Joe Becker of The Gamers Den in Cambridge, Minnesota sends in this comment regarding Bill Bodden's recent Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay review (see "Review of 'Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay'") and Christian Petersen's response to the review (see "Christian Petersen, CEO of Fantasy Flight Games, on WFRP Review"):

I am a co-owner of The Gamers Den, a gaming store in Cambridge, MN.  For the sake of disclosure, I have had personal dealing with Fantasy Flight Games in the past, and have helped out with finding flavor text for their Game of Thrones LCG game, though I am not an employee of FFG and have not had a personal relationship with Christian.

Two weeks ago, I ran our store's pre-release of WFRP3, and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this system.  The design team has taken a deliberate effort, it seems to me, to eliminate the need for pencils and cumbersome charts for this game.  All the materials a player or Game Master needs is right at the fingertips, from the class sheets and cards that make up a character's abilities, to the monsters listed in the GM's guide.  The dice mechanic allows players to choose their risks in combat, whether they want to take a conservative or aggressive stance (and thus gain the use of special dice in combat), to using fortune points to gain beneficial dice.  The stance meters and dice mechanics of this game are refreshing and very exciting, but the one new mechanic I loved was the Party Sheet.  Not only does this sheet give the group of adventurers special abilities, but t also tracks strife in the party, and penalizes the party when they act in discord with each other.

The boardgame-like components--the standees, the location cards, and others--actually make this a much more interactive game than many others, and add a visual level to the RPG experience that most game companies tack on after the fact.  Also, the fact that combat isn't broken down into grid squares and players having to treat RPG combat like miniatures game combat makes this game innovative and, in my experience, incredibly fun.

Players who want their games to be obsessively detailed in actions and locations during encounters and combat may not enjoy this game, but those looking for a game that doesn't revolve around combat and want to tell a story with innovative mechanics and ease of play will definitely want to take a look at this game.  FFG has created a unique role-playing experience with this game, and I look forward to playing this game more, and seeing what they release to expand on the game.  If I were asked to give it a rating, I would give it 4 out of 5 stars, and will suggest it to my customers.  It is well worth the money, and I think it will have a profound affect on RPGs in the years to come.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.