Beginner's Guide to Army Background Fluff Part I

You don't need this much background, even the smallest amount can add heaps of character

Why do I keep going on about writing fluff? Well, I'm not an expert painter, and although I enjoy conversions I'm definitely not an expert. I'm not an expert writer, but it did used to be a day job (despite my constant typos), so at least I hope this means I can perhaps give some advice on developing character and narrative and all that jazz.

I also keep going on about it because I bloody enjoy it and it's as a legitimate side of the hobby alongside modelling, painting and gaming. Arguably it's integral, as it's what makes a game more than just sliding miniatures around a board. I know some argue about the tactical side, and that is key for me too – I prefer games with a greater tactical challenge than those that are broken... But if it was just about the pure challenge of the game for the game's sake, I would play Chess or Go or something with nameless, plain game pieces.

Without wanting to sound like someone who uses the word “workshop” as a verb outside of a vaguely industrial context, background fluff adds motivation and consequences and allows games to be linked to create an ongoing narrative. A narrative where you care about keeping certain characters and units alive, and they take on a life of their own – whereas you might not in a straight competitive game. I still remember with fondness the Necromunda game from around 15 years ago where a Juve fell several storeys after a failed jump from one tower to another. He just about survived but received a head injury which led to him going do-lally (it's a proper neurology headology term) every so often in subsequent games. However, we came into a bit of cash and could afford a bit of healthcare for the poor chap. He survived further scraps and scrapes and went on to climb the ranks. However, I don't remember if I won that particulra initial game or not. This is why narrative and story matters to me, the best games are often ones where there is a bit of a plot, narrative or interesting occurrence.

It's important to remember there are various degrees of fluff, and where one person may wish to do little more than name their characters, that's fine. Honest.

Apologies if this is stating the bloody obvious. It is meant to be a beginner's guide, and I'm not assuming that this stuff is groundbreaking or known by only a select few via means of an esoteric ritual. I just hope it's useful whatever your gaming background may be. 

Step 1: Select a Core Concept

Chances are, you probably have an idea of what you want to do here already, but if not, inspiration for concepts can come from all sorts of places.

I had an idea for a short story about a petty bureacrat in the department of Tithes Chamber Notaries, sub. Planetary Census (Abhumans), with heavy overtones of Gogol, which came from a 1950s adaptation of Gogol's The Overcoat, starring Buster Keaton. [Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70YECn4T-IY] 

I don't know how many people would want to read it, but the idea of a faceless clerk spending all day in a vast dark hall, making sure pointless case numbers were correct, surrounded by thousands of other such clerks doing the exact same thing seemed suitably grimdark. Allowing him to go home and have a life of sorts beyond would break the established fluff that they would do this 24/7, but I thought it would be justified in accentuating that proper grimdarkness of it (sometimes less is more).

Where my Space MarineChapter has taken various specific influences during its existence, the very original idea came from wanting to reflect some of the stories of the Welsh collection of myths, the Mabinogion.

A whole slew of background fluff can have its beginnings in just one sentence or one image, whether that's found in history, a book of fiction, a comic or graphic novel, a film, a religious text, a TV series or whatever. A good place to look is the official fluff too, I spend plenty of time on Lexicanum and the 40k wiki checking facts, but also often end up stumbling across stuff I never knew about at all. Definitely worth a look as you may find something that's been mentioned but not covered in any detail – so go away and do the detail if you like the sound of it.I'm not au fait with other games as much, but surely they all have sourcebooks and websites with material in.

Where to start

The primary theme should be straightforward and solid. Although saying you can look in all sorts of places for ideas, a framework might be helpful, so before you start looking perhaps it might help if we break the key areas of background fluff into Three Points:

(or Why they fight, how they fight, and how they like to dress when smashing someone's teeth in)

• Purpose / Goal
  Perhaps the easiest point to develop your background fluff from is here, start by thinking what the purpose of your faction is. Why do they exist? Are they an elite group of soldiers formed to fight a particular threat? Were they formed from an administrative oversight? Are they a political breakaway faction of sorts? Are they villagers with pitchforks defending their homes from a marauding jabberwocky?
  Also consider their goal. Do they have a particular briefing/mission/quest? Are they looking for a certain artefact? Are they tasked with fighting a particular foe (related to the above...).
  Either of these can inform Personality (not only their general demeanour, but how they relate to other factions, whether allies or enemies) and Aesthetics.
  
  
• Personality / Approach
  As I said, not only general demeanour but also how they approach combat – are they sneaky, shooty, stabby etc? If you have a faction which likes to go around singing its own praises, it seems quite likely that it was also be quite arrogant and doesn't like supposed allies stealing its limelight – similarly, they are not necessarily likely to be a sneaky group, but perhaps have a fondness for shiny weapons and big explosions which are all the better to get them noticed. And with that you have at least an outline of a Purpose, Personality and Aesthetics: renown/fame, arrogant and snobby, shiny weapons and armour respectively.
  You may not go this way yourself, but there is always a chain of “A = B = C” that you should find yourself developing once you have point A. 
  
  
• Aesthetics
  I know certain games allow for more flexibility with conversions and putting your own spin on the troops and others have a much more out-of-the-box approach. Even so, aesthetics can come down to just having a particular paint scheme that refelcts something of the faction's character and background. I also use Aesthetics to cover army composition to a degree, if you perhaps want a force that has a prevalence of a certain unit. If so, then why? Asking yourself questions that lead to more questions is a great way to develop your background fluff.

Whichever point you start with, you should find your ideas there lead to other ideas in other points

Edit & Addendum: A Note on Scale

Something I noticed was missing and should go here rather than Part II was the issue of scale.

Depending upon the physical size of the overall force you're writing fluff for, and their place within existing fluff (e.g. are they a new Space Marine Chapter, a Company/Force of Blood Angels, are they a new Imperial Guard regiment, and entirely new one, or are they just a Kill Team or even Necromunda gang?). Each of these is going to effect the scale of your fluff, if they are a regiment of Cadians, they take on the existing fluff of the Cadians to an extent, but can still have their own Purpose within that framework. Similarly in terms of physical scale of fluff, your factions Purpose doesn't need to be "Bring about the return of the Emperor" (although it can be if appropriate) but can just as well be hold Planet, City or even Building X in terms of a Kill Team sized faction. Just something that adds a little more life and character, as I said at the beginning just coming up with little things like that can make a big difference.

(Apologies for resorting to direct references, which I had been trying to avoid, it was just much easier that way. If none of this makes sense, please let me know...)

Step 2: Know When to Stop

Or as I like to call it, don't dilute and ruin your main theme by adding too much extra stuff