I started playing 2nd Ed and loved it... I'm just wondering, if there is a significant reason to switch over, or is that something that's hotly debated?

also, how long has the 2nd ed books been out? I didn't know that it had been long... er.. long enough for a new edition to be needed, but truth is, I Really don't know WHen 2nd ed was introduced... just that I was introduced last year.

thanks,

zWolf -out.

Wher have you been for the last few years!?

OK, the bottom line is that it is obviously completely up to you whether you switch or not...

A couple of things to be aware of..

here are a large number of 2nd edition books out, althuogh several of them are not currently in print but ARE available as electronic PDF from FFG (check the web site). It's not clear from your opst how much 2ed (or 1st ed for that matter) stuff you own, but there is enough 2nd material for you to run/play 2nd for a number of years to come especially if you have only just started playing it.

However, FFG have said they will not be producing any new 2nd ed material and it is not yet clear (to me at least) how much of the 3rd ed material can be converted to 2nd; its clear from what has been said that 2nd and 3rd ed are in different time frames (2nd ed opst storm of chaos/3rd ed seems to be just pre storm of chaos). We actually play 3nd in pre storm of chaos era anyway so if my group do stick with 2nd ed, i don't think this time shift of the fluff material is likely to be a big issue anyway.

There are some concerns about the pricing of the new edition and how to ensure you have enough material for the number of players in your group etc, which you can pick up from the numerous other posts in the forum and I won't reiterate here, there's also a lot of discussion on whether the new rules will be better or worse than the 2nd ed etc, which again i won't reiterate and no one can really judge until we see the 3rd ed in detail.

I think you are in quite a good position (I assume you have only bought a small amount of 2nd ed stuff) in that you can play 2nd ed for now (but don't purchase any new material for it just now) then when 3rd ed comes out, read some indepedent reviews etc and decide whether you think its something you'd like to try or prefer to stick with 2nd ed.

If you decide to stick with 2nd ed, then i would consider picking up the 2nd ed pdfs sharpish, as although they are currently available, I don't think its been made clear how long they will stay available from FFG once 3rd ed is out..

some people consider it free money for FFG, so there is no reason for them to stop the PDFs, but others think that they won't want to "promote" a version that could take gamers (such as yourself) away from their new shiny edition of the game... as for what FFGs plans actually are in this regard, I don't know!

Welcome to warhammer, anyway, whatever edition you end up with!

OK, well as none of us have played 3rd edition yet we can't really tell you yet - it's not out yet!

As previously mentioned, get the PDFs whilst you can. If you want to have books that would be easier to convert to new editions, shy away from things like the Besteriary or the Old World Armoury and instead go for the fluff-heavy books like the Paths of the Damned series (which I highly recommend, incidentally) or Tome of Corruption.

As for whether you should switch, I'm still 50/50 on that myself. I love 2nd edition, but its not without its flaws. One of the best things about it is that the rules don't really get in the way much - it is very easy to improvise in. However, one of the best things about the new edition is the dice - despite their being a bit gimmicky, they represent a transition from a flat percentile probability curve (i.e. you are as likely to roll incredibly well (1) as you are to roll incredibly badly (100) or middling), to a bell curve using dice pools.

So in other words, routine checks are now more likely to be passed, and fluky incredible success/failure will be less likely. I've seen this work under the Legend of the Five Rings roleplaying system and enjoyed how that works.

On the other hand, there are fears that content will have to be cut down so everything can fit on cards, that there will be less choice and more standardisation of characters (i.e. are two Dwarf Trollslayers exactly the same?) and that the system may be too mechanistic to allow roleplaying, as with D&D 4th edition.

In the end it's up to you - the two games may well make for quite different tones, so having both could well be interesting. Nothing to stop you occasionally dusting off your 2nd edition stuff once in a while if you do move to third edition.

P.S. - the books have been out between 4 and 1 year(s) depending on the book. The PDF releases were within the last year. 3rd edition books aren't out yet

There is a definate round of Edition wars brewing over this whole 3e debacle. Some are unremitant 3e cheerleaders (sickening so), and some are ardent 2e defenders (near troll level) and others are just sick of FFG and GW BS and are thus thinking of walking away. After all there are other games and game companies they have more respect for.

We're talking about two different games. If you are already running a WFRP2 campaign, don't stop it with the appearance of the new edition. I will surely keep my WFRP2 campaign running. Meanwhile, I will start a new campaign in WFRP3, because so far I like that game too.

Of course, if you are low on free time, it's possible that you'll have to choose, but hey, I'm busy almost every day from 8AM to 8PM, and can still run two campaigns. How can you manage this? Don't sleep too much!

zWolf said:

It's hotly debated.

2nd Ed pros and cons:

Pros: Lots of material out for it, some of which is very high quality (others less so).

Cons: No longer in print, PDFs will only be available for a limited time (and not all supplements are currently available in that format). Can be hard to find some stuff.

3ed:

Pros: New game so there will be new material in print

Cons: That material is unavailable yet and is therefore an unknown when it comes to quality and quantity.

Comparing the contents at this point is kinda pointless as we haven't really seen much of the new stuff.

It seems like A TON of loyal Warhammer fans (maybe most of us), are on the fence about the new (3rd) edition. If you can find the books for them, certainly keep playing 2nd, and later on, if you feel like it, use some of the 3rd edition material. As people have been saying, there's still quite a bit of controversy over 3rd edition. I agree with what phobiandarkmoon said about the dice being cool - and there are a few other things about 3rd edition that seem pretty sleek and simplified. The hundred-dollar price tag might be something you want to consider as well.

If you can get 2nd edition books (PDF or otherwise), I'd say get them. There's alot of sweet material in them. phobiandarkmoon also mentioned the Tome of Corruption - that is a sweet book that I totally recommend (I wrote a little review on Amazon for it).

Generally speaking, yeah it doesn't matter which edition you play - as long as you're having fun and not getting too frustrated by anything.

Nice icon by the way!