Sunday 12 July 2015

The Gates of Azyr (Novella Review)


There are few things more divisive in this world than massive reboots of beloved franchises. Often they are the source of fan rage and, to be blunt, they're extraordinarily easy to get wrong. Start copying ideas from the old universe or rely too much upon pop culture nostalgia (hello JJ Abrams) and it's insulting to devoted fans who stuck with the universe. Don't change enough and the reboot is seen as unnecessary, adding nothing to the franchise and cutting short countless ongoing interesting stories. Change too much and you alienate fans, anyone interested in the series, and end up betraying the setting.

3 comments:

  1. So, not a good start to the Age of Sigmar? That's kind of disappointing. I mean, I've had a pretty negative attitude towards this reboot from the word go, but it's still no fun being right about this stuff...

    Are you gonna be giving your opinions on the new rules as well? What Little of those there is.

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    1. Well, it's not THAt bad, and is quite serviceable in many respects, but it's just an average story. If this really is the one they wanted to start with it should have been an anthology like the Damocles book, with one main tale to get a lot of the work out of the way, then lots of shorter background tales dripping with great lore. Honestly, much as I hated the End Times, i'm personally open to the idea of the setting and what I can offer, but it needs to actually have stories which can make full use of the new lore rather than just focusing purely upon the combat.

      As for the rules, possibly. The problem is that Games Workshop doesn't give out review copies so i'm usually left buying most of this stuff myself and trying to make back money via retail work and a couple of businesses I run on the side. As such, it's more likely i'll be outlining an alternative game which might offer the same good ideas as Age of Sigmar but with a very different spin on things.

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    2. Well the base rulebook is available for free, along with the rules for all the old Warhammer factions, so you might be able to at least examine how the new rules system works, just not how the Stormcast Eternals and Khorne Bloodbound works.

      And for the record, has anyone noticed how the Khorgorath from the starter is the Khorne version of Oogie Boogie?

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