Rumours have circulated that FFG will release The Enemy Within campaign (from the first edition) as a 3rd edition campaign. I must confess there is as much wish-making in this rumours than there is sustainable liability. In short words Its just rumours.

What is The Enemy Within

For those who are not aware of the impact this classic campaign had on roleplaying history, let me enlighten you.

It was written in the late 1980s by Phil Gallagher, Jim Bambra and Graeme Davis, who`s names are Warhammer rpg answer to D&Ds Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax. The campaign was planned to be released shortly after GWs release of Warhammer fantasy roleplay game. Both the Campaign and rulebook was written at the same time, thus the Enemy Within (tEW) have greatly influenced the rulebook and the setting and atmosphere of it. The Campaign was a 1 000 pages epic spawning over 4 books, containing 100s of handouts and maps. From the beautiful folded coloured maps of Middenheim, and Reikland, to the infamous Castle Wittgenstein. The books are doted with beautifull illustrations that radiated that special mood which warhammer soon became famous for:, dark, grim with a latent sense of doom, and heroism against all odds.

In addition to the 1 000 pages of storyline, tEW contained rules for herbs, narcotic addictions, Snotball, and had several short self-contained stories, cameos, plot hooks and sites. It also contained a well of information concerning fashion styles of the Empire, uniforms and colours of the provinces and dozens of generic maps over buildings like the Alchemical emporiums and Candle makers. Never before or after tEW have I seen such a grand campaign been published. It was one of a kind.

Today tEW is hailed as one of the most critical awarded campaign/sourcebooks through the history of rpg, no matter the genre.In fact it was voted as the best campaign ever in Casus Belli magazine

And it all began at the inn "Coach & Horses" a rainy evening of 2502...

The Famous books.

Volume one The Enemy within: Mistaken Identity, Shadows over Bögenhafen, Death on the Reik

Volume two Warhammer City of Chaos: Power Behind the Thrones

Volume three Something Rotten in Kislev: The Beast Child, Death Takes a Holiday, The Champions of Death

Volume four: Empire in Flames

What do you think?

I Hope to Darwin that FFG wil publish this old campaign books for the 3rd edition in a new coat. I know there is a great many warhammer players that never had the possibility to play tEW. Now if Darwin willing FFG can make it possible.

So what is your opinion about this topic, the rumours, the "The Enemy Within", and so. Have you played it? Did you like it?

and please no spoilers if you know the campaign.

What do I think of the Rumours? I would be shocked if this is true beyond them using the name. If they did update it to iron out inconsistences with the current background, I would probably buy it regardless of system.

Have I played it? Only in part

Did I like it? Some bits of it remain superb, although the later parts of it are somewhat lacking.

The Enemy Within is (IMO) one of the best campaigns ever written for any RPG. As much as anything else TEW is what really brought the Old World to life for me and showed that you can create a deep and engrossing adventure without resorting to mindless hack 'n slash.

However, I have my doubts that FFG would try and adapt TEW to 3e and to be honest I would be very disappointed if they did. Instead I would much rather see them create a wholly original campaign for 3e, but in the style of TEW, i.e. lots of conspiracy, intrigue, mystery, social interactions, deceit, betrayal, and occasionally some combat. The ingenious thing about TEW was that from the very beginning until the very end it was designed to showcase the setting, to draw the players into a world that was something more than just generic hack 'n slash fantasy. If FFG is going to create a campaign for 3e it should really follow TEW's example of showcasing The Old World and how it differs from your run-of-the-mill fantasy settings. If it seems like something that could be easily adapted to another fantasy game with just a few minor tweaks, then its not WFRP.

Redcrow said:

I totally conqur to your response. I TEW style campaign for the 3rd edition would be awesome. I was dissapointed with the Path of the Damned, but positively surprised with The Thousand Thrones campaign. it showed evidence of TEW style campaigning. Although much more straightforward than some of the adventures for TEW.

We can only hope that FFG is able to produce outstanding modules and campaigns for warhammer 3e. If they don`t have a copy of TEW as a showcase of "how to do it" I gladly will send them my copy of it.

anything for a chance to have a campaign worthy of TEW

I think the rumour may have come from the claim made by one of WFRPv3 writers that you could play an adventure like Power Behind the Throne with WFRPv3.

I'm sceptical sadly, if Hogshead couldn't finish The Enemy Within I 'm not convinced that FFG will have any more success due to the divergence of the WFRP and WFB backgrounds with the former being better for roelplaying by a mile and the latter being a little bit too far towards high fantasy. However if this were to happen it may go a long way to changing the minds of the 3E sceptics (such as myself but let's not go there).

For the record I've played and GMed TEW all the way through and rate (most of it) very highly, with the Kislev and Empire in Flames being the two weakest parts fo the campaign.

I played it in those days. The first 2 book shadows over bogenhafen and death on the reik have been very good, but from the third on it was not that good anymore. The best campaign ever written? No I dont think so, but it was a fine campaign (especially the first 2 parts) and also a classic. I would not buy it again for myself if FFG re-release it but it it would be a good move on behalf of potential 3rd edition newbies.

It's a great campaign with lots of colour. I have all of it but Empire in Flames, which isn't a big deal since my players never made it out of Bogenhafen alive.

superklaus said:

Technically the first two books were Mistaken Identity and Shadows over Bogenhafen. These were later combined into a single source book, followed by Death on the Reik and then Power Behind the Throne. IMHO, this quartet really set the tone of the Old World and the style of play of WFRP for my group back in the 80s. Things really didn't slide downhill for us until Something Rotten in Kislev. I feel that the campaign was very iconic as it captured the essence of Warhammer very well; focused on intrigues, interesting careers, reduced but meaningful combat, etc. Much more subtle and engaging stuff than the over-the-top chaos-in-your-face of v2 source/adventures.

So yeah - GM'ed the entire campaign twice, and easily ran another 7 or 8 groups through Mistaken Identity + Shadows over the intervening years. I sincerely doubt that FFG is going to resurrect that campaign, but given that they have reverted the world timeline back to before the Storm of Chaos (great move in my opinion) then perhaps they're going to create a new, intrigue heavy, political power behind the scenes, subtle chaos, styled campaign for us to chew through.

Hmm, if they did release an updated version of TEW for v3 I might just be forced to buy 3e and run it! However I doubt they would. I'm guessing there'll be a 'TEW style' campaign released almost immediately after the corebox is out.

HedgeWizard said:

The problem with this is that this topic is not very appealing to my group anymore today. Another chaos investigation? Again an intrigue of an insidious chaos cult? Boring and yawn. I would prefer a totally fresh style of adventure and not the same old story with other NPCs.

Enemy within was a great way for GW and Flame to release setting material by shoving it into the pockets of the fancy campaign's coat. I don't think it would improve anyone's lives if FFG converted Enemy Within to v3 and then made it their big hot $ showcase. It would be rad if Jay and the gang did a coversion on the side for free though.

Reducing the initial "official" scope of the game world to the Reikland allows them to re-invent the wheel so to speak. Sure most of us are going to have to suffer through yet another round of localized geographic splat books. BUT, if they strap an ambitious and funfilled campaign to the front that pulls new and old players alike through the whip-arse setting of WFRP then heck I'd buy em...again. This will also allow them to add in long desired supplements ( greenskins, dwarfs, elves, average weight of warhammer chickens) whilst building another romp of a campaign. I would just love to have a new well written and fun series of adventures that dragged my players from one end of the Empire to another, only to finish out their illustrious careers banished to the border kingdoms on pain of death along with a kick in the fruits and a polite request to jog on.

I'm definitely hopeful that Mr. Little won't be stingy with the text-loot.

A bic campain like "The Enemy Within" would be great. I played it and loved it. So i hope to see something like TEW in the new system.

I'm going to vote for TEW or another suitably epic campaign. TEW would be great to introduce players to the Old World, as well as be fun for old hands.

E

TEW is a great campaign (it loses from Kislev on, but the first three books are really outstanding), but all we, erm, more experienced (trying to avoid saying "older") players have it already played it or have it at home, sometimes looking at it with watery eyes and a glass of fine Bretonnian brandy in one hand. Ah, good ol' times ...

So, given the fact that a lot of the, erm, more experienced players are not very fond of v3, you won't them attract with an updated TEW campaign. Wouldn't it be better to put a new epic out, with fresh and new ideas? TEW managed to do a lot for the reputation of WFRP, but face it, it's history! Time to move on! PotD was very good, but for v3, they should be even do better!

At least, that's my expectation

HedgeWizard said:

If we're insisting on being technical, A Mistaken Identity was first published in a separate book together with the introductory material for running adventures in the empire (herbs, calendar, etc.) , and it was published completely separately from Shadows over Bögenhafen.

Can anyone out-technical me, and make me look like a n00b?

Anyway, I would urge FFG not to republish TEW, even though I really love it. The point is, it has been done and it has been reprinted ad nauseum. The same is true of Doomstones.

I would prefer to have new material. Sure, I want to the new material to capture the tone and feel of the Enemy Within as well as its playing style (intrigue in urban settings, though not necessarily chaos cults), but perhaps something else might be fun too. I would like to have these adventures explore places other than those already covered. Have these added to source material for those places/areas, say Averheim or Ostland

I would really enjoy for them to develop the Moot - perhaps in a big halfling book with details on how to play halfling characters, what halfling culture is like, a geography of the Moot, and then an adventure in that area

Unfortunately, I'm not convinced that FFG wants to create the sort of material that I am interested in, as they have a different conception of the tone and feel that they want to project. I get this, because I realize that. I'm not FFGs target audience.

Technically, The Restless Dead campaign from 1989 could be extracted and set into The Enemy Within campaign.

Allavandrel said:

that's true, TRD would have left the adventurers off somewhere near Delberz, ready to go on a new adventure. However, I don't think TRD is generally thought of as a part of TEW. TRD was also a bit of a hodge-podge of different adventures not originally written to be part of a campaign.

Also, the quality of TRD's adventures was a bit varied, whereas that of TEW was stellar.

So.. why don't we all come up with something original, epic, and TEW-ish and say, "Here, publish this"?

superklaus said:

Mikael Hasselstein said:

I think that was my point; they were published as two separate books. The first book was Mistaken Identity with all the crunchy herby, background bits as you noted, and the 2nd was Shadows. Certainly, *I* would never mistake you for a newb.

Mordenthral said:

Is it possible to make something original and like another Supplement?

Personally I hope FFG don't try to update TEW or write a campaign in a similar style, because their efforts will most likely end up looking like a poor cheap copy of the original, which is never a good thing. We old WFRP fans were spoilt we had one of the best campaigns ever written as the first campaign published. It has led to subsequent campaigns being compared unfavourably and often unfairly to TEW. PotD was not the best campaign ever written but it wasn't as bad as some people made out. If you look out PotD as a single product it looks nothing special, a few problems but basically ok. If you compare PotD to TEW then PotD really does look like utter rubbish. I think it would be much better if FFG come up with something of their own that we can judge on it's own merits without comparing it to TEW.

My major problem with PotD was that it was pitched a bit to high in the social strata to make sense. If it had involved bog standard priests, wizards and watch captains rather than High Priests, Wizard Lords and Witchfinder Generals then it would have sat more easily with what the career structure of V2 led your characters to be....scum, generally.

There are two facets to TEW that make it great. Firstly, Shadows Over Bogenhafen is (IMO) a perfectly pitched Warhammer adventure. Intrigue, chaos, corrupt nobles, guilds, freak shows and PC's being dragged into the mire simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It wasn't a world ending plot, but it was dastardly and needed stopping. It also gave you a complete, fully functioning city to use and inhabit.

Secondly, again only my opinion, the structure of Death on the Reik was also a brilliant counterpoint to Shadows. The freedom to actually EXPLORE a region within an ongoing campaign. Yes, there's a quest of sorts to complete but on the way there's lots of interlude that have nothing to do with the main plot. Indeed, the big bad is actually off screen for pretty much the whole adventure and isn't even in the extended series climax. What's more, there's the detail that still for me encapsulates the Warhammer world far more than any other...the boat. Once a group of PC's has got their own boat and a cargo they suddenly realise that they do indeed inhabit this world. They can make money with risking their necks for the dodgy character who clearly won't pay them - they can make decisions that actually make sense in the real world (Should I wander in the wilds fighting evil nasties, or empty this wizard's bookshelf and sail off to make a profit in Altdorf? Hmmm, tricky...).

The key was that SoB gave a plausible big adventure in a well fleshed out location and DotR presented a real world to inhabit. By the time the PC's hit Wittgenstein Castle, the abberations there are actually shocking because they have actually spent time amongst normal Empire inhabitants. Sadly, whatever V3 throws out I don't think the distinctly un-epic feel of the early TEW supplements will be returned to (the artwork says it most clearly).

NO, I hope they do not rehash the Enemy Within campaign. It would be pointless for most older players, because they would have already played some or all of it. The Paths of the Damned I enjoyed as well, even though it was very different. Yes we did mix with much higher social stratums, but this was straight after the Storm of Chaos invasion, and so much of what we did in Pathes of the Damned, would not have been appropriate in the Enemy Within. I am hoping though that there will be the kind of detail that was in the Enemy Within, Sigmars Heirs and the Warhammer Companion, so that our characters do have a choice whether they go slaughter loads of Greenskins, or perhaps buy a boat and tarde goods down to Altdorf. I hope in a way that they really detail the Reikland, to such an extent, that we can interact with both the ordinary peasants as per the Enemy Within, as well as having the occassional interaction with the higher ups found in the Paths of the Damned. Hopefully they will be producing a Highly detailed campaign, set in the Reikland, but which will allow us to fight greenskins threatening Karaz Angharak?, to chaos cults in Ubersreik and on to Altdorf. I was under the impression that the new campaign will be set just before the Storm of Chaos in 2520-1, but maybe I am wrong.

Bertolac said:

You nailed TEW, yes it was that feeling of being a part of a real world. It was kinda a non-forced quest to perform, the sailing on the river, the interlude, the calm, the long calm before anything big happened. A daily emperial life floating past, occasionaly something dark emerged, just to remind us, or awaken us from the daily routines and chores. And it was **** exciting, because we had a riverboat, a big one, took time to handle it, time to make profitable trade. The Mundanity of it was extra ordinary, the slow building of an climax that did anything but to dissapoint.

My players have expressed a want to play the first part of TEW again. and I must say its tempting, being more than 15 years since we started out on it.

The artwork doesn`t always tell an exact story, but yes I fear that we will never again see such un-epic supplements like TEW and Death`s Dark Shadow, Remember Kreutzhofen!

So ergo I think its important to have a 3e of TEW, or even better a new one with the same flavour and taste like TEW.

If not I fear Warhammer will go in the direction of D&D. Warhammer needs a strong published campaign to show or at least tell people: this is how its meant to be played, its not a D&D world.