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So in my local area we're very luck in the fact of we have multiple groups which regularly host events and campaigns open to everyone and it's often expected for a individual to swap from one group to another on certain games nights to join in either tournament practices, narrative games and ongoing campaigns with custom missions. It makes the 40k scene here incredibly vibrant, fun and most of all brings the hobby community together to enjoy the hobby!

But I was wondering dakka, does your local group/scene do the same? If so, what are any highlights or advice you can give to people thinking/wanting to do the same for their local club?

If not, why? what's the biggest obstacle or issue preventing that? Maybe we can share some ideas on how to sway people over to enjoy 40k in a new way!

Most of the players in my area are quite competitive, and don't really get the whole narrative aspect of the hobby. It can be a real struggle to explain to them why I don't use the most efficient units in my army; for them, efficient lists are just pre-supposed.

Luckily, when I move back home this year, I'll be joining some very like-minded friends. I've already planned a very small introductory campaign to get us started, and I can't wait!

we do both, here, i do both altough not a tournament goer.


i don't mind either side, but the diehards on the far ends of both spectres are kinda annoying sometime.

That said, i do both because it is a goot training excercise, aswell as often more fun due to scrapfights beeing less of a predetermined thing then competitive list show off rounds.
It's also a lot less boring.


Personally, i found the best introduction for competitive minded players into narrative to be themed escalation campaigns on a small scale. (500, 600, 700, etc up to 1000 pts.)

vice versa, the best introduction into competitive is smaller comp team games imo, due to the nature of an experienced buddy back up.



However, key is that the players have fun.

Yeah it can be one of the biggest issues, convincing people narrative type games can be fun. I like to take it slow, like everyone meets up and rolls a custom general, then introduce 'veteran units', their fave units which have preformed well or done a heroic type feat and get a tiny bonus to something small and go from there, introducing narrative elements over time

Gir Spirit Bane wrote:
Yeah it can be one of the biggest issues, convincing people narrative type games can be fun. I like to take it slow, like everyone meets up and rolls a custom general, then introduce 'veteran units', their fave units which have preformed well or done a heroic type feat and get a tiny bonus to something small and go from there, introducing narrative elements over time

We generally have come up with our own system for that, and generally don't roll for special units/ charachters.

Often we run smaller campaigns, based upon some stiipulations, terrain is a lot more conceise, and often we use the older system in favour of the new one.
Then also we atleast attempt to balance the narrative matches a bit more, as in my case, people stated they'd rather play against a 7th adapted R&H army then the gakfest that is the 8th index, we don't really also field superheavies. (same with GKs etc. Sometimes we also play with handicaps, the most insane we have done was 4000 pts against 2000 and some fortifications.)

(in essence it's quite a bit like matched play but with actual restraint.) And due to beeing compromised of players that are Comp aswell as narrative we have a decent enough grasp on the ruleset to know what the shortcomings or obvious cheddar is. That said, our narrative matches also bring out the wierdest possible combinations.



TL: DR switching it up allows for a lot more creativity and in essence makes a lot of things shine that you don't see normally.
It's also a nice tool to play around with the balancing, and test stuff you'd might want to bring into competitive at some point or just test how it would play out. It's also a nice way to start gimmick, niche or special armies and conversion projects that turn out positively amazing.