Down by the River - A Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Death on the Reik Review

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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Death on the Reik 

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Developed by Phil Gallagher, Jim Bambra, and Graeme Davis

Playing through Death on the Reik, it's easy to see how The Enemy Within made a name for itself. The first and second books of this seminal Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay campaign were fun, gothic romps but this third installment easily elevates the entire publication line to legendary status. After saving Bogenhafen - or perhaps failing to do so - the adventurers find themselves traveling the largest river of the Empire in search of the sorceress Etelka Herzen. It takes them to some of the most blighted, dark corners of the Old World, until their quest to defeat Chaos leads them to the nightmarish Castle Wittgenstein.

It may very well be the greatest adventure module ever published. At 127 pages it feels like an entire multi-book campaign shoved into a single volume with everything it covers. That came at a price, as Death on the Reik might very well be one of the most poorly edited RPG publications I've picked up. But that's more than worth it, as you get everything you could want from an adventure module: strong atmosphere, an engaging plot, an interesting cast, and memorable locales.

Troubled Waters

With so many plot threads and destinations, it's up to the adventurers' boat to hold Death on the Reik together. Both literally and figuratively. Unsurprisingly, the weakest part of the campaign doesn't involve the boat. The story opens with a messy intro, several vignettes designed to get the premade characters into their Advanced Careers. It takes some writing around if you didn't make your players use the pregens.

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Once the players find their ship, left adrift on the River Reik after mutants killed the crew, the campaign changes dramatically. As often remarked by fans, the boat is one of the most genius plot devices in any published adventure. The original printing contained a separate booklet, River Life in the Empire, providing a wide range of rules and encounters for boat travel, including an optional Nosferatu inspired sub plot. It's useful beyond the adventure, adding a new dimension to WFRP campaigns and the option to become intrepid, water borne traders.

But what really makes the boat work is how useful it is for guiding the player's where they need to go. All of the campaign's major locales are accessible by river, though some sub-exploration is needed. It meshes perfectly with the race against time component of the first half of Death on the Reik, as the players hope to stop Etelka's dastardly cult plot after previously witnessing her indirect handiwork.

It also gives the campaign an adventurous, open feel that few modules can manage. Players aren't boxed in, instead given an authentic feel of exploration countless published adventures have tried and failed to emulate.

Especially because the boat and its novelties disguise how much of this campaign really is on rails. The encounters and order of travel help mask the fact that the adventurers are essentially confined to traveling a single river, exploring stops along the way.

The material in the main rulebook and River Life booklet provide more than enough for players wishing to stray from the main plot but the actual setup goes a long way to keep everything on track.

But there's enough to do and enough choice given to the players that they don't feel like they're being railroaded. It's a testament to how well crafted Death on the Reik is and an important lesson for game masters with tables clamoring for "open world" campaigns.

Feet Firmly Planted

That being said, most of the campaign is spent on dry land. Despite all the ground covered, Death on the Reik gives a distinct personality to each town and village encountered and at least a couple of NPCs to interact with. Some get more focus than others but there's always plenty to do and not necessarily just things to kill. Even that's handled well, as Death on the Reik creates interesting circumstances around otherwise basic premises like "Fight goblins in an old mine." 

Certain encounters also throw in curve balls that remind the players that even with this new frontier, they're still in a small part of a much larger world.

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With the disparate settings, the game wisely includes some connective tissue in the form of overarching plotlines. Besides the initial hunt for Etelka, several apparently independent encounters are later revealed to be part of the larger story, involving the dangerous quarry that brought Etelka to such desperate locales. Death on the Reik takes place over the course of a month in game and that span of time is used to let players return to certain previously visited areas as part of the story, adding a sense of permanence to the world.

This is easily the most well regarded entry of the campaign and in theory can be played on its own with little reworking. But recurring characters like the duplicitous Ersnt and the Purple Hand cult don't have the same impact without the context of previous entries. The motive to find Etelka is also pretty thin if the players haven't experienced Shadows Over Bogenhafen.

The most direct and effective connection is the regular harassment by the Purple Hand cult. Deprived of the (in truth nonexistent) inheritance one of the adventurers tried to swindle by posing as their dead cultist doppelganger, the deceased's colleagues now look to collect. The cultists increasingly threatening attempts to collect the money are both amusing and foreboding; secret hand signals, Scarlet Letter style curses, and even just hired muscle.

In addition to keeping such a broad story connected to the campaign's overall plot, it ends up being one of the more memorable plot threads in Death on the Reik, further ratcheting up the tension.

Even taking all that into account, the cast of Death on the Reik is what really makes it so dynamic. Every major character has their own agenda, for good and for ill, and that's what dictates their interactions with the players and at times each other. It lends a very dynamic atmosphere the adventure, with aid coming from unexpected and at times untrustworthy corners. It can even lead to conflict with people who really want the same thing as the adventurers.

That so many NPCs can't be easily broken down into "helpful" or "kill them!" is a refreshing approach. That the characters populating the adventurer's river journey have independent desires and needs adds vibrancy few RPG campaigns can manage.

Haunted House

Though Death on the Reik gets closer to the "Enter room, kill what's inside" focus of  Dungeons & Dragons than the other Enemy Within adventures, it's hardly just plodding around session after session in the same dungeon. The characters and running plotlines keeps it united but the ground covered is still remarkable.

Interestingly, Etelka is dealt with about halfway through Death on the Reik. The remainder is spent on the domain of the Von Wittgensteins, a family of inbred, sadistic nobles empowered centuries ago by the divisive Empress Margaritha, WFRP's thinly veiled Thatcher reference. 

Castle Von Wittgenstein looms evilly over the campaign, long before the adventurers learn they have no choice but to uncover its secrets. The rumors, warnings, and hints of its corruption pale in comparison to the nightmarish reality, as the adventurers find themselves trapped in a dying town who's dwindling, mutated populace lives in fear of starvation and their distant masters.

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It's impressive how Death on the Reik manages a real sense of escalation, in that it throws something even more horrifying just as the players think they've seen the worst. The plight of the crumbling village Wittgendorf is played to comical absurds at times but its offset by horrific moments of body horror or more mundane tragedies. As the players contend with cruel guards so corrupt they're rotting in their armor and villagers dragged off for "experiments" in the castle, the motivation to find the source of the Von Wittgensteins' curse becomes less abstract.

The adventurers are given a few different ways to gain entry into Castle Von Wittgenstein, though most trend back to aiding the heroic Sigrid and her band of outlaws plotting to depose the tyrannical nobles. The advice for running that siege of the castle is clumsy but the actual event is at least narratively satisfying. 

It also paints the people of Wittgendorf as more than just suffering peasants waiting to be saved by the adventurers, though they play a role.

Castle Von Wittgenstein itself feels like a haunted house, a more bombastic setting than the sheer bleakness of Wittgendorf. Even so, it has a lot of amusing, increasingly bizarre situations. There's plenty of threats to be dealt with but it's rarely as simple or mundane as just swinging a sword. Over the years there's been plenty of discussion about some of the Castle encounters being too ridiculous or just illogical, though I found them to be some of my most rewarding experiences as a GM.

Even if it lacks the sheer horror of Wittgendorf, the contrast between the castle being a twisted wonderland compared to the state of their suffering subjects below works well with the games' themes and commentary. 

It might border on wacky but the Castle still has some of the more memorable moments of an already outstanding module. There's an interesting cast of characters, the nightmarish court that's taken residence within. The Von Wittgensteins live up to the monstrous reputation Death on the Reik builds up, though the game leaves it uncertain whether their actions are the result of sanity destroying Chaos corruption or what it takes to remain atop such an unjust power structure. The other inhabitants range from posing a direct threat to simply going about their business and it's not as clear cut as "fighting monsters."

In fact, in one of the games more interesting twists on an iconic part of the setting, the players might temporarily side with the monsters in question.

The locked away, former patriarch of the Von Wittgenstein is potentially the most interesting character to come out of The Enemy Within. The most visibly mutated family member encountered, Ludwig has used his banishment to refine his lute playing and is quick to aid the adventurers in whatever ways he can manage. 

Death on the Reik uses Ludwig as a vehicle to capitalize on a point made passingly in earlier parts of The Enemy Within: the mutants the Empire indiscriminately butchers are hardly the unique threats they're made out to be. Unfortunately future volumes of The Enemy Within seemed to forget this theme (The ugly stereotypes that pop up even in this book make it feel a tad hypocritical) and Warhammer in all its forms would consistently fail to remain true to these original anti-establishment messages.

Frankly, they could have done more like that.

The player's time in Castle Wittgenstein ends in an appropriately outrageous and cinematic way. For such a long journey it is intentionally frustrating, almost a non-sequitur. While I think it works well for the setting and even Death on the Reik's story, I imagine it would have worked better if the originally planned fifth book The Horned Rat was released. Instead, it's another orphaned plot thread, an increasingly prominent issue as The Enemy Within goes on.

Lost in Translation

There's hours of great RPG content within the pages of Death on the Reik, but it takes time to decipher it. The book is littered with editing mistakes. Misspellings are just something I expect from Warhammer publications at this point and this book has some comical ones. Less amusing are some more structural issues.

A lot of Death on the Reik's maps famously have inconsistent dimensions or just don't line up properly. The order of the story, for all its player input and clever arrangement, does happen in a fairly linear sequence. However, information is laid out in a clumsy way, with some vital information scattered around haphazardly. It goes beyond poor organization in some places,with so much listed out of order and the occasional repeated NPC entry.

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Certain aspects just aren't properly developed. The aforementioned siege has "advice" more than concrete rules, as the GM is advised to either individually roll out a massive battle between the outlaws and guards or play out a game of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, neither of which are practical solutions. 

Most frustrating is the path of Etelka and her partners in crime. Death on the Reik details their missions, their individual motives, and how they'll react to certain situations. They even provide a time table for their journey down the River Reik, to be run parallel with the players' progress.

But when the time comes to actually confront them, only a destination is given. On one hand, the freedom to have their climactic battle play out as you see fit is refreshing and indicative of the openness that makes Death on the Reik so effective. But it seems like such an important moment to leave entirely at the GM's feet, especially since less important ones are given more structure.

The Hogshead reprint did little to fix this, having to thread together what was originally a D&D Red Box style release into a softcover book. though I'll at least say the scans were much cleaner, especially compared to the unreadable handouts of the Shadows Over Bogenhafen reprint.

Martin Mckenna's wonderful, personality filled art returns after its absence last book. A Tony Hough and Ian Miller illustrated Death on the Reik would be the stuff of nightmares. Miller's cover for the book might be my favorite fantasy illustration. But I think Mckenna was the right call for an adventure so driven by its NPC cast. There's a strange comedy to some of his more horror centric pieces in this book but it makes up the difference in atmosphere. That describes the tone of WFRP as a whole, so it's a good fit. 

Unfortunately, the Cubicle 7 PDF really mangled a lot of the art, so I'd honestly recommend going through the trouble of picking up a physical copy.

Despite all the headaches of trying to run Death on the Reik, it's worth every second. It's everything I could ask for from an adventure module. Beyond being a major piece of RPG history, there's still a lot to be learned from it and it remains just as daring as it was over 30 years ago.