Narrative Gaming

Lately I have been thinking of narrative gaming and how to bring it into 40k. It really all started with The Independent Character's episode 47 podcast. When I lived in Minneapolis, the group there did all kinds of cool events. One thing stands out looking back was they always had some kind of story for the event. Even if it was a one off event. Maybe I'm getting old, or just longing for the old days, but I would like to try to get some of that fluffiness back in my gaming.

First I would like to say, if you haven't checked out the IC podcast, you should. The last couple episodes have been an almost must have for new people to the hobby. Their break down of armies for new players would have been very useful when I started the hobby back in 1998. This last one on narrative gaming has rekindled my nostalgia.

My first experience with this game of 40k was a Hunt for the Fallen mega battle. This was before there were Apocalypse rules and 3rd edition was just kicking off. I remember the battle was to capture certain models deemed "Fallen" on the Chaos side. They were painted up in pre-heresy colors (I did not know that at the time, but looking back I see how much work they put into it.) and Cypher was there too. The Chaos side had some objective to capture and they had to get the Fallen away.

It was a cool game, and the thing I remember looking back was these cool stories we all had afterwards. Their was epic tales of hand to hand fighting, and rhinos tank shocking units away to save a Fallen. But most shocking looking back now is the fact I can not remember who won the day! That's what was cool about narrative gaming is it is not about who wins or by how much, it was the story or stories you got out of the battle.

So how do I incorporate it into my gaming now? It's tough, with most of my games being played in tournaments. At Zach's house it will be easy and we should set something up in the future, but tournaments are serious business right? LOL. I think I can add some narrative to my tournament lists by fleshing out my back story to start with. By creating a story, I can give the army "life" and maybe write some narrative battle reports too. The back story will also go a little ways in making my army "complete" too.

So it will be a tall order for next week. I have some names thought up for my Vulcan counts as, and some sargents. I have an idea for why the army is assembled with these particular units. Now I just have to get them to paper!