So it has finally come time for me to have my first WHFP session tonight. I am the GM and I have three players. As I was putting chips out and soda, I realized something rather important. I'M THE ONLY ONE WHO KNOWS THE RULES! How do you guys teach your players the rules with the one and only rulebook the core set comes with. I was thinking about giving the rulebook to each of the players for a week, but that would take a while. And I really dont want to teach the whole rulebook and just lecture and boring boring boring BORING. How did the other GMs get there players to know the rules?

I have the same situation coming up in about 7 days. While I'm looking forward to playing, 2 of my 3 players have never played a RPG before. The third person is my wife, and she has only dabbled. She will play, but doesn't care to learn the rules.

First you could set up 2 or 3 imaginary checks and just explain what you are doing as you create the dice pool and interpret the result. That would involve stances, characteristics, skills, fortune, challenge, misfortune, all the icons, pretty much everything you need for a big picture of how the game looks. That would inform all the details that they might need to know later. Everything else in the game stems from the dice pool, really.

Has your group done an RPG before? Are your players making characters from scratch, or will you give them pre-made characters?

Personally, I'd teach your players how to make the basic dice roll, how the stance meters work, and then get them rolling with your story. You can always teach the rest as you go along. I also have a bunch of small cheat-sheets that I give my players to look at as we go along. If I have time this evening, I'll put them up on Hammerzeit.

My group had two relative newcomers to RPGs, and neither found the rules hard to follow. I'd say your biggest challenge is to keep your first night's adventure VERY SIMPLE so that the players can figure out how the rules work rather than try something really ambitious and get confused. All my group did the first night was fight one fight and do some basic roleplaying.

From the time I started playing RPGs and certainly all of these decades of boardgames, the person who bought the game teaches the game to everyone. Particularly with RPGs, the GM is usually responsible for not just teaching the mechanics, but also explaining the setting.

What I've done for this iteration of WFRP is explain the setting to everyone and see if they're interested in playing. When we first sit at the table, everyone already should have an idea about what the world is like and maybe has thought about the sort of person they want to play in it. The first session is largely about creating characters - walking them through the decisions, characteristics and so on. E.g you can explain what Strength is, what is measures, how it is used, and what sorts of tests will rely on it.

Then I gave a brief overview of the dice pool - what each die represents and how you build a pool. I leave the focus of the results on successes and challenges (i.e. these two cancel each other out, and you must have at least 1 success remaining to succeed). I leave out ALL of the other symbols and say we'll introduce them as we play the game.

As they go through talent and action card selection, I try to assist them in picking cards that match their player's intent for the character (i.e by guiding them to the social cards if they are a schmoozer, melee if a brawler, etc.).

And so on. I think the key is to give them a general overall view of the game - something very high level to see how certain aspects integrate. Then I introduce the details as they come up.

I think this situation for WHRP is not that different to other systems. I did not run my first WHRP session yet, but from other systems I found it not realy working to give out the rule book. Most times the ppl came back and did not find the time to read anything. As the other posters before said, go through the base mechanics. This means dice pool, opposed checks and if you create characters with them describe them the how the character evolves over the games, so they can understand how to divide the creation points.

Then get them in the game. get the situation startet and throw in some simple roles. I found it many times very easy to take a tavern setting where I egt them into a tavern brawl to get the first fight done. If I created characters ont he first day I will then let them meet the person the should do the task for which leads into the adventure. Most times the evening is already over the allocated time then and I leave them with the cliffhanger to the real adventure.

Giving the players the rule books comes normaly later in the sessions, since some one wants to read deeper into magic or similar. but my experience ist that before the game startet they will generally not read the rules the way that I dont have to go through them at the beginning anyway.

Yep, I'd keep things pretty simple and play as you learn for most of it.

As others have said, cover how people make a dice pool and I'd specifically refer to the red dice as high risk/high reward dice and green as steady dice, to give them an idea of the difference. I'd explain that yellow dice are a bit special and hard to come by and show significant training involved.

Explain that blue dice are weaker than green or red dice, and that black and whites are comparable to each other. Challenge dice are worse than black dice etc....

all of that gives them an idea of what it means to their rolling chances once you start adding in challenge and black dice without having to work it all out mathematically,

explain that fatigue and stress is generall bad once they have more than one of their stats; that they will likely gain plenty of both during combat, but that it goes away quickly afterwards.

fortune points are there to be spent and it will get refreshed during the session, if they "play well".

explain that ciritcals are hard to heal and to be avoided (but don't bother with fully explaining the healing rules until they are needed)

explain about recharging of cards, and how a normal round works in encounter mode (initiative, stance, manoeuvres, action, end of turn etc)

talent socketing especially to the party sheet probably requires a quick mention, perhaps as a quick group discussion before the game starts where the group with your help decide which talents they want to socket to the party sheet.

don't worry about insanity, conditions, magic (unless you have a magic wielding pc, in which case, ideally give them the book to read beforehand) until they crop up in the game....

Also, for a group new to a system, running something that is essentially a tutorial would be a good way to start the campaign.

Write up something specifically designed to teach your players (and you) the system. Start off with something low-stakes to build the characters into a party and get the players into the right headspace and teach them which dice do what, what the bits on their character sheets mean, etc. Aside from teaching them the rules, you also have to be the Exposition Fairy and get them into the setting.

In essence, you will actually need to be a teacher, at least to start off. It's pretty much part of the GM's job.

I've not actually gotten any games up and running in WFRP yet, but in my Dark Heresy game, I specifically started the player characters off in training. Having their characters shoot at paper targets, and whack dialed-down training servitors with sticks, and sit in on threat briefings, and run an investigation exercise, helped me learn the system as well as getting them acquainted with the rules and into the right headspace.

I ran 3 introduction sessions to different players. I hadn't to teach, and they hadn't to read the book. But you have to show how things work to play with someone to a new game (or any activity). That's a fact.

If that can help, here is a simple guide to create an immersive start for a first Warhammer adventure which include a short and nice learning curve.

You may also download my adventure called Sapphic Vampire Killers (adapted from a cool action/horror/humour movie from GB called Lesbian Vampire Killer). It provides you and adventure for 2 characters (you can easily add some others). I created it following that pattern and I wrote these steps through the adventure.

1) Before the adventure begin : give them pre-generated characters. Character creation isn't the core of that game, so don't begin with that.

• Make sure these character have 2 talents, one per socket, and maybe one more would could be socket on the party sheet later.
• 2 action cards max : 1 support action card and 1 combat action card so they may discover later the game without too much complexity.
• Spend the rest of the creation points in some wealth and characteristics.
• Choose their career so as to make a good team.

2) When the game start, keep it very simple. Episode I, act 1.

• Let them start only with their character sheet + career sheet : no basic cards, no actions cards, no party sheet. Give them their career sheet while explained what the characters do for their living.
• Introduce their characters with some traits which justify their talent and give them their 2 or 3 talents. Explain the socket on the career.
• Start the game and let them make some pretty simple checks to introduce the pool : characteristics, challenge, expertise .
• A small encounter to conclude that act with Perform a stunt and Assess the situation. Introduce stances, fortune and misfortune.

3) Adventure begins. Episode I, act 2.

• Run a smooth social encounter (to introduce Initiative with fellowship, a new stuff in rpg), which could be resolve with or without a fight. Give them options to strike by giving them melee and ranged attack basic cards... And suddenly give them their Support Action Card , an alternative to fight. They probably discover here Stress and fatigue .
• Run their first Rally step when they want to take a deep breath .
• Show them how much stuff cost through a short shopping trip, beer drinking... Introduce opposed check while socializing.

4) Heroes are on their way. Episode I, act 3.

• Then some roleplaying only to conclude because this is what WFRP is about. No dungeoncrawling. Small party... I said party ? Time to start adventuring : introduce the party sheet with some high level of tension meter around. Introduce the team spirit and collaboration through the party's talent sockets .
• Finally you may introduce a too high level of threat for them with an Agility based initiative . Make it clear that they wouldn't make it if they stand... and give them their basic defense action cards : dodge and maybe parry or block .

Here you are ready for the big show with Episode II and III, and they know the game in 1 hour, maybe 1 hour and a half.

You juste have to make sure they will discover their last combat action card just before some good fighting encounter during Episode II.

I hope it helps and it's not too boring to read.

The rulebook is available separately online, so players who want to learn the rules can do so without spending a lot of money.

But It's usually the GM's job to teach the game to their players. You can save yourself some trouble by pregenerating characters. It's also a good idea to expect that you'll spend much of your first session of play explaining how the rules work and what sort of options the players have. Create a scenario that's not too involved, giving them a little bit of social interaction and and a quick fight. Guide them if they're struggling.

Don't try to teach them the rules before play. Maybe explain how to build a dice pool and do a few test-rolls to show them how to interpret them, but it's not important that they know every aspect of the rules before play. It won't even make sense to some players until they see the rules in action, so don't bother. Start playing the game, and explain the rules as you need them.

Just play and explain the rules as you go.

Let them familiarise with their premade characters and their actions and skills. Leave a copy of the skill details and the manœuvre list on the table.

Tell them: "Just read the action cards' title, if it seems appropriate to the situation, play it and I'll tell you then how we resolve this ruleswise."

I found it easier to use the free demo A Day Late, A Shilling Short to teach the game before starting a campaign. There are 4 pregen characters. Each has a brief description of who the character is and why they are interested in the particular adventure. You can briefly explain what the layout of the character and party sheet is, what the different dice are, and what the symbols represent. Don't spend a lot of time on it. The demo gets pretty quickly into the action and is designed to highlight how the mechanics work, so you'll get to hit it again soon enough. Get them to roll initiative when appropriate and then tell them that they get to decide the order they act in each round. When they get into combat, you have to help them build their dice pool the first time or two, but most people catch on pretty quick and are doing it all by themselves by round 3. The demo also shows the GM how to use the 3 Act structure with Rally Steps and ends with a social encounter. Don't be afraid to push the party tension meter up if they take too long deciding what to do or argue about who should go next, but be sure to reward them with fortune points for clever ideas. It's not a very exciting story, but it does exactly what it is supposed to do, demonstrate the system. It also doesn't matter if someone ends up dead (although in both of my experiences that didn't happen), because these are just pregens and not characters the players have anything invested in. It takes about 3 hours, give or take.

The players, now armed with an general understanding about how the game works, are better able to tackle chargen. It helps to use the excellent fan made worksheet from Hammerzeit or have scratch paper on hand. Help them through the choices and depending on the player, make recommendations as necessary, but they'll now have a good idea of the benefit of a high characteristic vs. the risk of having one be a 2, how important skill training is, how to use actions and talents, and will be able to make more intelligent choices. If you can have the actions and talents sorted by type so that more than one person can look at them at a time it will help. Along with a couple copies of the master skill list (there are fan made summaries which are good) and an extra copy or two of the equipment pages and you should not get too bogged down. Still, this could take an entire session depending on how much time your players will invest in reading all the cards and agonizing over their choices, so prepare accordingly.

There are definitely other schools of thought, but trying to get the players through chargen when they have no idea whether it's better to take 4 actions and 3 Talents or raise a characteristic, let alone which actions and talents to take can cause problems. Many people solve this by letting the players regen or partially regen their characters after their first session of play, once they have a better handle on the rules. Also, even if you are an experienced GM, it's worth running the demo since it also demonstrates to the GM how the designers envision adventures to be structured. If you decide to run your own adventure, you should at least review the demo (and the included sample adventure in the ToA) for pointers on how to structure yours and be sure to include both a combat and social encounter in your first session.

Yeah we played the first two sessions and then I allowed the players to create new characters with the two experience points they had earned. That is always a good idea so players can make informed descisions.

I say that Jericho has it right.

WFRP3 is ideally suited for learning the rules while playing, and your players will like it far better than being lectured for any amount of time.

Just keep the challenge level of the first few encounters fairly low so no one will feel frustrated that they "lost" due to a lack of knowledge.

I've found that players really pick up the dice pool mechanic rather quickly, and after that it's just a few other details.