Thursday, 9 July 2009
Why I will not be buying a WFRP v3
Rumors are surfacing, FFG is playtesting a new version of WFRP. Graham McNeill, author for various $GW$ properties, recently talked about playtesting a new version of WFRP:
… Jay Little very kindly did a show and tell for us over at Alessio Cavatoreâs house, where we saw how much the game has changed from its previous incarnation.
…
It was in interesting evening, and the game was very different to anything I've played before, with a lot of table space taken up by character sheets, action and ability cards, dice etc. It felt like a strange hybrid of board game and roleplaying game at first…
Allow me to cite the reasons why FFG will not sell me this game. The first reason the most important.
I Don't Want To Play WFRP "4e"
I have watched a session of D&D Fourth Edition at my FLGS. And there is a reason it has been called an analog version of your favorite MMORPG. Graham's description of WFRPv3 could not be any more like a description of a session of D&D 4e. It was mind numbing. What kind of nonsense is FFG planning for my favorite, and only, game?
I Don't Own A Cane
The some 40+ pages of comments at rpg.net on the McNeill post waffle between hope and despair. There are those flat out excited, and some seeing a new "dark age." And others that think "grognards" such as myself are swinging canes in our gaming dementia at boogey men.
Frankly, I don't think it's some sense of nostalgia. It's appreciating something more about WFRP. I don't think I can say it better than the "Server Goddess" at Strike To Stun, so I point you there... Those that deride the idea of resisting change seem to want bring WFRP players down to a "level playing field," change WFRP using a perverted sense of Socialism, where WFRP is just another bland power system for acting out a high fantasy power trip. Isn't that what D&D 4e has become? Listen to the podcasts of actual play sometime. I don't want a WFRP that feels like D&D. Want to make a game that feels that way? Go mess with some other system FFG. Hell, you're pouring tons of money into Rogue Trader and Dark Heresy. Go fuck with WH40K players. Hell, you have to gut that system too before too long. Put those fans in a dark age while you gut the established system for DH 2nd. Edition.
I'm just so disgusted by this rumor I can't think clearly. I need to chill, collect my thoughts, read the boards, form a more lucid argument.
Maybe all this is just nerd rage. But frankly, I don't think a version of WFRP that looks like D&D in play will be received well. At all.
