– MAR Barker, ‘Create a Religion in Your Spare Time for Fun and Profit’, Gryphon 2 (1980)Īnother benefit to WFRP‘s mashup approach, especially when drawing on historical inspiration, is verisimilitude. Pages of odd names and lengthy disquisitions tend to repel the reader…. Even a mediocre Western-Classical-Mediaeval background will probably be more saleable than an esoteric one. The more intelligible the characters, social structures, languages, mores, and religious manifestations are, the easier it is for players to assume comfortable roles in that world. What this means for the designers of fantasy role-playing games is just this: a familiar background will probably “sell” better than an unfamiliar one. This point did not escape that setting’s creator. It explains why exotic backgrounds, such as MAR Barker’s Tékumel, receive so little attention. More original settings, on the other hand, create a knowledge barrier that needs to be overcome. It is not necessary to pore over pages of lore before starting play. Many aspects of the setting will already be familiar to players and GMs. WFRP‘s use of commonplaces brings a number of potential benefits. This might explain its enthusiasm for commonplaces. The fantasy genre shares this narrower frame of reference and more limited audience. There is an interesting parallel between the use of such commonplaces in ancient literature and in fantasy fiction and gaming.Īncient authors, perhaps because their audience was more restricted and shared with them a more limited cultural background, seem to have been fonder of such commonplaces than modern ones…. Just as Homer depicted Achilles’ shield in the Iliad, so Vergil’s Aeneid contains an account of Aeneas’. Topoi were literary and rhetorical commonplaces: ideas and motifs that would be drawn on by several authors, to which each would apply his or her own interpretation. It is part of a rich tradition that stretches back to ancient times and the classical topos. Nor is such intertextuality a new phenomenon. Famously Appendix N of AD&D‘s first edition Dungeon Masters Guide celebrated that game’s derivative elements. It has been deployed in many fantasy role-playing games. Such an approach is, of course, not unique to WFRP. Tolkien’s elves can be found alongside Moorcock’s beastmen. Gods blend Celtic, Norse and Graeco-Roman myth. Vikings rub shoulders with crusaders, Aztecs and musketeers. It is to a considerable extent a mashup of elements from history, literature, mythology and folklore. Un Bretonnien on L’ENNEMI INTÉRIEUR: LE GUIDE Un Bretonnien on ENEMY IN SHADOWS: GAMESMASTER’S AIDS Un Bretonnien on THE ENEMY WITHIN: GAMESMASTER’S TIPS

Vikings in America by Graeme Davis