The Empire anthology Imperiet won the jury special award at Fastaval 2009.
Scenarios
- Averland Abendessen by Johannes Busted Larsen
- Den Tragiske Historie Om Sankt Lucasius Orden by Claus Kliplev
- En Sommernats Fortaelling by Martin Svendsen
- I Skoven Forandres Alle by Morten Greis
- Krigshammeren by Lars Nøhr Andresen
- Returning Home by Frederik J. Jensen
- Slaaraphenland by Kristoffer Rudkjær and Anders Frost Bertelsen
- Taals Retfaerdighed Og Nade by Thais Munk
- The Butterforger by Olle Jonsson
- The Hunt by René Toft
Introduction
Welcome to the Empire
Empire is not a scenario, but ten short scenarios. Each short story takes place in an Imperial province, and together they form a picture of the Empire as a whole. Each scenario is written by a different author, and together they paint a picture of the multitude withing the Danish scenario tradition.
We don't expect you to play all the short scenarios in the same game session. Instead we want your players to pick two or three short stories to play. At Fastaval's central area, you can find a map which you can put a needle in, to mark the province you visited.
Happy gaming,
Johannes Busted Larsen
Empire: a fantasy world.
In 1986, Games Workshop published a role-playing game called Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. It was a role-playing game in stark contrast to then-superficial and light Dungeons & Dragons, and from the start, many a roleplayer were caught up in the dark and dour fantasy universe that Warhammer represented. There were no drawings of colorful red dragons or women in small chainmails. There were black-and-white drawings of dystopian and sprawling cities, terrible Chaos knights, and rotten Skavens.
From the moment a role-player rolled his character, you knew, this was something else. A farmer, a graverobber, a sailor, and a student was a typical example of a Warhammer adventuring party.
Warhammer takes place in The Old World, which is a depiction of our own Europe. Brettonia is France, Kislev is Russia, and The Empire is Germany - and also the primary world of Warhammer. Altdorf. Bögenhafen. Wolfenburg. Lots of cities and provinces that many an adventurer have traveled through.
The Empire is a dark, perilous, and not least, a realistic world. A small elite of nobles and priests rule, and as an adventurer, most have experienced being broken by those more powerful. Standing in front of an Altdorfian bench, trying to negotiate about permission to enter the library. As an adventurer, you are not the center of the world, nor the protagonist of the story. You are a little playing piece of a large, dangerous and fascinating Empire!
My own first meeting with Warhammer and the Empire came late in my role-playing life. In 1995, I was invited to play in the mythical campaign "The Enemy Within", which starts off in Altdorf and Bögenhafen in the Empire.
I was quickly caught up in a world and a story that is driven on by an absurd sense of humor, which made me think of Terry Gilliam's early films, and a voluminous story, which could use three or four evenings of play without any character fights. No meaningless random encounters with meaningless wandering monsters. But, a serious and dark story, which at times reminded us more of a detective story than of classic fantasy.
Now, in 2009, we are still running this campaign, primarily with the same players. We are actually set to play in two weeks.
Lars Kaos Andresen
