This year’s run of the biggest Age of Sigmar community campaign is about to start, and players from all around the world are already registering for which coalition they wish to join.
The Warpath is reaching a crescendo, and warlords and treasure-seekers are backing up one of the major armies circling the island of Frorholm, lost for an age in the mists of the Realm of Shadow.
Held within its deepest forge, is the Fated Blade: a weapon capable of altering destiny.
Animosity Campaigns have become a staple of the online community of Age of Sigmar narrative play, gathering together every year more than a hundred narrative gamers, lore aficionados, and hobby creatives in general.
It’s a mix of wargaming, hobby, choose-your-own-adventure and roleplaying. You pick which one you prefer.
Players can participate by submitting games played, models or artwork they have worked on, or original written stories. It’s a very open participation campaign: you can do it by however best you enjoy your hobby.
Players can participate on their own, even just with their own hobby at home, or gather together with friends to play battle, or even organize their own gaming group’s players into Coalitions and fight several games for the campaign at the same time.
In previous years in Animosity Campaigns, players’ armies marched over a lost necropolis in Ghyran, fought to conquer a backwater snowy underworld in Shyish, decided a civil war over a splinter kingdom of aelves at the edge of Hysh, or waged war to dominate a resurrecting ancient dragon rising from a realmshift between Chamon and Ghur.
Connecting all these locations is the Ur-river, a flowing realmgate that takes the form of a winding body of water wherever it appears.
This year, it is Ulgu that calls the players to action, to Frorholm, the City in the Edge of Shadow.
The campaign starts this July 12th 2023, and lasts for 5 weeks.
Player registration has already started for joining one of the Coalitions of the campaign, via the Animosity Campaigns Discord. These are player teams that will be in opposition to each other, and each team has private channels with which to plan their next move together with their teammates.
Each Coalition is a wider army led by a Figurehead non-player-character in the story, run by the Game Masters, to which the player’s characters and armies have pledged service for the duration of the campaign. It is up to the players to come up with their characters’ reasons for joining.
This year, players can choose to join:
- a Coalition of isolationist ghyranite knights who have endured the Age of Chaos,
- a restorationist kingdom led by goroans (better knows as ogroids) splintered off from Archaon’s service,
- an army of escaped slaves and laborers from the forges of the Dawi Zharr,
- a motley cult of followers of the Bad Moon, perhaps even more deranged than usual,
- a pirate fleet from Ulgu worshipping the Great Gatherer,
- a sect of renegade khainites rebelling against Morathi.
In the Animosity Campaign scoring engine, each turn players will have to choose between several choices on where to submit their participation reports, representing their armies’ efforts towards a certain mission, called a Narrative Path. Each Path pits their Coalition against another one, or against the environment or a Game Master-created threat. It is up to the players in each Coalition to coordinate their efforts, so they can win enough missions against the enemy Coalitions.
After each turn completes, the Game Masters compile the amount of submissions from each Coalition to each Path, and write an Unfolding Narrative detailing how the war played out that turn, which characters distinguished themselves in that mission, and set up the challenges of the next turn.
This year, players will also be able to explore the lost city of Frorholm, visiting the many wards of the city and trying to find clues to the Fated Blade. There will also be 3-way battles between multiple coalitions at the same times, opening it up to all sorts of mayhem, secret deals and backstabbing.
There is also a full set of custom Warcry battleplans to set battles in the City in the Edge of Shadow.
Players can also engage in roleplay interactions with each other, if they wish, in the “neutral zone” of the city, the Gnawmarket:
YOU CAN FIND ALL THE DETAILS FOR THE CAMPAIGN SETTING AND COALITIONS IN THE DOWNLOADABLE PLAYER’S GUIDE.
There will also be a LIVE IN-PERSON MEETUP EVENT in the UK during the campaign, at Warhammer World, gathering some of the Animosity Team former and current Game Masters, and several players!
Nottingham UK, on Saturday 5th August 2023.
From the Animosity Campaigns Discord:
Four tables with Warcry scenery are booked from 12noon until 4pm. We will gather in Bugman’s from about 11am. We will be playing Warcry with 1000 point “Matched/Open Play” warbands, so 16 people can play simultaneously on four AoS tables.
Depending on numbers, we can cycle people in and out so we all get as many games as possible. We can book an extra table if it looks like a lot of people are coming! And we may be able to play-on after 4pm, but that depends on there being no other bookings then (that weekend is not a tournament, so it should be okay).
The first turn of the campaign starts on July 12th, registration is still open. So what are you waiting for?
Players have already started sharing their creations, and some of the models they will use to represent the characters and troops in the campaign.
You can find the Campaign Rules page here for more details .
There are still spaces available to join the Coalitions, grab yours before it’s too late!!!
What do you think about this event?
Do you have any questions for the NEOs, and how to get involved in large narrative community campaigns?
Leave your comments below!
Narrative Event Organizer Network 