BB:
What is the current story with World at War? We have seen lots of posts about a “new version”. I also here it wont have Zombies nor Vampires s that right?
DH:
Yep, a re imagining of the system, and backstory sans supernatural activity! To start we have renamed the series to World At War 85. We moved the series away from the old storyline, and locations and moved it to real world locations with formations. The core rules are in a middle of a re-write as well as a new storyline from Keith Tracton and Matt Lohse. The new core rules will be available as a free download. We have update the maps and unit counters. We are taking all the expansion and now included them into the base games. We are also bringing new countries into the series such as Israel, China, and Korea forces. The counter size will NOT change so the new editions can played with older games.
BB What about all the old faithful players David?
DH The new rules will be free download. The upgrade maps will have the names on them so older game owners will be able to use them.
BB -Sweet! Will fonts be updated? I personally didnt mind them, but that is a big beef for some folks?
DH Yes. We understand that the combination of font and counter size is a challenge. It will change.
BB: When can we see some counter art? Hmmmm?
DH Soon! Really soon! [See LNLP site for examples of new counter art and shape]
BB So ok, When can we expect to be able to P500 this?
DH:
There will be no game released this year, but we are planning to release all of the series all at once. New games in the series (except Strike Force Africa) will follow a normal production schedule.
The reboot release of the WaW85 we are going to release them all at once on day one. Once, all the games components are ready for print such as the maps, counters, rules, etc. We are going to offer a have special deal, it will go up on a Kickstarter in Q1 2017.
BB: Wait so it will be production ready?
DH Yes. We are going to charge one low price for the entire set of games in the series. So you won’t receive one game but all five games at the same time. The plan is to charge somewhere between $100.00 – $150.00 for the whole five-game series. Anyone who owns some or all of the older edition games can get all the new editions at a low price.
The timeline will be quick since we are doing all the pre-production work upfront and will only need to print the games. Our turn-around time to from funded to your hands should not be more than ninety days.
BB What?! I know only one other company who did that. That is incredible compared to other Publishers.
DH: To be clear, this plan is not a promise, and we are still looking into it. But I feel confident we can do this and make sure the production is top notch since all the work is being done upfront and not after the fact. LnLP has always been about supporting the gamers who have purchased from us before and not leaving them behind.
We have been working on this series for a long time now making this quick turn-around possible and if you have purchased any of our newer games or re-releases you already know what we can do. I don’t want to be the guy that funds something and a year or two later ships it.
I going to pay and do all the upfront work and funds its printing. I made special arrangements to have all the games printed in less then two weeks and then ship to us.
BB That is a significant investment. I hope the community gets behind this and appreciates the effort.
[Late edit. Note LNLP have elected to go with 5/8’s inch counters for WaW, this will mean a different format and scale of play, and of course no backward compatibility.What the impact there is for the player and the buyer I dont know. We need to understand more about scenarios, how they are revised and whether we have a value added system or not]