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As a short preface: I address this thread to those of you who already like narrative approach to 40K or those who would like to try something different than "fair, symetric, matched pick-up games" and are interested if 8th ed is better "stock" at narrative scenarios. We already have a parallel thread about narrative vs matched and similiar "my way is better than yours; winning is everything/40K is exclusively competetive/narrative is lame/narrative is fluffy/narrative is key to ballance/ballance is everything" discussions are fairly recurrent here on dakka and pretty much pointless. So please focus on the following:

Do you find new set of predefined scenarios, deployment maps, victory conditions, Stratagems/battle forged mechanics and "advanced" section special rules (battle zones, cities of death, planetstrike, stronghold etc...) usefull to you? Either as a "complete guide to forging the narrative" or as bits and pieces to tinker with when creating your own missions with a defined "common language"?

For me personally, this is the best part of the new rulebook - quite a lot of usefull tools ("common language" mentioned above) compressed on a fairly few pages, that can create a handy "foot in the door" effect increasing awarness of how 40K can be interesting outside of matched/pick-up/tournament play. I especially like mission-specific stratagems and battlezones (mostly because I'm playing a heavily modified 7th ed right now and I'm not realy sold on entire 8th ed rework, but those two are readily/easily portable to any previous edition). I'm also very glad, that GW decided to include so many asymmetric scenarios in the rulebook, so people may actually try some attacker/defender games. New Maelstrom is also more usefull than in 7th ed with a bit more varied scenarios and Tactical Priority as a tool showing how Maelstrom can be utilised for creating random yet preoriented asymmetric scenarios.

What I'm a bit dissapointed with, is such a brief look on how to construct campaigns (those two examples are fine as an "abstract" for those interested but lacking experience, but knowing how 40K community craves "officialdom" there is a room for a lot more. Like, e.g. porting a SW:A style of "compact campaign" with "random encounters/conditions" mechanics. There are already stratagems and battlezones mechanics described to achieve this, so this could be as short as 2-4 more pages on campaigns and result in a much more interest in such style of 40K play.)

So, what do you think?

I really like what I've seen from the new narrative scenarios. I haven't had a full read through them, but I've seen several - like the sentries rule and the Meatgrinder scenario - that are definitely going to find a way into our games.

I do expect more content for campaigns to come at some point. Those are the best part of Narrative gaming.

nou wrote:
Do you find new set of predefined scenarios, deployment maps, victory conditions, Stratagems/battle forged mechanics and "advanced" section special rules (battle zones, cities of death, planetstrike, stronghold etc...) usefull to you? Either as a "complete guide to forging the narrative" or as bits and pieces to tinker with when creating your own missions with a defined "common language"?

Yes, these are all good things to have. Having the modular layers that can be applied to any game gives many opportunities for the game to become deeper and have more opportunities to play different kinds of games.

nou wrote:
For me personally, this is the best part of the new rulebook - quite a lot of usefull tools ("common language" mentioned above) compressed on a fairly few pages, that can create a handy "foot in the door" effect increasing awarness of how 40K can be interesting outside of matched/pick-up/tournament play. I especially like mission-specific stratagems and battlezones (mostly because I'm playing a heavily modified 7th ed right now and I'm not realy sold on entire 8th ed rework, but those two are readily/easily portable to any previous edition). I'm also very glad, that GW decided to include so many asymmetric scenarios in the rulebook, so people may actually try some attacker/defender games. New Maelstrom is also more usefull than in 7th ed with a bit more varied scenarios and Tactical Priority as a tool showing how Maelstrom can be utilised for creating random yet preoriented asymmetric scenarios.

What I'm a bit dissapointed with, is such a brief look on how to construct campaigns (those two examples are fine as an "abstract" for those interested but lacking experience, but knowing how 40K community craves "officialdom" there is a room for a lot more. Like, e.g. porting a SW:A style of "compact campaign" with "random encounters/conditions" mechanics. There are already stratagems and battlezones mechanics described to achieve this, so this could be as short as 2-4 more pages on campaigns and result in a much more interest in such style of 40K play.)

So, what do you think?

I think that having more and more options for how to play the game you want to play is a good thing. Some of us can't stand playing against WAAC players, and some of us don't want to waste time on campaigns that never get finished. I finally come to the realization that I am a Narrative player first, and that my opponent's experience is at least as important as my own in any game I play. The fact that GW is now giving out support and recognition for both Narrative and Competitive games is a good thing, as it gives validation (or in your words, "officialdom") to players wanting to play something differently than everyone else.

More ways to play is a good thing for everyone, and I haven't been this excited for 40K since the Thunderwolf Cavalry models came out years back.

 BunkhouseBuster wrote:
... and some of us don't want to waste time on campaigns that never get finished.

This is a part of the reason why I like stratagem mechanics - it is a quick way of awarding victory bonus in a short campaign, without the need of extra models/units. This way it should now be possible (with the overall game pace increase) to play a small 3-5 games campaings on the lower point spectrum within a single weekend.

This is one of the things I'm most hyped for about 8th – it seems like they've made a particular effort to make it a toolkit for setting up these sort of games. Can't wait to get my books and get stuck in.

theocracity wrote:
...like the sentries rule and the Meatgrinder scenario - that are definitely going to find a way into our games.

Meatgrinder scenario principle is something akin to what my group had embedded into horde army codices - e.g. an actual working "endless horde" feel to Tyranid gaunts. My experience with such games is that it creates realy, realy challangeing games. Especially combined with tactical objectives you simply have to weight every decision and manouver your forces so that they live long enough. Definately worth spending time on such inherently "imbalanced" scenario

The Chaoa to Glory type games are actually very good for the power level system, and can work for any army now. And the free upgrades thing didn't necessarily break anything in that system either.


Roll a d6, 2d6 etc to see how many points you can spend on a new unit, and escalate that way.

Start a warband, an ork tribe or a newly sanctioned marine chapter. All exciting possibilities.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Path to Glory redux: d6 new units, you can roll 3d6 once, 2d6 twice, and any amount of single d6. Rolls equals power level you can add. Something like that.