I want to run WFRP as a one shot, I plan on buying the PDF's and some dice, I don't want to buy the whole kit.

What books do I actually need, and which one has the core rules in it?

I presume I need either the Players Guide or GM's Guide (or both) is that correct?

You've got to get the Core boxed set. You can pick them up used on Amazon for $45.00 (a pretty **** good deal for all the stuff you get).

Buying the individual books and dice separately would be very cost prohibitive and are really only necessary after you've got the core game. If you get the player's guide, then you get a much more complete set of careers and a complete rulebook for your players to peruse and ALL of the spells from the magic and priest boxed sets. The player's guide does not contain any information from later products such as LUre of Power, Omens of War, or Witch's song.

www.amazon.com/Warhammer-Fantasy-Roleplay-Core-Set/dp/1589946960/ref=sr_1_1

Here are some other tips with WFRP3:

1. The game has a very vague equipment list. My house rules have a complete equipment list: dl.dropbox.com/u/167876/WFRP3%20HAFNER%20Houserules%20v8.pdf

2. Here is a preferred character sheet by someone on these boards: dl.dropbox.com/u/167876/WFRP3CharSheet%20EASY%20jh%20preferred.pdf

3. Download the DAY LATE SHILLING SHORT- DEMO to play out a quick and dirty combat against some beastmen in the rain (scroll down to resources): www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite_sec.asp

When you first learn the game, you may wish to start by ignoring the Party Sheet.

One tip right off the bat: Action ability recharge starts with the round you use the ability (if it's a 4, then you throw three rounds of recharge on there)

"Exhastible" talents have a recharge of 4.

Take extra care to know how first aid works.

Enjoy !

Jay H

Start with the core box set. It has everything you need. You can expand from there if you want to but none of the other products are necessary to play. That said, I would recommend some expansions over others.

I agree with Emirikol on the party sheets and his equipment list is well regarded by everyone as far as I know.

Lots of good free resources and aids available if you watch the boards.

If your party is up to maximum of 3 players I would go for the core box set. If you have a party of 4-6 players then you may find a shortage of cards, go then for the Palyer's and the GM guides and play the game as the old fashion way, pen and pencil.

Yepesnopes said:

Except you still end up having to buy the box sets and copying card data to paper, since no products except the guides themselves list the card data in charts, and no more will in the future either. Not exactly ideal, but a cheaper way to at least try it out.

Yepesnopes said:

The Core boxed set works well for ANY number of players, but if two players want the same action ability, then one of them is going to have to copy the other person's card. Save yourself a gazillion dollars and just copy or write it down on the official "action card sheet" that FFG put out just for this situation

One more recommendation: Don't use the basic action cards. Just use the Basic Action Summary Sheet. Otherwise you're going to have crap all over the table and players are likely to call it a card game rather than a roleplaying game

jh

It is definitely not true, in my opinion, that the core box holds any number of player.

More players means also more opponents for example. You can run out of wound cards, and you will severely alter the probabilities of critical wounds also, which does not happen if you roll on the GM guide critical wound table.

Additionally, the Player's Guide and the GM's guide cover much more rules than the ones found in the core box. The core box does not include diseases neither corruption, which are covered by the GM guide. In the Player Guide you have all the spells from Signs of Faith and Winds of Magic, you also have all the new careers included in the Adventurer's Toolkit, neither of these things are in the box. Finally, the guides are more updated regarding misrpints and rule errors or rule clarifications.

In my case I bought both the core box and the guides, but if I have to recomend something to a newcomer I would suggest the guides, you can buy them as electronic version pdf and they are even cheaper then.

What vaults and other purchases are needed to match core set/winds/signs/adv toolkit?

The only vault I picked up was the creature vault (and I realized that I much prefer book form..but you'll talk to many people here who like sorting monster cards and having them laid out (usually using a card sheet works well for this).

Otherwise, I didn't pick anything else up simply b/c I picked up all of the other boxed sets as they were released.

jh

Thanks for the advice everyone,

I've got the Players Guide from DriveThrough and will pick up the GM's guide shortly. The Core box certainly looks pretty cool, but my gamers are all either hoary old vampire players or trendy indie gamers, anything that even smells like D&D or a CCG is toast. Plus, the box is $130 bucks here in Oz. I know it's good stuff, but geez that's a lot for a game that I don't know if I'll even play twice.

You're going to need about 5 sets of dice. At $12.00 each (or an online dice roller), that's going to cost you a lot unless you plan to sticker some of your current dice or write on blank dice. You should have gotten a used box from Amazon if possible, but don't stress it.. You won't be disappointed in the Player's guide content. The GM's guide will be like having decks of cards b/c you can just "roll" instead of dealing with card decks.

In the meantime, here are some monster stats: www.cutlass.be/rpg/wfrp/creatureview.php

Best of luck.

jh

online dice rollers
brokentome.com/tools/DiceRoller.aspx

http://laakmann.free.fr/wfrp/

or

there's a maptool platform out there with a nice dice roller built in too: gitzman's gallery

Agmar_Strick said:

definitely not the easiest game on your wallet. i just tell myself im an rpg collector so even if i rarely play its ok

The minimum price entry point is to pick up the Players Guide and GM's Guide from DriveThruRpg, then use one of the free online tools for rolling dice as Emrikol mentioned. The Guides include tables for all the cards that had been released at that point plus the GM Guide includes rules for playing without any of the tokens. Ill also add that the WFRP ruleset I created for Fantasy Grounds includes a dice roller and dice pool builder - and if thats all you want then the free verson of FG will suffice.

However, I think that the dice mechanic is one of WFRP real highlights, plus I have never met a roleplayer who doesn't want to roll physical dice, so using an online tool might leave you feeling a little 'cold'. If you want to pick up the dice then there are only two options:

1) Buy some dice expansion packs - Unfortunately, the dice packs do not include a huge number of dice, and only 1 purple challenge die (I think). Considering that you may need to make rolls with up to 4 challenge dice then you will need a few packs if you want to be able to roll everything at once.

3) Buy the Core set - The core set is the only other set that includes dice. If price is the issue then hunt around online for the best deal or keep your eye out for a second hand set on ebay.

After that, if you want any of the expansions then the only real option is to buy the boxed sets - The pdfs on DriveThruRpg do not include any card details.

Hope that helps.

@Remorhaz

Yeah, I don't want to count the number of RPG's I've bought and never played...

I'll probably pick up a 2nd hand copy of the hard backs at some point, maybe the core set if I see it cheap.

Dice: Yeah, picked up a blister pack of them at the (not so) FLGS for $18 bucks! holy crap!

Also: the world seems to have run of out of them. FFG: when are you making more?

Still, mighty impressed with the mechanics so far, pretty eager to try them out. If only there weren't wonky cards everywhere.