I mentioned this in the rules section, but I'm gobsmacked at the Creature Guide and the utter confusion that now seems to surround special actions for creatures. The special actions given to creatures in the Tome of Adventure and the 'allotments' (ie icons indicating types of action cards) for special actions given in the Guide don't seem to match, and there are no recommendations for special actions except those buried in the action listings - basically it's a complete mess that is left for the GM to puzzle out, doesn't match previous creature information, and I'm amazed that WFRP players aren't all up in arms about it.

I would really like to know from FFG how this Guide is supposed to work, both by itself and in conjunction with creature info published in the ToA. One of the things that first impressed me about the new WFRP was the specific special actions that went with creatures. Now suddenly they haven't bothered to list them with the creature listings in any kind of accessible way.

Explanation please!

Sorry to grizzle, but with every iteration and version WFRP3 seems to be getting more and more confused and fiddly. After spending an entire day comparing the hardbacks with the original core books so my personal reference sheets were up to date and accurate, I was feeling a touch aggrieved. And already with Omens of War, the hardbacks are no longer 'complete' listings. Is there a strong hand on the tiller of my favourite game?

It is by far the most fiddly game I have ever encountered. Every time a new expansion/toolkit comes out, it's about 90 minutes of card sorting, sleeving, and note taking.

But for my prep and actual game play, it's genius! I agree that the guide + vault isn't as clean as it could or should be, but I have found that when I am building my encounters, it's very easy and I am not overly concerned with matching the exact cards to the monsters (so long as the actions aren't totally absurd). So if I know I want two melee actions, I look through my paged melee actions for monsters and draw 2 that I think make sense for the encounter. Sometimes I might quickly scan for a trait (e.g. greenskins), but mostly, I look for things that make sense and would be fun.

PS. I mean to add, the card system is what really makes this fiddly for me. IMO, to make prep & play as easy and seamless as possible, they really need to be sorted out and page-filed (except of course the decks that are randomized and drawn regularly like wounds, diseases, miscasts, etc.). The best part is that it's very easy to expand the entire set and have a definitive, comprehensive list rather than referring to separate specific books for a career, a skill, an action, a disease, etc. That feature alone makes me not concerned about having a definitive book, and after all, what RPG that has additions and supplements can be said to be definitive anyway?

But ****, does it take a while to get organized. Once it is though, gameplay is butter.

Final edit - don't mean to be an apologist or explain the discrepencies away, but this is the way I've worked around the issue.

It's bad enough on its own, but the way it doesn't even match with the ToA listings is ridiculous.

I like the new dice system. I've found that as I get more experienced with coming up with stuff for banes and boons etc, that my descriptions are getting better and better. But I am very, very disappointed with this Creature Guide, I think, from a practical point of view, it's the worst product for WFRP3 yet. All they had to do, at the very least, was list the action cards that match each creature listing as recommendations. And frankly, I think they should have stuck with listing out the actions on the creature entry page as they did in the core set.

And chuck in this silly system of breaking things into two separate entries and having lots of repetition. I mean, come on!

I'm really concerned this is all going to turn into a WFRP3 Edition1, Edition 2 Edition 3 mentality with updated hardbacks playing catch-up with supplements.

But at the very least, I reckon an explanation about how this Creature Guide is supposed to gel with the ToA lisings is necessary.

I feel your pain.

No toadying here.

This is thankfully something the fans did for themselves: www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp

....

I very much doubt they are going to continue to publish hardbacks to keep things "up to date."

That said, I find the card-based system makes prepping for a session a breeze. It did take some time to sort them into pages, but once I did that it's been easy as pie.

Thanks for that fan-made list link. Unbelievable that we have to do these basic things ourselves.

I have a binder full of sheets with room for 9 cards each. When I have prepared for a session by putting the right creature and action cards into my binder, it's so easy during the session. I really love how well you can prepare for sessions.

I just don't understand, why FFG hasn't provided us (at least) with a reference sheet on their download page containing said list. I mean, I'm very glad, that the fans made such a list, but I find it hard to accept, that FFG won't acknowledge that such a list is missing. Because obviously they took note of the problem. Or at least I think so since they added "suggested actions" to the monster descriptions in OoW.

Emirikol said: