Chainmail: Rules for Medieval Miniatures is a medieval miniature wargame released by Guidon Games in March 1971, and later republished by TSR. It was written by Jeff Perren and Gary Gygax.
Chainmail is best known as a key inspiration for the medieval fantasy tabletop roleplaying games which would develop into Dungeons & Dragons in 1974. It introduced or developed key game mechanics including armor class, the use of fantasy species, magic weapons, saving throws, wizards focused on combat magic, and man-to-man melee combat.
Rules[]
In the core rules, each figure represents 20 men. Troops are divided into six basic types: light foot, heavy foot, armored foot, light horse, medium horse, and heavy horse. Melee is resolved by rolling six-sided dice: for example, when heavy horse is attacking light foot, the attacker is allowed to roll 4 dice per figure, with each 5 or 6 denoting a kill. On the other hand, when light foot is attacking heavy horse, the attacker is allowed only 1 die per 4 figures, with a 6 denoting a kill.
Additional rules govern missile and artillery fire, movement and terrain, charging, fatigue, morale, and the taking of prisoners. Optional variants include rules for man-to-man combat (as opposed to mass battles), jousting, and, critically, a fantasy supplement introducing monsters and magic.
Each of the fantasy creatures are treated as one of the six basic troop types. For example, halflings are treated as light foot and elves are treated as heavy foot. Giants are treated as 12 heavy footmen, and require 12 cumulative hits to kill. Heroes are treated as 4 heavy footmen, and require 4 simultaneous hits to kill. Wizards can cast various spells, including fireballs and lightning bolts. Unlike in D&D, a stronger wizard can cancel the spell of a weaker wizard by rolling a 7 or higher with two six-sided dice.
Development and release[]
Early influences[]
In the late 1960s, Gary Gygax was a prolific contributor to several wargaming magazines, including International Wargamer, Avalon Hill General, Spartan International Monthly, Panzerfaust, Tactics & Variants, and Canadian Wargamer. In 1968 he founded the Lake Geneva Wargames Convention (later Gen Con), and in 1970, an International Wargamer poll voted him the one who had "done the most for wargaming in the past five years".[1] He wrote various sets of wargame rules as early as 1968.[2]
In 1970, Gygax founded the gaming group which would be known as the Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association (LGTSA), of which he and Jeff Perren were among the seven founding members. Perren had a collection of 40mm Elastolin medieval miniatures of the sort used by Siege of Bodenburg, a game published in Strategy & Tactics magazine in 1967, but instead developed his own set of rules, which the group used to play in a sand table in Gary Gygax's basement.[1][3]
Perren's rules derived inspiration from an earlier system published in 1966 by Tony Bath. Gary Gygax further developed Perren's rules, submitting a five-page Geneva Medieval Miniatures to wargaming fanzine Panzerfaust, which published them in April 1970. Perren's rules were made available to purchase at the price of 50 cents.[4]
This in turn was expanded to seven and a half pages, published in the Castle & Crusade Society's fanzine the Domesday Book #5 in the July 1970 issue, also printed in Spartan International Monthly, where they were delayed to the August 1970 issue.[4][5] The LGTSA Miniatures Rules by Perren and Gygax as published in this issue were the most direct ancestors of Chainmail.
Further influences on Chainmail are attested in Domesday Book issue 6, "Burnaby Medieval Rules"; issue 7, "Whose Rules are These?", by Gygax; and issue 11, "LGTSA Medieval Miniatures: Rules Changes", by Gygax. Issue 6's "Knights' Jousting Tourney" rules (author uncredited but believed to be one Russell Tulp) would also be incorporated into Chainmail.[5]
The Fantasy Supplement was inspired heavily by Rules for Middle Earth, by Leonard Patt. Patt's rules appeared in the fanzine Courier Vol. II No. 7, published 1970. The game, presented by the New England Wargamers Association (NEWA) won the Arnowitz award for "best of show" at the Philadelphia Wargame convention, and featured rules for dragons, wizards, ents, orcs, heroes and antiheroes. Modern research by D&D historian Jon Peterson reveals several clear uses of Patt's rules, and a letter by Jeff Perren appearing in Courier revealing that he had read the issue in question.[6][7]
Development[]
In 1970, wargaming company Guidon Games was established by one Don Lowry, a former US Air Force officer with an interest in military history. Lowry had supplied illustrations to wargaming fanzines, and first met Gygax in person at GenCon III in 1970. Guidon Games contracted Gygax to write the first in a planned series of miniature wargame rulebooks, in what would be released as Chainmail.[8]
Gygax based his rules primarily on the earlier LGTSA Miniatures Rules; Jeff Perren, with whom he shares the writing credit on those rules, likewise received co-author credit on Chainmail. Major innovations of Chainmail include turn sequence rules (what D&D would call initiative), more rules for siege equipment, and an introduction for new players unfamiliar with the wargaming genre.[8]
Another major innovation, complementing the expanded siege rules, was a set of man-to-man miniatures rules where each miniature represents a single individual soldier, as opposed to the traditional 20:1 or 10:1 ratio used for mass battles. These rules featured different types of medieval armor and weapons, and roll 2d6 to hit.[8] Gygax recalls the man-to-man rules as his own original invention, inspired by historical sources but not which was not influenced by any earlier wargame rules he had played.[9]
According to Wargamer's Newsletter #110, Chainmail was not originally conceived of as a fantasy game, and its fantasy elements were added as an afterthought.[8] In Wargamer's Newsletter #112, dated early 1971, Gygax wrote of his intent to create rules for Tolkien-inspired fantasy battles based on the LGTSA rules.[8] These would appear in the Chainmail rules' Fantasy Supplement, which expanded the concept to include fantasy elements by authors other than Tolkien. Although Gygax would later assert that he invented the Fantasy Supplement from scratch, inspired only by mythological sources,[9] modern research by D&D historian Jon Peterson shows direct influence from Leonard Patt's Rules for Middle Earth rules.[6]
The Chainmail Fantasy Supplement expands substantially on Patt's rules. Key features from Patt include "Hero" and "Antihero" units which can only be killed by multiple simultaneous hits (not cumulative hits, as in D&D's hit points), to which Chainmail adds a Super-Hero type; wizards capable of casting a "fire ball", to which Chainmail adds a lightning bolt; orcs of rival tribes who may attack each other; dragons whose actions are random; and Ents.[6]
Chainmail further mentions such writers as Robert E. Howard, Poul Anderson, Michael Moorcock as inspirations, in addition to J.R.R. Tolkien. Magic items appear, originally just enchanted arrows and magical swords. A substantial number of monsters appear as potential combatants, including explicitly Tolkien creatures such as balrogs, wights rocs, dwarves, elves, and hobbits; and various non-Tolkien monsters. Combatants are divided into Law, Chaos, and Neutrality, in what would later become D&D's alignment system. Wizards, in addition to Fire Ball and Lightning Bolt (which shared their areas of effect with the rules' catapult and cannon, respectively), could cast other spells, of which the first edition offered only six: Phantasmal Forces, Darkness, Wizard Light, Detection, Concealment, and Conjuration of an Elemental.[10]
The cover art was provided by Don Lowry, and is copied from the 1966 book The Fighting Man by Jack Coggins, appearing on page 114 at the start of the chapter "Crescent and Cross".[11]
Gygax recalled playing the game in numerous historic settings.[12]
Release[]
Chainmail: Rules for Medieval Miniatures was released by Guidon Games in March 1971 for US $[missing data].
Despite a common misconception, the Fantasy Supplement section was included with all copies of Chainmail.[13]
In July 1972,[14] a second edition was released by Guidon Games, incorporated various rules changes first published in Domesday Book #13. Particular innovations included movement fatigue for inclement weather, flanking and rear attacks, special properties for certain historic troops, the first appearance of the term "armor class", a division of the wizard into four power levels,[14] and the addition of the wizard spells Moving Terrain and Protection from Evil. Changes in formatting allowed a reduction in pagecount from 62 to 48. A second printing of this edition was later made.[13]
In 1975, TSR acquired the rights to Chainmail and released a 3rd edition, which sold for $5.00 and remained in print at least as late as November 1979.[13] From the fifth printing onward, dated January 1978, the book removed references to hobbits and ents, renaming them to halflings and treants, respectively.
Specific changes in Chainmail third edition include new wizard spells (Levitate, Slowness, Haste, Polymorph, Confusion, Hallucinatory Terrain, Cloudkill, and Anti-Magic Shell); the edition of a weaker Seer class of wizard who knows only 1 spell; and an optional Spell Complexity system which reflects what D&D would call spell levels.
On January 10, 2017, Chainmail was re-released in digital format. It is currently available on DriveThruRPG and Dungeon Masters Guild for $4.99. This version is the 3rd edition, 7th printing, dated April 1979.
Reception and influence[]
Initial reception[]
While Chainmail drew significant interest, the inclusion of fantasy elements in a traditionally historically accurate hobby was controversial, with at one member of the LGTSA leaving over it.[15] In 2003, Gygax wrote:[16]
- The reception of fantasy elements in the medieval tabletop wargame was incredibly enthusiastic by about 90% of the old group. Lee Tucker dismissed it, and me. Mike Reese and Jeff Perren were not captivated by giants hurling boulders and dragons breathing fire and lightning bolts, not did wizards with spells, heroes and superheroes with magic armor and swords prove compelling to them. [...]
- When I wrote up a fantasy battle report for Don Featherstone's Wargamer's Newsletter ("The Battle of the Brown Hills"), one reader commented in a later issue that I should forget fantasy and do more interesting games such as his Balkan Wars ones...
Many initial reviews were critical of the game's fantasy elements. Reviewer Donald Greenwood, in Panzerfaust (Nov 1971), wrote that the fantasy rules "must appear somewhat foolish to the majority of wargamers" and suggested it should have been relegated to a separate booklet. A reader's letter submitted to Wargamer's Newsletter #120 complained about a Chainmail battle report published in issue #116 on the Battle of the Brown Hills, saying "I object to paying good money for absolute rubbish such as this issue."[10]
However, not all reviews were negative. Lenard Lakofka, in International Wargamer Vol.4 No.8, praised the fantasy supplement as "utterly DELIGHTFUL!"[10] Lakofka would go on to be an influential Dungeons & Dragons writer.
Influence on Dungeons & Dragons[]
Chainmail is perhaps best known today as a major inspiration of Dungeons & Dragons. Core elements of D&D which derive from Chainmail include armor class, alignment, fantasy monsters, hero characters of superhuman ability, man-to-man combat instead of mass combat, Tolkien fantasy races, magic weapons and equipment, and wizards capable of casting fireball, lightning bolt and other spells.
Chainmail also inspired Chicago wargamer Dave Arneson, an acquaintance of Gygax and fellow wargamer, who used it in part for his Blackmoor campaign, a fantasy role-playing game which pre-dates D&D. Arneson introduced Gygax to his game, leading Gygax to develop his own Greyhawk campaign based on it, which would become Dungeons & Dragons. Arneson received credit as co-creator of D&D.
The extent of the influence of Chainmail on Blackmoor, and Blackmoor on D&D, was a long-standing contention between Gygax and Arneson, particularly after a legal dispute over royalties. Gygax contended that he wrote the entire draft and downplayed Arneson's contributions,[17][18] but conceded that Arneson innovated in the key concepts of dungeon exploration, the use of maps, and levelling up.[19] Arneson in turn claimed that Chainmail's only influence on D&D was the Combat Matrix, and takes credit for the concepts of character class, armor class, level, and hit points.[20] (Chainmail heroes were slain by simultaneous hits rather than accumulating damage, and while giants in Chainmail 2nd edition took cumulative damage, this rule did not yet appear in the 1st edition).
The Dungeons & Dragons 3-Volume Set (1974) actually recommended that players own a copy of Chainmail, and refers to it in various places. This includes the combat rules, although an alternative d20-based system was provided, which was widely used. Reportedly, Gygax himself played D&D with the "alternative" combat rules, and only referenced Chainmail in the hopes of selling more copies of that game.
Influence on other games[]
Following the release of Dungeons & Dragons, TSR went on to publish Swords & Spells (1976), a set of mass combat rules compatible with D&D.
In 2002, Wizards of the Coast released a new miniatures game named Chainmail.[21] It was replaced the following year by the Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures Game, which made the switch from metal figures to pre-painted plastics, following the trend of competitors such as Mage Knight.
Critical reception[]
As of 2023, Chainmail: Rules for Medieval Miniatures reached the rank of Mithral seller on DriveThruRPG.
External links[]
- Chainmail: Rules for Medieval Miniatures on DriveThruRPG
- Chainmail: Rules for Medieval Miniatures on Dungeon Masters Guild
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Playing at the World, chapter 1.4: The Castle & Crusade Society.
- ↑ The Early Works of Gary Gygax. Playing at the World, November 27, 2012.
- ↑ Interview with Gary Gygax @ Gamebanshee—Gygax refers to the game as Siege of Bodenstadt.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 The LGTSA Medieval Miniatures Rules. Playing at the World, August 5, 2012.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 The Acaeum: Domesday Book
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 A Precursor to the Chainmail Fantasy Supplement. Playing at the World, January 20, 2016.
- ↑ In 1970 the New England Wargamers Association (NEWA) demonstrated a fantasy wargame called Middle Earth at a convention of the Military Figure Collectors Association. See The Courier's Timeline of the Historical Miniatures Wargaming Hobby Also see the article on Tony Bath and his Hyboria campaign.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Playing at the World, chapter 1.5: Amateur Attempts and Guidon Games.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "No game I had played before I devised the Man-to-Man rules for the Chainmail rules book influenced that design. I made it all up off the top of my head, just as I did the Fantasy Rules section. Inspirational sources were historical for the former, mythical for the latter. It is noteworthy, though, that the radius of a fireball and the stroke of a lightning bolt corresponded to a heacy catapult's area of attack effect and that of a cannon in the 1:20 Chainmail rules." Q&A with Gary Gygax, page 387. ENWorld, Jun 27, 2007.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Playing at the World, chapter 1.5: Chainmail and Fantasy Wargaming.
- ↑ The Source of the Chainmail Cover Art. Playing at the World, October 24, 2012.
- ↑ "We played all sorts of scenarios--Vikings vs. Saxons; Turks vs. Austrians, Crusaders vs. Saracens, whatever. All were fun. the rules are pretty easy and few argyments ever occurred." Q&A with Gary Gygax, page 209. ENWorld, Jul 24, 2005.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 The Acaeum: Chainmail
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Playing at the World, chapter 1.7, "Will Cooperate on Game Design."
- ↑ "One of the former LGTSA members quit and wouldn't speak to me because of the Chainmail Fantasy Supplement games I used to run, and the early rap on GenCon was that it was all miniatures with little board wargaming." Q&A with Gary Gygax, page 229. ENWorld, Sep 13, 2005.
- ↑ Q&A with Gary Gygax, page 57. ENWorld, Apr 6, 2003.
- ↑ "The initial 50 page draft of what was to become the D&D game took me only about two weeks to write--around November of 1972. After all, most of the material was drawn from the CHAINMAIL Fantasy Supplement, so it wasn't a real challenge." Q&A with Gary Gygax, page 7. ENWorld, Sep 5, 2002.
- ↑ "At the end of 1972 I had written a 50 p. ms. for the fantasy game. Arneson was to send me all the rules notes he used in his campaign, but nothing usable arrived, so I write the entire ms. off the top of my head." Q&A with Gary Gygax, page 286. ENWorld, Jul 2, 2006.
- ↑ "Dave Arneson's focus on underground play, using maps, and his suggestion of having a Hero be able to work up to Superhero status were most helpful. [...] "Dave Megary is generallly not sufficiently credited for inspiring things, for his DUNGEON! game, based on the CHAINMAIL work, predates D&D." Q&A with Gary Gygax, page 193. ENWorld, Jul 3, 2005.
- ↑ Schick, Lawrence. Heroic Worlds, p.131.
- ↑ Chainmail 2002