WFRP 1 Memories: Gnomes
That post covers their early history in Warhammer 1st and 2nd editions, their addition to WFRP 1st edition through Phil Gallagher’s seminal article “Out of the Garden” (first published in White Dwarf 86 and reprinted in Apocrypha Now as “Gnome PCs”), and their removal from Warhammer canon thereafter. Like halflings – actually, even more than halflings – they were regarded by GW management as a failure, having sold very few miniatures, and although they are mentioned in Warhammer Armies for 3rd edition as allies of the dwarfs, this is the last time they appear in any official Warhammer publication until Rough Nights & Hard Days for WFRP 4th edition, 28 years later.
In the WFRP 2nd edition reprint of the adventure “A Rough Nights at the Three Feathers” in Plundered Vaults, a gnome character is recast as a halfling, and in WFRP 4th edition the same fate befell the beloved gnome detective Alphonse Hercules de Gascoigne, the star of Carl Sargent’s adventure “With a Little Help From My Friends” when it was reprinted in The Horned Rat Companion. This caused such an outcry from the devoted gnome lobby within Warhammer fandom that Andy Law, who had written the gnomes appendix in Rough Nights & Hard Days, created his version of the gnome Alphonse for WFRP 4th edition in a guest post on this blog.
Speaking of the gnomes appendix in Rough Nights & Hard Days, I’m not sure quite how Andy got away with it. Someone at Games Workshop must have let it through, but by the time The Horned Rat Companion was released, either GW’s management had changed their minds about gnomes or someone else was making the decisions.
And then there’s Willa Belbrag, a terrifying gnome assassin known as “the Seamstress” for her love of poisoned needles. I created her for It’s Your Funeral, the Rough Nights-style adventure that came out of my interactive adventure design session at GenCon 2019. Like Alphonse, she was recast as a halfling when Cubicle 7 published the adventure. In the spirit of fair exchange, though, I repaid Andy’s work on Alphonse by publishing Willa as a gnome in a guest post on his Lawhammer blog. Andy filled out her background from his deep knowledge of gnome lore, and even contributed a magic item.
I think that’s the last we’ll see of gnomes in Warhammer and WFRP, at least for a very long time. Like halflings, they were not impressive miniatures and didn’t sell well. Like halflings, they were supported up to a point and then retconned out of existence. But then, they are a secretive people and have good reason to keep themselves out of the limelight. Behind the scenes, devoted gnome fans are keeping their memory alive and adding to their culture and background, both in their own games and through online posts.
Perhaps that’s as it should be. If GW has fallen out of love with gnomes, they are better off in the hands of fans who care about them.
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