I created a Warhammer-themed Discord where I wanted people to play all sorts of Warhammer games with each other- Total War Warhammer, Dawn of War, Space Marine, etc. The community was doing well in the initial stages, but now it's full of lurkers that don't contribute anything nor do they join up for gaming events that I set up. I was hoping that you guys could help me come up with some ideas for cool events or tournaments that would foster a community. Warhammer is replete with opportunities for roleplay and good times, but I have yet to capture that essence.
Here's what I had in mind, feel free to add whatever you guys can come up with!
Using Garry's Mod, I could modify various game modes to give them a Warhammer feel. For example, the Murder game mode could be set in an Imperial hive or pleasure world and players would take the role of factory workers or regular citizens. Hidden in their midst is a Chaos cultist bent on killing them all. The citizens have to discover who the cultist is before he kills them all; if he dies then the Imperials win. Another game mode is The Stalker, where you have a team of soldiers take on a single monster. It's asymmetrical and pretty fun; the soldiers have balanced weapons and team tactics on their side, but the monster has a lot of health and psychic powers on top of being able to strike from the shadows. This game mode can easily be modified to replace the soldiers with a Deathwatch kill team or a squad of guardsmen.
These game modes aren't the only thing that can be done in GMod, I could set up an Only War kind of roleplay where players assume the role of guardsmen and roleplay on top of having action-filled missions against spawnable swarms. My only issues with using Gmod are that Garry's Mod is a very old game and as such I'm not sure it'll be engaging and graphically interesting enough to hold people's attention and loyalty; the other issue being that I cannot afford a private server and I'm not sure if my own connection would be enough to run one from my house. What do you guys think?
The second game I had in mind is Space Engineers. Either this, or Empyrion Galactic Survival. A member suggested that I run with these since they feature space combat and ship building, both things that can have high utility in roleplaying and a faction-based system. I was thinking of setting up factions like Imperials, Chaos, Orks, etc and then have the members of each faction build bases and ships. These structures would then be used in battle against each other; this would encourage some friendly rivalry and action, but also construction and rolepoaying (The Imperial Navy has just breached our defenses! Pray to the Dark Gods!) I don't have much else to say about this since I haven't played either game before, but I think the idea of an upgraded Minecraft that has good vehicle building and decent combat is a really good medium for hosting a community battlegrounds.
The third idea is Minecraft. It's basic, it's simple, and there already is a mod for it that revolves around 40k: http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/mapping-and-modding/minecraft-mods/mod-packs/2615156-warhammer-40k-blood-iron-rpg-absolutely-huge-game
My only inconvenience with this is that Minecraft's combat is nonexistent and there is no vehicle contruction. Without these two components, the game will largely involve just... exploring and light roleplay, which I feel will lose people over time.
The final idea was to do tourneys and regular game events like I've been doing, things like Dark Crusade deathmatches and Eternal Crusade warbands. I won't stop doing this, but I'd like to know if there are more games I can add or if there's another way I can implement these things so that they foster community growth. For example, add a rewards system like in here, where every tournament won will upgrade your rank (say you're an Ork Boy, now you're a Nob or something). I also have some mods like the Forgotten Emerald mod for DoW2 Last Stand and a DoWpro mod for Dark Crusade. If anyone knows any good multiplayer mods for any game, let me know!
I honestly just want to have a good Warhammer community to play around with and have fun, not for any other reason. Both Fantasy and
40k are fantastic universes and I'd like to have a nice group where we can all roleplay our respective characters and just faff around in general. Thanks for reading, and here's my Discord if you decide to take a look:
https://discord.gg/SGmEENs
Please let me know what ideas you may have, or what my discord is missing!
