In December 2022, publisher Cephalofair Games announced Gloomhaven: Role Playing Game, with the goal of designing it “to be cross-compatible with all of our previous board game releases”. The press release included an April 2023 launch date on BackerKit for the RPG and a line of miniatures for use with all Cephalofair products, a launch date that has slid to June 20, 2023.
But on top of the RPG and miniatures, Cephalofair Games’ BackerKit crowdfunding project will also include Gloomhaven: Second Edition, a revised and updated version of Isaac Childres‘ 2017 blockbuster Gloomhaven.
Cephalofair notes that the world, story, and gameplay remain the same in this edition of the game, but it will feature “rebalanced and redesigned mercenary classes, items, and scenarios, as well as brand new artwork, newly written narrative and events, updated miniatures, a new faction-based reputation system, and more”.
The project leads on this new edition are Drew Penn and Dennis Vögele, with the latter saying this in a press release from Cephalofair: “Drew and I have spent the last six years reading the community’s feedback on all of the Gloomhaven games, so we knew exactly what we wanted to achieve with this project. We hope you enjoy playing Gloomhaven: Second Edition as much as we enjoyed working on it.”
All of the components, tiles, encounters, and whatnot in Gloomhaven: Second Edition will be compatible with Gloomhaven: Role Playing Game, as will the first edition of the game, so if you get a second copy of the game, you can play through it again to discover what’s new, then use all the bits in the RPG. Of course, you might have no room in your home to play anything at that point, what with Frosthaven occupying half the bed and all, but I’m sure you’ll make do.
Cephalofair Games plans to produce Gloomhaven: Second Edition in early 2024 for release later that year. Given the extent of the changes across numerous components, an upgrade kit for Gloomhaven will not be sold separately.
