Hi All,
As I'm sure you know, the new Tyranid book is around the corner and I expect a sudden resurgence of Nids.
And I'm going to face them soon I'm sure...
But, my big issue is writing for them. I don't know if I'll start a small army of my own, but I've had difficulty in the past, not so much in playing them, but with writing for them.
They're supposed to have a very different mentality (blue/orange vs white/black per se), and well... It's rather daunting of a task. Some people seem to cop out and make them very human or give them a human surrogate (i.e. like Kerrigan of Starcraft). I've yet to see it puled off well, but wanted to see if anyone has any suggestions... I'm open to hear anything :)
Best,
-BT
I would write them as they are, beings of endless ravenous hunger. There is no single mind to think, everything would be from the hive. Enemy deploys tanks, prepare to deploy Zonathropes. Lots of orks, begin generation of hormagaunts.
To me its like a computer. "If input is A then do B."
I would suggest watching borg episodes of star trek. Voyager had a few scenes where the borg were talking to themselves that might be useful.
I'd say "thinking" is generous. They largely operate on instinct, I would think. Instead of coherent thoughts stream of consciousness in its most brutal, simplistic glory. Simple nouns, sentence fragments, and the use of adjectives only when necessary to convey important information.
IE humans are "prey" or "meat"
guardsmen are "dangerous prey" or "defenders of the pack"
space marines would just be "gene bred warriors" or "chitinous hive stewards" or some such...
the problem with that is that as the only point of view character it would get exceptionally tedious. You'd probably want to juxtapose it with a second, somewhat more human character in that case...
As Def said, most Tyranids should be instincts and minimal thinking. Then animalistic cunning for Lictors and Genestealers with the Synapse creatures being the only true thinkers in the army. The last codex hinted at some level of personality for Hive Tyrants and above, but only really in terms of tactics.
I like to think of how they think as in the sorta tone that the Borg carried with even less negotiation.
I think the Hive Mind would be as intelligent as whatever's channeling it. Despite that, I can't envision anything short of a Swarmlord or Tyrant having coherent thought, introspection, all that sort of stuff. 99% of the Nid horde is just geared to kill, everything a bioengineered, instinctive drive. They don't think tactically about firing a gun, they just fire to kill. They don't parry and block in CQC, they just charge and slash.
The Swarmlord might work, because he has intellect stretching back aeons. However, he has no autonomy or independence, so it's not unthinkable that he has no independent thought himself. He's just the biggest hard drive to store the Hive Mind's knowledge into that we know of.
The Shadow in the Warp is more a cause of the constant chatter of the billions of organisms involved in the Hive Fleet. Hence why we don't hear people talking to it, even the strongest Psykers are overloaded by just trying to interact.
Write fluff for them in the style of a BBC nature documentary:
+++BBC Nortrlvia VI +++
And now, we can just see, the wild Lictor, patiently, stalking, its prey.
It blends seamlessly, with the forest fauna, using adaptive camouflage, similar to, that of a chameleon.
As it approaches, towards the, camera crew, it unfurls its, massive talons, ready, to, strike.
At, this, point, we, .... FUCKING RUN!! EMPEROR SAVE US! THRONE NOO-OO - ARHGH-ghayu...
+++Transmission ends+++
Personally BT I'd just focus on reporting the battle from the point of view of the other army, not the 'nids. You can't get 'nid characters to match the ones you've created for Imperial Guard, Orks or Dark Eldar so I wouldn't bother. For example if your Orks were fighting 'nids then you could write the entire thing from Lorilune's point of view instead of switching back and forth between the two armies.
Try looking up the Tyranid voice clips from Dawn of War II.
IMO, I imagine a 'nid at or above Hive Tyrants as individuals with personalities. Just not personalities that most sentient life could relate to, let alone understand.
They don't have a favorite band, or a book collection, but one Tyrant may know more about a given enemy and their tactics, while another has a penchant for ranged combat.
-Kur'os
Thanks for your help all.
I guess there's more than one way to show them, but I may have to just "default out" and have some observers who can say what the Tyranids are doing, as I don't want to make the Nids too human by giving them inner voices.
Quick question, but are Genestealers the same, or are they kind of independent sorts?
Best,
-BT
Genestealers are mostly independent. Synapse creatures are largely sentient, with everything else being crazy animal bug or aspects of the Norn Queen.