Warhammer & 40K RPGs Thread III: With Friends Like These, Who Needs Heresies?

[Blackhawk748]

Oh this is gonna be fun.

Firstly, heres their theme song, no they dont get any say

Secondly, everything Rizhail said. They will do insane off the wall things, one of them may beat someone to death with a bagpipe (i know i would). They all start acting like they are Gaunt'a Ghosts. In short prepare for madness!

Seeing hat you have you should be fine, you seem to have a solid outline there with room to maneuver in case they use their Plotbane Monkeywrench

[LeSwordfish]

Welcome to the wonderful world of actual tabletop DMing!

The scenarios you've posted sound like a lot of fun, but I'm going to give my one major piece of RL DM advice: expect that every plan you've come up with will go out the window. I know you've probably learned this from PbP, but it honestly goes double for RL gaming.

True true - a big benefit of Only War however is that you can only go so far off-track while still achieving your mission objectives - While I will run some more freeform sessions, those that say, for example, "blow up this bridge" can be reasonably reliably assumed to include an attempt to blow up a bridge. 25% chance, say.

-Make sure to give them some memorable NPCs amongst the Scintillans, someone who they actually like or at least respect; an NCO with a funny accent who actually likes their regiment or something.

Will do. Will talk about this more later- since posting i've defined some clearer ideas for the campaign overall, and this ties into that.

Even if you want to really stoke the fires of competition between the two regiments, it helps to humanize someone on the other side, because if not, this is a game and the players will happily let bad things happen to them (which often leads to complete derailing of the campaign and over the top antics, at least in my experience. But if you like that sort of thing, disregard the above advice )

My personal style tends far more towards "tell an interesting story and make interesting choices" than "bomb the poshos for giggles" so yes, definitely.

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-Rule of three: make sure there are at least 3 ways to solve any problem. While the players will likely provide more, they don't always, and may miss one or more of the solutions you've provided.

Good advice! I'm hoping the players will bring along some AT of their own, but an additional route or two could be useful as well - there's no reason the severans wouldn't have an extra cannon rigged to cover the bridge, or a extra box of tank mines in the back, or something. That aside, there's always the option of sending something lighter in instead. One disadvantage of human enemies is that there are fewer good boss fights.

---

So! Overall campaign structure. This is going to be, at a guess, 8-10 sessions, and i'll probably write a few more for the inevitable situation when only one player turns up.

• The players regiment, plus the scintillans, plus the Somethingth Something Big Artillery and a single Knight Freeblade, are deployed to Selene, a pleasure world on the edge of severan space. Both the Imperium and the Dominate want it because it's a good staging and flanking position, but the planet is just about to enter the hundred-year winter season of its orbit. Only one area of the planet will be habitable for this time - the capital city, heated by big geothermal generators. (So no, they can't just shell the planet and be done.)
  
  • Also on-planet: an archipelago full of feral orks. The dominate posted a naval fleet and a few fortresses around it to stop the orks from escaping, but have been steadily cutting back on this to redeploy the soldiers here to the imperium.
• Just before the game starts, a Chimera full of supplies for the Scintillans has been pinched. The scintillans blame the players' regiment - which is why they're such ********s early on, not just a class thing - and Commissar Dunsterville - a well-meaning but naive young Junior, the Scintillan discipline officer - has been tasked with finding it.
  
  • As part of investigating why the Scintillans are such pricks, the players will run into Dunsterville, who it'll be pretty easy to get the information out of - technically he's not meant to say, but he's an easy target for Decieve or Charm. Mystery: successfully set up. Likable idiot in the Scintillan ranks: planted.
• As the campaign progresses and the armies push through the city, more and more important gear is stolen - we can have a session or two with the players tasked with investigating this, so sessions less focussed on fighting. There is a Scintillan black market, as the players will discover, but they simply couldn't have stolen this much stuff, they're just a red herring. The final piece of kit to be stolen is the largest: The freeblade knight itself!
  
  • This turns out to be Ork Kommandos, working under the direction of a Big Mek who has arrived from offworld to shake up the ferals. The Big Mek has a kustom tellyporta large enough to transport vehicles, which he is using to steal the equipment. Fundamentally the Big Mek should get away from his encounters with the players, since he'll be back later. The orks can be used more if the players want silly, or less if not.
• As the campaign finishes, the last few sessions are given over to one big mega-mission as the imperium pushes through the city. The players are tasked with infiltrating deep into the city to kill the severan leader - however as they start to do so the Orks launch an all-out assault, spearheaded by the Mek's biggest contraption yet - a massive icebreaker built from the purloined goods and a stolen battleship. The players are sideways ordered to sneak aboard and destroy it, but while aboard the tide turns, the severans successfully counter-assault, and the players are trapped between two enemy forces and a ticking clock.
  
  • The only way off the battleship? The Big Mek's tellyporta - which is coincidentally attached at the time to his (now extensively kustomised) stolen imperial knight. Boss fight! The players kill the mek, steal the knight/the smoking ruins of the knight, and hopefully arrive at the severan leader's front door in a crashing, exploding, teleporting ork walker. Session ends.
• Final session: kill the severan leader, complete their mission, tea and crumpets and medals all around. (Yes, this one needs work, if only so as not to be overshadowed by the last.)

[blacklight101]

Well, congrats on getting a table game together as much organization as that takes. I think OW should be a good shot for your first time out, so to speak. My first was a game of RT that petered out (was having fun, just got a bit overwhelmed after a couple months) and FFG seems to put out a solid system for this sort of thing. It seems easier than d&d to a degree.

Seems like you have a relatively solid structure for the adventure so far and I know I cant wait to hear the after action reports. I cant give any real advice, what with my total lack of experience, but good luck nonetheless!

[Grim Portent]

I'm toying with the idea of running a Dark Eldar themed game using a modified version of Black Crusade, Only War and Rogue Trader all cobbled together, and I'm thinking of using the progression system from Black Crusade rather than the careers from Rogue Trader and I'm trying to think of some archetypes to use.

So far I'm thinking:

Mandrake (Stealth/Ritual) - special ability based on their shadow stepping.

Incubus (Melee combat, More melee combat) - not sure what to do for a special ability.

Trueborn Kabalite (Combat, Diplomacy) - Rerolls/Bonuses to command/charm/intimidate citizens of Commorragh.

Half-born Kabalite (Combat, Survival) - Rerolls/Bonuses to find/acquire rare goods, hidden information etc.

Scourge (Flying, Ranged Combat, Diplomacy) - once again not sure what to give as an ability. Flight alone seems insufficient since any DE could buy it in theory.

Reaver (Pilot, Mobility) - can use pilot tests instead of dodge while riding skyboards and similar equipment.

Haemonculus (Medicine, Lore, Tech-Use) - has the ability to gain 1d10 corruption points to stay alive as if burning a fate point.

Anyone got any ideas for DE archetypes I've missed or got any ideas for a special ability for Scourges and Incubi?

I haven't forgotten about Wyches by the way, I'm just not sure how to best represent them, maybe as a variant of the two Kabalites or something.

[The Glyphstone]

Some sort of hit-and-run or Spring Attack-like ability for Scourges, perhaps?

Incubi are most famous for being skilled bodyguards, in addition to melee combat. Maybe some sort of ability to intercede for melee attacks against nearby allies?

[Tychris1]

For Scourges you could go the Ratling way and give them added agility, reduced toughness, and Flight that scales off agility. Maybe some kind of reputation ability since killing a Scourge is a capital offense to the Dark Eldar.

As for what other Archetypes you might have missed, maybe a Beastmaster.

[Grim Portent]

Some sort of hit-and-run or Spring Attack-like ability for Scourges, perhaps?

Incubi are most famous for being skilled bodyguards, in addition to melee combat. Maybe some sort of ability to intercede for melee attacks against nearby allies?

Maybe something like 'While flying under it's own power a Scourge may make a Half Move action in addition to any attack actions made in the same turn, even it it would exceed the normal amount of actions they can make in a turn' so a Scourge could charge and then fly straight up, or fly by with a full auto splinter weapon barrage.

For Incubi maybe something like 'An Incubi may parry melee attacks aimed at allies within a distance equal to it's agility bonus in meters. This uses the Incubi's Reaction for the round. The Incubus parries after the targeted ally reacts to the attack. When an Incubus attempts to parry an attack it must move adjacent to the targeted ally'

For Scourges you could go the Ratling way and give them added agility, reduced toughness, and Flight that scales off agility. Maybe some kind of reputation ability since killing a Scourge is a capital offense to the Dark Eldar.

As for what other Archetypes you might have missed, maybe a Beastmaster.

How did I forget Beastmasters?

Probably best represented by making them minionmasters. Let their minions use their Willpower stat and get a bonus to hit while near them as long as the have the Bestial trait.

EDIT: Thinking about it, since balance isn't really practical in Black Crusade, let alone a Dark Eldar homebrew, something based on Grotesques might be fun as an archetype. Sort of like the Ogryn from Only War, but even dumber. Perhaps with an ability that lets them 'roid out for a while but also makes them explode if they die.

'A Grotesque can enter a state of rage for a number of rounds equal to their Willpower bonus by spending a fate point. While in this state the Grotesque doubles it's Strength, Toughness and Agility bonuses, not including Unnatural Characteristics. If the Grotesque dies while in this state it's altered physiology drives it into a blind rampage immediately prior to death. All possible targets within 5 meters must pass a -20 dodge test or be struck by the abomination's flailing limbs, dealing a number of wounds equal to the sum of the Grotesques' modified Strength and Toughness Bonuses, plus any weapon damage bonuses and relevant melee talents. The Grotesque may then burn fate points to survive death as normal.'

[The Glyphstone]

That'd work. Or, if you wanted a more Flyby Attack feel, have them get a free Standard Attack against one enemy they come into range of during a Full Move or Run action. Exclusive talents could improve the number of attacks they're allowed to make or the number of enemies they can attack, if that's a think in BC (talents with a particular Special Ability as a prerequisite).

For the Incubi, their parry could be upgraded to have retaliation attack bonuses, or riposte counterattacks.

[Grim Portent]

What I'll probably do is have a flyby talent chain that builds up to the same ability as the Scourges have, but have Scourges themselves start with it and let other characters take it if they have grafted on wings or use Hellion skyboards.

Think I'll just add a counterattack to the Incubi on a successful parry attempt.



Trying to decide if haemonculi services (grafts, body mods, weapon implants) should cost experience or be services that are requisitioned like augmetics.

[bluntpencil]

What I'll probably do is have a flyby talent chain that builds up to the same ability as the Scourges have, but have Scourges themselves start with it and let other characters take it if they have grafted on wings or use Hellion skyboards.

Think I'll just add a counterattack to the Incubi on a successful parry attempt.



Trying to decide if haemonculi services (grafts, body mods, weapon implants) should cost experience or be services that are requisitioned like augmetics.

You could have them be both, and have them replicate Ad-Mech abilities and bionics respectively.

[The Glyphstone]

Okay, now I'm the one who needs advice, as I am taking over GM of my Rogue Trader group next week.

The campaign arc I have planned has two loose 'main' plots, running in parallel or different directions, and both ending up at the same point.

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Plot 1 starts with the NPC Rogue Trader of the dynasty dying. The players are tasked with locating his heir and bringing them back to take up the Trader's role. The problem is that said heir is missing; for safety, they were sent into the Imperial Navy under a false identity, but they haven't been heard from in several years.

With the false name in hand, they have a few options to pick up the trail, from the Port Wander Administratum to visiting Fleet Base Metis and asking the Navy directly, but the trail will lead to Footfall where the ship stopped to resupply before going on patrol in the Expanse. One option I have for them to pick up the next breadcrumb would be tracking down a deserter from the ship, who went AWOL instead of moving onward, and they have pre-existing friends in the Ecclesiarchy due to previous adventures who might have information, but I could use at least one more way to get each of the above breadcrumbs, as per the Rule of Three.

However they get the information, it tells them that the cruiser was going to a remote system to investigate a number of reported disappearances of ships visiting the mining facilities there. Arriving, they'll pick up the automated distress beacon left behind by the cruiser,and close to pick it up just in time to be warned about the Void Kraken they found in the area - which attacks. One of our problems with the pregen modules has been the boring nature of space combat, so battling a (wounded) Void Kraken will be a nice shakeup.

Next comes the system that the crippled cruiser jumped to. Here they'll find another beacon attached to the gutted wreck of the Cruiser itself, cold and empty and dead. This is where the pirates happened to encounter it, overwhelming it and capturing its crew as slaves with the officers taken to their secret base below.

The ending of this plot features a pirate base, where their Trader-Designate and numerous other captives from various ships are being kept captive. His cover is intact, so the pirates intend on ransoming him back to his (imaginary) noble family. The party might just buy his freedom, but they'll probably go for the actiony smash-and-grab rescue instead.

What I need are ideas for a few reliable ways to get them from Location A4, the site of the wrecked Cruiser, to the Pirate Base for their rescue.



Plot 2 starts effectively parallel with plot 1 - an angry scene with another Rogue Trader reveals to them that someone is staging atrocities and pirate attacks around the Expanse and loudly declaring themselves to be vassals of the Dynasty while doing so. They are clearly being framed, but the challenge is to figure out who, and prove their innocence before 'their' pirates upset too many faction or powerful figures.

As with 1, the first scene here is on Port Wander, with the Rogue Trader whose colony world was raided by the 'dynasty privateers'. The simplest way to throw the breadcrumb is to assume the party face (either of them) succeeds in talking the Trader down and agreeing to help, and I expect them to do so. If something goes drastically wrong, they can get the information from bar rumors.

Location 2 here is the colony world that got attacked. Depending on how they dealt with the Trader, the locals might be either friendly or hostile, but the 'pirates' left blatant, intentional evidence of the next system on their attack list. It's a trap, but I'd like some suggestions on how to leave these clues around where the party can find them in a way, preferably some that make the trap obvious and at least one that doesn't (the easiest to find).

Location 3 is the ambush site, with a few easy pirates and the BBEG of the arc, who turns out to be the heir and daughter of Hadarak Fel, the Rogue Trader they met during the introductory adventure (and who we ended up killing by shooting his engines and letting him ram an asteroid). She's out for blood and vengeance, arranging things to ruin the Dynasty's reputation and kill the Rogue Trader (whose actual death is still, hopefully, a secret), but at this point her role is to gloat a bit then run away while the pirate ships attack. Everyone involved is in Raider-sized hulls, and I can finagle the starting distances to ensure she escapes.

Location 4 is another raider attack. Not sure who gets attacked here, but it'll be someone with even more clout than the previous. Depending on timing, the party might actually get here fast enough to intervene and protect whoever it is.

The end location for this arc is the same Pirate Base, who are the freebooters Trader Fel hired to be her pawns. She has no idea that her mortal enemy's heir is being held captive here, but it's still a fairly well-defended place, and how difficult the attack is will depend on which allies the party has made.

What I need here is a way to point the party from Location 3 to Location 4, and if necessary to Point 5. I don't want to assume the party captures any pirates (our Raider is fairly well-armed for its size), so while they might get captives, I'd like another way for them to follow the pirate trail. I do have a contingency here in that they can just wait until they hear of another raider attack in their name, but that's a last-resort, and doesn't solve how they can get from 4 to 5.

And while I'm here, I could definitely use ideas for random 'side quests' to distract them with shinies and/or pad out the adventure length.

So, suggestions or ideas?

If it's relevant, the party currently consists of:
-Seneschal, party face
-Arch-Militant, sniper and bolter expert
-Missionary, backup face and melee fighter
-Explorator (with the Arch-Heretek alt rank from Hostile Acquisitions), unknown party focus other than tech-expert
-one unknown from a new, incoming player (not Rogue Trader or Navigator)

[shadow_archmagi]

I got invited to an Only War game. Given my herd of beefs with Rogue Trader, I'm interested to see if Only War is any more refined. I'm already really pleased with the game so far though, and I'm only partway through character creation.

1. Make a character with critically low willpower, but high charisma
2. Take the special abilities that give allies bonuses against fear and morale
3. Catastrophically fail all fear and morale tests yourself
"It's okay captain, don't cry. Listen, we're gonna go fight the hellspawn and then be right back, okay? It's gonna be fine."
*sniffle*
"Am I good Captain?"
"Yeah buddy you're doing great."

[blacklight101]

That does sound rather fun, I would love to get a table game of OW going if I can. Not now, but maybe soon.

[Blackhawk748]

"It's okay captain, don't cry. Listen, we're gonna go fight the hellspawn and then be right back, okay? It's gonna be fine."
*sniffle*
"Am I good Captain?"
"Yeah buddy you're doing great."

Best. Captain. Ever.

[LeSwordfish]

Lets do a session report!

The Selenian Immortals, Session One: Operation Shieldbreaker
The players enthusiastically roll up a mixed regiment: They're playing a combination highborn/feral regiment (oh god) with the Light Infantry type. The highborn are the Selenian Immortals, the last few hundred survivors from one of the regiments originating from the world they're fighting to save. The ferals are an unnamed regiment of techno-barbarians that have been hired into the immortals: their technicians have quasi-mystical status and they've taken the Close Quarters Battle doctrine, meaning that they're running around in carapace armour.

They're deployed to Selene, a pleasure world going into an ice age, alongside the Scintillan Grenadiers, who are even more posh and highborn, and the Gudrunite Bombardiers, a regiment of heavy artillery. When the campaign starts, the players have been on-world for eight months, repeatedly failing to take the river crossings into the city.

The campaign starts with the players in the camp followers area of the encampment. Thanks to scheduling issues, we've only got three players right at the start.

• Sargeant McAllister - One of the highborn, and both the nicest and highest Fellowship in the group. McAllister is pretty typical nice sargeant, and his player is one of the more experienced roleplayers around.
• Wei Thorn - Melee weapon Weapon Specialist. Doesn't talk much. Sniffs things - one of the more ferals of the ferals. Runs around with a chainsword.
• Spiritseer Ossian - Operator, in the quasi-mystic fashion i said. Doesn't talk at all, instead communicating through his comrade, a servo-skull.

The session starts with these three together in the camp when the drill rig and it's escort of Scintillans moves through. They note that the Scintillans are unusually dickish today, including their corporal, LeVillian, spitting on Ossian. I was expecting a direct confrontation, but Ossian instead follows the group and crit succeeds on a Sleight Of Hand roll to pick the corporal's pocket. The Corporal is a named character and fully statted, so his stealable objects are all there, and Ossian picks his Hand Cannon. Sargeant McAllister decides to let it go. This is a surprise - the "stuff is being stolen" subplot is stillborn, it seems...

With their free time, the players split up. Thorn demands a fighting pit: there's probably one around, so she rocks up there and demands to fight "the biggest guy there." I shrug, add 5 strength and toughness to the standard Imperial Guardsman profile, and have them fistfight. She's only got 2 toughness bonus so goes down to fatigue within a few rounds of all-out attacks, and wakes up outside in the snow, devoid of the beer chit she offered to gamble with but with the rest of her gear intact, because she's a good customer. McAllister spars with a fellow highborn, picking up a few bruises, and Ossian decides to find someone around the camp to help, deciding to fix the heater at Jacks, the local unofficial bar. In exchange Jack agrees to put a good word in with Ted Brunch, the ratling head of the local black market.

Two more players arrive, and it's time for the briefing.

• Notch Torque is a heavy gunner, a typically massive man with a high BS, a pile of Weapon Training skills, and a Heavy Flamer. His player is new to RP in general but gets really into it - and since his sheet mentions that he has a sister on-world, i've got big things planned for him.
• Galad is a weapon specialist with a shotgun, and all his talents devoted to running up close and shooting people with it. I don't have a sheet from him but his player is an experienced RPer and also gets really into it. Said player is ex-military, which is a little intimidating to run a military game for.

They're given a mission to travel through the transit tunnels below the city and attack a fortification on the riverbank from behind. They have to spike the fortification's guns, so they're given demolition charges, rebreathers, and they get an additional box of needle rifle rounds. Before they set off on the mission, they head off to trade the needle rounds. Ossian goes to Ted and swaps half of them for hand cannon shells, while Notch attempts to trade the rest for flamer fuel but fails. Before they leave, Ted makes an offhand comment: strange that Ossian is buying hand cannon rounds after someone has come to him demanding the return of a stolen hand cannon. Funny, that. (Subplot is back on!)

On the mission they head into the tunnels. They do a very complex official-seeming method of scouting, and when they come across the civilians that i placed in the tunnel as a social encounter, Galad opens fire. He misses, however, and they surrender. He's already shot so the point of this encounter - shots will alert the Severans upstairs - is missed and instead its a simple "what do we do with these poor refugees" situation - they tie them up and leave them.

It becomes time for the attack. Just before they attack, one more player arrives.

16 - A highborn stormtrooper. I havent seen much of her character yet, but she arrives via botched grav-chute, crashing through the roof of a nearby station.

Once again I misremember how long-range flamers are, and Notch does most of the damage, taking out the heavy bolter nest and more than half the severans alone, despite being pinned. Thorn and Galad charge up into close combat with the survivors: thorn gets taken down into the low criticals with Lasfire, but gets up and slices her attacker in half anyway. The enemy with the grenade launcher misses twice, jams his gun, and the last few severans flee. The players rig their frag grenades up to destroy the guns so they get to keep the charges, and untie the civilians as an afterthought.

Next session: The players move up to support the push into the docklands, Ted Brunch calls in his favour, and the regimental rivalry gets a little more tense, in our next mission: Operation Spearhead.

[Incorrect]

Thank you for the report Swordfish, great writing and just what I needed on this dull monday.
It always surprises me how good equipment guardsmen start with. I am likewise surprised that your players didn't attempt to carry all the captured heavy weapons with them back.

[blacklight101]

Seems like you have a good game going so far and I look forward to more writeups of your sessions.

[LeSwordfish]

I in fact have one right now! It turned out really long.

Mission Two: Operation Spearhead
The players return from their previous mission and are immediately set to the task of defending the forward command post while Thorn (melee trooper) and Galad (scout) are patched up. Galad is recovered to full wounds, but Thorn only recovers a few. They're then given over to the command of Sargeant Gruber, a gudrunite from the artillery regiment, and given their next mission: accompany Gruber and his spotter team near to a severan fortification, help them call in a Manticore bombardment on the encampment, and extract. Ossian (quasi-mystical tech, speaks only through his servo-skull comrade) requests to drive the Salamander and is shut down hard by Gruber. The squad resolves to murder Gruber.

They accompany the team and their salamander over to the vantage point, a conductor's building in a railway yard overlooking the encampment. They sneak up at the target building using the lip of a frozen dock, and try and deal with the two guards - they make a complicated plan with a charge under covering fire and smoke, and McAllister (highborn sargeant) flunks the command test to implement it meaning that Galad and Notch (heavy weapons guy, carting around heavy flamer) get pinned. Some great long-range shooting by Thorn - this whole battle was at ranges of hundreds of meters - including a couple of successful hits from Suppressing Fire - recovers it and forces the pinning guard back - Galad chops the other's leg off with a greataxe and fills the doorway with blood. Notch has to make a willpower test to not murder the remaining guard: he fails and sprints upstairs to find him. The other guard is overwatching the staircase and shoots semi-auto at Notch from close-range... his gun jams. Notch grins broadly, and subjects him to a long slow cooking with the heavy flamer.

They move up the tower. From here they can see it's a proper big fortification: Concrete walls, emplaced guns, and a trio of Leman Russ tanks. Gruber and his team start setting up their spotting equipment, and the players make a plan for defending the tower, including the Salamander out in the open with Notch manning the autocannon, mining a gantry to come down, and Galad on the roof. It's at about this point they get a vox-message for Ossian.

The message is from Ted Brunch (ratling, head of the black market). Ted is planning on calling in his favour from not telling the Scintillans that Ossian stole LeCour's pistol: nip across the road and collect the client list from Helican Shipping, a luxury shipping company. Ossian, speaking as always through his servo-skull, looks to McAllister for guidance: McAllister devotes some time to swearing. Galad objects, but Ted reminds him that larceny on McAllister's watch is a very big deal, and they accede, sending Ossian and Thorn across the road into the Helican Shipping office. They break in and go searching for the files, finding a cogitator which they can set to print out the data.

While this is happening, Gruber announces that the missiles have been prepped and will be launched in five minutes. This is all well and good, but then they start hearing the thump of colossal footsteps, big enough to shake the building kilometers away - and then an imperial knight comes crashing through a warehouse wall. A chainblade the length of a chimera is in one hand: the other holds a massive battle cannon and an incandescent energy shield. The knight - rebellious freeblade Demetrius - brings it's shield up, puts it's head down, and charges - straight into the encampment and the target zone of the missiles.

Notch rolls a Common Lore (War) test: a full Manticore bombardment will paste the knight fairly quickly. They instruct the vox-op in the salamander to call command and cancel the bombardment... he picks up the vox-horn and immediately has his brain-pan evacuated by a sniper. Notch - also in the salamander - hops over the front and hides: but the vox is damaged and inoperable. Notch sticks his head out and the sniper misses him by three, putting a heavy dent into the Salamander. Galad and McAllister get Gruber and the remainder of his team into cover and consider their options. They bounce through several ideas in quick succession and I don't need to shoot down any of them - shoot the knight to get its attention? It's already taking heavy fire and wouldn't even notice. Drive over in the Salamander? Good luck getting in without taking a hit. Notch makes a sprint back from the Salamander and the sniper takes a snap shot, hitting with a couple of extra degrees and knocking Notch down to 0 wounds in one hit.

Gruber insists that the players stop the bombardment - it's his arse on the line if the knight gets destroyed. Galad asks Gruber for ideas and they get into a screaming match - what do you expect us to do? McAllister and Galad call for a retreat, but Ossian - a lover of tech - goes a little wild at the idea, and starts using his servo-skull to scream "The knight must be saved" over and over again. They call the nearest imperial forces on their microbeads and are answered by a Scintillan Sargeant named Valentine. They make their case to Valentine and Valentine says...

"You're the Selenians, yes? The ferals?"

"Yes."

"Sorry, sounds like my connection is breaking up. Can't help you."

Time for an interaction test - McAllister Commands Valentine - we saved your arse at the bridges! and the vox will be recorded - there's no way you'll get away with this! He rolls - seventy. Fate re-roll - ninety. Both fail. Valentine scoffs at them, obviously fakes a vox error and - before shutting down for good - tells them. "This is what you get, isn't it?"

So no can do on that! New ideas... can they try and shoot back at the sniper? This is what i'm expecting from them - a bit of covering fire - but McAllister shoots it down - with the Damage it did to Notch, the toughest in the squad, the others could easily get one-shot. A new idea, from Ossian - does the building he's in with Thorn have a vox? He rolls on his auspex to find it, fails, re-rolls and succeeds. He sprints upstairs to find it, leaving Thorn to collect Ted's client data. He finds the vox - it's broken. Rolls to repair... fails by one.

A funk falls over the table. That's it. They're out of idea. They don't have a way... Ossian checks his gear. "What does a MIU do?" It makes you pass that test, it does. One minute left: Vox is done. Ossian uses his voice for the first time in years instead of his servo-skull, and begs command to call off the strike. They do! The knight is saved.

They give the mic to Gruber, who calls the strike instead on the sniper's area. That's pretty close - better to be further away. Missiles launch - time to leave. Galad, Notch, and McAllister rope down from the top of the tower with Gruber and his driver - McAllister flunks the rope roll and twists his ankle, but then passes the command test to co-ordinate the retreat. They pop smoke, and then blow the mined gantry for cover - that brings half the building down - Thorn grabs the data for Ted and runs for it, leaping away as the building collapses, and they take cover just before the missiles hit, turning half the dockyards to rubble.

That's the end of the session proper, but they take the chance to loot the Helican warehouse, claiming a considerable amount of high-grade amasec for themselves. They also resolve next session to - and they're really serious about it - murder Sargeant Valentine.

Next session: The players investigate the emnity of the Scintillans, watch a Basilisk vanish from right under their noses, and meet the other villains of the campaign.

[Blackhawk748]

Ok, so im gonna be running a Deathwatch game in the near future, and while i know where i want it to go, im not sure how to begin.

The main antagonists of this campaign will be Hive Fleet Banshee. Banshee is a splinter of Behemoth, but has mutated in the extreme since it broke off. Instead of the usual "Unstoppable Juggernaut" approach of Behemoth, Banshee goes for a more subtle approach. All of its organisms rely on stealth to get into an advantageous position, and then blitzkrieg the opposition, relying on the suddenness of the attack to see them through. This coupled with Banshee's tendency to eat out of the way uninhabited planets, and to use smaller ships in its Hive Fleet have allowed it to go unnoticed for this long.

This has changed recently. Banshee has subsumed a small Kracken Splinter Fleet, and with that has gained access to Eldar DNA. This has allowed it to begin creating Neurothropes of significant power. Combined with Banshee's swift assaults on poorly defended worlds, this has thrown the Northern section of Ultima Segmentum into chaos. So the Deathwatch has sent a detachment to help deal with the problem.

So thats Hive Fleet Banshee, they are nasty and have a tendency to do Sneak Attacks, as well as loving Psychic Shriek. In short, they are nasty. While i want to run my PCs onto a Space Hulk, i dont feel like thats an appropriate way to begin, as they would probably spend a fair amount of time on it. So im open to ideas for where they should begin.

PCs are:
Blood Ravens Librarian
Silver Skulls Tyrannic War Vet Tactical Marine (Sarge)
Salamanders Devastator (Heavy Bolter and Heavy Flamer)

[Tome]

Hmm... drop podding into a hot zone to extract an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor who was researching the 'nids? Throw in, I don't know, a psychic Lictor as a surprise but otherwise keep the nid opposition fairly low key - the planet is still contested. Bonus objectives could include getting samples from the psychic Lictor and noticing that one of the Inquisitor's retinue has been infected by genestealers. Gives you an NPC to use later too.

Subsequent missions could then include some strikes on high priority targets to support the fight on the ground or more extraction missions to pull out valuable assets. Oh! Or maybe the Imperial advance is being halted by some nasty guerilla strikes from nids hiding in a swamp that just so happens to be tactically significant in some way and the PCs get asked (nicely) to help root out the dug in xenos so the guard can roll in.

Alternatively, a decapitation strike on a genestealer cult located on a planet that's just about to be hit by Banshee in order to keep the cult from weakening imperial defences. If either the Magus or Patriarch get away then the cult becomes a future problem.

[LeSwordfish]

Session Three

Only three players show up for this session because it's an unusual time - Galahad (the scout, who is called Galahad not Galad, whoops), Notch (heavy gunner with heavy flamer), and Ossian (technical Operator). These three are the more larcenous of the group, with Galahad referring to himself as an "ex-pirate." They sit down to make some plans. #1: Murder sargeant Valentine. All good, what I was expecting - if I can slow them down on that then it can happen in accordance with the planned plot. #2 Murder Ted Brunch and take over the black market. Um. Ah. I don't really want them doing that - Ted's too powerful to hand his powers to the players, and while having him as an opponent would be fun, that should be in a political way where he's strong, not in a shootout where he's, well, a ratling.

Negotiations With Ted
They talk themselves out of this fairly quickly though (and by the end of the session I have a contingency plan for Ted's death set up), and instead decide to start, two days after the end of their last mission, by trying to sell the Helican Shipping client data back to a Helican Shipping representative and to Ted, and pick up twice the reward. Unfortunately I can't really see how anyone from Helican - a civilian company mostly based behind enemy lines - would be hanging around on camp - so that doesn't happen, and instead they head over to Ted's. Ted has beefed up his security recently with Grunt, an ogryn, and Rosie, another ratling, plus a group of toughs, and they have to leave their weapons at the door. This successfully dissuades them from trying any funny business.

First thing first: provide the Helican Shipping information. In return, as well as, like, not being blackmailed, they request the opportunity to continue working with Ted. Galahad pretends not to speak Gothic so they can chat in their native language in front of Ted, and they decide to work with Ted, largely in order to betray him later. "Later" is good enough for me. They make a set of trades for the loot from their last mission - Galahad gets an autogun and some manstoppers, Ossian Forearm Mounts his purloined Hand Cannon, and Notch trades almost every scrap of everything he has for a down-payment on a meltagun.

Ted then gives them their task: investigate the hatred the Scintillans have for the player's regiment. It's bad for business, Ted says, and he makes a suggestion for where to go first: Lucius Mayford-Dunsterville, the naive, well-meaning commissar of the Scintillan Regiment. Pausing only to attempt some requisition rolls, the players head off to find Lucius. They decide to do their research first, and they hire Sargeant Gruber, a gudrunite sargeant who's career they saved last session, to investigate. Gruber is happy to help, and says he'll return in a couple of hours.

The Vanishing Chimera
As these couple of hours start, they're met by Notch's sister, Sylvia. Sylvia has lost a chimera - or, more precisely, had it stolen. She walked out to get lunch, and when she returned the chimera she had been working on has been driven around the corner into an alleyway - from which the tracks stop abruptly, as if the chimera has vanished into thin air. The squad searches the area for a while and finds... nothing. The chimera has vanished into thin air. It looks as if a heavy bladed weapon was used to break the lock on the door, and they find a large, tusk-like tooth in the snow outside. The building next door is the Munitorum, and they head inside to talk to the clerk. She didn't hear anything. They show her the tooth, and she gives it a long suspicious look before taking it and telling them to leave. They decide it's above their pay grade, and head off to meet the Commissar - not before providing Sylvia with a hefty punch in the face so she can pretend to have been knocked out.

Meeting Mayford-Dunsterville
Gruber gives them all the information he's collected on Mayford-Dunsterville - he's a bit of a soft touch as a commissar, newly-minted, very keen on both the rules and regulations and the imperial creed. He can also be found outside the mess hall right now. They move over to meet him there, and as they arrive he hastily stuffs a message chit into his pocket.

Galahad sets to furiously buttering Mayford-Dunsterville up, while Notch pretends not to speak Low Gothic, giving them an excuse to talk openly. They consider Mayford-Dunsterville an icon, they love him so much... as they do with all the Scintillans! But the scintillans won't talk to them - why could this be, Commissar? Could they please be told why? This was originally a social encounter but with all the social characters missing I have to fudge things a bit - Mayford-Dunsterville mutters something about inter-regimental difficulties and, Notch notices, gently touches the chit in his pocket. And so, the scam begins. Galahad shuffles sideways, forcing Mayford-Dunsterville to turn slightly to follow him in the middle of his long list of recommendations, and makes a charm test to directly ask what the cause of the rivalry is. He flunks this, of course - he has fellowship 24 - but by so much that Mayford-Dunsterville goes into Strict Teacher mode, distracting him sufficiently for Ossian to pick his pocket. Ossian rolls, fails, re-rolls, and gets a natural one. Not only does he get the chit from the Commissar's pocket, but he also finds a ring of keys. He takes those too, and they bid the commissar behind and leave hurriedly.

The message alludes to Scintillan supplies going missing, and commands the commissar to keep this information private, as a matter of regimental honour. They have a long discussion as to what to do about the keys, and decide that first they want to steal the information from Mayford-Dunsterville's office. It's right in the middle of the Scintillan part of the camp so first they have to brazen their way over there (passed Fellowship test), then distract bystanders while they break in. They do this by having Notch loudly talk in the feral language and soon he gathers a small crowd of patronising nobles. Inside the commissar's office they remember they can't read, but take a copy of everything with the color of the message chit, and then leave in a hurry. On the way out they are stopped, and they explain that they were searching for the commissar.

The Second Meetings
They head back to their sergeant, who can read, and find from the message chits that massive amounts of Scintillan gear have been going missing - and that Mayford-Dunsterville is just about the only person in the regiment who doesn't automatically believe that the player's regiment is responsible. This is plenty enough information for Ted, so they head over to him, and on the way they're stopped by Mayford-Dunsterville, accompanied by a Scintillan sargeant. He heard that they were looking for him? Galahad thinks fast and provides the commissar with his knife, telling him it's one of their world's traditions for a valued mentor. Mayford-Dunsterville is very grateful.

"Well, of course, should you wish to see a fine example of imperial soldiery, allow me to introduce -"

"Oh **** you, GM," one player says, "It's Valentine, isn't it?"

It is indeed. The players are formally introduced to Sargeant Valentine, who is the soul of politeness, despite having recently deliberately ignored their calls for help and trying to get them disgraced. Galahad drops enough hints that Valentine figures out who they are, and needles the sargeant gently before bidding them goodbye - Valentine with the sincere hope to work with him again too. Last thing that needs to be done - see what Ted will give them for the commissar's office keys.

When Ted is presented with the office keys, he's incredibly pleased. These are prime larceny material. In exchange, he offers to cut them in on a big score he's got planned - a chimera-load of supplies for the officer's mess, that will be sitting unguarded in the motor pool tomorrow night. All they have to do is go in there and collect them... what could possibly go wrong?

Next time: We get to the bit of this session that there wasn't time for, and it all goes wrong.

[Blackhawk748]

Hmm... drop podding into a hot zone to extract an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor who was researching the 'nids? Throw in, I don't know, a psychic Lictor as a surprise but otherwise keep the nid opposition fairly low key - the planet is still contested. Bonus objectives could include getting samples from the psychic Lictor and noticing that one of the Inquisitor's retinue has been infected by genestealers. Gives you an NPC to use later too.

Hmmm, this gives me an idea. They can land in the area where the Inquisitors ship went down. Upon arriving they find out that the bulk freighter he was on was infested with Genestealers and then try to locate him. *insert Space Hulk jokes* They find him holed up in one of the smaller holds with a few of the ships compliment left, who have all been getting a crash course in holding the line.

After they rescue him the party gets told about some of this Hive Fleet's peculiarities. One of these is a homebrewed Nid.

Im currently calling it a Revanthrope, as it resembles a Ravener but has Psychic powers like a Zoanthrope. This is where i got the idea. Basically the Revanthrope serves as a forward Synapse creature, saboteur, and assassin, as well as a supplement to the Lictor.

Typically Revanthropes operate in broods of 3 and, in a typical Tyranid invasion, serve as the vanguards heavy weapons. Once the invasion is in full swing they serve as a sort of in-between for Zoanthropes and Raveners, as they can do Psychic/Synapse stuff (though not as good as Zoanthropes) and can burrow and destroy priority targets (though Raveners are faster and are more capable in melee)

Im totally gonna use the Psychic Lictor as their first boss. Sorta the prototype to the Revanthropes.

[blacklight101]

Realized I had been away for a couple weeks and had to come back and see if you posted another session or two, LeSwordfish. Your group seems to have some crazy plans just like any good group should. A really good read too. Keep writing them up, I know i'll be back for more.

[LeSwordfish]

Session Four! The One Where It All Goes Wrong

Three people are here today: Galahad (scout, ex-pirate, dreams of taking over the black market), McAllister (Sargeant Tim Nice-But-Dim), and Ossian (Mystical technician, speaks through his servo-skull. They've been tasked by Ted Brunch, leader of the black market, with heading in to the regimental motor pool and looting a chimera full of officer supplies - amasec, cigars, fancy weapons, and comfortable chairs. This is more dangerous than usual since supplies for the rival scintillan regiment have been going missing: including, the other day, a vehicle which vanished into mid air.

They discuss for a moment and decide to keep things as quiet as possible by leaving most of their weapons behind, taking only carbines, "hand weapons" and Galahad's autogun. Watch the definition of "hand weapon" there. They approach cautiously and find the side door unlocked. They don't notice anything strange in this. They head inside and scan for heat signatures: Ossian flunks his perception and the enemies pass, so they find nothing unusual.

McAllister hangs back by the door in case anyone comes through. Ossian and Galahad move up to the chimera - the only lit-up area in the darkness. They open the chimera's rear ramp and a brilliant orange glow spills out...

It's beautiful. Cases of amasec, boxes of cigars- it's so full they can't even see whats in half of it. They start discussing how to carry it... and mid-sentence I interrupt them.

With heavy *chunk* noises, one by one the harsh strip lights come on down the motorpool. You are pinned to the ground, out in the open, like insects. High above on a raised gantry, ten Scintillan soldiers have their rifles aimed at the squad. Leading them is Commissar Mayford-Dunsterville (the only person in the regiment who likes the PCs.)

"Oh trooper Galahad, trooper Ossian... how disappointing..."

The PCs drop their weapons and Galahad moves forward, hands raised. There's some decent on-the-spot improvisation here - oh we're just poor fools who found an unlocked door- but especially with the Scintillan sargeant whispering in his ear, Mayford-Dunsterville isn't convinced. He instructs his men to take the PC's prisoner... and a little red dot appears on his forehead. A similar one appears on Ossian's head. A voice speaks from the shadows faraway down the hall: Ted's.

"Evening Gents. Looks like you folks are arguin' over my prize."

Ted quickly indicates his plan to kill everyone in the place and take the chimera for himself. Galahad tries to talk him down from this (and just avoids using his name) but Ted refuses. Mayford-Dunsterville passes a willpower check to not be cowed, and starts a countdown: if Ted doesn't stand down on three, he'll order his men to return fire. Three... Two... Galahad waits until One to interrupt...

"Please, Commissar, stranger... we can end this peacefully. Nobody's fired a shot yet."

I decide that i'm never gonna get a better cue than that: the rear door to the motorpool explodes inwards as if hit by a tank shell. The explosion clips the Chimera, rolls it back, and knocks, Ossian down. Through the hole in the door storms four orks - one is massive, easily twice the size of a man, and armed with a weapon that crackles and sparks with arcs of electricity, as well as a primitive force-field projector array on his back: this is the Big Mek. The three behind him are less massive, and armed with only pistols and blades, and wearing clothes that are nearly parodies of stealth gear - primitive camoflage, masks and bandannas, and silencers on their pistols that look like they would do nothing of the such. Several more similarly-dressed orks drop through the ceiling vents - several onto the gantries near Ted and the scintillans, one onto a rack of shelving next to Ossian, and one next to McAllister. At this point we discover that McAllister left his Chainsword behind and is expected to kill a Kommando with a knife. Oh.

With a thunderous WAAAGH the Mek charges, surrounded by the Kommandos. All three take Fear tests - Galahad passes, but Ossian and McAllister both earn a -10 to all rolls and an inability to approach the Mek. The combat then goes as follows:

• Ted and Rosie - the ratling accompanying him - are attacked by the Kommando Nob, who they kill with close-range rifle shots. Rosie then blasts an ork off Ossian, but is killed when a second Kommando drops behind her.
• The Mek fires his Shokk Attack gun at the Scintillans and blows the gantry from beneath several of them. He's then charged by Grunt, Ted's ogryn, and they beat each other up with a sound like grox head-butting.
• Ossian is saved from one ork by Rosie, but jams his hand cannon when firing at the next. He unjams it but has to reload, so ducks into cover and throws a few grenades without much effect. I think his player was a little disappointed by Ossian's prowess in this situation - I should make sure there's some techie stuff to do next session.
• Dunsterville and the Scintillans do a good job - four are killed in one shot by the Shokk Attak Gun, but the others take on and, with bayonets, kill four others with only three casualties themselves. Dunsterville alone accounts for two kills. In spare moments they take pot shots at the orks below, killing two with rifle shots.
• Galahad dropped his axe and stepped away from it: instead he draws his autogun and opens fire, killing two orks with fully-automatic shots and even scoring a hit on the Mek through his force field. He then charges directly at an ork - more are dropping in through the vents - grabs his axe on the way, and manages to neatly decapitate it.
• McAllister takes on a Kommando armed only with a knife, and for a moment it seems like he has a chance - he parries one blow, soaks another, and stabs the ork in the neck... but then the tide turns. Two Choppa blows hit home hard - one chops deep into his torso, and the other tears his leg off at the hip. The beloved sargeant goes down, his back against the cold concrete, and dies in a spreading pool of viscera.

The others don't even notice, thanks to their other problems - a swarm of gretchen is clambering over the chimera. They pass an intelligence test to tear open the cabin and climb inside, and then - on an 05 - a Tech-Use test to activate the engines. Ossian and Galahad have one turn to move before the Chimera reverses dramatically, straight towards the door. The Mek leaps aboard, ape-like, as it reverses, and uses his Shokk Attak Gun to blow the doors open enough for them to make their escape. The surviving imperials mop up the last few Orks - in total they killed about thirteen- and then it's time for the aftermath.

The Aftermath and Debriefing
The surviving scintillan soldier is a medic - handy things those fate points, right? - and he immediately gets to work on McAllister, restarting his heart and summoning a medical team. Galahad goes searching for Ted.

"Ted, man, what was that?"

"That was plausible deniability, Mister Galahad, though I didn't expect the greenies did I?"

"You knew this was a trap, and you sent us in anyway?"

"Of course I did. I aint stupid, am I? You blokes are helpful but you're still tools, like? If I weren't so lovely I wouldn't've come to pull your arses out of the fire."

"We had it under control!" They compare plans. Galahad admits that his "throw ourselves on the mercy of the commissariat" is probably worse than Ted's "start shooting and shift the blame off them", but that it was still a cluster****.

"I think it turned out alright!" Ted snaps. Galahad motions at Rosie's body. Ted tells him to go **** himself.

With that over they present their case to Mayford-Dunsterville, who buys it but remainders them in commissarial custody until the briefing a few days later, by which time McAllister is back on his feet foot. They pass over all their information to Fforbes, their platoon commander, Noah, the local chief commissar, and Mayford-Dunsterville. They hold nothing back, and in return learn that shortly after leaving the motorpool, the chimera vanished. Galahad overhears Noah muttering about Ork Teleportation Devices, and the three are warned never to speak of this to anybody.

Next session: Ted follows through on his promise to give the players revenge on Valentine. The Severan Dominate begins it's counter-attack.



---

I need help! I want an Orkimedes-style pun for the Mek's name, but I can't thing of one. Either great inventors or great thieves. Any suggestions?

[The Glyphstone]

I feel like something punning off Da Vinci would be appropriate. Leonardork Da Thinky?

Also, I guess Ossiran didn't think of trying (at least before the Gretchin got involved) to hotwire the Chimera's turret for extra firepower? That seemed like a spot-on opportunity for a tech-based character as I was reading.

[LeSwordfish]

Alas, the turret was closer to the big mek than he was, and he wasn't allowed to approach "the object of his fear".

[Blackhawk748]

So im currently hashing out an Only War campaign to play after our Deadlands and Deathwatch games peeter out (and who knows when thats gonna happen) and i've made a Rough Rider regiment....with soooo many problems

Spoiler: 67th Bustalian Jinetes

Show

67th Bustalian Jinetes, CO Colonel Shuja

Agri World-3
Rough Riders-5
Infiltrators-4
Skirmishers-4
Cavalry Mounts (Kubwa)-5
Maverick-2
Scavengers-3

Regimental Rivalry- (-2)
Poorly Provisioned (-4)
Cloud of Suspicion (-3)
The Few (-5)
Total-12


Attribute Bonuses(+3 Strength, +3 Toughness, +3 Agility, -3 Ballistic Skill)
Skills: Linguistics (Low Gothic), Operate (Surface), Scholastic Lore (Beasts), Survival, Stealth

Talents: Catfall, Ambush, Resistance (fear), Hatred (Scintillians Fusiliers), Enemy (General Malgus Scintillian Fusiliers), Enemy (Scinillian Fusiliers), Blind Fighting, Paranoia

One With the Land
Blind to the Horror
Limited Numbers
Untimely Inquiries
Overworked and Underfed

+2 Wounds

Spoiler: The Great and Mighty Kubwa

Show

Kubwa
This creature is about 1.5 meters at the shoulder and resembles a monstrous rat. Its nose is constantly sniffing for some morsel of food.
WS 40
BS 01
S 30
T 50
Ag 50
Int 10
Per 25
Wp 20
Fel 10

Dodge
Stealth

Crushing Blow
Hard Target
Hardy

Bred for War
Quadraped
Deadly Natural Weapon
Regeneration(1)
Unnatural Toughness (2)
Unnatural Strength (2)

Climber-Kubwas are natural climbers and can climb nearly any surface
A kubwa may climb up to its Full Move action without making a climb test. It must start and end its movement on a reasonably horizontal surface. Kubwas cannot climb particularly slick surfaces, such as Ice, and must make climb checks accordingly.

Wounds 14

Vicious Fangs (1d10+7 Pen 0)

Yes, they ride Giant Rats into battle, and this is whats caused all of their problems.

Now, on Bustalia, the Kubwa is a respected and loved animal as frequent electrical storms force the populace to shut down anything electrical or risk calling lighting down from the upper atmosphere. So for 3 months out of the year, during the height of the Storm Season, Kubwas are pretty much the only mode of transport available, besides walking. This is because, unlike other animals, they arent afraid of the storms and simply go about their business, instead of hibernating. As a bonus the Kubwa is surprisingly clean, despite its furs matted appearance and will happily eat pretty much anything.

When the 67th arrived on *REDACTED* to do battle with the Great and Terrible *REDACTED* a Scintillian Leitenant began making very rude remarks about their mounts. Obviously this angered the Riders, but, since hes a "superior" officer, they couldnt do much. Their Colonel, on the other hand, could. The conversation went something like this:

Posh Fop-"I cant believe they would allow giant rats into the Guard. Did you see their fur? Its all matted and they're probably infested in fleas and lice."
Colonel Shuja "So's your mother you inbred spireborn fop, but you dont see me making fun of her"
*Drops mic and walks off*

This would have just led to a Regimental Rivalry, which would have been fine. Except that The Fop, as he is now known to the Jinetes, has a 2nd or 3rd cousin that happens to be the General of this theater, and while he isn't real keen on his cousin, the Colonel did insult family. And so, he has been redirecting supplies, making it difficult for them to get reinforcements (which is hard enough when you're Rough Riders) and in general just being a giant pain.

So far the Jinetes have taken it well, but with a new push on it might get dicey.

Im not sure who im gonna have them fight. Ork Snakebites could be fun, as they use cavalry too, but Chaos Renegades are always a party, and then theres the Severan Dominate. So many options.

[Grytorm]

Hello again, I just wanted to record some ideas here. Mostly it is a somewhat altered setting for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. The idea was inspired by a discussion I saw where someone was looking for ideas for how to reduce the role of Chaos. Mostly because they thought the focus on Chaos vs Sigmar was a bit out of place. So that made me think and gave me an idea of how this could work with things working the same.

First: Cosmologicaly gods can be aligned with Order and Chaos. Order gods are associated with the creation of the world. Chaos gods with magic and the destruction of the world. This is not a clear good and evil divide, the Warhammer setting is not the first world where this battle has happened and it will not be the last. Ultimately the world shall be destroyed and be recreated. In setting people don't necessarily know that.

Second: Chaos worship is not inherently a bad thing. Getting to deep into Chaos sorcery has terrible side effects. And areas with significantly tainted with Chaos are bad news. But many of the commonly worshiped gods are ultimately aligned with Chaos, including the big four under a variety of names. This is relatively safe but Chaos has slowly been building up in the world making things more dangerous. Probably not because of a vast empire of Rat creatures lurking beneath the cities of the Empire. Definitely not that.

Third: The Inquisition and the main Imperial state are big anti chaos groups and in their propaganda condemn Chaos completely. This is because in the last few generations the Imperial culture assimilated a saxony like area previously controlled by the Norsca. Before then the church of Sigmar and the Emperors were generally against Chaos worship now they have started trying to control a large population which used to Worship the Chaos gods under their familiar names. So the Inquisition was formed to fight this. But the Inquisition is also used by the Church of Sigmar to try and push out other religions to gain more power. They push an absolutist creed which is not entirely accurate cosmologically speaking. It is also possible that trying to push out all Chaos could be what ends the world somehow. Just some thoughts.

[LeSwordfish]

Session 5: Ain't Valentine's Day

The session starts in medias res, with the players in a battered old truck on their way to the mission. It's a few weeks after the last battle - McAllister is sporting a clanking old augmetic leg, while the others have recovered from their wounds. The front line has stagnated, with the imperials dug into a series of fortifications and strongpoints just outside the range of the enemy wall guns, while the severans seem perfectly content to dig in on their side of the northern river. The players are being sent to one of these strongpoints to relieve the previous squad, when they hear a mysterious pinging noise on their voxes. As best they can tell it's only directed on their local frequency, but they still discuss whether they should go and look for it for, like, half an hour. Eventually when they metagame themselves into it. ("GM, do you want us to go and investigate this?" "Trust me, you want you to investigate.") they call it in, and go find the source of it - an abandoned imperial-issue truck in an empty factory. Thorn goes to investigate first, leaping into the truck and spilling the contents everywhere with a series of expensive-sounding noises.

A more sober search finds a half-dozen crates. The first contains a vox-beacon, a meltagun, and a letter from Ted: Sargeant Valentine is the commander of the squad you will be relieving. Enclosed within is your payment for services rendered. It's been a pleasure to work with you gents, and I hope we can continue to do so in future.

This gets them all excited and I confirm: This session is their chance to screw over Valentine. (So you don't need to read back, Sargeant Valentine is the sargeant in a rival Scintillan regiment, who was willing to hang them out to dry when an artillery strike went awry.) The crates also contain the gear they requested to take down Valentine: ten Scintillan lasguns, uniforms, and two grenade launchers, plus a map of the strongpoint, an old manor house.

They set to planning. Valentine leads a squad of ten, with a Chimera, so they'll need to take out all of them, plus possibly a vehicle. They've still got the demolition charges from the first mission, so they attach one to the side of one truck and load it full of spare explosives. That should deal with the Chimera: park alongside and blow them both to hell. For the rest of the squad, the plan is to dress up in the scintillan uniforms, blag their way in to the manor as the relief, and then blow the chimera as Valentine's squad boards: then ditch and burn the uniforms, and claim they arrived just after a stray shell or something.

They drive up to the manor, park alongside the chimera, and start unloading their gear from the trucks. Valentine's adjudant, one corporal Guilliame, asks them to halt and who they are. McAllister says "we're the relief" and Guilliame voxes up to Valentine, who starts heading down with his vox-man. Ossian takes the chance to scan the building: Three guardsman in the high gallery, three in the lower level. Guilliame and the driver down here outside, and Valentine and his vox-man on their way down. The squad distribute themselves outside and start smoking and acting natural, when Valentine arrives.

Valentine isn't suspicious at first, but does question why there's a scintillan squad here rather than the selenians he was expecting. McAllister answers more or less honestly: the selenians were delayed checking out a mysterious vox-signal in a nearby factory. Valentine seems worried: we'd better check in on them. Ossian, thinking fast, shuts down their vox so McAllister's microbead doesnt give the game away, and Valentine reports in the loss of contact, seemingly none the wiser.

Next question: Why have they arrived in a pair of trucks rather than the standard-issue Chimera? McAllister's player pauses a long time before answering, and I inform him that such a long delay OOC will represent a short delay IC. The final answer he gives is "Our chimera was stolen" (not entirely unreasonable when you remember that imperial equipment was going missing from the camp) and I ask for a sort of general-purpose Decieve check. McAllister doesn't have Decieve and massively flubs it: Valentine narrows his eyes, seeming much more suspicious now, but invites Ossian and McAllister to accompany him on a tour of the building while the others unload.

Once he's got Ossian and McAllister upstairs, he asks them a few casual questions. "What platoon did you say you were?" "Uh... Y." "Ah! That would be Lieutenant Javert's outfit, correct?" Galahad's player is itching to interrupt here, but McAllister continues on happily: "Yes! Lieutenant Javert. Him."

Valentine sighs. There's no Lieutenant Javert - the oldest trick in the book! - and he orders the squad taken into custody. McAllister is having none of that, and gives the order: it's go time.

Rolls of Initiative. Valentine wins, then the squad, then the scintillans. Valentine is too close for a charge, so he flourishes his sabre and steps up towards McAllister, offering him a chance to surrender: Ossian responds by shooting him in the face: he does barely any damage but scores a "Righteous Fury" and flings Valentine prone and a few meters backwards. Notch flames the Scintillans on the lower level, but manages to miss two of three, and Galahad wings another with an autogun shot. Thorn charges in and finishes Galahad's target by slicing his leg off with a chainsword, thus filling the room with blood. As the fight continues, Notch's flamer does as much damage as usual, while Valentine's grenadiers do heavy damage to Galahad and Thorn continues her usual ramapage. Up on the top level however, McAllister and Ossian are badly outnumbered (because, I should note, they allowed themselves to be) and try to pull out by dropping smoke. Wild suppressive fire from Galahad's vox-man pins them though, and Valentine has time to recover and come swinging in hard for a duel with McAllister. McAllister takes a nasty hit to his torso, but, partially shredded open, he still manages to slice Valentine's arm off. Valentine is ambidextrous (he's pretty stacked with "Duelling" abilities for exactly this eventuality) and comes back hard, but McAllister, just shy of crits, manages to take him down to near-dead and bleeding out. It would be the perfect time for a killing blow but they're being mobbed by the other troopers and trapped, away from the door.

Rather than trying to break out to the door, Ossian announces he's going to detonate the other three charges he's carrying. This will do approximately 9d10 damage. McAllister, trying to escape this, goes for the window - but it's a long drop from the top floor, and even an average roll for damage is enough to kill him. Despite my best "are you SURE you want to do this" GMing, he goes for it, rolls a six, and dies, last fate point, perma-death, on the ornamental lawn as the rain falls. Upstairs, Ossian triggers the detonation charges, blowing him, Valentine, and all but one of Valentine's squad to kingdom come. I start brainstorming way
s to spend his fate point... and he announces he doesnt want to: he wants to roll a new character.

It's hard not to have a bad feeling about this. PC's willingly going to their deaths feels like something that shouldn't happen if i'm doing my job right. It was a tough fight, but with all the benefits i gave them - forewarning, planning, a map, exact enemy numbers and locations - it needn't have been. Should I have pulled punches? Ossian's player insists he was simply dissatissfied with the Operator class and wants to roll up a standard Tech-Priest, which I hope is the case, but I should probably have a private chat with McAllister's player - he seemed so fatalistic about his death that i'm not sure he wasn't really upset about it.

The campaign ends with Galahad, Thorn and Notch taking command of the situation. Valentine is dead - presumably blown into fragments (if they aren't going to comment on the lack of a body, i'm not going to point them to the Touched By The Fates trait, am I?) and so is all of his squad bar one. Ossian, McAllister, and their comrades are also dead though, and they've comprehensively exploded the strong point they were supposed to be defending. As they stand there in the rain - wait, rain? This is midwinter, right? Shouldn't it be snowing?

It's pouring with rain, and a full-on thunderstorm is brewing overhead, cutting out long-range communications. The snow on the ground is melting. The temperature is indeed unseasonably warm, and from the sounds in the distance - booming cannons, squarking sirens, the crackle of long-range gunfire - a full enemy advance is approaching their position - the position they just blew up.

And that's where the session ends.

Next session: The squad is thrown into the middle of a desperate defense, some long-buried truths about the city are revealed, and the tide of the war turns.

[The Glyphstone]

So I need some ideas to throw at a wall and see what sticks. I'm about to dump my Rogue Trader group into a heavily modified version of the Citadel of Skulls adventure, but I need some ideas for unique, personalized treasures to stick in the Vault of Secrets for them to loot.

The group consists of an Explorator, a Voidmaster, a Seneschal, a Missionary, and an Arch-Militant. The Missionary and Explorator I already have ideas for (a relic Eviscerator and an archaeotech jetpack respectively). The Arch-Militant will be easy to please with an newer (well, older), shinier gun, but I'm drawing a blank on something to make for the Seneschal or Voidmaster.

Seneschal is the most fragile member of the group; in a fight, he takes cover and plinks at stuff with a hellgun while he waits for the screaming to stop. I'd really like to get him something that gives bonuses in social situations, since that's what he is built for and has the most fun doing.

The Voidmaster's trickier. He's already got a good gun, a force field, and decent armor; I'd like to give him something that really says 'super-awesome pilot, yo', but the only thing I can think of is a Flip-Belt since it requires the Pilot (Personal) skill. It's admittedly good for him, with Hover 6 and +20 to Agility tests like Dodge, but it feels less 'shiny' than the other prizes.