I'm going to post something on DakkaDakka's RPG forum about WFRP 3rd. I'm trying to make people like the game, so add or fix anything you think needs to be changed. I haven't read this over enough. It's really hard to summarize all the system can do. The hardest part is talking about how good the cards and other components are for the game.:
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd is my favorite system. Nearly every rule and component piece is modular, so you can scale the game up or down in terms of complexity and playing space. The creative dice pool, which uses symbols instead of numbers, works very well, is easy to learn, and adds creative and narrative elements to the game. There are many degrees of success and failure for the GM and players to interpret. This makes for an incredibly smooth-playing system, and everything is geared toward advancing the gritty and grim setting. The artwork is first-rate. The background material is true to Warhammer. You hardly need to write anything down in this game because it's not very reliant on numbers. Rather, you draw cards for wounds, effects, and corruption, there are some item cards for the more powerful items, location cards, progress trackers, party sheets, player character sheets, etc. However, this does not mean the game loses detail. The detail is simply on cards and tokens, which are all designed to be easy to manage
The components* might seem like they'd build up after a while, but I have everything, including the books, neatly stored in just five small boxes now (the Dungeon Tiles boxes, books have a bigger box), and I've purchased almost everything they've produced. You obviously don't need to bring everything to every session, but I could if I wanted to. The price point of the core set deters some people but it should not. You get everything you need in the box for three players and a GM: Dice, player's guide, GM guide, Wizards, Priests, tokens, monsters, character and npc pieces, action cards.
Character creation is fun because there are many PC careers to choose from. The careers simply do what they're supposed to, and there's also room for customization, based on which attributes you decide to raise, which skills you train, and which Action, Tactics, Reputation cards you choose. The races, Wood Elf, High Elf, Dwarf, Reiklander (Ogre, Halfling and other Empire humans added in Hero's Call expansion), have restrictions and benefits, obviously. All characters have a Stance, which can be Reckless or Conservative. This affects how your characters acts during the game, per which cards you use and roleplay.
Every expansion has also been of very high quality and offers something to players and GM's alike. Even adventures add thematic new action cards and classes for players, and new monsters and NPCs, and action cards for those characters for the GM.
One of the newest expansions, Hero's Call, allows for the most powerful characters to be represented and played as PC's in the game (Wizard Lord as a PC example, Skaven Hell Pit Abomination as an enemy example, etc.).
The action cards add a lot to the game. Instead of bland skill roles, action cards allow players and monsters to use abilities that have a list of outcomes to choose from based on what is rolled in the dice pool. The action cards really fit the theme of the characters who use them. They add flavor and balanced rules to the game.
Combat is fast. Characters connect with attacks more often than not, and the combat feels more real as a result. You'll probably be using several actions cards per combat: melee and ranged strikes, reactions like dodges and parries, tactical assesment cards, etc. Casting spells and blessings is incredibly fun. Success and failure both mean something for the casters. You have to manage power, and that alone adds a lot of feeling to the game even before you cast a spell. Consequences hurt. You feel both vulnerable (you might be poor, you might be sick, you might get mutated or corrupted, you might lose an eye, you might be illiterate) and powerful (you'll always have a few outstanding traits, which can manifest across Action Cards, Skills, Talent Cards, Attributes, Stance Meter, etc.).
The game supports social and investigatory elements of games very well. (need to expand)
It has plenty of monsters, especially after expansions. There's also a beastiary available, which includes most of the enemies that are close to the Empire.
The fanbase is very loyal and they provide lots of support for the game, themselves. I particularly like The Reckless Dice podcast and the contributions the members on the cast have made to the game. I can't think of a better-supported game, especially if you choose to dip into Warhammer Fantasy Battles for inspiration, or want to buy miniatures instead of the cutouts for characters in the game.
The only thing that's problematic about the games at time is the detail and breadth of the Warhammer world. It's understood by the fanbase in different wants. It's meant to be expansive so there is always something that's ommitted everytime a new product is released. However, Fantasy Flight Games' releases have all been logical and useful. There's plenty to play with.
Here are some links to product descriptions:
(I'll add this later)
*You can play the game using only books, using a series called Player's Guide and Game Master's Guide (you'll miss out on expansions if you only use these though, but all expansions are compatible with guides), but I prefer the game with the components because it plays quickly this way and they allow a lot of information to be clearly presented and not feel burdensome. The game can also be bought seperately in Vaults (Player's, Game Master's, Creature) but if you get the Core Set and expansions, it would be redundant. They also do not include the content in the expansions. There's an explaination of this on the Fantasy Flight Games website.