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1) The fluff doesn't represent an accurate look at the universe, it represents peoples differing interpretation of it. If you read enough Codexes you will start to notice a pattern: they're all there to gush about how wonderful that army is and how much all the other armies suck, which suggests that either GW is sloppy or that the fluff is intended to be read as propaganda.
2) Assuming the above note about propaganda is true, think about why a totalitarian regime would have a reason to alter their own history.
3) Most of the writers actually do play the game...
4) If you want a clear-cut 'good' faction, this is honestly the wrong game. There aren't any 'good guys' in Warhammer, it's all about a war between the 'bad guys' and the 'even worse' guys. There may be 'good' individuals (Gaunt, Tu'shan, et cetera) within the 'bad' factions, but there are no 'good' factions.

On the bright side, the fluff GW has written represents a tiny percentage of the vastness of the galaxy. Write your own 'good guys' somewhere else.

daniel79 wrote:

2.) They constantly "RE-WRITE" fluff and ignore all previously written fluff

Good. The old fluff included:

1. Inquisitor Sherlock Obiwan Clouseau
2. The Ultramarine Librarian was a half-eldar
3. Carnivorous Sand Clams.

You do NOT feth with carnivorous sand clam. You will lose. Every time.

They're immobile, have no shooting attack, and can only hurt you in close combat.

Why the feth would you ever assault one???

Because it was a clever objective marker?

I got nothin'.

Or it camped on objectives?

Dunno... The original author has clammed up over the whole thing.

I have a suggestion, other than a boycott:

Write you own stuff.

It's Free! It's Fun! It Works!

You try! You like!

 kronk wrote:
Or it camped on objectives?

Dunno... The original author has clammed up over the whole thing.

I think camping objectives is pretty shellfish of them.

The fact that the 'good guys' aren't all white knights in shining armour is a good thing, allows for more complex characters

I went against the instincts of a lifetime and bought a 40K novel the other week -- the one by Andy Chambers about the Dark Eldar: Path of the Renegade.

Despite the fact that none of the characters could be describved as 'white knights', I found them all surprisingly lacklustre; in fact i would go so far as to say largely stereotypical and shallow.

Now I make allowances for the fact that these books are basically a bit of fuyn and have no real aspirations to do more than tell a story (and there's nothing wrong with that, authors from RLS to George Macdonald Fraser have produced super books that are essentially just romps with none of the inner meaning guff that bogs down more pretentious fiction).

I also don't expect them to be terribly well written (unlike RLS, GMF, etc who could and did write very well indeed), though it seemed to me that any editing done by the Black Library was at best superficial. I've nothing against good description, long description or florid writing. But an awful lot of the prose was bland or bloated. Often both at once.

But quite honestly though the plot had a rather good final twist, most of the story didn't really seem to mesh with the background terribly well, despite obvious attempts to fit everything 'Dark Eldary' for the codex into the book. Super-duplicious ancient and near-immortal Archons were fooled by ruses that might have been enough to trick a normal kind of person but not a super-duplicious ancient and near-immortal Archon.

The story was full of brutality, as it should have been given its subject matter, but in a curiously unaffecting way. I suppose this was largely to avoid any suggestion that TBL and Chambers were revelling in sadism for its own sake but there seemed to much gloss and not enough revulsion. Even for a book aimed at 12-14 year olds, I'd have expected a little more sense of horror (after all most will have read stuff like Stephen King by around that age).

Partly I think the story itself was too large to be told in 400 pages: too many characters of significance, too many interweaving strands, not enough time spent scene setting or fleshing the weaker plot elements enough to make them seem suitably convincing.

I won't be hastening to buy another but my strong impression is that the book was poor not because the author did not understand the race or setting but because the book was written in a rush, inadequately edited, and possibly because he's not really a novelist but a writer of source/background material, which is quite a different thing.

1068SCP wrote:
Oh, and Orks! Why isn't there a hilarious series of comedy books from an Ork boss's perspective? [/b]

This.
So much this.
I would give the guy who writes nearly a whole book in Ork speak a medal for his efforts.
Especially if he kept it nice and crazy the whole way through haha

Ork books could be brilliant.

 Blood and Slaughter wrote:
I went against the instincts of a lifetime and bought a 40K novel the other week -- the one by Andy Chambers about the Dark Eldar: Path f the Renegade.

You might want to try one that's written by an exclusive Black Library author instead of someone who's been on and off codices for years. Andy Chamber's novels are, frankly, awful in comparison to any of the current top Black Library authors. If this was your first Black Library book, then I SERIOUSLY recommend you reconsider making this your only one.

Danzag wrote:

This.
So much this.
I would give the guy who writes nearly a whole book in Ork speak a medal for his efforts.
Especially if he kept it nice and crazy the whole way through haha

Look up Deff Skwadron. It's pretty much exactly what you're looking for.

jareddm wrote:
Look up Deff Skwadron. It's pretty much exactly what you're looking for.

Looks like I best get to finding a medal then.

 Blood and Slaughter wrote:
Partly I think the story itself was too large to be told in 400 pages: too many characters of significance, too many interweaving strands, not enough time spent scene setting or fleshing the weaker plot elements enough to make them seem suitably convincing.

Path of the Renegade is also part three in a 3 book series. The Path of the Warrior and Path of the Seer are the first two. Some of the over-arching concepts of Renegade are laid down in the first two. But those are just my experiences with it.

Give the Night Lords Trilogy a shot, or pretty much anything that ADB writes for they're all awesome

 Blood and Slaughter wrote:
I went against the instincts of a lifetime and bought a 40K novel the other week -- the one by Andy Chambers about the Dark Eldar: Path of the Renegade.
...
I won't be hastening to buy another but my strong impression is that the book was poor not because the author did not understand the race or setting but because the book was written in a rush, inadequately edited, and possibly because he's not really a novelist but a writer of source/background material, which is quite a different thing.

If you want a good book from the viewpoint of an evil faction, I'd suggest the Night Lord novels by Aaron-Dembski Bowden (Note: Lord of Night is not one of those). They star evil characters who are still interesting and even sympathetic, along with some more neutral human viewpoint characters.

jareddm wrote:
Look up Deff Skwadron. It's pretty much exactly what you're looking for.

Thanks!

EDIT:

 Alfndrate wrote:
Give the Night Lords Trilogy a shot, or pretty much anything that ADB writes for they're all awesome

This guy totally has it right.

 Blood and Slaughter wrote:

The fact that the 'good guys' aren't all white knights in shining armour is a good thing, allows for more complex characters

I went against the instincts of a lifetime and bought a 40K novel the other week -- the one by Andy Chambers about the Dark Eldar: Path of the Renegade.

That's also part 3 of a 3 part series. You're missing the first 2 parts.

 kronk wrote:

daniel79 wrote:

2.) They constantly "RE-WRITE" fluff and ignore all previously written fluff

Good. The old fluff included:

1. Inquisitor Sherlock Obiwan Clouseau
mg]http://i.somethingawful.com/u/elpintogrande/october09/roguetrader/roguetrader_07.gif[/img]

Show me. Wherefore does Inquisitor Clouseau appear? And does he have Grand Inquisitor Dreyfus (RIP Herbert Lom) always trying to kill him?

Rogue Trader

 CuddlySquig wrote:

Show me. Wherefore does Inquisitor Clouseau appear? And does he have Grand Inquisitor Dreyfus (RIP Herbert Lom) always trying to kill him?

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/List_of_Inquisitors#.UHRhPuewdHA

Obiwan Sherlock Clousseau
"A tireless exposer of psychic misdeeds and genetic deviance."
- The first named Inquisitor created for Warhammer: 40,000.
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader

Skin tight powered armor...

You know, for the ladies!

I can imagine him targeting the wrong world for exterminatus to destroy the daemon hound of the Baskervilles. Then recoiling as the planet blows up and remarking he fells a thousand voices cry out in terror and being suddenly silenced.

OP, do you even know what a boycott is?

That's those kids in the blue uniforms that sell cookies, right?

What is the point of the poll? You never explained. Are you going to write fluff for us based on what gets the most votes?

daedalus wrote:1)
3) See pretty much any hybridization of content and system pretty much anywhere. I doubt that Gary Gygax ever wrote a D&D novel. (Are you referring to codex stuff, or BL Books?)

Actually he did write a few. I own this one (Sea of Death.)
http://www.amazon.com/Death-Gord-Rogue-Gary-Gygax/dp/044175676X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1349804547&sr=1-1&keywords=gary+gygax

kronk wrote:

daniel79 wrote:

2.) They constantly "RE-WRITE" fluff and ignore all previously written fluff

3. Carnivorous Sand Clams.

Oh man, and you just *know* it gets cranky when sand gets in it.

This.
So much this.
I would give the guy who writes nearly a whole book in Ork speak a medal for his efforts.
Especially if he kept it nice and crazy the whole way through haha

Look up Deff Skwadron. It's pretty much exactly what you're looking for.

I was all excited, then I saw people are asking $200new/$110used for it on Amazon and sweet crap... I thought IA books were pricy.

 kronk wrote:

 Blood and Slaughter wrote:

The fact that the 'good guys' aren't all white knights in shining armour is a good thing, allows for more complex characters

I went against the instincts of a lifetime and bought a 40K novel the other week -- the one by Andy Chambers about the Dark Eldar: Path of the Renegade.

That's also part 3 of a 3 part series. You're missing the first 2 parts.

Do you mean Path of the Warrior and Path of the Seer, as they're a completely different series, the recent Path of the Outcast being part 3 of that. Or is there something I'm missing?

 Rampage wrote:

 kronk wrote:

 Blood and Slaughter wrote:

The fact that the 'good guys' aren't all white knights in shining armour is a good thing, allows for more complex characters

I went against the instincts of a lifetime and bought a 40K novel the other week -- the one by Andy Chambers about the Dark Eldar: Path of the Renegade.

That's also part 3 of a 3 part series. You're missing the first 2 parts.

Do you mean Path of the Warrior and Path of the Seer, as they're a completely different series, the recent Path of the Outcast being part 3 of that. Or is there something I'm missing?

My bad. I was confusing it with the Path of the Outcast.

Carry on.

Yeah, as far as I'm aware, Path of the Renegade is first in (god help us!) a three part series focused on evil faeries (Path of the Incubi meant to be the second).

Regardless, I've read other novels that have been 'late' in a series without reading those prior and found neither the flaccidity of writing nor the superficiality of character that Chambers managed to imbue PotR with.

I will, however, cast my eye over the Night Lords series at least given that folk say they're better.

I have read any of the Path of series, but I have read the Night Lords Trilogy and enjoyed it.

 Lansirill wrote:


I was all excited, then I saw people are asking $200new/$110used for it on Amazon and sweet crap... I thought IA books were pricy.

Just google it. In the first three links you can find the entire thing online twice.

OP:

Um.. dude, it's a game. You don't have to like the current iteration. I know people who still play under 2e rules because they can...so can you. You can play however you want... just you know, remember that others won't always agree to it lol.

Lighten up man. If you take your game this seriously I can't imagine how you react to real life...