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Who has run both enemy within and doomstones

Posted: Sat May 16, 2020 10:54 am
by BestialWarlust
who here has run both of these campaigns? I've run some of Enemy within years ago but never Doomstones. I'm curious as to the opinions on the two was there one you liked better than the other or did you like both?

Re: Who has run both enemy within and doomstones

Posted: Sun May 17, 2020 3:10 am
by Zisse
They are completely different. Doomstones is more DnD like. I don't think that is bad, but the enemy within is far better. I would say the doomstones are on a similar level as the final part of the enemy within.
I would remove something rotten in kislev from the enemy within.

Re: Who has run both enemy within and doomstones

Posted: Sun May 17, 2020 7:51 am
by TyCaine
I've GM'd both and have to agree with Zisse, they're a different feel, hard to compare the two in the literal sense.
Doomstones tended to feel more hack'n'slash, which is how I might describe DnD, so again in that sense I agree with Zisse whereas TEW felt it had more opportunities for roleplay, and was more investigative.

I liked them both, but how well they worked with your group tended to depend on the group, my die-hard WFRPers from way back when loved TEW as it had more meat on the bones so to speak, whereas Doomstones was more of an interconnected series of romps. My later group who were converts from DnD loved Doomstones as it felt familiar, but also loved getting into more dark and gritty things with TEW. Doomstones should only be played after TEW though IMHO, gives starting characters a chance to gain experience through TEW before going on the romp in Doomstones.

Between them I'd probably rate them both 5 out of 5, but TEW maybe more of a 5+

And again I find myself agreeing with Zisse, SRiK wasn't the best and took a lot of work to fit into the rest. I managed it, but it was less...smooth...had more coarse edges I had to work to shave off.

Re: Who has run both enemy within and doomstones

Posted: Sun May 17, 2020 9:03 am
by BestialWarlust
I agree about Kislev even back on the day when I used it a bit I wasn't happy with it. SRiK felt out of place.The TEW companion is a good resource and seems to help smooth out the edges a bit.

Re: Who has run both enemy within and doomstones

Posted: Sun May 17, 2020 2:58 pm
by hallucyon
BestialWarlust wrote: Sun May 17, 2020 9:03 am I agree about Kislev even back on the day when I used it a bit I wasn't happy with it. SRiK felt out of place.The TEW companion is a good resource and seems to help smooth out the edges a bit.
I you don't like "Something Rotten in Kislev", you have a very good alternative: you can either smooth it up with Gideon's superb "The Enemy Within: A Companion" or use Timothy Eccles' excellent "A Private War" instead. Both were made by fans for fans and can be easily googled out.

Re: Who has run both enemy within and doomstones

Posted: Sun May 17, 2020 3:21 pm
by Orin J.
I liked doomstones more out of the two, but this is mostly because none of my groups wanted to play tew in any real capacity, and the way doomstones is setup lends itself better to groups of mostly unfocused adventurers compared to tew's need for everyone to pay attention to the plot details.

Re: Who has run both enemy within and doomstones

Posted: Mon May 18, 2020 6:58 am
by BestialWarlust
hallucyon wrote: Sun May 17, 2020 2:58 pm
BestialWarlust wrote: Sun May 17, 2020 9:03 am I agree about Kislev even back on the day when I used it a bit I wasn't happy with it. SRiK felt out of place.The TEW companion is a good resource and seems to help smooth out the edges a bit.
I you don't like "Something Rotten in Kislev", you have a very good alternative: you can either smooth it up with Gideon's superb "The Enemy Within: A Companion" or use Timothy Eccles' excellent "A Private War" instead. Both were made by fans for fans and can be easily googled out.
Thanks I'd never heard of Tim Eccles' "A Private War before I just found a copy. I wish Gideons TEW companion existed back in the 90's when I first ran TEW it would made managing the campaign much easier.

Re: Who has run both enemy within and doomstones

Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2020 12:53 pm
by Capitaneus Fractus
TyCaine wrote: Sun May 17, 2020 7:51 amDoomstones should only be played after TEW though IMHO, gives starting characters a chance to gain experience through TEW before going on the romp in Doomstones.
An option could be to integrate Doomstones campaign into Sigmar's hammer quest (in Empire in Flames).

That is to say to send adventurers seeking Sigmar's hammer in the Vaults, up to the Dwarf stronghold of Dwarf War where Sigmar, in fact and contrary to the legend, did meet his fate.

Re: Who has run both enemy within and doomstones

Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2020 1:31 am
by CommanderCax
We sort of liked both. The internet community is quite clear that "TEW" is the better one. Which is in my opinion at least partly true. Though TEW tends to be overrarted whereas Doomstones is underrated.

TEW differs in style as already metioned, as SoB is quite linear, DotR is quite sandbox on a grand scale, PbtT is sandbox on a small scale, SRiK is...well different and EiF is rather high fantasy.

Doomstones is rather D&Dish as it was orginally written for D&D. Especially in regard to today's view on Warhammer it needs some work by the GM to better fit. Still, it is not a dungeon crawl without RP-opportunities. My PCs interacted a lot with the diefferent factions and NPCs in the second (monastery), third (ogres) and fourth (dwarfs) part, and had a blast with the campaign. We still talk about some anecdotes now 20 years later...
I also recommend to not use it with starting characters. My players went through Lichemaster, Dying of the Light, some homebrew adventures and Death's Dark Shadow before venturing into the Vaults in their advanced careers (i.e. Highwayman, Amethyst Wizard lvl 3, Targeteer, Mercenary Sergeant, Assassin).
The later written 5th installment of the Doomstones is rather weird and not to my taste, but I used some elements out of it none the less to build my own final adventure…