Was a 40kesque split in Warhammer. Seperate games for different sections of the world.

It is obvious this one is in no way WFRP, for a start your PC starts out as a HERO (as per the blurb for the product), emphasised I think deliberately.

What I was hoping for is 'A Ratcatcher's Tale' being the low end WFRP experience the current game is and this one to be the high end of heroes. However the inference has been that a ratcatcher's tale is not a real product, leaving only a game of heroes slaughtering enemies.

I don't see how they can claim it to be true to the original game if from the very start your character is described like this: "As a hero, you will take up weapon, spell, or prayer and do your best to combat the might of enemies terrifying to behold."

Sounds like D&D, not Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

Obviously they think that normal people fighting the good fight in a world gone mad doesn't sell to the ADD kiddies of today. you need to pwnzor everyone or you aren't cool.

I find it very sad.

Hellebore

Hellebore said:

Im with ya Hellebore

My sentiments exactly.  

It's so true I don't even know what to say and how to feel...

I don't think FFG caters to the "DnD kiddie" crowd. Although I, too, hoped to see a low-end ultra-focused WFRP game a la Dark Heresy, I don't think we should be unhappy about this product as it seems to be. FFG has consistently proved me wrong whenever I expected one of their products to suck, and in the RPG lines, they truly excel. 

Although I'm kinda cautious about the dumbed-down, rollplay aspects of this new incarnation of WFRP, I have yet to see them go wrong with a Warhammer/Warhammer 40k product, so I'll wait, definitely buy and then make my opinion. 

It is obvious this one is in no way WFRP, for a start your PC starts out as a HERO (as per the blurb for the product), emphasised I think deliberately.

You'll see that WFRP1 and WFRP2 both describe PCs as heroes on the back cover blurb. Nothing new here. And probably the most common complaint about WFRP2 is that characters start off underpowered. So maybe it's a way of saying 'you might actually hit something!'

What I was hoping for is 'A Ratcatcher's Tale' being the low end WFRP experience the current game is and this one to be the high end of heroes.

The Daily Altdorfer mentioned Dwarf Ironbreakers, High Elf Swordmasters, Dockworkers, Sewer Jacks and Rat Catchers. It suggested to me that there would be the same sort of career spread we're used to in WFRP1 and WFRP2, with both low and high end careers.

However the inference has been that a ratcatcher's tale is not a real product, leaving only a game of heroes slaughtering enemies.

You can see that the Envoy career has a Charm skill, and there are slots for Reputation cards. I doubt those will be related to combat.

I don't see how they can claim it to be true to the original game if from the very start your character is described like this: "As a hero, you will take up weapon, spell, or prayer and do your best to combat the might of enemies terrifying to behold."

Sounds like D&D, not Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

 That's the usual sort of action-adventure fantasy blurbage. Nothing new here. And you know what? That almost perfectly describes the front cover to WFRP1. It would have been nice if WFRP1 had provided that sort of experience right away, instead of The Oldenhaller Contract.

I'm extremely psyched for this, as I am other FFG Warhammer products. This type of hyrbidish game looks to be just the thing for my gaming group. Hell, right now we are four regulars and this thing is balanced towards one DM and three players. Its like they read my mind and gave me everything I could hav hoped for in an RPG :D

Plus, I love gaming bling and production values, which this has in spades it looks like!

Im with you on this one! 

DagobahDave said:

The back of the WFRP2nd ed book says:

"In Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay you are unlikely heroes in a grim world of perilous adventure. You venture into the dark corners of the Empire and deal with the threats that others cannot or will not face. You'll probably die alone in some festering hellhole, but maybe, just maybe, you'll survive foul mutants, horrible diseases, insidious plots, and sanity blasting rituals to reap Fate's rewards."

That is clearly a different pitch to the 3rd ed blurb.

Hellebore

DagobahDave said:

And The Oldenhaller Contract is bad because of...?

I don't have anything against people enjoying the new game but I find distasteful people claiming that new game, that is completely different, is here to fix the errors of the past.

Now, I am sure that you haven't meant that BUT your last post can be misread in that way. I hope you see my point.

Oh yes,

just to add my 2 cents.

FFG has ditched the 2e in the same way that callous and cowardly boyfriend ditches a girlfriend. You know FFG just texted its old customer base that they are not together anymore. Not even a 'it's not you, it's me' line.

And tomorrow she gets to see him with his new, younger and more hip, girl on the GenCon.

You see, they (FFG) knew that this kind of backlash was inevitable. Grognards will be grognards, trolls will be trolls, kids will be kids. Pope shits in woods and bear is the catholic. Nothing new. Except a new and completely different edition of the Warhammer.

So, they should just have got their game together and said, as soon as they knew what is the direction they want to take, look we intend to radically change the game (...while staying true to 'the spirit' of v2, yadaddadadadadad) and have a stomach to patiently and truly answer all of our questions and endure the backlash.

That would have been manly thing to do. You know, like mensch and not like schmuck.

By the way, if FFG wanted to change something they could start with this blasted forum engine.

Hellebore said:

It's the usual stuff, told differently. There's more emphasis on war, but that's kind of Warhammer's thing and I don't have a problem with it. I'm sure there will be plenty of diseases, insanities and hell-holes to keep everyone happy.
 

Cat that Walked by Himself said:

The Oldenhaller Contract is a fine adventure that neither looks nor feels like the cover image to WFRP1, which is what sold me on the game. While I don't expect WFRP3's cover to depict the actions of starting PCs, I do expect the setting's bloody, high energy grimdark fighting to be featured prominently. To me, WFRP3 evokes the same sense of adventure that I've been getting from WFRP1's cover art for 20 years now. That's good stuff.

Hellebore said:

Totally with you. 

A quick easy approach for newbies would of been fine and "A Ratcatcher's Tale" was a cool sounding name for such a game.  This could of easily been a more high-powered version of WFRP, allowing Swordmasters, Battle Wizards, etc more scope in a game within the setting of Warhammer, and not what seems to be a fubar version of WFRP.

Dear DagobahDave,

Your optimism really insipres me! :)

But we should always remember that the optimist is an under-informed pessimist :)

This will probably sound shocking to many, but I wouldn't mind it if it had a higher powerlevel than WFRP 2ed. simply because we already have 2ed. for that type of game. The same goes for systems - a 2.5ed would be uninteresting for me and I'd rather give a whole new approach a go in the hopes that it'll provide another (hopefully in some ways better) gamingexperience.

So I'm cautiously optimistic that FFG have come up with a cool new approach to playing in the Warhammer world and am willing to pay the 100$ (which seems fair for 4 books and parafinalia) and test it out. I'm also pretty sure that it'll still feel like an RPG and not be terribly boardgamey. I'm actually getting more a complicated card game feel for some of the features more than a boardgame...

And lets face it economically it makes perfect sense for FFG to put out a new game since it'll be harder and harder to make money of the old line.

42!
Whos optimism is based on precisely the same info as the pessimists!

Pessimist - (pess-e-mi-st) noun. Word used by optimists to describe those who see the world as it really is