War is Hell in Ulisses Spiele's Wrath & Glory

Hello, and welcome to the new Ulisses North America news round up. We'll be covering news and gameplay from Ulisses regularly here on EN World. Ulisses produces RPG Torg Eternity and the new Warhammer 40,000 RPG Wrath & Glory. Now, on with the first update!

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War is Hell. In the far future of the 41st millennium, battles constantly rage across the galaxy. Humanity is in trouble in a brand new RPG from Ulisses. So, what's happening in the world of Warhammer right now? To begin with, we're now playing in the era of The Dark Imperium. The short version is that half of the galaxy is now cut off from earth and the Emperor of Mankind due to a massive rift in The Warp. Your players will be operating within the realm of the now cut-off empire. The role playing and action possibilities are endless.

Wrath & Glory just came out this year and there looks to be a plethora extra items, adventures and expansions coming up. A starter set for the game is coming up this month and available pre-order at the official Ulisses North America website. Per the website description, the set will include special dice, tokens, beginner rules and character sheets for the game.

You can grab a copy of the core book (which is required to play) in digital form at Drive Thru RPG for $29.99. and get some players together (the game recommends a maximum of six players for playing comfortably. Your experience may vary) for a 40K experience like none other. We're excited to see how Wrath & Glory plays and looking into the game's bright future.

This article was contributed by David J. Buck (Nostalgia Ward) as part of EN World's News Columnist (ENWC) program. We are always on the lookout for freelance columnists! If you have a pitch, please contact us!

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

GW is making money with the videogame licences, but the RTS videogames are killing miniature wargames since before Starcraft and the boom of 3D-printers hasn't arrived yet.

W40K isn't a game about good vs evil but bad vs worse. The faction of the imperium of the mankind is too.... close minded, hating all aliens and people with different points of view. The world dictatorship from the saga "Starship Troopers" was softer, a group of innocent altar boys next to the W40K eclesiarchy. I feel unconfortable because it is a fictional universe where everybody has forgotten the respet of the human dignity. They lack the ideals we can see in Star Wars or Star Treck.

If there is a W40K blockbuster movie, you can bet the parodies will be merciless, acute with a lot of bitterness, worse than by "Robot Chicken". The parody Mel Brook's movie "Spaceball" will be an kid-friendly episode of Dora the explorer next to thoses.

 

[Cergorach]

GW is making money with the videogame licences, but the RTS videogames are killing miniature wargames since before Starcraft and the boom of 3D-printers hasn't arrived yet.

RTS videogames are over 25 years old (Dune II), 40k is just a little over 30 years old. Not only does 40k sell better then any RTS game, GW generates more revenue and profit then the whole current RTS genre. Since it's heyday the RTS genre has been shrinking for a long time, but even at it's peak it was never a miniatures wargame replacement. Maybe some of the turnbased strategy games come close, but that market is even smaller.

In the last 30 years, the miniatures market has continued to expand, even faster then the RPG industry. Because an RPG book you sell only once to a person (or even one in a group), a lot of the miniature games sell multiple copies from certain miniatures (monsters, troops, etc.). Also a miniature is a lot easier to produce then a book, content writing, editing and game design are very time consuming. Even compared to something like plastic miniatures, books are a lot less profitable, not to mention time resistant. Steel molds can last a decade and miniatures are cross edition durable.

3D printers are in a boom, but not a threat, that's mostly due to quality, material, and time/cost restraints. I'm an huge proponent of 3D printing, but if I have the choice between plastic GW minis and PLA/resin 3D prints, I'll go for the plastic GW minis every time. Most people that don't often don't value their time appropriately or have any appreciation for miniature (print) quality. For terrain 3D printing in PLA is interesting, some of the larger monsters as well, but for now injection molding has the potential to be far cheaper then 3D printing, not to mention time efficient.

W40K isn't a game about good vs evil

No absolutely not! It's about all kinds of factions that think that they are doing the best for their people and the universe, but doing the most horrible things in the process. The road to hell is paved... I also think it's a commentary on society, one from before the fall of the Berlin wall, but imho is still relevant now.

If there is a W40K blockbuster movie, you can bet the parodies will be merciless, acute with a lot of bitterness, worse than by "Robot Chicken". The parody Mel Brook's movie "Spaceball" will be an kid-friendly episode of Dora the explorer next to thoses.

That depends, Hollywood generally wants a happy end and 'true' heroes. Especially the Americans might make Space Marines in the true 'American Hero'. Hell, GW itself often portrays SM these days as such, but in some of the fiction it still shows up, the generically bred Sturmtruppen of the Emperor making genocidal war on anything that doesn't fit their view of pure. Some of the 3D fan projects do show some promise, but are often more a visual spectacle then a showcase about the lack of morality in the 41st millenium...

 

[agrayday]

I wonder at what cost GW sold the 40K rpg rights to Ulisses North America? I just wonder why the move from FFG (regardless of product reception, it seemed like they had a good deal at FFG)? I understand that its the same designer from FFG that did Star wars and worked on the warhammer license.... Did the designer take the license with him?

Question from Interview: ""How long have you been working with GW?"


Ross Watson: " I’ve worked with Games Workshop many times now, first as part of the US White Dwarf team from 2003-2005. After that, I worked with their licensing team to build the Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay lines at Fantasy Flight Games, then again on projects like Dark Millennium Online, Regicide, and Battlefleet Gothic: Armada. So, all told, about 15 years now, off and on!"

Source: http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2018/04/meet-the-designer-ross-watson-of-wrath-glory.html

 

[Cergorach]

I wonder at what cost GW sold the 40K rpg rights to Ulisses North America? I just wonder why the move from FFG (regardless of product reception, it seemed like they had a good deal at FFG)? I understand that its the same designer from FFG that did Star wars and worked on the warhammer license.... Did the designer take the license with him?

Not sold, just licensed. And the amount, I doubt, we'll never know. I suspect that the writer is a freelancer that just writes for a property has worked on before (knowledge of the setting). I suspect that it was FFG that didn't want to renew the license, they pretty much milked the property dry at that point, and some of the new GW games were done with FFG's own IP (thus no need to pay license fees). I also doubt that Wrath & Glory will do anywhere as well as Dark Heresy, the market has flooded with product. We saw the same thing with the Star Wars property after it moved from WotC to FFG, FFG started with making games in the same genre where WotC's were weakest a starship miniatures game and a LCG. IA was more of a Descent 2.5 with a SW skin instead of a pure miniatures game like Legion, a pure minis game many years after the last WotC prepainted miniatures release.

Ulisses NA has been throwing money around the last couple of years making a name for themselves, I suspect that this is their latest and most known IP. Dark Eye is mostly known in Germany and surrounding countries (my first RPG in Dutch many, many years ago), Fading Suns is not known by many (although I love the IP), Torg is also an oldy (backed the remake) and Myth is a lot newer (their first board game, also backed the KS projects).

 

[agrayday]

Not sold, just licensed. And the amount, I doubt, we'll never know. I suspect that the writer is a freelancer that just writes for a property has worked on before (knowledge of the setting). I suspect that it was FFG that didn't want to renew the license, they pretty much milked the property dry at that point, and some of the new GW games were done with FFG's own IP (thus no need to pay license fees). I also doubt that Wrath & Glory will do anywhere as well as Dark Heresy, the market has flooded with product. We saw the same thing with the Star Wars property after it moved from WotC to FFG, FFG started with making games in the same genre where WotC's were weakest a starship miniatures game and a LCG. IA was more of a Descent 2.5 with a SW skin instead of a pure miniatures game like Legion, a pure minis game many years after the last WotC prepainted miniatures release.

Ulisses NA has been throwing money around the last couple of years making a name for themselves, I suspect that this is their latest and most known IP. Dark Eye is mostly known in Germany and surrounding countries (my first RPG in Dutch many, many years ago), Fading Suns is not known by many (although I love the IP), Torg is also an oldy (backed the remake) and Myth is a lot newer (their first board game, also backed the KS projects).

Thank you for the clarifications, just seemed to me the strange co-incidence of FFG losing both the license and Designer to have them together at a rather new company. I appreciate your response, makes things more understandable.

Do you know who is behind Ulisses NA? Is this RPG being published outside of USA by them?

thanks,
A

 

[Cergorach]

Do you know who is behind Ulisses NA? Is this RPG being published outside of USA by them?

Well, there is a 'Ulisses Spiele' the German owner of The Dark Eye property. Markus Plötz is the owner of Ulisses Spiele and is also the owner of 'Ulisses NA'.

https://www.ulisses-us.com/about/

I suspectt they'll be distributing the English version in Europe and translating it to a German version, just like the previous version.

Their website seems to be down at the moment, but it's currently the middle of the night here in Europe:
http://www.ulisses-spiele.de

 

[gribble]

You can certainly play a Space Marine, Salamanders and Ultramarines are listed as Chapters, and it certainly discusses Librarians as roles, although I can't see them listed in the Archetypes charts, so maybe I'm missing it somewhere.

Yes, you can currently play a Space Marine from any of the First Founding chapters, including Salamanders and Ultramarines. It isn't too hard to model other chapters using the traits for the nine given chapters.
Librarians currently aren't an archtype, but you can mimic one well enough at tier 3+ by taking a SM Scout (tier 2) or Tactical SM (tier 3) and ascending them at least one tier with the Psychic Revelations ascension package.

 

[Jhaelen]

Erm... 40k is now more popular then ever, they are now generating more revenue and profit then ever before, and while the other games like AoS, BB, Necro, AT, etc. contribute to those numbers, 40k is still the major mover and shaker at GW.

I could never fathom why there are W40k fans. Imho, everything about the setting and the game is terrible. But it's rather futile to argue about tastes...

 

[Cergorach]

I could never fathom why there are W40k fans. Imho, everything about the setting and the game is terrible. But it's rather futile to argue about tastes...

Originally it plundered just about every dark sci-fi source there was (Dune, Alien, etc.), so it's not so strange it was popular back in the day. I agree that the game itself is mediocre at best, the setting is indeed terrible, and that is why some (enough) like it. ;-)

 

[Jhaelen]

I agree that the game itself is mediocre at best, the setting is indeed terrible, and that is why some (enough) like it. ;-)

True. In my board game group there are two big WH40k fans and they seem to get excited by exactly the stuff I consider bad about the setting and game: getting to roll buckets of dice, assembling and painting tons of minis, the ridiculous background and nonsensical factions, etc.

It's weird since we otherwise have almost the same taste in (board) games (excepting Twilight Imperium, which I refuse to play because it, imho, takes way too long for what it is).