Old War Stories

Though I haven't been in a 40k mood for a long while, I loved the article "Old War Stories" in the latest White Dwarf.

It struck me as the perfect kind of tabletop game -- the narrative kind. Two friends make up a story background; kind of a "Previously, on 'Lost.'" A small group of Catachan survivors of an Ork planetary infestation are determined to infiltrate the greenskin camp to recover the proud banners of their tattered Battalions. They are hopelessly outnumbered by the green horde. They have one thing on their side: stealth.

The two gamers involved make up the whole story. They dream up characters. They create their own rules to govern the Catachan sneaky knife guy "He-Who-Has-No-Name." Essentially, they are game masters -- for each other. It's sort of a large scale RPG. They are interested more in the drama and not the "I win!" moment.

This article made me remember why I got into 40k waaaaay back in the dawn of time (also known as 1988). At the time 40k was a narrative skirmish game -- a hybrid wargame and RPG. It's creator, Rick Priestly, meant it to be something revolutionary. And it was. But not in the way he anticipated.

But I digress.

Back in '88 I liked 40k for it's possibilities as a "two player RPG." And at the time, I was recovering from an assault, two surgeries, and partial brain damage (something that affects me to this day -- no jokes). So me and my buddy Tony (not Tony from the Bunker, though yes, we're both old guys) got into 40k cuz we wanted to do "something like D&D" without needing a group (funny how friends drop out of yoru life when you almost die).

Anyways, long and the short of it is I am hoping to make up some stories like this and play them out with people. I'm imagining 40k and Fantasy scenerios patterned after movies. Wouldn't "Con Air" be terrific? Or "The Rock?" (Ultimate early 90s cheese :P )

K well I gotta take Isaac to Academy. So I'll catch up with youse hipsters later.