New edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay announced

Yeah, whole new edition… and it looks fascinating. Possibly fascinating in the car-wreck sense, but it’s a bit early to know for sure. Also, it’s a box set at a planned MSRP of $99 – which people will see as a bold step, even though it looks like a better deal than the D&D core books plus dice and power cards. No announced release date that I can see, and it’s an FFG production, so caveat anticipator.

11 comments

  1. Not sure what to think about this…will keep an eye on it but it sounds like a cross between HeroQuest and D&D 4th.

  2. Not Warhammer Quest – there’s no indication that the box contains miniatures or tiles. Just books, dice and cards.

    Looks to me like an attempt by FFG to get and RPG back onto the same shelves that sell board games. But since FFG’s board games are mainly limited to specialty stores, I’m not sure who that helps. Possibly this is an attempt to reach out with an RPG to the board gamer market, though since the obvious way to do that would be a more Descent-like game, I’m not sure if that’s actually the plan.

    It’ll be interesting to watch, that’s for sure.

  3. It’s fascinating to me how people respond to RPGs that have visual elements that remind them of board games. (Incidentally if this package did have boards or tiles, that still wouldn’t make it a board game.)

  4. (Incidentally if this package did have boards or tiles, that still wouldn’t make it a board game.)

    No, but it might make people who don’t play RPGs but love board games feel a bit more comfortable trying it. Which is about the only point I can see to FFG making a game like this – trying to expand their market into a group of people who don’t currently play RPGs.

  5. Makes sense to me… they have Dark Heresy , why not pick up WHFRP and round out the set. I heard someone at Kubla Con say they heard Warhammer Quest was going to be re-released by somebody, but I haven’t seen anything about it myself.

    (FFG can’t do miniatures with the Games Workshop WH/WH40K license. That is one of the specific “no nos” of the agreement.)

    Can they even do a game that uses existing GW figures?

  6. I gotta add… after reading the blurb about it, it sounds like someone combined elements from WHFRP and WHQ. Might have to at least leaf through it…

  7. Jer: well, sure, if they’re gonna spend this kind of money on printing an RPG, the only bet that makes sense is to bet on growing your audience by bringing in new people. The question is how much nerdrage they’re gonna catch from existing players.

    So far the internets seem pretty silent, though. Maybe all the old-school WHFRPers are accustomed enough to finding and nurturing their own player group that edition wars just aren’t really gonna play out. (And thank Jebus for that.)

  8. The internet is silent, is it? Where have you been looking?

    Nerdrage perhaps, but justified given the info spilled, which makes it sound like something good has died and left us forever. Online there is a veritable cackstorm of negativity about this, which as a veteran rpger I can well understand. Thus far it seems like a cynical marketing exercise to make a hard to pirate game, hence the cards, coloured dice and other unecessary fluff. The images are shiny, but this looks more like warhammer quest, what with generic characters on cards and dice pools. Goodbye grit, welcome Vamp style powergaming. We will have to see, but unless the reports are stellar I can’t see many dropping 100 dollars on this. I’ll be sticking to 2nd and 1st Ed.

  9. Jon: I had been looking in the past.

    Yeah, I spoke a little too soon. Obviously. (Custom dice and color printing make a game hard to pirate? Are you kidding?)

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