Malign Portents

[RuneBrush]

5 minutes ago, Jamie the Jasper said:

So, who is getting involved in one of the many Coalescence: Malign Portents narrative campaign events taking place around the world on March 17th? And may I take this opportunity to shamelessly plug my local event in Cardiff, which you can find out more about here.

Sadly that weekend is a no go for me otherwise I'd be all over it   Hopefully you'll be doing another 1-dayer at Firestorm in the future

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, RuneBrush said:

Sadly that weekend is a no go for me otherwise I'd be all over it   Hopefully you'll be doing another 1-dayer at Firestorm in the future

Ah, that's a shame! I'll be writing up an event report in a narrative format so you'll be able to read about all of the malign, portentous drama and experience the event vicariously! This will be the first event I organise, but if it's successful I'd absolutely love to do more events at Firestorm Games in the future.

[Envyus]

I currently can't tell who is winning between Skull and Drake.

[flamingwalnut]

9 hours ago, Jamie the Jasper said:

So, who is getting involved in one of the many Coalescence: Malign Portents narrative campaign events taking place around the world on March 17th? And may I take this opportunity to shamelessly plug my local event in Cardiff, which you can find out more about here.

I will be setting up my own event down near Orlando, Florida. Fingers crossed.

[Kamose]

I'm definitely

19 hours ago, Jamie the Jasper said:

So, who is getting involved in one of the many Coalescence: Malign Portents narrative campaign events taking place around the world on March 17th? And may I take this opportunity to shamelessly plug my local event in Cardiff, which you can find out more about here.

I'm definitely heading to my local event here in Virginia. Hopefully we'll get our usual crowd of 8 or so people as well. 

[Kirjava13]

I really enjoy seeing "regular" interaction like this. Yay!

[Guest]

So the narrative of the Dread Solstice campaign seems to be going off on a baffling tangent. The previous 2 decisions don't seem to have any bearing on what's currently unfolding. We voted to ignore the prophets, then we learned a load of mystical secrets from people who were screaming at the moon, and now the focus randomly shifts to a dust storm in Aqshy for no apparent reason? Aren't we all supposed to be fighting in Shyish?? Isn't that the whole point of all this?? How do our armies fighting in Shyish even know about this red dust? It's so far away and seemingly so unrelated to the portents, even if they did hear about it why would they even care? And even if they did hear about it and did care, how are they supposed to inhale dust that's blowing across a completely different realm? This seems like a completely left-field dilemma with no bearing on anything! 

I got past the idea that we aren't supposed to know what we're voting for until after the fact. I rationalised it as being down to the fact that we're meant to role play and our generals wouldn't necessarily know what the consequences of their decisions will be. I was on board. But as the campaign rolls on, my doubts about it are creeping back in. There's no evidence to show that the decisions being made are changing the course of an ongoing narrative. Nothing that's been voted for seems to have any meaningful effect on where the story is going or what the dilemma will be for the following week. This week's Aqshy dilemma could have been set up and ready to go regardless of what was voted for previously. It's completely unconnected.

So are we just voting to decide what the special rules and bonuses will be in the following week? Because it seems that way, and that's not what was promised. We were told that our decisions would be part of a branching narrative - a coherent, flowing story, not a scattershot series of vaguely defined and (at best) tenuously connected dilemmas. You can't have a branching narrative if there's no narrative through-line. We were also told that our decisions would have a major effect on the story of Age of Sigmar - which may prove to be true when this whole thing is over, but it doesn't feel that way at the moment. The thing is, it's during the campaign that I want to feel like my battles and votes are having a meaningful effect on an engaging storyline, not 6 months down the road when GW rationalises the events of the campaign in a few paragraphs of some random battletome. Everything making sense in hindsight is no good to me if the fact that nothing makes sense right now is making me feel disconnected from the campaign.

Yes, I'm being negative again - sorry! But surely I can't be the only person feeling like this campaign just isn't the thing we were led to believe it would be? I feel like the emperor has no clothes.

[The Golem]

8 minutes ago, Jamie the Jasper said:

Aren't we all supposed to be fighting in Shyish??

Didn't the majority of us choose to ignore the warnings and bad omens about something nasty happening in Shyish during the first week?

[Guest]

Just now, The Golem said:

Didn't the majority of us choose to ignore the warnings and bad omens about something nasty happening in Shyish during the first week?

I don't really see where you're coming from. Are you saying that voting to ignore the portents in week 1 excuses the fact that nothing that's happened since seems to be connected or to have any bearing on the story that was initially set up? If the intention was to have an engaging, well crafted, branching narrative, then a choice that leads to random, unconnected dilemmas being offered up for no particular reason shouldn't even be an option. Why would GW include an option that turns an engaging, beautifully crafted 'choose your own adventure' story into a patchwork of disjointed nonsense?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding things, but given the fact that this whole thing is centred on a newly released book with a ton of rules for playing games in Shyish, surely that's where the campaign should be pulling us towards? Why are we taking a detour to Aqshy?

[ledha]

Malign Portent is not only about Shyish. Many of the short stories don't even take place in Shyish.

Personnaly, i never believed any "your choice will have an impact". Even in the games speciliazed in this, it's always ******.

I think they already prepared the whole story. However, it's not a problem for me.

[shinros]

37 minutes ago, Jamie the Jasper said:

So the narrative of the Dread Solstice campaign seems to be going off on a baffling tangent. The previous 2 decisions don't seem to have any bearing on what's currently unfolding. We voted to ignore the prophets, then we learned a load of mystical secrets from people who were screaming at the moon, and now the focus randomly shifts to a dust storm in Aqshy for no apparent reason? Aren't we all supposed to be fighting in Shyish?? Isn't that the whole point of all this?? How do our armies fighting in Shyish even know about this red dust? It's so far away and seemingly so unrelated to the portents, even if they did hear about it why would they even care? And even if they did hear about it and did care, how are they supposed to inhale dust that's blowing across a completely different realm? This seems like a completely left-field dilemma with no bearing on anything! 

I got past the idea that we aren't supposed to know what we're voting for until after the fact. I rationalised it as being down to the fact that we're meant to role play and our generals wouldn't necessarily know what the consequences of their decisions will be. I was on board. But as the campaign rolls on, my doubts about it are creeping back in. There's no evidence to show that the decisions being made are changing the course of an ongoing narrative. Nothing that's been voted for seems to have any meaningful effect on where the story is going or what the dilemma will be for the following week. This week's Aqshy dilemma could have been set up and ready to go regardless of what was voted for previously. It's completely unconnected.

So are we just voting to decide what the special rules and bonuses will be in the following week? Because it seems that way, and that's not what was promised. We were told that our decisions would be part of a branching narrative - a coherent, flowing story, not a scattershot series of vaguely defined and (at best) tenuously connected dilemmas. You can't have a branching narrative if there's no narrative through-line. We were also told that our decisions would have a major effect on the story of Age of Sigmar - which may prove to be true when this whole thing is over, but it doesn't feel that way at the moment. The thing is, it's during the campaign that I want to feel like my battles and votes are having a meaningful effect on an engaging storyline, not 6 months down the road when GW rationalises the events of the campaign in a few paragraphs of some random battletome. Everything making sense in hindsight is no good to me if the fact that nothing makes sense right now is making me feel disconnected from the campaign.

Yes, I'm being negative again - sorry! But surely I can't be the only person feeling like this campaign just isn't the thing we were led to believe it would be? I feel like the emperor has no clothes.

GW said it in their community report, by large everyone is ignoring the portents in the narrative instead of doing something about it week one was crucial according to GW. Literally, if people read their malign portent supplement they should of known skull was clearly a "bad" thing.  Plus Phil Kelly stated on stream that the choices will lead to different events because he wanted a specific outcome for week 2 but won't say which one to prevent swaying votes. 

Right now Nagash is just chugging away at his plan because there is no one to guide the armies to shyish. You killed your guides and burned them at the stake. None of the armies are actually anywhere near the important battle. Just like a choose your adventure I personally feel we are the "dark" route. GW clearly said in their week 1 summary that vibrations are still coming from shyish and everyone are plugging their heads in the sand going "NOPE, nothing is going on! Nothing at all! Can't sense those shockwaves!" 

To me the community summary and GW facebook posts were pretty shocked that the community picked skull for week 1. The outcomes to get you to shyish were pretty clear, people should of voted drake. But nope, let's murder our prophets and seers who know what is actually going on. 

People in the dread solstice thread said I was wrong on page 2 and look what happened. Also GW have most likely written out the whole campaign to have different outcomes this sort of style is to allow the community to have some measure of choice but at the same time allows GW to control the narrative somewhat. 

In my eyes going by the short stories and what's going on in the campaign Nagash is going to have some measure of success and we are going to see the return of slaanesh to shower on everyone's parade.  Morathi is going to go to shyish going by the short story but if people voted Drake I bet in the wider narrative she  would of had more support and in turn be able to stop Nagash on some level. 

[shinros]

Also new story about slaanesh.

https://malignportents.com/story/the-scent/

[hellalugosi]

if slaanesh going forward is going the mad max fury road route, strap me in!

[shinros]

4 minutes ago, hellalugosi said:

if slaanesh going forward is going the mad max fury road route, strap me in!

Agreed, I think slaanesh is going to be based off the hellstrider aesthetic. What's great is that everyone on facebook is asking for the chaos lord's chariot to be made into a model.  

[Guest]

33 minutes ago, shinros said:

To me the community summary and GW facebook posts seems pretty shocked that the community picked skull for week 1. The outcomes to get you to shyish were pretty clear, people should of voted drake. But nope, let's murder our prophets and seers who know what is actually going on. 

They gave a horde of excitable wargamers the chance to vote for an outrageous, bloodthirtsty, hyper-destructive outcome that obviously flies in the face of what GW would prefer for us to do vs the option to support the narrative set out in the MP book in a constructive way by staring thoughtfully at some stars, and they're surprised that the horrible option won?? Really?? You think GW are that naive?

The stuff that Phil Kelly said gives me some hope that the campaign isn't trying to pull the wool over our eyes with a set of pre-determined outcomes, but that still doesn't excuse the fact that the 'story' so far is all over the place. You can't blame the participants for that, that's on the writers. The fact that people are voting for the most extreme outcome should have been anticipated. If you can't write a branching narrative that is satisfying and coherent for all possible narrative routes and outcomes, then just don't use that type of structure as the basis for a campaign. And it is possible to do.

[shinros]

3 minutes ago, Jamie the Jasper said:

They gave a horde of excitable wargamers the chance to vote for an outrageous, bloodthirtsty, hyper-destructive outcome that obviously flies in the face of what GW would prefer for us to do vs the option to support the narrative set out in the MP book by staring stare thoughtfully at some stars, and they're surprised that the horrible option won?? Really?? Do they not know their customers at all??

The stuff that Phil Kelly said gives me some hope that the campaign isn't trying to pull the wool over our eyes with a pre-scripted campaign, but that still doesn't excuse the fact that the 'story' so far is all over the place. The fact that people are voting for the most extreme outcome should have been anticipated. If you can't write a branching narrative that is satisfying and coherent for all possible narrative routes and outcomes, then just don't use that type of structure as the basis for a campaign.

I don't consider skull hyper-destructive I personally think Nagash having some measure of success is better for the narrative. Since like the old world we won't just have essentially chaos vs empire with the other evil factions just making mean faces. I want order vs death vs chaos vs destruction, Hence I approve of all options in the campaign that also helps out destruction.  Since by large so far it's really only been order and chaos smacking each other. 

If Death and Destruction become credible threats I am all for it. I suspect others felt the same hence they voted skull. Still there are people who voted skull because they haven't read the lore properly, nothing can be done about that. 

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, shinros said:

I don't consider skull hyper-destructive I personally think Nagash having some measure of success is better for the narrative.

I agree, so why is Nagash's success (presumably) happening 'off camera' while the rest of us noodle around in Aqshy sniffing some random dust? Why does this week's dilemma have nothing to do with Death, Nagash, necromancy, the malign portents, Lunaghast or anything else that's been introduced so far? How long do we have to wait before we find out what bearing that vote had on events in Shyish? Will we ever find out? Why isn't there even any foreshadowing? Why isn't this week's dilemma building on the mystery rather than taking a momentum-killing detour?

That anxious excitement that Phil Kelly is apparently feeling over the outcome of the votes and where it's taking the story - we should be feeling that, not just the handful of GW writers who at the moment are the only ones who know what any of this stuff means.,

[Rogue Explorator]

You know, the Portents happen across all the Realms, not just in Shysh.

So the appearance of Luanagast and the Red Mist are hardly random, they are Portents as well, Portents that keep getting bigger and worse, because they are a (unintended) consequence of Nagash's plans and those plans continue unchallenged.

 

In the light of all this, I really enjoy the narrative of the campaign. Though, as much as I like Death having the advantage, I do hope the Realms do not get banged up to badly.

[Guest]

14 hours ago, Rogue Explorator said:

You know, the Portents happen across all the Realms, not just in Shysh.

Okay, fair enough. But my main issue with the jump to Aqshy is that it doesn't follow on from the narrative strands that began in chapter 1 of the campaign. In terms of what GW is allowing us to see of the developing story, the red mists in Shyish appear to be completely divorced from the the story events and the outcome of the public vote that preceded it.

 

14 hours ago, Rogue Explorator said:

So the appearance of Luanagast and the Red Mist are hardly random, they are Portents as well, Portents that keep getting bigger and worse, because they are a (unintended) consequence of Nagash's plans and those plans continue unchallenged.

Again, they're random in the sense that they don't show a clear story arc. They are events that appear to be separate from each other and from the outcome of the public vote, and if they are connected in any way then that information is deliberately being kept from us at the moment. I don't want everything about the plot to be revealed all at once in a huge info dump, but at the moment we're learning literally zero about how any of this fits together or how it relates to the overall plot of Malign Portents.

 

Let me be constructive here and illustrate the kind of coherent story arc that I assumed and hoped we would see over the course of this campaign:

 

Week 1 Dilemma: Portents are happening across the realms - do you ignore them, use them to your advantage, or try to find out more about them?

Week 1 Outcomes:

• Ignore Them: Death armies get a major bonus. All other alliances get a minor penalty when fighting against Death. We get a very minor clue that foreshadows what Nagash is up to.
• Use Them To Your Advantage: All alliances get a minor bonus (a different bonus for each alliance). We get a slightly more revealing clue about what Nagash is up to.
• Find Out More About Them: Death armies get a minor penalty. All other factions get a minor bonus when fighting against Death. We get a substantial clue about what Nagash is up to (but still just a clue at this stage, not a full reveal).

 

The players vote to ignore the portents, which directly sets up the dilemma for week 2.

Week 2 Dilemma: Nagash's plan proceeds unhindered. Lunaghast begins to descend from the heavens. The minor clue that we received makes it clear that this is happening as a result of the progress Nagash has made, and we're given an inkling of an idea about how the two things may be linked. We now know that the descent of Lunaghast cannot be ignored, and that Nagash's power is rising (but we still don't know what he's up to). Lunaghast encourages people to scream secret knowledge to the heavens, and some explanation is given as to why or how this tidal wave of secret knowledge benefits Nagash. Do you use the revealed secrets to root out your enemies, kill everyone that is revealing your secrets, or gather more secret knowledge for yourself?

Week 2 Outcomes:

• Root Out Your Enemies: Death armies get a major bonus (because you haven't stopped Nagash gaining access to the secret knowledge). All other alliances get a minor bonus (but only when fighting against armies from a different alliance). We get a second minor clue about what Nagash is up to.
• Kill Everyone: Death armies get a major penalty (because you've stopped Nagash gaining access to the secret knowledge). No other alliances get a bonus or penalty. We get no clues about what Nagash is up to, but we get some hint of how our actions have disrupted his plans.
• Gather Knowledge: Death armies get a major bonus (because you haven't stopped Nagash gaining access to the secret knowledge). All other alliances get a major bonus too (a different bonus for each alliance). We get a second substantial clue about what Nagash is up to (but still just a clue at this stage, not a full reveal).

 

The players vote to gather knowledge, which directly sets up the dilemma for week 3.

Week 3 Dilemma: Nagash's plan proceeds unhindered because he wasn't prevented from obtaining the secret knowledge he needs to enact the next stage of his plan. But because all the other factions are now privy to the same knowledge, it's now clear that there is a dark plot of some kind unfolding in Shyish that must be stopped. However, word has reached you of Red Mists covering Aqshy that supposedly have the power to give your armies great strength. While you know that ultimately you must travel to Shyish to stop whatever Nagash is planning, a detour to Aqshy might give your armies the extra strength they'll need to defeat him (or possibly aid him if you're playing Death) - but it may also mean that you arrive in Shyish too late. There are also rumours that the mist may itself be part of Nagash's great plan somehow, while others say it can only be the work of Khorne. This is a real dilemma with clear stakes and consequences. Do you detour to Aqshy to inhale the red mists, detour to Aqshy to destroy the source of the red mists or ignore Aqshy and press on to Shyish.

Week 3 Outcomes:

• Inhale The Mists: The mists do grant strength, but they're a distraction instigated by Nagash tricking Khorne into action. Death armies get a major bonus. Chaos gets a minor penalty. All other alliances get a minor bonus. With everyone else distracted in Aqshy, Nagash's plan proceeds unhindered and we get a third minor clue about what he's up to.
• Destroy The Source: Nagash's distraction has worked, and the forces of the realms have wasted their time destroying a phenomenon that can actually be traced back to Khorne. Death armies get a major bonus. Chaos gets a major penalty. All other alliances get a minor penalty. With everyone else distracted in Aqshy, Nagash's plan proceeds unhindered, but his trickery has been discovered and we get a third slightly more revealing clue about what he's up to.
• Press On To Shyish: Nagash's trickery has been ignored, and the Khorne-related phenomena that he instigated grows in power unchecked. The forces of the realms arrive in Shyish to discover more about what he's planning and put a stop to it. Death armies get a major penalty. Chaos gets a major bonus. All other alliances get a minor bonus. We get our first truly significant clue about what Nagash is up to.

 

And so forth. What I hope I've demonstrated here is that you can have a campaign with essentially the same structure and plot beats, but told in a way that makes the narrative progression clearer and more meaningful, and which actually drip-feeds relevant and engaging information in a satisfying way without spoiling the grand plot. It makes our choices mean something to us during the campaign, as opposed to just meaning something known only to the GW writers as they work on the next stage of the AoS story.

[Kaleb Daark]

Great post @Jamie the Jasper  

its a bit like going on a journey- the destination will always be the same no matter what, but the route to it can change.

 

for them also its very easy,  break the story down into the relevant number of segments, with three different outcomes and each stage having three different paths leading to the end of that segment.

the disjointedness of it all is something  im finding quite welcoming because it tells me that we’re here for the long haul, with nothing becoming clear until we’re nearing the end.  Then it’ll be a crescendo of action and narrative.

 

[Guest]

25 minutes ago, Kaleb Daark said:

the disjointedness of it all is something  im finding quite welcoming because it tells me that we’re here for the long haul, with nothing becoming clear until we’re nearing the end.  Then it’ll be a crescendo of action and narrative.

I can only assume that you're right, and that all of this stuff will fit together and make sense with hindsight. I suppose there is such a thing as a narrative that has lots of seemingly unconnected elements that all come together in a satisfying grand reveal at the end - murder mysteries in the vein of Agatha Christie spring to mind. I love Games Workshop with all my heart, but I have to question whether they have it in them to pull off a satisfying and well-crafted Agatha Christie style finale with the added complication of a branching narrative. If the conclusion of the campaign delivers an 'ah-ha!' moment where all of the choices we've made are cast in a new light and reveal a greater truth with world-changing implications, then at least they will have proven that the narrative of the campaign was competently written and the seemingly disconnected elements were actually deliberate.

But even then, what works for a novel with a linear narrative format doesn't necessarily work as effectively for an interactive campaign. In an Agatha Christie novel you as the reader have no agency in the plot - you're essentially sitting back and enjoying the ride. An interactive narrative - whether it's a campaign with public votes, a choose your own adventure story or a video game - needs to make good on the promise of the agency that it claims it's giving you. An interactive narrative, almost by definition, needs to feed the consequences of your actions and decisions back to you in a coherent and satisfying way in order to be successful.

Getting back to the Agatha Christie murder mystery analogy, the disconnected elements are also structured and presented in such a way that the reader can (in theory at least) solve the mystery themselves using only those elements. It remains to be seen whether the scraps of disjointed narrative we're being given each week by GW will turn out to be clues in this vein, but somehow I doubt it. I suspect we're heading for a pre-determined deus ex machina reveal at the end of this campaign, every bit as disjointed as everything that's come before it. And while I would hope at the very least that the decisions made by players will be mentioned, I'm not holding out much hope that they will be woven into the reveal in a way that makes those decisions more meaningful in retrospect.

 

TL;DR - If GW has taken the decision to deliberately avoid A) presenting a clear story arc and B) giving any meaningful information about the consequences of our actions on that arc, because they're saving everything they have for a big reveal that will happen after the campaign is over, then I think they've fundamentally misunderstood the mechanics of interactive fiction.

[HorticulusTGA]

3 hours ago, Jamie the Jasper said:

(... Agatha Christie ...)

 

TL;DR - If GW has taken the decision to deliberately avoid A) presenting a clear story arc and B) giving any meaningful information about the consequences of our actions on that arc, because they're saving everything they have for a big reveal that will happen after the campaign is over, then I think they've fundamentally misunderstood the mechanics of interactive fiction.

While I really liked your last two posts, don't you think GW's goal with this 3-alternatives mode is more to create an "History unfolds under our eyes" type of narrative ? Which means we, the generals and characters in-story - shouldn't and couldn't know the implications of our actions ; there cannot be a clear story arc, for we have to act in a "context of uncertainty" - and yeah we murderd week 1 the people that could have helped us with foresight  . 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, HorticulusTGA said:

While I really liked your last two posts, don't you think GW's goal with this 3-alternatives mode is more to create an "History unfold under our eyes" type of narrative ? Which means we, the generals and characters in-story - shouldn't and couldn't know the implication of our actions ; there cannot be a clear story act, for we have to act in an "context of uncertainty" - and yeah we murderd week 1 the people that could have helped us with foresight  . 

 

History unfolding is still a narrative - it just shifts the focus from the personal perspective to a grander scale. All the principles of writing a good story, or an engaging piece of interactive fiction, still apply.

You say that we are acting and making our choices as if we're characters in the story. That's great. So GW has written the campaign narrative with the intention that we're roleplaying as characters within the story, rather than taking on the role of omniscient observers guiding the flow of history. I'm on board with that. That sounds like fun.

So let's compare and contrast this campaign with a roleplaying game like Skyrim or The Witcher. In those games, you play as a character within the story. Assuming you're playing for the first time, you don't know what the overall story arc is, and you don't necessarily know exactly what the consequences of your actions and decisions will be. This is where the similarities to the Dread Solstice campaign end.

A roleplaying game does a number of key things that Dread Solstice could quite easily be doing, but isn't. In a roleplaying game, when you complete a chapter of the main quest, you see the immediate consequences of your actions and decisions (although the wider or long-term consequences may remain hidden). These consequences flow directly and organically into the next chapter of the story. You'll also be given plot information that fleshes out and advances the narrative. Also, if a quest can be completed in multiple different ways, you're usually given enough context to make an educated guess about what the consequences of each choice might be. You're never entirely in the dark, because if you don't understand the trade-off or the potential consequences, then there's no agency and no drama. So when you look at all of these things together, you as a player are actually being given meaningful choices and then rewarded with regular, meaningful plot progression and story information that follows a natural path from A to B to C. At no point do you know the entire story and you're only rewarded in this way after the fact - after you've completed the chapter, taken your actions and made your choice. You don;t have perfect information beforehand, and nor should you. At any given moment you - the player - only know what your character knows, but that doesn't mean that no important information is revealed until the very end of the game or that you have no basis on which to judge what the consequences of your actions might be. You're pulled through a developing story by the writing and the way in which it's delivered.

If Dread Solstice were a roleplaying game, you'd spend the entire game running around killing things with no clear motivation for doing so, whilst occasionally answering random, unconnected, multiple-choice questions from NPCs that provide a random stat boost, but which have no other obvious consequences. Then, after 6 hours of doing this, a cut-scene would arrive out of nowhere to explain why those questions were relevant to a plot that you never directly interacted with, and provide you with one of 9 pre-rendered endings. Then the credits would roll.

That would not be a satisfying game to play. That would be such a poor piece of interactive fiction that the very suggestion of it seems like an absurd joke. And yet, this is precisely the way that Dread Solstice is structured and written. And the thing that irritates me is that it would be so easy to make Dread Solstice more immersive and engaging, simply by treating it as what it seems to want to be - a piece of interactive fiction - and applying the most basic of principles about how to write for that genre effectively. This should be incredibly simple stuff for GW's talented and experienced writers, many of whom I imagine are intimately familiar with interactive fiction as consumers, if not as creators. Any intelligent, creatively-minded person with solid experience of computer games, tabletop roleplaying games, choose your own adventure stories, etc, should be able to see immediately that a narrative campaign falls into the same creative territory, and should be able to see that what's being offered here is weak stuff that commits baffling schoolboy mistakes.

Everyone seems to be enjoying the campaign, and that's great. GW have never done a campaign like this before, so for most players I'm sure it wouldn't even occur to them to wonder what a better designed version of Dread Solstice might look like. They'll never know that they *just* missed out (by a fraction of an inch) on an interactive campaign that could have been so much more fun and engaging.

Unfortunately I can see it, and it frustrates me, as you can probably tell!

[Captain Marius]

Making this week's game in Aqshy is a dumb misstep. Hopefully GW will learn from the feedback im sure theyre receiving and will keep the next three weeks in Shyish!

For the recrd im enjoying the campaign - me and my regular opponent are using it as a chance to try out all the LoN allegiances vs 2 cities of sigmar, a chaos and a destruction force, with it all combining in chapter 3 - but still... keep it focused on Shyish! Its really not that hard

[shinros]

1 hour ago, Captain Marius said:

Making this week's game in Aqshy is a dumb misstep. Hopefully GW will learn from the feedback im sure theyre receiving and will keep the next three weeks in Shyish!

For the recrd im enjoying the campaign - me and my regular opponent are using it as a chance to try out all the LoN allegiances vs 2 cities of sigmar, a chaos and a destruction force, with it all combining in chapter 3 - but still... keep it focused on Shyish! Its really not that hard

But you are no where near shyish. You killed your guides, I suspect the last week will deal with Morathi because according to the short story she is leading a host into shyish. People chose the route that lead them away from the main objective, even picking eye in week 1 might of lead you to shyish. 

Plus as Rogue said part of the campaign is about reacting to the portents caused by Nagash's great work.