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Alexander Bateman
United Kingdom
Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough
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Because this book is unbelievably massive I will evaluate each chapter separately, marking them on not only how good the chapters own plot is, how much they advance the overall plot, and finally how well they work as Toolbox chapters to help people not running the campaign.
Reviewing adventures is always hard; The fact that I have tried to keep spoilers to a minimum here, combined with the fact the book is simply a massive volume of 256 pages of quite dense text, means this is no more that the briefest of overviews.
A general note about maps, in the main they are good but very small. A few do stand out beyond that, as noted in the main body of the review.
Introduction and Appendix
Summarises the plot, adds tables to generate Careers based on you wanting your character to be an Academic/Peasant/Ranger/Rogue/Warrior. The appendix also reprints 20 traits from Night's Dark Masters that are used within the Campaign.
Chapter I
Set in Marienburg, this plot contains 5 different NPCs to hire the PCs and hook the players into the campaign.
There are annoyances, Black Lotus is used a drug in one location having various effects upon the people and the plot, it would have been nice to have a sidebar with some rules for it.
Toolbox wise, this chapter is overflowing. Various areas in and about Marienburg are described, as well as sample encounters for the swamps and sewers. Better yet, pretty much every section here could be placed in any campaign with minimal tinkering. Two brand new monsters and a new drug are included in this chapter, as well as some monsters reprinted from the WFRP Companion, a nice resource if you do not already have it.
Chapter Plot: 4/5
Overall Plot: 3/5
Toolbox: 5/5
Chapter II
Set in the village/town of Pfeifeldorf (Even the first paragraph cannot decide what size settlement it is,) what you get here is a self contained adventure that pretty much has nothing to do with the main plot at all - A pretty good one at that.
Toolbox wise you get a reasonably well detailed village with a nice map, and that's about it.
Chapter Plot: 4/5
Overall Plot: 1/5
Toolbox: 2/5
Chapter III
This chapter is split into two distinct parts which have little to do with each other, the first very good, the second one; not so good. On the other hand, the second part actually links into the overarching plot.
The first half of the chapter is a very nice encounter indeed which could be dropped into any campaign straight, the second half would require massive amounts of work to use on its own, although there are still good NPC ideas to be stolen.
Toolbox wise you get a list of sample encounters for the Drakwald, along with some useful generic NPC types. Hammer Bearers of Sigmar for example.
Chapter Plot: 3/5
Overall Plot: 2/5
Toolbox: 2/5
Chapter IV
Again this chapter is split in two segments, the first section is essentially the continuation of the last chapter, (You rally have to wonder why this section and the end of the last where not put as a chapter in their own right, it would have made much more sense!) The second part has the PCs running around Altdorf getting a bit side tracked. While the opening is lacklustre, the main Altdorf part of the plot here which could easily be run as not connected to crusade is again of a very high standard.
Tool box wise, you get two new diseases, but more than that you get some detailed locations in Altdorf that, unlike the Paths of the Damned version, are actually useful! The map on the Shallyan Temple in Altdorf is a stand out piece, probably the second best map in the book, although I really like the map of the Librarium Secularum Imperium for its quirkiness and the fact that it feels so very WFRP, and would be using it every session if I set a game in Altdorf. On the downside, the Nurglishi answer to suicide pills sadly comes across as simply too silly however.
Chapter Plot: 4/5
Overall Plot: 1/5
Toolbox: 4/5
Chapter V
Ok, let's get this out of the way; this chapter is a dungeon crawl with a scant bit of plot bolted onto the beginning to get you into it. Technically the PCs pass through two settlements in this chapter, but I blinked and missed the descriptions.
However as dungeon crawls go, it’s not a bad one, it feels pretty WFRP, and it actually does advance part of the main plot. (Or at least, stuff from here is references again.)
You could easily run this as a stand alone adventure if you like that sort of thing.
Toolbox additions, More sample Drakwald encounters, (It's a dangerous place), A new Disease, reprinted monsters from other books and one or two really nice ideas of things to shove in a dungeon, including a very nice book.
Chapter Plot: 3/5
Overall Plot: 3/5
Toolbox: 3/5
Chapter VI
This chapter is set in Wolfenburg, and contains an investigation plot cumulating in the players stopping an assassination attempt at a play that is being put on. It's pretty good, advancing the over all plot while being what looks to be a very good scenario to play through. Indeed not only could this be easily adapted to run as a stand alone adventure, it would probably be better of without the trappings of the crusade. Relocate this to Middenhiem, stick it in a real theatre and you probably have a smash hit scenario on your hands.
The toolbox gets Random Generation tables for Crusaders, two new Poisons, (well kind of,) and a new weapon, (well also kind of.)
Finally the postage sized map of Middenland has to take the prize as map that shoves the most detail into the smallest space ever. I can see many WFRP players losing there sight due to this being on of the best maps of that area to date.
Chapter Plot: 4/5
Overall Plot: 2/5
Toolbox: 3/5
Chapter VII
This is to me the stand out chapter; the players go to Sylvania and have few adventures. There are strong parallels with Something Rotten in Kislev here in how this chapter fits into the campaign, however it has one thing that SRiK did not - this is actually brilliant.
This chapter is a full campaign in its own right, visiting five separate locations and having stuff happen in each one. All of it could be used separately with no connection to the campaign at all.
A new evil cult that actually offers something different, detailed descriptions and events s given for countless locations, (Well you could count them, I personally couldn't be bothered.) A new ritual that is actually useful, players might actually wish to cast this thing of there own will and accord! (Well if they are evil, naughty players, obviously.) Oh and some power words of the gods which are a bit silly, still you cannot have everything.
The Map of the Abbey of Blessed Aethelburt the Vigilant is the best Map in the book, and rightly is given a full page.
Chapter Plot: 5/5
Overall Plot: 1/5
Toolbox: 4/5
Chapter IX
This is the sort of thing that Realms of the Ice Queen should have contained, a guide to what life is like in a Kislev settlement. The answer bring pretty damn horrid actually. This chapter brims with the little details that make a WFRP scenario come alive, for example, the travelling folk encounter, this is under two pages of text, nothing really to do with anything and adds so much flavour to the scenario its simply fantastic.
This is another chapter in which the presence of the crusade in minimal, and is better for it, indeed the meat of the section could be run on its own, and again it is another stand out scenario. It's the first that seems to have got the idea that WFRP is not simply horrid just to be horrid, unlike some earlier chapters and books such as the Doomstones Campaign Finale, this is not an exercise in GM Spite, this is well woven tragedy as a selection of NPCs manage to muck everything up with their greed, good intentions and lack of courage.
The tool box gets a unique Monster, and the Witchcraft talent reprinted for if you somehow have managed to avoid buying any book printed since Realms of Sorcery.
Chapter Plot: 5/5
Overall Plot: 2/5
Toolbox: 2/5
Chapter X
So what can be said about Chapter Ten? It's a dungeon crawl, indeed it is not a very good dungeon crawl. It feels more like a game of Advanced Space Crusade than WFRP. Not only is this chapter pretty bad, but the text itself apologises for how dull and repetitive it is! You get the impression that the Author commissioned the dungeon map, got it back and then realised how mind numbingly tedious it was going to be filling in all the rooms with the same banal encounters. And make no mistake, they are Banal and often illogical with it, when the players get to roll on how many insanity points they have to come up with the crazy plan to get through the room, and they get a bonus for doing it before as its always the same crazy plan - something has gone very wrong.
You could run this chapter on its own; you may have to tie down your players so they don't simply run away however.
Toolbox wise, two new monsters along with some reprinted ones.
Four magic items, one of which is very WFRP, one of which is unbelievably overpowered, one of which is boring and the last is only possibly overpowered. Also included is a subtle advert for the range of Citadel Paints.
Chapter Plot: 1/5
Overall Plot: 2/5
Toolbox: 5/5
Overall, apart from the rubbish ending, this campaign is brilliant. Better than Paths of the Damned, Better than Doomstones, better than Restless dead and well probably not as good as the Enemy Within.
Some of the chapters are brilliant, most are at least very good. The weakness is the actual crusade plot, which is mainly ignored by the writers; it only crops up substantially in three chapters, and I have to say you do get the impression that the writers who did use it would have been better of not doing so.
The ending is abysmal, which I suppose given all the other WFRP campaigns, is maintaining tradition, if a rather unfortunate one.
All in all though, this book is a good send off to the Black Industries age of WFRP: Indeed perhaps the most tragic part of the book is a small sidebar explaining that you can really enhance the book by use of the web content of the Black Industries site.
Overall Likeability: 3/5
Overall Usability: 3/5
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Robin Dwyer-Hickey
United States
Alexandria
Virginia
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Good to see a familiar face - welcome to the Geek! Have some
 !
I feel this is a more functional place for WFRPers than the FFG forum and I hope we see more familiar faces in the future.
Great review. Personally I think a fantastic campaign could be made out of Shades of Empire.
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