Published in 1987, Warhammer City started life as a background section in Carl Sargent’s manuscript for Power Behind the Throne. Unlike the town section in Shadows over Bögenhafen, though, it grew and grew. The city-state of Middenheim was a far larger proposition than a simple market town, after all, and we had also seen city supplements for other games (not least Thieves’ World from Chaosium and Lankhmar: City of Adventure from TSR) and we wanted WFRP to have one of its own.

The original title was City of the White Wolf, but Bryan Ansell vetoed it. He wanted Warhammer in the title, and he wanted the title (all titles, as we saw with Warhammer Campaign and Warhammer Adventure) to be simpler and more self-explanatory. So Warhammer City it became, with the subtitle on the flyleaf “A Complete Guide to Middenheim: City of the White Wolf.”

It was later republished, bound together with Power Behind the Throne, under the title Warhammer: City of Chaos.

But on with the jokes:

The Art

Martin McKenna strikes again. In the Encounters section, the Bunko Artist is Paul Daniels, a popular stage magician on British TV at the time, and the Racketeer is based on Gareth Hale, half of the TV comedy duo Hale and Pace who were renowned for their tuxedo-clad thug characters Ron and Ron.

The Charlatan character portrait looks familiar, too – another vintage movie start, I’d guess – but I can’t place him. Any old movie buffs out there who can provide an ID?

Tony Ackland is not to be outdone. The cultists of the Jade Sceptre include Rick Priestley and Sid, who was a Citadel figure painter at the time. Sid, an outlaw biker through and through, was not too pleased with being depicted as a Slaanesh cultist.

Back to Martin McKenna, and the major NPCs. The regrettably-named Gotthard Goebbels (also in Power Behind the Throne) was based on Paul Cockburn, onetime editor of White Dwarf. Carl loved to insult him.

The Words

The Begierbaden is an obscure pun of mine. I knew the name of the place would end in —baden, since it’s a public baths. I was looking for something to go with —baden, and “beg yer pardon” popped into my brain. I suppose I should apologise.

Baron Stefan was originally called “Shakin’ Stefan” after the singer Shakin’ Stevens, who was popular at the time, but this was ruled to be too tasteless even for WFRP.

The managers of the Showboat are called Rolf and Elise Rosencrantz who run it on behalf of a certain Guildenstern. Those who know Hamlet (or Tom Stoppard, come to that) will recognise the names.

Johann Stallart, the proprietor of the Drowned Rat, is based on Games Workshop sales manager John Stallard. He said he wanted to be made into a WFRP character, but was less than flattered by the result.

Edam Gouda, “the Big Cheese,” is without a doubt the lamest NPC name in the history of WFRP, even including the demon Zahnarzt from The Dying of the Light. It wasn’t my idea; that’s all I’m saying.

The Windhund Haulage Company gets its name from the German for Greyhound, as in Greyhound Buses.

Salladh-bar the Arabyan necromancer was swiped from a TV sketch by The Two Ronnies, who sent up the sword-and-sorcery genre with the diminutive Ronnie Corbett playing a barbarian hero named Mudgard the Mighty.

Carl takes every opportunity to skewer the mid-80s club scene in this book. “Gorgeous” Georg Mikael, the owner of the Templar’s Downfall, is singer George Michael from his Wham! days. Cocktails were all the rage in the club scene then, but none of them got quite so extreme as the Hush Puppy. I can’t believe that made it into print. By the way, Hush Puppies were a brand of shoe at the time. Could be they still are.

Fimally, the name of the Alte Geheerentode rum in the Man O’War translates as “Old Brain-Death” — from Wastelander, at least.

And that’s it for this time. Stay tuned for Power Behind the Throne!

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!

And Also…

July’s Monster of the Month just posted on my Patreon page.

The brunnmigi is a fox-like trickster that fouls wells and other sources of fresh water with its urine. This 5-page, system-agnostic, PDF monster toolkit includes:

Stat guidelines for d20-based, d100-based, and – through comparisons with common creatures from most settings – all other tabletop roleplaying systems.A full monster description with lists of basic and optional skills and traits.Three adventure seeds, covering fantasy, historical, and modern settings.

The Monster of the Month Club As a member, you can expect regular, in-depth treatments of creatures from worldwide myth and folklore—some familiar, some not—in a system-agnostic format that is easy for an experienced GM to use with the tabletop rpg system of their choice.
Join us on Patreon at patreon.com/MonsteroftheMonthClub, follow us @MotMClub, or email rpgmonsterclub@yahoo.com.