And The Fandom Rejoiced / Tabletop Games

The announcement of new games or new expansions can often cause euphoria among gamers.

---

• Exalted's fanbase had been divided about the idea of including the Infernal Exalted in Second Edition. Not so much about the Green Sun Princes existing, as just what the hell they were supposed to be like. When it was announced that Michael Goodwin, the writer for Manual of Exalted Power: The Abyssals, was going to be doing the Infernals, all the backdraft shut up and we're waiting to see what he'll come up with.
  • Wait's over. It turned out pretty damn good.
  • Pretty much every Ink Monkeys project/errata/fix does this for the Exalted fanbase.
  • Also, the announcement of Shards of the Exalted Dream caused an explosion of joy back in the day. (One of the alternate settings it detailed was Modern!Exalted with guns, cars, and computers. This had been a topic of homebrewing on the forums for ages.)
  • And then this, an excerpt from the White Wolf blog from July 24th 2012, hit the forums: "Ex 3. This year. John and Holden and Geoff. Talk amongst yourselves." A new edition of Exalted out by the end of the year? Grabowski, Exalted's first developer, back on the team? Talking did, indeed, commence.
  • It got even better when the writers started giving us spoilers. In particular: Wait, 3E Lunars won't suck? They have 'significant holdings across much of creation?' The Solar Bond dynamic is being changed? They made their own Loom of Fate?! YES! Lunars out, bitches- no, wait. Lunars in! Lunars in!
  • Also, the announcement that the Sidereals now have distinct antagonists and that they will no longer be solely portrayed as heartless enforcers of destiny, distant from the emotions of humankind.
  • ...and the multiple teasers the devs have put out for Liminals, a new Exalt type.
    • And for the Getimians. And the Exigents. Suffice it to say, the new Exalt types were a LOT cooler than anyone thought they would be. 'Alchemist-living-Loom-of-Fate-kung-fu-artists,' much?
  • And the developers raising the possibility (in a dev video for those who backed the Kickstarter funding 3E) of the Exalted meeting the Old World of Darkness in another Shards book.
  • When John Morke announced he was doing better than ever and pulling through his sickness, thanks to being able to see doctors with donations from fans. Faith in humanity restored.
• The spoiled plane cards in Magic: The Gathering's Planechase box set surprised quite a few fans when some older planes were announced. Who would have thought they'd bring back Segovia, which was mentioned on only one card (Segovian Leviathan) and created entirely to explain that card's abnormally small power/toughness^note The plane of Segovia is roughly 1/100 the size of Dominaria? Who would have thought they'd bring back Moag, which appeared only in one of the books? Who would have thought they'd bring back Shandalar from the 90's Card Battle Game? Needless to say, many old-school fans were happy.
  • And then they went and upstaged even those, with stuff such as Bolas' Meditation Realm.
    • The return of Nicky B. himself during Time Spiral and the Alara block was a pretty good shout out to the fans, and got a few people back into the game. Time Spiral itself was a brilliant love-letter to the fans.
    • Returning to the metal plane of Mirrodin and bringing back poison both got a pretty big pop from the crowd...and then Wizards got an even bigger pop by having Phyrexia return as the Big Bad. And with the news that the Phyrexians successfully conquer Mirrodin, the Misaimed Fandom Rejoiced.
    • On the gripping hand, Karn – first and only artificial Planeswalker – escapes Phyrexia's clutches, regains his Spark, and has a shiny new Planeswalker card to join you as a combination Legacy Weapon and Time Machine. Phyrexia may have won Mirrodin, but this war ain't over yet, bub.
  • This happened again with the Commander preconstructed decks. At first, everyone was like, "EDH is completely ruined!" and "Wizards is taking over the format!" Then came the announcement that every deck would have a copy of Sol Ring, and soon everyone wanted one. That, and the Commander decks are gonna be the limit of Wizards' influence over the EDH format.
  • Ravnica was among the most popular worlds of all time. The name was a bit blunt but Return To Ravnica got a very positive reaction from fans.
• Ugh, Synchro after Synchro after Synchro... When will Konami stop pandering to the hardcore Yu-Gi-Oh! gamers and ignoring their casual players? Wait... is that what I think it is? Guardian Eatos? Orichalcos Shunoros?! Playable Egyptian God Cards with artwork done by Kazuki Takahashi himself?! New support for Gravkeeper's, Spirits, and Daedalus decks?! Konami, you are forgiven. This time.
  • Exceed Summons. This will be as popular as Geminis and Unions, only there will be a lot shoved down our throats. There will be maybe one deck that will actually use them, and it won't be high tier at all... wait, they go into the Extra Deck? Have a sweet black border with designs on them? Only require two monsters? Yes please!
    • Eh, so it goes in the Extra Deck? *sigh* Another Game-Breaker card type that will take no actual effort to Summ... wait, you mean they aren't Boss Monsters? And are actually balanced in comparison with normal Effect Monsters? Whoa.
  • Okay, Konami, you now have full control of the game on both sides of the Pacific. When are you going to stop with the Flip-Flop of God and give us a clear answer on what the ruli...Oh...
  • A box set containing all of Yugi's decks from the anime was announced, including Arkana's Dark Magician.
• "Green Ronin has a big licensing announcement coming up... wonder what it'll be? TORG? No. Mass Effect? Nope. Wait... DC Comics??? And it'll be compatible with Mutants & Masterminds? HELL YEAH!!!"
• Games Workshop finally confirmed the long awaited 5th edition update for Dark Eldar in Warhammer 40,000, with new models and a codex written by Phil Kelly (also behind the Orks, Space Wolves, and Eldar codices). The fluff turns the Dark Eldar into psychotically evil bad-asses with megalomaniacal and grandiose schemes— case in point: when they decided Commorragh needed a source of light and heat, they figured the simplest solution was to go and steal a few stars. The Internet's response?
  ATTN: GAMES WORKSHOP. ALL IS FORGIVEN. EVERY PRICE RISE. EVERY BROKEN CODEX. EVERY SNUB TO THE FANBASE. ALL OF IT. THANK YOU.
  • Plastic Sisters of Battle models, letting fans of the Sororitas build their armies for cheap.
  • The Plastic Sisters of Battle actually are not been released yet, but hey, PLASTIC PLAGUEBEARERS!
  • The reaction to the announcement of a partnership between Games Workshop and Creative Assembly, the developers behind the Total War series. The possibility of an official 40k or Warhammer Fantasy themed Total War game caused quite an uproar.
  • And even more rejoicing when it was announced that a PC version of Space Hulk is going to be released. As an editor from Rock Paper Shotgun put it:
    SPACE HULK SPACE HULK SPACE HULK SPACE HULK SPACE HULK SPACE HULK SPACE HULK SPACE HULK SPACE HULK SPACE HULK SPACE HULK... Versus mode co-op mode level editor, 2013.
  • And now a new version of Space Hulk: Deathwing, first-person, in the Unreal Engine 4, eye-candy overloaded! Done by Focus Home Interactive!
  • Battlefleet Gothic, Focus Home Interactive again!
  • Who even USES Chaos Marines and Dark Angels anymore, they're— wait. The rulebook has Chaos vs Dark Angels for the cover? And the starter set has both prominently featured? CULTISTS? NEW CODICES?!? Hurray!
    • Wait. Abaddon no longer being an incompetent tactician? Chaos Spawn and Possessed being good? Obliterators getting assault cannons? A DRAGON?!? Phil Kelly, you are a god.
    • Argh. Of course, Matt Ward has to get his grubby hands on the Dark Angels. Wait. He ISN'T the one in charge, but Jeremy Vettock? Well, this could be good.
  • Generally speaking, this happens every time a new book is being confirmed to be in the hands of someone other than Ward.
  • Two words: Plastic Wraithguard. They were possibly the single most expensive unit in the game before, now they're practically a third of their old price.
  • Matt Ward is no longer part of the Games Workshop team, while some people simply don't care, others certainly are pleased.
  • Nagash coming back with an awesome new model and having his story expanded for The End Times, and Grey Seer Thanquol becoming one of the main characters while receiving a massive competence boost, and still being comically villainous.
  • New models for the old Epic's Imperial Knights, now at standard Citadel size, people loved them so much they quickly became one of the best-sellers from the online shop.
  • And now an official model for the Warlord titan, so rapidly sold that they became out of stock at the Forge World event where they were released, also chaos imperial knights, a Lord of Skull with legs instead of silly tracks and an Ordinatus Mars.
  • Official Mechanicum army for the Horus Heresy, ranging from robots to the sweet looking Krios Battle Tank, there goes our savings.
  • In fact anything released by Forge World about the Horus Heresy brings tears of joy, old pattern power armour, Primarchs? Oh yeah!
  • Official Mechanicus army for 40k, Mechanicus Science is the greatest in the galaxy!
  • What do you mean with "They're going to release a DAEMON PRINCE PRIMARCH MAGNUS THE RED MODEL"?
  • They're FINALLY moving the timeline forward from 999.M41? And Guilliman's back and leading the Imperium?
• Huh, the changes to Pathfinder's paladins from D&D 3.5 are kind of cool, but those nerfs to fighter feats seem kind of pointl- DREAMSCARRED PRESS IS DOING THE PSIONICS SYSTEM?!
• When news broke out that designer Monte Cook was forced out of Wizards of the Coast and was therefore taken off of development of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. For context, Cook is often blamed for 3rd Edition's shortcomings, such as making wizards (who he admitted were his favorite class) overpowered while making non-caster classes weaker, and his "Ivory Tower" design philosophy making the game very unfriendly to new players. To many fans, Cook's departure can only mean good things for 5th Edition.
• New World of Darkness: Mummy: the Curse...not sure if want...holy crap. Greg Stolze and Michael Goodwin are working on it? And Greg did the Cult rules? Where do we sign over our firstborn children?
• Fans of R. Talsorian's Cyberpunk RPG nearly hit the roof when CD Projekt RED (of The Witcher series fame) announced they were working on an official video game adaptation of the tabletop game, and working in close collaboration with the game's creator, Mike Pondsmith (though this second point met with a bit of contention, since for all the praise Pondsmith received for the game's first two editions, he's gotten an equal amount of scorn for the much-maligned third edition).
• Wizards of the Coast is re-releasing the First Edition AD&D core books. Cool. They're releasing them in prestige editions, with the best binding possible and corrected typesetting (that still keeps the classic look)? Wow. They're not only giving a good chunk of the proceeds to the Gary Gygax memorial, but forgoing any and all Wizards branding on the book? Color me shocked! Then... They're also going to release Unearthed Arcana, not only with the same treatment, but incorporating all the errata that never was able to make it into the book during its 1985 print run — meaning that for the first time EVER, there will be a corrected version? And they're releasing a number of the classic modules? From, lest anyone forget, the same WotC that only three or four years ago were doing their level best to make sure that all editions of D&D except Fourth were submerged and suppressed? Can a company be said to have done both a Heel–Face Turn and a Rescued from the Scrappy Heap in one go?
  • And, as of January 21, 2013, WotC is releasing hundreds of their previous edition books again in PDF format. They had infamously yanked the titles (reaching all the way back to the original D&D) due to some of their 4E books being leaked before publication. C'mon, Wizards, you're invited to finally get off the Scrappy Heap!
• There is going to be a new TSR (the original publishers of Dungeons and Dragons). And, it shall be owned and operated once again by someone with the surname Gygax. Gary Gygax's sons Ernie and Luke, to be precise. Also along with them at the new TSR will be others with legendary names in the original TSR — Tim Kask and Phil Foglio (and, explicitly mentioned by Luke Gygax, What's New? with Phil and Dixie) are two who have been confirmed as connected to the new endeavor. Their first project? To put out a monthly gaming magazine called — What else? Gygax Magazine. Cue rejoicing from old-school gamers.