Runequest - Broo.

Broos, otherwise know as 'Goatkin' or 'Beastmen'.

These are creatures of Chaos, twisted hybrids of men and beasts. They are the Beastmen of legend and engage in the foulest practices, worshiping the 'Unholy Trio' - Ragnaglar, the Mad God, Malia, the Goddess of Disease and Thed, the Goddess of Rape.

Mongoose Broo.

Most often they are human bodied and 'goat' headed, they are tied irrevocably with the Rune of Chaos. They are known to indulge in atrocities and foul practices and carry with them numerous loathsome diseases that they themselves are immune to. It is hard to say anything positive about broos. They have none of the savage nobility of Trolls and their personal habits are despicable. It is unlikely that anyone would have anything but antagonistic dealings with them.

Early Citadel Broo Boxed Set.

They will occasionally hire out for pay and carry various weaponry and armour, usually cuirbolli, spears and swords but will use whatever they can steal or capture from raids. They are seldom seen near settled lands unless it is to raid and pillage, but are as common as nomads in Prax, even more so in the Wastelands. Often feared, folk may even treat with them rather than fight if they think they can.

Citadel Compendium Broo.

On sighting men, broos typically either flee or attack based on their estimate of the opposition, though they may well taunt and posture at a distance to prove their courage to companions. When raiding, the broo rely on stealthy ambush, covered by darkness or undergrowth.

Armorcast / Lance & Laser Broo.

Several miniatures manufacturers have produced Broos or Beastmen over the years with Citadel's Runequest range from the early 80's being the most obvious. A few boxed sets were released, including 'Attack of the Broo', 'Broo' and 'Broo 2'. They also sneaked a couple in the 'Beastmen' set. This excellent range was later added to with several blister packs. In the mid 80's, presumably due to the licence running out, the Citadel Broo morphed into 'C27 Chaos Beastmen' as seen in the Second Citadel Journel of 1985. The Beastmen were slowly adopted as an offshoot chaos army and this has developed over time including an appearance in the 'Flames of Empire' Mordheim supplement. The current Games Workshop Cloven Ones / Beastmen range is quite broad and they even have their own army book!

Later Games Workshop Beastmen.

According to the Warhammer Fantasy world the Beastmen race (also known as the Children of Chaos) are a race of humanoid monsters. A fusion of animal and man that invaded the world when the old ones opened the warp gate at the far north of the world: their bodies are tough strong frames layered in knots of muscle. The tangled fur of Beastmen are matted with dried blood, filth, dirt and dung that nest countless varieties of ticks and fleas: as a result of this, Beastman live in a state of countless agitation and rage always seethes in the heart of every Beastman. Ram-like horns emerge from their goat-like heads (However Ungor Beastmen only have small stubs of horns), their mouths are chasms of sharp rotted teeth for tearing flesh and the feet of all Beastmen are cloven hoofed. The very stench of any Beastman is enough to make even seasoned warriors gag; their brays of bloodlust and the gleam of malice in their dark animalistic eyes can unsettle even the staunchest of troops.
All Beastmen are spiteful and mean-spirited creatures that revel in bloodshed and chaos and loathe order and the very concept of civilisation in all its forms. Beastmen are not creatures of nature for there is nothing natural about their existence. The Herdstones and rituals of the Beastmen corrupt the very essence of nature itself: it is for this reason Beastmen are especially loathed by the Wood Elves of Athel Loren who the Beastmen have been fighting a long gruelling secret war with for centuries.
For the purposes of Warhammer Fantasy Battle they are subdivided into various levels reflecting their appearance, prowess and ability in battle.

• Beastlords are the largest and most brutal they command the beast herds.
• Wargors are second in command to Beastlords.
• Bray Shamans are the spiritual leaders and advisors to the herd leaders. They are also powerful spellcasters.
• Bestigors are the most heavily armed and armoured Beastmen and rate as elite units.
• Centigors have the upper body of a Beastman and the four-legged lower body of an oxen.
• Gors and Ungors make up the majority of the infantry units or "Beastherds." The Ungors, however, due to their more human appearance (in comparison to other Beastmen) and smaller horns, are on the bottom of the herd hierarchy.

A mixed warband of Broos.

Armorcast took on the old Lance & Laser Heroquest range and this too contains some decent Broo minis, some with the usual Goatkin look and a couple with a slightly more bestial countenance. In 2006 Mongoose took over the Runquest line and released several books and supplements and also produced their own small line of Runequest miniatures to support the RPG during their period of MRQI and MRQII. Among the figures on offer were a decent set of traditional 'goat' headed Broo rabble.

Foundry Beastmen.

More recently, Wargames Foundry have started releasing their own Beastmen range with several packs of 'Brutes' and 'Younglings' available. These are definately in the GW mould (excuse the pun) but have some great looking figures to boost any Broo warband!

Figures are a mix of Games Workshop, Mongoose and Citadel.

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Lankhmar - The Shark Box.

Date: Day of the Crab. The month of the Murderer's Moon in the Summer season of the Year of the Feathered Death in the Era of Heat: 

Evening at Three Bridges.

• Arrive late at Three Bridges
• Hailed by Kilpin Plake a known tout calling them the heroes of the Risings Teeth
• Plake says there is a prospective customer who wants to hire them.  He's at the Death's Way
• On Route Jaktar notices more than usual numbers of armed men.
• Gideon, Jaktar, Defoe and Blab go with Plake who introduces them the guarded Pettious Peak.
• Peak wants them to carry a Shark Shaped box into the city.  He explains that someone has been chasing him to reclaim the box which he was commissioned by his Temple (The House of Mellor) to buy off in the East.  He says that he will continue on to the city with a body guard but would feel safer from ambush if the box travelled a different route.  The deal is to deliver it to him or his Head Scholar (name of Teastin) at the Temple where they can expect a bonus. They except at his price plus 20%.
• A discussion ensures as they leave over whether Blab can open the box or not bearing in mind that there is no discernible seal so he would most likely have to break it. Defoe  takes both the moral point that they cannot and the finacial point that it would do their reputations as businessmen a lot of harm.  Gideon says its fate.
• Return to the Sulaco where no one seems much interested in them - more concerned with a lack of eels.
• Moor in the open river and sleep.

Date: Day of the Hare. The month of the Murderer's Moon in the Summer season of the Year of the Feathered Death in the Era of Heat: 

Morning at Three Bridges - clear summers day with thunder in the distance.

• Jeremiah predicts flooding in a few days. Leave early for the city.
• On the second watch along the Eel Run Tobius calls from his look-out post that the Death's Ferry raft is floating free jammed against a tree trunk and that there are three people on it none of whom is Cuthwick the Dragger who normally crews the raft and upkeeps it.
• It is immediately suspected as a trap. 
• Blab goes up the mast.  He realises that the truck is not acting right and must be steered.  He had taken his bow and intends to open fire on the raft when Tobius spots and calls warning on two men in the water with great hooks. Blab shoots at them instead and causes them to retreat into the reeds.
• Gideon orders the sails dropped and the vessel rowed in reverse.
• Blab continues to keep the enemies heads down.
• Two small flatboats appear from the reeds back from the Three Bridges direction but only one has a chance of interception. 
• Jaktar recognises one of the men as one he had seen near the Death's Way the night before in Three Bridges.
• The lead man on the raft opens fire with a crossbow but fails to hit anyone, Blab shoots back sending him backwards off the raft.
• Blab then turns his attention the boat on the intercept course which has now cleared the reeds, its foreman wielding a pole-arm with the obvious intent to hole the Sulaco hull.  The man takes a arrow in the belly and the second man using a punting quant (pole). A second arrow cuts the back of his leg and he too cowers in the boat.
• Gideon orders that a prisoner should be taken. Ignoring Blab (still up the mast) who says leave the one 'bleeding out' Jaktar leaps aboard the punt and drags both raiders on board.  The Sulaco rows on to safety where they relax to interrogate the prisoners.
• Blab searches and confiscates and weapons (ok sword and two daggers) and any valuables (6 silver and 8 copper pieces) from the captives. Gideon  shows displeasure but does not actively intervene.
• The punter with the lesser wound is not really interrogated at all but emphasis is given to the belly wounded gent. It seems there were about 10 attackers hired by someone called Brad'in(?) and they where to capture a shark box.  This man never saw the employer who only spoke to the bands leader a man called Tybone who described him as an Easterner.
• Gideon has tem put over board and shortly after they leave a thrashing and screaming can be heard in the reeds behind them.  Blab wins his bet with Jaktar over their survival time.
• There is some disagreement between the crew on the morality of that last action and the leaving two survivors in a boat as bait if the Sand Sharks gave chase back at the rescue was also brought up. Blab and  Defoe take the moral high-ground against Gideon.

Lankhmar - Day at Mucking Beach.

Date: Day of the Fox. The month of the Murderer's Moon in the Summer season of the Year of the Feathered Death in the Era of Heat:   

Evening at Mucking Beach.

• Muddy rejoins the crew bringing the smell of the marsh.
• Crew speak to the captain about what happened - attacked by three Sand Sharks, he used the term 'herded' toward the sand banks, he thought he'd made it clear when he saw the channel (The Snatch).  Says he was sailing on a commission for the Shahdra (a type of eastern lord often a city or town head) of Hazkaa in the Empire of Horborixen
• Horborixen Empire Fans out from the City State of Horboxien and hugs the coast from Ilthar to 300-400 hundred miles further south.  It is one of the more powerful and rich of the Eastern States monopolising the trade and berths for such a distance.  Ilthra is still an independent City State and is its biggest mercantile rival on that coast.
• Ral offers two months (he is not aware it is so much you feel) in guild drafts to get him and his 'assistant' to Three Bridges by Crab day.
• Blab says the drafts are the real thing and is confident he can get at least 70% of their face value about a month or more normal profit.
• The crew agree they can get Ral to Hec's landing and arrange over-night travel to Three Bridges but the end of Badger Day. If he makes his deal then they are welcome to meet him at Clear Water Court in Lankhmar for hospitality and further reward.
• Defoe blesses the boat and crew after a philosophical debate on the nature of 'prayer is not magic'. 
• Gideon tells Jaktar to keep a watch on the two 'passengers'.
• Jaktar spends the evening watching the couple and evens tries without success to engage Yelmeer in conversation but she is polite but immune to his charm.  He sees a lord and his body servant, both pleasant practical people holding up under miss fortune but also not overly worried or guarded.  Beyond looking at their scrolls which are carried in three wax sealed tubes they do nothing unusual.
• Blab plays on the beach with the dog.
• Latter in the evening Blab forms an entertainment from the events which earns him a smile from Yelmeer.
• A friendly card games closes the evening.

Date: Day of the Badger. The month of the Murderer's Moon in the Summer season of the Year of the Feathered Death in the Era of Heat:   

Morning at Mucking Beach.

• Muddy reports that the Promontory watch on Sentinel Tower saw a blue sailed boat (Blab suddenly remembers seeing this last night and puts his two pen'th in) heading up Rickar Creek toward Two Days.
• All embark for Hec's Landing.
• An uneventful trip finds the Sulaco in Hec's Landing late that evening.

Evening at Hec's landing.

• Muddy and Jaktar take the passengers and help arrange transport for them to Three Bridges.
• The night passes uneventfully.

Date: Day of the Crab. The month of the Murderer's Moon in the Summer season of the Year of the Feathered Death in the Era of Heat:

• The Sulaco leaves Hec's Landing
• A Red sail is spotted in the distance but Muddy guides the boat well away from its path and they soon lose it however it adds to the travel time and they arrive in Three Bridges very late.

Oldhammer.

"In battle there is no law..."

Oldhammer!

I have recently been re-developing my interest in fantasy miniatures and wargaming and through painting various old figures from my age old collection from the 80's (predominantly with Runequest in mind) I have started to come back to the idea of playing some fantasy skirmishes using rules I already own. We have discussed Mordheim, a set of rules I possess but have never actually played and this looks likely to happen at some point, after we have reached saturation point with other ongoing projects! Mordheim still interests me as it is a smaller scale skirmish, scenario and story driven game and you can follow and improve your warband and characters as they move through their battles and adventures.

Following on from this, I recently started following the blogs of Zhu, Thansants "Somewhere the tea's getting cold" and Gaj's "Warhammer for Adults" and been inspired to dig out all my old Warhammer Fantasy Battle rules, notes and scenarios.

WHFB 1st Edition.

I liked the clunky 1st Edition and its massive army supplement "Forces of Fantasy" but I have to say its the 2nd or 3rd Edition all the way for me! I read the 4th Edition but I never even really liked it much and to be honest I had drifted away from the hobby by then. I didn't even touch the 5th to 7th Editions. I have looked at the 8th and I guess I wouldn't mind having a look at '9th' whenever that may appear but the whole GW WHFB thing now seems to be very army building specific and slightly rules heavy. It seems you have to have the (expensive) rule book plus several 'army' books to be able to play. In my day the army 'lists' used to be in one book!

WHFB 2nd Edition.

Personally, for me WHFB was always about small to large scale skirmishes, not neccessarily the mass battles that seem to be encouraged now. I really loved the slightly open feeling of the 2nd/3rd Editions. We used to play heavily story driven games that had little to do with points and army building and everything about the narrative behind the game itself. We had mixed troops in our battles, admitedly this was often down to the figures we had early on, but ultimately it came down to the scenario itself.

WHFB 3rd Edition.

We had our own little part of the Warhammer world populated with characters and kingdoms that had a reason for fighting. The background was there in the books, but there was plenty of scope for you to bring your own backstories and histories into the mix. Our stories began around the chronicles of King Jorick Stefel-Horowitz, also known as Vlard Stalinsky, and his succession to the throne of the Theldar Fief, as the 30th king of Theldar, Dathal, Hurgoland and Damask. Through diplomacy, consolidation and treachery he incited civil wars in his neighbouring Fiefs and overthrew his opponents. His massive new territory was renamed the Grenland Fiefs and he ruled over a prosperous and poweful nation for many years, handing down power through several generations. The Grenland Fiefs saw incursions from powerful sorcerers, demonic hordes, the Goblin Wars and even a campaign ending in a civil war as the ruling family, under King Sternjaw IV and his sons Prince Leopold Caprinski and Aramir 'Bresharde' Sibertine the Half-Elven, fought with their own traitorous kinsmen led by his nephew Elfwine Castaroff and a general of note Elstar Gorky, to retain the seat of power.

WHFB Siege.

These epic stories were played out using the first three versions of the game and later supplements such as Warhammer Siege, and gave us some fantastic and memorable battles and kept us creative with the stories behind them. Perhaps it was just the way we played it, in "the spirit of the game" so to speak but with a little bit of history, some maps and an occasional 'RPG Lite' element to this we kept our little part of the Warhammer world alive for many years and it was fun to play through the trials and tribulations of a nation...

Lankhmar - The Red Sail.

Date: Day of the Fox. The month of the Murderer's Moon in the Summer season of the Year of the Feathered Death in the Era of Heat:

• On a standard trip, notice a Red Sail in the distance that appears to have been following us.
• Loose the Red sail after crossing the Risings (a series of sand banks off the north coast) and travelling on the shore side westward.
• See a blue sail seaward of the Risings and note its strange behaviour
• Watch it heading for the Snatch - an obvious channel but one the Sulaco know have a hidden menace. The Risings Teeth are a series of jagged outcrops that at all but very low tide remain below the surface of the sea.
• Another mast is spotted someway behind and much further out to sea.
• The blue sailed boats people seem to be waving at something beyond them to seaward.  Blab uses a spyglass and says a sea monster but no-one else believes him. 
• After some debate amongst the crew it seems they are to rescue the crew..or the cargo...or just the rich looking woman 'passenger'.
• The ship hits the Teeth and is impaled tipping to the side and throwing some of its crew into the water.  Some are obviously hurt other swim toward the sand bank ignoring their fellows
• The Sulaco drops sail within bow distance of and Gideon sends Jaktar off in a coracle (one of two on board) to 'rescue the woman'.
• Meanwhile the ship listing dangerously the crew have managed to get a small boat into the water and the two rich looking passengers, the (looks like) Captain and three crew board and head further into the Snatch and toward the Sulaco.
• A great Sand Shark emerges and starts up the bank chasing a group of crewmen who had made it ashore.   
• Jaktar starts to pick up struggling crewmen.
• The small boat makes it to the Sulaco and its occupants taken on board.
• The coracle also makes it back on board with two more survivors.

Between sessions

• The Sulaco takes the survivors on to Mucking Beach, their own destination for the day
• Local fishermen having seen the events from afar (they were on route to the shelling beaches that form part of the Risings) sail to aid and rescue another three crew but the rest are lost to sea and sharks. The crew had numbered seventeen.
• At Mucking Beach the Sulaco crew meet Muddy and take stock.  It's now late evening and this is a safe place to moor through the night.

The Survivors

Captain Jekcrow Cadamar, his 1st mate Hashshid and two crew: Yasmeed Florence and Trish Kazzir where on the boat along with the two passengers Hal'adziir Ral Brra'habin "call me Ral, everyone does" and his beautiful assistant and body servant Yelmeer Has'si'yam.  Pilot Yural Gates and the ships boy Yin Cooo where picked by Jaktar in his coracle. The fishermen picked up 2nd mate Preen Huk'Haboon, crewwoman Hildar Sheen and crewman Yarablin Yaka.

Ral seems to be a very well off merchant carrying guild drafts worth a considerable amount of money one of which he writes off to Zambriq his saviour.  He also begs passage to Three Bridges for him and his assistant.

Local Known Knowledge

Three Bridges is two days run by boat (especially one that does not want to pass too near the Great Marsh Road where it would be visible to guild patrols).  Two Days is the nearest port of call but is frequented by guild boats and is still over a day's boat ride from Three Bridges and a day's ride (Two Days is the coaching stop two days out of Lankhmar, Three Bridges one day out) away.  Hec's Landing is a day's sailing away, a known safe stop and a half days sailing from Three Bridges but better it is only a short distance from The Great Marsh Road and a good wagon could make Three Bridges overnight by early morning.  The Sulaco has a drop off in Three Bridges and so must go there but Ral seems to be in a hurry, says he has an appointment on Crabday which is the day after tomorrow.

Runequest - Dragonewts.

Dragonewts claim to be the eldest creatures, descendants of neotenic dragons from before the Dawn of Time. Even elven Green Age tales mention dragonewts. Dragonewts are peculiar creatures who continually reincarnate and metamorphose, ever-striving to achieve dragonhood. They are an enigmatic race, misunderstood and mistrusted.
Individual dragonewts trace descent from whatever dragon or dragons laid the initial clutch of eggs which resulted in their existence. Dragonewts of the same clutch call each other "egg-brother". They organize themselves into variously-sized settlement-nests.
Normal dragonewts are intended to be a race of mystery, alien and irrational to human understanding. Their language (Auld Wyrmish) includes visual, auditory, olfactory, and empathic components. But they are unconscious of their own language and cannot teach it, and because humans are not naturally empathic they can never gain more than a basic understanding of the language. Dragonewts have no written language, and have little need of one, as they are immortal, ever-reincarnating, and learn needed facts directly from other dragonewts.
Regular contact of normal dragonewts with outsiders is usually assigned to one individual in a group, who tries to act according to human expectations. It learns human languages, and learns to write or otherwise communicate ideas to humans. Sometimes it will own or be an interpreter dragonewt who has been surgically altered so that it can stumblingly speak human words. Altered interpreters may have guards, servants, and so on. Such dragonewts not infrequently become outlaws. When an outlaw dragonewt -- one who has ceased to believe in the dragon way -- dies, it is not reincarnated and never reappears. No one knows where its soul goes.
Some places in Glorantha have large colonies of deviant dragonewts, and they differ from the norm given here. But all of those variants have the same heritage.

Dragonewts go through the following stages in their life cycle.
Scout Dragonewt: The scout (or crested) dragonewt is small, short-tailed, and has an arched crest upon the head. A vegetarian, it prefers leaves and fruit. Its betters will train it as a slinger to bring down birds and rabbits, and teach it the art of scouting and skirmishing, and to serve as a slave.
Warrior Dragonewt: The warrior (or beaked) dragonewt is larger than the scout stage, and is carnivorous. The tail now reaches to the ground, and at first the skin is covered both with scales and with small protrusions. They are most often found as hunters or guards of dragonewt nests.
Most warrior dragonewts ride upon creatures called demi-birds. Demi-birds are feathered, beaked, and lay eggs, but their bones are solid and they have vestigial arms, not wings. The demi-bird is fearless and carnivorous, adding to the fierceness of the dragonewt warrior.
Noble Dragonewt: Second-stage armor and natural weapons are, in the third stage, nearly replaced by frills, spines, wattles, pouches, and other decorative and communicative devices. Skin colors become more vivid, and the number and variety of scent glands increase. This stage is omnivorous.
A noble dragonewt will lead and represent; the stage is expert at living peacefully with the outside world. In some regions this stage is known s the 'tailed priest'.
Ruler Dragonewt: These rare dragonewts are almost never found outside their own nests. One is usually found in each small nest, and several in a town cluster. Their community functions, diet, and powers are unknown. The appearance of a ruler dragonewt (sometimes known as a 'full priest') resembles that of a noble, but they have wings.
Presumably, a ruler dragonewt meditates upon the secrets of dragonhood in preparation for the final metamorphosis. Such a dragonewt will, one day, awake to find itself a full dragon. It will then depart from its nest, to go to wherever dragons go.
Dragonet (Inhuman King, Fifth Stage): When a Ruler Dragonewt progresses fully, it will be reborn as a True Dragon and will be taken out of the Dragonewt Cycle. Sometimes, a Ruler will be reborn as a Dragonet, or neo-Dragon. This form is intermediate between Dragonewt and True Dragon.
There is only one Dragonet in a traditional Dragonewt society. While the Dragonet is alive, Dragonewts will be reborn as normal. However, if the Dragonet dies then there will be no rebirth until a new one is created. In this case, a Ruler which has progressed far enough to become a Dragon but has not chosen to will ceremonially kill itself and be reborn as a Dragonet, thus allowing the cycle to be restored. Although there is only one Dragonet in any society, there may be more than one alive throughout Glorantha. The Dragonewts of Dragon Pass have a Dragonet at Dragons Eye, but the Dragonewts of Kralorela have their own Dragonet. The Dragonewts of Ralios do not have a Dragonet, but if one were to be manifested, they could rejoin the Cycle.
Nobody knows the powers or abilities of a Dragonet. It is rumoured that one has all the powers of a True Dragon, able to think others to death and to shape the land with but a thought.

These are from the Citadel Runequest Boxed Set 5. A fairly quick paintjob but was pleased with the way the demi-birds turned out. The pic above shows (on the back row) a Full Priest Dragonewt (Ruler), a Beaked (Warrior) on a demi-bird, a Crested (Scout) riding a demi-bird, (front row) a Beaked (Warrior) with 'Klanth', a Newtling with sling, a Crested (Scout) with a javelin and finally a Tailed Priest (Noble). I have a few more of these yet to be painted.

Citadel Dragonewt Boxed Set.

Armorcast/Lance & Laser also do a small Runequest/Heroquest range that includes a few Dragonewt miniatures such as Fighters, Scouts and demi-bird riders.

Dragonewt Champion from Lance & Laser.

Dragonewt Demi-Bird Rider from Lance & Laser.

I would imagine you could use the various available 'Lizardmen' as Dragonewts, such as the wonderful Otherworld Miniatures Lizardmen Warriors.

Lizardmen from Otherwold Miniatures.

For more info on Dragonewts have a look at:

The Dragon Pantheon.

The History of Dragonewts by Simon Phipp.