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.

So if someone had just found out about infinity and wanted to know about the fluff for all of the different factions what would be the best source of information to read?

Infinity 3rd edition rulebook, and Infinity Human Sphere 3rd edition. These are the most recent books with all of the current fluff. Each one is even handily broken into a rule book and a core book. Core books are all fluff.

There's also an RPG in the works with lots of additional fluff (all books together are something like 2,000 pages) but that's still a ways off.

Thanks loki!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Is this information available for download or only in the physical books?

The fluff is ONLY in the physical books. Some of it in only ONE book (deeper fluff on tohaa manipulations is only in the 2nd ed campaign paradiso book).
There used to be small amounts on the website (before that died and was replaced with the make do thing they have now).


However, other boards, like datasphere have breakdowns of factions and units.

thanks Chrome.
I tried looking first but mostly at wiki stuff that was surprisingly unhelpful.

I'll check out datasphere.
thanks!

Datasphere has some really cool resources on it, worth checking out.

While we-re here (and as it doesn't really warrant its own thread) does anyone know if there is any mention in the background of any kind of 'water world' (one covered with large bodies of water?) Seem to remember some artwork of something in the Infinity Art book.

Was thinking of doing some kind of Yu Jing naval division (with an appropriate terrain setup) and didn't know if there was anything in the background to support it.

Seriously?

Yes, there's a "mention in the background of a water world". The artwork was labeled with it.

It's a PanOceania world called Varuna. It is one of the two known forthcoming Sectorials for PanOceania.

It is where the Kamau, Cutters, and Croc-Men are all planned to slot in. N2 even had Fusiliers as being labeled for Varuna.

Infinity fluff is shockingly hard to find. Even the N3 core book - half of it is actual fluff, with the other half being unit descriptions that always follow the formula, "This unit is the most exceptionally badass in the universe because..."

Maybe pick up some N2 books on the cheap?

For as long as I remember it being around I'm kind of surprised at how hard it is. I wonder why they do this? Are there any novels in the infinity universe? I don't think so which also seems odd.
Do we just love the system and minis so much that we can overlook this or is it something else?

 Kanluwen wrote:
Seriously?

Yes, there's a "mention in the background of a water world". The artwork was labeled with it.

It's a PanOceania world called Varuna. It is one of the two known forthcoming Sectorials for PanOceania.

It is where the Kamau, Cutters, and Croc-Men are all planned to slot in. N2 even had Fusiliers as being labeled for Varuna.

Thanks (I guess! )

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
For as long as I remember it being around I'm kind of surprised at how hard it is. I wonder why they do this? Are there any novels in the infinity universe? I don't think so which also seems odd.
Do we just love the system and minis so much that we can overlook this or is it something else?

There's no novels, but there will be a manga coming soon(-ish).

Honestly? The reason it's so hard to find online is simply because it's scattered all over the place in different books(and soon the RPG books) and CB is pretty draconian about their books being photographed/transcribed.

so bizarre. it really makes you wonder how they survive.
like I said, are they resting their laurels solely on gameplay and miniatures?

I know I personally like fluff. its one of the sole things that keeps me involved in 40k.

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
so bizarre. it really makes you wonder how they survive.
like I said, are they resting their laurels solely on gameplay and miniatures?

I know I personally like fluff. its one of the sole things that keeps me involved in 40k.

Rules are free, so seems fair to charge for the fluff to me. Certainly makes more sense to do it that way around I

CB are pretty hot on ensuring consistency in the background information, which makes a refreshing change from a certain other well-known miniatures company, but does limit the available sources. Campaign Paradiso and the old Human Sphere books are probably your best bet for fluff if you're not interested in owning a copy of the rules. Having said that, it can be a bit of a grind to read through all of the background stuff in those books as it's done in a first person narrative style with a slightly scattergun approach.

CB are supposed to be bringing out Manga style comics soon as well which should be awesome.

Finally, yes CB do focus unashamedly on gameplay and models rather than resting on 30 year old laurels [and rules], and in addition are very responsive and supportive to the community. I think that's probably why they are growing so rapidly, rather than contracting - unlike other companies.

don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the models and the gameplay. those are some great laurels to rest on
its just a little disappointing to someone who is more of a hobbyist than a gamer lately to have to hunt for background information.
I know that I have paradiso floating around. I bought it just about the point of the N3 change over so I actually never even looked through it that well.
i'll break it out and go back over it.

CB don't let people mess around with their fluff and as they're a pretty small company, they don't have much in the way of man-hours to churn out fluff books or novels.

The RPG that's being produced by Modiphius is slowly progressing because everything has to be checked and okayed by CB first.

The background and storyline for the Infinity universe, these come from a single source, Gutier Lusquinos (a.k.a Interruptor) so we get such material as fast as he can, or will, produce it, and no faster.

The Dire Foes missions have some small amounts of storyline to them, and Icestorm, the USAriadna army box book had something (not sure what) and I suspect Red Veil will have some. Essentially a little something extra for buying the product, rather than being the point of buying the product in the first place.

Yeah, outside of the books the background can be a bit scarce. And even in the books the background is, of course, fairly focused on the military/spec-ops side of things.

You used to be able to get unit descriptions on the website and a bit of scattered fluff but that seems to have gone away and no one has ever created a fan wiki for the background stuff.

On the plus side there is going to be a manga soon that should give some good background details, there is also an upcoming RPG that should flesh the universe out a whole hell of a lot more when it drops (I'm a KS backer and the previewed background chapters are really bringing things to life in a way you don't tend to get from wargaming fluff).

On the plus side, I do like that N3 has taken to creating rules-free background books and HSN3 actually had a fair few bits that weren't about fighting, weapons, and war in there. I'm sure as the game line goes forward and gains popularity there will eventually be a fan initiative to create a background wiki like you see for 40k and Battletech, but the game hasn't really reached the critical mass of background and fans needed to form such a thing yet.

 tyrannosaurus wrote:

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
so bizarre. it really makes you wonder how they survive.
like I said, are they resting their laurels solely on gameplay and miniatures?

I know I personally like fluff. its one of the sole things that keeps me involved in 40k.

Rules are free, so seems fair to charge for the fluff to me. Certainly makes more sense to do it that way around

Well...yes and no.
Charging for the fluff by itself would probably be acceptable to people.
But you can't buy the fluff by itself. It comes packaged with a rule book under the current iteration of their books.

CB are pretty hot on ensuring consistency in the background information, which makes a refreshing change from a certain other well-known miniatures company, but does limit the available sources. Campaign Paradiso and the old Human Sphere books are probably your best bet for fluff if you're not interested in owning a copy of the rules. Having said that, it can be a bit of a grind to read through all of the background stuff in those books as it's done in a first person narrative style with a slightly scattergun approach.

That's actually not true. They've been revising/altering the fluff of late. Hell, they've even been altering units.

Finally, yes CB do focus unashamedly on gameplay and models rather than resting on 30 year old laurels [and rules], and in addition are very responsive and supportive to the community. I think that's probably why they are growing so rapidly, rather than contracting - unlike other companies.

Yeah...no, they're not really "responsive and supportive to the community".

Last year when GenCon rolled around and people got their books early, they were instabanning people for posting photos of the interior of the book. Didn't matter if it was rules or fluff; it was an instaban.

They're "responsive and supportive" to the Spanish forums or people who attend events in person. The rest of us MIGHT get a few bones thrown our way here and there; but that's about it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Red Harvest wrote:
The background and storyline for the Infinity universe, these come from a single source, Gutier Lusquinos (a.k.a Interruptor) so we get such material as fast as he can, or will, produce it, and no faster.

The Dire Foes missions have some small amounts of storyline to them, and Icestorm, the USAriadna army box book had something (not sure what) and I suspect Red Veil will have some. Essentially a little something extra for buying the product, rather than being the point of buying the product in the first place.

The USARF Army Box booklet is basically some of the material in HSN3.

Well, Pierzasty compiled all the unit fluffs that have ever been made publicly available:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/116M600ywaWJdYXm2UQAlt2ytcDo83q0Q-69PKYsG-rI/edit#gid=0

Also OP, if you haven't noticed Kanluwen has a massive axe to grind that no one else seems to figure out where it's coming from. Take his negativity with a grain of salt.

That's really cool aldo, thanks a lot.

Funnily enough loki, I read that post and was like yikes but then I saw kan wrote it and was like oh, ok.... lol.

Still love you though kan

Personally I can't wait for the manga. I like the fluff, but I like stories in a setting rather than just reading about the setting. And I like the visual style of the art, so if the manga goes with that at least somewhat, it'll be a solid addition to the rest of the Infinity stuff on the shelf.

Agreed loki.
It sounds like exactly what I'm looking for so maybe I picked a good time to get involved.