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Why do I get the feeling that this is going to ruin every RPG that will be coming after?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 12th 2009.

Fantasy Flight Games (“FFG”) announced today they will release Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd Edition, a new version of the classic roleplaying game set in Games Workshop's Warhammer world. This version features an entirely new innovative approach to role-playing, one that FFG hopes will attract a whole new generation of gamers to the role-playing experience.

"We're proud to re-introduce the Warhammer world to role-playing with this revolutionary approach,” said Christian T. Petersen, CEO of FFG. “It is one that harnesses the flavor of prior WFRP editions, but brings about that experience in a more evocative, tactile, and visual way than the past," he continued. "We’ve worked long and hard to to publish a game that we hope will represent a positive paradigm shift in roleplaying game design, production, and play experience. This is not another re-tread of the traditional RPG approach, this is something new, something exciting. Something that existing RPG fans will want to test for themselves."

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.

"We're bringing something new to the table," added Jay Little, Senior RPG Developer for the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay line. "This is a roleplaying system that captures the grim and gritty Warhammer world that fans have grown to love, wrapped up in an innovative design and shipped with the stunning production quality that FFG is known for."

Jay Little will be hosting seminars showcasing Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd Edition at the Gen Con games convention in Indianapolis, IN August 13-15, where a preview of the core set and its components will be on display in FFG’s booth. Preview articles will begin their publication on FFG's website – http://www.fantasyflightgames.com – in the weeks following the Gen Con convention and will continue leading up to the game's release this Fall.

It's a bit disheartening to read this press release. It soooo reads like more corporate BS:

"re-introduce," "revolutionary approach," "flavor," "positive paradigm shift"

and I get the feeling that Warhammer, like D&D in their future and current incarnations are  over and dead from how I knew them, never to return.

According FFG's website, the new edition will include:

• 4 comprehensive rule books provide all the knowledge you will need on the Old World
• Over 30 Custom Dice give you unprecedented options for story-telling
• Party sheets provide new skills and abilities to keep everyone engaged
• 40 different careers and 4 different races offer a multitude of character options
• More than 300 cards keep you in the game, no need to look up skills or abilities
• Three character keepers designed to hold everything your hero will need each session

This "core set" — implying there will be expansions of various sorts — will also retail for $99.95. It sounds to me like this will just be like one of their deluxe boardgames with RPG elements thrown in. Of course, that may be exactly the point.This may be the wave of the future for all "Big Name" RPGs.