Malign Portents

[RuneBrush]

New story time all!

https://malignportents.com/story/duel-bloody-sky/

[RuneBrush]

What if...  Nagash wants all these armies to try and stop him in Shyish - it's part of his plan to bolster his legions of undead even further and the other Grand Alliances are simply playing his tune

[The Golem]

25 minutes ago, RuneBrush said:

What if...  Nagash wants all these armies to try and stop him in Shyish - it's part of his plan to bolster his legions of undead even further and the other Grand Alliances are simply playing his tune

Then Nagash's master plan will probably be foiled by skavens. Again.

[Twitch of Izalith]

1 hour ago, RuneBrush said:

New story time all!

https://malignportents.com/story/duel-bloody-sky/

That's my favourite one so far I think. The Dark Oath Queen is so bad-ass in the lore. its a shame her warscroll will never let her live up to it on the tabletop!

[RuneBrush]

1 minute ago, Twitch of Izalith said:

That's my favourite one so far I think. The Dark Oath Queen is so bad-ass in the lore. its a shame her warscroll will never let her live up to it on the tabletop!

I think a lot of the sub-6-wound models fall into the same boat.  But completely agree, she comes across as nails.

[Twitch of Izalith]

@RuneBrush Yeah my exalted deathbringer has the same problem - I really like his model but i'm not sure how he managed to get so exalted cos he never survives a battle! 

I'm sure I will pick up the warqueen model at some point anyway - once I decide how I want to paint it!

Thanks loads for making your Warscroll Designer available by the way - Its such a great tool for bringing new characters and units into narrative games with with all their stats set out the same as the official ones.

[RuneBrush]

1 minute ago, Twitch of Izalith said:

@RuneBrush Yeah my exalted deathbringer has the same problem - I really like his model but i'm not sure how he managed to get so exalted cos he never survives a battle! 

I'm sure I will pick up the warqueen model at some point anyway - once I decide how I want to paint it!

Thanks loads for making your Warscroll Designer available by the way - Its such a great tool for bringing new characters and units into narrative games with with all their stats set out the same as the official ones.

Lol, most of my Khorne models are like it - but Khorne cares not   I'm looking forward to running them skirmish level, should make some really enjoyable games using them.

Not a problem!  Keep meaning to rework the interface but other things keep getting in the way.  Was originally intended to allow me to re-create existing warscrolls at a more sensible size, but worked out that it's better for creating homebrew warscrolls

[chord]

3 hours ago, Jamie the Jasper said:

I wouldn't hold my breath. The Realmgate Wars books were excellent, but they were outrageously expensive and I don't think they sold very many of them. You'd be looking at more than £200 for the whole series. There's also the fact that they were very much geared towards narrative play, and much as I hate to admit it that turns a lot of people off.

The Malign Portents book is just £15 and has content for Narrative Play, Matched Play and Skirmish. It has something for everyone at a price most hobbyists can justify. I think it's going to be a huge success, in which case this will presumably me the model they use for future campaign books.

Now, from what I'm hearing the story it contains is just more of the same sort of stuff we've already been getting for free via the Malign Portents website, Warhammer TV and White Dwarf. That's all great, but honestly I was hoping for a little more. I'm not hearing anything about the plot moving forward or any big reveals about what Nagash is up to, just the stuff that's already out there retold from different perspectives and perhaps with a touch more detail. If there's any one thing that will scupper the popularity of the book I think it might be this, since they've been teasing us with Malign Portents for a long time now and I suspect a lot of people are expecting that to be paid off in some big way.

True...but then again so many people who complained about that prices had no problem spending hundreds on models never assembled or painted...

I'll hold my breath a little longer but it could be that GW just doesn't want customers like me.  I'll play all three ways but I do like a good story for motivation.  The realmgate wars provided that.

[Guest]

Just now, chord said:

True...but then again so many people who complained about that prices had no problem spending hundreds on models never assembled or painted...

I'll hold my breath a little longer but it could be that GW just doesn't want customers like me.  I'll play all three ways but I do like a good story for motivation.  The realmgate wars provided that.

I think it's a bit melodramatic to say that GW doesn't want you as a customer just because they've tweaked the format of their campaign books. There's still plenty of story happening - and a lot of it is now free too. It seems odd to me that at a time when most people are heralding a glorious golden age in GW's narrative efforts for AoS, you're apparently not seeing it.

I suspect that when all is said and done Malign Portents will have generated just as much story and lore as the Realmgate Wars. The only difference is that now you don't have to pay £45 for a book that has exactly the same scope in terms of written content and rules, but padded out with artwork and photographs of miniatures. Don't get me wrong, I like those things, but if it's a choice between a £45 book with them and a £15 book without them I'll take the latter.

[chord]

Just now, Jamie the Jasper said:

I think it's a bit melodramatic to say that GW doesn't want you as a customer just because they've tweaked the format of their campaign books. There's still plenty of story happening - and a lot of it is now free too. It seems odd to me that at a time when most people are heralding a glorious golden age in GW's narrative efforts for AoS, you're apparently not seeing it.

I suspect that when all is said and done Malign Portents will have generated just as much story and lore as the Realmgate Wars. The only difference is that now you don't have to pay £45 for a book that has exactly the same scope in terms of written content and rules, but padded out with artwork and photographs of miniatures. Don't get me wrong, I like those things, but if it's a choice between a £45 book with them and a £15 book without them I'll take the latter.

The realmgate wars was at least 80+ pages of story in each book.  The entire Malign Portents is what 80 pages for everything.  That is not even close to as much story.

For me, the golden age was the realmgate wars. You had novels/audiobooks/campaign books.  Now we have a handful of short stories, a few novels, and a short campaign book.

Maybe this new approach is closer to WHFB, but I never played that, so for me GW's narrative was the realmgate wars and this change is an unwelcome one to me. 

I'll continue to see what happens though and give them a chance. 

[Carnelian]

I'm a huge fan of the AoS lore and I've read all of the Realmgate war campaign books. I think the AoS lore is getting better and better and now is the golden age. Some of the Realmgate wars books were great with awesome content but I did find them extremely overpriced and honestly, sometimes they were almost unreadable they were so badly written.

That's just my two cents - I think the golden age is now!

[Guest]

1 hour ago, chord said:

The realmgate wars was at least 80+ pages of story in each book.  The entire Malign Portents is what 80 pages for everything.  That is not even close to as much story.

For me, the golden age was the realmgate wars. You had novels/audiobooks/campaign books.  Now we have a handful of short stories, a few novels, and a short campaign book.

Maybe this new approach is closer to WHFB, but I never played that, so for me GW's narrative was the realmgate wars and this change is an unwelcome one to me. 

I'll continue to see what happens though and give them a chance. 

Well I haven't exactly counted the pages but I'll take your word for it. If you're counting those double page spreads that are 90% artwork with a column of text down one side that just summarises the plot that's covered in more depth over the page then you might be reaching a bit with that figure! 

As for the supporting material like the novels and audio books, I'm sure those will kick back in over the course of this year, but we'll see. GW seem to want to tie these things directly into the ongoing story, and there hasn't really been any ongoing story in the last 12 months to tie into.

I wouldn't say that what they're doing with the Malign Portents book is closer to WHFB per se, it's just different to the Realmgate Wars. True, they do seem to be trying to sneak some of the medieval/renaissance Europe themes back in (which I too am a little cagey about), but that has no bearing on the format of the books or the manner in which they move the plot forward. If what you're saying has less to do with the format of the books and more to do with a preference for high-fantasy over low-fantasy then I agree, you're out of luck a little, although not completely. Reading the Malign Portents stories I see evidence of both, there just seems to be a bit of rebalancing going on because a lot of people miss the grim and gritty style that the WHFB setting was so good at. But I see very few people clamouring for the World That Was to be recreated whole-cloth within the AoS setting, and I doubt GW would be so lame as to completely reverse the good work they've been doing over the past few years just to appease those people.

[chord]

42 minutes ago, Jamie the Jasper said:

Well I haven't exactly counted the pages but I'll take your word for it. If you're counting those double page spreads that are 90% artwork with a column of text down one side that just summarises the plot that's covered in more depth over the page then you might be reaching a bit with that figure! 

As for the supporting material like the novels and audio books, I'm sure those will kick back in over the course of this year, but we'll see. GW seem to want to tie these things directly into the ongoing story, and there hasn't really been any ongoing story in the last 12 months to tie into.

I wouldn't say that what they're doing with the Malign Portents book is closer to WHFB per se, it's just different to the Realmgate Wars. True, they do seem to be trying to sneak some of the medieval/renaissance Europe themes back in (which I too am a little cagey about), but that has no bearing on the format of the books or the manner in which they move the plot forward. If what you're saying has less to do with the format of the books and more to do with a preference for high-fantasy over low-fantasy then I agree, you're out of luck a little, although not completely. Reading the Malign Portents stories I see evidence of both, there just seems to be a bit of rebalancing going on because a lot of people miss the grim and gritty style that the WHFB setting was so good at. But I see very few people clamouring for the World That Was to be recreated whole-cloth within the AoS setting, and I doubt GW would be so lame as to completely reverse the good work they've been doing over the past few years just to appease those people.

If you own the Realmgate wars campaign books you know that most of them are not one giant image with a little text. When I get home I can upload pictures showing that.

[Sactownbri]

2 hours ago, chord said:

True...but then again so many people who complained about that prices had no problem spending hundreds on models never assembled or painted...

I'll hold my breath a little longer but it could be that GW just doesn't want customers like me.  I'll play all three ways but I do like a good story for motivation.  The realmgate wars provided that.

Story on the table top? Or just story? The novels have been excellent, if a bit rapid fire which makes keeping up challenging. My problem with the campaign books was fatigue from End Times; too much too fast. I’m excited for Malign Portents for both the story and the models.

[Guest]

Just now, chord said:

If you own the Realmgate wars campaign books you know that most of them are not one giant image with a little text. When I get home I can upload pictures showing that.

Well first of all my comment was tongue in cheek, so there's no need get defensive. And secondly I'm well aware that there are a wide variety of different page layouts in the Realmgate Wars books - some of which (not all) are mostly artwork with a little text that summarises or reiterates something that's explored in more detail elsewhere in the book. I mention it only because from what I've seen of the Malign Portents book, one of the ways that they've reduced the size of the book (and thus reduced the price) is by doing away with pages like this, which some might say are superfluous.

[chord]

13 minutes ago, Jamie the Jasper said:

Well first of all my comment was tongue in cheek, so there's no need get defensive. And secondly I'm well aware that there are a wide variety of different page layouts in the Realmgate Wars books - some of which (not all) are mostly artwork with a little text that summarises or reiterates something that's explored in more detail elsewhere in the book. I mention it only because from what I've seen of the Malign Portents book, one of the ways that they've reduced the size of the book (and thus reduced the price) is by doing away with pages like this, which some might say are superfluous.

Sorry about that, it's just that the Realmgate wars were such a great set of books with great lore but were ignored by so many who then complained about lack of lore.

I just hope that style comes back.

[Sheriff]

11 minutes ago, chord said:

Realmgate wars were such a great set of books with great stormcast lore but were ignored by so many who then complained about lack of non-stormcast lore.

fixed that for you

[Menkeroth]

Which is not true. RW books have lots of lore for many factions.

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, Menkeroth said:

Which is not true. RW books have lots of lore for many factions.

They do, but a lot of it is told from the Stormcast's point of view. Not an issue for me personally, but if you don't feel invested in the Stormcast's story then I can see how the overall approach would be a turn off.

[Menkeroth]

Fair point. But that's to be expectable, it's quite funny if somebody expects something else because in WHFB and WH40k GW always used the same approach.

[Infeston]

36 minutes ago, Menkeroth said:

Fair point. But that's to be expectable, it's quite funny if somebody expects something else because in WHFB and WH40k GW always used the same approach.

I think the whole high fantasy approach reminds people a lot of World of Warcraft and has also pulled in people who also like WoW, so this could be an explanation for this. In World of Warcraft each faction and each race has their own backstory and background why they fight. Also the narrative is often explained from both sides "Alliance" and "Horde" and every player has a motivation to fight for their race. 

If everything is about Stormcast and they are the Heros of the story some people feel neglected. Because many people often want to be on "right side". But if your race or faction is always portayed as a side character or the villian of the story many people won't play this faction. 

I also have to say that I felt a lot more motivated to play BCR after the BeastClaw Raiders book. In Warhammer Fantasy they were often portayed as evil beings eating everything in their way. So they were portayed very one-sided. In the BCR book they have a purpose for doing things. 

I think AoS shouldn't be measured by Warhammer Fantasy standards, because I think it pulled a lot of new people in who like a narrative similar to World of Warcraft, where each faction can be on the "right side".

[Menkeroth]

23 minutes ago, Infeston said:

If everything is about Stormcast and they are the Heros of the story some people feel neglected. Because many people often want to be on "right side". But if your race or faction is always portayed as a side character or the villian of the story many people won't play this faction. 

 

That's true, but then the whole RW were from Sigmar's perspective as his project. Other stories feature other heroes and villains, so you can be safe here.

24 minutes ago, Infeston said:

I think the whole high fantasy approach reminds people a lot of World of Warcraft and has also pulled in people who also like WoW, so this could be an explanation for this. In World of Warcraft each faction and each race has their own backstory and background why they fight. Also the narrative is often explained from both sides "Alliance" and "Horde" and every player has a motivation to fight for their race. 

 

Yes, although i personally would more compare it to the MtG where all the characters and sides get their thematic addons.

24 minutes ago, Infeston said:

I also have to say that I felt a lot more motivated to play BCR after the BeastClaw Raiders book. In Warhammer Fantasy they were often portayed as evil beings eating everything in their way. So they were portayed very one-sided. In the BCR book they have a purpose for doing things. 

 

Actually ogres in WHFB were stupid hilarious morons. Nothing like today version of them, in any case.

25 minutes ago, Infeston said:

I think AoS shouldn't be measured by Warhammer Fantasy standards, because I think it pulled a lot of new people in who like a narrative similar to World of Warcraft, where each faction can be on the "right side".

Definitely.

[Rogue Explorator]

55 minutes ago, Infeston said:

I think the whole high fantasy approach reminds people a lot of World of Warcraft and has also pulled in people who also like WoW, so this could be an explanation for this. In World of Warcraft each faction and each race has their own backstory and background why they fight. Also the narrative is often explained from both sides "Alliance" and "Horde" and every player has a motivation to fight for their race. 

If everything is about Stormcast and they are the Heros of the story some people feel neglected. Because many people often want to be on "right side". But if your race or faction is always portayed as a side character or the villian of the story many people won't play this faction. 

I also have to say that I felt a lot more motivated to play BCR after the BeastClaw Raiders book. In Warhammer Fantasy they were often portayed as evil beings eating everything in their way. So they were portayed very one-sided. In the BCR book they have a purpose for doing things. 

I think AoS shouldn't be measured by Warhammer Fantasy standards, because I think it pulled a lot of new people in who like a narrative similar to World of Warcraft, where each faction can be on the "right side".

You know, I initially stayed away from AoS because it looked so much like it went after the World of Warcraft style, which I absolutely can not stand. But I have found the two have very little in common upon closer inspection, beyond being both high fantasyand larger than life . I think this has a lot to do with how the widespread prevalence of magic is played in these settings. In most high fantasy settings (like WoW) Magic is played as very predictable and usable as a technology and science. I feel AoS still manages to play its Magic as unpredictable and strange, no matter how widespread it seems.

Also, I really do not feel anyone can feel on the "right side" in AoS, nor to I consider taking actual partial side with ones faction to be a particularly healthy condition to cultivate in a gaming community.

 

Yet, I somewhat agree with the rest of your point. Not just WoW, but most modern fantasy gives you the perspective of all sides involved, sympathetic or not. Even though more traditional, Warhammer Fantasy did this quite well too, but I have found AoS lacking in this department, in part because most factions just do not have a battletome to fokus on them, but also because the stories so often focus on the Order and particularly Stormcast perspective and most of the Chaos battletomes really did not give as much info on how the servants of Chaos transition from a normal mortal they once where to the twisted mentality of a servant of Chaos.

 

All in all, I think this is just a matter of time until we are on the level of the old world or WH40k for getting "in the head" of each faction, but I also think GW could move a bit faster.

 

I would personaly really like to know how a Wight King or Knight of Shrouds (or really any non-Soulblight or -Mortarch Death leader) sees the Realms and his own position and existence beyond "Raw, I hate the living" and how great their self awareness is to begin with.

[Infeston]

@Rogue Explorator I have to say that I don't want the World of Warcraft setting for Warhammer. I have played WoW for several years but I also totally agree that they are two different settings. I just wanted to make guesses were the wishes for more background story for the other alliances and races comes from. But in the end it could also be everything else.

I don't want WoWs setting for Warhammer, because it seems so "hollywood-like". You have protagonists on both sides and they fight each other because of different viewpoints. The Warhammer setting is much darker and also displays the "ugly side of human nature". It is also portrayed in WoW, but much more restriced.

In Warhammer you have plagues, slavery, sickness and other things. Also like you said, magic is portayed different than in World of Warcraft.#

The world of Warcraft seems to be a world where people could live in and end up happy together. The world of warhammer is deadly and everyone struggles to survive. That's a huge difference

[Tiger]

Picked up the book!

Spoiler

Slaanesh being drawn in chains deserved a chuckle. Entire situation was rather funny, it's there, pinned in chains but it still preferred over the boredom should Nagash get his way.