I always (for some reason) read the details when FFG is hiring. I'm not interested in applying for their jobs but I still think it's fun to see what FFG is looking for in their candidates. The latest news about FFG hiring is that they are looking for a new "Associate Roleplaying Game Producer".

www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp

What's interesting about these news for us in particular is that in the document that details the position FFG among other things list requirements for their applicants. A tidbit of information may be gleaned there as they are looking for an Associate Roleplaying Game Producer with "Strong knowledge of Star Wars, Warhammer Fantasy, and Warhammer 40,000 IPs." (I added the bold text to the quote).

As it is a Associate Roleplaying Game Producer they are looking for this might suggest that WFRP isn't as doomed as it may seem, hopefully.

It's not much and might be nothing, but as we all really want news I thought I'd share.

Gives hope if nothing else. I came here as soon as I noticed this posted on StS also.

Goodl! It with seem that either 3e has a future or that, perhaps, Warhammer will continue in another edition with FFG.

Maybe so, but I tell you now, after my investment with this system, I will not buy a new edition. Especially if it is just another rehash of the 40k games.

This is great news! I am a bit sick of the chicken little stuff going on here about 3E being killed off… It is the best edition of the game thus far. I can say as someone who owns almost every thing published for each edition of WFRP (I bought the first book in 1988!) that outside of the first edition Enemy Within campaign material, that the adventures for 3E have been the best.

It sucks to hear the whinging going on. Yes it would be nice if FFG had the staff to respond on the forums, but they don't - so suck it up princess… I had no interactivity with anyone while TEW was released - just great product. I had great interactivity with second edition but crap adventures and a second draft version of the older ruleset (which was good), so I am happy to be back in the same postion I started this great hobby in! Lets hope they hire someone with passion who loves the setting and continues to make good product that pushes the wonderful mechanics of this edition forwards..

Unfortunately whoever they hire is going to have their work cut out getting the three editions of the Star Wars franchise all out by 2015. Coupled with adventures and bonus material for each version of the rulesets, thats a massive amount of work. Take in all the new 40K versions as well and the need for adventures and extra stuff for at least some of them, I cannot see WFRP getting much at all until 2015 at the earliest. The ad doesn't say much, as they would have had to included all the RPG's in the description even if they didn't plan on doing much with some of them. Having said that, an applicant who has largely worked on fantasy stuff may be at a severe disadvantage, I suspect.

sepayne7l said:

Yeah I think I'm in this boat as well. After shelling out unimagninable amounts of money for this game (because I love it), if it was canceled and a new edition was announced I think I would not buy just on principle alone. Its way too early for that kind of talk and I don't want to hear about new editions while I'm still trying to get my hands on things for this one.

Wizards of the Coast tried that with essentials (which was kind of a mini edition) but even that minor side track has divided the community and created more hostility towards the company than I have ever seen in 30+ years as a gamer and that includes all platforms and all genres of gaming. It was worse than the SOE's Star Wars Galaxies fiasco and those developers where getting weekly death threats.

I personally think that FFG has trimmed the fat on WFRPG because frankly.. its a released game and historicaly every book you try to sell for a role-playing game will sell less than all previous books. This is just the way of it with role-playing games and its a spell few game producer has ever managed to break and certainly with little consistancy. One of the best and most successful ways however to ensure your book sell is to release fewer of them and every major publication today is doing just done. Focusing on quality over quantity. I think after Enemy Within is released we'll see more releases, but they will be slow and they will trickle in rather than what happens when a new game is released (a big splash of books).

I don't think WFRPG 3.0 is going anywhere anytime soon, but I think the days of multiple releases a year are over. We'll probobly get 1 or 2 releases a year from this point forward.

It's time to spare a thought for Grimm RPGers. Nothing doing for them.

Regards managing FFG RPG lines, WFRP has at least one point of difference, it's not SciFi. Or Swords & Stars. Or Legion & Lasers. Or Light Sabre & Scorcery. Whatever What I means is it aint spacey-wacey.

BigKahuna said:

If FFG does a 4th edition, it probably wouldn't be aimed at v3 players anyway since v3ers already have their game and it's too soon for a v3-alike. Unless of course thay have a utopian idea for a "D&D Next" style game that will appeal to everyone.

I just hope they put out an elf product line akin to the dwarf product line, and provide some epic dwarf career progression cards, some time sort-of soon. That would make me very happy.

Cyber-Dave said:

I doubt that it will happen. To do the elves justice, particularly the High Elves, they would need to produce a boxed set like the Core rules, except the Elves would be the Deathwatch to the Core Rules' Dark Heresy. Personally I don't think that FFG have got the Old World Knowledge or the interest in WFRP to divert the resources from the sci-fi rpg's.

If a 4th edition is to be done, then I hope, I'm afraid, that a different publisher, like Green Ronin, do it.

ragnar63 said:

Yet, Black Fire Pass was as good if not better than past dwarfs supplements of previous editions. So FFG delivered on the dwarfs, and they could deliver on the elves as well if they were putting resources to such box. I however believe as you do, that a box for elves isnt on the horizon.

Cheers
Ceodryn

Ceodryn said:

I don't want to start a fight about this, but really? you cannot be serious! The supplement for dwarfs of the 3rd edition contains extremely limited material, both regarding background and regarding rules like runes and inventions. I won't complain about the runes and that, but the background? it does not go deep into any aspect of the dwarfs. A map of a Karak? no. Something about dwarf religion? No! Politics? no, dwarf nobility? no

I am nonetheless curious to know why you think it is better than, say the first edition supplement about dwarfs.

Cheers,

Ceodryn said:

Like Yepesnopes I will have to disagree with you on that one. Black Fire Pass was a skim over the Dwarves, nothing more. For background the Black Library did the far better Grudgelore. FFG barely touched Karak Azgaraz, a completely new Karak, and then decided to detail Black Fire Pass, rather than the Grey Lady Pass where Azgaraz is just off. If they did the same with the Elves box, they would describe the Tower of Hoeth in Ulthuan, and then describe a part of Athel Loren with nothing connecting the two, apart from both being elven. Sorry that is bad concept and editing in my opinion.

In my opinion, Black Fire Pass is a great supplement of WFRP3, and in comparison to previous editions as well. Let me explain.

In WFRP3, supplements are not about very detailed in depth information, with maps of levels, and such. It's about giving an overview to new GMs and Players as to what the culture is. Black Fire Pass gives a very good overview of the dwarf culture and history. WFRP3 (and WFRP in general) is heavily set in the Empire, and thus races supplements are not to suddenly play a campaign with that race or in that race kingdom, but to give enough information to the GM/Player of that race to be credible when playing a dwarf or an elf in an Empire/Human centric game.

I understand where you guys are coming from. As huge fans of WFRP, and long GMs/Players or all editions, you would want WFRP3 to build on those and provide even more details that you already knew. However, look at WFRP3 as a standalone game and edition, and imagine a new GM/Player coming to that world?

I came to WFRP3 after a 15 years break in playing/gming RPGs, and it was such a refreshing breath of pure air. No more detailed, dry and boring supplements, but beautiful books, fun to read, and providing just enough information to let my imagination take over versus being anchored by tables, maps, pages after pages of fictional religions, and what not.

That's why in my opinion BFP is an excellent supplement. It provided fun careers, an idea on how to use great rules for me to develop more (runes and engineering), an overview of the dwarf culture of a new hold, and a fun dwarf centric adventure.

Cheers
Ceodryn

Fair enough, well explained. For you, Black Fire Pass was just what you were after, I accept that. However I hope you also accept that for others, such as myself and Yepesnopes, it wasn't up to much. Have a look at the 40K stuff for the level of detail that WFRP players are used to.

I understand where you guys come from, and why you felt let down by such supplements, and I believe WFRP3 won't be able to give such content to long time WFRP fans until the product is a lot more mature (assuming it lives until then). Whether it's good or bad, FFG doesn't have the publishing aggressiveness of the 2nd edition.

Do you mean the 40K RPG(s) made by FFG? Yes, I have never tried 40K (would love to, but same as WFRP, finding players in the US is the Grail's Quest), but it shows that FFG can provide such detailed content when needed within the WH context. Again, I think it wasn't their intention to create such details when creating WFRP3. It seems they designed a different kind of RPG that was meant more to bring new players to the genre (because of the board game mechanisms and easy to GMing rules), which unfortunately they didnt follow through with the right marketing.

Cheers

Ceodryn

It's funny, when I started writing for Black Fire Pass the first thing I did was dig out Stone and Steel, thinking it'd be chock full of useful information. My recollection of the book was that it was full of details on the dwarfs, so I was expecting lots of inspiration.

It was useless. It had pretty much none of the information I was looking for.

Now, most of that was a matter of having a different focus, as Ceodryn said. But I'd thought there was so much more in it. Turns out I'd subconsciously taken everything I'd ever read about the dwarfs and stuck it into SaS, assuming it was there. Turns out that most of it is descriptions of the various holds plus some pretty dry rules for runes, weapons and careers. The information on dwarf society that was there was less useful or detailed than that I found in the dwarf army books.

So yeah, I may be biased, but I think BFP holds up pretty well compared to SaS. They cover different material and I think BFP does it's job well. But if you want a general overview of the dwarf realms… head down to GW and look at the latest army book.