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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3
Baileyborough
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I picked this big box o' greatness the other day, and I gotta say, it's the future.
Everything about this game just works. From the strange dice (that honestly, do take getting used to, but eventually are fantastic), to the clever use of cards to keep track of everything, FFG has really done their homework on this one. It also saves me the tear-jerking amount of time/money/space needed for the tabletop game.
Now if only I had some PCs to play with.......
Everything about this game just works. From the strange dice (that honestly, do take getting used to, but eventually are fantastic), to the clever use of cards to keep track of everything, FFG has really done their homework on this one. It also saves me the tear-jerking amount of time/money/space needed for the tabletop game.
Now if only I had some PCs to play with.......
"There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with a sudden shower, you try not to get wet and run quickly along the road. By doing such things as passing under the eaves of houses one still gets wet. When you are resolved from the beginning, you will not be perplexed, though you will get the same soaking. This understanding extends to all things." - Tsunetomo Yamamoto/I]
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The system is really great for my style of GMing though. Flexible crunch for on-the-fly tension that can get the hell out of the way of the story when it needs to.
I own the set and love it, and I'd say it's not so much that it saves money as it gives you everything you need in one package for one price (which gets a nice discount from Amazon.) If you buy the PHB, DM guide, and MM you're spending roughly the same amount of money money, but you don't get the dice or other crazy shit.
I do wish the normal set had more advanced classes in it. I might pick up the Gathering Storm to really hook my players.
EDIT: Hell the core box set is down to 63 bucks on Amazon, that's a damn steal.
I didn't think it'd get so much attention, but the value for money comment was slightly misunderstood I feel.
I was referring to the cost of the rpg in comparison to the cost of the tabletop wargame.
For example I paid €80 (In Ireland) for the core set, and I'm essentially good to go. At the moment my stockist only has the adventurer's toolkit and I'm not filled with a burning need to posess it.
Yet.
But in comparison, I collected various armies from Warhammer Fantasy on and off for about 6 years. When I think of how much I spent on the models, supplies, paints, brushes, and other stuff, well, it's probably nauseating to see a number that big and think I once owned it.
Anywho, moving on before I get too maudlin...
For those who have it, about how many classes does it have to choose from? Do you feel like you still get enough tactical options with the combat system? I read a little about the close/far workings, I don't really feel like I 'get it' yet.
I'm still fairly curious about it even though I don't think I'll pick it up anytime soon. It's just too much, and I've still got a lot of warhammer 2e material that I picked up super cheap at the thanksgiving clearance.
I loved some WHFRPG back in the day, and I'm always down for trying innovative new game types.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
I even wrote a review for it on BGG.
Yeah I really like it for a first RPG.
Certain classes are more predisposed to either reckless or defensive stances which let you roll the appropriate dice. Reckless dice have high rewards and high failures on their faces compared to defensive dice that have low rewards, minimal chance of failure.
Even with the myriad different dice, it actually helps a GM come up with a plausible description of what went down instead of "You barely graze it for 5 damage."
For instance, a bright wizard can shift pretty far into the reckless stance and use more of those dice to simulate the fact that he is running that thin line of working Aqashi magic. He can explode enemies in spectacular fasion or be burned similarly with a failure.
A knight may have a more defensive stance which means that he just wears the enemy down with tried and true tactics. Nothing fancy, it just works.
The party sheet is like the reputation of your group and grants the party buffs and penalties depending on party tension.
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
In one case, a "Chaos Star" (sort of like a fumble) came up while the PCs were fishing for dinner, so I put a vicious beastie on the line instead of a fish. The point is, that it was a memorable (and funny) encounter that never would have come up but for the dice system.
However, though I love the system, there are a few things that are less than ideal. The rules organization is poor, and if you've got a larger gaming group, just the basic set will not provide enough cards unless some players share.
As for value, it's a bit on the pricey side. The components are top notch, but the "buy in" for the entire system is not for the faint of wallet.
It's not with the system.
It's with an overly aggressive player who refuses to take anybody elses ideas, talks over or shouts down everyone else, tells everyone how to play their character and what to do, and just generally like to run the entire show.
We're debating how to break to him that he's not welcome back. I've tried talking to him about it after an especially hard session where some of the players left ASAP once it was over. He refuses to acknowledge that anything he's doing is wrong, even when all the other players aren't having fun.
At this point I'm afraid if I don't kick him out, there will be no more RPG for anyone since they'd rather not play at all than play with him again.
some people just need to get hit with the clue by four, and if he can't change his attitude you need to just not invite him back.
be as polite as you can, state the grievances, and don't leave any room for discussion. that's how i'd do it anyway; from the way your post is worded the guy has already run out of strikes.
Have just him show up at the regular time, say something along the lines of "I warned you, you didn't listen, sorry, but you're gone", and then have everyone else come in like 20 minutes later and play as usual.
If you're feeling particularly nasty, you can have them start coming in as he's leaving.
Chicago Megagame group
Watch me struggle to learn streaming! Point and laugh!
That's not a good way to do it. You'll lose a friend / start a fight right then (No hard feelings Farangu, it's just my opinion).
Just tell him he's not welcomed back OR forget to call him a few times.
Should you "forget" to call him, let him talk to you about it first. Depending on his "pride" it might take awhile.
Try to deal with this guy in a "nice as you can be" manner, he's mean to people, show him YOU aren't.
I'm perfectly willing to give it back, or just give him $40. Whatever he'd like, it's doesn't matter to me.
But yeah, no way thats not going to be a long and bitter argument.
Words of wisdom there, on the intertubes!
The Toolkit thing can be resolved, but just don't get mean/fight over a small box of stuff (that can be bought again).
Yeah, I'm perfectly willing to let him resolve that however he chooses. We're all childless professionals here, nobody's going to starve over $40.
I just know that he's going to be completely implacable over the toolkit. If I offer to give it back, he'll flip his shit, if I offer to give him cash for it, he'll flip his shit. He's going to make some sort of crazy outrageous demand and scream and yell over that for however long it takes for people to walk out/hang up/ignore him.
Cause thats what he does.
Edit: Awful player aside, the campaign went quite well. I had my players going around gathering clues as to who a murder could be, and when they gathered enough clues, a witch hunter showed up because of his own investigation and they all went after the guy together. It all culminated in the murderer running away while a bunch of chaos cultist blocked the gate. The objective was to clear the gate, either by killing, pulling, pushing, or scaring the cultist away, so that the witch hunter could run after the murderer/leader and take him down. I think it was my most successfully run session yet. I mocked up a map in that google sketching utility, planned ahead what the NPCs are, and what they know. Had a list of 8 clues, 6 of which were needed to trigger the witch hunter to show up. I think I successfully pull off a combat scenario aside from "Murder all the dudes" that added some tension and a real threat of failure to the PCs.
I might be growing as a DM
DM'ing... lessons in middle management...
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
Can anyone make my life smoother and point me in the direction of 4 pre-generated character sheets suitable for the introductory scenario ("An Eye For an Eye")?
Pages 13 and 14 of the pre-launch demo scenario has four pre-gens. I wasn't a fan of the scenario itself, but the PCs were ok. Keep in mind there are a few oddities with them that aren't clearly explained (the Elf Envoy has a Talent it seems like he shouldn't have as an Envoy, but the High Elf racial abilitiy gives it to him) but they're balanced and characterful.
Feel free to ask me here or PM if you have any questions. I've been running WFRP since launch and have a decent grasp of the system. Especially when you get to the very ill described interaction of Actions and Story Mode.
A very kind offer. (That I'm probably going to exploit over the course of the night as I frantically try to understand the rules.) Anyway, is the progress tracker a worthwhile mechanic? Can I just ditch it and make everything a little less fidgety?
- Weather (though replaced by the storm cards in Gathering Storm)
- Sailing speed and efficiency
- Exploding Slann laboratories (a countdown timer)
- Running from exploding Slann laboratories
- Multiple negotiations
- Judge/audience opinion during a trial
- Enemy proximity (as a tension builder: "why is that counting down?")
- Unknown Event countdown (in this case, a Lizardmen attack that the players unknowningly averted)
- Initiative in combat
- Non-tracked combat ("you guys fight the mutineer while the rest of the crew takes sides - this tracks success of the melee")
- Probably more off-the-cuff bits that I don't really remember
I find it's a great way to give quick mechanical backbone and tension to an otherwise "soft" or roleplay heavy encounter, or one where the players are making skill rolls (that might otherwise become a pointless mesh of round-robin rolling dice). It doles out little successes and losses and gives something tangible for the players to wrap the story and their actions around.
Also feel free to check my session log notes. They're very unedited and don't read cleanly, but I can easily explain how I represented bits mechanically if it helps.
Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
On WFRP 3 - it's a strange and hugely devisive system. In short, it's a dice pool system built to support ad hoc actions and apply a universal mechanic to social, combat, and non-combat action encounters. It does so by use of boardgame-like components (though the rules themselves are through-and-through modern RPG). There are a few core systems and components:
- Player information all appears on cards instead of in a book. One quibble of mine; I'd like to have a book for the GM's reference and adventure building purposes, but for play - in game - it allows me to focus on the story as players have *everything* they need at hand. Cards are provided for Actions, Status Effects, Insanities, Critical Wounds, and Miscasts - I just need to hand the player the rules and they can manage for themselves.
- The puzzle-piece tracker. This is a modular track that can be assembled to represent whatever the GM needs to track. Where something like D&D 4e would use skill challenges, WFRP provides a tool to allow the GM to track successes, failures, movement, competition in a visceral, visual way. This felt kind of useless to me before I played, but has become indespensable over the past few months. When I bust out the tracker and players don't know why, they get tense, twitchy. It also gives them instant boardgame/video game-like visual feedback that shows progress as it happens. The game also provides a party sheet with similar aims - creates a visual tool that the GM can apply in a number of ways to mess with tension and show rather than just tell.
- The dice. I do love the dice. It's a pool system, but because the dice are color-coded (to things like attributes, skill, and luck), I have an instant clue as to how I want to narrate the results. Because this is WFRP, things like damage are high - (you're killing/getting killed in one, two, three hits...) but there are decisions to be made in building and interpreting the dice rolls, so each dice roll has vastly appreciated value compared to other games. I've run games where each player has made two or three rolls during the session, focusing all the tension and anticipation into those events - fighting *means* something, as do anything else that warrants dice rolls. Also, the dice offer random results (my players live in terror of Chaos Stars) and multiple axis of success/failure (pure success/failure and positive/negative "add-on" effects).
As you can probably tell, I really like the game. I have a few issues with it (see: no master GM reference), but it really fits my off-the-cuff, story-heavy style. Mostly it gets out of the way of telling the story; mechanics facilitate what *can* be done.
Also I've got a party that's wounded, partially mad, has lost two members (with a third nearly dying), and is in the middle of a jungle surrounded by lizardmen, savage orcs, and worse. It's pretty much classic WFRP as far as I'm concerned.
edit: This video has a strong marketing bent, but does show components and give an overview.
Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
Everyone's keen on running the core set scenario in the near future, too. Result!
Did anyone notice that they had to convince the merchant to give the package up... when he was originally supposed to give it to the Envoy anyway?
Not until you pointed it out just there...
Ah, well. Something to keep in mind if I ever run it again. Thanks again for the advice, it really did come in handy!
No problem. Feel free to hit me up with any future questions.