Hi!

I am trying to get into the 3 ed. of WFRP. Some time ago I bought all the supplements and all the books that were printed, even all POD add-ons. But had a chance to play it only once - my players back then were really against all the changes and very narrow minded ;-) so we stopped after one session... and it waited.

Now I want to run introduction for some players and here comes my question:

- What rules I should consider to alter in our games? I noticed that most home rules resolve around talents, party sheets and cooldowns on action cards.

- What about combat difficulty? 1 challenge die even for a starting player is like almost every time hit. Isn't combat too easy that way? Every one hitting every one? One black die for parry doesn't seem to do anything...


And last issue - I would like to run some introductory adventure that would cover some basic stuff - like a one shot. But I think that those adventures from the supplements (Black Fire Pass demo for example) have too much fighting and not so much intrigue.

I was thinking of writing my own - but pressed hard with time. So maybe you know some adventure for basic careers with exemplary characters included - that could be played over one 4 hours long session that would have a little bit of everything in it?

My gaming group will be 4 men and one woman - men as usual like fights and brawls - but woman likes intrigues and stuff. On a side note - almost all people are above 30 y.o. - my myself 38. All are experienced gamers.

Help me Obi Wan Kenobi ;-)

Hi Obi Wan

Welcome to WFRP 3rd edition or at least welcome back since your first brief foray. Here's hoping your 2nd attempt is more successful than the first.

- What rules I should consider to alter in our games? I noticed that most home rules resolve around talents, party sheets and cooldowns on action cards.

I would advise against altering ANY rules until you're more familiar with the basics and what you as a GM as well as your party like. If anything you should consider IGNORING some of the rules added in later supplements in order to keep it simple. The great thing about 3rd edition is it's pretty modular. Don't like party sheets? (or don't understand fully how they work?) Don't use them. And the same would go for many of the rules. Anything you're not sure you understand or not sure you may like even if you can get your head around it will tend to slow your game down. So start simple run a combat, just yourself as a GM with a few volunteers if possible and run through the basic (core rule) mechanics. Once you've got most of them down then you can add and/or modify later.

- What about combat difficulty? 1 challenge die even for a starting player is like almost every time hit. Isn't combat too easy that way? Every one hitting every one ? One black die for parry doesn't seem to do anything...

IMHO Combat difficulty is about right all things considered. Again I suggest trying a practice combat for yourself to see. But for me combat is already long, too long. Tweaking the rules to make people hit less will just make your battles longer which I would personally hate. It was a criticism of 2nd edition where battles were long slogfests and it's definitely a genuine criticism of 3rd edition until you and your player learn the rules better and players learn their own talents and actions properly and can take your turns swiftly. You only get a black die to parry or dodge but you get additional ones if you have armour and of course there's already likelihood that beginning characters in particular miss a lot until they have additonal levels of weapon skill training etc.

And last issue - I would like to run some introductory adventure that would cover some basic stuff - like a one shot. But I think that those adventures from the supplements (Black Fire Pass demo for example) have too much fighting and not so much intrigue.

Though Black Fire Pass is admittedly more battle heavy there are plenty which aren't. I'd heartily recommend A Day Late, A Shilling Short leading into An Eye for An Eye as good places to start with adventures that are suitably sleuthy, with a good mix of combat sprinkled in.

I was thinking of writing my own - but pressed hard with time. So maybe you know some adventure for basic careers with exemplary characters included - that could be played over one 4 hours long session that would have a little bit of everything in it?

I'd advocate running before you can walk. Playing through a bunch of published adventures will give you a feel for the mechanics and let you decide what constitutes a good and bad adventure for you and your group before you dip your toe in the time sapping ocean that is running your own adventure.

My gaming group will be 4 men and one woman - men as usual like fights and brawls - but woman likes intrigues and stuff. On a side note - almost all people are above 30 y.o. - my myself 38. All are experienced gamers.

You'll likely find more than enough to engage all your party with the events of An Eye for an Eye. It's a great adventure which leads naturally into another very good (if needing a little work in some areas) adventure in The Edge of Night.

Anyway enjoy, good luck and let us know how you go on.

And may the force be with you

GM Noely

I just started two groups on WFRP3 last month. Most players are completely new to WFRP3, but I am not.

I agree with Noely completely. Don't change anything yet, but don't 'activate' some rules components as of yet, for example:

- Disease Rules (Liber Infectus)

- Corruption / Mutation (Liber Mutatis)

- Nobility / More In-Depth Social Encounters (Liber Ectastica)

- Severe Wounds Rules (Liber Carnagia)

I would recommend starting party sheet only on the 2nd or 3rd session.

Finally, if you play in person, WFRP3 is all about organization:

- What character sheet you as a GM think is best for your players? After much musing, I settled on the revised edition of the basic sheet done by Neil Foster - LINK

- How do you organize your table? Do you use tokens or let players write everything? Because my players are new to WFRP3, I wanted to see them using the tokens to be able to help them adding/removing tokens - LINK TO GAME TABLE PICTURE

- As far as starting adventures, Noely is right - A Day Late, A Shilling Short Or Journey to BFP are good intro, then Eye to an Eye. As an option, you could start with WFRP1/2 adventures converted to 3rd:

- With a Little Help from my Friend - LINK TO CONVERSION

- The Oldenhaller Contract - LINK TO CONVERSION

(I didn't create those conversions, but I think they are great)

Have fun!

Awesome table Coedryn. Makes me wanna come round and play. Tonight!

I agree with the above posters.

You can add a bit to A Day Late, A. S. S. in terms of "what's in the package" and make it an investigation of sorts if you like or make the package a macguffin - the real plot is that this was all an effort to murder Klaus and it turns out the annoying SOB is important for some reason and you can have a whole adventure of "get Klaus alive to the trial to testify against the nobleman who's a chaos cultist".

For intro I really suggest emphasizing the ability to roleplay moving in stance, interpreting dice results, bonus fortune die for clever move, pointing out "Perform a Stunt" for anyone who wants to try something creative.

I like ADLASS it because it's both combat and social and it's 'classic warhammer'. You have to "convince Klaus", he's like that guy in the disaster or zombie movie who is fixated on his diamonds or whatever and won't move fast enough, you can't just kill him and he's too big to carry! This can be important as part of tone - you can't solve everything using the pointy end of something and you are rewarded by people you help/impress not by looting foes (who usually don't have anything very healthy to use).

When I used that for starting group, I gave each Player a summary of what they could do each round - I still have that as a PDF if you pm me an email address.

Count Dimon's summary of rules on Glitzman's Gallery is a great supplement.

Wow. Thank you very much!!!

I love all the tips you gave me :-)

I will try ADLASS - seems to suit my needs just fine. I won't try with Eye for Eye cause I plan with that group to run all published adventures in supplements. And since some of them are somehow connected I don't want to spoil the fun of going with the same characters through all of them as a developing history.

Well - now I feel jealous of this glorious gaming table you have Coedryn