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

[arscott]

• Reckless d10 (Red): +.6 success, +.3 boon, +.2 fatigue
• Expertise d6 (Yellow): +.4 success*, +.33 boon, +.17 sigmar's comet

*My statistics is a bit rusty, so I'm just estimating the effect of the righteous success (which explodes) as a +.07 to the successes on the expertise die. I suspect that should be reasonably close, if not perfect.

Your math on reckless is incorrect here: they've got seven successes, and the two banes work to cancel out the three boons. The result is:

• Reckless d10 (Red): +.7 success, +.1 boon, +.2 fatigue

as for the statistics of the exploding die, you just don't count the exploding side when dividing (i.e., since one side of the d6 explodes, you just pretend it's a non-exploding d5). your result ends up being correct for successes, but the boon and comet also have an increased chance of appearing:

• Expertise d6 (Yellow): +.4 success, +.4 boon, +.2 sigmar's comet

 

[firesnakearies]

I got a chance to try the game last night for a little bit. It was awesome!

We had three players and the DM (who owned the core box as well as the toolkit). Our DM was well-prepared, and had familiarized himself thoroughly with the rules, though he hadn't yet run or played the game. Two of the players had no exposure to the game before we sat down, and the third was myself, who had previously read most of the PDF of the main rulebook.

We only had about three and a half hours, and we spent the first two making characters and figuring stuff out, the DM explaining how things worked and such.

We randomly rolled for race, and did the "draw three careers and pick one" method of making characters. The other two guys ended up with a Human Bright Wizard Apprentice and a Dwarf Smuggler, and I ended up with a Wood Elf Thief. We picked the Glory Hounds party card.

The DM launched us right into the adventure that comes in the box, and we got to play for about an hour and a half. There was one combat that we got to, and we made a few other incidental skill checks.

The characters were awesome, the action cards were really cool, and there were tons to choose from. All of the game components were well-made and gorgeous, and the system was very interesting, exciting, and smooth to play. Lots of neat, innovative stuff going on under the hood, and plenty of opportunity for both tactical complexity as well as support for narrative play.

I really enjoyed character creation, and the combat was very fun and easy. Everyone seemed to get the rules pretty quickly, and nothing felt confusing or overly complicated. The unique dice pools for task resolution were VERY cool, and much less difficult than they might seem on paper. That aspect of the system seemed brilliant and new and wonderful to me.

We barely scratched the surface of the game, but I was highly enchanted by it. There's a lot of depth to it mechanically, as well as a rich support for role-playing and storytelling opportunities that I think is often buried or pushed aside by more restrictive gamist elements in many other RPGs. But even for crunch-loving powergamers, the robustness of the tactical options available (especially the wealth of talent and action cards, and the way they work together) is sure to delight.

I want to play this game again, and often. I think it definitely retains a strong Warhammer feel, even though it is very different from prior editions of WFRP. The system is innovative, both simple and complex (each in very good ways). I found it quite elegant, and the "bits" were great as well. They enhanced and facilitated play nicely, and didn't get in the way. The whole game as presented just worked together fantastically well, and was, as a complete experience, just a really great time.

All of us had a lot of fun with our brief exposure to the game, and I, for one, will absolutely be investing my money into this new product line.

I recommend the new Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay without reservation.


$

 

[Wrathamon]

anyone who RAN it... not liking it?

 

[johnmarron]

anyone who RAN it... not liking it?

I ran the demo adventure, and enjoyed it. I'm starting my campaign next week. The NPC/Monster stat line takes alittle getting used to, and I hope they put out the monster abilities on cards eventually, but otherwise it went smoothly. I found the ability to throw in fortune and misfortune dice instead of memorizing tables of set modifiers liberating.

For those having trouble finding rules, a poster on the FFG boards who goes by HedgeWizard has produced some great rules reference sheets. You can download them at the WFRP 3E fan site Hammerzeit, here:

Hammerzeit! - The Unofficial Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3 Fansite | Hammerzeit

Go to downloads then utilities, and look for the WFRP GM 2.0 .PDF

Very useful, and takes care of any organizational issues with the books (which there certainly are).

John

 

[Wrathamon]

I created a power point that goes through character creation

not sure if anyone wants to check it out

 

[Filcher]

Link?

 

[firesnakearies]

I created a power point that goes through character creation

not sure if anyone wants to check it out

Sounds interesting! I'd like to see it.


$

 

[Wrathamon]

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Charater Creation Cheat Sheet.pptx

let me know what you think and if I got anything wrong or missed something!

 

[firesnakearies]

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Charater Creation Cheat Sheet.pptx

let me know what you think and if I got anything wrong or missed something!

Looks good! Nice job, thanks for sharing it.


$

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Charater Creation Cheat Sheet.pptx

let me know what you think and if I got anything wrong or missed something!

Dang! I need to spread my XP around before giving it to you again!

Wasn't there a way to add your own material to the EN World download section? I seem to remember that, but I can't remember or find out how that worked...

 

[Wrathamon]

Dang! I need to spread my XP around before giving it to you again!

not sure what that means haha!

By doing this I learned a couple things that I missed when we first made characters.

There are so many little one liners that you can easily just look over.

the one thing I am still not 100% clear on is the racial skill. Do you get one for Free or do you just add it to your list of skills you can invest in?

I think you get one for free.

 

[firesnakearies]

not sure what that means haha!

By doing this I learned a couple things that I missed when we first made characters.

There are so many little one liners that you can easily just look over.

the one thing I am still not 100% clear on is the racial skill. Do you get one for Free or do you just add it to your list of skills you can invest in?

I think you get one for free.

You get it for free.


$

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

We had our first session last saturday. Only short-lived - my sister called me to get home before the snow would block all streets. Luckily it was just a test session with a small group so no real adventure was interrupted.

Well, the bad organization of the rules showed. But it was interesting nevertheless and we want to try more.

 

[Emirikol]

anyone who RAN it... not liking it?

(I think I lost my first post, so here it is again)

I ran the DEMO again last Tuesday night. All the players were new to WFRP3. We've all played WFRP2 before and are all experienced D&D players.

It took 45 minutes to teach the game (teaching outline here:Jay H's Maptool Stuff)

The players took about 2-3 rounds of combat to get the system down. Then it moved at a good clip (will be a little slowed b/c of lack of dice with 5 player game..until I get my extras in the mail!). Since players only have 3-6 "POWER CARDS" each (race, career, talent(s), action(s)), that's pretty easy to manage. I put all the basic actions on one sheet of paper since they don't need cards floating around. I also put the maneuver list, universal effects, and "what you can do in one round" on their sheet too.

As a GM, it runs about 50% easier and 50% faster than my comparable D&D4e games as there aren't round to round tracking modifers. It's about 75% more creative because you aren't trapped in rules, 5'steps, and the endless computing either.

Some things that sped us up:
1. Creating Three new stats: TOTAL SOAK, TOTAL DEFENSE value, TOTAL DAMAGE. Having these pre-calculated and on an actual BOX on the character sheet helps IMMENSELY. While only shaving off a few seconds from each person's turn (including the GM), those seconds add up over nights and campaigns.

2. Tracking token-chits have been switched to easier-to manipulate acrylic gems. Again, saving a second or two every turn adds up.

3. I put the Party Sheet and "Location Details" on a stand up that everyone can see and instantly work with. (see my pictures in the other post).

I like the game and the system. MUCH more roleplaying than I was used to with other game systems (not including WFRP2 of course).



jh