When is black fire pass coming out?

I've got to see if we will see it in time for production of an article for Liber Fanatica #9.

Thanks,
jh

If I were a Marketing expert, I'd say that it'll be released when GenCon opens, in a few weeks.

Maelstrom Game gives release date as 13/08/11 and they are notorious about their late WFRP supply.

Black fire pass is on the Esdevium new release sheet so should be in UK shops this week.

Amketch said:

Which games store (international order) would you recommend in UK? Maelstrom Games were ok, but they went down the slippage road.

We will not see the game until september here in Stockholm. One of the drawbacks of having been part of Sovjet Union.

I find Leisure Games very reliable, they are not a discount retailer so are not the cheapest but I have always found their customer service to be excellent and they have an actual shop, not just online. They do charge postage and I can’t comment on their overseas postal costs so may not be as attractive as Maelstrom games in this respect.

Both infinity games (IGUK.co.uk) and Games Lore (gameslore.com) have good fast service. Can comment on international service but they are fine within the UK.

I ordered it from Leisure Games last night and I'll keep my fingers crossed. Got the same price (including shipping) as I would have paid in the Stockholm store.

The Games Lore and IGUK.com sites say that they have the Black Fire Pass in stock. Is that true? Anyone received there copy already?

I've just ordered mine from Gameslore. They always clearly mark things as a pre-order if that's what it is, so they will have this in stock. I'll expect it tomorrow or Wednesday.

Surprised to not have seen an announcement on FFGs front page though...

Maelstrom... yeah... as stated, it's painful waiting for them to get stock for WFRP items.

I bought Omens of War from IGuk.co.uk, but upon the eve of my purchase they suddenly decided they didn't ship to my country anymore... which was unpleasent news to say the least. Had to reroute my purchase to family within the UK, who mailed it to me, which hurt our wallets. I see now, it's still the case.

Games Lore seems to ship to my location, and looks to have a cheaper overall charge... so I guess I'll go with them.

EDIT: Ah bugger. Global currency flux has kicked me in the arse. Should have pre-ordered a week or two ago...

I'll have to check with Orc's nest in London and see if they have it in as well. Amazon UK have moved the release date back to October!

Yep, Orc's Nest got it in stock today, I'll be collecting it after work.

*Happy Dance*

I can't seem to find anything in the US that lists BFP as available yet (Paizo has it listed as shipping within 7-17 days from their warehouse, and the beardies at my FLGS won't be awake for interogation for hours yet ;-P). Anyone in Europe able to confirm that they have their grubby hands on the box?

My copy has shipped from Leisure Games today so should have it tomorrow.

I think the lack of updates on the main site may be due to GenCon, they must have most of their marketing guys getting ready for that.
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Just picked up my copy from my FLGS in Newcastle (UK) today.

First impressions: very nice.

Anybody want to know anything?

I've go to go out in a few minutes but I'll be back later and will try to answer any queries folks have, if any.

Tomba

I'm curious to know what new careers are included.

Here's hoping that it reaches us here in the U.S. sometime soon.

Tomba said:

As stated above, the new careers, plus how (if at all) some may work with current careers.

I'd also be interested in a breakdown of how inventions/Runes work.

Careers in the box are (in the order they came out of the box):

Miner | Basic | Human or Dwarf

Dwarf Engineer | Basic | Dwarf

Dragon Slayer | Advanced | Dwarf | pre-req: complete Giant Slayer career and slay giant

Grudge Keeper | Basic | Dwarf

Ironbeard | Advanced | Dwarf | pre-req: complete ironshield

Runesmith | Advanced | Dwarf | pre-req: complete apprentice runesmith

Thane | Advanced | Dwarf | pre-req: nothing listed

Ironshield | Advanced | Dwarf | pre-req: complete ironbreaker

Apprentice Runesmith | Basic | Dwarf

Dwarf Master Engineer | Advanced | Dwarf | pre-req: Dwarf Engineer

Iron Breaker | Basic | Dwarf (duplicated from Adventurer's Toolkit)

Only had time to skim the contents so far. The book of Grudges has chapters on general Dwarf History, Information about Dwarf society, information on Karak Azgaraz, notable grudges held by Karak Azgaraz, rules on Dwarf Engineering and rules on Rune smithing. The Black fire pass book has chapters that cover the history and geography of the pass, a chapter of short 1 episode adventures (a la GM's Toolkit) and the rest of the book is devoted to the Harrower of Thanes adventure. I don't see anything that would make this book a Greenskin sourcebook. I'll put some more complete thoughts up in a couple of days once I've had a chance to go through the rules and new cards.

Mostly what Commuterzombie said.

IF YOU LIKE TO BE SUPRISED BY THE CONTENTS OF NEW BOXES (like I do) DO NOT READ ON- SPOILERS AHEAD!

I should add that I've had a few glasses of wine and my typing may be wayward...

One brown book (dwarven background and PC rules including runes and inventions) and one blue book (background on Karak Azgaraz and adventure)

I must admit I'm a bit baffled why they duplicated the ironbreaker career... A few throughts- maybe they're going to dispose of the Adventurer's toolkit, in case it makes sense to keep the specialist Dwarf stuff together...

Some of the Action cards are both brilliant and hilarious... but it's best if you find that out for yourselves...

The inventions...

Engineers (a three tier career) have different access to the inventions, which are customizable. The box comes with a 12 ruen cards and six inventions, along with 18 'invention modification tokens'. Thes tokens go on the inventions and are things such as '+1 fortune' or '-1 misfortune' or '-1 challenge' or '+1 expertise' but the rulebook does go into detail saying that other individuals (even other engineers) will probably not understand how an inventio may work, and they always enhance an existing device.

Here's an example form the book:

"Grimvor, a dwarf engineer, line sup a shot with his trusty handgun, which he has modified with a Scope Invention. The scope has both a '+1 fortune die' and a '-1 misfortune die' modification token, so Grimvor adds (one fortune die) to his dice pool. The GM has added (two misfortune die) to the dice pool for his target's defence and the driving rain; Grimvor removes (one misfortune die) from the dice pool thanks to his scope."

It is probably important to note that if an invention attempts to remove a die from a pool in which the die is not present, it has no effect.

Dawrf Engineering is a new advanced skill, and adding a token depends on the addition to the invention- specifically, from 1 to 4 misfortune dice: +1 fortune, -1 misfortune, +1 expertise (but never more than 3 in total) and -1 challenge.

Inventions must be socketed- a beginning engineer can only socket one, a master engineer can socket mulitple inventions at once, including ot the party sheet, if (s)he wants to share his/her inventions with the party.

Inventions also have a rating of Uneliable 2, and risk being turned face down if it fails. Other dwarfs also risk shame if they rely on another dwarf's inventions...

The rules encourage the PCs to explain 'how' the effect is achived, and there is a good example about scopes to illustrate this point.

Runes

Runes basically attach to items in the same way talents atttach to the career sheets. A Runesmith character can learn a new ruen instead of learning a new talent. There are vague guidelines for 'master runes' which are largely left to GM's discretion.

Once a runesmith learns a rune (s)he can then visit the forge and link that rune forever with an item. This costs time, money and the ruen cards (once attached, the rune cannot be unattached or re-used). There are 12 rune cards included with the set. The 'Rule of Three' preview is useful in explaining what happens next.

Overall- I like this set. Lots of nice new stuff, minimal rules bloat, but lots of new ideas to get stuck into. Whilst I'm not sure I'd want to play a Dwarf engineeror runesmith (just not my interest, really) , I'd defininitely like one to be in my party....

Any other questions, I'll try to answer tomorrow (when I'll be more sober...)

Tomba

Thanks for the previews, Tomba and commuterzombie. I can't wait utill I get my copy.

Tomba said:

About the Ironbreaker, my first thought was that since two careers in the BFP require you to start out with Ironbreaker it would be "odd" not to include it in a way, since it would force you to buy the toolkit to use Ironshield and Ironbeard. The general "rule" from FFG has been to include 10 careers in each box, but here we got 11, I can't help but think that it's a "service" to us, that beeing said, since I have the toolkit I would rather have had an extra new career.

The Ironbreaker isn't fixed in any way? There's been discussions that the armour is overpowered, is it the gromril armour included in the set? Is it the same armour as the one from the toolkit?

Much appreciation for the previews!

As for the double copy of the Ironbreaker career, it's quite understandable, based on three reasons (which are generally three perspectives on the same single reason). Firstly, It's taking into consideration the possibility that players may not have bought the Adventurer's Toolkit, or that they may not want to buy it. Secondly, it has two careers that lead on from the Ironbreaker career, which would be useless if the player did not have access to the first career. Thirdly, it's a "Complete Dwarf Kit" supplement, so if you only have the core set, you can buy Black Fire Pass to get all the additional Dwarf careers in one go, which makes complete sense regarding the nature of the Black Fire Pass supplement.

In other words it's not forcing you to buy multiple supplements to get everything working.

At very least, I see no reason to complain about it's inclusion (not suggesting anyone actually is), unless some believe that it's presence ate up a slot for another potential new Dwarven career.

Thanks for the Previews!

Another question: Which new locations cards are in the box? Since my group may enter the Underground in the near future I am quite interested in what's there for designing Mines and Caves ...

Thanks!

k7e9 said:

You're welcome.

I have the two career cards in front of me and I can't see any differences. Likewise the two Gromril Armour cards are word-for-word identical.

As for the reasons, what you say makes sense although the Dragon SLayer is included, but not duplications of the Giant or Troll slayers. Perhaps three duplications would have been too much?

korknadel said:

Three new locations:

Abandoned Dwarf Stronghold

Rocky Outcrop

Fungus Patch

The abandoned Dwarf Stronghold will definitely be of interest to you, and the rocky outcrop may be useful for just before your party goes underground...

Tomba

Tomba said:

Or, to correct myself, I could realise that both of these careers are in the basic set, and therefore my point is redundant. Someday I'll discover the 'on' switch for my brain...