Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) is a strong company with a ton of games, and they continue to go full steam ahead with new original games as well as licensed and acquisitioned games. Of course, recent news has had FFG acquiring properties from Games Workshop, Sabretooth Games, and Black Industries. With these acquisitions and many other products, FFG has big plans for 2009.
The GenCon 2008 Flight Report was a press Q&A where we had an opportunity to talk with many of the top designers and executives about the coming year. I like the way that Christian T. Peterson (CEO of FFG) put it when talking about the nature of FFG as compared to other industry companies like Wizards of the Coast or Wizkids – “ … they [other industry companies] are miles deep and feet wide,… FFG is miles wide and feet deep.” This is no more evident then in their plans for 2009.
The first topic of discussion was their new “living card game” paradigm (LCG) and how it compares to the standard CCG game. FFG is moving their Call of Cthulhu card game line as well as others to shift over (if they have not already) to a new approach they are calling the LCG model. This apparently is in response to the cost of standard CCG models being prohibitive to the consumer, only allowing them to dedicate to one or two games to be able to “keep up with the Jones.” Among the new games to be released under this model is one that will be released next spring. They could not tell us about the game but gave us strong hints which lead me to believe that it will be a Warhammer related card game.
The Arkham Horror board game was a topic of discussion quite often, attesting to its popularity. Here at GenCon, they released a small expansion called the Black Goat in the Woods. However, FFG has bigger and better plans for the beloved adventure game. All they could say was there was a big “space” to explore that they had not yet. They also hinted at some “very exciting news” in the future, for what they called one of their most successful lines of games.
Also related to Arkham Horror news is the very successful marketing tool called the Arkham Horror League, which gives players opportunities to play scenarios and organized play for that game. There are plans, because of the success of the league model, to expand it to other adventure games.
Of course, our own illustrious Marc Shayed broke the news about the new Wings of War computer game. Along with that, there are plans to do a Tide of Iron computer game and they are open to others. Many in the room were interested in this growing aspect of FFG.
The FFG booth in the exhibitor’s hall is also showcasing many of their new prototypes. Primary of these are the new Talisman 4th Edition Revised, the new Dust miniature game, and the new Song of Ice and Fire adventure game. Many demos of these and others were being played at their booth.
Before the Flight Report Panel, I did get a chance to talk to John Goodenough about the new version of Talisman. Of course, they have big plans for the game. Due out by the end of this year, the new Talisman will have some slight changes, a lot of rules clarifications, as well as component enhancements to ease play. They are adding a new stat called Fate, which are points that one can spend to re-roll bad rolls. They are replacing the cardboard stand-ups with miniatures and redoing the cards and the board. The game play is a lot more refined and clearer.
After the new core board game, the first expansion will be released, called The Reaper. They will not be following the past models of expansions but instead inserting their own FFG style into the releases. The Reaper expansion, for instance, will introduce the Reaper character. This new figure is neutral and available for players to move under certain conditions. Players can use it to impede opponents. When encountered, certain interesting things can happen.
Some might remember that a 4th Edition of Talisman was just recently released. FFG, ever so aware of their market and customers, has those people who bought that version in mind. They will be releasing an upgrade version of Talisman for about half the price of the standard game that will include all the parts they are adding and changes they are making, allowing them to use their 4th Edition components.
The new Dust miniature game, following up with the Dust board game, both based on a European comic book series about an alternate world during World War II, will be a pre-painted mini-game. They had samples of the figures at the booth and they look nice. The game engine could quite possibly be the same as AT-43 but they are still working on that. Some concerns are that the AT-43 engine is too deadly.
The Song of Ice and Fire adventure game will be their new board game for the world of Westeros by George R.R Martin. Similar to their other adventure games like Runbound or Descent, the players will play characters in Westeros, during the time of the Song of Ice and Fire series. But unlike other games of this nature, this game will be less about exploring and more about the politics and warring factions of Westeros.
While on the subject of adventure style games, they talked some about the Middle Earth Quest adventure game which, in similar vain as their other adventure game lines, the player is a character in the game world (this being of course J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth) exploring and surviving. In this case, however, the adventure does not center on the characters of the books but rather on original characters exploring while all the events in the books are going on.
Another item they had in their booth was a mock-up box for the new Starcraft board game expansion. They were cagey about this subject at the Flight Report, but all the designer could say was that it will have some surprises in it.
Another hot topic was the acquisition of the Games Workshop/Black Industries titles – Dark Heresy RPG and the Warhammer Fantasy RPG (WFRP). In the case of Dark Heresy RPG, many showed concern about what their plans were and whether they were going to stay the course with the direction already set out by Black Industries. FFG has full plans on doing that with the release of the Rogue Trader RPG and Death Watch RPG. There is also talk of an unannounced book as well as the release of Disciples of the Dark Gods. FFG talked at length to put many of the concerns to rest about the Dark Heresy acquisition. The game is obviously popular and has been well received. “We want to do what’s best for the game,” and it appears they will.
In the case of WFRP, all they could say was there were big plans for it. Jay Little, WFRP Line Developer has three books in the works. Other FFG RPG news is the new Midnight Chronicles TV pilot, based on the MidnightRPG. We got to see the pilot at the IMAX in Indy (review elsewhere on this site). This hints towards a reemergence support for this RPG line, which they confirmed in the Flight Report.
Organized Play is going to be a large part of FFGs future. The Rakham line of products (Confrontations) has been made available with significant changes (that are apparently controversial) and plans for more Organized Play support for Mutant Chronicles. Other games are also in the works.
FFG is a beast in the board game industry and have a quality that sets them apart from other companies. 2009 looks to be very exciting and I personally look forward to the products they plan to release.