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| The Fur-beast himself |
8 Months on and not only as the little fur-beast
become a little more manageable but my gaming group has also come back round to
the idea of doing 40K, (after we all gave it up back in 6th edition) home
brewing some of our own rules to overcome so of the things we currently dislike
about the game and creating a narrative campaign. As this is something which
I've always wanted to do but never had the chance I leapt at the opportunity
to create the story and background for the campaign.
As a
result this blog will be shifting focus slightly as I concentrate on 40K and
the campaign, hopefully this will be interesting for people to read and catch
up on as we progress. In this post I want to explain the rules I've put in
place for the campaign (to not only make it easier for me to run but also to
make sure games get played in amongst everyone busy schedule) and to go over
the setting I’ve created.
Campaign rules-
· -
At least one game a month.
·
-Each month you will be given your “short term goal”
for the games that month.
· -
Short term goal outcomes will be used to push
the story along and effect how your “long
t term campaign objective” is coming
along.
· -
Each month upon discussion of you next campaign
move, I will set who will be playing who
and the game type/ scenario.
· -
Games will not be Win/Loose or Black/White. Your
short term objectives can still be
achieved it will just to be degrees of
success.
· -
Games sizes will be decided upon between players
(please keep in mind though the
narrative when selecting army composition and
points costs- ie a secret infiltration force
probably wouldn’t consist of 3000
points of battle tanks!!)
·
-Games are meant to be fun and further the story,
not super competitive and all about
creating the cheesiest list possible!
7 players will be taking part in this campaign, with 6 different forces battling it out (Necrons, Crimson Fists and Imperial guard, Chaos, Minotaurs, Dark Eldar, Orks. So I had to come up with a story and scenario which would bring all these forces together and into conflict. What followed was a tale of ancient death machines, plagues, revolt, Orkyness and the quest for power! But before I get to all that lets look at where all this is taking place, the Idyllia System.
The IDYLLIA System
The system of Idyllia can be
found in the Regalius sector of Segmentum Tempestus. A system of little note to the imperium its
only remarkable feature is the “Grave belt” an orbiting mass of broken ships
and scrap metal which the system derives its main industry from; the breaking of and repurposing of ship
parts. Consisting of 7 planets and a number of space instillations, the large
population works in difficult conditions for the furtherment of the Imperium,
adults and children alike live harsh lives, with many cut short when long dead
reactors spill their deadly contents, void suits become damaged whilst
scavenging the belt, munitions detonate unexpectedly or deactivated auto
defence system reactivate unexpectedly.
Even those who work planet side to support the ship breakers suffer back
breaking work in over cramped conditions. Only the firm and steady hand of the
planetary governors led by Isik Costiv, Primaris governor of Idyllia II keeps
the tithes fulfilled and the population under control.
IDYLLIA I
Being the closest planetary body to Idyllias sun, Idyllia I is a
molten world and by all accounts should not exist in its current orbital
position. Its atmosphere seems to be resistant to the intense heat and
radiation given off by the nearby star and although its surface is in a
constant flux between solid and liquid it is stable.
There is no permanent population
upon the surface of Idyllia I, instead the huge automated smelting facilities
stand upon shielded barges which float upon molten rock seas. Workers from
Idyllia station fill their huge cargo holds with the broken metal of starships
and travel in system to smelt them down ready for them to be utilised once
more.
In recent months the on-board
monitoring systems of the smelting facilities have registered increased seismic
activity and radiation output. Although well with-in working tolerances, a
suspicious mind may well find a connection between it and other activity in the
system.
IDYLLIA II
Idyllia is the Primarius planet of the Idyllia system, a sprawling
hive world whose environment has been eroded by hundreds of years of industry.
Outside the hive walls the landscape is grey and lifeless, inside the hive the
sound of constant work rings through as raw materials collected from the broken
ships of the “Grave Belt” are repurposed and packed ready for transportation to
the closest forgeworld.
Isik Costiv the Primaris governor
is the chief administrator of the Idyllia system who rules with an iron fist
and has risen to power through, if rumour is to be believed by nefarious means.
His ambition has no bounds and in recent years this has caused friction with
the Idyllia systems tithed worlds out of system, most notably the Forgeworld of
Tor whose representatives were thrown from the governor’s palace during talks
regarding increased tithing.
“We give and receive nothing, dogs begging at a table for scraps from
unfit masters. No more! Get out and return from hence you came, we shall be the
ones dining in glory from now on!”- Isik
Costiv
Imperial agents report
unsubstantiated sightings of armoured warriors of grotesque appearance in and
around planetary officials, however conformation could not be attained as with
a large number of the population they have succumbed to a virulent contagion
spreading across the planet.
The Moons of IDYLLIA II
IDYLLIA
III
Little more than an unofficial penal world, Idyllia III is a dead
world with nothing more than the thinnest life supporting atmosphere where
those who have earnt it are sent to die a long slow death.
One quirk of the planet though is
its strange crystalline structure, creating a glass like surface which has been
scarred by millions of years of astronomical activity. Scars of meteorite hits
cover the landscape, although in places the ground is polished and clear…..and
at night it almost seems to glow from within.
IDYLLIA IV
The Idyllia systems bread basket, Idyllia IV is and ocean world where
vast forests of floating plants make up huge islands. These plants form both
the landmass of the planet and also the food resource for the system. The
plants are used to create a highly nutritious paste know by the local populace
as porridge, which is eaten by the workers of Idyllia system.
Huge mobile factory crawlers
prowl the surface of Idyllia IV, these pick and process the raw material of
porridge and are home to 10’s of thousands of people. Violence has been known
to break out between rival factories as they look to harvest the same area, the
huge machines then turn their tools against each other, ramming and cutting
into each other’s hulls, boarding parties are often formed as each factory
population look to cripple the other. Only the rule of the planets governor
based at one of the planets permanent space ports can stop these clashes by
using the local imperial forces under their command to bring fighting factory
crawlers back in line.
IDYLLIA V
The systems only gas giant, Idyllia V is totally uninhabited, even
orbital stations are not found. It’s electrically charged atmosphere and high
powered magnetic flux, which although not dangerous to passing ships, makes
close proximity and habitation extremely dangerous.
The powerful magnetic flux of
Idylia V is deemed to be responsible for the Grave belt which orbits Idyllias
star, thousands of ships and parts seem to find their way into the belt some
ancient and some more recent. The flux also holds the key for successful entry
into the inner system, as the Grave belt becomes thinned as it approaches Idyllia
V making navigation thought that much easier.
IDYLLIA VI
Idyllia VI is a planet of 2 parts, locked into stationary orbit there
is no transition of day into night and being within the grave belt the side of
the planet which faces the in its rotation is pot marked with great gouges and
burning wrecks as parts of the ship graveyard fall to the ground. The opposite side
of the planet is highly industrialised and totally focused on the collection of
these fallen parts. An expanse armoured tunnel system deep underground takes
workers into the fall zone where at any point a piece of space debris could end
their lives and hundreds die each day in pursuit of the raw materials which
fall through the atmosphere like rain.
Workers are often forced through
the tunnels and into the fall zone at gun point and security forces will kill
anyone who refuses collection duty, displaying their bodies at the entrance to
the tunnels as a reminder that cowardess will not be tolerated. The harshness
of collection duty is put into perspective when witnessing the factories where
the materials are stripped from the fallen ship parts. Endless lines of workers
strip each part by hand, be it metals, radioactive wastes, munitions or some
other unknown item, overhead servi-cherubs carry baskets of materials away and
bring in new parts. It’s common for swaths of industrial complexes to become
highly irradiated, explode or melt without warning, but the tithes must be met
and the valuable materials must be sorted.
The brutality of life on Idyllia
VI has more than once resulted in ill-conceived worker up risings, these have
always been quickly broken and any surviving ring leaders banished to the fall
zone.
Travel to and from Idyllia VI is
difficult and hazardous as you must traverse the Grave belt into the shadow of
the planet and then out again. Large ships can only hope to reach Idyllia VI
from the inner system side where the gravitational pull of the planet reduces
the depth of the Grave Belt.
IDYLLIA STATION
In orbit around Idyllia VI and
tethered to the planet’s surface via space elevator, Idyllia Station is the
central processing plant for orbital debris collected from the Grave Belt.
Hundreds of wrecking ships dock each day bringing their haul of parts which are
processed and then sent via the elevator to the planet’s surface for stripping
and sorting.
The station also acts as the
central hub for system defence, with the inner system protected to an extent by
the Grave Belt a system of satellites have been placed throughout the belt. These
feed both real time navigational data for use by the small wrecker ships but
also track the movements of ships approaching the system and relay
communications from one planet to another. If a threat is detected a signal is
relayed via the Satelite array in orbit around Idyllia VII to the imperial Navy
patrols of Segmentum Tempestus.
IDYLLIA GRAVE BELT
The life blood of the Idyllia
system, the grave belt is a vast orbiting graveyard for dead ships. Hulks of
various different sizes and conditions are found throughout the belt surrounded
by smaller wrecks and various broken parts. The belt is home to teams of
wreckers who pilot small ships which are capable of navigating the Grave Belt,
they are the ones who break down the large hulls, collect small elements or
even board the largest wrecks to plunder their contents. Each item recovered is then transported back
to Idyllia station for processing and the crews can enjoy gravity, a drink and
maybe some company from the love slave emporiums.
The wreck of the unknown ship is so vast that it is commonly used as a
navigation point by the wrecker ships although none will go near it! Those
souls who ventured too close spoke of a blackened hull and strange glowing
runes across its surface, communications at this point were always lost and any
further information on the ship or the fate of the explorer’s crew remains a
mystery. Once the rumours of this ship reached Imperial ears, it was marked for
destruction when next an Imperial navy patrol was in system, a mark which has
remained on the ship for more than 200 years.
IDYLLIA VII
On the very edge of the system and
the grave belt, it is little more than large moon with little surface value. In orbit
however is a satellite array, whose purpose is to magnify and direct signals
leaving the inner system which often get scrambled and weakened as they pass
through the Grave Belt.
Ruins cover the surface both of
human and Xenos origin and an explorator team set up a research base amongst
them for a short time before communication was recently lost. A passing rogue
trader entered orbit but failed to detect any signs of life. The team has been
marked as missing.
So this sets the
scene for our campaign, next time I’ll go over the event which lead up to our
1st games and some of the work I’ve been doing to get my Minotaurs up to
fighting fitness.
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