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Alright, a lot of BIG news items this week, so let’s skip the foreplay and just get into it, shall we? First the bad news.
PRIVATEER PRESS and GALE FORCE NINE part ways.
This is the news that sucks pretty hard. Privateer Press has decided to take control of their peripheral gaming materials and as stated in the press release from GF9: To our disappointment, Privateer Press has chosen not to renew the Warmachine and Hordes accessories license with GF9 in favor of producing their own range of gaming aids. This announcement will affect all Privateer Press™ licensed products including branded tokens, templates, terrain and dice tins for both Warmachine™ and Hordes™. The tokens, templates and dice tins will be available for direct sale through July 26th, 2008. Terrain sets will be available through September 16th, 2008. After this sell-through period, the tokens, templates and dice tins will no longer be available direct from GF9.
While I can certainly understand PP wanting control over these products, the big downside is the loss of GF9’s super duper hyper awesome prepainted terrain sets. These monstrosities of painted resin (while pretty pricey at about $90 a pop) are freaking gorgeous and dress up any bland set up, making them look pro. I’ve had my eye on a few of these for a while (but buying a new house precluded me from picking them up), so it looks like I need to get my ass in gear and get them before they get relegated to the realm of collectors items. If you haven’t seen these bad boys, check them out here. One can hope that PP hopes to put these or similar items out for themselves, but they have a lot on their plate this year, including the cool looking MONSTERPOCALYPSE, so my guess is that these are probably going the way of the dodo. And that makes me shed a little geek tear.
MUTANT CHRONICLES pushed back…again...but gains transparency.
Okay, this is actually great news wrapped in disappointing news. The new release date puts the release of FFG’s new Mutant Chronicles Collectible Miniature Game at somewhere in August. But the reason for it was that they’ve decided to change how they’re releasing the minis. Forsaking the old school method of random blind booster packs, they’ve taken a cue from companies like Rackham and Wizkids (their special box sets) and are distributing them in window boxes. If you’ve ever seen AT-43 or the new CONFRONTATION, you know what I’m talking about. You will be able to see exactly what you’re buying. No guessing or random packaging.
What this does is kill the idea of rarity in the game and puts the focus on play rather than on dropping lots of cash to collect the powerful rares – and forsakes the richboy ideal of many CMGs. It doesn’t matter if you could drop $500 to collect 4 complete sets of something – a 12 year old with his allowance and birthday money can afford to put together the same army you can – which changes the whole nature of the game. I think this is GREAT news as it will allow more folks to try it out by simply buying into the game with a single purchase (a standard game of Mutant Chronicles can be played with as few as 3 miniatures to a side) as well as prove to be a gateway drug (if you will) to the hobby as a whole. I’ve got a copy of the game here and a small collection of the minis and I should have a write up of my play experiences a little closer to release.
Sean K. Reynolds tapped for PATHFINDER
Okay, this is probably the best news for D&D 3.5 gamers in a while. For those unfamiliar, Pathfinder is PAIZO’s big 3.5 redux. They’ve seen a lot of the same problems as WotC and the community did with 3.5 and set out to give it 3.5 style fixes rather than a complete overhaul. The game is changing, but only in nominal ways, allowing the continued use of your old 3.5 books. I’ve read through the Alpha test book and I’m impressed with what they’ve done. The BETA test book will be available in hardcopy form at Gencon this year and then will lead to a supposed final version next summer (after a public playtest of the new rulesets.) I’m hoping to get a copy of this badboy as soon as they’re available to see what made it into BETA, but it appears to be a bigger, meaner version of 3.5. They’ve taken a number of the concepts originally published in Dragon magazine and used them as the core of fixing classes and balance.
Already they’ve tapped 3E Architect and MALHAVOC founder Monte Cook to oversee the project (leaving many of us to wonder how either ceremonious or functional this position is), but the addition to the team of Sean K. Reynolds is a BIG deal and frankly a step in the right direction. It appears that Eric Mona is assembling many of the 3.5 powerhouses (many of whom were not asked along for the trek into 4E) and putting them to work on this new version. The thing about Reynolds is that he ISN’T what you’d call a rules guy. Oh, he knows the rules and he’s created some cool system mechanics – but really, he’s a FLUFF guy. He’s the guy you get to create new worlds or write the histories of dark, evil places. He’s one of those guys whose books I would buy because of his name alone, if only to read through his prose for inspiration or gaming material. If you're a 3E fan and have never seen is ANGER OF ANGELS or his cool (now free) Ancient Greece setting book The New Argonauts, you owe it to yourself to do so.
Having brought him on leads me to believe that Paizo is not playing around with this 4E snub. They’re serious. And with the rumblings I’m beginning to hear about 4E’s GSL (Gaming System License, the new version of 3E’s Open Gaming License) we are heading into some seriously uncharted waters. Never in the short history of this industry has D&D found a serious challenge by having a company pick up their old system and run with it, providing the one thing that old players are asking for – new content. What at first glance appears to be a simple personnel addition looks to be one of a series of moves to make Pathfinder a real, honest to god competitor. And based upon what I’ve seen so far, that is a very cool thing indeed.
I’ll have more on these guys as this thing develops. Hopefully with a look at PATHFINDER BETA as Gencon approaches.
Okay guys, that does it for today – but I’ll actually be back later this week with a look at the big 40k release. There’s so much going on there that it requires a second article. See you guys then.
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.
Massawyrm
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