Road Trip From Hell - A Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: The Enemy Within Review

 

Cubicle 7

WFRP: The Enemy Within

Designed by: Phil Gallagher, Graeme Davis, and Jim Bambra

Published by Cubicle 7

Released in 1987 for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st edition, The Enemy Within would kick off one of the most highly regarded published campaigns. Even Game Masters who don't get much from pre-written adventures are drawn to it and with good reason. The Enemy Within took what made WFRP so compelling, emphasized it, and threw out everything that didn't work. It also gives GMs a guide to writing adventures for traditional action driven RPGs. Even as a self contained book, The Enemy Within stands out as an atmospheric narrative that balances humor and horror as the players explore a world seething with corruption, poised on the brink of total destruction.

Lay of the Land

Admittedly, the 57 page book feels like a primer for the rest of the campaign. The actual adventure portion takes up only a third of the book, not counting the pages of handouts. Future reprints of The Enemy Within would be rolled in with the second adventure Shadows Over Bogenhafen. I also suspect that was to offset the fact that the campaign itself was quickly refereed to as the The Enemy Within.

While it seems jarring to dedicate so much of an adventure book to background material, it's part of what makes The Enemy Within so exceptional. The book gives exhaustive advice on how to sustain a long running campaign and more specifically this pre-written one. This advice has stood the test of time and doesn't repeat too much from the core rulebook. In fact, I'd put it slightly above the rulebook's approach, as by The Enemy Within, the writers had a much clearer grasp of what WFRP was supposed to be. Dungeons & Dragons trappings have been thrown aside for political corruption, religious conflicts, and carriage crashes.

Cubicle 7

After the GM advice, the focus switches to the history of the Empire, the setting of nearly the entire campaign. Loosely modeled off of 15th century Germany, The Enemy Within covers the dominant power of the "Old World" as it goes from clashing tribes to warring city states. By the start of the game, a tenuous peace has been achieved by the various factions of the Empire, though it's far from stable.

Two and a Half Millennia and Counting

Even more than the core book, The Enemy Within plays up the misery and hardship of living in the Empire, whether that struggle be historical or within the PC's own lives. But in doing so, it also emphasizes that people manage to power through and these feuding states are more than just a endless field of skulls. A believable, if exaggerated image of politics and commerce emerges and with it a fairly consistent set of rules for the setting. In the Empire, injustice is rife, it rarely goes punished, and when the hammer falls, it's not on the rich.

Particular emphasis is put on Sigmar, the legendary barbarian king that founded the Empire thousands of years ago. Declared a god after forfeiting the throne and disappearing in the East, his questionable divinity ends up being the source of the civil wars that wrack the Empire for most of its history. It also forms the basis of The Enemy Within campaign, as Sigmar's godhood is still very controversial in certain circles.

Cubicle 7

Taking advantage of that doubt are the Chaos worshipers trying to bring about the end of the world, more specifically the ones the players end up fighting. While Sigmarion heresies only become apparent later in the campaign, the man (or god) is still shaping his empire long after his disappearance. That reality informs much of the Empire's identity.

This expanded background section can seem like a case of misplaced priorities but it offers invaluable context. The Enemy Within wouldn't work nearly as well if the GM didn't understand the social dynamics and historical conflicts that created the challenges faced by the players. Guides to dress, transportation, the structure of the government and military flesh out the Empire as a setting and profiles are provided for the denizens of the Empire.

All in all, The Enemy Within paints a dark setting that's distinctly not hopeless. Things are certainly dire for the average citizen of the Empire but by creating specific reasons for those circumstances, that becomes tragic instead of edgy. It also shows that, against all expectations, things actually have somewhat improved, even if there's plenty of work left to do.

Onward to Adventure (and Death)

Cubicle 7

There's a shorter section specifically meant to prime players for the setting, and mores specifically the campaign. One of the more immersive aspects included here is a full fictional calendar, intended to track the in game time. That's followed by the slim 17 page adventure offered by The Enemy Within. Thankfully, WFRP's writers quickly mastered quality over quantity with their material, as shown by other published adventures like Night of Blood.

Even with its short length, The Enemy Within provides some varied locales, with an emphasis on travel. Most of the campaign occurs in carriages, boats, or roadside inns, as the players make their way to the imperial capital of Altdorf. Hoping to pursue a standard adventuring job, they instead stumble upon a far more lucrative and bizarre opportunity along the way. Unbeknownst to the players, their characters have unearthed a cult driven conspiracy that doesn't just threaten the Empire but all of reality.

The Enemy Within sticks out with a Monty Python-esque characters that populate this trip through the Empire. The developed casts are part of what made WFRP adventures so worthwhile and how they can get away with fairly short page counts. While there are pre-written encounters, most of the time they establish an interesting locale and its inhabitants, giving GMs and players a lot to work with while also providing some level of agency.

That being said, it doesn't entirely avoid the issue I have with most published campaigns, the linearity. Most sensible GMs go in with a plan of action but page count limitations add a certain level of rigidity even the most well-written campaigns. The Enemy Within has plenty of "sandbox" moments and gives advice for handling overly violent or clever responses that might derail the story. However, this adventure is still very much a "Point A" to "Point B" trip, even if it has some interesting twists and a unique progression.

For example, the adventure does feel built around the around the pregenerated characters on offer. The game takes an interesting approach of having certain NPCs come from specific player characters' past lives. The latter element is novel and a good way to get the players invested in the world. Their backgrounds are also vague enough that it doesn't require the pregens. However, The Enemy Within is written with the assumption that the table is using their characters, though it isn't impossible to work around this.

More tellingly is that the GM is encouraged at several points to remove player agency to keep the storyline moving. Sometimes it feels organic, as best shown by the heavy emphasis on economic incentives guiding the players where they need to go. Other times, The Enemy Within tells the GM to firmly redirect the players or even ignore the dice to guarantee an event. Even non-published campaigns require this to keep the story moving but the way it's implemented in The Enemy Within highlights the linearity of the adventure.

Crawling in the Dark

On the note of later campaign developments, The Enemy Within very much hinges on the truth being hidden away. Not only from the characters and players but even the game master. The book restricts itself to what's absolutely necessary for this specific adventure and the long term goal of the campaign is intentionally left vague. The GM has just enough to work with to run The Enemy Within but it's not clear where it's all heading.

Cubicle 7

While it can be frustrating working with incomplete information on the GM's end, the sense of mystery further contributes to the already strong atmosphere. The actual narrative of The Enemy Within is built around deception and conspiracy at every turn, even from the players. Similarly, the characters can't go through the adventure without realizing something's wrong, though they're not even close to the whole truth. That ignorance plays such a prominent part in The Enemy Within, and Warhammer as a whole, so maybe it's appropriate for the GM is left in the dark.

That being said, I suspect part of this comes down to the The Enemy Within's production issues. It led to some spontaneous decisions that gave the campaign a lot of personality but it also led to the last books being a very rough and largely rejected by players. The final book, Empire in Flames, is almost universally disliked, even by the writers. The difficult development process for the campaign's latter half is well documented. It's bad enough that current WFRP publisher Cubicle 7 has promised to make a new ending for their remake of the campaign. With that in mind, it raises the question of how much was actually planned out when The Enemy Within was published.

Time plus Tragedy...

Warhammer has long been infamous for its "grimdark" tone and many a grognard is quick to say "It used to be a lot funnier!" That's very much true in The Enemy Within, which is a prime example of the tone found in early Warhammer works. As I mentioned before, there's definitely a tongue in cheek, at times morbid levity to everything. Early on in the campaign, the adventurers greatest threats are cheating gamblers named after French philosophers and drunken coachmen delaying their journey. In this version of Warhammer, Absurd personalities, bad puns, and occasionally lethal slapstick are as inescapable as the taint of Chaos.

Cubicle 7

Even so, it's far from a farce, as events can quickly gives away to gratuitous ultra violence and horrific sights. The way the adventure turns from "Are were there yet?" antics to mutant cannibalism and then back to barroom squabbles borders on tonal whiplash. It's a big part of what makes The Enemy Within and this era of Warhammer as a whole so unique, humor and horror go hand in hand, taken to the furthest extreme. This book explains the logic early on, pointing out that the humor keeps things entertaining while also serving to highlight the darker moments by contrast. It's something I wish Warhammer hadn't largely turned away from.

I'll admit sometimes I have trouble keeping that tone balanced. However, those dramatic shifts are what makes The Enemy Within work. The stranger aspects mesh better with a comedic tone. This first adventure hinges around one of the player characters discovering his (distinctly non-magical) doppelganger's corpse, which would feel like a major contrivance if The Enemy Within took itself more seriously. In more ways that just that, this strange tone is the heart of the campaign.

Something in the Air

The Enemy Within, as well as WFRP as a whole, hinges around the atmosphere it creates. The free form moments as well as the more straightforward combats quickly give the players a sense of the world. It also gets them invested, as the adventure does a good job naturally communicating the setting. Even the combat encounters tie back to the larger themes, beyond just exposition. When playing The Enemy Within, it really does feel like corruption and injustice is waiting around every corner, ready to smack you over the head.

When it comes to atmosphere, it's hard to do better than the gothic artwork Warhammer is known for. The Enemy Within is no exception, though it opts for something more subtle than sticking a dozen skulls on everything. A lot of the art in WFRP is a little more standard 80s RPG than what many would associate with Warhammer. This artwork has a certain personality but it's not my favorite.

At times the book doesn't do a great job describing the locales, so it often falls to the art to give the GM guidance. Thankfully the range of maps and landscapes save the day in that regard.

Cubicle 7

Much of Martin Mckenna's artwork fills up the book. His work is also less overtly gothic but he has a unique style that's a perfect fit for the tone of WFRP. In many regards it's mostly traditional fantasy but his work captures a range both for the environments and the people living in them. There's something authentic and human about his unique style, which captures the strange warmth found in the viciousness of The Enemy Within.

Beyond that, The Enemy Within is simply a visually appealing book. There's tons of handouts, an 80s RPG convention that's since fallen out of fashion. This might just stem from the poor quality of the Drive Thru RPG scans but some of them are a little hard to read. Even then, tossing around festival fliers and bloodstained letters has an appeal I find impossible to recreate with other methods. Smaller details like portraits for even the least significant NPCs still go a long way to get the GM and players in the right headspace. There's something very cinematic to running The Enemy Within and that's in no small part because the visuals are more than just pretty space fillers.

P.S.

Cubicle 7

The Enemy Within ends on a big cliffhanger, as forces bring the adventurers to the prosperous city of Bogenhafen. With how The Enemy Within plays, I can imagine most players would be chomping at the bit to get there. This campaign set a new standard for prewritten modules and quite frankly it's beyond compare. The Enemy Within worked for me where so many similar campaigns failed because it offers an epic, engaging narrative that doesn't just box the players in. It offers enough leeway and agency to ensure it doesn't feel like you're running through "someone else's" story, instead of their own. The mutants, rogues, and roadwardens are a far cry from the usual module adversaries, with far more personality at that. The Enemy Within proved that roadside inns had more to offer than any dungeon, as it focused on building a coherent world with a narrative instead of a string of combat encounters.