Brave New Worlds – Of Alignment, Ethics and Morality
We’re told, in our good-vee-evil world, that everything is about “heroes and villains”. This is a post-monotheist way of seeing the world, though: not only were other cultures less inclined to be one-or-the-other, they never would’ve used “hero” and “villain” so carelessly. “Hero”, in the Greek sense, is one who goes to extremes rather than a goodie. Anyone reading the Iliad, expecting to find good and evil, might be surprised to discover that even the losing side – y’know, the one Homer wasn’t on – is described in glowing terms. The baddies in classical myth tend to be monsters, representations of nature at its most vicious, not people with dodgy morals. “Villain” is a medieval term that suggests “peasant”, i.e. it’s about class, our modern use of the word as “evil” being another product of posh people re-writing histories. I’ve never believed in good and evil, in heroes and villains. Fiction survived without that face-off for thousands of years.
I conceived of my approach to matters of practical and cosmological ‘alignment’ years before encountering Miles, but the territory he maps out in that there linked post is essentially that which I’d be happier exploring.
Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Does the Dark Angels Codex Have to Go?
With all the hubub (and possible malarkey) centered around the Dark Angels lately, that long-ignored Codex has popped once more into prominence, which brings all the snarling and scorn that hangs off of it like little else in 40Kdom. Unlike the traditional Codex arc, in which a book has its time in the spotlight, ages, and falls to the bottom of the pole, the DA Codex has been openly loathed since precisely three seconds after emerging from the Nottingham chrysalis. It’s incredibly weak when compared to modern books, bereft of special rules, and hasn’t the faintest whiff of spectacle. Despite an emerging consensus that said Codex revamp is at least a year off, it can’t possibly be too long before this thing’s grudgingly scrubbed off of history’s windshield, and that strikes me as a damn shame.
Brave New Worlds – Intermission – System Choice and the Newbie Factor
A couple of my new housemates have expressed an interest in trying D&D at some point. One is trying to achieve the Complete Nerd Experience, engaging with as many forms of game as are available, one is… umm, well, one has been volunteered for trying D&D out and hasn’t yet made any particularly strong objections. And Hark’s in, because Hark’s always in unless she wants out.
What presents an interesting quandry for me, here, is the explicit interest in trying D&D, as opposed to RPGs. This may of course be simple shorthand and anything might be possible, but since I’ve had a hankering to run something within that framework for a while now, let’s take it as a request – a compatible but potentially problematic one.
WFB – All Aboard the Clapham Omnibus
I live in London now. This is presumably a good thing, although I haven’t had the chance to do masses of exploring just yet, as it’s still busy busy busy research season and I have nine days to produce something like eleven thousand words of material. No pressure, then.
However, last night I did manage to sneak out and pay a visit to some nice chaps who claim to be the Clapham War Gamers. Rain very nearly stopped play (ten minutes into the walk, the heavens opened and I spent fifteen further minutes cowering in a bus stop) but I just about made it in time to play some WFB against a nice enthusiastic chap of Teutonic extraction (hi Max!) and his nasty Skaven (boo, Skaven!).
A (10 Millenia) History of Violence
First off, well, apologies – from both the illustrious Bearded One and myself – for the lack of posts. We’ve both had one of those outbreaks of Real Life over the past weekend, which led to a fairly egregious shortage of free time. We hope that your rage is softened, somewhat, in knowing that the beatings doled out upon our fragile human forms have been more than sufficiently brutal.
Anyhow. So. Little mans.
I did hint, back in the previous entry, at a Word Bearers army of mine that is, indeed, in the making. Or, really, re-making, as it’s existed in some form for the past thirteen years or so. Pictures and details forthcoming, but this being the blog it is and all, let’s have have a swing at the “whys” of this particular Lorgarian collective.
I honestly don’t remember any precise instant in which the idea of playing Word Bearers first wandered into my brain and decided to take up long-term residence, but it rather clearly happened. It had to be somewhere in the latter days of 2nd Edition, as I do remember it being motivated by this:
It’s a block of text from those fell paragraphs which first defined the Legion, with emphasis on the idea that’s really stuck with me – that humanity needs a religion, needs a focus of faith and an unquestionable source from which meaning is derived, else we’ll all just be so many nihilistic apes smacking each other with femur bones across the barren ruins of civilization. There’s a cold, patrician lack of faith in humankind there, one that’s at the center of many real-world philosophies. It was a cold, gnawing antithesis to the vaguely humanist ethos I’d constructed in my teen years. It’s still at least a bit disturbing today, even with a heart filled with the dark misanthropy of adulthood.
Anyhow, the original army grew and shrank in spurts, through college and beyond, and even got a fair amount of paint on the boys. Taking inspiration from John Blanche, their color scheme was limited and clashing.
That all seemed well and good until recently. Armies like Raz’ Word Bearers and Dan the Daemon’s legendary Immortal Terrors over the on the Bolter & Chainsword have sparked a creative avalanche. Most of the army went into the dip, was disassembled, and is now being remade bigger and badder than before. Thus far, it’s been almost worryingly pleasant to challenge the modelling skills. Here’s a Terminator that’s come out of the project, compared to a one-armed Aurora Chapter Terminator, who’s been a great sport about things.
‘Till next time!
