Hi all,
You my recall that earlier this year I did an interview with Chris (the organizer of the NOVA Narrative event). He has been gracious enough to come back on and discuss how things went, and some idea for next year. Enjoy!
- So how did the story go! What was the epic conclusion of the narrative?
Chris: Obitus Exitium successfully awakened the STC under Fortuno, but the constructs that started coming
off the line were warped and twisted. On Venixia II, with one last strained press of a button, the
forces of Obitus Exitium successfully reversed the grav locks and brought the already falling
Atmobridge down with accelerated force. The resulting impact cracked the planet and sent the
atmosphere out into space, revealing an unnatural surface scarred by a symbol hundreds of miles
wide, 3 circles arranged in a triangle. On Ignotix Prime, Salus Preatus, put all of its effort into
overcharging the Necron pylon system. A burst of energy traveled system wide and then the pylons
turned off entirely. On Parthas Tohllus, Salus Preatus forces held the Obitus Exitium all-out assault
at bay long enough to complete the ritual to open the gate. At the top of the Ziggurat, a blinding
light appears. An incomprehensible whispering can be heard permeating the air. Capt Buteos of the
Raptors 4th company fell out of the light and down the Ziggurat stairs. From his hands and knees,
he points back to the portal. “Close it! Close it now! It’s not a Gate…. It’s a Prison!!!” Stepping out
of the portal light above, a cloaked mechanical figure appears. “Good. You are all here.”
LP: Oooh interesting! Do you already have the narrative planned for next year or will you be working
out the implications in the lead up to the next event?
Chris: The general direction of the narrative is outlined. Just like this year, there are ways the players can
impact the narrative. I treat the narrative as sort of a “choose your own adventure” story. There
were a couple different paths the story could have taken this year had either of the factions chosen
different actions at the end and depending on who actually won the final battle on each planet.
2. In your opinion what was the best moment of the event (ie. Epic save roll, narrative moment, etc.)
Chris: There were ton of amazing moments at the narrative. I’m sad I did not get to see all of them first-
hand, but I’m enjoying some of the stories folks are putting in the discord. My personal favorite was
when Spencer activated his relic at full charge and turned his Warlord Incarnate into a smoking
crater (I literally replaced his model with a spare crater I had and left it on that table for the rest of
the event.)
LP: Haha I forgot about that, he did what? 21 mortal wounds to himself lol? No love for my man Tom
launching the stormbird lol. I am biased I admit.
Chris: Yeah 21 mortals. I love how he basically never made it a choice. It’s something his character would
do every time it went up against another character and he formed a narrative character trait around
it. It was definitely one of the most self-destructive relics out there, but he had the most fun with it.
The Stormbird launching was great, but to my surprise, folks actually got off 2 thunderhawks and a
stormbird. I’ll have to make it harder next year haha.
3. Reflecting back on the day, what things went better than you had hoped?
Chris: I’m definitely not trying to give myself credit here, but the scoring system worked out even better than
I’d planned. The goal was to detach tabletop performance from the narrative progression. At the end of
the event, the difference in meta faction scores was less than the outcome of a single game, and each meta faction walked away with control of 2 of 4 planets and direct impact into 2 of 4 story progressions that could have happened.
LP: I think you deserve some credit! That’s really cool to see how many people got to make decisions
affecting the story. I head the difference between the two sides at the end of the event was 25 points
out of a combined total of over 2,500?
Chris: 24! I don’t plan on changing it for next year. I’ve been in narratives where one side runs away with it, and it just kind of feels hopeless after 2 or 3 rounds, so I’m really glad it worked out, and I loved seeing how engaged people felt. To add to that, on a smaller scale, it was also good to see the planets swing back and forth repeatedly.
4. What surprised you about the event (positively or negatively?)
Chris: I think the thing that caught me the most off-guard was the lack of LTs for the first night fight. Despite it
being specifically outlined in the primer as the one battle you cannot miss, I think we had 9 of 16 Salus
Preatus LTs just not show up day 1 or come 1-2 hours late. I will have to figure out how to avoid that
next year, but it still kind of baffles me. The flip side of that, I was extremely surprised and grateful for
the folks who stepped up on the Obitus Exitium side to make numbers even and ensure everyone got a
game. I don’t want to say I’m surprised by this because it is sort of one of the key distinguishers
between narrative and competitive play, but I’m continually refreshed by the lack of toxicity and just the
general pervasiveness of positivity and joviality of the entire event. There were definitely some things
that folks could have gotten frustrated by, but with very few exceptions those things were laughed off
for their absurdity rather than dwelled upon. I made a comment early on to my Warlords that one of
my goals was that I didn’t want to hear folks walking out in the halls lamenting how they could have won
a game or how something unfair or improbable happened that cost them the win, but instead wanted to
overhear how some crazy thing happened and how cool/funny it was whether or not they were on the
benefiting side, and for the most part I feel like that’s what happened.
LP: Yeah, it was funny to see people, myself included, start really skeptical of the mission format and learn
to loved it within 3 games. Balancing sides is tough but I think your battle group system worked well, it’s
hard with the pace of the event and the temperaments of individual players.
Chris: I was glad to hear folks warm up to it. It was definitely one of those things that appeared daunting at first, but was not as complicated as it looked, especially once players and battlegroups started embracing the fact that it was
DESIGNED to be hard to do it all, and the Warlords started either directing mission priorities or letting
players decide. I think there are some things I can do to simplify it even more, but I don’t know that
there will be a significant deviation. My goal for next year is to have Battlegroups a little more well-formed and well-informed so that they can hit the ground running and really get into that decision space more.
5. What things are you looking to improve on next year?
Chris: I think there are definitely areas for improvement. I’m looking heavily at the number of mandatory
games played by Warlords and LTs. While it was on par with previous years’ commitment, it seemed like
it was a pace that was hard for folks to really keep up with, both veterans and newcomers. I think there
were a few factors that went into that, some in my control and some not. The first night fight was a bit
chaotic (to say the least) and contributed heavily to some of the confusion/frustration folks had with the
first set of battles; although, I think we were able to clear a lot of that up the next morning. I’m
definitely looking into ways to streamline the initial battlegroup formation process and have it feel more narratively driven and less like picking players for schoolyard dodgeball. I am also looking into ways to
maintain the narrative growth elements without such a bookkeeping burden. Crusade is just not
designed for back to back to back games.
LP: Agreed completely. I think there aern’t many events like this one so I am sure you were trying a lot of
new things out. It might help in the future as returning players adjust to the system and have tools to
speed things up. But, yeah, three of those games a day is a lot.
Chris: I’m hard pressed to think of another narrative event this big or this far removed from standard matched play or standard crusade outside of the upcoming GW Grand Narrative. There was so much I learned actually putting everything out on the tables and seeing 150+ folks over the course of the event rolling dice and asking questions. There is only so much data you can gather through theory crafting, mathhammer, and basement games. I’m eager to
keep engaging with folks to tune the system and the cadence for an even better experience next year. Adding to something I was surprised by, there were quite a few regulars to past NOVA Narratives that I think migrated away from 40K over the 2 year gap. As a Warlord before, I was sort of just expecting a lot of that intrinsic Warlord knowledge to be there. While I do miss a lot of the folks who made the Warlord ranks and past narrative events so special to me, I was also extremely happy with the new Warlords we were able to introduce to the ranks. I hope past Warlords and anyone who may not have had the chance to join us this year are hearing great things coming out of NOVA and decide to dust off their narrative armies for 2023.
6. Are there any ideas or hooks that you would recommend for other event organizers?
Chris: For other event organizers, I would highly recommend the facebook page or discord channels. I feel like
providing that arena for participant engagement helped keep the hype going and helped get people to
know each other before showing up to the con. I wanted to do a bit more with narrative injects and
getting materials out faster and more polished, but life just had other plans. Having those forums,
however, allowed for the groups themselves to interact without needing prompts from me. It was a
great thing to see just organically happen.
Thanks again Chris! I look forward to next year! And all the possibilities that come with it!
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