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
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
I think the important thing to remember is that Dark Heresy is still a good 15 or so books behind WFRP. Until there both even you cannot gauge popularity, I mean they only just got the equivalent of Old World Bestiary.
ReplyDeleteAs for what I want to see, a "Shades of Empire" for both Bretonnia and Kislev are top of my list, they need fleshing out badly.
Good point about total size of the two lines, actually. I count 25 titles for WFRP in my shelf, and only four for Dark Heresy.
ReplyDeleteI'm liking SoE, still reading through it. Not suprisingly I'd like an Altdorf sourcebook, and a book on Tilea. And a bumper book of NPCs, that'd be cool.
/M
I would love to see a book or books covering non-humans - elves, dwarves, halfings: these are all playable races so some more material would be great. I second you call for a big book of NPC's, and ANY detailed new locations.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see someone pick up the Warpstone mantel as well. One of the best things about WFRP was the quality and quantity of unofficial support. As you say WFRPv2 is obviously a backburner project for them and it probably always will be.
Hi ria!
ReplyDeleteFor me personally, elf and dwarf sourcebooks are not the highest priority. Maybe because they probably won't cover Altdorf much. :-)
The Warpstone angle is interesting. I would like to see Warpstone picked up by FFG, and John Foody retained as an editor.
The tricky thing is how they would keep their independent theme. It worked with Hogshead, but then James Wallis was an extra-ordinary publisher.
/M
Forum necromancy - sorry about digging this up!
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see a supplement on the other core PC races of Elf, Dwarf and Halfling. I know Halflings get more mention in SH but it would be nice to have something expanding on the material.
A book of NPCs would be really nice too, and I second anything that explores more locations.
Something I thought might work really well was the prospect of having a subscribed adventure campaign periodical, like the adventure paths Paizo receive acclaim for. Any opinions on that?
@keV
ReplyDeleteNever mind the necromancy, every post is fair game at this blog!
A book of NPCs would be really nice.
Hmmmm ... a periodical like Pathfinder? Not a bad idea at all.
Ok, what I would like FFG to do was to pick up Warpstone, and make it an official mag, with proper distrobution. The format could be reworked to include an "adventure path" installment in every issue, and release six issues per year. I'm sure FFG could get a lot of writers in addition to those who would stay on for an official tour of Warpstone.
/Magnus
6 issues a year, with an adventure path? I'd sign up for that in a heartbeat :)
ReplyDelete