Hi, I have just bought a "mint" used basic box with the adventures toolkit and I really want to run the enemy within campaign.

What expansions are "needed" if any at all? Is the campaign enjoyable with only the basic stuff or would it be better with some extras? Sooner or later I will try to get all expansions but I also want to get started with the campaign...

So, some buying hints is much appreciated... :-)

Another little question... Do you sleeve your cards?

BR

Tommy

Winds of Magic is a definite. You'll need the corruption/mutation rules from that.

Beyond that, it's really a question of what kinds of characters your players want to play. If you have enough money, I'd suggest buying the whole ruinous power series (winds of magic, signs of faith, omens of war, lure of power)--they really flesh out the character options, and magic, religion, war, and intrigue are all major themes in TEW.

Of the remaining supplements:

Black Fire Pass really expands on the options available for dwarf characters, but doesn't offer much beyond that to a TEW game. If you have players who want to play runesmiths or dwarven engineers, or are playing trollslayers or ironbreakers, it's not a priority.

Likewise, Hero's call has rules for Halflings, Ogres. If your players want to play these races, it's a buy, but otherwise hold off until they're approaching rank 4.

Witch's Song is primarily an adventure, but it has rules for witches, which might come up depending on what decisions you make about the Black Cowl. Or, of course, if PC takes up witchcraft.

That's about it. Everything else is adventures that don't have anything to add or GM support that's more helpful when you're running your own adventures.

I've got to say, Winds is not at all necessary if you don't have a wizard in your party. It's true that it has the rules for corruption/mutations, but those aren't nearly such common occurrences... unless you WANT them to be common, in which case you'll probably want that set. Similarly, diseases are included in Signs of Faith and that can be fun, but if you don't want a filthy, gritty world then you don't really need it (they also slow down your game if you use them too much).

Honestly, you've got the two most important things you'll need. The core set is critical, and the adventurers toolkit is *hands down* the best bang for your buck when it comes to player enjoyment (basically, it's a bucket of extra cards and options with no fluff to slow you down).

As a GM, I personally liked the expanded wound cards in Omens of War. They were a practical addition that saw everyday use at my game (severe criticals that can cut off an arm or a leg lends to some pretty nerve wracking fights). The rest of that set was underwhelming. The rules for horses were pretty terrible (WAY over complicated), the "rules" for fighting styles were absurd (i.e. there are no rules for fighting styles... they're just traits you can use for "flavor" unless you want to invent your own house rules regarding those traits), and the six or so "weapon enhancement" cards were kind of... odd.

Mind you, the rest of that set will certainly give you plenty of ways to kill stuff. If that's what you want then go for it!

I suppose I should say that you ought to get the creature vault. The creature cards make life easier overall, even if they were poorly implemented (creature action cards look exactly like player action cards and there is little guidance as to who should get what card).

Thanks for quick and extensive replies. I think I'll go for winds of magic. I know that at least one in the group will be some kind of magic user...

/Tommy

I heard that winds of magic and signs of faith added the most for initiate and wizards. Winds will add corruption while signs of faith will add disease.

From that the adventurer's toolkit adds the most as well.

The Player's Vault is mostly the updated core stuff- and the Creature Vault will give you a ton of bang for your buck in terms of components and creature cards. The game master's Vault probably adds the least in terms of components.

Black Fire Pass seems like a must if one of your players in gung ho on dwarves and wants options. Tell him to pick it up.

This is mostly what I've read- and is how I am approaching it. I currently have the core set and I'm going to add the creature vault, adventurer vault, and the winds of power and signs of faith additions to create a huge core base that I can get into expansions.

I've got to say, Winds is not at all necessary if you don't have a wizard in your party. It's true that it has the rules for corruption/mutations, but those aren't nearly such common occurrences... unless you WANT them to be common, in which case you'll probably want that set. Similarly, diseases are included in Signs of Faith and that can be fun, but if you don't want a filthy, gritty world then you don't really need it (they also slow down your game if you use them too much).

Err, keep in mind he wants to run The Enemy Within. Which means corruption is going to matter, and even beyond that there are reasons to pick up WoM specifically.

When discussing the expansions most people seem to focus on what they offer the players. This is important and all well and good but also keep in mind that several of them introduce the "themes" of the various Chaos gods. There's wonderful fluff and a few mechanics available in all of the boxes that are worth checking out.

Winds of Magic - Tzeentch

Signs of Faith - Nurgle

Lure of Power - Slaneesh

Omens of War - Khorne

These 4, combined with the Core Box and an Adventurer's Toolkit are what I would consider a Basic Set. The rest of it is fantastic but the six items I've discussed here give you a mostly "complete" experience.

You should really get them all, but what you prioritize depends on your players and what you plan to emphesize in the adventure. I have made a lit below, listing what it gives the GM and what it gives the players.

Winds of Magic

GM: Tzeentch fluff, Wizard fluff and Mutations

Players: Magic-themed careers and Wizard spells and orders.

Signs of Faith

GM: Nurgle fluff, Priest fluff and Diseases

Players: Religion-themed careers and Priest spells and orders.

Lure of Power

GM: Slaanesh fluff, Noble fluff and rules for social combat

Players: Noble-themed careers and social action cards

Omens of War

GM: Khorne fluff, Military fluff and rules for permanent injuries

Players: Military-themed careers, combat action cards and mounted combat rules.

Personally I wanted Mutations and Diseases the most, because it is just not WFRP without. But it really depends on what kind of adventure you are running.

As many before have said, in part it depends on what your players want.

Personally, I feel that I "need" all the different chaos god supplements at a minimum (Winds of Magic, Signs of Faith, Lure of Power, Omens of War) to play. But as I said, it depends on the gaming group (and also how much money you're willing to spend in your group).

But for a long time we played with only the core box and the adventurer's toolkit and it worked very well for quite a while. Then gradually I added expansions to the game. More career options are allways appreciated by the players.

Lastly, I have all my cards sleeved. It has saved them from many spilled drinks and protected them from ware and tare.

I went a bit overboard and ordered:

Core Set

Player's Guide + Vault

Game Master's Guide + Vault

Creature Guide + Vault

Game Master's & Adventurer's Toolkit

Winds of Magic

Signs of Faith

Omens of War

Lure of Power

I think that's pretty much everything I'll want/need. Maybe some extra dice. And maybe Hero's Call for the 2 extra playable races (although both races don't really appeal to me).

I went a bit overboard and ordered:

Core Set

Player's Guide + Vault

Game Master's Guide + Vault

Creature Guide + Vault

Game Master's & Adventurer's Toolkit

Winds of Magic

Signs of Faith

Omens of War

Lure of Power

I think that's pretty much everything I'll want/need. Maybe some extra dice. And maybe Hero's Call for the 2 extra playable races (although both races don't really appeal to me).

It's a great investment. You won't be disappointed. If any of your players take to magic users or priests check out the POD's. They're pretty affordable and expand some of those careers greatly.

Yeah, I've been looking at the POD's, but I'm going to hold off a bit... my current WFRP order was costly enough.

I mostly bought it because it seems like a fun system to play (even though I'm a bit busy with Star Wars at the moment) and I didn't want to be in a position where I wanted to play the system, and not find the books anymore. Besides, I'm a sucker for collecting systems... and I managed to buy the core set for half off because the box was a bit warped due to water damage (the content was all in good condition). I'm looking forward to reading the books. I should have most of them by the weekend (except for Omens of War and Winds of Magic, which weren't in stock but should arrive soon).

Hero's call also has rules for creating Humans from other parts of the empire as well as Dwarves from other regions. So I think it's worth getting for that and the Halfling. With that said, I don't think it's a must have unless you are planning on running Rank 4+ campaigns (mine never go that long).

Lol, I just got all expansions released (and then some) for free (So now I have 3 Core sets, 2 adv tool kit and one of each of the others...)... The only thing I have to do is to GM a bit... Information overload... By Sigmar, it's a lot of books and cards... :-)

/Tommy

Unless you have more than 4 players, I'd recommend getting rid of the extra core sets and adventurer's toolkit. You have enough Basic action cards for 4 players, and I think it adds to the game when you make the remaining components excluslive (only one player can take each talent, advanced action, etc. Remember, players can share talents with the party card).

You only need one set of miscast cards, wound cards, and insanity cards from the core game, too. The only think it's really worth having extra of is the monster stand-ups.

..ohhh, but the extra dice sets...heh.

You can probably sell your adv toolkit for $250 on ebay right now.

jh

oh, right. Stand-ups & Dice. I snagged like five sets from a gaming store that was going under, so I sometimes forget that not everybody has plenty of dice.

oh, right. Stand-ups & Dice. I snagged like five sets from a gaming store that was going under, so I sometimes forget that not everybody has plenty of dice.

My online retailer of choice has tons of the dice kits. I ordered....many lol.

As I see several people here who have multiple sets of the same cards (two or more core sets or combining a core set with vaults):

Notice that the game is produced with the intent of there being a certain number of cards of each type in the deck. For example, there is only one of each action card for a reason; so not all characters have the same actions and become almost identical from a rules standpoint.

Some decks are also used for giving randomized effects and if you combine several core set decks, any new cards you add from expansions will have much less of an impact, as they will be diluted by twice the amount of core cards.

But won't the extra cards come in handy for people who want to play the same type of career? Or is that impossible in this game? I haven't gone through the books yet, but I read a review online saying that, at the start of the game, each player gets 3 career cards at random from which they have to choose one? Is it recommended to not have multiple copies of a career in the bunch, or can we simply add the Vault careers to the Core careers?

Either way, part of the reason I also bought the Vault is because I like to collect RPG systems, so it's not really a loss or anything (except for my wallet and storage space ).

You could do that, but if there's 60 careers and two people are going to take the same thing, that's kind of boring

Duplicating action cards is disencouraged for the same reason, but it depends on if the GM wants player characters to all be alike or if he expects his players to diversify.

Players also can throw temper tantrums when they cannot min-max every character they play. The GM will have to be ready to deal with that (and my guess already knows how to deal with those kinds of people

Lol, I just got all expansions released (and then some) for free (So now I have 3 Core sets, 2 adv tool kit and one of each of the others...)... The only thing I have to do is to GM a bit... Information overload... By Sigmar, it's a lot of books and cards... :-)

/Tommy

If you are interested in selling your extra adv tool kit, let me know

I'd also be happy to pick up any of the expansions or vaults off anyone!

But won't the extra cards come in handy for people who want to play the same type of career? Or is that impossible in this game? I haven't gone through the books yet, but I read a review online saying that, at the start of the game, each player gets 3 career cards at random from which they have to choose one? Is it recommended to not have multiple copies of a career in the bunch, or can we simply add the Vault careers to the Core careers?

Either way, part of the reason I also bought the Vault is because I like to collect RPG systems, so it's not really a loss or anything (except for my wallet and storage space ).

If you have three players. Out of all the different choices available, two of them decided to be mercenaries with the same exact actions, it gets boring and redundant. They pretty much fill the same space in the game and have to roleplay really differently to not be completely interchangable characters. The limit on cards and careers is to encourage diversity and interesting party makeup.

I see, excellent advice! So 3 PC's is about the ideal party setup for WFRP? I've begun reading the Player handbook, and I'm really liking what I'm seeing. You can tell that Edge of the Empire evolved from these rules, which I can only be positive about, as EotE is currrently my 'main' RPG. So I'm sure I'll get the hang of WFRP in no time. Can't wait go give this one a test run. I do wish I knew someone personally with some experience in the system, as I find a learn-by-playing approach much more enjoyable than reading by yourself. Ah well, off to read some more.

Three or Four, certainly. The game is somewhat complicated and fiddly, and with more than four the fiddliness gets out of hand. Also this game has less implied cohesion than the Star Wars and 40k rpgs. In Edge of the Empire, you know you're playing a band of outcasts and smugglers trying to get by. If you were playing Rebels, You'd be using Age of Rebellion. Likewise, If you're playing Dark Heresy, it says something different about the characters than if you were playing Rogue Trader or Only War.

In WFRP, all you know is that you're playing citizens and allies of the Empire. You could have a Wizard, and Noble, and a Ratcatcher in the same party, drawing it in three different directions. This is something you can deal with when you have three players, but will become overwhelming if you have six.