My hundredth post. Let's talk about... "The Enemy Within"

Wow, how time flies, eh? For me it was only yesterday, when I've decided to create this blog. Now, almost 4 years later, here I am - writing my hundreth post.

Initially this blog was created to help me cope with things and to calm my mind and my heart. Things change and something that I thought would be temporary, has evolved and became a permanent part of my life. I've written about a lot of things - End Times, gaming tips, tie-in products, problem players and video games that could make awesome RPG's. I've reviewed a couple of my favorite fantasy authors and game designers. I've raged and I've cried. It was an incredible ride, one that I will always remember with fondness. It brought a lot of fantastic people into my life. Folks from sites such as Warhammer-Empire, Strike-to-Stun and many more.

Most of all, I've believed in myself enough to make it work, to make it a constant (semi) regular thing in my daily routine. That's the biggest prize of all and one that I will cherish till the end of my life.

So, before I will jump into the actual meat of this article, I wanted to say: thank you. All of you, who read my posts, who commented on them, who made me want to write more and more, better stuff - you're awesome. I wanted to thank Jackdays from Kalevala Hammer for endless inspiration and being one of the most passionate 'Hammer players out there. I wanted to thank the entire staff and member of the Warhammer-Empire and Strike-to-Stun forums. Without your constant encouragement I would not have made it this far. I wanted to thank my Roll20 players: Brian, Andy, Sean and Jason. Playing with you guys is an experience of a life time and I'm grateful for your endless passion and willingness to roll some funny-shaped, virtual dice with me.

I also wanted to thank my old RPG group - Martin, Chris and Lukas. It wasn't always easy with you guys, but it was worth it.

Finally I wanted to thank my dear friend Mark, for everything that he had ever done for me. Thank you for your friendship brother. May we meet each other on the other side.

Thank you, all of you. From the very bottom of my heart. You're all awesome and keep on rocking!

Now, without further ado, let's talk about the most popular campaign for the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. One, which is known even to the players of other systems. One, which inspired hundreds of hammerers around the world to write their own modules. A wonder child of Phil Gallagher, Graeme Davis, Jim Bambra, Carl Sargent and Ken Rolston. The one, the only, "The Enemy Within."

This is, without a doubt, a truly legendary RPG module. The question is: is its reputation justified? After all it has been released between the years 1986 and 1989, almost 30 years ago. A lot has changed in the RPG world, since then. I'd like to take a closer look at this venerable campaign, and I'd like for you folks to join me. There will be minor spoilers, but I'll try to not give away too much.

First of all, I've played "TEW" two times - once as a player and once as a GM. Both times I had a lot of fun, but there were issues and there's no denying that this campaign has them. Quite a lot of them, in fact. Does this mean that it's bad? Let's take a look and find out, shall we?

"The Enemy Within" is divided into six parts: "The Enemy Within/Mistaken Identity","Shadows over Bogenhafen", "Death on the Reik", "Power Behind the Throne", "Something Rotten in Kislev" and "Empire in Flames." Each of them provides a lot of great content and allows for a truly wonderful RPG experience, but not all of them are equal in quality. I will look at each of them, one by one and talk briefly about each's strengths and weaknesses.

1. "The Enemy Within/Mistaken Identity"

I love this artwork so much. Why? Because it's Nuln, baby!

This is the very beggining of the campaign. It's also incredibly short. Half of the book is about the Empire and its people, and this hefty ammount of info is really great. The adventure part itself is really short and centres around... the mistaken indentity. Ha, I'm sure that you did not saw that one coming. While this is an interesting  concept, it's also rather risky. The GM might have small trouble to deal with later, if the character who's very similar to the man found near the forest road, gets killed later. It is a salvageable kind of situation, but it can be a bit tricky. Like I've said, it's a very short scenario, but a solid one as well. It would even work well as a standalone adventure.

2. "Shadows over Bogenhafen"

To this day I find this cover incredibly creepy...

My favorite part of the entire campaign. This scenario sees players visiting the merchant town of Bogenhafen, during a festival. There's a lot going on here, as the entire community is celebrating, drinking, eating copious ammounts of sausages and generally having a great time. There are, however, shadowy things taking place in the city and our heroes will have to challenge the most powerful men of Bogenhafen, if they'll want to save not only it, but the surrounding lands as well.

This is a great scenario with huge emphasis on investigation and exploration of Bogenhafen's many facets. From the dank and dangerous canals to the city's grand hall, the many manors of its ruling councils and more. There's a feel of dread and of urgency in the air. With each passing day, the town gets ever closer to become a place of the lost and the damned. I love the pace that this scenario creates and it's easily my most favorite part of all. The only downside is that it's a bit too linear at times, not to mention it can end very quickly, if the players decide to drink, eat and gamble, rather than explore and sniff around a bit.

The small, but informative part, describing the city itself is very interesting and a really cool read. It can easily be used to describe other, similar places in the Empire and beyond.

3. "Death on the Reik"

Interesting fact: this artwork has been used as a cover for the polish version of the 1st edition WFRP rulebook

This is probably the longest part of all. It's a sandbox-like module, with a huge, hex map to help the PC's plan where to go next. It also details the river life in the Empire, something that I've always found really interesting. There are a lot of river encounters, listed on the pages of "DotR" and each of them is truly great. For that section alone, this scenario is worth picking up.

The adventure itself is... good. It finally pits the players fully against the evil cults that wish to bring madness and death to the lands of Sigmar. However, there are some problems here, which made this part of "TEW" a medicore for me, storywise.

First it's the sandbox aspect. This is a scenario about chasing cultist. So, naturally, the players get their hands on a river barge, right at the beginning of the game. They are actually encouraged to sell its contents, a shit ton of wool, as soon as possible, and then continue the search for the cultists, while also being a lot richer. This all sounds fine and dany, until you realise that... there's no point for them to actually hunt the cultists at all. Sure, the mistaken-identity person gets threats from random cultists, doing really stupid hand signs and there's a friendly magician, who actually sends the PC's after a renegade wizard, belonging to another, evil faction, but... that's it. There's no real preassure, no high stakes and no real danger for our heroes to loose the barge and follow on a merry cultist chase. I've actually know a lot of gamemasters who either skipped the barge part completely, or destroyed it rather quickly, usually with fire. I don't mind this kind of "divine intervention", since, truth be told, without a firm action on GM's part, "DotR" can loose its tension and atmosphere very, very quickly.

The main cult in question, the Purple Hand, is just absurd and completely non-threatening. They are supposed to be everywhere (literally) but there's no explanation how and why exactly they've managed to achieve all these things. They also have a fucking stupid way of communicating, which screams "I am a cultist!". Fortunately the good and honest folk of the Empire are even dumber than they are, so the Purple Hand continues to be the biggest danger to the lands of Sigmar... for some reason.

I also love the fact, how many of their old friends and acquaintances can our heroes run into. It's almost like they're in a very small village, and not the bloody Empire. There' s a lucky meeting by pure, sheer chance and there's a complete suspension of disbelief. In the case of "TEW" it's the latter and it becomes bothersome really, really quickly.

Despite these flaws, I think that "Death on the Reik" is a really nice scenario, one that allows the players to visit a huge part of the Empire, partake in some truly epic quests (the final battle is simply incredible) and the river life part is great, really, really great. It's the whole sandbox part that bothers me. It's not done too well and it certainly does not encourage the PC's to follow the cultists' trail. Without a lot of work and effort, your average GM might find himself in a bit of a pickle. Vigilance is needed, while running this module.

4. "Power Behind the Throne"

Of all the covers of "TEW", I find this one to be the weakest

My second, favorite part of "TEW." "Power Behind the Throne" takes place in Middenheim, the City of the White Wolf, during a huge festival. Not only that, but the city's rulers have passed a series of strange and harmful laws, aimed towards the dwarfs and the magicians, resulting in two groups leaving the place en masse. Our heroes are thrust right into this cauldron of debauchery, racial animosities and rising tensions. They will meet a lot of important people from count Boris Todbringer's court, discover a sinister plot which can threaten the enitrety of Middenland and see just how far the Purple Hand's influence can reach.

This is a timed scenario. The PC's have a limited window of opportunity to accomplish their tasks and will need to think fast if they'll want over the minions of Chaos. Normally I hate playing or even running games, where the clock is ticking. "PBtT" is different, however. It's so well structured and paced, that there's no palpable feeling of time running out... until the players discover that they have only scant hours to save the city! Yes, this is a scenario, which can more often than not become the final one in the whole campaign. There's nothing bad with that. A decade ago my group have failed in our quest at this point, during the playthrough of the "Power Behind the Throne." Even so, it was one of our best games of all time.

This adventure has the biggest number of NPC's of all. It's a good idea for the GM to have their list printed and kept somwhere close by, just in case. The sheer ammount of contacts, dependencies, animosities and passionate feelings between these characters is huge. I'd recommend to any gamemaster, who wishes to run this scenario, to read it at least twice. Otherwise he might get lost in the ammount of plot strands.

Other than the scenario itself, there's a huge section, describing Middenheim itself and it's a great read. For this part of "PBtT" alone, it's worth purchasing it.

5. "Something Rotten in Kislev"

If only this scenario was as interesting as its cover artwork...

Whooo boy, the fun part's over. Yeah, the last two parts of "The Enemy Within" are considered extremely poorly written and for a good reason. First we have "Something Rotten in Kislev", a scenario which is nothing more than a ordinary (and ordinarily made) filler. It's essentialy that - a time skipping mechanism. The PC's are sent to Kislev, in the aftermath of their actions in Middenheim. There they can... do stuff. Look, there's a reason why so many of gamemasters just skip this part altogether, myself included. Hell, my GM of old did that as well! Aside from absolutely nothing happening, there's a immortal enemy present, which is always fun.

Except that it's not.

Filler-type of adventures are almost always bad and this one is no exception. It's simply not necessary, yet there it is, taking a lot of GM's and players' valuable time. It's almost like a bad joke aimed at the people, who've decided to play "The Enemy Within."

The only good thing about this scenario is the section about Kislev. Back in the day it was the only source of information about this fascinating country. Unfortunately "Realm of the Ice Queen" blows "SRiK" back to the stone age, when it comes to Kislev lore, so I can't even recommned to buy this book for the fluff section alone. I have it, since I'm a collector and always wanted to have the complete "TEW" set, but... "Something Rotten in Kislev" is just bad. I'm sorry to say that, but it's true and I'm not to only one who thinks so.

6. "Empire in Flames"

Another great cover for a book, that's nearly not as good as it should've been...

The grand finale is here... and it's a really weak one. Yup, the end to this grand campaign of epic scale is simply poor. Our heroes return from their completely unnecessary trip to Kislev, only to find that the Empire is tearing itself apart. Civil war is imminent and the PC's must find a way to stop it, before its too late!

The premise itself is quite interesting. The execution... not so much. The PC's are usually feeling a bit off, after their "adeventure" in Kislev and the tone of this last part is also a lot different, than int the previous scenarios. Needless to say, there's a dude with the flying carpet present in this module. The final boss is also extremely dissapointing. Sufficed to say, if you want to pit the PC's against a greater daemon of Tzeentch, make sure that he can fucking cast spells and is not locked in a room with over a dozen, burly dudes, armed with potent, magical weapons. Seriously, it's a like a Brazzers gangbang at the end of this campaign.

"Empire in Flames" recieved so many poor reactions, mainly due to the shift in atmosphere, as well as its linearity, that a completely new, fan-made ending has been created, named "Empire at War." While being far from perfect, it is, by a long shot, a much better finale to "The Enemy Within." I recommend running it to anyone, who's interested in trying out "TEW", instead of its canonical ending. Trust me, it's much, much better.

Interestingly enough, when Hogshead publishing held the licensce for WFRP, there were plans to create an alternative to "Empire in Flames", called "Empire in Chaos." Unfortunately they were scrapped, when the rights to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay were returned to Games Workshop.

My final thoughts about "The Enemy Within" are as follows: it's a legendary RPG milestone, one of the most important campaigns in the whole genre. It also aged really, really badly and any GM who wishes to run it, must prepare for a lot of work, fixing its many plot holes, errors and archaic mechanisms. It's only normal that an almost 30-year old module might require a lot of work to make it playable, so that's not really a brickbat on my part. "TEW" aged badly, pure and simple. There are, however, a lot of fan made "patches", which can be found online and which will help with its many problems. I seriosuly recommend checking out the "Empire at War", as well as Gideon's excellent "The Enemy Within" Companion. It's a godsend to both GM's and players alike.

I know that there have been a completely new "The Enemy Within", written for the 3rd edition of WFRP by Fantasy Flight Games. Unfortunately I've never played it, so I can't really comment on its quality.

Cubicle 7 have announced some time ago, that a new version of "TEW" will be released for the 4th edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Graeme Davis is involved in this project, so my expectations are high. Even better they'll almost certainly change the last two modules, perhaps dropping them completely and replacing them with new and better ones. I can only say that it's a good thing, since the original "TEW's" biggest drawback is its shitty ending.

So there you have it - my hundredth post. Wow... what a ride it has been. Oh well, back to work. I have articles to write, authors to interview and things to bitch about. Stick around and you'll be able to enjoy this crazy, crazy ride with me. Of course, if you want to. I know that I do, and I'd be honored if you would like to join me, riding shotgun.

Let's do this!

Until next time!

Xathrodox86