Cyandroid said:

What were they thinking? I don't know, maybe that the whole Vikings/barbarians/frost giants thing would be totally expected, and therefore, boring. I for one, am VERY pleased at the strange direction the FW storyline has taken. Thanks FFG, for not phoning it in with worn out and tired fantasy ice-world cliches.

Well, thankfully the "club" was just a placeholder for a way cooler "ice crystal (snowflake)" symbol...the preview images have been updated.

I will be curious to see if the frost effect(which I assume leads to damage) is only suffered in combat or in non-encounter terrain as well. It will be cool if only towns provide safe haven from bad weather effects. I guess we'll see more in the next preview.

Except those "boring cliches" are firmly in place, thankfully, just with a senseless and pasted-on sci-fi element. There's no setting or story that isn't just a series of cliches; it's all about how well and convincingly those cliches are pulled off.

Those cards were pretty cool. The art is better than average for Runebound, There's new mechanics, terms, symbols, and stats to ponder, and theme shines through strongly on all of them. No "well, this doesn't fit the theme but let's put it in any way" cards in that preview. Doesn't mean they're not there, but they're not highlighting them. They were careful not to show any robot cards, most likely because they're in an end game "silver deck" to use Island of Dread terminology. You'll probably have to deal with them to get at Arshan. I'd rather the end game maintain/amplify the feel of the expansion, not betray it, but it's better than having them all throughout the game, and maybe I'm wrong too. I know games have notoriously bad back stories, but I thought Frozen Wastes was executed particularly poorly. The after-thought sci-fi aside, we have, let's see, ice-world - sorry, Is-heim, Weik(ings), Inuit - sorry Onoit, and a place that was once green but now is covered in ice (hello Greenland, where vikings and inuit both have lived). The back-stories for Dragonlords, Isle of Dread, and Sands of Al-Kalim, while nothing to write home about, at least had a little effort and originality put into them. This one is just a page from a sixth grade history book with a space ship dropped on it. Frustrating when you consider the time it took to make this expansion.

Frost damage seems like an interesting mechanic. The frost symbol is the same as the expansion symbol, so I wonder if there is still another symbol for frost yet to be revealed? Will keep watching to see how much the back story impacts the game.

BlueHarlequin said:

I'm glad you like the new storyline, but make note that the first Runebound game had you hacking down big bad dragon bosses. Cliche. The next big box expansion had you trying to stop the inevitable return of a dark, many-tentacled god (does Cthulhu sound familiar?). Cliche. The most recent big box had you questing in a world remarkably similar to the Arabian Nights. Cliche. Yet, as far as I know, everyone enjoyed all these games quite a lot, cliche or no. The new game story surprised me a bit, I'll admit, but as my most recent post said, after seeing the preview cards it looks pretty good to me. No need to get all passive/aggressive. It's all going to be ok...

@Cyandroid:

Not trying to be passive aggressive. Sorry if it came off that way.

It's just that when Frozen Wastes was announced, I was a bit disappointed if only because it seemed the next obvious "theme" after Isle of Dread and Sands. OF COURSE they were going to do a frozen world. And, I thought, of course it will be filled with Vikings and Yetis and Norse-like Dwarfs. Though the previous expansions all did wonders with familiar fantasy tropes, the idea of Frozen Viking World, Runebound style, just seemed like a failure of imagination. So I was VERY happy to see them go a completely unexpected route, even if it's a bit sci-fi. I can't imagine there's going to be laser rifles and android allies a la Talisman Timescape, but a crashed craft from a long gone civilization seems about right.

BlueHarlequin said:

@ BlueHarlequin,

No harm done. I have to say that the more I see of Frozen Wastes previews, the more I like it. As a matter of fact, at this point I've totally changed my mind and I really like it. It sounds totally unique and I agree with you that it will be refreshing to have something different this time. I expect you are also correct about the sci-fi elements. I'm sure it won't be totally over the top, but maybe the "machines" will be more like the Hellboy Golden Army robots, as suggested by one of the other posters. That, I think, would be pretty cool!

The most recent preview (Jan 15) explains the frost tokens and weather effects in detail. Don't really care for the idea of teleporting magic ice crystals, but you definitely get the idea you are in a frozen, barren wasteland -- much like where I live, where the temp hit 18 below zero Thursday and today we're getting about five inches of snow with temps around 10 above.

I just hope FW is out before March -- March 2009, that is.