/40krpg/ 40k RPG General

so, time to homebrew an upgraped internal power cell from into the Storm (the one that recharge a power pack a day from body heat) or a lesser potentia coil fit for non-cog boy for afore-mentionned augmenticist cyborg army then.
the idea from said augmenticist was to give good qual gastric bionic to every soldier so that they can survive on almost any diet on any world. not relying on power packs will also reduce the logistic for a RT going on savage unexplored worlds.

And who's going to implant a dead techpriest's shit in you? Another techpriest? Nah son, he's going to shoot you on sight, carting in his buddy's corpse into his workshop

Hereteks would.

What's the fastest character you can make in Only War?

How good in melee can you make him?

Here's a crazy idea.

Don't.

Don't implant the potentia coil.

Just connect it to the weapon.

Use the whole thing like a you would a normal weapon + backpack ammo supply.

How fucking buff do you have to be to load an earthshaker shell in 5 seconds? How do we improve vehicle weapons, /40krpg/, 12 rpm from an earthshaker seems bonkers to me.

SB+TB of 7 or above. Seems fine for artillery.

I dunno, I can see 6rpm because of 38k years advancement, but more than 3x modern seems...absurd.

10k years of war will do that to you.

If you were to make a vindicare assassin to play in Deathwatch, how would you guys do it?

Why

...

Scrap the idea and just make a Raptor tactical or devastator.

>Techpriests are already damn powerful
And why do you think they shouldn't?
Those are some of the most techonologically enlightened people in the 41st millennium, especially compared to the likes of mere guardsmen and hive scum, be they below acolyte or already inquisitor.
Tech-priests are meant to be broken.
Same is with psykers, their only competion on the field of cheese.

It's like you broke a leg and now baww at the humble dokhtor, "BAAAAAW DOCK, WHY CAN'T I BE SUPER STRONK LIKE THE SUPERMAN? NO FAIR!"

Also tech-priest aren't VERY broken anyway. They can't simply obtain it out of thin air and you have the GM between them and cheese.
Unlike with psykers, again.

I'd take my REEEEEEEE out on psykers if I were you. Cog-boys shouldn't even be in your sightline given the bullshit those mutant freaks can pull.

If I can vaguely understand what you're trying to say, it's basically that it makes sense in the fluff so its fine in the game.

That's a stupid opinion, you're stupid for having it, and you've made us all stupid by voicing it.

You're the one stupid for denying it.
It's like fluff isn't made to be interesting and the game isn't been inspired by it.
What's the fucking point of playing something in the game, if you don't get to be exactly what you are stated to be in the fluff? In the very thing that you got inspiration from.
Everyone HATES dorks like you, who use their inferiority complexes as an excuse to "balance" things up, making them retarded.

Besides that, I already stated the only thing that reliably allows tech-priests to be broken - the Game Master.
If yours is a cool one, he'll either limit tech-fuckery of the cogboy or hand your sorry, miserable meatbunch a couple of shiny bits to make up for the flesh.
If that fails, there the last option of NOT allowing any tech-priests or psykers into your sorrowfully bawling party of Pure Flesh cutists, only as NPCs. But unless it's unanimous, it is retarded.
Now, go stand in the corner and think about what you said.

>you should be able to play exactly what the fluff says
>the gm should limit you
Pick one opinion dummy.

Those can coexist peacefully, silly.

Are there rules for a Chaos Colony? We've conquered a few planets in route to our Black Crusade and I'd like to flesh them out a little.

Tech-priests... enlightened... kek

Also, as far as OP Psykers this isn't D&D, Psykers are basically contagious aids-lepers in the imperium. Everyone hates and fears them. Most of them the Imperial army scoops their eyes out, carves wards in their bones, stuffs them in cages and stabs them with cattle prods to make them shoot lightening. The ones that survive sanctioning and get put on a slightly longer leash are still hounded, ostracized, and summarily executed at the first sign of threat. The psyker should understand that he survives solely at the discretion of everyone he meets. If you are doing it right everyone should be terrified of the gate to hell in that guys head. The should tolerate him only because the command will shoot them if they don't and be tripping over themselves to catch him slip so they can be the one to vent the filthy fething mutant all over the wall.

Well, even the most common tech-priests know a bit more about how to use and repair technology than some average Joeus Einsteinus, even if bound by ritualizing.
Mechanicus Magi are a different matter entirely, as most of them do strive to understand, learn more and innovate.

Psykers, yes, but they are still powerful, and the more status they gain, the less common peasantry opinions matter. Aspiring Acolyte is already something, provided some people knew who he is.
Transcendent Astropaths are figures of awe and respect.
And some people might just know enough about wyrds to be more comfortable around them.
Tho the DH1 casting rules were the most fun to be around, pity they dropped them too soon.

Is it me or the Origin Path chart of Rogue Trader is a big pile of fuming dejection?

If you take Forge World Homeworld, the Savant Birthright is two slots from the option directly below.
So technically, if you follow the written rules, barred for your character.

A Forge World Savant, impossible. Even if it is a evident option for an Explorator.

Who uses this thing? If a hand rises, how did you fix it before using it?

I always ask about the non-sequential row option, or non-adjacent selections. Optional rules, man. That said, it's not impossible to put up with it. You take something similar within reach, deal, and move the fuck on.

I pretty much get my players to more or less ignore the origin path.

It provides some extra min/max options for the munchkins and lets the roleplayers customize their characters more. Providing GM approval and no obviously contradictory pathways, of course.

Thanks for your answers!

>imperial
>using unsanctioned Psykers

You said Imperial Army, is this pre-Heresy fluff? Anyone doing anything with unsanctioned psykers whose name isn't prefixed by Mr Inquisitor is gonna get blam'd. And it's my understanding that post-sanctioning, it's not like many psykers will be treated better than that.

Great description though.

Glad to see someone else does this.

You are such an asshat. The GM limitation was his final attempt at "fixing" a part of the game for you that isn't broken.

I did the same. with the followiing addition : if someone do follow the origin path, he gets a lineage (from Into the Storm) for free. Of course, as a GM, I have a final say on what lineage can be taken.

Samewise, when doing a theme campaign. I'm Gming right now a campaign throguh pplay by post where everyone wanted to be False men, so of course that part was freee on the Origin path.

>Equal number of figthers on both sides
1~3 rounds
>One side outnumbered but some of them are armed with a crowd control weapon like a flamer, automatic weapon or explosives
1~4 rounds, if the enemy wins init they die on round 1

In DH?
Usually 4-10 rounds, as both sides usually jockey for positioning/cover, use suppressing fire, half decent tactics to make up for the fact they do not have powerful weapons outside of longguns.
>Biel-Tan is next
Not surprised, actually. They had long set it up with the enmity between Biel-Tan and Ulthwe, and it is easily forseeable for the hardliners in Biel-Tan to refuse cooperation even in the face of a greater foe.

That was in one of the Guant's Ghost books. One of the Ghosts turns out to be a latent psyker, gets handed off for the Blackships, then later they run into him as the pathetic mewling thing in a cage. He passed the "not going to immediately start spewing deamons" test but not the "we are going to let him walk around" test. It was great scene.

Biel-Tan is blowing up.

According to what?

If I want to RP an Astropath correctly I think I have to play the results of his endoctrinations. So I imagine playing Fear against mundane things, PTSD... good idea?

>look around
>see unconfirmed "spoilers"
Hey, I remember when the pylons overloading is what destroyed Cadia, too!
I will hold my skepticism for any leaks or spoilers for a long time, user.

You should always trust strangers on the internet user.

I want to run an Only War campaign that focuses on an elite squad fighting a diverse group of aliens. I'm figuring I should use Tau as the main/figurehead bad guys but what other forces should I have the Tau be allied with/using as mercenaries?

Vespids, kroots, maybe even demiurgs.
You may and totally should invent your own allies to the Tau Empire, too.

Do you think it would be better to make new xenos races or use existing ones?

There are tons of xeno races that just aren't worth mentioning because they're so small scale, so I'd go with the well known, and fill expertise gaps with homebrew aliums

Both.
Remember, Tau consist of many xeno races, most of which aren't even mentioned.

So... how do you do psykers in DH2e?
Trying to read the rules, but I think I'm missing things.
I understand pushing and making focus tests under strength, but is there more to it I should know?

Is there a trick to writing Deathwatch games that are not just Dungeon Crawls?

I ran one and tried my best to throw some problems in that could not just be solved by Bolter but it did not quite work.

I would like to run a game again but I want to try and avoid that problem.

Well, the core manual already gives advices on how to make them doable.
This is to make a primarily diplomatic missions, investigations and subterfuge missions.
Maybe also survival missions on a space hulk. Like Sin of Damnation, if you know what I mean.

Remember that Deathwatch do more than kill ayliums, they also recover relics, run sabotage missions, explore dangerous worlds and xeno ships (send your players onto a burnt out Squat Forgefane).

Trick? No. There's a lot of work you need to do to make them not dungeon crawls. One of the issues is that it takes a long time for the marines to get noncombat related skills.

So are there any maps or map makers that would be useful for a game of Deatwatch I'm making?
It's set in the Great Crusade, and I plan on giving the players some freedom in exploring, so a variety will be needed.

yeah that is the problem, it is kind of pointless to through any social stuff at them since they all use Fellowship as a dump stat.

I suppose you could throw a enemy that is too powerful to fight head on at them but when I did that they assumed they could beat it and nearly died.

pretty much any Sci-Fi map is worth using. You can also get tile sets from roll 20

Really? And what was the enemy?
From what I've seen, Deathwatch Space Marines are all but unstoppable.
Unless, of course, you stomp them with a wave of Carnifexes.

When you use the errata, master level enemies and decent tactics, you'd be surprised how fast DW get rekt, especially since most players are shit at anything resembling small unit tactics.

Every time I try to apply real world tactics I get swamped in melee

Are your enemies using cover, grenades, fall backs, flanking positions?

No, they mostly Lighting Attack my chest in half

Too bad you can't GM for us for a bit and prove it.

And what are you using that melee works so easily?
Single Tau firewarriors/suits?
If you GM'd, you'd already know that.
Players are generally stupid and approach most problems in a "my force > their force = I win" fashion, which makes it very easy to sucker them into doing stupid shit.
Unless the players are constantly in tight spaces where the firepower of bolters is best and melee is an option, it shouldn't be that hard to challenge them following your foe's preferred tactics.

And what if they don't do stupid shit and rolling from cover to cover, while constantly upgrading them as a full action?

>rolling from cover to cover, while constantly upgrading them as a full action?
You have no grenades/flamers or melee/cqc capable foes of your own?
This conversation goes nowhere unless you tell me exactly what enemy force this situation revolves around.

Whatever. Let's agree on whoever outsmarts another - wins, unless GM field ridiculously OP monsters. And sometimes even then.

man if I want to give serious challenges against Marine level protagonists, I use a combination of combined arms/small unit tactics, and I actually give the enemies something of a reasonable intelligence.

I also fight dirty, because intelligent enemies fight dirty. Suicide vests, choke points, difficult terrain to funnel the protagonists into points, snipers, teams which cover each other, heaps of other tactics which will fuck over unprepared people. Have people firing from full cover on a higher ground position. Gotta stack them bonuses.
Any number of tricks can make life tough or deadly for DW level antagonists. Saying that melee (while hugely dangerous) completely wrecks one's plans shows to me a GM who can't into tactics, or isn't very creative.

It was a Greater Deamon of Korn (Although it was weakened because they had unknowling forced it to manifest before it was at full power)

The point is the players, who had all been in my earlier DH game, felt pretty cocky as marines and suffered for it.

The problem is that combat in any of the 40K games is so deadly that they nearly got fucked on the first round. It can be super risky to put them up against a strong enemy like that since it can pretty much one shot people if it rolls well enough. The players can do the same but it is still not super fun.

Biel-Tan isn't "blowing up." The Craftworld is like one big space hulk - made of of thousands of ships. When the Avatar of Ynnead awakens, and forms the new soul-vampire "Ynnari" faction, Biel-Tan breaks off into its various components. It still exists. It's just a fleet now.

>And what if they don't do stupid shit and rolling from cover to cover, while constantly upgrading them as a full action?

Phosphex helps.

In Deathwatch, finding a good mix of individually challenging and knowing when to call in support assets is the biggest concern. Early game, you don't have that many requisition points, and you're needing basic gear. By Sig-Wargearing things, it frees up points for asset usage. Smart use of all the support available to you is just as important as knowing how to personally fight.

>In Deathwatch, finding a good mix of individually challenging and knowing when to call in support assets is the biggest concern.

For sure. Personally I find the combats easier to balance in DW than in RT because the raw strength of Marine weapons and armor means that you can throw a lot at the players. In RT however, while they have good gear a lot of the characters are... kinda squishy. Also having a ship means (at least my players) characters are happy to completely sideline combats.

see
This is what I'm saying.
You need to be intelligent, unless you enemies are orks. If the GM can't into tactics, of course it's a problem.

Anyone interested in a pretty decent-looking Only War game that's recruiting, or should I stick to Game Finder?

Extrapolinate this onionings.
(Tell more)

Text-only. GM appears to have a good grasp of English grammar and literary prose, citing M.A.S.H. as one of the influences he's drawing on for the game. Players serve in the marine corps of a Rogue Trader, rather than the Imperial Guard, so likely a bit more high-flying than your usual Only War game but probably still on a scale where it's a story about people.

Where can we get more details? As well as where did he plans to play? Skype? Rolz? IRC?

app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/52123/ow-fools-rush-in

*inhales*
Time to rush in and ruin everything.

Astropaths have a bit more of a unique flavor to them as they are brought forth before the Emperor himself. What then happens during the soul binding varies greatly to them, from a feeling of having your brain electrocuted to chatting it up with the big E.

One of my friends in an RT game played an Astropath who hated the Emperor - mostly because she saw his reaction to all the horrible things being done in his name: nothing.

That 2e Pushing isn't worth it.

I kinda like that.
A kind of Maltheist ideology, but one which plays with ideas of free will, duty and the responsibilities of the Astropaths within the system.

Actually I'm a player

Not gonna lie, all this Fall of Cadia stuff makes me want to run an Only War short campaign where the players last stand against Abby.

I can figure that out for myself, I'm asking about things besides that.

That you shouldn't use your powers when a mundane solution will easily suffice. Pump Willpower either way as Fear is a bitch.

If possible, branch out in some other skills that others have so you can provide assistance bonuses.

Probably not much else.
If understand correctly, they removed Fettered, Psy Rating bonus to cast and instead gave Push a penalty.
Made Psychic Powers great again with more potential for funny things.
So you're less inclined to cast every turn and instead do something else.
What I dislike is the inability of basic void-psykers to get 75 WP.

Any advice for a New Gm running Deathwatch? Major focus is going to be fighting the Tyranids.

Use the errata weapon stats

Discourage Rip and Tear tactics under the threat of Swarming(geddit?).
There's really no reason to using other ones.

... user, I mean in terms of mechanics, I'm fairly read up on how the lore works, I've never played a psyker before.
Shit, I've told other people the same thing you just said to me, it's basic as hell.
Are there any ways to stack the focus power test in your favor?

Psy-focus. For free.
Everything else is talents or expensive gear.
This is deliberate, as far as I can tell, because in all later editions, psykers were all crazy powerful and quite easy to cast with those 40+WP+10 Focus+10+25PR, etc.

Has anyone used the Brontian Longknifes in their games? In all the art they are running at their enemy with swords and no rifles to be seen. It seems crazy even for the imperium

>Faith isn't his shield
What a heretic you are user.

>Using rifles
The enemies of the Emperor deserve no such mercies. End them rightly with your blade, enjoy knowing that your righteous smile will be their last sight before they are judged by Him on Terra. Send them to their eternal reward with steel and fury, user.

The Emperor is my shield,
and I am his sword!