Warhammer Fantasy role-playing game returns to book format

The third edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP), released Fall 2009, was rather unique in that it was presented in a very board-gamey way, complete with special dice, tokens, cards, and character sheets, all in a nice box. Each character class had his own special cards, which meant that if an extra player showed up, or wanted to play the same class as someone else, well, he was out of luck, something unusual in tabletop role playing games which usually have no problem supporting extra players.

Fans mostly decried this new version, even as it introduced several interesting design decisions including abstracted combat and a more player-friendly game world. Taking cue from these complaints (and from Dungeons and Dragons), Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) is re-releasing WFRP this Fall (2010) as a 3 volume set: The Creature Guide ($30), the Player’s Guide ($50) and the Game Master’s Guide ($40). Player’s Vault and Creature Vault, sold separately at another $40 apiece, contain all the cards and tokens and sheets that were in the original game, for those that don’t want to write everything down by hand.

I can’t help but do the math here. The original set was $100, less if you shop around, or I can buy all this new stuff containing nearly the same material, for $200. Granted, if I just want to be a player, I can get by on $90 by only purchasing the $50 Player’s Guide and the $40 Player’s Vault, but this doesn’t seem like much of a savings. Granted, I’m sure these shiny new books will be loaded with gorgeous artwork and fun backstory, but I could spend $100 and get everything I need to play the whole game.

Fantasy Flight Games has many more planned releases for WFRP in the upcoming year, with adventures and combat supplements but reprinting their old stuff in an expensive format seems a strange way to start.

Site [Fantasy Flight Games] Read [The RPG Site]