/40krpg/ 40k Roleplay General

>51 strength, 44 BS, 41 WS, 49 T- all legitimate!
>rolling characteristics
>not having multiple at 50+

This is why you point buy...

By this point, the day cycle is slowly dimming, so they make haste to meet Lili Arbest before the night begins and the creeps come out to play. We decided that, since I hadn't eaten in about 12 hours and other people had other business to attend to (one of our players is self-employed and works 7 day weeks), we'd call it there.

Theories from the players:
- A Slaaneshi cult has taken root in Coscarla.
- The Enforcers are corrupt.
- Rookson's story is a trap.
- The Coscarla Hostel will be a safe place to spend the night.

Are they right? I can't comment on that when I know they're watching here. But they're on the right track and I'm proud that a party of new players (one) and very combat-oriented players (two) are actually taking to the investigative side. Looking forward to next week; I've been in the seat for Deathwatch before, and Dark Heresy is definitely better.
Any tips, advice, etc. from what I've narrated, or suggestions from previous campaigns?
I'm usually a fan of point buy, but we tend to roll in our group anyway. I kept the tradition.

Have you ever sat back and asked the group -why- you roll?

Nope. I come from a background of learning RPGs with Shadowrun and (ill-fated) GURPS, so my experience of point buy is "way better for getting the concept you want, way worse for breaking the game". I don't believe any of the others have strayed outside of 40krpgs except when I've pulled them out and into other forays, so I think it's an assumed standard for them. I doubt I'm going to be recruiting any more players, unless three proves too little, but if I do we can discuss it as a group then.

>breaking the game
But that's half the fun. You just have to know to not hang on to a broken character, to retire them somehow when it stops being funny.

I know from experience none of us know how to do that.
Including me.

Sounds like a fun campaign
>tfw I'm literally the only person I know in my state who gives a shit about Warhammer

Does anyone have any good admech character descriptions? Appearance and personality.

How pissed is my rogue trader going to be? My navigator has reduced our Profit factor by 5 at char gen.

lorewise, do the last chancers have diverse backgrounds?

like some guy who was just framed and unable to prove his innocence and/or self-defense murder?

How? Did he burn it to get something or really unlucky with origin paths?

Duty Bound - Humanity
Shrouded House
& A Lineage that dropped PF by 3.

One of them "Hero", was punished for refusing to send his troops on a suicide mission. I think one of the chicks was implied to have murdered a superior in self defense too.
just more motivation to make money, babe.

How much was the group's profit factor beforehand?

40PF I think.

Rather pissed I think then.

Currently hunting down a cult of Tzeentch dealing in Xenos weapons, including but perhaps not limited to Eldar weapons. My research indicates that they are not actually in league with the Eldar.

How can I RP my way into getting a Baleful Eye/Force weapon as an Astropath in RT?

Don't astropaths start with a Force Staff?

are brontian longknives canon?

>Want to try to come up with a relatively normal regiment
>Give up when picking a regiment type because the mind wanders in dangerous places

Nope? None?

Asking again, since last thread got pretty derailed-

My players are about to try to track down a xenos-artifact distributor (Zax Holthane from Dark Pursuits, who escaped). While I don't want to stop them, nor give the impression that the Trade Sable is completely untouchable, I know they still have the "PCs can do anything" mindset from 3.PF.

Is there more information I can glean anywhere about Desoleum's black markets, or how xenos artifacts end up there? Or should I just improv and try to stay one step ahead of my players?

Okay I'm legit not trying to provoke or bait anyone.

Is Jonah Orion the only non-Salamander Space Marine with a skin tone and facial characteristics of a person of typically African descent? I am just curious because he kind of stands out from other named Space Marines for that reason.

Again not trying to provoke or be racist here.

Hey, do we have any uploads of the original DH beta material?

1d4chan.org/wiki/Dark_Heresy_Second_Edition#Sample_Combat

Is this the Dwarf Fortress of roleplaying games?

No, he's not. There are Marines with all sorts of skin tones and facial features. There are really only two reasons why we see that most of them are "white":

>40k was create by pasty white Englishmen for a market dominated by pasty white Englishmen. As such, there was an logical reasoning behind having most depictions of Marines being, well, pasty white Englishmen. Future editions of 40k followed this framework.

>Space Marines are meant to echo European knights, the vast majority of which were white. The parallel would not have held so much potency in the beginning if they had looked like tribal Zulu warriors or Native Americans.

>should I just improv and try to stay one step ahead of my players?
Probably best to do that yeah. I had a similar situation, some Pathfinder players learning the system and all, and I just improved some Trade Sable members' movements, and the group (one player in particular) kind of rose to the challenge and weaseled through on pure discourse. I was greatly impressed, even rewarded them for it.

Looking back at early materials, it seems there was a far greater presence of racial variety in written material than current.

Who cares about canonical examples? If there's a world out there with African-looking residents, and some chapter is recruiting from it, those are African-looking marines.

Though now I'm trying to imagine what a black marine actually looks like taking into account the fucked up anatomy.

I like emphasising the physical inhumanity of my hereteks, which are the only mechanicum characters I've played. Stuff like optics whirring and adjusting and clicking shutters instead of describing how they're narrowing or rolling their eyes, cheek muscles tightening because the rebreather enclosing the lower half of their face obscures their actual smile, rattling and wheezing when they breathe.

I also like to give them vaguely non-humanoid body shapes and proportions if they've got augmetic limbs, which is also how geedubs recently started stylising the mechanicus again with the likes of the Magos Dominus and Belisarius Cawl minis. It's a good time to be a mechanicum fan, to be sure.

As for personality, remember that being able to interface with cogitators and machine-spirits means these guys can deal with the raw stuff of knowledge as easy as you and I breathe. Think about the sort of detachment that would develop from that to get the ball rolling and go from there.

I'm also kind of curious, since there's an entire world of Vikings (Valhalla) is there an entire world of something like African mega fauna that the natives fight off every day? Or by God, an Australian world full of deadly emus that the natives must wage war with each day?

Who cares is right.

>The Melanochrome, also called the Skinshield, is the 13th of the 19 genetically-engineered gene-seed organs that are implanted into a Space Marine Neophyte to produce a new Astartes. This hormonal implant is attached to the human lymphatic system and controls the amount of melanin in a Space Marine's skin. Exposure to high levels of sunlight will result in the Astartes' skin naturally darkening to compensate.

Shit I mean Russian army world, I forgot Valhalla wasnt actually Vikings.

Their insignia is a watermelon

What if Space Marines had the proportions of the TF2 heavy? They'd be able to wield even bigger powerfists.

So I keep coming back here, but I'm trying to do adeptus sororitas seeker who does melee combat but I'm stuck on homeworld. I'm looking at feral world, feudal world, agri world as well as hive world. They all give me benefits I want, but also take away from another stat I need. So I feel like I'm trying to hard at the start to spread my stats to much and trying to be the jack of all trades. Like since I want to melee I want str, toughness, weapon skill and agility but I also want to be social so I need fellowship, perception a day willpower correct as a Adeptus Sororitas. I apologize for coming back over and over with the same issue but I keep tossing up option so and I'm not sure way to do. I also only have two months to play with this group so I'm trying to really make the best character I can. Which is a sister of battle with an eviscerator who's good at finding people

you have to make a sacrifice somewhere

instead of worrying so much about stats, pick a homeworld for fluff reasons

I think I might go with feudal world honestly, seems like it might fit, and it doesn't seem like I need intelligence all that much

Would I be able to justify using a incubi klaivex as a sister of battle? I'm 99% sure that there is no plausible way to convince myself that a sister of battle would be able to come to terms with using xenos weapons and technology instead of imperium weapons because it might be heretical. I'm just looking for any excuse to claim I can use a incubus klaive as a sister of battle

I'm sure the not too bright yet friendly and amiable person who is good in a fight isn't too unsound of an idea. Kind of like Rocky Balboa.

Why do you want to use them in the first place?

Well its an exotic weapon. Assuming you have the capability, (exotic Weapon training), it comes down to Do you know that the blade is a Klaive and not simply a weird power blade? (Also, BTW, a Klaivex is a Senior Incubi Champion, not a blade. you are talking about a Klaive) (unless you planned to hold a dark eldar by the ankle and hit people with him)

They are the best power sword for a melee character in the game. Especially if you use parrying. 1d10+8 Pen 8 Two handed, power field is damn good compared to most power swords.

Beating a xeno with another xeno would show the superiority of human muscles. Might do good damage considering how spiky dark eldar are.

And since Incubi Armour is the best Dark eldar can get your weapon is reuseable...

That IS pretty good, but it's two handed. With a normal power sword you could hold another melee weapon (unwieldy since you'll parry with the sword), a ranged weapon (if that's your style) or even a shield. I use the last one since it gives extra armour and my DM lets Defensive and Balanced stack. Tanky AND Puritan.

Yeah. In my rogue trader game I used Demi-Klaives when i was a Duelist Delf. Slightly higher Damage output, plus the option for huge damage if I don't need to defend with parrying cause dodging is better(like against fuckoff huge demons)

Cause it looks fucking dope and I also love dark eldar

Nothing in the RPG is canon, and that is why they set their games 200 years before official material starts.

warhammer-40-000-fantasy-flight-cinematic-universe.obsidianportal.com/wikis/rogue-trader-high-end-ships

I've got a small question, people here seem to 'somewhat' agree that 1st edition Dark Heresy is a clunky mess compared to 2nd edition.
But I've got a group who are wanting to play through the Haarlocks Legacy books.
My question, is it possible to use them with 2nd edition, or will I need to do some conversion?

I'm running a different DH1e module ripped straight from the book and I have yet to encounter an issue.

Maybe when it comes to some tests or with some NPC blocks, but then just check OW's GM section for conversion as 2e doesn't have any sort of built-in 'how to do this' conversion guides for use with previous games.

Only if your team has no combat skills

Referencing the user in the past thread about social mechanics, I prefer less social mechanics rather than more as a general rule.
Out of hand, it is because more rules always will allow someone to abuse them in unsavory ways, and people often do not realize that a social character, with rules behind them, is often the most powerful thing a player can wield, far outstripping any combat specc'd character. The influence they can press is enormously outsized, and the savvier the player, the more they can roll the GM and the party.
Further, I on the whole prefer less rules as a way to exercise my own creativity without being bludgeoned by rules by the GM, and as a GM, being allowed to resolve situations the way I feel best fits the scenario, rather than what a dev says should work for everyone (and not have to worry about a player trying to ruleslawyer).

Rogue Trader fluff question

My RT has a history of delving into space hulks from a young age--in fact, found her writ and ship in one such delve.

I have fluffed up as her having had her first major xenos kill fashioned into a lovely cloak--it was a genestealer, the chitin sewn into the cloak's cloth.

On a scale of 1 to 10 how bad idea is wearing the chitin of a dead genestealer nearly all the time, and what could I expect the side effects to be?

>>tfw I'm literally the only person I know in my state who gives a shit about Warhammer

American state? Which one?

We're surprisingly popular here in the good ol' Republic of Texas, if you live where other people live at least.

Not bad at all. Hostile Acquisitions even has skinned Tyranid armor in it, although wearing it means you have the Inquisition stopping in for tea.

Just play whichever one you've learned. I'd say that first edition is not enough of a mess to justify any weird conversions.

That's an abstract, which doesn't work for me when I'm looking for the real deal in actual character descriptions to riff off. Makes sense?

I'd use the wiki, but they mainly focus on what a character has done, or various pbp character descriptions, but they're usually kind of shit when you're just trawling through search engine results.

user, you are asking for something that is extremely vague.
>What does a person in one of the most insularly varied groups in the galaxy that performs all kinds of varying self mutilations look like and do?
You may as well ask someone to describe a homunculus.
If you want a decent answer, what does YOUR dude look like? Why haven't you used the many novels that have descriptions of admech members, from tech adepts in the field to 1k year old magos?

If I knew where to find a slew of good descriptions, I wouldn't be trawling search engines in the hope of uncovering the proverbial diamond in the shitpile.

>what does YOUR dude look like?
That's what I'm asking. I'm looking for character descriptions covering appearance and personality that made anyone think, "Hey, that's pretty damn good."

I'm not putting up my character's description because it's unwritten, and as I said, I'm looking for existing work to help get ideas moving. Abstracts don't work - I don't get a sense of cohesive whole, just dry, disjointed details.

>Why haven't you used the many novels
I haven't read the many novels.

Is there any fluff on Malfi beyond the single page in the core DH1e book?

No. The Celestial Lions are African Savannah Tribe in style and appearance.

And like I said, you are basically asking someone to, for example, describe a Chinese person, not knowing that "Chinese person" includes some 12 distinct groups of people with their own histories, backgrounds, language, culture.
As for techpriests, where are they from? What color are the robes they wear? Do they have more than the basic implants? Do they have a vox grill, or an osmotic implant? Skin, eyes, hair? Tattoos? Odd features on the fleshy bits your character WILL have, because you are not a 500 year old magos?

I'm not asking for anyone to describe my character.

Again, I'm asking for descriptions of characters (their own or others') within the same general grouping (techpriests) that they liked.

If you're poleaxed by indecision and uncertainty when faced with an open question, rather than being able to answer based on your own life experience of what constitutes "good" in context, then giving an answer here is unfortunately not for you.

Every hide in 40k comes from xeno species or rare geneengineering, why does the inquisition care about some trophies or clothes?

No, I am mystified that in a setting with 3 decades of lore and myriad character descriptions, you are unable to find something describing a techpriest when there are a dozen techpriests I can think of by name from the setting with a lot of print behind them, like Arkhan Land and Scoria, and twice that many books and codices, like the entirety of the 30k Ordo Reductor/Taghamata books, the Admech book of 40k and others.
You are failing at google, user, and since you seem so willing, you can stew in your failure.
Good luck with your character.

Because the existence of the Tyranids is somewhat classified in the corners of the Imperium where they have yet to appear. Gotta avoid panic.

>I am mystified that in a setting with 3 decades of lore and myriad character descriptions, you are unable to find something describing a techpriest
I'm amazed you still haven't been able to grasp the concept that I'm looking for descriptions other people like, and keep reverting back to, "dude must be looking for any description at all."
Donate your brain to science when you die, user. Maybe they'll name a condition after you.

There's plenty of other reasons. Tyranids use weird gene stuff that could have unforseen consequences. The Imperium also only (officially) use materials from non-sentient races they've already subjugated, not their current foes. There's also the question how you, a Rogue Trader near the Calixis Sector, got an armour from a highly dangerous xenos race literally only existing on the other side of the galaxy, and who you bought it from.

There is also the danger genestealers represent and the untold damage that could happen if a rogue trader gets infected by one.

So I've got a problem that maybe you guys can help me with.

I'm putting together a noble house, and I'm in the middle of fleshing it out, but I think I may have written myself into a corner, and I want to make sure I remain consistent the whole way through.

So I have a noble house. It is a very large and very old noble house. It dates back to M24. What I have written so far is that the every member of the house carries the house name, but also a surname in order for the members to differentiate among themselves and in order to figure out pecking order.

So the Primus (or head of the house, I don't really know the title of the position) of the house and their immediate family (wife and children) are kind of the top dogs as far as sway goes. But the Primus has siblings. It would make sense that the male siblings would also use the same surname (But this I think would detract from the "power" that holding the Primus Surname would give among the family members), while the females would adopt the surname of their husband, but the husband would adopt the House name. There is also the fact that, this house has absorbed smaller noble houses over the millennia, and I think they should be represented as well, maybe they are given surnames?

The issue I'm running into is, if a women of the Primus' line marries, would she then adopt the males surname, and therefore become another branch of the family entirely, or should she retain her "status" as a member of the Primus line? Or can both be true, and I have to come up with a way of explaining it further? If so, how?

Does this line of thinking remain consistent?

>M24
Did you mean M34?

Since I made this bingo template a bit ago. I might aswell share it. Heresy is the free field.
Also any ideas on what to fill in?

oh i see, too bad

No. It's an old House.

It's less that it's not canon and more that there's almost nothing that will ever reference or contradict it. Beyond some rare exceptions.

Made any Only War regiments as of late? Feel good enough about them to share? I don't.

A couple I statted up for my homebrew sector a while back.

Any tips with coming up with world names that sound good beyond translating a word into latin and using that?

A dictionary, mythological and pop-culture references, copious amounts of imagination and sometimes straight up stealing.

"African Space Marines" has to be one.

Whatever happened to that Death World (Australian) Drop Regiment that got made a few months back. We actually fleshed out their background pretty good from what I recall.

Xenos PC
Special Snowflake PC
Homebrew Shitstorm
Easy question that could have been solved by reading the books
DH1 or DH2
Regiment Creation

If my players want to play in a high power level campaign, should I run Black Crusade or Deathwatch?

Black Crusade gets crazier than Deathwatch, especially with advanced archetypes in play.

Player new to 40k wants to play a relatively lore intensive PC.
PCs made shit worse though incompetence.
PCs made shit better though incompetence.
"Trust/Believe in my story"

oh ok

so, i guess the catachans are the closest canon version when it comes to close combat knife ambush