Did WFRP 3e flop?

Akrasia · July 15, 2010, 12:37:43 AM

Did FF's 3rd edition of the Warhammer Fantasy Role-Playing Game flop?

It seems that nobody here or at the Big Purple ever mentions it (in contrast to 2e, which regularly generated threads).

I never purchased WFRP 3e, as it didn't sound like my cup of tea. But I'm curious as to whether FF's grand experiment worked. For the record: I have no stake in this one way or the other. I'd be happy to learn that my impression is wrong.

Of course, I expect that most answers will be speculative in nature, but that's fine. I'm procrastinating.

thedungeondelver · July 15, 2010, 12:47:51 AM

I think it's too soon to say; it may not have had a huge splash with hardcore RPers like around here, enworld and so forth - but that may have been exactly what they were going for, moving it away from hardcore gamers and towards people who'd spend more on their fiddly boardgames (Descent, for example).

The bellwether will be support. If all you see is the core game plus a couple of supplements, plus a couple of announced supplements that never get released (or are farmed off as "internet exclusives" (read PDF only)) then yeah I think it will probably go down as a failure.

But again, too soon to tell.

Koltar · July 15, 2010, 12:57:28 AM

In my area it went over like a lead balloon.

All the gung-ho Warhammer Fantasy players that have played for years mostly hated it or were mildly ticked off at the packaging style of it.

- Ed C.

thedungeondelver · July 15, 2010, 01:07:59 AM

I think if FFG had made it for Games Workshop, and GW had put in nice miniatures, and limited it to 15000 copies or so, it'd have gone down as a gargantuan success

Melan · July 15, 2010, 01:27:55 AM

Oh, it has been published already? I didn't know that.

Lawbag · July 15, 2010, 01:35:17 AM

There is only 1 player in our group who bought it. For us there is still loads of 1st and 2nd edition material to play through.

And when we turn our attention to 3rd edition, I'm sure 4th and 5th will have been released.

We are sticking to Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader for now.

deleted user · July 15, 2010, 01:36:39 AM

It's too bloody expensive to buy into the new edition. They went for profit rather than turnover.

greatamericanfolkhero · July 15, 2010, 03:19:31 AM

We play it at the FLGS every couple of weeks. The DM decided to try it and so far it's been a decent game. I would never want to run it and I'm irritated that it invalidates my entire dice collection (and who the hell ship an RPG that only supports a GM and three players? Seriously! The standard is GM+4!) but other than that I have fun playing.

mhensley · July 15, 2010, 06:29:57 AM

Sucess or not, I bet that D&D 5e ends up looking a lot like it.

Zachary The First · July 15, 2010, 06:37:25 AM

Quote from: mhensley;394016Sucess or not, I bet that D&D 5e ends up looking a lot like it.

I've been wondering that as well.

I will be playing in a game at Gen Con, I think. We'll see how it goes.

beejazz · July 15, 2010, 07:57:40 AM

Quote from: mhensley;394016Sucess or not, I bet that D&D 5e ends up looking a lot like it.

I doubt it. People complained a lot that 3x was "broken" so in 4e they tried to "fix" it. Outside of the issues of mechanical unification and rules heaviness, they have little in common. So since 4e wasn't more 3x than 3x, I doubt 5e will be more 4e than 4e.

That said: Too damn expensive for not D&D.

Thanlis · July 15, 2010, 07:58:35 AM

ICV had it as #3 for Q1 2010. Some more info and a comparison list here.

Ghost Whistler · July 15, 2010, 09:39:27 AM

If I'm honest I cannot see how 3e has been succesful given the price. But then I have no way of knowing what FFG are using to judge success. It's so expensive a product that I can't imagine it being succesful enough, but I really don't know. It was, perhaps still is, an interesting experiment.

Tommy Brownell · July 15, 2010, 09:45:51 AM

Am I alone in thinking the price wasn't that crazy? Especially when you could get it on Amazon for about $40 off of retail?

brettmb · July 15, 2010, 09:54:45 AM

Given how expensive GW's Warhammer stuff has been over the years, I don't think price is really an issue for many. And as Tommy pointed out, you can get it heavily discounted if you look around.