Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: First Encounter

Let's BE CLEAR

I have no previous experience with WFRP. Regrettably, I wasn't even fully aware there was a WHFRP till its latest 3rd edition iteration due to my keen interest in Fantasy Flight.

But what I have been is a huge Warhammer (fantasy/40K) fan since I was 13 which I talked about in my last post. The Warhammer universe is so rich with character, personality, humour and chaos that it truly is a great setting for an RPG. I purchased the WHFRP Core Set last month and for the past few weeks have been going through the rulebook and GM book doing my best to understand the rule system and game mechanic for my first play session.

While there are traditionalists who have complained about the new system and how Fantasy Flight has changed WFRP3 into a board game, there are also those who think the changes are for the better and further streamline the game mechanics so that you (the PC a GM) can focus more on your adventure and the storytelling.

Here's what I think so far of the components in the WFRP3 Core Set...

THE CORE SET

This is one HEAVY BOX! and my imagination ran wild with what awaited me when I popped the top open.

Here's one thing you should know about me, I'm a very visual led individual. I like shiny things. Like when I play computer games my graphic settings have to be at maximum,  and when I play board games I can't stand coloured wooden blocks that are supposed to represent castles, knights, etc.  It's one of the reasons I'm a big Fantasy Flight fanboy.

Fantasy Flight makes products of great quality and they always impress with their board game components like the ones found in Descent: Journeys in the Dark, Starcraft and Chaos in the Old World to name a few. With the WFRP3 Core Set, Fantasy Flight yet again delivers. The box is sturdy and filled to the brim with goodies.

Content of the Core Set

CARDS

Action Cards

There is a huge amount of cards in the Core Set. The cards perform a variety of functions with some card types formed into a deck that are drawn from during play, while other cards are used as an easy way to keep track of your skills, options, abilities and player information.

For a person like me (new to WFRP) I think this is a great system. Now everyone doesn't have to share or own their own rulebooks because everything they need is right in front of them during play. One of the reasons I never got into D&D was because it felt so daunting to understand game mechanics and felt too much like studying having to go through a load of D&D rule books.

D&D is too intimidating for me

SHEETS

To keep track of your character's information during play, large sturdy sheets are provided. There are Career Sheets that clearly define the different professions and careers in the game. Character Sheets allows quick access to your character's key information like characteristics, and a way of keeping track of equipment, experience and skill development.

A Party Sheet

An interesting concept in WFRP3 is the Party Sheet which represents the characters as a group with abilities, tactic and talents that can be shared. This sheet basically represents teamwork, leadership and camaraderie of the of adventurers. From my understanding, it's a way for a GM to reward teamwork and punish infighting.

PUNCHBOARD COMPONENTS

A visual aid to what is happening to each character and the monsters they face, the punchboard components helps the GM and players to easily keep track of the environmental situation and effects that are happening.

A Standup representing a troll

A nice touch, but I'm not making too much noise about it. Since I'm a big fan of the Warhammer Fantasy Table Top game and know a lot of people who play it, my long term goal is to build up a collection of miniatures I can use to replace the punchboard creatures during play sessions. At the moment I'm looking at getting/scavenging second-hand bits from here and there.

CUSTOM DICE

Now what's really "thinking out of the box" when it comes to RPG systems is what Fantasy Flight have done with the custom dice in WFRP3. This isn't the first time Fantasy Flight have gone against convention with dice. Descent: Journey in the Dark was the first. The basic idea is that numbers aren't always going to be able to provide role players (or at least not easily) with a method of resolving creative and changing tactics, situations, and effects. 

  

       in with the new

Instead of calculating numbered values of action and the numbers it has to "check" against to succeed WFRP3's system takes your character's attributes and based on how easy or difficult the action you want to take is you add challenge dice for the difficulty and misfortune dice for environmental effects. 

Success dice are cancelled out by challenge dice. As long as you have more success dice then challenge dice your action succeeds. As simple as that. 

THAT'S BASICALLY THE CORE SET

I haven't gone into the full detail of each game component since this post is more of an introduction of what you'll get when you purchase the WFRP3 Core Set. I will try to elaborate the game system in further detail in a future post. I'm GM'ing my first session this Saturday. Hope I don't screw it up. Till then it's reading and more reading...

NEXT ON BANES & BOONS: If my GM'ing session happens this Saturday, then my next post will be about the experience, my thoughts of the game in action and what I learned.