TTRPG
The Warcraft tabletop 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]
First Edition
| Title | Release Date | ISBN | File |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game | July 28, 2003 | 1-58846-071-1 | File |
| Manual of Monsters | October 2, 2003 | 1-58846-070-3 | File |
| Alliance & Horde Compendium | December 15, 2003 | 1-58846-063-0 | File |
| Magic & Mayhem | June 7, 2004 | 1-58846-954-9 | File |
| Lands of Conflict | September 20, 2004 | 1-58846-960-3 | File |
| Shadows & Light | November 29, 2004 | 1-58846-973-5 | File |
| Title | Author | Release Date | File |
|---|---|---|---|
| Character sheet | —[10] | September 24, 2003[11] | File |
| Character sheet (night elf version) | Dave[12] | September 24, 2003[11] | File |
| 1e Chen Stormstout | Taelohn (author) Teron Salsafiend (layout)[13] |
June 7, 2004[11] | File |
| 1e Arthas Menethil | Taelohn (author) Teron Salsafiend (layout)[13] |
June 7, 2004[11] | File |
| 1e spellbreaker class | Insane_BloodElf (inspiration) Teron Salsafiend (author)[14] |
June 29, 2004[11] | File |
| 1e Teron Gorefiend | Uratoh (author)[15] Taelohn (author) Teron Salsafiend (layout)[16] |
July 29, 2004[11] | File |
| 1e Rexxar | Taelohn (author) Teron Salsafiend (layout)[16] |
July 29, 2004[11] | File |
| 1e Blackhand the Destroyer | Grom Hellscream (author)[15] Taelohn (author) Teron Salsafiend (layout)[16] |
July 29, 2004[11] | File |
| 1e Scourge racial class | Adam Loyd (author) Teron Salsafiend (design) Frank Pedersen (art)[17] |
August 3, 2004[11] | File |
| 1e spellsniper class | TalinXT[17] | August 7, 2004[11] | File |
| 1e Kilrogg Deadeye | Arscott (author)[15] Taelohn (author) Teron Salsafiend (layout)[16] |
August 7, 2004[11] | File |
| 1e unofficial errata | Taelohn | September 28, 2004[18] | File |
| 1e balloonist class | Teron Salsafiend[17] | October 1, 2004[11] | File |
Second Edition
| Title | Release Date | ISBN | File |
|---|---|---|---|
| Character sheet | June 16, 2005[11] | — | File |
| World of Warcraft RPG conversion document | June 20, 2005 | — | File |
| World of Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game | June 27, 2005 | 1-58846-781-3 | File |
| More Magic and Mayhem | November 14, 2005 | 1-58846-945-X | File |
| Lands of Mystery | April 3, 2006 | 1-58846-784-8 | File |
| Lands of Mystery Extra Web Bonuses | April 19, 2006[11] | — | File |
| Lands of Mystery Extra: Blue Dragonspawn Stats | April 20, 2006[11] | — | File |
| Horde Player's Guide | June 1, 2006 | 1-58846-772-4 | File |
| Bones of Ironforge | June 2006[19] | — | File |
| Alliance Player's Guide | June 28, 2006 | 1-58846-773-2 | File |
| Monster Guide | February 7, 2007 | 1-58846-936-0 | File |
| Monster Guide Web Supplement | March 2007 | — | File |
| Dark Factions | May 14, 2008 | 1-58846-446-6 | File |
| Title | Author | Release Date | File |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2e spellbreaker class | — | 2005[20] | File |
| 2e blood elf race | Adam Loyd[21] | May 20, 2006[22] | File |
| 2e steamthrone | — | — | File |
| 2e tech primer | Jeff Moller (author) Jordan Peacock (editor, illustrator) |
August 8, 2007[11] | File |
| Even More Magic and Mayhem | Adam Loyd (developer, author) Jordan Peacock (editor, author, artist) Jonathan Palmer (author) Rob Goddard-Willcox (author) Jeff Moller (author) Michael “Taelohn” Jones (author) Marcos "Salsa" Bolton (art direction, layout, typesetting) Various others |
August 1, 2010[23] | File |
Sword & Sorcery Insider
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.[24]
| 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. | — |
External Links
- The Piazza — World of Warcraft — one of the few remaining TTRPG boards left.
- WoWRPG d20 Forums
- Warcraft d20 Forums — archived version of Tagar Bearclaw's forum.
- White Wolf forum — archived version of the official TTRPG forum. Most threads have not survived.
- My WoWRPG Stuff — personal site of Adam Loyd, an author on the line, including his errata.
- Greywolf's Warcraft Fan Site — home of Even More Magic and Mayhem and maps.
- World of Warcraft RPG Summit
- Dungeon Master's Vault — mostly broken, but a lot of text can still be recovered.
- Taelohn's Warcraft RPG — the apparent source of many NPC statblocks.
- Mike Chaney's portfolio — Art Director and Graphic Designer for the product line from October 2005 until the end.
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".
- ↑ "Could you please stop with the RPG books?" (December 2005)
- ↑ "Warcraft RPG Books: Official and Canon" by Medievaldragon (December 2005), as a backup copy of this claim
- ↑ "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)
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ "Translating World of Warcraft into a Tabletop Roleplaying Game: The Content Challenge", Gamasutra (January 2008)
- ↑ "Notice about an Important Change to the Forums" by Kelley Barnes-Herrmann, the marketing director
- ↑ This is clearly based on a character sheet made by Patrick M. Murphy for D&D, but I do not know who made this particular version.
- ↑ 11.00 11.01 11.02 11.03 11.04 11.05 11.06 11.07 11.08 11.09 11.10 11.11 11.12 11.13 11.14 11.15 Based on the PDF's last modification.
- ↑ Dungeon Master's Vault downloads page
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Inferred from the presence on Teron Salsafiend's site and matching text from Taelohn.
- ↑ Teron Salsafiend's credits
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Taelon's credits
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 Dungeon Master's Vault character updates
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Dungeon Master's Vault updates
- ↑ Luckily written inside the document.
- ↑ "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.
- ↑ Inferred from its reference to More Magic and Mayhem as an upcoming book.
- ↑ The text matches his website's version, but someone else may have done the layout then.
- ↑ Inferred from the changelog on his website, but the actual PDF may have been later.
- ↑ Greywolf's WoW Fan Site
- ↑ This list of articles was made by Big Mac at The Piazza, based off publication listings at RPGGeek.