Derrick Norton continues his account of the development of Empire in Flames, which started here.

Warning. Spoilers for Empire in Flames.

EMPIRE IN FLAMES: REVISED INTENTIONS

Having read the overview and brief synopsis, my attention would have turned to the long synopsis. The document comes across as more mature (and is much closer to EiF as published) but it still describes work in progress:

“Again, GM notes on how to handle these later developments will be provided in good detail.”

In other words, the long synopsis summarises work and intentions as they stood at the time. It is hard to tell just how much of the manuscript was already written (as opposed to planned) but the long synopsis gives the impression there was still a lot more to do. In any event, campaign links to SRiK were not yet included as described in “final note 1”:

“I need to see Kislev to script the ‘Introduction’ properly and there may be some other elements which I need to script depending on what happened in that adventure.”

It is possible these links were considered later but proved too difficult to establish given the plot of SRiK and the time or resource available to develop EiF. Whatever the reason, EiF only has a few token links to SRiK.

As well as illustrating how EiF developed over time, the long synopsis is notable for another reason: the actual document has about twenty handwritten annotations, mostly in the form of marginal comments but with a few longer endnotes. Most are mine and, interestingly, a couple of these have a ‘follow on’ comment in Phil’s handwriting so there must have been some to and fro. The fact that the long synopsis is annotated indicates it does refer to the manuscript as drafted.

My memory is vague but good practice suggests there would have been a commissioning brief for EiF, and there is some evidence for this in my first comment: “Phil – I hope we get credited for our plot!” Graeme Davis must also have been involved as my final comment is a postscript: “As Graeme says, we need to get a dragon in the plot somewhere – it doesn’t have to be a very big one but we should do our best!”

The long synopsis recognises that EiF is the end of a major campaign and promises the following:

“Themes and secrets seeded earlier in the campaign adventures are brought to fruition, and major areas of unfinished business are resolved.”

My comment in the margin (presumably added after I had read the manuscript) states, “There’s not many of these!” meaning not many “themes and secrets” were even included never mind “brought to fruition”.

In the long synopsis, the Emperor is slain by an assassin and it is now his recalled-from-exile son who is revealed to be a mutant. This double whammy again triggers a civil war:

“The Empire is now plunged into internal factionalism. As old enmities between local rulers erupt into open combat, and the opposition of the cults of Sigmar and Ulric explodes into fanaticism, denunciations, and warfare.”

These events are similar to those in EiF as published, but the published version also has the mutant Crown Prince kill Graf Boris for good measure (and, I presume, to pave the way for Heinrich to unite the cults of Sigmar and Ulric in due course). To remedy matters, the PCs are sent on a quest:

“They are begged to seek out the most powerful and emotive artefact in the history of the Empire: the War Hammer of Sigmar…”

“…[which] takes the PCs virtually to the world’s edge (as it were); though a land beset by the first stirrings of civil war to find a clan of Dwarfs who zealously protect the secret of the location of the Hammer.”

An endnote commented: “Obtaining [the] hammer to stop [the] other side getting it is a strong plot – perhaps PCs must ‘volunteer’ for this dangerous quest much as Frodo etc.” I seem to recall discussing ideas about an NPC party (working for the “other side” on its own quest for the hammer) whose path would at some point cross that of the PCs.

I also wrote “COMIC PLOT?!” with respect to the “clan of dwarfs” but I don’t believe this was criticism. Rather, that this would be a good opportunity to include some light relief, ie a fun interlude between the nameless horrors to date and the perilous fights to come. A related endnote continued: “…or dwarfs waiting for the PCs to turn up to fulfil prophecy – perhaps one dwarf who has been waiting thousands of years [a] bit like a Yoda figure – v. comic but v. powerful.” A bit like “Yodri the Dwarfish Loremaster” in EiF as published.