Re: New boxed set.
Posted by
MortiS-the-Lost on
Oct 27, 2012; 2:34pm
URL: http://the-lost-and-the-damned.71.s1.nabble.com/New-boxed-set-tp7578552p7578991.html
greenstuff_gav wrote
Regarding 40k Background:
I came to wargaming at the start of 2nd edition but picked up and loved Rogue Trader (even with its dodgy rules!) but as with many games / series 40k has gotten darker as it's evolved (just look at Discworld; what started as a fun satire has evolved into some quite dark storylines).
I personally prefer the Grimdark style for the game, wackier light-hearted stuff is more for movies and books.
RobertTheDamned wrote
I do like some of the new background, I just don't agree on massively re-writing large sections of background...especially when the people re-writing it have very tenuous grasps on established background in the first place.
I first encounter 40k in the same period as Gav, but I'd have to say that yt hasn't gotten any darker - it's mainly just had all the fun sucked out of and replaced with stupid stuff that impresses the kiddies. I tend to read “Grimdark” as “trying too hard” when it comes to people talking about the 40k background - or as the kids say 'Fluff' - which just about sums up the amount respect the 40k background is given these days by GW's fans, designers and authors.
greenstuff_gav wrote
Regarding New Editions:
40k had some major jumps; 1st to 2nd was near-enough a complete rewrite. 2nd to 3rd shifted focus from characters and individuals to units.
RobertTheDamned wrote
Appart from the fact that there were books released under 1st that nearly made it 2nd...and WD articles that made 3rd in to 4th....
1st to 2nd was mostly gradual (at least in terms of the way the game played) due to books like Chapter Approved - shifting the game away from scenario based game play with RPG elements and a GM to more competitive Army Vs Army style. The major changes between the 1st 2nd editions being the cutting out of generation tables, the 'Personal Characteristics' being dropped and vehicle and robot rules being simplified. 1st and 2nd edition 40k reflected and were mechanically compatible with the contemporary editions of WFB - 40k 1st with WFB 3rd and 40k 2nd with WFB 4th and 5th.
2nd edition was expanded in a modular fashion by the 'codexes', scenario packs and the very useful Data-Fax card system for vehicles which allowed for quick reference and easy army building.
Then 3rd edition came along (and IMO ruined it). Over all it became a very different game, no longer compatible with WFB. The overly simplified movement rules took away a huge amount of strategy from the game, the Force Organisation Charts cut down the flexibility of most armies (and made others impossible to field), all the expansion materials from previous codexes and so on was scrapped to be replaced with extremely cut down new codexes which were little more than just strait army lists and huge chunks of the background were dropped from the game in the process too - most noticeably, The entire Squat race, the unique Ork Technologies/weapons and Genestealer Cults to mention but a few. 3rd edition is where the '4-year-cycle' began and the kiddies with their Spaze Mahrines took grip of the game. Since then there has been no major change in 40k over all - each new edition I hear people telling me it's gone back to it's roots and it's a lot more like 2nd edition, it never is (is never likely to be) and I will not be tricked into buying the latests edition on such empty promises. Yea so a few old school things come back from time to time - the Jokaero made a brief come-back as a (background-defying) special unit for the new (very silly) Grey Knights, Orks got back the Shokk Attack Gun (but little else) and Razorwings appeared in the Dark Eldar forces (for some reason) but it's too little, too late and far too high a price tag!
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~The ravings of a single mad Goblin is bad enough, but such a power-hungry, malice-filled creature as Mortis can never hope to be understood~