'Narrative Lite': Can't we have just a little of levelling up?

[Dr. Clock]

'Afternoon Frater,

While I tried to get into Crusade a couple times in 8th, at a certain point the Matched missions just feel more compelling, and we didn't really like the whole 'Escalation' dynamic, preferring to just consistently work on different themed 2000pt lists.

Yet we found ourselves wanting just a bit of consistent character to our lists between games. We came up with the idea of 'Point of View Characters' who level up over time, and who gain experience by learning from a Mentor (Sr. HQ choice) and eventually take on an Honour Guard with distinctive qualities. Essentially we built an upgrade tree and XP system. Your character gets points for playing, winning and surviving, but also for their Mentor surviving, and their chosen 'honour guard' surviving each battle. Then different advances are rolled for from Crusade charts and Faction Relics/Traits when you hit XP thresholds on a sliding scale. 

One benefit of this is that instead of having to track every single unit's actions in every game, I'm able to just keep a record of all game outcomes, with character XP and advances in a single spreadsheet.

The way we've structured it is that each faction has a 'standing budget' of 100 points to buy a character and their gear, plus an optional 'bodyguard' of up to 4 models (if such a unit exists in their codex) who will always form a unit with the character. These selections take up no slots when building an army, so can't be mandatory HQs/Elites or anything. No starting Warlord Traits, Relics or 'Chapter Command' type options (e.g., I have a Beastmaster and a few hounds to go with; an Inquisitor plus 2 Crusaders is another one... For AdMech it's a Data-smith and Servitors... But in more elite armies it's 'a judiciar', or 'a jetbike warlock'). Basically it's allowed some armies to take things that you'd basically never see in a tuned 2k list, but that are fun to have around, and fun to level up (even if we forget their accrued bonuses more often than not).

This has made things a little more herohammer, but everyone feels like they have a 'special darling' now, and it's nice to have those informal rivalries adhere to characters that are consistent game to game even though the armies can change substantially around them.

Curious to hear what others have done to make 'easy narrative' elements a bit more common in otherwise Matched-leaning environments.

Cheers,

The Good Doctor.

 

 

 

[Focslain]

We have a few in my crusade group that only track their HQ and/or elite units, forgoing the xp on the 'cannon fodder' units. 

Which is fine, you don't have to track all the units in the game unless you want to. It's basically your system of only having a few character units in the force. I generally suggest this for newer players to our group as well to lower in the book-keeping that I know Crusade can have. 

If they want to track all their units for a grizzled force, that is on them.

[Wrath of Bruinen]

Thanks for sharing your approach, it sounds awesome!

[Dr. Clock]

54 minutes ago, TheWeepingAngel said:

Thanks for sharing your approach, it sounds awesome!

My pleasure!

It's starting to get more interesting now that honour guard units are starting to get advances... Squat (AdMech) vanguard block of 20 just got free Enriched Rounds strat, and I've got 5 scatter laser windriders with the warlock re-rolling 1's to hit. Kurnous be praised. 

XP awarded each game is Win = 5, Lose = 2, then 1 each if the character lives, if their mentor lives, and if their honour guard unit lives. You lose 2 XP if your character is killed in game. First advance at 3XP, then at 7 (n+4), 12(n+5), 18(n+6) etc.

Each level you basically roll on a different set of Relics or WLord Traits or Crusade charts, with a bit of flexibility if people want a slightly different path (get honourguard upgrade before Codex Warlord Trait for instance). But it's always a randomized roll - no cherry picking. Hilariously this has meant 3 characters out of 9 rolled the same lvl 1 upgrade of +1 to move, advance and charge. Our sector has been thus renamed "Realm of Roller Skates".

Plan is to add 'veteran crews' to use Crusade vehicle advances at XP 42 as well, but current max is 21 with 4 wins from my Eldar.

Cheers,

The Good Doctor.

 

 

 

[ThePenitentOne]

I like the approach too. I go the opposite way, and make things MORE complex, because I'm that kind of nerd, but I really did like reading your approach because I think it's probably the thing most people are looking for from a narrative game.

I am absolutely obsessed with the amount of material Crusade provides, and I combine things from a lot of different sources, and I'm all about escalation. I do frequently skip mission packs because I find the Campaign books tend to contain more of the types of Crusade content that interests me- missions are easy enough to make as demanded by the narrative.

I really like the example of your Beast Master and Beasts- I'm working on Kill Team story arcs to develop my beasts- I'm using classic Warp Beast models to represent them as pups= I will swap them for Khymerae as they become Blooded. Also, my Hellions have to compete against the pups, with the Hellion who tames/ defeats the most pups earns the right to the role of Beast Master.

Of course, KT rules for Warp Beasts, Hellions and Beast Masters don't currently exist, so those might be ultra small Crusade games... Or I might convert the 40k rules to KT....

See what I mean about making it more complex rather than less?  

[hardcore1six]

I love the narrative aspect of the game - I do have a crusade force but my gaming group is heavily into Tempest. I've toyed with keeping logs in the background and 'leveling up' my crusade without using the buffs/flaws in game.

What I've been doing lately is asking my opponent to chose models from my army that contributed to destruction, objective play and MVP. I have a load of 3D printed purity seals that I then model on my dudes as they get more use.

[Dr. Clock]

13 hours ago, ThePenitentOne said:

 

See what I mean about making it more complex rather than less?  

I do - lol.

For me, DnD is where I scratch the complexity itch most, but it's feeling like a return to Necromunda is in the offing as I fancy a Ridghauler-themed campaign of some kind... And that scale is a little more comfortable for narrative scenario creation to me.

Never tried most recent kill team; bought the first book, but didn't get a tonne of use out of it tbh as 9/10 times I'm just like 'why just take a single squad... when I could take ten?'

5 hours ago, hardcore1six said:

I love the narrative aspect of the game - I do have a crusade force but my gaming group is heavily into Tempest. I've toyed with keeping logs in the background and 'leveling up' my crusade without using the buffs/flaws in game.

 

Tempest is just good clean fun! Haven't quite figured out how or if it's meant to interact with Nephilim CP changes tho...

A guy in a group I was in years past was just a Space Wolves fanatic - he had a book of Sagas, basically after-game reports, for every game he ever played with that army. For all that he was surprisingly persnicketty about WYSIWYG and base sizes lol.

13 hours ago, ThePenitentOne said:

I really like the example of your Beast Master and Beasts- I'm working on Kill Team story arcs to develop my beasts- I'm using classic Warp Beast models to represent them as pups= I will swap them for Khymerae as they become Blooded. Also, my Hellions have to compete against the pups, with the Hellion who tames/ defeats the most pups earns the right to the role of Beast Master.

I am sadface that Beastmasters haven't really been a thing since... 6th? When was Beaststar?

My army headcanon has them only Commoragh adjacent, eking out a hungry existence in the shattered Webway around the Ghoul Stars. Essentially they're 'Corsairs', but they hide in and protect the location of a vast Webway realm of ancient stygian oceans, still populated by the servitors of the Old Ones. They're basically 'Altansar-type Exodites', their homeworlds having been cast into unstable Webway passages during the upheaval of the Fall, and forgotten more or less by both Asuryani and Drukhari due to isolation across the Perfidian Gap. So my army is basically 'webway guides for hire', and instead of proper Coven stuff they use Old One 'psychic biotech' and/or 'convince' fishmen and toadmonsters to shlorp into battle as needs be using ancient dead dragontongues.

It's Idoneth-as-Exodites with more mutation and Lovecraft at this point. For instance their solution to 'wracks' is populating their dead warriors' ancient armours and weapons with what amount to highly trained shoggoths (Idoneth Thralls). I've painted the Thralls with green skin, and their lack of eyes is due to being permitted to see only through the eyes of the Highborn they serve, lest they grow restless and defiant. The other ten wracks are a diverse array of fishy types: Malifaux Silurids and Reaper bones Tiik stuff. So in headcanon there's a 'progression' from fish to 'blind fish that can use dead peoples' armours' to 'fish that are pretty sure they're dead people', to 'fish that are indistinguishable from your dead cousin'. Some rare entities that 'remember their Aeldari eyes' seem to fully bring the souls of the dead back out into their flesh bodies. It's a similar process to how Haemos bring Drukhari back, but it usually takes several tries before a particularly clever and vicious fishy thing is able to learn how to Aeldar... and it's not at all clear whether any of them are 'proper trueborn' at this point, or if they'd even know if they weren't. It does seem like over generations of dying and being reborn through transmogrification some of them are able to make the transition faster... So in some sense the army is basically 'fishy chimeras being parasitized by sentient/cursed Exodite weapons' or some such nonsense.

This has all also meant that I now do have 2000 points of Idoneth in AoS lol, and even use some old exodite conversions as eelcav, not caring for the actual eelcav tbh.

Cheers,

The Good Doctor.