This is part of the conversation started on RPG.NET: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?680067-WFRP-3e-What-does-it-do-best

What do you like about GMing WFRP3?

jh

My favorite part about GMing WFRP3 are the Fortune and Misfortune dice. They make it so easy to simply add or subtract modifiers for various situations without having a rule for everything that could ever come up. They allow me to reward my players for cleverly thinking outside the box, rather than trying to make "the box" include every possible rule or scenario that could ever come up. Thus its very easy to just hand wave and say "Take a Fortune die for that." or "Take a Misfortune due to this enviromental modifier." etc. It makes the world feel more real and choices have an impact on the game, without needing to remember what the modifier is for attacking with a bow underwater while in a diving suit….

I also like having the Creature Cards in front of me, rather than buried in a page on the bestiary that I have to keep flipping to.

Finally, I really enjoy getting to narrate the effects of all the various side effects, whether they are Chaos Stars, Boons, Banes, or Sigmar's Comets. Its also fun to interpret "how" something happened after a dice roll, whenever it is appropriate and significant.

On the downsides it seems like it takes a long time to prep for a game, but then I'm not that familiar with other systems. I also have a very hard time judging how difficult combat encoutners will be, without running mock combats ahead of time which takes a lot of work.

Kartigan said:

You're probably over preparing. I estimate I've run about 1500 game sessions in the past 30 years, and I can assure you that combat difficulty comes down to one simple thing: MONSTER MORALE TAILORED TO LETTING THE PLAYERS WIN. Have the monsters run away as soon as the players have suffered a casualty, but seem like they're getting ahead (even a little). Its alwasy better that you have the monsters run away than ever say that they stay and cause a total party kill. I have a nasty habit of whittling the player characters down to the final guy, to a final wound, just moments before unconsciousness and the heroes triumph due to something that they think they did. Creating that illusion takes a little creativity..but at the same time, consider that the game would be nothing if it were too easy to win.

Hence, I always have my players create back-up characters. Each session I joke about how easy it will be and that they probablly won't need their back -up characters. I know that I've reached the sweet spot when they say, "Yea right! And nurglings might fly out of my butt!" Then they are fully under my mind-spell and don't argue with me when I unfairly kill a character off when he makes the mistake of saying, "My character heads off to the bathroom alone."

WFRP3 seems a really easy system to do that.

Everything you just said Kartigan and jh you're most likely right about the over prepping.. My absolute favorite part of system is the careers.. My PCs just started a new group when a minotaur killed the others (again the estimating combat difficulty) and instead they went with a theme group instead of the typical archetype AD&D adventures group.. Right now they're playing a group of criminals low lives.. They live off a forgers ability to copy and make fakes while a burgher sells them.. They also have a thief to steal stuff to sell/copy and a thug for muscles.. It's hilarious how devious they all turned

oh and I absolutely love the Warhammer univers

it's my first RPG as GM and the first RPG for most of our group, but we're all heavy board game addicts so the WFRP system works wonders for us

I came to WFRP3 from D&D so that may influence my answers.

I like focusing preparation on scenes and their elements (be they creatures, people, things, events) not map grids.

I like the fluidity of the system with the ability to just "throw some fortune dice in because of that good roleplaying, some misfortune because of the bad" etc.

I like the multidimensional resolution system where it's not just succeed/fail or succeed/succeed very well/fail/fail very badly but there's the independent plane of "but tire out, regain breath, slip in mud, put your buddy in better position" etc. etc.

I like the POTENTIAL (alas not seen very often in play) for roleplaying and interpreting dice pools (it's the red rage in his attack that drives his blade into your flesh for an extra critical etc.)

I like the range of harm, oh sorry I meant challenge, I can inflict on players from wounds to fatigue to sanity to corruption to disease to madness to miscasts.

More generally, I like the warhammer universe. It combines a grim, dark sensibility with humour in a way that works for me. It's the first "potted setting" I've run (having been running games for 31 years) without substanital tinkering etc.