I sit here penning this, shivering with fear. The events leading up to this have been harrowing at best. I have seen terror on a scale more massive than my comprehension would allow. My story was in danger of vanishing entirely, and if not for the intervention of key members in Arkham, I would not be here to write this. I have fled Ma’s after creatures came in the night and savaged a fellow boarder. I am now on the run with McGlen and Jenny. All three of us are beyond scared, but I feel that Jenny is the only one among us who refuses to let the fear overtake her. I have frozen in fights, stunned into paralysis by the terrors I have witnessed. McGlen has been wounded on numerous occasions, I am still amazed by his recuperation after each fight.

The last horror was unleashed by the Cult of the Hundred. It was they who stole Jenny’s sister, and it was they who tried to unleash the goat with a thousand young into our world. Their plans were foiled due to our intervention and that of a rival cult. A secret society hidden deep within the Silver Twilight Lodge, unbeknownst to even most of the lodge members, threatened to unleash the god of the cold white silence. The battle culminated between these entities and their followers. I fear we were only able to stabilize the forces involved, and force both groups to retreat only to return once they have regained their strength.

New shapes emerge from the darkness, the foul servants of dark powers. We barely defeated the minions of the Cult of the Hundred and the twisted members of the lodge, and now new figures race to fill their place. Evil creatures lurk about campus, and the sounds of chanting emanate from the Science Building. Awful quakes and tremors have reverberated about ever since those warped monsters appeared at the Science Building. Ghastly beings now seem to be flowing forth from the Witch House, and shambling forms have twice been repelled by McGlen and Jenny.

A new cult has risen from within the town of Arkham. These deviant beasts seem bent on destroying the world. They shake the very foundations of the world, and seem oblivious to the thought of their own demise should the world collapse. I was able to take part in a small way, in thwarting their latest efforts, but I fear they have had much more time to prepare for their master’s arrival than the cult of the Hundred had. I pray that the next horror won’t be the end of me. I can no longer sleep without nightmarish visions racing about my brain. “Ashcan” Pete and I have had many talks, between fights. I fear he may be the only one who understands my visions, but has no concept as to how to cope with them. Dexter Drake was my next option, but he has vanished on a mission of his own devising. He muttered something about a Whateley, but the name meant nothing to me.

I have slowly begin to accept that Ella is lost to me forever. Her face is difficult to picture in my mind, it must fight with the horrors I have seen. My child will never grow up, never get the chance to enjoy the world. I fear that I will grow up, and yet never enjoy the world again. I have lost that which is most dear to me, and now I am being pursued by creatures and cultists, visions and nightmares. I can’t afford to be maudlin, there is still much I must do.

New faces have been seen about the town. Faces unfamiliar and claiming to be from the city of Dunwich. They claim things are worse there, but I fear I can’t allow myself to believe it. If the conditions in Arkham seem appealing after the trials I have seen, then I fear I never wish to set foot in Dunwich. A man by the name of Jim Culver has brought us tales of bands of undead. We have filled him in on the hooded figures and the shadowy members of the lodge. We have both shared the quakes that are rocking Arkham. We have stood against monsters terrible and overwhelming. We have snuck past things that haunt my dreams. These are the end times. These are the things that go bump in the night. I fear nothing we are doing is helping, and death will be my only reward.

Arkham Horror is a boardgame of mystery and madness set in Arkham in the 1920's. Players investigate the strange happenings about the town, and race to prevent ancient evil from surfacing. Playable with 1-8 players.

To find out more about the Arkham League, check out From the Mythos.

Non est ad astra mollis e terris via
There is no easy way from the earth to the stars

- Seneca the Younger, Hercules Furens

It is the distant future and the children of Sol III, Homo Sapiens, have slowly colonized their solar system and over the course of centuries have evolved and adapted, diverging into five new races, each suited to life under different planetary conditions. But danger threatens as Sol, the life-giving star for all five human subspecies, is dimming, beginning its final descent into oblivion and wiping out humanity with it, unless new worlds can be found in distant galaxies. Will Earth's children find a new home before the Sun goes out, extinguishing humanity forever?

Click on the image to the right to go to the Ad•Astra minisite.

This Summer, Nexus Games and Fantasy Flight Games are proud to present from famed designers Bruno Faidutti (Citadels, Red November) and Serge Laget (Mystery of the Abbey, Shadows over Camelot), the first in Nexus Games' Designer Series: Ad•Astra.

Ad•Astra takes three to five players into a possible future where five disparate human subraces must take the next step and explore the wider galaxy, searching for new planets to call home. In the search for a New Earth, players will discover uninhabited resource-rich planets and mine them for the building blocks of a new galactic empire, space ships, colonies, and factories. Also, deep in the far reaches of space are the relics of dead alien civilizations, ancient technologies that can swing the balance of power in the universe.

Ad•Astra features:

• A modular game layout providing a wide variety of new gaming experiences every time Ad•Astra is played.
• A highly strategic action-programming game mechanic where players must plot their moves in advance as well as try to predict the actions of their opponents
• An interactive resource collecting and trading mechanic that will keep players involved and present some opportunities for hard bargaining.
• Game-changing Alien Artifact cards that will reward those quickest to explore the galaxy.
• High-quality plastic playing pieces.

In this game of exploration, settlement, and development, players must carefully guide their faction to galaxy-spanning victory, but beware: the universe is a large and lonely place, life can find few safe footholds in it, and the factions must contend fiercely against each other for what little the galaxy has to offer. As the saying goes: "Per Aspera Ad Astra" or "Through Adversity to the Stars."

Watch this space for more news, previews, and spoilers for Ad•Astra in the weeks to come. To learn more about Ad•Astra now, follow this link to our brand-new minisite!

Mystery of the Abbey © 2003 Days of Wonder
Shadows over Camelot © 2005 Days of Wonder
 

 "The story is that there's a whole legion of devils seen sometimes on that reef - sprawled about, or darting in and out of some kind of caves near the top."
- H.P. Lovecraft, Shadow Over Innsmouth

The latest Asylum Pack for Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game, The Terror of the Tides, is now available from your Friendly Local Game Store and at the FFG Webstore. In this Asylum Pack, 40 more cards are added to the Call of Cthulhu metagame, including Arcane Grifter, Agency Groundskeeper, and Clever Zoog. Terror of the Tides adds cards that emphasize the Arcane Struggle and offers a wealth of deckbuilding opportunities. Terror of the Tides also continues the serial story of Julia Brown into frightening new realms.

To find out more about The Terror of the Tides, you can read this spoiler article by guest contributor Marius Hartland.

Watch this space for news and spoilers for the next Asylum Pack in the Summons of the Deep series: The Thing from the Shore...

Based on the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft and his literary circle, Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game takes two players deep into the Cthulhu Mythos where investigators clash with the Ancient Ones and Elder Gods for the fate of the world. To learn more about Call of Cthulhu,visit our minisite.

Our series of previews of the Wings of War World War II miniatures continues with this look at the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and an event that illustrated its usage in war - the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.

If you missed the previous article in our series on the Supermarine Spitfire, you can read it by following this link.

The Messerschmitt Bf 109 miniature (FFG product code WW17d-f) is a great addition to any Wings of War: The Dawn of World War II game. Not only is it a beautifully-painted and historically-accurate sculpt of one of the planes that formed the backbone of the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) that brings a new three-dimensional dynamic to your Wings of War game, each miniature comes with its own maneuver deck allowing more players to participate in the game. Wings of War miniatures take an already great game and add new levels of enjoyment for all fans of realistic, yet easy-to-learn wargames.

The Messerschmitt Bf 109 was designed by Willy Messerschmitt in the early 1930s and was one of the first modern fighters of the era, featuring a closed canopy and retractable landing gear. The Bf 109 was a small, light-weight, highly-maneuverable fighter plane that performed multiple combat functions including bomber escort, interceptor, and ground attack aircraft.

Note: The original designation for this plane was Bf 109 (after the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke company) until July 1938 when Willy Messerschmitt acquired the company. After this point, the plane would alternately be known as the Bf 109 and the Me 109 - the second name would more commonly be used in the English-speaking world.

The Bf 109 would be the most-produced German fighter plane of World War II and as such, it would become the signature single-seat multi-function aircraft of the Luftwaffe. In service to the Luftwaffe, the Bf 109 would be credited with more kills than any other aircraft. In the early stages of World War II, the Luftwaffe was arguably the most modern air force in the world, with the most experienced pilots and new mechanized military tactics that would set the pace for the war.

At the outset of World War II the German Wehrmacht ("defense force" - the unified name for all of Germany's armed forces) had developed a military strategy that would incorporate technology which had developed during World War I: the airplane and tank. This strategy would come to be called blitzkrieg or "lightning war". Essentially, a blitzkrieg attack would focus the combined heavy armaments of aircraft and tanks on a single weak point in the enemy line, overpowering enemy defenses, and breaking through to disrupt the enemy by attacking behind enemy lines with mobile ground forces. This strategy of assaulting with overwhelming force on a single schwerpunkt ("focal point") was used to devastating effect in the invasion of Poland in 1939 - the event which helped to trigger World War II and where journalists would give the name blitzkrieg to this form of attack - and the invasion of France in 1940. Before the blitzkrieg would be used to overwhelm Poland and France, it would be tested during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).

The Spanish Civil War arose out a variety of factors, chiefly the election of a Republican government made up of a shaky alliance of various centrist and leftist elements. The Second Spanish Republic instituted a number of controversial reforms which led to a revolt by conservative and monarchist ("Nationalist") forces, led at the outset by a military insurrection on the part of General Francisco Franco and other Nationalist generals. Sides were immediately taken amongst the international community, with Mexico, the Soviet Union, and the volunteer International Brigades supporting the Republicans and Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany supporting the Nationalists. The support for the Republican side was mainly in the form of material support from the Soviet Union, and it was slow in coming. Conversely, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany almost immediately joined in their support of the Spanish Civil War with troops, aircraft, tanks and other weapons. Among other political reasons for supporting Nationalist Spain (establishing a Fascist power in Western Europe, threatening France, etc.), Nazi Germany had military reasons as well.

To quote Hermann Göring, commander of the Luftwaffe, at the Nuremberg trials (tribunals whose purpose was to prosecute war criminals after World War II):

In the Spanish Civil War, the Luftwaffe would receive the first major test of its tactics of aerial combat and in the support of ground forces. The Condor Legion, a unit of the Luftwaffe created especially to support the Spanish Nationalist forces, would participate in bombing missions, troop movement, and fly against experienced Soviet pilots supporting the Republicans, thus gaining vital experience in the blitzkrieg which would later be put to use in Poland.

The event which would characterize the Condor Legion's involvement in Spain and create a deep impact on the Luftwaffe and the other nations of Europe would be the bombing of Guernica (now Gernika-Lumo) on April 26th, 1937.

At the time, Guernica was the center of Basque culture and government, and an important Republican stronghold, interposed between Nationalist forces and the northern Republican city of Bilbao. The Basques (Euskaldunak) are an ethnic group of Northern Spain and France which had supported the Republican government in exchange for autonomy. Despite the fact that Guernica had not by this point actively participated in the war, it was considered a military target in that it housed some Republican battalions, and its defeat by Nationalist forces would cut off Bilbao from other Republican forces, thus speeding Nationalist victory in Spain's north.

The assault on Guernica by the Condor Legion began in the afternoon and consisted of several waves of bombers with their escorts (mostly Junkers Ju 52 and He 111s in the first waves, with the Bf 109s supporting later raids and strafing the roads) dropping explosives onto the town below. The principal targets were the roads and a bridge to the east of Guernica, the destruction of which would block an enemy retreat. Although the pilots were given orders not to directly target civilians, the bombing led to many civilian casualties. (The exact numbers are disputed, but the estimate is between 200 - 1700.) The bombing shattered Guernica's defenses and the Nationalist forces quickly overran the town.

The bombing of Guernica received lots of international attention from the press and inspired the famous painting by Pablo Picasso.

Guernica by Pablo Picasso

Guernica became symbolic of the idea of "terror bombing" and sudden death from above by bomber planes. It was seen (somewhat erroneously) as the new strategy of the Luftwaffe to target civilian populations and bomb them, although the actual objectives of the particular attack were military targets. Nevertheless, the tactics used at Guernica were used in other engagements and the results of heavy bombing, in addition to destroying military objectives, were massive civilian casualties.

In Spain, the Luftwaffe gained experience in using their aircraft technology to achieve air superiority and to support ground forces. These lessons learned would serve the Luftwaffe well as World War II would begin in the East and in the great aerial battles, such as the Battle of Britain. At the outset of World War II, because of the experience gained during the Spanish Civil War, the Luftwaffe would be the most prepared for the new strategies of war that would emerge in this period.

We hope you have enjoyed this look at Messerschmitt Bf 109 and at the history of modern warfare. Join us next time as we continue our look at the planes of Wings of War: The Dawn of World War II with the Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat.
 

Wings of War is an innovative card game that realistically simulates aerial combat in both World War I and World War II. Wings of War miniatures are three-dimensional accessories for Wings of War that couple the same revolutionary game play with beautifully-sculpted and historically-accurate models.

At length, sick with longing for those glittering sunset streets and cryptical hill lanes among ancient tiled roofs, nor able sleeping or waking to drive them from his mind, Carter resolved to go with bold entreaty whither no man had gone before, and dare the icy deserts through the dark to where unknown Kadath, veiled in cloud and crowned with unimagined stars, holds secret and nocturnal the onyx castle of the Great Ones.
- H.P. Lovecraft, Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath

H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands setting is a fantastic realm that exists just beyond the veil of our conscious minds. It is there that dreams come alive, and nightmares prowl on the periphery of our sanity. This Summer, the Call of Cthulhu card game enters this mysterious, parallel dimension with Dreamlands.

Dreamlands is the second series of Asylum packs for the Call of Cthulhu Living Card Game, after The Summons of the Deep, transporting players from the damp back alleys of Innsmouth to the hallucinatory splendor of H.P. Lovecraft's dream world, introducing innovative new gameplay opportunities.

With the debut of Dreamlands, the Day/Night mechanic is introduced to the CoC LCG. Players can now control whether the action of the game takes place under the light of the sun, or in the darkness of night, and the investigators and horrors of the game will benefit, or suffer, accordingly. Additionally, new deck types and strategies have been introduced for all seven Call of Cthulhu LCG factions. Whether you want to play the intrepid human Dreamers, beastly Gugs, or the tricky Zoog, the Dreamlands expansion has something for everyone.

Click on the image to the right for a larger version.

The first Dreamlands Asylum Pack will debut this summer, and the set will be released as a series of six monthly Asylum Packs, the first of which is entitled Twilight Horror and will feature 20 never-before-seen cards, as well as the first chapter of a brand-new serial tale chronicling the adventures of card shark Gregory Gry and mysterious artist Twila-Katherine Price in the Dreamlands.

Based on the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft and his literary circle, Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game takes two players deep into the Cthulhu Mythos where investigators clash with the Ancient Ones and Elder Gods for the fate of the world. To learn more about Call of Cthulhu, visit our minisite.

by Nate French, Call of Cthulhu Developer

When I first came to Fantasy Flight Games in February of 2006, I came with the belief that I would be working on the company’s 2 CCGs, A Game of Thrones and Call of Cthulhu. Even when I flew in for my interview and went out for dinner with Lead Designer Eric Lang, much of the talk was about the upcoming “Dreamlands” edition, which would be the third base set of the Call of Cthulhu CCG. From what I gathered, this set and its popular setting were eagerly anticipated by fans and collectors alike.

Unfortunately, the set would never see the light of day. In my first week at Fantasy Flight, I was told that the Eldritch Edition and its expansions were not performing as well as expected, and that the company was canceling the game. This put me in the unenviable position of essentially introducing myself, getting to know the community, and then following the honeymoon up with the dire announcement of the game’s demise.

There had to be some light, some glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel. Or else it was simply an impossible announcement to make.

Talking with Fantasy Flight Games CEO Christian Petersen, it was clear that the he loved the Call of Cthulhu card game, and everyone involved was disappointed that it was about to be canceled. As a final gesture of goodwill, mostly as a gift to the die-hard players who would play the game to the very end, FFG fleshed out the open-ended idea of “Asylum Packs.” In these packs we planned to periodically release 20 fixed cards, giving the game and its fans a small taste of life after death.

Over the course of the next two years, four of these Asylum Packs were released: Spawn of Madness, Kingsport Dreams, Conspiracies of Chaos, and Dunwich Denizens. And, much to our surprise, the packs were quite popular, with numbers that far surpassed our modest expectation of demonstrating loyalty to the game and its die hard fan base: each of these initial, trailblazing Asylum Packs has completely sold out of our warehouse.

Thus, the seeds for the “Living Card Game” (LCG) model were planted. Both Call of Cthulhu and its sister game, A Game of Thrones: The Card Game, went through a difficult time of transition, re-imagining, and change. Everything was challenged: from packaging and distribution to the look and feel of the cards and game components to the very theory of what it was that our target audience were looking for in a card game experience. To long-time players, some of these changes seemed arbitrary or silly, but the ultimate goal was always to transform two games that were struggling as CCGs, and reinvent them as viable, successful products that we would be able to sustain indefinitely into the future.

As we emerge on the other side of the transition, it is looking very much like the LCG venture has been a success. As I wrote earlier this month in my A Game of Thrones LCG State of the Game:

 

And the news for the Call of Cthulhu LCG is even brighter. A number of our partners are picking up the game for alternate language editions around the world, and to meet demand we are going to be reprinting the English language Core Set (which has almost completely sold out of its first printing). These results have far exceeded our expectations. Not a bad turnaround at all, for a game we “canceled” 3 short years ago.

Enter the Darkness

This summer, Fantasy Flight Games will be announcing the debut of our first entirely new Living Card Game. All I can say now is that it’s an amazing game with a powerful license, and that lead designer Eric Lang and I have had a blast working on it.

As a might be expected consequence of this situation, the workload of three simultaneous LCGs is something of a beast, and I found myself staying at the office later and later as the weeks went by. It became clear that something had to give, and the decision was made by the company to make James Hata (Universal Fighting System designer and developer) a major part of the Call of Cthulhu LCG design team. I’ll let James introduce himself to you in an article of his own, saying only that he is a brilliant designer and card player, and that the game will only benefit from his attention.

We’ve already begun the process of bringing James into the fold, but in the meantime, the next set for the Call of Cthulhu LCG has already been wrapped up and sent off for translation, and it’s fitting, as our story of cancelation, death, and LCG rebirth comes full circle...

Perchance to Dream...

If you haven’t already guessed, the next series of six Asylum Packs for the Call of Cthulhu card game is Dreamlands. More than any other project I worked on for this game, Dreamlands has been the most enjoyable. While the Summons of the Deep Asylum Pack series was designed essentially as an extension of the core set, focusing primarily on the basic mechanics of the game, Dreamlands was designed as a set with an identity all its own.

One old school mechanic that was intentionally held back from the Core Set was the Day/Night mechanic, and this mechanic comes back in force with the Dreamlands cycle. In a set built around Dreamer characters and the Dreamlands setting, the Night/Day mechanic was the perfect starting point.

Click on the images above for a larger version.

Another feature that makes Dreamlands a unique set in the CoC LCG is a new “Unique matters” theme that runs throughout the cycle. It always kind of bothered me that having the unique symbol was typically viewed as a minor detraction from a card’s value in the Call of Cthulhu card game, as many of the named, recognizable Mythos personalities and entities were released as unique cards. A number of effects in Dreamlands reward unique cards, or (if you’re of a more destructive mindset), punish non-uniques. Going along with this theme, the Dreamlands set offers up a feast of unique characters and supports, such as Nasht and Kaman-Tha, The Enchanted Wood, Nathaniel Elton, King Kuranes, Randolph Carter, The Silver Key, Princess Zura, Mnomquah, The Tower of Koth, and Richard Upton Pickman.

The Dreamlands set also takes a new look at some “tribal” decks, particularly the Gugs and the Ghouls. The mythos factions didn’t get all the love, though, as the Agency get some powerful Attachment synergy, and the Syndicate get a new deck strategy that might end up drawing some of their opponents into oblivion. Dreamer characters and Dreamlands supports become hooks around which a player can build, and the neutral Zoog bring with them an entirely new type of resource. One thing I’ve learned about card design over the past few years is simply, don’t underestimate the extent to which a certain type of player loves a good tribal theme.

Finally, the Dreamlands set comes with its own serial tale, introducing a Gregory Gry (a talented but reluctant Syndicate card shark) and the mysterious Twila Katherine Price (a rebellious Miskatonic University art student with an obsession for the Dreamlands) to the Call of Cthulhu LCG. Their story kicks off in the CoC LCG Asylum Pack 13, Twilight Horror, and the tale continues throughout the entire Dreamlands series.

The Dreamlands set is currently in translation, and should be ready for a later Summer release.

In the Meantime...

In the meantime, the Summons of the Deep Asylum Pack series continues. This month, we’ve released Asylum Pack 10, The Terror of the Tides. (Official Release Date: April 30th.) This pack is all about the Arcane struggle, and it also introduces The Descendant of Eibon, the card designed by 2007 Call of Cthulhu world champion James Black, to the Call of Cthulhu card game. The Thing From the Shore, AP 11, will continue the Summons series in May, bringing with it the idea that “skill matters.”

Click on the image to the left for a larger version.

Also, keep your eyes peeled for the upcoming CoC LCG tutorial video. I spent a couple days last week working with the FFG media department on the script, and the video is now in production. These guys (Keith Hurley and Jason Beaudoin) do top notch work (as anyone who has seen the AGoT tutorial can attest), and the CoC tutorial video should be available as a community resource in the next couple weeks.

As you’re probably aware, there have been some issues and questions regarding organized play and support. Our former line coordinator, Paul Bromen, has left the company, and the marketing department is in the process of reorganizing itself to better accommodate our card games. As we move through this transition, we are also in the process of revisiting all of our organized play programs, and trying to find a program that best suits the needs of our LCG audience. To this end, we’re asking ourselves and our fans what players (and particularly, LCG players) might want out of an organized play program, what it might take to get a gaming group who are into it as a casual “beer & pretzels” endeavor to participate in organized play, and what it might take to get a local group who play once a month at their game store to consider traveling for a Regional or National championship. If you’re a player (new or old), servitor, or store owner, and you have any thoughts on these topics, feel free to contact me directly (nfrench@fantasyflightgames.com). We are committed to gaining a better understanding of our LCG audience, and putting together the best possible OP program for the CoC LCG.

Finally, because I don’t get to say so often enough, I’d like to finish this “state of the game” by thanking a number of people who have helped bring this game from where it was three years ago to where it is today, freely volunteering their time as playtest group leaders, and without their contributions, goodwill, enthusiasm, patience, and endless generosity, this game would not be enjoying its success: Travis Hoffman, Will Lentz, Fabio Soncina, and Vincent Manseau. Thank you for all of your contributions. And finally there are three community members who have gone above and beyond in unfathomable measure: Chris Long, Marius Hartland, and James Black. I cannot thank you three enough. It has been a pleasure working with you on this game.

These are exciting times for the Call of Cthulhu LCG. In the months ahead, I’ll be working closely with James to ensure that the Call of Cthulhu LCG continues to thrive and release Asylum packs for years to come.

I’m very much looking forward to the next round of insanity.

Nate French
Fantasy Flight Games

Based on the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft and his literary circle, Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game takes two players deep into the Cthulhu Mythos where investigators clash with the Ancient Ones and Elder Gods for the fate of the world. To learn more about Call of Cthulhu, visit our minisite.

Hello again Rogue Trader fans!

Last week I talked about some of the background behind working on Rogue Trader. This week I want to continue that discussion, but broaden it a bit to also include some of the major influences on myself and the rest of the design team.

Ships of Wood and Steel

Naturally, some of the biggest influences on the design of Rogue Trader came from stories about thrilling voyages in space and on the sea. For instance, the crew dynamic of Mal Reynolds’ ship in Joss Whedon’s Firefly and Serenity influenced some of the decisions we made about character creation, and the fascinating loyalty and discipline of the Surprise captained by Jack Aubrey in the Patrick O’Brian novels had an impact on the ship roles.

From Horatio Hornblower to Shogun, the Conquistadors of Spain to the American Wild West, a number of stories, experiences, and settings made an impact on the overall design of Rogue Trader. Therefore, don’t be surprised if you find some familiar and timeless tropes within the book!

Into the Expanse

The Koronus Expanse is the core setting for Rogue Trader, a region beyond the Imperium on the rim of known space. The Expanse exists somewhere amongst the Halo Stars region, accessible through a (mostly) stable warp passage known as “the Maw.” In the Expanse, the Explorers can find numerous opportunities for both danger and profit!

When designing the Expanse, I knew we wanted to get the “feel” exactly right. It’s a bit of a mix of the Wild West with the “Darkest Africa” of many pulp adventures. It’s looking into a dark room from a well-lit hallway. The open door projects some light into the gloom (in this case, the door is the Maw), but the further one goes into the room, the surroundings become more uncertain and mysterious. The Expanse is a realm of legends, whispered stories of fortune and horror, and cryptic messages: “Here be dragons.”

Unlike the Calixis Sector in Dark Heresy, the Koronus Expanse is presented as a region not yet fully understood. There is plenty of uncharted territory ripe for a bold Rogue Trader to discover, and tons of unknown planets and systems. One region in the Expanse is known as the Hecaton Rift, an enormous nebula laced with bizarre flickers of warp-lightning. There are rumours of fantastic treasure within the Rift...but there are also uncounted stories of foolhardy captains who never returned from the Rift’s embrace.

I hope these tidbits have whetted your appetite for more information about the Koronus Expanse, because I plan to present an entire designer diary focused upon it in the near future.

Profit Factor and Endeavours

Another important issue that arose during the development of Rogue Trader is the concept of wealth on a grander scale. If a Rogue Trader owns a nearly-priceless starship, how do you handle whether or not he can afford a plasma pistol? How do you gauge the overall success of a Rogue Trader’s dynasty? How do you improve your status, and what are the pitfalls that can occur?

The answer to these questions lies in the system of Profit Factor and Endeavours. Profit Factor is a game mechanic that represents the Explorers’ wealth, power, influence and other resources. Profit Factor means that a Rogue Trader character doesn’t really need to track “pocket money.” The group’s Profit Factor determines their relative success, meaning that the players can track how far they have come, or discover how far they need to go to reach their goal. Naturally, the higher the group’s Profit Factor, the more resources at their disposal. Towards the higher end of the scale, the Rogue Trader dynasty may control a fleet of starships, own entire planets, or establish a legend that shall be remembered for millennia.

Now that I’ve given you an idea of what Profit Factor is, let’s talk briefly about Endeavours. Profit Factor can improve or suffer by degrees; but the most significant method to gain Profit Factor is to complete an Endeavour. An Endeavour represents a particular opportunity that the player characters can utilise to their advantage. Endeavours are very flexible elements in any particular campaign. They can be created by the players themselves if they choose!

Endeavours are broken down into two sections: the Requirements and the Objectives that must be achieved in order to complete it.

An example of a simple Endeavour might be: Recover the ancient space hulk Warspite from the Processional of the Damned.

Requirements: A chart of the Processional, access codes for the Warspite’s machine spirit, a trained salvage crew.

Objectives:

• Find the Warspite within the Processional
• Board and secure the Warspite
• Awaken the Warspite’s machine spirit

Naturally, no Endeavour is complete without certain complications that arise! The capricious gravity tides of the Processional must be navigated, hostile xenos infesting the space hulk must be confronted and destroyed, and the Explorers must make some tough choices when they discover survivors trapped within a stasis field.

However, if the Explorers can overcome these obstacles, the rewards are truly worthwhile, encompassing not only a gain in experience points but also a large bonus of Profit Factor! The big advantage of the Endeavours is that the players themselves become the driving force of the campaign, selecting existing Endeavours presented by the Game Master or creating new ones of their own. I’ll talk more about Profit and Endeavours in a future design diary, so this taste will have to do for now!

Return to the Imperium

Well, I hope you have enjoyed your glimpse of the dark frontier! This designer diary turned out to be a lot more involved than I expected, but it was certainly fun to write. Stay tuned for further updates and designer diaries from the writers in the future!

Rogue Trader is a roleplaying game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, the grim darkness of the far future. Players take on the roles of Explorers aboard a Rogue Trader's ship, searching for profit and adventure in the uncharted regions of space.

This past weekend we christened the brand new Fantasy Flight Games Event Center with the Universal Fighting System "Path of the Master" Invitational Tournament. Over 50 players travelled from all over the United States and Canada for a weekend-long celebration of UFS!

From Friday through Sunday, UFS players filled the FFG Event Center, a new facility located a block away from the FFG offices in Roseville, Minnesota, and played dozens of games, including the titular tournament, as well as side events such as a draft and a legacy events. But for most players, the best part was having an entire weekend dedicated to their favorite game.

We were fortunate to have all three UFS World Champions – Matt Kohls, Andrew Olexa, and James Hata – in the house for a special ceremony, and are happy to announce that the winner was 2008 Canadian National Champion Jon Herr!

Check out this video of the Path of the Master Weekend!
QuickTime version also available!

This was an exciting first public event for the FFG Event Center, and we already have plans for many more. Stay tuned to the FFG website to see when your favorite game will be featured!

I met also that which had been her grandmother. For eighty thousand years Pth'thya-l'yi had lived in Y'ha-nthlei, and thither she had gone back after Obed Marsh was dead. Y'ha-nthlei was not destroyed when the upper-earth men shot death into the sea. It was hurt, but not destroyed. The Deep Ones could never be destroyed, even though the palaeogean magic of the forgotten Old Ones might sometimes check them. For the present they would rest; but some day, if they remembered, they would rise again for the tribute Great Cthulhu craved. It would be a city greater than Innsmouth next time. They had planned to spread, and had brought up that which would help them, but now they must wait once more. For bringing the upper-earth men's death I must do a penance, but that would not be heavy. This was the dream in which I saw a shoggoth for the first time, and the sight set me awake in a frenzy of screaming. That morning the mirror definitely told me I had acquired the Innsmouth look.

So far I have not shot myself as my uncle Douglas did. I bought an automatic and almost took the step, but certain dreams deterred me. The tense extremes of horror are lessening, and I feel queerly drawn toward the unknown sea-deeps instead of fearing them. I hear and do strange things in sleep, and awake with a kind of exaltation instead of terror. I do not believe I need to wait for the full change as most have waited. If I did, my father would probably shut me up in a sanitarium as my poor little cousin is shut up. Stupendous and unheard-of splendors await me below, and I shall seek them soon. Ia-R'lyehl Cihuiha flgagnl id Ia!

Once more we return to the haunted town of Innsmouth, this time to stare into the face of true madness. Ancient and evil, beings far beyond our comprehension are awaiting release into our dimension. The Innsmouth Horror expansion comes jam packed with them, featuring eight new Ancient Ones to terrify and destroy this quiet town by the sea.

The names have been scrawled in legend and evil tomes throughout history. Chaugnar Faugn, Bokrug, Nyogtha... each name capable of destroying the mind of the unready. Featuring new powers, and new ways to devour investigators, these are the toughest Ancient Ones to ever grace the game.

Click on the image to the left for a larger version.

Rhan-Tegoth is a wicked foe. The -4 in combat isn’t too bad, and physical immunity can be overcome. Gnoph-Keh are bad enough, and with Nightmarish 1 are even worse, but aren’t super common. The first danger is in his Insatiable Hunger ability. Every time a Cultist is drawn from the cup, it is placed on his sheet. Then the terror level goes up one, and a doom token is added to his doom track, and a replacement monster is drawn instead. Nasty! Once battle starts, Rhan-Tegoth gains two extra doom tokens for each Cultist on his sheet. As if that wasn’t enough, his attack targets the investigator with the highest Stamina, sorry Michael, Mark, Monterey and Morgan (Tony, I had to keep up with the M theme). Roll dice equal to your Stamina, for every success you roll you get to keep one Stamina, for each failure you must score an extra success in order to defeat him!

The stories of Arkham have been covered, and now the Ancient Ones have reared. Much is to come, do you possess the mental strength to press on?

 To check out the first preview of Arkham Horror: Innsmouth Horror, follow this link to "Story Time."

Arkham Horror is a boardgame of mystery and madness set in Arkham, Massachusetts in the 1920's. Players investigate the strange happenings about the town and race to prevent ancient evil from surfacing. Playable with 1-8 players.
 

 +++Incoming Astropathic Transmission+++

Hi Dark Heresy fans!

Errata, Errata, Errata

This week I have a small but important update: a new version of Dark Heresy errata! Version 3.0 includes some small updates for the core rulebook and a substantial set of updates for The Inquisitor’s Handbook. The Errata is also posted on the Dark Heresy Support Page.

Tattered Fates

At the printer right now, Tattered Fates should be hitting shelves very soon! Don’t miss out on the first in a trilogy of epic adventures that take your Acolytes into the heart of the Hereticus Tenebrae!

The Next Step

Looking ahead, I see that there will be much to discuss regarding a recent rash of rumors about Radicalism in the Inquisition...
Keep an eye on this space for more, and until next time, may the light of the Golden Throne guide your way.

Download the Dark Heresy: Official Errata, version 3.0 (PDF, 1.2 MB)
Download the Print-friendly version (PDF, 528 KB)

Dark Heresy is a roleplaying game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, the grim darkness of the far future. Players take on the roles of Acolytes serving the Inquisition, rooting out heresy and corruption from within the galaxy-spanning Imperium of Man.