Plunging Spires - Madison WI - November 2019
What ARE the the Plunging Spires?
The Plunging Spires is a Warhammer Age of Sigmar Warcry Narrative event held in Madison, WI, designed by Eric Oakland and co-hosted with Josh Arrington and Aaron Bohler.
This was the inaugural trial of what we hope will be a repeatable narrative event that groups can enjoy wherever they are. Enjoy the photos and overview of the event and then further below, review how you might run this event or something similar in your area.
This drawing was the initial inspiration for the event. Eric Oakland drew this in a notebook and it led to a few months of building a fun and inclusive narrative event.
Narrative Play!
The Spires
These are the tables that were setup to represent each of the spires. 8 tables that changed over 4 rounds for a total of 32 tables. And in the middle was the Plunging Spires board that kept track of where each warband was on their journey.
There were 4 tables with 2 boards each. Each of the 8 positions had a dedicated board and terrain that would change each round; 2 order themed, 2 chaos themed, 2 destruction themed, and 2 death themed. The arrangement would get more complex each round.. If you look at the images below you’ll see that each row represents a different table, starting with Round 1 on the left and ending with Round 4 on the right. There was one table that I didn’t preplan because I didn’t have access to the terrain, so i don’t have pictures of the Gloomspite Gitz themed boards.
Planning
Here are some of the elements that went into designing a 16 player event where the brackets can be hidden in the physical map. It felt a little crazy diagramming this so heavily. There are ways to play narrative like a sandbox or like a railroad. For a 1 day event, in order to reach a conclusion to the story, I had to create a railroad. But it also meant i could go deeper with lore and players felt like they were impacted something that could really exist in the Mortal Realms.
Diorama in Action
Having the diorama at the live event was amazing. Everyone could see what they were fighting over. The initial player information only shared the first 16 locations. Seeing it in person meant you could read the additional names. I also wanted to make the event feel more alive for those who would be seeing photos on social media across the world. Below is an idea for how I wanted matchups to be shared online. It didn’t work as well in reality because I didn’t have enough time to frame and care for each shot. But they are still pretty cool.
The pins and strings were meant to both communicate the path players could take, but to also help the diorama map feel like it came off of one of Sailfin’s journal pages.
Promotion
I really enjoyed putting out some lore material so players would know more about the story before they showed up. I think this can be a really great way to immerse players more deeply on the day of the event. I also think that you have to get visual with this step. Text and reading is great but harder to remember.
Lore From the Event Pack
(Exasperated tones) “You’ve heard of locations across the realms where items, beings or knowledge of great power have been discovered, right?! Th...those penumbral engines go quiet, illusion wears out, or...or something escapes.”
“There was this Aelven privateer, uh...uh...Sailfin! They were an Admiral in the fleets of Sigmar, an he...they liked to keep a journal.”
“Sailfin called it the Plunging Spires, on account of its massive rock spires jutting from the clouds and seeing some of them fall suddenly, straight down into the abyss. They flew around and through the spires, making notes about structures and markings.”
“I got one of those journal pages in a bazaar in Tempest Eye, and it details about the treasures and how to get to one of the spires!”
“Who knows how long this spire will be standing, or how much treasure could be found amidst the others around it. There’s also no telling who else knows about it and may be heading there now.”
“But you can have mine, and if you leave now you might find something before all the spires fall! Just spare my life! Please!!”
Sailfin’s Journal
These were the most fun to imagine and create. Admiral Sailfin is a favorite of mine amongst the Warhammer models/characters I’ve created for narrative play. It was fun to give him one of my habits of keeping a sketchbook. It adds to the pirate/philosopher/artist idea, and it was an amazing way to share some of the mood and ideas for the event.
Each journal entry corresponded with one of the spires and provided the players with additional lore, both written and visual, to sink they narrative teeth into. As players signed up they got to choose a journal entry. From a narrative perspective this was the journal page that the leader of their warband has in their possession. Each page also has an a, b, c, or d written on it which would allow me to select their starting position on the map.
Player Pack
Feel free to download the player pack and try running a plunging spires of your own. Use Sailfin’s journals, make some of your own, or create a whole other reason people would have stumbled upon this amazing phenomenon.
In the future I will create a Realm Master’s Pack with some secrets and the narrative ending.