Grim Dwarfs and Perilous Elves

The option to play a dwarf or elf has been part of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay since its first edition – an inheritance from the original 1983 release of Warhammer, which somewhat muddied the waters between wargame and roleplaying game before Games Workshop thought better of it and decided it would be better not to try to get one system to cover both types of play, splitting the game into WFRP and Warhammer Fantasy Battle thereafter. Both species’ cultures have seen extensive development over time, though RPG material, wargame codexes, and fiction, each blending aspects of the classic Tolkien-derived fantasy conception of the respective peoples and some distinctive and original twists of Warhammer‘s own. It’s a bit weird, then, that WFRP has taken so long to put out supplements dedicated to deep dives on the dwarfs and elves. 1st edition had Dwarfs: Stone and Steel, but that took until 2002 to come out – 16 years after the game debuted! – and was the very last release under Hogshead…