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Cubicle 7
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WFRP: Shadows Over Bogenhafen
Designed by: Phil Gallagher, Graeme Davis, and Jim Bambra
Published by Cubicle 7
Shadows Over Bogenhafen was the second part of the acclaimed Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st edition campaign The Enemy Within. After an adventurer discovers their doppelganger during their travels through the Empire, the player characters become embroiled in the dead man's affairs. At the start of Shadows Over Bogenhafen, they've traveled to a prosperous town in the hopes of claiming an inheritance letter found on the corpse. Unfortunately, not only do the adventurers walk away empty handed but they end up embroiled in a conspiracy that threatens the town of Bogenhafen and perhaps the entire world.
Part of my aversion to running adventure modules is how even the best written ones feel very linear. Shadows Over Bogenhafen avoids this not only through a well written core storyline but also by embedding it in an in depth "living" setting. The players are on a journey with multiple paths, in a world that exists beyond their actions. Perhaps most notable is how Shadows Over Bogenhafen, has an ending in which the players lose. Badly.
Renaissance Fair
Similar to how much of the first TEW book was dedicated to background material, a good portion of this book's page count is spent establishing the setting. True to the rest of early WFRP, Bogenhafen is an exaggerated but nonetheless believable setting. Information detailed includes the specific kinds of taxes levied in the town, the major groups of influence, and primary imports and exports.
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It crafts a coherent setting without bombarding Game Masters with irrelevant information. Though most of it will likely never make it into a game, it helps Bogenhafen's character shine through. The image that emerges is of a prosperous trade hub under the monopolistic grip of corrupt guilds and merchant families. A town distracted from peril by dreams of power.
Bogenhafen has as much personality as any of the individuals populating it. Adding to that uniqueness is the plot device of the Schaffenfest, a yearly livestock market that's grown in prominence along with the town's rise to fame. Now a sprawling festival, the spectacle serves as a plot hook, obstacle, and atmospheric detail throughout the story.
In addition to story important locales and events, Shadows Over Bogenhafen, also provides a number of random encounter charts: for the Schaffenfest, the streets of Bogenhafen, and the sewers. They're explicitly written to be general enough for any major urban area in the Empire. Or really any European influenced dark fantasy setting, for that matter. Even so, there's a distinctly Warhammer tone to it. While exploring Bogenhafen, players have to contend with bigotry, confrontational individuals, and random brawls. I particularly enjoy how many encounters end with the Town Watch showing up and imprisoning everyone, regardless of who instigated a conflict. It conveys the injustice and unfairness of WFRP in a mundane way.
In most adventure modules, so much emphasis is put on the central storyline that the setting feel like an afterthought. Meanwhile in Shadows Over Bogenhafen, the town and its goings-on are a central, inseparable part of the story. It feels far more substantial than a backdrop and informs every character's motivations and actions. So much effort is given to fleshing out Bogenhafen that there's more than enough to run games set there, independent of this adventure's storyline. It's more than just a thoroughly written setting but one properly realized through the game mechanics.
Dirty Tricks Done Dirt Cheap
While the corrupt, buzzing world of Bogenhafen is a big draw, the module doesn't coast on a strong setting. Shadows Over Bogenhafen competently resolves the inheritance plotline of the previous part and then quickly redirects to a more self-contained story. Every TEW module was designed to be run independently and advice is given to this end. But as the writers point out, Shadows Over Bogenhafen is more interesting as a continuation of the ongoing TEW story. The events of this module might seem like a digression but they can easily have massive ramifications on the larger events of the campaign.
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Similar to the approach taken with Bogenhafen itself, the GM is given a huge amount of background material. A good portion of it will never make it into the game. GMs are provided the conspiracy threatening the town, those behind it, and its apocalyptic true purpose. The layers of deception important to TEW and Warhammer as a whole make a strong showing here. Every major NPC has a different perception of the conspiracy and its goals, though only one of them understands what's really happening. The player characters have no way of learning the whole truth, though they're given enough to get the general idea.
Much like the previous module, much of this adventure hinges around coincidences. The player characters often happen to be in just the right spot. Thankfully events are adequately built up, so though it can feel like the adventurers are stumbling into major events, it rarely feels like a contrivance. Additionally, the spontaneity of the story feels in line with the overall tone of WFRP 1st edition. It's a game all about nontraditional heroes, so it's only appropriate the adventurers are unknowingly thrust into a world ending crisis by fate (or something worse). The players realizing just how bad things are over the course of the campaign is one of the more satisfying aspects of the story and it's made possible by the spontaneity.
The Truth is Out There
Much like the previous module, the constant ignorance and fortunate timing is made palatable by the strong sense of progression. It's a very Warhammer series of lethal hijinks, with some appropriately grimdark but nonetheless humorous imagery. A disappointing inheritance leads to fairground hooliganism which in turn sees the adventurers hunting down a freakshow attraction through the sewers. They then discover what's either a vicious demonic cult or a clandestine charitable society. It's hard to say since the adventurers keep getting different versions of the story and burly men keep showing up to discourage them from looking into it...
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While plenty of bloodshed and horror occurs over during the adventurers stay in Bogenhafen, most of it comes down to investigating against a clock the players only learn about at five minutes to midnight. The adventurers are given a lot of agency to essentially wander around until they encounter designated parts of the storyline. While the GM does need to structure the story, specifically the climax, around the players' actual progress, a few events organically unfold along a preset timeline. As supernatural and mundane threats loom larger in Bogenhafen, even the most unproductive adventurers will be confronted with the fact that something doesn't smell right.The "Man in the Chaos Moon" is certainly a good hint.
That sense of exploration helps counteract the spontaneity of certain
plot points, as it does feel like the players are organically following a
storyline that will unfold with or without their involvement. Even if
that's closer to perception than reality, Shadows Over Bogenhafen does a good job hiding that fact.
The players are also given wide array of options to approaching the mystery. It almost borders on a tyranny of choice, though each route is centered on certain skills to help maintain the players' focus. There are more ways to get to the truth than the players or GM could ever realistically cover in one playthrough. This, combined with the relatively open setting, helps avoid the railroading endemic to most adventure modules. While there are a myriad of paths that can be taken, each one keeps the tone and atmosphere intact. Answers are hard to come by, the paranoia is mounting, and messy deaths follow the investigation's course.
Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies
Most of Shadows Over Bogenhafen is a plodding, slow burn that requires more wits than a strong sword arm (unless the players start causing trouble in their failure to find any). That turns on a dime as the investigation reaches a head and the climax begins. The adventurers finally receive a definitive, if still incomplete, answer, while also learning they don't have much time to stop what's underway. From there the situation devolves into an increasingly chaotic situation. The adventurers still don't have all the info they "need," but Sword of Damocles is looming overhead...
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While more action oriented than most of the adventure, it still hinges around the same basic story structure and tone. Except this time, there are real consequences to inaction or making the wrong choice. That contrast with the rest of
Shadows Over Bogenhafen helps the climax stand out, though the consistent elements keep everything coherent.
There are a number of ways the ending can unfold. The provided set piece events are intense and memorable, a rapid fire sequence of disasters that would be bad individually, much less all at once. If the adventurers succeed despite the odds, they will never realize what they put a stop to. If the adventurers fail, they'll yearn for that ignorance. Perhaps what makes Shadow Over Bogenhafen so notable is that it's an adventure module where the players can lose. Not fail to get the optimal amount of experience points or lose out on valuable loot. But instead fail to prevent an apocalyptic disaster. It's almost in complete contrast with the campaign, as the party is faced with a threat that no one can stand against.
That the party can fail so badly, or that the story keeps going despite it, is something I've never seen in other adventure modules. At the very least, I've never seen a publication that commits to the adventurers' lowest moment like Shadows Over Bogenhafen. While the party's victory is also satisfying, their "defeat" is one of the most unique, memorable moments I've run in any RPG, prewritten or otherwise.
Long Shadows
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Shadows Over Bogenhafen is the only The Enemy Within book to lack Martin McKenna's personable art. In its place are the horrific visuals of Will Rees and the legendary Ian Miller. As much as I think McKenna's work defines the feeling of the campaign, Rees and Miller's art works a little better for this adventure. Rees captures the dark absurdity of Bogenhafen, which proves to be a miserable, corrupt place down to its very soul. Meanwhile Miller's grotesque, otherwordly art is always a treat and feels in line with the fate that might potentially befall the town.
Unfortunately the Drive Thru RPG PDF version of the book is subpar. The poor editing of the Hogshead release has not been fixed and the visuals have suffered during the scanning process. Incorrect page number references are frustrating. Almost unreadable handouts make it genuinely hard to run at points. The adventure itself has very few problems besides a few gaps in the sequence of events, so its unfortunate how poorly presented it is.
That's not a dealbreaker though. Regardless of whether the adventurers are triumphant or laid low, Shadows Over Bogenhafen is an outstanding adventure. It's intelligently written, perfectly capturing early Warhammer's dark comedy, social commentary, and existential horror. The wealth of options and memorable story mean it's one of the few adventure modules I'll likely run multiple times. Both in concept and execution it stands apart from its peers, even within the larger The Enemy Within story. Shadows Over Bogenhafen is a tale of boundless greed and lethal conspiracy, of men in the moon and three legged goblins. And it's certainly one that's not to be missed.
