From the shop floor

come visit the messageboards

2007-05-09T13:38:00.000+01:00

Well, its been a while since we've had time to blog- what with Dark Heresy being a demanding beast and all.

We're fine tuning playtest at the moment, with the help of some excellent volenteers (if you're reading this, a big thanks!) So at the moment we're making all sorts of detailed nips and tucks to the manuscript.

We're also beginning to see how things like the layout and the character sheet are going to look- though it's very early days yet.

So, if you'd like the latest on how Dark Heresy is doing, stop by the Black Industries messageboard

We have been invaded...

2007-03-13T09:57:00.000Z

Today, we have mostly been learning about birds.

Turns out a rogue Duck has wandered off the river Lean and made a nest near our office.

As they're a protected creature (not exactly sure why- perhaps something to do with belonging to the Queen?) we've been asked to be mindful of the broody water fowl as we go about our daily jobs. And we had to read the Mallard Code of Practice
Not entirely what we expect on a Tuesday morning, but a welcome change from darkness, heresy, daemons and death.

how roleplay writing can make you mad (for a bit)

2007-03-12T14:01:00.000Z

Sometimes a project can infiltrate your mind in strange and subtle ways. Like a warp beast feasting on your psychic juices, ideas can take hold, and become very difficult to shift.

Take for example our formatting jargon. When you’re making a book like Dark Heresy, you have to use a standardised code to indicate formatting stuff like boxed text, side bars, headers, that sort of thing. We use a sort of HTML type short hand that allows the layout guys to know when we want a big, bold header, or just a little italic by line.

Of course, when you use a code, you have to use it consistently. And naturally, when folks are writing, creative, intricate or exciting stuff, the last thing on their minds is whether they’ve used an EN dash or and EM dash. So, once all the fun writing part is done, some one has to go through and make sure that the right formatting has been used, and the right type of code expressed in the text. And boy, that’s a fun job.

Obviously, we encourage our writers to learn and use the proper format as much as possible- but this can have some odd repercussions. For example, if we’re having a design chat, and something comes up that’s not immediately relevant we found ourselves saying “oh, sidebar that” or “needs more brutal- but that’s a sidebar”

Even worse are the air brackets.

Recently we were spotted by our BL colleagues in Bugman’s Bar ranting about daemon pacts and making duck-bill gestures with our hands. Apparently it was scary viewing. In fact, we’ve been getting carried away with the different stages this section would need- and unconsciously signing the ‘<’ and ‘>’ brackets that surround the header notations.

Sometimes you need normal folk to remind you that “bracket header one bracket capital pact of capital vengeance return start italic quote mark their destruction will be mine exclamation quote mark end italic return” is not a sentence used by sane people.

But, the way we see it, you have to go a little bit bonkers to make something great. After all, more 40k madness can only be a good thing. Even if it is making us into punctuation fanatics (ellipsis)

(return)

(end of post)

Conception by the Sea

2007-02-13T18:01:00.000Z

Last week Dave and myself took the trek down from Nottingham to the Conception roleplaying convention near New Milton on the south coast. Arriving at the Naish Holiday Village in Highcliffe on Thursday afternoon we settled in to find out what Conception was all about.

Conception is a big annual roleplaying convention that attracts hundreds of gamers form all across the UK. Primarily focused on rpgs and larps it offers a huge variety of games. Each day is divided up into a number of slots with boards advertising which games are on offer for each slot and players simply put them name down for the games they want to play.

With the aid of our volunteer GM Andy Kybett (who had been at the convention since Wednesday afternoon enthusiastically running games of WFRP) we set about posting our scenarios on the boards for people to sign up to.

Dave ran ‘To Hell Pit and Back’ (downloadable from the website) a scenario he has written himself, full of Skaven nastiness and general ratty mischief.

Andy also ran a game of his own, ‘Sweet Meat’ that details a settlement in the Border Princes with a very dark secret.

While I GMed the dungeon from Lure of the Liche Lord, inviting tomb robbers to try their luck in the dark domain of the Death Scarab.

Much to our delight all our games filled up quickly and over the 4 days we were there we did not want for players (thanks to all those that signed up for our games).

I had loads of fun running Lure of the Liche Lord for various groups, and thoroughly enjoyed watching the players test there wits against the ancient tomb king’s dungeon. Some of the more memorable events included:

The group’s Scholar foolishly slipping away during a battle for fear of getting hurt and retreating back down a trapped corridor. Then falling down a pit the group had just bypassed and disappearing much to the bewilderment of the rest of the group who couldn’t figure out where he had gone.

One of the group trying to lasso a piece of gilt-work armour from the arm of a giant statue that turned out to be an Ushabti before being dragged off screaming into the dark because he has tied his lasso to his wrist!

The Dwarf tomb robber who was fed up with always opening doors and checking for traps so when the group went to investigate a chamber told them he was staying right here and sat down on a convenient stone bench. This promptly set off a trap which caused a block to come crashing down on him from above.

Special mention has to go however to the group that through a combination of luck, skill and extreme caution made it to the treasure chamber and through the use of lasso’s snagged a few 100 gc’s worth of items before beating a hasty retreat!

Both Dave and Andy also reported that there players were equally enthusiastic, from groups of Skaven players that were trying to backstab each other 5 minutes into the game to such memorable events in Andy’s game as a character trying to ride a Chaos Troll bare back!

All in all it was a fantastic few days with a really warm and friendly atmosphere. The venue was also well suited to roleplaying, with many of the games being run in the lodges and chalets where people were staying (many times as I was walking back from the main hall at night I would hear the yells and laughter of gamers in the midst of some adventure).

So thanks to all the organisers and players for making it one of the best cons I have been to and we will certainly be making an appearance next year.

Owen

Heresy Update

2007-02-09T10:25:00.001Z

So, how is Dark Heresy going? Well, we're all disgustingly excited by the career sketches that have just come in. Some cracking work by Andrea Uderzo!Somehow it just makes it all the more real- here are all those characters we've been slaving away to design careers for.One of the cool things about Dark Heresy is the careers stuff we've worked out- think WFRP but customisable. They're a real pig to design and balance, but are a joy to play. Get your XP, decide what route you want to take and bam! All the exciting 'shopping' hit you get from planning a WFRP career, but with the ability to link it to what's actually been happening to your character.Ah, but we can't talk about it any more until we come to officially introduce you to each of the careers (what an exiting couple of months that will be!) So, Instead we'll have to sign off and leave you slightly tantalised...

How to make Roleplay more popular

2007-02-09T10:21:00.000Z

Today we have mostly…

…been discussing how we could make Roleplaying games more popular to 'the youth of today' (not that we feel old or anything)

Here is our action plan:

Older brothers
Almost everyone blames their older brother for getting them into role play in the first place. Whether it’s because he sneered and said ‘you can’t play, you wouldn’t understand’(meaning, of course, you’d do your damnedest to play, just to stick it to him) or whether it’s because his Dungeon party was one man down and they needed a meat shield (“Why do I have to stand at the front all the time? When do I get a sword like you guys?”) Cloning older brothers, and issuing one to every home is a sure fire winner.

Mandatory choose your own adventure books

Even before we were roleplaying, these babies were there, corrupting us to the way of the die and the hit points, the fudging of rolls, and the Fate Point like act of keeping your thumb on the page you’ve just left, just in case turning to 97 leads to certain doom. From the Warlock of Firetop Mountain to Return to Brookmere, Fighting Fantasy to Endless Quest- reading these books should just be the law. Put ‘em on the National Curriculum and we’ll have less ASBO’s and more Dice Rolls.

Bring back Knightmare

For our Trans-Atlantic readers, Knightmare was a game show where a group of kids got together, nominated one of their number to wear the ‘Helmet of Justice’ (a bucket with horns on it) and then pushed him into a computer generated/dodgy blue screen dungeon.

The advisors (who were nice and safe in Dungeon Master Tregar’s castle) would then look into a magic pool (TV Screen) and shout instructions to the hapless adventurer. The kid, blinded by the Helmet of Justice, would wander around encountering gypsies, goblins, elves, puzzles, giant spiders, bombs and various other types of death.

Inevitably, the kid would mishear his advisors shouting “one step to the left…no, left!…LEFT!” and would take a step to the right…and end up falling into spinning saw blades of death. Then, huge gloomy bells would toll, a massive skull would appear on the screen and the team would be out of the show.

Despite sounding a bit ropey, it was, in fact, ace (or ‘top smart’ as we said at the time) and was the perfect introduction to role play. Done today, with CGI and special effects, it would wipe the floor with other Kids TV.

So, those are our theories (well, the printable ones anyway) What would you do to promote Roleplay?

Dark heresy update 1

2007-01-04T17:17:00.000Z

So, we recklessly promised to post a regular update on how Dark Heresy was developing.

So far this year it's been the little details that we've been tinkering with.

Today we added Explosive Collars to the list of Equipment a Guardsman might start the game with, sparking a long debate about explosive radius and whether its ok to use another character as a mobile grenade. Effectively, people were in favour of it as long as they weren't the ones in the collar. Typical.

In other news, we finally cracked our bugbear- the name generator. What's more difficult than coming up with a name for your character? Coming up with hundreds of 'em, that's what.This had been on our minds a fair amount, as names in Warhammer 40,000 are a pretty wide and varied affair. Everything from the short punk-y names of Hive gangers to the mellifluous tones of High Gothic needed to be catered to- and in a reasonable amount of space. We toyed with generators that mixed syllables together, but never really got the gears to work on it. Instead, we ended up doing it all by hand- and what an exhausing thing that was too! Thankfully the guys on the forums provided some inspiration, and we had the nice long break of Christmas to recover.

We've liberally plundered real history, geography and science as well as sprinkling a dash of names you might recognise from the Horus Heresy novels, and the history of the Imperium. We've also added some we just plain made up, and a few little gags, just for us. All in all, we're fairly pleased.

What's difficult now is to stay away from the charts, and resist the temptation to tinker.

Still, thats the art of design, right?

Figgy pudding

2007-01-02T12:10:00.000Z

Black Industries and Black Library enjoying some fine Christmas pudding and brandy cream.

Mmm...pudding.

Happy Holidays

2006-12-21T13:35:00.000Z

So, Christmas is nearly upon us, and new year too.

What a time we've had over 2006. It's been a crazy, busy, exciting year.

Our team has got bigger, we've given out awards at the Ennies, we've changed our website, released a ton of books and of course worked our Aquilla covered socks off on 'Dark Heresy'.

In the last few days before we close our offices, we've taken the time to slow down a little and indulge in some fine pies and ale.

We've had no less than three Christmas dinners already, ranging from an almighty trough down in the canteen to picnic in the office to 'nosh and nightclub' in Nottingham city center.

We've had all manner of cards and things from people- with our fave being the Green Ronin xmas samurai.

All that really remains is to send season's greetings to all our readers, and leave you with a little hint of what 2007 will herald:

In the twelve months of next year,
Our fans are going to see,
Dark Masters lurking,
Demo teams working,
Liche lords a-luring,
Priestess’ curing,
Eight winds a-blowing,
Kislev a-snowing
In Realm of the Ice Queen!,
More Blog posts,
Two Dice Tins,
One Salvation Tome,
(your rumour here)
And the release of Dark Heresy!

Merry Christmas everyone!

How to get our greasy cash

2006-11-17T11:45:00.000Z

The folk in our office are raising money today for Children in Need. (A UK charity that helps deprived or disadvantaged kids)

The fund raisers seem to know what motivates us all too well.

We've ended up donating cash to a chap who has grown comedy Muttonchop whiskers. We've put in some money so we'll be in with a chance of winning a bottle of Champagne, and of course, we ran into the cake sale and couldn't pass up the chance to buy a pie.

Beards, booze and bread. The staple elements of the Empire... and BI

Why you should be part of the Games Industry

2006-11-14T11:00:00.000Z

Making games is great.

It may come across as a bit smug for us to be posting this fact on our blog, but it’s true.

In fact, you already know we’re right.

If you’ve ever run a Game where the planets just aligned right and the session went better that you could have ever imagined- then you know what we mean.

If you’ve ever spent a summer playing in a campaign where you got to know your character so well you practically lived a double life- well then, you also know exactly what we’re on about.

If you’ve ever snorted beer/milk/Mountain Dew/drink of choice out of your nose because you were laughing so hard at what happened in your Game Session, then you’ve been there.

If you’ve ever looked up from a tense session to realise that three hours have passed in the blink of an eye and you feel like you’ve lived a lifetime- then you also know what we mean.

At the end of the day, making Roleplaying games is about creating those moments for people. What a job to have.

It’s easy to get weighed down by the annoying minutiae of this Industry- snarky reviews, printing errors, containers of your books being washed off a ship mid Atlantic (don’t ask), forum flame wars, missed deadlines, weekend convention work, oh… and all the other stuff.

On the other hand, when you log onto a forum like RPGnet and see posts from complete strangers saying ‘I just got this game and it’s the best thing ever’-it’s great.

When folk come up to you at a convention and tell you how they’ve started up their RPG group again, just because of your game- you do get a little glow.

When you meet folk at parties and you discover they’re an accountant*, whilst you make Goblins for a living- well, that’s kind of cool.

When you talk to a writer or artist about some work they’re doing and they say how excited they are about what they’re creating- you do end up smiling.

We had a great example yesterday. A playtest report for a certain dark science fantasy game we’re developing turned up. The team- KIA Special Ops as they’re known- were just starting a new session with the latest rules. They’d gone to a spooky lunar mining complex and opened the door leading down into the earth. Shadows crowd the corridor and an unnatural wind sighs up out of the darkness. The Pskyer decides to use her powers to light the way. She promptly botches the roll, gets a really horrid result on a table and explodes into a ball of fire. And this is the first roll of the first game session. Talk about gaming moment.

Ok, so we’re probably going to adjust that rule, but it was amusing.

And of course, at the end of the day, what is roleplaying about if not fun?

What a field to work in…

*Black Industries recognises that accountants perform a valuable service in our society, and no accountants were harmed in the making of this post. We didn't really point and laugh at a party saying 'ha! adding things up and writing numbers in tiny boxes is for loosers, us roleplay types are way cooler!'**

**This of course, is irony. Just in case you were wondering.

Shootout at Silo 61

2006-11-10T15:49:00.000Z

Well, we have been hard at work here at BI fine tuning the Dark Heresy game, throwing countless screaming acolytes into the horror of the 41st Millennium and seeing just how long they can maintain their sanity, avoid the taint of Chaos and generally stay alive. Presented here is a bit of a narrative of one such playtest game, which will hopefully give you some hints as to what to expect in the rules. Of course as you might guess we have been mainly testing the combat system, hence the extreme violence of this particular session. Anyway on with the carnage…

For this playtest we had three starting characters:

Mordechai – A hard as nails Arbiter, equally skilled in melee and ranged combat, armed with a sword, a bolt pistol and wearing a mix of carapace and flak armour.

Hybris – A Tech-Adept with some basic bionics, skilled more in the ways of machines that combat, armed with a stub gun, a glaive and wearing a flak cloak.

Vos – A feral world guardsmen of massive size and strength, excelling in close combat, armed with a chain axe, a sawn-off shotgun and wearing heavy animal hides of dubious protective qualities.

The session began with the three acolytes being dispatched into the hinterlands of Rybros III by their inquisitor to investigate cult activity in an old processing plant. Having left their transport hidden nearby they snuck up toward the run down and over grown building using their varying levels of stealth skills.

Taking the lead, and moving surprising silently for such a big man, Vos moved up to the low broken wall surrounding one of the outlying storage sheds. From his hidden vantage point he spied three human sentries, dressed in tattered clothes and toting battered autoguns, quite obviously in the eyes of the players as group of no good cultists.

Unfortunately for the feral worlder he had little time to formulate a plan of attack as his companions blundered up to join him, alerting the cultists, who immediately went for cover and starting firing at the acolytes.

Without hesitation Vos returned fire with his sawn-off, missing, mainly due to the appalling accuracy of his weapon at long range. Meanwhile Hybris snapped off three rounds from his automatic stub gun, one of which would have struck a sentry had it not been for the cover that stopped the round in its tracks.

Cover was also working to the advantage of the acolytes as autogun rounds spanged and sparked off the low wall. During the tumult of the firefight the Arbiter took the initiative to break the deadlock and worked his way from wall to wall coming around the cultists’ flank, before popping up a unloading at close range with his bolt pistol. Several of his shots hit the poor guy’s feeble cover (part of a collapsed wooden fence) but the powerful bolt rounds smashed straight through the wood blowing him into bloody gobbets.

Vos took this as his cue to charge the remaining guards vaulting the fence and running screaming at them. Perhaps out of fear both sentries missed the charging feral worlder, much to their lament. With one mighty hack of his devastating weapon Vos took one of the sentries legs off, sending him screaming to the ground where he promptly passed out and died from shock. Vos decapitated the other with a vicious follow up attack, showering gore in a wide radius.

Having dealt with the sentries (in a less than subtle fashion) the acolytes then moved up to investigate the nearest processing silo, pausing only to reload weapons and for Vos to shake the blood from his axe.

The interior of the silo was dark and dingy and filled with the rusted remains of machinery and rubbish. Heedless of the fact that they had probably alerted whoever else might be about, the acolytes started searching the silo and making a further racket. It was only as a result of the keen senses of Hybris that they were able to react as stealthy shapes suddenly materialised from the gloom.

Three more filthy cultists and two large misshapen mutants lumbered forward to attack the interlopers. As they closed all three acolytes discharged their weapons. Hybris firing a three round burst at the lead mutant, his round smacking into its thick flesh with little effect, while Mordechai fired a single bolt shell at the other mutant, unfortunately missing and blowing a sizable hold in the wall. Meanwhile Vos waited until one of the cultists was almost upon him before emptying both barrels of his sawn-off into the hapless fellows chest, painting a good proportion of the floor and walls with his innards.

In retaliation one cultist charged Vos with a knife, only for the big man to display surprising agility and dodge out of the way of the attack. The other remaining cultist sprayed Mordechai with an autopistol, and though several rounds sparked off his carapace chest plate one pierced his leg, wounding him. The mutants both descended on Hybris the first smashing him across the face with twisted length of pipe and the other using the butt of its ancient lasgun to knock the tech-priest to the ground gasping in pain.

By this time Vos had hacked down the cultist opposing him and was closing on the second. The Arbiter changed his focus to the mutants looming over Hybris and flicked the fire-selector on his bolt pistol to semi in a hope to hit them both with a spray of bolt shells. Unfortunately he only managed to hit one, the potent bolt shell blowing a large bloody chunk from its hide and causing it to howl in pain.

From his position lying dazed on the ground Hybris tried to rapid fire his pistol into the nearest mutant, only to have his weapon jam, forcing him to discard the now useless gun and scramble for his glaive. The wounded mutant then charged at Mordechai landing a crushing blow on him with its bit of pipe almost knocking the Arbiter to the ground. Mordechai then squared off against the beast drawing his sword in his free hand, before throwing himself into the melee, blade flashing and bolt pistol thundering.

Vos leaped over the recently disembowelled remains of the last cultist to come to Mordechai’s aid (the feral worder was rapidly proving to be a real horror in close combat). With a few sweeps of his axe he opened up long furrows in the mutants back but to his surprise failed to kill it. In retaliation the creature turned around and landed a terrifying blow on Vos’ arm (which was unfortunately unprotected) pulping flesh and fracturing the bone. While this caused him to stagger back it did give the Arbiter the chance to empty the rest of his clip and point blank range into the mutant, leaving its ragged remains to flop to the floor.

During all this the arbiter and the feral worlder had forgotten about the tech-adept who had by now been beaten into unconsciousness by the lasgun wielding mutant (the twisted beast had yet to actually fire the weapon but had nether the less used its blunt end to great effect). As the final mutant turned its attention to them Mordechai fumbled for another precious bolt clip and Vos tried to load his shotgun with one hand. With a crash it barrelled into Vos knocking him to the ground and sending his sawn-off skittering across the floor. Deciding to risk shooting at the wrestling figures the arbiter, fresh clip in place, opened up on the mutant. Fortunately, luck was with him and one of his rounds hit the beast in the head spraying Vos with a vile mixture of blood and brains and killing it stone dead.

At this point the acolytes (Hybris unconscious, Vos wounded and nursing a fractured arm and Mordechai wounded and down to his last few bolt shells) decided that they had seen enough and skulked back to their transport, before any more foes turned up.

After all, the Emperor will not judge you by your medals, but by your scars – and Saints knew, they’d earned a few…

Behind the screens

2006-10-17T10:21:00.000+01:00

We've been feeling a bit guilty about the blog of late. Like a Christmas puppy, it's been a bit neglected- so, we decided to come up with some top rate sneak peeks to jazz it up a little.

Some time ago we mentioned on the forum that we've been developing some bits and peices in house. We've had the proofs for these babies in now, so we snuck out of our office and did a little photoshoot.

Here you can see Owen modelling our lovely GM's screen. As you can see the front of it has the map of the Empire in the center, flanked by two sepia tone scenes. It's about a WFRP rule book high, and four wide. It appears a little rickety as its a proof, but the final thing will be on hard board- like the cover of a hardback book.

Here's the GM's eye view- tables galore. From critical hits to random NPC names, weapons, talents, actions and more, you'll be rolling up 'Rain of Blood' before you can blink.

Our other favourite critial hits include 'Right in the Scruttocks' and 'Marienburg Headache'. Somehow the names say it all...

So, we've also been developing a new character sheet- something a little more detailed than the standard peice of paper. We've come up with this- the character folio. In bag friendly A5 (About the size of a normal character sheet folded over) it's got a study gloss cover- just like the WFRP companion- and 24 pages of glorious detail. Starting with your character's personal heraldry and ending with a record of what killed you, it's designed to be a fitting memorial to your PC. Here you can see Kate with a copy, and a shot of the internals. You can get an idea of size from the WFRP rule book it's resting on (as opposed to the diminuitive Flack)

So, hope you like the pictures, we'll update you with more soon!

phrase of the day

2006-09-11T15:29:00.000+01:00

"he had hands like spatchcocks"

Games Day preparations

2006-09-07T15:07:00.000+01:00

Whilst the convention season is over for many RPG companies, we're still waiting for the culmination of our events calendar- Gamesday 2006

Yep, we're going to be at the Birmingham NEC in just a little over a fortnight, talking the talk, walking the walk and running some games.

Besides our info stand (where you'll be able to see both Tome of Corruption and the WFRP companion) we'll be running two convention games.

There's 'Pigs, pies and Punches'- an introductory games for folk new to roleplaying. Loosely based on a scenario called 'bar room brawl' from a really ancient White Dwarf, it involves four or more Player Characters, all with a reason to get in a ruck with each other. We've been feverishly painting minatures for this scenario (With mixed results, it has to be said) and are particularly pleased with our snotling pot boys.

Continuing on with our 'swine' theme, we have a veteran game entitled 'The Pig, the Witch and Her Lover' It's two hours of mystery, lies and peasant revenge in an out of the way Reikland village. No figures for this one- as it's aimed at chaps who have roleplayed before. If it plays well as a convention game, we'll use it as the basis of organised play for GenCon Indy next year.

Of course, we still have a million and one things to organise- somehow it wouldn't be Gamesday if we weren't running around madly the night before, searching for gaffer tape, D10's or some such. Still, we've got a good feeling about this year.

There is going to be tons going on- from Golden Daemon awards to author signing- and we're hoping to persuade Chris Pramas to come over and take a look at the carefully controlled madness that is UK Gamesday.

Maybe we'll see you there too!

Min Max your physiology

2006-09-06T12:50:00.000+01:00

Here are our four top tips for making sure you’re in the best shape possible to role play.

1) 40 minutes of fun.
Most people can concentrate on one topic for about forty minutes before they start to get tired, their thoughts begin to wander or they simply get bored. Time your Roleplay heavy scenes or combat encounters to about 40 minutes and you’ll get the best from your players. Over run and you’re likely to loose them.

2) Savoury snacks.
Sounds odd, but munching on sweets or drinking sugary cola can actually diminish your energy levels. Roleplaying demands lots of attention- you’re juggling imagination, rules systems, listening to the GM and all the social interaction of portraying a character. Munching Haribo or swigging Mountain Dew will give you a temporary blood sugar spike- but this will soon crash, leaving you with less energy than before. Stick to carbohydrates like Crisps, toast and nuts. (Pies are, of course, mandatory for WFRP)

3) Get the blood pumping.
A good combat session or spooky horror scene can get the heart beating fast, but most of the time when you’re roleplaying; your body is quite inactive. Make sure you have regular breaks where you get up, move around and get your circulation going. This will save you back problems, increase your attention span and give your brain a welcome break. If you’re roleplaying in a cold room, this is extra important. Check your fingernails- if they are bluish/purple, you need to get up, move around and get warm.

4) Drink!
Schools recognise that their pupils need to drink plenty of water if they’re going to pay attention and do well. You loose water when you sweat, talk and take. err… ‘Comfort breaks’ it’s a lot easier than you think to become dehydrated. If you find it hard to concentrate, or find your group gets grumpy after and hour or so of Roleplay, think about a round of non alcoholic drinks. If you feel fuzzy headed, vague, ‘hungry’ even though you’ve just eaten or get a headache across the crown of your head you probably need to stop the game and get a drink.

TimCon and photos

2006-09-04T11:42:00.000+01:00

Well, we've returned from TimCon V, tired but happy.

TimCon is a two day WFRP only convention held in London, where folks sign up to various games before hand, turn up and, well... roleplay.

We'd long since signed up for various games, and were looking forward not only to roleplaying with new people, but also getting to be players for once! We also figured we would go to the Saturday night BBQ and hob nob with the likes of John Foody, Tim Eccles (the man who puts the Tim in TimCon) and Natascha Chrobok (Strike to Stun's Server Godess)

So we arrived, a little late in some cases, and launched straight into the action on Saturday morning. We played in Wim van Gruisen's 'Witches Coven' game, which involved an awful lot of Chaos and cackling, plus John Foody's 'Who was Has Kottor of Ensendorf?' in which a group of thoroughly despicable PC's compteted for an inheritance...

The Gaming was great. Everyone was friendly, keen to play well and very much in Character. We were almost sad when time came to end the adventures and head off for lunch.

The afternoon saw us launch into Steven Hanlon's 'The Spice is Right' in which we set sail in search of Nutmeg, and found alot more than we bargained for. The adventure ended in a suitably cinematic total player death, when we lit our blackpowder magazine rather than be taken alive... Ah, how WFRP!

Then we repaired to a local pub, swapped gaming stories, tried to find out how you could do the adventure and not die horribly and got to know our fellow players. The scent of grilling meat greeted us on our return to the center, and we got stuck into a very reasonably priced BBQ. Despite us all being old WFRP hands, no one baulked at being served sausages...

A pub crawl followed (really, how could it not?)... and then sleep.

The following day, a little tired it has to be said, we cracked into Simon Crowe's 'Lost and Found' in which we washed up on an island and had to figure out what was going on. In the afternoon, John Foody GM'd the fantastic 'Bubba Lichemaster' starring the Elf Viss, Joseph Bugman, Sigmar and the Great Enchanter Drachenfels (you probably had to be there...)

Again, it was a friendly, fun time.

All in all, a good convention to go to- there was a nice atmosphere, especially amongst the London contingent who all knew each other fairly well. That said, even the first timers seemed to fit in fine. It was well organised and good value for money- the two things you really want from a convention.

If there is one next year, think about taking part- we certainly will be!

Find out more about all the games here

In other, unrelated news, we've started up a Flickr album. You can check out our pics by clicking on the link button thing on the right hand side.

out to pasture

2006-08-30T16:08:00.000+01:00

It’s been a little quiet on the blogging front of late, as mostly we’ve been working our limbs off on super secret Dark Heresy stuff. We could tell you about it, but then we’d have to burninate you.

Of course, working ceaselessly on corruption, gothic decay and the merciless irony of an acolyte’s life means we like to take a little light relief now and again. Computer games have sucked up some of our spare time (‘Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion’, Mah-jong and ‘I love Katamari’) as well as board gaming (Shadows over Camelot and Ticket to Ride)

Imagine our delight then, when Mal Green arrived in the office with what he described as the peak of board game design. “It’s got pigs in” he said. Immediately we were hooked.

Mal had managed to find a copy of the old 80’s game ‘Farming’

The cover had us intrigued. We too wanted to take part in crop production simulation.

So we wandered over to Bugmans, bought ourselves some cider (naturally) and set about the game. We decided early to add the magic ‘you must talk in character’ rule from Shadows over Camelot- resulting in west cun’ry Farmer Rowland Cox, Naarfolk Faarmer Kate Flaack and Mummerset Pirate Farmer Mal Green.

The rules were very simple. You started with a farm full of animals and crops, and had to last out the year. The Farmer with the most money at the end of the year was the winner. “It be dead easy” said Farmer Green “you do read caards, an’ do what they do say”

Oh, understatement, the sweet, intoxicating apple in the cider of life…

The central mechanic was a suite of 52 cards, one for each week of the year, which were read out in order- 1 to 52- to simulate the passing of the seasons. Inserted into the calendar at random intervals were various stock auctions, disasters, good things, random bills and ‘hazards’ which could be good, but were most likely bad.

You could choose to invest in stock- pigs, sheep, horses or cows or crops- potatoes, oats, barley or wheat. These would invariably cause expenses- from vet bills to silage costs, but would occasionally produce money in the form of milk, piglets, lambs, calves and crop yield.

If money was tight (which it very often was) you could sell off your livestock. Occasionally you could buy more stock at auction- where you had to bid against the other players.

Doesn’t sound too difficult, but we started to get nervous when we read the cards. Little things made the difference- you never saw the word ‘calculate’ –it was ‘computating’ there were charts. There were strangely scaled pictures. There were impenetrable instructions.
For example
“A full half of your dairy herd has calved. Lose 4 calves. 12 are heifer calves, the rest are bulls. You have 87 tonnes of silage. Each calf, ewe and lamb consumes a ¼ tonne. Each Cow or Horse consumes 1 tonne. You must make up any shortfall at £6 a tonne.”

You effectively spent all your time paying out money for things. Labour costs, manure, silage, income tax, fraud investigations by the E.C and so on. Your animals died all the time, and you started to take a strange interest in beggaring your neighbouring Farmers at auctions. A visit from the milk board was a much anticipated event (because you could make money from your dairy herd’s milk) and the price of pigs became of supreme importance. We grumbled at any expense and watched each other with suspicious eyes. We spoke to the bar staff in our ‘country’ accents…all in all…it was great.

There was a sense that it was unfair, but that it was equally unfair. Except for that cheatin’ beggar Green, who invested early in potatoes an’ made out like a sheep botherin’ swine at end o’ year…

Worth a play? Yes, if you’ve a group of like minded cider swilling fellas who ain’t of a mind to take it too serious, like. You’ll be needin’ one of them calculators to be a doin’ the computatin’ for yer, and like as not a pen an’ some scratch paper.

Get into the spirit of it, and you’ll be up in’t top field with yer leg bound in polythine afore ye can say “blackbird, I’ll ‘ave ‘ee”

Bats on a Barge

2006-08-18T16:46:00.000+01:00

So, we're all back from the USA, mostly over our jetlag and pleased to be back in the land of rain, proper tea and smaller portion sizes.

Not only did we come back to find all manner of advance copies of novels on our desk, alongside 'The WFRP Companion' the Italian 'Plundered Vaults' and French 'Realms of Sorcery'...we also found a large rubber cobra and tickets to go see 'Snakes on a Plane'

As they'd done the novelisation of 'Snakes' the guys at Black Flame invited us along to see the serpentine epic...

And how was it? Well, it was the perfect way to spend a Friday afternoon- cackling at enjoyable rubbish, and cheering at snakes slaughtering and being slaughtered by Samuel L 'Mothertruckin' Jackson.

So of course now our minds turn to WFRP adventures, like 'Bats on a Barge' 'Stoats on a Boat' and naturally, 'Cats in a Carriage'...but of course these things don't just write themselves. Will some WFRP fan out there rattle out a homage?

Who knows...

Hot off the press- The ENNIE awards

2006-08-12T03:33:00.000+01:00

So, the awards finished approximately 25 minutes ago, and here we are blogging the evening's entertainment.

Friday night saw everyone who is ENNIE one in the roleplaying industry gathered in the Westin Ballroom IV.

As winner of the 2005 Best Game catagory for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, we got the honour of presenting this year's award to none other than Green Ronin publishing for Mutants and Masterminds second edition- and a pleasure it was too. The guys from the Green cleaned up again, scooping awards for best cover and fan's choice for Best Publisher amongst many others.

It was very nice to witness well deserved awards graciously recieved- so whilst we didn't get any gongs ourselves, it did feel like an evening well spent.

Still, we can't wait till next year- when books like 'Children of the Horned Rat' will be eligible for the awards...

...win-win, manthing!

first day of GenCon

2006-08-11T03:39:00.000+01:00

So, we're over in Indianapolis (well, at least some of us are) and we're enjoying the first day of that great big gaming show we all know and love.

It's been very very busy. Traditionally the Thursday of GenCon is 'warm up day' where you get in the zone of working a booth, try to remember how the till works, and attempt to memorise US dollar pricing... but not this year- oh no.

From everything we're seen, and from all the various companies we've talked to, this has been an incredibly busy first day. Just about every stand has done really well, the vibe amongst the game manufacturers is good, and all in all, the impression is that the 'industry' is on the upswing.

Pretty appropriate then, that we've been talking to folks about 'Dark Heresy' and what it's going to be like. We never did get round to making those tattoos we were thinking about- but we have had time to unveil a bit of the cover art and to make a handout with all the details of the first releases for the game. People seem genuinely excited- from fans who have been waiting for 20 years or more for Warhammer 40,000 roleplay, to store owners who beleive a big release like this will be a real 'shot in the arm' for roleplay in general.

So good news all round then.

The fact we've had authors like Dan Abnett, Matt Forbeck, Chris Pramas, Rob Schwalb and Gary Astleford signing at the booth has made things even better- there have been queues around the booth of folk clutching novels, art books and roleplay suppliments in their sweaty, excited paws.

We've also been chatting to fans about playtest for Dark Heresy, the latest WFRP releases, and even sneak previewing 'Tome of Corruption' for those folk we think can withstand the insidious ham tainted delight of this 'big book of chaos'

So, more tomorrow, on the four greatest days in gaming...

Dark Heresy playtest

2006-07-25T16:31:00.000+01:00

Playtesters say the greatest things.

Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Dark Heresy is being tested at the moment by a wide range of groups. They're basically playing the hell out of the game to see how it plays, how it feels and how clear it is.

We were chatting with one group- The Hegelian dialectic- over lunch about how they were getting on with it all. They certainly weren't shy of quotable quotes...

Ed Morris- "The thing about roleplaying in the 41st millenium is there are so many more ways for you to die..."
Paul Hill- "Explosive decompression"
Ed Morris- "Falling out of a hive"
Paul Hill- "Falling on a hive"
Mal Green- "Getting your gauss rifled"
Paul Hill- "Oooh, sounds painful"
Ed Morris- "You can sue if someone handles your gauss, especially in the workplace"
Kate Flack- "death warrant with a typo on it"
Mal Green- "Accidental war"
Kate Flack- "purposeful war"
Paul Hill- "reversed digestion"
Ed Morris- "psychic prolapse"
Mal Green- "urgh, careful, I'm eating here"

...so we're pretty sure we're getting the 'grim darkness' bit right...

How to settle everything

2006-07-21T17:35:00.000+01:00

Blame Owen.

We've discovered Google Fight

It is the answer to everything.

Try typing in the names of people from your roleplaying group.
Try your character names.
Try 'ratcatcher' vs 'noble' or 'Chaos' vs 'Empire'
Battle people in your office one against the other
Type in the names of your ex's for strangely wrong enjoyment.

Enjoy, and remember- we take no responsibility for the weirdly addictive nature of Googlefight.

Bored Games- Far from it!

2006-07-20T12:48:00.000+01:00

We had a good couple of goes at train based board game 'Ticket to Ride' yesterday.

In it you attempt to build rail networks across America using little plastic trains, a selection of variously coloured cards and low cunning. It's a mixture of misdirection, card collection, tactical planning and remembering to look at your destination cards. (Other wise you link up the wrong cities...In our case El Paso and Winnepeg)

There's a bit of number scoring mathmatics to do, plus you develop a strange obession with whos got the longest trainline, but dispite that, it's still a very jolly game. Plus you learn where lots of cities are in the USA/Canada (Deluth- who knew?) You also end up making train noises (say "who's a cheeky chuffer chuffer?" three times and you'll see what we mean) cackling as you thwart each other and pretending to be the fat controller

In short, the roleplay type elements make it good fun.

Likewise with our other favourite game at the moment- 'Shadows over Camelot' Another great use of an evening, this game involves everyone playing Knights of the Round Table who are busy defending Camelot from Saxons, Picts, seige engines, the black knight, dragons and so on whilst also questing for the Grail, Excaliber or Lancelot's armour. It's a bit unusual in that rather than all competing against each other, you band together against the game. It's very doom laden, in that you're constantly fighting a loosing battle against your enemies. It can get very messy very quickly. Again you use plastic figures (such as Sir Kay of the Flat Face) and collect suites of cards to complete quests, fight or do special actions.

It could get a little number crunchy after a couple of games, were it not for the one rule that makes this game fabulous. You are forbidden from using game terms- in fact, you must roleplay everything you say to other players. You might want to tell someone to bid a 5 against the Saxons, but you have to find a way to tell them this in character ("Ride out against their strongest flank, and I shall take the center!")

A fantastic use of roleplay to illuminate a set of game mechanics and really make a fun experience.

And of course, a great excuse to drink beer in Bugmans in the name of 'research'...

Today in the office

2006-07-19T17:38:00.000+01:00

5 things we have been doing today:

Dealing with 40k RPG playtest

Praising the almighty father of office comfort

Talking about what we should do at GenCon Indy to promote Dark Heresy

Working on an as yet to be announced source book... all 256 pages of it...

Preparing to play 'Ticket to Ride'

Look on that t'internet

2006-07-14T13:52:00.000+01:00

We are big fans of the World Wide Web.

Lots of what we do is dependant on email, forums, web pages and the like. T'interweb is what allows us to have writers all over the world creating stuff for WFRP and 40KRP.

From Murfreesboro to Ohio, Nottingham to Japan, Brisbane to Seattle, there are contributors scattered across the four corners of the globe. Even as you read this, there are folk in all sorts of unlikely places creating new stuff for our games. Be it a downtown Starbucks (Dark Heresy) or aboard an oil rig (WFRP Adventure TBC!) computers and ecomms has totally revolutionised what would have once been done in a dark office near a broom cupboard*.

It's not just us who benefits from this of course. Scores of bed rooms and home offices have dedicated fans working on critical hit tables, character creation options, adventures, handouts and more. These guys can share their work with thousands of other folk- reinforcing the community, creating great games and helping them develop their talents.

Speaking of community, that's another thing that the web has altered utterly- now you can communicate with likeminded souls at the stroke of a key. You can pose questions, share tales of your games and debate anything from game design to orc reproductive systems. You can read reviews, order the latest books and even play games with folk you've never met. You can ask the developers questions (and maybe even get an answer) or read their latest thoughts on their blogs.

How does this compare to the world of roleplaying 15, 20 years ago?

What this will do to roleplaying over the next 15, 20 years?

Let's see your comments, folks!

*No, not that. We're talking about writing.

Dall smut vicious bog

2006-07-07T09:54:00.000+01:00

Following on from our last post, folks have been asking us what a spoonerism is.

It's basically when you jumble up the letters of a word by mistake, creating entirely new meanings to a sentance- for example "can I sew you to your sheet?" (can I show you to your seat?)

It's named after a chap from Oxford who was particularly prone to it- you can find out more, and have a go at making some here

Spoonerisms and other word/letter jumbles are worth paying attention to if you need to come up with cool titles on a frequent basis. Sometimes a mispoken phrase will come up with something striking that makes for a great name. "Eight Days a Week" and "Hard Day's Night" are just two examples of this...(ok, some of us here know far too much about the Beatles)

Here's just some of gibberish we've been coming out with lately:

Dramasticly (the Lure of the Liche Lord manuscript is dramasticly better)

Decomplify (we need to decomplify the trap rules)

Dynamicism (The mutation tables have a lot of dynamicism)

drog sniffing droogs (The police had drog sniffing droogs)

Questinate (the players will need to Questinate the locals)

egg and spoonerisms

2006-06-30T11:27:00.000+01:00

Last week we were chatting with Green Ronin developer Rob Schwalb about undead creatures and how we should be presenting them.

"Yeah" said Rob, "We really need to individuate them"
"What?" we replied, "That's not a word! That's some strange American term that you've just made up- like Weaponize"

Googling then ensued.

Turns out 'individuate' is not only a proper word, it's also English and from the 17th Century.

Just one more example of how US English is divergent from UK English. Whilst it is quite happy to coin phrases and terms left right and centre, sometimes its based on old UK usage that we've just stopped using.

'Pants' (meaning trousers) is a great example- it's based on 'Pantaloons' In England, it's meaning changed to refer to undergarments, whilst the US it kept its original meaning- that of leg coverings. Which makes for some comedy moments (we have fond memories of seeing a sign in Las Vegas that said 'Spring Pants Event $25') Misunderstandings also arise from the modern slang, in which 'Pants' means 'something that's slightly rubbish'. For example 'Roller Cola is pants' (apologies to Peter Kay)

Why is this worth blogging? Well, it just goes to prove, when it comes to messing with English; we are just as guilty as the US. The language might have been ours to start with, but its out there now for lots of nations to use and abuse as they see fit. It's gone global, and we've got to learn to share.

Not that we'll drop the 'u' from Armour and Colour in WFRP...

...there is a limit after all.

pictures of you

2006-06-29T13:39:00.000+01:00

Dark Heresy Continues apace...

Macs have infiltrated our office...

Paper prototyping...

Pie Tunes becomes popular

We're dead busy at the moment, and they say a picture paints a thousand words. So here's what's new on the Black Industries shop floor:

Owen and his WFRP dungeon

Sweep stake action!

2006-06-08T12:09:00.000+01:00

So, the World Cup is almost upon us...

For those not into all things football related, this is where 32 countries the world over get together and slug it out to proove who plays the best Soccer.

This provides a thinly veiled excuse for people to paint their faces, drink alot of beer, talk about sport, buy shirts/car flags/comedy plastic hair emblazoned with the flag, buy other vaguely related stuff that is shamelessly advertised as being somehow related to football.

We're not too fussed about any of these things, but we are a big fan of trash talking our collegues, thus we have entered the office sweepstake.

This is where everyone pays £1 and picks a country name out of a hat. If their country wins the world cup, they get all the money in the hat. (well, biscuit tin)

There is then lots of laughing and mockery as folk reveal that they've drawn Lativa or some other not-that-good-at-football country (apologies to Lativans everywhere)

We drew Sweden, which apparently is 'not that bad'

So, bring it on!

Dark Heresy Inspiration

2006-06-04T11:58:00.000+01:00

As you're likely aware, we're currently working on a Warhammer 40,000 roleplaying game called 'Dark Heresy'

It's all about working for the Imperial Inquisition. Players investigate heresy, aliens, conspiracy and daemonic cults in order to safeguard the Imperium of man.

As it's still taking form, we've been drawing inspiration from all over the place- movies, books, games, minatures and the like.

That's why when we saw last nights episode of
Doctor Who we nearly fell off our chairs shouting 'yeah! That's what we're talking about!"

It had nearly everything we'd want from a classic Dark Heresy adventure- action, mystery, horror, weird aliens, grubby retro tech and of course, daemons.

So hurrah for the BBC. We can't wait for the second episode next Saturday!

40k: Now with more motivation

2006-06-02T17:26:00.000+01:00

In keeping with the current internet meme of 'motivational posters' we saw this creation appear on our own 40K Roleplay discussion forum. It was created by ErikBoielle, and we liked it so much, we thought we'd post it here.

'borrowed' from RPGnet...

2006-06-01T09:38:00.000+01:00

Dakadakadak tsssuu! BOOOM!

2006-05-24T15:50:00.000+01:00

Those of you who have been keeping up to date with our website will know that we're currently working on the first of three Warhammer 40,000 roleplaying games.

For those not in the know, we are currently developing a game called 'Dark Heresy' set in the far flung, gothic future of the 41st Millenium. Players take the roles of acolytes, assisting Inquisitors in defending the Imperium of Mankind against the looming threat of Aliens, Heretics, Warp Daemons and worse. It's a dark, brooding game where players form part of a thin line of defence, saving Imperial citizens from horrors they likely don't even know exist. Whatever happens, you will not be missed.

The game has a rules system evolved from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, which is similar in feel, if different in detail.

Of late, we have been playtesting this new system- in fact, we ran our first scenario this lunch time. Our Acolytes answered the summons of Inquisitor Finial Stern, a rather stony faced individual, who dispatched them to the deepest mines of Sophano Prime, where the workers have been troubled by infestations of Greenskins. This gave us the perfect excuse to run through the combat rules and really go to town on the equipment lists.

Very handy that, as Tim Huckelbery, the man behind the Equipment chapter in the Dark Heresy rule book, popped by our offices today to chat about just what we were going to include. Tim has spent the last three months locked in a basement with just about every 40k book published, cross referencing, indexing and writing up the best of the best guns, ammo, armour and explosives. There are going to be some really old classics in Dark Heresy, as well as some new things you've never seen before.

We spent a long time going through some of the crazy new things we'll have to invent for those odd situations roleplaying groups always seem to get themselves in. From explosive collars to ration catheters, Anesthetic glue and religious relics all manner of curious, specialist and unusual stuff is in the works.

Of course, we did spend quite a long time debating pronnunciation (does 'Lho' rhyme with 'glow' or does it sound like 'willow'? is it 'Las-pistol' or 'Laze-pistol'?) and of course that all important element- sound effects. Just what does a Bolter sound like?

What I think is going on in Bögenhafen

2006-05-23T10:59:00.000+01:00

We're now up to our fifth session of The Enemy Within. We're playing with a group of six (though not all of us can make it every time) and whilst the odd session gets postponed we still manage about a session a week. Whilst we do a lot of playtesting and quick run-throughs at BI this is our chance to get right into character and develop a group of PCs over a lengthy period.

The campaign is now well underway and plots are becoming convoluted. From the GM's side of the table it is both a joy and a concern to see the red herrings ardently pursued as the main plot creeps by quietly unnoticed. However, the odd events going on in the town and the strange reactions from many of the people the characters have met (including a near incomprehensible but jolly member of Bögenhafen's bourgeoisie and a group of elf-hating watchmen) are building up to a holistic vista of nastiness that even the PC's are hard-pressed to ignore. In an attempt to further focus their attentions on what's going on I had each of the players write up a short essay entitled "What I think is going on in Bögenhafen".

Some spoilers follow, so if you haven't read The Enemy Within campaign please beware...

What I think is going on in Bögenhafen, by Gideon Funter (Mal Green)
Oh it all got very complicated very quickly. All we were doing was gallumping along and having fun on the way to receiving a huge payout for doing nothing and all of a sudden we find out we've been duped! Trying to work out the plot which brought us gullible idiots to Boganhafen has hurt my head - intelligence of 47 is not helping at all. Anyway I'm keen to blunder on and bust the mysterious den of chaos that we've found - that seems straightforward, how difficult could it be?

What I think is going on in Bögenhafen, by Alexa Drull 18 3/4 (Kate Flack)
Well, I recon Heinrich has an unfortunate resemblance to some sort of criminal mastermind like, what bounty hunters are tryin' to capture - but they're bein' a bit clever like, on account of his extreme dangerousness. So, like idiots, we've come here to Bögenhafen an' started askin' round an' drawin' attention to ourselves. Like as not, we'll be jumped by a pack a mercinary fellas the next time we're drunk. What is probably like to be this evenin'. Meanwhile, we've discovered a dirty little secret about one of the merchant familys what run this place, what kind of means we're on their hit list too. On the other hand, about the best chance we got of making some serious Karls is findin' out if we can blackmail the merchants. Still, I ain't happy about it at all - I mean, I never seen fellow coves so cowed by bean sellers before - that Bögenhafen is a funny place an' no mistake. Still, as my old pa used to say, 'ain't no profit in an easy route' I figure there's clank to be made - we just got to be canny is all.

What I think is going on in Bögenhafen, by Hans Gottried (Owen Barnes)
There is indeed something deeply wrong about this place and with the recent unfolding of events I feel as if I have blundered into some poorly scripted melodrama as one might watch in any of the theatre houses of the Empire. While my good-natured companions are a-cry with it being the taint of Chaos and presence of evil magicks, I personally think the strange behaviour of the inhabitants of Bögenhafen is in fact a side effect of living in the town itself. Possibly it is the result of residue swamp gases or maybe some brain disease that springs from close proximity to the river, whatever the case I have observed its malign influence everywhere, especially in the children, who are far less respectful of their elders than they should be and should know better than to bother a man carrying a blood splattered chicken.

What I think is going on in Bögenhafen, by Kurt Heidel (Ed Morris)
"Just a quick trip down the river," she said. "It’ll be fine," she said, "we’ll be rich beyond our wildest dreams." I tell you this, that’s the last time I listen to Alexa. Oh well, if only all women could be like my mother, and no, I don’t mean dead and rich. I’m too trusting, that’s my problem…and honest, as honest as the day is long. Anyway, I digress, basically, if you ask me, we’ve been stitched up tighter than a Marienburg kipper. The money’s gone, we seem to have walked into a trap and to make matters worse we seem to have stumbled into a den of the Ruinous Powers, praise be to Sigmar, bless his name. I’m not normally a religious man but it pays to keep your options open, especially when you have already had an unfavourable encounter with a Witchhunter, well, we didn’t know he was a Witchhunter now did we. At least in my defence I can say that I didn’t hit him, not with that sucking chest wound of mine. So, a game of cards was it? Slippery Pig I believe you said, of course you’ll have to bear with me, I’m no gambler.

Taking your work home with you

2006-05-22T11:02:00.000+01:00

So, over the weekend some of the BI crew got together for a beer and movies evening.

On the viewing list was 'Call of Cthulu' 'Ed Wood' and 'Hudsucker Proxy' but none of these fine films formed the highlight of the evening- no, the peak of our saturday night viewing was the Eurovision song contest.

For our non-European readers, this is a sort of musical equivalent of the Olympics. Each country comes up with a song then we all vote on which was the best. The winner gets to host the following years contest- and of course, gets all the glory. In the past, perhaps the greatest thing to come out of the Eurovision song contest has been Abba.

We were pausing between films, and accidentally spotted Finland's entry. They looked like they had escaped from the pages of Tome of Corruption. Huge seven foot fur clad viking types, with mutated faces and huge axes. So, naturally we had to stop our movie fest and support the guys who looked like Chaos Warriors.

And what do you know? they won.

Europe could have voted for all manner of pop pixies and semi-clad women, but no. Given the choice, we went for armour, axes and songs about demons...

A good omen for Tome of Corruption? We hope so!

Da Horsley Code

2006-05-18T11:37:00.000+01:00

Ralph Horsley popped over to our offices today with the cover for Tome of Corruption. Boy, is it a big painting- A3 and then some!

Even though we've been working with the picture for some time now (it has pride of place on the BI art board) it's always great to see the original 'in the flesh' as it were. You get to see so much more detail- the brush strokes, the lines and all the rest of the good stuff.

Those of you who've seen the cover of Realms of Sorcery will definately recognise parts of this picture- we wanted to continue the 'story' of a wizard who witnesses the power of Chaos...and many years later decides to get in on the action.

Also, those of you that are into your Da Vinci Code art message conspiracy stuff might find one or two things to make you smile- be it the 8 stages of the Slaaneshi cultist, or the real identity of the frenzied artist...

Any how, vague claims aside, heres one of our favorite details from the peice:

Whats in the works

2006-05-17T09:50:00.000+01:00

We've been so busy of late, telling you about our nights out and our gaming sessions, that we've not really mentioned any of the stuff we've been getting up to.

So, this week we have mostly been...

Finishing the WFRP Companion.
This has swelled from 96 to 128 pages, and we're just doing the final checks before we send it off to the printers. This book introduces some new WFRP writers to the fold, together with some more experienced hands- chaps like Dan White, Owen Barnes, Andrew Law, Jody Macgregor, Andrew Kenrick, Rob Schwalb and Steve Darlington.

There's a whole heap of different things in this book- social conflict rules to the history of the Imperial gunnery school, but we particularly like it as it's got lots of sailing action in it- from the city of S-ARR!-tosa to riv-ARR! life. Thus we've been in a sort of pirate mood of late. Let's hope you enjoy the nautical notions as much as we do...

Staring at the Tome of Corruption
This big book of Chaos is starting to transform into something like its final state- 256 full colour pages of Chaos Goodness. From it's d1000 mutation tables to its chapters on Norscan, Kurgan and Hung life it's fairly dripping with nastiness. At the moment we're experimenting with meaty skin textures to form the background for side bars and the like- which is a bunch of fun, if you happen to like Quark.

The book is divided into sections- Chaos in the Empire, chaos in the wilderness, chaos in the Frozen North and the Realm of Chaos itself. This picture is 'The Catalogue of Flesh'-one of the forbidden tomes you can find in the Empire section- together with a whole host of other unpleasant objects. Anyway, delicate reader, the less said on that the better...

Playtesting Renegade Crowns

Bit of an unusual book this one- it's about the Border Princes, which is a sort of evershifting badlands where petty Kingdoms rise and fall without the rest of the Old World caring or even noticing. We didn't want to produce a gazetter style book about this region, as it kind of invalidates the whole theme of the area to pin it down to a map and listings. So we tasked David Chart with producing a 'design your own Kingdom' book, which would allow GM's to create their own corner of the Warhammer World and then run campaigns there. We also wanted to cover campaigns where PCs work to either steal or carve out their own Principalities.

Well, David has done us proud by producing some really devious plot hooks and detailed generation charts. Not only that, he's also turned in his work early- meaning we can get some really thorough playtest action in on this. We might even get round to putting our Principalties online... who knows?

Reading historical texts
We've been doing some research for 'Lure of the Lich Lord' This adventure is our take on 'intelligent tomb romp' and also a tie into the Renegade Crowns sourcebook. Its features a dungeon crawl with a twist, plus all the fun of negotiating between some powerful Border Princes. PC's could end up very rich...or very extinct. With that in mind, we've been reading about the Egyptian Book of the Dead and the Assyrian King Sennacherib

Thinking about Hive Cities

Ben Counter has been doing some great work on Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy, including some really unusual Hive Cities... but more on that later...

The WFRP birthday Bash!

2006-05-10T15:52:00.000+01:00

Some time ago we asked our forum folk to come up with some great ideas on what
we could do to celebrate the first birthday of WFRP2.

We had loads of great suggestions- from launching our office furniture with a trebuchet to 24 hour gaming marathons. Sadly, we could only pick a couple of winners- and they were Thomas Aagaard for inviting us to his Live action Warhammer battle, Kasper Brohus for suggesting giving a little something back and putting up some money off deals on our website, and of course Eric Stone for suggesting an evening of curry, booze and hilarity.

We promised to give you a progress report on how the big party went- so here it is!

Friday night in sunny Nottingham started out inside Bugmans Bar (our on site pub) where the catering Halflings had done us proud with two steaming vats of curry, onion bahjis poppadoms and even little tiny naan bread. You can see from the pics that this was exactly the sort of meal any self respecting Warhammer PC's would be falling over themselves to guzzle.

Of course, curry wasn't the only thing on Eric's list- there was of course lashings of beer, wine and a huge cake- the size of two WFRP books across... Needless to say, with 20 or so folks who had all had a hand in getting WFRP made there, it lasted about as long as a rat in a Rumster's pie factory.

Stomachs lined, we then had speeches. There were lots of people to thank- chaps like Christian Dunn, who got the cover drawn, Darius Hinks, who made the logo, the Sales Guys- here and in the US- who actually got the book into gaming stores, Rowland Cox- master of the schedule, All our Moderators, Simon Butler and Ewan Lamont, Marc Gascgoine, Green Ronin, Alan Merrett, Gav Thorpe, Rick Priestly and John Blanche, the web guys oh... and loads more folk. Needless to say, there was some heckling...but thankfully no bahji fights broke out.

After a few more libations, a few folk started to fail their stinking drunk rolls, and went home, but the rest of us, stout of heart and iron of liver solidered on, moving up the Nottingham canal to The Trip to Jerusalem and Via Fossa. Barges were encountered on the way, but remained safely unsunk.

Ragnar's kilt attracted some attention from a screeching hen party, but he survived the encounter physically unscathed. (though everyone who watched gained an insanity point) Then, just to annoy the GM...ah...reporter the group divided. Some flagging souls headed home, some went off to get changed into best quality clothes and others headed off to hunt the elusive beast known as Kashp'oint.

So, having fended off harpies, outwitted cunning number puzzles, travelled upriver, consumed brown and lumpy food as well as much beer, the party felt the need to head somewhere dark, dank and cavernous. Our sticky floored goal was soon identified as The Cookie Club, and having slipped through a door guarded by a large, threatening Ogre, we made our way inside to enjoy some of the critical hits of the 80's. We got to practice some of our skills and talents- Strike Mighty Pose, Secret Signs (your round) Lip Reading, Blather and even Flee! (if you were there you know what we mean)

By 2am the party was tired, spattered in unspecified dance floor muck, and much reduced in numbers. It was all we could do to trudge home and ponder just how much experience we'd earned, and how it would affect our next career.

Who knows what next years will be like? Get your thinking caps on...

-BI Dev Team

Shadows Under Bögenhafen

2006-05-09T09:20:00.000+01:00

Well the party have reached a crucial point of the campaign now as they embark on the trail of an escaped greenskin and explore an exciting environment. Just to recap the members:

Mal Green – Gideon Funter (Apprentice Grey Wizard). The Shadowmancer in training with a talent for falling into effluent channels.
Kate Flack – Alexa Drull (Smuggler looking to go into Charlatanry). Still haggling over the price of a pie despite about to become stinking rich (or maybe just stinking).
Christian Byrne – Heinrich Klein (Seaman with an eye to learning how to become a mate). The first one to fall in.
George Mann – Alcar (Thief). “I’m not going down there!”
Ed Morris – Kurt Heidel (Gambler). Ed should console himself with the fact that every party needs a member who can’t pass a test.
Owen Barnes – Hans Gottreid (Herbalist). Perhaps the preparation of some aromatic herbs might come in handy now...

George couldn’t make it this week, but it was easy to figure out a way for his character to take a back seat for the session...

Alcar: So, what’s a sewer?

The importance of adequate trappings is expounded on...

Alexa: I thought I had some rope, but I only have string.
Gideon: Get plaiting.

Some Goblin bait is procured from the livestock market...

Gideon: The air smells fouler here.
Alexa: It’s the chicken.
GM: Bok! Bok! B-aaaawk!

Some dark secrets are revealed...

Hans: An Elf covered in cess... now that’s something I’d pay to see.
Gideon: I have paid to see that!

It’s always good to make sure your players are having a good time...

GM: So how are you enjoying the WFRP dungeon bash?
Christian: When do we come across the big see-through cube?
GM: Seeing as you mention it (has amoeba attack Heinrich).

This one's a bit of an in-joke I'm afraid...

GM: Does anyone have Sixth Sense?
Kate: Is that a talent?
Ed: Well you wouldn't believe it, but I'm Lucky!

The eager party are tutored on some of the finer points of etiquette...

GM: Future mega-rich Old Worlders do not visit their lawyers covered in cess.
Ed: When we have our 20,000 Karls we can visit the lawyers in what we like.
Mal: We can make them wear cess!

At the end of play the Gongometer gave the following reading...

Alexa: Fell in once.
Hans: Fell in twice.
Heinrich: Fell in twice.
Kurt: Fell in twice. Splashed once.
Gideon: Fell in four times. Splashed twice.

quote for the day

2006-05-08T14:23:00.000+01:00

"That's what I love about the Warhammer World- the good guys are just the bad guys with a symbol of authority"- Mike Ball

Friday night in Nottingham

2006-05-04T16:55:00.000+01:00

We've been preaching it for ages, but finally, it is upon us!

Tomorrow night...beer...cake... and curry...

The birthday bash is nearly here!

It's taken a while to arrange all the right folks in the same room at once, but it should be worth it.

We've got a fine selection of greasy curried food prepared by the Halflings at Bugmans bar, plus money behind the bar for wine, beer and ale.

Darts games have been promised and there are bound to be plenty of toasts to the continuing good health of WFRP!

More info (and incriminating photos) on Monday.

All the Fun of the Fair

2006-05-02T11:03:00.000+01:00

This session saw the party faffing about in Weissbruck listening to the GM do funny voices for what seemed like forever. When they finally reached the port by the bend in the river they postponed the opportunity to make loads of cash by either visiting the lawyers or fencing off some salvaged firearms, and made straight for the thrills of the Sheep Festival. Some people eh?

The GM’s portrayal of working class women from Weissbruck meets with respect.

Innkeeper’s Wife: Orlwroight Oi’ll just show yew to yer rooms - foller me please. This woiy!
Mal: You sound like Pam Ayres!

Chuck Morrison’s Bladed Weapons Critical Hits got an outing.

Player One: Ooh!
Player Two: Ha ha ha ha ha!
Player Three: Owch!!
Player Four: Urgh!
Player Five: (Deathly Silence).

Bloomin’ penny pinching party members, you’d think they were saving up for some suits of armour or something! Aren’t they about to inherit bucket loads of cash?

Gideon: I cast drop on the scribe so that he drops his quill.
GM: Urrm, OK. He drops it and bends down to pick it up again.
Alcar: While he’s distracted I steal his ink!

More tight-fistery follows!

Fortune Teller: Cross my palm with silver, and I will reveal the secrets of your future!
Alexa: Silver! What a rip off! Grumble grumble. (Haggle test).
Fortune Teller: Cross my palm, with brass…

Soon the GM gets the chance to wow the party with his grasp of foreign languages.

Doctor Malthusias: Return here in one hour to see more astounding zoological freaks, brought to you at great expense from all corners of the known world!
Alexa: Is that the best you’ve got? You better have more on display when we get back.
Heinrich: Yeah! We’ve seen odder than that on the road between Garndorf and Ravenstein.
Gideon: Not very impressive.
Three-Legged Goblin: Razzgh’nn!! Nhaghzz’n fach’h! Grat nak nak!!

Dwarfs eh? They’re all brilliant smiths aren’t they?

Alexa: Maybe if we let him go he’ll make us one of those rune weapons.
Incarcerated Dwarf: Yuhp! Yuhp! Pay silver pis! Lemmego mmhnnnthnn – tink tink tink! Wuun weppon!! Yay! Heheheheh!
Hans: What I think he means is that if we set him free he’ll ruin a weapon for us.

- Dave Allen

Pants adventures can be good for you.

2006-04-28T12:42:00.000+01:00

Working for a Gaming company is a bit like being a therapist.

If you're counselling folk for a living, you have to be in counselling yourself- to get all the stuff you hear off your chest.

If you make roleplaying games, then you have to be gaming on a regular basis.

It helps you test what you're making, but it also gets all that creative imagination stuff going. You come up with ideas for new books, cool add ons and great ways to improve what you've already done.

Sometimes it can show you what you might have done wrong, or could be better.

Take 'Fools before Swine'

This is a convention scenario we originally started working on back at the time of the scenario competition. We're so busy at the moment that it's taken us 6 months and a bank holiday weekend to get this knocked into shape. So we sat down to playtest it last week (as our regular Dave session couldn't happen due to illness)

It was funny, and very Warhammer (it's about a man who turns into a pig) but the structure was all wrong. A couple of the clues didn't hang together, and the set up of the NPC's just didn't ring true. It felt contrived.

So we're having to go back to the drawing board on it, do some rewrites and test it again. Somewhat humbling, as we'd all like to beleive everything we do fairly drips with genius, but ultimately good for us.

Just because we are lucky enough to do this for a living, it doesn't mean we're immune from the occasional GM slump. We're human- just like any other gamer out there.

So, lesson learnt, and not a councillor in sight. Told you it's like therapy.

Phone call excerpts

2006-04-26T11:43:00.000+01:00

As those who follow our forums might already know, our big book of all things Chaos- The Tome of Corruption- is starting to mutate into it's final form.

We've got a cover for it, plus plenty of text and rules just oozing with unpleasant detail.

We're starting to get really excited about the book, even though it's not out until Autumn. So, in an effort to share the chaos, ah... love about, heres some quotes from our recent conversations

BI: So, how is Tome of Corruption going Hal?
Hal Mangold: Oh, man...it's like 300lb of ugly squeezed into a 30lb flesh sac
BI: Ughh...
Hal Mangold: No, it's going to be great- wait til you see the pustulent skin textures!

Mike: I want a Puny, Pointy headed mutant with Strange Walk and a Chaos Organ
Dave: What for?
Mike: Its about the only thing my character could kill

BI: So Rob, why all the references to rancid ham?
Rob Schwalb: Oh man, it's the most repellent thing ever...
BI: I can think of worse
Rob Schwalb: Not after you hear this story you won't... (censored to protect readers of a delicate nature)

Passer-by looking at the cover art: Is that a Goat? What are all the masks about? It's a bit 'Frankie goes to Hollywood- Relax' video isn't it?

Editor: I don't think we should be endorsing whaling in our books
Kate Flack: It's Norsca...besides, have you read the rest of the book? I think Whaling is the least of our politically correct worries.

BI: Blood replaced by eyeless white mice...Rob, what were you doing to come up with that?
Rob Schwalb: Ah...the mice...that was a good day

Three Men (and an Elf and a Girl and Two Other Men) in a Boat.

2006-04-18T11:34:00.000+01:00

This session saw the party leave Altdorf and travel along the Weissbruck canal. As this section of the campaign takes a few days without any major occurances I thought it was just the right moment to drop in one of the scenarios from last year’s competition. As Masquerade of Horrors is set on a waterway, and as I felt the party could do with some comic relief added to their grim peril, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to drop it in.

Now that the party have bumped into Alexa’s old contact in Altdorf they retire to an inn to catch up, but their discussion is rudely interrupted…

Alexa: “How about asking them if they wanna join in a quick game of Cripple My Pig?”

Unused to the ways of human cities, Alcar bridles about his encounter with the flower of Imperial nobility…

Alexa: “Look at it this way, at least its posh sick.”

Some fast talking puts the rakes in their place…

Kurt: “We are here on the business of the Grand Theogonist, do you have any idea of the trouble you’re in?”

Acute senses and appalling humour come into play when the party discover they are being followed…

Alcar: “I check behind us using my Night Vision.”
Mal: “But it isn’t a Knight!”

Wanted by the law the party decide to lay low…

Kurt: “We’ll stay on the barge for now, but once we get to Bogenhafen we’ll drink liquid gold from diamond cups, which we’ll then smash!”

Punishment for stinginess during character creation is meted out…

Gideon: “I’m going to make a quick sketch of the mask!”
GM: “OK, make a read/write test.”
Gideon: “I failed.”
GM: “You ruin one of your pieces of parchment with your smudgy poor quality ink!”
Gideon: “I wasn’t using my parchment! I was using… using…” He wafts about the bill poster for the Shaffenfest. “I was using the back of this handout!”

A pretty visitor enters the inn…

Alcar: “I talk to the lady in the green dress.”
Mal: “You’ll impress her stinking of Loren de Vom.”

Fresh from his chat Alcar decides to help himself to some other patron’s possessions, but is caught by a scullery maid, some fast talking has to ensue…

Kurt: “Can I help you?”
Outraged Inhabitant of Room Twelve: “Are you a friend of that elf?”
Kurt: “One of his helpers, yes.”
Outraged Inhabitant of Room Twelve: “Helpers? What does he need helpers for?”
Kurt: “Well you know how elves are famed for their night vision?”
Outraged Inhabitant of Room Twelve: “Course!”
Kurt: “During the day their as blind as bats – not that he likes us to tell folks that.”

After bribing the inhabitans of Room Twelve the PCs are offered the opportunity to indulge in some culture…

Alexa: “It’s not blasphemous is it?”
Von Barbe: “Oh no, no, no, no, no!”

Everything goes horribly wrong…

Alcar: “I attack the wizard with the greasy article.” (The wizard in question was trying to cast "Drop").
Mal: “Kill him and take his ink!”
Ed: “We have strange wants and needs!”
The Others: “Yes, a dress and some ink!”

Masquerade of Horrors proved a fantastic addition to the session, and Sean and Colin’s script for the play in particular got a few good laughs out of the group. Now Mistaken Identity draws to a close and Bogenhafen, the Shaffenfest and untold riches await!

- Dave Allen

Better than Barber-shop

2006-04-13T13:47:00.000+01:00

We like this blog: http://rat-catcher.blogspot.com/

Check it out!

Early Days

2006-04-12T10:55:00.000+01:00

Mal Green – Gideon Funter. A travelling classics scholar, learning all he can about ancient texts. At least that’s what he’s telling people until he gets a license to practice cryptoclastic thaumaturgy.
Kate Flack – Alexa Drull. A young smuggler taking wine from Altdorf to Talagaad. Gobby as a Frogwife. Annoyed about having her boat sunk.
Christian Byrne – Heinrich Klein. Give him a shave, some decent clothes and a few week’s feeding up, and he’d look like the spitting image of a certain Herr Leibrung.
George Mann – Alcar. Has left the town of Delberz since a friend went missing. Always on the lookout for freebies. An Elf. Already getting grief about being an Elf from other party members (Alexa: “You lot are all wizards and princes ain’t you – lovely ears though”).
Ed Morris – Kurt Heidel. Leaving Ahlenhof to avoid his creditors (or as he tells the rest of the party “due to an indiscretion with a lady”).
Owen Barnes – Hans Gottreid. He just wants to get to Altdorf to sell some herbs, but he might be distracted by the prospect of easily made oodles of cash.

So it's a quiet night in the Inn before getting a coach trip in the morning...

Gideon: Don’t you lot worship a woman?
Phillippe: They venerate the Tilean war goddess 'ere do they not? And our Shallya? And the goddesses Rhya and Verena, non? 'Ere in your Empire? Non? Allez! While they get your supper ready oo is up for a few 'ands of Pavarron Twist?
Alexa: I will.
Phillipe: Oh, you wish to gamble with the men do you mademoiselle? ‘Ow eccentrique!
Kurt: I’m in too. (Looses)
Phillipe: Ah, you are unlucky monsieur! Again? Oh, unlucky! Again? Oh, unlucky! Again…

A coach trip to Altdorf is obtained, though when it starts to rain the party are glad they all bought tents as part of their starting equipment. Alcar the elf is soon in for a shock though...

Alcar: I don’t know what’s become of him, he was Rolf, a… friend I made in Delberz. Some foul black magic has transformed him into a hideous undead creature! I feel bad about it, but he is perhaps better off now that he is finally slain.

Our brave and competent heroes enter combat with the foe...

Mal: I cast “drop” on the mutant with the crossbow.
GM: OK, are you Channelling?
Mal: Yes.
GM: Roll under your willpower.
Mal: Oops!
GM: Using an ingredient?
Mal: No.
GM: Make a casting roll.
Mal: It’s a one.
GM: Make another willpower test.
Mal: Oops!
GM: Gain an Insanity Point.

And make a shocking discovery...

Alexa: Heinrich, you got a brother?
Heinrich: Yes.
Alexa: This ‘im?
Heinrich: Sigmar’s Arse! No, no wait… he isn’t.

After someone who can actually read is called over...

Alexa: Twenty thousand Karls! We’ll be rich! Rich I tell yer!!!

It's always useful to call on the expertise of handy NPCs...

Gideon: Our friend is hurt – you’re a physician, what can you do for him?
Ernst: Um, I’m only studying to be a physician, all I really know about thusfar is leeches.
Gideon: Well you must have more knowledge on the subject than any of us!
Ernst: Erm, well, I suggest he gets some rest.
Gideon: Rest! He’s got a crossbow bolt stuck in his lung!

Altdorf proves welcoming...

Guard of the Estate’s Gatehouse: Zer Crown Prince hass already left, but I do not tsink he vud haf vonted such a rag tag bunch in his employ anyvay. Look at you, unt frauline, unt scruffy elf. You! You did not even arrange to bring a sword did you? And you! Did you seek an interview with ze Crown Prince covered in grass stains?

Alexa: I saw you, you were making signs at my mate Kastor. What do you want with my mate Kastor, eh?
Man with Itchy Ear: Erm, Kastor eh? (Scratches left ear with right little finger furiously whilst looking directly at Heinrich).
Alexa: That’s a rude gesture in Tilea, that is!

Pre-Adventure Adventures

2006-04-05T17:18:00.000+01:00

As Kate mentioned yesterday I've been getting a group together in order to play a very well known campaign. I'll be using a lot of fan material from the BI site to supplement the written modules. Dan White's Herbalism article will help flesh out one of the PCs, and his Von Tribble's Emporium might get a visit too. I also plan to run one of the scenarios on days when the whole group can't make it, meaning that we can keep regular play going but that everyone will be familiar with the campaign's metaplot. I'll choose these as appropriate, but I have already worked out some apt points where Masquerade of Horrors, The Eye of the Tiger, The Bigger they Are... and Noblesse Oblige could get a well deserved airing. The Three Feathers could also get a visit too.

I think one of the most neglected, yet rewarding aspects of character creation is giving them a history. Randomly generating a group and having them "all meet up in a tavern" leaves me cold. I also wanted to take advantage of some of the relationships between PCs and NPCs which are implicit in the campaign, and help the PCs realise that NPCs are living personalities as well.

With this in mind the following history has been created to help the party gel:

HEINRICH AND ALEXA

Heinrich Klein was born in Averland yet had always been attracted by stories about life at sea. He travelled to Tilea as an adolescent hoping to join one of the many mercenary companies who travel on voyages to the distant lands of the Old World. Instead he was press-ganged into one of the many pirate crews who scour the Tilean ports looking for fresh meat. He served terms on many vessels and on the dangerous pirate-run island of Sartosa. Earning his freedom after many years with the Sartosan buccaneers he returned to the Empire and hooked up with Alexa Drull, a young Nordlander who lived by smuggling wine along the Talabec from Altdorf to Talabheim.

Alexa and Heinrich worked together on the Talabec, using a contact of hers in Altdorf named Josef Quartjin to procure fine wines to take to Talabheim tax free. Unfortunately for Alexa the rough treatment her little boat has taken during repeated hurried attempts to hide it from the eyes of the law has taken its toll, and the vessel has sunk some way from the town of Garndorf. Short of cash and without a vessel the two have made their way to the town in the search of some kind of employment, whether legal or not.

ALCAR, KURT AND HANS

Some time ago Alcar tired of the strictures of life in the Laurelorn forest. Approaching his mid-nineties he felt it was time to see more of life outside and so left his community to explore the lands of men (having been given the warning those who leave the enclave receive about never revealing details of his birthplace to outsiders). He travelled to Middenheim first, but found the city cold and grey for his liking. He decided to make his way to Altdorf, and got as far as Delberz before running out of money. He struggled to make ends meet until he formed a friendship with a thief, one Rolf Hurtsis. Rolf taught Alcar that life in Empire is harsh; hunger, disease, violence and exploitation by the rich are ineluctable problems for the poor. Faced with this world view Alcar became cynical, and became a criminal himself. This went well until Rolf began to act erratically, was caught and jailed. Though Rolf managed to spring the jail he disappeared from Delberz. Alcar began to feel that, as an Elven thief, he was somewhat conspicuous, and set off to Altdorf once more.

Unused to the lands of men however he became somewhat lost, ending up on the road to Talabheim rather than Altdorf. He met a travelling tradesman, an herbalist named Hans Gottried, who was travelling to Altdorf to deal in his wares. For companionship and safety the two travelled together and have struck up something of a friendship on the long road to Altdorf.

Whilst passing through Ahlenhof the pair met up with Kurt Heidel. The youngest son of a successful burgher in the town all the best careers in business, clergy and the military had been taken by his elder siblings. Bored and doted on as the youngest son of a loving mother he had been using her generosity to fund a slightly unhealthy gambling habit. He has racked up some considerable debts and following the recent death of his mother he has been cut off from the family funds. Staying in Ahlenhof is certain to result in damage to limbs if not his life so he is looking for a quick way to leave the town, make some money and then try his hand in a larger city somewhere. Preferably somewhere he can lay low for a while.

GIDEON

Gideon Funter has spent the last 20 years struggling to learn the elementary lessons of cryptoclastic thaumaturgy at the grey college in Altdorf. His teacher, a Master Wizard called Heironymus Scheer, has decided his apprenticeship is almost at an end, and has sent him out in the world to learn about the practical applications of magic and has given him a mission to gather information on the Chaos cults of the Empire, with a particular warning to “beware the schemes of the Red Crown”. Masquerading as a scholar of the classics (until he gets his lisence he'll have to be very careful about who he reveals his powers to) Gideon has made his way from Altdorf to Garndof where a trail he has been following has run out.

Rumours in the town are buzzing of an expedition being organized in Altdorf – a noble is recruiting people to accompany him on a dangerous trip to the Grey Mountains, and he is paying an exceptional rate of 10s a day! The six adventurers gather about a noticeboard in town that people say carries details of the expedition, but only Gideon and Kurt can read it...

So that's the starting party. The first session tomorrow night sees them attempt to achieve the seemingly simple mission of obtaining a coach trip...

- Dave Allen

Gearing up for another campaign

2006-04-03T13:57:00.000+01:00

Spring is here, and it's a time to clean out all those cobwebs and dusty old dice- that's why we're gearing up for a nice bit of campaign play over the next few months.

We've had some frenetic fun playtesting adventures, but the time has come to kick back, relax and play some good old fashioned 'Just because we can' games.

They say a change is as good as a rest and our GM, Dave, is certainly doing things differently with this game. Not only have we got to pick our careers rather than roll them (admittedly, he did say 'we need a wizard and someone who can handle a boat') we've also been sat down individually to create our characters- rather than rolling in a group.

It's suprising how you get into gaming habits without even noticing. Faced with a choice of WFRP characters- rather than fickle fate forcing one on you- has been a little odd. Where previously there were random roll tables...now there's just free choice! As a result we've all put a little more thought into our PC's. Some of use are even painting up some minatures.

However, the highlight so far certainly has to be shopping for trappings.

Dave has created a sheet of Empire coins (taken from the Old World Armoury) cut them out and then doled them out to us. There has been haggling, outrage and much downgrading of quality levels in the attempt to get properly equipped. (Mal, we're looking at you with your poor quality ink) Thank Sigmar you get your starting clothing for free- I'm sure some of us would have said 'ah, I can do without Breeches- why, I could make some!" It's funny how seeing the coins there in front of you somehow makes you reluctant to spend.

We're all looking forward to the new game and a change of pace... more next week!

Damn you White Dwarf!

2006-03-27T14:06:00.000+01:00

Oh issue 316, curse your 128 glossy pages!

Not only do you cover the new Warhammer Giant in juicy detail (so many possible permutations, so little time) but also the Mordheim Frenzied Mob

We had our painting all planned out!

We were happy pootling away on our Sisters of Battle ->

And after we finished that, we had some Dark Heresy action planned with the
witch hunter warband

Now we'll be forced to buy the frenzied mob to use as NPC's and characters for our WFRP games (especially as Dave is gearing up to run a well known campaign)

Gah! The best laid plans of mice and men...

Thanks and shout outs

2006-03-18T21:56:00.000Z

Well, thanks to everyone who came by our booth at GTS- it was good talking to you guys.

We had a load of feedback about 40k roleplay- and on how WFRP has been doing this past year. All in all a great show!

We got to eat Brazilian barbecue with Chris Pramas, Rob Schwalb and Hal Mangold, inside a giant plantain shaped restraunt whilst drinking Caprihnias as big as our heads. Of course, anyone who has been to Las Vegas will know that this sort of thing is par for the course- as is giant animatronic frogs and crocodile skin covered walls.

That aside, some special thanks goes out to Marc Aquino- for the 40k chat, Alex Weber for the organized play stuff, Angus from Leisure Games for the great tea chat, Henry Lopez for all round charm, Steve Wieck for the drivethru rundown and of course Alex from Mongoose as a fellow Englishman abroad.

A busy, interesting, exciting, exhausting time was had by all- we can't wait til next year, when 40k roleplay will be on our stand and in the shops.

More on 40k roleplay once we've recovered.

-The Black Industries team.

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas

2006-03-14T18:51:00.000Z

So, if you've been checking out our website, you'll know by now that we're doing Warhammer 40,000 roleplay.

We've come to the GAMA trade show in LasVegas to give folks the low down on just what we're getting up to.

It should be a good show- we're expecting to spend a ton of time answering questions, talking about the game and of course wandering in and out of casinos.

We've already hit Caeser's palace, The Bellagio, Wynn, Paris Paris, The Luxor, Manderlay Bay and oh, much more more. What with the Jetlag and the crazy sights of Vegas it's all a bit of a blur.

Tomorrow night, we're taking the guys from Green Ronin out for slap up food and drinks- both to celebrate the big announcement, and to spread the WFRP birthday cheer. We don't think we're be able to get hold of an orc shaped cake, like the Birthday Bash winners suggested, but we will be attempting truely Dwarfen toasting, boasting and drinking.

Things we're missing from England include: warmth (it's been snowing here in Vegas) proper tea (just what is this iced nonsense all about?) fresh fruit (it seems to be illegal here) and of course, our Monday and Wenesday gaming sessions.

Slaves of Destiny- the Grand finale

2006-03-10T14:15:00.000Z

It’s been a long time getting it’s write up, but our playtest sessions have finally ended!
We’ve been playing through the adventure in the back of the Skaven sourcebook ‘Children of the Horned Rat’ with two different groups- one set of Skaven spys, and one set of morally dubious humans.

Obviously, we can’t reveal the climax of the adventure- that would spoil things- but needless to say, there were some dark deals struck, several deaths and an awful lot of explaining the resulting mess to superiors. Just like any session of WFRP really.

So, many thanks to our cast of anti heroes:

Human investigators:
Che Webster- (Maximillian ‘metaphor king’) For services to miscommunication
Owen Barnes- (Bigby Badgerbane) “to be honest, it’s all !£*&£$!*”
Rowland Cox- (Hermann the messenger) For dice nav ™
Rob Broom- (Wolfheart Vogel) For his first game session!
Darron Bowley- (Axelbrand ‘the shoveller’ Scherer) Silent but deadly

Skaven pack

Mal Green- (Throlk) “The trees are screaming and the moons on fire!”
Chris Lucas- (Ritchet) for leading the Skaven pack…fatly.
Dave Allen- (Meffitt Ikk) for his special war face
Ed Morris- (Skerrit Slee) for doing his Skaven duty and escaping

So, here’s the quote book- infer what you will!

Maximillian: “Did your mother ever dally with Orcs?”

Maximillian - “What kind of beastmen are they?”
Wolfheart- “I don’t know, but they’re dead- that’s the best kind of beastman in my books”

Bigby- “I think we should drink just enough to forget why we’re here but not enough that we’re incapable of fighting”

Maximillian- “I’m not one to hide from a fight…but why does it have to be us who does the fighting?”

Axelbrand- “Well, my conscience is clear- I mean, what have these villagers ever done for us?
Maximillian- “Apart from put a roof over our heads?”
Wolfgang- “They’ve welcomed us to their community”
Hermann- “and treated us like heroes”
Maximillian- “fed us, given us ale…”
Bigby- “they gave me pie”
GM- “wow, that Halfling Loyalty isn’t easily bought”

The Skaven Lexicon

Wool-pig- Sheep
Tasty!- Horse
Daybat- Bird
Big-tall wing bell tower- Windmill
Burning moon- sun
Mighty warlord- A man with a halberd
Fatboss- Ritchet (nominal leader of the group)
Giant brood mother- Cow
Milk pig- cow
Mmmm- milk
Big noisy house- Tavern
Great Grey Seer- Village priest
Nice moon- Morrsleib
Bad Moon- Mannsleib

GM- “you break free of the grapple”
Mal- “it’s the musk of fear- it makes you slippery!”

Chris- “I exude the musk of ‘phew’”

Dave- “if I roll the dice thirteen times, and the thirteenth roll is a thirteen, then the Horned Rat wants me help my fellow party members”

Ed- “don’t write that down, it’s far too wrong”

Media survey

2006-03-02T10:11:00.000Z

We are painting: Tau, Crimson Fists, Sisters of Battle, Sisters of Sigmar, Warhammer 40,000 Witch Hunter and retinue, Space Marine Librarians, A Tomb Kings army and Meffitt Ikk- (Dave Allen’s playtest character)

We are playing: Risk, Universal Fighting System, Paranoia mandatory !bonus fun! Card game, Ico, Everquest 2, WFRP, Call of Cthulhu, Sudoku, We love Katamari, Warcry and Planescape Torment

We are watching: Curse of the Wererabbit, Battlestar Galactica season one, Walk the Line, Dr Who Tardis box set, Inspector Morse, Alien, Dark City, Blade Runner, Brazil, Event Horizen, Firefly and The Producers.

We are reading: The Foundation series (Issac Asimov) Horus Rising (Dan Abnett) 1984 (George Orwell) Lanark (Alistair Grey) From the Holy Mountain (William Dalrymple) A guide to Inspector Morse (David Bishop) and The Historian (Elizabeth Kostova)

Slaves of Destiny, Skaven session 2!

2006-02-24T09:02:00.000Z

Our nefarious Skaven group got together last night to slink through the tangled plots and twisting events of ‘Slaves of Destiny’

This adventure from the ‘Children of the Horned Rat’ sourcebook is being played from two perspectives- human investigators and Skaven infiltrators.

Not only are we having a romp with the rules for Skaven PC’s, we’re also play testing a new character sheet.

Our dirty rats were:

Chris Lucas- Ritchet- the biggest, fattest boss rat of the group
Ed Morris- Skerrit Slee- the sneaky, strangely brave Skaven
Mal Green- Throlk- The clan Moulder Packmaster with an excitement problem
Dave Allen- Meffitt Ikk- (Almost) as sneaky as a Clan Eshin Assassin…

The story so far

Having been sent to Dotternbach by a Grey Seer, the pack has been busy at their secret task. Their efforts, however, have been stymied by the seditious thoughts contained within one of the Halfling agitator’s leaflets. Forcing an unfortunate slave to read the contents of the leaflet has opened the pack’s eyes to a world where might is not right… Ratboss Ritchet is not pleased! Discipline has had to be enforced- particularly after Skerrit Slee attempted to sneak away whilst his pack mates slept, fleeing back to Nuln to claim the glory for a completed mission…

Throlk- “You hurt slave!”
Skerrit Slee- “Gangrene won’t kill him before working pits will”

Mal Green- “we can’t do that, if we go that far we’ll fall off the map”

Richet- “I take man-thing armour- if it fit!”
Throlk- “Probably bit big- mind you, it fit you…as you so fat…oh glorious leader”

Meffitt Ikk- “Man thing read paper! If you do, you see sun one more time before work pits!”
Throlk- “Meffitt Ikk too kind to slave-thing”
Meffit Ikk- “Ha! Meffitt give reward and punishment in one!”

Richet- “Is day-outside bright?”
Throlk- “Yes! Moon is on fire!”

Meffitt Ikk- “Man-thing, what is ‘Vote’?
Slave- “Ah, it’s where everyone gets a piece of the power…the group gets to decide what happens, not the leader…it means you don’t have to do what you don’t want to do…”
Meffitt Ikk- “Aaah…”
Throlk- “Hmm…”
Skerrit Slee- “Interesting…”
Richet- “No-no! Stupid man-thing idea stupid! No pack work like that! Ha, no wonder you man-things become slaves of Richet if think stupid thought like that! Boss in charge is right way! RIGHT WAY!”
Meffitt Ikk- “Yes-yes fat leader- ah! - sleek leader, yes, boss sleek, not fat at all…”

Chris Lucas- “Frankly, I’m impressed we made it to the second session before infighting broke out”

Ed Morris- “Lets face it, it can’t get any worse- you might as well call on the favour of the Horned Rat”

Lost in translation

2006-02-23T11:34:00.000Z

German review of GM's pack + Babelfish translation ="being hammer Fantasy game of roles"

Who knew 'Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay' could mean so much?

-BI Dev team

The plot thickens…

2006-02-22T10:05:00.000Z

So, last night we continued playtest with the human side of ‘Slaves of Destiny’

We’re running the adventure from the back of the ‘Children of the Horned Rat’ sourcebook so we can test the new character sheets we’ve been working on.

There are two groups playing through ‘Slaves of Destiny’- the human investigators and the Skaven trouble makers.

So far our human group have been sent to Dotternbach near Nuln, to investigate why a wool shipment has not come through. Without giving away too much of the various plots and intrigues, they’ve found plenty of mysterious questions- and not many answers! Why are the villagers scared? What has happened to the sheep? Who are the Tilians? Just what was in that pie?

Our party members were:

Che Webster- Maximillian Kalternbach, the Nuln thief who’s not afraid of mysterious tunnels
Owen Barnes- Bigby Badgerbane, Halfling agitator, and Axelbrand Scherer, lofty shovel holder who’s silent as the grave…
Rob Broom- Wolfhart Vogel, the military historian finally getting a chance to see some action!
Rowland Cox- Hermann Baumann, impetuous messenger who is gradually falling under the spell of the seditious Halfling!

The Quote Book

Wolfhart: “Well, now, if we do run into trouble, why, we’re all men here! We can hide behind Hermann.”

Maximillian: “You know Bigby, you’re not really doing much to sort things out here”
Bigby: “Well, the ills I right are on a large, grand scale- not this sort of grass roots, ground level stuff”
Wolfhart: “But you’re a Halfling- the one thing you know is ground level!”

Hermann: “I smell self preservation”
Bigby: “I thought it was pie”

Hermann: “Well, we’ve done a good night’s work, and I’ve bled a good night’s blood”

Rowland- I ride up the hill with my lantern lit, singing loudly to cause a distraction
Hermann: (singing) “She was only the Ostermark’s Daughter, every solider wanted to… (censored)
Wolfhart: “Taal’s teeth Hermann, you’re so loud the bloody Emperor will be turning up on his Griffon in a minute”
Hermann: “Why, does he know the second verse?”

Maximillian: “Has anyone got a rope?”
Bigby: “I’ve got the remains of a pie…”

Hermann: “Stay with the horse, but be stealthy”
Bigby: “Well, I could strap myself to its side and pretend to be a growth”

The Black hand of distraction

2006-02-20T16:29:00.000Z

No playtest tonight, we're off to see The Darkness play Nottingham Arena instead.

We'll play 'Slaves of Destiny' tomorrow night, so expect a report Wednesday!

-The BI Team (not in spandex)

Skaves of destiny...

2006-02-17T14:02:00.000Z

Last night we got down to some solid play testing of the new character sheet.

We’ve got two groups testing it- one motley crew of Humans, and one pack of Skaven trouble makers.

We’re using the player character options from ‘Children of the Horned Rat’ together with ‘Slaves of Destiny’- the adventure from the back of the book.

The humans have already had a stab at the adventure (see the post below for more on that) so last night it was the turn of the loathsome ratmen:

Ed Morris: Skerrit Slee, The Scarred Skaven with a reputation for bravery
Chris Lucas: Ritchet, The Big brawny boss clanrat
Dave Allen: Meffitt Ikk, The Clan Verms Slavetaker (and secret brains of the pack)
Mal Green: Throlk, The Clan Moulder packmaster with big-big thing catcher

The Story so far:

Plucked from the teeming masses seemingly at random, the Skaven pack have agreed to work for Pit Boss Skitit. As a servant of Under Nuln’s Temple of the Horned Rat, Skitit needs the pack to perform a delicate task for him- so delicate a task that Skitit’s own master Grey Seer Rikik has taken an unhealthy interest in what’s going on. Skitit may well have forced the pack to pretend that they’re veteran Skaven with years of hardwon experience under their belts, specially summoned from Altdorf, but that’s better-good than Grey Seer Rikik finding out the truth, yes-yes?

On the promise of warptokens and possible work in the Temple, the pack have been handed a map and dispatched along the underway to the man-thing-place of Dotternbach…

The Quote Book

Phrase of the night: “I emit the musk of fear and run away!”

GM: So guys, are you going to introduce yourselves to your party members?
Ed Morris: Absolutely not! I want them knowing as little about me as possible!

Mal Green: I order my Giant rat to leap on the man’s face and attack him!
GM: Well…I’ve never had to GM that before

GM: Roll agility to get on the roof quietly
Dave Allen (on making his roll): HA! Paint me black and fly me over Moscow! I AM the stealth Skaven!

Chris/Richet: “You-you, skitter round big-tall wing-bell tower!”
Dave/ Meffitt “Yes, yes, I go…oh stuff it, just talk human, there’s a chance I might understand the plan then.”

Chris: Ha ha! you failed your stealth role
Dave: Yeah, well, Im' going to draw solace from looking at my 'you passed your intelligence test when everyone else failed' GM note- so there!

Chris: “Why does playing Skaven make you talk like Yoda? Mnn! To Windmill go you!”

Slaves of Destiny Begins!

2006-02-14T09:12:00.000Z

Our woe ridden and mud drenched gang of investigators began playtest last night using the adventure from the back of ‘Children of the Horned Rat’

Our group consisted of:

Darron Bowley: Axlebrand Scherer, 6’ 9’’ and 120lb of morbid Grave Robber
Owen Barnes: Bigby Badger Bane, Halfling agitator on behalf of wee folk everywhere
Rob Broom: Wolfheart Vogel: Ousted Wolfenburger and student of military history
Che Webster: Maximillian Kaltenbech: Plucky, pushy Nulner thief
Rowland Cox: Hermann Baumann: The Middenland Messenger, who’s built like a brick. (and about as smart)

The story so far:

Summoned to the house of wealthy merchant Hugo Becker, the party all have their personal reasons for attending. Some owe him money, others need his services, whilst others know that the entirely legitimate businessman is not one to be trifled with if you like to have fingers.

The Party have been dispatched to the village of Dotternbach to discover why Becker’s shipment of wool has not arrived in Nuln. Travelling there via one of Becker’s fermented fish delivery carts has not made them the most pleasant smelling bunch, but right now, that’s the least of their worries…

The Quote Book:

“It’s the wool trade. What’s the worst that can happen?” -Becker
“We get fleeced”- Hermann

GM- Are you taking any precautions walking down this road?
Darron- avoiding the bigger puddles?

“I’m going to sleep with my horse- and not for the first time!” –Hermann

Bigby “Why, so confident are we of our success, we bring our own grave digger!”
Axlebrand “He means for the other side”
Hermann “He’s a gravedigger?”
Axlebrand “Yes. Why do you think I’ve got this shovel?”
Hermann “Oh, I thought you were just weird.”

“We need to know more about these Tilians- I mean, how do we even know they’re human?”- Wolfhart

Merchant- “I’ll thank you to stop spreading your Halfling sedition in this Tavern, here, stop your craw with this pie”
Bigby “Why, see here again, these oppressive stereotypes!”
Merchant “It’s a very fine pie”
Bigby “Why yes… this doesn’t mean I’ve compromised my principles you know!”

Maximillian- “You know Bigby, I don’t think you should be eating that pie. Nothing in this village is as it seems. How do we know that’s even lamb in there?”
Bigby <with mouth full> “Are you implying I would eat human?...though technically speaking it wouldn’t be cannibalism…”

More on this group next Monday!

The likely lads

2006-02-13T09:12:00.000Z

So, we made some of our characters for our playtest sessions on Friday.

Basically, we’re playing through the adventure from the forthcoming ‘Children of the Horned Rat’ sourcebook. Chris Pramas wrote the scenario- ‘Slaves of Destiny’- and he included some notes on how you could convert the adventure from one with a human point of view to one with a Skaven point of view.

As loads of folk (Dave, we’re looking at you) were really amused by the optional rules for Skaven player characters that we included in ‘Children of the Horned Rat’ we figured, ‘what the hell!’ and have decided to run two groups on the same adventure- one group playing the human investigators and another playing the Skaven instigators.

All this flummery is just an excuse for us to test out the new character sheets we’ve been perfecting.

So Friday, we sat down and crafted the Human (well, mostly) investigator group.

We used totally random character creation, plus the name generator, heraldry and doomings from the Character Pack. Players got to roll once for careers- if they didn’t like what they rolled, they went again, but had to stick with what they got.

It consists of:

Wolfheart Vogel, Student of Military History, and brains of the bunch.
Hermann Baumann, 6’ 4’’ and 220lb of Messenger. No one stops him getting though!
Axlebrand Scherer, a Grave Robber doomed to die from some form of rot…
Ethanregar Bercock A.K.A Bigby Badgerbane, Halfling agitator for M.O.T.I.F (Mootland Organisation for Tradesfolk Interested in Freedom)

Just one more character needs to be made before we’ve got the investigation group ready to go!

-BI Dev Team

This made us laugh

2006-02-03T13:58:00.000Z

Extract from the WFRP companion:

"The thing that exploded out of the closet was some hideous combination of man and potato. It's thousand eyes stared out, filled with madness..."

This is what happens if you let authors read the mutations chapter from the Tome of Corruption. Mantatoes. You read it here first.

-The BI Dev Team

In the Mood

2006-01-25T11:10:00.000Z

Last night we got geared up for our 'Slaves of Destiny' gaming with a couple of rounds of 'Paranoia mandatory !bonus fun! card game'

This, combined with coffee and lots of sugary cookies, soon had us backstabbing, betraying, whining and plotting like any good Skaven party should.

'Slaves of Destiny' might be a very short game indeed.

-BI Dev Team.

A playtest is born!

2006-01-24T13:16:00.000Z

Today, we decided it was time to do some more playtest.

We're developing a new character sheet at the moment (as forum folk will no doubt know) and it needs a good hard run out to see if it can cut the mustard.

So, we've decided to run 'Slaves of Destiny'- the adventure from 'Children of the Horned Rat'

It's been modified a little to allow us to run two groups on the same adventure- one side are the human investigators, whilst the other are Skaven infiltrators.

The humans get their 'turn' during the day, whilst the Skaven go at night.

Should be good- but more on that later!

-The BI Dev Team

Food for thought

2006-01-19T14:19:00.000Z

When it really comes down to it, games are about the people that play them.

If you're going to make games, you need to know about the motivations of the people you want to play them.

We've got lots of ways of doing this, but perhaps one of the best (and simplest) is a system called hearts, clubs, diamonds, and spades.

Anyone who has been part of the MUD (Multi-User Dungeon) community- or happens to know the works of Richard Bartle- is probably already aware of this theory- it's been around for a while.

It's a useful tool for thinking about gamers and their motivations.

Essentially the theory breaks gamers into four core types:

Hearts
It's all about the Roleplay for these people. They like the talking, the interaction, the social occasion and the feel of Roleplay. They'll roleplay their character's moods, talk to all sorts of NPC's and are often the driving force behind getting the gaming group together.

Clubs
Hack and slash! These guys like the thud and splash of combat, the conquering of foes. They'll slaughter a thousand Orcs and not think it too many. A good session for these chaps often revolves around combat- or the preparation for it. They might have spell casting characters, but these are likely heavy artillery types with combat spells a go-go

Diamonds
Points and cash! These folk are collectors of wealth and power. They'll know exactly how many experience points they've got, are about to get and need to advance. They'll have their careers and skills all plotted out, as well as what weapon they want. They are the arch-acquirers, probably with the best gear, most money and holdings.

Spades
These guys like to dig into a game. They like feeling immersed in a world- and get a kick from knowing all sorts of information about the game. Be it knowledge of the complete history of the world, or total rules mastery they absorb the detail like a happy sponge. They likely have most of the books about the game and enjoy game sessions that either reveals or confirms some fact about the world.

Most people are combinations of these types- so for example, a Hearts/Spades
gamer would be really into the background and love exploring new locations,
NPC backgrounds and investigative adventures.

So now you've read the theory- how do you come out? Clubs or Hearts? Spades or Diamonds?

It's an interesting thought...

-The BI Dev team

New book, old customs

2006-01-17T11:12:00.000Z

So, sample copies of 'Forges of Nuln' have arrived in our office.

For those not in the know, this book is the final part of the 'Paths of the Damned' adventure trilogy. The campaign sees the party battle all manner of evil against the backdrop of the three major cities of the Empire- Middenheim, Altdorf and Nuln.
The first instalment was 'Ashes of Middenheim', closely followed by 'Spires of Altdorf'

Anyway, catch ups aside, the arrival of 'Forges of Nuln' (or FON as we affectionately call it) has caused much activity and shenanigans, as you can imagine. Each time we get a new book up from the warehouse, the guys all gather round muttering 'woot!' and 'shiny'- and this one is no exception.

There’s a sort of time honoured ritual about it all now. Maybe you get the same thing in the place where you work- maybe not- but here's how it goes:

9:56 heralding of the newness
Ominous rumbling from the lift causes someone to shout ‘incoming!’ People in the office suddenly become much more alert. Suspiciously large amounts of people start to take ‘monitor breaks’

9:57 Ceremony of Arrival
Rik arrives with a huge pallet of books. Everyone looks nonchalant whilst the boxes are opened. Eventually someone snaps and rushes over to look.

9:57 ½ Lustration of the shiny
Pupils dilate, books are stroked and round mouthed mutterings of ‘oooh’ and ‘check out the cover’ are the traditional beginnings of this ritual. Everyone looks at the pictures- despite claiming they’re ‘really interested in the writing on this one’. Some one invariably smells the book- causing a rash of sniffing, snorting and ‘mmm, glue’ type noises. Someone will then try to raise the tone by looking at the print quality and talking about the paper. Everyone looks very studious and earnest.

10:03 Dispersal of the faithful
People sidle away from the pallet, clutching their copies of the book. The production guys then try to round up all the copies that have wandered off to folks not on the samples lists. Theoretically, if you get your name written on the inside front cover before they get to you, you can keep it.

11:00 Promissory of gaming
Morning break comes, and people arrange their gaming evenings in light of the new book.

17:00 Transition of the opinions
By the end of the day, someone will have read the new book cover to cover and will pointing out the best bits to everyone else. (That is, everyone except the folks who helped proof and develop the book- they’re already using it as reference)

Particular highlights (side from the FON-a-friend gags) have been Kev B finally buckling and agreeing to run the Paths of the Damned campaign after months of promising the sales guys he'd 'get round to it'

The 'nice map, but does it photo-copy?' gauntlet has been thrown down and successfully met- many thanks to all those who obliged!

Now all that remains is to get the previews up, and the book on sale!

Watch out Febuary- here we come!

-The BI Dev Team

If Dolphins were Monkeys...

2006-01-10T17:17:00.000Z

Sometimes folk accuse us of putting silly things into Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Rumster’s pies, Wurstfest, Greased Goats and so on.

Well, let us assure you, most of the time- truth is stranger than any fiction we could come up with.

You’ve only got to look at history to find all manner of bizarre, absurd and nonsensical happenings.

All the recent talk about King Kong (boy, has that film had some money spent on marketing- from burgers to bog roll, the big Gorilla is everywhere at the moment) has put us in mind of a charming incident in Hartlepool, England.

One dark and stormy night during the Napoleonic wars, the fisher folk of costal Hartlepool spotted lights out to sea. Sure enough a vessel was in trouble- sinking in fact. The following day many people went down to the beach to scavenge anything washed up from the wreck.

Many and varied were the things that were found- including a curious fellow. Got up in a suspicious uniform and jabbering a strange language, the townsfolk decided this man might be trouble. They locked him up and sent for the local magistrate at once. The official being away in London- and local curiosity being what it was, the odd foreigner was exhibited to the people of Hartlepool.

It didn’t take long for people to work out what was going on. The man was clearly one of the hated French- for he was ugly to look upon, weirdly clad and scratched himself with no care for the ladies present in the room. Yes, he gibbered a foolish language, was covered in hair and had a primitive, savage look to him. He was a spy- a French spy who had attempted to land under the cover of darkness to pry into English business!

No time could be wasted. The Frenchman had to be tried.

A court was convened, but the trial quickly descended into farce. No one could speak French and no amount of torture could induce him to write or sign his dastardly intentions. Tired of the trial- and unwilling to wait for the magistrate- the people gathered together and hung the French Spy.

Two days later the magistrate arrived and had the terrible affair explained to him. The principles of the trial took him to see the corpse and the magistrate finally discovered what had happened.

Hanging outside the Town Hall was a dead chimp.

The hairiness, the strange face, the uniform- it was no Frenchman- rather, a mascot-the ship’s ape- at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Neighbouring towns, of course, didn't find this funny at all. In fact, even to this day, shouts of 'Monkey 'anger' follow Hartlepoolites where ever they go.

Given that, Sigmar's Sizzling sausage seems positively normal...

-The BI Dev Team

Pretty pictures in your head

2006-01-05T17:28:00.000Z

So, we've been trying to upload a picture so we could write about it for your blogging edification and delight- sadly, there seems to be some problem putting pictures up at the moment.

Thusly we've stripped out some of the old pics from the Blog (hope you don't mind) and decided to have another crack at it later.

That doesn't mean you have to go without your weekly dose of WFRP trivia however- it just means we'll have to be a little DIY about it.

So stop reading this and go and get your WFRP rule book. If you haven't got one, then what are you doing reading this? You've obviously surfed in here at random and haven't got a clue what we're talking about. That or your simply haven't got round to ordering one from our marvellous webstore (plug plug)

Anyway, got your paws on the book? Good, so see the characters on the front cover? See the bald headed guy with the hammer? That's Jurgen Heim. We were going to talk about him because we feel guilty.

Yeah, guilty- see if you look at all the WFRP books you'll notice these characters turn up quite alot. Except for Jurgen. It breaks down like this:

Old World Bestiary- Urrel Two axe (the Dwarf)and Otto Enbarr (the Wizard) vs a Wyvern
Ashes of Middenheim- Urrel and Gorge von Ostwald (bearded guy) vs Skaven, with Kera of Ostermark and Jurgen in the background (and even then Jurgen's on the spine)
Spires of Altdorf- Otto solo against Crimson skull cultists
Forges of Nuln- Urrel and Kera against an undead thing
Barony of the Damned- Kera vs swamp creatures- or possibly Mousillon peasantry (it's a blurry line between the two)

So we were thinking maybe Jurgen should get some more coverage somewhere- question is, on what? He's an interesting character- and we've got a heap of backstory for him-the thing is, where do we best use his talents? hmmm. Take a read and join us in the pondering.

-BI Dev Team

Jurgen was dedicated to Sigmar upon the day he was born. A shrivelled bundle upon a doorstep he was found, and taken in by an Abbess of a Learned Order. He was soon taught to copy scripture, but over time it became clear no matter how patient the teacher, Jurgen could not read. He could draw the shapes, yet they meant nothing to him. In this small community, folk who should have known better began to whisper- what sort of being authored this fatherless child? Why was he unable to read holy text?

Soon Jurgen left. He fled to the army, and the tutelage of the Warrior Priests. His prodigious memory made him excellent at learning the blessings of battle and rites of the fallen. Rough soldiers did not care if he signed for his pay with an ‘X’. He grew strong and skilled, fighting for Sigmar and Empire. When the Storm of Chaos came, he did his part upon the field of battle, yet his heart turned from this bloody work. When all he knew had fallen, he fled to the Catacombs of Middenheim to shelter from the war.

Jurgen wears armour typical of his priestly sect. His bronze hammer is of Dwarf make, with the sigil of the holy comet etched upon its sides. Clasped to his belt are several prayer inscriptions, which he has copied out from memory. These are written in ink blessed by the Grand Theoginist himself. When times are hard, Jurgen sells these scrolls as protective charms. He also possesses a book gifted to him upon his initiation. He has no idea what secrets this holds.

Back in the Saddle

2006-01-04T13:44:00.000Z

Well, we've returned from Christmas and New Year mostly intact- probably minus some brain cells and added some pounds- and we're back slaving away over a hot computor.

More posts later- when we've dug through the backlog of email!

-The BI dev team

That's it for this year

2005-12-20T10:53:00.000Z

So, we're about to head off on our Christmas Holidays.

Mince pies have been eaten, crackers have been pulled, the office Christmas 'do' has occurred.

We went for a pub quiz this year. For those not acquainted with this custom, this is where you commandeer the back of a bar, organize yourself into teams and then collectively write down the answers to trivia questions bellowed by a central 'caller' Once you've written down your answers, you pass your paper to another team and the caller shouts out the answers. The team with the highest marks wins.

Simply really- and jolly good fun.

Sadly, we have to report that the Black Industries team-The Dark Angels- didn't win. Instead, a monstrous chimera of a team- fused from accounts and sales folk (an unholy mix if ever there was one) seized the day, and claimed the pub quiz prize for their own. Yes, the Black Templars were quaffing champagne, whilst BI were taunted as 'the sinister corners' and 'the dark angles'

Nevermind- there's always next year.

Speaking of which, it's been damn busy for us so far- but we're looking forward to 2006.

We've got some great announcements coming up, and of course, we can't wait to see what people make of things like the Bretonnia book (Knights of the Grail) and the Mousillon adventure (Barony of the Damned)

We want to know if other groups fall into the same traps, tricks and peculiarities as our playtesters did- and how they get out of them. Most of all, we want to know what people make of the Black Pig of the Woods, and the mysterious Grand Sow.

But on that, we can speak no more...

All that remains then, is to say Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and keep you eyes peeled for 2006!

-The BI dev Team

Toys

2005-12-14T16:37:00.000Z

This month we have mostly been... Creating familiars.

We like the new Realms of Sorcery rules so much that when we've had a spare ten minutes or so we've been feverishly jotting down ideas for strange wizardly companions, like there's no tomorrow.

We want to put them together to form a 'generate a familiar' program for the website. The stat and skill generation is proving a little complicated, but we've got the descriptions licked!

Some are based on people in the office whilst others are simply mad inspiration. Which is which, you'll have to work out when we put them online.

Meanwhile, here are two of our personal favorites:

The helminthoid form of your familiar fills you with disgust and the stench it gives off causes most creatures with a sense of smell to give you a wide berth (apart from cats, who tend to show an interest in eating the thing). It rudely subjects your efforts at sorcery to mockery. You can communicate with it telepathically, but you dont particularly like the way it thinks. On Levydays it tends to go missing and when it returns it is bloated and sluggish.

This familiar is a small, podgy creature, assembled from the off cuts of meat. Perhaps the size of your hand, it has rudimentary limbs, sheeps eyes and a lipless slit of a mouth. When upset it weeps tears of blood, which it frequently does, for it is a delicate soul, trapped in an unlovely body. It has a peculiar horror of flies, and is obsessively devoted to you.

-BI Dev Team

Letter from America

2005-12-12T12:23:00.000Z

We got our first piece of prison mail today. A chap wrote to us to say thanks for the new edition and request a catalogue of what’s coming out next.

You might be thinking ‘Jail mail? what the hell?’ but stop and think about it for a moment.

If you’re banged up, and you’ve got time on your hands, what better to do that spend it roleplaying? We roleplay for different reasons- fun, social enjoyment, habit, achievement, boredom- to name but a few- but primarily it’s a great form of escapism. It’s a chance to get away from the everyday, the ordinary, the boring and persue a different life for a couple of hours. Whether we’re at school ignoring essay deadlines, or hanging out in the garage with our collegemates (or even escaping the kids and the ironing for a few hours at the local gaming club) we use games to have a mental holiday, a laugh, a break from the norm.

It’s certainly not uncommon for games companies to get letters from prison- pretty much any RPG you can think of has a jail fan base. If you consider roleplaying as a past time its not a bad fit for anywhere there’s limited space and plenty of spare time- from prison, to oil rigs to the military to university dorms. It’s pretty cheap, only requires a few books (which can easily be mailed to you) a couple of dice and some pencils.

Yep, RPG’s certainly get further than the back rooms of hobby stores and the sticky corners of University bars.

We’ve yet to get a letter from someone who’s played Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay in space…but it can only be a matter of time.

-The BI Dev Team

Btw: Where’s the strangest place you’ve ever roleplayed?

There's something in the air...

2005-12-09T12:43:00.000Z

Every so often, our office building is surrounded by...well... a strange smell.

It's a curious thing- it's not sewerage, or gas or chemicals or anything unpleasant. It's a sort of sweet yeasty aroma- not unlike cooking, but certainly not food.

The Green Ronin guys commented on it when they were last over. They figured it had to be a brewery- but there aren't any near our office. The answer remained a mystery.

Over the weeks since the visit, we've been pondering what it could be. Perhaps Bugmans (our pub) or even the canteen? Maybe some sort of concentrated new book smell from the warehouse? Glue from the hobby department? The fevered brows of the Black Library guys? The sweet smell of senario competition sucess? Perhaps (as the number of colds, coughs and lurgys aorund the office will attest) some foul nurgling was nesting in our air conditioning unit... perhaps... perhaps...perhaps...

No.

None of these options were true.

Today the mystery was solved.

Turns out there's a cigarette factory down the road. It's roasting tobacco we can smell.

Ah well. Least that explains why we miss it when it's gone.

-The BI Dev Team.

The things people say

2005-12-06T14:00:00.000Z

Making role-playing games is somewhat like the wheel of Dread and Pleasure. There are some great highs, and some terrible lows.

Getting thoughts, opinions and feedback from fans is always a mixed pleasure. Some people can’t be kind enough, whilst others hate what you’ve done with a passion. Most folk fall somewhere in between- but whatever the case, we have to listen. It’s part of the job.

You can’t make something better if you don’t know what people like or didn’t like about it. That’s why it’s always useful to sit in on gaming- or watch people pick up and look over a book for the first time.

We were at an English convention called Dragonmeet last weekend. It’s a smallish affair- attendance about 600 and odd- held in Kensington, London. Sitting in on the gaming, and watching the guys with their brand new copies of Realms of Sorcery reminded us of all the great (and not so great) comments we’ve heard in the past. And what’s a blog for if it’s not for sharing? Here’s our favourite list of fan comments:

“Is it d20?”
-Every show we’ve ever done

“Hey look, an index!”
-Origins 2005

Fan one-“is it d20?”
Fan two- “Nah, d10.
Fan one- So it’s half as complicated?”
-GenCon Indy 2005

“Killed in a gore drenched fashion…wow…critical hits are cool!”
-GenCon Indy 2005

“Why isn’t it d20?”
-Every show we’ve ever done

Player one: “eyes made out of mushrooms? That’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever read”
Player two “wait till you read this bit”
-Dragonmeet 2005

“I’m so glad it’s not d20”
-Every show we’ve ever done

“I love the rule that lets the GM throw the book at players”
-Origins 2005

“Man, this game could rock. If only it was d20”
-Every show we’ve ever done

“Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. When masochism isn’t enough”
-GenCon Indy 2005

Guy one: “Look at the size of that pad of character sheets- do you go through characters that quickly?”
Guy two: “You’ve clearly never played”
GenCon UK 2005

Idiom, Sir

2005-11-30T11:20:00.000Z

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is full of colourful phrases.

We purposely put in a load of common sayings and slang to help roleplayers get into playing their characters. In the rule book we put in some basic, universal stuff- slang for money, ways to invoke the Gods, star sign nonsense and so on.

Some of them are based on real phrases, others are completely made up. We didn’t want to just lift real turns of phrase and put them in. Instead we tried to twist and turn things on their head.

So, terms like ‘Brass’ ‘muck’ and ‘Where there’s muck there’s Halflings’ all come from a phrase from the North of England- ‘Where there’s muck there’s brass’ (Where there is hard, dirty work there is money to be made) ‘Shrapnel’ was originally an army term for the coins left over in your pockets after a night out on the town- so we co-opted it to mean a handful of brass pennies.

We continued this in ‘Sigmar’s Heirs’ where we gave provincial sayings based along the same grounds. Thus phrases like ‘A right little scrumper’ are based on a real word from the West of England- ‘Scrumping’ (the act of stealing apples from someone else’s orchard) ‘Sliced him from withers to brisket’ mixed two terms from Ostlery and Butchery- ‘Withers’ being between the shoulder blades of a horse, whilst ‘Brisket’ is rib meat.

Our Bretonnian book, ‘Knights of the Grail’ will continue this- with phrases like ‘A whirlpool in a wine glass’- based on ‘Storm in a teacup’ (a great fuss about nothing) and ‘Born with a sword in his hand’ from ‘Born with a silver spoon in his mouth’ (born into riches) and many more, which no doubt you’ll see when we do some previews of the book next year.

Some fans have written to us already, asking us to collate them all and put them out in a dictionary. We’re not likely to do that for a while- we’d need to cover a lot more of the old world first!

Honestly…some people…they want the moon on a stick…

-The BI Team

Three Reasons to roleplay with workmates

2005-11-23T09:11:00.000Z

1) More interesting water cooler conversations:

"You know, I'm beginning to think Fred might be a mutant. We should shop him to the witch hunters" vs. "So... saw your MDOP report... Yeah...Great stuff..."

2) Getting to know your colleagues...

It's much easier to go over and talk to Fred from accounts if you spent last night hewing Goblins with him.

3) ...and never take them seriously again

Fred's in a meeting coming on all irate? It's alright...you know last night he was pretending to be an Elf . You saw the man ranting about Key Performance Indicators running around the room shouting 'YEAH! GETSOME!" because his ten sided lump of plastic happened to roll a 10.

So what are you waiting for? Get a group together today!

-The BI dev Team

Yep, our website is down

2005-11-22T11:58:00.000Z

We blame Chaos for disrupting our website...

Many apologies to WFRP fans everywhere- especially our fine forum folk. We should be back up and running soon!

The Witch Hunters have been dispatched and assure us that the heresy should be purged from our servers by the end of the week.

-The BI Dev Team

Forges of Nuln- some details

2005-11-21T13:44:00.000Z

The final part of the 'Paths of the Damned' trilogy- Forges of Nuln- is pretty much finished now (all bar the proofing) so there's a bit more time for the Black Industries dev team to do some write ups for this blog.

For those of you not acquainted with 'Paths of the Damned' this is a series of three adventures that lead the party across the Empire in a bid to rid themselves of an immortal enemy. The first two books in the series- Ashes of Middenheim and Spires of Altdorf- are already out. The final part -'Forges of Nuln'- will be out next year.

We had alot of fun with this book. It's a tough thing to wrap up an epic campaign in a satisfying way- especially as the first thing players always do is the last thing you expect- but writer Rob Schwalb has done his damnedest to keep things covered from all angles.

Plot aside (as we don't want to spoil things for you) the setting really comes alive with all the little details about Nuln life that litter the city description. Coffee and coffee shops get a passing mention (and at 33gc a pound a fleeting mention is about all the average Joe can afford) as do two new careers- the chimneysweep as an urban alternative to the charcoal burner and of course the Dung collector- for when Rat Catcher just isn't foul enough.

Our favorite thing though is the customs and parades that litter Nuln life- from the revelry everytime a seige train leaves town to the naming of freshly forged Guns. They're fun, evocative and have that slightly skewed bizarreness that Warhammer should have. hopefully GM's will have as much fun running them as we did writing them!

-The BI Dev team

2005-11-18T11:28:00.000Z

We’re having a productive day here at Black Industries. There’s a bake sale in the office to raise money for Children in Need, and all the cake and biscuits has put us in a good mood. As we’re feeling talkative we thought we’d tell you a little bit about the books we’re currently reading

Marc Gascoigne (Head of Black Industries)

I just finished reading The Etched City, the first novel by Australian writer KJ Bishop. It's an exotic fantasy about a pair of renegade warriors who wash up in the crumbling city of Ashamoil, and find themselves caught up in a struggle for power. Its mix of dirty, gang-controlled streets and hallucinatory fever-dreams reminded me of M John Harrison's Viriconium books, with a tinge of China Mieville perhaps. Now I just started The Dumas Club by Arthur Perez-Revert, an Umberto Eco-esque twisted conspiracy murder mystery set in the world of old books. Nice mix of genre stylings and very fine writing so far.

Chris Beaumont (customer service)

I have just finished reading the Ambassador Chronicles by Graham McNeill, which I thoroughly enjoyed and I have to say it's now by favourite fantasy series. It's also inspired me to start a Kislev Army for Warmaster. Well I was looking for a new army to collect as my existing army of undead was up to 12,000 point's. Maybe I need to get out a bit more. I've just started to read "At All Costs" by David Weber, the latest in the Honor Harrington series of books. I've been waiting ages for this book to be released to find out what happens as the 'good guys' couldn't be in a worst situation!

Dave Allen (all things web)

I’m just over half way through “The Mysterious Mr I” by Harry Steven Keeler at the moment. He usually writes pulpy pot boiler detective stories that subvert the genre (I became interested in his work after reading an article which talked about one of his murder mysteries that, on the last page, revealed the killer to be a character who had yet to be introduced to the plot). The story seems to be about a man who takes bald chances at any unlikely cash making opportunities that cross his path, but he jeopardises those opportunities by adopting rather mediocre alter-egos that his contacts tend to see through with ease. It’s made me laugh out loud once so far, which I always find the sign of a good book.

Kate Flack (Development Manager)

I’ve been on a ‘book to movie’ kick of late, so I’ve just finished reading ‘In the Name of the Rose’ by Umberto Eco and ‘Empire of the Sun’ by J.G Ballard. I’m definitely going to have to read them both again at some time in the future as they’re both very good and have a lot going on. ‘In the Name of the Rose’ is a nominally a medieval detective story, but this seems to be an excuse for Umberto to write about the mindset and life of a medieval monk. Lots of heresy and Latin- and a very demanding read. Empire of the Sun is a semi autobiographical story about a lad growing up in the Singapore detention centres of the Second World War. Poetical and grimly survivalist all at once. Sort of like Warhammer then…

Cool new stuff

2005-11-16T13:50:00.000Z

So, after a week out with Green Ronin we're getting back up to speed with all the new books that are coming in.

Forges of Nuln- the third part of the 'Paths of the Damned' trilogy- is purring along at the printers, whilst the first layout drafts of 'Knights of the Grail: A guide to Bretonnia' have come in- and what a great sight they are!

The first draft stage of a book is always exciting, as you get the first taste of what the final thing is going to look like. Typically, the first draft has a rough idea of layout, some of the finished art and the right colours on the page. It's not a work of beauty- but it's a start.

We took a chance on some new artists in this book, - a couple of French guys with a good bunch of credits to their name- as well as some tried and tested artists. It may seem odd, but these guys have really made the book for us. David Chart has done some excellent writing- from Truffle Hounds to Herrimaults to matters of honour- and the illustrations really set the text off. They've just got the right 'feel' to them.

We were definitely aiming for a book with a similar layout and level of detail as 'Sigmar's Heirs' but with that indefinable Bretonnian feel. Different, yet still intriguing. Useful for GM's, but also handy for players with Bretonnian PC's. It still has the sections on religion, sayings, justice, careers, provinces and such but they're all sufficiently different from the Empire setting to make a real contrast. Hopefully people will have alot of fun with it.

Debate in the office about the best picture so far is currently split between a picture
of a questing Knight and a Pat Loboyko piece showing a Shepherd with his flock
("surely the greatest depiction of sheep anywhere in Warhammer") There's still a couple of pieces yet to come in, so maybe another picture will start to vie for our affections...

No doubt if any of it proves particularly popular with fans, we'll make some wallpapers up for folks to download.

Anyway, more on this book as further versions come in...

-The BI Dev team

Green Ronin visit

2005-11-14T16:44:00.000Z

If you've been looking at our official website, you'll know that the guys from
Green Ronin have been over to see us at our Nottingham offices.

Normally we see each other at conventions like GenCon Indy, Origins and so on. The hectic atmosphere of conventions doesn't really lend itself to planning and discussing the nuances of a game, so we like to get together once or twice a year to really chew the fat.

So, we've spent a week looking over what we've done, what we did well, what we could improve and what we want to do next. Everything from thickness of paper to high concept strategy gets put on the table, prodded poked and questioned. Feedback from shop owners, players, sales guys, our forums, playtesters and the like all get taken into account. So, if you're wondering why this blog hasn't been updated- it's because we've been going over every square inch of what Black Industries does with a fine tooth comb.

its tiring work- jetlag notwithstanding- but we still managed to get some after hours fun into the ram packed schedule.

Kate and Rob managed to find time to run round some of the caves that riddle the city of Nottingham- all in the name of research. 'Terror in Talabheim' will certainly see the benefits! An evening in Revolution vodka bar may well yield similar results for a sourcebook we'll no doubt be announcing soon.

Chris, Nicole and Rob also got to roam around Warhammer world, the GW studio and the new figure museum as well as sink a pint in Bugmans- our company pub (and playtest venue) We managed to laden all of Green Ronin down with all manner of novels, art books and army guides. As you can see from the photo Rob Schwalb did particularly well out of this- but then, he is writing the big chaos book (Tome of Corruption) so we figure he could use all the heretical inspiration he can get...

-The Black Industries Team

New books in the office

2005-11-04T11:09:00.000Z

It's been a hectic year for us.

We've made an awful lot of books so far.

Some have been great to work on- others have not been so fun- but either way, we're still excited by the things we do. Some industry folk advised us that we'd get pretty jaded about new books arriving at the office 'by the time you're up to product four or five' Well, that's not happened to us yet.

Realms of Sorcery is book eleven for us (if you count the GM screen and Character Pack) and we still stopped everything to huddle round the new shiny book the moment the shipment came in.

To be honest, even at the proofing stage on ROS we were doing the same thing- you can see the well thumbed printing proofs in the picture below. The cover for the book- a wrap round piece by Ralph Horsley- was so detailed we decided to reprint it in full between the introduction and the start of the book. Usually we arrange things so that the back cover of a wrap round piece has blankish space for the blurb text- but Ralph did such a good job we couldn't bring ourselves to let his work go unseen.

The scene should be familiar to anyone who has ever rolled 'Uninvited Company' on the Tzeentch's curse table. We figured any rule that allows daemons to rip their way through the fabric of reality to devour foolish wizards should be celebrated. This is Warhammer after all...

Sharp eyed fans, of course, might notice some of the characters from this picture in next year's chaos book 'The Tome of Corruption' Magic- as we all know- is a dangerous thing...but more on that later...

Barony of the Damned:Final playtest session

2005-11-02T10:24:00.000Z

“All things end: A book, songs, loves, lives; all we can do is treasure what we have, until the transience of life catches up upon us all…”

So, the final playtest session of Ben Counter’s ‘Barony of the Damned: An adventure in Mousillon’ took place last night…

For those not in the know, ‘Playtesting’ is a stage in developing an RPG adventure- where people sit down and play through the adventure to see how the plot flows, if there are any missing sections and if anything else is needed to make the adventure more complete.

We aimed to race through the adventure in six sessions- we ended up doing it in seven- but still, a good time was had by all. Many thanks go to the understanding WFRP widows who put up with Black Industries stealing their loved ones away from them for twice weekly roleplaying sessions!

Our adventure in Mousillon finished with the same folk who started it:

Ed Morris- Urrel Two-Axe, a Dwarf slayer seeking death and glory- and nearly finding it!

Mal Green- Otto Embarr, Insane Pyromancer - “It’s all going to end in tears…and fire…”

Chris Lucas- Kera of Ostermark. A lady of noble birth and nobler intentions.

Darren Bowley, Gorge von Ostwald- ‘Deadeye Gorge’ ‘The Butcher of Middenheim’ ‘Speaker with scum’

Owen Barnes- Jurgen Heim, Priest of Sigmar and spiritual guide of the party- at last…

Also watching was:

Chad Mierswa as Devil’s advocate “Hey guys, you’re looking at this all wrong”
Rowland Cox as The voice of Otto’s insanity “We should burn them…burn them precious…”

So what happened? Well, fierce foes were faced, glorious (but futile) deaths were avoided, terrible choices made, and binding oaths were sworn.

Our ‘heroes’ risked their very souls in a foul deal with unclean forces…but, were victorious. This being Warhammer of course, the promised payment was not forthcoming- and an incident with a fire in a tavern did some serious property damage- but at least they were able to escape Mousillon with most of their body parts attached.

Jurgen: Though we are as varied in our motivations as we are in our hairstyles…
(The group studies their five characters as depicted on the cover of the rule book)
Jurgen: I feel I must say…the easy option is the path to Damnation
Urrel: No, the easy option is attacking now! As glorious death’s go, this is as good as it gets!

Gorge: My conscience is catching up with me after a long absence. We must do the right thing
Jurgen: Indeed, I feel I would be a Charlatan if I do not do the proper deed
Kera: Well, you’ve been a great Charlatan so far! Why change now!

Gorge: From this Quest I have gained more than Gold…
Kera: Yeah, the Red Pox

Owen: Jurgen is going to leave five gold crowns with Orion the Bulbous to ensure the care of his dancing cat
Kate (as GM) for that price, you can have the cat
Owen: Oh no, Mousillon needs that animal.
Chris: It’s a ray of hope…
Chad: In a place with none!

Owen: We have one question about the adventure…
Kate: Yes?
Owen: Is the Black Pig real?
Kate: Ah…that, you will never know…

Barony of the Damned: Playtest session 6

2005-10-26T17:10:00.000+01:00

Session six of the Barony of the Damned playtest took place last night- and a dank and bloody affair it was!

For those not in the know, ‘Playtesting’ is a stage in developing an RPG adventure- where people sit down and play through the adventure to see how the plot flows, if there are any missing sections and if anything else is needed to make the adventure more complete.

We’ve rounded up folk who have enough spare time (and very understanding partners) for a twice a week roleplay marathon- we had hoped to finish things off in six sessions, but looks like it’ll be seven... Anyhow, our obliging playtesters are:

Ed Morris- Urrel Two-Axe, a Dwarf slayer ready to meet his end in battle- “It’s a good day to die”

Rowland Cox- Otto Embarr, Pyromancer of the Bright Order, learned wizard and purveyor of flaming death

Chris Lucas- Kera of Ostermark. A noble lady, stout of sword and shield arm.

Chad Mierswa, Gorge von Ostwald- Bounty hunter, marksman and ‘Butcher of Middenheim’

Owen Barnes- Jurgen Heim, Priest of Sigmar, devout of purpose and mindful of Morr.

What happened this session? Well, as we are right at the end of the action, we’ll have to keep the plot under wraps…this transcript of play will have to do you until our final session on Tuesday…

Beggar: Have mercy sir- I’ve only got one leg
Gorge: And if you want to keep it you’ll sod off!

****

Dying man: Have them spread my ashes in the well near the Grail chapel…I don’t want to rise again from the grave
Jurgen: There, there, you’ll be fine. We’ll have you up in no time
Gorge: (in Reikspiel) I don’t know Jurgen, that’s a nasty gut wound…
Jurgen: (also in Reikspiel) Oh, we always say that. Part of the training.
Gorge: This is definitely the last time I trust a Priest.

The Whims of Tzeentch- an out of character interlude

Rowland: I’ve been trying to cast this damn fireball for four rounds now!
Owen: Use more dice- there’s nothing to loose
Ed: Hey Owen, you working for Tzeentch now?
Owen: No, Sigmar just wants him to reach his true potential. And maybe flambé the bad guys…
Rowland: Ah stuff it, I’m using all three dice!
(Chad shakes his head)
Ed: He’s always wanted tentacles.
(Rowland makes his casting roll)
Rowland (fists in the air): YEEEEEEAAH!
Ed: 10, 9 and 8- that’s the best roll you could have possibly made
Rowland: Gah! Why didn’t I cast ‘Breathe Fire’? Tzeentch mocks me!
Owen: That’s the way of the Ruinous Powers my friend.
Rowland: What? You told me to do it, Priest
Owen: Yeah, I’m feeling a bit guilty about the whole priest thing. I was thinking of making my next career ‘Charlatan’…
Chad: That settles it- that's definitely the last time I trust a Priest.

Realms of Sorcery trivia

2005-10-25T16:16:00.000+01:00

They say 'genius is hiding your sources'

And sometimes they'd be right.

But this isn't one of those times.

Meet Cat Wizard. He's sort of an office mascot. He arrived after the sales guys brought him home from Essen game fair in Germany. Every time we go to a convention we try to bring him home a friend or two in the form of cat related fantasy artwork- cat dragons, fairy cats- that sort of thing. One day we hope to have quite a collection...but that's another tail.

This story is about how cat wizard brought a little of his magic to Realms of Sorcery.

We started work on the book way back in Spring. Obviously, the first stage in a sourcebook's life is deciding what's going to be in it. For ROS it was pretty clear what we'd be covering- new spells, background on magic, day in the life of a Wizard, rune magic- that sort of thing.

Still, there were a couple of things we weren't too sure about, so we held a brainstorming meeting. Ewan read out a list of things we'd agreed to cover...but we wanted to add more. "Oozing with options" was the exact phrase. A book about Wizards had to cover as much about them as we could think of. We mooted some more ideas- expanded Tzeentch's curse tables, rules for making up rituals, potions with horrible side effects, a discussion on Witch Hunters and so on.

Then someone looked up. And what did they see? You guessed it...

"We should add familars! just like catwizard!"

Simon paused, and looked at the picture.

"I'm not putting that in any book with my name on it. I'd rather lick sick off a nettle"

The room paused for a moment

"Unless..." he continued, idea dawning "unless we can make it explode. If we can do that it's fine by me"

"Well" said Kate "I'm sure we can make that happen"

So we spoke to Green Ronin and lo! a mechanic was created. They were pretty good about it really, considering the bizarreness of the request- "Hi, we'd like to add rules on familiars- but they have to explode..."

So, when you get your hands on Realms of Sorcery you'll see that under certain conditions familiars can indeed explode in showers of gristle and flesh.

If you're playing a wizard with a yen for a familiar, just make sure you don't screw up those casting rolls- otherwise it could be 'bye bye catwizard', and 'hello drycleaning bill'

And no one wants that sort of stain on their conscience.

-The Black Industries Dev team

Barony of the Damned- 5th playtest session

2005-10-21T12:26:00.000+01:00

The fifth ale soaked session of ‘Barony of the Damned: An Adventure in Mousillon’ was played last night, in a session oozing projectile comedy.

For those not in the know, ‘Playtesting’ is a stage in developing an RPG adventure- where people sit down and play through the adventure to see how the plot flows, if there are any missing sections and if anything else is needed to make the adventure more complete.

We’ve rounded up some of our office mates who foolishly said they had time to take part, and we’re aiming to race through the adventure in six or seven sessions. The aforementioned volunteers are:

Ed Morris- Urrel Two-Axe, a Dwarf slayer longing for a glorious death, or another keg of ale.

Rowland Cox- Otto Embarr, Pyromancer of the Bright Order, self appointed saviour and avatar of the twin tailed comet. (Or so he believes)

Chris Lucas- Kera of Ostermark. Of noble birth and common sense. Someone has to be.

Darren Bowley, Gorge von Ostwald- ‘The Butcher of Middenheim’ “When you’re talking to scum, you need to talk their language. And I speak scum”

Owen Barnes- Jurgen Heim, Dutiful Priest of Sigmar and man of easy faith.

How did our intrepid team do? Well, without giving away any plot secrets, we’ll do what we can to describe the indescribable.

Disorders gained: 1 (Delirious saviour)
Dwarf Ale drunk: 24 pints
Bribes offered: 3
Spell miscasts: 0
Halflings pummelled: 1 (bet you’re really proud of that one, Urrel)

Kera: “Well, Priest, did you find out anything useful at the Bawdy theatre?”
Jurgen: “Ah, I saw many wonders!”
Kera: (raising eyebrow) “and were these wonders wearing any clothes?”
Jurgen: “there were no women there…no, I saw something far greater!”
(Kera raises the other eyebrow. The drunken trollslayer starts spoiling for a fight in the background)
Jurgen: “There was a man, a bulbous sort of a fellow- and he had this cat- and, it could do such things as I have never seen in all my live long days! Why, it appeared from his sleeve, and then from his other sleeve he pulled a wondrous magical wand!
(The wizard begins to preach that he is the avatar of the Twin Tailed comet. Kera places her head in her hands)
Jurgen: Yes, and then he made some mystic passes over the head of the cat, and it began to dance! Yes, Dance in time with the music- I tell you, this cat could dance better than many a fellow I have seen in the Empire. It is a most marvellous animal. Perhaps I should buy it.”
(Kera looks around)
Kera: Barman! Bring Wine. And plenty of it.

The Unluckiest Wizard Alive...

2005-10-20T10:19:00.000+01:00

The BI playtest team are currently running through ‘Barony of the Damned: An adventure in Mousillon’

We’re running through the adventure to test how the plot flows, how the characters fare and so on. One of the curious side effects of play however (apart from all our blog posts) is how damned unlucky our Wizard character, Otto Embar of the Bright Order, has been.

For those not in the know, in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay magic is very dangerous. Wizards roll to cast spells, and if they mess up- by rolling doubles, triples or quadruples- they invoke Tzeentch’s curse. Tzeentch’s curse can cause a variety of horrid effects- from shivers all the way up to sudden horrific death. To find out what foul side effect Tzeentch’s curse causes you roll on the ‘Chaos Manifestation’ tables.

Just about every time Otto has cast a spell, he’s invoked Tzeentch’s curse.

Here’s a break down:

Session 1:
Spell cast- Marsh Lights.
Tzeentch’s curse effect: Horripilation

Session 2:
Spells cast: Fireball, Drop
Tzeentch’s curse effect: Rupture! Mental Block

Session 3:
No spells cast- he daren’t!

Session 4:
Spells cast: Cauterise, Sleep, Sleep
Tzeentch’s curse effect: Trick of Fate, Daemonic contract

So, in the space of 5 days, Otto’s nose has ruptured, spurting blood everywhere, he’s lost the ability to do magic for a bit, his hair has stood on end and the first rune of a Daemonic contract signing his soul away to Chaos has burnt itself onto the flesh of his hand. Mal Green- who has been playing Otto is thoroughly freaked out. So much so that when he went to the Essen Game fair in Germany, he specifically bought some new, lucky dice to make his magic rolls. What happened as a result of this? Just look at session 4…

So tonight, as we’ve finally got our hands on the new magic supplement ‘Realms of Sorcery’ we’re going to add on some extra magic rules that cause permanent effects if you invoke Tzeentch’s curse.

More on that in our next playtest report!

Barony of the Damned- 4th playtest report

2005-10-19T10:13:00.000+01:00

The fourth breakneck session of ‘Barony of the Damned: An Adventure in Mousillon’ was played last night, with spectacular results.

what's playtest?

Our ‘fearless’ group were:

Ed Morris- Urrel Two-Axe, a Dwarf slayer devoted to his twin Axes ‘Pride’ and ‘Fury’

Mal Green- Otto Embarr, Pyromancer of the Bright Order, recently purged and disease free

Chris Lucas- Kera of Ostermark. ‘The Lady of the Flashing Eyes’ known for her deadly stares
Darren Bowley, Gorge von Ostwald- ‘The Butcher of Middenheim’ bounty hunter with an eye for detail. Well, one eye anyway.

Owen Barnes- Jurgen Heim, Priest of Sigmar, spreading the flame of faith where ever he goes.

What happened last night? Well, much of it was integral to the Plot of ‘Barony of the Damned’ so we can’t give it away, suffice to say this:

Total insanity points gained: 4
Disorders gained: 1
Things slaughtered: 2
Poets gravely wounded: 1

Other than that, we did manage to track down this testimony from a Mousillon city miracle worker:

“Whassat? You ‘eard about the miracle ‘orse did yer? Why she’s ‘ere behind me! Aye, look upon ‘er white flanks an’ tell me you don’t feel better eh? So whatchoo ‘eard then? Yeah yeah, the fact as ‘ow it aint been et yet is a miracle- due, in no small part t’meself- an’ o course the magical properties of this ‘ere mare!

Step close now- don’t mind the lepers- they’s just hopin’ fer some of the Lady’s mercy- step close now an’ I’ll tell you as ‘ow the strangers appeared, a from the mornin’ mists- clean as if they’d a just stepped down from the ‘eavens themselfs Aye, they did that! An’ they ‘ad with ‘em a most beauteous Maid, aye, a very vision of Mercy ‘an Grace. Ah, ‘ow ‘er eyes Flashed with ‘eavenly power! I shall never forget it in all me live long!

Now I knew at once it were me civic duty ter offer ‘em assistance- and bless the maid if she dint force a penny into me ‘and an’ say “Ost, we is ‘ere to bring ‘ope to this ‘ere city” Well, sir, you knows what the folk o’ this place is sayin’- aye, that she’s an Avatar of Shallya ‘erself, come ter ‘eal Mousillon! Well, now, I’s do’t know nothin’ about that- not bein’ a religious sort, but I can testify as to ‘ow not one of her bodyguards ‘ad so much as a wart on ‘em, an’ more than that- ole Baud ‘ere but touched ‘er horse, an’ it cured ‘is blindness!

Aye, an’ it made food appear for forty beggars or more!

Now sir, It falls ter me an’ my staff ‘ere to guard this wondr’ous beast- but seein’ as ‘ow you looks like yer sufferin’ I could see me way ter letting you sit upon the ‘ealing ‘orse fer just two pennies- I tell yer, Shallya’s blessin’s never came so cheap!” –Ost, Mousillon urchin

Barony of the Damned: Playtest session 3

2005-10-14T11:55:00.000+01:00

The third playtest session of ‘Barony of the Damned: An adventure in Mousillon’ took place last night- and what an explosive adventure it was!

what's playtest?

Our fine players were:

• Ed Morris- Urrel Two-Axe, Dwarf slayer seeking his death against the beasts of Bretonnia- the muscle of the group.
• Ben Misenar- Otto Embarr, Pyromancer and amateur apothecary- the smart guy and heavy artillery of the group.
• Chris Lucas- Kera of Ostermark. A noble woman in search of her lost love, the front woman and voice of sanity in the party.
• Chad Mierswa, Gorge von Ostwald- ‘The Butcher of Middenheim’ expert bounty hunter in search of his lost son- the sneaker and tracker of the party.
• Owen Barnes- Jurgen Heim, Priest of Sigmar seeking converts- the healer and spiritual guide of the party.

Well, what impressions did our party leave behind them this time out? Read on for a spoiler free description…

“The guests said they was a-on a quest from the Duke of Lyonesse ‘imself-They said they was off ter the city ‘o Mousillon in a couple a’days. I tole ‘em they couldn’t take no ‘orses there- fer the city folk eat ‘orse on account o’ how they can’t get frog –Thule, Chateau Stable boy

“Visitors? Don’t talk to me about visitors! I’ve a mind to give up workin’ at the Chateau- there is some things a maid should never have to see!

They walks up to the Chateau bold as brass an’ they a’ask fer hospitality from m’lord- an’ what with ‘im being such a generous soul an’ all, he say’s ‘aye’-dispite the fact they was a poor lookin’ lot o’ foreigners- with their funny talk an’ their shameless manners! Any’ow, they’s a’all thick wi’ disease from the swamps an’ their immoral a’livin- so we feeds them- greedy lot they were too! - an’ puts ‘em up for the night.

Next day a couple of ‘em creep round the grounds, whilst the so called ‘lady’ lounges by the fire a’ reading, meanwhile Mr Scholar gets a Bright Idea outta one of the books about how he can rid ‘imself from the fever he’s carrying. Silly old fool- who believes what books ‘as ter say? Anyhow, ‘e thinks a spot of the old purgatives might force sickness out. Aye, you a’ heard right- he decides to do a purge! Any’ow muggings here ends up takin’ ‘im some toadstool- I mean I made up some rubbish about ‘ow it was some spice or other from far Araby, but it were just some redcaps the stable boy found on muckpile.

An’ after that, well, I got sick of a’runnin’ up and down the stairs wi’ chamber pots an’ towels. After the fifth time- I made the other maid go. Mr Scholar used just about every clean towel in the Chateau- I shall have a sow of a wash day next week!” –Isold the Chambermaid

Barony of the Damned- playtest session 2

2005-10-12T11:26:00.000+01:00

We ran the second session of ‘Barony of the Damned’ last night, and a damn fine time we had. Braving zombies, peasants and pound a pint night, our party is loving Mousillon so much, they may never leave…

what's playtest?

Our worthy cast of players included:

Ed Morris- Urrel Two-Axe, the Dwarf slayer with a cunning plan.
Mal Green-‘Lucky’ Otto Embarr, Pyromancer of the Bright Order, and expert miscaster
Chris Lucas- Kera of Ostermark. A noble woman in search of her lost love, and some where clean to sit.
Rowland Cox, Gorge von Ostwald- ‘The Butcher of Middenheim’ bounty hunter and beloved of inbred hags everywhere
Owen Barnes- Jurgen Heim, Priest of Sigmar “I believe I can see through any deception a pig can lay before me”

What happened this week? Well, check out our spoiler free write up…

“I was hidin’ in woods near cordon sanitaire, waitin’ fer me moment to escape Mousillon when I sees the strangest bunch of travellers as I ever even heard of! Of course, they was Empire folk- which explained muchly. Anyhow, I followed ‘em- after all, one ‘ad horse an’ way they was walking, the undead were sure’n find an’ kill ‘em fore long.

An’ sure enough, they found the flesh eaters. The runty freak hacked a plenty of ‘em, an’ the Lady set her horse to stovin’ in their heads. The priest got in there with his ‘ammer, an the beardy one was free with ‘is crossbow- but the scribe…well…I never seen nothin’ like it! Fire flew outta his fingers and into the last flesh eater…stank like a hog roast it did! Still, it got the last laugh. Scratched him good it did. There’s another spellcaster as’ gonna catch the Red Pox…” -Pardue, Mousillon escapee

“Out, out! We’ll have no strangers here! Not after the last lot came through! Strange folk with their matching eyes and straight backs! Murdering scum! They a tried to lure us with their shinys too! They killed my son and stole my love! They fled upon the river road. You should do the same!” Blug the venerable, Elder of Puanteur

“I was thinking of converting these peasants, but I don’t think Sigmar wants them” –Jurgen Heim

Floupe the Frogwife: “Have you come to steal our maidens?”
Jurgen Heim: “No, oh! Gods, No!”-, (pushing Gorge forward)
Floupe (batting her ears at Gorge): “What a hansome eye this one has! Aye and whiskers too!”
Gorge von Ostwald: “Sweet maid…perhaps you can help…”
(Urrel and Otto vomit)
Kera: “Careful Gorge, it wants to breed"

Barony of the Damned- 1st playtest report!

2005-10-07T10:27:00.000+01:00

The first playtest session of ‘Barony of the Damned: An Adventure in Mousillon’ was played last night- and a fine time had by all!

what's playtest?

Our intrepid victims, ah…volunteers were:

Ed Morris- Urrel Two-Axe, a Dwarf slayer in Bretonnia to hunt down some of the bizarre creatures said to lurk in that Kingdom

Mal Green- Otto Embarr, Pyromancer of the Bright Order, travelling at the request of his Magical Order…

Chris Lucas- Kera of Ostermark. An uprooted noble woman searching for her lost love, Sir Pierre the Intrepid.

Darren Bowley, Gorge von Ostwald- ‘The Butcher of Middenheim’ bounty hunter and tracker extraordinaire.

Owen Barnes- Jurgen Heim, Priest of Sigmar committed to spreading the word of Sigmar to the ignorant and inbred of Bretonnia.

“They say five strangers came by the Golden Spur the other night- aye, and a right odd lot they were! I hear they spread tales of revolution an’ change to the folk they found in that fair tavern…aye, talking about some Sigmar God or something, and telling folk how they could prosper in the Empire- rise above their birth and all that! Pah, what folly! The Dwarf thing even punched someone out- just fer askin’ him why he had all that blue scribbling on ‘im

Anyhow, the Duke’s men soon came for ‘em- an’ took ‘em off to the Castle Lyonesse.” –Old Groubert, Lyonesse peasant

“Yes, the Duke did hold conference with the mercenaries. I don’t know what they discussed- he cleared the Great Hall for privacy. I did speak with the Orange clad Troubadour the Lady Ostermark kept about for amusement though. I must say, they didn’t seem the type to spring a convicted criminal from the Dukes Dungeons, but that just goes to show these Empire folk can’t be trusted” – Seneschal Doubert

“The Priest promised me if I were to pray to Sigmar, help would come” –Guy, peasant revolutionary

“The strangers travelled to the Cordon Sanitare as instructed my Lord. They handed the criminal Guy to my care and proceeded into the cursed Duchy without a care in the world. One would think they knew nothing of what lays within Mousillon… They learnt nothing of use to their mission from the peasant- who would be back here in the Castle my Lord- but the things of the borderlands caught and ate him” –Sir Besson

Starting Playtest

2005-10-05T16:07:00.000+01:00

So, the Black Industries team are mustering for our playtest of 'Barony of the Damned: An Adventure in Mousillon'

For those not aquainted with playtesting, this is where we sit down with a couple of office mates and play through the adventure. Feedback from the GM's helps us tweak stats, add details and spot potential problems with the adventure. Typically several groups will take part in playtesting so we can get several points of view on how the senario went.

We're kicking off the action tomorrow night and hope to rattle through the whole senario in three weeks... It's a bold plan, but we're feeling confident.

Our illustrious players will be using the characters from the front of the rule book
(front to back that's Trollslayer Urrel Two-Axe, Priest of Sigmar Jurgen Heim, Noble Squire Kera of Ostermark, Pyromancer Otto Embarr and Bounty Hunter Gorge von Ostwald)

We totted up all the xp you're likely to earn playing 'through the Drakwald' and the entire Paths of the Damned trilogy- 'Ashes of Middenheim' 'Spires of Altdorf' and 'Forges of Nuln' which came to...well, an awful lot. We then applied a player stupidity modifier (-25%) and came out with about 2,500 xp each- which we duely applied to our characters, bringing them nicely into their second careers.

We then threw in a couple of insanity points and oddities for good measure, thus creating what we hope is a seasoned party that might just survive the horrors of Mousillon.

We will be doing regular spoiler free write ups of the playtest sessions from 'alpha team' (all the people from BI's office that we could convince to give up several evenings a week!)- These write ups will all be from the point of view of the NPC's the players have been interacting with (it's our homage to the Old World Bestiary)

We'll be using basic rules for armour and combat throughout- mostly so we can focus on the flow of the adventure rather than the rules. Maybe we've overcooked the power levels- or maybe not- we'll only know once we've faced the undead, the inbred and the deadly Black Pig of the Woods.

More tomorrow after the first fateful die is cast!

-The BI dev team

What's on the boil?

2005-09-30T12:36:00.000+01:00

There's an awful lot of stuff going on for us at the moment.

Some of it- like new game stuff- we can't tell you about just yet, but there's more than enough stuff on the boil that we can talk about...

The second part of the 'Paths of the Damned' trilogy- Spires of Altdorf- has just hit the shelves. Pleasingly, it seems to be well received by the fans. For the most part this seems to be down to David Chart's excellent writing, and the feedback we got from the forums after the first part- Ashes of Middenheim- came out.

Meanwhile, we were able to bring that something extra to Gamesday by releasing a couple of copies of 'Karak Azgal: Adventures of the Dragons Crag' a month ahead of time. It was printed in Germany, so it's reached us well ahead of time. Hopefully, we'll be able to do something similar by previewing 'Realms of Sorcery' at UK GenCon.

The final part of the 'Paths of the Damned' has just moved into 'extra proofing' before we send it off to print-so if 'Realms of Sorcery' doesn't manage to slay the dread typo beast, then 'Forges of Nuln' surely will...

Further out, David Chart has struck gold again with our Bretonnia supplement 'Knights of the Grail' which we're using to help us in our current playtest adventure- 'Barony of the Damned' Frogs, pigs and men dressed as women abound...

meanwhile, the
rodent saga continues, as does the Black Industries adventure competition- which we chose the second stage entrants for this morning. Looks like it's going to be a close race that one- still, it's bound to be a winner with time strapped GM's out there.

Phew, with all that going on, it's a wonder we have time to write up things on this blog!

We'll leave you with our favorite quote from 'Forges of Nuln'

"None can say whether the name Eyk's End was intended to honour the sturdy burger family of that name, or whether the street name was coined due to some perceived resemblance between one of the city's foremost citizens and the disfigured gargoyle baring its orange buttocks from the large townhouse on the corner"

-The BI Dev team

The Source...

2005-09-29T16:25:00.000+01:00

Take a look at our latest source of inspiration

-The BI Dev Team

Cheers to volunteers!

2005-09-27T09:13:00.000+01:00

Ah, Gamesday- we had a great show, and ran lots of games.

Our set up crew were great, and the retail stand lads worked like troopers all day- but still, we couldn't have done it without our volunteers- two sterling blokes who both traveled through the night on a coach to come down to the show. For some reason they must breed roleplayers of stern stuff in Scotland- both chaps were relentless in running demo after demo, convention game on convention game- and loved it!

That sort of passion and dedication is a reminder to us- to carry on making games that people get this excited about.

Great work guys, and thanks!

-The BI dev team

(Games)Daynurse

2005-09-21T11:47:00.000+01:00

Anyone who works in the Roleplaying Industry for more than a year becomes painfully aware of one of its pitfalls: Convention Crud.

This unpleasant affliction strikes down anyone who's worked a convention, event or meet, with a mucus filled sore throat and week long tiredness. There are of course variations on the theme- Whooping Crud is a sort of chesty cough and sweats, whilst Crusty Crud attacks the eyes in a sort of 'pink eye lite' way.

If you spend a day or more in a hall with thousands of other people, chatting, gaming and interacting, it's pretty inevitable that you're going to pick some sort of illness up. Despite that, we all have our own little theories on how we can avoid the dreaded crud.

In preparation for Gamesday this Sunday- where we'll be running 'Visual WFRP' a couple of convention games and an info booth (mmm! Count those disease vectors)- we've employed multiple strategies. One of us has gone as far as breaking his arm so that he doesn't have to attend- which is effective, if a little extreme. Others have been taking lots of vitamin C, Zinc and Garlic in an attempt to build up their immune systems. Still others have applied science, and learnt that washing your hands 5 times a day can cut your chances of picking up a cold by up to 40%. Most popular is the 'Alcohol therapy' which involves sinking a couple of stiff whiskeys after the event to 'scare off the bugs'

Whatever the strategy, we're all prepared for a full on day of talking, gaming and fun. For all the talk round the office, we don't really mind catching a sniffle or two that much... After all it's one of the few days we actually get to meet the guys and girls who read our books and play our games.

Besides, if we're all going to be ill afterwards- well, misery loves company.

Pass the tissues.

-The BI Dev team.

Sudden realization

2005-09-20T17:05:00.000+01:00

There have been few posts on the BI blog recently as we're all putting our noses to the grindstone to prepare for Gamesday- so far 30 odd miniatures have been painted, several playtest sessions held and God alone knows how many handouts laminated in preparation for 'Oi, That's my Head'

Whilst all this has been going on, we've also been intently proofing 'Realms of Sorcery' in the eternal quest for a typo-less product. Proofing is hard on the eyes and the mind- after 20 minutes or so you forget that you're looking for mistakes, and you end up reading, not checking.

With a book like 'Realms of Sorcery' it's hard not to. There's some pretty fun stuff in there- today ended with a sudden realization of a well hidden gag by one of the writers...

Aside from all the new careers, backgrounds and rules, 'Realms of Sorcery' (or Realm_Saucery as the printer's file is called- we always thought that was something to do with Slaanesh, but that's beside the point...) contains lots of new spells for each of the Colleges of Magic. One of these- 'Taste of Fire' was loudly read out in the office

"You impart one batch of food or drink with a fiery potency. This makes food spicy...The effect of spicy food on those unaccustomed to it- the caster is always considered accustomed- causes intestinal distress for several hours until a Toughness Test is passed"

On hearing this, our audience looked in askance at us...

"Don't you realize what this spell is?" we cried

"a cheap gag about bottoms?" said a passing sales guy

"no no!- it's effectively 'Summon Curry'"

"Ah," he nodded "you would adventure with a mage who could cast that..."

All in the details

2005-09-15T14:34:00.000+01:00

This seemed pretty topical, given the on going office rodent saga. This is just one of the tiny 'filler' illustrations that we had drawn for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

For those not in the know, a filler is basically a small picture that can be dropped in anywhere that there's a space that needs filling. For example, a chapter might end half way down a page, leaving not enough space to put a colour picture. You can't start a new chapter so what do you do? Put in a filler. They can also separate one section of text from another- usually if two sections are significantly thematically different- or if the page just needs a bit more decoration.

As with covers, fillers are best if they tell a story, or make a visual pun, like Ratpie above. Next time you're waiting for your GM, why not get out your Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay books and see how many you can work out...

-The BI dev team

GenCon Signing

2005-09-13T12:15:00.000+01:00

Here's a picture of Old World Bestiary author T S Luikart signing the copies of his book that we had at GenCon. It's from some video we took as an experiment in documenting shows.

As the Bestiary was up for an Ennie, and TS had brought his own pen we figured 'fair enough' and duely submitted him to the camera phone- with the above grainy results.

Seriously though- if you bought the Bestiary at the show, you'll have a little gold signature on the 'cover' of the Grim and Perilous beasts section. We didn't make a big thing of it- after all, these sorts of things make a great suprise- get the book home, read it, enjoy it, then realise it's been signed- It's like a tiny bonus for visiting us at GenCon.

Will we be doing this at the next show? Who knows. Gamesday will have two WFRP authors at it, UK GenCon at least that again- we'll have to see if we can whip up a little added extra for people who come down.

- The BI Dev Team