The Enemy Within

How to prepare

The only preparation necessary is a (free) account at Roll20.net, the only required tools are a working webcam & microphone and access to a web-browser. (Voice only play is possible, if necessary, but should be the exception.) Character-sheets, dice, and everything else will be provided on Roll20.

What I provide

I will prepare the game on Roll20, where I will provide all necessary maps, handouts, illustrations, immersion and hopefully a lot of fun and excitement.

Gameplay details

The Enemy Within Campaign may be one of the greatest, most epic campaigns in the history of TTRPGs. Originally published between 1986 and 1988 by Games Workshop, updated and reissued between 1995 and 1999 by Hogshead Publishing, it has now been republished for the 4th Edition rules of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay as the so called "Director's Cut". We will be using the 4th Edition rules and Campaign for the most part, but I will try to capture some of the gleeful anarchy and fun, often creepy weirdness of the original Warhammer with its roots in Cosmic Horror and the sense of black comedy that made it stand out compared to Dungeons & Dragons. As such, I urge my players to go for interesting, colorful characters with strong personalities and quirks. Intense roleplaying fun will be more important than hit points or high skill levels. (During my first play-through of the campaign my character started out as an incompetent thief whose only distinguishing abilities were running away, climbing and talking himself out of most trouble... before talking himself into even more. One of my companions was a village scribe bored with his life, who at a country faire rolled incredibly lucky when shooting a crossbow at a target and convinced himself that he had a great career as a sharpshooter ahead of him. For the first couple of levels, we were always out of our depth and disaster was never far behind - but we had a blast.) That said, the Old World of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and the Enemy Within Campaign is a very dark place, beset by Chaos and corruption, violence, disease, horrors and death. Even when played for dark humor, it can be intense. I take the wellbeing of everyone at my (virtual) table very seriously. There will be a session zero (free) in which we will go over potential triggers and safety instruments. I will update the players at the start of sessions about potential upcoming triggers as the campaign progresses. At the end of each session I will try to make time for a quick debriefing and also be available directly after the session (and generally between sessions) for feedback and discussion. If at any time a player feels uncomfortable, there will be the option for a break, a discussion or a simple moment of feedback to me, so the trigger or source of conflict can be resolved. I will not tolerate any sexism, racism, ableism, ageism, homo- or transphobia or any other toxic behavior. Generally I discourage player vs player conflict within the game - this campaign is challenging enough for a group of united adventurers - but for some players and groups this can be a source of great roleplaying enjoyment. If the group unanimously votes to allow PvP play, I'll handle it this way: The wronged character (no matter whether another player character tried to attack them, steal from them, deceive them or in any other way created a conflict) gets to chose the outcome of the conflict. (Example: Player Character A tries to steal from Player Character B. The group has allowed PvP play. Now Player B gets to decide whether the attempt is successful, whether their character notices the attempt, or whether the attempt is somehow failed without anyone noticing anything.) This way an interesting story of intra-group conflict can be played out if everyone enjoys it, but no player comes away feeling wronged or betrayed. This will be covered again in session zero.

Content warnings

Safety tools used

How will character creation work

Characters will be created between session zero and the first game session. A variety of character creation options are available to the players, incl. the option that I provide pre-generated characters. Players can change characters if they feel unhappy with them, as long as that doesn't happen unreasonably often, and new characters created during the campaign in case of such a wish to change or character death retain earned experience points.

Combat / Tactics

Low

Roleplay

High

Puzzles

Medium

Experience level

Open to all