/40krpg/ 40k Roleplay General

It depends on whether they were from one of the hives or one of the nomadic tribes.
Four of the five hives are primarily inhabited by fairly generic Imperials, so standard Imperial names are fine.

The nomadic tribes tended to have a mix of near-eastern names or central asian names. But honestly it's a hive world. You can get away with almost any needn't.

In either case, I highly recommend checking out the write-ups for their home world, Icelus, for a ton of inspiration.

There are infinite options. I'm fond of the Raptors' slavic resignation and the Blood Jaguars' manically devout bloodlust, but the Brazen Claws are pretty neat as the Iron Hands who never really got past being angry about losing Ferrus to be properly bitter about it like the Iron Hands, and the Lamenters' stubborn refusal to stop looking out for mortals even when it shafts them every single time is wonderful.

The Brazen Claws also recently got back from a failed crusade into the Eye of Terror.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I honestly really like their derpy color scheme, and I love that they behave more like the fucking Flesh Tearers - who have the Black Rage and Red Thirst to contend with - than the Iron Hands, embodying a different aspect of the Legion that Ferrus was so concerned about.

What are the news?
>emperor still dying but somehow not dead yet, how long that iv feed
>greater tyranid fleet still approaching weeew so scared slow like shit amirite
>necrons still not done with naptime and now mongering amongst themselves about egyptian lightbulbs
>dark eldar still raping in solitude
>chaosfags still raping in solitude, and just failing at fucking everything
>tau still expanding but actually not because too small to do even the tiniest poop of an impact
>eldar still oldfagging and crying about nostalgia but not dead yet just like emperor
>orks still killing themselves and the great waagh is just around the corner guys, like a really really long corner
Meanwhile in the ancient lizard race's pocket dimension they are still squabbling over all the memes they made

Blackshield Astral Knight

Don't have his sheet handy, but he's an Assassin from a Forgeworld. He was cyber-reconstructed after taking a bolt round to the face, and we've basically made him go full Six Million Throne Man. He's got a concealed power blade in his left forearm, and his right essentially can convert into a single shot bolt gun with the accurate quality (I think it's called the Solo pattern bolt gun?). Accurate+ Tearing+ being an expert sniper is nasty, but once he fires it he has to keep reloading every round so it becomes less insane . He also carries a fancy plasma gun for when the group is expecting straight combat, and has a silenced fancy auto-pistol for when he's sneaking around and needs to kill mooks without being noticed.
He usually doesn't wear much armor due to his mechanical shell, but he does have some carapace that integrates with his cybernetics so that he can effectively get +1 armor for when they're going loud.
His most treasured possession is an ancient text describing the building of steam locomotives which he rescued from the Library of Knowing after the Arch Heretic Sinderfell attacked.
He's baaaad news for anyone who runs into him, but after years of serving the Machine God is also a whee bit nuts. He talks to his weapons and the teams servo skull... and they talk back to him.

>I'm pretty sure they're still subject to the normal limits on only being able to dodge Blasts if you can halfmove out of them.
As someone who recently created a vindicare character for a high level game (that then went nowhere), I can point out you're wrong in general terms.

>Additionally, the Assassin may attempt to Dodge any attack, including attacks that are not normally eligible for a Dodge Test, such as massive explosions, a descending titan’s foot, or an invisible psychic attack (The GM should make the fnal decision on which attacks may not be Dodged, and at his discretion, this ability may not apply).

Orbital bombardment may wind up with there being nowhere to dodge to, but they definitely tick the box for the term 'massive explosions'.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how rogue trader is having a forearm weapon mounting plasma pistol with the in character logic of 'if it overheats, I can just buy a new arm'?

Love it.

It's fine, but I'd still have velcro straps or something set to cut it loose in the event that I don't want to arbitrarily fuck my shit up.

But where's the fun in that?

If the goal is to show off how much you afford to waste profits and influence, then get a squad of crack troops armed with forearm mounted plasma weapons.

How far can Rogue Traders push tech-heresy before the Mechanicus sends out someone to tell them to knock it off/eat a bolter round?

Like, xenotech small arms are one thing, but what constitutes too much to tolerate for tbe AdMech?

Asking for a friend who is totally not thinking of installing xenos cybergear.

Depends on several things. What sector is the RT operating in? How many artifacts has he traded to the admech in the past? How obvious and flamboyant is the friend is question being with their cybergear?

Is it a good or bad idea to go on a tyranid hunting expedition in a space hulk with the intent to keep the bodies in the cargo hold to sell to either the adeptus mechanicus' biologis department, or the ordo xenos depending on who offers the most thrones for it in rogue trader?

It depends on which agents of the Mechanicus discovers it. The Divine Light of Sollex might be quick to send assassins, but among certain members of the Disciple of Thule it may even be promoted. It also depends what type of xenos cybergear. A brain implant found on a long dead world that has a built in personal AI may be declared Silica Animus and hunted down by Tech Assassins and worse.
Seems like an opportunity to get genestealers on board, a lictor stalking you down, or an Ordo Xenos investigation on your ass. You are better off going hunting somewhere else with less dangerous prey. There is also the added danger of pathogens or toxins being spread somewhere in the ship.

Not to mention the fact that Space Hulks tend towards being highly nuclear, one of the main reasons that Terminator armor is used during Space Hulk clearing.

But then again, a little radiation poisoning never hurt anyone

There's even the Old One Eye situation that might be forgotten about. Since Tyranid biology is so strange, just because something looks dead doesn't mean it couldn't be eating poor crewmen several hours later after it regenerates. And while a Carnifex may not be stealthy, a Ravener on the other hand would be terrifying.

Well, the expedition's being lead by the rogue trader, who comes from a family dynasty of space hulk salvagers, if it helps.

I assume this is in the Koronus Expanse. Very few individuals in the Expanse have knowledge of the Tyranids, and far less have knowledge of their biology so something nasty is far more likely to happen such as Old One Eye. It isn't like you'll be encountering one Tyranid either, you'll likely be encountering swarms of genestealers who are deadly to even Space Marines. You'd be better off contacting the Storm Wardens or the Ordo Xenos so they can handle it. The arrival of Tyranids in the Expanse would be something worth investigating by the Ordo.

How many times can you advance a characteristic?

You can buy up to +20 with XP, but can you ALSO take a +5 from the free characteristic advance, AND +5 from class bonuses?

For example a Weapon Specialist takes a +5 free advance to his BS, then gets an automatic +5 advance to BS from being a Weapon Specialist, and then spends XP four times to get +20. He has now increased his BS 6 times, or 30 points, from his initial rolls. Can he do this, or does the free advance and Weapon Specialist bonus mean that he can only advance it 4 times total?

I take it you're playing Only War. Speciality bonuses and purchased advances do stack, but I don't know where you're getting the "free" advance from.

Oh yeah, sorry, Only War.

So there are no free advances? I must be thinking of WFRP. Then you can have up to 5 advances? Not 4?

Dark Heresy 2e does up to +25 on characteristic advances.

The RT writ applies to their own bodies and person. It's a muddled legal issue if they were to step onto an imperial planet or something but the authority of the writ is from the High Lords of Terra themselves.

If it's on their ship or beyond the borders of the Imperium itself they can pretty much do what they want, and Explorators can get pretty fucking xeno-deep or heretical under their own authority, as they're sorta supposed to be studying this stuff to an extent.

I mean yeah they can send Tech-Assassins, or the Ordo Xenos could start asking questions - but really only if the RT is operating in Imperial space.

There are no free advancements unless you count whatever bonuses your Regiment or class grants you to start with. Once char gen is finished, you can advance a stat by 20, that's it baring demonic pacts or other GM foolery.

>Once char gen is finished, you can advance a stat by 20, that's it baring demonic pacts or other GM foolery.
Do you have a page for this? My players are going to throw a fit if I can't cite it

Page 102 of character creation. The only "free" advancements are in the advanced specialties section of HotE and SoH.

Did you not have time to read the book?

You can only advance a stat four times by XP is basically what is being said. There are other ways that it can go up, sure.

Page 102 in the core book. The only way to advance a characteristic is by buying an advancement with XP. There are no other rules as far as I know of to gain points in a characteristic outside of situational bonuses due to Traits/Talents/Cybernetics. Once a player rolls their stats, those numbers get modified by their regiment and class and that's it.

>modified by their regiment and class
But that's exactly what I'm referring to. If a PC has +5 bonus from their class, can they then advance the same stat 3 times or 4?

The Regiment bonus does not count as an advancement, it's a flat bonus OR penalty at char gen. You could have a -5 just as easily as a +5, o a +/- 2 o 3, it does not matter. You get 4 advancements, that's it.

Vorpal Swords
The only Chapter who survived the Abyssal Crusade and purged hundreds of Daemon Worlds in the Warp

This. The advancements are you paying the 250/500/750/1000 (or whatever) to increase the stat. You can only do it that way four times.

There are other ways the stat can be increased, like a regiment bonus, daemonic pact, or a cybernetic implant or something. Those are not advancements.

What kind of xenos can DH2e characters with around 3k experience fight?

Orks

How can I best run an Only War solo game where the player will be playing a Skitarii Ranger Alpha? I'll be using the "Mars Needs Women" PDF.

It depends on equipment.

Basic Bitch equipment

Question for those who've played a lot of 40kRP.

What is the hardest monster in any of the books? I'm guessing one of the greater demons? So what are the hardest monsters that aren't outright "boss" monsters?

I like to read the books but have nobody to play with.

2e genestealers

Have him sit in a bunker by himself as he dispatches robots out to an AdMech style Maginot line.

You should check out the short story "Steel Brother" by Gordon R. Dickson for inspiration. It was written in 1952 and is about a guy stationed alone on an asteroid defending the frontier, he has some like... robot drones he can send out to patrol as well as a brain-jack sorta thing that gives him access to the experiences of the previous operators of the asteroid (consider it like an AdMech MIU, Mind Impulse Unit.)

It has a pretty fucking inspiring and cool ending that Im not going to spoil but that I think could be worked into the story of a single AdMech Skitarii that could get your player really pumped and I could see as fitting for a Skitarii vibe.

From my experience, it is either when the GM decides to throw the most dangerous grade of Demonhost at us or create an Archmagos level Heretek NPC who was exiled from Ordo Reductor.

Where do I find their stats?

Page 98 of enemies without.

Shitty Orks, Tau Pathfinders, Kroot, Termagants, Hormogaunts.

Definitely not Eldar or Necron.

I always got the impression Slaugth were apeshit powerful.

Looking at Master Nonesuch from "The House of Dust and Ash" I thought how the fuck are normal or slightly above normal parties meant to fight this monstrosity.

Regenerates like a mad bastard, is an untouchable and has a disintegration ray.

I don't know, situational context really matters in RP fights, as well as player equipment.

Anecdotally one of the deadliest things I ever ran up against in an RT game was the Navigator of a pirate ship. That fucking Warp-eye, man.

What about following the fluff and instead having said PC lead normal Skitarii?

Your idea will, however, be used in a GURPS game down the line--I love it.

How do you guys houserule the medicae skill, if at all?

And if not, how exactly is it "supposed" to work?

My DM's doing this thing where I can roll medicae and heal a person for x number (I forget the exact equation this is plugged into) of wounds during combat, but I can only do it once per actor per encounter. He got this from some streamer because he didn't like how the rulebook handles healing.

As per the official rules it seems like the medicae skill is good for exactly nothing during combat, barring a circumstance where a party member manages to start taking critical damage.

To clarify on DM's houserule: It's DoS + Bonus up to a maximum of what is now 20 until that actor goes through the extended care thing.

Which line?

That is how it works in OW and 2e.

Am I really supposed to be giving 400 xp per session to my OW players? After just 5 sessions they've earned 2,000 xp, and that's on top of the XP they got for picking regular classes. Are they advancing too quickly?

You can give however much exp you want. It's your game.

It really depends on how powerful you want your players to be at certain points in the campaign.

Did you have even a general idea where they will be after each session when you started? How many sessions do you want to run? How high should they be when you wrap things up?

I give roughly the same amount to my DHe2 players. Somehow they are still, stupid, squishy pussies.

I've so rarely faced anything out of the books that I don't even know. Fucking Hive Tyrants go down like bitches to a halfway competent Deathwatch killteam, and I doubt Greater Daemons or Daemon Princes are that much more threatening.
However, properly cheesed-out Magi Militant like the one mentioned by are fucking monstrous. Sometimes the scariest thing in the books isn't an enemy entry, but the things a vicious GM can do with the character creation chapter - on which note, I hope my killteam survive long enough for Deployment #6.
So few groups I've played with bother taking a medic that I can't be bothered to learn it for every single system, so I just assume that you can roll medicae once per person until they take more wounds, but can't heal them for more wounds than what they've taken since they were last treated - so if someone gets stabbed twice and you bandage them up, they get some healing, and if they then proceed to get themselves shot, you can heal that too but it won't be able to fix anything your prior First Aid roll failed to, just the new injury.
That's pretty generous IMO, but it lets them advance reasonably fast, picking up fun stuff as they go. As I see things it's more a question of whether they're outstripping your plans for later encounters more than whether there's a right or wrong amount of XP.

>what about following the fluff

Do Skitarii not work with Servitor troops or something?

Ok, so some more general questions.

I'm in an Only War game, playing as one of our two Heavies. I'm packing the Heavy Flamer, myself, and enjoying it quite a bit.

My issue is that I'm not entirely sure where to take my character. I feel like specializing in the flamer might be worthwhile, but I'm not entirely sure I'd be happy with that, especially since flamers look like they tail off in power as players get stronger.

So I'm not entirely sure what to do with the character. I thought about perhaps going Brawler, but I've only got a 30WS and STR, and that's after a single STR increase. None of the other specialties seem to suit the close range aspect of the character idea too well. I have a 40T and a 39WP, but I don't see a lot to do with those stats besides make my character even tougher to kill and more fearless.

Any general ideas of what to do with the concept?

Heavy stubber with tracer rounds.

Other heavy is the stubber user.

Rocket launcher?

Regimental favored weapon is already a heavy flamer.

I don't really feel like the answer is just to switch which weapon I use, to be honest.

If you're a ranged character in need of more ways to contribute in combat, a sniper rifle or long-las makes a decent backup for picking off targets at longer range than a flamer can reach, but for something less dramatic, you could start collecting grenades. I love hoarding them, tallying up how many I've used, testing them in the field, and always having something appropriate to the tactical situation when I need it. Need to sow some mayhem to give your team the edge? Hallucinogens. Got some squishy unarmored targets that need cutting down? Frags. Traitor Astartes, or light enemy vehicles? Kraks, and pray it doesn't Scatter.
If you can get them, incendiaries are nearly always good, plasma is fantastic, and xenofilament is filthy murder on par with man-portable autocannons.

As for ways to spend your XP - if you're not sure about sticking with the flamer long-term, I'd definitely hold off on the flame specialization talents, but there's plenty of other stuff to spend it on. You've already taken some Characteristic Advances; keep building on the stuff you rely upon. Take a look at what Skills you have matching Aptitudes for, and maybe buy up Dodge a little even if it's pricy, just in case.

Bulging Biceps, Heavy Flamer, and get the flame talents.

Go for Master of Ordinance. Be the cleanup crew to artillery strikes with your flamer. Your buddy will get a mortar. He takes long range shit, you take short range shit, the other heavy and other characters get the middle. Be the apocalypse you've always wanted to be.

What makes Magi types so hard to fight?

They do, but skitarii are separate forces from servitors. They're religious zealots who can get upgraded mid battle by a magos. Servitors are more a techpriest thing.

In general, Tech Priests are naturally very tanky. They also get a slew of special attacks and abilities that are very annoying. And then there is the fact that high end AdMech gear is straight up bullshit overpowered as fuck. They also make use of minons that tend to be pretty powerful in their own right. So you end up with a character who has a high as fuck armor, lots of Wounds, can ignore most special damage types, has a number of very useful inbuilt special attacks, is armed with probably at least 2 very powerful guns and melee weapons that make regular power swords look like toothpicks AND they are throwing heavy weapon armed bullet sponge murder servitors at you. And all of this is happening in their secret lair that is probably filled with all sorts of traps and you've probably already had to slog through hordes of their minions already to get to them. Giving it all a Heritek treatment and now everything has been powered up even more becasue of Xeno or Demonic upgrades to everything.

The Ordo Redactor have, in their protected and obfuscated possession, the most destructive relics from the dark age of technology; the very worst of which can do things like threat the continued existence stars--making a nuclear hurricane the size of the eye of Jupiter is a simple party trick for their Magoses. In short, they are true mad scientists who constantly skim the line of tech-heresy.

See this video for its subtitles and music: youtube.com/watch?v=uSioAPCd3Do

They're dead hard, between Toughness advances and cybernetic bonuses. And they tend to have a LOT of cybernetics, doing everything from eroding the Toughness of nearby foes with radiation poisoning, letting them reroll any and all failed Awareness tests for free, fly around and get Fear (1), hiding swords in their forearms, trading Reactions for extra attacks on the enemy's turn when said foe can't React to Evade...
They've got toys no one else does, from Felling 1 Lance 2d10+2 monstrosities they pass off as Basic weapons to radcleansers or even stuff as simple as servoarms and integrated lathe-lasguns... And then there's the really bullshit stuff, like the Alatus Jump Pack.
They've often got similarly cybered-up minions, from Skitarii or Crimson Guard to actual fucking combat automata left over from the Great Crusade, often mounting some of the best line trooper equipment available, from unjammable Tearing lasguns to a little something called the Mauler Bolt Cannon. If it's a Heretek, you also get to contend with Pulse, Splinter, or Gauss weapons, and you had best pray they didn't get involved with daemonshit.

So I've seen a couple people say that when you get x amount of bionic implants, you get the machine trait. Now after playing these games for 4 years pretty consistently, for some reason I've been totally unable to find this rule in any of the MRBs. The closest I've found is most systems saying that limbs give +2TB to their limb.

Is it made up, or do I have a very specific form of blindness?

There is the "Flesh Is Weak" talent from Lathe Worlds, page 57, which gives Tech Priests & Crimson Guard the machine trait. This represents replacing up to a very high about of internal organs and such with common quality bionics. I think this talent was originally found in Rouge Traitor for Explorators.

*Rouge Trader

Dammed corrector+fast writing!

*auto corrector

*Rogue Trader

>Rouge

Am I the one cringing around here because of this

*Rogue Trader

Scalawag Salesperson

*Thief Retailer

400 is actually a LOT less than you think in the long run of things unless the pc has multiple aligning aptitudes in what they want to take.
400xp a game is enough to get most skills trained, which is good because basic competence, or enough to start making bumps in 1 thing every session.
But remember, something like Peer, a tier 1 talent that represents getting in good with a group and nominally must be earned in play, costs 600xp for a player who isn't fellowship strong.

>medicae skill is good for exactly nothing during combat
Correct, it follows the pretty standard "realistic" approach most RPGs do in that it takes too long to dress wounds and stuff middle of combat. Your only real option for mid-combat healing is Biomancy.

Also you should be healing for DoS plus your Int bonus for First Aid.

That is very intense.

How do you fight one? I'm amazed players don't get the shits with a GM.
I'm guessing you can't best them with some easy peasy long range blast as a GM would think of that.

And I thought the hardest thing I ever saw was that sorceress of the Pilgrims of Hayte from Disciples of the Dark Gods with a bunch of fate points.

Can you become an Untouchable in OW? Could make use of your 39WP with that.

Very cool. I'm a forever GM but I will include a similar character in my game. Probably as a henchman of a rogue Magos.

jerk merchant

Good taste in mortars.
No, if you really want to mess with high level tech priests, then haywire is the way to go.
It usually takes away every advantage they have, and if their limbs are replaced with bionics they are completely immobile.

There are a handful of very specific weapons that can wreck the shit out of things with the Machine trait or that are heavy on cybernetics. If you build specially for it, then the hardest part of beating a Magi is getting the first hit in and disabling them before they can melt your face off.

I have seen some kind of expanded Character Sheet for DH2E, with dedicated pages for psychic powers, vehicle and such (about 5 pages) and I cant seem to find it anywhere.
Does anyone know what I am talking about, probably even have it?

Hmm, giving me some ideas, thanks.

Why would I get Bulging Biceps with a Heavy Flamer? It provides no mechanical benefit.