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Made in gb
Deranged Necron Destroyer





Leicester, England

I thought I saw a post about this the other day but I now can't find it - if you could rewrite a faction's fluff, what would you do?

I was thinking about the T'au and their battlesuits. If I were rewriting them from the ground up, I would keep much of their early fluff the same, being discovered by the Imperium, cut off by Warp storms, etc. What I would change, is that the Imperium starts encountering these advanced battlesuits, but they're all drones rather than being piloted directly. It takes literally decades before they find the T'au stealthships that have been remotely directing the drones in every battle they've fought. You can still have Ethereals etc., I just think it would be cool if their fluff was entirely in a drone-based direction.

Setekh the Eternal, Phaeron of the Kopakh Dynasty, Regent of Nephthys 7660pts  
   
Made in us
Stubborn Prosecutor





Necrons. You don't just need to rewrite the fluff, you need to travel back in time and blow away evidence of all the previous fluff. They now have this complicated mish-mash of fluff that makes them seem meh.

The Imperium. I think GW painted themselves in a corner when they defined all of non-chaos humanity as a single faction. If they knew just how human focused the fluff was going to be it would have bee a good opportunity to split the Imperium to two separate factions - perhaps a religious and irreligious one (both belligerent and ignorant of course). This would give a mechanism to explain all the human vs human fighting, all the focus on the Imperium, and even provide a mechanic to avoid certain models from being paired with each other. Likewise it would give more creative space to explore how humanity approachs things from different angles.

Some small part of me hopes the new fluff will lead to a civil war between Gulliman and the ecclisarchy. Imagine the possibilities.

Bender wrote:* Realise that despite the way people talk, this is not a professional sport played by demi gods, but rather a game of toy soldiers played by tired, inebriated human beings.


https://www.victorwardbooks.com/ Home of Dark Days series 
   
Made in fi
Locked in the Tower of Amareo





Well we already wrote out primarch return and primaris out. Or rather never adopted it to preserve what we already had.

2024 painted/bought: 109/109 
   
Made in ca
Commander of the Mysterious 2nd Legion





I'd change the Tau too, it'd be an extremely minor change but an important one. I'd give them warp drives on par with everyone else. The Slow speed of Tau's warp drive is a horriable horriable mistake as it limits them to one area of the galaxy, which really does hurt narrative etc. Actually I'd have them have hijacked access to the webway somehow, giving an immediate set up for Elder vs Tau conflicts


Automatically Appended Next Post:
tneva82 wrote:
Well we already wrote out primarch return and primaris out. Or rather never adopted it to preserve what we already had.


no need to write it out, just stay playing pre gathering storm.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2018/02/20 19:48:07


Opinions are not facts please don't confuse the two 
   
Made in se
Willing Inquisitorial Excruciator






A few things:

Remove the 1000 Space marines in a chapter thing. It is a silly number.

Re-retcon the necrons. Have them serve the C'tan Star gods, be an ubstoppable force of death but also have the lords keep their quirky personalities.

Make chaos more intresting and less straight up evil. Have chaos followers be people that revel in breaking rules and showing emotions, in opposition to the Imperiums stoicm. Make chaos more neutral with a bunch of smaller "chaos empires" under diffrent types of rules. Maybe make them more freedom fighter esc and remove the chaos foccus from the marines.

Introduce a Astra Militarum equalevent chaos faction.

Have more Xeno races and chaos factions that can be mishmashed like the Imperium and the Eldar factions.

Rewrite the birth of Slaanesh to happen much much earlier. Maybe around M00.

Have the primaris marines make sense and not be an 10.000 year old project. Maybe have them be accompanied by a new primarch.

Make Lion el Jhonson a heretic and make Luther the loyalist

...probably more stuff but that's all I can think of right now

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/02/20 20:21:03


His pattern of returning alive after being declared dead occurred often enough during Cain's career that the Munitorum made a special ruling that Ciaphas Cain is to never be considered dead, despite evidence to the contrary. 
   
Made in gb
Sadistic Inquisitorial Excruciator




Return Necrons to 3rd Ed fluff.

Return AM to 3rd ed fluff. Rename them the Imperial Guard.

Accidentally spill coffee all over Matt Wards draft Space Marine Codex before it saw print.

Quietly delete the Ynarri.

If people are insistant on Primaris, re-write their fluff from the ground up.

Remove the Primarchs from 40k and put them back in HH.

Disclaimer - I am a Games Workshop Shareholder. 
   
Made in se
Willing Inquisitorial Excruciator






AdmiralHalsey wrote:

Accidentally spill coffee all over Matt Wards draft Space Marine Codex before it saw print.

This.

His pattern of returning alive after being declared dead occurred often enough during Cain's career that the Munitorum made a special ruling that Ciaphas Cain is to never be considered dead, despite evidence to the contrary. 
   
Made in ca
Heroic Senior Officer





Krieg! What a hole...

Massively reduce the importance and feats of the SM's, replacing them with litteraly anyone from the Imperium, allowing other Imperial factions to have their time in the spotlight, too. Make the Guard not seem so incompetent in people's eyes, somehow, tho that might be helped by making the SM seem less godly, and more just enhanced humans with good gear.

Member of 40k Montreal There is only war in Montreal
Primarchs are a mistake
DKoK Blog:http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/419263.page Have a look, I guarantee you will not see greyer armies, EVER! Now with at least 4 shades of grey

Savageconvoy wrote:
Snookie gives birth to Heavy Gun drone squad. Someone says they are overpowered. World ends.

 
   
Made in gb
Fixture of Dakka




Bring back oldcrons, rewind the timeline to just before the 13th Black Crusade (again), make more of a deal out of Eldar gods that aren't Ynnead and tone back the suits on the Tau.

tremere47-fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate, leads to triple riptide spam  
   
Made in us
Powerful Phoenix Lord





-Redo or remove the Ynnari. Maybe keep the characters, but remove Ynnari as a "faction", and simply allow the three characters to provide buffs/special rules on their own. They're a disaster and don't fit right now. Either go all-in on making an Ynnari faction or reduce it to just characters.

-Undo the majority of the Necrons...their fluff is awful and doesn't fit their aesthetic at all. I'd argue one of the worst factions at the moment for background. I'd take the original unknown menace over the current silliness.

-I agree that the 1,000 marine Chapter (even if it's 1,800-2,300 in reality) needs to go. That, or make Space Marines properly powerful. Admittedly this is all but fixed now with the idea of Primaris reinforcements, but if you're playing a pre-Primaris timeline this was a short-sighted idea when devised and put into print.

-I'd honestly rather remove Dark Eldar and replace them with proper Eldar pirates or Exodites instead...but that's not just a fluff re-write.
   
Made in us
Posts with Authority





Deathwatch. They should still be tied to the Ordo Xenos and the Inquisition as a whole.

Primaris Marines. Instead of making them a NuMarine, make them just a new type of doctrinal unit- 'Primaris' Marines would just be Marines that can use Bolt Rifles, Plasma Incinerators, etc. and focus on a very specific role- a 'Primaris' function, rather than versatile like other Marines. Then quietly re-proportion/size all Space Marines (including CSM) to make them properly scaled.


Mob Rule is not a rule. 
   
Made in ca
Fireknife Shas'el






Rewrite the Necrons to have actually chosen to turn their people into soul-less automatons in return for their mechanical immortality. Put them back to serving the C'Tan, who put the Necrons to sleep to wait for there to be enough life in the galaxy to be worth bothering to consume.

The tyranids are a bit of a foil to that plan, but the C'Tan figure they can eat Tyranids just as well as anything else, so the great galactic conflict is between Necrons and Tyranids, everything else that goes on is a sideshow in the grand scheme of things.

   
Made in us
Bonkers Buggy Driver with Rockets






Adjust almost every hard number relating to the size of any and all organizations: Chapters, systems, regiments, tombworlds, cadres, etc. to give the setting a consistent scale that makes sense when compared to itself. Make the Alpha Legion mysterious again. Reconcile the Tau usage of drones with the “all AI gets corrupted by Chaos” lore. There are a lot of options.

40k drinking game: take a shot everytime a book references Skitarii using transports.
 
   
Made in gb
Steadfast Ultramarine Sergeant





Liverpool, England

I'd have Cawl fiddle with gene seed a little more to make the Primaris marines. I like the idea of him going full Fabius and creating a new Primarch in secret, heading the XXI legion and throwing a spanner in the works for Guilliman.
   
Made in nl
Been Around the Block




I'd change Cawl to being a persona/identity, rather than a 10K year old techpriest (it's just absurd) and reduce his acomplishments. Remove the term 'primaris'. The models can stay, just as mkIX armour and new types of weapons and doctrines that come with it. the rest of the newer fluff is ok.

I'd also removethe following models: primaris redemptor, primaris repulsor, primaris aggressors, primaris inceptors and centurions. These models just do not make sense or look rediculous to me, and are a prime example of reinventing the space marine wheel. (I'm aware it makes GW money, but it's getting out of hand).
   
Made in gb
Agile Revenant Titan






BRING BACK OLDCRONS

Then, using their old fluff as a basis, build up hints of character. Not as senile crotchety robots, but as harrowingly tragic ghosts in the machine. Echoes of their consciousnesses, howling around their empty metallic shells. Some of them self-aware enough to understand what they've lost and bend what's left of their shattered intellects to scrabbling around in the crypt of their civilisation trying to undo what was done, and what few others retained anything at all are simply driven utterly insane by what shards of consciousness have clung to their bodies for 60 million years.

Get rid of the egyptian thing while you're at it too...

Check out may pan-Eldar projects http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/702683.page

Also my Rogue Trader-esque spaceport factions http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/709686.page

Oh, and I've come up with a semi-expanded Shadow War idea and need some feedback! https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/726439.page

Lastly I contribute to a blog too! http://objectivesecured.blogspot.co.uk/ Check it out! It's not just me  
   
Made in us
Bonkers Buggy Driver with Rockets






trindaros wrote:
I'd change Cawl to being a persona/identity, rather than a 10K year old techpriest (it's just absurd) and reduce his acomplishments. Remove the term 'primaris'. The models can stay, just as mkIX armour and new types of weapons and doctrines that come with it. the rest of the newer fluff is ok.

I'd also removethe following models: primaris redemptor, primaris repulsor, primaris aggressors, primaris inceptors and centurions. These models just do not make sense or look rediculous to me, and are a prime example of reinventing the space marine wheel. (I'm aware it makes GW money, but it's getting out of hand).

I like the changes to Cawl. Out of all the characters to come out of Guilliman’s debut and the transition to 8th, Cawl is the one that rubs me the wrong way the most. Something about how his achievements are thrown around with no fleshing out of the consequences.

40k drinking game: take a shot everytime a book references Skitarii using transports.
 
   
Made in us
Lead-Footed Trukkboy Driver





Emphasize squig beer and diganobz as much as possible.

Active armies, still collecting and painting First and greatest love - Orks, Orks, and more Orks largest pile of shame, so many tanks unassembled most complete and painted beautiful models, couldn't resist the swarm will consume all
Armies in disrepair: nothing new since 5th edition oh how I want to revive, but mostly old fantasy demons and some glorious Soul Grinders in need of love 
   
Made in nl
Been Around the Block




 gnome_idea_what wrote:
trindaros wrote:
I'd change Cawl to being a persona/identity, rather than a 10K year old techpriest (it's just absurd) and reduce his acomplishments. Remove the term 'primaris'. The models can stay, just as mkIX armour and new types of weapons and doctrines that come with it. the rest of the newer fluff is ok.

I'd also removethe following models: primaris redemptor, primaris repulsor, primaris aggressors, primaris inceptors and centurions. These models just do not make sense or look rediculous to me, and are a prime example of reinventing the space marine wheel. (I'm aware it makes GW money, but it's getting out of hand).

I like the changes to Cawl. Out of all the characters to come out of Guilliman’s debut and the transition to 8th, Cawl is the one that rubs me the wrong way the most. Something about how his achievements are thrown around with no fleshing out of the consequences.


I agree. Having Cawl strutting around the galaxy and fixing everthing while being 10.000 years old isn't fitting. Yes, 40k is over the top crazy and grimdark, but this also deminishes the weight of characters such as Bjorn, guiliman and even the emperor himself. The Horus Heresy should remain veiled in myth and superstition in universe. Having the primarchs themselfs return is stretching that sometimes (but some of them did show up multiple times). Normally, techpriests don't get older than a few centuries or a millenia, in rare cases maby even 2000 years, in the end, they are stil mortals. The character of cawl just ignores those limitations and the struggle of the mechanicus itself to maintain functional.

I would have been really happy to finally have a mechanicus character in the spotlights, If he/she/it would have been a fitting and belivable character to the setting and background of 40K. Maby at an age of 2000ish years, mastered multiple fields of study and some crazy feats of strength under his/her/it's belt to justify fame and and atention.

Also, about the primaris, I'm ok with having more space marines fluff (again), as it's unavoidable but the fluff is weak at best and the models don't help either (but that's personal taste). I have no problems with primarchs returning, and I hope that least be one or two other loyalist primarchs return to balance out or even counter guiliman.
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut







Personally, I like the idea of Space Marines being an actual "roughneck" force more akin to Battletech Clan warriors or Mobile Armored Infantry, or even Starcraft Marines. Less "space knight" and more "ooh-rah."

It would definitely change the overall atmosphere and the flamewars could keep things going for a really long time.
   
Made in us
Stubborn Prosecutor





 MagicJuggler wrote:
Personally, I like the idea of Space Marines being an actual "roughneck" force more akin to Battletech Clan warriors or Mobile Armored Infantry, or even Starcraft Marines. Less "space knight" and more "ooh-rah."

It would definitely change the overall atmosphere and the flamewars could keep things going for a really long time.


^Found the GW guy responsible for Primaris.

Bender wrote:* Realise that despite the way people talk, this is not a professional sport played by demi gods, but rather a game of toy soldiers played by tired, inebriated human beings.


https://www.victorwardbooks.com/ Home of Dark Days series 
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut







Mind, I was trolling.

The main serious change I would want is to make Grots/Gretchin more like WHFB Goblins, for there to be Grot Waaaghs and sneaky Gitbosses. A Grot-controlled world would be the Ferengi to the Ork's Klingon to use a lazy analogy, though they would be the ultimate capitalists of the setting.

So they'd be one part Warcraft Goblin, one part WHFB Night Goblin, one part Ferengi, perhaps one part Druuge from Star Control II.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2018/02/21 16:59:07


 
   
Made in ca
Commander of the Mysterious 2nd Legion





trindaros wrote:
 gnome_idea_what wrote:
trindaros wrote:
I'd change Cawl to being a persona/identity, rather than a 10K year old techpriest (it's just absurd) and reduce his acomplishments. Remove the term 'primaris'. The models can stay, just as mkIX armour and new types of weapons and doctrines that come with it. the rest of the newer fluff is ok.

I'd also removethe following models: primaris redemptor, primaris repulsor, primaris aggressors, primaris inceptors and centurions. These models just do not make sense or look rediculous to me, and are a prime example of reinventing the space marine wheel. (I'm aware it makes GW money, but it's getting out of hand).

I like the changes to Cawl. Out of all the characters to come out of Guilliman’s debut and the transition to 8th, Cawl is the one that rubs me the wrong way the most. Something about how his achievements are thrown around with no fleshing out of the consequences.


I agree. Having Cawl strutting around the galaxy and fixing everthing while being 10.000 years old isn't fitting. Yes, 40k is over the top crazy and grimdark, but this also deminishes the weight of characters such as Bjorn, guiliman and even the emperor himself. The Horus Heresy should remain veiled in myth and superstition in universe. Having the primarchs themselfs return is stretching that sometimes (but some of them did show up multiple times). Normally, techpriests don't get older than a few centuries or a millenia, in rare cases maby even 2000 years, in the end, they are stil mortals. The character of cawl just ignores those limitations and the struggle of the mechanicus itself to maintain functional.

I would have been really happy to finally have a mechanicus character in the spotlights, If he/she/it would have been a fitting and belivable character to the setting and background of 40K. Maby at an age of 2000ish years, mastered multiple fields of study and some crazy feats of strength under his/her/it's belt to justify fame and and atention.

Also, about the primaris, I'm ok with having more space marines fluff (again), as it's unavoidable but the fluff is weak at best and the models don't help either (but that's personal taste). I have no problems with primarchs returning, and I hope that least be one or two other loyalist primarchs return to balance out or even counter guiliman.


Regarding Cawl specificly, here's an idea, what if Cawl ISN'T a person, at least not anymore, what if he's a complex AI program that is adapted into the leader of a cult of the admech, and over writes or merges with the person's personality to prioduce Cawl. Essentially a grim dark admech equivilant to an eldar Pheonix Lord.

Opinions are not facts please don't confuse the two 
   
Made in us
Shas'ui with Bonding Knife




The Internet- where men are men, women are men, and kids are undercover cops

Make Luther the loyalist and Lion the traitor.

 Jon Garrett wrote:
Perhaps not technically a Marine Chapter anymore, but the Flame Falcons would be pretty creepy to fight.

"Boss, we waz out lookin' for grub when some of them Spice Marines showed up and shot all the lads."

"Right. Well, did you at least use the burnas?"

"We tried, but the gits was already on fire."

"...Kunnin'."
 
   
Made in ca
Frenzied Berserker Terminator





Canada

Majorly minorly Primaris Marines
Like a yellow stream
Minorly majorly minorly heresy
What was Geedubs thinking
Oh majorly minorly majorly
The lores apart at the seams
Cicatrix Maledix quick now we need a fix
Shazzam Primaris Marines

Oh majorly minorly majorly
Rewrite the whole damn thing!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/02/21 04:53:10




Gets along better with animals... Go figure. 
   
Made in us
Loyal Necron Lychguard





I'd probably rewrite Cawl (or have an entirely different character who has his role as "Main AdMech Protag") to be a better representative of traditional AdMech dogma: ritual worship of the machine and an extreme suspicion of innovation and alien technology. Leave the tech heresy to the hereteks.
   
Made in ca
Commander of the Mysterious 2nd Legion





 Arachnofiend wrote:
I'd probably rewrite Cawl (or have an entirely different character who has his role as "Main AdMech Protag") to be a better representative of traditional AdMech dogma: ritual worship of the machine and an extreme suspicion of innovation and alien technology. Leave the tech heresy to the hereteks.


except that kinda defeats the point of him. he's a dangerous radical Gulliman has harness to his own ends

Opinions are not facts please don't confuse the two 
   
Made in us
Loyal Necron Lychguard





BrianDavion wrote:
 Arachnofiend wrote:
I'd probably rewrite Cawl (or have an entirely different character who has his role as "Main AdMech Protag") to be a better representative of traditional AdMech dogma: ritual worship of the machine and an extreme suspicion of innovation and alien technology. Leave the tech heresy to the hereteks.


except that kinda defeats the point of him. he's a dangerous radical Gulliman has harness to his own ends

I don't think the face of a faction should be a "dangerous radical". A character like Cawl can exist, but making him the primary AdMech character would be like making the leader of the Thousand Sons a blank.
   
Made in ca
Commander of the Mysterious 2nd Legion





 Arachnofiend wrote:
BrianDavion wrote:
 Arachnofiend wrote:
I'd probably rewrite Cawl (or have an entirely different character who has his role as "Main AdMech Protag") to be a better representative of traditional AdMech dogma: ritual worship of the machine and an extreme suspicion of innovation and alien technology. Leave the tech heresy to the hereteks.


except that kinda defeats the point of him. he's a dangerous radical Gulliman has harness to his own ends

I don't think the face of a faction should be a "dangerous radical". A character like Cawl can exist, but making him the primary AdMech character would be like making the leader of the Thousand Sons a blank.


the obvious answer to this is to give us more admech chars

Opinions are not facts please don't confuse the two 
   
Made in gb
Mighty Vampire Count






UK

Space Wolves

Delete 90% of the Wolfy Wolf Wolf nonsense - the riding wolves, the Wolf everything.

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"I will admit that some Primachs like Russ or Horus could have a chance against an unarmed 12 year old novice but, a full Battle Sister??!! One to one? In close combat? Perhaps three Primarchs fighting together... but just one Primarch?" da001

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