On playing Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd Edition {roleplaying review}

I've written a bit before about how my first exposure to roleplaying games was via Basic Dungeons & Dragons, you know the classic D&D Red Box. Well, many years later my first long term campaign was first edition Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, a system I was to play on and off for many years, and as many various characters.  So I guess you could say my first "real" role-playing experiences were with Warhammer.

I've always enjoyed the dark British humour at the heart of the game setting, and the fact that you don't start as shining heroes out to save the world. The setting is too grim and gritty for that. Class distinctions matter. Politics and intrigue play a large part in the game. You are more likely to start out as a Rat Catcher or a Road Warden than as a Warrior or Mage. It's a low magic setting, where magic users are somewhat distrusted and magic items are truly rare. And while you may triumph and beat back chaos, there is always something just as bad (or bigger and badder) on the horizon. 

You've got to love a game system that has built in rules for how characters develop both insanities and chaos mutations. Compared to some other fantasy based games, your hit points aren't just a number on a sheet that occasionally moves up and down as you alternate between taking hits and getting healed by a party cleric.You are quite likely to get seriously wounded, and the wounds can have lasting effects, both mental or physical. Your character might die. And that doesn't just mean a time out while the party members haul you off to get resurrected. 

As someone who married the GM, I have often heard my husband rave on about how fantastic the modules were written for the system. A detailed world was presented, things happened on a timeline, and then you insert the player characters and let them run amok. 

I will admit, there are parts of the gritty realism that I haven't always enjoyed. Detailed visceral descriptions of gore, violence, pestilence and disease all play a part in the game. One which thankfully my gaming group to a large extent glossed over, as I do not relish gory details.

So these are my impressions on Warhammer Fantasy as a roleplaying system. Lethal, a bit grim, humorous in a dark British way.  A game with a rich world setting and detailed modules, one where you can lose a limb, or go insane, and potential continue to play your character. One where you fight back against the darkness and chaos both within and without while never truly 'winning'.

Now let's skip ahead say eighteen years, and here I am trying out the third edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Brought to you by Fantasy Flight Games it's full of BITS. Tokens and more tokens, cardboard standees, counters, tiny cards, full sized cards, character sheets, class sheets, and special proprietary dice. The game comes in a chunky sized box with a hefty matching price tag, with enough bits stuffed in there to make your average board game box look empty in comparison. 

I agreed to give the game a try, and I tried to keep an open mind, but let's just say I was seriously leery going into this. At first glance, there were several things I did not like about this new version. First and foremost the way the game was divided up and sold in parts. There are a number of expansions available, each adding additional rules to the game. The core game doesn't even include rules for insanities! To me, this seemed criminal, as it's one of the unique features key to the game setting. Then there were the bits and bobs, the silly dice. It all seemed too gimmicky. 

I played a one-off in the new system where we were all, Games Master included, just learning the rules and I still wasn't sold. In particular, the way the game handled location and range during combat felt awkward to me. It's supposed to be more like the free form, it's all in your head, range rules of old, while still having physical markers on the table. Here is a card that says "Road" and here is one that says "Forest". You place your standee on or near the terrain card, depending on how close you are. Each terrain type has rules that affect what happens during combat. As you move in and out of range, you scoot your marker around on the table, and try to remember to apply any additional conditions granted by the card you're standing on.

Meh. I didn't love it. But I was outvoted and several months later we started a long term campaign. (I will take my roleplaying where I can get it, thank you very much.) We have been playing for several weeks now, for more than half a dozen sessions. We just finished our first module and my character is almost ready to move to her second career. So I think I've gotten a good "feel" for the game at this point, and I have to begrudgingly admit that I've come around to liking it.

The old school roleplayer in me hates sharing dice. Using a common dice pool of special proprietary dice which get passed around the table as needed still feels off to me. But I will admit, the quirky seeming boon/bane dice system is actually quite solid. And I love the way something interesting happens when you roll a comet or a chaos star.

Based on my husband's holiday wishlist, I went crazy and picked up every add on box I could get my hands on when Fantasy Flight had them on discount during their big yearly Black Friday sale. So we now have all of the rules. Chaos gods. Colleges of magic. Diseases. Mutations. Insanities. Everything you need to run a proper Warhammer game. And the dark humour is still there. Though to be honest I have no idea how much of that is directly in the module and how much is GM intervention.  

The card based system, with the slots for talents and whatnaught, could easily be done via paper. In fact, they have published versions of the books that allow you to do just that. I don't really mind the system as it stands, my problem is that I find it sometimes puts me into a boardgamer mindset. I have x many cards in front of me to flip. There is one optimal move I should think of to "win" this round of combat. Too easily I slip into meta-gaming, a bad habit I'm trying to break myself of. I think the problem here lies more within me than with the game mechanics.

Have you ever played Warhammer Fantasy in any of its various incarnations? What do you think of the setting? What are your thoughts on roleplaying with tokens and cardboard bits? Clutters the table, or useful tools? Have you tried the dice system yet?

Overall, I am enjoying our 3rd edition Warhammer Fantasy campaign. The modules have been a nice balance of intrigue and combat. The unique dice system has grown on me to the point where I can say I don't simply tolerate it, I truly like it. Despite the gimmicky over-trappings, I find the flavour and uniqueness of the setting still shines through, and I'm eager to get back to the table each Monday night. Would I recommend it to others? Definitely. My advice to you is, if you've passed this game by because you've been turned off by the flashy trappings, have an open mind and give it a try.