Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 5th Edition Is Coming in 2026

2026 will the 40th anniversary of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, the classic British fantasy TTRPG launched in 1986 by Games Workshop. It's also the year of a brand new edition of the game, with WFRP 5E hitting shelves, courtesy of Cubicle 7.

Cubicle 7's CEO Dominic McDowall, in an interview with Wargamer, indicated that the new edition will be backwards compatible with 4th edition, retaining the classic d100 system, and set in a similar time period. There will be a conversion document of sorts, but most older material will be usable with ease.

McDowall said that the goal is to 'standardize' things more, and remove subsystems which don't add enough player satisfaction in relation to their complexity. Existing 4th Edition books will not be re-released, and a new 'mega campaign' is being worked on.

WFRP has been published by various publishers over the decades--Games Workshop, Hogshead Publishing, Green Ronin/Black Industries, Fantasy Flight Games, and--since 2018--Cubicle 7. The game is set in a 'grimdark' fantasy setting called the 'Old World', with various regions very loosely based on countries in the Middle Ages. One of the game's predominant themes is the battle against Chaos, as represented by beastmen, mutated ratmen (Skaven), and dark cults.

 

[Neonchameleon]

My hard line is whether they fix the career system back to the way it was with you bouncing between careers to level up rather than just level up in your career. I want the Pit Fighter to go to a Judicial Champion not Pit Fighter 1 -> Pit Fighter 4; Pit Fighter 4 should not be a thing.

 

[Hand of Evil]

And the Old World just came out. Don't know but feeling they are just milking it.

 

[timbannock]

There's a thread on here about the topic. Lots of varied opinions.

Thread 'Warhammer frpg - 2e vs 4e'

Nov 12, 2021

Hello

I have ran several campaigns using warhammer frpg 2nd ed, both in the warhammer world and outside of it (I wanted to see if it was suitable for a "low-ish" fantasy pseudo earth campaign, and it is!). I avoided 3e entirely because it really wasn't the same game anymore.

Now 4e is here. I've only glanced at the book. One of the big feature seems to be how you can stick in the same career the entire game, which is an interesting change but I don't see it as fundamental. I'm more interested in the other changes.

Some, like @CapnZapp , have said that 4e is "broken"...

• Ancalagon
• Replies: 122
• Forum: *TTRPGs General

Wow, those combat explanations definitely helped me understand some things. Pretty wild differences.

 

[TheSword]

My hard line is whether they fix the career system back to the way it was with you bouncing between careers to level up rather than just level up in your career. I want the Pit Fighter to go to a Judicial Champion not Pit Fighter 1 -> Pit Fighter 4; Pit Fighter 4 should not be a thing.

Why? Why is the option for progression bad?

You can still bounce from one career to Judicial Champion if that’s what you want provided it makes sense in the game. No one is stopping you playing that way if you want. It’s explicitly set out in the rules.

I much prefer it to the very arbitrary career paths from 1st and 2nd.

 

[Cergorach]

And the Old World just came out. Don't know but feeling they are just milking it.

They are a business that runs primarily on IP they don't own, they have to milk it as fast and for as long as they can. It's not just Warhammer (40k), they also do Doctor Who and The Laundry (and they have a history of licensed titles).

I also suspect that it's a confluence of different events and circumstances. They've been doing WFRP4e since 2018, while Warhammer is big, the pnp RPG certainly less so. So it isn't strange that they suffer from declining sales after 7 years when WotC has the same issue and releases a new 'edition' after 10 years (C7 after 8 years with WFRP4e). And it's a double the time that WFRP2e was around (only 4 years)... A new edition generally invigorates an old pnp RPG in the sales department.

With The Old World and The Horus Heresy RPGs, I suspect that it's partly waiting to see which way the cat jumps and permission from GW to make pnp RPGs about these specific IPs. For us Warhammer fans, it was a coin toss whether or not The Old World would stay around as a supported game, or it would go the same route as many of the other sub games GW produced. To a lesser extend the same was true for the HH game, there were serious questions about what would happen after it's 2nd edition, the 3rd edition of HH was a surprise to many. But it looks like continued support from GW for both games for a while.

I still hope that the Marienburg book will be released under the WFRP4e label. Because I have a bit of a bad experience with the 'compatibility' label most publishers promise...

Oh... And we might need to check the cold dead hands of Padraig Murphy:

 

[Morrus]

And the Old World just came out. Don't know but feeling they are just milking it.

What’s the gap a company should leave between bringing out a product and announcing a new edition?

 

[TheSword]

And the Old World just came out. Don't know but feeling they are just milking it.

In regards to 4e, it’s has more products released in its 7 years of run than any other edition of the game.

Core book
Starter set
GM screen
Magic speciality book
Combat speciality book
Rogue speciality book
5 x Campaign book
5 x Campaign supplement/anthology
3 x Adventure anthologies
Monster book
3 x World/rule anthologies
2 x Dwarf books
2 x Elf books
3 x City books
A maritime book
A jungle exploration book
PDF compilation book
And about a dozen pdf only supplements or adventures

In short 32 hardcover books and a dozen PDFs. I don’t think we can say that Cubicle 7 hasn’t put time and effort into 4e for the long haul or tried to cash their chips in early.

It’s due a reprint of core to bring all that together.

 

[Hand of Evil]

What’s the gap a company should leave between bringing out a product and announcing a new edition?

here it is every 8 years, 40 years it has been out. Seems shorter than it has been. Maybe it is just me getting old just remembering them all.

 

[Morrus]

here it is every 8 years, 40 years it has been out. Seems shorter than it has been. Maybe it is just me getting old just remembering them all.

Old World came out 8 years ago?

 

[mamba]

What’s the gap a company should leave between bringing out a product and announcing a new edition?

Old World is its own RPG system, not a book for WFRPG 4e, so in that scenario no time at all…