Hello Everyone,
Since my article previewing the 40k narrative event at LVO was well received I thought I would continue on with the exciting preview of the upcoming AoS Narrative event at Adepticon in a few weeks. Paul Wagner and Will Simpson were kind enough to answer a few questions about the event and give some advice about organizing these events!
1.Tell me a bit about you and the other organizers, what armies do you play? How long have you been playing and what are some past events you have organized?
Our names are Paul Wagner and Will Simpson and we live in Madison, Wisconsin and we are part of the Mortal Realms podcast network. I (Paul) do the planning of the event and Will provides the much-needed help of editing, playtesting, and letting me bounce ideas off of him. We will both be coordinating the Gibbering Dome on the Day of at Adepticon. Will and I probably have both owned almost every single Age of Sigmar army though at the moment I am focused on a Living City based Cities of Sigmar Dawnbringer Crusade, and Will has been playing his Stormscale Covenant Stormcast force. Will is a bit of a recent convert to Age of Sigmar after finding our community in Madison compared to my 22 years of playing Warhammer.
Paul has run the previous two Gibbering Dome Age of Sigmar Narrative Events at Adepticon as well as various other Warhammer events in the Wisconsin and Illinois area.
Will is the mastermind behind the global Age of Sigmar Narrative Event called “The Hungering Steppe” running right now. https://wearetheneon.com/category/great-weave/
2. What is the story ahead of this year’s event? How is the event structured?
The story for this event returns to the Gibbering Dome, a bespoke narrative setting, just for Adepticon, within the Age of Sigmar. A lost but now found ancient site of learning spinning through the Void between the Realms. https://www.themortalrealms.com/the-gibbering-dome
A fledgling Dawnbringer Crusade outpost is struggling to survive within the Dome and players will interact in it’s fate, for good or for ill.
As players gather they will find themselves at odds with another specific player in the event as their rival. Rivals will be decided on the day of. Players will collaboratively create a narrative that will lead to an epic confrontation at the end of their tale. The day is structured as a narrative based three game event with each player bringing their narrative and a 1000 point Order of Battle force.
3. How do you develop your ideas for these events? Do you have the stories build on a past event or start fresh every year?
I develop the ideas for these events based on the evolving narrative of Age of Sigmar. Each year the lore evolves to accommodate the passage of time in the Mortal Realms since the last event. For example, Warcry’s Red Harvest speaks of the usefulness of “Void-chilled Nullstone” in mining Varanite, the Realmstone of the Eight Points. This addition to the lore since the last event provides not only a narrative hook for Chaos armies to enter the Gibbering Dome, but has also inspired some of the overarching narrative of the event as a whole. The stories do build from year to year to incorporate GW lore, but also the way that GW rules change as well, hence the addition of Path to Glory forces this year.
4. This is the first narrative event using 3rd edition rules, how does that impact your scenario and event design?
The overhaul of Path to Glory really opens up a whole new swathe of narrative potential for the event. Not only does it provide a brand-new ruleset for narrative army building, but also a way to carry narrative progress forward after the event itself is over. The event structure has been redone completely to accommodate the new system and add a unique spin as well.
5. How is designing a narrative event different than putting together a GT or RTT? Any advice for those looking to put together their own narrative events?
Having run both matched play events and narrative events for Age of Sigmar and Warhammer Fantasy, I find that in designing a narrative event I put a lot more work into trying to create a space that not only will allow for a fun gaming experience, after all Age of Sigmar is a miniatures based wargame first and foremost, but also has a broad enough lore footprint to allow people to weave their stories through that gameplay. With matched play I think there are a lot more voices and resources to help plan out that event.
For those looking to put together their own narrative event my first and most important tip is to find another player who shares your passion for the game to help you work out what you want, and how you want it to play out on the tabletop. I’ve been immensely lucky to have had amazing help at all the events I’ve run and this year I’m fortunate to have Will Simpson, my co host on the Path to Story podcast. We’ve been bouncing ideas back and forth and doing playtesting for months now, and it’s been a necessary step in my honest opinion.
6. What are you most excited about for this event?
I cannot wait to be back creating narrative and memories with fellow Age of Sigmar players once again! I look forward to ACON all year long, and have desperately missed it the last few years. I’m excited for players to engage in Path to Glory for a whole day and watch how the system responds to players’ unique choices as the day goes on. I think it’s an incredible system that really allows players to have a common language to weave their stories even if they’re never met before. I can’t wait.
Thank you, Paul, and Will! Hopefully we will hear from you after the event is completed to see how it went!
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