What does a 'Fresh Take' of The Enemy Within mean? (Patreon)

18 Days To Go!

I've said that I'm going to take a 'fresh take' on The Enemy Within campaign for the LAWhammer actual play.

So, what the hell does that mean in practice? 

Good questions. I think two quotations from WFRP should help us unravel this.

As I mentioned in the About section here on Patreon, in 2018, I wrote the following for page 7 of WFRP4:

'Throughout the book, we present as many options as we can so that you can tailor the game to your vision, many of which are marked clearly with ‘Options:’. If anything contradicts how you want to play your game, please feel free to change it.'

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I'm doing exactly that. I'm tailoring The Enemy Within to my own vision. I'm changing things to create the campaign I want to play. To tell the story I want to tell.

But why? Isn't what's there enough?

Well, there are many reasons I'm making changes, the most obvious of which is that I always do this when I run a campaign (as do most GMs). I'm an eternal tinkerer. I adapt and amend as required to make things suit my personal taste. 

But to explain in a little more depth, let's read another quotation to focus our thoughts a little.

In 2019, Graeme Davis wrote the following. It appears on page 6 of Enemy in Shadows Companion to explain what a Grognard box is:

'Over the last 30 years or so, an awful lot of people have played the Enemy Within campaign. This new version includes some changes and, at key points in the story, [Grognard] boxes like this one offer new ideas and different events to make the campaign just as fresh and challenging for seasoned WFRP fans as it was when it first appeared in 1987. Those players who think their previous knowledge will give them an advantage may find the forces in the shadows, and behind the screen, more formidable and tricky than before.'

And here we directly hit one of the issues I face.

Three of my players have either played, read, or worked on The Enemy Within campaign! So, if I'm going to entertain them as much as I entertain everyone else, I need to mix things up just a little. We must keep them on their toes!

However, I also want to make sure I present something that is undeniably The Enemy Within. So, there is a fine line to walk here between remaining true and being original, and walking that line is where my 'fresh take' begins.

Y'see, after much deliberation, I've actually decided not to change the plots, per se, but, instead, to more deeply explain them, and, in turn, the Empire as a whole.

And that involves... well, a lot.

In short, the following, which is far from an exhaustive list, is happening.

1) Replotting. Yes, yes, I know I just said I'm expressly not changing the overall plot, but I will be replotting many parts of the campaign to strengthen the whole. So, I'm re-examining every plot point and deciding what it does for the overall campaign. If the answer is 'nothing', I'll likely make a change or three. We have a limited number of sessions after all, and I'd prefer not to waste time on irrelevant material. So, that means we will also have...

2) Removals. Many of us already know the first three parts of the Enemy Within campaign very well already, so I'll be moving through those sections swiftly. To ensure that's not rushed, I am not afraid to remove anything that does not benefit the campaign as a whole. So, expect some streamlining. And, I suppose, some unexpected diversions. Because I'm not just removing, I'm adding a lot, too. And that involves...

3) Rewriting. Any sections that I feel need to be punched up to work better will be rewritten as required, including NPCs changing, plots shifting, and priorities developing in new ways. After all, some plot threads have long needed more material, so I'll just add it as required. For example...

4) WE SHALL INHERIT! I'll be examining what the Skav... <cough> ratlike Beastmen are actually doing, and why it is integral to the whole Enemy Within plot. Indeed, they are so integrated into what's going on, that they will be introduced much earlier to our campaign. And, on introducing things earlier...

5) Flashbacks. We also have several flashbacks planned to provide context to the campaign as a whole. That should help us explain characters like 'Gideon' more clearly. And help explain what's going on and why from the perspective of others. One of the biggest complaints from players of The Enemy Within is that they don't understand what's actually going on because so much of the plot is not player-facing. That's super easy to fix, and fixing it will allow us to examine other core events from a new angle. Such as...

6) THE EMPEROR DID WHAT? Ubersreik. Yes, we'll explain what happened in the core setting of the WFRP Starter Set. And why. Coz, it needs some deeper examination. Properly explaining that, and a certain decree that the Emperor makes and the earth-shaking impact it has Empire-wide, is essential. As is an examination of...

7) The Purple Hand. SPOILERS! Hmm, perhaps less controversially...

8) The Imperial Herald. We'll dive deep into the Emmanuelle Nacht connections to the Enemy Within, Ubersreik, and the Purple Hand. Because she was linked early to those but her involvement wasn't fully explained. It will be in our game. As will...

9) ARE YOU A GOD? The Sigmarian Heresy. That doozy of a philosophical argument is central to much of the campaign, and it needs to be examined more closely. After all, because of its central teaching, we're going to end up in actual, proper...

10) RUINS! Yes, the Empire in Ruins. And let me stress that word: Ruins.
In Ruins.
IN.
RUINS.
It's gonna be bad, and it's going to involve the entire Empire, and I'm not giving that short shrift. The PCs are going to be busy! And the end results will have many unexpected ramifications, perhaps even including that...

11) DASH? Seriously, what's up with Karl-Franz (dash)? Or is that Karl Franz (no dash)? We'll explain both, why it's so important, and why it's also the first step to seeing...

12) The Greens of Their Eyes. Perhaps surprisingly, this all ties into the Third Battle for Black Fire pass. How? Welll... Spoilers! But, no matter if we're dealing with cultists, Ska- Ratlike beastmen, civil war, or more, it will always tie back to whom the bell tolls, it...

13) Tolls For Thee! Because the... erm... whiskered Beastmen are going to be there from the very beginning to the very end. Coz, really, this is as much their story as anyone's. Just think of what's going to happen to Ubersreik, after all. There was a reason I was chatting so much with Fatshark. But, as I'm sure you expect, this is just the tip of the iceberg, of course there is much...

14?) MORR! The more I type, the more that springs to mind! But, I think I've teased enough. If I've not covered a dangling plot you expected me to explain, pop it in the comments either here or in the LAWhammer Discord.

I discussed all of the above and more with Graeme Davis when we were planning the rewrite of the campaign. 

I was assigned to do all the new material, and Graeme was dealing with collating the old material and bringing it up to date. 

And, away we went.

But I resigned from producing WFRP at Gen Con 2019 before I could write my bits for the campaign. Others picked up where I left off, but they went in a very different direction to what I planned, for all the synopsis Graeme and I wrote still provides a measure of a framework for the finished work.

So, all the ideas we planned went nowhere.

Let's not let all that work go to waste, eh?

Let's write another 100 Gognard boxes together!

After all, I have played The Enemy Within campaign more times than I can remember. I sometimes say 27, or 20, or 35, but I really have no idea how many times I've played it. I do know I've completed it three times. And none of those ended in the same way. And I do know I have lots of ideas for how to tie it all together in a fashion that works for WFRP1-4 and Warhammer 1-8 more neatly.

Having played it so many times, and having worked on the Enemy Within with both the campaign's original creators and the new, if anyone is in place to write a Grognard box or two, it's probably me. So, I am. Like, loads of them. And I'm using them for our actual play.

And, like the Grognard boxes in the Enemy Within Companions, if any of my suggestions sound cool to you, just add them to your campaign, too!

Time to start plotting!

I will be blogging about it all as we go along, so expect a lot on this over the months as we play through a fresh take on WFRP's The Enemy Within...

...WHICH GOES LIVE IN 18 DAYS!