Sunday 22 February 2009

WFRP: iAltdorf update 1.11

After a good long while I've done some work on the iAltdorf map and I hereby release version 1.11 of the iAltdorf map. This time, I have mostly added new stuff from various sources, and made some tweakings to the spreadsheet. Explore and give me feedback!

One thing I especially want feedback on is the placement of Reiksport. I'm not entirely happy with my choice, but see it as a logical place for a port to grow up outside of Altdorf, close to the protection of the walls. Comments on that?

This release also has Alexander Bateman, a.k.a Jadrax, to thank for many of the locations. He's supplied me with even more locations, and there are plenty still to be extacted from Shades of Empire, so the next release should not have to wait another year or so!

Now go check out the new version of the map!

Go here for the download page!

Magnus

Saturday 14 February 2009

FAL General: What's ahead for WFRP?

A couple of days ago, I got my hands on Shades of Empire. The next day Fantasy Flight Games released a pdf describing six upcoming books for WH40kRP: Dark Heresy. Some good stuff in there with an adventure trilogy and some rulebooks that are bound to pique people's interest. And yesterday I read that the Career Compendium is released and on the shelves of random gaming shops around the world. So things are finally moving along at FFG.

Yet, I still can't shake a feeling of envy towards Dark Heresy. The books released so far are hardback, glorious colour and lavishly illustrated. The WFRP books are softback, black and white and adequately illustrated. I acknowledge that people might be of the opinion that the WFRP books look better than the Dark Heresy books, simply because they enjoy softback, black and white and so on, so forth. But to me, looking at the production values also gives an indication as to where FFG are putting their resources to use, and what line is generating the most interest and in the end, sales.

And it looks to be Dark Heresy. No surprise there, and great news to fans of the game ... which includes me. But WFRP is my game of choice, so I would very much like to see the same level of support for that game. So after two rapid releases, what I'm hoping for now is another pdf from FFG, this time covering the 2009 books for WFRP.

I don't think the books will be hard cover nor full colour, and I don't think we'll get six books. Four seems like a dream, and I'm speculating that we'll be seeing three new releases and some reprints. This will reflect the general interest in WFRP as one of the third tier roleplaying games after first tier Dungeons & Dragons, second tier Vampire and possibly Dark Heresy, and together with third tier contenders such as Exalted, GURPS, Shadowrun and Pathfinder.

What books we will see is still difficult to guess. The latest releases are companion and compendium type books, which I love, but I don't really see them being instrumental in gaining new converts to the game. We need something else.

What do you want to see for WFRP in 2009?

/Magnus

Sunday 8 February 2009

FAL General: Shades of Empire aquired

Just a short note to say that I have aquired Shades of Empire, the latest official WFRP book, released by Fantasy Flight Games. I've had a quick look through it, read a few chapters and looked for Altdorf locations. And there's a lot of new places mentioned in the book that will need to go onto my iAltdorf map.

I love the format, to me this actually feels more like a second WFRP Companion for WFRPv2 than anything else. And as you know I love the companion format.

It's great to finally have a new official WFRP book in my hands, after a long wait. It was a little bit over a year ago that Black Industries was closed down, and I hope that FFG picks up the pace of publishing after this first entry. I'll get back with a review in due time!

/Magnus