August 28, 2025 • 25 mins
Join us as we crack open Cubicle 7's supplement for the Enemy Within campaign, The Enemy in Shadows Companion - the essential guide to adventuring in the Reikland (allegedly).
Is this a storehouse of useful added extras, or something that trades on nostalgia for nostalgia's sake?
Listen along and find out...
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EMAIL: roll.to.save.pod@gmail.com
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WEBSITE: https://rolltosave.blog
HOSTS: Iain Wilson, Steve McGarrity, Jason Downey
BACKGROUND MUSIC: David Renada (Find him at: davidrendamusic@gmail.com or on his web page).
TITLE, BREAK & CLOSEOUT MUSIC: Xylo-Ziko (Find them on their web page).
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Iain (00:10):
Welcome to Roll to Save, the RPG history podcast.
Warhammer fantasy roleplay.
Hello and welcome to anotherepisode of Roll to Save.
(00:32):
I'm your host, ian, and todaywe are going to be diving in and
reviewing Cubicle 7's the Enemyin Shadows Companion all 128
pages of it.
Now, as I mentioned in the lastepisode when we talked about
Enemy in Shadow, as I attemptedto run this back when I was 12
years old and if you've everseen or imagined a 12 year old
(00:53):
trying to run a complexconspiracy thriller involving
political intrigue, religiouscults and moral ambiguity, it
probably goes as well as youwould imagine I distinctly
remember turning the entirething into what was essentially
our early renaissance version ofthe A-Team, complete with the
party building elaborate trapsfor cultists and my NPCs
(01:16):
delivering exposition, with allthe subtlety of Saturday morning
cartoon characters, thepolitical nuances of
Bogenhafen's Merchant Houses.
Yet completely lost in me, thecreeping horror of discovering
corruption in the very heart ofthe Empire yep turned into a
straightforward good versus evilslugfest where the bad guys had
(01:39):
all the moral complexity ofCobra Commander from GI Joe.
However, we had an absoluteblast.
And here's the thing about theenemy within it's kind of robust
enough to survive even the mostenthusiastic meddling by
inexperienced 12 year old GMs,which brings us on to our topic
(01:59):
in hand.
Does the enemy in Shadow'sCompanion honour that legacy, or
is it a cash grab disguised asessential content?
So if we look at what cubicle 7is promising here, the enemy in
shadows campaign is touted asthe essential companion to
campaigning in the right land.
I don't know about you, butwhenever I see the word
(02:22):
essential in marketing, myspidey senses start tingling.
Essential to whom, exactly?
And essential for what purpose?
The book positions itself askind of the special features
from those DVD collections whichwe all used to buy, you know,
back when we actually ownedphysical media, actually owned
(02:46):
physical media.
This is actually an issue I'llcome to later on in the podcast,
but I have this with a lot ofthe enemy within material that
Cubicle 7 are putting out forWarhammer.
A lot of the references arefairly dated.
Now, if I'm an RPG companynowadays, presumably I am trying
to bring in a new audience.
I'm not making Warhammer forWarhammer nostalgia's sake, so
presumably I'm wanting my Gen Zand Gen Alpha people to be
(03:09):
playing this.
I'm not sure they're going toget the reference to DVDs
special content.
They're not a generation thatgrew up with director's
commentaries, behind the scenesmaterial and deleted scenes that
you used to get on DVDs.
However, that is the metaphorwe're meant to be going with
here.
What we've got is a book thatdoesn't necessarily contain core
(03:32):
campaign material.
It's the extra stuff that thecompletionists and superfans
would probably want.
So let's dive into it.
What we get at the beginning,it really goes right from the
off for this director'scommentary view, and we get two
guest commentaries from GrahamDavis and Phil Gallagher, two of
the writers behind the originalEnemy Within campaign in the
(03:57):
80s, and these are a genuinelydelightful read.
They share war stories from thecampaign's development and
provide context for the creativedecisions that shaped this
legendary campaign.
There's also an Easter eggschapter which explains all the
terrible puns and culturalreferences from Warhammer's
first edition of the EnemyWithin.
(04:18):
I was never a great fan ofthese.
I always found the toneslightly jarring.
Never a great fan of these.
I always find the tone slightlyjarring.
You're touting your game asbeing this grim world of
perilous adventure and thenputting a character in called
Baron Von Saponatime, whichreally kind of kills the mood
somewhat.
It's apparently the best kindof terrible joke, but it's not
(04:39):
something that sat well with meAnyway, my grumpiness aside, and
this gives you a little rundownof all the terrible puns that
existed in the first edition ofthe Enemy Within.
But with that out of the way, wego on to a chapter on expanded
Empire material.
It's about 10 pages of corecontent about the Empire and I
(05:01):
have some mixed feelings aboutit.
On the surface this providesreally useful world building
that helps GMs understand thepolitical and social context of
the campaign.
We get information on Zygmarsrealm, details about how towns
function and insights into therelationship between the Emperor
(05:22):
, the electors, the guilds, thevarious minor nobles.
It's all good stuff.
But here's the thing that bugsme.
Most of this material has beenlifted directly from the
original 1986 Enemy Withinsupplement.
We're kind of paying forreprinted content that's nearly
40 years old now.
(05:43):
I understand that not everyonehas the original books, but it
feels a bit cheeky to presentrecycled material in a new
context.
Most frustratingly though, thisinformation feels like it should
have been in the main warhammerfantasy role play, fourth
edition rulebook.
In the first place, if youremember the first edition
rulebook, it didn't just giveyou information about the reek
(06:04):
land, it gave you the entire oldworld, you details about
bretonia, the border, princes,kislev, the whole lot.
Fourth edition's core book onlycovers the right land, and even
then it's pretty sparse on thepolitical detail.
So we have a situation wherecubicle seven is artificially
separated content.
It should have been corematerial and they're now selling
(06:26):
it back to us as a supplement.
That being said, this politicalinformation is genuinely
important for the campaign.
Without wanting to spoilanything, I could tell you the
later volumes of the enemywithin focus heavily on
political shenanigans, sounderstanding the empire's power
(06:47):
structure becomes crucial.
So while I'm annoyed at havingto buy this information
separately, I can't deny it'sactually going to be useful to
people running the enemy withinthe campaign.
Now, with that out of the way,we get into some chapters where
the book really starts toprovide genuinely useful content
, and this comes in the form ofits treatment of travel and
(07:10):
transport.
It provides vehicle rules thatare comprehensive and genuinely
useful.
Finally, we've got properguidelines for coaches, karts
and all the other various waysyour characters can get around
the Empire.
There's even rules for sedanchairs for those characters
feeling very hoity-toity.
The mishap tables areparticularly excellent.
(07:31):
Nothing quite captures thatgrim and perilous feeling like
having your horse throw a shoejust as bandits appear on the
horizon.
These tables all add realconsequence and flavour to what
could otherwise be boring travelsequences, but there's a
particular part of thepresentation that frustrated me.
The rules do include dailytravel rates, but they're buried
(07:55):
in the text as mathematicalcalculations you have to work
out yourself.
So to quote from the book.
So if I want to know how far myriding horse can travel in a
day, I need to multiply itsmovement rate by the hourly rate
(08:28):
, then by the number of hours,factor and rest period.
Come on Cubicle7,.
Just give me a table andabstract it.
This is exactly the kind ofpractical information that
should be presented clearly, notburied in a paragraph of text
requiring me to do mentalgymnastics.
That being said, even if I hadthis table that conveniently
(08:49):
showed me how far my draftanimals or my riding horse could
travel in a day, there's noreal indication in this
supplement, or any of the otherWarhammer supplements, on how
far apart settlements actuallyare.
So without knowing the distancebetween, say, altdorf and
bugenhafen, I can't use thesetravel rules effectively.
(09:11):
The system tells me how tocalculate travel time but
doesn't give me any baselinedistances to make those
calculations meaningful.
And, speaking of myth guidance.
They have a wonderful sectionon travel stages, what you can
do in each stage of a journey,and it gives you various fun,
(09:31):
thematically appropriate travelendeavours, which are things
players can do on long journeysto split it up.
So, for example, they mightwant to practice skills, they
might want to keep watch fortrouble.
These are things that mean thatjourneys aren't just hand-waved
away or they aren't just boringdescriptions of countryside as
(09:51):
you travel.
Stuff happens.
However, the travel rules don'testablish what one travel stage
actually represents in terms ofdistance.
Is it 5 miles, 10 miles, 20?
Actually represents in terms ofdistance.
Is it five miles, 10 miles, 20?
There's a how far is it?
Sidebar that provides someexamples, but it all feels
pretty arbitrary.
Don't get me wrong.
(10:11):
These are great rules but as agm, I'd appreciate more
structured guidance on pacingthese travel sequences out.
And for those of you whohaven't run the enemy within
before, the enemy withininvolves a lot of travel.
So these rules would be greatfor providing colour in journeys
and not turning it into just aseries of random encounters.
(10:33):
Anyway, that aside, we get intochapter six and that covers road
wardens, and this is a lot ofsolid, practical material that
helps bring the empire's roadsto life.
The road wands aren't justgeneric guards who happen to be
on the road.
They're a specific institutionwith their own culture, methods,
limitations and jurisdictions.
(10:53):
Think of them as the highwaypatrol or state troopers of the
empire.
This chapter provides usefulguidance on how road warden
patrols operate, theirrelationship with tall houses
and coaching inns, and how theymight interact with travellers.
I also particularly appreciatehow the material presents
roadwardens as more than justthe cops.
(11:14):
They are information brokers,local contacts and potential
allies or obstacles, dependingon what mishap shared characters
get into.
It's actually this kind ofdetail that makes the Warhammer
world feel lived in and originaland not just generic fantasy
kingdom number two.
So we then get to a chapterwhere this book absolutely
(11:39):
excels, and that's the npc goldmine for your campaign entitled
road riffraff, which is reallyhard to say and I've had to do
about three takes on.
This chapter is genuinelyexcellent.
It gives a whole bunch of fullystarted characters with
personalities, motivations andpotential plot hooks.
(12:00):
These aren't just stat blockswith names.
They're genuine characters withbackgrounds and stories to tell
.
There are some genuinely cleverNPCs in here.
I particularly love Kitty Uala,who's a foreign trader selling
something called cafe, an exoticdrink.
The advice in using her as anentry point to merchant circles
(12:21):
in Bogenhafen is excellent, andit also helps cement that really
xenophobic attitude that theold world have in a way that
feels natural rather thanpreachy and tacked on.
What I particularly appreciateis how the NPCs come with
detailed suggestions forintegration into your campaign
through these little boxes theycall them shadow cast boxes that
(12:44):
explain how to weave them intothe main plot.
These aren't just randomencounters.
There are potential recurringcharacters who can add depth and
continuity to your story.
We see that a lot throughoutthe Enemy Within.
Even in the original campaignthey introduced NPCs who they
wanted to serve as continuitypoints across the whole campaign
(13:05):
, so it's lovely to see thisdone here as well.
However, there is a problem herethat I alluded to earlier, and
it's just this broader issuethat comes with updating classic
Warhammer material for modernaudiences.
Some of the humour and culturalreferences are painfully dated
and uniquely British.
(13:25):
Now, this was fine back in the1980s, when the creators assumed
that their little pretendygoblin game would never reach
foreign shows.
But we're in the 21st century.
Now there's new generations ofgamers playing and presumably
they're selling to a globalaudience, which means that a lot
of this stuff doesn't work.
Humour is always the firstthing to show its age.
(13:48):
Humour is always the firstthing to show its age, so it's
baffling that, in a chapter thatis all new content, that the
authors would choose to includereferences to British comedy TV
shows from the 80s.
It's just going to fall flat onnew gamers and it feels
outdated and out of touch.
That being said, the chapter isgenuinely excellent.
(14:14):
It has a lot of great contentthat can be added into your
campaign, which will reallyenhance it.
This is exactly the sort ofstuff that these companion books
should be doing providingenhancements to the ongoing
campaign, and that continues inchapter eight.
Chapter eight is all aboutmutants, and the treatment here
is genuinely excellent and showsa real understanding of what
makes Warhammer special anddifferent.
(14:35):
This isn't just about rollingin mutation tables, though there
are plenty of those and theyare good.
It's about understanding howmutation affects individuals and
their families and how mutantssurvive in a world that
ultimately wants them dead.
The section on mutant societyis particularly valuable, giving
GMs insight into the hiddencommunities and desperate
(14:57):
measures that keep the Empire'schanged citizens alive.
It presents mutants as morethan just stock bad guys to
throw at the players when youhaven't had a combat for a while
.
They are tragic figures,victims of cosmic forces beyond
their control, struggling tomaintain their humanity in a
world that sees them as monsters.
(15:18):
That's the sort of nuancedworld building that Warhammer
does at its very best, and it'sgreat to see it's represented
here.
We then have information onChaos, sorcery and Demons, and
this is fantastic.
It fits perfectly in a campaignwhose focus is on hidden Chaos
cults.
The new spells, talents andcreature stats provide
(15:40):
mechanical support for thesupernatural corruption that
drives the campaign's mainthemes In the chapter on the
purple hand the breakdown of thecult's structure, cell
organisation, recruitmentmethods, the way they manipulate
secular organisations.
It creates antagonists who feelgenuinely threatening because
(16:02):
they're embedded in the world'sexisting power structures.
They're not just moustachetwirling villains.
They represent insidiouscorruption that can come from
anywhere.
Hey, surprise, surprise, theenemy within.
However, there's a significantproblem with this chapter that
speaks to larger issues, withthe campaign as a whole.
(16:22):
The Purple Hand information,whilst detailed, has clearly
been written without any overalldirection for the campaign
being established.
It provides rough informationabout the cult without actually
detailing their endgame orultimate objectives.
Instead, we get a lot ofhand-waving to the effect of
well, they're very decentralisedand nobody knows what anyone
(16:43):
else is doing, rather than soliddetails about what they're
actually trying to accomplishthan solid details about what
they're actually trying toaccomplish.
As with a lot of the rest ofthe campaign, it feels like the
whole direction wasn't plannedout in advance.
All in all, the information inthe Purple Hand chapter is
useful but frustratingly vague.
As a GM, I want to understandthe cult's goals so I can
(17:06):
foreshadow them properly andcreate meaningful opposition to
my player characters.
Now we get to the final threechapters, and if I was writing a
blog about this, I'd probablyhave a heading here saying the
Problem with Nostalgia, becausethese chapters are where my
patience with nostalgia for itsown sake finally runs out.
These are titled as Bonus ShortAdventures, but they're
(17:30):
actually reprints from WhiteWolf magazine in the 80s and
they're every bit as dated asyou'd expect.
Chapter 10's on the road.
It's harmless enough, it's afew encounters, and Imerata the
Shapeshifting Hunter has someinteresting elements.
But it does specifically callout the fact that none canon
(17:51):
anymore and it feels like fillerwhen you're actually paying for
new content.
But it's chapter 11, the affairof the hidden jewel where
things get genuinely problematic.
For me, this adventure has acompletely different tone from
the rest of the campaign.
I could see the previousadventure being in chapter 10
(18:12):
being fitted in as a roadsideencounter.
But the enemy in shadows?
It carefully builds anatmosphere of creeping dread and
moral ambiguity.
The Hidden Jewel is aswashbuckling romp, complete
with dastardly counts and hiddentreasures.
The adventure literally comeswith editorial notes telling GMs
(18:32):
to ham it up, and this standscompletely at odds with the tone
that's been set for the rest ofthe campaign.
Modern Warhammer tries reallyhard to sell itself on being
grim and dark and perilous tostand out from the myriad other
fantasy games that are on themarket.
I mean, this is a game whereyou can literally die of
(18:55):
exposure or the common cold,which isn't very noble and
glamorous.
Including this adventure inyour enemy within campaign would
actively undermine the tonethat is trying to be set and
that's what really marks thisout as filler.
Early Warhammer included a lotof kind of winking, nudging
humour in some of itssupplements, but the real
(19:15):
silliness was confined to thepages of White Dwarf magazine.
I remember reading someadventures and thinking why has
my grim, dark role-playing gamesuddenly become all Monty
Python-esque.
That is where this sort ofadventure firmly belongs.
It's a daft one-shot that youwould run.
It's not something that belongsin a companion for a campaign.
(19:37):
That's about creeping, horrorand corruption.
Chapter 12, the pandemoniumcarnival, is also a baffling
inclusion, mainly because thefact it deals with a traveling
freak show and one of the mainparts of enemy in shadows is is
a travelling freak show.
Having two of these in the samecampaign serving similar
(20:00):
narrative functions feelsredundant in the worst possible
way and unlike the main one inEnemy in Shadows, which feels
like it could fit into the world.
Even in the 80s when this wasprinted, it felt tonally
slightly at odds with thesetting.
This is a freak show that isfilled with captive mutant beast
(20:21):
men.
This simply does not fittonally with modern Warhammer,
where the slightest taint ofchaos is burnt out quite
literally by the church.
The very existence of thisthing just stretches credibility
to breaking point and the bookitself acknowledges it and
launches into all sorts ofelaborate explanations and plot
(20:43):
devices about imperial licensesand pacts with ancient dwarfs
that allow it to exist.
But it feels absolutely absurdand again it feels like padding
for padding's sake.
There already exists within themain campaign, a similar
attraction that fulfills a veryspecific narrative purpose.
(21:04):
So why include this one otherthan nostalgia?
This is where my frustrationsabout the companion come in.
The first nine chapters areabsolutely solid.
They show what this book shouldhave been throughout Practical
tools, atmospheric details, newNPCs to include plot threads for
(21:24):
the main campaign it's all goodstuff that understands what the
enemy within campaign is and,more importantly, enhances it.
Now imagine if those final 30or so pages of the book had been
filled with new adventures ornew adventure hooks that built
on the main campaign's themes,picture original encounters that
explored the political tensionsof the right land, or maybe
(21:47):
investigations tied into thepurple hand conspiracy.
We could have had material thatenhanced the campaign's central
concerns and which followed thetheme of the enemy within.
Instead, we get these museumpieces that feel disconnected
from both the main campaign andthe canon of the modern game as
a whole.
It's particularly disappointingbecause the strong material in
(22:11):
the early chapters show thatCubicle 7 clearly understands
not only what makes Warhammerspecial, but what makes the
enemy within campaign specialwhen they focus on it.
So where does this leave us?
Well, the Enemy in ShadowsCompanion is a book I genuinely
like, despite its questionableeditorial choices.
(22:32):
When it focuses on expandingthe campaign with practical
tools and atmospheric detail,it's genuinely excellent.
The road travel rules, the NPCcollection and the background
material on mutants and chaoscults they will all improve your
Enemy in Shadows campaign.
But those reprinted adventuresfeel like padding, pure and
(22:57):
simple.
You know the sort of thing.
That would have been a greatpdf download for nostalgia
hunting, grog dance, but theyabsolutely do not belong in a
premium supplement aimed atmodern players, and even amongst
old players I don't know anyonewho's been like man.
I've been really waiting for afourth edition update to the
Affair of the Hidden Jewel.
(23:18):
Overall for groups that areactively running the campaign,
I'd recommend this book for thefirst nine chapters, but either
ignore the rest or explore itwith skepticism.
The content that you get in thefirst nine chapters is
genuinely useful and the NPCsalone will enhance your campaign
(23:39):
for months, if not years, tocome.
However, with the other oldadventures, don't feel obligated
to inflict Wolfgang's Carnivalon your players just because you
paid for it.
So I will give this an overallrating of 3 out of 5.
Freak shows.
I like a lot of the content init.
(24:00):
A bit annoyed at some of itShould have maybe been in the
main rulebook and slightly irkedby some of the padding.
And that's it for today'sepisode.
(24:30):
We hope you enjoyed it.
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For new listeners, we have aback catalogue of around 70
episodes now dealing withhistory, roundtables, interviews
, product reviews and someactual plays as well, so please
(24:51):
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(25:11):
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So until next time, keep yourpowder dry, your faith in Zygma
strong and remember, in the grimworld of Perilous Adventure,
(25:31):
sometimes the real enemy isshameless nostalgia-baiting.
Welcome to Roll to Save, the RPG history podcast.
Warhammer fantasy roleplay.
Hello and welcome to anotherepisode of Roll to Save.
(00:32):
I'm your host, ian, and todaywe are going to be diving in and
reviewing Cubicle 7's the Enemyin Shadows Companion all 128
pages of it.
Now, as I mentioned in the lastepisode when we talked about
Enemy in Shadow, as I attemptedto run this back when I was 12
years old and if you've everseen or imagined a 12 year old
(00:53):
trying to run a complexconspiracy thriller involving
political intrigue, religiouscults and moral ambiguity, it
probably goes as well as youwould imagine I distinctly
remember turning the entirething into what was essentially
our early renaissance version ofthe A-Team, complete with the
party building elaborate trapsfor cultists and my NPCs
(01:16):
delivering exposition, with allthe subtlety of Saturday morning
cartoon characters, thepolitical nuances of
Bogenhafen's Merchant Houses.
Yet completely lost in me, thecreeping horror of discovering
corruption in the very heart ofthe Empire yep turned into a
straightforward good versus evilslugfest where the bad guys had
(01:39):
all the moral complexity ofCobra Commander from GI Joe.
However, we had an absoluteblast.
And here's the thing about theenemy within it's kind of robust
enough to survive even the mostenthusiastic meddling by
inexperienced 12 year old GMs,which brings us on to our topic
(01:59):
in hand.
Does the enemy in Shadow'sCompanion honour that legacy, or
is it a cash grab disguised asessential content?
So if we look at what cubicle 7is promising here, the enemy in
shadows campaign is touted asthe essential companion to
campaigning in the right land.
I don't know about you, butwhenever I see the word
(02:22):
essential in marketing, myspidey senses start tingling.
Essential to whom, exactly?
And essential for what purpose?
The book positions itself askind of the special features
from those DVD collections whichwe all used to buy, you know,
back when we actually ownedphysical media, actually owned
(02:46):
physical media.
This is actually an issue I'llcome to later on in the podcast,
but I have this with a lot ofthe enemy within material that
Cubicle 7 are putting out forWarhammer.
A lot of the references arefairly dated.
Now, if I'm an RPG companynowadays, presumably I am trying
to bring in a new audience.
I'm not making Warhammer forWarhammer nostalgia's sake, so
presumably I'm wanting my Gen Zand Gen Alpha people to be
(03:09):
playing this.
I'm not sure they're going toget the reference to DVDs
special content.
They're not a generation thatgrew up with director's
commentaries, behind the scenesmaterial and deleted scenes that
you used to get on DVDs.
However, that is the metaphorwe're meant to be going with
here.
What we've got is a book thatdoesn't necessarily contain core
(03:32):
campaign material.
It's the extra stuff that thecompletionists and superfans
would probably want.
So let's dive into it.
What we get at the beginning,it really goes right from the
off for this director'scommentary view, and we get two
guest commentaries from GrahamDavis and Phil Gallagher, two of
the writers behind the originalEnemy Within campaign in the
(03:57):
80s, and these are a genuinelydelightful read.
They share war stories from thecampaign's development and
provide context for the creativedecisions that shaped this
legendary campaign.
There's also an Easter eggschapter which explains all the
terrible puns and culturalreferences from Warhammer's
first edition of the EnemyWithin.
(04:18):
I was never a great fan ofthese.
I always found the toneslightly jarring.
Never a great fan of these.
I always find the tone slightlyjarring.
You're touting your game asbeing this grim world of
perilous adventure and thenputting a character in called
Baron Von Saponatime, whichreally kind of kills the mood
somewhat.
It's apparently the best kindof terrible joke, but it's not
(04:39):
something that sat well with meAnyway, my grumpiness aside, and
this gives you a little rundownof all the terrible puns that
existed in the first edition ofthe Enemy Within.
But with that out of the way, wego on to a chapter on expanded
Empire material.
It's about 10 pages of corecontent about the Empire and I
(05:01):
have some mixed feelings aboutit.
On the surface this providesreally useful world building
that helps GMs understand thepolitical and social context of
the campaign.
We get information on Zygmarsrealm, details about how towns
function and insights into therelationship between the Emperor
(05:22):
, the electors, the guilds, thevarious minor nobles.
It's all good stuff.
But here's the thing that bugsme.
Most of this material has beenlifted directly from the
original 1986 Enemy Withinsupplement.
We're kind of paying forreprinted content that's nearly
40 years old now.
(05:43):
I understand that not everyonehas the original books, but it
feels a bit cheeky to presentrecycled material in a new
context.
Most frustratingly though, thisinformation feels like it should
have been in the main warhammerfantasy role play, fourth
edition rulebook.
In the first place, if youremember the first edition
rulebook, it didn't just giveyou information about the reek
(06:04):
land, it gave you the entire oldworld, you details about
bretonia, the border, princes,kislev, the whole lot.
Fourth edition's core book onlycovers the right land, and even
then it's pretty sparse on thepolitical detail.
So we have a situation wherecubicle seven is artificially
separated content.
It should have been corematerial and they're now selling
(06:26):
it back to us as a supplement.
That being said, this politicalinformation is genuinely
important for the campaign.
Without wanting to spoilanything, I could tell you the
later volumes of the enemywithin focus heavily on
political shenanigans, sounderstanding the empire's power
(06:47):
structure becomes crucial.
So while I'm annoyed at havingto buy this information
separately, I can't deny it'sactually going to be useful to
people running the enemy withinthe campaign.
Now, with that out of the way,we get into some chapters where
the book really starts toprovide genuinely useful content
, and this comes in the form ofits treatment of travel and
(07:10):
transport.
It provides vehicle rules thatare comprehensive and genuinely
useful.
Finally, we've got properguidelines for coaches, karts
and all the other various waysyour characters can get around
the Empire.
There's even rules for sedanchairs for those characters
feeling very hoity-toity.
The mishap tables areparticularly excellent.
(07:31):
Nothing quite captures thatgrim and perilous feeling like
having your horse throw a shoejust as bandits appear on the
horizon.
These tables all add realconsequence and flavour to what
could otherwise be boring travelsequences, but there's a
particular part of thepresentation that frustrated me.
The rules do include dailytravel rates, but they're buried
(07:55):
in the text as mathematicalcalculations you have to work
out yourself.
So to quote from the book.
So if I want to know how far myriding horse can travel in a
day, I need to multiply itsmovement rate by the hourly rate
(08:28):
, then by the number of hours,factor and rest period.
Come on Cubicle7,.
Just give me a table andabstract it.
This is exactly the kind ofpractical information that
should be presented clearly, notburied in a paragraph of text
requiring me to do mentalgymnastics.
That being said, even if I hadthis table that conveniently
(08:49):
showed me how far my draftanimals or my riding horse could
travel in a day, there's noreal indication in this
supplement, or any of the otherWarhammer supplements, on how
far apart settlements actuallyare.
So without knowing the distancebetween, say, altdorf and
bugenhafen, I can't use thesetravel rules effectively.
(09:11):
The system tells me how tocalculate travel time but
doesn't give me any baselinedistances to make those
calculations meaningful.
And, speaking of myth guidance.
They have a wonderful sectionon travel stages, what you can
do in each stage of a journey,and it gives you various fun,
(09:31):
thematically appropriate travelendeavours, which are things
players can do on long journeysto split it up.
So, for example, they mightwant to practice skills, they
might want to keep watch fortrouble.
These are things that mean thatjourneys aren't just hand-waved
away or they aren't just boringdescriptions of countryside as
(09:51):
you travel.
Stuff happens.
However, the travel rules don'testablish what one travel stage
actually represents in terms ofdistance.
Is it 5 miles, 10 miles, 20?
Actually represents in terms ofdistance.
Is it five miles, 10 miles, 20?
There's a how far is it?
Sidebar that provides someexamples, but it all feels
pretty arbitrary.
Don't get me wrong.
(10:11):
These are great rules but as agm, I'd appreciate more
structured guidance on pacingthese travel sequences out.
And for those of you whohaven't run the enemy within
before, the enemy withininvolves a lot of travel.
So these rules would be greatfor providing colour in journeys
and not turning it into just aseries of random encounters.
(10:33):
Anyway, that aside, we get intochapter six and that covers road
wardens, and this is a lot ofsolid, practical material that
helps bring the empire's roadsto life.
The road wands aren't justgeneric guards who happen to be
on the road.
They're a specific institutionwith their own culture, methods,
limitations and jurisdictions.
(10:53):
Think of them as the highwaypatrol or state troopers of the
empire.
This chapter provides usefulguidance on how road warden
patrols operate, theirrelationship with tall houses
and coaching inns, and how theymight interact with travellers.
I also particularly appreciatehow the material presents
roadwardens as more than justthe cops.
(11:14):
They are information brokers,local contacts and potential
allies or obstacles, dependingon what mishap shared characters
get into.
It's actually this kind ofdetail that makes the Warhammer
world feel lived in and originaland not just generic fantasy
kingdom number two.
So we then get to a chapterwhere this book absolutely
(11:39):
excels, and that's the npc goldmine for your campaign entitled
road riffraff, which is reallyhard to say and I've had to do
about three takes on.
This chapter is genuinelyexcellent.
It gives a whole bunch of fullystarted characters with
personalities, motivations andpotential plot hooks.
(12:00):
These aren't just stat blockswith names.
They're genuine characters withbackgrounds and stories to tell
.
There are some genuinely cleverNPCs in here.
I particularly love Kitty Uala,who's a foreign trader selling
something called cafe, an exoticdrink.
The advice in using her as anentry point to merchant circles
(12:21):
in Bogenhafen is excellent, andit also helps cement that really
xenophobic attitude that theold world have in a way that
feels natural rather thanpreachy and tacked on.
What I particularly appreciateis how the NPCs come with
detailed suggestions forintegration into your campaign
through these little boxes theycall them shadow cast boxes that
(12:44):
explain how to weave them intothe main plot.
These aren't just randomencounters.
There are potential recurringcharacters who can add depth and
continuity to your story.
We see that a lot throughoutthe Enemy Within.
Even in the original campaignthey introduced NPCs who they
wanted to serve as continuitypoints across the whole campaign
(13:05):
, so it's lovely to see thisdone here as well.
However, there is a problem herethat I alluded to earlier, and
it's just this broader issuethat comes with updating classic
Warhammer material for modernaudiences.
Some of the humour and culturalreferences are painfully dated
and uniquely British.
(13:25):
Now, this was fine back in the1980s, when the creators assumed
that their little pretendygoblin game would never reach
foreign shows.
But we're in the 21st century.
Now there's new generations ofgamers playing and presumably
they're selling to a globalaudience, which means that a lot
of this stuff doesn't work.
Humour is always the firstthing to show its age.
(13:48):
Humour is always the firstthing to show its age, so it's
baffling that, in a chapter thatis all new content, that the
authors would choose to includereferences to British comedy TV
shows from the 80s.
It's just going to fall flat onnew gamers and it feels
outdated and out of touch.
That being said, the chapter isgenuinely excellent.
(14:14):
It has a lot of great contentthat can be added into your
campaign, which will reallyenhance it.
This is exactly the sort ofstuff that these companion books
should be doing providingenhancements to the ongoing
campaign, and that continues inchapter eight.
Chapter eight is all aboutmutants, and the treatment here
is genuinely excellent and showsa real understanding of what
makes Warhammer special anddifferent.
(14:35):
This isn't just about rollingin mutation tables, though there
are plenty of those and theyare good.
It's about understanding howmutation affects individuals and
their families and how mutantssurvive in a world that
ultimately wants them dead.
The section on mutant societyis particularly valuable, giving
GMs insight into the hiddencommunities and desperate
(14:57):
measures that keep the Empire'schanged citizens alive.
It presents mutants as morethan just stock bad guys to
throw at the players when youhaven't had a combat for a while
.
They are tragic figures,victims of cosmic forces beyond
their control, struggling tomaintain their humanity in a
world that sees them as monsters.
(15:18):
That's the sort of nuancedworld building that Warhammer
does at its very best, and it'sgreat to see it's represented
here.
We then have information onChaos, sorcery and Demons, and
this is fantastic.
It fits perfectly in a campaignwhose focus is on hidden Chaos
cults.
The new spells, talents andcreature stats provide
(15:40):
mechanical support for thesupernatural corruption that
drives the campaign's mainthemes In the chapter on the
purple hand the breakdown of thecult's structure, cell
organisation, recruitmentmethods, the way they manipulate
secular organisations.
It creates antagonists who feelgenuinely threatening because
(16:02):
they're embedded in the world'sexisting power structures.
They're not just moustachetwirling villains.
They represent insidiouscorruption that can come from
anywhere.
Hey, surprise, surprise, theenemy within.
However, there's a significantproblem with this chapter that
speaks to larger issues, withthe campaign as a whole.
(16:22):
The Purple Hand information,whilst detailed, has clearly
been written without any overalldirection for the campaign
being established.
It provides rough informationabout the cult without actually
detailing their endgame orultimate objectives.
Instead, we get a lot ofhand-waving to the effect of
well, they're very decentralisedand nobody knows what anyone
(16:43):
else is doing, rather than soliddetails about what they're
actually trying to accomplishthan solid details about what
they're actually trying toaccomplish.
As with a lot of the rest ofthe campaign, it feels like the
whole direction wasn't plannedout in advance.
All in all, the information inthe Purple Hand chapter is
useful but frustratingly vague.
As a GM, I want to understandthe cult's goals so I can
(17:06):
foreshadow them properly andcreate meaningful opposition to
my player characters.
Now we get to the final threechapters, and if I was writing a
blog about this, I'd probablyhave a heading here saying the
Problem with Nostalgia, becausethese chapters are where my
patience with nostalgia for itsown sake finally runs out.
These are titled as Bonus ShortAdventures, but they're
(17:30):
actually reprints from WhiteWolf magazine in the 80s and
they're every bit as dated asyou'd expect.
Chapter 10's on the road.
It's harmless enough, it's afew encounters, and Imerata the
Shapeshifting Hunter has someinteresting elements.
But it does specifically callout the fact that none canon
(17:51):
anymore and it feels like fillerwhen you're actually paying for
new content.
But it's chapter 11, the affairof the hidden jewel where
things get genuinely problematic.
For me, this adventure has acompletely different tone from
the rest of the campaign.
I could see the previousadventure being in chapter 10
(18:12):
being fitted in as a roadsideencounter.
But the enemy in shadows?
It carefully builds anatmosphere of creeping dread and
moral ambiguity.
The Hidden Jewel is aswashbuckling romp, complete
with dastardly counts and hiddentreasures.
The adventure literally comeswith editorial notes telling GMs
(18:32):
to ham it up, and this standscompletely at odds with the tone
that's been set for the rest ofthe campaign.
Modern Warhammer tries reallyhard to sell itself on being
grim and dark and perilous tostand out from the myriad other
fantasy games that are on themarket.
I mean, this is a game whereyou can literally die of
(18:55):
exposure or the common cold,which isn't very noble and
glamorous.
Including this adventure inyour enemy within campaign would
actively undermine the tonethat is trying to be set and
that's what really marks thisout as filler.
Early Warhammer included a lotof kind of winking, nudging
humour in some of itssupplements, but the real
(19:15):
silliness was confined to thepages of White Dwarf magazine.
I remember reading someadventures and thinking why has
my grim, dark role-playing gamesuddenly become all Monty
Python-esque.
That is where this sort ofadventure firmly belongs.
It's a daft one-shot that youwould run.
It's not something that belongsin a companion for a campaign.
(19:37):
That's about creeping, horrorand corruption.
Chapter 12, the pandemoniumcarnival, is also a baffling
inclusion, mainly because thefact it deals with a traveling
freak show and one of the mainparts of enemy in shadows is is
a travelling freak show.
Having two of these in the samecampaign serving similar
(20:00):
narrative functions feelsredundant in the worst possible
way and unlike the main one inEnemy in Shadows, which feels
like it could fit into the world.
Even in the 80s when this wasprinted, it felt tonally
slightly at odds with thesetting.
This is a freak show that isfilled with captive mutant beast
(20:21):
men.
This simply does not fittonally with modern Warhammer,
where the slightest taint ofchaos is burnt out quite
literally by the church.
The very existence of thisthing just stretches credibility
to breaking point and the bookitself acknowledges it and
launches into all sorts ofelaborate explanations and plot
(20:43):
devices about imperial licensesand pacts with ancient dwarfs
that allow it to exist.
But it feels absolutely absurdand again it feels like padding
for padding's sake.
There already exists within themain campaign, a similar
attraction that fulfills a veryspecific narrative purpose.
(21:04):
So why include this one otherthan nostalgia?
This is where my frustrationsabout the companion come in.
The first nine chapters areabsolutely solid.
They show what this book shouldhave been throughout Practical
tools, atmospheric details, newNPCs to include plot threads for
(21:24):
the main campaign it's all goodstuff that understands what the
enemy within campaign is and,more importantly, enhances it.
Now imagine if those final 30or so pages of the book had been
filled with new adventures ornew adventure hooks that built
on the main campaign's themes,picture original encounters that
explored the political tensionsof the right land, or maybe
(21:47):
investigations tied into thepurple hand conspiracy.
We could have had material thatenhanced the campaign's central
concerns and which followed thetheme of the enemy within.
Instead, we get these museumpieces that feel disconnected
from both the main campaign andthe canon of the modern game as
a whole.
It's particularly disappointingbecause the strong material in
(22:11):
the early chapters show thatCubicle 7 clearly understands
not only what makes Warhammerspecial, but what makes the
enemy within campaign specialwhen they focus on it.
So where does this leave us?
Well, the Enemy in ShadowsCompanion is a book I genuinely
like, despite its questionableeditorial choices.
(22:32):
When it focuses on expandingthe campaign with practical
tools and atmospheric detail,it's genuinely excellent.
The road travel rules, the NPCcollection and the background
material on mutants and chaoscults they will all improve your
Enemy in Shadows campaign.
But those reprinted adventuresfeel like padding, pure and
(22:57):
simple.
You know the sort of thing.
That would have been a greatpdf download for nostalgia
hunting, grog dance, but theyabsolutely do not belong in a
premium supplement aimed atmodern players, and even amongst
old players I don't know anyonewho's been like man.
I've been really waiting for afourth edition update to the
Affair of the Hidden Jewel.
(23:18):
Overall for groups that areactively running the campaign,
I'd recommend this book for thefirst nine chapters, but either
ignore the rest or explore itwith skepticism.
The content that you get in thefirst nine chapters is
genuinely useful and the NPCsalone will enhance your campaign
(23:39):
for months, if not years, tocome.
However, with the other oldadventures, don't feel obligated
to inflict Wolfgang's Carnivalon your players just because you
paid for it.
So I will give this an overallrating of 3 out of 5.
Freak shows.
I like a lot of the content init.
(24:00):
A bit annoyed at some of itShould have maybe been in the
main rulebook and slightly irkedby some of the padding.
And that's it for today'sepisode.
(24:30):
We hope you enjoyed it.
We are a semi-regular podcaston the history of RPGs.
For new listeners, we have aback catalogue of around 70
episodes now dealing withhistory, roundtables, interviews
, product reviews and someactual plays as well, so please
(24:51):
feel free to delve into that.
If you want to get in touchwith us, you can do so on email
at rolltosavepod at gmailcom, oryou can find us on social media
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We're on Instagram, but not onTwitter anymore, for all the
reasons that people aren't onTwitter anymore.
(25:11):
If you enjoyed this episode,please give us five stars.
We'd really appreciate that.
It helps with visibility andencourages us to make more
episodes.
So until next time, keep yourpowder dry, your faith in Zygma
strong and remember, in the grimworld of Perilous Adventure,
(25:31):
sometimes the real enemy isshameless nostalgia-baiting.
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