Calling all Boardwarriors!

[Dooks Dizzo]

Hello there writers and creaters of all sorts. This thread is some thing of an advertisement for a Board War over in the 40k section.

It follows slightly different rules than the traditional battles fought here but is rather rewarding in many ways.

We call it 'The Kill Team Narrative Challenge' and I hereby invite all of you to attend. There are a limited number of slots and it is first come first KILLED! ;)

For those interested in practicing their writing skills it is an excellent opportunity.

The thread can be found here:

http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=163580

[TheLoneKnight]

Wasn't it stuff like that that got the Boardwar section created?

Blergh, too crowded/standard 40k for my taste at any rate.

[Gorb]

I've already signed up :)

Well, I've asked to sign up.

[Dooks Dizzo]

Blergh, too crowded/standard 40k for my taste at any rate.
Too standard? As in no 17 year old girl player characters?

In any case, having the game master use dice to determine results as opposed to players just doing whatever the hell they want is a lot different than a typical BW.

Regardless, it looks like we have a full roster. Thanks to the BW folks that journied on over :)

[TheLoneKnight]

No, too standard 40k. I tend to skew toward the more civilian angles like Hive Wars. Things tend to get more interesting when you're not a superhuman killing machine. More opportunity for character interaction beyond hacking eachother into bits.

Plus, it tranforms the typically "normal" things like Chaos Marines into unthinkably powerful monsters - so you don't need to throw things like armies or daemon princes at the players to make it difficult. Those villains closer to humanity are also far more easily turned into endearing characters.

After all a cultist of chaos has motivations and a history that's fairly close to Imperial life. Players can relate to them on some level, perhaps even understand why they did the things they did, and it makes a villain far more entertaining when you pity/hate/are fond of them. A Daemon has no history outside of bloodshed. There's nothing to relate to. No emotion attatched for/against the character. Same goes for several other beings/creatures that would be considered difficult to beat for teams of creative players when they're all superhumans in power suits.

Admittedly using dice is not something that we do a whole lot of in the Boardwars section but that's largely because our population is too small for that to work out at anything but a snail's pace.

[Lestaki]

Too standard? As in no 17 year old girl player characters?
Cheap shots aren't strictly necessary. Of course, that also goes for blatant advertising. If we created an advertising thread in the 40k section we'd rightfully be butchered for it, after all...

In any case, I didn't elect to play for much the same reasons as Lone, as well as general tiredness with 40k as a roleplay setting. Regardless, good luck with your venture.

[Gorb]

To be honest, it's a successful venture (in it's third round). To atone for my previous failures (i.e. not having enough time online to complete the previous rounds), I need to be focussed this time.

Thankfully, I now have a lot more time to spend online (at university).

[Dooks Dizzo]

Cheap shots aren't strictly necessary Heheh, sorry brother. I was hoping that would get your attention ;)

@Lone, you might have wanted to look into a bit more closely me thinks. Preconcieved notions might limit your opportunies a bit.

A good writer will bring an absolutly human element to a character regardless of how tough/superhuman he/she is. (Dan Abnetts 'Brothers of the Snake' did a great job of humanizing superhumans) If you get the chance, read through some of the Kill Team 2 Narratives. The Imperial Guard stories in particular have a massively human and vulnerable element.

The Space Marines teams had a tendancy to get their asses whooped, and not by armies, by the things that they failed to account for.

The dice are the ultimate equalizer. Characters are restricted to the stats and wargear presente din the 40k rule books. No matter how badass you make someone out to be, all they have to do is fail 1 armor save.

At one point another player and I were horrified by the number of casualties that we were taking. I kept losing characters as fast as I could develope them it seemed. At one point I had to beg the game master to spare a character in exchange for 'X' number of points of reinforcements that I supposed to recieve.

I was writing for the Eldar and let me tell you, it really taxed my ability as a writer. Writing for a non human race is REALLY hard. Making the characters into something other than super human alien monsters.

Basically, regardless of the fact that the setting is 40k, there is FAR less unberness involved in the Kill Team series and about 80% of the Board Wars fought around here. Whether or not you win/lose survive/die is completely out of your hands. You have to work with what you're given.


Of course, that also goes for blatant advertising. If we created an advertising thread in the 40k section we'd rightfully be butchered for it, after all... I made sure to get Moderator permission before advertising here. I pulled at least three players from here ( :) ) mostly due to how slow things have been.

And the advertising was mostly due to me knowing that there are a lot of good writers hiding out in whom might not make it to the 40k section very often.

[Lestaki]

I'm aware of moderator permission. The double standard remains, but that's hardly your fault. What is somewhat irritating is that we don't really benefit from this. Your BW-esque enterprise is elsewhere, three of our good players are now preoccupied by it, and that isn't going to help how slow things have been. It would be nice if you linked us in your opening post or something, by way of thanks, but it's not important. The problem is that the 40k tabletop forums has very high exposure and anyone who's interested would probably know anyway. But BWs has very low exposure and no equivalent right to advertise. Again, that isn't something you control. Personally, I dislike advertising in any form, but my opinion isn't important.

On the debate, this isn't the time and place for arguments over the relative merits of dice-lead and written storytelling. But in brief, the 40k setting in itself is rather limiting, albeit very broad, arbitary character death is not necessarily (is probably rarely) any guarantee of story quality and writing for non-humans isn't exactly a unique property of 40k. At the end of the day, though, I think Lone and I are merely tired with the "high" aspects of 40k in general through overexposure, while you are not. It's a personal difference. I'm more interested in innovating within player-created contexts, myself.

And I could pop by the 40k forums later and comment on, say, the ridiculous statistical overpresentation of Space Marines, for example. Or perhaps the more cliche aspects of some 40k writing in which 80% of all protagonists' lieutenants are Chaos worshippers. Or how all these races happen to bang heads in massive free-for-alls over and over again in stories, despite it being a very large galaxy. But there wouldn't really be much point. ;)