Fantasy Wargaming: The Highest Level of All

by Bruce Galloway (Editor), Mike Hodson-Smith, Nick Lowe

Provides an entertaining source book for aficionados of the fantasy role-playing war game of "Dungeons and Dragons"

Genres: Gaming, Fantasy, Reference, Role Playing Games, Games

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

Reviews

[Ned Leffingwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an artifact from the early days of role-playing. The authors are British students who played D&D and decided to create their own system based on the real Middle Ages. There is a lot of good information on the medieval era, feudalism, warfare, and such. The monsters are taken from legends, period bestiaries, and heraldry. Players are more likely to fight two-headed lions than orcs.

The rules of the game are very complex and lean to close to realism. Female characters are forbidden from combat and one of the stats that you roll for is the astrological influence on your character. It is fascinating how the authors gamified the paradigm of medieval Christianity. There are rules to figure out how long a soul will sty in Purgatory. Oh, there are also stats for the Virgin Mary. This is a good book for those who are interested in the early days of role-playing or those interested in gaming in the Middle Ages. However, I would not recommend trying to play the game as written. The rules are a mess and should be read only as a curiosity.

[Bob Koester · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the role playing game within might or might not be playable as a stand alone game, the articles about medieval society, magic, and religion are fascinating and potentially very useful for running a great variety of games (not just those set in the middle ages either). The magic stuff in particular is set out better in some cases than in the already very good Authentic Thaumaturgy, which is probably the definitive book on magic for gamers.

When this is all reduced to hard numbers for gaming purposes, some perspective gets lost, but does lead to amusingly literal game interpretations of metaphysical concepts (for instance that the Christian God has three selves with equal powers & capable of acting independently).

This book is sitting unread on a lot of shelves (and in a lot of used book stores, thanks to having been pushed by book clubs back when not many rpg books were widely pressed) so I'm hoping more people will give it at least a skim.

[Anthony Emmel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very disorganized, but still an interesting work.

[Kelly-jeau Larson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This role-playing game book was published in 1981 (1982 in the USA). From what I learned, it was republished by book club edition too.
Four stars?
First, one star is removed because of no campaign was ever published. The author stated High Cliff (if memory serves me) was to be released shortly.
Four stars because it offers what exactly?
It is a complete, well founded on historical medieval age. It moves a bit around these times. Don't take me wrong here! It covers medieval medicine, magic, religion and gods!
It covers combat, small groups and whole nations.
Provided some gamemaster ideas (like do not take ideas from old sources but draw from new popular novels/short stories etc).
Obsolete?
You know, I'll be honest. Why do TTRPG'rs purchase the latest and greatest promotional games? What, like nearly $400 give or take for Dungeon and Dragons?
Why do people have to be in the incrowd?
Because that just is what life is about? Or, because of a deep-seated need for belonging, social acceptance, and validation from their peers, which provides a sense of comfort and can be seen as a survival heuristic?
Take your comfort poison!
My point of view is this 208 page book meant for the gamemaster alone is all you need. Yes. There will be work creating a decent player character record sheet. And furthermore, you oh gamemaster, will need to build the campaign world from whatever popular fantasy worlds are known to you! And that your players will enjoy--naturally.
Or you can spend hundreds on D&D, RuneQuest or whatever and not concern yourself with creativity and money saved.
IMHO, not IMAO. For each there own.

[Sarah Ehinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

In many ways this should have been titled historical fantasy wargaming, as the system is really focused on a midievil European based world setting. I don't believe the system provided is very playable, but if you want a historical realistic setting in which to play, the first quarter of the book will help give you the tools around which to build your campaign. I am intrigued by the concept of a piety pool and could see integrating that into game play.

[Matthew Taylor]

A wonderful and intriguing book, written by a man who, it turns out, died very young. I direct you to https://mikemonaco.wordpress.com/bruc... for a very interesting look into the creation of this remarkable book.

[Eric Williamson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating is probably more nostalgia than actual. It had a great historical basis and a firm understanding of occult lore from the Middle Ages. The game system wasn't viable.

[cauldronofevil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Abandoned for now. Will get back to later.

[Robert Jr. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great primer on roleplaying medieval Europe & Britain and interesting takes on magic and religion in RPGs. There's also some worthwhile wisdom concerning Game Mastering. The second half of the book, however, is easy to skip as it is mostly rules for its own system though the brief bestiary is a fun breeze through.

[William Sariego · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nicely detailed with a lot of historical material; it falls short as a gaming system.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overview of wargaming in general. recommended