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.

 

[el-remmen]

5e might be my entry point.

I have wanted to play/run this (mostly play) since I saw the ads for the 1st edition in the pages of Dragon back in the day. The art from the ads alone inspired many features of my old homebrew. But the only time I ever got to play it was in a one-off session run by @mearls at a home con maybe 2 decades ago? Which was like 2 decades after the aforementioned ads. Don't recall which edition that was.

Anyway, maybe I too will use this occasion to jump on.

 

[TheSword]

If I'm not mistaken, Mooman is really just a single developer and I'm not even sure if he's employed by C7 (I think not, but I don't know for sure). So it means, while he might have been working on that for the past two years, he's not working full time on it, and he also does a lot of other stuff for C7. There will probably be a few more changes to the rules, but I don't feel the period over which the development happened is necessarily an indication that the number of changes will be large.

There is actually a small team of folks doing the programming and updating. There’s a hell of a lot though either way. Every new product for 5 ranges. Plus every time Foundry updates the 60 or so products released already need updating too. It’s a labour of love.

You forget when you buy a module for a system like Foundry you’re not just buying all the conversion work and coding they’ve had to do to implement the rules. You’re actually buying all their future work to keep it updated too. There have been 13 major updates to Foundry. Some with some substantial changes to the code.

Fun fact. One the players in my online game does coding for the updates for them. He’s very handy to have around - it’s like having a Foundry Grand Master on retainer. Even though I’m the DM.

 

[TheSword]

I have wanted to play/run this (mostly play) since I saw the ads for the 1st edition in the pages of Dragon back in the day. The art from the ads alone inspired many features of my old homebrew. But the only time I ever got to play it was in a one-off session run by @mearls at a home con maybe 2 decades ago? Which was like 2 decades after the aforementioned ads. Don't recall which edition that was.

Anyway, maybe I too will use this occasion to jump on.

If you do there are so many really good small original adventures released by C7. Worth checking out one of the Ubersreik Adventures books. Great for 4-6 hours of gaming each.

 

[Fenris-77]

I'm going to reserve judgement. I have no interest in replacing books I already have with 'new' versions.

 

[schneeland]

German YouTube channel Orkenspalter TV did an interview with Dominic McDowall at SPIEL (in English). Mainly he confirmed that they are trying to keep things backward compatible, citing the change for advantage as a prominent one. He also mentioned that they don't really have an interest in re-doing old publications themselves, so generally the line is just moving forward and after the new 5e rulebook, there will be the previously discussed Marienburg sourcebook.

There's also a bit of talk about Imperium Maledictum afterwards (he mentions that there's an Adeptus Mechanics book coming in the next few month), but the main part of the interview segment is spent discussing WFRP 5e. If you want to watch yourself:
(skip to 47:06 if the link doesn't take you there directly)

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

I'm going to reserve judgement. I have no interest in replacing books I already have with 'new' versions.

I have faith in that everything but the core book will stay relevant and usable. Mostly because that’s what C7 pitch now and the backlash would be massive from the fan base otherwise. But who knows, capitalism is sadly capitalism - if a company can get away with f*ucking me for more profit they will. I just hope C7’s calculations shows that making old books redundant will hurt the bottom line.

 

[kronovan]

Well low & behold, today (Monday) new copies of the WHFRP 4e CRB appeared at 2 online stores in my country that I recently browsed. I'm surprised, because it's listed for the same price at both (not common here) and for the lowest I've ever seen it. One of them has it listed as a limited time offer - hmm. Makes me wonder why now when its end is soon?

Seems curious when they announce a new edition and shortly after a book that's been missing from retail for a while, is suddenly there? I don't want to be skeptical or cynical, but is it possible that distributors are dumping copies into our CDN market, now that it's less attractive in others? For those retailers here who ever ordered such books, feel free to tell me that from the time of the recent announcement to now, that timing would be too tight for that to be true.

Anyhow...it's listed at the equivalent of $45 USD - a good price here, but not sure about elsewhere? I'm eligible for free shipping from one of the stores, so that + taxes would be my final. I was really looking to get a WH40K W&G CRB, but this seems like a good deal. It's been many moons since I read my WHFRP PDF, but I remember thinking it was a bit incomplete in a few areas. Were there errata released for it?

Well...I'm pondering whether I should press the [buy] button for this, or just wait till 5e is released? One thing for sure, there's no way in the darkest depths of the realm of chaos, that the WHFRP 5e CRB will be nearly as cheap here.