Chainmail Miniatures Game

Greyhawk Source

Chainmail Miniatures Game
Cover of the Chainmail Miniatures Game Starter Set booklet. Art by Sam Wood
Type:	Rule Set
Edition:	Third edition
Author(s):	Chris Pramas, Creative Director
Cover Artist(s):	Sam Wood
Interior Artist(s):	Sam Wood
Publisher:	Wizards of the Coast
First Published:	2001
ISBN:	Various
Class:	Officially Published Source
Setting date:	591 - 592 CY

The Chainmail Miniatures Game was a ruleset created specifically for D&D, based on the 3rd Edition, and released in 2001. It streamlined the gameplay, making it easier to use for skirmish scenarios consisting of numerous individual units. The storyline for the seven factions was set in far Western Oerik on the world of Oerth, in an area known as the Sundered Empire.

Description

From the back cover of the original starter set:

""The God of War is dead, and six factions vie for control of his legacy. Will your batle-hardened warbands lay claim to his lost power or be swept from the field like chaff?

The Dungeons & Dragons Chainmail miniatures game is an everything goes battle-royale based on the D20 system and features some of the most infamous creatures the D&D ;universe as ever known.

Build your army with care or feel the sting of classic D&D spells and new abilities taken straight from the Player's Handbook. This Starter Set contains everything that two people need to start playing, including rules for multiplayer play.

Time to throw down.""

In the Sundered Empire timeline, the Godwar began circa 1006 (586 CY)(586 CY). An end date was never published, due to the cancellation of the product line.

Factions of the war

Those engaged in the Godwar included the following:

• Ahmut's Legion - A legion of undead terrors led by death cultists and Ahmut, a fierce 3-century-old undead nomadic Baklien warlord bent on revenge against Ravilla who wields the spear of Stratis.
• Drazen's Horde - A land teeming with savage humanoids. Drazen, a hobgoblin warlord, united the feuding tribes and became the leading chieftain and wields the axe of Stratis.
• Free States - A group of small political entities whose names and borders change frequently, since many of them are only held together by the charisma of one powerful leader. Many who live there are known for becoming mercenaries. None had a direct impact on the war individually, except by fighting for other factions.
• Kilsek (Kalan-G'eld) - A Faction of Drow expelled from the underoerth city of Erelhei-Cinlu along with their troglodyte and displacer beast allies.
• Mordengard - Very non-traditional government is run by a "People's State"; dwarves here are very typical in some senses. They use ingenious elemental weapons and are allied with creatures of the Inner Planes.
• Naresh - Under the patronage of Yeenoghu, this nation of gnolls is bolstered by demonic forces and is led by a half-demon gnoll priest-king named Jangir who rules by right of destiny and wields the flail of Stratis.
• Ravilla - the remaining City-States of the once great Dragon Empire which was destroyed during the Demon War. They protect the Abyssal Gateways to prevent the seals from being broken and demons returning. Led by a Council of Oligarchs. An elven hero named Tarquin who is thought to possibly become the next Emperor of Ravilla wields the longsword of Stratis
• Thalos - This predominantly human nation repelled invasion from Ravilla, and are strongly allied with the gnomes of the region. Led by Queen Almira XXI, and her paladin and angelic allies, their patron is Stern Alia. Also known for powerful war machines constructed by gnomes.
• Mercenaries—various unaligned combatants able to fight with any faction

Publication History

Chainmail was originally the name of the predecessor game to D&D, written by Gary Gygax. It was a set of rules for medieval tabletop miniatures battles. The name was used again in 2001 for a second (unrelated) set of skirmish battle rules, known as the Chainmail Miniatures Game.

The first Chainmail Miniatures Game Starter Set came out in 2001. According to the Lost Minis Wiki: Wizards of the Coast revived the Chainmail skirmish game and released a range of miniatures to support it. This game would eventually become the D&D Miniatures skirmish game, and many Chainmail sculpts would be later turned into prepainted plastic: the last recognizable one being the Large Ice Elemental (Para-Ice Elemental) in the Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures set #12, "Unhallowed".

The Chainmail brand would be discontinued in August 2002 but many of the miniatures ... would reappear in several of the D&D 3.5 Miniatures boxsets.

Reception

The Chainmail Miniatures Game line wasn't remarkably successful during its release. Varying reasons have been proposed why that may've been, but, after the branding was changed when a new line came out, the following Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures line was more successful.

According to project Creative Director, Chris Pramas, the setting was originally proposed to be set in the Flanaess, during the Greyhawk Wars era. But there was interest in making it a brand on its own, so a "new" setting was begun in design. Information came to management it would be better to tie the game more closely to a known setting, so the decision was made to put Chaimail in Greyhawk, after all. They couldn't entirely redo it to be in the Greyhawk Wars, so it was retrofitted into Western Oerik, giving it a more Greyhawk "feel" as expansions came out.

Amongst a subset of Greyhawk fans, in the years after the end of the product line, the Sundered Empire gained a certain amount of popularity with a cult following.

Gallery

• 
  Set 2 Guidebook:
  Blood & Darkness
• 
  Set 3 Guidebook:
  Fire & Ice
• 
  Set 4 Guidebook:
  Shadow of the Drow
• 
  Ghostwind Campaign

External Links

Chainmail product line at RPG.net

References

Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index

The Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index (EGI) is based on previous work of Jason Zavoda through '08, continued by numerous other fans. The EGI article has a list of sources, product names, abbreviations, and a link to the full, downloadable index.

Topic	Type	Description	Product	Page/Card/Image