The Vanilla rules?

Many here on the forum goes on about the "vanilla Mordheim rules". What are these? Where can I find them?

The vanilla rules are simply the rules in the core Rulebook (and possibly 2002 Annual and Empire in Flames). This is in contrast to the rules that many people play that can include house rules or even rule rewrites. Vanilla rules would also exclude fan made warbands but good fan made warbands should be able to be played with the vanilla rules without any difficulty.

Aha, why are they called "vanilla"?

"Vanilla" in common parlance is used to mean plain. It being the plainest ice cream flavour (but no less tasty)

Like the missionary position. Boring but not less enjoyable

Vanilla = "plain" or "basic" is a fairly common usage in the U.S. Not sure about elsewhere.

Ah, thanx for this thread! For a long time I was wondering, what does "vanilla" mean used together with rules and units. Now I follow.

If you play Magic: The Gathering then you may also stumble across "vanilla creatures" in forum speak. This doesn't imply any tasty beasties but just creatures with no further abilities/special rules. It's where I first stumbled across the term.

Ha! "Vanilla" has crept into my parlance so thoroughly that I was unaware that it was improper, or confusing!

It must be an interesting time to be a linguist; with the propagation of the internet a plethora of new phrases have been spawned. I wonder, which terms will last and which will either fall to the wayside or stay isolated to online communication only?

I will make an effort to replace it with "core" rules from now on!

pretty sure using vanilla to mean plain predates the internet by at least a decade or two. The internet speeds up the proliferation of slang, but it rarely is the originator of it. OMG and LOL aside

Surely it derives from the Ice Cream flavors right? Where Vanilla is the "plain" flavor.
Thanks for clearing things out anyway!

Pathfinder Dubstyles wrote:

I will make an effort to replace it with "core" rules from now on!

I use vanilla to describe the official rules. I prefer official to core. It sounds more official.

Nothing like winning the optics war.

Citizen Sade wrote:

Pathfinder Dubstyles wrote:

I will make an effort to replace it with "core" rules from now on!

I use vanilla to describe the official rules. I prefer official to core. It sounds more official.

But that's something different.

Vanilla = Rulebook

Official = Rulebook + Annual + Empire in Flames

The term core can only be used as a synonym to vanilla, ie the original rulebook and the contained 7(?) warbands therein.

Clearly, our understanding of vanilla differs. As such, to prevent confusion, I shall henceforth refer to official Mordheim as vanilla Mordheim with sprinkles and official Mordheim played with the optional rules as vanilla Mordheim with sprinkles and chocolate sauce.

Now I'm hungry. All I have is cookies-and-cream ice cream. Lustria, maybe?

Lustria is clearly some kind of sorbet.

Citizen Sade wrote:

Clearly, our understanding of vanilla differs. As such, to prevent confusion, I shall henceforth refer to official Mordheim as vanilla Mordheim with sprinkles and official Mordheim played with the optional rules as vanilla Mordheim with sprinkles and chocolate sauce.

I haven't had a craving for ice cream in awhile. I blame you, sir.
Mordheim with Empire & Flames = neopolitan.

I never could get into neopolitan.

So, Mordheim + Lustria + Empire in Flames, with expansion warbands like orcs and stunties and etc. = a three flavor hot fudge sundae with whipped cream (but no nuts, please, unless someone wants to try and run a Tomb Kings warband)?

I find your avatar kinda upseting for some reason mweaver.

Not dressed snappily enough? He loves ice cream...

mweaver wrote:

Not dressed snappily enough? He loves ice cream...

He doesn't look like he's getting any though.

Clearly that chimp listens to Prodigy. The sad thing is that domesticated chimps are dangerous and not a very good idea. Probably that chimp will grow up, rip the face off of some Florida retiree, and get put down. Return chimps to the wild!

Or, is that an orangutan?

It is a baby orangutan, from a Russian zoo. As I recall from the story, his mother had died and he was being bottle fed. Which may explain the pajamas.

This thread gets my vote for Overall Most Useful Thread on TBMF. Keep it up, guys.