Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Alright folks, a small request: I love the back story of the miniatures games I play. I like to know what the basic gist of the factions are about at in what state the game universe is in. Is the story progressing? Is it static? Is there not much story at all?

Any information/perspective/links you folks can supply would be immensely helpful while I debate getting involved in this Universe.

The short and sweet is that the corporation rules the universe, they aren't benevolent, used Orx Marauders to help subjugate, couldn't defeat the Forge Fathers and have an uneasy agreement with them and the enforcers are their silent hit men that answer only to the ruling council. Holy run-on sentence, Batman!!

That is the long and short of it. The fluff isn't greatly developed yet. They are coming out with a short story compendium soon that will hopefully expand the universe a little.

There's not a lot established at the moment, and a lot of it is in flux. There are, however, some solid facts.

The galaxy, or at least the human part of it, is ruled by thousands of corporations, each vying for profit and power. Basically, capitalism gone mad. Everything is Corp-controlled, and they answer only the the Council of 7, who are basically the big boss guys. Lots of politicking and backstabbing there. The Corps tend to maintain armies of marines for 'hostile takeovers' and defence against Aliens. The Enforcers are the elite army of the Council and are used to strike against any Corp that grows too big for its boots.

There's no 'HATE THE ALIEN' like there is in 40k, in fact so long as there's a profit in it the cooperation with aliens is encouraged. As workforces or troops, aliens are a part of human society.

The universe is probably going to get it's first major fluff established as part of the Warpath Kickstarter later this year, and Mantoc are very good at listening to fans, so in other words, get involved sooner rather than later. In the Dreadball KS, I think there was even a species that had its entire fluff changed because the fans weren't happy.

Funnily enough, the mantic blog has had a bit of an introduction:
http://manticblog.com/2013/12/25/containment-protocols-a-preview/

Also, there is the kickstarter video.

Hey, there is not that much fluff yet... But we got something with deadzone and dreadball:

The Human Sphere of Influence is governed by what is called "the corporations", as some people pointed this is just "capitalism gone mad in the space". Aliens are know and "welcome" while they dont pretend to be a problem.

The Forge Fathers are one of the most powerfull alien races humanity have encountered in the space, they tend to come from outside of the "Human Sphere", but have this audacious habit of travel into corporation territories. There are some tips in the scenery suggesting that Forge Fathers are an ancient race with a empire a lot bigger than the humanity one, and they tend to have a bitter relationship with the corporations.

Asterians are the misterious race who come from the darkness and no one (even the writers lol) know a lot about them.

Rebs is a short for "rebels", and those are just a bunch of survivors from a lot of parts of the Human Sphere that dislike the corporations. Apparently the corporations have for an habit to ignore "rights" of sentient races (or even humans) near its borders, wich dont give them a great reputations. The rebs are just this amalgam of races (more humans, a lot of aliens) who want to destroy the corporations and "freed the galaxy from his taint". The problem is that those guys are free thinker and space terrorists, and as such, dont have a clear ideia of what should come next, tending to fight about this sometimes...

Plague is some type of mutagenic virus who turn its victims into mindless killing machines. Its weaker generations keep some rudimentary mental skills, and look for spreading the disease trough systens (think "T-virus, genestealer cults and Nurgle having a thressome").

Marauders are an alien race who had been employed by corporation for generations, they have been taken of their original planet a lot of time ago, them indtroduced to the corporation military discipline. Some time later they revolted, and started to sell their skills to those who could pay more. They are the mercenaries, space pirates, regular thugs and cheap hiremans on the human spheres, and are immune to plague.

Vermyn are ratmans in the space who sometimes appear infesting planets of space ships. Little is know about their origin (corporations keep it as a secret) but most theories point to "rats into space ships ceilings evolvind with radiotive engines", but there are the versions who speak about "corporations genetic experience who gone wrong", and even the "they are just an alien race".

Lastly, the corporations are ruled by the "council of seven", the most powerfull organization within the human spheres, and the Enforcers are their armed hand. Hightly specialized soldiers, genetic augmented, equiped with the best equipment he corps can build (and some forge fathers tech too).

That is most of the fluff we alredy have. The scenarios is kinda of building itself with time, and lots of costumers participation...

Sounds like a fair bit under-developed for a universe with multiple games under its belt.

I know Deadzone has limited faction involvement thus far, but have the Plague made it to Warpath yet?

Also, is Dreadball the only game with all the factions (both deadzone and Warpath) represented?

I think its just the way game settings evolve. I imagine titans and the adeptus mechanicus, or the Horus Heresy didn't exist at all until GW released the Horus Heresy board game and Adeptus Titanicus.

There is fluff coming though, KOW have their first novel out now, the Short Story compilation is coming soon and the manticblog does have a bunch of fluff pieces up there. Oh and there's also the Deadzone twitter story they did.

 gunslingerpro wrote:
Sounds like a fair bit under-developed for a universe with multiple games under its belt.

I know Deadzone has limited faction involvement thus far, but have the Plague made it to Warpath yet?

Also, is Dreadball the only game with all the factions (both deadzone and Warpath) represented?

It's not that bad when you consider it's only been around for 2 years and that most of last year was dedicated to KOW.

Plague have a list for Warpath, models will come with the KS later this year (as will far far more fluff, for that matter).

DB includes far more races than DZ and WP as some (like the terratons and zees) have enough variety for a sports team but not enough for an army, and as such end up in the Rebs. However, I'm sure the other WP races (and DB, for that matter) could easily be put into DZ with a little thought. I'm working on my house rules for corporation armies in DZ (fighting the initial outbreak, rather than deliberately going into a Deadzone) so once I post those up, I'll make a general house rules thread where others can and hopefully will think about adding the Veer-myn, ZZor and the like.

THere also seem to be a lot of robots. Between the big mech, the robot DB team, and the first short story they've let us see... there are lots and lots of robots.

I'm even pulling for enforcers to be robocopian cyborgs