Games Workshop And Cubicle 7 Announce Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play 4th Edition

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While details are still forthcoming, Cubicle 7 and Games Workshop announced today that Cubicle 7 will be publishing a fourth edition of the classic British role-playing game, Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play. The new edition will launch "later this year." The new edition will take direction from the first and second editions of the game rather than the third edition recently published by Fantasy Flight Games.

According to Cubicle 7 CEO Dominic McDowall, "Like so many gamers I grew up on Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. It's an iconic setting and I'm thrilled to be working on this new edition of the game. Our team have a huge breadth of experience with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and I’m excited to be able to bring the Cubicle 7 approach to the Old World. We’ll be revealing more of our plans in the coming months, so subscribe to our newsletter and keep an eye on our website!"

More details will come as we learn them.

 

[aramis erak]

combat was deadly and assumed theater of the mind (you had a whole wargame if you liked minis.)

Not quite. Both 1E and 2E fully supported minis based combat. Only 3E presumed fully TOTM. That said, the minis rules were not made essential in play in 1E nor 2E, so those who didn't want them didn't have to use them.

 

[aramis erak]

I'm not familiar with WFRP. What is wrong with the age of sigmar?

AoS is from Warhammer Fantasy Battle. It's a poorly defined setting with little fluff yet developed.

It's also a grab bag with Warhammer 40K crossovers.


The Warhammer Fantasy RP/Battles Old World was rife with fiction (and complained about poorly executed bad german joke names). There's 25 years accumulated fluff.

 

[The_Gunslinger658]

I guess the 3rd edition version of WFRP must be the equivalent of Wotc's 4E D&D. But I do get it, publishing companies must make money and putting out new versions of iconic games every 3 to 4 years is the way to go.

Anyway, hopefully the new version will be very much like the 2nd edition of WFRP, a cleaned up and very well received RPG. But new company redoing WFRP probably means massive changes.

Sold! I know some people enjoyed it, but 3e was a swing and a miss for me.

I haven’t run a Warhammer Fantasy campaign in ages, but maybe it’ll be time to rectify that when this comes out.

 

[Von Ether]

Not quite. Both 1E and 2E fully supported minis based combat. Only 3E presumed fully TOTM. That said, the minis rules were not made essential in play in 1E nor 2E, so those who didn't want them didn't have to use them.

*tips hat*

I was a player and I guess my GM never saw fit to use them or even let us know that was an option.

 

[Von Ether]

I guess the 3rd edition version of WFRP must be the equivalent of Wotc's 4E D&D. But I do get it, publishing companies must make money and putting out new versions of iconic games every 3 to 4 years is the way to go.

Anyway, hopefully the new version will be very much like the 2nd edition of WFRP, a cleaned up and very well received RPG. But new company redoing WFRP probably means massive changes.

The new edition will take direction from the first and second editions of the game rather than the third edition recently published by Fantasy Flight Games.

I would assume not, but sometimes the definition of "direction" can get stretched after the fact.

 

[Derren]

I am surprised that GW still licenses Old World content.

 

[aramis erak]

*tips hat*

I was a player and I guess my GM never saw fit to use them or even let us know that was an option.

2E: p 127 Sidebar "The Tactical Map" discusses same; p. 132 "Combat Examples" shows square battlemat with lettered tokens; p 240 has the map gridded off in 2yd grids (as is standard for 2E tactical mapping); the tail end appendices include 1"=2yd templates for several spells.

1E: p 115, "The Scene of Battle" very very strongly implies use of minis. To the point of mentioning a requirement for a square foot of table space to draw or set up the scene. P. 117 bottom is all the facing exemplar diagrams... which show even the bases (most square, tho' a horse on rectangle, and a man on circle and on hex are also shown...

 

[CapnZapp]

Fantasy Flight Games puts out quality products. But I think their version (3e) of WFRP implemented several things that deterred new players:
- $100 price tag on core boxed set
- Specialty dice
- Limited the amount of players in core set

I hope Cubical 7 avoids these pitfalls.

Simple. Just do a regular ttrpg. Done.

 

[pogre]

I've got all of the 1e and 2e stuff and I am currently running a 2e campaign. Super excited by this I hope it is great. They have a sale from me no matter what. I loved the 1e fluff and the 2e mechanics.

The 3e WFRP/4e D&D comparisons rang true for our group as well.

 

[random.brown]

I'm one of the few people who really liked 3rd edition. But it may be because it was my first exposure to Warhammer Fantasy.

Now I'm off to my Amazon wishlist to see if I want to pick up anything before 3e goes from 'dead' to 'collectible'.

I'm with you, I like 3e best, I just have to track down a copy of Hero's Call....

 

[HobbitFan]

Interesting news. Cubicle 7 is really making a name for themselves.

 

[TrippyHippy]

It's a clever move for Cubicle 7, as it supplements their two major licences (The One Ring/AIME and Doctor Who) with another quintessentially British title. Unlike the other two, the fanbase for WFRP is established through long term gamers however, and this may prove to be a very stable source of income for them. I'm glad to see the game based upon the classic game, although one assumes that they may be able to release the entire back catalogue on PDF/POD anyway.

 

[Minicol]

YEAH !
I am in

 

[Hand of Evil]

Well, saw where Cubicle 7 is also putting out a Warhammer Age of Sigmar that will NOT be compatible with WFRP 4e

http://cubicle7.co.uk/warhammer-age-of-sigmar-roleplaying-game-announced/

 

[mach1.9pants]

I'm glad they're not trying to make both games compatible. AoS seems pretty crazy power levels. Could be fun in its own right but not what I consider warhammer!

 

[darjr]

Props do Cubicle 7 for doing both games. They seem to have found a way to do this kind of thing with The One Ring and Adventures of Middle Earth.

 

[knasser]

Not familiar with this . . .what's 30 second elevator pitch on why / how it's different than 5E, Pathfinder, etc?

In WHFRP 1st Ed. you created your character with one of scores of basic careers. For example, you could be a rat catcher. You may laugh but that was one of the best of them. For example, you had a 30% chance of starting with "a small but vicious dog". The careers had exits to other careers. For example, soldier could lead to mercenary. But it could also lead to things like Captain or Scout. It sounds restrictive but it was utterly compelling and fun. The first thing anybody did when they'd created their Beggar or Boatman was start tracing a route to see how quickly they could get to an advanced career such as Assassin, Pit Fighter or Witch Hunter. And man did everybody want to get to one of those! Your career basically functioned as a smorgasboard of characteristic boosts and skills. You couldn't just expect to buy Navigation as a skill. What - you think you can just sit down one day and read a book on it? No, you had to learn the skills of the trade properly by actually becoming a seaman. Again, sounds unfun, but was actually awesome. And miserable. Good grief, a life of misery had never, ever been so much fun. You trudged your weary way through life always wondering if the next arrow would hit you in the eye and kill you. Hit locations were joyous in their effect. Everybody who ever played it remembers the one where you actually manage to sever someone's head in one go. The head flew 1d6 meters in a random direction and it told you to use a d12 to determine direction.

The only time I have EVER seen an equally perfect synergy between rules and setting is in Cubicle 7's Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space. In that one, the perfect blend of simplicity, open-endedness and initiative system that favoured talking and cleverness over hitting things matched the TV series impeccably. And in WHFRP 1st Ed. the gritty, low-powered, die of syphillis rules matched its setting just as seamlessly. Seriously - you might, somehow, survive the sword fight. But then you'd be killed on the operating table by a drunk chirugeon who botched amputating your lower leg.

Ignore Age of Sigmar. Warhammer is the setting that gave the world the phrase "grimdark". Seriously, this is where it actually comes from. It is one of the most miserable, hopeless, petty, backbiting, venal settings in the history of RPGs. Sure - there are apocalyptic settings, Lovecraftian mystery settings and all that. But they all feel almost adolescent in their "LOOK AT OUR DARKNESS". Somehow nothing ever quite matches the mood of trudging through a sewer in Altdorf during heavy rainfall when the water is flowing fast and carrying Sigman knows what around your knees as you try to earn a silver piece investigating a rumour that somebody's uncle's friend saw a giant rat down there.

Oh, and there are no giant rats. The arch lector's office has said so.

Seriously, WHFRP 1st is perhaps my favourite role-playing game ever. I really want to see what Cubicle 7 do with this. I really, really hope they manage to capture the feel and style of the original.

 

[Vicent Martín Bonet]

Can someone give a short summary of what "Age of Simgar" is and why it's supposedly terrible in a few sentences? Researching it online it seems like it's a War in Heaven kind of scenario and the Old World has been destroyed? Is that actually right? Did Warhammer stop selling as a product and GW felt the need to shake things up substantially or something?

There's nothing wrong with Sigmar, just that it's still nowhere as fleshed out as the Old World, which is ironic since WHFB was in a worse state of vagueness (like: there was no actually defined setting until 3rd edition in 1987.) than AoS at that age and got most of its fleshing out through RPGs like the one it will get next year. Still, the main issue, though, is how badly (and I think there's no word that wouldn't understate the incompetence) the transition was handled. That poisoned a lot of hearts.

 

[aramis erak]

Well, saw where Cubicle 7 is also putting out a Warhammer Age of Sigmar that will NOT be compatible with WFRP 4e

http://cubicle7.co.uk/warhammer-age-of-sigmar-roleplaying-game-announced/

Doesn't say it won't be compatible. Doesn't say it will. Doesn't speak to it at all.

People need to read what's there, not what they expect...

 

[Weiley31]

And my first game will involve a Stormcast SOMEHOW getting zapped to the Old World. And the PCs have to clean up the bloody mess it causes while it is trying to figure out a way to get back to The Age of Sigmar.