Algus2
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Posts posted by Algus2
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One day I will probably homebrew an Ork game if FFG never introduces a dedicated game for one of the Xeno races.
DERES STOMPIN TO BE DONE
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The core books all have adversary chapters, though of course these aren't comprehensive. What you are looking for is in Mark of the Xenos however. Ork Boyz are the generic ork troop and their writeup is on page 62. The genestealer is on page 44.
The traits section generally exists so you can build your own enemies and the templates are just guidelines for generic versions of those enemies.
But yes, I wish there was a generic adversary book because I find it annoying to have to open my Rogue Trader books or w/e when I plan to use enemies besides the ones that appear in the Jericho Reach. Maybe its done this way to compel GMs to buy the other core books besides the game they run?
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I thought Deathwatch did a good job of laying the information out so that you could play a "traditional" Space Marines games if you wanted to. It pretty much tells you what skills the characters get for free by being in the Deathwatch and has Deathwatch advances on their own tables. It's actually pretty easy to just strip this stuff out and have everyone pick a chapter to be from (assuming your players want to go along with this kind of campaign)
I'm hoping that Only War will have a similar level of "modularity" to it so that it is easy to drop stuff without having to house rule things to much to suit the game to the kind of campaign you want to run.
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Wow man, this is awesome. I was thinking I was going to have to hold out for Honour the Chapter and cross my finger that they were included. I'll be adding this to my repertoire immediately. Unfortunately, I'm the only player in my group who has played Dawn of War so I'm the only Blood Ravens fanboy amongst them lol.
One of my players was talking about running a game though so I could try DW from the player's perspective. I might run this by him if I don't go with the Storm Warden I was thinking of.
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Rites of Battle
I've had mixed luck doing one-on-one games I don't really like it but I know what it's like to have trouble finding a group. It depends on the player, but I've had luck in the past giving the player multiple characters, usually a main PC and a few lackies. If you have it, you might want to paw through the rules for followers in First Founding and give him one or two for free. It might not be to unreasonable for a Space Marine to bring along a couple of serfs from his home chapter.
If you scale down encounters and give him adequate minions, you should be ok with just one space marine. You may need to be prepared to have a specialist on hand to help him on missions now and then. It depends on what he makes but you might want to prepare an Apothecary NPC and a Tech-Marine NPC, even if he gets some chapter serfs with medicae/tech-use just because having access to some of those specialist abilities can be crucial depending on the mission. These don't necessarily have to be Deathwatch NPCs either. They could be "weaker" marines from some Chapter that is involved in the area you set your campaign in.
edit: wrote this nice long post and then reread your post haha, oh well. Parts of the game might be rough with just two PCs, so it might still be good to be extra generous with followers for them.
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Interesting thread. I just picked up the book and haven't read through it yet. Sounds like there is plenty of flavor, even if I'm not planning on using the adventures though. The campaign I'm currently running is focusing on the Tyranids in the Orpheus Salient, specifically with Castobel, so Rising Tempest might be a bit of a sidetrack for me at the moment. Still, I'd be interested in hearing more thoughts from people who have played it.
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I don't know if there is an omnibus or not yet but when I first got Deathwatch, I bought and red the Space Marine short story anthologies: Heroes of the Space Marines, Legends of the Space Marines, and Victories of the Space Marines. Each story is dedicated to a different chapter. Some of the stories sucked but others were really good and gave me a good taste for the different marine chapters.
The video games are good for space marine fluff too since they all kind of focus on the marines: Space Marine, both Dawn of Wars (and all the expansions) and Kill-Team are all pretty decent and give a good taste of space marines and lots of Xenos fighting. You mentioned using the Tyranids, the vanilla campaign for Dawn of War II is all about the space marines fighting the Tyranids so that might be a really good game to play if you're looking to get some extra flavor.
I'm reading the Word Bearers omnibus right now and it has been giving me all kinds of good ideas for using Chaos. As far as the books go, there is a lot of stuff out there and they have done a good job covering different topics (trilogies related to certain factions, marine chapters, etc.) so there's a good chance you can find a book or three covering the same kinds of stories you want to tell.
The campaign books that FFG has published are all pretty solid too. I haven't picked up the latest one yet but I've liked the other adventures. The Jericho Reach includes an adventure that deals with the Tyranids, so it might be worth checking out (the rest of the book is just extra fluff on the setting which is of so-so use)
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In mechanic terms, I go by the book, Rank 4+ and Renown 60+
In game/RP terms it depends on what is happening in the games. I like to include tertiary objectives that are really hard but offer good experience/renown bonuses. If I have a player in my party looking at an advance specialty that requires Crux Terminatus, I'm willing to write into the adventures opportunities to earn it. It should be some major actions against Xenos, Chaos, etc. that turns the tide: helping to save a planet or system (or even the entire Reach)
As others have pointed out, if you use the official campaign materials, there are lots of opportunities in there to award the Terminatus. If you're homebrewing all your missions, once they get to rank 4 or 5 start looking at them having bigger and bigger missions: fighting the Tyranids on Castobel, dealing with Chaos, helping to stop the Tau advance (this is assuming you're using Jericho Reach…if you've built your own sector you'll probably have some ideas on what the major threats there are)
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Make sure to smack the survivors with a big renown penalty.
Other than that, it could be a good plot hook. I like the idea of there being other prisoners that your players could help coordinate a breakout with. Especially if some of them are plants that have already been swayed by Tau propaganda
After the mission, I'd play up the fact that they have shamed themselves by being captured. If they've got any rivals back at base really play up that point with the rival, it could lead to some good roleplaying and even plothooks for a mission of redemption.
Remember that at full strength, Deathwatch only numbers around 200 men and while 200 space marines are probably more than enough to take over a small planet, large scale warfare isn't really their thing. To do something like that, they'd have to recall a lot of Kill-Teams from a lot of different missions so even if they wanted to mount a rescue, they wouldn't necessarily have enough manpower unless they send in one or two agents by stealth.
…in other words, I think you ought to have the player who is on the outside only be able to come in with limited gear: the Deathwatch will issue him scout armor and maybe a couple bolt pistols that he can try and smuggle into the other players. Torn on whether they should be able to get the rest of their gear back. It is Deathwatch so their equipment is provided to them. If one or more of the players has some signature wargear, they might be able to retrieve that.
A follow-up mission where they have to retrieve their power armor and chapter trappings could make for a good start to a mission of redempton
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AD&D 1E was in print for nearly two decades before AD&D 2E came along. I think a 2E of Dark Heresy is inevitable unless FFG loses the license and this game system/universe is shuttered. Will it come soon? Maybe, but comparing it to other game lines and what has worked for them isn't likely to work. Most companies are different. Many of White Wolf's games went through two or three iterations over a ten year time period with each new edition updating the metaplot. Different companies do different things. I'm sure that if FFG thinks a Dark Heresy 2E will sell well, they will do it, sooner rather than later.
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Unless you've already used it with this group (or parts of this group) the pre-written adventure in the back of the Core Book is actually fairly solid and has room to expand things to your liking.
Elsewise, a basic death watch game needs to be no more complicated than "Xeno A is Attacking Planet B"
Pick a planet at random and an enemy at random (or just use your favorites) and send in your KT to collect Kill Markers.
If you're looking to string it together in a longer campaign, think about using either the setting or the enemy long term (the KT keeps coming to the planet to help it out…particularly good with the pesky Tyranids) or the Kill Team is chasing the Tau out of some sector in space. If your players like combat-heavy games than your campaign doesn't necessarily need to be much more complicated than sending waves of enemies to attack them.
Puzzles take a little more thought and I don't like to rely on them to much when I need to keep an NPC with the party long term, especially if they come to rely on said NPC to think them through the tough parts (though that might not be a problem with a Devastator…)
I dunno if this helps or not but I've actually gotten inspired plenty from the video games and novels
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The book says its a generic representative for the thousands (millions?) of currencies used throughout the Imperium. Per the book, I got the impression that many of the most advanced planets and systems use relatively advanced currencies (some sort of electronic/credit type system) whereas more remote planets and low-technology worlds (feudal societies or whatever) have their own coins.
When its come up in my games,we've used it as an electronic/money card type system. IE credit exists as do pre-paid cards. Its really however you want to run it. If you had a whole campaign set on a feudal world thrones might represent the local gold supply.
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Morangias brings up an excellent point. The general idea of "balance" between the games seems to be that while a non-Astartes with a similar level of experience won't be as strong in battle but they might bring other things to the table in terms of knowledges, skills, etc. I'd think very hard before allowing non-Space Marines into your campaign. If it simply isn't going to work out for your group (your players are resistant to playing Marines) then maybe Deathwatch isn't the game to run with that group.
That said, I still think you can build a great game doing some cross-over stuff. I've seen several times on this forum where someone suggested using an Adepta Sororitas character if female players were resistant to making male marines. While it is not a perfect solution, it is a fairly good one. There's also no real reason why you can't use Ascension but say that character is "not" an Inquisitor. There are many Inquisitor/Inquisition specific skills and talents you might have to restrict from the character's advancement tables but if you're troubled by the idea of an Inquisitor having to much influence/authority over the characters, simply say that s/he is a high ranking Sister of Battle, Psyker, Guardsman, or whatever. All you need is five seconds of fluff, "Well Colonel So-and-So of the Legion 501st has fought Xenos a whole bunch of times, so he's coming with the Kill-Team as an advisor/scout/observer/etc" From a storyline perspective, ensure that the Watch-Captain and other authorities commanding your Kill-Team OUTRANK the player (at least initially)
Obviously this takes a little bit of extra leg-work (figuring out what advances you want to allow and which ones you don't, but again that is the problem of running a cross-over.
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In many ways, a marine's strength comes from his gear. If the players are veterans of Deathwatch, have them go in with just Scout Armor initially and weaker weapons. A lot of common enemies are a lot more frightening when you don't have power armor and chain swords, even to a space marine.
Also agree with Brother Carharias, sometimes it is the unseen which is the most frightening. When you do reveal your villains, have them pose a credible threat. An enemy that can take down a Space Marine is imposing indeed.
Question on sex
in Deathwatch Rules Questions
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Ultimately, it is your game and you and your group should play it in the way that is most fun to you, regardless of what a bunch of canonistas on a web forum have to say about it.
That said however, I do think you are losing some of the flavor of the setting if you introduce something like female Space Marines into the game. Even if you stick with just Deathwatch rules, it is a small thing to say that the female characters are still Sisters of Battle. The Adeptas Sororitas are pretty cool and can add a lot of flavor to a game.
If your players are open to playing fast and loose with the lore and you don't mind changing the setting though, you could always introduce previously unknown chapters of Space Marines that are all female. Maybe even have it involve the Lost Primarchs.