(..snip)
That early game was about playing Tolkien, since Tolkien was huge, so the world structure is a Tolkien structure. Complete with the other races being on the fade-out, and the 5th age being the age of man. And then, since you were rolling for Attributes anyways, and only 15+ really mattered, getting a +1/-1 wasn't going to mean that much really. Instead, it was the special abilities that actually mattered for defining a race. After all, starting out as a fighter with a 10 strength and 4 hit points wasn't an unusual thing.
He probably talks about the elven curve blade and the dwarven waraxe.Isn't that what all the other racial weapons usually are? Lame double weapons? http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/weapons.htm#urgroshDwarven for example?
As far back as November 1968, Gygax solicited the IFW membership for details of a rumored “Hobbit variant of Diplomacy.” [IW:v1n7] Even before that, the venerable War Game Inventors Guild had an interest, documented in March 1968, in developing “a Tolkien-based game derived from his ‘Battle of Five Armies.’” [70] On behalf of the WGIG, Gygax that same year conducted a survey on settings and scenarios of potential interest to wargamers, and “heroic fantasy” performed middling well (slightly above “space warfare,” though well below the mainstays of the Second World War and Napoleonic eras).
The fantasy content of Chainmail is broadly divided into four categories: rules for magic items, fantasy figures, magic spells and finally the “line-up” sorting the various new figures into the sides of Law, Chaos and Neutrality. [66]
Only two magical items are described in the first edition of Chainmail: enchanted arrows and magical swords.
The majority of the fantasy miniature figure types were mythological monsters, notably the Tolkien-inspired dragons, orcs, goblins, wraiths, wights, ents, balrogs, trolls and lycanthropes ( i.e., shape-changers, of whom Beorn the were-bear of The Hobbit was a likely prototype)— arguably, rocs and giants arrived via Tolkien as well. [67] There were also rules for the less monstrous humanoid races of Tolkien, the elves, dwarves and hobbits, as well as exceptional human types: the Hero, Super-hero and Wizard. [68]
A Hero has the fighting ability of four ordinary heavy armored figures and must be hit by four enemies at the same time in order to be killed; Super-heroes are described as “one-man armies” twice as powerful as Heroes (fighting as eight figures, requiring eight simultaneous hits to be killed).
There is an intriguing mention that some figures might have the qualities of more than one “type,” and will thus be “combination types.” “A good example of this is Moorcock’s antihero ‘Elric of Melniboné,’ who combines the attributes of the Hero-type with wizardry.” [69]
Magic spells are the purview of the “Wizard” type in Chainmail. Although unexceptional as melee fighters, Wizards have two ranged attacks they can employ: a “fire ball” and a “lightning bolt.” The former explodes like a thrown bomb, creating a circle of carnage, hopefully at some distance from the caster, while the latter extends in a straight line from the Wizard, annihilating those in its path.
In addition to these attacks, Wizards also cast utility spells. “There are virtually unlimited numbers of spells that can be employed,” but Chainmail lists six by way of example: Phantasmal Forces, Darkness, Wizard Light, Detection, Concealment and Conjuration of an Elemental.
Obviously Darkness and Wizard Light cancel each other out; Darkness, when cast, gives an advantage to creatures that can see without the benefit of light, which includes a number of the humanoid types.
Concealment and Detection are similarly opposed, allowing a Wizard to make a particular figure invisible, though some creatures, such as dragons, can always perceive concealed figures.
The last two spells both place new units on the battlefield. Phantasmal Forces creates an illusion of any figure lasting up to four turns. Conjuration of an Elemental allows a Wizard to summon an air, earth, fire or water elemental, each of which has certain strengths and weaknesses; the summoning of Djinn or Efreet is also allowed through this spell.
A Wizard can attempt to “counter-spell” the work of another Wizard, and similarly “dispel” summoned elementals, though the system for determining the relative strength of Wizards for this purpose in the first edition of Chainmail is underspecified.
Given that this interest existed in the community for some years prior to the publication of Chainmail, why weren’t there any number of competing fantasy wargaming systems available? In Wargamer’s Newsletter #127, Gygax relates his travails in converting mundane wargaming miniatures into fantasy pieces, an arduous process needed because no one cast or sold fantasy wargame miniatures in 1971. [77]
Even the Domesday Book contains no mention of fantasy until the announcement of the publication of Chainmail, and then only curtly mentions its "large fantasy supplement for fighting Tolkien-type battles." Why did Gygax not telegraph his intentions in that forum? One plausible answer is obvious from the public reaction to the published product: the fantasy setting remained enormously controversial in the broader wargaming community.
Even Guidon Games promoted Chainmail with a mildly apologetic tone. The first advertisements to appear in Panzerfaust focus on the strength of the medieval rules, and then almost audibly trail off as they continue, "Special features include rules for jousting and hand-to-hand combat and a large Fantasy supplement for gaming with Super-heroes, wizards, trolls, hobbits and (why not) dragons, among others." [PZF:# 48] The parenthetical "why not" constitutes something of a soft sell, if not outright defensiveness.
Why be defensive? Justification for this caution is not hard to find. In November 1969, Don Featherstone penned an editorial for the Wargamer’s Newsletter, one that would later be reprinted in the International Wargamer, in which he disdainfully related: No one resisted more strongly than I when an opponent introduced into his Ancient wargames the use of wizards whose spells would turn cavalry squadrons into toads or formulated rules governing the introduction of pre-historic animals (Timpo plastic monsters) whose table-top activities made war elephants seem like seaside donkeys. [WGN:# 92 and IW:v3n10] Featherstone here almost certainly denounces Tony Bath’s Tolkia game described above — from this negative reaction, we perhaps understand why these fantasy themes did not pervade Bath’s Hyborian campaign, where Featherstone regularly played.
Gygax quickly found himself the target of similar reproaches when he published more information about Chainmail in the Wargamer’s Newsletter. Featherstone ran a regular column entitled "Battle Report of the Month" in which wargamers annotated recent table-top conflicts of note; in the November 1971 issue, under this heading he published Gygax’s "Battle of Brown Hills," a description of a Chainmail combat fought between the LGTSA and a group of wargamers from Madison, Wisconsin. [WGN:# 116]
"Having run across an old map I had drawn of a mythical continent," Gygax wrote, "complete with many fantastic inhabitants, I decided to use it as the basis for a game." [78] The forces of Chaos, led by the Warlock Huldor ap Skree and Verdurmir, the Giant King, assailed the forces of Law, led by Count Aerll, a Super-hero with a magical sword, and his associate the Magician of the Cairn. [79] The armies of Chaos marshaled ogres, orcs and some infantry, matching a host of cavalry and elven archers standing for Law. Unfortunately for the LGTSA, who played the side of Law, Count Aerll perished shortly after the start of the battle. Chaos even managed to repel a passing dragon who spied an opportunity, in the midst of the carnage, to make off with a war chest the ogres had plundered from the Law-abiding.
After publishing this battle report, Featherstone received responses from his readership like the following: I, without first reading it myself, loaned [a non-wargaming friend] the November issue (No. 116). The net result was that he has not stopped laughing since. I refer to the Battle Report of the Month. Firstly, I have lost a convert to our hobby, secondly, I object to paying good money for absolute rubbish such as in this issue. I was under the impression that you yourself were of a like mind. I refer to your editorial in Newsletter No. 92… this sort of article should not even be considered by the editor. [WGN:# 120]
The race system exists and persists because D&D used to be a very different game, built for a much different purpose, and those early versions were highly influential, so lots of designers keep going back to that time for inspiration.
etc.
They enjoy the following benefits:
- they have increased level of magic resistance (a 6th level dwarf is equivalent to a 10th level human)
- they are the only race able to fully employ the +3 magic war hammer
- they can note slanting passages, traps, shifting walls, and new construction in underground settings
- they speak the languages of Gnomes, Kobolds, and Goblins in addition to the usual tongues
- they gain racial benefits when acting as thieves
What I hate about D&D styled/derived games (including cRPGs) is that apart from core races there is metric shitload of races serving only as XP-fodder.Also, I hate the fact that Orcs, as iconic as they are, aren't considered a core fucking race. Anyone else hate that about these dnd styled games?
He probably talks about the elven curve blade and the dwarven waraxe.Isn't that what all the other racial weapons usually are? Lame double weapons? http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/weapons.htm#urgroshDwarven for example?
Yeah, that's kinda lame. But I think that any GM can be talked into coming up with other orc specific weapons. It's not that hard to come up with some stats for it. Adding a flavor description to it is easy as well. But I agree that it's kinda silly that the one race that is considered most warlike gets so little combat goodies.One thing in Pathfinder that bugs the hell out of me: Dwarves, Gnomes, and Elves all get a shit ton of weapons that are useful that are specifically called racial weapons (useful or flavorful, whatever).
The fuck do Orcs get? The Orc Double Axe. Yeah, that's fucking it! Really? Not a vicious type of weapon that shows the brutal killing nature of the Orc, like some sort of giant sword that needs an insanely high strenght, or an axe or hammer that can sunder the hell out of things? No, just a stick with two axes, one on each end.
That's nice if you're a two weapon fighter. But what about the rest of us that want fucking FLAVOR?
I agree with you, too. Half orcs have been sadly neglected over the years, to the point where they were even struck from the game for a while. But I'm not normally moved to talk about racial weapons, since I struck all racial weapon bonuses from my games long ago, unless the race came out of the womb with the weapon in hand.Thank god someone agrees with me.