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Malign Portents

Will Myers

By Will Myers
in Age of Sigmar Discussions

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Carnelian Lord Celestant

Carnelian

Posted
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I for one am really enjoying the campaign. 

I love the idea that we have foolishly ignored the warning signs and now we are somewhat helplessly watch havoc get unleashed upon our world.

Its fine if you don't enjoy that and what a much more traditional structure to your story but this structure is fine with me and gives me plenty of enjoyment.

oh, and if you're opinion posts have dominated the last few pages of this thread, then please consider that your point has been well made and maybe now it's time to chill and leave some room for other opinions to work their way out.

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15 hours ago, shinros said:

Oh, apologies then things got a bit heated I do apologise if I appeared "elitist" etc(I can get like that sometimes)  It's just I prefer this sort of campaign because it gives all the GA's a chance to shine. I still hold the stance that the outcome we are seeing now is from week 1 choice. 

No worries! :)

 

13 hours ago, Bloodmaster said:

The events between both points are completely open and up to the community and thier reactions. And as the majority decided to ****** the seers no one will oppose Nagash. We play the cards we were delt not the cards we would like or even the dealer would have liked.

These events are not totally open to the community. This is a pre-scripted narrative, albeit one with multiple possible directions, but still something over which the GW writers ultimately have complete control. The only directions that the story can go in are the ones that they have allowed it go in. We are absolutely playing the cards that the dealer would have liked, because for all their mock-surprise at the options that have been chosen, GW still created those cards and decided what all the possible outcomes would be. They have both created and anticipated all outcomes, and they wouldn't have written any outcome that doesn't work for them. In any piece of interactive fiction, the agency that the reader/player has is a satisfying illusion - that sense of agency is what makes interactive fiction engaging and fun, but it's still an illusion. We are the participants of the story, not the authors.

 

13 hours ago, Bloodmaster said:

ye, it might mean, that your hopes are betrayed, but at the same time opens up a more diverse playing - or better - battlefield. Have a little faith in GW, that they have planed beforehand for "failures" of the community and that the narrative will come to full circle.

GW has chosen to write a piece of interactive fiction that abandons the the themes, characters and setting of the Malign Portents story half way through. Other realms and characters could have been visited and explored in future stories and future campaigns. There's no need to sacrifice narrative coherency by throwing the kitchen sink at a single campaign that doesn't have the time or the space to do justice to all of these different strands. Every alliance already had new toys to play with and a way into the Malign Portents narrative via the Harbingers and the Shyish-focused story that draws all the alliances together in the Malign Portents book. A sudden shift in focus away from everything that has happened in the story so far wasn't necessary to pay off the 'kill the prophets' decision, nor was it required in order to make all alliances/players feel included. The idea that ignoring the prophets could only result in the main story arc being abandoned and attention shifting to a different set of locations, characters and events is completely unfounded. There are ways that this choice could have been paid off without doing that. This whiplash-inducing change of focus is a choice that GW have made.

I don't mean this in an aggressive or unpleasant way, but the fact that you're telling me to 'have a little faith that GW have planned this out beforehand' suggests to me that you haven't read and understood the point I'm trying to make. As I've said above and previously, the fact that GW is ultimately in complete control of this narrative is central to my argument - that GW are responsible for the eclectic and disjointed nature of the narrative and for the lack of a clear and satisfying story arc, not the players who are simply choosing from a small number of pre-scripted choices and outcomes. Clearly all this is planned, which makes it all the more baffling. We know that GW can write a consistent and compelling story arc for a linear narrative, but clearly they're having difficulties doing so for a branching narrative, which as far as I'm aware is not something they've attempted before.

It seems clear to me from the responses in this thread that, for various reasons, most people don't care that the principles of writing effective interactive fiction haven't been observed or executed effectively for Dread Solstice, because there's more to the campaign than just the story and there are other aspects of the campaign that they're enjoying. That's fine. Far be it from me to tell people they shouldn't enjoy something. But people should be perceptive and thick-skinned enough to recognise and debate the failings of one aspect of the campaign (the narrative structure) without feeling the need to deliver a pithy, reflexive defense of the campaign as a whole because they feel that their enjoyment of the campaign is being called into question.

 

1 hour ago, Carnelian said:

oh, and if you're opinion posts have dominated the last few pages of this thread, then please consider that your point has been well made and maybe now it's time to chill and leave some room for other opinions to work their way out.

You're talking passive-dismissively to me. Obviously. ¬¬

My point has clearly not been well made, because no-one has yet engaged at all with my central point about the principles of effective interactive fiction, and why the writing and structure of Dread Solstice has so far failed to live up to those principles. Everyone who's responded to me has either misunderstood what my issues are with Dread Solstice and defended the campaign against criticisms that I never expressed (or which I did express but which are tangential to my central argument), or they've just ignored my central point completely and dismissed my actual criticisms without having the courtesy to offer any meaningful counterargument, which is incredibly frustrating. I actually think I've gone out of my way to be very constructive and thought-provoking here, offering arguments and not just opinions, but I feel like my efforts have been largely wasted. I don't expect to change anyone's mind here, but constructive responses that don't miss or ignore my point would have been great.

In any case you'll get your wish, and I'll give up. Clearly the way I'm trying to engage on this topic isn't working for anyone.

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Lousy Beatnik Decimator

Lousy Beatnik

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I can't say I've been following the campaign itself all that closely (put off when all the early talk was just about buying start collecting set this, buying character that) but I am really happy with the stories. 

If they released them in book form with even just a couple of new exclusive ones, I'd buy it.

I hope white dwarf continues to have unique "couple of page" fiction, too.

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21 minutes ago, Lousy Beatnik said:

If they released them in book form with even just a couple of new exclusive ones, I'd buy it.

 

Agreed! Ideally a nice big, glossy hardback with lots of illustrations accompanying the text!

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Gaz Taylor Lord Celestant

Gaz Taylor

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+++ Mod Hat On +++

Folks just to be clear, we've had some reports about some of the posts in this topic and reading through them, I agree with the reports. Can I ask you all to pause and think when you are replying and think if this is something we want to see on TGA or if it is something that somebody may see as being rude. In no way am I saying that you can't have opinions on things but please use some common sense when replying.

Cheers

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Sennyo Prosecutor

Sennyo

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https://malignportents.com/story/the-clockmakers-tale/

ok i really like this new story not just because its not about two armies fighting each other but because its set in Azyrheim and show that nagash powers even seem to reach a place the Chaos gods cannot. (unless your a skaven according to the realm gate war books, im suprised nothing was ever brought up about that)

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shinros Lord Celestant

shinros

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40 minutes ago, Sennyo said:

https://malignportents.com/story/the-clockmakers-tale/

ok i really like this new story not just because its not about two armies fighting each other but because its set in Azyrheim and show that nagash powers even seem to reach a place the Chaos gods cannot. (unless your a skaven according to the realm gate war books, im suprised nothing was ever brought up about that)

We are totally safe in Ayzerheim!

Nagash:lol

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MacDuff Lord Castellant

MacDuff

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From week 4 of MP: "The Red Mists form an ensorcelled cyclone that supercharges the weapon. The cannon spits a beam of temporal energies into the heart of the world sphere, in an instant all of Khul's victories upon the Orb Infernia are undone. His old adversaries, Lord Xen'Phantica and his Seraphon flicker back into existence, the banishment of the defeated Daemon Princes is reversed."

So... Do the 'imagined' Seraphon just come back, or do they come back as living Lizardmen? I prefer Door #2.

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Rogue Explorator Lord Castellant

Rogue Explorator

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6 minutes ago, MacDuff said:

From week 4 of MP: "The Red Mists form an ensorcelled cyclone that supercharges the weapon. The cannon spits a beam of temporal energies into the heart of the world sphere, in an instant all of Khul's victories upon the Orb Infernia are undone. His old adversaries, Lord Xen'Phantica and his Seraphon flicker back into existence, the banishment of the defeated Daemon Princes is reversed."

So... Do the 'imagined' Seraphon just come back, or do they come back as living Lizardmen? I prefer Door #2.

They are the same Seraphon as everywhere else, which is why they need the Slann Xen'Phantica around to exist. Khul undid Xen'Phantica with his magic axe during the Realmgate Wars (note, a time where all non-Slann Seraphon around are actually imagined), now the doomsday retcon-cannon has undone the undoing of the Slann, putting the entire Orb back into its pre Realmgate Wars state.

 

However, as far as I can tell, the lore on Seraphon could be read as Saurus, Skink and co actually leading a corporeal almost Lustrian existence among the Sars of Azyr (far removed even from Azyzheim). The lore is really quite fuzzy on what exactly Seraphon are in Age of Sigmar.

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MacDuff Lord Castellant

MacDuff

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I have Spawning Pools, Aztec temples, jungle terrain, and green Lizardmen, so I really want them back on the tabletop as living lizards. Who's to say what happens when you bring imagined entities back, since unless they are re-imagined again by Xen, they can't exist. And if they all come back at once, that might not be possible (assuming you have to concentrate to imagine them in the first place). So it isn't impossible that their form comes back thanks to time shenanigans, especially if it affects what's was physical at that point in time (and not what's in a Salaan's mind), so there is an outside chance they're alive now. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. ?

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AthlorianStoners Lord Castellant

AthlorianStoners

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2 hours ago, MacDuff said:

I have Spawning Pools, Aztec temples, jungle terrain, and green Lizardmen, so I really want them back on the tabletop as living lizards. Who's to say what happens when you bring imagined entities back, since unless they are re-imagined again by Xen, they can't exist. And if they all come back at once, that might not be possible (assuming you have to concentrate to imagine them in the first place). So it isn't impossible that their form comes back thanks to time shenanigans, especially if it affects what's was physical at that point in time (and not what's in a Salaan's mind), so there is an outside chance they're alive now. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. ?

@shinros I think knows more about it but as far as I’m aware seraphon are alive, or at least some are.

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