The LAF Games Workshop Discussion Thread

[Hobgoblin]

One of the things I lament about GW today is that they no longer care for nurturing the adventure-loving side of 40K players (and probably AoS players as well). The GW core settings, as portrayed by its writers, are all about burning rage, charred battlefields and sheer grim bloody-minded overkill now. There's barely a piece of fluff nowadays that doesn't end with something to the effect of "The last thing Private Xavier saw was his own viscera ripped out of his abdominal cavity by a dozen monstrous claws" or "As the blood became a mist enveloping the layer of corpses which the battlefield had become, Grixzhorr threw his gore-spattered head back and howled in savage ecstacy". Who are they trying to sell this stuff to? (Don't answer that - I know who.)

I'm striking off on a tangent here (because I'm veering away from the discussion on tables and random plot hook generation), but that's a good point you make. While it is true that many of my favourite fictional wargame settings are very richly detailed (the Heavy Gear universe comes to mind), and the value of real history as a game setting is self-evident, there is a different kind of positive value in the mere suggestion of a setting surrounding the immediate stage, dramatis personae, "props", plot hooks and conditions of a scenario. Why are the blue guys wearing crested inca-style helmets? What are those cool alien dog-like creatures the red guys are using? What's with the landscape of weird plants that look like dragon blood trees? What is the significance of the blues having higher morale but the reds being numerically superior? I don't know, but my imagination is running wild over what all of it might suggest about the world the scenario is taking place in.

Of course, this is how richly detailed gameworlds often get started. The blue player might, for instance, declare his guys to be "janissaries of the Castorian Empire", and the red player might declare his guys as "Rheviri mercenaries in the employ of Hiakander Goldmane". The scenario, they decide together, is a famous encounter during "Gup the Seventh's campaign of reconquest in the Blackmoon Peninsula". What/who, then, are the Castorian Empire (and janissaries thereof), Rheviri mercenaries, Hiakander Goldmane, Gup the Seventh and the Blackmoon Peninsula? To answer those questions will entail more world-building. At some point along the line it will become a very conscious, systematic artifice, but it will have begun in a much more spontaneous, organic way.

It does help if the ruleset and what you see on the table (miniatures and terrain) convey a certain atmosphere, whatever atmosphere that might be (techno-gothic, cyberpunk, swords and sorcery, mossy fairytale folklore, steampunk fantasy, etc). But I like to think the mentality of many gamers is such, that even if they were to game with the most generic figures on the most generic terrain, they will naturally begin thinking of a story and a world to go with the game. Why are two factions of identical-looking generic sci-fi jarheads fighting over a grassy green field with a few trees and hills? Well, it's a civil war between the Caudillos and the Fifth-Congress Declarationists on Amaterasu Prime, and this particular encounter is taking place in the temperate sheep-grazing lands of New Sumatra Province, of course.

Yes, yes and thrice yes! Very well put! 

[nic-e]

Seems a bunch of the old witch hunter minis have just been put back on the webstore....

[beefcake]

do you mean Mordehim Witch hunters?

[nic-e]

do you mean Mordehim Witch hunters?

40k.

[Argonor]

I just unsubscribed their mail newsletter.

Nothing of any interest to me for the last couple of years, anyway (at least nothing within price-range of my willingness to pay).

[YPU]

The day before yesterday I acquired Relic, the 40K talisman spin-off, for a very decent price. I have played two games now I can say its only marginally less RnG then tallisman but its thematic enough that it has me thinking about 40K pulp alley already. Heck I suddenly feel the need to acquire some eldar, never had that before.

[Rhoderic]

Heck I suddenly feel the need to acquire some eldar, never had that before.

I was hit by the urge to acquire some Eldar (just enough for skirmish gaming) a few years back and still have it. I thought about converting them from non-GW figures for a while, then about trawling Ebay for OOP ones, but as it's looking now I'll probably just get some of the current ones from GW, if I get any Eldar at all.

The thing about Eldar is that, for "elves in space", they have a very special style about them which is one of the main draws of 40K. It puzzles me that (to my recollection) no other manufacturer has tried to properly move in on that in 28mm. There's quite a lot of "imitation Eldar" in 6mm.

[Elbows]

I've been kicking around the idea of picking up some more 30K/40K figures (ebay etc.) and trying to run a game with different rules, simply because a lot of my gamer buddies I believe have some old 40K figures laying around.  Couple them up with a bunch of other random sci-fi figures I have, might be worth something.  I'd pick up some Eldar but I doubt they're cheap even on ebay and everything is fine-cast now, so that's a no-go.

[3 fingers]

I keep looking on their site and  wanting to do a skitari /futuristic knight army ,but wife kids and cars swallow my spare cash.

[nullBolt]

The thing about Eldar is that, for "elves in space", they have a very special style about them which is one of the main draws of 40K. It puzzles me that (to my recollection) no other manufacturer has tried to properly move in on that in 28mm. There's quite a lot of "imitation Eldar" in 6mm.

Is there? I've only found the Defeat in Detail ones and Onslaught Miniature's Dark Eldar.

[Mr Brown]

Only slightly off topic ish...

Yesterday I got time to play some of the new warhammer quest card game from FFG. Mechanics wise it feels like a mix of LotR lcg and imperial assault. The point being though all of us had fuzzy memories of the warhammer old world and loved the effort put in to capture the flavour and themes we remember.

It's amazing the difference some effort in writing, even if only a line or two, can make to a game. I think GW have lost this over time in trying to be edgy where it wasn't needed. Grim dark is fine but grim darkyness for the sake of it feels shallow. The little paragraph boxes in the rules and army books captured so much flavour as well as humour. Tastes and target markets obviously changed. I'm no longer that target market; probably for the best, and my wallet!

Thankfully though, we still have the likes of FFG who have the licence and ability to put out some nice flavoured games.

[Rhoderic]

Is there? I've only found the Defeat in Detail ones and Onslaught Miniature's Dark Eldar.

Come to think of it, the Eldar grav-tanks someone was doing on Shapeways might have been 3mm, not 6mm. Other than that, there were a few offerings from Dark Realm and exodite types from Steel Crown. We might not have the same standards for what qualifies as "imitation Eldar" - I think of it as more of a general aesthetic than as copies of official GW material.

[Rhoderic]

Only slightly off topic ish...

Yesterday I got time to play some of the new warhammer quest card game from FFG. Mechanics wise it feels like a mix of LotR lcg and imperial assault. The point being though all of us had fuzzy memories of the warhammer old world and loved the effort put in to capture the flavour and themes we remember.

It's amazing the difference some effort in writing, even if only a line or two, can make to a game. I think GW have lost this over time in trying to be edgy where it wasn't needed. Grim dark is fine but grim darkyness for the sake of it feels shallow. The little paragraph boxes in the rules and army books captured so much flavour as well as humour. Tastes and target markets obviously changed. I'm no longer that target market; probably for the best, and my wallet!

Thankfully though, we still have the likes of FFG who have the licence and ability to put out some nice flavoured games.

This thread inspired me to have another look at the WFRP books a couple of weeks back, and I felt much the same way you describe. There's so much flavour in there, and a fair few bits of humour which complement the atmosphere of dark Germanic fantasy surprisingly well. I don't play RPGs, but I do often read RPG sourcebooks as background material for miniature wargaming settings, and now I'm rather itching to do a small Empire-centric skirmish/adventure project. I even have an idea for converting my own forest goblins.

[Gibby]

I've always thought that WHFRP 2nd Edition would make for a great skirmish tabletop game anyway, with a few figures a side.

[Simlasa]

I've always thought that WHFRP 2nd Edition would make for a great skirmish tabletop game anyway, with a few figures a side.

Yeah, most RPGs are small skirmish games + extras... some are more precisely directed at miniature use than others (Cadwallon, 4e D&D, Savage Worlds...) but WFRP 1or2 should work fine I'd think.