Category Archives: Grim and Dangerous

Oldhammer part 3 Warhammer Fantasy Battle 2nd Edition

Posted on by
Reply

In 1984 Games Workshop released a red boxed 2nd edition, entitled Warhammer Fantasy Battle. If I’m drawing parallels with D&D’s evolution, this is the game’s Red Box.

This is where the Oldhammer dream of a united wargame and roleplaying game dies, since it was focused purely on wargaming. You’ll have to forgive me that this review is somewhat brief and surface level, since as a roleplayer my interest is somewhat limited.

What Warhammer 2nd Edition is.

A massively cleaned up and revised version of the first edition, with lots of the rules changes that were brought in from Forces of Fantasy. It is a true second edition, rather than a just a slightly tidied up version

Presentation wise, it’s a massive improvement. Fantastic colour covers by John Blanche and more consistent black and white art internally by Games Workshop’s Studio Artists of the time. Layout is clearer, while charmingly early days of desktop publishing.

With a handful of reference sheets, the box came with three A4 softcover booklets ranging from 30 to 50 pages.

  • Combat. Fighting battles, with masses of d6. All the familiar battle rules, turn sequences, formations etc. A very light treatment of running linked battles in Fighting Campaigns, and character heroes.
  • Magic. As well as the familiar rules for Battle Magic and Necromancy from first edition, Demonology, Elementalists, and Illusionists join the fray. The treatment of Magic Items is also greatly expanded with sections for Magical Weapons, Runes and Magical Artefacts.
  • Battle Bestiary. All the Warhammer family favourites (Orcs, Dwarfs, Elves, Slann etc) are covered after a proper introduction to the Warhammer Known

A scenario? The box set doesn’t have a well defined introductory scenario, but it explains one in the Combat book, the Lost Valley, as part of the brief discussion on Fighting a Campaign.

What it isn’t

All the references to roleplaying stripped out. You could I suppose, do roleplaying using unit champions, and wing much of the rules (for example using ability tests via the profile stats), which wouldn’t be far off the minimal advice given in first editon.

This is because there were plans to create a separate roleplaying game, whose cover was the second half of the battle game’s cover. Its out there on the internet, but I can’t find it present.

This wouldn’t happen until 1986, when Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (or WFRP) 1st Edition emerged in response to Games Workshop reaching the end of its license to print Dungeons & Dragons in the UK/Europe.

But before then, there were a series of campaign box sets with stories and memorable characters that, as a roleplayer, I found much more interesting than the base game.

Next: Carry on up the Warhammer, the Warhammer 2nd Edition supplements.

The Ziggurat will Rise Again!

Posted on by
Reply

Apart from a bit of tweaking, my Oldhammer RPG hasn’t had much time dedicated to it since its initial run out at Grogmeet earlier this year (!)

So when the call for games for Grogmeet 2026 in January was issued without thinking, I hammered out the pitch to the sequel to Ziggurat of Gloom, Beneath the Ziggurat of Gloom!

“You’re only meant to blow the bloody doors off!” Head Brewer Danblain Goldtooth to Sorcerer’s Apprentice Harry Copper.

In the aftermath of the Regiment’s battle against the Goblin Horde at the Ziggurat of Gloom, the Dwarf Brewmaster of the Beddington Brewing Company reveals the real reason behind their expedition from Dwarfchester over the Painine Hills to this ancient site. It’s not to deliver the beer barrels they have been guarding to Harry Copper as the student representative of Uddersfield College of Magic. No, the barrels aren’t filled with booze, but with the finest Dwarfchester Black Powder. Harry Copper isn’t here to collect them for an end of term knees up, but as a dedicated anarchist, he intends to use his skills to blow them up and gain access to the underhalls beneath the Ziggurat. Your Regiment, renowned for exploring the Underworld, has actually been hired to uncover the mysteries that lie beneath.

“Could it be Chaos? A swarm of Ratlings? You’ll have to wait and see!
Hope its Orc’s, it’s Orcs, We all hope its Orc’s..”
Impromptu battlefield singalong by Beddington’s All Dwarf Choir, upon hearing that the underhalls are to be explored.

Grim and Dangerous is a reimagined roleplaying game inspired by the early editions of Warhammer, also known as Oldhammer. It features a simple roll-under D20 mechanic, with characters having career focuses and special abilities that distinguish them from one another. This adventure draws heavily on the White Box of Warhammer, Warhammer 1st Edition. Please note that this game is currently in development at the playtest stage.

While Dan Barker is working on the cover for the current set of rules, he’s created a logo and a flyer of sorts (inspired by a very famous WWI British recruitment poster).

Dwarf pointing towards viewer, with the caption Gamers D101 Wants You,

Oldhammer part 2 Forces of Fantasy and the Book of Battalions

Posted on by
Reply

My, how time flies when you are having fun! Finally, here’s my quick nostalgic review of the follow up “supplements” to Warhammer 1st Edition, You can read part one here.

Forces of Fantasy, was released in 1984 a year after the main game. It continues the Warhammer 1st Edition as a sort of UK RPG equivalent to Original D&D Whitebox analogy, by expanding and the play options and rulings for the game..Except instead of being a series of booklet supplements which expand the game, which was the case with OD&D, its a box set with another set of softcover booklets. Cover art is by John Blanche, who does much of the black and white interior art.

Book 1 Forces of Fantasy sees the introduction of army lists, which greatly expand the monster listings from the base game. They ran a cut down version of these as a series of adverts in White Dwarf magazine. Here’s the one for Dwarfs.

I had a copy of this, from a friend who had picked up a bunch of early Warhammer along with a job lot of minis (which I have to this day, nearly forty years on!) who sold them on to me at pocket money prices. I poured over incesantly trying to work out what it was all about (my canny friend, who now works as an investment banker, kept hold of the base game, judging correctly it would be worth something some day). To my fiftheen year old, BX D&D/AD&D soaked brain, used to getting a one size fits all stats block, the army lists were an eyeopener. That each profile, listed the types of monster, and put it somesort of cultural context, blew my mind. And that each entry had an iconic images of humaniod, nicely laid out. A vast improvement over the plain typeset of the main rulebook.

Book 2 Fighting Fantasy Battles is a bunch of rulings that pretty much upgrade the game to Warhammer 1.5. Fixes, additions and the frame work of how to set up a battle are the meat of this book. And also a firm indicator of where Warhammer is heading in its 2nd Edtion, a fully fledged wargame. Apart from the Advanced Rules for Characterisitics – which are applicable to command group characters, who are the pcs of the RPG side of the game, perhaps the only thing that could be stretched to be RPG related, is the Regiments of Reknown, which are eight famous mercenary units from the Old World (which emerges ever so slightly more in Forces of Fantasy), with their narrative background. I’ve got one of these Bugman’s Dwarf Rangers in miniture form, which remains one of my prides and joys of my Oldhammer miniture collection from the 80s.

Book 3 Arcane Magic greatly expands the magic rules, in both terms of spells and magic items. It also introduces rules for treasure hordes, and summoned monsters (Demons, Elementals etc.).

Book of Battalions. The final book of the box set is a collection of famous armies from the Games Workshop staffers battles. This is billed as a free supplement, and the introductory text emphasises that its a bit of fun, celebrating the early battles using the rules. From a roleplaying perspective, its almost zero use, but does give lots of narrative tit bits.

Overall Forces of Fantasy is a step up in both presentation and game content. But apart from a bit of narrative fluff here and there, important fluff which sets the foundation of what the grim and perilous world of Warhammer fantasy will be like later on, there’s almost zero roleplaying content.

Which gives a good indication of how things are going to be in Warhammer 2nd Edition, which just round the corner in early 1985.

We came, we gamed, we Grogmeeted!

Posted on by
Reply

So it was Grogmeet 2025 last Saturday, and I spent eight hours in the Whitworth Locke side of the convention, running games and catching up with folk.

This is the Grognard Files podcast’s annual convention, attended by Grognards of all ages. It is not specifically an OSR or OSR-inspired convention, but games tended to hark back to the 80s and early 90s, when many attendees took a break for careers and raising families (aka going into deep freeze) before returning to gaming recently.

Grogmeet 2025 at Whitworth Locke, Manchester
OMG its all full of Grogs!

It was the convention of the Ziggurat! If you followed the madness that was the Raise the Ziggurat sale at the end of last year, I brought it, and a couple of tubs of old 80s Citadel figures and some aquarium scenery to act as props for my two games.

Game 1 Saturday Morning: Ziggurat of Gloom

System: Grim and Dangerous (an Oldhammer RPG)

Beddington’s Brewery has hired your battalion of adventurers to escort a wagon train carrying barrels of its finest brew from Dwarfchester across the Painine Way to the thirsty students at the Royal College of Magic in the town of Uddersfield. 

The problem is that Night Goblins are following you and have been forced to take defensive positions off-road at the strange rain-soaked stone structure locals call The Ziggurat of Gloom!

Grim and Dangerous is a reimagined roleplaying game inspired by the early editions of Warhammer, aka Oldhammer. It has a simple roll under D20 mechanic, with characters having career focuses and special abilities to distinguish themselves from one another. This adventure draws heavily on the White Box of Warhammer, Warhammer 1st Edition.   Please note that this game is in development at playtest stage.

I’ll be posting more about Grim and Dangerous in its own future post when it gets revealed. This is game in development looks hard at the Oldhammer games (Warhammer 1st, its second edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle, up to first edition Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay) and inspired by the feel of those games and does its own rules light roll under skill on a D20 thing. This was its inaugural game, and overall, the prototype rules held up and did what I wanted them to, aided and abetted by players who grasped its concepts and ran like heck with them.

Happy players at Grogmeet 2025
Happy players after their characters had defeated waves of screaming Night Goblins and cracked open the Ziggurat.

Special thanks to Andy Hemming (pictured on the far right in the above photo), who provided the entire force of Night Goblins (from the 80s!), some female adventurers and dignified elven followers to compliment my scruffy 80s Citadel lead. To say Andy was like a child in a sweet shop would be an understatement.

Ziggurat of Gloom at Grogmeet 2025
Initial troop deployments at the Ziggurat of Gloom
GM Newt Newport at Grogmeet 2025
Myself in my element GMing

Intermission: Newt Socialises!

A three-hour break(?) due to unexpected scheduling adjustments gave me ample opportunity to catch up with folks I’ve not spoken to in a couple of years. This was one of my aims of the day, because I unexpectedly had to drop out of my regular convention attendance a couple of years ago due to family commitments. This really was nice because the space and time around the games to chat and catch up really makes a con for me.

Then all of a sudden, the gaming room filled up, and it was time for Game 2.

Game 2 Saturday Afternoon: The Pyramids of Marn

System: Beyond Dread Portals

Three pyramids have been discovered in the jungles of the world of Marn. Three factions are bidding for a license to explore them in the Hall of Departure in the Explorers Guild of Ys. Ys ruler, the Autarch, to prevent in-fighting, is only allowing one group at a time to walk through a portal in the Guild Hall to the ancient ruins. Since your explorers will be risking life and limb in this strange world, they get to choose who will be their patron for this expedition.  Choose wisely. Not only will it determine how profitable the visit to Marn will be, but who you potentially make enemies of.

Beyond Dread Portals is a world-hopping D20 Fantasy game by Paul “The Tweed Meister” Mitchener. Loosely based on early D&D, modified to meet the needs of the setting. A baroque decaying renaissance-era world of the city of Ys and the worlds connected to it by a system of magic portals.  As members of the Explorer’s Guild, there are expeditions to join, loot and secrets to be found, and a web of powerful patrons to navigate carefully. All under the deathly gaze of the undead ruler, the Autarch!

Regular readers of this blog will know Beyond Dread Portals by now. It’s within a hairs breath of being released (just waiting for a proof). This adventure was quickly conjured up, as an excuse to use the Ziggurat again on the table. Combined with the aquarium scenery, that worked very well, and a list of bullet points was fleshed out to become a weird and wonderful game of exploration. Despite the characters being capable 5th level, they managed to weasel their way away from getting involved in any combat, with some very clever problem-solving. I’ll be writing this one up for future release in some format.

And then it was all over and home to an evening back in the loving embrace of my family.

Big thanks to all my players and co-organisers Chris “Dirk the Dice” Hart and Blythy.

Here’s to 2026.

Ziggurat miniture with dice and flyer

BTW, if you are wondering where I got the Ziggurat from, it is made by Ian from Fenris Games and is available via his website.

Oldhammer part 1: White Box, Warhammer Fantasy Battle 1st Edition

Posted on by
Reply

So the Bleak Season is here, and my jolly Summer of Oldhammer becomes a Winter thing. I’m skipping my rather self-indulgent part one, “Warhammer and Me”, and getting straight into looking at the first edition of Warhammer.

I first came across the game in 1986, a good three years or so after Games Workshop released it. Myself and my mate Kevin spent a good hour staring at it, trying to work out what it is was. Was it a wargame or was it a roleplaying game. It was already out of print, in fact Warhammer Battle (2nd Edition) had been released the year before. Kev had swapped it with an older boy, who had thought it was a proper RPG, along with Warhammer Fantasy Batlte, Fantasy Forces (a box of supplements, more on that later) and a starting miniatures collection – which I still have to this day because Kevin always the entrepreneur sold it all on to me since I was interested, but cannily kept the Warhammer 1st Box sensing it would be worth something in the future. He was right, complete boxes go for £100+ on eBay, with individual books going for £40+.

Contents of the White Box

Book 1 Tabletop Battles (softcover, B&W illustrations throughout, pages 50). This is the core rule book with everything you need to know to run the game as a miniatures wargame. It contains Warhammer’s distinctive psychology system, a short bestiary with the iconic Warhammer take on the usual suspects from Western myth, legend and folklore, and the quick scenario of the Ziggurat of Doom.

Book 2 Magic (softcover, B&W illustrations throughout, pages 38). The complete magic system. Wizards and Necromancers, enchanted items and random generation of spell casters for the wargame.

Book 3 Characters (softcover, B&W illustrations throughout, pages 34). This is the companion Roleplaying rules. They add a simple extra layer of rules effectively allowing the player characters who are champions and leaders of units. There are character generation rules, characters having special abilities (in a very basic form compared to WFRP), advancing through experience, random adventure encounters, guidance for creating adventures and the starting adventure/mini-campaign Redwake River Valley.

My takeaways.

Overall this is the UK’s White Box RPG, comparable to the 70s Original Dungeons and Dragons set. It’s recognisably Warhammer in an embryonic form. Some elements will thrive and grow, and some will with and die as we progress, even through the quick succession of editions during the 80s.

Primitive layout and art. The distinct infamous “chaos-spikey” bits style is already in place, and there are pieces that are so iconic they will be reused even in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay years later.

RPGing elements are minimal. There is no cosy GMs guide or “how to play your character” or even copious examples. It’s assumed that you know what you are doing or can quickly work it out from reading the procedural rules. But there’s a big seed of excitement here: you can quickly switch between playing a roleplaying game and, say, playing out a climatic battle as a full-blown wargame. Think The Hobbit, which every UK fantasy fan at the time had read at school. You roleplay the the journey to the Loney Mountain, perhaps fighting Smag the Dragon (or like the book, having the GM fudge it because your characters are too low level) when you get there, and fighting The Battle of Five Armies as a full tabletop wargame as a big finale. Oh the dream!

It has a very broad brush strokes setting, the Old World isn’t even mentioned ye, and while it’s implied, it seems to be assumed that you’ll make your own world up.

If memory serves me correctly, Games Workshop’s Design Studio quickly threw together Warhammer 1st Editon in response to the company merging with Citadel Miniatures. As designer Rick Priestly put it, “we were now selling miniatures, so we needed a set of wargaming rules to go with it.” The roleplaying in Book 3 was almost an afterthought. This will have a big effect on the game’s scope in the future.

Next, the Warhammer 1st edition supplements Forces of Fantasy and the Book of Battalions.

The Summer of Oldhammer

Posted on by
Reply

One of the biggest defining moments of my career as a British-based Tabletop Fantasy Gamer is, without a doubt, Warhammer. A constant in the monthly White Dwarf magazine, its grim but darkly humourous take on fantasy gaming, which took in a melting pot of influences (Tolkien, Moorcock, classic British Warmovies), was playing to the crowd of bloodthirsty teenagers who were already addicted to the worlds of imagination shown in early Fighting Fantasy solo game books and of course D&D.

Its been a while since I’ve done a series of linked posts, and I’ve got an ulterior motive in that this is research for a game I’m designing (big reveal later this year). Plus, it will be damn fun to look at the roots of my hobby; this is Warhammer, after all!

One big thing is that I will be looking at early editions—collectively called Oldhammer by Grognards. For reasons that I’ll make clear during my posts, I don’t have such a strong connection with modern editions of the game.

Warhammer 1st Edtion, cover by John Blanche

So here’s an overview of what I plan, which I may deviate from if I get overenthusiastic about something.

  • Warhammer and Me.A personal introductory post where I get out of my system how early editions of the Warhammer games have affected my gaming and publishing.
  • Oldhammer part 1: White Box. Warhammer Fantasy Battle 1st Edition. Primarily a wargame, but with elements of RPGing.
  • Oldhammer part 2: Forces of Fantasy. 1st Edition WFB army lists but packed with extendtions to the base game. The equivalent to the OD&D supplements (Greyhawk etc) that leads to…
  • Oldhammer part 3: Red Box. Warhammer Fantasy Battle 2nd Edition. Now a wargame pure and simple, but still with the narrative background of an RPG.
  • Oldhammer part 4: Red Box supplements. The Tragedy of McDeath, Blood Bath at Orc’s Drift and more! The game’s Grim Dark humour reaches a high mark, a bit too much Carry on Warhammer?
  • Oldhammer part 5: Green Book. We reach the first total RPG take on the Warhammer World. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying 1st Edition.
  • Olhammer Part 6: Judge Dredd the Roleplaying Game. Perhaps a surprise entry to some in this series, Games Worshops Sci-Fi RPG based around the popular 2000AD comic character.
  • Oldhammer Aftermath: Further editions of WFRP (2nd-4th), what I make of them, and the British OSR games that carry the torch.