What's "New" in the WFRP Game Master's Guide?

This is my third installment in an ongoing series about the "Guide" books for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd Edition. This time, I examine the GM's Guide.

What's 'New' in the Player's Guide
What's 'New' in the Creature Guide

In the first two chapters, I was pleasantly surprised at just how much new content was hidden away in these "reprints", including important fixes and optional rules to cover some of the rougher areas in the game system. Overall, I was thrilled with my purchase of the Player's Guide and the Creature Guide.

I'm gonna get straight to the point: the GM's Guide not nearly as good as the other two. It has barely any new content, and I kinda regret spending money on it. Is it a better version of the GM's rules than what comes in the core set? Yes, but just barely, and mostly just for new GMs. It's certainly not worth spending the $40 MSRP on if you already have 95% of the content. I got mine on sale for $27, and it still feels like I overspent.

What follows is a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of what's new, and where exactly the old stuff came from. New content will include a page reference, so that it's easy to track down and read the only things that have changed. When possible, I'll also call out whether these are clarifications, new or optional rules, GMing advice and examples, or simple typo fixes. As with the previous posts, I'll use bold to mark any major changes or revisions... but there aren't very many in this book.

Chapter One: Game Mastering 101

Originally published in the Tome of Adventure from the core set.

• pg 12: Advice: There is a single new paragraph, giving several modest suggestions on when to use the Party Tension Meter.

Chapter Two: Episodes & Acts

Originally published in the Tome of Adventure from the core set.

• pg 15: Clarification (bordering on a New Rule) concerning Rally Steps: GMs are specifically empowered to veto or restrict some common Rally Step options if it fits the narrative or situation. This is mostly common sense, but it's nice to see it spelled out in case the GM is uneasy about Rally Steps in general.
• pg 17: Advice: NPC Villains' big prepared speeches should happen during Rally Steps, because then they can't be interrupted.
• pg 20: Example of a 3-Act Episode in flow chart form. In this example, the 3 Acts could be either 3 or 4 scenes, depending on decisions the PCs make.
• pg 21-22: Clarifications and minor expansions to previously existing example 3-Act Episodes. Rally steps are clearly marked. Extra options and complications are mentioned. There's also a discussion of what happens if the players choose not to bite the plot hooks. If you're running a "Hostage Negotiation", "Ambush", or "Mistaken Identity" scenario in your campaign, this would be quick helpful read.
• pg 21: New Terminology Sidebar: Several new paragraphs giving explicit definition to terms pertaining to time and duration, such as Acts, Phases, Rounds, etc. When you look at threads on the FFG forums where people express distaste for or confusion about the 3-Act Structure, I've found that the people complaining almost always use "Act" to mean what FFG uses "Episode" to mean, and vice-versa. That linguistic confusion may be coincidental, or it may be that there's an underlying misunderstanding about the terminology that's making this part of the game more problematic for those GMs. If you're having trouble with any of those related concepts, I'd really recommend reading this sidebar.

Chapter Three: Game Master Resources

Originally published in the Tome of Adventure from the core set.

• pg 23: Advice: There's a one sentence warning here about giving out too much XP.
• pg 24: Clarification: There's a single new sentence here weakly linking wealth to social tier. It doesn't add much.
• pg 26: Advice: There's one extra paragraph about interpreting story and narration out of the dice results.

Chapter Four: The Progress Tracker

Originally published in the Tome of Adventure from the core set.

• pg 30: Additional Example of Party Tension Meter use. This makes specific mention of Tension increasing when a spell miscasts.

Chapter Five: Campaign Play

Originally published in the Tome of Adventure from the core set.
No new content.

Old, but still worth grumbling about: Pages 33 & 46 of the GM's Guide have two similar but contradictory optional Morale systems. This isn't new (they were on pages 29 & 43 of the Tome of Adventure), but it is frustrating. It's an example of how FFG missed an opportunity here. If they'd consolidated these two systems into one, they could have built various cards and powers that referenced and played off of them. That's the sort of new content that could potentially have made the GM's Guide worth buying. I imagine FFG felt leaving both optional meant giving the GM the freedom to improvise. In reality, however, leaving them both optional meant leaving them both unsupported, and giving the PCs no reliable way to impact enemy morale. No attempt has been made to ingrate player-accessible mechanics like Fear and Influence into these systems. The suggested math of page 46 also creates a morale track so ridiculously lengthy that it would only matter in the largest, most epic battles. But, I digress...

Chapter Six: Enemies & Adversaries

Originally published in the Tome of Adventure from the core set, in a slightly different form. One and a half chapters from the ToA have been rolled together into a single chapter here. The order of the info has been shuffled around, but it's basically just a big copy-paste editing job. In addition, a single page from the GM's Toolkit has been shoehorned in at the end of this chapter.

• pg 47 & 48: Clarifications on enemy stats, and an explanation of how creature cards work. This is technically new, but the exact same information can also be found in the Creature Guide. 
• pg 49: New Rules on using A/C/E defensively, and also on Initiative. I'm tempted to label this a clarification, as opposed to a new rule, because it was already somewhat implied in the previous version. These new options for A/C/E use also appear in the Creature's Guide, along with a number of other A/C/E options there that aren't repeated here in the GM's Guide.
• pg 50: Minor clarifications in the sidebar about NPC stat lines. If you found NPC stat blocks (or creature cards) to be confusing, this sidebar will likely answer your questions.
• pg 51: The Nemesis rules from the GM's Toolkit are reprinted here. Note that it's only the rules for Nemesis NPCs, not the rules for the Organizations that they lead.

Chapter Seven: Corruption Rules

Originally published in the Liber Mutatis from the Winds of Magic boxed set.
No changes.

Chapter Eight: Disease Rules

Originally published in the Liber Infectus from the Signs of Faith boxed set.  I would have loved to see this chapter overhauled, but they reprinted it without changes.

• pg 64: A "bonus" page with new fluff text. Cute, but meaningless, and set in a huge font so 10 sentences fill an entire page. It's a little annoying that they throw in half-assed filler like this, but couldn't find room to put in the other half of the A/C/E rules or the other half of the Nemesis rules or any of the other things they left out of the book. Oh, well, I suppose you could at least use this page as a prop, if your campaign's villain was sufficiently cartoonish.

Chapter Nine: Faith In The Old World

Originally published in the Tome of Blessings from the core set.  (This chapter probably should have been in the Player's Guide, not the GM's Guide, as it mostly deals with things all the PCs would know about the setting.)

• pg 66: Correction: The sidebar here corrects an omission in the Tome of Blessings, where the equivalent list of gods there neglected to mention Taal.

Chapter Ten: The Imperial Cults

Originally published in the Tome of Blessings from the core set.  (As with the previous chapter, this would have made more sense to put in the Player's Guide, as it's immediately relevant to anyone playing an Initiate, and is all information that should be common knowledge to any human PC.)
No changes.

Chapter Eleven: Other Faiths

Originally published in the Tome of Blessings from the core set.
No changes.

Chapter Twelve: Corruption & Heresy

Originally published in the Tome of Blessings from the core set.

• pg 88-89: "New" artwork for the symbols of the ruinous powers. Actually, I think it's old art, that's been sitting around for a decade or longer and used in earlier editions of WFRP. It's line-art, instead of full color. It's got some retro appeal, but I'm not sure I understand why they went to the trouble of swapping it out.
• pg 91: Alternate flavor text in a thematic insert about witch-hunters. The old one (from Tome of Blessings) was from the perspective of a farmer. The new one is the words spoken by a witch-hunter and is much darker in tone. I think it's an improvement, but again it's unclear why such changes were warranted here and not in other chapters.

Chapter Thirteen: Magic Theories

Originally published in the Tome of Mysteries from the core set.
No changes.

Chapter Fourteen: The Colleges of Magic

Originally published in the Tome of Mysteries from the core set. (Much like chapters Nine and Ten, I feel this one really belonged in the Player's Guide. Anyone making a Wizard PC would want to access this info, especially the part on page 101 that directly affects an Apprentice Wizard's starting equipment.)
No changes.

Chapter Fifteen: The Eight Orders

Originally published in the Tome of Mysteries from the core set. (Again, this probably belonged in the Player's Guide because it's of vital importance to anyone thinking of playing a Wizard.)
No changes.

Chapter Sixteen: Forbidden Lore

Originally published in the Tome of Mysteries from the core set.
No changes, unless you count the goofy extra page:

• pg 123:  A "bonus" page with new fluff text in a huge font to fill space. At least this one's an amusing read, unlike the similar filler content on page 64. 

Chapter Seventeen: An Eye For An Eye  (**SPOILER ALERT**)

Originally published in the Tome of Adventure from the core set.
SPOILER ALERT: The stats on a number of NPCs have changed, and discussing those changes will no doubt reveal plot details. Potential players should skip down to the appendices so the plot isn't ruined.
Overall, the changes have potentially made the adventure a little easier on the PCs if they do a good job of recruiting allies. PCs with a "Kill 'em all, and let Sigmar sort them out" attitude may have a slightly harder time.

• pg 135: Minor Clarification: The game effects of a Superior item are now printed in the adventure text so that new GMs don't have to go look it up when a major NPC (Lord Rickard Aschaffenberg) uses one.
• pg 136: NPC Stats Changed: Dr. Stefan Sieger's attributes changed, and he gained some skill training.
• pg 136: NPC Stats Changed: Sister Sonia's attributes changed, and she gained some skill training.
• pg 141: Redundancy: The sidebar about Korden's Hammer has been altered to include it's game stats, since GM's using this Guide instead of the core set may not have the equipment card that describes it. This is rendered immediately redundant since the main text already had all the stats listed on the very next page of the layout... but I imagine having it here in a sidebar probably makes it easier to find the stats should you need them in the middle of a fight. That's a good thing, then.
• pg 143: Typo Fix / NPC Stats Changed: There's a critically injured NPC (Hans Kurtz) in the adventure, and the original text had their injury adding white fortune dice to their rolls. This reprint wisely corrects that to black misfortune dice, so the injury is a penalty not a benefit.
• pg 144: NPC Stats Changed: Captain Blucher gained training in Weapon Skill.
• pg 149: New Art. A very gor-y picture of beastmen replaces the monster stat bar that had been at the top of the page. Monster stats have moved to the following pages (and been expanded somewhat).
• pg 151-154: Easy-access monster stats and actions: These are reprinted from the Tome of Adventure, but they are much more conveniently located in this edition. The content of pages 151-154 had been located on pages 67, 55, 51, and 57 of the Tome of Adventure. Having them all together will no doubt make the fight scene run much faster for GMs that don't have (or choose not to use) the cards from the Creature Guide.... but it could have been made much faster and easier even than that. Many of the named PCs have special skill modifiers mentioned on pages 135, 136, or 144, but those modifiers aren't mentioned on the generic NPC summaries on page 151, so you'll still have to flip back and forth between four or more pages in the middle of a fight to track it all.  Even worse, the stats for the daemon on page 154 neglect to mention that it can fly. One of it's actions heavily implies it can fly (or at least jump really well), but the actual description of the Flight power and its mechanical effects were at the bottom of page 56 of the Tome of Adventure, which didn't get reprinted in this version.  It's only two sentences that are missing, but it's silly that they weren't reprinted especially since page 154 has about a quarter-page of blank space at the end.  Here's the missing sentences from the ToA: "Flight: A fury does not need to perform a manoeuvre to disengage from opponents before moving. It can move away from engaged opponents as if it were not engaged with them, unless they also can fly. 

Appendices:

This section begins with charts that are basically the various decks from first few releases, lain out in table format for use with percentile dice. It's an interesting tool, and no doubt goes a long way to making the game more portable. Tables A-1 to A-5 incorporate cards from the core set, Winds of Magic, Signs of Faith, and the adventures The Gathering Storm and Edge Of Night. Personally, I'm not so thrilled with these charts because I find the cards to be handy reminders that are much more convenient than looking up critical wound effects in a rulebook (and writing them down on your character sheet) in the middle of a fight scene.

It's also worth noting that the tables are significantly more dangerous than the decks are (with the possible exception of A-1), because each table ends with one or more "roll again twice" entries.  Rolling in the high 90's is pretty much to a death sentence (more so on some charts than others). 

Table A-1: Critical Wounds (pg 156-157)

• pg 156-157:  Noteworthy Absence: The critical wound chart lacks the Severe Wounds later printed in the Omens of War expansion. As a result, A-1 is the only one of these 5 charts that is less lethal than the corresponding card deck (provided you have all the cards from expansions).

Table A-2: Insanity (pg 158-159)

Table A-3: Miscast (pg 160-161)

Table A-4: Mutation (pg 162-163)

Table A-5: Diseases (pg 164-165)

• pg 165: New Chart: Disease Symptom Keywords. This is a secondary chart that supplements Table A-5. I found it so useful I needed to call it out specifically. It provides a very helpful overview to all the possible symptom effects, and makes it clear just how dangerous diseases are in this game. This is all pretty opaque when you're reading the main disease rules, but the high lethality becomes much clearer as you pour over this chart and table A-5.

Conditions

This is a chart of Condition cards from the core set, the Adventurer's Toolkit, and two adventures (The Gathering Storm and Edge of Night). 

• pg 166:  Noteworthy Absence: The list of Conditions bizarrely lacks the Condition cards from Signs of Faith and Winds of Magic, despite their content being on the charts before it, and despite one of those conditions (Nurgle's Rot) being detailed in Chapter Eight. It's an odd oversight.
• The rules for Conditions are only briefly summarized here, and fleshed out in greater detail in the Player's Guide. The logic behind that decision escapes me.
• pg 166: Clarification/Errata: The Frightened Condition has received errata that is either a clarification or a major change of functionality, depending on how you interpreted the vague phrasing of the old version of the card. The new version (available as either this chart in the GM's Guide, or in card format from the Game Master's Vault) is much improved.

Location Cards

Includes the text from all the Location Cards found in the core set and the GM's Toolkit, but not from any of the other supplements.

Index

Seems pretty thorough, and easy to use. Well done.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Campaign Log

• pg 174  New Campaign Aid: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Campaign Log. It's an interesting, but brief, form for scribbling down your plans for a campaign. I could see it being very useful early on to help you get your thoughts together. It's also potentially helpful in the later stages of a long campaign when you have a lot of plot-threads and NPCs to keep track of, but by then you'll probably need more than 1 page of notes.

---

TL;DR:   Overall, there's nothing really great about this book, and almost nothing new either. The few changes that did seem major to me can be found in other products:

• There's new A/C/E uses, but they can also be found in the Creature Guide, along with a number of other new uses for A/C/E.
• The Frightened Condition was revised, but you can also get that new version of the card by picking up the GM's vault. Depending on how you were parsing the text of the card before, it might not actually be a change.
• If the Disease, Miscast, Mutation, and Insanity decks aren't deadly enough for your group, you might find it useful to use the charts in this Guide instead. They have on average a 5% chance of getting you two penalties instead of just one. The chart for Critical Wounds is also nastier than the deck in the core set, but not as nasty as a deck using the new cards from Omens of War. If you absolutely hate having cards in your game, you may find these charts useful.
• There is a tiny smattering of new GMing advice scattered throughout the book, mostly about tension meters, rally steps and the three-act structure.

I'd say save your money. Spend it on the Player's Guide or Creature Guide instead if you don't have them yet, they are both better investments.

What's "New" in the WFRP3 Creature Guide?

A few weeks ago I sat down with my Warhammer 3rd Ed Player's Guide and the various books it used as sources and made a big list of all the things they'd changed, clarified, or expanded upon. There were a surprisingly large number of updates and improvements therein, from subtle rebalances to major alterations. I decided then that I needed to buy the similar Creature Guide and Game Master's Guide compilation books, because they probably had important things I was missing.

As I did with that book, here is a page-by-page break down of the Warhammer 3rd Ed Creature Guide.  Critical changes that you don't want to miss are in bold. Underlined words represent important subsections worth discussing, and are often followed by further discussion in later bullet points. After the page-by-page walk through, I'll share my conclusions and opinions on the book.

Main Text

Chapter 1: Rules & Resources

This chapter is partly reprinted from the Game Master's Toolkit, and includes things from the earliest versions of the WFRP3 FAQ, plus some new content.

• pg 4: Clarification on NPC's CR when using non-standard weapons
• pg 4-5: Lots of coverage of optional new uses for A/C/E budgets. For example:
• pg 4: New rule that Stance and A/C/E can be used on Initiative checks.
• pg 4: New rule on defensive A/C/E use. It's not just for opposed checks, but for any attack or action that targets the NPC. A for attacks and physical actions, and C for spells and mental actions.
• pg 5: Clarification on NPCs taking wounds (instead of fatigue) for extra manoeuvres.
• pg 5: New Rule concerning Henchmen and Fatigue. If a henchman group spends Fatigue to get an extra manoeuvre, it only costs them 1 wound per group not 1 wound per henchman.
• pg 5: Reprints the optional expanded A/C/E rules from the GM's Toolkit, expanding the things NPCs can do with Aggression and Cunning.
• pg 5: New Optional Rule about using A/C/E to soak up Stress or Fatigue.
• pg 5: Reprints from the GM's Toolkit the optional rules for "Preparing For Actions" and "Sacrificing Actions". These are entirely player-facing rules, and have no place in the Creature Guide. They should have been in either the Player's Guide or GM's Guide, not here.
• pg 6: New guide to the Group Sheets from the Creature Vault. Group Sheets are essentially "Party Cards" for NPCs and Monsters, giving the groups special abilities and talent slots. If you've got the Creature Vault you probably figured them out pretty quickly, but if not the rules are here. If you don't have the vault, you can find the text of the group sheets on pages 105-107 of this book).
• pg 7-8: New guide to the Creature Cards from the Creature Vault. Again, if you have the vault you probably already figured these out. The only thing I found confusing from just the cards themselves was figuring out which icon was Soak and which was Defense. For the record, Soak is the human with an exploding shield, and Defense is the skaven gutter runner.

Chapter 2: Combat Encounters

This chapter is entirely new. It's four pages about encounter design. The best parts are:

• pg 10: Advice and examples regarding props and locations during combat scenes.
• pg 11: Provides advice on "top down", "bottom up" and "grab bag" approaches to encounter design.
• pg 11: Advice for the GM for on-the-fly adjustments should an encounter prove to be more challenging than you intended.

Chapter 3: The Bestiary

This chapter is mostly new material, woven with some reprinted text from the Tome of Adventure out of the coreset. I expected it to be mostly reprint, but it actually has a lot of cool new stuff. Each creature type is presented with fluff text and info on its societal structure, then advice on using them in encounters and scenarios,  descriptions and powers of each individual creature subtype, and lastly a short list of possible adventure seeds based around that creature or NPC type.

For each major category of creature, I'm going to list a page count of new vs reprinted content (which is always reprinted from the Tome of Adventure), a list of the new creature subtypes covered here, and then any individual new rules or changes to existing monsters and NPCs from the coreset.

• Beasts: pgs 14-20: 1 page reprint from ToA, 5 new pages. 8 new monsters: Cockatrice, Cold One, Dragon, Fenbeast, Griffon, Harpy, Manticore & Wyvern.
• pg 15: New Rule (also printed in Hero's Call) that Beasts use Willpower instead of Intelligence to make Observation checks. This makes it much harder to hide from a Boar.
• pg 20: New Rules for mounted NPCs, and what happens to the mount if the rider or handler dies.
• Beastmen: pgs 20-23: 0.5 pages reprinted, 1.5 pages new.  1 new monster: Minotaur.
• pg 23: New Power: Wargors have a new "Man-Bane" power.
• Chaos: pgs 23-26: 1 page reprinted, 2 pages new. 3 new monsters: Forsaken, Dragon Ogre, and Shaggoth.
• pg 24: New Power: Chaos Warriors now have Resilience Trained, in addition to Weapon Skill.
• pg 24: Suggestions on which talents and actions can best represent the influence or worship of each of the four chaos gods.
• pg 24: Optional Rule/Advice: Chaos NPCs may have different Stance pieces available depending on which Chaos God they follow.
• Cultists: pgs 26-27: All reprint. Not even any new adventure seeds.
• Daemons: pgs 27-29: 1 page reprint, 1 page new. Good advice on using Daemons in your story, and avoiding making them too common or casual.
• pg 28: New Power:  Flesh Hounds now use Willpower for Observation tests (just like Beasts)
• Dark Elves: pgs 29-31: All new. 3 new monsters: Dark Elf Assassin, Corsair, and Witch Elf.
• Dwarves: pg 30: 0.5 pages new content. Mainly instructions for converting any existing human NPC stat block or card to better represent a dwarf NPC. It's not quite the same as for PCs.
• Forest Spirits: pgs 31-33: All new. 4 new monsters: Dryads, Spites, Treekin & Treemen.
• Giants & Trolls: pgs 33-35: 0.5 pages reprinted, 1.5 pages new. Good advice on setting the tone of a troll or giant encounter.
• pg 34: Updated Powers: Trolls and Giants cause Fear or Terror now.
• pg 34: Updated Powers: Minor timing change on Troll Regeneration ability.
• pg 34: Updated Powers: "Watch Out!" ability on a dying Giant changed to Challenge die instead of Misfortune die, and the bane result changed to a chaos star result.  Errata:  The WFRP3 FAQ says the Challenge symbol in the text was also intended to be changed to a Bane symbol when they changed the die. Only half the change was made on pg 34. This is a critical change. The entry in the Tome of Adventure had a 50% chance to hurt a PC. The entry in the Creature Guide has a 62.5% chance to hurt a PC. The entry in the FAQ has only a 37.5% chance to hurt a PC. Season to taste.
• Greenskins: pgs 35-38: 1 page reprinted, 1.5 pages new. 2 new monsters: Black Orc, Squig
• High Elves: pg 38: 0.5 pages new content. Mainly instructions for converting any existing human NPC stat block or card to better represent a high elf NPC. It's not quite the same as for PCs.
• Human, Reiklander: pg 38-39: 0.5 pages new content. Mainly instructions for converting Human NPCs to Reiklander Human NPCs. This seems a little weird and pointless to me, since the stats already assume they're human, but I suppose it could be useful if you're using the regional stats for humans from Hero's Call.
• NPCs: pgs 39-41: 2 pages reprint, less than half a page new content. New NPCs: Ruffians and Merchants.
• Skaven: pgs 42-46: 1 page reprint, 3 pages new. Info on skaven clans and society. 6 new subtypes: Assassin, Packmaster, Plague Monk, Globadier, Skavenslave, and Stormvermin.
• pg 44: New Power: All skaven now have Keen Senses power, which boosts their Observation checks. Note that in 2nd Ed they had Night Vision, which would actually be much more useful to them than Keen Senses most of the time. Just sayin'.
• Swarms: pgs 46-48: All new. 3 New Monsters: Bat, Rat, and Insect Swarms.
• pg 47: New Rules for Swarms make them actually feel like a collection of smaller creatures in the mechanics.
• pg 47-48: New Stats and Powers: Rat Swarms as presented here (and on page 100 of this book) have radically different stats and powers than the Rat Swarm in the adventure The Edge Of Night.
• Undead: pgs 48-50: 1 page reprint, 1 page new. 4 New Monsters: Cairn Wraith, Tomb Banshee, Spirit, Vampire.
• pg 48: New Powers: All undead from the core set have gained 3 new powers. They are immune to fear, can see in the dark, and suffer movement/manoeuvre penalties.
• Wood Elves: pg 50: 0.5 pages new content. Mainly instructions for converting any existing human NPC stat block or card to better represent a wood elf NPC. It's not quite the same as for PCs.

Appendices

Appendix 1: Blessing Actions (pgs 51-52)

Appendix 2: Melee Actions (pgs 53-73)

Appendix 3: Ranged Actions (pgs 74-77)

Appendix 4: Spell Actions (pgs 78-81)

Appendix 5: Support Actions (pgs 82-87)

These five appendices compile actions from various sources. If I'm understanding correctly, every NPC (or creature) action card from the core set, Signs of Faith, Winds of Magic, Edge of Night, and The Gathering Storm are presented here. In addition, a large number of new action cards (or technically reprinted from the Creature Vault if you prefer) for the new creatures in this book are provided in these sections. This could be useful if you prefer book reference to using the cards. Personally, I like the cards.
Warning: A quick glance through the WFRP3 FAQ reveals that there's a number of misprints in these appendices. So if you plan to rely on this part of the book, it'll be worth getting out the FAQ and taking a pen to your book.

Appendix 6: Creature Stats (pgs 88-110)

This appendix is a mixed bag of rules, charts, and other charts, and probably could have been subdivided into several appendices itself. So I'm going to discuss it in sections.

• pgs 88-90: Explanation of creature stats. Most of this is reprinted and reorganized from the Tome of Adventure. It's somewhat redundant and covers a lot of the same ground as pages 4 to 8.
• pg 89: Clarification that if you give an NPC a piece of equipment, he gets all the stats (including CR) and powers of that equipment.
• pg 90: The new rules about using A/C/E defensively and/or on Initiative checks from page 4 appear here as well, and are explained best on page 90. The other clarifications and new rules about how you can spend A/C/E and how monsters interact with fatigue are not duplicated in this appendix. It's a little frustrating. Either this should have been integrated into chapter 1, or that chapter should have been moved here.
• pgs 91-101: Monster stats by type. This section is nicely formatted, and easy to use. Monster stats appear in a familiar format that's easy on the eyes, and all the powers and special rules for those monsters appear on the same page as their stat bar. Organized by type, so all the Greenskins are on one page, and all the Skaven on another. In addition to the monsters in the Tome of Adventure (some of which have updated powers), this section includes stats for: Bat Swarm, Black Orc, Cairn Wraith, Cockatrice, Cold One, Dark Elf Assassin, Dark Elf Corsair, Dragon, Dragon Ogre, Dryad, Fenbeast, Forsaken, Griffon, Harpy, Insect Swarm, Manticore, Merchant, Minotaur, Rat Swarm, Ruffian, Shaggoth, Skaven Assassin, Skaven Packmaster, Skaven Plague Monk, Skaven Poison Wind Globadier, Skavenslave, Spirit, Spite, Squig, Stormvermin, Tomb Banshee, Tree Kin, Treeman, Vampire, Witch Elf and Wyvern.  
• pgs 102-104: Another Monster Stat List. This one is kinda painful to look at, and hard to use. It's in a tiny font, and powers and the rules and powers for the creatures are not listed here at all. On the other hand, it includes a number of monsters not mentioned elsewhere in this book. Every monster and many of the NPCs from Edge of Night, The Gathering Storm, Signs of Faith and Winds of Magic are on this chart. If you want basic stats for Epedimius, Niklaus Schulmann, or a Feathered Fiend, they're here, but with no context other than listing which supplement they were detailed. While Tzeentch and Nurgle Daemons are listed here, Amber Order beastforms are not. Also the variant Rat Swarm from Edge of Night is not here.
• pgs 105-107: The Group Sheets (monster equivalent of Party Cards) from the Creature Vault are reprinted here in text format. Printed here are sheets for Beastmen, Beasts, Chaos, Daemons, Dark Elves, Forest Spirits, Giants & Trolls, Greenskins, Skaven (four different versions based on Clan), and Undead. The Group Sheets are really useful for customizing monsters and making consecutive encounters feel different. One caveat to go with that: I find that many of the Group Sheets rely on a progress tracker that has no realistic chance of getting to it's end in the course of a fight. You may want to double the rate the trackers advance or else they'll be sitting uselessly on space 3 of 8 at the end of the fight.
• pg 108: This is a reprint of the ability summary insert from the Creature Vault. It's mostly redundant, as at least 9 of the 11 powers are defined elsewhere in the book. The other 2 are a brief summary of Nemesis rules and a generalized Terrain-Walker ability that parallels the Forest-Walk and Swamp-Walk in other parts of this book.
• pgs 109-110: The index. It's short, but very functional. Above average for a gaming index.

 

In Conclusion:

Since I like using the cards and components of Warhammer 3rd, I initially bought the Creature Vault instead of the Creature Guide. I imagined the Creature Guide to be mostly redundant. Not the case at all. There's a lot of great new material here, whether your tastes run to crunchy mechanical splat books, or narrative brainstorming and setting fluff.  A handful of the cards from the Creature Vault (such as everything Swarm-related) are all but unusable without the Creature Guide, which gives you supporting rules and explanations. Even if you already know the Warhammer World inside out, the plot hooks in each monster entry will serve up some great inspiration. The Creature Guide is very useful, and I'm glad I bought it.

However, it's far from perfect. Specifically, it seems to have fallen off the editing bandwagon. The appendices 2-5 are full of typos and appendix 6 is inconsistently formatted. Some subsections are worse than redundant, such as when they reprint and compile all the A/C/E rules from other books into chapter one, and then reprint only half of them in an appendix six. It boggles the mind.

Most, but not all, monsters from previous supplements are reprinted here in one form or another. Things you will not find here include the beasts an Amber Order Wizard can transform into, nor most of the daemon subtypes from the various Chaos God supplements. Even though stats for a Bear were included in Winds of Magic, you won't find them reprinted in the Creature Guide. The Great Unclean One's stat line does appear in the appendix, but it has no entry in the Daemon section of the Bestiary. These omissions are minor, but terribly annoying.

Another curious omission is the absence of the henchman and morale rules from the Tome of Adventure. The Creature Guide has a ton of advice and rules for handling encounters, but for whatever reason they didn't decide to reprint those two critical subsections here.

All those complaints aside, I still found the book helpful and well worth the investment.

What's Actually "New" in the WFRP Player's Guide?

When the WFRP Player's Guide was released, I purposefully chose not to buy it. FFG was a little unclear about how much new content there was in it, making conflicting statements of "there's better examples, integrated errata, and new GMing advice so everyone should get a copy" at the same time as they said "this is NOT a 3.5 edition or a money-grab, and existing groups won't be missing out on anything critical if they pass on this." (Those are not exact quotes, just paraphrases.) Since the errata was already in a free FAQ, which then got updated to include all the new typos and misprints in the Player's Guide, I figured that I really didn't need it. I was running one-shots of the game a couple times a year, so $50 for a mostly reprinted book wasn't worth it.

Fast forward to this spring, when I started an actual campaign. A couple of my players picked up the PDF version of the Player's Guide to help them learn the rules and plan out their XP spends. It only took a couple weeks for it to become really obvious that the rules they were reading and referencing where functionally different from the rules I was using at the table. Grumbling all the way to the game store, I picked up a copy for myself to get us back on the same page. At first glance, it didn't seem that different. I felt like I dropped $50 for 6 paragraphs of new information. They were critical paragraphs that I felt I needed, but they seemed to be the most overpriced paragraphs I'd ever bought. I was bitter and resentful at first.

As the weeks wore on, however, I discovered plenty of new little gems and variations hidden inside those covers. Last week I set it and the other rulebooks down side-by-side, and made notes on what was new or different. I'm now really glad I bought the book.

I figure I can't be the only WFRP player or GM that felt reluctant to pick up that book. For those of you out there trying to decide if the Player's Guide is worth the $50 on top of the $100 core set, I'm including below a chapter-by-chapter break down of what's new or different in the Guide.

Extremely trivial changes (such as indexes and page references, bolding or italicization, or non-functional minor typo fixes) will not be documented here. There's hundreds of little tiny changes like that.

New rules or useful content will be listed, but for the most part summarized instead of detailed. The point is to let you know what's new and whether or not you want to buy the book (and to draw your attention to the things that have changed) not to spoil all the details so you don't have to buy it.

EDIT: Really important stuff will now be in bold to make it easier to find the things that functionally alter game play.


Physical Differences:

• Durable hardcover. If you loaned this to a player for the week, you'd expect to get it back in one piece, unlike the fragile little paperback booklets that come in the various box sets.
• Book, not bits. Some folks would prefer a more traditional roleplaying experience where you look things up in books, take notes on paper and roll on charts instead of having cards and tokens to track the mechanics. If that's a big deal to you, the Player's Guide will be very helpful.

Introduction:

• The Table of Contents reveals that this product offers the original 10 chapters from the core set main rulebook, plus 2 new chapters and 2 chapters originally from other books, plus 9 appendices of card stats.
• The first 16 pages are mostly a reprint of the intro to the core rules. 
• pg 6-7: New example of play. Nice, but not terribly useful.
• pg 6: "WFRP Lite" Sidebar briefly discusses play without the bits, which also gets its' own chapter later.  
• Disease & Mutation cards, and Corruption tokens are shown off in passing. Their brief descriptions are taken from the Signs of Faith and Winds of Magic supplements.
• pg 15: "Expanding the Adventure" sidebar is basically an advertisement.
• pg 16: An amusing bit of in-character fluff, in the form of a letter from one cultist to another.

Chapter One: Characteristics & Abilities
This chapter is mostly a reprint of the corresponding chapter of the core set rulebook.

• pg 18: Corruption Threshold explanation taken from Winds of Magic.
• pg 18: Fortune Point info is reworded for clarity, but most groups were probably already interpreting it correctly.
• pg 20: There's a sidebar about what sort of things do and don't gain you Fortune Points. This is new, as far as I can tell, and it makes explicit something that's only vaguely implied in the core set. Fortune Points are not just a reward for good roleplaying and contributing to the fun, they are also intended as rewards for advancing the plot, gathering clues and defeating foes. That's huge!
• pg 21: New recommended specialization for the Animal Handling skill.
• pg 21: Sidebar about Dodge, Parry and Block. If you've read the FAQ you already have this info.
• pg 22-23: Changed recommended specializations for the Invokation and Piety skills, to properly distinguish them from one another.
• pg 24: Tradecraft skill gets a little more explanatory info. 
• pg 24: No change to the Weapon Skill specializations, they still don't match the list in the Equipment chapter. That's silly.
• pg 26: New rules about decreasing Party Tension. It's officially never bad.
• pg 26: New rules about the Party Card. Nothing terribly major, but worth reading and knowing about.
• pg 27: An amusing bit of in-character fluff, in the form of a political communique.

Chapter Two: Player Character Races
This chapter is mostly a reprint of the corresponding chapter of the core set rulebook.

• Corruption Thresholds are listed for all races. This info is drawn from Winds of Magic.

Chapter Three: Character Creation
This chapter is mostly a reprint of the corresponding chapter of the core set rulebook.

• pg 34: Clarification that creation points are not interchangeable with XP or Advances.
• pg 37: Clarifies you can spend money at creation, but that the GM must approve or veto each purchase.
• pg 37: Optional rule linking starting wealth to social tier.
• pg 38: Clarifies Wizard & Priests Order or Faith cards are free, but other unusual slots (namely the Zealot's insanity) cost Talents.
• pg 39: Sidebar clarifies that Priests don't get all the free skills that wizards do, and usually not nearly as many free actions, either. Technically, this info can be inferred in the core set, but it's never really stated as clearly as it is here in the Player's Guide.
• pg 40: Helpful instructions on calculating Thresholds, Soak, and Defense. Useful for new players.

Chapter Four: Experience & Advancement
This chapter is mostly a reprint of the corresponding chapter of the core set rulebook. There's a lot of technically new content, but most of it can already be found online in the free FAQ document for the game.

• pg 43: Clarification on Fixed Advances.
• pg 43: Clarification on Skill Training per Rank. 
• pg 45: Clarification on Open Advances.
• pg 45: Clarification / New Rule on Characteristic Maximums.
• pg 46: New rule that Career Dedication costs 1 XP.
• pg 47: New rule that Specialist keyword is never compatible during career transition.
• pg 47: Clarification on when you can take Advanced Careers.
• pg 47: Clarifies that Career Transition may alter your Default Stance.
• pg 47: New Optional Rule: Minimum Career Duration is 4 advances, so human characters can't cherrypick careers for key Advances. This is huge, and not in the FAQ.
• pg 47: "Careers as Story Aids" sidebar. Talks about reskinning careers to fit the story and character concepts. This is cool, but also kinda weird.

Chapter Five: Playing The Game
This chapter is mostly a reprint of the corresponding chapter of the core set rulebook. A couple  errors (in the core set version of the text) with unfortunate implications have been deleted or fixed in this version.

• pg 49: Clarification that dice are also used in Story Mode. 
• pg 51-52: Clarifications (bordering on "new rule" territory) about difficulty levels. As it turns out, "Average (2d) difficulty" is poorly named. The default difficulty of just about everything is intended to be less than that. The impact of this clarification is really potent and dramatic. It completely changes the tone of the game in the direction of greater levels of PC competency and heroism.
• pg 52: Acknowledges that Opposed Checks intentionally favor the active player. This is the reward for being proactive and advancing the plot.
• pg 52: Clarification about the impact of the target's skills on an Opposed Roll.
• pg 53: The GM is specifically empowered to narrate spontaneous "worst case scenarios" whenever Chaos Stars are rolled.
• pg 54: The GM can limit or disallow use of the Assist manoeuvre as befits the situation.
• pg 54: Suggestions for ways to interpret a multi-success roll when the player is not using an action card.
• pg 55: Optional rules for "Freestyle" Boons, Banes, Comets and Chaos Stars. This section really empowers the GM to interpret the heck out of the dice. It transforms the more mechanistic "board-gamey" tactical elements of the game into a free-wheelin' improvisational story game. It puts a ton of power into the GM's hands, and even gives the players a bit of that power when they roll excess boons.
• pg 58: Deleted a confusing statement in the original text about race influencing stance, which it doesn't.
• pg 59-60: Great examples of the more flexible interpretation of dice pools as presented in this chapter.
• pg 60: An amusing bit of in-character fluff about Fortune Tellers, the Celestial College, and Doomsayers of Morr... which culminates in a joke about the weird dice.

Chapter Six: Actions & Manoeuvres
This chapter is mostly a reprint of the corresponding chapter of the core set rulebook.

• pg 63: Sidebar about how Traits on cards aren't intended as purchasing restrictions, but could totally be used as such if that makes the GM happy.
• pg 64: Miscellaneous clarifications about defenses and reactions.
• pg 65: The new sidebar on the phrasing of things on action cards is probably really useful for new players.
• pg 65: Clarification that you cannot assist yourself.
• pg 65: Clarification (new rule, technically, but it's clearly what was originally intended) that you can spend a manoeuvre to change a talent on your followers (such as the ratcatcher's dog).
• pg 66: "Action vs Manoeuvre" sidebar clarifies when a skill check should or shouldn't consume your entire turn.
• pg 66: A formerly-optional rule from the GM's Toolkit supplement about NPC Aggression and Fatigue is here reprinted as an official core rule.
• pg 66-67: Clarifications, advice on, and better examples of movement.
• pg 67: New rule about the transitive property of engagements, and another about the GM's power to break engagements into smaller ones if they get too large.
• pg 68: Sidebar about Perform A Stunt. Worth a quick read.

Chapter Seven: Modes of Play
This chapter has a fair amount of new content, plus a good chunk of mildly revised content from the combat section of the core set rulebook, plus some content that's paraphrased from the GM's Toolkit.

• The reprinted material here is useful in that it's been mostly cleaned of it's combat-relevant wordage. There's some redundancy between this chapter and the next one, but it gives you your option of reading it with or without the baggage of the initiative, combat and damage systems.
• pg 70-71: Better definitions of Story Mode vs Encounter Mode. Provides guidance for handling stance, recharge, turn length, and equilibrium in Story Mode. Very helpful material.
• pg 71: The "Get On With It!" sidebar actually says that if the players try to abuse the timing and recharge rules between encounters (such as to spam-heal) the GM should have orcs kick in the door and attack them.
• pg 71-72: Good example of Story Mode in play, and GM improv.
• pg 73: New rules and clarifications on initiative rolls for NPCs and PCs. Rules cover stance dice, boons and banes, and other issues pertaining to initiative.
• pg 73: Explicit statement that round and turn length is variable and cinematic, not a simulation of a precise amount of time.
• pg 75: Guidance on adding additional participants in the middle of a fight.
• pg 75: New precedent for resolving multiple effects at once (such as multiple triggers that happen "at the start of your next turn").
• pg 75: New rule: You cannot manoeuvre yourself to KO, the last manoeuvre is cancelled instead.
• pg 76: Clarifications on when you chose the targets of a multi-target action.
• pg 76: Clarifications on the difficulty of action cards, and also specifically which ones Defense applies to.
• pg 76: Read the "Common Sense Restrictions to Targeting" sidebar, which is mostly about Line of Sight and adjusting difficulty on the fly. It may be common sense, but it's critical.
• pg 79: The info on this page about the 3-Act structure and Rally Steps is basically a summary of a chapter from the Tome of Adventure, but this section smartly puts that data in the player's hands (which is exactly where it belongs).

Chapter Eight: Combat, Damage & Healing
This chapter is mostly a reprint of the corresponding chapter of the core set rulebook. Some of it is somewhat redundant following the previous chapter of the Guide, but still useful because of being reworded to include all the details of combat and damage.

• pg 81: Clarifies that Active Defenses are intended to be used before the die pool is rolled.
• pg 81-82: New ruling that spells and blessings that do damage do not have the default unprinted comet line that non-magical melee and ranged attacks do.
• pg 82: Minor GMing advice for using custom equipment on NPCs.
• pgs 82 to 84: Lots of good examples. The extended example involving Accurate Shot has been fixed so the numbers and details are correct and make sense. No more confusion.
• pgs 82 and 86: Clarifications on critical wounds and damage terminology.
• pg 85: New rule that Fatigue and Stress generated in Story Mode isn't inflicted until Encounter Mode starts so that this actually has an impact and can't be spammed away without consequence.
• pg 87: Clarification that if you are KO'd by something other than damage (such as fatigue) you don't check for death.
• pg 88: GMs are advised to go easy on the players when applying freestyle bane effects for healing checks, so that healing doesn't become too dangerous.
• pg 88-89: Major healing rules revisions. These are game-changing rules that really cut back on spam-healing via first aid or spells. 

Chapter Nine: Conditions & Effects
This chapter is mostly a reprint of the corresponding chapter of the core set rulebook.

• pg 91: New rule defines how many tokens are put on any insanity cards you gain while you are strained. The number is one higher than it was in the core set rulebook. Read it carefully, because the new examples on the page make it clearer than the new rule text itself does.
• pg 91: New rule and clarifications about the test to keep a temporary insanity from turning permanent. The difficulty of the roll and the number of successes needed are now clearly spelled out, and they contradict a previous answer given out by FFG's support line.
• pg 92: Minor edits to the text to better match the previous paragraphs.

Chapter Ten: Economy & Equipment
This chapter is mostly a reprint of the corresponding chapter of the core set rulebook. While there's lots of tiny little fixes and stat changes, the clumsy overall system was sadly not revised.

• pg 96: The new "Wrong Tool" sidebar is just an explicit reminder for the GM to add fortune and misfortune dice as appropriate for equipment and improvisation even when those dice aren't reflected in the equipment charts and descriptions.
• pg 97: Reminders on damage calculations and resolving criticals, mostly for new players.
• pg 98: Revisions to the "Fast" quality and the Spear stats, per the FAQ. Fast is probably too good as written here, with the result of the spear still being too good despite the heavy nerfing.
• pg 99: New rule for stacking "Poor Quality" on a weapon with the "Unreliable" trait. It's nasty!
• pg 101: New rule for using found stones with a sling or sling staff.
• pg 102: New rule prevents stacking or layering of armour. This is important because clothing counts as armour in the game, but most groups probably did it right.
• pg 102: Reminders on soak and defense, mostly for new players.
• pgs 104-105: Costs and descriptions for lodging.
• pgs 104-106: Costs and descriptions for transportation.
• pg 106: The "Equipment vs Loot" sidebar makes it clear that it's rarely worth looting the bodies. This is important for flavor reasons (it's a Guild economy) as well as mechanical ones (NPCs and monsters typically have generic stats without equipment lists).
• pgs 108-109: Stats on Greatsword of Hoeth and Gromril Armour is replicated here from the Adventurer's Toolkit.

Chapter Eleven: Magic Rules
This chapter is mostly a reprint of the corresponding chapter of the Tome of Mysteries.

• pg 110: New rule about the winds of magic blowing across the country and how this can modify channeling rolls by location or situation.
• pg 111: Definition of equilibrium, and clarifications and examples on power management and venting power.
• pg 113: Clarifications on miscasting.
• pg 116: Additional text has been added to very briefly summarize other info from the Tome of Mysteries and Winds of Magic books. It's a little light, but not as annoying as the Priestly equivalent in the next chapter.
• pg 116: Explicit clarifications on which spells and skills you start with, and which spells a character can or can't learn. 
• Pg 117:  An amusing bit of in-character fluff in the form of a wanted poster for a rogue Wizard.

Chapter Twelve: Divine Rules
This chapter is mostly a reprint of the corresponding chapter of the Tome of Blessings.

• pg 119: New rules and timing clarifications about what happens when you successfully invoke a blessing but don't actually have enough Favour to pay for it.
• pg 121: Definition of equilibrium, with clarifications and examples.
• pg 123: Explicit clarifications on which blessings and skills you start with, and which blessings a character can or can't learn.
• pg 123: Additional text has been added to very briefly summarize other info from the Tome of Blessings and Signs of Faith books. This is woefully incomplete. The Taal/Rhya section, for example, only mentions Taal. The omens information for Morr, Shallya and Sigmar is reprinted from the Tome of Blessings, but the equivalent info on the omens of the other gods in Signs of Faith is not reprinted.

Chapter Thirteen: The Empire
This chapter is entirely a reprint of the corresponding chapter of the core set rulebook. The only change involves moving pictures from one column to the other.

Chapter Fourteen: WFRP Lite
New rules for not using all the various cards, tokens, etc, and replacing them with the charts and appendices of this book. If the "board-gamey" cards and such are your least favorite part of WFRP, you'll love this little chapter of advice and shortcuts. Not my cup of tea, but I can understand the appeal.

Appendix 1: Basic and Advanced Careers
Appendix 2: Party Sheets & Abilities
Appendix 3: Talents
Appendix 4: Basic Actions
Appendix 5: Blessings
Appendix 6: Melee Attack Actions
Appendix 7: Ranged Attack Actions
Appendix 8: Spells
Appendix 9: Support Actions

• These appendices compile all the cards and sheets from the first year or so of the game's releases. All such cards from the Core Set, Adventurer's and GM's Toolkits, Winds of Magic and Signs of Faith Supplements, and the adventures The Gathering Storm and Edge of Night are summarized here. Products released since then are not reprinted here. 
• I would imagine this is very helpful for character creation and advancement, especially if you have the PDF version (which I assume can do simple search functions) or if you haven't found an organizational structure you're happy with to keep the various cards sorted. I use binders full of nine-pocket-pages sorted alphabetically, so the book version is only better for me in the sense of being more portable.
• pg 155: Amusing fluff piece about chaos and playwrights.

A Ratcatcher's Tale

• A short story about things you'll find in the sewers of the Old World. 

Master Index

• Not a perfect index (if you couldn't remember whether it takes stress or fatigue to adjust your stance more than one space per turn, this index wouldn't help you figure it out) for sure, but better than none at all. Combined with the detailed table of contents from the front of the book, looking up most topics is pretty quick and painless. If you want a volume to reference at the table during play, this is more handy than the core set's un-indexed rule booklet.

That's everything new. Or, as new as it can be given that the book has been available for a couple years now.

TL;DR version: While the WFRP Player's Guide is mostly a reprint of the Core Set rules, it actually has a ton of tiny corrections, advice, and corner-case rules. They a bit scattered and hard to find, but the detailed lists above may help that. I love the cards and tokens (which this book empowers you to NOT use) and yet I still found this book very helpful. The biggest changes and most important new rules are to Healing, Advancement, default Difficulties, and the section on "Freestyle" banes/boons/comets/stars. Those alone make the book a worthy purchase for dedicated Warhammer fans, and everything good piled on top is just so much gravy.