So, I ran 4 x 3 hour sessions at an RPG convention in Sydney, Australia this last weekend (Sydcon). Out of 19 players, 4 had played WFRP3 before, 1 had played WFRP2 and 14 hadn’t played any WFRP, but had played RPGs.
I took the first 20-25 minutes to explain the basics:

• Statistics and how they map to characteristic dice.
• Skills and how training maps to expertise dice.
• Challenge dice – 1 = easy, 2 = average, etc.
• Fortune and misfortune dice.
• Making a roll – successes and challenges, boons and banes.
• Stance – conservative vs. reckless vs. neutral. Using the stance tracker.
• Stance dice – plus fatigue, stress and delays.
• Brief overview of action cards – how stance affects which side to use (and how it essentially doesn’t affect basic action cards), recharge.
• Talent cards – very brief overview of needing to have then socketed to be active. I decided to play with talents as I wanted to introduce some custom talents during the end encounter based on each character’s back story. Some people used talents well; some people generally ignored/forgot them.
• I didn’t mention insanity or disease, but would introduce them if needed during the game.
• No PC magic was used at all.
• I had some of the quick reference sections (slimed down a bit) from Court Dimon and Universal Head and these were really useful.

Then I started the scenario. I deliberately designed the first 2 encounters to slowly introduce players to making skill rolls (mostly social, with some physical – jumping across a sewer channel, for example) and we took time to put the dice pool together, describe where all the dice came from, make the roll and expand on the results.

Then, I introduced the idea of fortune points and mentioned that I was tracking party stress on a party sheet – but I didn’t use the fortune pool, I just let fortune “refresh” for the whole group whenever something “cool” happened.

I then threw a simple combat encounter at the players and described initiative, moving stance, manoeuvres, actions, recharge.

Finally, we had a big encounter which lasted 1-1.5 hours. All PCs had a goal that came into play in the final encounter – I handed out 4 new talents and 1 new action card (1 for each player) that directly affected their secret goal. They could then choose when to socket their talent (which usually resulted in them revealing their secret goal) and this proved very popular with the players and got them looking at the other talents they had.

All of the games ran very well and everyone involved thoroughly enjoyed them. Conclusions from the games:

1. People pick up the dice rolling mechanic very quickly. If they’ve played an RPG before, they get it very quickly. Initially everyone was saying “Woah, there’s a lot to take in here” but after 30 minutes of playing were usually putting their dice pool together and analysing it with a minimum of my input.
2. The final encounter ran a bit long. I had 5 players for most sessions and this took a while for everyone to take their turns, put their dice pool together, analyse it, etc., etc…. Also, I really didn’t have enough dice for 5 players – so it was difficult for people to prepare their dice pool ahead of their turn. The final session I ran had only 4 players and this was the first not to run over time – 3 had played before, so that helped move things along. But, in future, I will probably limit the group to 4 players.
3. Prepare everything as much as possible. I set up the player’s area ahead of time – stance meter, character sheet, actions, talents, etc. already setup and ready to go. I had each encounter in its own ziplock bag – creature cards, action cards and stand-up all ready to go. Put them all back in the ziplock bag after the encounter so they’re ready to go for the next session. As I designed the scenario, I knew it inside out and so there were no breaks in the action for me to refer to some notes or anything like that.
4. As this is WFRP3 – the players had everything they needed in front of them (including the quick ref sheer) and it all moved pretty smoothly.
5. I kept the adventure simple – the main entertainment came with some early light hearted social interaction and then the big “pursue your secret goal” target for each player in the final encounter. This allowed us to really explore the system and for me to slowly introduce it to the players and for them to “go nuts” with it all at the end.
   

If you wouldn't mind, could you perhaps provide some more info on these secret goals? I'm curious

Emirikol said:

Thanks for this Emrikol, as a new GM who is going to have to teach the game (hopefully soon) this seems like a good cheat sheet of what to start with.

Trenloe, I'd like to hear more about the adventure concept and what it was about.

jh

Nisses said:

No worries, I've started a new thread about the scenario here: www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp I'll add information about the character backgrounds soon...

Emirikol said:

Not a problem - details here: www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp

[bakersfield, CA WFRP starting Friday October 14th. Message me if interested we have an open slot or two]

If you have a dedicated Storyteller and a group that loves the genre, the game will never die. I have never though twice about other games my group plays (like Shadowrun or Call of Cthulhu) because it all comes down to presentation. The only thing that threatens a game is when another system does it better than the current one you are using. My group tends to have the philosophy that if you are going to play a setting than you use the system the setting was created with. We don't use SAS (World of Darkness) or d20 Modern (even though we like them) for Cthulhu because the BRP system has endured 30 years for Call of Cthulhu and is great, like wise we don't use Cthulhutech (even if simplier) or Corperation's system for Shadowrun.

People try to draw direct connections between D&D and WFRP, but the first offers little in a built in social encounter system nor a way to sit around without a grid and play (sure you CAN play D&D without a grid but as of the latest edition it plays a main part in the game not just an extension). Also WFRP's Exit, Intermediate, Advanced Career switching offers players a chance to adjust as the game goes instead of rerolling, or worse, constantly changing what their career is (in 4e I had a player that by level 20 had tried every caster class before he stopped at Sorcerer).

Personally I love Warhammer Fantasy and as I said above as long as you have a group dedicated to your games, and likes fantasy, and even better if Warhammer, the game will never die. If it is supplements no longer coming out you are worried about than you have never had the thrill of completing a game set and know the thrill of having a complete collection, but I don't think WFRP is a game you need to worry about.

I think we've gone off world Comet Lovejoy should have been named comet Sigmar!

Romus said:

I've been running 2ed for years and after seeing hat video in October I ran to my game store to get the core set and everything else within a couple of weeks.

Does anyone know what happened to Sean Connors? His youtube channel was updated regularly but since three months it seems pretty deserted. I hope everything is fine with him. If some of the Liber Fanatica people here still are in touch with him tell him he's surely missed. This is the guy I owe having discovered a great system. I was so bored with the D100/D20 approach of RPGs. I'm 40 years old now (eeep!) and I haven't experienced such a passion for a system for a very long long time now. Never got to thank him for that.

T.

There has been contact with Sean so at least he is still there. He has been quite busy though. Can't remember with what as LF forums are down. Don't worry.