Running a Narrative Campaign

 

One aspect in wargaming that I have found to be disappointingly under utilised by the wider community is narrative campaigning and the story writing side of things, which to be honest I find most peculiar. You see whilst I have seen lots of amazing conversions by the various hobbyists I have found online, many of which are full of character and even personalised backstories, there seems to be absolutely no way for them to forge their legacies and that just feels like a wasted opportunity to me.

I can see why though. Games like Warhammer 40,000 are primarily geared towards competitive and tournament play, it's a game system you can just find an opponent and roll some dice. That is the primary and many would argue best way to play and heck I do love some matched play from time to time myself. But there's something about watching your characters forge a legacy for themselves, having your matches impact an ongoing narrative... it might just be the writer in me but I absolutely adore it. But the reason why narrative game systems like Crusade tend to lose out over matched play is simple - if there isn't a narrative in play you're left with the option of playing that or matched, and narrative games without a focus just aren't appealing.

For this reason I have made it my sworn duty to bring the joy of narrative gaming to the community at large. In this article you will find a step-by-step guide on how to set up a campaign and keep it engaging and interesting - after all the last thing you need is a bunch of players dropping out mid campaign!

1. Have a setting with some rough narrative in mind

The first thing you will need is a setting and a rough narrative in mind. This doesn't and in fact shouldn't be too detailed to allow your players some creative freedom to stretch their figurative story telling legs. All you need is where the campaign is taking place (whether this is a country, a continent, a planet or a star system) and some background information to the area.

For example the Echoes of Nihilus campaign I've been running I set on the planet of Ultrus Prime where a war from several years back had devastated the planet leaving only a handful of Imperial survivors still alive. I then simply gave the brief that the Imperium were attempting to defend whatever was left of the world against the invading forces that were attempting to destroy them, everything else was entirely based on what armies and goals my players had brought to the campaign. The fact that so many players were playing Tyranid armies when we were using the Tyrannic War Crusade supplement was just incredibly fitting and probably spurred on by the release of Leviathan.

Crusade books provide a perfect starting narrative

Speaking of the 40k Crusade supplements, these provide an excellent narrative starting point for campaigns if you are unable to think of one for yourself, and even provide you with the relevant Crusade rules to go with said narrative. Even if you are completely starting your narrative from scratch these are crucial for deciding missions, battle traits, blessings etc. so it is always worth checking out which book suits your campaign best before any games are played and always make this choice clear to your players so they can bring the right rules to their games.

2. Have a campaign pack in place

I found it helpful to have a campaign pack in place and accessible to all your players. This should outline exactly how your campaign will work, how long it will last, clarify how you want any ambiguous rulings to be handled as well as the all important narratives behind your campaign. This might take a bit of time but it will simplify things for everyone in the long run.

I also hugely recommend using a shared file system such as Google Drives (which is free for gmail account holders), that way if you need to update the campaign pack players will be able to access that information quickly and easily.

If you need an example of a campaign pack you can find the actual campaign pack I created for Echoes of Nihilus here.

3. Find a group of people to join your campaign and take notes of their armies

Campaigns get really old really quickly when people play the same opponent over and over again, so to keep things fresh you're going to need a good selection of participants, I recommend at least 7 players other than yourself. You might already have a large group of wargamer friends who are up for a campaign, but if not gaming clubs are a perfect alternative and most will have no problems with you posting on their page that you are running a campaign for people to join so long as you're playing your games at said club. As mentioned previously this is how I'm running my campaigns at the moment (go check the club out for yourselves and show them some love!).

Clubs like HATE are ideal for campaigns

Once you got the players interested be sure to keep a note of what factions they are playing, what alliances they are joining (where applicable) and what their narrative goal is. This will help to give you a foundation for your full campaign narrative, for example in my Echoes of Nihilus campaign the Harkillian 808th's hunt for the Hedarai Vultures was written into the narrative purely because the goals of those factions worked so well together and formed the basis of what became probably the most iconic rivalry of the whole campaign. Players seeing how their own backgrounds and goals affect the narrative as a whole will help retain their interest as they become more invested in the world you're writing.

4. Have a method of logging battles and match ups in place

When I was setting up Echoes of Nihilus (and indeed I'm doing the same now with my next campaign) I had a google drive spreadsheet set up that allowed me to list which players belonged to which alliance, their goals, their factions etc. along with tabs that tracked every match up for each mission. This sheet, like the campaign pack, was accessible by everyone with the link, and I noted who won each and every match up as the battles were logged.

Of course I'm a keen bean and there are far simpler methods of logging every detail of your campaign. The simplest tracking method that I've come across (and use in conjunction with my other sheets) is Goonhammer's Administratum system. This will cost you a £10 a month subscription to their patreon to use but it is a brilliant system and if you do a round robin with your players you could be paying £1 a piece - bargain!

Administratum makes tracking campaigns easy

5. Create a central place for your players to chat

People who like narrative campaigns tend to be up for a bit of banter and like discussing fun little plotlines with other players, plus it is great to have a forum for organising individual games. Therefore it is essential to set up a chat where everyone can talk to each other. My campaigns utilise Discord, but sites such as Whatsapp or Facebook messenger also work well.

6. Set an easy to understand structure and attainable deadlines

Make it clear how your campaign is going to proceed from the get go. The aforementioned Crusade books are great at outlining phases and how many games players should to play (2 each phase). They also suggest each phase be 2 weeks long, but with gaming clubs I would recommend stretching that to 2-4 months as arranging match ups between so many people with varying schedules around limited tabletops will prove to be an impossible task, so give yourselves some breathing space.

You can also decide whether you'll let your players choose who they play each game or you can decide to choose for them. Personally I generally opt for the latter as this gives you more room to tailor the narrative in advance and stops people getting left out of the mix. In fact I decided to randomise who each player would face in each mission with some exceptions (see point 8).

Another thing to consider is how interactive or detailed you want your campaign to be between each phase. In my Echoes of Nihilus campaign I had a very simple "you play who you get" system and a world map I edited between each mission with a write up of the current narrative. The next campaign I'm running will utilise a system that will allow players to choose a planet they want their faction to focus on utilising Administratum's conquest system.

Very simple map system utilised for Echoes of Nihilus

The last thing to take into consideration, and this will tie in nicely with the next point but as it does require planning I decided to mention it here, is that wargamers are always up for more games, and if your group are anything like mine they are always hungry to add a bit more depth to their narrative as well as farm that all important EXP. Therefore you will have to consider whether or not you will allow players to play more than their designated 2 games a phase, and my advice is to say "let them", just don't allow these extra games to affect the alliance scores. If you're using Administratum, I got around this issue by creating a new campaign that is purely logged as an "extra curricular" campaign so that unit progress is logged but it will not affect the main campaign's progression in any way.

7. Give your players the freedom to contribute and forge their own legends

The main draw for narrative play is the freedom to create your own stories and forge your own legends, taking that away from your players and maintaining full control of every narrative nook and cranny is a good way to put your players off your campaign. Much of the narrative of Echoes of Nihilus was created by players interlinking their battles, discussing how their match ups could make sense and it created such an amazing dynamic within the group, even if parts of the story sounded silly or made little to no sense it did not matter so long as everyone was having fun.

Also do not be afraid of your players doing or saying something completely unexpected, work with it instead! There's a moment in phase 2 of my campaign where the guy who played the Unseen screenshotted and shared a PM I had sent to him telling him to get off my lands to the main chat, completely revealing that the Khertet Dynasty was not playing ball with the Imperium. It was done purely for banter and instead of getting annoyed about it I wrote in that the Unseen sent out an "anonymous vox" betraying my plans and it actually led to an extra curricular game where the Blood Angels attacked me. It was a brilliantly hilarious moment that got spoken about for a few weeks afterwards.

One more honorable mention I will add here is custom datacards. Keeping track of all your battle traits mid game can be a bit of a nightmare, that's why I recommend downloading TCREPO's 40k Datacard Editor so you can add your units battle traits and the like all on single, printable cards. You will need power point to use this file though.

Nemekh the Summoner's current datacard using TCREPO

8. Plot twist!

Players get bored with the same routine week in, week out. Jazz up your campaign with a special twist now and then. This doesn't have to be massive, it doesn't have to be regular, just now and then mix it up a bit. In my Echoes of Nihilus campaign, in the second mission of Phase 2 I told my players to select the player they regarded as their nemesis and matched them as closely to their choice as I could. I even named the mission "Nemesis". In the final mission I arranged everyone in 2 v 2 matchups as opposed to the standard 1 v 1 matchups I had been doing to show just how massive the end game was becoming. In my next campaign I will be actually messing around with the alliance scores based on what planets players focus on and what strategic footing they're taking. It can be as simple or as complex as you'd like it to be but so long as you throw out a curve ball now and then to keep your players on their toes, it'll do wonders for retaining players.

9. Set an end date

As I have stated before my current campaign is nearing its end and I had always planned it to end either in February or March 2024. I have seen campaigns just fizzle out ingloriously before because they just refused to end and kept going for a year or two. Setting a deadline forces players to advance their stories without dawdling and creating narrative dead zones that kill all excitement for the campaign. Having a definitive end will make it all the more satisfying when the conclusion of who has won comes around, and you can always just start a new campaign if people want to keep the narrative train going - heck half my group are starting new armies as it provided them with a convenient point to swap so it's great for the hobby side of things too!

And that's all for my tips on how to run an engaging narrative campaign. This is part of my initiative to bring narrative play more into the mainstream and I hope this helps inspire you to start a campaign of your own. If you do we'd love to hear about it, and we'd love to see the armies that are taking part in your narratives in our Fandom Factions series. Drop us an email on dj.driver.theprojectside@gmail.com and tell us all about it!

- D J Driver