For those of you who who played/ran the demo. What was the learning curve like for your group? How long did it take to get it down?

jh

Our group picked up the mechanics very quickly - maybe 5 minutes to learn the basics, and then we learned everything else we needed to on the run.

A caveat: we were all pretty experienced gamers; there were no newbies.

I think that's a pretty open and subjective question. Not trying to be a pain, but just saying. What do you mean by "having it down"? Both my sessions seemed to get the basic concept and were understanding the dice symbols mostly after just a few rolls (i.e. I could talk through what things were and they understood and keep up and follow with the card effects). However, it wasn't, generally, until towards the end of the first combat that they seemed to start taking the initiative to make dice pools without input from me and interpreting the results without input from me. So, maybe half an hour of play to start independantly utilizing the dice pool (give or take, and as an average. Some people picked it up faster than others).

For our group it required a full explanation before we played. some reminders during the game, and by the end, everyone understood it.

I took about a half-hour to go over mechanics, rules, answer questions and show the stuff. I guess after a couple rolls, we had the basics..even the magic system. I'm just comparing as I'm running 3e at a convention in Feb and I know we're going to have a couple noobs to the system.

jh

My demo experience might be helpful in answering this question.

I went to dvang's demo in Portland, OR. I read online that all the spots were full - which suited me just fine as I only wanted to observe - and this was indeed the case when I arrived. Did I mention I was 40 minutes late?

Dvang had just wrapped up his "rules talk" and began the adventure as I sat down. As I wasn't interested in sitting through a lecture on WFRP game mechanics this was, in my mind, perfect timing. All I really wanted was to get a quick look at the components, the books and the artwork. Mostly the artwork. Little did I know that half-way through the first battle one player would have to leave early. Everyone looked at me and asked if I wanted to join the game. Doh!

Other than half-heartedly watching people pick up what appeared to be randomly colored dice and place tokens on some cards, I had no idea how to play. All I knew was that my character had a pistol and a sword, and there were some evil goat-men that were in desperate need of shearing.

What did I do? The only logical thing for someone who has no idea how to play a game. I went last in the initiative order so I could watch everyone else. I quickly understood how to build a dice pool, how the stance meter worked and how to use an action card (I used the "Perform a Stunt" card). The next turn I asked to go first and made it through my action + maneuver without any trouble, though I did little other than crawl under the coach and reload my pistol (purposefully taking an additional fatigue point in the process). As the other players took their turns, I studied the action cards available to my character. For me, this is where the system fell into place.

Our Trollslayer, who had been dishing out the most damage by far, was down to zero wounds. It looked certain that he would fall next turn, and I was afraid the rest of us would go down like grim-dark dominoes. I couldn't let that happen. I mean, come on - how could we lose to a herd of what is arguably the dumbest domesticated animal and still call ourselves adventurers? To save the Trollslayer I used the "Guarded Position" card, which everyone else had so far ignored in favor of offensive actions. The elf player picked up on my tactic and together we added enough negative dice to the sheep-things' attacks that they all missed.

For my final turn, I used the "Execution Shot" action card. However, in an attempt to squeeze in some roleplaying I didn't describe my action as such (i.e. "I perform Execution Shot!"). Instead, I described my character as shooting the Big Bad in the knee cap and then upper-cutting it with my sword. I'm not sure anyone else at the table really noticed the added flair, but I was having a blast!

So there you have it. From zero to 60 in three turns of combat. And I'm someone who has never played any edition of WFRP, or any other fantasy RPG beyond AD&D back in the 80s. I picked up the rules enough to create a dice pool on the first turn, by the third turn I was exploring deeper tactical options and helping our group work as a team and by the fourth I was roleplaying out my action cards rather than reading them verbatim. I can't say I know all the different names of the dice, or how spell-casting works, but I definitely understand the basics.

*Applauds Yipe's post*

Your posts are very infectious! I'm really looking forward cracking this game open with my game group.