JPjr Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 I was just flicking through the new issue of White Dwarf and it occurred to me that we often see people on here complaining variously about the state of the AoS lore, lack of maps, not understanding what's going on, thinking that nothing has been fleshed out, or makes any sense or that there's been no new characters introduced etc etc etc and how that impacts their enjoyment/perception of the game. But as someone that buys pretty much every battle tome just to read, subscribes to White Dwarf and bangs through a reasonable amount of BL books I feel like a lot of that stuff is out there, and in spades, it's just spread around a bit unevenly and locked inside books a lot of people won't touch. So would any of you buy like the equivalent of the GHB but for lore? An annual book that each year condenses all the new lore/maps/little bits of info that's been published in battletomes, supplements like Wrath of the Everchosen, things like Tome Celestial or the region guides in WD, key elements from the novels that are directly impacting the wider, ongoing story, new artwork, nice big spreads of all the pick of the new models released that year etc etc. It might take a little bit of time to compile, rewrite and edit but then as it would just be based on existing material it wouldn't be the world's most difficult book to bring together and would make the game feel like more of a living, breathing place. 17 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuneBrush Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 17 minutes ago, JPjr said: So would any of you buy like the equivalent of the GHB but for lore? No, but yes. I'd more than happily buy a Coffee Table Book of AoS lore - so a beautifully bound hardback book that you could imagine on the shelves of a academic or mage. I'd be less interested in an annual paperback compilation like the GHb, however that format would work well for collecting together all of the game additions we've had over the years - so rules for siege warfare, skirmish, aerial combat etc. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Syf Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 As @RuneBrush said I'd also possibly prefer something a bit more luxurious, but agree it would be nice to have the lore collected in a book of any type really. They could have pull out pages for individual characters with their background and annotations for their arms and armour etc. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverstu Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 Yeah definitely- maybe not annually but every couple fo years. I'd actually love faction specific lore books with art, stories etc.. [although AOS is relatively young for that I've often thought about it for 40k]. Battletomes and codex are great and all but the lore/art etc really feeds the hobby [especially for me as I don't play at the moment]. It would be great to have a source book to go to for inspiration. Currently a lot of the inspiration for me is from the community, it would be great to have something to add to it or base it on beyond what's in a battletome. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OkayestDM Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 Theoretically yes, but realistically no. I love the idea of a regular lore compilation, but I can't see myself actually purchasing that every year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overread Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 I love lore books! Books chock full of stories, art and lore and background are fantastic things. The problem I have with them is that BL/GW tends to just make one order. This means that they tend to run out of stock within the first hour/week of release of these kind of books. Some last a bit longer, but typically they run out and they won't do a reprint to restock. So if you miss out you miss out. Sometimes GW will reprint them later, but there's no timeline to work with or judge if or when a reprint might happen. An annual book might be tricky to put into print, especially since GW sort of already makes such books - eg the last major book was Soul Wars. Within a year the "lore" doesn't always advance beyond actual story books themselves so it would be tricky for GW to put a years worth of BL books into a single annual. Plus you could get the same effect just buying and reading the BL books anyway. Now GW also makes the edition rule book that has much of what we are talking about and we get one every single edition - the BIG RULE BOOK. Personally what I think could be an interesting experiment would be a faction lore book. So instead of just battletomes (where many people only buy the ones they need); GW could produce a combined faction lore book which combines the lore content and artwork of each battletome AND extra world building content into a single mega=publication. Clean up the stories a bit and it could be a fantastic in depth one stop tour of the realms and their factions. Though with 20+ factions and easily 50-100 pages of lore and art getting into each faction battletome that could be a MONSTER of a book . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beliman Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 3 hours ago, JPjr said: So would any of you buy like the equivalent of the GHB but for lore? Yes, ASAP. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spiky Norman Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 This sounds like a very good idea, though I'd like a bit higher quality than the general GHB as others have mentioned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EccentricCircle Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 Yeah, I'd go for that in a heartbeat. I love reading campaign settings, and a kind of comprehensive sourcebook for the world that ties everything together would be great. The stuff in the rulebook is a solid foundation, and all of the battletomes are decent expansions, but they don't really go into enough depth. I've never subscribed to White Dwarf, and am not about to start now, so anything they put there is effectively beyond my reach. Given that its, lets say, very challenging to keep up with the black library novels it would be great to compile that material in more of an encyclopedia of the realms. I agree that a nice hard back tome with lots of art and maps would be awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuminethMage Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 Probably not a compilation of things which all have already been published elsewhere in a format similar to the GHB. Something on the line what RuneBrush mentioned I’d buy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urauloth Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 Yes, I'd buy it right now. I wish you could get lore-only versions of campaign books, too; maybe in a bundle at the end of a series. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kramer Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 Oooh that’s such a difficult question. yes definitely would sell. And I probably see if someone would gift it to for Christmas or something. but I don’t think I would buy it, if it just a collection of lore that’s already out. It would need to be close tot 50/50 new/old for me to buy it myself. As I would otherwise be double buying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bayul Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 Yes, with a glossary and a vertical timeline as fold-out centerfold so I can turn the book sideways and say "Oh my...". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMMachine Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 I have the feeling, what we basicly need would be some sort of "Adventure" Books like those for Dungeons and Dragons where you get most of the information you need for a region as a Dungeon Master (so basicly Soulbound). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EccentricCircle Posted August 22, 2020 Share Posted August 22, 2020 7 hours ago, EMMachine said: I have the feeling, what we basicly need would be some sort of "Adventure" Books like those for Dungeons and Dragons where you get most of the information you need for a region as a Dungeon Master (so basicly Soulbound). Yeah, I 'm quite hopeful that the sourcebooks coming for Soulbound will provide this kind of experience. I'm not sure how comprehensive they will be though, as there has been a bit of a disconnect between the lore of GW s main games, and that of their RPG lines in the past. the RPG writers tend to do a solid adaptation of what's in the war game, but information rarely seems to flow the other way. I think there would still be space for a product that tied everything together, bringing in the inaccessible lore from BL and WD publications and putting it all in one place (a fair while after the initial publication of course). Just having a canonical guide of what is in which BL novel would be great. I've listened to a lot of warhammer audiobooks over the last year, but still don't have a good sense of how it all fits together. I'm amazed that any one actually manages to keep up with the lore. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fellman Posted August 22, 2020 Share Posted August 22, 2020 Yes i wood love a lore and art book i alredy by aos books to get al the new lore Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairbanks Posted August 22, 2020 Share Posted August 22, 2020 Call me pessimistic, but I have little faith that an Annual GW Fluff Book would be anything less than 90% copy-paste from the previous year’s edition/battletomes, and another 8% of that is just new pictures. Give me a Wrath of the Everchosem/Godbeasts style book on a biannual basis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaelforster00 Posted August 22, 2020 Share Posted August 22, 2020 On 8/21/2020 at 7:43 PM, JPjr said: So would any of you buy like the equivalent of the GHB but for lore? Yes, that’d be great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MitGas Posted August 22, 2020 Share Posted August 22, 2020 Hell yeah, that's a great idea - I hope someone from GW reads it as this is a wonderful suggestion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMMachine Posted August 22, 2020 Share Posted August 22, 2020 Let's see what the Broken Realms books will bring, that were announced in the stream today. https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/08/22/warhammer-preview-online-shadow-iron-broken-realms/ It sounded like something that we want. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NinthMusketeer Posted September 5, 2020 Share Posted September 5, 2020 Yes, immediately. And I would vote to have it at GHB quality so it will be cheap and not a collector's item. We want more people to buy it--at $40+ the main people buying it will already be lore junkies anyways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaleb Daark Posted September 6, 2020 Share Posted September 6, 2020 (edited) Absolutely, especially if it was a full coffee table book like the heresy black books or the Tamurkhan. Id want it to be sumptuous, heavy paper stock, lots of illustrations.. just one of those books thats a real joy to own and neer a game mechanic to be seen, making them timeless. Edited September 7, 2020 by Kaleb Daark 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howdyhedberg Posted September 8, 2020 Share Posted September 8, 2020 It would be neat if they had a page or wiki that had summaries for the story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMMachine Posted September 9, 2020 Share Posted September 9, 2020 (edited) 12 hours ago, Howdyhedberg said: It would be neat if they had a page or wiki that had summaries for the story. An official Wiki would make some things easier to have consitent lore, but it would be most likely behind some sort of Paywall. The english lexicanum is doing a quite good job as a community project in that case (the german variant is a mess because it combines whbf & aos inside articles (worse than the english side before the split). In that case I try to get the best results with sigmarpedia (but it still needs much time because I'm only working for 11 month on it). On 9/5/2020 at 1:16 PM, NinthMusketeer said: Yes, immediately. And I would vote to have it at GHB quality so it will be cheap and not a collector's item. We want more people to buy it--at $40+ the main people buying it will already be lore junkies anyways. Yeah, collectors item would be a bad thing, but it should most likely be a little higher quality than GHB quality. Edited September 9, 2020 by EMMachine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acid_Nine Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 Honestly I would love a lore update annually. It helps keep the players up to date, and maybe could be a compendium for ‘era specific’ rules like the necroquake and the storm of Sigmar rules, or for old abbreviated campaigns like the city fighting rules. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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