WFRP 1 Memories: Ogres and Trolls

Ogre priest by Tony Ackland, from the Doomstones adventure Blood in Darkness.

Ogres were first presented as playable characters in WFRP in 2021, when Cubicle 7 published Archives of the Empire, Volume II. I had been advocating for this since 1987, but apart from some fan works like this one, nothing happened in that direction for almost 35 years.

When we put together the core rulebook for WFRP 1st edition in 1986, Ogres were included in the Bestiary chapter, just as they had been in countless games going all the way back to White Box D&D. But something about the way Ogres looked in WFRP made me think of them differently. The way that Citadel Ogre miniatures were depicted in their dress and weaponry spoke to closer ties with the Old World. In 1987, Ravening Hordes for Warhammer 2nd edition listed Ogres as mercenaries, available to a variety of armies – but not the Empire. Despite this, an Ogre mercenary named Golthog appeared in Power Behind the Throne, seemingly living and working within the Empire without any problems. Looking back, it was probably this that decided me to push for Ogres to become playable.

I did what I always did when I had an idea: I put a proposal together with an outline of what I wanted to write, underpinned it with examples from Warhammer and WFRP publications and Citadel Miniatures ads, and passed it up the chain of command. In almost every other case, my proposals were greeted with a deafening silence, but after a pause of a year or so I was called into a meeting with Phil Gallagher, who was now in management, and a few others whose names I don’t remember.

I was already trying to build out Ogre lore when I wrote this ad for White Dwarf 79.

Nobody liked the idea of making Ogres playable in WFRP, I was told, but I had been banging on about them for so long and if I really wanted to write about them so much, here was an opportunity.

From somewhere, management had had the idea of writing books of pure lore and art – an idea that was not to reach fruition until many years later with Black Library tomes like The Loathsome Ratmen from 2004. Anyway, I was contracted to write a book on Ogres – but I was strictly forbidden to even hint at any rules, and I had to cover Trolls as well. It wasn’t what I wanted, but it was the closest I had come to a win with any of my proposals so I went away and wrote it in my free time while Flame was getting started.

I turned the manuscript over in late January of 1989, and had a frustrating series of meetings with Phil and others in which I was told to rewrite the entire thing but nobody would tell me what needed to change. Looking back, I suspect that Bryan Ansell had read it, said to Phil or someone else, “It needs to be rewritten, you know,” and that someone had nodded loyally and been afraid to ask what needed to change.

Bryan was ruling by fear at that time, and would occasionally fire someone on the spot simply to maintain his reputation, or so it seemed to me – just as Blackbeard admitted to shooting one of his crew from time to time “so they don’t forget who I am.” Against that background, no one wanted to admit to any kind of ignorance that might get them sacked for “not understanding Warhammer.” But I could be entirely wrong about that.

All I really know is that I never found out what needed to change or why – being told literally “I’m not going to tell you that” – which left me no option but to throw up my hands in defeat. I focused on my work for Flame, and the Ogres and Trolls book remained in limbo when I left Games Workshop in October of 1990.

Fast-forward to 2019, when I was talking to Cubicle 7 and starting to develop the Enemy Within Director’s Cut. I had kept a dot-matrix printout of the Ogres and Trolls manuscript, so I sent it to Dom McDowall in case it might be useful, or at least interesting. I heard nothing back, as I recall, and little to none of it appeared in Archives of the Empire, Volume II. But then, the Ogre Kingdoms had been developed in the intervening 30-plus years, and a lot else had changed.

I did publish one out-take on my blog, with some musings from the famed Bretonnian chef Marcel de Morceaux on the challenges of cooking Troll meat (here), but nothing else from the book has seen the light of day. Maybe it never will, and maybe that’s a good thing: it was not an enjoyable project, and it’s not likely to be my best work.

The only other thing of note that I remember is that I planned a particular skill for Ogre characters when I was still hoping to give them careers and rules. It still makes me smile when I think of it, so here’s an attempt at rules for all four editions of WFRP. It might be treated as a racial skill, available to all Ogre PCs, or it might be restricted to certain careers, such as Bodyguard or Racketeer. See what you think. Oh, and I was reading a lot of Terry Pratchett at the time when I first came up with it, and I’m sure that show in the tone.

Apologies if some of this post came across as sour grapes or whining, but I hope the new skill/talent helps with any bad taste it left behind. Leave a comment to left me know what you think of it, and how it might be improved.

Loom

Loom is treated as a skill or a talent, depending on the edition of the rules being used.

Ogres are big – everyone knows that. Loom is simply looking big on purpose, especially when standing behind someone else, such as a Human crime lord. It is unusual in that it benefits another character rather than the Ogre PC themselves.

WFRP 1st Edition Rules

When another character is attempting any Test with the objective of intimidating someone, the Ogre can confer a 10% bonus to that test simply by standing behind them and looking big.

WFRP 2nd Edition Rules

When another character is making an Intimidate check, the Ogre can grant them the benefits of the Menacing Talent simply by standing behind them and looking big. If they already have Menacing, its effects are doubled.

WFRP 3rd Edition Rules

When another character is making an Intimidate check, the Ogre can add one more die to their pool simply by standing behind them and looking big.

WFRP 4th Edition Rules

When another character is making an Intimidate check, the Ogre can grant one more level of the Menacing Talent simply by standing behind them and looking big.

Want to support my work?

If you’ve enjoyed the content on this blog, please consider supporting me by making a small donation. Here are a couple of ways to do so.

Thanks!