I've just been chatting about this on RPGNet, and I think if I run into this situation, I'm going to make this adjustment: Opponent's characteristic is 6 or 7: +1 challenge dice Opponent's characteristic is 8 or 9: +2 challenging dice Opponent's characteristic is 10 or 11: +3 challenging dice Etc.

I think the acting player chooses.

Peacekeeper_b said: I still think it was largely picked for the new system for the merchandizing reason. It isn't entirely about merchandising. There's a very good game in here, too. V3 offers some conveniences and a visual appeal that shouldn't be undervalued. Sure, the dice are proprietary but I find the core mechanic to be really cool. You could produce the exact same results with numerical dice, but it's much easier (convenience) and better-looking (visual appeal) to use the dice that come with the game. I have to admit: rolling a handful of dice is kind of fun. Taking the number-crunching out of basic task resolution is attractive to me as well, especially after years of adding up -5 for this, +10 for that, -20 for this, +5 for that. I like being able to just grab a black die or a white die or whatever, and not think about the numbers, but rather think about the scene and the situation that I'm describing. For my money, V3's proprietary symbol-bearing dice do a better job of facilitating a roleplay experience than numerical dice ever have. Having the full rules for a talent or combat action written right onto a card, without having to copy down anything onto your character sheet, is convenient. Especially when it comes to combat actions, I find the cards to be a great way to put a lot of information right at the players' fingertips, right out of the box. (V1 and V2 don't offer that convenience.) Having two "modes" for many actions is also very cool, and being able to access those modes just by flipping over the cards is clever, convenient, and adds some depth to gameplay that isn't found in either of the earlier editions. I could go on, but these are just a couple of examples of why V3 seems to me to be much more than just a way to make some money for FFG. It's actually a very cool game that does some things that certainly are possible using a more traditional approach, but would be less convenient.

The rulebook is available separately online, so players who want to learn the rules can do so without spending a lot of money. But It's usually the GM's job to teach the game to their players. You can save yourself some trouble by pregenerating characters. It's also a good idea to expect that you'll spend much of your first session of play explaining how the rules work and what sort of options the players have. Create a scenario that's not too involved, giving them a little bit of social interaction and and a quick fight. Guide them if they're struggling. Don't try to teach them the rules before play. Maybe explain how to build a dice pool and do a few test-rolls to show them how to interpret them, but it's not important that they know every aspect of the rules before play. It won't even make sense to some players until they see the rules in action, so don't bother. Start playing the game, and explain the rules as you need them.

The Howl of Chaos spell obviously is an ear-splitting, brain-rattling sound and I don't have any problem translating that to physical damage. If you've ever been in shock, or seen someone who's been in shock, it's easy to understand how excessive stress can take a person out of action. You feel physically weak, sweaty, sick to your stomach, and on the verge of passing out. If you're already in that state and even more stress or fatigue is incurred, your body will shut down to protect itself. It doesn't take a major injury to go into shock; it can happen from a very small wound or just a close call, or even just seeing someone else have a close call. I suppose you consider your own mortality in those moments, and because we're usually wired to be empathetic to others, it's easy to see yourself in their situation. If you're not very strong-willed (or are already under a lot of stress) it can push you beyond your limits and you may faint. Combat is extremely stressful. You're already pumped with adrenalin, and could be within inches of your life for as long as you're in that situation. It could be a series of system-shocking, terrifying moments that you're lucky to survive. While that adrenalin can keep you alive by heightening your alertness and physical ability for a while, it takes a toll on your system. Once that adrenalin rush starts to wear off, you can be really drained, but the fight might still be going on. If you're already on the ground, exhausted from the fight, barely able to catch your breath and fearful for your life, and your opponent is stalking toward you with enough strength to let out a yell... it's easier to give in to the exhaustion than stay awake for what's going to happen next.

It's also taking me a bit of time to get used to the numbers in parentheses and remember what they mean. Yes, to Damage I think you do add Strength (for melee attacks) or Agility (for ranged attacks). To Soak you do add Toughness. Agility is not added to Defence, but the GM can use defensive actions for NPCs when appropriate.

You should take the time to guide (or just double-check) each player as they spend their creation points. All three of my players went over budget when allowed to spend their points on their own. When my group made characters, I let them know that the order in which they chose their cards could be important, since there are almost no duplicates. I also told them that the system seemed to be set up that way to encourage diversity, and they were hip to that. So one player chose their career first, another player got first pick of the actions, and another player got first pick of the talents. I agree that it's a good idea to take out the basic action cards and stack them into three piles before play. It's also helpful to guide your players to actions that are based on skills they've trained in, since that will help narrow their choices.

There's an extensive list of Doomings in the "Expanded PC Module" available from Winds of Chaos: http://www.windsofchaos.com/?page_id=92 The booklet is designed for V2, but much of it could be applied with V3 without any difficulty. You'll need some ten-sided dice.

I think they're referred to as 'eagles' in the text, but I'm getting old and can't be sure of anything any more.

I'm bearing in mind that the price we pay is much more than the cost of production, and of course I understand that FFG is ordering them in bulk. Wholesalers purchase the dice packs for about half the cost that we pay for them, and FFG probably spends about half of the wholesale cost on production. Just check out RPGShop or some of the other online retailers. It's not unusual to see a D6 with custom symbols on each side priced at $4 per die.

Fresnel said: FFG are asking $1 per die! This is outragous imo. A retail price of $1 per die is quite reasonable. I've researched the cost of having my own custom dice made, and I wish I could find a deal like that. I couldn't make a profit selling custom dice for $1 a piece; I'd practically be giving them away. Also, some online retailers have the dice packs listed for about $9, bringing the price-per-die down to $0.75.

Check your green and red dice. The hourglasses should have a nice hourglass shape, and the eagles should look well-defined so you can tell they're eagles.

Mal Reynolds said: mule is listed as 20gc (4800 pennies x 0,06 = 288p or 11,52 silver = 12s That sounds like it's off by a lot. Check this out: V2 Hand Weapon = 10gc V3 Hand Weapon = 25s If you use that as a baseline, the formula for converting V2 prices to V3 should be something like: Convert gold crowns to silver, then multiply by 2.5 So a mule in V3 should cost more like 50s. A barge should cost about 30g.

There's no book in the Adventurer's Toolkit. It includes more action cards, a few more party cards, a few more career cards, but no adventures or additional reading material. There's a single small sheet of paper that describes the contents and has a few notes about the cards, but I think you can find most of that info in the Errata and FAQ sheet that you can download from this site.

No, you don't have to draw a map, but it helps. A rough map of the town is good to have, but you don't need to map out every street and certainly you don't have to plan where every NPC is located. But you should have some idea of what kind of town it is. It will help you describe the town if you know where the rich people live and where the slums are, where the main markets are, where the craftsmen's shops are located. There are far too many people living a town like Ubersreik for you to plan everything beforehand. Your job is to be flexible and creative, and if your players want to explore the town and talk to people, it's up to you to decide what's reasonable. A town that size would certainly have some sword-makers and armor-crafters, but also several inns, and watchmen to patrol the streets. Let your players roam, and improvise any encounters that make sense to you. Roleplaying is really about "make believe," and it shouldn't feel scripted. Keep in mind that your players can talk to anyone. If it's reasonable for a certain kind of person to be found in that town, the PCs should be able to seek them out and interact with them. Not everything needs to lead to an adventure. Some encounters will go nowhere, or even provide useless or irrelevant information. Think about every NPC as a person who really exists, and who has a life, a family, worries and hopes, and motivations of their own. Most people just want to go about their daily routines without much interruption, but shopkeepers will be interested in talking to anyone browsing in their shops. Watchmen may stop the PCs if they look like they're making trouble. The Empire's towns have thieves and gangs who might try to harrass the PCs. Try to think of the town as a real place that exists because people need a place to live and work. It's not just there to serve as a location for your PCs to have adventures. When it comes to individual buildings, you don't need to map everything out unless it's important to the story. Sometimes the PCs just want to stop at a tavern for a drink, or maybe buy a few items from a shop. These can be done quickly, and you don't have to make much of it. You only need a map when it's important to track people's positions. If you expect a fight to break out, or if you're going to spend a lot of time in a certain location, then a map will help you describe the area to your players and give them a sense of what's around them. It isn't always important. If the PCs go into a tavern, you can just explain that it's crowded or mostly empty, or whatever sounds right to you. If the PCs want more details, you can provide those details if you think it's important. The PCs shouldn't expect a fight or an important encounter to take place everywhere they go. Sometimes, they should be allowed to have a quiet evening, just like anybody else would. When you go to a restaurant, do you always have a fight or learn some deep secret about the town you live in? Of course not. Certainly, life would be more interesting if you did, but it's not very realistic to expect that sort of thing. Let your players feel that they are just one of many thousands of people who live in the town.

Carahue said: The Adventurer's Toolkit didn't come with any dice. My bad. I picked up both products at the same time, and thought I combined the dice from both. I'm probably thinking about the little extra packet of conservative and reckless dice that came with the core set.

I understand your frustration about the limited cards, to a point. The starter deck does include multiple copies of some of the Improved defenses. But yes, having just one copy of the other actions can be annoying. One of my players grabbed most of the choice ranged actions before the others had a chance, and our whole group is focused on ranged attacks. But they worked it out amongst themselves and understood that the game encourages diversity. If more than one player had really wanted to take the same action, I would have let them. In that case, I would have kept the shared ability card with the group's party card, so that we could easily reference it. I'd give each player a proxy, a piece of paper cut down to the size of an action card. I'd write in the action name, recharge time, any other other essential notes, but not the full card text (maybe later). It would take a couple of minutes to set up, but it would solve the problem just fine for us, I think. We already share the cards that are socketed to the party card, so this wouldn't be much different. If you've ended up with two Slayers in your group, it means that two players are already sharing the Slayer career card. You're complaining about something that the game, as written, doesn't expect to happen: two Slayers. The first player to pull the Slayer career should have removed that card from the deck before the next player had a chance to pull from the career deck. Having two Slayers is pretty easy to deal with, since the only thing you need to know about a career during play is its talent sockets. But it means that only one player has the career card in front of them during play; the other player has to make do without it, or use a proxy. I would think that if you've found a solution for a shortage of career cards, you should be able to find a solution for a shortage of action cards, too. As for the dice, I have the dice from the core set and the Adventurer's Tookit and I know that I sometimes run out of fortune and misfortune dice. (I need about 2 more of each, but that's all. I'll be picking up one dice pack and continuing to share the dice with my players. As the GM, I usually build the pool anyway and then hand the dice to the players to roll.) A complete set for a single player would require maybe three or four additional dice packs, costing $35 to $50 if you bought them all together. I'd rather buy as many "bite sized" dice kits as needed, rather than have to buy a whole bunch in one go, which would be many more than I need. But this game really does require a lot of dice, and there's no way around that.

I'm guessing the artwork is the only issue GW is objecting to. Obviously, we'll want to make our own abilities, creatures and locations to add to the game, as we would with any RPG. We just have to be careful that fan-made materials don't lead to any confusion with the genuine article. (It might be obvious to most of us that the cards from Strange Eons were fan-made, but a casual observer might mistake them for the real thing. I also didn't see any disclaimers on those cards.) Just before the game was released, I offered up a PDF of fan-made card templates in anticipation that they'd be needed right away. They don't look very much like the actual cards from the game, but there's space to write everything you need to know, in the same place that it's found on the real cards. And they include a disclaimer, just to be safe. I'm going to wait to see what FFG has to say about fan-made supplements before I post any new links to it, but it should give us something to work with until something better comes along.

Sinister said: for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. Were the cards on Strange Eons being used for criticism, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research? I don't think so. Could the cards on Strange Eons have had the exact same effect as intended if they didn't use copyright-protected artwork? Yes, they certainly could.

Sinister said: Copyright Law exists so people don't make a PROFIT from it. You're mistaken, and I can give you a simple example why. If I buy a copy of the WFRP rulebook on RPGNow, and then I post that PDF file on my website so anyone can download it for free... Do I even need to finish that thought? Can't you see right away how that's causing problems for the copyright holder, and how it infringes on their rights? Why would anyone buy from the source ever again, if they can just get it from you for free? (The person who reuses copyright-protected material has to do quite a lot of work to prove that they're educating others, by the way.)

Rat Catcher said: I think this is more to do with GW than FFG, so no surprises there then. My wallet will hold fire until it is more clear as to who has done what, and quite frankly, who can do what. Open your rulebook to the first page. Read the copyright information at the bottom. That's who owns the material. Hint: Games Workshop. This isn't the right place to discuss the finer points of copyrights and licensing, but there's a lot more going on here than you may realize. Rat Catcher said: But I'll tell you now, I wouldn't think twice about photocopying a 'card' and superimposing my 'stuff' over it for 'my own group's personal gaming'. In fact it's a very good idea. It's my game, I paid good money for it, and as long as I'm not making a profit, I'll do what I like with it. If anyone wants to come around my house and give me an ear bending, bring a big stick. You'll need it. And where do you draw the line? The line appears to be drawn where you attempt to redistribute those materials online. At that point, it is no longer for personal use only. When the entire world has access to that material, you're not just walking over to your buddy's house to share it anymore. See the difference?

Rat Catcher said: What right has FFG got to knock on my door and tell me I can't give 'so-and-so' my so made homebrew Hobbit/Elven Mage/Whatever? If I'm not making anything out of it, and I'm filling a much needed gap (which FFG left), what's that to FFG? Afraid we may be able to do better? The problem is that the home-brewed card text was sitting on top of official game artwork, which was being used without permission. So the stuff at Strange Eons wasn't entirely home-brewed. Here's a rule of thumb: If you have to scan part of the original game to create a fan-made supplement, you're doing something wrong. It's no longer fan-made; it's fan-modified. It's okay to do that sort of thing if you're just sharing it with your group. But when you redistribute that artwork online, you're very clearly violating the rights of the copyright holder.

When it comes to understanding the dice, I found that the easiest way to get my head around it was to create a character, and then start testing certain abilities. Create dice pools with a "living" test subject, and it will start to make a lot more sense. After about ten rolls, you'll be an expert at it.

During character generation, starting wealth only determines how much money and what sort of gear you start with. The job incomes that are listed elsewhere are provided to give you an idea of what a character (any character) in that line of work might expect to earn. They're guidelines, and the GM can use them or ignore them. Adventurers might be working in a "real job" in which case they might be entitled to a regular salary. But just as likely, the PCs could be traveling around making money however they can, without anyone paying them on a regular basis.

I'd trust the FFG store. The listing on Amazon is probably just poorly worded. It doesn't suggest to me that they're random, just that there's at least one of each type. Also, 12 dice don't weigh 3 pounds.