I've finally had a chance to look at the GenCon footage concerning the new edition of WHFRP, and I must say that overall my reaction is: intrigued.

My initial impression was that they had packed every Game Mastery series idea into one box and added in some interesting ways of linking it all together on the table.

They've clearly taken a big leap with the system, and I admire their courage on that point. They've adopted some very interesting and (in some cases) elegant tools for the system.

Effect Cards: this really seems like a no-brainer to me - having a reference on the table is just a good idea, and prevents people from having to hunt through the rules, which can slow or kill the game's momentum.

Career Cards: This certainly makes the integration of new supplements into the system easy, but I don't see this as a huge improvement over a book.

Party Card: While I like the concept of having a place to set effects that cover the whole party, other aspects of this card concern me. The Conflict Meter seems like a poor substitute for roleplaying, and could certainly shoehorn an inappropriate penalty to the situation if used verbatim.

Dice: I actually really like the dice mechanic (or portion that we've seen thus far); it's elegant, simple, and IMO better than the current percentile mechanic.

It looks like all the spirit of pervious editions of WHFRP is intact, but they've just changed the mechanics. I'm not 100% sold, but I'm interested.