I hope that the Creature stuff will change status soon.

That would explain why GamesLore hasn't shipped my Creature Guide yet.

Interesting - a box from Gameslore turned up today that my GF had ordered - pretty sure the vault was in it, but will have to ask her if the guide was there too.

Sausageman said:

Update to this: Spoke to my good lady, and both my vault and guide arrived (Creature). Dunno what to tell ya.

So it's true that in Europe are all Guide & Vaults are avaialble at stores. That's good news! Can't wait for the next week.

They told me that they're having some troubles with dispatching, for some reason. I continue waiting with baited breath.

I'll tease and tell you that i got today the books and Creatures Vault

Cwell2101 said:

Oh, You lucky man! I will get my next week acording to my FLGS - they will have them on monday. So if everything goes as plan I will get them on tuesday. I hope to get them as soon as it's possible.

Cwell2101 said:

Well give us a review man! Whatcha waiting for!

The books are very nice, the hard cover is great. Still kick ass illustrations all around.

I especially like the Creature Vault, but it's a GM PoView : i'd rather have a few monster cards with stats and a few actions cards to put tokens on them, than 2 open booklets, to see attributes, abilities & actions. The Booklets cannot stay open if i dont keep my hands on them, i cannot use tokens for recharging actions, etc. Thus the cards preference. I still use a sheet of paper to track Wounds & A/C/E.

Also, i find the monster group cards interesting and will use them (it's like a party sheet for creature of same origin), in my next TGS game

About the Monster Guide, i was surprised to only see 110 pages total, but flipping thru it, i don't think i miss some monster i would have wanted to see (i'm not very "Warhammer educated" so i may not know about some stuff).

There are 3 big parts (there is some stuff before too) :

• the Descriptions & fluff, along with special abilities (like the left pages of the ToA in the basic core set),
• the Actions section, split into Blessing/Melee/Range/Spell/Support, ordered alphabetically, it felt weird but several actions are shared among several creature types, presented the same as player's from PHB,
• the "Stats line" pages, which also includes the special abilities.

Since monsters don't use red & green side cards (they are not Nemesis type unless you make them), they picked a side for the already published actions (ToA, Winds of Magic, Signs of Faith, TGS, EoN, etc) and printed it with the pre requisite (like "Goblins & Snotlings", "Trolls", etc.) and used the other side to put an alternative version without those pre requisite. It is not always exactly the same and will be a good source of actions for self created monster/NPCs. Some already published actions are on the Green side (as Goblins Snottlings are C1, seems ok), some on Red side (Trolls are R2 for exemple), but a few are common to a mixed set up and I don't know why it's either red or green (the basic Greenskin action that Goblin & Orc can use is a Red side with the "Greenskin" or "Goblins & Orcs" pre requisite, the green side is another version). I don't know if i'm clear here, so it's probably poorly explained

Some (new) cards have 2 distinct actions on each side (different names, description & effects).

The Monster cards have some awesome illustrations (to show your players for instance), they mainly are the same from the books & adventures (you'll find a few NPCs too), a few are new.

The monster Spell Action cards form TGS & EoN adventures (namely Chaos Shaman, Necro/Dark Magic, WAAAGH Shaman, Skaven spells) are not included in the Vault, NPC's (meaning human) *are*. Other actions are in (Madtooth herd, Sikboyz gang, etc.). I guess it's because those spell cards are not printed in the booklets whereas human NPC's are.

The DMG book is about 170 pages. I haven't read it. Looking at the table of contents, it's the GM booklet + Wizards + Priests expansions. An Eye for an Eye is still in. The description of each Church and College (from the expansions) are in this book and not the PHB. As a note, i did not find mention of the optional rule for the 2 skills access depending on the Faith, neither here nor in the PHB.
The Charts & Tables are d100 rolls for Insanities, Crits, Miscasts, Mutations, Diseases, etc., if you feel like keeping those cards away from table play.

The PHB book is about 300 pages. I haven't read it. Looking at the table of contents, it's the Player booklet (+Wizards & Priests basic rules); 137 pages, still 10 pages about the Empire. The rest are sections for Careers, Party sheets, Talents (including Faiths and Orders), Basic Actions, Blessings, Melee, Range, Spells, Support, each ordered alphabetically. I like the Career presentation in the book, not so much the Action's, but it's enough to make characters as a player. Once you got used to the cards (i'm used to order by type of action and separating the Creer Trait ones for the lot), harder to look in the book.
The new A4 format character sheet should be visible on the support page soon. It's about the same with a different presentation.

Overall, i'm happy (i only "needed" the Monster Guide & Vault since i have all published material before those)

I'm sure we'll find things that could be corrected, or could have been done differently. As always.

Wow, this all realy seem to be amazing. Can't wait to get them all in my hands.

Oh, I also think that this A4 character sheet will be published on the web as a free pdf version.

A big point/deception, which i think is an oversight unless they plan to release a "Chaos Dark Gods" Box once the 4 individual expansions are out, is that in the Creatures Guide, the Tzeentch & Nurgle Lesser and Greater Daemons from WoM & SoF are missing, but they are in the Vault as creature cards!! As well as the 2 adventures' monsters & characters.

In the Vault are also missing the Rank 1 to 3 Spells (& Blessings, but i think there are none) with Chaos, Tzeentch, Dark Magic, Necromancy, Nurgle traits from those 2 expansions as well, but the "monster actions" spells & blessings are in for those expansions (no rank requirement, but creature requirement like Great Unclean One, Chaos Sorceror, Colored Fiend, Broken Wheel Leader, Plague Leader, etc.)

That would have put a few more pages in the Guide and a few more cards in the Vault. Those missing spells are great to enhance enemy casters you make, and in fact needed for those creatures that have extra spells actions. You don't really want to give a Chaos Sorceror some Light Order spells, don't you ?

-1

I realize you have only just recieved them, but...

Does the Players Guide cover and new ground, rules wise? Are there clarifications and further examples on parts of the game that have caused issues, like social encounters? Or is what we saw in the preview it for new rules content? Is the organization better?

My chief concern with the players guide is getting a book that is actually useful at the table for rules. Second is getting some clarity on social encounters and recharge.

Smilodoner said:

I don't intend to thoroughly read the Player & Master Guides soon as i think i have a good grasp of the game (it's only about 140 pages of rules & fluff). I mainly got those to reduce the booklet numbers and to hand to a player that may ask to look at it for a weekend or so, so he can have a better look at Careers, Actions, Talents and stuff.

If you already have the Core Box and expansions, you don't need it.

If you are a player and don't want to buy the Core Set + expansions (Adventurer's, WoMagic, SoFaith) to have the material at hands, get the Player Guide (and maybe Player Vault if you want the physical cards instead of book entries), you'll only lack some descriptions & fluff about the Faiths & Colleges from what i saw at first glance. Your GM can easily brief you on those, or maybe some previous editions lore or google searches

I ask about specific clarifications and examples because that is what was said was to be added to the players guide. The rule books, as they stand now, are very light on social encounters. It mentions it, here and there, but gives extremely little in the way of "Here's how you do a social encounter."

I'm not a player. Not anymore, anyway. I have the players guide pre-ordered, but if there isn't anything more than what we saw in the preview for the needed clarifications I will probably not get it. When my game starts I won't have a problem houseruling it myself, but I'd rather be working with the official sources than my own.

I'm still curious to know what new (to 3rd edition) monsters are in the vault? (Or at least a sampling of some.)

Cwell2101, what part of the world are you located in? Has anyone in the U.S. received any books or vaults? I'm specifically interested in the Creature Vault (isn't everyone?).

more beasts (dragon, manticore, wyvern, ...), Minotaur, Dragon Ogre, wraith, banshee, vampire, Black Orcs, Forsaken (marauder upgrade of sorts), Forest spirits (sprite, ..., treeman), Dark elves, Skavens, Swarms, etc.

I'm in France, i ordered at Game's Lore (UK)

excellent. thanks for the update. how does the game scale with things like chaos dragons and shaggoth dragon ogres?

My FLGS said that it's in at Alliance, but their 'new point of contact' there hasn't quite gotten their act together so they should receive them in-store on Monday (we'll wait and see about that) but I'll expect sometime this coming week or next.

Hey Cwell, thank you for the update. Glad to hear about the creature vault. I was wondering if you feel like you need the creature guide to understand the vault, or can component players just get the vault. I am hoping all I need is the vault, but I am unsure at this point. Any clarification to this point would be a great help!

Cwell2101 said:

That's not missing - it's not a suprise for me that there are not included in the Vault and Guide. Becouse if there were You would not buy the previous boxes to get them. Like Jay said, and I understanded Him, they only upgraded the material that was not on cards, so that's no suprise that You did not get those. Besides if You have the previuos expansions You got those cards. And nor more importent thing - Jay said clear - the Guide & Vaults are only the optional version of the core set and nothing more.

I think that there will be more cards coming in next expansions for all but we must wait. In my opinion there will be a Elves expansion that will give us Elves magic (High and Dark), more Chaos spells will be in adventures, more Necromancy will be in a expansion about Undead, more Orcs maybe will be even in Black Fire Pass and so on. So there is no need to worry about. And if You really miss those buy the previuos expansions and you will get those.

Oh and about ChaosDark Gods Box - I don't think that such a thing will be published. Why? Becouse we are getting all the Gods of Chaos in separete boxes and this is more economical for FFG - they earn more money on those. And from my point of view - it good becouse as a GM and a Player I always get not only a Chaos expansion but also something more, a different aspect of live in the Empire.

commoner said:

You can have only the Vault for sure. You'll lack the descriptions and fluff about the (new) creatures (Skavens, Dark Elves, etc.) and a few pointers to set up encounters and stuff. The Guide also has "Adventure Seeds" small entries for each creature groups in the description section.

If you just want Creature Cards and Action Cards, the Vault is fine.

frycook said:

A Dragon Ogre is 5 skulls difficulty (as a Giant, Rat Ogre, Chaos Warrior & Minotaur), a Dragon Ogre Shaggoth is 7. A Dragon is 8. A Vampire is 6. It's easy to adjust some of those by equiping them.

Dragon is a beast type, Dragon Ogre (& Shaggoth) is Chaos.

Cwell2101 said:

That's good to hear, thanks.

I've only ordered the Vault as more fluff isn't really what I need, I figured the guide would largely cover the same ground as the Old World Bestiary. I don't really need help with setting up encounters or plot hooks, so it looks like I made the right call (for me that is).