Saturday, 5 December 2009

WFRP: Unboxing WFRPv3

I got the box home a few days ago, but haven't had the time to look more closely at it nor its contents. I did an unboxing with photos, but I guess most of you have already seen other pictures of the game. Still, this might give you some more insights into the package and the components included.

The box is big and thick and a bit intimidating:

The Box

There's an external slip cover with a "lid" that opens up to reveal more details about what's inside. The lid is help shut by two pieces of velcro:

The Box

A shot of the box from the side, the lid open. I'm not sure what I think of the logo. A bit too metallic for my taste:

The Box

First edition, second edition and third edition:

The Box

The covers of all three editions in plain view. They are all good in their own ways, but I'm a bit sad that third edition didn't do the spiky hair dwarf motive as well:

The Box

The slip cover. As you can see, the box itself is wrapped in protective plastic. Which is good, because the slip cover was scuffed and somewhat defaced:

The Box

Top lid of the box removed and placed to the side. First thing I noticed was a catalog for FFG's other games:

The Box

The four rulebooks and two plastic bags of cards and counters. You also see the cards in different stacks:

The Box

Another view of the cards and a glimpse of the extra ten-sided dice. You might notice that everything is resting on some card stock that's inside the box:

The Box

The card stock has now been removed, for your viewing pleasure:

The Box

Under the compartments of the card stock I found the character sheets, more cards, dice, plastic stands and the three player boxes:

The Box

Here are the three player boxes folded and "assembled". The dice are standard size six-sided, shown for scale:

The Box

Here you see the box placed in my bookshelf (showing roughly 10% of my gaming collection). It looks really out of place there, so I might rearrange the whole thing, especially when more boxes are aquired:

The Box

Well, that's my first unboxing!

/Magnus

Wednesday, 2 December 2009

WFRP: First impressions

So I went to my FLGS today. They know me there, so all I had to say was "you've got something for me". The reply was "a big box?". Sure thing, WFRPv3 comes in a big box. It feels massive, it is massive. If this had been released way back when, I would have been totally floored by it. I really like the package.

Unboxing it (pictures to come) revealed a box half packed with stuff. Some padding, but after trying to put it all back, the box was crammed. Well, that's life. The pieces and rulebooks and everything looks really neat. Really, really neat. They've avoided some typographical errors that plagued the BI releases, which is nice. They are reusing a lot of art which is ok in my book, but a bit disappointing.

Initial impression is that it looks cool, that it heaves closer to WFB imagery than earlier editions but that it tries to appease the WFRP fans of yore by introducing some familiar themes. One peculiar thing I haven't seen mentioned is that they stuck in a bag of extra ten-sided dice, since they deemed that the original dice didn't measure up quality-wise. A bit odd, and I'm not sure what to think of it. Nice that they put in the extra dice, a bummer that the original set didn't hold up ... it's one of those things that won't bother the fans, but will be forever used as fodder against WFRPv3 by the most vocal of critics.

Ok, that's the initial impressions. I'll post pictures later.

/Magnus

Tuesday, 1 December 2009

WFRP: And a new campaign is announced

Popped over to my RSS reader, and saw that FFG has announced a new campaign titled The Gathering Storm. Read more about it here. Bound to be interesting and comparisons to The Enemy Within and Paths of the Damned are inevitable. My guess is it'll be better than PotD but not so good as TEW (without SRiK and EiF).

More thoughts on this as more info is revealed. Or when I had a bit of thought about it, whichever comes first.

/Magnus

WFRP: WFRPv3 has arrived!

So WFRPv3 has arrived. At my FLGS at least. Got an email notice just now and I can pick it up tomorrow, if my work schedule allows it. After that I will start posting my impressions, probably in a series of posts, with plenty of pictures. It'll take some time, but I want to give it a fair shake before burning it at the stake ... erm ... extolling its virtues ... or something inbetween, most probably.

Interesting times.

/Magnus

Saturday, 28 November 2009

FAL General: Whither WFRP?

As the winter is approaching, and my working hours are loosing their cloying grip of me, I begin to ponder the future of WFRP once again. The most interesting and terrifying event is of course the release of third edition WFRP. But in its shadow there are many other developments, both alarming and comforting.

Alarming, although no longer news, is of course the closure of Warpstone magazine. John Foody has done a remarkable job at the helm of a publication that I rank as one of the best efforts in the history of roleplaying games. If there were a WFRP Hall of Fame, John Foody should be inducted, only shortly after Graeme Davis, Jim Bambra, Phil Gallagher and James Wallis.

Although John has denied it, I will play the unusual role of conspiracy herald; Warpstone closes at issue 30. The last issue will be published after Fantasy Flight Games published edition 3 of WFRP. Coincidence? John says so, and who am I to contradict a future WFRP Hall of Fame inductee?

After Warpstone, the shining star of fan publications have been Liber Fanatica. I'm not sure what that gang is up to, but I've got some e-mails to send out to find out. Stay tuned! I'm sure they have some splendid news, or maybe apocalyptic tidings, to dole out. All in all it should be interesting.

And the latest news regarding the frolics of the Games Workshop legal department don't bode well for fan sites and said fans' relations with and attitude towards GW and by extension FFG. Grim news of the potential closure of the Dark Reign web site reached me last week, but those fans are rallying and complying with the "Cease and Desist" letter sent from GW legal. I can't be alone in thinking that GW have picked up too much inspiration from their admittedly splendid Judge Dredd RPG from 1985. Maybe a new motto would be pertinent:

"Games Workshop. We are the law!"

Truth be told, I'm not too worried about that. Apparently GW are going after sites that use their own texts and images, and if for example I myself do refrain from cribbing from GW I should be ok. We'll see ... until a C&D explodes in my mailbox, The Altdorf Correspondent is here to stay ... albeit intermittently, I must admit.

Well, you might be thinking about what on Earth I find comforting with the current situation for WFRP.

Well, one comforting thing that has happened is that fans of WFRPv1 and WFRPv2 have now found more common ground than ever before. What seemed like gargantuan issues of rules incompatibilities only a year ago, now seems like trifles that a smattering of house rules will set right, at least when compared to the new enemy: WFRPv3.

And even WFRPv3 makes concessions to the demands of the fan base: apparently the campaign date is set before the Storm of Chaos. Which would have pleased a lot of WFRP players if that had been the case for WFRPv2 as well. I'm happy about it, although to be frank I mostly ignored the SoC in my own writings and my own campaign. I even figured that it could be used creatively and in the spirit of WFRP, something a few fans were adamant in telling me I was wrong about. Well, it seems GW and FFG thought the same thing (that I was wrong) and now WFRP is pre-SoC. Whether SoC ever happened ... or "happens", actually ... is still up for discussion.

"Games Workshop. Retconning For The Greater Good!"

Yeah, well it does pose a little dilemma for me, since my writings so far have factored in SoC ... ah, what the hell. I'll just roll back the whole thing and go with the current timeline. It's not like angry fans of SoC in WFRP are going to storm my front door demanding I stay with the WFRPv2 timeline.

And finally, one comforting thing is the fact that WFRPv3 finally comes out. And it's in a box, which I've been clamouring for for ages and ages. RPG's came in boxes when I was a lad, so that's clearly the best way to publish an RPG! If WFRPv1 had been packaged in a box, I would have loved it even more ... if such a thing is possible.

/Magnus

Thursday, 8 October 2009

WFRP: Fan-organised scenario competition

Check out the new WFRP scenario competition that just got going at Strike-to-stun:

WFRP scenario competition.

So fire up your writing implement of choice and start hacking away! Fame and glory awaits.

/Magnus

Wednesday, 12 August 2009

FAL: New WFRP revealed

Getting home from the pub I saw that RebelDave posted that the new WFRP has been announced. This is the link:

WFRPv3 press release

I am drunk, so I can't make a coherent statement as of yet, so I'll get back to this piece of news tomorrow!

Although I must say that this piece of marketing speak is awful:

Stances provide characters a unique venue to reference their approach

Seriously, what the fuck? But it seems cool, so I'll keep an open mind.

/Magnus