The Old World

[Killer Shrike]

Originally posted by irishspy

I was a freelance writer for Hogshead*. The game line was actually quite profitable for the company: The money from it allowed James to put out less "commercial" but critically well-received pieces like Baron Munchausen and Nobilis. The truth is, after several years of running the place almost all by himself, he was burnt-out and wanted to sell the company. GW wouldn't allow a transfer of the license to another company, so he returned it to them (from what I heard, *they* were surprised) and sold the firm to the new owners. And, to be fair to GW, in all the years we dealt with them, they were generally reasonable and easy to get along with. The only complaint that I know of was that they could be rather slow on approvals, which can happen when a tiny company deals with a relatively huge one.

 

*(Sounds like a title from an old film noir movie. )

 

As for the game's future, the most likely speculation has GW eventually re-releasing it through their "Black Library," but I don't know anything definite about it..

 

Anyway, I'll be interested to see how a Hero version of it looks.

I did a very basic conversion of it years ago, but its on my list to revamp it and add it to the AD&D and D&D 3e conversions on my fantasy website (http://www.killershrike.com)

 

I added a broad area into my own campaign setting that is Old-World friendly so that I can easily use material from the Old World without a ton of rewriting. Not a copy, just some easy parrallels. For example, Varford is roughly equivalent to Altdorf and placed in roughly the same proximity to Centhaus and Murbrog as Altdorf is to Middenheim and Marienburg.

 

All the Chaos cult business is mapped to much less inimical religious cultists (some of whom worship darker powers and have "Gifts" that are analogous to 'mutantations', but are Powers rather than mutations). The 5 Chaos gods (what happened to Malal GW? ) map to 5 outer powers (Gods, Demons, whatever you want to call them):

 

Tzeentch ~ Tzoruul (ZOAR-ool): ("God" of Retribution, Revenge, Regret, Reward, Reversals): worship of Tzoruul caters to those with a grudge to bear; a dynamic (or chaotic if you prefer) force, Tzoruul is an agent of change. Most worshipers of Tzoruul seek vengeance, societal change, or disruption of the status quo. Tzoruul is fairly generous with granting Gifts to the faithful, and Tzoruul's worship is popular among the downtrodden, so there are a lot of different, seperate Cults of Tzoruul scattered around.

 

Nurgle ~ Vurghal (VER-gol): ("Demon" of Disease, Pestilence, Decay, Blight, and all things Foul): I never really liked Nurgle to tell the truth, but anyway worship of Vurghal is extremely rare, verging on non-existant among rational people. The primary worshipers of Vurghal are a Skaven like race called the Llygodynion (thwee-GOH-deeneon, "ratmen" in Haelfinan), created by the Haelfinan in the far north about 700 years ago to infest the cities of the Nordmanner. With the collapse of the Caul these foul creatures have been subverted by Vurghal and their culture now pretty much entirely worships and serves this power. The Llygodynion, who call themselves simply Goden (GO-den, a bastardized contraction of Llygodynion), are the parallel to the Skaven of course; some effects of Warpstone are replaced with Gifts of Vurghal and the Warpstone technology basically doesnt exist or is replaced w/ purely magic equivalents. Goden are also not that prevalent or organized, though they do of course breed similar to, well, rats and could grow to be a real problem. A few plagues have sprung up in the last couple decades that were caused by the Goden, but they were contained.

 

Khorne ~ Mhaizen (MAY-zen (hehe )): ("God" of Conflict, Glory, Vanquishing, Rulership, Martial Prowess, and Victory), worship of Mhaizen has sprung up in the last hundred years among the rulership and warrior caste of the Nordmanner. Mhaizen grants few gifts, but when a person is blessed by Mhaizen they usually get many Gifts rather than just one, all of which are pretty straightforward combat-buffs. Mhaizen opposes magic in general, and thus there are no actual priests of Mhaizen. This has also lead to Magic Users being increasingly unwelcome in some cities where worship of Mhaizen is strong.

 

Slaneesh ~ Blaendysh (BLAYN-deesh): ("God" of Hedonism, Wine, Revelry, Gratification, Fulfillment of Desires), worship of Blendysh has sprung up in parrallel to that of Mhaizen among the cities of the Nordmanner and where the millitant "right" tends to get sucked into the worship of Mhaizen, the liberal "left" tends to get drawn into the worship of Blendysh. Unsuprisingly members of the two groups do not like one another and conflict (though usually political rather than outright violence) is common. Blendysh is sparing with Gifts, and usually give Gifts that are socially applicable.

 

Malal and Solkan ~ Verinc (VAIR-enk): ("God" of 'Truth', Hegemony, Solidarity, Unity, Absolutism): Followers of Verinc believe that all other "Gods" are false and only Verinc is a true diety. They miltantly fight against the worshippers of all other gods and are aggressive missionarys. Verinc is generous with Gifts, and many of the more devout followers have one or more. There is but one way to worship Verinc, and thus followers of this religion are one group rather than several small independent clutches and is referred to as the "Versamkirche" (VAIR-sohm-KIRK). They have a written doctrine called the "Way of Unity", about 3000 written words in Nordmanner, more or less in other languages its been translated in to. Many worshipers of Verin, called Heiligkamper (HAIL-eg-KOMP-fer), are warriors that seek out and kill worshipers of other outer powers, monsters, infidels and what have you in the name of their god. They can be powerful allies, but are also very dangerous as they tend to see signs of unworthiness in any who are exposed to the truth of Verinc for a while and still dont convert.

 

Some of the other GW gods have parrallels as well, but the most significant in the context of the above are:

 

Khaine ~ Mhorzen (MORE-zen): ("God" of Untimely Death, Killing, Murder, Undeath, and all things thereunto pertaining): The power worshipped by the Morgathi (who were destroyed by the Machtig Druids via the expedient of sinking the entire continent of Runorshorvas beneath the Oceans 2000 years ago), there are small but pernicious Cults of Mhorzen through out the lands of the Nordmanner, started 2 millennia ago by a handful of the Morgathi that managed to escape into the lands of the Nordmanner over the landbridge from Runorshorvas and Danoshorvas when the Machtig broke the world. Some of their number practice True Necromancy, though secretly. Not all of the Necromancers of the current age are still part of the Cult of Mhorzen as some have broken off through the centuries and started up their own powerbase, but most are. The pockets of Undying here and there througout the lands of the north stem from these remnants of the Morgathi. Mhorzen is believed to be the brother of Mhaizen and Mherazen, though some scholars claim they are merely three facets of the same entity.

 

Mherazen (MERRA-zen): ("God of Destiny, Fate, Mortality, Order, Timely Death): Worshipers of Mherazen believe that there is a preordained skein to each mans life. This echoes ancient beliefs among the Nordmanner (which also still exist in Machtig culture) and makes it easy to find converts among the Nordmanner. They believe that there is an Order to life, a Fate, which is ideal and beneficial to the majority but that there are disruptive forces which damage this natural order, and which must be counteracted for the good of all. Mherazen grants Gifts only to priests and the very faithful, and they tend to be awareness or perception oriented, though Mherazen does sometimes invest followers, usually temporarily, with awesome powers over life and death to better serve the will of Mherazen.

 

Thats all for now, gotta do other things....

[Eclectic Wave]

Midhir, are you still using the WFRP careers and careers path exits? I can see reasons for scrapping it, but the careers and career paths added so much flavor to the game. How are you handling the carreers?

[Midhir]

I'm not currently using the career paths other then initially to determine what trappings the players start with. If I had had the time before we started I would of like to have converted all the careers to FH equivalents and used them in the same way they are used in WFRP.

 

I am converting the skills as I input the NPCs and once I have the complete list done it wouldn't be hard to convert the careers for furture use.

[Killer Shrike]

I dont see any need to convert the career paths beyond just converting the abilities of characters with those careers.

 

In the HERO System if you want to, say, be a bounty hunter (or whatever) you just start hunting people down and bring them in for the reward; if you want to buy abilities to make you better at it then you just allocate your points towards it and there you go.

[Midhir]

Its all a question of play style. The careers add a bit of structure that keep skills and characteristic points fairly balanced and they do add a bit of atmosphere to the game. For beginning players it provides the structure that keeps the open ended non-class structure of HERO from over whelming them. Basically they are highly specialized package deals.

 

I have to admit that they can be a bit restrictive but then again nothing made a group bust a gut more then when someone rolls up the rat catcher as there starting profession! The FHRP career paths makes PCs do more improve RPing in some cases, if thats what they like to do.

 

We also used the tables from the old WFRP character pack to roll up disadvantages which I'm also converting to HERO disadvantages.

[Killer Shrike]

Originally posted by Midhir

Basically they are highly specialized package deals.

Thats what Im saying -- convert the abilities, scrap the career path railroading.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: The Old World

 

As you can see above on this thread, turning off the HTML code has royally scrambled several of the fine stat conversion and character sheet posts by Midhir and Killer Shrike, although the attached HDC files for characters are still intact. However, both of these fine gentlemen have given me permission to try to restore them to legibility.

 

I was able to reconstitute several of these posts to their original appearance, and Save them as RTF Document files. Unfortunately some of the templates used were too densely coded for the method I employ to recreate them, but I've attached the ones I could restore to this post.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: The Old World

 

Thanx LL. I also eventually got my old 1e WH Conversion webbized and posted a while back:

 

http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/ConversionWH/conversionWH.shtml

 

and added a new conversion for 2e WH:

 

http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/ConversionWH2e/conversionWH2e.shtml

[tkdguy]

Re: The Old World

 

Cool! The website in my sig also has some good info in the archives, as well as a message board.

[Ferret]

Re: The Old World

 

Ok War Hammer fans I only have the old stuff. I was wondering if anyone could answer a few questions for me about the new stuff.

1) What are the 12 zodiac signs given in the new rule book.

Did they change the old calendar?

2) Are the maps and information in the cities of Middenheim or Altdorf compatible to the old stuff or are they totally redone.

3) Any other ideas on how to handle magic I really don't like the idea of Chaos curse associated with all magic, or power pools. (sorry Killer Shrike)

4) Has anyone done HD templates (prefabs) for The various races.

5) How are you handling priest magic for this world and the hero system.

6) Anyone own the new equipment guide is it as good as it sounds on the back cover???

Thats all for now thanks for all your help. I plan on running the enemy within campaign eventually. It is something I'm just puttering with right now. Will gladly share my thoughts ideas or stats that I have or create. Thanks....

 

Ferret.....

[Killer Shrike]

Re: The Old World

 

Ok War Hammer fans I only have the old stuff. I was wondering if anyone could answer a few questions for me about the new stuff.

3) Any other ideas on how to handle magic I really don't like the idea of Chaos curse associated with all magic, or power pools. (sorry Killer Shrike)

Not sure why you'd apologize to me; I didnt invent the new Magic System. I think its pretty cool personally, but Im not offended if you dont.

 

If you prefer the old style of Magic, you could transplant the 1st edition version; I did a conversion for that too here:

 

http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/ConversionWH/conversionWHMagic.shtml

 

otherwise, you could substituted any Magic System you prefer.

 

4) Has anyone done HD templates (prefabs) for The various races.

 

You can get a start on making them yourself here:

http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/Content/RacePackageDeals/NCMExport/NCMExport.asp

[Lord Liaden]

Re: The Old World

 

Ferret, Killer Shrike's site is excellent for this purpose, but since you're interested in running "The Enemy Within" you may also benefit from checking here: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24971 . You'll find not only .txt files converting many elements of First Edition WHFRPG to HERO system (Characteristics, Skills, Careers, Races, Professions, Disadvantages, Magic, Armor and Weapons); but also writeups for a number of characters from "The Enemy Within."

[Ferret]

Re: The Old World

 

Thanks I plan on starting my game soon I will let keep you folks informed. On my progress.

 

Ferret....