Gav Thorpe Interview

Gav Thorpe is a name that will be familiar to anyone acquainted with many of Games
Workshop's various rule systems writing several himself, as well as being accredited
with work in developing many others including the Lord of the Rings game. He is also a
Warhammer novelist, regular contributor to White Dwarf and organiser of games at the
Nottingham headquarters, however he has found time in his busy schedule to talk to us
here at Gamer Heaven.

KD: When did your interest in wargaming first begin?

GT: When I was around eight or nine, I would say. I had lots of plastic toy soldiers, and
a friend and I made up some rules for them. When I was ten years old or so I
discovered several wargaming books in the local library, including a couple by Donald
Featherstone, and I realised there was this whole hobby out there just waiting for me.

KD: How did your career at Games Workshop start, and what was the first project they
had you work on?

GT: I started GW as an Assistant Games Developer in 1993, after speaking to Jervis at

Games Day and sending in a letter and some stuff I had written. My very first job was
pasting together mock-up wargear and psychic power cards for the playtests of Dark
Millennium for 2nd ed 40K! Writing-wise it was the relaunch of the Citadel Journal,
alongside Mark Hawkins and Ian Pickstock. My first ‘mainstream’ product was the Pit
Fighter warrior pack for Warhammer Quest, and my first WD article was about the
Squat Cyclops for Space Marine (Epic).

KD: Of all the codex's, Army books, Rule books you have worked on which is your
favorite, which are you most proud of?
GT: Tough choice! I’m really proud of Codex: Sisters of Battle and Inquisitor, both of
which allowed me to introduce all kinds of things to the 40K universe that are now taken
as granted and seen everywhere, but were fresh and new at the time. I’m also quite
pleased with my last two contributions – Vampire Counts and Dark Elves. As projects
they were perhaps the most complete and rounded things I have worked on, combining
background, miniatures, rules and art from concept to completion in a very pleasing
way.

KD: Are there any of the codex's/ Army Books that you thought looking back "Oh I wish I
had(n't) done this!" or "Damn I could have included/ changed that special rule"?

GT: Every single project contains a few things that you would tweak in retrospect. One
that I usually bring up is the special bonus movement rule for the Blood Angels in 3rd
ed. Originally the rule simply made the Blood Angels squad move forwards, but after a
discussion with Jervis (who rightly said “players tend to forget rules that aren’t of benefit
to them”) I changed it to a bonus movement and look where that ended up! As I said,
there is always a points cost that can be modified, a rule worded better or changed, a
magic item or piece of wargear that is under- or over-powered.
As a project, I think the rewrite of Chaos Space Marines could have benefitted from a bit
more ‘grit’ and options, and we were overall too puritan at that time. I still think the
principle of streamlining the list and rules was right, but we took it a little too far. 

KD When working on the Army book/ Codex of one of your favorite armies is it hard to
resist the temptation to make it especially hard so you will win more games?

GT: Not hard at all. My primary goal has always been to make an army interesting to
collect, play and face, and you have to bring the same enthusiasm to every project. You
find and angle that you think will work as a dynamic and stick with that. If you’re already
deeply involved with an army it’s often tempting to write for only those people who have
the same experience as you, but you have to be professional and remember that you
are writing for newcomers as well as established players.
You can’t second-guess everybody, so you have to go with what feels fun and cool and
hope that other players agree with you. Power-levels and all of that are part of what you
need to keep an eye on, but blandness is a far more significant problem.

KD: The career route of Games Developer to author seems to be quite popular
(yourself, Graham McNeill to name a few) how did you go about writing and submitting
your first novel/ short story.

GT: I was sat in the same department as Andy Jones when Black Library was started,
so it was a simple matter of having a chat with him about writing a short story for the to-
be-launched Inferno magazine. Rather bravely I pitched in with Birth of a Legend, telling
the story of how Sigmar got his hammer! Later came the debut of Kage and the Last
Chancers, which naturally led me into the novels when BL were looking to turn some of
their Inferno characters into series. I’ve been very fortunate to have it this easy!
KD: So can you give us a quick list of the armies you collect yourself and which is your
favorite?

GT: I must confess that I haven’t done much with my GW armies for a while now,
they’ve sort of fallen fallow for the last couple of years. That said, I have Dwarfs for
Warhammer, Eldar for 40K and Orcs and Easterling allies for LOTR. The Dwarfs have
seen the most use, so I guess that says something about which I have the greatest love
for.

KD: If you could introduce a new plotline or race to 40k who and or what would it be?

GT: This sorta follows from the last answers, but if I had a magic wand I would bring the
Demiurg into full existence as an army and race. Various discussions over the years
about making space dwarfs make me believe there is a fantastic image and background
to be explored there. I came up with the Demiurg name, by the way, when we were
trying not to use ‘Squats’.

KD: One of your biggest acheivements has to be the "Inquisitor" system. How did that
come about? Did you pitch the idea to "Them" or did "They" approch you?

GT: There was a ‘slot’ open for a spring 2001 game. Games Dev got together and
devised a bunch of pitches, including bringing back Man o’ War, recreating Space Hulk
as a boarding actions game, doing Warhammer pirates, Adeptus Titanicus pitting
Necron War Engines against Mechanicus armies on the surface of Mars, all kinds of
stuff. Amongst them was a 54mm skirmish game. We had an Inquisition angle in mind,
though nothing with any detail.
The idea of creating a highly collectible range of 54mm models appealed to the higher-
ups and that option was taken. At that stage of my career is was felt my next step was
to create a rules system, so I became lead designer and we went from there. The
original idea was for the ‘sides’ to be Inquisitors and Chaos Magi, but after considering
the somewhat small size of the range I came up with the puritans and radicals idea to
allow the majority of miniatures to be used by any player. 

KD: How would you respond to the comment that "the lack of balance/and power creep
in all of gw's creations is spurred by an imbalanced need to sell than fun or for the good
of the game."?

GT: I would say that power creep is not as prevalent as some gamers would like you to
think, and that it exists not because of official policy but by the human nature of games
developers. If power creep were enshrined in the games development strategy, you
wouldn’t have some of the older armies still being more powerful, in some players’ eyes,
than the new ones. There is imbalance, unfortunately, but there are only a couple of
armies that are so out-of-whack it makes any difference outside of the narrow
tournament mentality.
There are some factors inherent in 40K and Warhammer that favour certain army styles,
but as can be seen with many of the other games systems like LOTR, Epic, Blood Bowl
and so on, that’s more to do with the ‘inheritance’ of many years of constant
development and the complexity of the basic system as anything any individual
developer creates. At no point in any briefing I was part of or wrote did the words ‘This
army has to be more powerful than the other ones’ appear. Never attribute to malice
that which can be attributed to incompetence! 

KD: Have you ever played any non GW games systems? (Privateer Press, Battletech,
Flames of War etc)

GT: I’ve toyed around with various other games. I wrote the ‘Open Fire!’ starter booklet
for Flames of War, for instance. Recently I’ve been concentrating on creating some
games systems of my own, just like it was when I started out, rather than off-the-shelf
games systems already out there. 

KD: If the answer is yes then was there any part of their systems that you thought "Wow
thats good I wish we had thought of that" ?

GT: The examples you cited are all very different games trying to achieve a different
gameplay. Particularly with 40K and Warhammer the style of the game has been
established for so long you’re not going to do anything that radical to the underlying
games system. I like all kinds of games, whether miniatures, roleplaying, board and
card games, video games, and I always look for interesting ways of organising rules or
mechanics for resolving certain things. 

KD: To date (Nov 2010) you haven't written any full novels for the HH series. Is there
any part of the HH that you think "I would sell my soul to Khorne to write about that" and
if so what part?

GT: I’ll be starting my first HH novel after Christmas. I wouldn’t sell my soul for any
particular subject, it just isn’t helpful to become wedded to a narrow idea, but I’m very
happy to play in that big sandpit with the other authors.

KD: Apart from your own which is your favorite BL Book?

GT: Probably Execution Hour, by Gordon Rennie. Not only is it a cool 40K novel, it
reminded me a lot of the Hornblower and Ramage novels I read as a teenager. 

KD: And to continue my $h!t stirring. :) In his interview, Graham is convinced that if all
the BL Authors got together for a session, he would be the last man standing (Air
Guitaring). Do you agree with that statement?

GT: Hell no! McNeill is such a lightweight these days, he’s always falling asleep.
Something about having a young kid, and all that... Not that I’m claiming the prize for
myself either – three beers is about my limit these days. I think I used up all my ‘Resist
Alcohol’ points in my youth. 
KD: Do you have a preference when it comes to writing 40k or fantasy books?

GT: No. Both have their different appeals and challenges.

KD: If one of our readers was thinking of trying to get into the games development field
what advice would you offer?

GT: Think of it as a whole, don’t fixate on working for a particular company or on a

single games system. Opportunities are too few and far between to limit your options.
Everyone I know that is a games designer or developer started out just doing it for
themselves. You either have the urge to write games and scenarios and stories, or you
don’t. If you get the chance to turn that into a career, all the better, but if you want a
chance to make a decent living out of it, get into computer games!
Or found your own company...

KD: Do you get much time to play/ paint now or doesn't your timetable allow it?

GT: Not much time. I still play plenty of games, I just don’t have much time to do the
painting. I’ve always been hot and cold in that respect, perhaps going on a binge for a
few weeks before cooling off. If I ever get around to sorting out a permanent painting
area, that might improve.

KD: What was the last model you painted and game you played?

GT: I can’t say... It’s a game I’m currently working on for a miniatures company! 

KD: Did you win?

GT: I sort of did, but since I was just testing out the basic rules, it doesn’t really count.

KD: So finally can you give us a few hints on what you are working on now or will be in
the near future?

GT: For Black Library, I’m just finishing Path of Seer. After Crimbo is the Horus Heresy,
and rewrites for my Angry Robot novel The Crown of the Conqueror. There’s plenty of
other Black Library stuff over the next couple of years!
On the games front, I’ve written/ am writing a couple of different rules systems at the
moment; one a skirmish game, the other for slightly larger forces. That’s about all I can
say at the moment until the information has been released by the companies involved.

KD: Well thanks for taking the time to answer these questions its been a pleasure as
always. The next time you are in Ireland promoting a book or whatever the first drink is
on me.

GT: Cheers, I’ll take you up on that!

 Till next time

KD
Posted by Khorne Dogg at 4:11 PM 0 comments
Labels: Interview

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Forward Planning
Between my current financial situation, the weather and the fact that my daughter
seems to have given up on gaming. It has been a very quiet time on the gaming front. I
got a new DVD-ROM Drive for my birthday which has allowed me to rediscover the joys
of some older games (Baldur's Gate II & Rise of Nations) But I have been rather lax
when it comes to my modeling. So I have decided that December is going to be painting
Month. I have only a few Models left unpainted in my 40k chaos army so I plan on
getting as many of those done before xmas as possible. The current list stands as
follows:

8 Noise marines (4 complete, 4 85% complete)

9 Thousand Sons (1 complete, 1 85% complete, 7 50% complete)
5 Plague Bearers (1 complete, 4 sprayed)

The problem is that I have recently read Chapters Due (A Really Excellent Book) and it
has bitten me with the Iron Warrior Bug again so I am seriously considering repainting
my Chaos Land-Raider and 1 of my rhinos in Iron Warrior Colors (As per the predator in
a previous article) The decision is do I paint them before, after or during the other
models?

I am thinking "after" as its too cold to spray models.

So hopefully I will have a few photos up soon of my completed units for your viewing
pleasure.

Till next time

KD
Posted by Khorne Dogg at 2:17 PM 0 comments
Labels: GEN

Monday, November 29, 2010

Imperial Guard List
I was tinkering around with the IG codex over the last few days and this is the list I came
up with. Its 1750 points as that is the size I usually play. Comments and suggestions are
welcome.
HQ 

1 Company Command Squad 50

1 Power Weapon & Plasma Pistol 20
1 Vox Unit 5
1 MediPack 30
2 Melta Guns 10 20
1 Carapace Armour Upgrade 20
1 Astropath 30
1 Master of the Fleet 30
2 Body Guards 15 30
1 Chimera Transport C/W Extra Armour 70

1 Tech Priest 45

Troops 
1 Veteran Squad 70
3 Melta Guns 10 30
1 Vox Unit 5
1 Chimera Transport C/W Extra Armour 70

1 Veteran Squad 70
3 Flamers 5 15
1 Vox Unit 5
1 Chimera Transport C/W Extra Armour 70

1 Veteran Squad 70
3 Melta Guns 10 30
1 Grenadiers Upgrade 30
1 Vox Unit 5

1 Veteran Squad 70
3 Melta Guns 10 30
1 Grenadiers Upgrade 30
1 Vox Unit 5

Fast Attack 

1 Vendetta Gunship 130

1 Vendetta Gunship 130

Heavy Support 
2 Hydra Flak Tanks 75 150

1 Leman Russ Vanquisher 155

1 Knight Commander Paige 50

1 Leman Russ Punisher 180

TOTAL 1750

Once I get back into the workforce I fully intend to collect this army. The only problem is
the punisher Leman Russ unless I can come up with a cheap conversion I think I will
have to buy a Forgeworld upgrade kit (if available) so any suggestions on that front
would be appreciated.

PS: After checking the forgeworld & GW sites it turns out that the Leman Russ
Demolisher Kit includes the parts for a punisher tank. Problem Solved! But apparently
there is no plastic hydra tank so I will have to go to Forgeworld for that :( (Cha Ching
serious bucks)

Based on the GW site prices, all the above (except the Hydras) will cost almost me
almost €400. Plus probably another €30 on sprays and glue. So all in all it will probably
cost about €500 in total.

I knew I should have taken up tiddley winks :)

Till next time