TTRPG

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The cover for World of Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game.

The Warcraft roleplaying games were published by White Wolf Publishing through its imprints Sword & Sorcery and Arthaus. It was initially based off Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition, but it was quickly adapted to 3.5. Blizzard specifically stated that the books are valuable to know the setting:

Want to know more about the lore of World of Warcraft? The game doesn't require any additional reading to play. However, you might enjoy gaining a more detailed knowledge of Warcraft lore. […] Warcraft Role-Playing Games provide a wealth of information about Warcraft lore.[1]

Blizzard employees, such as Chris Metzen and Bob Fitch, were deeply involved in the making of these books.[2] When a person claimed that the novels and RPGs were not canon, Eyonix corrected him:

Any piece of literature authorized and licensed by Blizzard Entertainment is in-fact, official. The book series written by Richard A. Knaak in particular is an excellent example of real 'Azerothian' history and lore available outside of our game software. We work closely with authors that help us expand our game universe, and the information should be considered official.

I'm very sorry but your assumptions are not correct.[3][4]

The writing of these books was difficult, however, because MMO updates could invalidate portions of the text:

One problem is that, at best, we write a book about 8 months before it hits shelves. Thanks to the fluid nature of video game development, that means that what we wrote down as accurate 8 months ago may no longer be appropriate.[5]

Production ended after the expiration of the licensing deal:

The Rights reverted back to Blizzard. We were only under licensing agreement to do x amount of books. You'll have to talk to Blizzard about future WoW RPG releases :)[6]

Blizzard would later claim that the books are not canon[7], but that is patently false in light of the major support given by them and also outside the scope of this project. Luke Johnson himself once contemplated toward the end of the book line that declaring such books non-canonical would be a poor idea:

Declare that the books aren't canon -- that is, the information in them isn't "correct," it's just derived from an existing IP. Such a strategy has obvious pros and cons. I don't think it would be appropriate for the WoW RPG books, because people want to use them as reference for the setting.[8]

Much of the fan-created content was lost when the White Wolf forums shut down in March 2009.[9]

Books

Title Release Date SKU ISBN File
Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game July 28, 2003 17200 1-58846-071-1 File
Manual of Monsters October 2, 2003 17201 1-58846-070-3 File
Alliance & Horde Compendium December 15, 2003 17202 1-58846-063-0 File
Magic & Mayhem June 7, 2004 17203 1-58846-954-9 File
Lands of Conflict September 20, 2004 17204 1-58846-960-3 File
Shadows & Light November 29, 2004 17205 1-58846-973-5 File
World of Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game June 27, 2005 17210 1-58846-781-3 File
More Magic and Mayhem November 14, 2005 17211 1-58846-945-X File
Lands of Mystery April 3, 2006 17206 1-58846-784-8 File
Horde Player's Guide June 1, 2006 17208 1-58846-772-4 File
Alliance Player's Guide June 28, 2006 17207 1-58846-773-2 File
Monster Guide February 7, 2007 17212 1-58846-936-0 File
Dark Factions May 14, 2008 17213 1-58846-446-6 File

PDF Materials

This section is a stub. It has incomplete information and will hopefully be done in the near future.
Title Author Release Date File
Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game character sheet —[10] September 24, 2004[11] File
Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game character sheet (night elf version) Dave[12] September 24, 2004[11] File
World of Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game character sheet Official June 16, 2005[11] File
World of Warcraft RPG conversion document Official June 20, 2005 File
Bones of Ironforge Official June 2006[13] File
1e Scourge racial class — August 3, 2004[11] File
1e balloonist class — October 1, 2004[11] File
1e spellbreaker class — June 29, 2004[11] File
1e spellsniper class — August 7, 2004[11] File
1e unofficial errata — September 28, 2004[14] File
2e spellbreaker class — 2005[15] File
2e blood elf race — — File
2e steamthrone — — File
2e tech primer Jeff Moller (author)
Jordan Peacock (editor, illustrator)		 August 8, 2007[11] File
Monster Guide Web Supplement Official March 2007 File
Lands of Mystery Extra Web Bonuses Official April 19, 2006[11] File
Lands of Mystery Extra: Blue Dragonspawn Stats Official April 20, 2006[11] File
Even More Magic and Mayhem — August 1, 2010[16] File

Sword & Sorcery Insider

This section is a stub. It has incomplete information and will hopefully be done in the near future.

White Wolf put out a magazine/advertisement that was White Wolf Quarterly on the front and Sword & Sorcery Insider on the back. Warcraft was mentioned a surprising amount, but mostly as one page articles. These are exceptionally hard to find on the Internet.[17]

Issue Page Article Image
Volume 2.3 — Summer 2004 13 "Ready for Action?" — Mike Johnstone discusses Lands of Conflict. —
Volume 2.4 — Fall 2004 10 "To Eternity and Beyond" — Mike Johnstone discusses the divine and the eternal in Shadows & Light.
Volume 3.1 — Winter 2005 8 "100% Pure Warcraft" — Mike Johnstone previews the second edition core rulebook. —
Volume 3.1 — Winter 2005 10 "Spotlight On... Warcraft RPG Race: Night Elves" —
Volume 3.2 — Spring 2005 4 "Holy Might and Unholy Power" — Paladins and Forsaken from the new RPG edition. —
Volume 3.3 — Summer 2005 7–8 "New Gears" — Luke Johnson previews technology. —
Volume 3.4 — Fall 2005 6 "More Magic, More Mayhem in the Warcraft World" — Luke Johnson discusses his design strategy. —
Volume 4.1 — Winter 2006 6 "Dig into the Alliance" — Luke Johnson previews the Alliance Player's Guide and Wildhammer dwarves. —

Endnotes

  1. ↑ "History of Warcraft" (March 2006)
  2. ↑ Every book lists the involvement of Blizzard employees in the credits. Shadows & Light (2004) specifically states on its backcover: "Designed with extensive input from the creative minds behind the Warcraft computer games".
  3. ↑ "Could you please stop with the RPG books?" (December 2005)
  4. ↑ "Warcraft RPG Books: Official and Canon" by Medievaldragon (December 2005), as a backup copy of this claim
  5. ↑ "World of Warcraft RPG: Dark Factions - Luke Johnson Q&A" (January 2008)
  6. ↑ "Warcraft RPG et WoW RPG : Rien de neuf à l'horizon" (March 2009)
  7. ↑ Bashiok during Ask CDev Round 2 (June 2011):

    The RPG books were created to provide an engaging table-top role-playing experience, which sometimes required diverging from the established video game canon. Blizzard helped generate a great deal of the content within the RPG books, so there will be times when ideas from the RPG will make their way into the game and official lore, but you are much better off considering the RPG books non-canonical unless otherwise stated.
  8. ↑ "Translating World of Warcraft into a Tabletop Roleplaying Game: The Content Challenge", Gamasutra (January 2008)
  9. ↑ "Notice about an Important Change to the Forums" by Kelley Barnes-Herrmann, the marketing director
  10. ↑ I can't find anything one way or another about 1e's character sheet, but I'm leaning toward this one being an unofficial version because its creation date happens to match another fan-made PDF.
  11. ↑ 11.00 11.01 11.02 11.03 11.04 11.05 11.06 11.07 11.08 11.09 Based on the PDF's last modification.
  12. ↑ Dungeon Master's Vault downloads page
  13. ↑ "New Module Available for WoW Pen & Paper RPG", Engadget (June 16, 2006), but the original article doesn't actually tell us when the module became available. It was definitely around the middle of the month, though.
  14. ↑ Luckily written inside the document.
  15. ↑ Inferred from its reference to More Magic and Mayhem as an upcoming book.
  16. ↑ Greywolf's WoW Fan Site
  17. ↑ This list of articles was made by Big Mac at The Piazza, based off publication listings at RPGGeek.
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