A Grim World of Perilous Adventure.

Heavy metal orcs, punk rock elves, chaos, mutation, and madness.  What's not to love?  Ever since I picked up a copy of the first edition rules to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay at Phantom of the Attic back in 1989, I've been hooked.

I loved the cover of the first edition.  The image was so evocative and so not D&D.  Trolls and dwarves with mohawks, goblins who looked like they would eat you as well as kill you.  This looked like my kind of game.  I loved the character creation and the fact that you could start as a rat catcher with a stick and some dead rats or some other equally ridiculous and potentially doomed career.  The second edition cleaned up a bit of the game and produced a large quantity of supplements, while still holding onto the feel of the game.  Sadly, the third edition just didn't do it for me.  All of the fiddly pieces just seemed unnecessary, and in fact turned out to be when they published the hardcover books which included rules for not using them.  Still, it just didn't feel right to me, so I sold off my third edition gear.  In any event, I kept first and second edition books and still turn to them frequently when I need some inspiration.  I would like to see an updated edition someday though that returns more to the system's roots, but we shall see.