RPG books
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] 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.[3]
Production ended after the expiration of the licensing deal:
The Rights reversed 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:)[4]
Blizzard would later claim that the books are not canon[5], but that is patently false in light of the major support given by them and also outside the scope of this project.
Books
| Title | 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
| Title | Date | File |
|---|---|---|
| Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game character sheet | — | File |
| World of Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game character sheet | December 2005 | File |
| World of Warcraft RPG conversion document | — | File |
| Bones of Ironforge | July 2006 | File |
| 1e Scourge racial class | — | File |
| 1e balloonist class | — | File |
| 1e spellbreaker class | — | File |
| 1e spellsniper class | — | File |
| 1e unofficial errata | — | File |
| 2e spellbreaker class | — | File |
| 2e blood elf race | — | File |
| 2e steamthrone | — | File |
| 2e unofficial tech primer | — | File |
| Monster Guide Web Supplement | March 2007 | File |
| Lands of Mystery Extra Web Bonuses | — | File |
| Lands of Mystery Extra: Blue Dragonspawn Stats | 2006 | File |
| Even More Magic and Mayhem | August 1, 2010 | File |
Endnotes
- ↑ "History of Warcraft" (March 2006)
- ↑ 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".
- ↑ "World of Warcraft RPG: Dark Factions - Luke Johnson Q&A" (January 2008)
- ↑ "Warcraft RPG et WoW RPG : Rien de neuf à l'horizon" (March 2009), translated
- ↑ 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.