The Road to Demonhood: Help creating a narrative idea

[FlamingWalnut]

Hey everyone! After 10+ years at the hobby, finally dipped in and started a Chaos force. Those demon engines were just too good. lol Word Bearers dedicated to Slaanesh for some fun. I had a thought/goal for this army. I would not use Spawn or Demon Princes until I've "earned" them. Meaning, my characters would need to complete tasks to gain Demonhood and failing them made them a gribbly spawn. Keep going until I got a Legion of ascended dudes. Definitely the aspect of Chaos I love the most.

 

The question is: how to do it! I am sure the CSM book will have a "Ascend to Daemonhood" option for Crusade, but for now want to come up with something grander. My initial idea is a set of lofty tasks. Since I am Slaanesh, 6 tasks sounds...Perfect. But what kind of tasks could it be? I would prefer to not have it be something I just get in a few games, but I don't want it to also take forever/be impossible.

 

Something like....?
Summon 666 points of Demons through that character.
Kill 6 Warlords.
Complete a Psychic Ritual secondary 6 times (only words for Sorcerers outside of extra details)

Thoughts? Does it seem cool? Does it seem ok? I am a narrative player but I like to actually do well in games, getting smashed every time without a chance does suck...

[The Unseen]

Sounds really cool, if anything your ideas seem more difficult than I would do. I would so something like "personally have the final blow vs 6 characters" not specifically the warlord. Summoning that many pts of daemons sounds almost impossible. Completing a Psychic ritual 6 times sounds pretty good though.

Might steal this idea...

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Well, there is an ascend to daemonhood strategem in Codex, so you could use that (The requirements to use it, if my memory serves me right, are killing an enemy character with your character,  spending the CP, and having the appropriate demon prince model).  In matched play, it also requires you to have reserved (aka not use) enough points to pay for the demon prince - which is one of the reasons you never see it used competitively - but I don't think the reserving points rule applies to Crusade.

 

As for your own rules, those all seem reasonable.  Really, Crusade is an informal format, so unless you are in a league of some sort, whatever rules you and your opponent can agree on would work.  Personally, I would be inclined to modify the requisition system for upgrading space marine characters, and use that after a battle where your character is particularly impressive.

 

Now, my characters are never particularly impressive, so if you have my luck your character would never reach daemonhood. 

[N1SB]

Brother, I love the idea on its face, whatever you choose, I think it'll be great. It happens I have a 40k 1st Ed Precedent (a.k.a. Prec1stEdent).

It's not specific to Chaos or Marines, in this case it was Orks, but this was the type of crazy stuff we did in addition to rolling randomly for HQ wargear:

Source: 'Ere We Go (that's the actual name of the gaming supplement)

The above was an actual game mechanic. Orks had a leader that was a Warboss or an actual Warlord with better stats and a higher points cost. But after 3 victories against Space Marines, which was the most popular faction even back then, you get an upgrade for free.

The detail that would interest you is that you were supposed to paint up a helmet from the defeated army and display it on the banner pole of the character. In your case, for your narrative purposes, and the fact that the Crusade roster keeps track of your battles...you would display the helmet or pauldron or something from the battles (doesn't have to be against Marines obviously, it's just the idea) as you try to achieve Daemonhood...then after you attain it, your new Daemon Prince model KEEPS those SAME trophies. That way, you would constantly remind them "I should thank you...for it was YOU that elevated me to my exalted state" and they'd be like "By the Emperor NUUUUUUUUU what have I done!?"

I actually did this something like this in recent years, albeit for Age of Sigmar. It was during the Games Workshop's official Season of War campaign where I just tabled a tourney-winning 40k player, I played a Death army against his Chaos one and tabled him, so my Vampire Countess resurrected his HQ to serve her. I converted a grim reaper ghost with a Khorne helmet and an axe instead of a scythe. The dude is my brother by another mother and father, but I swear his tears when I just put that conversion on the table are the sweetest.

But it's not meant to humiliate, I was trying to honour my opponent. After all, I had to come up with the bits and paint up these trophies to commemorate our games. But I swear it really is the funniest thing in the world to watch my friend's whole body deflate when that ghost of his defeat appears, because he's feared as such a great 40k player.

Regarding the conditions, I dunno, but I think you'd really enjoy the simple conversion opportunity and also you can cite this 1st Ed Precedent.

Edited November 5, 2020 by N1SB

[Xin Ceithan]

This is a brilliant idea and really a trip down memory lane to the more narrative approach from as early as RT / WFB  Road to Glory as  in the Lost and the Damned, for example. I always enjoyed this and think it is both an incredible way to expand the feel and fluff of your force over simply flipping through a codex  for just some shiny toys.

My  old gaming group did this a lot, even if it was just basing a a few armor bits or trophies on the games we played or the factions involved. There is a reason why my old army has a lot a Dark Angels helmets on their trophy racks and to the custom paint job on the gorkamorka buggy my mob captured during the campaign. I guess a fair share of my own hobby butterfly effect comes down of not having a regular group for tabletop war gaming and thus lacking that focus and kind of natural advancing of ideas that come with it.

 

I can thus offer little insight on how to bring this about rules wise in 9 th, but can only encourage you to expand on this, as it makes the road to damnation much more fun!

[Xenith]

How about actually rolling the 'ascend do daemonhood' or 'Spawndom' result on the boon table? That's pretty hard to do. 

 

The old path to glory rules I believe you could have 6 mutations (boon results) then take a ld test - fail and become spawn, pass become a prince. 

 

666pts seems too easy?  That's something like 2-3 keepers of secrets. 

 

With this, are you actually going to converting and changing models as they level up?

[FlamingWalnut]

Thanks everyone for the responses! Things are moving slowly game wise due to Nurgle's Plague, but I have at least some folks interested in doing some Crusade, so we have a foundation to work with!

Sounds really cool, if anything your ideas seem more difficult than I would do. I would so something like "personally have the final blow vs 6 characters" not specifically the warlord. Summoning that many pts of daemons sounds almost impossible. Completing a Psychic ritual 6 times sounds pretty good though.

Might steal this idea...

I was aiming for difficult because unless we do a big apocalypse battle with a ritual and such, having a Chaos Lord go from "no games" to "Daemonhood" in a single game or even two or three feels a bit anti-climactic. I want this to be the ending to a long campaign of fighting and rituals, to see if he can pull off the long road to Daemonhood.

And all of this would be cumulative during games, so even just summoning one squad of Daemonettes a game sets up an ascension in less than a dozen games.

Well, there is an ascend to daemonhood strategem in Codex, so you could use that (The requirements to use it, if my memory serves me right, are killing an enemy character with your character, spending the CP, and having the appropriate demon prince model). In matched play, it also requires you to have reserved (aka not use) enough points to pay for the demon prince - which is one of the reasons you never see it used competitively - but I don't think the reserving points rule applies to Crusade.

As for your own rules, those all seem reasonable. Really, Crusade is an informal format, so unless you are in a league of some sort, whatever rules you and your opponent can agree on would work. Personally, I would be inclined to modify the requisition system for upgrading space marine characters, and use that after a battle where your character is particularly impressive.

Now, my characters are never particularly impressive, so if you have my luck your character would never reach daemonhood.

Riiight, I do remember that stratagem. I am a big fan of it, but it's a bit quick for my idea. MIGHT consider it for like...the end game mission or something, but I want this to be a big struggle across an entire campaign.

But yeah, my luck is that I get a massive pile of spawns and not a single Prince. lol

Brother, I love the idea on its face, whatever you choose, I think it'll be great. It happens I have a 40k 1st Ed Precedent (a.k.a. Prec1stEdent).

It's not specific to Chaos or Marines, in this case it was Orks, but this was the type of crazy stuff we did in addition to rolling randomly for HQ wargear:

Source: 'Ere We Go (that's the actual name of the gaming supplement)

The above was an actual game mechanic. Orks had a leader that was a Warboss or an actual Warlord with better stats and a higher points cost. But after 3 victories against Space Marines, which was the most popular faction even back then, you get an upgrade for free.

The detail that would interest you is that you were supposed to paint up a helmet from the defeated army and display it on the banner pole of the character. In your case, for your narrative purposes, and the fact that the Crusade roster keeps track of your battles...you would display the helmet or pauldron or something from the battles (doesn't have to be against Marines obviously, it's just the idea) as you try to achieve Daemonhood...then after you attain it, your new Daemon Prince model KEEPS those SAME trophies. That way, you would constantly remind them "I should thank you...for it was YOU that elevated me to my exalted state" and they'd be like "By the Emperor NUUUUUUUUU what have I done!?"

I actually did this something like this in recent years, albeit for Age of Sigmar. It was during the Games Workshop's official Season of War campaign where I just tabled a tourney-winning 40k player, I played a Death army against his Chaos one and tabled him, so my Vampire Countess resurrected his HQ to serve her. I converted a grim reaper ghost with a Khorne helmet and an axe instead of a scythe. The dude is my brother by another mother and father, but I swear his tears when I just put that conversion on the table are the sweetest.

But it's not meant to humiliate, I was trying to honour my opponent. After all, I had to come up with the bits and paint up these trophies to commemorate our games. But I swear it really is the funniest thing in the world to watch my friend's whole body deflate when that ghost of his defeat appears, because he's feared as such a great 40k player.

Regarding the conditions, I dunno, but I think you'd really enjoy the simple conversion opportunity and also you can cite this 1st Ed Precedent.

That is some awesome stuff. DEFINITELY things I would love to do. I have a friend who plays Space Marines and has a lore grudge with some Chaos traitors. That is definitely the route I would want to exploit, love the idea of having a PERSONAL nemesis for lore stuff and this would be perfect. Stop the ascension and save your chapter's soul. Fail to stop it and be forever haunted by a brutal personification of your failure. Sooo good!

This is a brilliant idea and really a trip down memory lane to the more narrative approach from as early as RT / WFB Road to Glory as in the Lost and the Damned, for example. I always enjoyed this and think it is both an incredible way to expand the feel and fluff of your force over simply flipping through a codex for just some shiny toys.

My old gaming group did this a lot, even if it was just basing a a few armor bits or trophies on the games we played or the factions involved. There is a reason why my old army has a lot a Dark Angels helmets on their trophy racks and to the custom paint job on the gorkamorka buggy my mob captured during the campaign. I guess a fair share of my own hobby butterfly effect comes down of not having a regular group for tabletop war gaming and thus lacking that focus and kind of natural advancing of ideas that come with it.

I can thus offer little insight on how to bring this about rules wise in 9 th, but can only encourage you to expand on this, as it makes the road to damnation much more fun!

I wish I had more people in my play group want to REALLY get into this. I like gribbly details like tracking scars and lost territory and roleplay outside of the battles. So much fun. I at least have some people interested, but more often than not, people just want some cool pickup games or a one and done event. To each their own.

Being a hobby butterfly is a big issue. I have SOO many projects and none of them are "easy". Sooooo.... But, we'll figure it out! lol

How about actually rolling the 'ascend do daemonhood' or 'Spawndom' result on the boon table? That's pretty hard to do.

The old path to glory rules I believe you could have 6 mutations (boon results) then take a ld test - fail and become spawn, pass become a prince.

666pts seems too easy? That's something like 2-3 keepers of secrets.

With this, are you actually going to converting and changing models as they level up?

The Eye of the Gods table is amazing, I love the idea. My original thought was just hit that a few times....but I am shying away from something that is random. Because box cars won't happen often, but it may happen in the first game and that is....anti-climactic. So, won't really work for a thing to do (No real goal or mission, either, just...kill characters and pray to the dice gods) but also too random I guess. I want rituals and specific actions to appease Daemons.

Summoning 666pts is easy if it carries over. This would all be tallies on a campaign list, so a potential dozen or two worth of games. I kinda want a list of "To Do" stuff to build up to it and then maybe end with a big ritual deal. Like an unlocked final battle for one last chance for my opponent to stop me. If he fails, bam, a beautiful Prince.

And yeah, conversions to go with this! I haven't made my first Lord yet, still building up the other troops and models, BUT I will be making custom Lords and their custom "final forms". I won't be touching Spawn or Daemon Princes until I make them with this method. So, each failed Lord will add to my Spawn collection with a custom model and each Successful Lord will add to a council of Princes. Hell, in the long term, if I get a full 6 Slaaneshi Princes through this, I figure my Warband just wins and be complete. lol We'll see!


So, as an update, here is what I am thinking right now:

Nominate a Chaos Lord (or a fitting character of your choosing) for your Crusade. This must be your Warlord for every battle and cannot be removed from your Roster until the Trial is over. If this selected character suffers all 6 Character Battle Scars, they fail the trial completely and become a Spawn. They must take a Battle Scar each time they roll an out of action. Otherwise, track their progress on each of the below items. Once they have completed all items, the next mission (as possible) must be The Grand Ritual noted below.

1. Kill 6 Warlords (Or characters of double your points cost)
2. Receive the Marked for Greatness bonus experience 6 times by a vote from your opponent. (Opponent must decide if the character's actions were memorable and worthy to be Marked)
3. Summon 666 Points of Daemons using the Matched Play Point Cost over the course of the Crusade.
4. Complete The Ritual Crusade Mission objective 6 times successfully.
5. Complete the Desecrate Monument Action over 6 different games. (Desecrate Monument: Action, a character may perform this action at the end of your movement phase while wholly within a terrain piece within 6" of the center of the battlefield. While performing this action, this character cannot benefit from Look Out Sir. The action completes at your next Command phase.)
6. Kill twice their points in non-character models 6 times. (If a character's point cost changes, use the current cost. Previous successes for this item still count.)

Still working out The Grand Ritual, but the idea is it would be a custom mission of "Protect the Warlord" or something similar. Like the Ritual, but thinking....some sort of grand edition.

Obviously this is for Slaanesh, if people like this idea, they are welcome to change the numbers for their God's sacred number. Slaanesh suddenly feels like easy mode. Perhaps I am mad and this is WAAAAY too much. One way to find out! I think it is a hefty BUT possible challenge. And certainly rewarding. Will look into starting a blog soon for my warband and models if I actually start this up. Got some of the easy ones built, but have an involved conversion idea for Possesed, which will be my main Marine troop to fill my need for 2 wound Marines. lol