players whowrite their own fluff vs those who don't write any at all.

[SON OF ROMULOUS]

New week new thought
Fluff bunnies rejoice

When it comes to 40k myself and most of the people i play against tend to have either their own armies or have written up fluff for existing armies. I was wondering if this was normal or if most people just play with their mini's and just focus on moving model's across the table.

I know from my own experiences i have either used my own characters or count's as characters for most of the armies i play. These are my hero's and villain's in the 40k universe.
My own chapter has an animosity with that of the ultra marines. (their games of red vs blue have led to the ultimate rivalry) My chapter master has a particular hate for orks following the death of 2 of his predecessor's to death by land raider bbq. I believe my friend has an inquisitor he has been working on for month's now in hopes that he can deliver the emperor's justice to what he calls my heretic's. Hell i know they have wanted to do the Romulan heresy for years now. me being the smart *** i am simply stated that they've never fielded an inquisitor on the battle field nor have the IC given any of my chapter an oder which was refused (my marines believe the emperor was a gifted human being but they do not venerate him as a god. This has led to suspicion as well as resentment from other factions. Then their is the whole codex astartes... yup my marines don't exactly follow the whole 1,000 battle brothers either so that is a sticking point amongst them. then their is the whole my marines believe that the ultra marines were a bunch of lying cowardly gits who let the fists ba and white scars bleed to defend the emperor while gurlyman and his smurfs set up tera nova....)

[magickbk]

I have my own back stories for my armies and characters. Sometimes they are only for my own benefit, to make sure I am keeping my army selection within my own theme. I usually go about this in one of two ways. First, I will write a basic timeline that explains my army theme and composition. Second, I wait until a unit or character does something great in a game, and then work that into my story, such that the ongoing exploits of my army stay within the confines of things that have actually happened to the army. I generally keep most of my writing to myself, or keep it generalized. I've found it is easy to generate conflict with other players when your story goes against the fluff for their force.

[ElectricPaladin]

I like to personalize my army, but I find it more fun to situate it within the existing fluff.

In other words, I'm less a "make up a whole new Blood Angels successor chapter" kind of guy and more of a "decide that I'm playing the 5th Company of Knights of Blood and give them a detailed backstory." I have facts to work with - declared renegade but still loyal, bloodthirsty berserkers - and add the twists that I enjoy - tragic nobility, psychopathic ultra-violence, trying to be heroes despite their flawed geneseed, extensive use of chapter serfs in combat roles because their own battle-brothers can no longer be trusted to pilot vehicles, grudge against the Grey Knights - but don't contradict the established fluff. It's more fun that way.

[Camael]

I have created a whole new Chapter from the ground up. It is all cloaked in mystery, heavily influenced by my own beliefs and read on human history. I know at least one other guy in my gaming group has done something similar with his chapter but they are too goody-two-shoes for my taste. My marines are arrogant, independent, and lack respect for non-space marines. This has led to conflict with the Imperial Guard and Inquisition. They are also even more xenophobic than most and view acts like partnering with Tau and not stabbing them in the back as treason of the highest order. I find this to be a good framework to tell myself the story of each battle from and allows me to enjoy the game a lot more.

[SON OF ROMULOUS]

Oh trust me there is alot to be said about creating your own divergent chapters. part of my chapters fluff is that they came from split gene seed well they did until romulus and remus had a disagreement ( remus is my buddies portion of my chapter) needless to say inter chapter war and the ultra scum were chased off along with their weedy gene seed and those of pure fist lineage remained behind and have since rebuilt their chapter thus the massive distaste for anything ultra. its to the point that ventris and the vae victus may or may not have been threatened to be obliterated by the invictus ( my battle barge) This in itself gives a huge gravitas for both players to write their own fluff and interpretations of events. Both chapters have since agreed to stay clear of one another less they wish to start a civil war. :) does help that my buddy has cooler toys then i do but i out man him 10-1 when it comes to marines easily and my ( accused ) heretical *** has already said i'd bring in my entire loyalist collection of guard titans marines ( grey knights blood angles 2 companies wolves angles of absolution templars imperial fists and potentially iron hands to bear :) )

[Wolfshade]

I'm not that involved. I just play straight up whatever. Maybe if I were to convert more and bring stories out through that it I would. The closest I have is Frank the heavy weapons expert from 3rd company 1st squad whose ability to miss all manner of very large very close objects has been commomrated on his base. Highlights include missing a Monolith a 3", a Valkeryie at just over 1". Though the mini valk has fallen off somewhere.

[Mr Mystery]

Each their own really. Best thing about this hobby is that there is no right or wrong way, just your way (yes, much as I occassionaly despair at the tourny focus online :p never said I wasn't a hypocrite! :p )

Me, I prefer to start off innocuously, and build up my own legend as I play. But I always enjoy reading someone's background that they've written. Seriously, no matter how ropey the prose, they took the time to conceive and write it, I can take the time to read and digest it!

[Learn2Eel]

I don't write mine down, but I formulate backstories to everything in my head and keep it locked up so that I can tell people about it if they are interested. My first fully themed army list is going to be based on an existing force; the Crimson Fists, led by Pedro, who made the journey from the ruins of their fortress monastery to the capital at New Rynn City.

[Kaptain Badrukk]

I like to tie into the fluff in places, but have a bit of my own stuff too.
But I rarely go very deep with the fluff, just enough that they have a surface layer to make me smile.

[Dave Mcturk]

what has fluff got to do with wargaming... history maybe.... some grasp of 'realistic'...
some grasp of 'logical'... fluff is for stories...

[Houghten]

If I could downvote you, I would.

[YorkNecromancer]

what has fluff got to do with wargaming... history maybe.... some grasp of 'realistic'...
some grasp of 'logical'... fluff is for stories...

As for what has fluff got to do with wargaming? Like dice, as much as you let it. I prefer modelling. Some prefer the gaming side. Some like only to win. Others prefer to socialise. Others prefer fluff. Others prefer mathhammer.

There's no 'right' or 'wrong' way to do this hobby, my friend. Of course, there are ways to be really quite patronising, and you seem to have mastered those.


I was wondering if this was normal or if most people just play with their mini's and just focus on moving model's across the table.

I prefer modelling and converting to almost every other aspect of the hobby. Fluff comes second (although in an RPG way), then gaming.

As for my background, I've been writing a blog since January to cover all factions for a campaign, mostly as a writing exercise, but also for use with the school gaming club. Makes it more exciting if there's something to fight over. :)

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/blog.php?17348-YorkNecromancer

So far, my campaign has pacifist Necrons, transgendered Tau, a Commissar with PTSD, Dark Eldar based on 'Boardwalk Empire', Heresy-era World Eaters, and an elite unit of female Space Marines.

All within fluff restrictions, of course. :) I like to have stuff people haven't seen before done, I hope, credibly.

[ElectricPaladin]

As for what has fluff got to do with wargaming? Like dice, as much as you let it. I prefer modelling. Some prefer the gaming side. Some like only to win. Others prefer to socialise. Others prefer fluff. Others prefer mathhammer.

There's no 'right' or 'wrong' way to do this hobby, my friend. Of course, there are ways to be really quite patronising, and you seem to have mastered those...

It's important to remember that a lot of people do some of each. I'm kind of the quintessential multi-gamer. I like to play and when I play, I like to win as often as I can, but I have even more fun when my games also have a strong narrative element (part of why I love campaigns). I love to paint and model, to the point that if I don't get to do it often enough I turn into the incredible jerk.

[Cadian122]

I tend to fob off the GW/BL Fluff. For Example, my Cadians (122nd) and Imperial Fists (5th & 9th Companies) are based around the Battle for Vogen fluff from the old cityfight codex. My Death Korps of Krieg and Grey Knights are from the Siege of Vraks Forgeworld Books. My Gaunt's Ghosts are from the books, and I'm painting/converting up allied regiments based on the books. I have Blood Angels/Steel Legion from the Armageddon Campaign, I got Vostroyans when they came out for Medusa V, and I have some Dark Angels models that I ally in as "Iron Hands" (I am in the process of converting them), but they'd probably be the only army I have that doesn't have a proper theme, well, them and my Iron Warriors - although probably some theme where they get *****-slapped by Imperial Fists is as far as I've gone there :P

[eldargal]

If it weren't for the 40k setting, the 'fluff', then most of us wouldn't be playing it. Even if you don't care about the background, the reason you know about the game is because it's expansion across the globe was fueled by the setting. It isn't the world leading tabletop wargame because of it's rules or even models, it reached that position because of the compelling background material. Model quality followed 40ks expansion not pushed it and it's rules have never been one of the more tightly balanced on the market.

[LordGrise]

I tried writing my own fluff, I really did. I basically have been for years with my Tau, almost without realizing it, but when I picked up a SM Spearhead box, I thought I had finally found my Ally contingent. Hah. Second worst mistake I ever made concerning this game.

Turns out 'Battle Brothers' on the Ally chart has essentially been nerfed out of existence; on top of which, my internal narrative did not and does not like the Space Marines, because I can't come up with a plausible (and socially acceptable) reason a Spearhead contingent of vanilla Space Marines would hang out with Commander LongShot's Force Echo. I need a renegade but NOT Chaos SM Chapter to relocate to the Farsight Enclaves to protect all the Gue'vasa, and there isn't one. And when I tried to create my own... let's just say the reviews and comments I got started at contemptuous and vitriolic, and went downhill from there. Got some good ideas from some of the guys here - ElectricPaladin, Nabteryl, and plasticAddict, thank you, folks - but no one I know locally was willing to entertain them. So they sit in the pile, unmade...

[Dave Mcturk]

compelling background material... chortle.... some of us are old enough to have been brought up on victor and commando...

[Nabterayl]

I don't know that it's "normal" but it's certainly common. My group is largely in this to tell stories about our armies, and our experience of "playing 40K" doesn't necessarily occur primarily at the tabletop. I could tell you all about the history of Da Circus Rukkus, their arrival in the Carthian Sector, what their campaign looked like from a strategic and operational point of view and where it is likely to go over the next several decades, the social pressures on the original group as the tribe struggles to become the core of a Waaagh!, and who the major personalities are; or the Violet Avatars, the effect of their fourth company's hunt for Kephrazi the Paragon of the Flawless Legion on the noncombatants of the sector, and so on, and that's just the two armies that I play. If we didn't have that, most of my friends wouldn't play at all.

That said, we've also run into players for whom the experience of "playing 40K" is largely confined to the four corners of the table. Some of my friends just don't enjoy playing against those people - they need a narrative context for the game for it to be fun (or at least, fun enough to be worth spending their leisure time on).

So I guess I'd say that it's normal to have your own fluff, but it's also normal not to.

[Houghten]

compelling background material... chortle.... some of us are old enough to have been brought up on victor and commando...

As a reader of Commando and player of 40k, I have no idea what you're trying to get at here.

[SON OF ROMULOUS]

I know that some of the stories written translate over into modeling projects and some of the modeling projects have translated over into actual history for my space marine chapter. I think or atleast believe that being as into the army as possible makes it so that i enjoy the force even more so. To me each battle has the potential to be translated into text. Grudges become space marine cannon for my chapter. a particular warboss or a certian tau enclave a necron court or a dark eldar pirate all have special hatred from among their opponents. It all comes down to what you want to get out of your hobby.

[Just_Me]

I'm definitely a hobbiest of the "fluff-first" variety, though the form of that has changed over the years. I actually struggle to call myself a "player" at all because I so rarely had the opportunity for a game! :P

My first army was a Marine army and a Chapter of my own devising. I actively resisted using ANYTHING that was already covered in the literature and I wrote extensive background material for them and did the same for the Imperial Guard army that followed. Recently however I have shifted my focus and find it more interesting to build around the framework that already exists. I've started a Red Scorpions army because I like their fluff and wanted to flesh out an individual Company within the framework of the Chapter's established fluff. I also re-worked my guard as a Cadian regiment rather than a complete unknown.

I have several other armies as well, with varying degrees of "originality," but I ALWAYS inject a lot of character and fluff; my Tau for example represent a unit specializing in covert tactics and equipment testing, all of my Dark Eldar squads are lead by female models because the Archon is so paranoid that he only trusts his concubines to lead his forces (and even then not very far!), etc... I always tend to work a "theme" into any army, usually informed by some element of their background that apeals to me.

It may sound hokey but I really love modeling and converting and I often let a model "tell me" about the character it represents. As I convert, equip, and pose them they tend to develop a certain "personality;" arrogance, aggression, stoicism, etc. In the end, even if I haven't written it down anywhere I have some impression about "who" my characters are.

[Brakkart]

compelling background material... chortle.... some of us are old enough to have been brought up on victor and commando...

I grew up with Battle Action Force as my comic, which is why someday I will get around to doing a Red Shadow themed traitor Imperial Guard army.

[SON OF ROMULOUS]

@just me

I can understand where you come from on that. i know the some of my own background has been influenced based off of a cool modeling project or for example i have 3 main characters who i tend to rotate which change the make up of my space marine force. one is my chapter master based off the calgar sculpt who has been converted he is my primary character. another is a terminatory captian who leads my first company early in the hobby my friend built and painted him up for me. the lastly after drop pods were finally released another friend recently made up a captain for me to lead my planetary invasion forces. these 3 characters have been heavily worked into my own background because well they have a history to them they are projects that friend have done oe helped me with over th year's so its important that they get out in and are seen on the table top and that they are used heavily in my story writting when it comes to my chapters's history.