WFRPG 3E: How's It Working out for You?

[DragonLancer]

What do others think of it? Anyone using it at all?

I bought it when a friend was going to run it (for extra dice and rulebook) and then he never did. We did play a couple test games and I really don't like it. The old classic WFRP was far far better and I don't know why FFG felt the need to give it a silly overhaul.

 

[Chainsaw Mage]

My experience has been ...
1) A clunky system
2) Poorly balanced classes
3) Terrible organization
4) Very expensive entry point (much less to maintain it with numerous boxed sets)

My experience has mirrored yours. I find 2e to be vastly smoother, simpler, and more playable. In 3e you have the "paradox of fiddly bits"-->stuff designed to make the game smoother instead makes it more complex.

I sold mine. Good riddance.

I still love 2e, though.

 

[MortonStromgal]

3) Terrible organization

This times 1000, the system is actually pretty simple once you can actually figure out what your supposed to do. It needs cheat sheets or a complete rewrite. Also it needs the bits in pdf form so you can print them if you loose them. Is it a better mechanic than 2e? I would say yes but 2e is a better product because you wont bash your head into the table trying to figure out the rules.

 

[mach1.9pants]

This times 1000, the system is actually pretty simple once you can actually figure out what your supposed to do. It needs cheat sheets or a complete rewrite. Also it needs the bits in pdf form so you can print them if you loose them. Is it a better mechanic than 2e? I would say yes but 2e is a better product because you wont bash your head into the table trying to figure out the rules.

LOL

Headless Hollow Game Sheets

Done

 

[MortonStromgal]

LOL

Headless Hollow Game Sheets

Done

Thats an improvement but IMHO not detailed enough partially because of all the actions being on cards. I'll have to try it out again.
I want sheets like this http://pavao.org/shadowrun/cheatsheets/

 

[Nifft]

The dice mechanic: love. It's annoying that I have to buy new dice for this specific game, but I really like how expressive the dice can be, both in pool building and in interpreting the results.


The "classes" (careers): way more balanced than 1e, that's for sure. Perhaps even more balanced than 2e? I'd have to go through one at a time and compare, but I see things like the 3e Peasant's nifty career bonus card which is just plain better than a LOT of career bonus cards, and there's no parallel bonus for the 2e Peasant.

Compared to 2e, the 3e classes are much tougher. Every career you must buy at least +1 Wound; in 2e, you can easily go three careers without being allowed to buy more than 2 extra Wounds total.


The system in general: the designers fell in love with the bits. Unfortunately, they try to use chits in ways that don't work well, like how they try to do semi-abstract mapping, or how they tell you to build a stance bar (which falls apart) instead of just drawing one on the goddamn character sheet.

There are places where the bits work well, like the power cards (including their refresh), and the wound & chaos cards.


Regarding organization & price, I thought the new hardcover books were supposed to help with both, but I haven't bought them yet.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Tharian]

I've only had the chance to try a couple simple encounters. We were supposed to run a session to introduce people to the game last night, but 3 (out of 5) players backed out for various reasons.

Instead, used that time to run a solo session for the remaining player. Tried a combat with an NPC-type as a cohort to help run a larger combat. Then moved on to a couple social encounters. Mostly RP'd those instead of trying to use the progress tracker for that. Need to get a better grasp on that thing.

Liking it so far. One of the perks is the lethality of combat and the critical wounds deck. Might make my players consider their actions instead of just rushing into combat.

 

[GreyLord]

I have a different experience then some. I've played it some. Not tons, but a some...

My overall...I don't really care for it. I'll play an RPG if someone else is the DM, and that includes Warhammer 3e, but I personally probably will never sink money into it.

Which is the first point...

My price point = $0

I paid nothing to play it. Perhaps that's also where some of the other problems come up. The DM/GM bought the game set. I didn't. It came with enough stuff for everyone else to play. That's not a problem for me.

I understood the stats somewhat, in some ways they are akin to the older WH editions (which I still really like), but when you get to the abilities and such...especially how the dice work...I get lost. I still don't completely understand the dice dynamic. It's not as self explanatory as a percentile dice or D20...perhaps that's simply because I haven't read the books. I understand the idea of how many to roll, and how they relate to my stats...but the dice that are determined by the DM...sometimes that doesn't make much sense to me. No rhyme or reason on how it's done...or maybe there is and I just didn't read it since I don't actually own the rules.

In that light, character creation is also a pain. Instead of having a table of all the skills I have to go looking and fishing through the cards. That's somewhat of a pain. In fact, since I get characters killed, I think it's easier just to have the DM come with premade characters that I can just pick up instead of trying to figure out how to make others.

The party dynamic is a pretty cool idea.

Combat isn't all that difficult to figure out overall and flows nicely and deadly. We don't play with minis most of the time in 3.X, 4e (yes, we don't use minis in 4e, you heard that correctly), or Warhammer in games that he has DM'd or others that I've tried Warhammer 3e with (aka, they don't use minis in other games they DM either). It seems to flow better without minis than any of the other systems that we've used that would normally require them, not certain if that's the system, or the DM's who are in charge of the game.

I don't pay anything for it, they do, so it depends more on whether they support the system or not. I WOULD BUY more 1e or 2e books. I'm more vested in those, and I suppose part of that is probably because I actually own the core game system. In that perhaps the price point is too high, as a player I'm certainly not investing in it. As I said, it hasn't cost me anything to play. That also means I'm not buying the extra stuff either. If the GM's of the game want that stuff in the game, then I suppose they'll buy it, but I don't think we're using everything we could in the core set yet to begin with.

 

[SteveC]

We are running a campaign (but unfortunately overall playing less RPGs then before), and I like it. The rules are terribly disorganized, but the game is still fun.

I like the "bits" and stuff they use to visualize the game rules. I think it's an interesting approach that works.

I just wanted to comment on this one, since, as much as I like the game, it's really spot on. The game does have some serious organization issues that had us scratching our heads. I would honestly suggest it for more of an experienced group, since we were able to puzzle out our issues, and then we just came to a consensus on those things we couldn't figure out.

The newer rules are much better in this regard, and we've pretty much had our rules questions answered... but out of the box there were some issues.

 

[C_M2008]

The new guide books give the option to play without the fiddly bits if your not a fan of them (they contain all the info on the cards & etc).

Haven't heard if these clean up the organization though.