Hi everyone,

This is my first post on the forums, so greetings to everyone from the cold, cold Finland. Well, actually it's pleasantly warm right now. I didn't need to wear my fur hat to work today, and even the polar bears were relaxing on sunny beach with ice cream instead of putting up a decent fight.

Anyhow, I just got e3 and been browsing the pages. I used to play e1 quite a bit a decade or two ago, and the system has been changed so much I figured I would just ask you guys instead of trying to figure this out by myself: is the Adventurer's Toolkit required for fourth player to join, or is it merely nice to have?

We've scheduled our first session for next week, and we will have a temporary fourth player for that session only. He will not be joining our sessions on a regular basis, and I wanted to know if I should just make him buy the Kit, or if we could do without one (no idea where to get the Kit, anyway).

jahonen said:

First off to answer your question we need to know a few things...

First, can a fully grown Santa really rip apart a bear?

Second, is it true that you all work for Nokia?

Third, can you still cross Helsinki on foot at 3 in the morning on foot without getting accosted by anything more dangerous than a tall blond who wants to drink vodka with you (true story here, also it turned out to be quite dangerous as her alcohol tolerance was quite a bit higher than mine)?

With that out of the way, welcome to the boards and no, you don't need the box, I ran a 4 player game with the core box only, no problem. That said, get it anyway, if for nothing else the small, but viscious dog. Its small, fairly cheap and the expanded career options will really make your elf and dwarf players (there is bound to be one) happy.

Not required. As far as a 4th player is involved, all the toolkit holds is an extra set of basic action cards. Without the toolkit, your 4th player will have to refer to other players cards to see the results .. or, I would recommend just photocopying the basic action cards for your 4th player to use.

The toolkit does contain a lot more stuff that might expand all of your players options, which would be nice (more careers etc), but I think it would be very unfair to expect the 4th player to have to pay for it all.

jahonen said:

The Kit is kinda expensive. $30 US. Not sure what exchange rate and shipping does to that, but it seems a bit much to make someone pay that just to play with you for one session. You and your group will probably eventually want a copy of the Kit, because it has a lot of really cool material in it. You might talk to your regular players about splitting it four ways with you to keep your costs down.

For one session, though, you can probably make do without the extra basic actions. Make a photocopy of the Basic Action cards, or just type up the text from all of them onto a single piece of paper for the extra player. Or look for the Strange Eons thread (I think it's in the House Rules section of the forum) and download that software to make your own fancy full-color cards. If you can't make or acquire some version of the basic cards, though, it'll be really hard to run your first session for 4 players. If you're having to do so without the cards, I'd avoid combat entirely and just make it a casual session with role-played conversations and only a few simple challenges. Later, when people know the game better, and characters have a lot of non-standard actions purchased with XP, it'd be easy for them to loan their copies of the basic cards to a guest for a session or to share them, but for your first session, that's gonna be tricky.

Are you making characters before or at that first session? Cause making your first characters in this system can take a long time. I wouldn't recommend it for a session with a one-time-only-guest.

UncleArkie said:

1) It depends. If the Santa has been tamed, it does not usually stand a chance. But a wild Santa with all it's killer instincts still intact... well, let's just say "Poor Teddy". For more information about capturing and taming Santas, please see this video: javascript:void(0);/*1274799610353*/

2) No, no, that's a gross over statement, and I must say that I hate it when people make such assumptions. I know this one guy, who shared a flat this one girl, who used to go to sauna with her aunt, who had a pen pal, who did, in fact, NOT work for Nokia. So there!

3) You may be harassed by a growing population of urban bunnies as well. Beware. And yes - even they have quite a high tolerance for alcohol.

But anyways - thank you everyone for your fast replies! I think we'll make some cards of our own for now, and get the Kit a bit later. I was thinking of first running through the 'Day Late, Shilling Short' intro with the included, pre-created toons, then create everyone their own character out of session, before our next playdate.

I figured this would be a good way to get people introduced, and give them a general feeling of the world they are diving into. I will try to accommodate their requests when it comes to character selection, but I want to also make sure the party is balanced. And since one of them is completely new to RPGs, this enables me to write her a bit of background to help her get into her character's frame of mind.

Making your own cards is definitely the best idea. The Adventure Kit is cool and all, but for its main purpose, the extra action cards, it's way too expensive. Some of the extra careers are very nice, other careers you're better off without.

Personally, I think FFG should release cheap packs with just action cards. That's really the only obstacle to having more players. The lack of extra action cards is very limiting.

hi neighbour from the land of the thousand lakes.

calling from the lands of fjords and oilriggs.

The toolkit is not neccesary to start with, but I would reccomend it for later. it has some cool careers, like the rat-catcher and his little (almost) immortal friend. And I think its a nice add-on to the basic careers.

btw do you play Tide of Iron? as soon as I get my hands on Fury of the bear expansion, I am going to make some scenarios about the winter war of 1939-40. Its kinda my speciality.

And whenever we discuss the Norwegian - Russian border line of the far north (the artic share-border agreement talk) I always say that if the russians don`t behave and start their bullying tactics, we can always unleash the finns on them. That will set them straight.

Good gaming

Mal: No I haven't, but I took a look at it and I have to say it looks interesting... thanks for the tip! And by the way, you can find in a fjord near you this summer - I'm going on a two week rock climbing trip around Sweden and Norway in July

I went to a local game store today to buy a few Beastmen for the intro adventure. I stumbled upon a copy of the Adventurer's Toolkit, sitting there on a shelf... all alone. No one to talk to. So I decided to give it a home, and now I don't have to bother with copying cards!

to jahonen:

Welcome to forums fellowfinn! I too used to play warhammer long time ago, in Heinola if I recall correctly. If you have been in "The Quest" then I know you.

Thug said:

Hey there, fellow härmä! I don't recall playing Warhammer ever in Heinola (although it is not completely impossible)... and I am afraid "The Quest" does not ring any bells, either.

I got the toolkit and the base game together for a deal of a hundred bucks.