Ubersreik Adventures II (2021) is a smart expansion of what has come before. It is essentially a scenario book, but the approach is takes makes it as much a lore book, really. The idea here, between the starting point in the Starter Set sourcebook, moving into the discrete adventures of Rough Days, the loose campaign of Ubersreik I and the epic sweep of Enemy Within is to create a world that feels like it is alive, without smothering it with elaborate metaplot. All of this is open-ended, with soft connections that make decisions feel weighty, but not forced. Through all that material, though, you don’t really feel the connection. Ubersreik Adventure II starts drawing the threads closed.
The most important detail here is that the adventures occur in the wake of (potential) events from Enemy Within parts 1 and 2 (I’ll be doing all five part of that monster later in the year). Possibly caused by the action of players, if you’re running that campaign, possibly as dramatic background, if you aren’t. Broadly, the best WFRP material — lore, adventures, whatever — center on the tension between stagnation and change. The way Cubicle 7 is approaching this with their scenario material is extremely interesting, both in the straightforward way, but also in a meta sense thanks to how they are putting out material both old and new.
All the scenarios are pretty good. Some underscore or anticipate the events of Enemy Within that might be dangerous in the hands of a clumsy GM (I’d advise particular caution with “Double Trouble”). They actually remind me a little of how the historical flashbacks in Horror on the Orient Express for Call of Cthulhu work to emphasize the themes of the main campaign. Similarly, I am not sure these scenarios stand as well on their own as those in the other anthologies. That probably doesn’t matter — you likely aren’t going to start running games out of a book with a big 2 on the cover, but it bears mentioning.
Art’s still nice and consistent across the whole line. I will say, though, that I can do without the black and white art. I know it is meant to hark back to the 1E art direction, but I find it jarring in the modern style. Just do it all in color.
