A couple of disclaimers: This is not so much a review of the Necron codex as an examination of how it is a good addition to a successful metaplot. I've not used the book to fight with an army (Yet) so it's not a playtest review either. It's more a review of the book's role in the Warhammer 40k universe, and a wander around the topic of metaplots generally.
What is a metaplot? Well my understanding of the term is that it is a plot which bridges a number of seperate works to produce a larger work. A classic example, mentioned in the summary, is the Star Wars series of films, together with associated books, comics, games, t-shirts etc etc. All of the films link to produce one huge work of fiction.
Metaplots underlie a lot of the RPG industry at the moment. Examples include Shadowrun, Cyberpunk, Aberrant, and the World of Darkness, produced by White Wolf. With differing degrees of success, these metaplots create a wider story within which RPG'ers can take part in historical events within the gaming world.
White Wolf's World of Darkness, a "Gothic-Punk" version of the real world populated by vampires, werewolves, ghosts and magicians is in my opinion a flawed metaplot. Although some of the individual works set within the World of Darkness are the best writtten and most interesting RPG pieces ever made, the metaplot, the overall internal history of the World of Darkness, is a jumbled, over complex mishmash. In early White Wolf pieces, Vampires were the secret Masters of the World. Then Mages were the secret Masters of the World. Then Mages, Vampires and...er... werewolves were revealed to be fighting a huge spiritual battle to defeat the cosmic forces of entropy.
More recently, there has been a retreat from the "Hidden Masters" period of World of Darkness history. Vampires, although individually powerful, are pawns of wider forces, and are as likely to be caught off guard by historical events as anyone else. Whilst this is an encouraging sign that newer White Wolf writers are attempting to reign in some of the excesses of their predecessors, it remains the case that there is just too much going on at once in the World of Darkness to make any of it internally consistent. Every city has a dozen Vampires, twenty mages, twenty werewolves, dozens of ghosts -and no one is supposed to notice.
Another, more successful, example of a metaplot is the Shadowrun universe. This metaplot advances forward in the "in game" world by one year for every year which elapses in the real world. The two worlds are theoretically the same, but seperated by 60 odd years. This technique has been tried in many other systems for a while now: Cyberpunk was fairly unsuccesful because it made a genuine attempt to predict future historical developments, Aberrant was more successful because it simply dropped any attempt at speculative future historical accuracy.
Metaplots crop up throughout TV and cinema. To stick to the fantasy/ sci fi genre, look at Star Wars and Star Trek. These are living, evolving stories. And yet the form of the metaplot is such that if you tie yourself down too much, inconsistencies appear. There is a whole net-based industry of amateur nitpickers who look for flaws in individual episodes which vary from the consistency of the wider story.
The golden rules to creating a good fantasy metaplot seems to be:
1. Don't tie yourself to too small a world
2. Don't tie it into anything too much like the real world.
3. Give yourself room to manoeuvre.
Codex Necrons is a good example of how to do it right.
The Warhammer 40,000 universe has been going for about 15 years now. Originally created by Rick Priestly, the metaplot is set in AD 40,000, thirty eight thousand years ahead of the present day. From the start, this ensures that the world is going to be very different from ours. Mr Priestly restricted himself to just one galaxy in terms of scope, but that's the only real restriction. As you can see, he has left himself with a lot of room to manoeuvre.
The apparent point of the game was to move many of the old Tolkeinesque/D&D cliches into a new science fiction setting. It is a science fiction galaxy populated by elves (called Eldar), Dwarves (called Squats) and Orcs (called Orks.)In the WH40k setting, these creatures are either aliens or evolutionary offshoots of humanity.
The game was created as, and remains, a lead miniature battlegame. Until recently, there has been a relatively subdued metaplot which simply acted as a focus for the tabletop battles. It provided an enjoyable backdrop for the constant warfare that went on in the 40k galaxy. The galaxy was, theoretically, under the control of humanity under the leadership of a powerful, though crippled, emperor who ruled from earth. Humanity was beset on all sides by aliens and heretics, and had to engage in brutal wars to ensure it's survival.
What always distinguished WH40k from other tabletop battlegames was the very high quality of the imagery, both visual and written, created by it's authors. It is a vivid and powerful CONCEPT. The human Imperium is a nightmarish fusion of medievel Europe, the third Reich and hyper advanced technology. It is a society that regularly engages in genocide, xenocide and ethnic cleansing. And yet, the Imperium is the best option available to humanity, the only force strong enough to keep it's foes at bay. Pretty strong meat for a game commonly played by 12 year olds.
Recently, the authors of the game have altered the pitch of the metaplot from simple background to an ongoing and developing historical setting. This probably is down to 2 major factors: Andy Chambers taking over from Rick Priestly as "WH40k overfiend," and the introduction of new minature lines. If you are creating new armies, you have to explain where they've come from in the context of the metaplot. This probably represents some sort of classic archetype for the developement of a metaplot: from a simple backdrop: "This is how the world IS..." to an immersive, shifting story: "This is how the world has changed since you last looked at it..."
In this case, the immersive, shifting story is an explanation of why there is a new race of aliens in the WH40k universe everyone else suddenly has to fight. The Necrons are revealed to be an ancient race who effectively wiped themselves out by falling under the sway of a race of godlike star vampires called the C'Tan.
What makes this book so good is that this introduction to a new race appears to merge seamlessly with broad hints dropped YEARS in advance by Rick Priestly about the underlying ancient history of the 40k universe. In fact, Mr Priestly probably never had any clear idea about a race called the Necrons when he first wrote WH40k in 1987, but if you were to read the original WH40k book and then read the Necron book, you would get a broadly identical view of the way the universe was going. This is a tribute to both the quality and breadth of the original setting, and the consistent approach taken by subsequent writers in remaining true to it's spirit.
I think this is why the Necron book is such a success: it is seen by it's authors as a partial contribution to a larger work: the Warhammer 40k universe itself. In too many RPG systems, you will often find that additions to a metaplot are idiosyncratic one-offs that hinder the development of the whole. I think this book is great, for those reasons.
That said, I am, (as you can tell) a bit of a WH40k anorak. If you haven't got every WH40k book ever written, does it stand on it's own merits?
Well, you need the WH40k rulebook to actually USE this book. This costs £25 ($35 or so). You also need an army, which will cost at least £37 ($50 or so.)And you need someone else you can fight with who also has an army.
It is a short book, with only 64 pages. It does however reek of quality: All of the illustrations are extremely good and the language is of an ambitiously high standard. There is a very good painting and modelling guide (in full colour) too.
So, should you buy it? Well the simple answer is, if you dislike Games Workshop products on principle (because they are expensive) and have no intention of ever playing WH40k, then no. However, if you pay WH40k even infrequently, and like the setting, then emphatically yes.
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(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)