Anarchy Reigns

This is a /v/ related article, which we tolerate because it's relevant and/or popular on /tg/... or we just can't be bothered to delete it.

The game that would start it all.

Anarchy Reigns, also known as Max Anarchy to our friends across the pond, is a budget Vidya Gaem that was released for the PS3 and Xbox 360. Whilst most modern titles retail for $60, Anarchy Reigns retailed for half that at launch, owing to the fact that it was put together on a shoestring budget. Notable mostly for trying to functionally be a Fist of the North Star for a more modern age, it is the spiritual successor to Mad World, a grindhouse-style beat-em-up noted mostly for the jaw-dropping level of violence in it.

It got generally above-average reviews, the primary drawbacks being poor netcode and an infamously unforgiving learning curve. On the upside, it boasts a rich if notoriously lopsided multiplayer community, bits of hilarious racism, and some surprisingly fleshed-out main characters. Mostly, though, like most games Platinum Studios produced, it is a game whose universe runs on awesome, where complete pandemonium can occur at any time during gameplay.

Most multiplayer games might not allow certain things to occur during gameplay - for example, most games will not, during a match, allow a giant squid to show up and start eating the combatants, allow Cthulhu show up and start curb-stomping people, or allow Orbital Strikes to scour the entire battlefield during a match.

Most games are not Anarchy Reigns.

The general plot of the game surrounds Jack and Leo, a pair of cyborg badasses in the not-so-distant future where the world has been rendered a borderline-unlivable hellhole where man has survived only due to technology and mutation. Jack is a bounty hunter, whereas Leo works for the Bureau of Public Safety (BPS) for Milvallen. Both parties are assigned to hunt down the same fugitive - a former BPS high-ranker who was legendary for his skill and ability, but who has since gone rogue. Interesting characterization and some badass fighting mechanics follow.

So What the Fuck Does This Have to Do With /tg/?

There is nothing that /tg/ will not try to blend with Warhammer 40,000. NOTHING.

From the moment Anarchy Reigns was released, /tg/ was already talking about it.

As has been said, /tg/ likes itself some post-apocalyptic wargaming, it likes it some Fist of the North Star, and it has a time-honored tradition of getting shit done to accomplish. Much neckbeardy goodness was discussed involving Anarchy Reigns' characterization, story, and potential ease of adapting a d20 Future or GURPS campaign to it.

And then, one fa/tg/uy proposed a variant for Dark Heresy....

...And nothing was ever the same.

Suffice to say, creativity was immediately stirred, as is the case for almost every homebrew /tg/ has ever made. /tg/'s legions of Drawfags got to work re-imagining the cast of Anarchy Reigns as 40K characters, came up with fitting backstories for each, and quickly discerned that there was potential to be had here for greatness, by taking the game's home story and adapting it for something that it was never intended for.

In the grim darkness of the far future, Rogue Trader Jack Cayman and Imperial Captain Leonardo Victorion enter a campaign to try to bring down an Imperial General who has fallen to Chaos. What ensues is a hilarious concept that immediately lent itself beautifully to an inordinate number of ideas, from following an adapted plot of the game, to using the game's framework to set up an entirely different and equally-awesome plot all its own, such giving some of the various cast members ulterior motives in the plot, such as Durga and Garuda's Tau analogues being the vanguard for a much larger offensive by a Tau sept, analyzing a planet for potential absorption into the Tau Empire. Yet another variant had the players come in as a "after the initial contact" force, dealing with the aftermath of one of the major character showdowns and trying to get control of a situation spiralling out of control.

Mostly, though, it was an excuse for /tg/ to get creative and exclude the Ultramarines, Grey Knights, and Blood Angels. And in the long run, isn't that worth a thread in and of itself?