Come on guys, make my day/week/Year...

thanks

Sacrilege, I know, but I ultimately sold all of my Enemy Within content. Twice. The first time was in the late, late 90's (all the first edition copies). Then I re-acquired the Hogshead reprints for a song, updated the data for v2, and eventually sold them all in 2007. At this point though, I have the major plot points and NPCs memorized.

Still - not sure I am going to run it for my new group. Partly because one player has already been through the entire thing once (and shadows twice), but also because I am really enjoying creating new content for this version (streamlined NPCs, encounters, etc make is a breeze to write for).

Just like to add my voice to this request.

I have never run TEW campaign but considering the high regard it is held in I would be eternally grateful if someone took the time to convert it to 3rd edition.

havent' looked at TEW to convert yet, but started running Thousand Thrones and so far its been pretty easy to run (ie, challenge mods = extra challenge dice or misfortune dice depending on the description, dividing xp by 100 to keep the pace. Dividing stats by 10 to match with the current system, making the talents cool actions. )

Karl R said:

Meh. And I just happened to start running TTT some two weeks before Gencon and the v3 announcement. By now the PCs have almost reached Altdorf and it'd be too much of a hassle to convert the campaign. Just my luck.

I am actively converting now(ish) for my TEW campaign due to start in early January. This will be my third running of this brilliant campaign, and I am stoked for the opportunity to try it with FFG's new rules system.

I started a thread on this already at RPGnet: forum.rpg.net/showthread.php in which I have listed some of my key elements to address.

I am still unfamiliar with the new edition, reading up on it this week, but I am not expecting any issues. The major concern I have is with the setting period, as that was always a mess for TEW being run under both 1e and 2e.

As I understand it, 3e is set just before the Storm of Chaos, but otherwise in synch with the wargame history?

If that is the case, there is a fair bit of bashing required, changing the Graf and Emperor names etc perhaps. Does anyone have a good sourcebook I can use for that, ahead of any product launches from FFG? Should I use Sigmar's Heirs, or something from WFB?

Cheers,

Motorskills

The first part (Mistaken Identity, Shadows over Bögenhafen and Death on the Reik), and the second part (Power Behind the Throne) can be converted without much problems. Although TEW starts in 2512, it can be easily transfered to the year of the current edition. And the campaign will work fine as a prelude of darker times to come. I don`t think any information in TEW will contradict the current setting, and the historically facts from TEW are excellent background information to feed your players.

However the later parts of the grand campaign, will be a problem, especially Empires in Flames. This part clearly creates a alternative storyline for warhammer that was not used in the 2nd edition. The civil war of the Empire should not coincidence with the storm of chaos event, unless you want a very, very grim setting for your game.

But the 2 first parts, are the best parts of TEW, and would have no or little problem with fitting in with the current edition. I know that someone made a 2nd editon conversion of TEW, but only going as far as to convert every NPC in TEW to 2e. I hope that everyone in FFG involved with the campaign creating process for WHFRP 3, have The Enemy Within on a pedestal nearby, as a constant reminder of what they should strive for.

If you get as far as Something Rotten in Kislev you might have problems as most of that adventure is incompatable with 2nd Ed's Realm of the Ice Queen.

I'd say that SRiK can and should be ditched if there are any problems with it and that ditching it certainly won't do any harm to the overall campaign. It's just plain bad.

EiF, though, is another matter. It's actually pretty cool, if unbalanced here and there (well, it IS an epic ending for an epic campaign). It's also, unfortunately, incompatible with the timeline of Warhammer world. There's always an option of substituting it with Empire at War, which should allow the whole campaign to fit more or less seamlessly into the pre-Storm of Chaos Empire. The choice is up to you.

Mal Reynolds said:

Actually Power Behind The Throne is the best part of the series. As good as the first three (two? ) parts are, they are 'just' extremely good FRP romps.

PBtT raised the bar on roleplaying , period.

So our game got underway with our three brash young fools heading for Altdorf to join Prince von Tasseninck's expedition to the Grey Mountains. Arriving at the Coach and Horses Inn at dusk, the 3 took seats in the bar room and began their evening meal. A short while later a Brettonian introducing himself has Phillipe Descartes sat down and challenged them to a game of cards. Yrfinnin, the Wood Elf Messenger knew nothing of cards and sat silently off to the side. Alex, the Zealot thought cards were just another sign of the degenerating times and refused to play, leaving only Freidrich, the former Coachman, to wager a few shillings. Although he started off winning a healthy sum, the cards quickly turned against him. About the time that he got back to even, Alex noticed that Phillipe was cheating. After a heated exchange of words, Phillipe retired to his room. Not being any worse off than when he started, Freidrich let him go. After Freidrich issued a warning to the two Coachmen for their heavy drinking, our heroes retired as well.

The next morning, they discovered that the coach bound for Altdorf didn't have enough room. Freidrich immediately volunteered to ride up top along with Yrfinnin, while Alex claimed the only remaining seat inside. Freidrich rounded up the hungover Coachmen and since they were already delayed getting started, volunteered right away to take the reins and let the other two sleep it off, so they finally set out without further delay. The rain that started a couple hours later didn't change things much since both Freidrich and Yrfinnin were used to being out in it. A short while after the rain stopped, they came upon a grisly sight; a mutant eating a fallen coachman. Alex recognized this poor sot as someone he had once known. They all dealt with the startling sight just fine, but the horse bolted, snapping their traces. Freidrich was wise enough to release the reins, but the coachman sitting next to him made a grab for them and was dragged off down the road. Freidrich desparately grabbed the brake to keep the coach from running off the road nto the woods and while the other coachman tried to grab his blunderbuss, but before he could do so, the mutant jumped up and pulled him from the coach. Our heroes sprang into action and between an arrow fired from Yrfinnin's longbow and a bolt from Freidrich's crossbow, the mutant fell. The grateful coachman was pretty shaken up, but otherwise not in too bad of shape. Just then howls rang out from around the bend in the road. Our heroes sent the coachman back to guard his coach and moved to investigate.

Yrfinnin went creeping through the forest while the other two sneaked down the road. Rounding the bend, they saw a group of mutants surrounding another coach. Both Yrfinnin and Freidrich managed to fire their weapons and bring down the mutant armed with a crossbow before their opponents knew they were there. Three of the remaining mutants rushed to engage Alex and Freidrich, while Yrfinnin remained out of sight in the woods. The mutants proved to be no match for our brash young fools and they dispatched them while sustaining little damage themselves. Investigating the scene, they were shocked to discover a well dressed body that looked just like Freidrich. The man had some blood stained parchment on him, but as none of our heroes are literate, they could not read the words written on them. Just after this, a group of Road Wardens showed up and at first assumed that our heroes were bandits; however, they quickly changed their tone when Alex pointed out the mutants. After briefly explaining what happened, the Road Wardens got to work stacking the bodies into the coach. Freidrich asked if any of them could read and by chance the captain could. Freidrich listened as the man read the letter in a droning voice. It seemed that the bearer of this letter was to inherit an estate and 20,000 gold crowns! Saying nothing of the body still lying in the brush, our heroes thanked the Road Warden and left them to their business. Freidrich tracked down the horse to their own coach and used his Animal Handling skill to calm them and get them hitched back up to the coach.

The remainder of their trip to Aldorf was uneventful. Arriving in the Königplatz, they stood slightly overwhelmed at the scene. While they were taking things in, a couple of individuals started making hand gestures at Freidrich. He was perplexed and became more so as the gestures became more pronounced. He tried moving towards them, but they moved away only to resume gesturing as soon as he stopped moving towards them. Clearly stumped as to how to proceed, Freidrich gave them a shrug of his sholders as if to say, "what to you want of me." Before the men could react, they spotted another man standing in a nearby doorway and with expressions of relief on their faces quickly moved off to join him. Before Freidrich had time to ponder whether or not to go after them, another old acquaintance of Alex's Josef Quartjin, came through the crowd hailing Alex. Quickly suggesting that they retire to a dockside Inn for some wine, he lead them off towards the docks.

At the Inn, Josef informed them that he was headed to Bögenhafen for the Schaffenfest to sell some wine. He asked what brought them to Altdorf and when Alex told him about the expedition, Josef informed them that they were too late as the Prince had left the day before. Josef offered to hire them as extra hands on his barge and since Freidrich was keen to travel to Bögenhafen anyway, they quickly accepted his offer. While they were swapping tales, a couple of nobles entered the bar, sat next to them, and began drinking heavily until one of them threw up on Freidrich. The fact that the nobles had 4 burly bodyguards with them did not stopped Freidrich from jumping to his feet to confront them. A local tough guy that had entered the bar earlier, whom the heroes had learned was named Max, intercepted Freidrich and pointedly told him to sit back down. Freidrich was having none of it and didn't take kindly to Max's repeated shoving of him as he spoke. Freidrich took a swing at Max as the nobles retreated behind their bodyguards. Alex tried to interpose himself between Max and Freidrich to defuse the situation, but his attempts were in vain as the two combatants continued to trade blows. Yrfinnin sat quietly at the table, not sure what to make of this strange display of human behavior until Josef thrust a wine bottle into his hand and suggested he apply it the back of Max's head. Becoming enraged, Max continued to focus his attention on Freidrich, but Alex, realizing that his attempts to resolve this peacefully weren't getting anywhere, joined the fray and shortly thereafter Max went down. The nobles quickly made an exit before Freidrich could turn his attentions to them. The bar erupted in cheers for our heroes and although several offered to buy them a round of drinks, Josef suggested that they take their leave and head for The Berebeli, cautioning that those same cheering locals would quickly turn on the heroes if the Watch showed up to investigate reports of a bar fight.

Heading for the docks, our heroes quickly noticed that they were being followed and Yrfinnin's keen eyes discerned through the darkness that it was the same two individuals that had been gesturing to Freidrich earlier in the day. Freidrich, hoping to learn what their interest in him was, suggested that they duck into an alley and ambush them when they came by; however, after rounding the corner of the building, they heard the twang of a crossbow and the slump of falling bodies. Coming back out into the street, they discovered that both men had been shot. Alex and Freidrich searched the bodies and turned up a few shillings while Yrfinnin tried to discern where the shots had come from. Although he could tell the direction from whence they came, the shooter was nowhere to be seen. Leaving the bodies where they fell, our heroes continued with Josef to his barge and went to sleep puzzled, but not sure how to proceed. They were awakened the next morning by cries from Josef to quickly cast off. Coming topside, Josef informed them that the two nobles that had started the altercation in the bar the previous evening had been found dead and that the Watchmen's investigation had lead them to descriptions of the heroes. Not wanting to stick around to answer questions, the heroes helped cast off and The Berebeli was quickly on its way to the Weissbruck canal.

Thus ended the first session of The Enemy Within using the new system, which I thought went surprisingly well. I found that the even with just 3 PCs rather than the 6 that TEW was written for, the players had little difficulty overcoming the opposition. I used the entry for the Cult Mutant for the mutants and Soldier for Max, swapping out a <R> die for the <G> one shown in the Soldier profile. The mutants, with a Toughness/Soak of 6 and 14 wounds took several rounds to bring down, but weren't able to do much damage to the PCs once I blew through their ACE budget. Once engaged, the PCs didn't attempt many maneuvers and pretty much just traded blows while dodging and parrying. The Wood Elf managed to stay out of sight in the woods and use sniping and double shots without ever being threatened himself. Freidrich took the most damage in both encounters, but ended the session with just one wound after a night's rest and a Resilience check. I think I did a pretty good job of arbitrating bonus and penalty dice based on how the players described their actions and also remembered to award Fortune Points for good roleplaying, clever ideas, and just for completing story objectives. With the brass young fools party sheet ensuring that their pool is never empty, they were refueling about as often as they were spending Fortune points and never ran out.

The biggest thing I have to overcome is that the Zealot's player refuses to move deep into a Reckless stance. He took a lot of Fatigue playing the Troll Slayer during the demo by doing so and he is also fearful of rolling banes on the <R> dice. Consequently, he hovered around neutral, moving just one step deep into Reckless and even went Conservative in the bar fight. For him, the reward potential of going deeply reckless isn't enough to balance the risk. Consequently, he is letting his own sense of risk/reward and metagame knowledge overshadow his character's natural disposition. He's looking to make a career change to Initiate of Sigmar after they arrive in Bögenhafen, but he clearly favors a more conservative approach. He doesn't fear the prospect of all his action cards being littered with recharge tokens due to Delay as much as the negative consequences of Fatigue and Banes that the <R> dice offer.

mac40k said:

That's not really a problem, tho, is it? The stance system is designed so that players can move where they feel more comfortable. Zealots default to red cards even at neutral, so there's no real reason for him to actually enter the reckless stance unless it's a desperate situation and he needs the extra successes. Otherwise, his toughness might be ok but his strength and agility probably aren't capable of withstanding the fatigue reckless dice would earn him. Not like a combat-type career that has two primary physical characteristics. While we know that means misfortune dice or passing out, it's not really meta-gaming to assume the characters realize that in their world acting aggressively tires you out and makes you less capable of fighting. There are degrees of zealotry even among zealots, I'd imagine. Otherwise there's no reason for anyone, even wizards, to not go reckless since the effects are better for almost every card.

Thanks for reporting all that, was an interesting read! Hope the next session runs as smoothly.

Vaeron said:

In hindsight, I agree with you. While 10-siders are generally better at producing successes than 8-siders, that must be balanced with the associated risk of either stance. Just because the Zealot career has 3 Reckless pieces doesn't mean that every encounter calls for moving 3 deep in <R> as quickly as possible. If the player feels that the risk is too great, they have to accept the fact that they may succeed less often when using mostly Characteristic dice. I was placing too much emphasis on the stance track itself informing the character's natural disposition.

Ahh man. That read through of your session brings back some memories...

One thing you can also look to do to "push" your Zealot into the red (so to speak) is to use dice results. The dice mechanic really leaves the sky as the limit with interpretations. Perhaps when he takes a particularly tough blow (and there are extra boons) or when he fails to hit (and there are extra banes) you can move his stance meter one step into furious rage!

Roland Cooke said:

Roland Cooke said:

Yeah, I had tremendous fun GMing Power Behind the Throne. I even got one of the players addicted to Ranald`s delight - a stimulant drug. Fond memories of PBtT. But still I enjoyed the horrors of Castle wittgenstein in Death on the Reik more. And the dark suspense in Shadows over Bögenhafen was just...awesome

After reading this post I tracked down a copy of the enemy within and must say was impressed.

It doesnt look to hard to convert on the fly but....

looking to the future it seems most people cut the kislev adventure (haven't read yet but presume it isn't very good???) and replace empire in flames (to fit current timeline).

I've seen empire at war on strike to stun but am told there is also a skaven alternative. Any views/comments/help would be GRATELy appreciated

cheers

don

DonXIII said:

No Something Rotten in Kislev is a good adventure(in fact 3 or 4 adventures), but its feel like ad-hoc when playing TEW. It doesn`t fit the profile and is just a bothersome detour. But if run as a part of a Kislevian campaign SRiK is well-recommended. we had great fun playing SRiK, It has an excellent zombie adventure, a town full of walking dead. And its rich on culture and historical background. And its def gritty.

SRiK always felt like it was supposed to be its own separate mini-campaign (it is several loosely linked adventures after all) that they just slapped the TEW logo on to increase sales. Still, my group had fun back in the day. It's sole purpose is to get the PCs out of the Empire for approx. a year before the final part of TEW, so you could just as easily ship them off to Brettonia or the Border Princes if you were willing to create your own adventures for them to keep them busy for that amount of time. They have to be somewhere where they can be found and recalled to the Empire though, so an expedition to Lustria or Cathay is probably too far out. I had the most fun up through PBtT and that was really the climax of the campaign AFAIC. After that SRiK was a diversion and the finale was a let down by comparison. If my game lasts that long this time, I will run Mad Alfred's alternative final chapter instead and am still debating on whether to use SRiK or something else between it and PBtT. Still plenty of time to figure it out at this point as we're only one session in.

The aplication flyer in the beginning of the campaign is rewarding 20 gold a day, thats a hell of a lot, I am thinkin more along the line of 12 silver shillings a day is more then enough, and still quite a lot.

Our group of seasoned RP has never ventured into the realms of WFRP...until now. So that consequentley means that we have never experienced TEW, something we plan to rectify in the not too distant future if I can convert the original to 3rd edition. So my question is what rank is the TEW designed for? My plan would be to play the intro adventure in the book and then leap into TEW campaign.

My only reservation is that we may hold off until we see some reviews of the Gathering Storm campaign as that may be played instead of TEW.

TEW is for the 1st ed warhammer, but in 3rd ed it would be perfect for beginning chars, that will be more then very, very capable after the campaign is finished.

Replicant253 said:

So would I. Im lucky to still have all my 1st edition books including TEW. Would love to be able to use these with 3rd ed.

I'd love to see a conversion too!

Jay Hafner recently made a comment in another thread however, that has me thinking. Basically he said, 'Fans are going to have to step up and do some of this stuff.'

I'm enthusiastic enough to try conversion, but I'm not all that clear on the differences between systems. I've seen a few remarks on how people would convert from one Version to another, but nothing really explained in detail. (Forgive me if I sound whiney, I'm actually unfamiliar with Warhammer's past systems). I think the very first step to converting TEW specifically, is coming up with guidelines to convert V1 (and V2) to V3 in general. Then, converting TEW becomes kinda straightforward. Also, if we had some rough consensus on how to do it, this could also be a joint project.. or at least one where ideas and feedback could be pooled..

I'm doing it right now, its easy enough. Just rip out all the rules in the campaign, and in the dramatic highlights put in the right WHFRP3 rules, and stats for NPC's. Almost finished with the first book.

I'm doing it right now, its easy enough. Just rip out all the rules in the campaign, and in the dramatic highlights put in the right WHFRP3 rules, and stats for NPC's. Almost finished with the first book.

Sorry I can't quote you directly, the "new user messageboard bug" is making it a challenge for me.

That being said, I'd love and appreciate to see your work when you're finished!