Warhammer: the Old World Roleplaying Game, Gamemaster’s Guide by Various

Seth Stauffer

Preparation is vital to gaming, especially for a gamemaster. To that end, “What do I need to run a game?” is the essential question. While this will vary from one game system to another, Cubicle 7 has published Warhammer: the Old World Roleplaying Game Gamemaster’s Guide to aid GMs of all experience levels.

While Warhammer presents itself as a merciless game, what comes across more than anything else is the political intrigue and drama. In my mind, there’s a big difference between PCs being easy to kill-physically weak-as opposed to always needing to look over their shoulders from clandestine political scheming. Random encounters are perhaps just as likely to kill a character as a well-aimed knife in the back. However, it’s entirely possible to take a game either way, and helping a GM craft content is exactly what this supplement is equipped to do. 

This book is a manageable size and loaded with content to make a GM’s life much easier. NPCs and creatures to aid or harass the PCs, along with clear rule explanations, annotations, and cross-references for ease of use, are all present, which is exactly the kind of thing most people would be looking for.  It includes tips not just for running the game, but for teaching it as well, which is very useful.

Taking on the role of GM can be intimidating for less experienced players, and having an approach that anticipates the need to help navigate the role is a nice touch. Knowledge like this shows the expected minimum for players and GMs. You can’t teach it if you don’t know it. That is why stuff like the Dark Threads diagram (52-53) is great for GMs, laying out a complicated dataset visually in an easy-to-understand way. Kudos to the designers for this. This organization extends to some good rules for handling a player being corrupted by dark forces. A bit more on succumbing to environmental hazards, sickness, or even magical effects would have been appreciated, but what’s here is useful.  

That said, some bits aren’t really necessary, such as content about adventure pacing. It’s just an example, and while it can be helpful to know, there is so much advice online that anything not specific to the book in your hands can be redundant. It would have been better to write this section specifically for the rules of this game, and only this game. There’s ample opportunity to find system-agnostic content online, and Warhammer has been around long enough that diverse resources already exist.

The Game Master’s Guide is a manual for the game and for people who need help learning the ins and outs of running it. Sometimes a resource is good for anyone, but in this case, the Old World Roleplaying Game Gamemaster’s Guide is best for people playing this particular game, especially newer GMs. There’s a lot of crucial information a person shouldn’t skip to save a few dollars. This book serves its purpose well: helping a GM craft content and steer game sessions.