FFG: Fantasy Flight Games News

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Heroic Endeavors

Preview Two New Heroes and Hero Classes from Manor of Ravens

In the forests near Greyhaven, there lies a haunted manor. By day, bandits raid the house for moldering treasures and arcane artifacts. By night, terrifying wraiths wisp through the halls, devouring the soul of any adventurer foolish enough to enter. As if these fearsome guardians were not enough, a magical construct stalks the halls of the mansion, searching for trespassers.

Manor of Ravens, an upcoming expansion for Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition, dares any hero to enter the haunted mansion and brave the dangers within. In our last preview, we looked at bandits and wraiths, the two new monster groups that serve the overlord in Manor of Ravens.

Today, we’ll examine the heroes who face these threats: Alys Raine and Thaiden Mistpeak.

Marshal of the Realm

By her eighth birthday, Alys Raine could recite the entirety of the Common Law in one sitting and had begun memorizing the seven treaties associated with it. Preferring her studies to long hours of combat training, her dream of becoming a Marshal kept her moving forward. Now a rising star among her comrades, Alys Raine drives fear into the hearts of the unjust throughout Terrinoth. As a Marshal of the Citadel, Alys brings justice wherever it is needed, serving as both judge and executioner.

Alys Raine proves herself a powerful addition to your hero party as you seek to uncover the mystery at the heart of the manor. She is completely devoted to her duties as a Marshal, and her hero ability and heroic feat give you the tools to trigger Class cards whenever you need them. Alys’s hero ability allows you to recover fatigue whenever an adjacent hero takes one or more damage, giving you the energy you need to enact justice on the evildoer.

Alys’s heroic feat lets you use your powerful Class cards more than once per turn. By activating Alys’s heroic feat during any player’s turn, you may refresh all of your exhausted cards and recover two fatigue, freeing you to exercise your power once more.

The Power of Law

The Marshal hero class puts the judicial power of the Citadel behind your quests, inviting any Warrior to punish the overlord for his flagrant disregard for the law. The Marshal hero class begins with the Retribution card. By exhausting this card when a nearby monster attacks another hero, you can force that monster to take damage as its just desserts. Vigilant Watch allows you to punish monsters for leaving your presence, whereas I am the Law allows you to attack a monster that attacked you, possibly inflicting a condition on the monster as well!

Some of the Marshal’s other Class cards punish the overlord for using his Overlord cards against the heroes. Zealous Fire can be exhausted when the overlord plays an Overlord card, allowing you to recover a fatigue. To make matters worse for the overlord, when Zealous Fire refreshes, you may deal a damage to a nearby monster. The By the Book card gives you a chance to cancel an Overlord card, returning it to the Overlord deck without effect.

A Hunter in the Wild

Alys Raine is aided in her investigations by Thaiden Mistpeak, a Scout with an uncanny knack for finding what others cannot. He led his clan through the Crags of the Forgotten, rescued his love from the center of the Gray Wastes, and recovered his grandmother’s hairpin from a very large haystack… or so it is said. He never planned to use his talents to avenge the deaths of his loved ones. But when his family’s murderers were never found, he took matters into his own hands. He has never spoken of that fateful journey, but from that day on, Thaiden Mistpeak was a changed man. All that remained was his skill, and his passion for the hunt.

Thaiden is an expert at surviving in the wilds, and his hero ability and heroic feat give him some of the tricks he may need to get the upper hand on the overlord’s monsters. By using Thaiden’s hero ability, you may cancel your attack and search an adjacent search token instead. By using this ability when an attack would miss or fail to cause damage, you can salvage what would have been a wasted action.

Thaiden’s heroic feat gives you a way to escape any monsters that happen to get too close. When a monster enters a space adjacent to you, you may trigger Thaiden’s heroic feat to immobilize the monster and immediately move up to three spaces! By using the heroic feat at the right time, you can neutralize a monster and prepare for Thaiden’s attack on his next turn.

Tracking Your Quarry

Monsters throughout Terrinoth would be wise to fear any Scout trained as a Bounty Hunter. Bounty Hunters excel at tracking a single monster before moving in for the kill. A Bounty Hunter’s Class cards make his hunts even more deadly.

Bounty Hunters start gameplay with the Chosen Target card, which they can exhaust to track a monster in their line of sight. Each of your attacks against the tracked monster gain an additional damage, which lets you take it down faster than ever. Other Class cards give you more benefits for hunting a tracked monster. Not so Fast reduces your target’s movement points and gives you movement points, whereas Evil Eye allows you to give your tracked monster the Doomed condition.

A key aspect of your hunts is waiting for the opportune moment to strike. Other Bounty Hunter Class cards reward you for doing just that. Lie in Wait takes an action to exhaust, but when it refreshes it gives you a bonus attack action with an additional power die! Undercover, on the other hand, invites you to enhance your defense for a turn before breaking out of hiding and gaining three movement points on your next turn.

Into the Manor

The mystery of the haunted manor awaits you and your fellow heroes within the Manor of Ravens expansion. Alys Raine and Thaiden Mistpeak may give you the strength to cross the mansion’s threshold, but can you withstand the horrors within?

Preorder Manor of Ravens at your local retailer today!

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Source: Heroic Endeavors

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Prepare for Battle

New FAQ and Tournament Rules are Available for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game

The 2014 A Game of Thrones: The Card Game National Championship season has begun, and it’s time to once again update the rules governing battle. How must armies approach each other? What famous warriors are allowed on the battlefield? Are there those who have earned a black mark?
 

Knowledge before battle is just as important as your armor, so make sure to read the new FAQ (pdf,  15.3 MB) and Tournament Rules (pdf,  1.4 MB) before heading out to a tournament.
 

 Click on the above thumbnails to download the FAQ (left) and Tournament Rules (right)
 

These changes will go into effect on August 1st, 2014.

A Word from the Developers

Hello A Game of Thrones players!

With the 2014 National Championship season fast approaching, we have been hard at work on the newest FAQ and Tournament Rules update. For errata and rulings, this update offers two new items. The first is an addition to entry 3.6, which now establishes that when a player is choosing targets for an effect that he or she has triggered, targets that can lead to a successful resolution of the effect must be chosen.

The second addition was made to address some confusion over when and how the deadly keyword resolves. To clean up this situation we have added a “resolve deadly” step to the challenge resolution framework action window to formally establish that deadly resolves as a framework step after renown has been awarded. An additional clarification on this point can be found in the Q&A section of the FAQ, on page 26.

In evaluating the metagame and the restricted list, we took a long look at the data reported on Regional Championships around the world, looked closely at numerous tournament reports, and examined the emerging metagame with playtesters.

One of the most common trends during Regionals season was an abundance of River plot decks. To check this flood, we have added Crossing the Mummer’s Ford (Spoils of War, 20) to the restricted list, with the intent of increasing the opportunity cost of running the River plot deck for card advantage, and thereby increasing the amount of plot diversity in the metagame.

Regional results also suggested that House Martell was performing slightly ahead of where they should be in relation to the other Houses, and that House Baratheon was slightly behind the curve. To combat these tendencies, we have restricted Bloodthirst (A Hidden Agenda, 119) (which tends to encourage unpopular character-light strategies) and the new Arianne Martell (The Kingsguard, 47), while simultaneously removing Melisandre’s Scheme (Reach of the Kraken, 9) from the list to assist House Baratheon.

Some ingenious combo decks following a pattern of self-discard followed by recurring combo cards from the discard and/or dead piles also started to make waves late in the season. To challenge this approach we have added two of the more popular facilitators, Desperate Measures (The Captain’s Command, 99) and Blessed by the Maiden (A Journey’s End, 118), to the restricted list.

When evaluating the emerging metagame, there were concerns that a couple decks—Conquest (Spoils of War, 1) rush with The Art of Seduction (Lions of the Rock, 52) and Greyjoy longships building a wall of STR with Naval Escort (A Sword in the Darkness, 48)—could be quite difficult to contend with in the new environment, and we have taken precautionary measures on each of those deck types.

We also discussed the possibility of removing the Fury plots from the list and came to the conclusion that the Furies did not have to be “all or nothing” with regard to their restricted status. And so Fury of the Lion (Ancient Enemies, 26), Fury of the Stag (Ancient Enemies, 27), and Fury of the Sun (Ancient Enemies, 30) are being removed from the list, while the other three Furies remain restricted at this time.

For the melee environment, we have added the aforementioned Desperate Measures (The Captain’s Command, 99) and Blessed by the Maiden (A Journey’s End, 118) to the list, as well as To the Spears (Princes of the Sun, 60), which was becoming more and more a staple card in the format.

As a whole, the changes to the restricted list were made to make the environment as engaging and enjoyable as possible for the National Championship season.

The Question and Answer section in the FAQ provides clarification entries on a number of topics the community has been asking about lately. Does Longship Maiden’s Bane (A Hidden Agenda, 105) retain the immunity granted by the House of Dreams (A Roll of the Dice, 119) agenda while the Longship is functioning as a character? Can you save a card that is being killed or discarded to pay a cost? Can 0 be chosen when interpreting “any number” abilities, and does a resolution of such an ability on 0 entities constitute a successful resolution? The answers to these questions, and others, can be found on pages 28-29.

Finally, regarding the Tournament Rules, we have added a special note to the card legality section stating that the A Dire Message chapter pack will not be legal for the 2014 North American Melee and Joust Championships.

Good luck to all players competing in all upcoming Regional and National Championship events, and to those coming to Gen Con, we’re looking forward to seeing you at the show!

Nate French & Damon Stone
Fantasy Flight Games

 

Thanks Nate and Damon!
 

Don’t let yourself be pulled into a fight without preparing first. Download the new FAQ and Tournament Rules today so you’ll be ready when it’s time to ride into battle.

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Source: Prepare for Battle

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Surf's Up

Preview The Big Wave, an Expansion for Dungeon Fighter

If you continue on this road, it leads you straight through swamps of certain, unavoidable death. Fortunately, there’s a shortcut that descends deep beneath the ocean surface through the clammy caves and exits on a sunny, sandy beach – easy peasy. Just watch out for the Black Lagoon Creature. He’s been a bit cranky lately. Be careful not to disturb the dragon, either. The locals say too that an ancient, tentacled, sea monster dwells in the caves, but that’s probably an empty myth…

Recently, we announced Fire at Will and The Big Wave, two element-themed expansions for Dungeon Fighter, the dexterity-based board game in which players battle their way though a winding dungeon filled with horrible (and horribly quirky) monsters. The first preview focused on Fire at Will, taking a look at that expansion’s burn tokens, fire element die, and flame-kindling new hero Melissa, The Fire Sorceress.

Today we’ll dip our toes into The Big Wave. You’ll find out more about the expansion’s new hero, Jack Parrot, peek into some of the underwater rooms that lie on your path through the caves, and learn about the slippery water element dice.

Avast, Me Hearties!

Whether you’re fighting sea creatures or desert-dwelling beasts, you’ll want the pirate Jack Parrot in your group of heroes. His swashbuckling and seafaring skills will help you coast through peril. Being a pirate, he’s a bit underhanded and dishonest, but you can always trust a dishonest man– to be dishonest. His Pickpocket ability allows you to add two gold pieces to your chest, although Jack probably won’t reveal how he acquired this treasure. Jack also knows how to fight: his Piercing Damage ability allows him to deal a monster two extra damage when the die lands on the target board.

Jack’s pet parrot is always on his shoulder, and just as a parrot mimics speech, Jack mimics other heroes. When his Mimic ability is activated during a fight, he can copy any special ability belonging to another hero in the party. Just spend an experience point at the beginning of the turn when you want to use the copied skill. Thanks to this ability, Jack Parrot is a true Jack-of-all-trades who you’d want to fight alongside in any dungeon.

Water, Water Everywhere

The Big Wave includes a new dungeon sheet, making the underwater caves different from any dungeon you’ve fought in before. Many rooms in the caves involve new water-themed dice throws, which can transform even the tamest sea creatures into formidable opponents.

As you can see, the right-hand path through the dungeon leads to a training room, where heroes gain three experience points from defeating the room’s resident monster. The next room, however, is flooded. To defeat the monster that swims in the rising waters, you’ll have to make a puddle shot. Placing the puddle prop in between yourself and the target board, you must bounce the die in the dry land middle of the puddle. If the die hits the puddle itself, it is considered lost in the water, and the throw counts as a miss.

On the left-hand path is the waterfall room, where you must roll the die down the length of the waterfall prop before bouncing it off the table. The next room is the Water Shrine. There, the kindly spirits of the vasty deep permit you to throw the three small, turquoise, water element dice at the start of your battle. The dice must be thrown all at once, and, like sea spray, they tend to scatter unpredictably. Any dice that land off of the target count as misses; any that land on the target deal damage according to the normal rules. If all three count as a hit or a miss, you can activate one of your hero’s special abilities – which may turn the tide in your favor. 

The Next Wave

The Big Wave brings in a mob of new monsters, including the legendary and slimy Black Lagoon Creature. The shops are stocked with water-friendly equipment such as Siren Soup. Oxygen tokens, which show how much air a hero has left, can take your breath away and knock your sea legs right out from under you. Fortunately, the new major healing template creates a spring of healing waters right on the target board. But watch out for the slime template, which causes the die to randomly slip and slide around. The heroes may make it out of the caves and onto the sunny beach, or they may have their brains eaten by Waterlogged Zombies. Either way, you and your friends are sure to soak up the fun.

Now that this preview has whet your appetite, pre-order The Big Wave from your local retailer today. You can also check out the Dungeon Fighter minisite for more details.

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Source: Surf's Up

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Study the Code

New FAQ and Tournament Rules are Available for Android: Netrunner

The 2014 Android: Netrunner National Championship season is under way! Runners and Corporations are constantly reshaping the Network and exploring what is possible within digital space. But how does one learn the strategies and tricks for navigating the innumerable ICE and programs that lay within that world?

Be ready for the next tournament you attend by checking out the new FAQ (pdf, 13.8  MB) and Tournament Rules (pdf, 6.1  MB).

These changes will go into effect on August 1st, 2014.

A Word from the Developer

Greetings Android: Netrunner players!

In this FAQ update you will find many clarifications, covering cards released through Honor and Profit. There is one new errata: the word “additional” has been removed from e3 Feedback Implants. The card still functions in the way that you would expect, but this errata helps clarify the meaning of the word “additional” on other cards.

In the Tournament Rules, the "weak-side wins" tiebreaker has been removed. This tiebreaker was not breaking many ties, and so strength of schedule is now the primary tiebreaker. We have been pleased with the positive response to the double-elimination brackets, so those remain unchanged.

Hope to see you at Gen Con, and good luck with your agendas!

Lukas Litzsinger
 Lead Designer

Thanks Lukas!

Don’t become one of the countless Runners who get lost in the Network. Learn your way around cyberspace with the new FAQ and Tournament Rules and become an expert in the nuances of the net.

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Source: Study the Code

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Holding the Darkness at Bay

No Updates to the FAQ and Tournament Rules for Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game

During the last update in April, Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game’s FAQ included a number of large changes. The metagame has been varied and interesting since then, and FFG has decided to let the format to continue evolving. There will be no changes to the Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game FAQ and Tournament Rules at this time.

You can find the current versions of the FAQ (pdf,  12 MB) and Tournament Rules (pdf,  3 MB) in their usual spot on the Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game website.

While no changes were made this time around, it never hurts to reacquaint yourself with the finer details of the rules. Download the FAQ and Tournament Rules today and refresh your knowledge of the game.

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Source: Holding the Darkness at Bay

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North American Championship Prizes

Details on Our Major Tournaments at Gen Con Indy 2014

Gen Con Indy 2014 is less than a month away, and with it, North American Championships! While many of our tournaments are getting close to selling out, there’s still time to find your spot and compete for the title of North American Champion in the game of your choice. (Initial flights of Android: Netrunner and X-Wing™ are sold out, but each game has a second flight on Friday open to players with a generic ticket.)

What Games Have a North American Championship?

While many players will come to our North American Championships with the ultimate goal of winning and attaining the valuable bye at the 2014 World Championship, there are many exclusive prizes that will be awarded for other competitors, including participation prizes for everyone. Click on the list below to jump to the game of your choice and see what prizes will be given away.

     
• A Game of Thrones: The Card Game Joust
     
• A Game of Thrones: The Card Game Melee
     
• Android: Netrunner
     
• Call of Cthulhu
     
• Star Wars™: The Card Game
     
• Warhammer: Diskwars
     
• X-Wing™

A Game of Thrones: The Card Game North American Joust Championship Prizes

     
• Champion: The winner receives a North American Joust Championship trophy.
     
• Top Two: The top two players each receive one backpack with printed A Game of Thrones art.
     
• Top Sixteen: The top sixteen players each receive one North American Championship playmat.
     
• Top Thirty-Two: The top thirty-two players each receive one set of acrylic House Martell power tokens.
     
• All Participants: Each player receives one alternate art Berric Dondarrion card.
     
• Completion Prize: Each player who plays all rounds of the tournament will receive a second copy of the alternate art Berric Dondarrion card.

Note: The overall champion for the Joust and Melee Championships receives a special trophy and a first-round bye at the 2014 A Game of Thrones: The Card Game Joust World Championship.

A Game of Thrones: The Card Game North American Melee Championship Prizes

     
• Champion: The winner receives a North American Melee Championship trophy.
     
• Top Four: The top four players each receive one backpack with A Game of Thrones art.
     
• Top Sixteen: The top sixteen players each receive one North American Championship playmat.
     
• Top Thirty-Two: The top thirty-two players each receive one set of acrylic House Martell power tokens.
     
• All Participants: Each player receives one alternate art Berric Dondarrion card.
     
• Completion Prize: Each player who plays all rounds of the tournament will receive a second copy of the alternate art Berric Dondarrion card.

Note: The overall champion for the Joust and Melee Championships receives a special trophy and a first-round bye at the 2014 A Game of Thrones: The Card Game Joust World Championship.

Android: Netrunner North American Championship Prizes

     
• Champion: The winner receives a North American Championship trophy and a first-round bye at the 2014 Android: Netrunner World Championship.
     
• Top Two: The top two players each receive one backpack with Android: Netrunner art.
     
• Top Eight: The top eight players each receive one North American Championship playmat.
     
• Top Sixty-Four: The top sixty-four players each receive one set of acrylic agenda counters.
     
• All Participants: Each player receives one alternate art Noise identity card.
     
• Completion Prize: Each player who plays all rounds of the tournament will receive a second copy of the alternate art Noise identity card.

Note: All participation and completion prizes will be awarded to players during the Thursday and Friday flights. All other prizes will be awarded to players that make the final rounds on Saturday.

Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game National Championship Prizes

     
• Champion: The winner receives a North American Championship trophy and a first-round bye at the 2014 Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game World Championship.
     
• Top Two: The top two players each receive one backpack with Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game art.
     
• Top Eight: The top eight players each receive one North American Championship playmat.
     
• Top Sixteen: The top sixteen players each receive one set of wooden elder sign domain markers.
     
• All Participants: Each player receives one alternate art Deep One Assault card.
     
• Completion Prize: Each player who plays all rounds of the tournament will receive a second copy of the alternate art Deep One Assault card.

Star Wars™: The Card Game National Championship Prizes

     
• Champion: The winner receives a North American Championship trophy and a first-round bye at the 2014 Star Wars: The Card Game World Championship.
     
• Top Two: The top two players each receive one backpack with Star Wars: The Card Game art.
     
• Top Sixteen: The top sixteen players each receive one North American Championship playmat.
     
• Top Thirty-Two: The top thirty-two players each receive one set of acrylic force dedication tokens.
     
• All Participants: Each player receives one alternate art Yoda card.
     
• Completion Prize: Each player who plays all rounds of the tournament will receive a second copy of the alternate art Yoda card.

Warhammer: Diskwars National Championship Prizes

     
• Champion: The winner receives a North American Championship trophy and a first-round bye at the 2014 Warhammer: Diskwars World Championship.
     
• Top Two: The top two players each receive one backpack with Warhammer: Diskwars art.
     
• Top Eight: The top eight players each receive one wooden initiative hammer.
     
• Top Sixteen: The top sixteen players each receive one acrylic range ruler.
     
• All Participants: Each player receives one alternate art Speed of Asuryan card.
     
• Completion Prize: Each player who plays all rounds of the tournament will receive a second copy of the alternate art Speed of Asuryan card.

X-Wing™ National Championship Prizes

     
• Champion: The winner receives a North American Championship trophy and a first-round bye at the 2014 X-Wing™ World Championship.
     
• Top Two: The top two players each receive one backpack with Star Wars: X-Wing™ art.
     
• Top Eight: The top eight players each receive one set of North American Championship acrylic movement templates.
     
• Top Sixty-Four: The top sixty-four players each receive one set of acrylic target lock tokens.
     
• All Participants: Each player receives one alternate art Chewbacca pilot card.
     
• Completion Prize: Each player who plays all rounds of the tournament will receive a second copy of the alternate art Chewbacca pilot card.

Note: All participation and completion prizes will be awarded to players during the Thursday and Friday flights. All other prizes will be awarded to players that make the final rounds on Saturday.

Join Us at Gen Con

While our North American Championships are the highlight of Organized Play at Gen Con, we are running countless other FFG events over the course of Gen Con’s four jam-packed days. Check the schedule and make sure you don’t miss out playing your favorite games!

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Source: North American Championship Prizes

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Join Us at PAX

Meet FFG at PAX Prime 2014, August 29-Sept 1

Fantasy Flight Games is coming to PAX Prime 2014 at the end of August! FFG staff will be at PAX Prime 2014 to run demos, talk to fans, and run tournaments. Join one of our tournaments, stop by our room for board games and demos, or just come on by and say hello.

FFG Will be at PAX Prime All Four Days

FFG will be in room 212 of the Washington Convention Center, where FFG staff and volunteers will be set up to run demos of many of our most popular board and card games, including some upcoming releases. Stop by and learn how to play a game you’ve had your eye on for a while or be one of the first to learn a game not yet released! FFG staff will be present throughout each day if you just want to stop by and say hello. We will also be running tournaments in the Seattle Ballroom on the 4th floor of the Motif Seattle Hotel (formerly known as the Red Lion Hotel on Fifth Ave) on Friday and Saturday.

We will be demoing FFG classics, such as A Game of Thrones: The Board Game Second Edition, X-Wing™, Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition, and Android: Netrunner. If you already know how to play a game but want to share it with your friends, you can visit the PAX board game library and check out one of our many games there. We will also have brand new games available to demo, including The Witcher Adventure Game and Warhammer 40,000: Conquest. There may even be a surprise or two thrown in!

Speaking of surprises, PAX would not be the experience it is without pins, and FFG is joining in on the fun this year. Supplies will be extremely limited, however, so we cannot guarantee everyone who visits our room will receive one. Stop by early in the weekend to increase your chances of receiving a pin.

PAX Tournaments

We will be running a 64-person X-Wing tournament Friday, August 29th, starting at 11 am, and a 128-person Android: Netrunner tournament on Saturday, August 30th, starting at 11 am. Signups for both tournaments start at 10 am the day of the tournament at PAX Tabletop Tournaments HQ, in the Emerald Ballroom on the 3rd floor of the Motif Seattle Hotel (formerly known as the Red Lion Hotel on Fifth Ave).

For PAX Prime our tournament structure will be different than usual. Each tournament will be split into eight pods: eight players per pod for X-Wing and 16 players per pod for Android: Netrunner. Pod play will last three rounds for X-Wing and four rounds for Android: Netrunner. After all rounds are finished, the winner of each pod will continue on to play in single elimination rounds for X-Wing or double elimination for Android: Netrunner.

All players will receive a participation prize. Additional prizes will be awarded to the top two players in each pod, as well as a special prize for the winner of the entire tournament.

Meet FFG

Whether you’re interested in learning an FFG game, checking out an as-yet-unreleased game, playing in a tournament, or just talking with FFG staff, take a few moments from your PAX experience and stop on by. We’d love to see you!

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Source: Join Us at PAX

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Join Us at PAX

Meet FFG at PAX Prime 2014, August 29-Sept 1

Fantasy Flight Games is coming to PAX Prime 2014 at the end of August! FFG staff will be at PAX Prime 2014 to run demos, talk to fans, and run tournaments. Join one of our tournaments, stop by our room for board games and demos, or just come on by and say hello.

FFG Will be at PAX Prime All Four Days

FFG will be in room 212 of the Washington Convention Center, where FFG staff and volunteers will be set up to run demos of many of our most popular board and card games, including some upcoming releases. Stop by and learn how to play a game you’ve had your eye on for a while or be one of the first to learn a game not yet released! FFG staff will be present throughout each day if you just want to stop by and say hello. We will also be running tournaments in the Seattle Ballroom on the 4th floor of the Motif Seattle Hotel (formerly known as the Red Lion Hotel on Fifth Ave) on Friday and Saturday.

We will be demoing FFG classics, such as A Game of Thrones: The Board Game Second Edition, X-Wing™, Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition, and Android: Netrunner. If you already know how to play a game but want to share it with your friends, you can visit the PAX board game library and check out one of our many games there. We will also have brand new games available to demo, including The Witcher Adventure Game and Warhammer 40,000: Conquest. There may even be a surprise or two thrown in!

Speaking of surprises, PAX would not be the experience it is without pins, and FFG is joining in on the fun this year. Supplies will be extremely limited, however, so we cannot guarantee everyone who visits our room will receive one. Stop by early in the weekend to increase your chances of receiving a pin.

PAX Tournaments

We will be running a 64-person X-Wing tournament Friday, August 29th, starting at 11 am, and a 128-person Android: Netrunner tournament on Saturday, August 30th, starting at 11 am. Signups for both tournaments start at 10 am the day of the tournament at PAX Tabletop Tournaments HQ, in the Emerald Ballroom on the 3rd floor of the Motif Seattle Hotel (formerly known as the Red Lion Hotel on Fifth Ave).

For PAX Prime our tournament structure will be different than usual. Each tournament will be split into eight pods: eight players per pod for X-Wing and 16 players per pod for Android: Netrunner. Pod play will last three rounds for X-Wing and four rounds for Android: Netrunner. After all rounds are finished, the winner of each pod will continue on to play in single elimination rounds for X-Wing or double elimination for Android: Netrunner.

All players will receive a participation prize. Additional prizes will be awarded to the top two players in each pod, as well as a special prize for the winner of the entire tournament.

Meet FFG

Whether you’re interested in learning an FFG game, checking out an as-yet-unreleased game, playing in a tournament, or just talking with FFG staff, take a few moments from your PAX experience and stop on by. We’d love to see you!

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Source: Join Us at PAX

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CosmicCon

This September 19 - 21, Join a Celebration of All Cosmic Encounter Fans

This September 19 – 21, CosmicCon is a celebration of all Cosmic Encounter fans!

Presented by Future Pastimes and taking place at the Fantasy Flight Games Center in Roseville, MN, CosmicCon is your opportunity to enjoy a full weekend of Cosmic Encounter with the game’s original designers and the fan designers responsible for the game’s fifth expansion, Cosmic Dominion. Design. Connect. Play. Display. Win!

Connect with a Cosmic Community

At CosmicCon, you’ll have the opportunity to hobnob with many of the galaxy’s brightest stars.

The game’s original designers Bill Eberle and Peter Olotka will be playing the game throughout the weekend, they’ll explain how they approach game design, and they’ll discuss upcoming expansions and other game ideas.

The fan designers of Cosmic Dominion will also be on hand throughout the weekend, as will former Fantasy Flight Games designers – and Cosmic Encounter fans – Kevin Wilson and Jay Little.

Moreover, Tom Vasel of Dice Tower will be interviewing gamers through the convention, and a number of other Cosmic Encounter fans will check in via Skype. These include Hugo award-winning author David Brin and Richard Garfield, the designer of Magic: The Gathering.

Games and Contests

Of course, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to play Cosmic Encounter all throughout CosmicCon. The convention will incorporate all five of the game’s expansions, including Cosmic Dominion, and run the gamut from the Newbie Table, where you can learn to play, to the Cosmic Encounter tournament, in which you can try to establish your dominance as the best Cosmic Encounter player in the world.

The fun and games of CosmicCon aren’t just limited to its tables of Cosmic Encounter, however. The convention will also feature an Alien Design contest and a collection Home Brew Cosmic Encounter creations, which will be featured in the Gaming Center’s glass display cases. Prizes will be awarded to the winners of the Alien Design contest and the best Home Brew creations!

Make Your Travel Plans Today

Throughout the convention, you’ll be able to take advantage of the Fantasy Flight Games Center’s well-lit gaming space, full-service café, and full retail store, where you can pick up all your favorite Cosmic Encounter expansions or browse for new titles.

CosmicCon runs this September 19–21 in Roseville, MN. Tickets are available via the CosmicCon website on Eventbee. Make your travel plans today!

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Source: CosmicCon

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Enter the Dragon's Lair

The Forgotten Souls Co-op Descent Adventure Is Now Available

Forgotten Souls, a cooperative adventure for Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition, is now available via FFG’s in-house manufacturing!

Previously announced in January for Organized Play, Forgotten Souls is a new cooperative adventure, allowing up to four heroes to play a fully cooperative variant of Descent: Journeys in the Dark. In a normal game of Descent, one player takes the role of overlord, commanding monsters and the forces of evil in the game. Up to four players combat the power of the overlord by playing heroes who gain experience and new items over the course of a campaign.

Forgotten Souls changes the normal structure of Descent by emulating a mini campaign in a completely cooperative atmosphere. Although this expansion does not replace the normal game of Descent, it offers a variant for you and your friends to explore an expanding dungeon, passing tests and battling fierce monsters. Encounters and monsters are controlled by decks of cards, rather than the overlord in Forgotten Souls. You’ll also grab loot and experience as you face down a series of encounters, culminating in a battle in the heart of the dragon’s lair. Enter the darkness within Forgotten Souls!

Important: The rules for the Forgotten Souls expansion are not included in the box. The rules (pdf, 17.2 MB) are available for free download by clicking the thumbnail to the right or from the Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition support page.

Into the Dark

Forgotten Souls enables you and up to three friends to experience a mini campaign in one night. You and your friends follow a twisted path, working through the rooms of the dragon’s lair, passing tests and battling any monsters that stand in your way. New rooms and challenges are revealed from an Exploration deck, meaning you’ll never encounter the same dungeon twice in the Forgotten Souls adventure.

Each room that you encounter carries its own objective that you must complete to move on. You may be required to creep through a room of sleeping barghests, or steal dragon treasure from a trash heap. After you either achieve your goal or fail to reach it, you may open the next door and reveal a new Exploration card for you and your fellow heroes to encounter.

There is no overlord player to command his monsters against you in Forgotten Souls, so your objective also changes. In the cooperative variant of Descent, you and the other heroes win the game if you can make your way through the rooms of the Exploration deck until you reach the final main encounter. If you defeat the final main encounter, you win the game, but you must be careful not to run out of time along the way.

The overlord track replaces the overlord’s objective in cooperative Descent. A fate token and a doom token are placed at opposite ends of the track, and if these tokens ever meet, the heroes lose the game. The doom token advances slowly, but once it advances, it can never return. The fate token, however, fluctuates based on the outcomes of your encounters. For example, if a hero is knocked out, fate advances by one, but successfully completing a main encounter may allow you to reset the fate token.

Hordes of monsters lurk in the shadows of this expansion, eager for the blood of heroes. Monsters in Forgotten Souls and all cooperative Descent adventures are controlled by a deck of monster activation cards that gives the monsters a list of actions each turn during the Overlord phase. Monster activation cards contain different actions for every type of monster, meaning you’ll never know exactly how the monsters will react.

Because cooperative Descent simulates a mini campaign, you’ll also have chances to gain experience and collect new items for your heroes. Experience is granted after completing main encounters, and you immediately have the chance to improve your hero’s skills by purchasing new Class cards. You’ll also obtain new items in Forgotten Souls by filling the loot track. The loot track increases with each monster you kill, and killing larger monsters gives you access to a wider selection of items. Grabbing items as you run and fight allows your heroes to improve their armor and weapons over the course of the Forgotten Souls mini campaign.

For more on the Forgotten Souls expansion, we turn to the developer, Jonathan Bove.

Jonathan Bove on the Forgotten Souls Adventure

Exploration is a huge theme in the Forgotten Souls expansion. The heroes open doors and face new encounters on a constantly expanding map, never knowing what they’ll find in the next room. Not knowing what monsters and challenges await you keeps you on your toes and forces you to strategize constantly. More than once I’ve found myself saying “If the Trash Heap is next, we’re in big trouble!”

The monster activation cards are the heart of the cooperative experience, though. I based the AI system around the idea that monsters should always be doing something, even if their prime goal changes. For example, a ranged monster may be instructed to attack the furthest hero. The monster moves to gain line of sight to that hero, but can’t move far enough. Instead of moving again, it will attack a different hero that is in line of sight. So even though the monster didn’t reach its first goal, it’s still dealing damage to the heroes.

Something else I’m very excited about is the loot system. Each time a hero defeats a monster, tokens are added to the loot track. Once the track reaches a certain threshold, the heroes will draw from the Shop Item deck. Loot is gained immediately, without waiting for a shop phase, so you get to fight, loot, and keep on fighting. Spending XP works the same way: you spend it when you earn it. This makes gameplay in Forgotten Souls very fluid and simulates a mini campaign.

The Adventure Begins

Enter the dragon’s lair in Forgotten Souls, a in-house manufacturing expansion that introduces a fully cooperative variant to Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition for players to enjoy alongside the main game. Gather a hero party of your friends, grab some loot, and prepare for adventure!

Download the rules from the support page, and order your copy of the Forgotten Souls adventure today!

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Source: Enter the Dragon's Lair

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Darkness Over the Hill, Nightmares Under the Hill

Three New Nightmare Decks Are Now Available for The Lord of the Rings

“Now certainly Bilbo was in what is called a tight place.”

    –J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Three new Nightmare Decks for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game are now available via FFG’s in-house manufacturing.

While the core game and its standard expansions imagine new and untold stories in Middle-earth, Saga Expansions allow players to participate directly in the events from the beloved fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien. With the game’s first Saga Expansion, The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill you gain the opportunity to steer the fates of Bilbo Baggins, Thorin Oakenshield, and the wizard Gandalf as they begin their famous and fateful journey out of the Shire.

With its three scenarios, The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill brings you as close as you can get to reliving the dramatic events of The Hobbit without finding your name in its pages. Trolls want to eat you. Mountain passes are made more perilous by raging storms. Rampaging giants hurl boulders in your vicinity. Hordes of Goblins swarm around you. And the strange creature known as Gollum lurks deep within a dark and lonely cavern… 

The scenarios of The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill introduce more than enough challenge and peril to renew your appreciation of the intrepid Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, but now with The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill Nightmare Decks, Bilbo’s situation – and yours – becomes darker and more desperate than ever. Can you help Middle-earth’s unlikeliest hero survive his early travels, even as the shadow of evil looms darker and closer than ever before?

Developer Matt Newman on The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill Nightmare Decks

Now that the Nightmare Decks for The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill are on sale, I thought I would take some time to share the design philosophy behind some of the new challenges and experiences they offer you. As always, each Nightmare Deck is designed to expand on its scenario’s theme as well as increase its difficulty, making for an experience that is fresh, fun, and challenging enough to test even the most veteran players.

We Must Away, Ere Break of Day

The Nightmare version of the opening to The Hobbit cuts out many of the scenario’s easier cards in favor of a more consistently difficult encounter deck. Like Conflict at the Carrock, this scenario presents players with a set of challenging enemies that can be extremely punishing if encountered too early or too late. As many players discovered, the easiest way to defeat this scenario is to encounter its enemies at just the right time. And like the Nightmare version for Conflict at the Carrock, this Nightmare Deck attempts to surprise players with cards that make it very difficult for them to remain at Stage 1B for too long, like Comfortable Light (We Must Away, Ere Break of Day Nightmare Deck, 5) and Mince Them Fine (We Must Away, Ere Break of Day Nightmare Deck, 6).

As a Saga Expansion, The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill focuses on relating events directly from The Hobbit, and that meant, among other things, that we did not want to create new Trolls for this scenario like we did with Conflict at the Carrock. Instead, I opted to change the experience around these Trolls, not only making them more ferocious, but ensuring that you would have no choice but to fight them tooth and nail to survive. In Nightmare mode, you will find your threat rising higher and higher, forcing you to engage all three Trolls before you have the chance to get away. Additionally, a new treachery card, Night Wanes Slow (We Must Away, Ere Break of Day Nightmare Deck, 7), can even trigger when it is discarded from the top of the encounter deck, guaranteeing that you can’t quest through the entire encounter deck in one big push. Together, these new cards truly make this a more consistent and aggressive scenario.

Over the Misty Mountains Grim

In Over the Misty Mountains Grim, players must progress through two separate encounter decks, each of which features its own encounter set and unique challenges. The scenario’s Nightmare Deck contains new cards for both encounter decks – some of which you’ll face in the heights of the Misty Mountains, and others which add new perils to the depths of Goblin-town!

The first half of this scenario is meant to burden your heroes, slowing their progress and raising their threat, so that the enemies in the scenario’s second half can wipe them out in one fell swoop. To that end, new cards like Dim Valley (Over the Misty Mountains Grim, 3) work to drain your resources – especially your precious Baggins resources – and that makes the second half of the scenario all that much harder.

Once they’ve stumbled into Goblin-town, your heroes will encounter a much more imposing version of The Great Goblin (Over the Misty Mountains Grim, 5), and a horde of Goblins that get stronger once he is defeated. The original scenario’s Goblins also get stronger after The Great Goblin is defeated, but unlike in the original scenario, you must now defeat The Great Goblin before you can place any progress on the quest. This means you’re more likely to see many of the scenario’s Goblins enraged and at maximum strength, and you can no longer opt to keep The Great Goblin alive for as long as possible in order to make the scenario easier.

Dungeons Deep and Caverns Dim

I am very excited for players to get their hands on this new Nightmare version of one of my favorite chapters from The Hobbit! My primary goal for the Dungeons Deep and Caverns Dim Nightmare Deck was to make the final battle against the Goblins and Wargs tougher, and to make Gollum more important. One of the ways we did this was to introduce The Lower Gate (Dungeons Deep and Caverns Dim, 2), a new location we get to explore in this Nightmare version. This location slows your progress, holding you in the final battle a little longer, and also symbolizes the strange alliance between the Goblins and Wargs of the Misty Mountains.

Additionally, the Nightmare Deck provides Gollum with new strength with which to chase and harass Bilbo and the rest of our heroes, even long after they’ve escaped. In Nightmare Mode, Gollum cannot take damage from any source, meaning he will continue to fight for Bilbo’s Magic Ring throughout the scenario… and at any cost. Cards like We Hates It! (Dungeons Deep and Caverns Dim, 7) and Where Isss It? (Dungeons Deep and Caverns Dim, 7) also increase the role that Gollum plays in the scenario, and they ensure a difficult and memorable encounter.

I had a lot of fun designing these Nightmare Decks and getting to revisit my favorite chapters from The Hobbit, and I hope that you are just as excited to fight against their hungry Trolls, defeat The Great Goblin, and outwit Gollum once again. Keep those Baggins resources handy – you’re going to need them!

Deeper, Dimmer, and Deadlier Than Ever!

“The hiss was close behind him. He turned now and saw Gollum’s eyes like small green lamps coming up the slope. Terrified, he tried to run faster, but suddenly he struck his toes on a snag in the floor, and fell flat with his little sword under him.”

    –J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Since its release, The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill has entertained players around the world, even as it has challenged them to accompany Bilbo Baggins for the first half of his journeys and through some of the most dramatic events found within first half of The Hobbit. Now, The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill Nightmare Decks will renew your appreciation of the formidable Hobbit’s resolve as they recast your struggles within the deeper shadows of Nightmare Mode.

Can you help Bilbo Baggins survive the heightened challenges of Nightmare Mode? Pick up your copy of The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill Nightmare Decks today!

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Source: Darkness Over the Hill, Nightmares Under the Hill

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Darkness Over the Hill, Nightmares Under the Hill

Three New Nightmare Decks Are Now Available for The Lord of the Rings

“Now certainly Bilbo was in what is called a tight place.”
     –J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Three new Nightmare Decks for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game are now available via FFG’s in-house manufacturing.

While the core game and its standard expansions imagine new and untold stories in Middle-earth, Saga Expansions allow players to participate directly in the events from the beloved fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien. With the game’s first Saga Expansion, The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill you gain the opportunity to steer the fates of Bilbo Baggins, Thorin Oakenshield, and the wizard Gandalf as they begin their famous and fateful journey out of the Shire.

With its three scenarios, The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill brings you as close as you can get to reliving the dramatic events of The Hobbit without finding your name in its pages. Trolls want to eat you. Mountain passes are made more perilous by raging storms. Rampaging giants hurl boulders in your vicinity. Hordes of Goblins swarm around you. And the strange creature known as Gollum lurks deep within a dark and lonely cavern… 

The scenarios of The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill introduce more than enough challenge and peril to renew your appreciation of the intrepid Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, but now with The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill Nightmare Decks, Bilbo’s situation – and yours – becomes darker and more desperate than ever. Can you help Middle-earth’s unlikeliest hero survive his early travels, even as the shadow of evil looms darker and closer than ever before?

Developer Matt Newman on The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill Nightmare Decks

Now that the Nightmare Decks for The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill are on sale, I thought I would take some time to share the design philosophy behind some of the new challenges and experiences they offer you. As always, each Nightmare Deck is designed to expand on its scenario’s theme as well as increase its difficulty, making for an experience that is fresh, fun, and challenging enough to test even the most veteran players.

We Must Away, Ere Break of Day

The Nightmare version of the opening to The Hobbit cuts out many of the scenario’s easier cards in favor of a more consistently difficult encounter deck. Like Conflict at the Carrock, this scenario presents players with a set of challenging enemies that can be extremely punishing if encountered too early or too late. As many players discovered, the easiest way to defeat this scenario is to encounter its enemies at just the right time. And like the Nightmare version for Conflict at the Carrock, this Nightmare Deck attempts to surprise players with cards that make it very difficult for them to remain at Stage 1B for too long, like Comfortable Light (We Must Away, Ere Break of Day Nightmare Deck, 5) and Mince Them Fine (We Must Away, Ere Break of Day Nightmare Deck, 6).

As a Saga Expansion, The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill focuses on relating events directly from The Hobbit, and that meant, among other things, that we did not want to create new Trolls for this scenario like we did with Conflict at the Carrock. Instead, I opted to change the experience around these Trolls, not only making them more ferocious, but ensuring that you would have no choice but to fight them tooth and nail to survive. In Nightmare mode, you will find your threat rising higher and higher, forcing you to engage all three Trolls before you have the chance to get away. Additionally, a new treachery card, Night Wanes Slow (We Must Away, Ere Break of Day Nightmare Deck, 7), can even trigger when it is discarded from the top of the encounter deck, guaranteeing that you can’t quest through the entire encounter deck in one big push. Together, these new cards truly make this a more consistent and aggressive scenario.

Over the Misty Mountains Grim

In Over the Misty Mountains Grim, players must progress through two separate encounter decks, each of which features its own encounter set and unique challenges. The scenario’s Nightmare Deck contains new cards for both encounter decks – some of which you’ll face in the heights of the Misty Mountains, and others which add new perils to the depths of Goblin-town!

The first half of this scenario is meant to burden your heroes, slowing their progress and raising their threat, so that the enemies in the scenario’s second half can wipe them out in one fell swoop. To that end, new cards like Dim Valley (Over the Misty Mountains Grim, 3) work to drain your resources – especially your precious Baggins resources – and that makes the second half of the scenario all that much harder.

Once they’ve stumbled into Goblin-town, your heroes will encounter a much more imposing version of The Great Goblin (Over the Misty Mountains Grim, 5), and a horde of Goblins that get stronger once he is defeated. The original scenario’s Goblins also get stronger after The Great Goblin is defeated, but unlike in the original scenario, you must now defeat The Great Goblin before you can place any progress on the quest. This means you’re more likely to see many of the scenario’s Goblins enraged and at maximum strength, and you can no longer opt to keep The Great Goblin alive for as long as possible in order to make the scenario easier.

Dungeons Deep and Caverns Dim

I am very excited for players to get their hands on this new Nightmare version of one of my favorite chapters from The Hobbit! My primary goal for the Dungeons Deep and Caverns Dim Nightmare Deck was to make the final battle against the Goblins and Wargs tougher, and to make Gollum more important. One of the ways we did this was to introduce The Lower Gate (Dungeons Deep and Caverns Dim, 2), a new location we get to explore in this Nightmare version. This location slows your progress, holding you in the final battle a little longer, and also symbolizes the strange alliance between the Goblins and Wargs of the Misty Mountains.

Additionally, the Nightmare Deck provides Gollum with new strength with which to chase and harass Bilbo and the rest of our heroes, even long after they’ve escaped. In Nightmare Mode, Gollum cannot take damage from any source, meaning he will continue to fight for Bilbo’s Magic Ring throughout the scenario… and at any cost. Cards like We Hates It! (Dungeons Deep and Caverns Dim, 7) and Where Isss It? (Dungeons Deep and Caverns Dim, 7) also increase the role that Gollum plays in the scenario, and they ensure a difficult and memorable encounter.

I had a lot of fun designing these Nightmare Decks and getting to revisit my favorite chapters from The Hobbit, and I hope that you are just as excited to fight against their hungry Trolls, defeat The Great Goblin, and outwit Gollum once again. Keep those Baggins resources handy – you’re going to need them!

Deeper, Dimmer, and Deadlier Than Ever!

“The hiss was close behind him. He turned now and saw Gollum’s eyes like small green lamps coming up the slope. Terrified, he tried to run faster, but suddenly he struck his toes on a snag in the floor, and fell flat with his little sword under him.”
     –J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Since its release, The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill has entertained players around the world, even as it has challenged them to accompany Bilbo Baggins for the first half of his journeys and through some of the most dramatic events found within first half of The Hobbit. Now, The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill Nightmare Decks will renew your appreciation of the formidable Hobbit’s resolve as they recast your struggles within the deeper shadows of Nightmare Mode.

Can you help Bilbo Baggins survive the heightened challenges of Nightmare Mode? Pick up your copy of The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill Nightmare Decks today!

...

Source: Darkness Over the Hill, Nightmares Under the Hill

[RSSFeeder]

Join Us at PAX

Meet FFG at PAX Prime 2014, August 29-Sept 1

Fantasy Flight Games is coming to PAX Prime 2014 at the end of August! FFG staff will be at PAX Prime 2014 to run demos, talk to fans, and run tournaments. Join one of our tournaments, stop by our room for board games and demos, or just come on by and say hello.

FFG Will be at PAX Prime All Four Days

FFG will be in room 212 of the Washington Convention Center, where FFG staff and volunteers will be set up to run demos of many of our most popular board and card games, including some upcoming releases. Stop by and learn how to play a game you’ve had your eye on for a while or be one of the first to learn a game not yet released! FFG staff will be present throughout each day if you just want to stop by and say hello. We will also be running tournaments in the Seattle Ballroom on the 4th floor of the Motif Seattle Hotel (formerly known as the Red Lion Hotel on Fifth Ave) on Friday and Saturday.

We will be demoing FFG classics, such as A Game of Thrones: The Board Game Second Edition, X-Wing™, Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition, and Android: Netrunner. If you already know how to play a game but want to share it with your friends, you can visit the PAX board game library and check out one of our many games there. We will also have brand new games available to demo, including The Witcher Adventure Game and Warhammer 40,000: Conquest. There may even be a surprise or two thrown in!

Speaking of surprises, PAX would not be the experience it is without pins, and FFG is joining in on the fun this year. Supplies will be extremely limited, however, so we cannot guarantee everyone who visits our room will receive one. Stop by early in the weekend to increase your chances of receiving a pin.

PAX Tournaments

We will be running a 64-person X-Wing tournament Friday, August 29th, starting at 11 am, and a 128-person Android: Netrunner tournament on Saturday, August 30th, starting at 11 am. Signups for both tournaments start at 10 am the day of the tournament at PAX Tabletop Tournaments HQ, in the Emerald Ballroom on the 3rd floor of the Motif Seattle Hotel (formerly known as the Red Lion Hotel on Fifth Ave).

For PAX Prime our tournament structure will be different than usual. Each tournament will be split into eight pods: eight players per pod for X-Wing and 16 players per pod for Android: Netrunner. Pod play will last three rounds for X-Wing and four rounds for Android: Netrunner. After all rounds are finished, the winner of each pod will continue on to play in single elimination rounds for X-Wing or double elimination for Android: Netrunner.

All players will receive a participation prize. Additional prizes will be awarded to the top two players in each pod, as well as a special prize for the winner of the entire tournament.

Meet FFG

Whether you’re interested in learning an FFG game, checking out an as-yet-unreleased game, playing in a tournament, or just talking with FFG staff, take a few moments from your PAX experience and stop on by. We’d love to see you!

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Source: Join Us at PAX

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Into the Dark...

Preview the Dan Abnett Short Story Included in Dark Heresy Second Edition

“They had gone out into the Low Worlds, where death was expecting them. Indeed, of all thing things out there in the dark hoping to make their acquaintance, death was probably the most hospitable.”

   –Dan Abnett, Into the Dark…

Dark Heresy Second Edition invites you to join a team of Acolytes, dedicated to exterminating heresy in the Imperium at any cost. You must travel across the innumerable worlds of the galaxy, confronting horrors beyond imagination in the name of shielding humanity from the corruption of Chaos.

For the Dark Heresy Second Edition Core Rulebook, author Dan Abnett wrote a short story entitled Into the Dark…. Dan Abnett is a prolific author within the Warhammer 40,000 universe, having written the Gaunt’s Ghosts series and the Eisenhorn and Ravenor trilogies, among others. In his new short story, players find a taste of what they might expect from their adventures as an Acolyte in an Inquisitor’s service.

Download the first two pages of Into the Dark… (pdf, 2.7 MB) from the support page for Dark Heresy Second Edition, and read Dan’s thoughts on working with the Warhammer 40,000 universe below.

Dan Abnett on the Warhammer 40,000 Universe

FFG: What aspects of the Warhammer 40,000 background appeal to you most as a writer, and what makes Warhammer 40,000 stand out from other science fiction and futuristic settings you've worked with? 

Dan Abnett: It’s an incredibly well-developed universe with an unmistakable aesthetic. The tone and atmosphere of Warhammer 40,000 are what truly make the universe memorable. This tone is derived from the art of John Blanche and shows up in the darkly ornate, almost medieval, imagery throughout the Imperium. It depicts a culture in the midst of magnificent decay. Everything within the universe is very well defined, but there’s vast scope for writers’ and artists’ imagination.

FFG: You've been writing about Inquisitors and those who serve them for a while now. What most interests you about Inquisitors, Acolytes, and their adventures?

DA: Warhammer 40,000 is originally a table-top miniatures game focused the battlefront, but Inquisitors give us a way to see the society away from the frontline of battle. That thought really appealed to me when I started writing the Eisenhorn and Ravenor books. The stories of the Inquisitors take us to the darkest depths of the Imperium, into the shadows of everyday life, into the opulent realms of the nobility and the slums of the underclasses. It’s a way to explore the universe that you don’t get from a military angle.

FFG: The villains are often as memorable as the heroes in Warhammer 40,000 stories. Who was your favourite nemesis to write for, both in terms of the character and what he or she offered to the plot? 

DA: I’d have to say Pontius Glaw, the villain of the Eisenhorn books, who was a true menace because he was powerful, but also extraordinarily clever. Cherubael stands out as well, although sometimes he’s almost a hero (except that he’s a daemon).

FFG: What games do you play yourself in your free time? 

DA: I play all versions of Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer, both tabletop and roleplay, alongisde other RPG classics, such as Traveller, Dungeons & Dragons, and Call of Cthulhu. That’s when I get the chance, though, which is all too seldom! I like to play anything Warhammer 40,000 when I can, just to stay in the universe. The Horus Heresy board game is also great. It creates a totally different scale of action for the players.

FFG: What was your inspiration for the Into the Dark… short story included in Dark Heresy Second Edition? Without giving too much away, what can players expect from the tale?

DA: The short story really offers an example of how an Inquisitorial team operates, how the characters might interact, and what each Acolyte brings to the table regarding skills. It also illustrates exactly how mysterious things can be in the grim darkness of the far future. Sometimes even the heroes don’t know what they’re doing or why!

Thanks, Dan!

Click the thumbnail on the right to download the first two pages of Dan Abnett’s short story, Into the Dark…, and experience the beginning of the Acolytes’ adventures. Then, prepare to tell your own stories in the darkness of Warhammer 40,000. Preorder Dark Heresy Second Edition at your local retailer today!

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Source: Into the Dark...

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Fantasy Flight Games Is Now Hiring

Apply for the Position of Hobby Market Sales Associate Today

Fantasy Flight Games, leading hobby-market publisher of board games, card games, roleplaying games, and other tabletop games, is now hiring for the following position:

Hobby Market Sales Associate (pdf, 122 KB)

The primary responsibilities of the Hobby Market Sales Associate position are to maintain outstanding customer service with key domestic and international retail and distributor accounts, track purchase orders from customer accounts, manage and grow customer relationships, and resolve customer issues.

Details can be found in the pdf document linked above. To apply for this position, please submit a cover letter with salary requirements and resume to HumanResources@fantasyflightgames.com; under the subject line “Hobby Market Sales Associate” no later than end of business day Tuesday, July 29, 2014. Please do not call or visit.

Our offices are located in Roseville, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Candidates not already living within commuting distance must be willing to relocate. Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer committed to a diverse work force and a work environment free from discrimination.

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Source: Fantasy Flight Games Is Now Hiring