Monday, January 23, 2012

6th Edition: A resurgence of Narrative Gaming?


With all the rumours flying around about what may or may not be in 6th edition, I thought I'd take a step back and comment on some of the flavour of the new rules, rather than their absolute content.  

I was particularly taken with the lack of kill points if a unit runs off the table, the various "levels" (if I can call them that) of feel-no-pain and eternal warrior, and how a sergeant seems to count so much more (and a deputy must be nominated if a squad sergeant suffers an untimely demise).  These kinds of rulings get me feeling that the 6th edition of Warhammer 40,000 will be lending itself to the narrative campaign style more than the current edition.  By that, I mean a sequence of games that follow on from one another and have consequences for having a major victory, versus a stalemate.  Perhaps the advantage is extra points, a superior deployment position, a unit upgrade like tank-hunters (for successfully recovering those objectives that you've been contesting in the previous game, remember?).  Recall also that several of the core rulebooks make mention of a number of styles of play, ranging from the full campaign (attackers vs defenders mission trees depending on the prior mission), to the old kill team game and how models could get upgraded if they survived long enough.  

Whilst I don't think we'll be seeing the return of a games master (cf. Rogue Trader!), I think the potential for Narrative Gaming within 40k will grow larger with the new edition.  At least, I hope I'm right!

1 comment:

Space Hulk Enthusiast said...

I too hope you're right. I'd love to see more narrative gaming in the new edition. Or at least some mechanisms that help promote the idea.

Ron
From the Warp

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