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Legacy - a proposed narrative event, date TBC

Started by MarcoSkoll, August 29, 2015, 12:40:39 AM

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MarcoSkoll

In M42.011, Corporal Aderyn Aeslin died twice. Or, at least, that's what the official reports say.

What is known is that following her heroic (first) death and subsequent resurrection during the Ilithyian War (ref: "Ilithyia" - common name for Cerestne XVII, Cuir sub-sector, Carthax sector, Segmentum Pacificus), Aderyn was hailed as a heroine, a living embodiment of the Emperor's will and a game-changer in the decades-long conflict - a figurehead capable of driving Chaos from the world and back to the fallen Alykia sector (ref: lost to forces of Warlord Imylosst in 914-937.M41 war).
Perhaps even with time, she would become the leader of a counter-crusade that would reclaim those rightful demesnes of the Emperor.

These hopes were seemingly dashed when, once the Inquisition had chosen their champion (ref: Inquisitor Josephine Cortez) to assess Corporal Aeslin's purity, the site for the High Assembly was fired upon by a hijacked orbital defence platform. Officially, the Corporal was once again killed in action; unofficially, her body was never found.

News of the Corporal's second death lead to mass civil unrest across almost the entirety of the Cuir sub-sector, at grand costs both mortal and financial. The hero of this aftermath was undoubtedly the sub-sector's new Cardinal, Tobas Kiedrow (ref: took position in 009.M42, following disappearance of Cardinal Malatesta), whose inspiring sermons and posthumous canonisation of Aderyn rallied much the population into a wave of religious fervour.

Four years on, this has come full circle. His reputation built on the foundation of the saint, his continued aspirations have led attention to fall on the Ilithyian War once again. The voice of the masses now calls for the Imperium to fully reclaim the world in Aderyn's name.

Buoyed by this wave of zeal, the Imperium once again has possibilities that the living saint offered: a hope of fully bolstering Ilithyia and driving the taint from the sub-sector. A decisive victory here could free up many of the Cuir sub-sector's resources, both military and civilian.
Detractors say that it won't end there - the citizen's fervour would only grow with the end of the generations-old conflict, and where would that lead? A crusade into the Alykia sector would stretch the Carthax sector to its limits, but without such a common cause, the religious frenzy could lead to civil war.

And so it is that the Inquisition once again look to Ilithyia. Some of them trying to end a war. Some of them trying to prevent one.


~~~~~

"Legacy" (working title) is a proposed one-day campaign event in late 2015 or early-to-mid 2016, probably at Warhammer World, to follow on from the events of "The Saint" event in 2011.

Details for the event are subject to change, but is intended to be an open event for both 28 and 54mm play. The story and its revelations will branch out over three game rounds, with a structure that will reward players building alliances (and rivalries!) between games.
Separate, but linked narratives will be provided for each miniature scale, but players will have freedom to swap between them (if they have suitable models!).

Feedback is welcome on the concept*. If it passes muster, I'll start further development. Some of the event elements I envision will require quite a lot of effort,  which is why I want to solicit feedback early on, but also keep my deadline flexible.

* To address what I fear may be the opening criticism, yes, the plot is (currently) set in Carthax. This is partly because it's where I put the plot hooks years ago, but more because I don't feel like I'm up to speed enough on recent Dalthus narratives to feel confident or justified in using it as a setting (and Abraxis hasn't really taken off as an idea). I'll be entirely happy to have non-Carthaxian characters along though - I always prefer a bit of artistic licence over missing out on games!

Many apologies to anyone this doesn't work for.
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

Van Helser

Excellent. This year has rather run away from me and dashed any hopes I had of getting my own campaign ideas together for a winter conclave.

Ruaridh

greenstuff_gav

i make no apologies, i warned you my ability to roll ones was infectious...

Build Your Imagination

MarcoSkoll

Cross-posting some relevant sections of a post from over on Ammobunker:

~~~~~

> assuming new players who weren't there for the Saint are welcome?
Players and characters who were not at the Saint are entirely welcome! It was four years ago now, so I'm sure we'll have lost some players and gained new ones!

> So you'll have some trying to help the Cardinal start a crusade into the Chaos held subsector and others trying to prevent it, perhaps those who didn't believe in the Saint in the first place trying to discredit her whole story?
The intention is to let the objectives be general (basically warmonger/peacekeeper) and morally grey enough that the event will get a reasonable adversarial split.

But deeper than that, I hope to have many possible goals and subplots (a lot of which I will be soliciting ideas for), but exactly how those will eventually play out during the day will very much vary. The current plan is that it will be sort of a "choose your own adventure" event. There will be multiple possible narrative paths, and as characters get the upper hand, they will end up in a position where they can define the next stage of the plot.

For examples:

- The religious sub-plots will be able to be pushed in various directions. Perhaps trying to remove Kiedrow (should the characters believe his disappearance/assassination will further their cause), uncovering more of the truth of the saint (but whether or not the characters keep that to themselves, pass it on or lie about it... well... ;) ) or simply remaining in willing and pious ignorance...

- The military sub-plots will involve the acquisition and control of powerful assets. If she's finally ready, Leander will doubtless feature heavily in the (54mm) plot; one of the most famed titans of the Carthax sector (in spite of its modest age!), she could be a crucial asset in directing the conflict.

Basically, I'll be trying to develop the core of the event's fluff early on, complete with lots of hooks and sub-plots, so that people can get in contact with me regarding ideas for where their characters want to go within that.

> Have you any more concrete thoughts about the date?
I don't know exactly, but I promise it won't be at less than two months notice.

What I can say is that it'll definitely be a Saturday and is more likely to be early next year than late this one.
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

Cortez


Bloodpact

Its been a while since i've had my fix of murky intrigue. Pencil me in too. Angstrom will return!
Repent! For tomorrow you burn!

greenstuff_gav

i make no apologies, i warned you my ability to roll ones was infectious...

Build Your Imagination

MarcoSkoll

Sounds fair. I've also dropped threads on to Warseer, DakkaDakka and the INQ28 Facebook to see if there's more people that can be roused.
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

TheNephew

Cool.
Are you waiting for numbers and consensus, or do you have a date/month in mind?

MarcoSkoll

I need a modicum of interest in order to push on too far, but I don't have a date in mind yet.

~~~~~

I've been thinking about the plot mechanics.

If you recall the "contact card" mechanic (which first showed up at the 2010 Spring Conclave) - and if not, the cards showed various different NPCs (representing the connections and influence of the player character), which were used a little like a poker pot. You wagered contacts on a game, and depending on how you did, the GM redistributed them at the end of the game.

It seems to have gone out of style a bit (possibly because making enough cards is a frak-load of work), but they add a lot to the background of the event, so I'm considering bringing them back for this - just with a new twist.

Some variants of the system have assigned categories to the cards, and given players the objective to collect certain assets over the day, essentially giving them a "value" of sorts. To one Inquisitor, a contact in the Administratum might be quite valuable, so they'll hang on to it as long as possible - but another might happily discard it into the wager pot, caring only about military resources.

Problem is, this means that players are never gambling their important contacts unless they're desperate.

So, what I'm thinking is that the cards will become linked to the plot progression. If you want to get into a scenario for control of naval assets, you will have to gamble naval assets. (After all, how are you going to find yourself being able to meaningfully negotiate for control of a battle-group without a couple of Captains to back you up?)

There's also the possibility of "lead" cards - which I envision as one use bonuses to your asset score - and "information" too, which may relate to the events in game in interesting ways (for example, it might include the over-ride code for a facility's security doors)

This is going to present one of the major elements in which players will benefit from alliances; pooling resources amongst your collaborators in order to use them most efficiently will dramatically further your cause!
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

greenstuff_gav

the problem i had with Plot cards from Eramus (extra objectives that could be played for extra points across the day) is people forgot they had them

i wasn't keen on the original contact card mechanic; as the redistribution at the end of the game was quite lax never seemed like much of a risk to use / lose 'em
i make no apologies, i warned you my ability to roll ones was infectious...

Build Your Imagination

MarcoSkoll

I think part of the issue with the plot cards wasn't so much that they got forgotten, but that they didn't tie into the scenarios.

They were one-use cards without a clear time to play them, which meant players tended to hold on to them "for later" (the same kind of "for later" that one-use/limited-use items tend to be subject to in video games - i.e. never), and they often represented extra work for the characters outside of the normal scenario goals.

I'm hoping that by having them more integrated into the games, with clear bonuses and uses relating to the plotlines and scenarios, that players will actually use them if they have them. Getting people to trade things they're not going to use might be more interesting, but giving things a clear use will also hopefully make it more obvious when things clearly do not have a use, encouraging players to barter them for more useful assets.
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles

Holiad

Myself and Myriad would be interested in attending.
One thing I didn't particularly like about the contact cards was that having no control over the cards other players gambled often made it difficult to build up sets.  Perhaps some more general system of gaining influence points with important factions for completing objectives?
Poor noble Marech
Noone 'till the end could see
Your brave heart of fire

TheNephew

#13
Maybe have a higher 'buy-in' for each round?
Hands of 5 cards, three card ante per round, then at the end take turns at picking one card out of the stack, with most successful players going first, or in an order chosen by scenario GM.
Keeps the cards moving, forces you to risk more important cards, still rewards objective-focused lay, with GM fiat to reward cool or characterful-but-unproductive moves.

To clarify, I quite like the idea of Plot/Contact/Conspiracy cards, but the Eramus Affair is the only event I've been present at where they've been used, and as was noted, they weren't really a focus for many players.

MarcoSkoll

Quote from: Holiad on September 11, 2015, 08:06:56 PMPerhaps some more general system of gaining influence points with important factions for completing objectives?
On some level, that's what you can expect.

The "game" value of a card will be very different to previous attempts - they're not going to be a scoring system so much as a plot system. Who has which resources at any given stage will be very important to the direction of the campaign.

And there won't be a requirement to match up sets in the same way as before. There will be benefits to controlling a range of resources, but they will be more intangible. The more of any specific resource category you control, the more weight you'll have in that part of the campaign. The more categories you control, the more ways you will be able to influence the campaign.

The reason I talk about contact cards rather than just boiling it all down to some general points system though is because all the little fluff snippets provide a much richer picture of the setting. (Although I'm sure I'll start to hate  them after writing the first couple of dozen...)

They're also easier to trade, and I would like to see players exploiting the politics of the system, exchanging resources.

Quote from: TheNephew on September 11, 2015, 09:55:45 PMMaybe have a higher 'buy-in' for each round?
That's something else I've been considering. There's a strong possibility that I'll unlink the cards from the number of characters used and take another approach.

It may well need to be more sophisticated than this, but one possibility I'm considering is that it could almost be akin to an auction, representing leveraging (and thus risking) more of the character's available resources in order to try to take control of that particular sub-plot.

There are other ideas in my head such as that a player's "ante" include a certain category of card (or that the player instead plays a valid "lead" card that relates to that game).
S.Sgt Silva Birgen: "Good evening, we're here from the Adeptus Defenestratus."
Captain L. Rollin: "Nonsense. Never heard of it."
Birgen: "Pick a window. I'll demonstrate".

GW's =I= articles