Hi Folks,

I picked up the Adventurer's Toolkit this weekend and gave it the once-over as I sleeved the cards and sorted everything out...

Opening the Box

I was a bit surprised as I picked this up in the store; it's a half-size box. roughly 9x6x2 inches with an outer sleeve just like the main game.

Upon opening it, you're greeted with a cardboard insert that takes up about half the volume and keeps the two packs of cards (one large, one small) and a baggie of stand-up holders from rattling about. Beneath the insert are the Career & Party Cards, two more sheets of counters/stand-ups, and another pad of character sheets.

To be honest, my first thought was "where's the rulebook?" As the cards ARE essentially the rulebook, this shouldn't have come as a surprise, but it still felt like something was missing at a visceral level.

The Contents

The cards and components are every bit as nice, in terms of graphics, layout, and quality, as those of the main set. That's a plus.

On the other hand, though of excellent quality, there's not a whole lot there. Thus, some will question the value they're getting for their money.

The new careers are excellent, and round out those of the basic set nicely, including additional careers for Elves and Dwarves. It might be argued, however, that many of the human careers really ought to have been included in the basic set.

As promised, there's another set of basic action cards for another player, duplicates of some more commonly used ones, and a host of new ones. I won't belabor the obvious since there's a complete list available here , but there are some very interesting cards in there, as well as quite a few for the Elves. There are also a few more wound cards and a bunch of new talents.

While a real review will have to wait till there's more time to really go through everything with a fine tooth comb...

Overall

While I think the contents of this box will add great options to the game and the component quality is excellent, it really felt like about half of the material should have been in the basic set anyway.

Also, while I understand that these components are expensive to produce, the perceived value just doesn't seem to quite justify the pricetag.

Excellant Mini-Review!

Would love to get an idea of what 'new' cards show up in this set. Otherwise very good pro/con mini review.

Thanks!

Nostromo said:

One of the coolest new actions is a Melee Strike that allows a PC to use their Agility instead of Strength for damage.

I remember assuring folks here a few weeks back that FFG was definitely going include this sort of thing.

*a smugness emoticon here*

Which careers are advenced?

None of the careers are Advanced. All 10 are Basic.

brumcg said:

Wow... Now I feel a bit cheated.

Armoks said:

It's hard, but we all have to remember that the concept of Basic Vs. Advanced careers in this edition is quite different than in 2nd edition.

I mean, in 2nd, most basic careers were pretty underwhelming, and everyone's goal was to get into an advanced career ASAP.

In this edition, "basic" careers are all quite decent and effective (also extremely flexible depending on your preferences), and advanced careers are mostly direct "upgrades" of a few specific basic ones.

It's pretty different. You can be a strong character after taking two or three "basic" careers in this system. Hell, you can be pretty kick ass in your FIRST career (see Ironbreaker, Wardancer and that High Elf sword master guy).

I was surprised that the Ironbreaker and Sword Master were basic careers. Makes me wonder what Dwarf and Elf advanced careers are going to be like...

how many dice is in the kit?

None.

Thats a seperate kit

Are there advanced careers in either box set? Are advanced careers part of this system or are we assuming things from a previous version?

Cheers

Iain

ihmcallister said:

The Core contains around 5.

Ah right, thanks for clearing that up.

Cheers

Iain

A couple of guys in our group were lucky enough to pick this up as well (I was not however). They also reported being underwhelmed with the content. I continue to maintain that The Adventurer's Toolkit (AT) is the stuff that had to be cut from the Core Set to keep the MSRP of that box under $100. Having separate player packs that added the action cards and tokens for each additional player would have been a better route to go than AT. I was champing at the bit to get my hands on this and after Amazon pushed my delivery date back to 1/24, I thought about canceling and picking it up somewhere else, but I'm not sure if I need to be in a hurry after all.

How many center stance pieces are included?

Necrozius said:

Didn't they include that in the Core Box?

"Nimble Strike"?

Or did they make a 2nd one?

Armoks said:

Like Necrozius mentioned I dont think its that big an issue, if I recall right all career advances stack in 3rd ed rather than the replacing maxmums in 2nd ed. Though if someone with the rules could confirm that it would be great.

morskittar said:

Two.

if its not too much trouble can some one list out the number or names of the 'original' cards in this expansion. Or are there too many...my feeling is that 90% are the same as the core set and 10% (or a few) are actually originals...can someone confirm/deny this?

thanks!

All components of the Adventurer's Kit are listed in the Card & Component doc on the support page

Sweet thanks!

Looks like i got a chaos star on my observation check!

What are the other 6 careers in this set other than the rat catcher, wardancer, ironbreaker and sword master?

orc_ugly said:

As stated earlier, check out the component link on the support page

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/wfrp/support/warhammer-fantasy-roleplay-component-list.pdf

Great, thanks!

So, no halflings? *G*

Hmmm, as a fan of the wargame, it strikes me as odd to have Waywatchers, Swordmasters and Wardancers as basic careers (don't know enough about dwarves to know if it's odd with Iron Breakers). All three troop types are described as fairly elite - Waywatchers are the best archer guerilla troops the Wood Elves havem with super stealth, ballistic skill and trap setting ability, Swordmasters are warrior-monk types who have trained for a long, LONG time to master their chosen blade (and tend to be bodyguards for the high mages of Hoeth, which makes it odd that they mikght be in the Empire, especially since we don't have a High Mage career yet *G*) and the Wardancers are extremely expert melee fighters. Placing them on the same level as Scouts, Soldiers, Mercenaries and Rat Catchers (well, maybe not Rat Catchers, those Skaven are nasty ) feels off to me. Especially since we see Troll Slayers as a basic career and giant slayers as an advanced. There seems to be no way for elves to go - what advanced careers are above Waywatcher or Swordmaster? On the other hand, I love that they are ind the game.