Uncovering Oldhammer Fantasy Role-Play

Warhammer Fantasy Role Play 1985 | John Blanche*

One of the things I like about 2nd Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle, is that it keeps bringing up new items - the range of inserts and additional sheets that went in at different times during its production means there always seems to be something new, although that's probably just because nobody has bothered to catalogue all the ephemera.

Rab of the Geekly Digest (Thank you!)

This yellow flyer, which I certainly didn't get when I bought Warhammer 2nd Edition back in the day, nor did I get it when I bought another copy of eBay some years later (although I did get some bendy D&D toys with it!) Anyway, this arcane scroll  mentions two Warhammer posters. One of the posters is the Joe Dever and Gary Chalk one that Goblin Lee did an epic job of identifying the miniatures of in his post on Warhammer Posters .

Warhammer Poster via Goblin Lee

Both posters were also mentioned in Chalk and Devers Tabletop Heroes column in White Dwarf 62 - February 1985, so that puts a possible date on the insertion of the flyer, as Warhammer 2nd Edition came out late 84, there may have been a few months when WFB2 was distributed without yellow flyer advertising the posters.

The second poster, which I've never seen in the flesh, but probably now I mention it a million will fly out of the basements of the worlds grognards like so many blood-thirsty Stirges from the Caves of Chaos, is described thusly:

"This poster features the cover art from the new Warhammer box, extended to include the forthcoming Warhammer Role-Play cover too! A magnificent picture poster, and a fine example of John's widely acclaimed fantasy work." 

So the Warhammer 2nd Edition, cover by John Blanche, looks like this:

Warhammer 2nd Edition box via Tenkars Tavern

And the poster, which intriguingly had the proposed artwork for the cover of Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play added to it, must have looked something like this:

Warhammer Poster Mock-up

The above image was reproduced in Warhammer 3rd Edition, on p. 116 / 117. I've stitched together two low-res scans. The image goes into the spine, which makes it hard to scan, and isn't well printed in the first place, all the colours are washed out in comparison with the original box art, it's really small (less than half size)  - there is show-through from the text from the page behind (thin paper) - there are 'shine' areas where the original image has been photographed prior to reproduction - most noticeable on the fighter on the right and the orc he is cleaving. These reproduction artefacts are weird, perhaps it was taken from a print of the poster and not the original artwork...

TL:DR the image would need to be completely redrawn to get it anywhere near fit for human consumption. I need not have bothered as VeronaKid pointed out the poster was up for sale on US eBay at the time of writing, for the very reasonable price of $75 (that's not a reasonable price):

The Poster!

Some further observations - the 3rd Edition reprint has airbrushed clouds going in the opposite direction to the poster, the pole-arms of the orcs on the left and the bats (or Stirges) have been removed or replaced. Visually it feels like there is  more image missing on the right-hand side - otherwise it wouldn't have had the same proportions as the WFB2 box art - the composition of the skull-face is also weirdly off-centre, and the cropping of the monolith to the right of the stairs very cloes and. Looking at the poster there is a lot of 'air' in the design - obviously for the logos and publishers blurb, and in fact it looks very much like a 2-in-1 image one that would have made for a wrap-around cover, rather than a box front.

But, perhaps more importantly than these visual details is the additional content on the right-hand side, that the flyer says was intended to be the cover of Warhammer Fantasy Battle.  This isn't a Grim World of Perilous Adventure, nor the gritty fantasy, gothic adventure of rat-catchers in Medieval Cthulhu sewers getting bitten by syphellitic dogs, nor  The Enemy Within that we know from Warhammer Fantasy Role-play. No. It's heroic blood and gore outside Castle Greyskull.

THIS IS WARHAMMER!

Not only that but it has a wizard who looks like Archmage of Mampang, with an explosion coming out of his backside, standing a top of said Castle Greyskull.

THIS IS WARHAMMER!

view from the other side of the skull
John Blanche (1985)

Not only that but it's got what looks like a woman on it, running out of the mouth of Castle Greyskull. In the front middle. The colouration makes me think maybe she's a Dark Elf or similar - tho' the costume is exactly the same as the  Runequest 1st Edition (and 2nd) illustrating what I believe to be the incalculable debt that Warhammer owes Runequest, whilst also continuing Warhammer 2nd Editions all too  brief attempt at gender equality.

THIS IS WARHAMMER!

There you have it a weird, half-baked reconstruction of what might have been.

So what if Warhammer Fantasy Role Play had been published in 1985? We know what the cover may have looked like, but what of the game itself? There are hints in the Winter, 1985 Good Games Guides WFRP adventure Web of Eldaw by Rick Priestly, and we know from interviews that Fellowship and the change to 2-digit stats were late changes, so it likely would have mechncially hewn closer to Warhammer Battle Second Edition. The Careers system may well have been in place, but as published it lacks any focus outside of the Empire (that Dark Elf warrior maiden, must surely have had options)? Would the Enemy Within and all the Renaissance Call of Cthulhu have been sidelined for the Doomstones Campaign and replaced with funky sci-fantasy South American Runequest or the myriad loosely defined realms of Fighting Fantasy?