rhammer

chronicles
By Gav Thorpe
ntis m o nth I've opened III> the brain of veteran gamet' and scribe
Jake nlonlloll , using nothing hUI a blunt screwdriver and a Necran:b
lraioing manual. The followl1lg Is whal plopped o nto the oper3llng slab.

For many)'Cars now I've pb)"Cd :t

Against house: rule thai unilS a1w:.ty!i pa..s
Brru tcst:. on :t roll of double I. It's
all Odds ... a gre'.1l rule. panly beGtusc it's .so
simple. bul maIO!)' bcc:tuse it add'i to
Sometimes evm the lowliest bunch the Story thaI :t battle tells. lnstc:ld of
of Gobbos on surprise: you. and the cra~n Gobbos Oeeing all the-
sometimes th:u surprise might C\"en time, sometimes they hold theiT
be nke! ground for thai one vital rum and
House rules are lillie variadons of the help to tum the tide, Once 111 a b lue
main game mt!chanics that pillyers moon your h:U"d·pre..'iSCd humble
adopt 10 tailor the g:tffiC to their own Halberdicrs will SUind and fighl
t;tSte!. Thc:.")' arc, quite: simply, the
despite the fact that they an'
rules)'Ou pl;ty round at your house. surrou nded by hideous
monstrosities. It won't hap])l:"n (:very
ThCllC are a One idea, as )'011 know f:tr
game. and thai, to(), is part of the
bener what you w.rnt in a game than
fun. It's a r.ltt thing. but:tn ~il y
lhe writers of the rules do. So if you
rem embered one :lnd ooc Ihal C2n
feellh:u you want rules (Of" we-.uher
add an cxddng (wist to any b'.tttle
Ot" to ha~"e a cluncc [0 rnJly C\"en the
Why not gh'e II :t II)' yourself!
snuIlesl unit then )'OU an change
the rules to suit..

Wobbly Terrain I think this is rather duUto say the

1ea:;I, and ha\'C been messing about
\\1th a few variam.'l for a while,
WHAT? including the various mel hods
Over the many years I've been described In the Warhammer
playing Warhammcr I've fallen into rulebook. However. the fo llo\\~ng
something ora rut with regards to v:trlam th;l' Gav :lJld I C',UllC up with
seUing up the Icrr.tin for a game. w.lS a spur of the moment thing Ihat
Almost without exception, ant: of us grew out of nowhere whilst we wen:
will SCI up the terrain as we pl~ setting up a game the other day. 1(:;
and then either our opponent will currently ~lIthe ('.age In the
decide \\"hich side to take, or \\'t"U Warhal1lmc..T cnd of Games
dice for iI. Now this is fine and hu De\'clopmcnt. :and we thouS.fn )~ 'd
sc:n'ed me well for many fTlCIOOS. but like to trl' il. too.
it does end up with rather
prcdicub1e set ups. as you' ll ha\'t' RANDOM TERRAIN
.seen countidS limes. So, )'Ou\-c: afre;Uly tried ump(een
random lelT.lln generators, <lJld they
~lhcn you 're selling up temUn and all involve fiddly charts thai c.dl for
you don 't know which side rQu '1I things you don't have in your Icrr.tin
end up with, there's a tendency- 10 collection. Me, 10(), Don', worry,
make;! II safe - either side is pIoIY,Ible, though , the rollowing Is far more
neither particularly differenl from the practical and means thm you C'.tn ~1
other. The exlreme of this Is tile :>l!1 up a gamc in moments. NO( OnJ )'
ups M>mctimcs.secn al 10um.:llnenlS (hal, bUt (and this Is my (a\'Onte bit)
where each side aCTUally has an you gel a whole host or new tactical
idcntic:tl view. problems presented 10 you e-.tch WIk'
you deploy. It really matt~rs who Once you'vc worked out how Illany other hand, some folk who've tried
Wins thar dke rOll and whith side pieces to USc then lay them out on thiS like to usc the HIT to mean that
fQu pick. A proper lCSt for a the tabletop, scattering them roughly !.he terrain slays whert: it is and that's
rablclOP generall evenly. Then comes the fun bit. flne , too. It's your gJI11C, S(J make up
your own ml.nd.
k'~ simple. Once you've cleared your Taking them one at a time, roll 406
gaming table, select a bunch of and a Scaucr dice for each. Move
!c1T.dn piecl-'S. You'll neeJ about one each piece !.hat many inches in the OVERLAPS
piece per foot length of t'J.blc, direction indicoued before moving If pieces ovcrlap whilst you're
perhaps DJ)e Ics.'i: or morc. NomlaUy onlO the next. This will $(.""auer the moving them it obviously doesn't
I'd usc a couple of hills, a couple of I"ermin ;/bout in an unpredIctable matter, but what do you do when
fil')' still O\'crlap when !.he music
~"OOdS and one or t\.\-·o Olhe.r bits for and entcnaining fashion. creating a
a 6'x,/' table.. You could cven make a much more challenging balllcfic.ld to stops and everyone sits down? Well
little lIDle and roll a dice to decide fight owr. this depends on wh:u thL')' arc. If you
how many pieces to usc. For have a \\'ood or a farmhouse
CClmple, you could try tht' Then: ;ltC lots ofwa~'S ~'ou could add overlapping a hill then you can
IOUowing. Work out how long In feet 10 this basic ide;l. but only a few simply have a wooded hill, or a
things you actually nced to consider. house with a good view. If two hills
your gaming table is and roll a dice:
Thes~ are firstly what you do if you overlap then you probably \\-"On'r be
D6 result- roll a Hrr on t.he SL"";1Iter dlce, :mle to make your tcrrain work by
SCC(lndly what you d(l when piec(.'S Silting the pieces on top of each
Usc half this number of overlap, and thIrdly what you do other. Either replace it with a bigger
terrain pieces. when they panly fall olTthe hill if you have one, move one
l·3 Usc one less than this number playing area. slightly to fit them next to each
(Jf terrain pieces. other, or simply decide that this
A H IT! A PALPABLE HIT! 'c;lnccls out' onc hill and remove il.
4-5 Usc this number of
tcrrnln pieces. Ikfore you .stlln to roll your Scatter
dicc for the terrain, deCide what LEMMINGS
Usc onc mort: than this you'll do if you roll a HIT. Basically If a picce of terrain falls off the table
number of pieces. you've gOt [\\'0 choices. What I do is cOlllpleteJy then it's obviousLy
use the: lillie arrow to scatter the decided nor 10 take pan. l-Iowt."Ver, if
terrain as normal. After all, what I temin scatters only partly off the
""tnt is an unpredictable shuming of table lhen you have to choose what
pieces, not a bunch of hill~ sluing \0 do Wilh it. You could choose to
where they Maned. On the remove it (just like a fleeing unit).
This will greatly reduce the
amount of tcrrain on the
table as it'S very
common to have a
piece or twO
LOudling the edge.
That's OK, just
be aware that
 it'll happen. What I tend to do
is r,il.h er more. fuzzy:I 'rule'. If a
have a smaller replacement, then it
goes back on the shelf for nt.-xT tinl(.:. Interactive Magic
piece is only just all" I push it back Whilst we were writing the new
Which "~.ly you choose to deal with
on, leaving it at the. edge. Sometimes WarhamOlcr, we came up with "ail
rotating it will give a clOSer eimer of these is entirely up 10 you
and largely depends on what terrain sorts of variations and alternative
approximation to the ' propt;::r' mles foc the g.1me. MOSf of th(!SC
you have avaUable. But please don'l
poSitiQn. Of course, If you have a "\\.'Crc discarded in favor of the ones
smaller version of the same type of worry about adhering exactly to
me~ 'rules'. 'Iney aren't really any we printed, because they were
terrain th;::n yOll could juSt replace it simply not as good. Howt.-vcr, the
with that. If more than half of the more than a [(.-W guidelines for wh:ll
we thought was kind of amusing. following alternative C'.l.~ling rules for
tcrr:lin is off the table and I don't the magic system were abandoned
Hope you find it fun, 1001
hec:lU&C I thought them up so hue in was (.' Vcr possiblc until I sat here another dice or I'NO (or three." ) as
die day that we JUSt didn't have dOle U)'ing to write down why I came up long :is you would no rmally be
ro piaytt."St them properly. This being with this in the Anil place, I r:nher aU{)\\.'Cd to roll the tot'.u number of
~ case, we thought you mIght IIkc like the magie system :tS Ills now, dice to cast that spell. You sc..'C, the
to have a go yourselves, but I also like. tinkering, ., maxi.mum number of like you may
usc (in total) to cast doesn't change;
nlis Isn't a rcplacemc n\ for thc niles just when you can use them,
in the book, Iht.'Y' re jusl some idC'AS GET ON WITH IT
yOU mighlilke 10 trY OUI. I don't
Sorry, >Naffiing again! '111C rules are The extr.t diCe.: add to the tot:tl score,
dUnk they altcr the balance a 101, bur easy to usc, if a little lrickier to and iI this be,us the Oispel then it
I\'c: simply not used them enough 10 explain. To sun wi!.h. you work OUI counts as QlSL Unfonu natcly your
be fe<.tlly happy about saying I.hey'rc Power and DiSpel dice JUSt as opponent can then add o ne or more
100% fair. An)'W'.ty. give Ihem a go nomlal, all casting number.! remain of his remaining Oispel dice and add
2nc.Ilel lue know what you I.hlnk. the same, as do Miscasts :Uld to his Dispcltot,Li , This goes on until
Irresistible FOl'{:e. In fuel , all that one side f:lils to heal the Olher o r
changes is the actual mechanism for runs out of dice il COlO (or chO()S(,"S)
OVERVIEW rolling the dice you havc in
The basic idea is 10 allow you to to usc. You'll see more dearly ill
your pile. give you a couple of examples.
'Power up' spells ,lOd dispels in a
~mllar WIlY to tlle old magic s)'litem RoU to cast a spell as normal. If you
In the flfiJl edition of the succeed, !.hen your opponent may
Wamammcr rules. This is somc!.hlng dt.-cidc 10 uy 10 dispell!. I..et's say he
Ihal a 101 of our piaytcslcrs said tilL')' does, In the normal s)'lilcm this is
ml.~ when they fin;( tried !.he new where it ends - your spell has been
lI)'Slcm. Personally I'd forgonen it SlOPped. In tbis variant, you em add