/40krpg/ 40k Roleplay General

You'd think a forge world, by its nature, would be close enough to the main Imperial hierarchy to known that there are several institutions in the Imperium extremely interested in having blanks around, including the Mechanicus.
Assuming the person is correctly identified as a blank of course.

I'd say, due to the severe evaluation everyone on a Forge world goes through, Blanks are probably discovered and subsequently used as bargaining chips in negotiations with the Imperial institutions that want them.

On a similar note, do they have psychic tech priests?

wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Acolyte_of_Abraxas

How big of a mistake would it be to give players loot that reduces experience cost up advancements for a specific advance. For example, I'm planning on having the tech priest find a consecrated servo arm left during a raid and if he takes it he can halve the exp required for servo arm upgrade.

I'm not going to do this a ton, maybe once per PC, if that. But I thought it might be something neat to sprinkle in.

Playing only war btw.

I imagine they'd just turn over members to the black ships

Speaking of black ships, isn't it a bit dangerous to bring every single psyker ever straight to Terra?

Could one do a game of DH on board a black ship?

I don't see why not. Keep in mind though that black ships are specifically made to prevent fuckery of all types so you'd need some serious logic behind something shady happening.

What if the players are the psykers?

Do any of you have any lore-houserules? Any particular lore portions of 40k that you use for your games and don't give a fuck what anyone else thinks?

Some that I came up with and snagged from some of you include, but aren't limited to:
>Imperial conflicts do not always end because the Imperium threw more bodies into it. There are plenty of competent people in Imperium.
>Kriegers have faces. To civilians and ground-pounders, they're all masks. But they get invited to events where they have to eat in the presence of others the higher up they go in the chain, so many people are exposed to just how young and dead these men look.
>I downplay how often Astartes are deployed in large numbers, making it so a platoon or two are often considered quite a devotion to a task.
>Serfs fight alongside Astartes more often as an auxiliary pseudo-Guard force.
>Oldcrons and Newcrons co-exist. Several shards of the Deceiver are free and have some tomb worlds enslaved to its will. It is slowly subjugating the Necron worlds again; on a perpetual quest to reunite its whole form. The Nightbringer is still whole and in stasis, as even the most arrogant Necron Lord is reluctant to release it again on any grounds. Necrons that fall in the Newcron category range from superiority complexes to friendly and pleasant, depending on many factors.
>While Orks still have enough variety between worlds and Waaaghs that new Orks can be found, most common Orks will still have the Rogue Trader feel: more blatantly Great War and Second World War German in aesthetic, with darker tones and more aggressive and dangerous demeanors. A bit less "'ere we go, 'ere we go, 'ere we go!" with spergs screaming everywhere and a bit more "We kill these 'umies, and we can have all the slaves we want!" with a blend of Tolkien Orc feel to them. Actual bloodthirstiness and danger as opposed to silly danger. This changes little to nothing about their lore, it's just a matter of how I portray them.

>Do any of you have any lore-houserules?

You mean homebrew and personal interpretations for my group? Lots. I run all my games in my own homebrew sector in the pimply blackened ass end of the Eastern Fringe with a shitload of fluff written for it in various documents. But for more general stuff with the setting and tone at large, I run with these changes.

>The grimderp is toned down to the level it is in Eisenhorn & Shira Calpurnia series to make it fun as an RPG setting. And because grimdark needs some form of bright contrast for the grimdark to actually become noticable.
>War is unending, but not universal. Peaceful contact between humans and xenos is a lot more common than canon fluff. Particularly on the fringes of Imperial rule. However, it always fraught with risk and danger.
>People are still people in the 41st millennium. Even the most augmented Archmagos, veteran Space Marine and ruthless Inquisitor share some common thread of humanity. Even if it is tiny and shriveled.
>Imperial culture is largely what would be considered "religiously conservative", much like medieval/renaissance Europe. Sex out of wedlock is considered sinful, homosexuality is viewed rather dimly and etc. Local planetary culture is varied as hell still.
>Hypocrisy is everyones favorite past time.
>40k is weird and fantastical, that part is very much emphasized with a space opera tone.

Mine are:
>The Imperial guard isn't entirely trench warfare and massed infantry charges, though some do(Death Korps of Krieg)
>Cadians employ modern day tactics of maneuver warfare, air superiority, Combined arms (as do to being so close to the Eye of Terror and being a bit resistant to chaos). They also have really stereotypical Canadian accent.
>Catachan are masters in Death World Warfare, expert infiltrators in deadly environments
>Valhallan Ice Warriors sometimes either do stereotypical Enemy at the Gates conscript spam or Deep Battle Operations
>Worlds that were recently liberated by whatever Imperial force(Guard, Sisters, Skitarii, or Space Marines) model their clothes around the liberating force

So what would there clothes be like of they were liberated by an RT house that uses Freebooterz as its main assualt force? Is that how you get diggaz?

Well aside from the group getting together when new fluff comes out and deciding what should or should not be used (Which on Veeky Forums is grounds for fights if that's even houseruling or fluff as intended with quotes and interviews from authors flying every which way.),

The things we do tend to take liberties on is:
>Adjusting the grimdark levels. Most Imperial citizens don't work fucking 20 hour shifts and spend 2 hours at mandatory prayer before their 2 hours of sleep or whatever the fuck ridiculously impractical grimderp bullshit came out of 3rd to 5th edition fluff. But on the other hand, chaos is incredibly infectious of an idea and exterminatus and other such measures are 100% justified.
>We rarely go to existing planets or areas of space.
That's all that comes to me off the top of my head.

I don't think those first three, possibly four, are homebrew houserules for lore. I'm pretty sure in the "current" canon, they're, well, canon.

>tfw want to pilot a Knight reference of BT-7274 but can't think of a good name

Huh. Is that where Psybernetics came from?
We've discussed this here before - Astropaths are bound and sanctioned on Terra, but regular sanctionites can be Sanctioned aboard the Black Ships and sent right back out to serve various Imperial institutions.
I actually do most of that, though I have use of serfs as auxilaries vary by Chapter, and often it's mainly aboard voidships. As for the Orks, I keep the sillness but play it up for horror - unrelenting bloody-minded aggression and a sadistic sense of fun, but they just can't take Guardsmen seriously and aren't afraid to die.
I mentioned a thread or two ago that I keep space-Skaven and bendies both around as Hrud, justifying it as a pompous =][= labelling the bendies as Hrud and discarding evidence of spacerats.
>The Imperial guard isn't entirely trench warfare and massed infantry charges
There are canonical guerilla fighters and paratroopers. The Tanith 1st and Only, the Drookian Fen Guard, the fucking Catachans... And Elysian Drop Troops are teched up paratroopers, while Harakoni Warhawks are the same thing only with carapace armor and a more gung-ho attitude.
>We rarely go to existing planets or areas of space
I like your group already. Using established stuff (and probably fucking it up) is boring when you can explore strange new worlds, forge the narrative, and boldly go where no Imperial citizen has gone before.
Knight names are often rather pompous and generic. Unerring Retribution?

I meant a rather Knight sounding name that is explicitly a BT reference. Your suggested name is a good one for a Knight, and I may well use it. But it's not quite what I'm looking for for this Knight.

has anyone played as an arms dealer in Rogue Trader? any tips/advice?

Sell to both sides, but don't get caught.

Ideally, you never sell anything that can be used against you.

Most ideally, you sell bad weapons to both sides in a primitive war, then mop up the winner with your superior armaments and annex the whole planet.

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with Titfall, so I won't be of much help with that.

fat vostroyans?

True Grit or Hardy and a wound? Only War Heavy, for reference.

Former seems better for making sure I survive, latter seems better for keeping my character ready to go in the long slugfests the campaign is shaping up to be.

The latter then the former.

Way I'm taking the character, can't do both.

Which is sad, but oh well.

What circumstances prevent you from taking hardy and sound constitution now and true grit later?

What DH1e career would this guy be?

Nothing specific, but I'm going for Brawler. So between picking up the stuff related to being better at fighting close, True Grit goes from 400 to 600 xp.

Scum.

Toughness 50, Blather +20.

Why not something like having the name be Ruina Titanica (Fall titan in latin) then paint on BT as a hidden model number somewhere?

Could work. I'd go with a different translation of 'fall' that has more to do with an actual physical plummet or descent, but 'ruina' adds in the nifty implication that the Knight has previously destroyed an enemy Titan, which is damned impressive even for a Knight.

So I've made a few DH2 characters, and I'm trying to play around with some interesting concepts in my free time. Do you all have any pointers for making a psyker that is a complete brute in close quarters? Part of me is thinking Daemon World Planet, then Adeptus Astra Telepathica background.

On the other hand, I could go unbound psyker to free up my background to go more combat oriented.

Any suggestions?

Astra Telepathica is a solid take. It nets you an Aptitude you need and it gives you insurance against Phenomena, on top of boosting your psy rating.
Focus on picking up Offence, Weapon Skill, and Willpower, though Finesse could also come in handy if you've got room.

Remember that the bonus from telepathica only requires you get the psyker elite advance in character creation.

Mystic is just the guaranteed way of getting it, but if you have the willpower to just buy it, you can go with Crusader, Assassin, or Warrior.

Buying Psyker as an elite advance will be better since it gives you an extra Aptitude.

What would happen if someone played a blank in BC?

They get killed by the guy(s) aligned to Tzeench.

Does Tzeentch particularly hate blanks?

They're Anathema to psykers. They are on the opposite end of the spectrum he inhabits.

And to daemons and warp entities in general.

/k/ ain't IG, they're PDF.

Does Only War have an introductory scenario like DH and RT?

Durr, never mind, I just found it.

Now I'm curious. What is it?

With Fantasy dead, can WFRP2e folk hang out here?

Eleventh Hour

Probably. Anyone who minds can just pretend you're talking about Feudal Worlds or Daemon Worlds. Or a Feudal Daemon World.

>made a techpriest
>go to read up on cult mechanicus etc
>tfw sleeping void dragon
>tfw mars interior clusterfuck
>tfw rogue "machine spirits"

I immediately regret this decision and I want to get rid of all technology.

You are lucky. Nobody really knows about the Void Dragon, from outside Mars is running smoothly and rogue "machine spirits" is secret. :V

Check out the Cult of the Pure Form in DH1e "The Lathe Worlds." They want to get rid of a lot of tech too, and people like them are one of the reasons the Mechanicus so strictly control the distribution of Haywire weapons.
But yeah, the scrapcode and general clusterfuck on the lower levels of Mars are some heavy shit.

Ignorance really is a blessing in 40k.

My only relief is knowing the Tau will probably end up living in the same nightmare.

Are haywire weapons just EMPs?

Sure, be our guests. It's a similar system anyway. Hell I'd bring up some WFRP1e stuff if people gave a shit.

Absolutely.

AoS RPG when?

Are the Black Crusade modules in the rulebooks balanced for an Astartes party? What about the Astartes archetypes in the different tomes? Also, I've been told that it's a bad idea to have mixed parties but that sounds kind of limiting, is there anything I can do about that?

bump

mixed parties will work if your group is not manchildren. Astartes are flat out superior unless you fiat them down.

Yeah, don't be the type of blithering idiot who thinks it's bad to have a mixed party.

Don't mean to be rude, but it really is just common sense to not throw the same challenges at both the marine and human members of your party. Don't be afraid to split the party outside of combat, have the humans go do more socialising stuff whilst the marines have to work in greater secrecy, or just y'know have them dealing in different circles...

As for combat, of course enemies are going to prioritise the hulking marines, and just make sure to give stuff for the humans to do kinda on the sidelines like stuff involving tech-use etc, or even just clearing out mooks.

It's not that you can't do it, it's that there are pitfalls to doing it - like having to split the party, obvious characteristic imbalances, CSMs not having much skill variety to start off (and likely wanting to improve their killyness), and the problem that if a threat for the marines happens to finish with them & go after a human, that human is probably going to be paste very soon.

...

The first Eisenhorn novel has a good example as to how a mixed party would work - the villains have a rich evil dude, a psyker, and a chaos marine as the main triuumvirate. The chaos marine mostly stands around going MY MASTERS WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS until it's time to kill people, the rich dude is the face & also decodes the ancient xenos books and the psyker is a psyker.

What system would work best for a game where the players are genestealer cultists? Also, could a genestealer cult operate inside the Screaming Vortex or a similar warp rift?

Modified Dark Heresy 2e, I'd say. No idea about the second question.

DH2 or Black Crusade.

I was thinking about having Black Crusade characters have a run-in with a genestealer cult. What wacky hijinks might ensue?

Killings and sacrifices.

That's boring. What would happen if they tried to corrupt the cultists?

The cultists would kill the genestealers.

In this case, cultists was referring to the genestealers.

Alright /40krpg/, time to share some homebrew. This is a conclave I've used for my DH games in a homebrew sector I run and which I've finally expanded beyond three line concepts. Lots of context is lost on you because it refers to other material I've written, I know. But since I intend for these write ups to be able to be taken as written and any references to be like the obscure references in the 40k rulebooks and codexes.

Either way, thoughts? Criticism? Autistic screeching? I'd love to hear it because I've been staring at it so much I'm probably not seeing the flaws.

I was going to say there was nothing original or groundbreaking in here, just a rehash of expected tropes, but it really got me thinking - isn't that a good thing? Just look at what GW did to the AoS Squats. Sure, they're dwarves, but they don't worship ancestors, fly sky frigates, and wear all-encompassing armor. At what point does it cease being a recognizable dwarf? Is an Eldar who follows chaos still an Eldar? Is a Tau who doesn't follow the Greater Good still a Tau? I'm torn - you can't make something new because you're just making an OC snowflake, yet something familiar is boring and uninteresting.

Since this is a Warhammer 40K thread would someone mind telling me what crosses in 40K symbolize/what their meaning is?

Like what is the in-character reason for the Black Templars having a cross symbol?

Is there any acknowledgment of Christinanity in the setting? Like are there any ancient fragmented records of it?

I just really want to know if crosses have a thought out setting explanation for their use as sometimes you see them a lot.

I get them making you think of real life historical knights and crusaders but what are they supposed to make characters think of in the setting? How do crosses get used by a space marine chapter all about crusading when Christianity doesn't exist?

But splitting the party in BC isn't bad, the power levels are such that the humans and the marines can easily work as independent sections roughly working to the one goal.

>the problem that if a threat for the marines happens to finish with them & go after a human
This is no different to the tank/s dying in any regular party. If the frontline dies in most RPGs then yes, it is almost assuredly going to be a TPK.

In Oldhammer, it was actually pretty common for Genestealer Cults to turn to the Dark Powers if cut off from the Hive Mind.

Don't suppose you know if there are any oldhammer pdfs or scans? Tried finding the (non-FFG) Rogue Trader stuff awhile back, with no luck.

I think the 40K general has 2e and 5e. Dunno about RT and 3/4.

I started with pic related, so I'm looking for anything earlier than that.

>Unironically reccomending anything from lathe worlds

Wtf dude.

How much heresy is too little heresy?

No amount of heresy is too little heresy.

It's fluff on an Ecclesiarchy cult that takes their hatred of the Mechanicus a step farther. They consider cybernetics to be the height of heresy, and want to outright eradicate the Cult Mechanicus and put control of technology in the hands of 'pure' mortals, unsullied by cybernetics.
Yeah, I recommend stuff out of Lathe Worlds: fluff.

Hey anons, I've been invited to a game of Rogue Trader and am thinking of either playing an Ork or something more regular. Any idea which books I'll need? Never played the RPGs, but I know a decent amount of 40k lore.

Also, is it just me or has the MEGA reduced the size you can download on mobile? It won't let me download any of them.

RT core, Into the Storm (for ork freebooter career), Hostile Acquisitions (for more orky upgrades) and anything else you want.

Take a look at Fear and Loathing on the Eastern Fringe. It's homebrew, but it's worth looking to see if there's anything you'd want to ask your GM for.

Hey, thanks user!

Nah, no homebrew, sorry m8.

just getting back in

can I use old chaos dreadnoughts as helbrutes? Because I have 2 dreadnoughts that are useless otherwise

Wrong thread, m8.

shit my bad