Getting Complex ... adding Warhammer

By About Late '95 I had a system, broken, flawed, but a system none the less..

Because of the many changes, I'm likely to explain bits and pieces and why they worked or failed, but I'd like to think that we pretty much started with a working but flawed system, then broke parts and healed them properly...

The first underlying premise was that level ups had to match. Working from a Warhammer base, I assigned boxes to each of the stat set, for experience. You could not get a stat bonus, unless you had 100 XP in that stat. Fellowship XP happened from roleplaying your character, Toughness XP from resisting and taking damage. This really suited things well, Mages were no longer getting combat bonuses, unless they were IN combat, Warriors did not get Leadership bonuses, unless the group agreed, they had performed well as a leader that session. 

But Warhammer has many small problems of its own. Firstly its built on a battle board game, combat relies on your own Weapon skill, and nothing to do with your opponents. too often we'd have problems where a monster of fairly decent skill was constantly being hit, sure his toughness reduced the damage, but since it was touch poison attacks, only 1 Wound was needed, you couldn't really have a character whose ability to duck and weave, dance around the opponent, worked well.

But things that did work well, was the concept of Attacks, the concept of Real life jobs and skills and training, and your starting equipment. and Magic?, well, I'll come to that later.

We ran around 6 months of this adjusted WHFRP.

Around that time, my Club, Dungeonworld, was coming to an end, I had failed to advertise for more members, I could not handle the numbers I had, and many of them started to grow up, they viewed the club as something relating to their teenage years. Some of them had to be asked to leave for theft, and their friends of course went with them,, it was a sad time.

I gathered the more serious players, and we started roleplaying at my place. Most of us were young adults by then, so it was less of a concern that we were no longer a club, and more of a gaming group. It was around then that I sold the first "edition" of the rules, trademarked my game and decided that this was something I was going to do with my life.. even if I had no idea how.

The Start of Dungeonworld the Roleplay System

So, I had a club. A captive audience. I could test my new 'system' on these new minds.

My clubs age group was roughly 11-19. Some kids from the after school care I worked at, some from Highschool, and some my own age.

Could I develop a system which was, to my mind, a roleplay system. not a wargaming system.

I had, subconciously, not liked any roleplay system, because it was based around a table-top concept. miniatures might be needed (which none of us could afford) many, MANY books might be needed (AD&D, I'm looking at you) and the biggest part. RULES were needed..

You have to realise, I'm writing this as a 40yr old. some of my thoughts have been stewing in my mind for 21 years, realisations occured about what it was I was thinking.. Back then I didn't like it because it felt wrong. I didn;t know WHY it felt wrong, it just did. 4 years ago, I clicked, when talking to a 19yr old. It felt wrong.Therebecause it WAS wrong. They had created a set of rules that went against what was possible in reality.

I've come to refer to it as Bandaid Gaming.

Bandaids solve the problem for now, cover the wound until it heals. If the wound is not properly cleaned & sutured, this bandaid will not be a solution, the wound may or may not heal, will likely leave something, a scar or problem that might need to be ignored, or fixed later.

Many Game systems, created a set of rules that suited the needs of the designers, for now. They test it, but its broken and the cost to fix is above that they are willing to do. Many fixes are bandaids. They find a problem and fix the bandaid for that problem, but in turn that sometimes breaks and they need to fix it again.

This actually turns out to be a good business model. D&D is up to 5th edition now? Make a game, realise its flawed, make a magazine which addresses the flaws, bring all the flaws together til you have a nice big list. fix the flaws with an Uber bandaid, print new edition. Ad-infinitdum!?

So over 1994, I was trying to find a game system that wasn't all bandaids. I failed.

So I decided to make my own.  

Dungeonworld, The Beginning of the Club

In 1992, I was in Highschool, Year 12. I had an after school job in Childcare, and alot of kids from the after school care were interested in board games,. one in particular was Heroquest.

Back then I was paid $7 an hour to look after kids. I worked one hour after school from 3:45 to 4:45 when the school care had the most kids, and needed extra help.

I volunteered to run Heroquest for any of the kids interested, from 4:45 to 5:45 as some of the kids had to wait around for their parents until 6pm.

while I recognised that I was giving up a potential $7 an hour.. I also saw this need. Kids wanted to play these games, and their parents might be in the need for them to get out of the house and give them some peace and quiet..

So I started a club, Saturday and Sunday afternoons, 12pm til 4pm, for $2 an hour (I was expecting the kids to get most of this from their parents)

First of all, this partly didn't work, Parents had choices, and many of them were not as expensive as $8 for the day. Magic mountain, down at the beach, cost 20c a game, and $2 would get you a hot dog and coke.. so parents could leave their kids there for the day, with barely $5 in their pocket.

Most of the kids who wanted to come to my club, couldn't get $5 a month out of their parents, let alone $8 a week.. So I had to scale this.. firstly I made a set of 'helpers' those who would turn up at 11:30, help set up, and get in free.. then I made a membership card, laminated , which allowed 5 'visits' for $10.

So my next big problem was gamesmasters.. which is still a problem to this day.. I ran games, I never once had anyone run a game for me, For the next 4 years, I would run games. 

In the beginning

In 1990, Students of Modbury High were instructed to contact businesses, to organise work experience.

I organised to work for a Printing press, where I learnt about separation of prints into Red, Yellow Cyan and Blank. To demonstrate my knowledge, I was asked to take an Icon, Logo or Title of something and make it work with both this YCRB system, and an old B&W PhotoCopier.

I chose to do my 'club' name. Dungeonworld.

From there, my friends and I began a club for roleplay & boardgames.

In 1992 I was employed at the Modbury South Primary School After School Care. I was helping look after kids ages 5-12. Some, between 8-12 wanted to play board games. so I began bringing my games to the after school care. We played Heroquest, Talisman and Monopoly. more...

By the end of 1992, 12 kids wanted more, so I formed the Official Dungeonworld Club, Registered my business name, Trademarks and bought some more board games with my meagre inheritance when I turned 18.

By Christmas of 1993, I had 30+ members, we played Advanced Hero Quest, some guys came in to play D&D, Traveller, Vampire, Gurps. There seemed more interest in roleplay games than board games, I looked at many of them, over the shoulders of the other players. I gave them a go, as a player, but I always suspected there was something very wrong in what they were doing.

So Sometime in 1994, we started development on our own system. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay + Dragon Warriors + a little D&D, Some Rolemaster for good luck.

And thats how we started...