The All Guardsmen Party

[Rowan Wolf]

Before I get a chance to look at your link I have to say that due to another author I always feel kind of bad for guardsmen, particularly 'honored guardsmen', but once I get a chance to read what was linked I will add to conversion.

[Shoggy]

Ok, see you in a week or so.

[Draken]

Hehehe. Weebo. These names are among the best parts.

Also, tyranids on the next instalment? Looked pretty much like tyranids to me.

[Shoggy]

All I can say is that the next mission is a direct result of our past decisions. It pretty much boils down to "go fix your mess idiots".

[Darksalvo]

I /love/ this, Shoggy.

I'm eagerly waiting for the new session. :)

[Arcades]

Hehehe. Weebo. These names are among the best parts.

Also, tyranids on the next instalment? Looked pretty much like tyranids to me.

Necrons, IMHO.

Anyway Shoggy I love your stories, I'm going to steal Bane Jhohns for my DH campaign.

[Slipperychicken]

I love it, Shoggy. I first read this on /tg/, and I'm glad you're spreading it around. The only significant complaint I have is overusing the phrase "So no ****, there we were..." [with or without comma] starting paragraphs and posts (Ctrl+F reveals 25 separate instances in the google drive doc). Anything gets old when you re-use it that many times, but thankfully, a bit of editing will clean it right up.

Once you get through the editing, maybe you could get an illustrator and turn this into a webcomic/graphic novel. Or just get someone to add helpful pictures to the story. You could probably get a lot of mileage out of the action scenes too, especially near the "survival of the fittest" section.

Also, am I the only one who imagines Twitch like an exaggerated version of Dale from King of the Hill?

[Ravens_cry]

Reading the latest mission, but please, please tell me your GM

Spoiler

Show

actually used sock puppets for the briefing from the infiltrator.

[Feddlefew]

Heavy is the one without their head and Crisp is the Jolly Skeleton, right?

[Draken]

All I can say is that the next mission is a direct result of our past decisions. It pretty much boils down to "go fix your mess idiots".

Necrons, IMHO.

Anyway Shoggy I love your stories, I'm going to steal Bane Jhohns for my DH campaign.

Well, yes. Could be a result of the mission that ended with handing the necron ship to a rogue trader.

Could also be a result of the mission to clean a planet of genestealers that kinda got cut short by a certain chaos heretic!

Modus operandi fits tyranids better than necrons as far as I am aware too. But both are ok.

[Shoggy]

Once you get through the editing, maybe you could get an illustrator and turn this into a webcomic/graphic novel.

Also, am I the only one who imagines Twitch like an exaggerated version of Dale from King of the Hill?

I really would like to get it illustrated, I enjoy having the pictures breaking up the blocks of text and adding little side jokes and such. It's a shame you stop seeing picture books after you leave the nursery, the few adult(ish) ones I've read, like Dinotopia, were quite enjoyable.

Anyway, Dale is a pretty good analog for how Twitch's player talks, but he winds up being fair bit more fearful.

As for the NSTIW, that's an affectation of where I learned storytelling. It's a deeply held belief amongst my people (Raft Guides) that all stories should have that phrase in there at least once. It'll probably be scrubbed out, or reduced to once per chapter, as part of a final editing pass, along with most of the swearing and references to stuff like Pokemon. For now though, you must suffer.

I'm eagerly waiting for the new session. :)

Glad people enjoy these, hopefully the next one will be done faster than the last.

I'm going to steal Bane Jhohns for my DH campaign.

I'd love to hear how that turns out, he terrified us.

Reading the latest mission, but please, please tell me your GM

Spoiler

Show

actually used sock puppets for the briefing from the infiltrator.

You bet he did. Got about half way through before he cracked up, then we all just kept dissolving into laughter. It took about half an hour to finish the briefing.

Well, yes. Could be a result of the mission that ended with handing the necron ship to a rogue trader.

Could also be a result of the mission to clean a planet of genestealers that kinda got cut short by a certain chaos heretic!

Modus operandi fits tyranids better than necrons as far as I am aware too. But both are ok.

We really are not the cleanest operators, I'm sure some senior Inquisitor is very angry about how indiscreet we are and how much time has to be spent cleaning up after us.

Heavy is the one without their head and Crisp is the Jolly Skeleton, right?

Yep, at some point I'm going to try and write a little one-off for that room and its occupants.

[Ravens_cry]

You bet he did. Got about half way through before he cracked up, then we all just kept dissolving into laughter. It took about half an hour to finish the briefing.

Awesome. Pure, unadulterated, 200 proof, awesome.

[Cluedrew]

Hi, I just got an account but previously I read the entire story (twice) and enjoyed every moment of it. It managed to be both gritty and comedic in a way few other stories (even professional and published) managed to be.

Some literary criticism:
For the most part I only have good things to say, some people find the second person perspective odd but I see it as the personification of the squad itself talking, but do make sure the openings you are adding to the more recent chapters have a punch line. "The Interplanetary Man of Mystery" opening was a little lacking in that regard, to me at least, and left me feeling confused. The other two worked better in that regard.

Every other thing I would say is just a natural consequence of the story being told by a bunch of people playing the game and are worth it for the authenticity of the story. Although I do wonder how the party will grow as time goes one... I guess the definitive answer will come along eventually.

[Shoggy]

Ah thanks for the input, I'd like to go back and re-work most of the chapter introductions at some point, that one in particular is the worst offender though.

As for party growth, I'm not sure myself where everyone will end up when the campaign finally finishes. Sometimes it seems that most of us are holding static, sticking with what works as it were. Watching some of the NPCs grow and change has been fun though.

[Brookshw]

This is phenomenal, truly wonderful. I couldn't put it down. Thanks so much for sharing, can't wait for the next chapter

[Shoggy]

New chapter is up and it's a stupidly long one this time.

Worlds are searched, tech priests cause problems, we thoroughly annoy someone, and we get involved is a battle that's far too big for our comfort.

Here's the HTML, archive, and imgur links to The All Guardsmen Party and the Xenotech Heresy:
https://googledrive.com/host/0B3Z9sX...dFWXM/agp.html
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/39165875
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/39185203
http://imgur.com/gallery/phJ5W/

[blacklight101]

Sweet, new AGP! Some of the best news i've had today.

[Cluedrew]

Read it, yet another glory-free chapter of the All Guardsmen Party.

The opening was really good, it had a punch-line, and once again the Guardsmen work their way out of a comically bad situation. Also the new/returning characters we good additions to the regulars.

Oddly, it was almost as if we'd lost exactly ten percent of our ballistics skills due to the unfamiliar terrain.

Some game mechanics showing through?

On a different note, I recently recalled the term "grimbright" and was wondering if this would be an accurate description of the story. I'm exactly sure what grimbright what the term usually means, but it seems to fit here.

[Shoggy]

I've never heard it before either, but the term certainly fits. It's a lighthearted story set it just about the grimmest setting around.

[Brookshw]

Another absolutely fantastic read! I was a bit worried when it opened without the phrase "so no sh*** there we were" but you worked it in later so all good!

Mind if I save a copy to read offline?

[Shoggy]

Another absolutely fantastic read! I was a bit worried when it opened without the phrase "so no sh*** there we were" but you worked it in later so all good!

Mind if I save a copy to read offline?

Amusingly I get a fair number of complaints for using that phrase.

That HTML version is all static, so saving an offline copy should work fine.

[blacklight101]

I was a little lost without the "So no sh**, there we were..."

That is one of those points I really liked for some reason, like an old soldier retelling part of his story at a bar and exaggerating a little bit (but not really much). Maybe talking to some old buddies he hasn't seen in a while. Hell, maybe even telling his grandkids crap that happened to them when granny isnt around to give him **** for telling old war stories again.

[oshi]

As a 40k player I personally got a little giggle out of the void / hulking references :).
Loved this one, and the rest of them!

[Milodiah]

I had just picked up the materials for Dark Heresy and started binging between it and marathon character creation (it's one way I learn systems), and I decided I'd finally take a look at this to see what it's like.

This is simply wonderful.

Game-wise, I do rather like the mechanic of rotating Interrogators, it keeps the players on their toes, makes a good transition between missions, and ensures there's an authority figure to listen to a little and then ignore to go do player-charactery stuff. And on the topic of player-charactery stuff, I've always rather imagined that in game universes there's a checklist somewhere dealing with how to identify PCs. Between Nobby Nubby singlehandedly stealing more than the average party does combined, every NPC authority figure you meet declaring you ludicrously incompetent in that special PC way, the consistent pattern of infiltrations collapsing to gunfights, and the whole "tape explosives to really long poles" technique, you guys are tossing up some massive red flags


Also, because I'm a curious nerd, would you mind sharing your original Only War regiment build?

[Shoggy]

Also, because I'm a curious nerd, would you mind sharing your original Only War regiment build?

The guardsmen were members of the 99th Generian Medium Infantry, or as they're know on the org chart: Gener IC Med Inf.

This was the result of five people trying to make a pun out the regiment's name after deciding they wanted to go for the standard guardsmen experience instead of messing around with any of the more flavorful options.

It was a completely normal regiment down the board, Civilized world origin, Line Infantry, Fixed Commander, and only Die Hards and Well Provisioned for the traits. We were quite serious about making it the most boring regiment possible: there was no specialization in the roster at all, everyone had completely standard issue kit, and the regiment was colloquially known as the either the GIs, the Fillers, or the Bland Band.

[Freelance GM]

Just got caught up on the last two chapters...

Spoiler: Spoilers

Show

That Necron ship coming back to haunt them was a hilarious twist.

Sarge wrangling the Warlock onto the ship was awesome.

Twitch smuggling the Tau off of the ship was awesome.

I'm not entirely sure how the next chapter can possibly get more awesome.

Also, I wouldn't worry about the, "So no ****, there we were..."
It's a pretty sweet catch-phrase to remind the reader, "Hell yes, you're reading about the All Guardsmen Party."

[Ravens_cry]

In the words of a young, myopic techpriest, 'D-d-did I do that!?"

[Shoggy]

Glad you felt the chapter was up to quality standards, I began to worry when it got so long.

We thoroughly enjoyed the Warlock NPC. It's glorious to sit there be as annoying and assholish as possible. Those scenes took quite a while, since the DM kept alternately cracking up and dissolving into frustrated screaming as he tried to deliver his lines.

As for things coming back, our DM loves to tie everything together. He will tell anyone who's willing to listen that Unintended Consequences are just about the best plot device out there. A lot of birds start coming home to roost in the next few chapters.

[Brookshw]

Can't wait to see how the group gets along with the space marines.

[Lord Loss]

Loving this campaign journal. I'm not through reading it yet, in fact I've only read some of the earlier segments. Your GM's campaign background was brilliant an demented. I would never have thought to try that, but it conveys the tone of the setting as no description could.