Written by Carl Sargent, with Derrick Norton, Phil Gallagher, Graeme Davis

Power Behind the Throne is the third part of the revised Enemy Within campaign, rightly regarded as one of the best role-play campaigns ever written. This edition is expanded with a new section titled ‘Carrion Up the Reik’, intended to bridge the gap between PBtT and Death on the Reik.

With its ‘new’ cover artwork and extra section, PBtT holds something for both WFRP newcomers and those who already have the original. The exterior is professional and clean, fitting in nicely with the other Enemy Within books if nothing else. The cover art is a nice piece, though perhaps a little inappropriate given that the title of the piece is ‘Altdorf’. We have still not seen any original colour art (with the exception of the GM’s Screen map) from Hogshead yet, which hopefully will be resolved once ‘Marienburg’ comes out. Inside the book is nicely illustrated, with the new section fitting in quite snugly with the old, apart from a slight difference in finish.

The adventure itself is quite amazing; it is unlike anything I’ve ever read before. The setting is Middenheim during the annual Carnival, a time for enjoyment and celebration, yet even now the forces of Chaos are plotting the downfall of the Empire…

The Enemy Within campaign has seen a variety of different playing styles being employed, from moments of hack-and-slay (very few of them to be truthful) to investigation, from a series of simple encounters to massive treks across the country and a non-linear plot. PBtT somehow manages to better all this! The adventure concentrates on political intrigue and role-playing, the goal of the PCs is to try and find out just who is causing the problems in the city by socialising with the NPCs and digging for gossip. Day to day activities take on a whole new importance. The adventure lasts for the eight days of the Carnival, and in this time the players get to sample all the fantastic attractions, joining in and interacting with the people of the city. This looks fairly complex to organise and set up, given the extremely free-form style of play and the numerous detailed NPCs that you must keep track of and role-play. For GMs and players more used to linear hack-fests this might prove a strain, but run well this adventure can probably be the highlight of the campaign.

There are no real draws on the overtly fantastical elements that often get in the way of adventures and detract from the plot. What there is benefits from this, by being more unusual and interesting. This book just goes to show that you don’t need a liberal spattering of esoteric monsters, hideously powerful magic items and super-villains to create an engrossing fantasy adventure. This is one of Warhammer’s great strengths; a low fantasy environment which puts the ‘oomph!’ back into magic and the supernatural, and helps with the suspense of disbelief. The book is brilliantly written, and the actual political intrigues and elegantly simple yet deviously conceived. Although I haven’t actually run the adventure yet, I know just from reading the book that watching the secrets unfold will be so much more satisfying than a linear quest for glory. Even the end sequence, which is decidedly more straight-forward, leads the players on as a logical extension to the free-form adventure, instead of getting the feeling of being railroaded.

The new section, ‘Carrion Up the Reik’, is a straightforward mini-adventure to get the players to Middenheim. The plot itself fits in with the multiple plot-threads of The Enemy Within, introducing new ones that will be resolved in the new ‘Empire in Chaos’ that will replace ‘Empire in Flames’, originally the last volume of the campaign. There are a couple of criticisms with this section I’m afraid. Firstly it is so much more linear than the main adventure, though it has to be admitted that the manipulation of the PCs is quite cleverly done. Secondly it is a shame that the actual location is generic so that the players can be ‘caught’ wherever they go after DotR. Whilst understandable, this causes a distinct lack of feeling and sense of vagueness. The rest of the campaign is not so lax, and never caused too many problems. Hogshead’s first original release, ‘Dying of the Light’, suffered from this too. However, the mini-adventure solves the problem of getting the players to Middenheim, so it is successful after a sort. The new artwork, especially the ‘handouts’ ( a shame they weren’t included as proper handouts instead of inset illustrations), is an improvement, and I look forward to more of this calibre.

If used in conjunction with the Middenheim sourcebook, PBtT is vast. It is possible to develop an entire campaign in its own right by using the two books together, centred on the Middenheim Carnival. Whilst I criticised Middenheim in its review, it takes on a new light with PBtT, and suddenly all the details slip into place.

I cannot recommend this book enough. I would rate it as the highlight of the whole campaign, which is no mean feat when you consider the high quality of the first two volumes. Whilst it does not have such as strong an atmosphere as ‘Shadows over Bögenhafen’, it surpasses it in sheer detail, flexibility, and originality. A must-have, and a benchmark for all role-play adventures to look up to.

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