There’s a lot of good things to be said about 10th Edition 40k: it plays fast, it’s easy to get into as a new player, and there has been a lot of narrative support. However, the rules, to me, feel very much geared towards tournament play with armies feeling more like a collection of game pieces rather than a thematic force representative of the lore. So with lots of big opinions, I’ve developed some house rules to make the game feel more narrative.
How did I come up with these
40k is always going to be a very complicated game. Rather than layering a ton of extra rules or making many tweaks to the core rules, I’ve tried to limit the changes to army construction: therefore most of these rules would happen before the game begins so players don’t have to do mental gymnastics trying to remember everything in the heat of battle.
The big change is a unified allied system for various factions. In indicies and codicies, Chaos and Imperium have access to lots of allied options: these rules level the playing field so almost every faction has some options and the amount each faction can take is equalised. Keep in mind that you must still declare which Faction and Detachment you take at the start of the battle, and your allied units won’t benefit from detachment rules and stratagems.
Precision and battleshock have been house ruled to be more meaningful (and hopefully lead to some exciting sniper duels), while objective control 0 units have been reigned in so that they cannot perform actions. This limits them to roles such as screening and tar pitting, which feels right compared to a spore mine operating a console or sending signals.
Finally, there is a large section containing army restrictions, mostly to limit players to taking only one commander-level character and to stop spamming the most efficient fighters.
Who are they for
I believe a lot of seasoned narrative players will have already introduced similar house rules into some of their games, or are unconsciously abiding by some army restrictions in their list building. However, compiling these and having them available as a document for people to point to (or modify for their own groups) certainly has value, and would be a great jumping off point for narrative event organizers.
For players just getting their feet wet with narrative play, these are excellent guidelines for learning how to build a narrative list or could be used as inspiration for your own missions or house rules.
How to use them
Instituting these rules for an event or campaign would be a great way to ensure people are on the same page for list building and to encourage people not to bring the most broken combos. You could circulate them to your club to see if people would like to adopt them for casual game nights. Or if you really don’t like, feel free to post them on discord to rag on ‘em. If you’d like my permission to use and/or modify these for your own uses, consider it given!
The important thing to remember is that every one of these rules can be broken. If you don’t like part of the rules, take it out or change it to fit your own group or event. There’s definitely a lot of examples of how these rules could restrict a narrative list. For example, our very own Tech-Priest Jeff has an awesome Adepta Sororitas army that represents two Orders fighting together with distinct paint schemes for each. Under these rules, he wouldn’t be able to bring a Cannoness from each Order: definitely a hindrance to an amazing theme.
But I think there’s still value in having these restrictions as guidelines for how to build great themed lists. If you’re going to break some of these rules, as Jeff might above, think about why you’re breaking them and how that fits the narrative. Are you bringing a second Cannoness because of the background of your force and the distinct paint schemes you lovingly created? Or are you bringing three Chaos Lords ‘cause you want to win games?
Get to the rules!
If you haven’t skipped to here already, the rules are a Google doc at the link below. Please consider them still in beta and feel free to drop comments below or email us at contactus@wrongsideofthemaelstrom.com. Watch this blog for an update in a few months!
NARRATIVE HOUSE RULES FOR 10TH EDITION WARHAMMER 40,000