from france.

i wondering if the new edition was more fluid in terms of game play. if it was more accessible to beginer. and if the mood was stil closed to the one of the board game or if it takes some liberties.

8,

It's a different dice set and the same world feel. It has a very attractive presentation, as do most FFG games.

There is no board, however some people mistake the counting-chits as boardgame pieces. There is no battle-mat. There are no micro-managing "miniatures" rules like 2E or D&D. I intend to simply use paper and pencil to track fatigue and stress and not use the counting-chits at all.

Some people think that the game is only for 3 players because there are only 3 cardsets. That is wrong. With that mentality, 2E would only be for one player because there was only one set of "rules" in that book The cards, in my opinion, are simply an effort to eliminate piracy, and contain the special abilities of characters. The can easily be written down or copied if necessary for more players just like we have done for all prior editions.

Jay H

Colorado, USA

I think combat is more entertaining. With the new dice mechanic you hit more often than in previous editions and if you hit you always do at least one wound, so there is nothing that simply can't be hurt, even by starting characters. In addition, there are other side effects, both good and bad, that can happen as well, irrespective of whether the attack succeeds or fails. This to me is more entertaining than whiff, whiff, whiff, hit. Add to that the fact that there is no reliance on miniatures and scale movement. The abstract movement combined with the dice mechanics that tell you not only whether your succeed or fail, but why, along with the other side effects results in very narrative combat. Combat can still be deadly though and unlike previous editions there are no Fate Points that players can use to have their character avoid death, so they will more often need to determine when the better course of action is to run away to fight another day rather than continue to whittle away at a tough opponent.

I think the game is highly accessible to new players , assuming you have a GM that understands the game well. The core mechanics are picked up easily and with the possible exception of spell casters, all of the information you need access to during play is in front of you so there is no need to reference any of the books during play. Some people have said that the rules can be dense and that at least some of the information is scattered between multiple chapters. Since I don't have my copy yet, I can neither confirm or deny the latter, but from the brief skim of the main rulebook that I got during the demo, I will say that in typical FFG writing style, some sections could have been written with fewer words than were used. I'm not really sure how else to say it. If you have other FFG games, it may not bother you as much as someone who is only comparing the writing style to RPGs written by other companies. That said, I'm confident that it is as accessible to new GM's as many other RPGs, it may just take more than one reading for it all to gel. But players have it made.

The designers were adamant about keeping the tone from previous editions, so while the mechanics got a complete overhaul, the gritty setting with the occasional bit of dark humor remains.