WFRP Death on the Reik Status Update

Thank you all so much for your excitement and enthusiasm for the Enemy Within Campaign and Death on the Reik. We appreciate your patience while we’re getting the last few parts polished for release - the PDF should be released this month. We understand that the wait is frustrating, especially when we’ve passed anticipated release dates, so we wanted to give you more detail about the process.

A few weeks ago we got our first look at the draft layout and noticed some areas that required additional illustrations to complement the text. As you know, we put a lot of effort and resources into the illustration and graphic design of our books. We all take in information in a range of ways, and evocative illustrations are an important part of communicating the look and feel of the worlds we present. Having said that, we also have to balance the amount of artwork it is possible to present. 

So, after that initial review we decided that there were a few dramatic key scenes and interesting NPCs that needed more attention, so we commissioned our artists to create new artwork. Death on the Reik is a broad ranging, complex adventure, and the GM needs to recall the machinations of a lot of NPCs. With this in mind, our design team made additional improvements to how information was presented, with the aim of achieving clearer comprehension overall. We felt that the result would be worth the extra time. We hugely appreciate everyone’s support and the faith that you have shown in the C7 team to do this right, and that guides our decision making when we need to make calls like this. After all, it’s The Enemy Within, and we want to make sure we do it right! 

Of course, like everyone else, we’ve been juggling all this with childcare, IT, and other pandemic-related issues, which has had an impact on our timelines.

The community feedback on Enemy in Shadows and the Enemy in Shadows Companion was incredible, so we want to make sure the whole campaign is just as impressive. Now with these improvements in place, we believe Death on the Reik will also surprise and delight! The amendments will support both GMs and players to ensure they get the best experience from one of the most highly regarded and well-loved campaigns in roleplaying history.

The Death on the Reik Companion is mostly signed off, and we look forward to sharing it with you in July/August. We’ve prodded, poked, and enhanced the rules for river travel and trading to within an inch of their life? We’re well into the following volumes of the campaign as well, and we look forward to sharing some art from Power Behind the Throne soon!

For all the Enemy Within fans out there, we’d like to thank you for your support. We are very eager and excited to deliver Death on the Reik into your hands in the next few weeks — keep an eye on social media and we’ll let you know as soon as we have a confirmed date.

–Pádraig Murphy, Cubicle 7’s producer on Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay

What’s in Death on the Reik?

Death on the Reik (DOTR) is the second volume of the very popular Enemy Within Campaign. With the events of Bögenhafen behind them, our Characters make their way onto the Empire’s rivers and canals, keen to forget any sleepless horrors or lurking cultists that might have dogged their steps so far.

Their travels will take them down the Reik, and onto its snaking tributaries. The campaign book includes beautifully illustrated colour maps, detailed NPCs, and the now familiar Grognard boxes with alternative takes on this classic campaign.

Much care has been taken to ensure the art in DOTR does justice to the memorable places and moments in the campaign. The very talented Ruslan Skifonich, a recent addition to our art team, has done a fantastic job illustrating one such scene shown below. The Characters may live to regret stopping by the signal tower, but in my experience few players do!

On the Evolution of a Certain Wizard and his Troublesome Apprentice 

In a recent discussion with a friend and veteran of The Enemy Within, I was reminded that not every GM will run every character in the same way. While, to me, Hans-Peter Schiller is something of a side character with rather little ‘screen time’; my friend (who played Heironymus Blitzen’s other apprentice) considers him a bitter rival and all-round terrible human being. Which of us is closer to the truth, I’ll leave it up to you to decide... 

Below are some exclusive images initially shared in a Developer Diary showing the evolution of the artwork style of the characters Heironymus and Hans-Peter over the years. The talented artist Giacomo Tappainer has done an excellent job of updating the style and design, whilst preserving the rather wonderful character of the original portraits. Giacomo’s impressive artwork has already been featured in The Enemy Within. It’s a perfect complement to Graeme’s writing, lifting his memorable characters off the page. 

- Pádraig

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