Rogue Trader Retro-Rebuild Ordo Malleus Inquisitor

Here's the finished retro-rebuild (I just made that term up, maybe it'll go old school viral!). Hopefully there'll be more along soon (Inquisitors are like that, you wait for ages for one then loads come along at once...)

New old stuff

So, I like the old stuff, and I like the new stuff, but often for very different reasons. I love the creativity and character of the old Citadel Miniatures Rogue Trader Adventurers for example, but the more modern miniatures are technically so much better - after all, the skills of the veteran sculptors and the standards expected of news ones have moved on 25+ years, and casting methods have advanced too.

 If only I could have the old stuff, but made to a modern standard. Here's my attempt at just that, taking this classic old Realm of Chaos Ordo Malleus Inquisitor...

And, following an expedition deep into the bitz box, recreating it with this result...

He's being painted even now, in the same style as the original 'Eavy metal example above, so I'll post the result once he's done and then maybe have a go at recreating a few others of my Old school favourites.

Cheers

Andy

Old school heresy era Death Guard

Just thought I'd share this link with the people of Earth, it's the blog of a friend of mine, whose Horus Heresy era Death Guard, made almost entirely with Rogue Trader era miniatures, will soon be facing off against my loyalist Emperor's Children. When that happens we'll be sure to post a battle report, so stay tuned...

Everything Old is New Again

Hello all.

Just thought I’d post a couple of pictures of things I’ve been working on recently, as well as some thoughts about some games I’d really like to run for our group whenever we can all get together next.

First up, a couple of pictures. I’ve been painting a force of Emperor’s Children, for use using Forge World’s Horus Heresy gaming supplement. So far I’ve painted up a couple of Legion Tactical Squads, a Legion Champion, a Master of Signals, and a Predator, plus a cohort of three Mechanicum Castellax battle automata.

Predator, Legiones Astartes Emperor's Children

 Castellax battle automata, Legio Cybernetica

One thing that’s really got my attention is taking a fresh look at the Horus Heresy as a setting, especially looking over the old White Dwarfs and other publications where it originally featured. One thing I’d forgotten is that the Horus Heresy has been with us pretty much from the beginning. While it wasn’t mentioned in the Rogue Trader rulebook (but then neither were the Chaos gods!) it appeared very soon afterwards, getting a box in Chapter Approved: the First Book of the Astronomican. Then of course, it was the setting for both Adeptus Titanicus and Space Marine, and was expanded into enormous detail in the Realm of Chaos books. I’m sure we all knew that, but what surprised me was how often the Heresy is mentioned in very early White Dwarf articles on 40k subjects. For example, the famous Robots article, reprinted in the red White Dwarf Compendium, talks about robots in the context of the heresy. When Tony Cottrell’s article on converting Land Raiders into Spartans and Rhinos into Vindicators, Predators and Sabre Tank Hunters first appeared, many of the example vehicles were presented in the context of the Horus Heresy. In fact, the first Predator is shown as a Heresy-era Emperor’s Children vehicle, which I hope to recreate at some point.

Now then, fast forward 25 years and Forge World are not only exploring the Horus Heresy as a complete expansion, but deliberately revisiting many old school favourites. The Spartan and the Fellblade both hark back to the late ‘80s, and the Deimos pattern Predators and Rhinos draw on the look of the original plastic kits, as do numerous other models in the range.

Anyway, this wasn’t supposed to be an advert, but rather a bit of frothing about a topic I love. I very much hope to run some games soon, in particular ones set at the close of the Great Crusade. My plan is to keep these small and narrative heavy, featuring small groups of Space Marines and other characters encountering all manner of aliens on the leading edge of the Emperor’s reconquest of the galaxy. With a bit of luck, this will allow me to convert up some suitably gribbly, mythos style aliens and to run some very fun games indeed. I’m sure somewhere there’s a long isolated human colony that needs delivering from their extra-dimensional tentacled overlords, and that this would make a great game with a lot of old school character.

Stay tuned for that battle report then – we may even get to play it this year! 

Not Dead Yet

Hello all. Just a quick update, but I hope to publish something properly over the weekend. I was browsing some old school blogs at lunch today, and saw a reference to the Tales from the Maelstrom blog being 'defunct'. Well, I was shocked, but I can understand the sentiment as we've all just been too busy to post for some time. I took up a full time position as a writer and games developer for Forge World a few months back, so my job has taken up most of my time, and the other guys have equally busy careers.

That said, I've had a couple of ideas for articles and battle reports bubbling away, and if I can get some photos taken I have some stuff to show off.

So, thanks for reading, and hopefully the next post won't be so long coming as this one!

Andy

Old School vs Old School!

The following is something of a reply to a post made here, by a blogger I have great respect for and have been following for some time. I don’t intend to refute any of his points nor to bring about any sort of internet flame war, but rather to explore some of the observations he makes and present my own thoughts as they occur to me.

If you haven’t done so, please read Dr Bargil’s post. He admits himself he’s engaging in a bit of hyperbole so take that into account. I’m sure he’s calmed down now! You might also find it useful to read our interview with Rick Priestley, here, wherein he talks a little about the early gaming scene in the UK.

So, Dr Bergil talks about D&D, WHFP1e, early WFB and W401e, as well as Fighting Fantasy, but I’d separate the GW examples from that list, not because they’re by GW, but because they’re British and have an entirely different sensibility. The more I’ve come to enjoy the ‘old school revival’, the more I’ve noticed an enormous trans-Atlantic divide in what we actually mean by the term. When I think about what I liked about games I played back in the ‘80s when I was first getting into the hobby, I think primarily of WFRP1e and 1^st ed 40k. I also played West End Games Star Wars a lot, which shares the distinction I’m about to cite. D&D is, as Mr Bergil points out, a procedural game – its driven (if you’ll pardon the pun) by an exploration engine that is inextricably intertwined with the entire system, from experience and character progression to the acquisition of treasure. Characters can, as stated, die a pitiful and meaningless death, but lets not forget that these characters adhere to a strictly defined level categorisation and as such are exploring a level of the dungeon with very finely balanced threats. The obsession with balance is as much about threat management as it is about party composition and for me that puts player skill behind dice rolls when it comes to determining success.

 

I’ll back that last bit up – I found out some time in the late ‘90s, not long after the advent of the internet, that people play, or used to play, D&D competitively. This made no sense to me at all, and it took me some time to realise why. While I played D&D as a kid, I very soon moved on to WFRP, Star Wars, Rogue Trader etc, none of which had anything like the exploration engine I describe above. They’re all roleplaying games in the true sense of the word, where the interaction between characters drives the story and ultimately determines success or failure, not the procedural mechanics of looting a dungeon. That isn’t to say  D&D is devoid of any narrative, far from it, but once you’ve established the reason for the PCs to be in the dungeon in the first place you’re pretty soon down to exploring a map, rolling for monsters, fighting them and, if you’re lucky, stealing their treasure. I don’t have anything against that style of play, as Dr Bergil says, sometimes the joy is in the play itself, but it’s a world away from WFRP1e and Rogue Trader, both of which are often included in discussions about ‘old school’ gaming.

I agree, to some extent at least, with Dr Bergil’s distinction when it comes to playing low level characters. That’s absolutely part of the appeal and I think its true in the games of both UK and US origin. WHFP1e is well known for the fact that your PC could be killed by an angry dog in a dark alley, but lets not forget that that dog was not placed there according to a strictly balanced encounter system, it’s there because the GM and/or the scenario writer put it there, generally for the purposes of the ongoing narrative (it also doesn’t yield any treasure if you kill it!).

I also agree with the point about character generation – I’ve always enjoyed playing the hand I’m dealt in that regard. For me, you get to define and mould your character through the experience system, or you do in the types of games I enjoy. I’d suggest this isn’t really the case in D&D, where one 10^th level Fighter looks pretty much any other. I know a lot of people dislike the advancement system in Necromunda, where you roll for new skills and the likes – personally I really like that, but I get why others don’t.

Ok, this ‘TEH AWESUM’ business. I get the point and it’s well made, but I can’t help take issue somewhat. Is not Conan, the archetypal old school barbarian, ‘TEH AWESUM’? The first or second (I forget which) story Howard ever featured him in begins with Conan as the last man standing of any entire army, literally hundreds of enemy dead piled around him. Are not the cosmic themes explored by HP Lovecraft ‘TEH AWESUM’? (his protagonists certainly aren’t, that’s a given, but his setting is vast!). Tolkien? He starts out small (pathetically so, you might say) but his work evolves to encompass incridibly broad themes, none of which I’d put down as ‘TEH AWESUM’. What about the aforementioned character advancement in D&D? They had to invent entire planes of existence and hollow out an entire planet to accommodate the power levels your PCs could attain, and given the obsession with balance in the D&D advancement system, there’s a good chance they will if the players don’t do anything too stupid. I take the point, really I do, but the pejorative and confrontational use of ‘l33t speak’ shuts the argument down before it’s been had and I personally see nothing wrong with exploring themes I’d far rather describe as ‘epic’. In fact, the smaller you start out the more of a journey it is, so isn’t that the best of both worlds?

So, what else? Art? That’s an interesting one. There’s certainly an old school aesthetic in play, though it’s hard to define it. It’s generally unpretentious, perhaps a little goofy and often distinctly ‘DiY’. I think most of the artists working at that time were just starting out (Jes Goodwin, GW sculptor extraordinaire, produced a module cover for TSR UK when he was still at school I believe!). Many of these venerated individuals might cringe at the work they produced back then and hope that we’d prefer what they’re doing now, but then I guess the same is true of the punk rock bands we listened to as spotty teens, most of whom have developed into accomplished musicians but lost the raw appeal they once had.

Narrative – well that’s interesting. The Magnificant Sven is cited as an example of a good old, old school scenario. But let’s not forget those early Warhammer scenarios were heavily themed, relying on a solid narrative and story driven goals. They most certainly don’t rely on the type of procedural mechanics central to D&D. Again, I take the point that they focus on the low level, and that’s one of the things I like about them too.

All of    this leads me to the point where I’d like to thank Mr Bergil for his insight, for while I don’t agree with all his points he’s illuminated something that’s been nagging at me for a while. D&D and its ilk are often cited as the nadir of ‘old school’, at least where roleplaying is concerned. The games being produced in the UK around the same time and largely independently were nothing like D&D. Rogue Trader bears little resemblance or relation to D&D. To see what I mean, grab a copy of Combat 3000 or Laserburn, both forerunners of Rogue Trader by the same group of people, and compare it to D&D. They provide rules for fighting, for wargear, for making your own characters and such, but absolutely no form of encounter engine. Instead of a finely tuned system for regulating exploration and encounters and earning treasure and advancement, they leave all that stuff to the players and the GM. That, for me, is the true difference. WFRP1e, Rogue Trader etc, are all about players playing with their toys, doing so in a consensual and mutual way, and they don’t need a rigid system to tell them how.

Is this a matter of national character? Possibly, to a degree perhaps. It seems to be the case that UK players prefer a looser more gentlemanly approach to gaming while US players prefer one where everyone visibly plays by the same rules, but to be honest it’s all too easy to overstate the differences and fall back on lazy stereotypes. I would say however that the ‘old school’ gaming scene would do well to consider just how different the roots of US and UK gaming really are, as well as acknowledge where they converge, and that might inform us more about where we are today.

So there we go – many thanks to Dr Bergil for his stimulating rant, I hope mine is even half as useful to anyone that might read it.