Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: 2e vs. 3e

The main change to the setting is that they wound the clock back a bit from 2nd Edition and 3rd edition sits between the timeline of 1st and 2nd edition. Not sure if halflings made it back in to the 3rd edition yet but they got punted before the initial release (with plans to show up someday).

Useful to know. Following canon so far?

You know, honestly, I was halfway through Realms of Sorcery when I suddenly realized how much in-game time had elapsed between 1e and 2e.
 

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[MENTION=15538]pawsplay[/MENTION]

Concerning canon: 3E is set before the great chaos incursion and by this, sticks more closely to 1E. It portraits the Reich as deeply corrupt but still unsuspecting of any major war.
For my personl taste, that´s an improvement over 2E, where the scars of war were all to visible in the setting.

You could, for example, play Enemy Within more easily in 3E than 2E.

Difference of the mechanics aside, 3E is getting grimmer and grimmer with each supplement they release and combat and long-term effeckts are getting more pronounced. With onyl the core box, the characters survival rate was quite high, with added diseases, curses and mutation, they are imho back at 1E-level.
 

The folks at Fantasy Flight Games have been sticking to the flavor of Warhammer Fantasy in a way that shows they care (even if it does present their view of the setting from time to time but hey that's progress for you). That being said they really haven't released any material that ventures into new campaign world territory from what was done in the previous editions. Decoupling the roleplaying world from fantasy battle IS a good choice that will allow them to have more creative license with presenting the campaign world beyond what GW has done thus far.

The community support of Warhammer was what really makes it a sexy fantastic system to run. 3rd edition will probably get there if FFG keeps up with the system long-term. But the fantastic 1st and 2nd edition fan-made creative efforts like Strike to Stun, Liber Fanatica, Mad Alfred, Warpstone, Dave Graffam's stuff, Winds of Chaos, etc. are (imo) not easily duplicated.

For my part, I have a whole shelf of 1st and 2nd edition material that I can use with active fan community support. I will probably never referee 3rd edition, but I've played it and had a blasty-blast...but I also like playing Candy Land with my daughter so perhaps I'm a bit of a game slut.
 




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