Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Core Set

First of all I have been playing RPG's since AD&D 1st edition in the 80's. I have passed through a lot of game systems, 90% of the time as a GM.My first impression when opening this monster of a box was pure undiluted joy and glee. Reminded me of the days of 2nd edition AD&D when most stuff came in boxes, with maps, sheets, booklets and many other neat gizmos.The Box is chock full of stuff, cards, dice, punch-out tokens of all sorts and the booklets. The Art is gorgeous and very in theme with some of the most grim aspects of the Warhammer World.Everything is of superb quality, except the dice, which seem a bit generic in composition compared to more solid dice out there, but that's nitpicking on my part.Now, to the core of the issue: How good is the system? Why the bad reviews on it? Is it true is teh suq?I don't know why but for some odd reason, like the debate between crunchy and chewy, people either hate the add-ons or love them completely. And this is where I have seen the divergence in likes/dislikes of the game.The Game was meant to be played with visual aids, plain and simple (even though at this stage FFG is planning to release the core books as separate entities for a more classic RPG experience), and this is where you see the game is an awesome mix of a board game + RPG.The Core Mechanic is simple, you create dice pools, according to your attributes plus a mix of bonification-penalization dice and special dice that give extra results. You end up creating dice pools as big as 7 to 10 dice strong (remember Heroscape?) and then you roll them, cancel the good results with the bad results, keep some of the dice apart as they enhance or detriment the original result despite it being a success or a failure and you end up with this:A successful action (If the bad symbols on the dice are lower than the good symbols ) or a Failed action (bad results symbols > good results symbols) then to this you add the special dice which further affect the action.This mechanic leads to a game that relies heavily on interpretation by the GM and this is where I see people complaining or simply enjoying it.You could have a successful action plus a "bad luck" effect for instance, or failed action that despite failing gives you some bonuses due to "good luck" and on and on on Success/Failure/Bad Luck/Good Luck axis.Every power/action is centered in a game card that explains what happens when you succeed and the intensity of the success (if you had more than one good symbol left after the calculations) and the effect of good/bad "luck"The permutation of possible effects is vast and can lead to some dramatic roleplaying simply dictated by the outcome of the dice since some of the rolls will be interesting to describe and players should react accordingly.The Mechanic if further modified if you are into a Passive Stance (taking things easy, going slow, cautious) or into Aggressive stance (all out whacko!)This mechanic per se and theoretically is bound for a good session of gaming, in practice it's even better.Lots of people I have seen on the negative reviews seem to hate the time it takes to form the dice pool and the size of it (specially if they just used to a d20 and several rolls of it per round) whereas in WFRP3rd Edition they have a bunch of d10's and d6's in a pool. Me on the other hand severely enjoy it as I give every player a decent pool of personal dice (just bought 3 extra dice sets for my players and problem solved)Others seem to hate the amount of hand-outs players use/abuse and the fear of losing stuff. I have played for over 20 years RPG's and never had the bad luck of people stealing my mini's, dice, manuals, pens, tokens or whatnot. Also the basic card set that all players share can be easily printed out as UniversalHead's handouts have proven on many other games(link provided for ease of reference and to spread the word [...] ) So if you for some reason lose a card or a couple of them you can replace them easily, but should not be the case unless you move around a lot and then you can always do a inventory check at the end of the session.You don't need to carry around all cards as each player has a limited set of them to start with and the rest are simply for more possible actions they can grab when they level up.Other people I have seen bash the game's approach to playing and small groups (something you can fix by buying an xpac for extra cards and extra players, omg evil greedy companies, evil evil meh) and seem to hate it on the grounds of it being so different to traditional pen and paper RPG's they simply describe it as something else than an RPG.For me it's an RPG, you roll dice, you level up characters, you roleplay encounters and heavily narrate everything, so yes, it's an RPG.Now to the what I see as possible flaws to some people:Steep Learning Curve, don't pretend this is FUDGE rpg or a d20 rollplaying game or a d100 one where everything is more or less straightforward, the game is pretty different to most RPG's out there, starting with the fact you need the special game dice of the game and if you have a regular numerical dice collection it's pretty much useless for this system, also the way the system is explained on the core books requires reading comprehension, a skill lost of these days of MASH THE BUTTON FOR LOL, but jokes aside, I must admit the formatting and way info is arrayed is not the most efficient, but everything is there, trust me :DPortability: Not an issue for me as I can place the core system plus some addons on a PLANO box but some people complain about the sheer amount of stuff and this might not be their cup of tea, some people prefer RPG's where all they need is some pen, blank pages and a book or two. If you buy this remember this is a props/add ons/fluffy stuff game, it has LOTS of pieces and tokens, bear that in mind specially if you a GM.If you a player all you will need is a dice set, your character sheet and the talents/action/power cards you use on your current char so portability will be different and extremely simple compared to the GM/owner of the game.Price: Some people complain about the price so much I still don't understand how they can blow over 100$ on 3 core books for D&D yet 70$ for a box this big full of so much stuff is some kind of perverted waste of money <rolls eyes> also considering it has 4 booklets with all basic rules inside and the art is very good.That's all for my review.I will be happy to share any info on how to play or even how to store the system on a Plano Box with anyone that asks here :PSome ways to store the game can be found here in the official forums[...]This can also give you an idea on the ammount of stuff the game has. Love it or Hate itThanks for reading and game on.If the game is not your cup of tea dont trash it out, let other people enjoy it

I apologize in advance for the rather lengthy review. I will try to avoid retreading what has been mentioned in previous reviews and instead wanted to expand upon several of the interesting designs of the new game.The dice system is as good a place to start as any, as it forms the foundation of the game. WFRP3E uses a unique dice pool mechanic where a player gathers a number of both "positive" and "negative" dice which derive from various sources. The beneficial dice come from things like your character's attributes, skills, current stance (whether your character is acting aggressively or cautiously) and any situational advantages they may have. The "harmful" dice stem from the innate difficulty of a task (the more difficult the action, the more "bad" dice are rolled) and any disadvantageous circumstances.All of this might sound intimidating or complicated to a new player but the dice pool becomes very intuitive and flexible in play, thanks in part to the fact that the dice are cleverly color-coded which tells you at a glance what each is for. Also, because the results are so easy to visualize, players and GMs are given a clear sense of the factors that lead them to victory or defeat and thus how their decisions have impacted the end results.WFRP3E's dice mechanic is a "one roll" system, which is to say that once you assemble and roll the appropriate dice pool, that single roll resolves everything you need for an action or test. The results of the die pool tell you not only whether the action succeeds or fails but also how well or poorly your character performed, any potential positive or negative side effects, and even possible critcal successes or fumbles. This is all done at a glance in a way that is very easy to read. It is also worth noting that these additional levels of detail are available but not required for every roll. If a GM only needs to quickly determine whether something succeeds or fails, the rest of the information can be easily ignored.There are almost no "true" contested rolls in the system (where two players both make a roll and compare results). Instead, when two or more forces compete, one side influences the others' die pool by adding "negative" dice, which will reduce the chances for success. In a combat example, a character who attempts to dodge, parry or block an attack adds penalty dice to the attacker's pool. This might seem a bit odd to a GM or player not used to it but it is done in a very intuitive way that is quickly picked up.The dice are interesting by themselves but there are several other innovative ideas at work within the game. The game introduces a "henchmen" mechanic (inspired by similar mechanics from Spirit of the Century) which allows for a simple way to throw large groups of enemies against the PCs and make them easy to manage by the GM. Groups of minions have a "shared" pool of wound points, attack as a group (using a single roll) and work better in numbers (adding to their combined dice pool based on how many are working together). This is balanced by the fact that the individual minions have lower wound thresholds, have to share "special actions" and attacks made against them can (and often will) affect more than a single henchmen (by way of attacks reducing the total "wound pool" rather than an individual's wound total).There is also a very clever initiative mechanic in which players can switch their positions in the turn order from round to round based upon the changing needs of the scene. When a player rolls initiative, they can either have their character act on that result or they can give it to another player instead. So, even if the Troll Slayer rolled poorly on his initiative, if the party needs him to go first to draw a big nasty orc's attention, someone can swap their turn for his and let him go to town. This is a very fun idea and eliminates the need for a bunch of complicated "delay", "hold" and "refocus" tactics. Each round, the group can re-analyze and change their initiative order accordingly. Of course, this also means that the bad guys can do this as well.The Advancement system is great and offers a lot of options for character improvement. The most exciting part for players is that they essentially gain something new after every session. Whether they purchase new actions or talents, increase their wounds or change careers (classes), they have the option to bring something new to the table on a regular basis. They can (and may want to) save up some of their points to purchase certain other kinds of abilities, but there are always several options available to a character for even a single Advancement Point, regardless of what kind of character they are playing.There is also the "Party" system in which the players all share a sheet which represents the dynamics of their group. It not only helps define why the characters are working together, what their attitudes are and what the GM can do to motivate them but it also introduces a very simple way for characters to share some of their special talents with each other and teach the group how to perform certain feats.With all that is good about the game, there are a few things which the game desperately needs. For one, there are 8 schools of magic within the Warhammer setting and the Core Set only provides rules to play 3 of them. Rumor has it that the other colleges will gain support later on, but it does mean that magic is slightly limited at present. To be fair, the 3 colleges provided cover a broad sampling of the different types of wizards (Bright Wizards= fire and destruction, Grey Wizards= shadows and deceit, and Celestial Wizards= prophesy and storms).Likewise, only 3 of the 8 churches of the Empire are fully playable (being priest of Sigmar, Morr and Shallya). Again, at least they cover a decently broad range of options.The available bestiary is solid and very workable but begs to be expanded. There is enough here to provide for most of your "baddie" needs but there are some omissions which players will be iching for. There are also a few sample "regular" NPC types provided, but this really, really needs more support (NPC wizards and priests are prime examples). If there was one thing the game would really benefit from (besides more mages and priests as noted above) it is a really thorough bestiary supplement.On the whole, this is an excellent game and has climbed into the #1 spot as my "go-to" game when it comes to the fantasy genre. The grim and perilous setting of Warhammer's Old World shines as much in this edition as it has in the past and the innovative, solid, intuitive and often clever mechanics really make for a visceral, engaging and fun experience. My only hope is that the game will live long enough to see the development of the extra support that it deserves to turn it into a real gem of an RPG.Due to some of its shortcomings and its rather steep MSRP (though the Amazon price is more than reasonable), I would have rated this game a "4.5". Since there is no "inbetween" scoring system, I bumped it up to a "5" based on the fact that it is really something bold and unique in the RPG industry and deserves the benefit of the doubt if you are even half curious about the Warhammer setting or about new and progressive game design.

Great Game. Quality cards and very cool dice mechanic. playable right out of the box.

Great gaming system, sad that it hasn't been continued.

Fantasy Flight just created a magic box of role play joy! Amazing product, setting, rules and pieces. I love it!

I was surprised how empty the large box was, the rule books being held up by a folded cardboard 'filler' that I hoped had stuff underneath, but was disappointingly empty. However, there were lots of Career, Action, Talent, Disease cards, and huge quantities of tokens for Fatigue, Stress, etc. and big bag of weird dice.Character creation in this new version of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is much better than the previous version, and will allow players that choose the same career for their hero to build something very individual, even tailored to their chosen back-story.The weird dice also work very well when you get used to them, producing very nuanced combat that does not take too long to resolve, because most character (without heavy armour) can take at most three hits before being knocked unconscious, and defending yourself is hard, just reducing the likely amount of damage and the chance of a critical hit.I like the game, but I am annoyed that I will need to buy lots of expensive supplements to 'fill in the blanks'.

It's a refreshing experience to use this box when roleplaying. Applicable to any high fanatsy setting with ease. I just love how little books are enough to cover a system felxible enough to do an immersive roleplay. Without going deeper into systematic description of this game I can say I love the "storyteller" dice, the tokens we can use on tiles easily. The system is extra flexible and controlled generally less by rules than the classc RPG so there's much more room for creativity.I would recommend this to anyone who is about to try what roleplaying is and also for those had enough of hardcore grinding where immersion and fluent gameplay is often the victim of overregulation.