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View Full Version : Ok, how to go about this?



blackout
2007-05-08, 10:43 PM
Well, my gaming group is trying a hand at a d20 Future Warhammer 40,000 game. We're coming up with a way to try to make all of our characters meet up, and come up with reasons for them to tolerate eachother's existances as well as what kind of characters to make and so on...YES, the ENTIRE GAMING GROUP has turned to the folks at GitP for help...mostly because my DM is a complete idiot.

Lemur
2007-05-08, 11:28 PM
It's kind of hard to do that without knowing who the characters are going to be. But generally, I suppose:

Imperial Guard/Space Marine- These guys are pretty fanatical, and it would be hard for them to deal with other races. Maybe the marine is already considered an outcast/heretic, and has to join with the group out of necessity, no matter how reluctant he might be. Either that, he's acting under orders (or thinks he's acting under orders) that somehow justify his place in the group. Maybe the person who gave him the order is dead now, so the marine has no choice but to keep following it.

Eldar- Some mystic whoosamucutsit is in danger/endandering the universe/making the tea taste funny and it's Eldarface's duty to go out in search of it, and do whatever it takes, including making alliances of convenience with other people.

Ork- Grouping with the party shows promise for fightin'. Orks are crazy mofos, so you don't really need good logic to justify your actions, so long as you make it "feel" right.

Tau- Some vague and possibly messed up interpretation of the greater good requires the Tau to go on crazy adventures with a crazier group of allies across the galaxy.

Kroot- The kroot is acting as a hired gun/bodyguard/mercenary. It's generally not to hard for characters like this to find reasons to group up with others, since the adventuring lifestyle lends itself well to the whole "do a dangerous job for money" thing.

Dark Eldar/Chaos Marine- Somehow grouping with the party will allow you to accomplish some messed up rite of passage or ritual. You may have to be careful to hide your nature from your group. Or not, who knows?

Other possibilities: A character's commander is a nutcase/manipulative bastard/totally wasted and gives the character some strange mission that requires him in some way to go out into the universe, and allows him to make strange allies.

As a last note- things will be a lot easier in terms of group cohesion to put together if everyone makes their character from the same species. Then again, people may want to play different races, and it makes for much more interesting situations in terms of party interaction.

Hazkali
2007-05-09, 01:43 AM
Have you ever read the Inquisitor manual? It's availiable free and legaly from the specialist games site. Even if you don't use the actual Inquisitor rules (though they're pretty good), it has a wealth of stuff about the 40K universe that isn't in most Codexes- the sort of mundane, nitty gritty stuff. It's well worth a look.

blackout
2007-05-09, 06:33 AM
Hey, thanks, Hazkali. And, as for characters, there are nine people in my group. One guy wanted to be a rogue Tyranid Hormagaunt, but the DM said no, so he made a character who is THINKING of turning himself over to Chaos, but hasn't done it yet. My character, will, of course, be a Tau. :) My buddy Phil wants to be the Tau's Kroot buddy, so that's covered. The other six members in the group want to be:

A moderately intelligent Ork who can actually speak like a human, and isn't anywhere near as brutal as the stereotype.

An ex-Imperial Guardsman who went AWOL and is now on the run.

A rogue Scout Marine of the Blood Ravens chapter who just wants to see what the universe is all about.

A trigger-happy Eldar.

A member of the Thousand Sons traitor legion that just wants to kill, forget the armies of Chaos.

And a(this is nuts)renegade Necron that developed individuality.

SpiderBrigade
2007-05-09, 06:44 AM
Oh good lord! Your DM may be an idiot, but only for letting you all pick such a crazy bunch of misfits.

Seriously, Tau, Eldar, a damn SPACE MARINE and a Chaos traitor, a NECRON, and you want to find a way for them to all work together?

That said, Lemur's ideas are pretty good. Just be aware that whatever you do, it's going to be a bit of a stretch. You're likely to get an effect more like a goofball "buddy cop" or heist movie, rather than a realistic psychodrama. Which is good, because the psychodrama would just end up like Reservoir Dogs, or Treasure of the Sierra Madre even.

Although, hell, that could be a really fun, short game. "Motley crew of intergalactic misfits try to work together...no survivors." Get your DM to pick up some Paranoia sourcebooks, it'll be fun!

JellyPooga
2007-05-09, 08:08 AM
Uh...a Space Marine working alongside a Traitor Marine? With an Ork, an Eldar, a Guardsman and a Necron? With a Tau and a Kroot?


Ummm...maybe you should think about this one a bit before starting...


Here's what I see happening in the first game...

DM: You all walk into a bar (hey, what game doesn't start this way?:smalltongue:). The Marine and Traitor start filling each other with explosive lead, the Eldar plugs the Ork with razor sharp metal as the Ork tries to rip the Guardsmans head off. The Kroot skulks into a corner, waiting to see who comes out on top, whilst the Tau backs into a defensive posture, shooting anyone who comes near. The Necron stands and looks as confused as a robot can about why he is where he is. The Traitor Marine (having had thousands of years more experience than the Loyalist) brings down the Loyalist and starts ripping into everyone else there, for the greater glory of Chaos, but is shot down by the Tau. The Eldar finally manages to bring the Ork down, but not before the Guardsman is left as a bloody rag on the floor...

Players: Uh?

DM: Shall I continue or do you want to make a party that will work?
--------------------------------------------------------------
Seriously. A 40k Roleplay is not like many other games where a party of misfits from every race available is viable.

Space Marines are fanatical warriors, hell bent on their own superiority. They generally don't 'just want to see the universe'.

Traitor Marines are corrupt versions of the above. Think EGO to the power a million.

Orks are not welcome in human society and will likely be arested/shot on the spot.

etc.

A good 40k Roleplay would involve a party of ONE "race", possibly two. Here's a couple of examples of what might make a good game:

1)Strike Team of Marines - the players are a squad of Veteran Space Marines (or Scouts). The game is the various missions they go on. Think of the film 'Aliens' for how this sort of game could play. Also works for pretty much any of the "races" (Ork raiding party, Eldar Scouts, etc.). This is probably the closest you'll get to the game of 40k (with the armies, etc.)

2)Standard Sci-Fi, set in 40k - This is where all the players play humans (from a Hive maybe, or a bog-standard planet), from whatever walk of life (one persons a merchant, anothers a hired gun, etc.). The stereotypical Sci-Fi game is one where you're basically Trader/Explorers. You bog around in a ship, encountering weird stuff in deep space, occaisionally selling stuff to make ends meet. This is about the furthest from the game of 40k you can get. It is merely set in the 40k universe.


The problem with the 40k setting is that what people know is the game of 40k, which is all about WAR. All the background material is about ARMIES, not society. Thus it's hard to run a game that isn't about one of these armies doing something. If you do run a game about an army (like my first example), you generally can't mix-and-match between them because in the 40k universe, pretty much everyone hates everyone else. 40k is a very hard setting to Role-Play in.

Anyway, I don't really mean to put you down, but really just think about the setting and the party that you've managed to construct between you. It doesn't make a lot of sense (if any).

Having said that, it's your game and if you're enjoying it, that's all that matters.

blackout
2007-05-09, 02:41 PM
I know all of this. My entire group is gonna flippin' die. Right now, the Traitor and Loyalist marines are arguing over who's gonna lead our makeshift squad in a fight against a group of ex-Imperial pirates that are hitting the Rogue Trader space station we happen to be on. I swear...we're doomed.

Oh, and apparently, the Chaos Marine is as experienced as the renegade Loyalist. He saw minimal action during and before the Horus Heresy, and saw no action afterwards until now. SO, he's about as blooded as the Scout, who's fought a few skirmishes with Chaos cultists.

bosssmiley
2007-05-10, 12:31 PM
See if you can find the OGL "Fading Suns d20" in the bargain bin of your FLGS. I got into that game when attempting to start a WH40K roleplay back in the 90s. It was a fantastic 'gothic future' setting in its own right, and had a lot of immediately transferable material for a 40K fan. Heck! FS even had Inquisitors! :smallcool:

Wolf_Shade
2007-05-10, 01:31 PM
I know all of this. My entire group is gonna flippin' die. Right now, the Traitor and Loyalist marines are arguing over who's gonna lead our makeshift squad in a fight against a group of ex-Imperial pirates that are hitting the Rogue Trader space station we happen to be on. I swear...we're doomed.

Oh, and apparently, the Chaos Marine is as experienced as the renegade Loyalist. He saw minimal action during and before the Horus Heresy, and saw no action afterwards until now. SO, he's about as blooded as the Scout, who's fought a few skirmishes with Chaos cultists.
Dang, you already started. I was going to go with the overly cliched "You all wake up in a room. You have no memory of your past. Your skills are as they were before whatever happened happened. You have no social stigma's as the memories of the society they were bred by no longer inhabit your mind."

Bryn
2007-05-10, 01:46 PM
The problem with the 40k setting is that what people know is the game of 40k, which is all about WAR. All the background material is about ARMIES, not society.

If you wanted to learn about the non-army-related background of 40k, the Inquisitor rulebook as mentioned before is a great place to start. Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn and Ravenor series are also good, and inspiration can be drawn from other Black Library books, although those mainly focus on fighting in my experience (but in any case, read Fifteen Hours, which is one of the best I've read :smallwink:)

In addition, the Black Library also do background books, although I haven't got many... Xenology might be good for the Inquisitorial side of things, although that's more about the xenos races.

I don't know what to reccomend for non-Imperial society.

Somebody has made a d20 40k system (http://www.geocities.com/skrittiblak/), too. It's based on d20 modern, and I haven't read it much, but it seems pretty good.

blackout
2007-05-10, 02:49 PM
Ok, status report. It's finally been revealed that NEITHER of the potential candidates have ANY field experience in leading soldiers...So, the guardsman comes forward, reveals he was a Sergeant before going AWOL, and the average joe is now team leader. We're already fighting a pair of ex-Imperial Guardsmen that are armed with Plasma Guns.

thorgrim29
2007-05-10, 03:09 PM
This is stretching beleivability to a degree greater then that of the warhammer fantasy freeform roleplay going on in gamma channel (featuring me as a slayer engenner and a ogre rhinox rider). Your team as about zero chances of working together. While the guardman, the marine and the tau and kroot could work together given enough incentive, the necron (weird character, necrons have no individuality because they have no soul per se, the are the extention of the C'tan's will), the chaos marine (bat-**** crazy guy of doom, rejoice at the coming of oblivion i beleive)and the orc(orcs in 40k are even more barbaric then in fantasy, aattack everything that walks as soon as you are bored, hard to kill, every bit of dead skin develops into a new squig/snotling/goblin/orc/squiggot depending of the shade) would be hard pressed to work together by themselves, to say nothing of with their racial foes. The eldar..... well who cares about eldars, they're space elves for crissake. What I would see is everyone lobotomised, or everyone worships chaos, that about all, oh they could be mind controlled by tyranids, but then you lose the necron.

blackout
2007-05-10, 03:31 PM
This is stretching beleivability to a degree greater then that of the warhammer fantasy freeform roleplay going on in gamma channel (featuring me as a slayer engenner and a ogre rhinox rider). Your team as about zero chances of working together. While the guardman, the marine and the tau and kroot could work together given enough incentive, the necron (weird character, necrons have no individuality because they have no soul per se, the are the extention of the C'tan's will), the chaos marine (bat-**** crazy guy of doom, rejoice at the coming of oblivion i beleive)and the orc(orcs in 40k are even more barbaric then in fantasy, aattack everything that walks as soon as you are bored, hard to kill, every bit of dead skin develops into a new squig/snotling/goblin/orc/squiggot depending of the shade) would be hard pressed to work together by themselves, to say nothing of with their racial foes. The eldar..... well who cares about eldars, they're space elves for crissake. What I would see is everyone lobotomised, or everyone worships chaos, that about all, oh they could be mind controlled by tyranids, but then you lose the necron.



Trust me...I'm very much aware.

Stephen_E
2007-05-11, 07:24 AM
Re: The Space Marine and the Chaos Marine.
Could be that they're related (Common gene seed? I vaguely recall something about Space Marines been bred!) with the Space Marine been the many generations descendant (sort of) of the Chaos Marine. Combined with them both been insurbordinate p***ks (they both walked out on their respective companies) this gives them a reason to work together.

Stephen

blackout
2007-05-11, 02:51 PM
Meh. Doubt it'll be capable of being pulled off. BUT, we're having fun. Just wasted an ex-IG Sentinel.

shaddy_24
2007-05-11, 08:36 PM
Seriously. A 40k Roleplay is not like many other games where a party of misfits from every race available is viable.

Space Marines are fanatical warriors, hell bent on their own superiority. They generally don't 'just want to see the universe'.

Traitor Marines are corrupt versions of the above. Think EGO to the power a million.

Orks are not welcome in human society and will likely be arested/shot on the spot.

etc.

A good 40k Roleplay would involve a party of ONE "race", possibly two. Here's a couple of examples of what might make a good game:

1)Strike Team of Marines - the players are a squad of Veteran Space Marines (or Scouts). The game is the various missions they go on. Think of the film 'Aliens' for how this sort of game could play. Also works for pretty much any of the "races" (Ork raiding party, Eldar Scouts, etc.). This is probably the closest you'll get to the game of 40k (with the armies, etc.)

2)Standard Sci-Fi, set in 40k - This is where all the players play humans (from a Hive maybe, or a bog-standard planet), from whatever walk of life (one persons a merchant, anothers a hired gun, etc.). The stereotypical Sci-Fi game is one where you're basically Trader/Explorers. You bog around in a ship, encountering weird stuff in deep space, occaisionally selling stuff to make ends meet. This is about the furthest from the game of 40k you can get. It is merely set in the 40k universe.



There is another way to see this. The IG and the Space Marines may be able to work together, maybe with an Eldar or Tau. The others are NEVER going to work. At least the IG and Marines are on the same team and will fight for the glory of the Emporer. The Eldar and Tau (and by extention Kroot) have a slim chance of agreeing if there is a lot at stake. The other races won't care one way or the other. Their first thought will be KILL!!!. And all others after that will be about the same.


Hey, thanks, Hazkali. And, as for characters, there are nine people in my group. One guy wanted to be a rogue Tyranid Hormagaunt, but the DM said no, so he made a character who is THINKING of turning himself over to Chaos, but hasn't done it yet. My character, will, of course, be a Tau. :) My buddy Phil wants to be the Tau's Kroot buddy, so that's covered. The other six members in the group want to be:

A moderately intelligent Ork who can actually speak like a human, and isn't anywhere near as brutal as the stereotype.

An ex-Imperial Guardsman who went AWOL and is now on the run.

A rogue Scout Marine of the Blood Ravens chapter who just wants to see what the universe is all about.

A trigger-happy Eldar.

A member of the Thousand Sons traitor legion that just wants to kill, forget the armies of Chaos.

And a(this is nuts)renegade Necron that developed individuality.

Oh. Oh. Oh good lord. You are all toast. This will be so fun to hear about. Please continue to post this. I want to see how this turns out. Now pardon me while I go laugh until I pass out.

Viscount Einstrauss
2007-05-11, 08:51 PM
I say, play this as absolutely over-the-top as possible, as it's going to devolve into hilarity anyway. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a funny campaign, and by god all the ingredients are all there.

blackout
2007-05-12, 12:26 AM
Ok, our resident Eldar just went and blew up the main reactor for the station, AFTER BEING TOLD NOT TO, and now we need to get to a ship and get off of the station. Turns out there are some obstacles...in the form of Space Marine Terminators. Yes, people, Terminators are teleporting onto the station, and are killing the ex-Guardsmen...and trying to kill us. As you can guess, at our levels, the only smart thing to do when confronted with whole squads of Terminators is to run. So, we're running, and we get ambushed by a half-dozen ex-IG Sentinels. The Sentinels and Terminators started killing each-other. We took this as our cue to get away. As of right now, we're on a ship, an old Imperial Guard Valkyrie, not Warp-capable, and the planet below is crawling with Space Marines and Chaos cults...So, naturally, we're bugging out for the planet.

blackout
2007-05-15, 03:57 PM
Ok, updates ladies and gents.

I bring dire news indeed. The Scout Marine got wasted.

We were pinned down by at least 60 cultists, all firing plasma rounds, grenades, and lasfire at a little bunker we broke into.

Full details follow.

Right when our ship made it planetside, we immediately abandoned the Valkyrie, which was damaged in the landing, thanks to anti-air fire from both sides of the Chaos/Space Marine conflict. We found a small Chaos bunker, and slagged the people inside it. Then, we dumped everything that we didn't deem useful(Chaos paraphenilia, dead bodies, decapitated heads, and so on.)out, and brought everything we could from the Valkyrie's crash site inside. The bunker began to serve as our primary base of operations until we could plan our next move.

Well, a Chaos patrol popped in, as this was apparently one of the checkpoints for their patrol route. When they were denied access, the opened fire on our doors and called for support. Our bunker's radar apparently says that an artillery piece of some kind is moving in.

Now, we're trapped by a small army of Chaos cultists, with armor coming in to support them.

As for how the Marine died, he apparently got twenty or so grenades to the head. Following that was an uncountable number of lasgun shots and plasma gun rounds.

Marine or no, that'll put a guy down for good.

:smallfrown: Alas poor Battle Brother Frep, your Emperor was not with you this day.

blackout
2007-05-18, 03:03 PM
Ok, the artillery's in position and is pounding us...well, more like pounding the dirt in a thirteen-meter radius around us. It keeps missing. Hopefully, it'll run out of shells to fire.

Any ideas, cus the shells are getting closer with every shot. A piece of shrapnel almost hit my character's head.

:smalleek: Please gimme some ideas, here!

Tweekinator
2007-05-18, 03:10 PM
Beg the Emperor's forgiveness for being a xeno and go with the "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" ending.
Or if you have a techpriest or equivalent with you, try to technowiz something up.

blackout
2007-05-18, 03:18 PM
....Yeah, first suggestion? Not so good. I don't think the Emperor's gonna care.

Number two? Closest thing we have to a techpriest is the Necron, and he has, quote unquote, suddenly felt the urge to feel more like a fleshbag, and will not create technology at the tip of a hat.

:smallannoyed:

Tweekinator
2007-05-18, 03:57 PM
Perhaps jury-rig something from all the stuff you brought from the crash site? Some kind of distraction, an armored vehicle, a bomb, deadly gas. Or perhaps use some the bunker's communication devices to have your IG guy radio the Space Marines telling them of Chaos infighting or something that would get them to attack and you can try to escape in the ensuing battle.

And leave the Necron to die if he won't help out.

blackout
2007-05-18, 04:19 PM
.............Nice.

Also, the Kroot just pushed the Necron out the door, he's getting gunned down by the cultists right now. :smallamused: This is fun.

Tweekinator
2007-05-18, 04:33 PM
Well, then the only thing I have left to suggest is curl up in a corner and hope it's a really strong bunker.

blackout
2007-05-18, 04:41 PM
Aaaaand Space Marines to the rescue...now we have to worry about being gunned down by Marines.

Tweekinator
2007-05-18, 09:27 PM
...Escape during the fight between the Marines and Chaos?

Narmoth
2007-05-19, 06:34 AM
A member of the Thousand Sons traitor legion that just wants to kill, forget the armies of Chaos.

And a(this is nuts)renegade Necron that developed individuality.

What? A thousand sons marine? As far as I know (haven't the book here, I'll look it up later) they are just trapped spirits inside their powerarmour. Generally, i don't think any chaos matine would be fitting in a group. You could try a Alpha Legion marine, but even those are unlikely candidates.

A necron that has been able to free himself from slavery uner the C'tan is actually in my oppinion, althrough farfeched, kind of cool backstory.

shaddy_24
2007-05-19, 02:05 PM
Personally, I can hardly believe you made it this far, so I'd celebrate that. If you actually want to survive, I'd make a run for it now. Try to stay away from anyone in power armor and bread any cultists that get in your way. Try to run away from where the heavy fighting is. If you're lucky, you may only hit a few deserters or late troops.

blackout
2007-05-19, 11:29 PM
Ok, we made it to another Chaos bunker and locked ourselves inside. Sadly, we had to leave our stuff from the ship's crash-site behind. We can hear the fighting, but their weaponsfire really isn't coming anywhere near us. We're planning on sneaking into a space marine camp and stealing a Thunderhawk or something. Oh, and the marine in our party's alive, as is the Necron. The Necron's pretty miffed, but thanks to his biomechanical-regenerative nature, he's ok. As for the marine...well, he was severely wounded and crawled to our location. We patched him up, and he should be ok in a few hours.

Bassetking
2007-05-20, 12:05 AM
I just can't wait to see what happens when your "Intelligent and not at all savage or barbaric" Orkyboy is standing with the group when all of a sudden...


WAAAGGGHHHHHH!!!

blackout
2007-05-20, 12:36 PM
Meh. He's already done that. It was one time, when we were running past the Chaos cultists and Space Marines that were killing eachother. He started chopping a cultist in half yelling

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!

Naturally, everyone stopped for a moment, stared at him, and then went back to killing eachother.