Hello all!

My friends and I have started debating if we should give the Warhammer Fantasy setting a spin.

Currently we've been playing various 40K settings (Dark Herasy, Rogue Trader and Deathwatch) the last few years, but prehaps it's time for a fantasy setting again?

We don't really want to go with D&D 4E, so I'm thinking that we could stay in the Warhammer universe, even if the fantasy setting is quite far from where 40K is.

I also read that the fantasy setting is very brutal - which sounds right up our alley.

Is it simply a matter of pixing the 99$ box up and giving it a spin, or are there any other books we should get to get the best possible newbie experience?

Hey Tom,

Yes pick up the core box but shop around, especially online. You should be able to find it much cheaper.

Then get the player's guide (even if only on PDF). The rules in that guide are better explained than the core box, and your players can browse it too. Again, shop around for it inpaperback of better get it online in PDF.

Cheers

Ceodryn

Thanks much for the response Ceodryn!

Quick follow up question - are there any must have books that better explains the setting, and careers? (Similar to Deathwatch's First Founding, Rites of Battle and Honour the Chapter).

None of us have any experience with the setting, except for a month's worth of playing when Warhammer Online initially came out - so I don't mind spending a few hundred dollars extra to get some more insight (Plus I'm a Lore'o'holic)

WFRP3ed is a bit less "lore-dense" than the 40k RPGs. The system is also very different. For example, you will switch careers a lot when playing (unless you die, go insane, fall deathly ill, or go mutant). So the different expansions for the game doesn't really add options for the existing careers, but rather add more careers (and more advanced careers). Each source book expansion contains rules that enhance the PCs options, but also contains a part with extra options for the GM.

Brief summary of some of the expansions:

- Winds of Magic (WoM), contains rules and careers for all 8 kind of wizards (there are 3 in the core set) and a some more advanced careers and spells. The Contents for the GM is Tzeentch and his minions as well as rules for corruption and an adventure.

- Signs of faith, same as WoM but for priests (8 faiths described instead). GM contents are Nurgle stuff and rules for disease plus an adventure.

- Omens of wars, extra options for warrior type careers. Also has rules for mounted combat. GM contents is Khorne (no big surprise there) and rules for severe injuries (the normal crits in the core set are a bit lame tbh, these are a lot more fun). And an adventure.

- Lure of power, extra options for face type characters and nobles. Slaanesh is in the GM part as well as rules for secret societies/cults. And an adventure.

The Player's guide actually contains rules in book form (all cards are included but in lists) from the core set plus Winds and Signs. The GM guide is the same but for the GM parts (no adventures though).

Each of the expansions also contains a section with lore stuff. But it's quite compressed compared to the (very) wordy style of the 40k RPGs. I actually think the 40k RPGs has a bit too much fluff, but your mileage may vary . The adventures and campaign also has quite a lot of atmospheric description but are quite limited in scope (only describing the places the players might visit, rather than going through all of the Empire).

For a more extensive lore product you're probably better of purchasing some of the old sourcebooks for 2nd edition (for play in the Empire, Sigmar's heirs is a great choice, it is available as pdf on Drivethru). But I would personally not use the old rules (which are more similar to the 40k percentile system), I find the 3rd edition a lot more fun.

The thing is, with Warhammer, you don't need settings books much. It's pretty much medieval / early renaissance Europe that have been corrupted from within by Chaos, with a touch if fantasy (orcs, elves, etc) on top of it.

As Gruntl sais, the four boxed supplements will give you setting info, more rules, each am adventure but are not critical to start with. First see whether you actually like WFRP3. Maybe you can instead pick up the campaign The Gathering Storm, rather reasonably priced on eBay. It's not a mind blowing campaign, but in conjunction with the adventure in the Core Box, it does touch upon many of WFRP big enemies and will let you enjoy the game and setting without buying tons of supplements at start.

Cheers

Ceodryn

If you are looking for some general overview of the Warhammer world and some of it's general history this site: www.cutlass.be/rpg/wfrp/history.php has a pretty good summation.

I don't want to overwhelm you, but here are some other REALLY good sites to check out for WFRP3 info and extras:

www.gitzmansgallery.com/ The MASSIVE Map there is astounding!!!

For rules questions Gitzman's Reckless Dice Podcast is an EXCELLENT source,… www.recklessdice.com Go back to some of the very first podcasts,.. Episodes 1 - 8 are particularly helpful.

www.liberfanatica.net/ Particularly issues 7, 8, and 9. LOTS of good stuff in there,…

Welcome to Ubersreik! I hope you find your destiny amongst the misery of The Old World,…..

Maldrin

Apprentice of the Grey Order

Thanks much for all your responses!

I.. *ehem* "borrowed" the rules book on the internet to see how combat is done. While not one of my proudest moments, it did give me some insight into the whole deal, and I'm going to make the purchase next weekend once I get the lads together.

It seems it is very tactical compared to the simple 2d10 dice roll done by other systems, which brings me to believe that combat is going to be very swift and deadly in game - but something that takes longer for us as players outside as players? Or is that just till we get the gist of it?

How does the system stack up balance wise when we talk about brand newly created players compared to Yee Olde LowLevel Mob?

Based on the professions like "Farmer" and the like, I would assume that surviving the first fight is going to be a matter of positioning and a bit of luck? Unless of course everyone wants to start off as Rich by spending 4 creation points on a higher chance of survival through the first encounter based solely on access to better gear?

TormDK said:

This is very difficult to gauge since it strongly depends from gm to gm and from party composition to party composition

TormDK said:

The profession is not very relevant (with a few exceptions). More than based on the profession, it will be based on how the players alocate their creation points among the characteristics and action cards.

Definitively, spending 2 or 3 creation points on wealth helps a lot since you can start the game with for exemple a chain mail, which will be very helpful in order to survive the firsts combat encounters.

Hmm, the game is less tactical than the 40k games because it uses an abstract range system, distances are measured in terms of engaged, close, medium and so on. It doesn't have any generic rules for dual wielding, defensive fighting or such things, all such things are on action cards. But the action cards and how they are managed makes for some tactical gaming. On the other hand, by using the action cards as inspiration and interpreting the dice pool you can create really memorable and roleplayed combat encounters, where tactical considerations just fade into the background.

Starting characters are quite good at what they have specialized in, but less so in other areas. A fighter type character can easily take on a beastman one on one, but a "Farmer" type career will probably be a closer match to a goblin. But the GM can also use the henchmen mechanic to include loads of weaker enemies.

The game is quite deadly but more so over a longer timescale, using only the core set it's quite unlikely that a PC will die in one fight, they will go unconcious but not die. It's not until you have suffered a number of critical wounds equal to your Toughness that you die. But crits are hard to heal, so it adds up. Then there are insanities, diseases and corruption to worry about…

The number one stat to stay alive is Toughness, you may want to advice your players that having 3 or more in this stat is preferable, even for wizards and the like.

If you have a group of four rank 1 PCs with two combat focused PCs I think a good challenge would be something like:

• One champion, normal mob, e.g. Ungor Beastman with some special action
• One normal mob, e.g. a Gor Beastman
• One group of henchmen, e.g. 4 gor henchmen

So getting what is akin to Elite advance skill from the 40K realm would be a whole new profession in Fantasy?

I liked that healing seems to be quite hard to do, with the restriction of only one healing potion per day (And a high cost if you start out as poor)

Sorry to bump my old topic on this.

Some more thought have gone into this while we continue to play Only War and Deathwatch, but I am thinking of adding the additional element of "real" coins, simply to make an entrance with it.

So far my shopping list includes (As per gruntl's suggestions):

Extra dice package (If they can be found - I hate sharing dice ).

Metal coins are GREAT!! There is a company out of Austrailia that makes some very cool coins for fantasy roleplay games,. can't remember their name but a few min. on google should take ya there,..... The real metal can add a ton of fun to your games,.. when someone wants to steal a coin purse,. have them ACTUALLY try to steal it,.. tie a small bag onto someones belt or to a chairback,.. turn over a 1 min. hourglass and have the player untie the bag WITHOUT making a single coin clank sound,.. if he can untie it without any sound made,. he steals the coins !! This was a good breakup and the other players enjoyed listening very hard for a sound to be made,.. good stuff,...

If you haven't played yet,...

Your list is, in my opinion, PERFECT! assuming you have the REAL rulebook,.. NOT the core set rulebook,.. That was the exact order I purchased in,.. I mixed in the GM vault (for the extra dice) and the creature vault (just to have actual cards for all the bad guys),..

If you have not played Eye for and Eye from the core set,.. Please,.. Purchase and read about the corruption mechanic in The Winds of Magic,.. there are many, many scenes where it can easily be applied and if your players plan on keeping their characters for future campaigns, you as Gm, will wish you had corruption as an option,.. ALSO,.. Use the Clue Cards !!! They REALLY help focus the players and my group had a blast with them,. just look up eye for an eye clue cards on these forums to find a link to download the cards,.. they really were a lot of fun,...

Happy Gaming !!!!

Don’t forget the Adventurer’s Toolkit! A few of the careers in there are really nice, you get an extra set of cards, etc. It’s also quite inexpensive.

"assuming you have the REAL rulebook"

Which rulebook would that be? And thanks much for your responses!

I mashed about 100 pennies and a few quarters (because they mash easily too). I used gold paint and silver paint to do some and left some "natural bronze."

For WFRP: I created "value 5" bronze, 1 and 10 value silvers and 1 and 5 value golds.

To mash them, I set them on a sledge hammer and smashed them with a claw hammer. The sledge hammer acts as the anvil (because I don't have an anvil or a railroad track section.

Wear eye protection and ear plugs.

jh

pix

What I meant by "real" rulebook is the seperate,, stand alone Players Guide,.. in the PDF version I believe it is called "The Core Rules".

What I DON'T mean is the rulebook that comes in the box set,. just the "core rules" rulebook in the box set,.. the other books in the box set are great,.. just not the "rulebook" in the box set,...

GREAT coins btw, Jay,.. I assume the black is a permanent marker??

Yes. I kept them simple. There's nothing like the clinking sound of taking them back from the players all while giving them a miserly cackle as a reward...

Pennies crush pretty good and once you've got a layer of paint on them, they really look pretty cool. I touched mine up with some slop paint (as you can see on the bronzes especially) to make them look dirty or tarnished (not the golds..I figure those have to be perfect I only put "artwork" on the silver tens and the bronze and gold 5's. I didn't do any bronze 1's because there's really no point in even making them.

The sharpie marker looks cheezy, but I couldn't find anything else that would be time efficient to apply. I suppose a wood or potato cut would work for stamping. Really one just needs a good font stencil.

here are some really good ones that someone did: http://jen-kollic.deviantart.com/art/Making-WFRP-Coinage-133599201

jh

I so so so so like money stuff... So Great to really play Our brass adventurers...

probably Will create some (or, ffg, good stuff to create and sell... Pack of money: gold, silver, brass)

Just for an update on this.

Today I managed to get my first little taste of the Warhammer Fantasy setting, as one of my friends had heard of my musing to venture into the system, so he had - much to everyones surprise, went out and purchased the starter set.

It took us a few hours to make our first characters (Plus reading the rules etc.), and get a hold of the pool system, but I must say that once that was under control (Which took three dice rolls total) I found it very easy to play as unlike the Warhammer 40K systems, it's fairly clear what the outcome is when you roll and there's no "complicated" math to keep in mind for things like close range etc.

Just for my understanding since we couldn't find anything in the rules.

Movement - due to the abstractness of range, how does movement work? I couldn't find it mentioned much in the ruleset but I suppose it counts as a maneuver?

Shooting into melee. The other systems have a penalty on this, but this situation does not seem to be included in the standard system? Is it meant to be up to the GM to set difficulty ad hoc?

But I'm overall very impressed, and will be spending some money on the other rulesbooks mentioned to get some more advanced careers for people to aspire to.

Just for my understanding since we couldn't find anything in the rules.

Movement - due to the abstractness of range, how does movement work? I couldn't find it mentioned much in the ruleset but I suppose it counts as a maneuver?

All characters can do ONE action and a maneuver on their turn. One maneuver takes you one space on distance (example from medium to close). You can get additional maneuvers for one fatigue each.

Here's the bit on movement: http://fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=799

Shooting into melee. The other systems have a penalty on this, but this situation does not seem to be included in the standard system? Is it meant to be up to the GM to set difficulty ad hoc?

This game is rules light. There isn't a chart for everything and this is one of the things that they don't get hung up on (that and stuff like flanking). This is a good example where the GM may wish to start a chart for his game (example, add an additional purple and if a chaos star comes up, he has to roll again against one of his own guys). Other effects you may wish to add to this chart are: medium ranged attack (add 1 purple), long ranged attack (add 2 purples), extreme range (add 3 or 4 purples).

But I'm overall very impressed, and will be spending some money on the other rulesbooks mentioned to get some more advanced careers for people to aspire to.

I would HIGHLY advise that you check out the pregenerated characters (all 44 examples of them) at: http://www.liberfanatica.net/LF7download.html

..

Just a FYI : I happened to come across the "fantasy" coins I had mentioned above:

Their web link is here: http://www.campaigncoins.com/

Not cheap but VERY VERY nice!!

#22 Awesome!

Sadly their starter kits are sold out, so I guess it'll be mostly copper and silver coins needed for newly created characters?

I'd get the core box. and 2 packs of extra dice for each player as a minimum.

But really, you need heros call and some others before your players get to rank 4, because those new defence cards really help balance combat at that rank.

Some of the adventure products might also be relevant if you don't want to write your own stuff.

Two dice bags per player? Does the game ramp up that bad? Our test characters would role with up to five of a dice type, and the base set has six of each.