Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Meets a Grim End

Last Wednesday, Fantasy Flight Games announced the third edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. To me, it was confirmation of something we Warhammer FRP fans have suspected since the FFG deal was first announced: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay as we knew it is no more.

WFRP was one of the first games I played when I ventured out of D&D's increasingly muddy waters back in '86 or '87, and next to D&D it's the game I've played the most throughout the years. My soft-bound WFRP was one of my most prized possessions; it was the one book I'd never lend away or let leave my side. It was the very last book to leave my old gaming collection, and nearly the first I acquired when I started to build one anew.

I watched as WFRP drifted from publisher to publisher, all the way from Games Workshop, through Flame and later Hogshead, and finally to Black Industries/Green Ronin. I appreciate what Green Ronin did for the game, even if I'm not a fan of the combat and magic changes in the second edition. Whatever else you want to say, it was clear the Green Ronin folks loved WFRP and did all they could to do right by it.

And then, Black Industries was shut down. FFG acquired the license to all Games Workshop brands to produce board and role-playing games.

And, now, WFRP is no more.

To be fair, maybe FFG will produce a great game. I can't say, and I likely won't ever be able to say, because the announcement makes it clear that it won't be the sort of game I play:

The massive Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd Edition box, which will retail for $99.95, contains everything a group of adventurers will need to play – four different rule-books, 36 custom dice, over 300 cards, counters, “character keeper” boxes, and much more.

That's not Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay as I know it. It doesn't seem like a third edition; rather, it seems it will be a completely new game based on WFRP (in the same way WFRP was based on Warhammer Fantasy Battles).

I'm sad about this, but not for any reasonable reason. After all, I'll happily go on playing first edition WFRP in the same sandbox I've been using for the last two decades. And, it's not as if I purchased any material from the second edition era (though I guess I should feel guilty about that now). But I'm going to miss seeing it on the shelves, where it might win the hearts and minds of a new generation of gamers. 

I'm going to set up a one-shot WFRP session sometime very soon. The Old World's call is particularly strong today.

The banners wave, high above the fray

and the horns call me forward, to battle, this day.