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Simon Crowe
United Kingdom
Sheffield
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If you're anything like me, you love running adventures where you get to put on outrageous French accents. No? Well there's still plenty to enjoy in Barony of the Damned, a Warhmmaer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd edition source book/adventure book set in the cursed realm of Mousillon. This is an evil place in Bretonnia, the Warhammer equivalent of France.
Over its 95 pages the book is split relatively evenly between background information and the adventure. I suspect many people will use it primarily for the adventure. As a quick overview of what you get inside:
Chapter 1 – The Lost Duchy
A brief introduction of the swampy realm Mousillon including the peoples and the dangers a traveller may face. Not much here in its few pages.
Chapter 2 – A Traveller''s Guide to Unlovely Mousillon
Much more to be found here, including a description of the city of Mousillon itself, including a decent map. I've found city descriptions in other WFRP 2nd Ed books to be a bit bland, but there's some interesting stuff here. There are also a few rules on disease, and a couple of new swamp-based careers. All good stuff, assuming you like it grim and gritty (and that's why you play WFRP, right?).
Chapter 3 – Rise of the Black Knight
The political situation in Mousillon, where a black knight is uniting the nobility for some nefarious purpose. Whilst somewhat interesting it'll probably be of limited use to most, and it goes on a few pages too long. The chapter concludes with some new beasts, including the Grand Sow of Grismerie – a magical talking pig.
Chapter 4 – To Mousillon
The adventure begins. The players are tasked with hunting down the criminal Guido LeBeau who has escaped into the cursed barony. They pass through two competing hamlets, and stop over in a vampire's tower. Both are fun and inventive encounters for a party.
Chapter 5 – The City of Mousillon
The PCs reach the city and start looking for Le Beau. They'll have to get involved with the local criminals to continue their search. A bit of investigation, possibly a little bit of fighting, and plenty of atmosphere.
Chapter 6 – The Cannibal Knight
The PCs find an underground ghoul kingdom, and can have the head of Guido LeBeau if they commit an evil deed on the ghouls' behalf. Will they prove themselves as evil as the ugly creatures or use their wits and cunning to finish their mission? A nice last chapter where the PCs will have to make some interesting choices.
Le Bon
Of all the 2nd Edition adventures, Barony of the Damned has probably the most classic WFRP feel. It's grim and gritty but still has a sense of humour. Plus combat is light, and mostly optional. It feels strange that it took leaving the Empire to make a classic WFRP scenario.
The adventure is full of moral choices, which is something I really enjoy in RPGs. You might have a party that's pretty unconcerned with casual evil, but for groups who like to get their teeth into some decisions there's a lot here. The party are forced to wallow in the corruption of the barony, and it's always interesting to see how much they will embrace it, and how much they will try and keep themselves clean.
Le Mauvais
To run this you're probably going to have to get your party to Bretonnia, so obviously there will be a bit of work for the GM if the group is in the Empire. Plus speaking the language will be an issue, you can fudge the issue and have all the Bretonnians speak Reikspiel, but preferably one or more members of the party will speak Breton.
The adventure itself is mostly a series of unconnected vignettes that the PCs travel through whilst chasing a MacGuffin. The individual scenes are all pretty fun, but people who prefer some complex plotting might not get their fill here.
Whilst the adventure is good, it has little to do with the Black Knight and his plans as detailed in Chapter 3, which makes that chapter fairly stand alone, and only of use if you are writing a Bretonnian campaign of your own (which maybe you are, in which case have fun).
Beyond the Adventure
The obvious book to accompany Barony of the Damned is Knights of the Grail, the Bretonnia sourcebook. In fact, I'd say its pretty essential. KotG does contain a short adventure that could be used as a lead in to the one here.
The Final Word
My favourite official WFRP 2nd Ed adventure, and one easily converted over to the other two editions. Barony of the Damned really captures the WFRP spirit.
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