Creating Warzones: An Introduction

So, you want to start a Warhammer 40,000 campaign?  There are plenty of important pieces involved with creating a successful campaign, but we're going to discuss what I consider to be one of the most important; The Setting.

As in writing, settings in a game campaign help create a sense of tone and realism.  While it may seem easy to create a setting in an established canon such as the Warhammer 40K universe, there are several pitfalls that one can fall into while writing.

Pitfall #1, George Lucas Ecosystems: "The Forest Moon," "The Ice Planet," "The Lava World."

These may have seemed awesome if you were a kid in the 70's, but it's not really how most habitable planets work.  When a planet has an actual ecosystem, chances are that it has weather and climate zones as well.  If you're writing a planet where things actually live, keep in mind these tips for a realistic world:

• Diverse Ecosystems on the same planet are a good thing! 
• Come up with at least 2 major climate zones per habitable planet.  For instance, a death world doesn't need to be entirely jungle, maybe it's poles are made up of hostile deserts? 
• Remember that planets are huge: Just because a player captured the capital city doesn't mean that there aren't more cities to capture! 
• If your planet is a desolate moon, or a dead world, it can definitely be a George Lucas world.  Earth's moon or Mars, for instance. 

Pitfall #2: The Curse of Too Many Rules: "This world makes all tanks lose 1 AV, but they gain 1" of movement, oh, and also, all psykers can re-roll their dice, and all Orks hav-" 

This one can get a bit tricky.  It's hard to avoid adding new rules to your warzones, since you want to make them your own, and you want them to feel interesting.  However, it becomes a problem when your worlds have so many rules that players either choose to ignore them, or accidentally forget them. 

• Choose about 2-3 unique rules per warzone.
• If they're very minor, you can have more, but if they're game-breaking, you should have fewer.
• Remember, a few rules well followed builds more theme than a ton of rules ignored. 

Pitfall #3: The Premature Apocalypse: This is 40K, and bigger is better.  We all know that.  However, if you're planning a long running campaign, you should keep in mind that the planets you build will be fought over for a while, and will likely be used for upcoming stories and missions.  As such, proper pacing is required when progressing a story arc on a particular warzone.

• Start small! When trying out a new Warzone, start with a game of Kill Team or Combat Patrol to set the stage for future battles, as well as to playtest the custom warzone rules. 
• The Law of Diminishing Returns:  A climactic final battle feels a lot less special and exciting if it happens two or three times.  Keep the big narrative events scattered to keep player interest. 

Example:

The Eldritch System in all it's glory.  A campaign map like this can go a long way in getting people excited and able to visualize what's happening where. 

Here's a Warzone I created to represent battles on Eldritch V, a Death World on the outskirts of the system.

The Dread Hive- Eldritch V:

Where there was once a vibrant Death World, there now drifts an alien landscape of towering organic spires, horrifying living mountains of chitinous flesh, and great acidic pools, teeming with the corpses of the slain.  Eldritch V has been assimilated by the Tyranids, and is being harvested by the feeder-organisms of Hive Fleet Vitsika.  Any who dare venture onto the planet now are entering an environment that is beyond hostile, but to stop the Tyranid menace, is there any other way?

Special Rules:  Battles on Eldritch V may use the following special rules:

Tyrannification: All terrain is Dangerous.

Living Terrain: Living Terrain is a destructible objective marker. Consider it a fortification with 1 HP and an AV of 11 all around. Destroyed pieces of Living Terrain give the attacking player 1 VP each, while surviving pieces give the Tyranids 1 VP each at the end of the game.

Living Terrain: Synapse

In this example: I opted for 2 unique rules, one of which was extremely simple, and the other a bit more complex. I think that this combination allows for fair games, with plenty of tactical play and a narrative reason for the Tyranids to play with defensive armies, as they would on a world in the final stages of Biomass harvesting.

Thanks for reading, and remember, you really can't go too wrong with this stuff. Good luck, and happy campaigning.

-Vitsika