WFRP - THIRD Edition Announced from FFG

[Primal]

Ok, this is utterly bizarre.

You can find a lot more information here:
Fantasy Flight Games [Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay - Description] - Leading publisher of board, card, and roleplaying games.

Basically, the (eight-sided or six-sided) dice have custom symbols on them. When you attack, you compare the dice symbols to the power card to see the result.

"You hit for normal damage"
"You hit for +2 damage"
"Perform a manouever for free"
"One enemy within close range of you who is not engaged with an opponent may engage you"

Very odd.

Cheers!

Indeed, very odd -- originally I thought they're trying to bring WFRP 3E closer to Warhammer Online, but this reminds me of a boardgame (for example, Hero Quest has similar "custom dice"). Granted, some indie RPGs have all sorts of odd mechanics that utilize dice pools and drawn relationship maps on a grid and whatnot; this, however, feels like a mish-mash of all sorts of weirdness.

I mean, skills on separate *cards* that you attach to your "character keeper!? Two characteristics? A party sheet? Er...

 

[crazy_cat]

WARHAMMER FANTASY ROLE-PLAY 1st and 2nd editions is a dice/pencil/paper RPG, this is a leap away from that towards a boardgame like DESCENT: JOURNEYS IN THE DARK.

Truth. WFRP 3e sounds awful. Yet another game where I wont be updating to the new edition.

 

[Mircoles]

Well, it's still set in the Warhammer Fantasy world and thats always been one of the more interesting things about the game.

 

[Reigan]

Maybe they are aiming this at their boardgame market. I'm intrigued though, it might be something I could use to introduce my kids to roleplaying.

On the downside, perhaps they should have tried the system on something else other than Warhammer first, and that price tag, far too high for an intro system.

 

[coyote6]

I wonder if the theory is that the cost of the game could (should) be split amongst the group? Everything you need is in the box, they say; split four ways, that's down to $25 each, which isn't bad.

 

[scourger]

Having played WFRP and Descent, I'm not eager for the new WFRP. Maybe my try at 4e this evening will ocnvince me otherwise, but I think I'm becoming a grognard.

 

[Agamon]

I think this would be going over better if they'd have called it Descent: Warhammer, instead of WHFRP 3rd. Okay, maybe not, it obviously has a different rulset than Descent, but this looks like a board game with some rp trappings, not unlike Descent. Not tthat there's anything wrong with that (and it does look interesting for what it is), but I see this and my WHFRP books as two different species in the gaming family.

 

[Nebulous]

Having played WFRP and Descent, I'm not eager for the new WFRP. Maybe my try at 4e this evening will ocnvince me otherwise, but I think I'm becoming a grognard.

Descent could be fun, but for what it's worth, tactical miniature combat with roleplaying elements is handled 100% better by 4e.

I haven't seen mention of WFRP 3.0 minis, so i wonder if they're focusing it purely in the imagination?

 

[RodneyThompson]

Preface: I have not played WFRP before, but I do know some stuff about the setting.

OK, so, I'll admit, I'm intrigued by this. I think there are several absolutely fascinating ideas here, and as someone who's never played WFRP they have me hooked.

1. Radically Different Components: I imagine this is what has a lot of people wigging out, but I'm interested to see if they can manage to radically alter the way information is presented, and yet still have the game play like an RPG. When you think about it, cards and tokens can convey the exact same kind of information as you would find on a traditional character sheet, it just lets you organize things a bit differently. I am excited to see whether or not they can break out of the traditional mode of thinking for how you present RPG information, while still maintaining the way an RPG plays.
2. Party-based Mechanics: Some of the preview material makes it look like you build characters, but you also build your party. I've always been fascinated by the idea of attaching mechanics to a whole party of heroes (really reinforcing the teamwork aspect of the RPG), providing special abilities and tactics based on your party makeup.
3. One Product for the Whole Gaming Group: From reading the preview material, it seems pretty clear that they are trying to sell this product not to a single player, but to a gaming group. If the box contains everything you need to play, the $99 price point makes a ton of sense. Your gaming group pitches in and buys it, or the GM buys it alone and shares, and it gives you everything everyone needs to play. That's a very different model, but one I could see as being more attractive for bringing in new players; if the players don't have to buy anything, but can play just as well, that could be appealing.

I'm not saying the game will be good, but I think it's going to be very, very interesting to see how the game looks. Then again, if it plays like a roleplaying game, I'm perfectly amiable to the idea of radically different components and sales models. I think diversity breeds more interesting design, across the entire industry.

 

[Agamon]

I haven't seen mention of WFRP 3.0 minis, so i wonder if they're focusing it purely in the imagination?

I'd say 50:1 against on that. It's a boxed set...from FFG...for $99. No minis or board? Very unlikely.