Continuing to look at early British RPGs, Fantasy Wargaming (FW), as the title suggests, is an old school product from the earliest days of the hobby when gamers rooted in wargaming were first discovering this new type of game we eventually would call adventure games or role-playing. FW saw widespread availability partially because it found its way onto shelves of chain bookstores and perhaps more importantly, was offered through a popular book club. Therefore even today it isn't hard to locate a copy. I am aware of at least two versions of the book, both hardback. One is a large, letter sized edition (pictured above) and the other is a smaller hardback with dust jacket showing the same cover illustration.
FW is written by some folks at Cambridge University in England and is clearly a reaction to white box and Tunnels & Trolls, both are mentioned by name as dungeon bound games lacking in realism. FW is offered as their answer to the growing hobby of roleplaying. Bruce Galloway is credited as compiler and editor and my understanding is the work had several contributors. The fantasy wargame is discussed as an outgrowth of historical wargaming using miniature figures, which in the case of fantasy included nonhuman troop types along with individual hero characters. Players tend to identify with such hero figures and when rules for advancement in power are included for the hero who can conceivably take any plausible action during the game, roleplaying is the result.
The authors of FW state history and folklore provide better game material than is found in other games and the early chapters of the book are devoted to making a case for this argument. The historic nature of society in western Europe, especially England, during the dark and middle ages is described in some detail, with a somewhat scholarly approach. The author's attempt to show the middle ages from a medieval rather than modern point-of-view. That is to say things the people of the time would have believed in such as magic, demons and monsters are presented as real.
The rules themselves are somewhat scattered about the book and it does suffer from a lack of organization (a somewhat common condition of early game products) which also makes it a challenge to describe the game mechanics. I first encountered FW aound the time of its publication (1981), but have only read it, never played it. I do find the historic material on medieval and dark ages societies is informative and useful as a reference. The authors' "unified field theory" is interesting and I have not seen it repeated in any other game to date. Basically the authors argue that belief is what gives magic it's power whether it is of a divine or occult nature. The gods gain their power from sacrifices and worship of followers who believe. Practitioners of magic acquire magic power, termed "mana" in the rules from their belief in it's existence and through performing acts which strengthen their ties to the otherworld/ethereal world where magic dwells. Astrology and correspondences strengthen this contact with the otherworld and help give the magic system of FW a very medieval feel.
The historic basis of FW means that the religions and prejudices which existed in medieval times are drawn on directly for the game milieu. This adds period flavor, but at the expense of some modern sensibilities. FW really has to be approached through medieval eyes to be fully appreciated. Demon and devil worship are part of the rules and PC power can be gained from blood sacrifices. Characters are strongly tied to their father's social rank and upward social mobility is limited. The rules offer three basic character classes, warrior, mage and cleric. Each has several "sub-types" based on social rank. Female characters are limited by historic stereotype.
The magic system lists few spells and the authors claim magic in the historic and folklore sources is so varied in its effects that confining it to lists of spells seems impracticable. Therefore magic is somewhat open-ended and free-form, the player and referee coming to some agreement on effect and difficulty challenge. Magic is divided into passive (divination) and active (sorcery, enchantment and conjuration). Astrology and correspondences are used throughout for flavor. Like the rules for combat and the few listed skills, the magic mechanics are percentile based and involve some math. FW does include what amounts to a universal resolution mechanic in the detect hidden doors table which involves a percentile roll against a difficulty target number which gives degrees of success (partial success, etc.) and is used for nearly everything except combat strikes and throwing magic (not just finding hidden doors).
The intent of FW is stated as the gaming recreation of medieval epics, romances and legends and not the sword & sorcery or Tolkienesque tales of certain other games. The rules for experience and piety (which fuels cleric "miracles") reflect this goal. There are several mechanics that can be used to both provide incentive and occasionally dictate PC behavior in certain circumstances rather than allow the player total control of the PC and I assume this is an effort to enforce medieval behavior on the character despite the more modern sensibilities of the player. Having some experience as a referee attempting to run such a "realistic" medieval setting, I can understand the author's intent/desire to limit "uncharacteristic" anachronisms in PC behavior. I am not sure how much fun such mechanics will be to the players, however.
The subtitle of Fantasy Wargaming is The Highest Level of All. The authors make various humorous references in the chapter headings as a means to kept an otherwise quite scholarly and serious approach somewhat light-hearted, as befits a game book, and I wonder is this subtitle isn't just more of the same. FW does set some high goals for itself as a book combining fantasy role-play and more traditional wargaming (there are rules for tabletop battles using bases of miniature figures as is common in histroic wargaming) and a fantasy game based on research and empirical evidence more than imagination and whimsy. The unified field theory that runs throughout intrigues me. The authors use it to explain how elves/faerie folk, once widely worshiped as gods, were quite large, man sized and powerful, after the coming of Christianity they shrank in size as human sacrifices and belief in them lessened and they became more scarce and tiny by the Victorian period when they were practically forgotten.
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