I think it's high time we get some MP rules for W:I. Some of us are starting summer holiday right now wich is the only time we can spend more time with our friends and it is the best time to play with them altogether (during grill party in the garden f.e. . We see how many topics refer to MP rules. Let's stop doing our own imperfect rules and start playing the official, polished ones.

Maybe FFG are planning to release these rules in some kind of bigger expansion so that everyone interested in multiplayer will be forced to buy the expansion, but i think they should not be afraid as all the fans will buy every other expansion no matter the rules inside.

Maybe if we can write an official email to FFG and show them how strongly we anticipate multiplayer rules, maybe we will eventually get them.

Who's with me?

Or

We could all use the thread I started and create a set of rules that feel unique to this game. With a community that knows the in and outs of the game working on a set of rules, we would have some great ideas to improve on and some no so great ideas to try to develope into great ideas. We have more playtesters than FFG if the forums act together to make the rules.

Don't just post your variants though. Instead post ideas. For example, what if we were to make dealing damage to each zone grant a bonus of some sort? They do this in Call of Cthulhu and A Game of Thrones. Based on the combat type the winner gets a reward. They use "look at opponents hand", "draw cards", "untap an creature/unit/character" just to name a few.

I think we should adopt the idea from Doomtown. Only one unique card allowed out in play period. This stops constant ganging up because some characters are very good. So, if a player wants that character to fight for their cause they have to convince/trick the other players into killing the character so they can place that character on their play area. Same goes for unique locations and items. This helps to also make certain charactes feel like the threatening heroes they should be.

Everyone should suffer first turn penalty. No Quest or Battefield phase for first turn.

The rest of the rules are pretty solid. But now you have to change the win condition "to last man standing" instead of just burning two zones of an opponents.
Maybe when all of your zones are burning you are defeated. instead of just two It could help keep players in the game longer for multiplay.

Those are just a few ideas I have been messing with and testing with my friends this last week.

I would actually prefer to see the community create a multiplayer variant together instead of FFG throwing something not all of us agree on or seemly missing something that sets it appart from other multplayer variants in card games. When we feel it is more or less even and play ready, we ask FFG to make the variant official.

If parts of the game were actually developed by players it could be a first and a start for a company to show the trust and loyalty it shares with the fans of the product. We already do change the course of future sets by posting "broken" parts of the game, now we can take it a step further.

Something you helped come up with would become an official rules template for use in the game. Think about it...

or you can just wait and hope the multiplayer variant pleases you and doesn't cost a lot to get. Thanking at a corporate level, if FFG wants to make money off this demand for a multiplayer rules, they could make it a box set. The set would have cards for every army that cater to multplayer play. With cards that have broader effect that impact multiple targets. It could even come with a few plastic parts that will be used for some overly complex multiplayer system. These are just devil advocate theories though.

I am convinced that whether FFG does it or the fans do it, the multiplayer rules will be awesome.

There is the third way - both 1 and 2.

Nothing wrong will happen if we write the petition and maybe, eventually get some rules.

During this (and also after) community may create its own rules, and with some FFG kindness, these rules may become official as well. Players will have a free will to choose from.

What are you talkin' about?! MY rules aren't imperfect!

Oh, and in Doomtown, you started with a few of your Dudes already in play and "pulled" if you and an opponent started the same one, as opposed to buying them one at a time over the course of the game, you know? That might be a mite sticky in this environment. What do you think?

Yeah but once game started you didn't do a "pull" iirc. And each personality was unique (except a for neutral ones) so it made the opening set of dudes more important.
You don't have any cards in play at the beginning of Warhammer Invasion....although you are on to something.

AGoT and Legend of the FIve Rings and Doomtown did this. Maybe Warhammer should have a way to play cards before game starts. You know? To represent the armies gathering the forces. The first turn then represents the acquisition of more troops to send out. It makes sense to send scouts, spies, questing parties, and even call on heroes before the war starts. I mean thematically it doesn't make sense for chaos to not have units prepped and ready for first turn. They have been planning this invasion for eons. So unless the first turn just represents the first units to make it through the portal, I think Chaos should start the game with units. Even if that is what the first turn for chaos represents, then I don't think they should be knocking on Empires capital the first turn of the game.

I think W:I needs a rule like that. Everyone has a set number of resources to spend on cards in their starting hand before the First turn of the game. Quests can not be played during this pre-game phase. Hands are not replenished. If you decide to muster troops, build locations, equip items you will start the first turn with less cards than normal. The person to place cards last in the pre-game phase becomes the first player and suffers the first player penalty of skipping quest and battlefield phase. It is unfair for the last player to place cards to also be able to attack after reacting to where the first player to place cards decided to place his (if any where placed).

So if you like this idea. Please give it a try. Tomorrow I will be playing non stop games to develop a multiplayer rule set with my Local Store. First thing we need to determine is if it is fair and fun to use this pre-game phase. Second we need to come up with a number of resources each player has to spend on cards for the pre-game phase. If it seems broken I will say so, and head back to the drawing board. If it works I will report the changes it brings to the game and post the rules in an actually rules layout format.

Aryan,

I have learned something over the years of gaming and computer graphics. You NEVER want to rush something because of demand from your customers. When you feel forced to complete something you will put in less effort and it will show. The people you rushed for will notice the lack of love one spent on the product and be even more upset.

I have had the lucky opportunity to talk to both Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson (taught at my school), I personally communicate with Eric Flannum (Guild Wars) and Chris Metzen (Blizzard) whom I met both as contacts at a young age (warcraft 2 years), I have been trained by Disney animators that worked on Mulan and Lilo and Stitch oh and Lion King. They all have provided me with useful information based off of their personal beliefs and events in their lives, but they all share a common set of words of wisdom.

"Never release something until you feel satisfied with it. The key to being successful at anything in life is to love what you are doing. If what you are doing feels like labor or "forced" then move on and come back to it later."

I am sure Eric and James are working and testing ideas for multiplayer rules. My guess to what is taking so long would be that they are deciding how to take this game, with a world rich with war and massive conflicts, and make it unique and encourage multiplayer games. Looking over the other games Eric Lang has made, I can tell he puts thought into all of his work. He doesn't take the easy road in Chaos in the Old World for example. AGoT has a completely different gameplay with a unique set of components for its multiplayer rules. Cthulhu changes the setup and adds more complex rules for winning over a story card. So I think it is safe to say the reason MP is taking forever has to be because multiplay W:I is not simple to make exciting and unique.

Maybe James submitted an idea for MP and now the new designers is getting his team to flesh it out.

Take your time guys. I know you won't disappoint.