Next Wave of Novellas?

[jjvreed 26]

Now that 1) all five of the original novellas have been released and 2) all of them have performed above expectations (defined as selling the whole run and mass demand for a second printing), I personally believe it is appropriate/inevitable that there will be additional novellas.

So:

How long until the next wave is announced?

How often will they be released? (we won't ever get caught up if it were to stay bimonthly)

Would anyone like to engage in delightful but uninformed speculation on who the next subjects will/should be?

Also if anyone actually has info on plans to release more, I would be glad for any links to that news...

[mu_wenbo 2]

I would like to see a Dexter Drake story next. I see him as a Mystic and they have not received a novella character yet.

[Soakman 987]

I want the following:

Mystic: Patrice Hatheway

Guardian: Danielle Reyes

Rogue: Finn Edwards or Bob Jenkins

Survivor: Gloria Goldberg/Rita Young

Seeker: Kate Winthrop

[Duciris 1,347]

Well, one or two of them were announced the day they released, so there's precedence for not telling us in advance.

I am expecting the largest gap between novella waves will be between Wave I & Wave II.  This was a test - and an overwhelmingly successful one at that.  I can't imagine that they won't continue it, so it will be a question of commissioning them, writing them, proofing them, adding those glossy bits at the back, formatting them (more the art than the text), getting them to the printer, actually printing them, and shipping them across an ocean.  The answer to "when will we see them" is dependent on when they realized the first wave was a success.  If they started after Jenny's was released, they could have commissioned the next set before November.  That's the best case - unless they decided to start a second wave before releasing the first.

I have no idea what the turnaround on these is, but I have to assume that the writing, proofing, and glossy bits are the biggest time component.  Also, the playtesting of the investigators, but that may very well be done well in advance.  Even if it isn't, it's done during the actual writing & proofing window.  So too are the various pieces of art.

I know that's not an answer, and certainly not the answer we all want of, "Tomorrow!" but those are the baseline components (that I could think of quickly) of what to use to temper our speculations.  And by no means is this a dissent of speculating!  Every game on this site has a speculation of what is or might be coming down the pipe from FFG, and I participate on many of them.  I just responded to add a dash of depressing realism to the conversation.

Also, yes.  If it were to continue at a bimonthly rate, it would take more than 9 years to release all of the existing investigators.

Edited June 11, 2018 by Duciris

[Soakman 987]

Yeah, I very much do not expect releases for all investigators. I'm not even positive we'll see all of them in the deluxe boxes before the game runs out of steam (though I would love it to last forever). But stranger things have happened.

[Wyndam 9]

Once RtNotZ is released in the next few weeks, we will be down to only Mythos packs that have been announced. I imagine we will get an announcement of the next wave sometime later this year.

[KBlumhardt 378]

1 hour ago, Wyndam said:

Once RtNotZ is released in the next few weeks, we will be down to only Mythos packs that have been announced. I imagine we will get an announcement of the next wave sometime later this year.

If at all possible, my guess is that they'll have the first new one at Arkham Nights again this year.  The number of Jenny books they sold last year at the event was... staggering.

[Duciris 1,347]

14 hours ago, Soakman said:

Yeah, I very much do not expect releases for all investigators. I'm not even positive we'll see all of them in the deluxe boxes before the game runs out of steam (though I would love it to last forever). But stranger things have happened.

I'm more optimistic than that.

We have 55 investigators, 5 of which were released with the core.  Not withstanding the bonus investigator of Lola (a 6th in a deluxe) or new investigators (like Sefina), it would take 10 cycles to release all of the investigators.  At 8 months a cycle, that would be a little more than 6 & 1/2 years.  I think the game can manage that.

Lord of the Rings released on April 20th, 2011.  I think AH has that kind of longevity.

As for Novellas, I could see them continuing their run after ending the production of new content for the LCG - in fact, that would make them more desirable among the community.  As they have released 6 games in the Arkham Files franchise to date, I think they may very well choose to continue exploring their characters in the years that follow.

As for the longevity of the game, there is added pressure to not abandon the AH:LCG any time soon.  The Warhammer titles and Star Wars LCG being one thing, now that they've lost Netrunner, the only long-running LCG is LotR.  Game of Thrones is a second edition and Legend of the Five Rings is just getting its footing - only now receiving product designed after the game's release.  LCGs have been a staple of FFG for quite some time, and now they only have 4.  Until new games are developed, I don't think any of them will be receiving limited attention from the devs.

On that last note, I expect a competitive Terrinoth LCG, a different competitive Android LCG, and a competitive Twilight Imperium LCG.  All of these are IPs that FFG owns free-and-clear.  I would have given even odds for the Terrinoth LCG to be competitive or co-op a week ago, but with the loss of Netrunner, I'm less inclined to think that they'll shift the balance to having fewer competitive games than cooperative.  Next year's Winter World Championship (this year Netrunner will still be played), only has 3 games on the docket: L5R, AGoT, and Runewars.  Unless I missed something.  They'll want to boost that somehow.  A new competitive game by GenCon '19, will only be possible by having it in production before now, or by rushing.  In either case, I have to believe that is their aim.  It worked really well for L5R last year, so if at all possible, they'll replicate it next year.  The upside to losing Netrunner, is that a number of very good members of the card game team had their schedules freed up.  We'll see what comes of this, but the one thing I'm not expecting is a new Star Wars game.

[Soakman 987]

Those are some great insights, and I do hope you're right. Only time will tell. I'm new to the LCG scene really, despite being pretty familiar with the Arkham Files IP. I think despite how successful the game has been, I'm a little affected by the lack of interest in my small town with competitive LCG's overtaking co-ops enormously. People in my area seem to be much less interested in co-ops, so I'm very glad to repeatedly hear how well the game is doing in other places.

[SGPrometheus 121]

2 hours ago, Duciris said:

On that last note, I expect a competitive Terrinoth LCG...  I would have given even odds for the Terrinoth LCG to be competitive or co-op a week ago, but with the loss of Netrunner, I'm less inclined to think that they'll shift the balance to having fewer competitive games than cooperative.

They announced a co-op Terrinoth LCG a week or so ago: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/6/6/heroes-of-terrinoth/

No idea what they'll do about having only 3 competitive games to play at WWC; maybe they feel that's a good and manageable number.

[Assussanni 528]

15 minutes ago, SGPrometheus said:

They announced a co-op Terrinoth LCG a week or so ago: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/6/6/heroes-of-terrinoth/

No idea what they'll do about having only 3 competitive games to play at WWC; maybe they feel that's a good and manageable number.

Heroes of Terrinoth isn't an LCG, it is a re-skin of the Warhammer Quest Adventure Card Game. It is a co-op card game but as far as I can tell it won't follow the LCG model with regular monthly expansions; if it does well I'd imagine it will get infrequent large expansions similar to Descent.

[jjvreed 26]

I would love to see a twilight imperium LCG. I would buy, play, and promote the crap out of that. If there were a TI breakfast cereal I would eat it! Only Arkham files really is closer to my heart