I love the first three volumes (or four, depending on what editions you’re looking at) of the original Enemy Within campaign for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. The last two chapters, not so much — Kislev is fine, but a digression; Empire in Flames is a linear, ex machina mess. I’m lukewarm on the system for 4e WFRP from Cubicle 7 (too many meta currencies!) but I was extremely intrigued by their announcement that they were renovating Enemy Within for the modern era. 4E is its own thing in many ways, but I think it manages to bridge a gap to the sensibilities of 1E in regards to the presentation of the Old World. We’re never getting the early 1E-era back, but this is a good modern equivalent. If they can pull it off. Can they pull it off? What we have here is the collector’s edition of the first set of two books — the core campaign chapter and a companion expansion — of a gigantic ten-volume series. Holy wow. I am already impressed.

Enemy in Shadows (2020). The core book contains the set-up adventure “Mistaken Identity” and the entirety of Shadows Over Bogenhafen. The companion has the equivalent of the sourcebook material from the original Enemy Within, lots of road encounters and NPCs, a short adventure and another weird carnival (there is already one in Shadows). Nearly everything is useful. In sum, it feels like the original, just polished up to a modern standard, similar to Chaosium’s recent treatment of Masks of Nyarlathotep. Which boils down to this being a brilliant adventure made more so. We’re off to a good start here!