The biggest global narrative event for Age of Sigmar is back, and this year is fully into the Age of the Beast!
Pack your bags and get in, we are going where the realms of Metal and Beasts bleed into each other!
Last year, more than 150 players from all across the world fought for the throne of a kingdom at the edge of Hysh, and the year before they clashed in a Shyishian underworld. Now, Team Animosity has again opened the doors for gaming groups to participate in a grand scale narrative, and for hobbyists, writers and artists to engage in it together, from the comfort of their homes or out there on the tabletop!
GLOBAL COLLABORATIVE STORYTELLING
Animosity Campaigns is where choose-your-own-adventure meets “submit any hobby/game/writing/art”.
It is a global collaborative storytelling event, with contributions from players around the world steering the direction of the plot and their personal narratives making their way into a grand story arc.
Players are able to participate in Animosity Campaigns through whatever way they enjoy their hobby the most: games of Age of Sigmar and Warcry, Soulbound roleplay sessions, painted and/or converted models, diorama photography of a battle set-up, written short stories, drawn artwork and even cosplay!
In this year’s storyline, there is a remote location where the realms of Beasts and Metal are partially blending together, due to the Ur-River realmgate overflowing.
This has brought together the two halves of the godbeast dragon Maudra Rua, slain and sealed long ago in the two separate realms. Her dragonmetal corpse rests in Silverside in Chamon, while her lingering soul inhabits the stones of the Badlands of Lahar in Ghur. The two locations in each realm are now bleeding into each other, and individuals can suddenly walk into the other realm without warning. But this also brings opportunity for travel and conquest.
The great slumbering dragon now acts as the linchpin of this bleeding effect, pinning together the two locations in each realm, and holding them close for the time being while armed forces march towards it, crossing the two realms with ease. Several interest groups have the dragon on their mind, and different ideas on what do to with it.
Will Maudra Rua awaken, or will it fall prey to conquering forces before it does?
2+ Tough has put together a great intro to the background lore of the Bleeding Wilds:
HOW IT ALL WORKS
At its most bare-bones, each Campaign Turn you submit something (games played, hobby, writing, artwork or even cosplay!), connecting it to the story, and your submissions help your Coalition win and will shape the Unfolding Narrative of the Campaign.
Coalitions are player teams in conflict with one another: you can talk tactics with your team, write group narratives together, and engage other Coalitions in battle- or even through diplomacy, in the Animosity Discord server.
As a core mechanic of Animosity Campaigns, each Coalition is led by a charismatic non-player character called a Figurehead, to whom your character has pledged allegiance in exchange for riches, influence or secrets.
Players sign up for the Coalition of their choice, in the Discord server: they represent hired armies and warbands supporting a particular Figurehead, each of which leads one of the interest groups either living in the region of the Bleeding Wilds, or coming in to plunder or make use of the slumbering form of Maudra Rua.
Each turn, players will be presented with a choice of Narrative Paths on how to best help their Coalition. They then submit “Reports” in support of their Coalition’s efforts through the Animosity Campaigns Report form, choosing one of these Narrative Paths with each report, as well as sharing their contribution for that turn and how it fits into the story.
Team Animosity then aggregates all of these together into one grand Unfolding Narrative, using the players’ interpretation of the setting and their acts of daring-do to flesh out the events that occur.
This year, exploration will feature heavily as a goal for players to accomplish. They will be able to visit specific locations and uncover secrets that will affect their coalition and the campaign.
You can find a full list of the many locations to explore in the ‘Setting’ page of the Animosity website.
STORYTELLING & ROLEPLAY
Players can also engage in strategizing and sharing short stories in their Coalition’s private Discord channel, where many have already started developing their characters’ personal backstories & narratives.
Even more, there are channels dedicated to roleplay! Each coalition has a secluded location as a home base, which takes the form of a Discord channel where players’ characters can engage with in-character discussions, if they wish. And there is one cross-coalition meeting place, the market-city of the Ribs of Choggrish, where players can meet their rivals in character and exchange words.
There will be five Campaign Turns, each lasting for a week: 4 days for players to submit Reports, and 3 days for Animosity Team to compile them into the Unfolding Narrative as well as release the next Turn’s Paths).
COMPETE NARRATIVELY AGAINST OTHER PLAYERS ONLINE
Most notably, Animosity IV is not a typical map campaign. Although there is a map, it exists for narrative purposes and as a playing ground for player’s stories and battles. The Setting page has a number of interesting locations that players can use to explore and craft their stories, as well as plots in their Soulbound sessions.
Coalitions win- or lose- the campaign by how successfully their Coalition navigates the Unfolding Narrative, and the impact their choices have on the setting itself. The more Reports you put into a Narrative Path in a turn, the more likely it will be successful. There will always be an enemy Coalition opposing them, meaning players will be going head-to-head with other players from the top of Turn 1. There is no clean, numerical scoring regarding objectives: players will need to read the narrative and make their best guess.
Finally, the impact of player’s choices will be felt long-term as the campaign progresses, and shapes the story of future Animosity Campaigns.
AWARDS
Beyond the campaign narrative, there are a large number of player achievements we will recognize at the end of the campaign too, such as best hobby, best written story, biggest MVP for their faction, as well as awards for creative problem-solving and most ambitious over-the-top narrative!
Find out how to jump in and participate in Animosity IV now!
If this is your first time engaging in online narrative play, read the ‘How to Animosity: a primer for collaborative online storytelling’
Coalition registration is now open on Discord started June 22nd, and Campaign Turn 1 starts on Wednesday June 29th!
Sign up quick, its about to start!
You can join or drop at any point during the campaign as well.
Hope to see you on the battlefield!
Other players have already started to join!
BEHIND THE SCENES
The concept of Animosity Campaigns has been around since the days of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. For almost a decade, it brought cooperative storytelling and intense strategy on a grand scale to Warhammer players around the world. Since 2019, Team Animosity has worked to reinvent this incredible experience for Age of Sigmar and a new generation of players, with even more ways to participate.
The AoS Animosity Campaigns team is a collection of writers, artists, and support staff that can trace its creative origins to the acclaimed Coalescence Global Narrative Events of ’17 and ’18 created by ‘StoneMonk’ of the Mortal Realms podcast.
In June of 2019, the spiritual successor of Coalescence was born and named “Animosity I – The Hallowed Necropolis” with over 40+ players and NEO’s (Narrative Event Organizers) in events across the United states in Virginia, Washington state, Pennsylvania, New York, and also in Thailand and the UK.
In July-August of 2020, “Animosity II – The Burning Winter” started and ended strong with a five week narrative despite the global pandemic and took place primarily within the Animosity Campaigns Discord server, re-instituting many of the practices of our forum-based WHFB incarnation to allow for a socially distanced experience for players on a global scale. In October of 2020, the “Animosity Weekender” took place during the week of Halloween.
In July-August of 2021, “Animosity III – The Prime Dominion” returned by revisiting its Discord-based five week narrative campaign approach with more than 150 players from around the world taking part and an averaging of 300 unique player reports altogether! As of today the Animosity community has 400+ members in Discord and is ever-growing so be sure to join the conversation!
Thank you, Team Animosity, for all your hard work!
Narrative Event Organizer Network 