Over at the Warhammer Community website, they released the new roadmap for Necromunda, which is pretty exciting. But they led off with the big news, probably so everyone would stop asking:
There’s an exciting year ahead for fans of Necromunda, with a lineup more stuffed than the questionably-sourced contents of a back-alley Scabber’s overcoat. There will be new miniatures, new terrain, new vehicles and new expansions.
However, there won’t be a Roleplay expansion.
I guess that answers that… to some extent. In typical Games Workshop style, they don’t bother to explain why there won’t be a Necromunda: Roleplay expansion. So, don’t expect those rumors to die down any time soon. There will probably be speculation for years about the reason why it got canceled until some marketing person leaves and spills the actual cause on a podcast or video somewhere.
But, I said I’d give full credit to my reader who called it. And here’s what he said:
Featured Reader Comment
Hello,
We've seen delays before, rumoured to be due to printing/editorial issues (Legions Imperialis) or due to production problems (Angron transfigured) and GW haven't deleted articles from Warhammer Community as a result. To me that seems like a weird response to a delay.
I think the Cubicle 7 license issue is more possible than you give it credit. Anyone producing a licensed Warhammer product isn't going to be wanting to find that they're facing competition in that product space from GW. Cubicle 7 want to sell RPGs based in hive cities. Necromunda Roleplay is direct competition. It devalues the licence they've paid for and invested money into product development. I don't think they can just watch it happen and respond by saying, "sucks to be us."
I think this is a much more plausible explanation then you give it credit for.
Well done, sir! Praise and applause goes to you. I guess I was just being naively hopeful.
That said, the other news is just as interesting. The first roadmap for Necromunda in a long, long time. And, even better, they’re returning to the Ash Wastes in the Spring! I can’t say I’m unhappy about this. I always liked the Ash Wastes as a setting and I was curious what they were going to do in regards to vehicle rules since the book was pretty silent about them.
I care a little less about Hive Secundus but I know a lot of people who like it (more than they do the Ash Wastes), so I’m happy for them. I might like it more if they drop the incursion gang thing and the way gear and experience is handled. If they work the setting a little more like the traditional underhive, it would probably raise my interest level. Oh… and bets as to whether the “biggest plastic vehicle kit yet” is Delaque? Poor bastards never did get their vehicle…
Brutes and Bounty Hunters are both cool. Neither are as big as the Ash Wastes or Secundus because they’re not settings but more is always better! So I’ll take it. And they’ll probably be releasing a bunch more journals throughout the year, too. Which all the other gangs can use.
Exciting stuff! Bummed about the roleplaying game. As I said, they really stripped a lot of character and lore out of the existing books and journals and I’d assumed it was going to be stuffed in there. But since that isn’t happening, I wonder if they’ll either release more lore oriented stuff than originally intended or if they’ll just skip it for this edition. Probably the latter as it’s easier and the old books are still out there.
In the meantime, they have promised that the Orlock stuff is coming out this year. So that’ll be one more nice thing to get. I don’t see dice in the picture though… Intentionally left out or forgotten about?
See? There’s always something new to speculate about. Always.
