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Calling all Narrative Heroes!


Thornshield

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While sending out feelers on sponsorships/partnerships for Realms at War: Legends 2016, a thunderbolt of an idea struck me.

The international AoS community is full of talented people, churning out unofficial supplements, rulesets, campaigns, etc, all in the name of Narrative play. Yet the majority of events being held worldwide are still focused on Matched play.

I'd like to see this changed, with more events focusing on the story/hobby aspects such as Holy Wars, Realm Hoppers, and campaigns like the Season of War.

So my immediate idea is this, to form an international affiliation with the following ethos:


Inspire players to embrace the Narrative

Host and promote Narrative play events

Produce a collective fountain of knowledge & resources

To be a supportive network of Narrative Heroes!


Current Members (or at least those who've agreed to listen to me):

 

Given this is all in an infancy stage, any thoughts, ideas, potential names for the group, functional aspects such as where do we host it, etc, are all free to be discussed here! Only with your help can we make this a thing. Thanks for your time and support!

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I think there should be a section called something like the Vault which has instant access to a place people can download custom battleplans, warscrolls, narrative campaign packs, time of war etc. A one stop shop for All unofficial narrative fun. 

Maybe a section where to showcase a campaign or event upcoming. 

A section on ideas from public who aren't able create things themselves to allow others who can to create for them. 

Just a few off top of my head. 

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I think one potential contributor to the (perceived?) lack of popularity of narrative play is the actual cost... which sounds weird, but here's where I'm coming from...

The General's Handbook offers three distinct modes of play. The "cost of entry" for each is:

(1) Open play -- buy your models and find an opponent. Zero (additional) cost of entry.
(2) Matched play -- buy your models and find an opponent. General's Handbook is essential, so there's a $25 (US) additional cost of entry.
(3) Narrative play -- buy your models and find an opponent. You won't need the Handbook, but you're looking at $65-$74 (US) per campaign book to play the GW storyline. Alternative, you can DIY a series of battleplans (spending lots of time but not necessarily any money) or use the (limited) stuff in the Handbook for $25.

So narrative play is the most expensive (in terms of time and money) of the three modes of play, and therefore requires additional commitment from the participants.

I think some people really bristle at the idea of playing a game they're "supposed to lose" due to story-driven imbalanced forces, too, which can contribute to reluctance to play narrative. But I really applaud your efforts and hope you can get more folks on the bandwagon!

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I think Narrative is actually the most popular. All narrative is is having a story behind your army and playing out your story on the battlefield. 

Disagree with it being the most expensive. You don't need to buy the campaign books, just go onto the app and download any Battleplan you like for about £1.50. 

This is why I think we need somewhere, a central point of access to all things narrative. 

Narrative is open play and pitched battles with a story therefore, all that is needed is imagination. 

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Thanks for all the responses and support so far, certainly cheered up this bleak and rainy Saturday.

@rokapoke does have a good point actually,  mainly in the form of time (& imagination), which many have told me why they don't host campaign weekends back in WFB. Which is why I completely agree with you @HobbyHammer, the Vault is what I'm hoping we can come up with, a treasure trove of resources for budding TOs and gaming clubs alike to pick Battleplans and rulesets they like and easily adapt it for their own purposes.

As for the imbalanced scenarios and mindset of not wanting to lose, that's a harder thing to tackle. But rather than trying to change people's minds, it's better to let them try it out for themselves with a gripping narrative/fun environment, and if they still prefer competitive, well-balanced play (I certainly do sometimes and when I play board games for example) that's entirely their decision which we should respect.

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So matched play events need a TO and a comp, but matched play at home requires the GH and a quick discussion.

you can absolutely add a layer of narrative to any story just by playing game after game with the same characters and telling stories.

Narrative play events And campaigns at home require a GM, and this takes more time and creativity than Money. Not everyone who plays campaigns or wants to play narrative can/wants to spend the time GMing. 

So I think we create resources to support the GMs that want to take their friends through a narrative campaign.

Dungeons and Dragons is going through a huge Renaissance and this is their angle. 

I think everyone wants to play some narrative, but someone needs to GM the group and may need more support.

 

love this idea. 

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Thing is, a lot of players do the "work" behind narrative play anyway. I've been playing for more than 20 years and even when the game was at its most competitively driven, I've never built an army I didn't come up with fluff for. Once both sides have some fluff you just need to answer the following questions:

- Why are the two sides meeting?

- What is at stake?

- How does the outcome set up your next game?

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On 9/3/2016 at 5:21 PM, AGPO said:

Thing is, a lot of players do the "work" behind narrative play anyway. I've been playing for more than 20 years and even when the game was at its most competitively driven, I've never built an army I didn't come up with fluff for. Once both sides have some fluff you just need to answer the following questions:

- Why are the two sides meeting?

- What is at stake?

- How does the outcome set up your next game?

 
 

You are 100% right that a lot of players do the work to give their warband/army a story and when they play games, set it in a realm, a place a time, and put a story to the scenario. I do think this fits with what @Thornshield mentioned about "embracing the narrative" - If I may call this impromptu narrative.

Another shade of narrative which I had meant to convey, is the campaign level of narrative where you link multiple games together, create a linear progression, or a choose your own adventure style of linked game play. This can be a narrative event, or something played locally over multiple weeks/months. This I would call organized narrative. 

Summary: Lots of ways to support players and help them make their weekly match play games MORE narrative and fun. Also, lots of ways to support players who want to put more work into organizing a narrative event or campaign. 

Many layers to this "narrative play" onion.

 

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On 9/3/2016 at 11:38 AM, rokapoke said:

I think some people really bristle at the idea of playing a game they're "supposed to lose" due to story-driven imbalanced forces, too, which can contribute to reluctance to play narrative. But I really applaud your efforts and hope you can get more folks on the bandwagon!

Though I understand this feeling, being naturally of a competitive disposition, it is unfortunately based on a misconception of what narrative play is.  

Narrative play can still be extremely competitive.  Just because the scenario has you performing a last stand, and you should fully expect all of your units to end the game dead, doesn't mean you can't win.  What it means is that the definition of 'win' has changed.  Instead of wiping out your enemy, or fighting for the same points as your opponent, now you are trying to hold a key bridge as long as possible, to give your allies a chance to organize, or perhaps just take as many of them with you as you can before you go down, for the sake of pure spite.  These sorts of victories can be very fulfilling.

 

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Never actually played a narrative game where one is supposed to lose, though if I were, like in Horus Heresy,  I would always take the losing side because it's even more fun to me to see the battle visually unfold before my eyes. I've yet to do a specific RGW scenario using the exact factions detailed (since we don't have to, we can do whatever we want) but I love narrative games because winning doesn't necessarily mean kill points of hold objectives for X rounds, but rather a cool story, like a movie, that either side can watch and enjoy. Like many win/loss games a tight game is often more enjoyable. So say I'm doing narrative and my goal is to slay the general or have a cool duel or brave a dangerous vortex and need only one hero left alive to perform some task like closing it, or whatever. By changing the victory conditions it changes the experience. 

Anyway, that's just me. You may get tabled before hitting the narrative goal or maybe the force which can eek out that win dies in round four, but you played for something more specific and cinematic than just "kill the other guys" or "hold this tower by end of round five." Not sure what else to say beyond that. I think some gamers just need to try out a narrative game and be flexible. Maybe they'll like it.

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