/40krpg/ 40k RPG General

Khornate Daemons spew fire and the like all the time, the thing was likely hijacking the Psyker's inherent connection to the Warp in order to act as a conduit for pure Khorne-saturated Warp-energy.

So one of my players is playing a pirate prince of the ragged helix. Does he have a literal voidship at his beck and call including crew and weapons? Or does just have a free pass amongst raiders to take transport on nearly any ship?

Gets a free ship according to RAW, probably a Raider or at best a Frigate. Depending on how you run the campaign it's not as insta-pick as you might think, running, maintaining and retaining control of a Voidship, particularly for Chaos, is abhorrently difficult due to the lack of resources or dedicated allies.

He has an actual voidship.

Book said use a bloodletter, I replaced his powers with fire ones. In retrospect I should have questioned that, but it worked in the end.

Khorne's domain over fire is questionable. Sure, he's a big fan of searing weapons and molten metal, but fire is Tzeench's schtick, being both a cause for radical change and of unstable form itself. That's why only demon weapons of big T can get the flaming quality.

Now if that psyker would have gotten possessed by a Flamer...

Hindsight is 20/20. To be fair, I don't think anyone expected deamons to show up and take over anyone their first session, so we were all caught unprepared.

This might be the best place to post.

So, my Rogue Trader party is about to try to romp around the Webway for shits, giggles and profit.

The problem is, I'm not sure how to describe the inside of the Webway.

Also, what are some ideas for random encounters while bumblefucking in the Webway? There has to be more in there than just angry space elves.

Daemons and necrons

Most of the Webway itself is actually pseudosentient like some weird, psychic almost AI. Sometimes it really, really doesn't like intruders, sometimes it takes action in that respect.

It's got demons 'n shit, too. And a myriad of unique nasty web critters. And many many xeno critters that found a webgate, got lost, and multiplied. It's the Underdark of 40k.

Also, the webway is divided: eldar use bits, demons rule bits, and necrons use bits - all these bits are generally separate from each other.
So, yer players may get stuck in a bad part of the web.....

So, I am looking at starting a new Sci-fi campaign for my usual group.

I was thinking it would be fun with some squad camaraderie and military RP, and so I thought of doing it with Only War, but I've never GMed, let alone played it.

I have been reading the rulebooks, and it seems sort of rule-heavy.
What do you guys think? I like the 40k setting, as do most of my players, and playing Imp. Guard would be fun and sort of "bleak but also comforting"
- Anyway, what I have so far is looking to fall more on the RP-side, and less on the "tactical squad combat simulation"-side.

Are things like the Requisition-rules and Fear-effects important for the game-mechanics, or could I fluff around them?

Requisition is the only way to "buy" items. There is no money system.

Fear is critical for insanity, certain talents and traits, and battlefield control (either you or the enemy). It can both decimate hordes and wimpify players.

What's to stop him from orbitally bombarding anything and everything he encounters?

How about for RP-purposes? Should I just go with something other than Only War, if it's not gonna be combat-heavy anyway?

The truth is, the plot I have so far will have them;
1. Totally unable to aquire military-grade gear except what they start with for the first long while
2. Just not that much fightin'

Really, I was just excited to let them make their own regiment, and put together a squad of lovable anti-heroes in a grim setting.
Like, RP'ing chain of command, instead of their usual incessant democratic debate to figure out plans of attack (they usually play 5e)

I was thinking to try and recreate a real Kelly's Heroes or Dirty Dozen kinda atmosphere, and have them putting around with a big Heavy Tank in some local planetary uprising that isn't really full-scale war, but more peacekeeping.

Warhammer 40k's orbital bombardments are notoriously shit in terms of accuracy, despite what the fluff attempts to say it's just an excuse to make sure bombardment doesn't devalue artillery and some other things as much as it should. That being said, if you're really worried, make him take laser batteries as Macrocannons, they're far less prone to destroying the local ecosphere, would hypothetically do far less damage than a traditional macrocannon to ground locations and, most importantly, you'd actually have to get a solid hit (within a few hundred m) for confirmed destruction. Also remember that ships are obvious as hell unless they're designed for stealth, anyone and their mother who has even a remotely advanced communications network should realize when a ship is coming for a bombardment run.

Any tips for being a knowledge bank character in DH1e? Chose the Adept career so it's already too late if that wasn't the optimal choice.

I need help, guys. I'm GMing and my players have just turn a "Pirate ship gets blown up" session into a "Scout regiment attached to a fairly large regiment of Shadowswords acquires a Grand Cruiser and something like 80% of their crew" session. What the hell do I do now that they've turned Only War into Rogue Trader minus the actual Rogue Trader?

Fluff question for you folks: How psychic is the average Eldar? Could I accurately give non-Farseer'a a certain level of precognitive ability, or is that trick reserved for their actual psykers?

Basically I just want to be able to say "the skeins of fate will draw us together again" or similar space-elf BS, and have it be accurate, without introducing a Farseer yet

Are the PC's in command? No? Then their commander gets a Warrant fresh off the presses in exchange for his service, and the regiment becomes Scouts in Spaaaaaace for a Rogue Trader who has no idea what he should be doing, but does understand he now gets to pick which targets his men fight.

The command Shadowsword (and all his friends) got blown up when their lander took a hit from a macro cannon. At the time, I figured it'd be a good way to have some confusion in the situation. The Commissar PC took control and is the reason why they were able to tank shock a void ship from the inside. Also, the idea of using the Shadowswords was kinda his idea too. Dunno if that makes him the guy in charge, though.

Also, there's still about 30 Shadowswords on this formerly pirate vessel. What should I do about them?

I think it's storytime so we can figure out how to help you.

>30 shadowswords
>30
>Thirty
>3 times 10
>Shadowswords

Sounds good! I'd say either just use what you want and leave the rest, or homebrew a system that does what you need - I can't think of any rpg off hand that would help with what you want.

One doesn't need to be a psyker to say space-elf BS.

Only the ones like warlocks and farseers actually use psychic abilities. The eldar have the potential, but don't use it because of the Path system.

Eldar are still eldar though, so space elf BS is valid no matter the reason.

Ok, so my PCs had just completed their first real deployment with few problems. No one died, everyone was happy, command thought they were some pretty hot shit and the Shadowswords were needed on another front line in another shithole. The 4th Valderian Rangers (on permanent loan to the 93rd Valderian Armored) had one session that was something of a montage of their time on board the transport. They enjoyed their noncombat session and I ended it with the transport being fired upon by a pirate ship. The boys were hyped.

Next session, the lads are fighting off boarding parties with some naval dudes and having a good time. Shit is too easy, so I have some of the escort ships get blown to shit so that the pirates can really sink their teeth into the transport. Pirates get closer and shit is both grim and dark. Commissar Rük gets it in his head that they should bravely counter-board the pirates and try to stem the tide. I say that it's a great idea, very fluffy and will probably get them some postmortem medals.

They do it. They jack one of the pirate leech ships and basically spend fate to get it back to the pirate ship. They land and manage to establish a beachhead from which the rest of the Rangers can roll out.

How'd they manage to get control of the ship from there. The smallest Grand Cruiser has a population 112,000 and I doubt they would have been able to roll their super-heavy tanks all down the ship to get there.

All well and good so far, I think, and we wrap there. Next session has them get on with the boarding. They're killing pirates left and right, shoring up gun lines and being elite Tier 1 operaters in space and shit. None of them really have anything big enough to seriously fuck up a Grand Cruiser, though. They kill some dudes at their gun stations but those are for anti-fighter and anti-boarding use. The transport is still getting fucked up.

Commissar PC looks to me and says, "Wait, what about the tanks? They're designed to kill Titans and Titans are kinda like void ships, right?" So I take a few minutes to consult you lot and someone says, "Fuck no, faggot, Grand Cruisers are fuckhuge! If they were inside, yeah, maybe, but not from the outside." Fair enough, I think, and I relay the information. My player looks at me, then the rest of the squad, then back at me and says, "K."

Well fuck, says I, how are you gonna get the Shadowswords on to the Cruiser? "Well, they've got transports, right? They can fly them into the landing bay we landed in." But what about the turrets. "We've been killing them in a radius originating from the landing bay. Their anti-boarding defenses should be weak there."

Fuck again, I say, the motherfucker is right.

I'll take a moment to explain my experience with 40k. I'm not too familiar with the actual scale of things. It all seems so variable and dependent on the writer. Also, I've never played Battlefleet Gothic or Armageddon or whatever the game with massive armies and Titans and shit is. They wanted to be Rangers, I threw in a cool unit for them to range for that wasn't an artillery unit. Oh, and if this is weird please forgive me, I'm typing this on my phone.

Anyway, the landers are now flying through space towards the nominally secure landing zone. I roll some dice, pretend there's a table to roll on that is remotely relevant to their current situation and hit them with a complication. One of the landers that gets blown up is the all-important Commander Lander "1 Basket." Boom, decapitated the allied leadership. Hell of a complication, all the tanks are confused and no one is giving orders.

Commissar takes over, even though they're not a part of the same regiment, using their Peer(Titan-Slayers) and a few really solid/Fateboosted command rolls. Shit starts hitting the fan at light speed. The fuck do you even roll when Volcano Cannons are actually firing inside a void ship?

The squad ranges a little more, jacks a terrified pirate and makes him get the captain on the line. Commissar rolls to intimidate by challenging the captain to a duel over the ship. If Rük (our PC Commissar) wins, the pirates lay down arms and surrender themselves to the tender mercies of the Imperial Navy. If the pirates win, they can keep the transport. He throws some taunts and insults in there, too. Captain is pissed, but 30 Shadowswords is 30 Shadowswords.

Dude brings his team of high end fuck boys with him and rolls down to the bay. They do some talking, I stall for time so I can finish the captain's character sheet and then they start the duel.

They never agreed on weaponry. Commissar chose Shadowsword. Captain surrendered after the world's greatest intimidate check. Session end.

Now you're up to speed.

With balls of steel like that, I think that commissar may be the first ever to be allowed to retire, and take up Rogue Trading. That, or they all get one hell of a medal, the Navy/Admech/(depending on chaos) Echilisarchy takes over to resanction the ship, and they get booted out for the next war zone. Your call.

>They never agreed on weaponry. Commissar chose Shadowsword. Captain surrendered after the world's greatest intimidate check. Session end.
10/10 would play with.

I made that family racing sedan

Oh shit, I just had an idea. They never interrogated the Captain. They don't know where his base is. Ok, so I think I'll have the Titan-Killers and the Titan-Hunters get redeployed to some bullshit world for a few months after everyone gets a medal and the PCs get access to Good Rep (Navy) while Rük gets Peer (Navy), I'll probably have the grateful crew of the transport ship give the lads a couple of goodies from the armory. I'm thinking Naval Pistols for everyone and maybe something to go with it based on their character, open to suggestions.

Anyhow, they go hunt Titans and get lapdances from the girls of the 93rd for a little while but are called back by High Command when they are asked to help clear the shipping lanes of pirates after the pirate captain reveals the local pirate base. They're requested by name under authority of an officer aboard the newly rechristened Grand Cruiser.

Let's see them do that shit without a massive Stormsword contingent at their backs.

>Good reputation
>Existing in Only War

Where's the IG Regiment generator stuff again?

The core book under regiments?

Not that, I remember someone did a chart so you can roll for stuff.

Ok so for only war is there any rules for requisitioning vehicles?

No. Likewise, there aren't any for vehicle upgrades or modifications.

Sounds legit to me. Just really ham up the gratitude. A Grand Cruiser is a big deal. Start with the ceremony from Star Wars after they blew up the Death Star, 40k it, and turn it up to 11.

So...instead of getting frisky with the tanker babes they'll be getting into the champagne room at the local Soritas Convent? Any ideas on what sick gear the Navy might give the squad in gratitude?

In what sense? What defences does the Webway employ?

>Team ambushed and surrounded by Kroot
>Priest turns them all into jelly with his eviscerator via whirlwind of death while generating a shit ton of fate points from his comrade

Is there a better class for melee than this motherfucker?

...

>Any ideas on what sick gear the Navy might give the squad in gratitude?

Sick engraved boarding pistols personalized for every member of the squad?

Masterwork ones with gold and ivory and Aquilas out the ass. Add a purity seal for good measure.

With their names on 'em

Labyrinth-style stuff: dead ends, moving passages, endless tunnels....throwing monsters at them - that sorta shit.

New/fag/DM here.

How do you guys come up with planet features and explain them? I was thinking about all kinds of stuff like a planet who gets so close to the sun it's surface literally lights on fire at some points and the people worship the flames as the Emperor's enduring fury and get real fucking killy. Or another planet where the moon is so close that you can literally see the hive city built on it from the hive city below it. There's also the planet that's 90% mountains where all the poor (read everyone who isn't filthy fucking stinking I can buy your life 30 times rich) people live as abhumans.

But I literally have no idea how to explain how this stuff happened. Like I know at least two of my players would like for some kind of reasoning as to why the planet is like that but I don't really know how to explain this kind of stuff.

Anybody have experience dealing with this?

Yeah. It's called fantasy and as long as it's somewhat internally consistent they should unbunch their panties.

>Threadly question: Who's the big bad in your campaigns, and why?
I haven't had a chance to run a campaign in a while, but mine was an Alpha Legionnaire in Dark Heresy and later Deathwatch.

He had high-end stats for a marine, but nothing the party couldn't reach eventually.

I picked him partly because I'd just read Legion at the time, and partly because I liked the challenge of outsmarting and out planning my players rather than overpowering them (although he also overpowered them in Dark Heresy, natch.)

Video (starting at 0:55) is basically how it went when the acolytes confronted him head on after accidentally foiling a plan of his, even though he was unarmored and unarmed (long story):

youtu.be/sBxepOWO4aA?t=55s

Chaos did it!
Fuckin' xenos did it!
God-damned Age of Strife did it!
Fuckmylifehorrible Dark Age of Technology did it!
Imperator Vult!

Pick one or two and yer gold.

>I picked him partly because I'd just read Legion at the time, and partly because I liked the challenge of outsmarting and out planning my players rather than overpowering them
You are one of the good ones!

The one with the moon... Considering that some Hives are the size of a small country, that should be entirely feasible. Otherwise, go with "artifically balanced unnatural orbit from Archaeotech" with explanation.

For the planet that lights on fire... Fuck it, it's the Warp, ain't gotta explain shit. It's a Daemon world, and the locals praise the flames as that of the Emperor because those are the only thing to clean up the Daemons from the surface, even if temporarily.

In the Rogue Trader book Koronus Bestiary, there's this story (page 15) about a Rogue Trader getting eaten alive with his Warrant of Trade.

What would happen lorewise if another RT would hunt down the beast and find the said Warrant? Would he just simply double his already gargantuan wealth or would/could he create another dinasty, like a 'vassal-house' perhaps?

I think he'd be legally entitled to do either, although it would make more sense to have the dead RT's holdings revert to the Imperium until they issued a fresh Warrant.

i am going to be first time GMing a deathwatch game, so far im trying to figure out wich enemies to use and the basic enemies in the core rule book dont seem to be able to do any damage, as far as i know the minimum damage reduction on a space marine is 16 and a autogun or lasgun only does a maximum of 13 damage. am i missing some rule or do i need to find tougher enemies?

Use the horde rules.

well i understand that more enemies mean more hits, but i must be missing some rule because each hit would not be able to do any damage.

wait, think i found the rule,aditional d10 damage from the horde size, thank you for the help.

Well alot of the stuff could be explained away as simply just natural formations, caused by the orbit, extreme tectonic activity from the planets history.

For the hot planet what i'd do is mention that the atmosphere has a rather unusual composition that results in the upper atmosphere round mountain tops to be significantly thinner so the sun really scorches that area. Additionally perhaps natural fungus or gas pockets in the planet could cause flammable gases to eek out, where due to their light density would ascend to the mountaintops where they ignite due to the extreme heat. However the denser atmosphere at sealevel on the planet prevents spontaneous fires from any gases put out by fungus/gas vents.

It's been some time since I read them, but don't the horde rules provide bigger hits rather than more hits, as it's a group firing on the PC?

What are the stats for the giant chaotic Jew head they are firing at? I need them for my next session.

You think that's enough for their insane accomplishments? I was thinking about maybe giving them something extra for their going above and beyond my wildest expectations, surviving the literal worst things I could throw at them.

Although I'm now thinking of the next big campaign. Are there rules for Titans, like the really big ones? Maybe I'll have them face a Baneblade or two... Can daemons possess a Baneblade?

Enough? Certainly not. But it's still a nice thing to add to the pile of rewards.

Has anyone ever made Tau stats as enemies for Only War?

Just copy paste them from the other books and maybe reduce their stats by 5~10 if you're feeling generous

Yeah, but what else? Rük should get a nice power sword out of it (thinking about making it good quality, mono edged, and...something else) but I dunno about the other three.

So how is The Fringe Is Yours? specifically for heresy era tech like volkite, is it decently balanced?
And where can I find rules for different marks of power armour?

>where can I find rules for different marks of power armour?
Rites of Battle

Most of The Fringe Is Yours is balanced pretty well. Some of the weapon availability is based on the weapon's comparative power against other weapons, rather than fluff rarity, but it overall matches well with other weapons in the game. Heavy weapons feel appropriately heavy, while all the weird qualities of heresy-era weapons are included almost verbatim. The only weapon to watch out for is a rotor cannon with biocorrosive rounds, since it basically gives a stubber the corrosive quality.

Speaking of Fringe books, is anyone else hype that the Triaros Conveyor was mentioned by name for Admech in Fall of Cadia? It proves they've survived to the 41st millennium, so there's a good chance a lot of other things made it through the years.

Do your PCs have a 'loot anything and everything off of the dead' mentality? Has it gotten them into trouble?

Play DH1e. Everything taken as "evidence and to be checked for further leads", once investigation complete poster relevant area for next of kin to claim. Sometimes works to get additional subjects to investigate and interrogate, if not they can keep most of it.
Inquisitor happy, reduced drain on resources and easier for covert ops as less of a paperwork trail.

Even things touched by the warp or the ruinous powers of chaos?

No reason demons can't possess a Baneblade.

There are rules for such things in Tomb of Decay.

how easy is it to run a deathwatch campaign? can I start without a previous dark heresy campaign?

the group I play with has some 'decent' 40K lore and experience with other systems. ( D&D and a few others)

Can you use non-SPEHS MAHREENS?

>how easy is it to run a deathwatch campaign?
It's super easy to go hurr durr SPEHS MAHREENS rdy 2 fite? and give them a dungeon crawl. Harder is to make a real campaign where they have to interact with NPCs in ways that don't involve shooting them in the face. Harder yet again is to for the players to avoid treating it as Autistic Fightan Robots: The Game when you do manage it.

>can I start without a previous dark heresy campaign?
You can start with no previous campaign. Unless you were playing children, Deathwatch does not follow on from a previous campaign.

>non-SPEHS MAHREENS?
If you're playing Deathwatch as a standalone system, you're doing it specifically to play SPEHS MAHREENS.

In theory you can mix and match. In practice it's going to be clunky and badly balanced at best.

Yo, I decided to throw together a quick overview of some of the more important rooms on the flagship of a Rogue Trader game I'm planing.

How do you guys think it looks? I'm planing to use it for whenever the players wanna have some downtime during travel or in between Endeavour's, so they can interact with each other and the different NPC's that's on the ship.

Anything out of place? Something that you'd think I could add, or remove/alter?

Daemons can theoretically possess anything, things that are more prepared for them are better and their power has to be really factored in, but yeah. A Greater Daemon in a Titan is totally plausible.

It looks like a building or space station more than a ship. It's too spread-out.

Keep in mind this is essentially a kilometres long gothic cathedral with engines strapped to one side.

Watch Commander Andar Scarion of the Astral Claws
Phyzarius in another campaign

Thanks man, was focusing way to much on keeping it somewhat symmetrical, and forgot that shit is usually more maze like on the inside.

Do you think this is any better? And any ideas on if anything new needs to be added to it?

>how easy is it to run a deathwatch campaign
it's easier to run than, say, dark haresy, it because you give supersoldiers assignments.
it's more difficult to run well for exactly the same reason.