Hector looked about the busy streets of one of Altdorf's market centers. Where to look first? he thought. His journey to Cathay would be long and dangerous, but well worth the coin it would bring, if he survived the ordeal. The Silver Road brought ruin and death to many a merchant caravan, but those who returned never had to worry for funds again for the rest of his days. I s'posse that arms dealer might be able to help me out here, men of war often frequent such shops, he muttered to himself as he pushed his way through the crowds of bustling people on their ways to various places. He felt a slight tug at his waist and faster than thought, his hand shot out to grasp the wrist of a would be pick pocket. "Ah, ha!" he exclaimed, "It seems you aren't as fast as an old tradesman, my boy." And it was a boy, barely into his teens and half starved from the looks of him. "Now, boy, I could call the guard over there, and let them deal with you," the lad cringed and tried to pull away, but old Hector held him fast, "or I could give you a job and you will work for me. What will it be?" Hector pulled a silver coin of dwarven make from his purse and held it out, the coin disappeared faster than it had appeared and the deal was struck. "First things first, I can't have my assistant looking like he just crawled out of the sewer, can I?" The two walked into the large arms shop and the boy stared in awe at the wares. The old dwarf who stood at the door eyed the boy and seemed on the verge of protest, but said nothing. "Now then, my boy, what will it be? We can't be headed off into the wastelands of Cathey without you have the proper gear." Buy this child the right stuff and he will follow me to the edge of Chaos itself, thought Hector. And we might be getting pretty close to it at that. One less gaurd to hire....

After getting a good look at the Warhammer Fantasy Core Rules Book and then the Old World Bestairy, you might be curious as to how exactly one is to not only survive in the Old World of Warhammer, but make a living. The answer to this question can be provided by the highly detailed Old World Armoury volume for the game. Unlike most role playing games (RPG), Warhammer has seen fit to devote an entire volume of the series to equipment, arms, armour, trade, business, hirelings, economy and just about everything else you can think of that would allow your character to get along in their game world. Most RPGs merely hint at this area of their game with little bits and samples of information regarding the economy in the main rules volume and as the game progresses, provide only what is needed for each new volume. Even such massive game systems as Rifts, a game with well over 50 volumes barely have two pages PER VOLUME devoted to economy (if that) and generally less than 10 pages per volume for equipment. Warhammer saw fit to not repeat this mistake by presenting a book that covers everything at once and they continue to offer a few new items for each volume as well, as needed.

Currency and Trade

Before anything can be bought, sold or traded, one has to know about the money. The first chapter starts off with just that, giving detailed information about the different kingdoms coins complete with pictures of each. This chapter includes exchange rates for all the major parts of the world and even has some guidelines for getting along without having coin to work with. Trade is one of the things that keeps any society alive, and the Old World is no different than the rest. The major trade routes are described, complete with a decent map of them all and a listing of the major trade goods with prices are given here as well.

Old World Armour

Who cares about that stuff? I'm playing an adventurer, not a merchant. Well, since the bulk of the money is controlled by merchants and nobles of one type or another, you should care. Trade is a dangerous profession and the caravans need guards. The second section of this volume gets into the stuff that players seem to be the most concerned about, protecting their skins from the ravages of the greenskins attacks. Three basic types of armour are discussed, leather (light), mail (medium) and plate (heavy). Each type has disadvantages as well as benefits and the character should take these into full account before settling on any suit. There are also details on personalizing your armour, armour from other lands, and how to repair your armour when it gets damaged, and believe me, it WILL get damaged if you use those optional rules.

Arms of the Old World

OK, I've got the protection, now how do I hurt the greenskins? Warhammer has a wide array of weapons and these are divided into two main classes: ordinary weapons and specialist weapons. From there they are divided once more into melee and missile weapons. A specialist weapon is a weapon that requires special knowledge (a talent) to use. Like many skills and talents in the game of Warhammer, Specialist Weapon is a talent that can be learned multiple times; once for each different weapon type and up to three times for each individual weapon type. Just having the talent Specialist Weapon does not allow the character to use all specialist weapons. As with the armours, there are different weapon qualities and the optional rules for weapons taking damage.

Gunpower and Weapons of War

Being set in approximately the 17th century by Earth standards, Warhammer has developed early firearms. All of these weapon types are under the category of specialist weapons and are both rare and expensive. If you manage to get your hands on one, be sure to keep your powder dry. This section is a joy to read even if you aren't a gamer. It contains a great deal of the history of early firearms, how they work and is relatively accurate. Some of the applications hinted at here are amazing and things that I would have never thought of, particularly in the Weapons of War area of this chapter. Employing this into a game will be fun.

General Equipment

Right, I'm not going to be tromping around in armour all my life. Too true, so the fine folks at Warhammer have a section on the regular, everyday stuff. Here you will find everything from common clothing to carrying equipment to lighting to music instruments to writing materials and tools! And I do mean EVERYTHING. Have you ever been in the middle of a game and thought of some little odd item that would be really handy for your character? Then to only have the GM (after he wasted an hour or so of game play flipping through books) tell you that it isn't in the game so it doesn't exist? Or that he didn't have stats for it so wouldn't allow it in the game? Well, now you don't have to worry about that as much. The old version of this game was riddled with such defects, but not now.

Special Equipment

Once again, I'm an adventurer, I have special needs. Well, this is the dirty little shop for you, sir. Here you will find poisons, medical supplies, odd stuff like incense, religious items and even the crude artificial arm or leg. While the bulk of these items aren't exactly legal to buy or sell in the Empire, they are available for the right price.

Animals and Transport

Wow, I guess Warhammer got sick of being slammed for not having enough info about this section because this is the third time (in as many volumes) that it has shown up. As with the other two instances, this one is just a little different information. Here the animals themselves as well as the equipment that they use is detailed quite nicely. There is a good bit of info about travel conditions in the old world, the roads, travel by coach, carts and wagons and water travel. This section also provides characters the opportunity to buy their own overland vehicles or water craft and covers vehicle combat rules.

Property and Business

In most cases, a player won't ever reach the point that he/she has the funds to start their own business or even afford a house. However, just about everyone that a character encounters in the Old World WILL own a business that provides goods or services to the character. Here are all the details on renting a room for the night, joining that guild that will offer lower rates on the things you buy often and even the wages for hiring out your services to the various non-player characters (NPC). On the rare occasion that a player character has the funds and wishes to do so, buying land, homes and other properties is covered as well.

Hirelings

Perhaps one of the most important things in this game to any character is the ability to get a skilled person to work for them. There are all kinds of hirelings, everything from craftsmen, servants and entertainers to henchmen who will work for you as a personal guard or army. The more common hirelings are generally one use people, say you need someone to translate a rare book your character found so that you can estimate the correct value. Or your character has been hired to protect a border town from goblins and he needs a group of labourers to erect a wall and dig protective trenches. Here you go.

The henchmen is another story altogether. These are almost real characters that are fully developed and have their own feelings about what is going on. They have loyalty to their boss, but that can be made stronger or weaker depending on how they are treated. Here you will find soldiers, men of magic, guides, rivermen and general mercenaries. This is a treasure of a section for those GMs who have a group of players that is too small to accomplish the tasks at hand for the adventure. Flesh out that party with some henchmen!

The Final Cuts

Wow, that's a lot of information to be jammed into a 130 page book. There is even a listing of sample treasures of the Old World, rare coins, gemstones, jewelery and the like. How on earth am I ever going to be able to quickly handle the demands of the players? Well, there is an index (YAY INDEX) but those take almost as long as if the book didn't have one when the info is scattered all over. What's that you say? A quick reference chart section? Coolness. All the costs and values of everything in this volume is reprinted at the end in an easy to follow set of charts. It even has the properties of the individual weapons and armour included, how wonderful.

This is a fantastic piece of work for any game and Warhammer has definitely learned the painful lesson against disorganization from the first version of the game. So each player or GM will have to buy a couple more books to play the game. Big deal. Players will support the game by buying things that make sense much better than those that don't really add any value to the game. This is a book that players and GMs alike should own.

Recommended: Yes