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Note: this is my first ever review – for anybody – so please be gentle with your feedback – but feedback would be kindly appreciated. It has been inspired by my anticipation of this product clashing with the realities of it (yes I was disappointed with Ashes) and part of this review is culled from a previous thread of mine – so if you are thinking, this ranting sounds familiar, it may well be (or maybe you’re psychic!) ;)
PLUS since Joe Kushner has already written a great review, rather than go over many of the points covered in his review (about the art, cartography, value for money through the use of great comparisons to other products in similar categories, since his review is on RPGnet, I say: “Go see Joe’s fab review for some great information about this product”), rather than go over all of that again, I want to add another ‘voice’ to help you, the readers, think about: do I want to buy this product? You may not agree with my concerns about Ashes – and that’s fine. I’m going to try and tell you what I think was right and wrong about it – and will try to identify exactly why. Again, if others can give feedback on these ideas, then so much the better in the spirit of informed discussion!
NOTE: This is not a play test review – PLUS it contains loads of spoilers so wannaba players of this campaign stop reading now!
Purpose: Ashes was conceived by Black Industries to get people playing the 2nd Ed WFRP – and it leads directly on from the adventure ‘Through the Drakwald’ in the core rulebook. So if you have already played that adventure and/ or have characters in their first or second careers, Ashes of Middenheim has been designed for you. If you haven’t played ‘TtD’ and want to get stuck straight into Ashes, the Black Industries have been kind enough to generate four pregenerated characters in their first careers with their first advancement indicated by a check mark to help you. Alternatively, you/ your players can generate their own (and can I heartedly recommend the Liber Fanatical materials for pc generation!)
Layout.
This book is divided into 2 parts: the city book and the scenario. Although I imagine that many readers, like me, are more concerned about the scenario. The interior black and white art is very nice, the maps/ layout of the book are all very reminiscent of the First Ed books – a nice retro touch for some; others will be disappointed having got used to better quality cartography since the previous heyday of WFRP in the late 1980s- late 1990s.
The City Book.
Comparisons between this book’s covering from Middenheim and the previous first edition version are bound to be made. After all, many WFRP fans will already own a copy – so does the inclusion of this city-guide offer value in a product costing $25? And for those of you who don’t own a copy of Middenheim: City of Chaos, does this first part of AoM flesh out the city enough?
On one level, comparison is unfair: this is meant to be the beginning of a campaign and obviously the emphasis should be on the story – so it is only to be expected that the city-booklet will be of a lower use value than the original…. But then again, for those of who have been round the proverbial roleplaying block (yeah, me included guys since I am getting on a bit), the question begs: why not print the city of Middenheim again (updated obviously) – for all those who don’t have a copy - and thus devote AoM to the story – and allow for a proper development of the story therein?
So: how does the new-look son- of-the- City of Middenheim compare to its first edition sire?
Overall page by page count:
1st edition sourcebook: 92 pages (excluding contents page) plus a lovely A3 sized full colour map of the city which is glued to the inside back cover, as well as a black and white area map for the surrounding lands on p94 (functional but useful).
2nd Ed: 25 pages (excluding the Storm of Chaos resume at the start – another 2 pages), - and this page count INCLUDES the 2 A4 page spread black and white map on pages 10-11 – which has 4 fewer numbered locations as well as not having a mini-map of the different districts, e.g. slums, commercial, etc. Thus the 2nd Ed is in terms of size approximately 25% of the size of its First Edition Sire!
The Politics, Religion and Culture of Middenheim
Ashes starts with a brief resume of the Storm of Chaos for 2 pages before outlining the ‘powers that be’ in the City of Middenheim – for a further 2 ¼ pages – which is a useful setup – since many of the most powerful entities in the city are out hunting down the remains of the chaos cults that tried to sack the city. This allows the players to step in and effectively be heroes without straining the credibility of the world too much.
However, the 2nd ed only covers the ‘powers that be’ whilst the first edition covers that plus the city’s history. Timeline, society/ cultural events, religious worship (including details on the rivalry between the cults of Sigmar and Ulric – rather useful!), the military, the law (crimes and punishments), accommodation….. and then later it covers the powers that be in close-up with 5 ½ pages of personal profiles on the major players.
Granted, since these powers are mainly absent for this scenario, I can understand why they are absent on one level – but why present us with the City of Middenheim in a half attempt? Are WFRP fans who haven’t got the old, out of print first edition city book, to be expected to buy a separate, fully developed book later on?....
Page count
1st edition: 29 ½ pages
2nd edition: 2 ¼ pages – 13x smaller.
Gazetteer of the city
2nd Ed: 15 pages long, covering the key locations (44 in total) – and 4 pages on the undercity. 1st Ed: 24 pages on the city locations (48 covered) plus 7 pages of possible city encounters, 5 pages on chaos cults in Middenheim, 7 pages on the Undercity, 3 pages on goods and services, 7 pages on floor plans of typical buldings, 2 pages on sports/ leisure activities; 4 pages on adventure seeds.
There are little pieces of information that help update the city in Ashes to help us remember that the Storm of Chaos has happened and that there has been a bloody siege…. But there is no comparison between the 2 products. None at all. To run adventures in the City of Middenheim – and to really flesh out the scenario AoM, I would strongly advise referees to get their hands on the 1st Ed book – or do some homework before running Ashes!
Page count
First edition: 66 pages
Second edition: 19 pages total over 3x smaller.
The Ashes of Middenheim scenario – at last!
What you are probably all waiting for!
If you really lack time and energy to create your own stories etc - use this. It just struck me as a badly thought out Call of Cthulhu scenario for a fantasy Cthulhu Dark Ages. I realise what the author is trying to do: the hubris of the priest, his desire for power and the return to glory of his sect, corrupts him and he is won over to the dark side of chaos.... - a classic plot theme.... but because this story is so rushed, and because the pcs don't know this man/ haven't witnessed a slow deterioration in his mental condition, all they are presented with is:
a) a linear plot and story - with only one outcome (admittedly, always a problem with campaign books - but at least with decent Call of Cthulnu ones, such as Masks of Nyarlathotep, the writers introduced you to this problem - I had two total party kills running that game - each time a new team picked up on the trail of the previous - so at least the party could mess up/ suffer from their mistakes/ taking too much on... Moreover, at least with MASKS there were a variety of options available to the pcs - with AoM all players are given is a linear story, in which they are led by the nose at times!!
b) only one method of resolving the story - better call of cthulhu investigations allow for a variety of methods to resolve threads/ stories: as in blagging or fighting or brains or stealth - a variety of options like this are needed to make sure any party of 'heroes' (like my group's party of a grave-robber and company)can actually achieve the goals of the story/ find the clues - or if certain skills are needed, the writer should have flagged this up at the start: here are the core skill bases your party needs in order to progress..
c) 2-Dimensional NPCs with little/ no complexity.
d) a variety of different game experiences which are somehow strung together - and with players feeling (I imagine) uninterested in the central conflict - that between the 2 religious sects. This may appeal to the true WFRP fanboys and fangirls out there - but - it left me cold. Ultimately - as a player - as I have said before - you are presented with this priest who has sold his soul to chaos - why?? why would anyone want to let themselves fall so low, to murder their own elite guard, to betray their own god in such a way..... this is heavy stuff - even the allegedly 'insane' members of Al-qaeda kill in the name of their god - but this version of madness sees the priest willingly abandon their god for another - why? why not have them fooled by Chaos into corruption and doing 'evil' things..... maybe I missed out on something there.... I guess I would rather have more fully developed NPCs and if they are going to fall, it would be good to have the players experience a bit of them on the way down - rather than simply meeting the end product. BUT I imagine I am being very fussy here.
e) it didn't make sense - and it seemed that the author wanted players to experience various tropes of WFRP... For me, it is the story based elements that are so disappointing here: I just couldn't see how dragging players by the nose through various episodes worked.... After all - if the priest at the temple of Ulric wants to stich up his 'enemies' in the opposing temple and frame them for heresy etc - why does he use Skaven to steal the artefact - surely too risky?? and then why lead the players to the artefact - if he was really concerned about interfering pcs, have them killed off some other how? and later, why imprison them so badly? and of course at the start - which police force would allow those accused of murder to then investigate the crime scene to prove their 'innocence' and help the force come to a sound, empirical decision?! The scenario started off creaking and ..... it went downhill from there! ARGH!
My Advice If you are fan of Warhammer you are going to buy this anyway. My advice would be: 1. Use Ashes with caution. 2. Drip feed the plot to the pcs. 3. Think of another way of introducing the players to the story (don’t have them investigating a murder that they are supposed to have done for example!) 4. Try and tone down some of the elements – get rid of the Skaven for example. 5. Introduce the rivalry between the 2 religious groupings earlier on if you are running this with newbies to the WFRP world. 6. Introduce Liebnitz earlier on – get them to like him more/ empathise with him/ dislike the Sigmarites maybe? 7. Generate other ways of resolving different encounters. 8. Make sure your party has the right skills/ if not, give them side-quests in which they develop them. 9. Better still, steal some ideas from this and write your own stories!
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