Warhammer 3e Demo Experiences -OR- How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bits

[AllisterH]

But there's no "board" elements to this...If I'm reading the OP correctly, it has less tactical elements than even 1st edition D&D.

Maybe my definition of boardgames is different...but all I'm getting is that this RPG is akin to old school vampire - bucketfuls of dice (an exagerration).

 

[Rel]

Thanks very much for posting your experiences! I'm still kind of on the fence about this but I'm eager to try it out.

I don't really want a game where the fiddly bits get in the way of the game. But I'm not at all clear that this is an actual problem with WFRP3. Yes, the dice mechanics sound a bit cumbersome when you read about them. But I've played a lot of Descent and if I described those dice mechanics I think they would sound cumbersome too. And yet, in actual play, they are easy and elegant.

I also think that it sounds like the dice might be the primary method of "complicating the system in a good way". What I mean is that we could have a combat system where we flip a coin and on a heads I hit and tails I miss. I try to hit the monster and it tries to hit me and one of us better hope we flip a lot of heads. I think that would get old fast so a system needs some "good complication". d20 gets this from rolling a d20, feats, spells, magic items, etc. WFRP3 might simply add the good complication by the dice pool reflecting your combat actions in the way that other systems require you to add up a bunch of different modifiers.

What I'm saying is that I think a lot of us (certainly me) WANT a bit of complication in our combat system to make it interesting and give us options. If WFRP3 does it with dice then that's fine by me. The real question is how that aspect interacts with the rest of the system.

Honestly I'm much more interested and curious about what the expectation is regarding the PC's lot in life and the sorts of adventures they are expected to go on. To me WFRP has always been a game about being a lowly Ratcatcher, Vagabond or Peasant who must make his way in a world where starvation, disease and an angry pig are very real threats to life and limb. Like literally someday somebody will ask you, "How'd you get the wooden leg?" and you'll say, "Well see, there was this pig..." To me, that very grim n gritty type of game is what I really enjoy most about the WFRP world and I'm hoping the tradition is continued in this edition.

 

[Phaezen]

So, in essence the system is a dice pool, with a slight variation of failures canceling successes, with the chance of minor (boon/bane) or major (SIgmars Comet/Chaos Star) effects depending on the ability you use.

Character stats and abilities are tracked via cards instead of pen and paper (or an app).

Sounds interesting though, hope to have a chance to look at the game sometime.

 

[AllisterH]

So, in essence the system is a dice pool, with a slight variation of failures canceling successes, with the chance of minor (boon/bane) or major (SIgmars Comet/Chaos Star) effects depending on the ability you use.

Character stats and abilities are tracked via cards instead of pen and paper (or an app).

.

That's exactly what I'm getting here as well.

It seems like a fusion between the card based SAGA system and those bucketful of dice RPGs like Vampire and any d6 derivative.

Still confused as to why it's called a BOARDGAME.

 

[Agamon]

Still confused as to why it's called a BOARDGAME.

People make assumptions based on:

• It's made FFG (who made Descent)
• It all comes in a big board game-style box
• Characters a tracked with cards and bits instead of pencil and paper
• The dice have symbols, not numbers

I clearly see now that it's not a board game, but I also clearly see that it isn't the WFRP I know and love either.

 

[jadrax]

For something that is not at all like a Boardgame, it contains an awful lot of bits of painted cardboard that you lay flat on a table and move tokens about upon. I think its that huge amount of tactile resource tracking that gives it a Boardgame feel to many people.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

It sounds interesting but also very different to WHFRP as I remember it. I only played and DM'ed 1st edition WHFRP and the thing I really liked about it was, once one was familar with the system, one could run a game without reference to the books except for chargen.
This version does not appear to have that simplicity. So I have a couple of questions about the feel of the game.
Is is a dangerous to the PCs as the old warhammer?
Is it still careers based? (can you be a rat catcher?)

 

[jadrax]

Is is a dangerous to the PCs as the old warhammer?

No.

Is it still careers based? (can you be a rat catcher?)

Yes (If you buy the expansion with rat catcher in).

 

[Korgoth]

People make assumptions based on:

• It's made FFG (who made Descent)
• It all comes in a big board game-style box
• Characters a tracked with cards and bits instead of pencil and paper
• The dice have symbols, not numbers

I clearly see now that it's not a board game, but I also clearly see that it isn't the WFRP I know and love either.

Is Munchkin a boardgame? Is Dominion? They're both discussed on BoardgameGeek at least.

Well... WHFRP3 is obviously a card game!

 

[Asmor]

Honestly I'm much more interested and curious about what the expectation is regarding the PC's lot in life and the sorts of adventures they are expected to go on. To me WFRP has always been a game about being a lowly Ratcatcher, Vagabond or Peasant who must make his way in a world where starvation, disease and an angry pig are very real threats to life and limb. Like literally someday somebody will ask you, "How'd you get the wooden leg?" and you'll say, "Well see, there was this pig..." To me, that very grim n gritty type of game is what I really enjoy most about the WFRP world and I'm hoping the tradition is continued in this edition.

I can't say very much about the tone of the game, since I played it only briefly and didn't look at the rules or fluff in very much detail at all.

However, Evan (the GM) did say that the game billed itself as a game of heroism, which did seem like a departure to me.

That said, there's a huge deck of critical wounds, another deck of insanities, one of magical backfires, and a fourth deck that I don't recall which I think also had some nastiness in it. Basic careers are fairly similar to the assortment available in 2e, though notably absent is the rat catcher (and by extension his small, but vicious, dog).

Character stats and abilities are tracked via cards instead of pen and paper (or an app).

No, you still have a character sheet which keeps track of all your stats.

The cards only track your talents and actions, sort of akin to D&D's feats and powers respectively.

The reason they're provided as cards is because you need to manipulate them in various ways as the state of the game changes. Some talents, for example, are always on, while others have to be expended when you use them. You can also lend your talents out to the entire group by moving them to the group sheet, which is basically a simplified character sheet giving the character of the group as a whole (things like Swords for Hire, Band of Thugs, etc). For actions, you need to flip them over to the correct side depending on your stance and need to place delay markers on them to keep track of how long before they can be used again.