How Larry Correia Came to Play WARMACHINE/HORDES and Write Into the Wild

If you’ve not yet read the Skull Island eXpeditions Iron Kingdoms novel Into the Storm, the first book in the Malcontents series by New York Times bestselling author Larry Correia (Monster Hunter series), you’ll want to be caught up by the time the sequel, Into the Wild, reaches shelves this April. The adventures of the Madigan’s Storm Knights continue as they face off against an evil presence deep in the forest, one eager to and the battle they face there is epic. Correia takes his Malcontents from the comforts of civilization to the unknowns of the wilderness to discover that death can come just as easily from gnashing fangs as from enemy blades.

*Work in progress, final product may change

So, what brought Larry Correia to western Immoren in the first place? (Turns out, it wasn’t a steam-powered engine of destruction). He was first introduced to the setting and the game by Howard Tayler (creator of Schlock Mercenary and author of Extraordinary Zoology). But then, like many of his readers, he began his journey across the lands of the Iron Kingdoms in command of an army—a tabletop one.

“My first faction was Skorne,” he recalls, “because I thought the Titan Gladiator looked like it would be fun to paint—I named mine Kevin. I own a ton of models from every faction now, but my main army is Mercenaries.”

He concedes he’s “not particularly good at the actual game” but gets by with his Damiano, Steelhead force. “I’m more of a painter/hobbyist than a wargamer, but I do love playing whenever I get the chance.”

Further, Correia is an enthusiast of the Iron Kingdoms Roleplaying Game, which he also GMs for his kids. (Hutchuck, Ogrun Alchemist and Bounty Hunter, is his son’s character). Larry’s own games tend to run a little more violent. “My game group—lovingly known as Writer Nerd Game Night, because most of us are authors—recently ran a survival horror campaign set in northern Khador with Legion as the bad guys. By the end, half the party was dead, insane, or mutated. My Investigator/Military Officer got off lucky and only lost an arm.”

So, how did this enthusiasm for the setting lead him to actually help develop the setting through his novels?

“That’s kind of funny, actually,” he says. “I was messing around on the Privateer Press forums, mostly posting mini pics to get painting advice feedback, when I saw that somebody had posted something about how there should be WARMACHINE novels, and how easy that would be to do (this was before Skull Island eXpeditions was announced). Knowing a bit about how publishing works, I responded and identified myself. About fifteen minutes later, I started getting emails from the Privateer Press staff of ‘Whoa, you play our game?’ and I was all like ‘Whoa, you guys read my books?’”

He did, and Privateer Press did, and thus was the foundation laid for the ragtag band of Storm Knights known as the Malcontents. In addition to his Malcontents novels, Larry has written a handful of shorter pieces for Skull Island (many of them gathered together in Iron Kingdoms Excursions: Season One), and with his latest novel about to debut, now’s the perfect time for you to read his books, too. Check out Into the Storm now and prepare to go Into the Wild this April!