A Whole New Warhammer

I read the press release from Fantasy Flight Games this morning about a new version of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.  The game has languished a bit since they picked it up from Black Industries, and their have been a lot of rumors that a new version was imminent.

"We're proud to re-introduce the Warhammer world to role-playing with this revolutionary approach,” said Christian T. Petersen, CEO of FFG. “It is one that harnesses the flavor of prior WFRP editions, but brings about that experience in a more evocative, tactile, and visual way than the past," he continued. "We’ve worked long and hard to to publish a game that we hope will represent a positive paradigm shift in roleplaying game design, production, and play experience. This is not another re-tread of the traditional RPG approach, this is something new, something exciting. Something that existing RPG fans will want to test for themselves."

A new version in and of itself is not something that scares me, but this new version does a little bit.  Rather than recount everything that has changed I will point you to the press release, new mini site, and game description.

I have a few thoughts on what I have read:

• The game sounds interesting enough to buy, as it looks to be a very fast play sort of game.
• The price point of $99.00 is way to high for a pen and paper RPG.  I wonder if FFG will classify this as a new style of RPG?
• The description of the game reminds me a lot of the Descent Road to Legend game.  Especially with the pouches that you store your character sheet and dice in between sessions.
• Custom Dice?  Of what I read this is the only really, really disappointing part.  Custom Dice are a pain in the ass.  I just don’t see what they could bring to the game.
• The comparison with board games will likely be common, and the official forums are already filled with lots of discussion (most of it negative).
• A sealed box set that contains the core rules makes it a bit difficult for people to browse the game, most RPG’ers prefer to browse the rules before buying.  I hope FFG comes up with a way around this.

With all things it is best to wait and see the game play before making a final judgement.  There will be some demo’s this week at GenCon, and hopefully we will get a good look at the game and game play.  I started playing Warhammer Fantasy back in 1988, and have been hooked ever since.  The first edition of the game lasted a very, very long time, and the 2nd edition of the game made changes but kept the core of the game the same.  Looks like the 3rd edition will really shake things up, but only time will tell if that is a good thing.