"TFOB: is it still alive?" Topic

Hallo,
the web site of The Face of Battle game is no updated from very long time. Personally I like it very much since highly detailed and covering in realistic way all the aspects at skirmish level. Also the two expansion books were very interesting, including a lot of easily playable scenario.
Do you know something about future realises of this rule?
Thanks in advance.
Emanuele

Do you know something about future realises of this rule?

Why is it that people think that if rules are not constantly being updated then they are "dead"?

Hallo MajorB, I agree with you. I don't think TFOB rule is dead, in fact we continue to play and enjoy it. It is for that reason that we would appreciate more exiting scenario/expansion book. The last expansion, Act with daring, is dated 2009 and we are still waiting for weapons and vehiclees book, as reported in the "coming soon" page…

Emanuele

The forums are active. I think there have been some other product updates. If anyone sees Jake or Frank at Fall-In, ask.

I haven't heard of any updates for chess or checkers for a while.

I haven't heard of any updates for chess or checkers for a while.

Darn it, I was hoping they'd release the non-UGO/IGO version before the holidays…

They need to sort out the point values between Draughts and Chequers first.

Emanuele

This topic appears once in a while.

I have been working on the second edition for years now. If you attend CanGames in Ottawa, you may have been lucky enough to be play the 2nd edition rules. I have been running scenarios in the second edition for several conventions. I have also been demoing several variants including horror (Faces of Horror), French-Indian War and fantasy at CanGames. Some people have been playtesting the 2nd edition. But supporting playtesters is time consuming and hit and miss (more miss than hit actually). Gammazon still sells the books – except the main rule book which has been OOP for years. No sense reprinting it since the 2nd edition is in the works. PDF's sell quite healthy on WarGame Vault (DriveThru RPG).

I ran into a bit of developer burn out working on many variants, a new edition, new expansions, scenario books, player support, as well as developing the application software to run the web sites. So new offerings have been extremely slow. Think of TFoB 2nd Edition as the Chinese Democracy of wargame rules.

Yes, the web site is dated and needs some social window dressing. I need Youtube demos, a Facebook page, dynamic web content, etc. Although the figure and terrain resource directory is updated once in a while and still proves extremely useful. The Yahoo group is basically dead, but I am personally not a fan of Yahoo groups anymore. I would rather see contextual discussions on topics. Not the "stream of consciousness" style of discussions that Yahoo seems to offer. So that may be dropped in some future.

TFoB was never enjoyed high visibility at conventions, etc. Although nominated for three Origins awards and 1000's of copies have been sold, it still appears to be more a cult/fan game than a main stream game. So it is rarely discussed or openly commented on except in passing. There are a few people on TMP that play.

Taking all of this into consideration, it may appear dead. Although, define ‘dead' in the wargaming rules world. And as others have pointed out, it is still playable after all these years.

BTW, who are Frank and Jake at Fall In?

Mike
The Face of Battle designer