The Enemy Within (Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay)

Last updated
Enemy within cover art 1986.jpg

The Enemy Within is a supplement published by Games Workshop in 1986 for the fantasy role-playing game Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay as the introduction to the 6-part The Enemy Within Campaign .

Contents

Contents

The Enemy Within is the first of six linked adventures in The Enemy Within Campaign that takes place in the Warhammer world, where hidden powers of Chaos plot the destruction of the Empire. [1]

The Enemy Within is designed to introduce players to the Warhammer setting. A 56-page booklet outlines how to run a campaign, and summarizes the history and setting of the Empire. [2]

The final 16 pages of the booklet contains an introductory adventure, "Mistaken Identity", in which one of the player characters discovers their double among the corpses of a mutant raid during a stagecoach trip, and the character is provided with a letter announcing a more than interesting inheritance. [3]

The Enemy Within also contains

Publication history

The six-part The Enemy Within Campaign, designed for the fantasy role-playing game Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, was published between 1986 and 1989. The first installment, The Enemy Within, was written by Phil Gallagher, Jim Bambra, and Graeme Davis. It was released in 1986 [4] as a boxed set.

Games Workshop republished the first three parts of The Enemy Within Campaign in 1989 as a softcover book titled Warhammer Adventure. [5]

In 1995, Hogshead Publishing acquired the license to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and published an updated version of the entire The Enemy Within Campaign as a series of six softcover books. [6]

In 2017, Cubicle 7 acquired the license for Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play, [7] and in 2019, began publishing a Director's Cut of the campaign for the fourth edition of the game, including a new edition of The Enemy Within, which was accompanied by a separate companion volume with additional bonus material. [8]

Reception

In the August 1987 edition of Dragon (Issue #124), Ken Rolston thought "the designers effectively exploit the distinctive tone and campaign background of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay." Rolston also admired the production values, saying, "the talented Games Workshop graphic design squad does a bang-up job on the look and feel of the package [...] The whole package has the agreeable heft of volume and the eye-pleasing impact of quality." However, Rolston felt the adventure railroaded the players, forcing them to follow a prescribed path. Despite this, he concluded with a thumbs up, saying, "The Enemy Within is recommended as a campaign supplement and adventure for WFR, and for students of superior supplement presentation. Despite the stated reservations about the adventure, the package is quite good and an indication that supplement support for WFR should be substantial and satisfying." [9]

In the July–August 1988 edition of Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer (Issue No. 82), Richard A. Edwards had high praise for this adventure, saying, "If you want to bring your roleplaying group a new experience in roleplaying and introduce them to new complexities of plot then run, do not walk, to your game store and purchase a copy." [1]

In Issue 37 of the French games magazine Casus Belli (April 1987), Jean Balczesak called this supplement "incredibly rich. Politics, history or religion, everything is covered! It is more focused on role playing than on combat." Balczesak concluded, "Even if you don't play Warhammer, check out this supplement, it's full of ideas that can be used for any medieval fantasy game." [2]

In Issue 4 of Australian Realms, Colin Taber used this supplement as an example of how to properly set up a fictional thieves' guild that has seduced and corrupted city officials, writing, "The aim of the seduction being to infiltrate the local government, through, and with the help of the guild ... It can be adapted to make a powerful and extremely dangerous opponent. If you were setting up a campaign think of how hard it would be, even for the most experienced characters to clean up and expose a city or town which is controlled by an alliance of a chaos warped thieves guild and Skaven or Beastmen." [10]

Other reviews and commentary

Related Research Articles

<i>Warhammer</i> (game) Miniature wargame

Warhammer is a tabletop miniature wargame with a medieval fantasy theme. The game was created by Bryan Ansell, Richard Halliwell, and Rick Priestley, and first published by the Games Workshop company in 1983.

Black Industries was the role-playing game imprint of BL Publishing, the publishing arm of Games Workshop. It was announced on January 28, 2008 that it would cease operations after its products currently scheduled for release are published.

The Enemy Within campaign is a series of adventures for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay where hidden powers of Chaos plot the destruction of the Empire. It was originally published by Games Workshop in the late 1980s. Praised as a detailed campaign that actually told a story, it was voted the best RPG campaign of all time by Casus Belli magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken Rolston</span> American game designer

Ken Rolston is an American computer game and role-playing game designer best known for his work with West End Games and on the computer game series The Elder Scrolls. In February 2007, he elected to join the staff of computer games company Big Huge Games to create a new role-playing game.

<i>Death on the Reik</i> Role-playing game supplement

Death on the Reik is a supplement published by Games Workshop in 1987 as the third installment of The Enemy Within Campaign created for the fantasy role-playing game Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

<i>Something Rotten in Kislev</i> Role-playing game supplement

Something Rotten in Kislev is a supplement published by Games Workshop in 1988 as the fifth installment of The Enemy Within Campaign created for the fantasy role-playing game Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Although it received good critical reception, there were complaints that this product did not match the previous four installements in tone, and in a later edition of the campaign, Something Rotten in Kislev was replaced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Pramas</span> American game designer

Chris Pramas is an American game designer and writer, as well as a founder of Green Ronin Publishing. He is best known as the designer of the Dragon Age RPG, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and Freeport: The City of Adventure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert J. Schwalb</span> American game designer

Robert J. Schwalb is a writer in the role-playing game industry, and has worked as a game designer and developer for such games as Dungeons & Dragons, A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and many other RPG supplements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cubicle 7</span> Publisher of tabletop role-playing games

Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd is an Irish games company that creates and publishes tabletop games. Best known for its Doctor Who and Lord of the Rings games, Cubicle 7 offers titles covering a range of licensed and self-developed properties.

<i>Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay</i> Fantasy roleplaying game

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay or Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play is a role-playing game set in the Warhammer Fantasy setting, published by Games Workshop or its licensees.

<i>Ravenloft: Realm of Terror</i>

Ravenloft: Realm of Terror is a boxed set accessory published in 1990 for the Ravenloft campaign setting for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.

Hogshead Publishing was a British game company that produced role-playing games and game supplements.

<i>Masks of Nyarlathotep</i> Horror tabletop role-playing game campaign

Masks of Nyarlathotep, subtitled Perilous Adventures to Thwart the Dark God, is an adventure campaign first published by Chaosium in 1984 for the second edition of the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu. A number of revised editions have subsequently been published. Masks of Nyarlathotep is a series of several sequential adventures set in the 1920s that take the player characters from New York, to London, Cairo, Nairobi, and Shanghai as they deal with the threat of the god Nyarlathotep. Screenwriter Larry DiTillio wrote the adventure with game designer Lynn Willis during a writer's strike. It received positive reviews in game periodicals including Casus Belli, The Space Gamer, White Dwarf, Different Worlds, and Dragon, and is considered to be one of the best roleplaying adventures of all time.

<i>Shadows Over Bögenhafen</i> Fantasy role-playing game suppplement

Shadows Over Bögenhafen is a supplement published by Games Workshop in 1987 as the second installment of The Enemy Within Campaign created for the fantasy role-playing game Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

<i>Covenants</i> (Ars Magica)

Covenants is a supplement published by White Wolf Publishing in 1990 for the fantasy role-playing game Ars Magica.

<i>Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness</i> RPG supplement published in 1988

Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness is a 1988 role-playing game supplement for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay published by Games Workshop.

<i>Power Behind the Throne</i> (Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay) Role-playing game supplement

Power Behind the Throne is a supplement published by Games Workshop in 1988 as the fourth installment of The Enemy Within Campaign created for the fantasy role-playing game Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

<i>Empire in Flames</i> Role-playing game supplement

Empire in Flames is a supplement published by Games Workshop in 1989 as the final installment of The Enemy Within Campaign created for the fantasy role-playing game Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Many players found this product disappointing, and in a later edition of the campaign, it was heavily revised.

References

  1. 1 2 Edwards, Richard A. (July–August 1988). "The Enemy Within". Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer (82). Diverse Talents, Incorporated: 42.
  2. 1 2 Belczesak, Jean (1987). "Têtes d'Affiches". Casus Belli (in French). No. 37. p. 24.
  3. "The Enemy Within". Guide du Rôliste Galactique (in French). 2009-05-08. Retrieved 2024-03-30.
  4. Appelcline, Shannon. "An A to Z of RPGs". RPGNet. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  5. "The Enemy Within Campaign". RPGGeek. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  6. Appelcline, Shannon (2014). Designers & Dragons: The '90s. Evil Hat. p. 221. ISBN   978-1-61317-084-7.
  7. David Miller (24 May 2017). "New Edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Coming From Cubicle 7" . Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  8. Callum Bains (24 December 2021). "How Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay rebooted a seminal RPG adventure" . Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  9. Rolston, Ken (August 1987). "Role-playing reviews". Dragon (124). TSR, Inc.: 12–14.
  10. Taber, Colin (October 1988). "Stop Thief!". Australian Realms. No. 4. pp. 5–7.