A few weeks ago, I started my very first role-playing session with the first edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP), published in 1986 by Games Workshop. 

Not having the original book, I bought the PDF version available from DrivethruRPG, which I had printed and bound for more practical use. 

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First of all, this imposing game manual is a marvelous introduction to the genesis of Warhammer Fantasy, a universe created barely three years earlier, whose lore seems familiar, though still in the making. 

I can't make technical comparisons with other role-playing games of the time, but it's clear from interviews with the creators that the universe of this first edition of WRFP was intended to be more realistic and gritty. 

Indeed, this is evident in the character creation stage, a chapter I particularly enjoyed. No powerful sorcerer or flamboyant paladin to start the adventure here, but amateur heroes with varied, sometimes trivial professions: beggar, coachman, grave robber, herbalist, raconteur, rat catcher and so on. 

These careers, with their varied skills and equipment, illustrate very well the game's bias, which is to launch into adventure apprentice heroes who are not at all superhuman, but certainly motivated by a taste for risk!

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Like for most other games, I will play this WFRP campaign solo using the Mythic Game Master emulator,  about which you can find more information here. In a nutshell, this system lets me play solo, setting the scene and the details of the action by using a d100 on various “oracle” tables, and finding out whether a piece of information is validated or not, among many other things.

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​But enough technicalities, let's get down to the action in the Old World!