Why no grotty slums in Bretonnian cities (apart from Mousillon)?

They're all grotty slums. They just look pretty. That is one of the

fundamental ideas about Bretonnia: it looks pretty, but once you poke behind

the surface, things are a lot less pleasant. And, of course, it leaves space for

Mousillon to look different.

The main thing I'd do differently is the adventure; that seems to have not

been a hit with the fan base.

Whose idea was leaving the secret of the Lady deliberately vague (some

GMs want to be told this stuff rather than invent it)? Did you know the

secret?

I was told not to say much about the elves of Athel Loren, because that

would be a different book. Obviously, it's rather difficult to talk much about

the secret of the Lady without going into details about the wood elves, so it

was left deliberately vague. But I did know the secret; it is explicit that the

fey are elves, after all.

What would you do differently with the Knights of the Grail scenario?

I'm not sure. The feedback on problems was not very specific, so I don't

know which bits need the most work. I think I would change the presentation

of the latter part, though, to make it clear that the player characters really do

solve the problems, and that the NPCs (the Faceless and the Grail Maiden)

are background colour.

How is this different to the work you did with Spires of Altdorf ?

Spires was an adventure, so it was very different. There, it was a case of

trying to capture the feel of the city for people playing through the story line.

What is your favorite part of Knights of the Grail ?

I quite like the disclaimer in the front. This is actually a very difficult

question; I like (almost) the whole book. I think I most enjoyed creating a

social structure designed to ensure that the corruption and suffering was

almost all hidden behind a pretty facade. I really wouldn't like to live in

Bretonnia, even without the ravening hordes of Chaos, but I think it has a lot

of potential for adventures driven by the social structure.

How much did your previous work with Ars Magica influence your

WFRP work? Did your

background in studying the

medieval period provide

inspiration for the Bretonnia

background?

My medieval knowledge definitely

provided inspiration for the

Bretonnia background. Quite a lot of

the concepts are taken from the

middle ages, and just exaggerated a

bit to make them more Warhammer.

Ars Magica had less direct influence,

because it's a very different style of

game.

How do you define the 'Warhammer feel' you were trying to evoke with

Bretonnian?

It's a bit difficult to define, beyond "grim world of perilous adventure". The

"Warhammer feel" that I had from my earlier experience of the game was (a)

Germanic and (b) Early Modern. Since Bretonnia was supposed to be (a)

French and (b) High Medieval, I had to dig a bit deeper. As I mentioned

above, I think this is part of the reason why the Bretonnian revision provokes

such strong feelings; I suspect I'm not the only one who closely associated

the early modern Holy Roman Empire with the "WFRP feel".

Chaos has to be there, of course, but Bretonnia is a bit further from the

Chaos Wastes, so it should be more subtle. Another enduring aspect of

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If you were to develop Bretonnia further, how would you do so?

I'd develop peasant and town life in more detail. Knights of the Grail has a

bit of an emphasis on knights, which is appropriate for this book, but there is

at least as much potential for Warhammer-esque adventures among the lower

classes. The most oppressed peasants could see Chaos as offering a better

life, the least oppressed would have the freedom to set up blasphemous cults,

and wealthy merchants, deprived of any chance of legitimate political power,

would be even more prone to the blandishments of Chaos than those in the

Empire. What's more, the restrictions on peasants provide further

complications that can make the stories more interesting.

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In the south of the Empire live an old man and his wife. The couple keep

themselves to themselves on their small farm, which is found just a short

way from the main road to town. They keep goats and chickens, selling milk

and cheese and eggs at the market every fortnight when they trundle and

rattle into town on their horse-drawn cart. They also keep bees, which make

honey, dark and sweet, the most delicious for miles around.

What other areas of the Warhammer World would you personally like to

develop?

I'd like to do the Elves. Not the Dark Elves so much, and not really even the

Elves of Ulthuan; the Elves of Athel Loren and Laurelorn are the ones that

most interest me. So far, I've pitched this to every developer the game has

had (well, it was only a White Dwarf article for Games Workshop). Green

Ronin even said yes. And then, of course, things changed.

In the field behind the farmhouse a dozen hives buzz throughout the summer

months, with bees flying hither and yon seeking flowers and pollen. Most

people think it must be something in the local flowers that give the honey its

unique flavour. The old man and his wife know the truth, of course. They

know that the secret ingredient is blood.

What is next for you?

In WFRP terms, I'm currently working on a book for Fantasy Flight Games.

It's a multi-author book, and I'm doing less than a tenth of it, but I don't think

I can say any more than that at the moment. So far the process is going well,

so I hope I'll be able to work for them more in the future.

Many years past when the old man was young his farm was failing. In his

despair he went into the forest to take his own life. Beneath an ancient tree,

above him a buzzing bees' nest, he cut his wrists, unaware the tree had once

been a place of sacrifice to Khorne. The Blood God smelt the blood and

examined the mind of the man and appeared to him. Masquerading as a

fertility deity, Khorne offered the man success in return for blood. The man

accepted instantly and Khorne told him to take the bees and build hives for

them. In return for blood, to be fed to the bees, Khorne would ensure the

farmer would always have food on his table.

In broader terms, I'll be continuing developing Ars Magica , and I'm working

on my own RPG. At the moment, however, that's mainly a collection of

mechanic ideas that don't quite seem to work, so it may be a little longer in

development than I'd ideally like. Outside roleplaying, I've written a novel,

and experimented with internet-based distribution ( www.davidchart.com/

Novels/IceYearning/ ). In the nature of experiments, this hasn't been a great

success, but it hasn't been such a failure that I've written the idea off entirely.

I may well try again, with modifications.

Initially, the farmer fed the bees with his own blood and after he married, his

wife became part of the ritual. But as the number of hives increased, more

blood was needed and before many years had passed, it became necessary to

kill. One year a child went missing, but mainly it was travellers whom

nobody missed. One or maybe two a summer was enough. Over the years,

bodies have steadily accumulated in the earth beneath the hives.

Of course, one day either the farmer or his wife will die and it will be that

much harder to kill and conceal the bodies. Both may die on a particularly

cold winter's night and the hives get taken over by someone ignorant of the

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blood ritual needed to feed the bees. Either way, come one summer, the bees

of Khorne will not get their blood, and then they will swarm.

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Anyone wishing a career as a Bee Keeper should simply use the Peasant

career, making sure to choose Animal Care, Swim (jumping into the nearest

river or pond to avoid a swarm is common for apprentices keepers) and

Trade (Farmer) over the other options. Animal Care covers use of smoke to

make the bees sleepy, spotting signs of diseases that afflict bees and dealing

with both wild and farmed hives. Animal Care should also cover dealing with

other farm animals - bee keeping is seasonal and usually part of a broader

farming life. Animal Training is not appropriate for bees, but can still be

taken if the Bee Keeper deals with other farm animals.

=JJ DG6HS

Bees are just one of many types of small creatures that gather to form

swarms. Individual bees are not normally especially dangerous, but a group

numbering in the hundreds if not thousands can be particularly hazardous.

Bee swarms are difficult to fight using normal weapons, and require fire or

magic to destroy, although smoke will make them sleepy and less aggressive.

Avoidance is the best strategy, although buildings cannot always been sealed

tightly enough to keep them out.

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Bee-keeping is relatively common in many parts of the Old World. It is

practiced on a large scale on farms with scores of hives spread across large

meadows, but since bees can fly, an individual with appropriate knowledge

can also have a single hive on a small plot. Unsurprisingly, the hives of the

Moot have a strong reputation.

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There are three useful commodities produced by bees: honey, beeswax and

imperial jelly. Honey is the main sweetener used in cooking throughout the

Old World, and so is particularly important. Beeswax is used in the furniture

and building trades for polishing chairs, chests and tables, floors, wood

panelling and banisters. Imperial jelly is a curious product of the Queen Bee.

Produced in small amounts, the nobility and wealthy merchants pay highly

for its alleged ability to maintain their youthfulness and longevity.

Skills: None

Talents: Fearless, Flier, Frightening, Hoverer, Natural Weapons

Special Rules:

 Immune to Normal Weapons: Swords, clubs and other normal

weapons have no effect on bee swarms. Fire or magic is required to

kill them. Smoke either drives them away or makes them sleepy and

less aggressive, reducing their Attack Characteristic to 1, Agility to

10% and their Move to 1.

 Ignore Armour: Members of a bee swarm can get though the chinks in

armour or take advantage of any exposed area of skin, so armour

offers no protection from their successful attacks.

 Non-lethal: Bee swarms never make critical hits. (However, the Bees

of Khorne described above can be an exception at the GM's

discretion.)

Armour: None

Armour Points: None

Weapons: Sting (cannot be dodged or parried)

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