Just when I thought Warhammer Fantasy was dead, I saw on the upcoming page that Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is being reprinted. Currently At the Printer.

As a roleplaying fan though, I'm not sure about Fantasy.

Originally, I was going to get started on Dark Heresy 2nd Edition in light of the Enemies Within supplement and the Inquest rules. I'm a HUGE NCIS fan and enjoy good mystery/who done it's/thriller, so wanted to balance exciting action with dangerous hidden foes plotting ruin.

I notice there is still life in this forum so I'm looking to read about why you think I should choose this over 40K Roleplaying.

I'll start off by saying it looks like everything I need is in the box, rather than having to buy loads of books.

I remember my old GM saying he wanted to try Dark Heresy but after reading the rules and playing it a bit he was dissappointed that the system didn't really have any rules for investigations. Meaning that it worked just as well as any other RPG for running investigation adventures, but there wasn't really anything in the rules that made it particularly BETTER at doing it. So it's really down to what setting you want. Oh and when it comes to WFRP3; if you like the mechanics or not. Dark Heresy is pretty standard fare when it comes to rules while WFRP3 does a lot of stuff in new and interesting ways.

So, why choose WFRP3? Personally I have been playing RPGs off an on for about 25 years now. And I think WFRP3 is my favourite system so far. It has quite a few faults, but it is also a pretty modular game where you can easily remove parts of the rules that you find you don't use or just don't like. What I like about the rules is this:

The point of RPGs is to be able to tell stories. The game systems main purpose should be to facilitate telling these stories. However, many RPG systems very easily get bogged down in math and a lot of scribbled special rules that keeps getting forgotten in the heat of the moment. "Oh, my character has a +1 to block falling objects when wearing a great shield and as a dwarf he gets a +2 to physical actions in caves and I have to detract the weight of his heavy armour for the reaction roll, but can halve it because of my race. Wait I forgot that since he's the party leader he uses a D12 instead of a D10 and..." It just gets annoying.

WFRP3 uses colour coded dice instead which makes it really easy. Harder to calculate percentage chances of success, but that's part of the charm; just say what you're going to do and roll the dice. After having played a while you get a gut feeling for what rolls you can pull off and not.

Speaking of the dice, a nice detail about how they work, is the ability for a roll to go good and bad at the same time. Most games just have "Critical Failure", "Failure", "Success" and "Critical Success". But WFRP3s dice mechanic lets you get stuff like "Critical Success with a side order of bad consequences". So you might, for example, kill the orc you are fighting in one glorious blow, but as he falls off the bridge he pulls your sword with him and you are left weaponless for the next orc stepping up.

In short, WFRP3 might look like a board game when you look at all the pieces, but the actual mechanics are there to make it easier to tell a story. The cards and chits are just there so you do not have to scribble line after line of special rules on you character sheet. Instead you have a hand of cards that represent the abilities of your character and you use the colour coded dice to roughly estimate your chances of success.

For what you need to play:

Core Box: This is the basic starter pack for 1 GM and 3 players.

Adventurers toolkit: Adds a bunch of careers and stuff that fills out the Core Box. Should be your second purchase.

GMs toolkit: Pads out rules for NPCs. Can be usefull, but not a priority to get.

Signs Of Faith, Omens Of War, Winds Of Change and Lure Of Power: These are the big expansions that really fleshes out aspects of the game.

Oh yeah, and until you have a firm grasp of what you want or not, just stay away from the Guides and Vaults.

Cool

I was a little fed up with the 40 RPGs because of all the rules, percentages and details that made following a mark through a crowd an hour long game session.

Whereas the Star Wars RPGs is all story with the dice being helpful in resolving tests/actions. You could succeed but with threat, or you could fail but gain an advantage.

If WHFR is more like Star Wars than Deathwatch, I can enjoy that

By the way this is a pre End Times story.

See I read this and got AWFULLY excited because I thought there was gonna be some kind of new release or something. No I'm going to have to calm down.

Yes, welcome to WFRP3!!! Suddenly so much interest! Great to see everyone realising how much fun it is!

Ralzer and myself seem to be the two resident troglodytes on this board, so ask any questions if you have them, Ralzer's answer will be something you can actually use, I'll just be looking for cheap laughs.

One thing I will say that is slightly annoying is the lack of a good book with all the actions and talents laid out. having it all in card format is great for the mechanics, but not when I want to to ogle various actions and such.

Otherwise, I love the mechanics and I love how they evoke the setting itself. Let us know how things work out for you. It's nice to hear that people are getting into the game.

Sorry about that Crazy Aido

I was just so excited to see the game still existed, even in Roleplaying form, that I got a little carried away.

After a long time of 40K tabletop warfare, I wanted to play something different. I'd be happy with 40K roleplaying, but was keen to try fantasy. Caught the rumour of the End Times being the end of Warhammer and was pleased I hadn't bought any armies. Didn't even get the rulebook before Games Workshop binned it. Was a narrow escape. But I had a plot in mind for a "CSI Warhammer" where something sinister was growing in the shadows to bring down an Empire city.

I'd leave the players guessing at the nature of the threat. For every clue there would be about three believable red herrings.

I haven't tested the Star Wars RPG, but from the little I've heard and what people have been saying it seems like it is at least partially a refinement of the WFRP3 system. They removed some faults and added some new

"CSI Warhammer" that you describe sound like classic WFRP adventure fare. Most of the published adventures are investigations into cults, skaven and other factions set on the downfall of man. It is a bit of a cliche among WFRP veterans that adventures allways end with some cult being behind it.

Ralzer and myself seem to be the two resident troglodytes on this board, so ask any questions if you have them, Ralzer's answer will be something you can actually use, I'll just be looking for cheap laughs.

Hey, I'm here too at times.

Not Bob: About the game, I've played this game almost since release. Mostly as a GM, but as a player too, and with different groups. Almost everyone has liked the system a lot. And while games that use the Gumshoe system (like Trail of Cthulhu) are more geared towards investigation, WFRP3ed adventures often have a good amount of investigative aspects.

I can really recommend it, I've played over 200 sessions and I'm still having fun.

Warhammer Does Indeed Live!

SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT!

And here's my contribution to its continued existence. I've just launched The Order of Chaos Gamers. A live play podcast. First up is the classic The Enemy Within campaign (Revisited using 3rd edition rules).

https://itunes.apple.com/hk/podcast/the-order-of-chaos-gamers/id1067964927

Our website is here:

http://theorderofchaosgamers.com

Go and have a listen and don't forget to subscribe.

Hope you guys enjoy it.

P.S. I should probably give this it's own thread I suppose.