FANTASY WARGAMING
Review and commentary by Omega
2008

NOTE: This review is ***NOT*** for the unrelated 1990 real fantasy wargame game of the same name.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/27188

Found laying face down in a gutter in a pool of its own bile is the dead rotting corpse of one of the few "games" to ever elicit from me so much revulsion. Compiled and edited by Bruce Galloway in 1981 in the UK. I first saw this book years ago at the library in the occult section and wondered why. Though never had a chance to check it out. Some 25 years later a former roomate happened to have the book and I had a brief chance to examine it. After he moved out I chanced to spot the book at a local comic store and picked it up finally to add to my meager wargaming collection. Thus would begin my descent into the stripping away of one lie after another contained between the covers of this vile tome...
***NOTE: Thoughts and commentary will be denoted thusly.***
***NOTE: I exaggerate some the books nasty attitude. But not by much.***

The book is hardbound, 8 1/2 by 5 1/2 inches, consisting of 300 pages printed in average font. The cover slip mine came with depicts a lurid image of an alchemist reading some book while Satan himself looms over his shoulder, springing to life from the pages of some diabolic tome. The cover slip reads.

The Highest Level of All
Fantasy Wargaming

compiled and edited by Bruce Galloway

The back cover slip shows more of the alchemical lab.

Under the cover slip though it is a rather dark leathery brown with a tan spine with the title on it printed in an allmost neon pink. No title or images on the front or back.

A small (c) at the beginning credits Bruce Galloway, Mike Hodson-Smith, Nick Lowe, Bruce Quarrie and Paul Sturman 1981. (Least now we know who should be drug out in the street and slapped thoroughly. Though I'll lay most of the blame on Galloway.) Chapter frontpieces are by Lawrence Heath who does a good job of adding some interesting BW illustrations at least. ***NOTE: Galloway died in 1984. The game was written while they were attending Cambridge and each writer was assigned a chapter I am told. ***

This is followed by a table of contents covering 7 chapters and two indexes.

The book starts off with REVELATION (or "In which all is revealed") where the author spouts off and thus sets the negative tone for the rest of the ordeal to follow. Throughout the book the author/s hammer the reader with the fact that they are Smahties and will educate everyone on just how Smaht the writers are, what veritable fonts of divine wisdom they are, and how Dhum the readers are for trying to think for themselves.
Right off the bat they reveal that the title of the book is a blatant LIE! This is in fact a book about Role-Playing and has absolutely jack to do with wargaming. ***ADDENDUM NOTE: Turns out that in the UK RPGs were referred to as Wargames so the title is only misleading in certain circumstances.*** They then go on to belittle players for liking fantasy elements and explain that real Smahties look down their noses at such crass things as wizards and warriors and on my stars dungeons! How droll... Dungeons & Dragons is specifically and repeatedly belittled and spat upon. Instead the authors will teach the unwashed masses the joy of playing in the DARK AGES! And when they are done you might even believe its REAL! ***NOTE: This said at a time when people in the US were still suffering the problems of the "D&D Witch-hunts" wherein certain vocal religious types were on the rampage and accusing RPGs of all manner of ills up to and including Satan worship. This book feeds upon that mass hysteria and makes role-players really look like a bunch of nut-cases.*** ***ADDENDUM NOTE: This would be totally irresponsible and unforgivable. But I am told that folk in the UK saw virtually none of this trouble so I'll waive that as simply being an issue of the writers not being aware of the potential problem it could fuel elsewhere.***

This rolls into CHAPTER 1: City, King & Country. 24 pages of the history and ways of the Dark Ages and how much more fulfilling it will be to play a totally powerless peasant under the heel of a noble.
Next is CHAPTER 2: Myth, Magic and Religion. 36 pages of pretty much putting forward religion as a sham and the powers that be as little better than etherial mana junkies. ***NOTE: Here though there rears its ugly head the second recurring theme underlying the tone of the book. A minor anti-Jewish attitude. In this book Jews are "Heretics" and we learn that the most powerful wizards are in fact Jewish Cabalists... Oh yeah... and they are likely damned too...*** ***ADDENDUM NOTE: Yes, it obviously fits the setting. No, it is not any more appropriate than would be listing African blacks as sub-human slaves would be in a Pirate RPG. Useful as background information though. ***

CHAPTER 3: The Book of Physiologus (or "Oh God! It's a Thesaurus!") 12 pages of the authors telling the reader how Dhum they are to play with all those made up monsters in D&D and how much more fulfilling it is to encounter real creatures of religion... A brief rundown of various superstitions and fae follow. ***NOTE: And the author gloats over killing off the character of a Jewish player who used a Jewish farewell to a Djinn...*** ***ADDENDUM NOTE: This is is my point of irk here. The writer killed off the character for something the player did, or in this case, said. Not for something the character did. There is no mention of the character also being Jewish which makes the whole incident stand out negatively.***

Next is CHAPTER 4: Mortal Combat (or "A poignard in your codpiece!") Here is some descriptions of medieval weaponry, some of it inaccurate no less, and 4 paragraphs devoted to medieval armies! 14 pages.

CHAPTER 5: Moorcock and More (or "Whatever takes your fantasy") Here we have another bit of unpleasantry as the authors proceed to bash Tolkein and his writing as "presenting too much of the world". Yet the authors proceed to do exactly that in spades. For the most part the chapter belittles readers for daring to think of basing their game in some book's setting and extols how most fantasy writers have it all wrong and the writers of this book will set the facts straight obviously with their wisdom of the ages...

CHAPTER 6: The Complete Enchanter (or "What the Hell do I do now?") Here the authors really lay it on heavy. You see you, as the GM, have been obviously doing things all wrong up until you picked up this miraculous book. 20 pages of drivel extolling the vast Prometheus-like knowledge the authors have to impart upon you in the art of game mastering and how you must be a mental defect to play in those filthy D&D modules with things like, GASP! Dungeons! Heaven forefend! Avert your eyes children!

Finally we get to CHAPTER 7: Gaming Rules... That is correct. over 120 pages of back patting and fluff. Yes. Most of it sets the feel for the medieval setting and the base concepts of what the authors believe. The extensive background is useful. It is the presentation that is the problem But they now proceed to repeat a-lot of that and actually get some rules laid down too.
This section starts off by getting the player to assign to their character an astrological sign from the Zodiac. This has an impact on the characters attributes. Said stats lifted mostly from that dirty old D&D game they were speaking so lowly of previously... There are also stats for Greed, Selfishness, Lust, Bravery, Faith and Social class. The stats even stick to the D&D pattern of 3-18. ***NOTE: So were other RPGs. But these gits just finished 120 pages of bragging how they could so so much better!*** Female characters are smacked up cross the side of the head with a series of stat penalties, AND cannot play combat or clergy classes. It kinda fits the setting, yet also does not. Attributes are then added together, multiplied, subtracted and otherwise juggled in convoluted patterns to get things like height and leadership scores. High points in stats like Lust and Greed will bar you from the clergy.
Next you have to roll to see how many times you must roll on the Bogey Table which is a series of handicaps or boons the character can be saddled with. And being a Jew is one of those handicaps. None of these are explained more than a sentence at best. Again, they fit the setting, but some feel rather wrong no matter the era.
After that is the skills section - such as it is... 6 in total ranging from riding to stealing and explanations of what stats effect them. There is mention of more skills. But none are actually given in the rest of the book. This is followed by a description of the experience system. Each level up gains 2 points to toss at attributes.
Next up is the social class table where you determine if your character is a slave or a noble and just how badly off you likely are going to get it if you end up in the lower end. After this is the cost system for purchasing items and buying your way into society.
There is a quick mathematical formula for Luck and then we get to Leadership. Each character has a Leadership score and the one with the highest score is the leader of the group. But... According to these pearls of knowledge who wrote this thing. You see all that rot about characters banding together and working to a common goal in D&D and anything else is total bunk! The GM is instructed to FORCE players to challenge the leader and question them. Obviously this promotes group survival. ***NOTE: This doesn't even fit the supposed era as a group constantly at eachothers throats isn't going to get much at all done or survive overlong either...*** Next up are various commandments to the GM to virtually play the characters instead of the players. Taking control away whenever things like temptation and doubts arise. Whenever a player doesn't act as the GM thinks they should then they will likely risk losing control of the character and having them railroaded into possibly very detrimental situations. This is followed by a few pages of "how to" on things like searching, picking locks, climbing, etc.
From here we move into the combat system and again, if a player balks at something, they can end up losing control of the character. The combat system is an appallingly convoluted thing overlayed on a mishmash of the D&D system and some other basic parameters. Next is some mass combat rules interrupted by a few pages of weapon and armour stats. Then we get something resembling a mass combat system and stats for various troops and how to use them. Again an overly complex system overlaid on some basics and none of it really explained fully. That is the sum total of the Wargaming... NONE!
Now we get to the magic system. In this RPG there is no real distinction between a wizard and a priest other than where the mana and trappings are originating. Presented here is about the games only interesting feature. A freeform magic system resembling somewhat that used in MAGE from White Wolf. In this system though Jewish Cabalist priests are the most potent spell casters, and short of Satan worshipers, the furthest away from whatever passes for God. Aside from that its an interesting approach to spellcasting that would be done less backhandedly by other RPGs in later years. A few pages of pre-gen spells are listed as well as various star signs and totemic elements with possible effects. This rolls into the priestly side of the coin with prayers, miracles, and how it all ties into the manabrokering of the ether entities everyone else calls God, etc. Christian and Norse religions are given some detailing as to how they function, who does what when where and how. As well as the notable differences between the two and listings of major characters from each. Lots of usefull background material can be gleaned from this and elsewhere.
Lastly we have the beastiary. You see. Those D&D cretins went off and made up all sorts of silly monsters. But the Smahties who wrote this burning bush of enlightenment know better. You see they list here 60 or so of the most goof-ball critters imagined from medieval texts. A parade of chimera and hybrids of all type - with a few elves, faerie and barrow wights tossed in because they can so do it better than those dross D&D hacks.

This ends my Dante-like ordeal of reading through FANTASY WARGAMING!

I exaggerate things here a little. But have not refrained from bashing the writers at their own expense - much as they did to other writers and the readers. The writers have an appallingly demeaning attitude towards the reader, bash the very games and writers they are lifting material from, and kick the novels they are pulling ideas from. And then have the gall to call this Wargaming when its really just a very badly pieced together RPG. ***NOTE: Except in the UK RPGs were called Wargames it seems so we will let that slide I guess.*** The original AD&D game had a better wargame system even. Which is not saying much really. The book begins on a bad note and goes downhill from there.

Worse yet is that this RPG requires a *very* skilled GM to even remotely hope to run a session. And in the end, the leadership, morale, greed, etc rules can, and will, all but leave the GM running the whole session by themselves. ***NOTE: Snipped out some commentary here that years later seems less a real issue than it originally seemed.***

The other problem is that the rules are so sketchy that the game is incomplete and someone will have to fill in the gaps. I guess the game designers were so full of their own brilliance that they could not be bothered to, you know, finish designing the game. There is enough to play. But there are notable omissions.

And this is a shame as the book does have a-lot of very good background information for the era and had the RPG system been presented better it might have gone further. Part of the problem is possibly that this was written at the veritable dawn-o-RPGs and the writers simply did not know any better. But its really no excuse and they did the work a disservice no matter. All the potential of the RPG is dulled by the writers wretched attitude throughout.

But guess what. After all that - I DO believe it is REAL!
Real Garbage. Real Horrid. Real Waste of Time... GAH!!!

Avoid this thing like the Black Plague & Leprosy combined.
(Except for the useful setting info, and you can get better from many many other RPGs out there rather than wasting money on finding a copy of this.)

ADDENDUM: No game designers were harmed in the making of this review. Well... other than myself...

ADDENDUM 2: Review edited 2013 to clarify some things, add in some important information, and remove some commentary that in retrospect was more harsh than needed. Also some spelling and punctuation errors removed and hopefully no new ones added.)

Shrug.  I have the game, and played it for a time.  It plays OK, it's kind of fun, but I went back to D&D because it's easier.

As far as the condescending attitude of the authors, in today's "EVERYTHING is ironic and I'm oh so jaded" 21st Century, the 1981 book hardly even registers.

Quote from: Old Geezer;705280Shrug.  I have the game, and played it for a time.  It plays OK, it's kind of fun, but I went back to D&D because it's easier.

As far as the condescending attitude of the authors, in today's "EVERYTHING is ironic and I'm oh so jaded" 21st Century, the 1981 book hardly even registers.

Sadly true.

As said. There are some interesting mechanics in the game and the presentation of a low fantasy real world setting was well done. Especially considering when it was written.

I have it for the background and its the only game I have ever seen where "GOD" himself is Stated up, I mean come on, it's GOD and they gave him stats?  How funny.

Quote from: flyingcircus;705605I have it for the background and its the only game I have ever seen where "GOD" himself is Stated up, I mean come on, it's GOD and they gave him stats?  How funny.

Not only is it God and others, its God as a mana junkie/pusher scamming the mortals.

But yes. Nice background ideas.
Hell, the game is even more or less playable as is.

I dunno, I didn't find it any more condescending than RuneQuest or GURPs, and probably more playable than the latter.

And the background is actually interesting.

I'd give it probably a 6.

Quote from: JeremyR;705963I dunno, I didn't find it any more condescending than RuneQuest or GURPs, and probably more playable than the latter.

And the background is actually interesting.

I'd give it probably a 6.

What version of GURPS was condescending?

I think FW may have been the hobby's first fantasy heartbreaker and interestingly enough, one based on od&d.

It was crap, but I found it entertaining crap and was far less offended by it.