Deathwatch players - need your help!

Continued

Lastly he mangaged to unravel a chaos conspiricy aboard the Watch Fortress Enricho, whereby the eldar mentioned earlier was freed from its cell to interact with a tyranid, causing a psychic screech. A single 8 pointed star was found drawn on the wall of the eldar cell. With knowledge of forensics he used his diagnosticator helm to search for DNA evidence, fingerprints and boot prints but nothing was there. He did record a slight elevation in radiation. Finding that all the security devices had been turned off the Ravenguard Librarian surmised that this radiation had been caused by some kind of tech jammer. He found a mysterious lack of psychic signiture leading to the room. Following the radiation back to the armoury we did indeed find, to the agast of the ironhands techmarine quartarmaster that one of the tech jammers had been removed, and making it their next point of buisness to check the psychic hoods and nullrods found that one of the psychic hoods had been removed. We soon found that this had been done by a servo skull sent through the air vents.

Meanwhile our brother Imperial Fists devistator had conducted his own enquiries. Knowing that the black templars had come to him for advice on disposing of a mutant member in the past he suspected something worse. Conducting mindscans with a librarian of the specific black templars he had met while completeing their missions on the Rogue Trader ship, they found certain mindblocks put in place on 2 of the members. He voxed this to us.

Knowing that we are looking for someone who knows how to use a psychic hood and can place mindblocks in the minds of space marines Alyxander determined that we were looking for a psycher or possibly a librarian. We then asked the location of an Ultramarines librarian that had recently arrived at the fortress to inform us of the selection of a new master librarian for the fortress.

continued 2.

Continued 2.

Upon finding this librarian he was ready to enter the room of a black templars chaplain. I quickly went to the armoury and got a null rod. The ultramarine librarian told us he intended to search the mind of the chaplain to see if he was the guilty one. However upon seeing the Ravenguard decided that a stealthy marine was just as likely to be guilty. He then proposed to search the Ravenguards mind, but my battle brother refused, we parted ways with an uneasy truce.

I was then voxed that the Imperial fist was preparing to breech the room of one Sigismund, a squad leader of the black templars that were part of the mind blocked squad that were all aboard the rogue trader ship in the previous mission. Once Alyxander arrived he was shown that a psychic hood had been hidden in the room allong with instructions as to its use.

Upon hearing this, Alyxander said. "No one who needs instructions to use a psychic hood could have put the mindblocks in those marines minds."

Meanwhile the Ravenguard, using his psycher powers to hide his presence from the other librarian, was stalking him through the hallways. Slowly the ultramarines with him left one by one, until it was just him, he had arrived at his ships dock. "Going, somewhere brother?" Said the Ravenguard. "Why do you ask brother? My inquiries are finished, the chaplain was not guilty." "I cant let you leave." "Are you going to stop me?" The heretic librarian assaulted his mind with the full force of the warp, but his mental armour did not let it through. The heretic raised his force staff and performed a nat 1 hit which the Ravenguard nat 1 dodged.

"Its the Ultramarine librarian" came accross the vox. "I was just WITH HIM" cursed Alyxander, he and the Imperial fist rushed to the ship dock and arrived first. The Imperial fist demolished the legs of the heretic with one long burst of fire and to finish Alyxander head him in the head with the null rod and injected him with sedative.

End

I find deathwatch characters have no personality anyway. You are playing Marines who are emotionally stunted.

If you want character development go play dark heresy instead

You've got a weird way of handling Space Marines then. They might be emotionally stunted but they're far from kill bots. I always thought they should be played like larger than life heroes of antiquity.

Deathwatch is as much about SMs from different chapters butting heads and learning how to work together as it is about killing xenos.

>You are playing Marines who are emotionally stunted.
If all Space Marines acted the same the fluff would literally be impossible to work due to the friendliness of the Salamanders, the rage of the Space Wolves, the paranoia and secrecy of the Dark Angels, etc.

Deathwatch is all about these differences in Chapter personality, and that's what makes it fun.

Look I'm not saying that they don't have personalities but they do not experience fear. At the end of the day they are all armoured in power armour, killing the enemies of mankind. It is a lot easier to have friction and character development in a party in dark heresy.

The other problem is that as humans we can relate to other humans a lot better. Trying to sympathise with a marine doesn't work.

>Trying to sympathise with a marine doesn't work.
Bullshit.

Sure, that's why all games that involve non human player races like elves or dwarves are all devoid of character development, friction, and sympathy.

Battle Brother Caleb of the Crimson Blades.

Born from the Imperial Fists the Crimson Blades were formed in the 27th founding by recomendation of both strategic prognosticaions and the Emperor's Tarrot. Chapter colors are Gold on Black. The Crimson Blades have taken "Let Terror Be Thy Friend" to heart and specialize in rapid assaults designed to demoralize more than destroy. It's far easier to break the defenders of a fortress than it's walls.

Caleb is an aloof Space Marine. He knows that normal humans are not his equal, but he also knows that none of his implants have a thing to do with his own willpower and determination. As such those two qualities are the only way to earn his respect. Two have done so. One is an Astropath encountered when the Traitor Legions tried a takeover of Arctos Prime (complete with help from high ranking IG officers) At the time she was just a maid cowering in a room where a kill team of deathwatch was duking it out with several Chaos Raptors, But she picked up a hell pistol of a dead traitor IG and shot another traitor with it. Then the Kill teams pysker noticed she had the gift, she was tested and found worthy of being an Astropath.

The other is an IG Major from a world that's still fairly fuedal, with a strong Japanese culture. His kill team has encounterd her regiment (they call themselves a Legion) on three occasions. He decided she was worthy of respect when the Kill Team found her wounded and bleeding to death with her ancestral sword shoved into a dead Hormagaunt. The Sangunairy preist stabilized her and we got her medivaced while on the way to our objective.

During the Chaos invasion on Arctus Prime, the Kill team found a shipment of material that was meant to reach Ultramarines forces operating in the Jericho Reach but never made it, inlcuding a set of Terminator Armor. As none of the Squad had earned their Crux Terminatus no one donned it, but Caleb DID take the power sword and use it to good effect

When they made contact with Ultramarines to return their lost equipment, the Ultramarines allowed Caleb to keep the power sword as a show of thanks. Though it's providence is unknown, it has slain many xenos and traitors.

While Claeb thinks of himself as a tactician first, the truth is he is more a fighter than a leader, charging into battle with plasma pistol and power sword ahead of his kill team. His superiors and brothers have taken note of this, and he may soon be elevated to Deathwatch Champion.

Caleb has taken several impresive wounds in battle, the most notable being the time a bolt from a traitor marine destroyed his helmet and almost killed him (Fate point Burned) this happened at the outset of the Arcosa (I got the name wrong in the earlier post) Prime ordeal, and he still finished the mission, earning several honors including the Aquilla. The kill team received an Imperil Laurel for without their intervention Arcosa Prime would have been lost.

Battle Brother Jamuka
Jamuka is an oddity for an assault marine and especially a White Scar. He loves his Storm bolter and frequently uses his jetpack to strafe enemies or to flank them.

He is, however, as aggresive as Caleb. He once chased alone after a fleeing Tau Devilish to finish it off. Landing on it, he stuffed a krak grenade into it before jumping clear.

Rune Preist Magni. Has a runestaff. Reads the runes. Wears fur. Awoo's. A lot. Can't make a psynicience roll to save his life, so he really isn't a great source of information.

Battle Brother Kodai. Salamnder devestator.
Kills it with fire. Likes humans.

Sangunairy Preist Sepheron
As one of the few Sangunary Preists in Watch Fortress Eiroch, Sepheron knows each and every Blood Angel on sight and by name. Under his diagnosticator helmet he lets his golden hair fall to his shoulders where it curls lightly back up.

Sepheron protests the loudest when the dictates of the mission are placed before aiding an humans or imperial forces on world, even more than Kodai. Of course, that overwhelming compassion is offset by his equal bloodlust. In battle he favors his chainsword, though he often requestions an Astartes Shotgun. He may well be the only reason Caleb is still alive, as Calebs lead from the front style has gotten him injured more than anyone else on the killteam. It is a good thing, then, that Sepheron is such a talented medic.

Techmarine Corus. Iron Hands.
Corus had one of his hearts destroyed after being pulled under a swarm of Hormagaunts. He was delighted to have a reason to get a new, mechanical heart. While some of his battle brothers (Caleb and Sepheron mostly) arch eyebrows at his willingness to throw away even his genetically superior space marine flesh no one has openly said anything yet. At all other times Corus is darkly brooding fellow, prone to very few words. He always oposes any plan that deviates from mission parameters, prefering to stick to the plan than deviate for targets of opportunity. Aside from his hand and heart, Corus has replaced his eyes and ears, encasing the top of his skull in a metal cap. He has a fondness for Plasma weaponry and generally stays toward the rear of the team, shooting at hardened targets methodicaly.

>a chance to make up your own OC donut steel characters and have someone actually give a shit
>people still bitching
lol well here we go:

>Name
Yanek
>Chapter
Red Scorpions
>Specialty / Advance specialty
Tactical Marine / First Company Veteran
>Renown threshold
I don't actually know the game mechanics for Deathwatch, just use what you think fits
>Kill-team call sign
Holocaust
>Personal Demeanor
Path of the Pure
>Main Crusade Salient
???
>Story
Yanek was part of the doomed Beta Anphelion IV mission, where he was a 1st company veteran assigned to squad Raum. Yanek was relentless and extremely brave during the fighting, enough to be attributed the first hive tyrant kill. He also endured space-hulk-like levels of spooky bullshit when clearing the habitation labs of genestealers, and his squad remained operational even after the death of Sergeant Raum. Yanek also is a veteran of the second deployment of Red Scorpions during the Siege of Vraks, where he was a tactical squad sergeant and fought against the many mutated and corrupted horrors of the Vraks defenders. He earned terminator honors during that battle when his squad managed to recover several lost and scattered battle brothers who had become cut off or trapped while purging the tunnels beneath the Vraks citadel.

Yanek fights with zealous bravery often putting himself in perilous situations to personally face off against the strongest enemies of man, however he also takes great care in the protection and well-being of his battle brothers. Yanek takes such great risks in order to protect his comrades and not for personal glory. He has a personality almost befitting of a lamenter, such that he is very burdened by the deaths of battle brothers that he could not save. (not to any kind of PTSD levels, but he mourns losses notably more than other marines)

After the Anphelion Incident, Yanek was seconded to the deathwatch by his chapter to keep an eye on their relations with the Ordo Xenos.

No it doesnt. I don't care if the superhuman born to fight and die does die. I care about that little girl who was orphaned by an Ork outbreak.

Also lamenters are shit

Stop drawing extremes. Other races are more relatable. Marines have no family and cannot pass on their genes except through creating another battle brother

>caring about a little girl
>relating to foul xenos more than honorable space monks
fucking heretical

but on a serious note, have you never read any of the 40k books from forge world or shit-library? Or have you played Dawn of war? Because marines get a lot of characterization and despite the fact that you will never be a futuristic super-soldier yourself, it would take a hefty dose of autism to not be able to relate in at least some ways to space marine characters (when not written by a fucking hack writer)

Marines still have large degrees of variation and individual character. Chapters are flavors, but each marine is more or less unique in how they carry that flavor.

Brother Apothecary Caesar of the Ultramarines. Before the Tyranids came to Macragge, he was an amicable, well humored Space Marine. Though his work was often grim, he never let it bring him down, seeing his skills as a healer and preserver of the Chapter as a proud duty to his Brothers and The Emperor. Then the Great Devourer came. None of his skills or training could keep his Brothers alive, and on one disastrous engagement, his squad was ambushed by a Hive Tyrant lurking in the snows. Much gene-seed was lost that day, with Marine after Marine hacked down and torn apart. Caesar, and only one other Tactical Marine were the only ones left, barely managing to injure and fight the monster off.

After Macragge, his mood darkened. A festering hatred took hold on him, and soon after all he could think of was how to destroy the Tyranid menace forever. Like many of the Tyrannic War Veterans, he took to ornamenting his armor with Tyranid remains. His left shoulder pad is crested with the Chitin plates from a Warrior, and his specialized Plasma Gun has a preserved Hormagaunt talon grafted to the front as a bayonet.

Called to the Deathwatch for his abilities as an Apothecary, he leapt at the opportunity to hone his skills and take a fight to the Hive Mind. In the field, he displays a dogged determination to protect others in his squad, and doubly so to protect regular humans. However, if Tyranids happen to come into the equation, he has been observed to lose all sight of the overall objective, instead pursuing only the utter annihilation of his chapters enemy.

So you're a weird autist. Got it.

>Dat edge tho

Name: Chad Wulfencock
Chapter: Space Wolves
Kill team callsign- "The Knot"
Personal Demeanor- Alpha as fuck
Biggest Achievements - Once raped a carnifax to death

This is an actual model of mine, and this is his backstory. I am not popular with a small segment of my FLGS

Chad was born on Fenris around 200 years ago. He was a rape baby, unfortunately his father came back from raiding every 3 years to rape the baby again.

Young chad grew up with loose bowls but tight lips and determination to be more than his father, who was known to Chad's tribe as "Krakenkock the Dread", a man notorious for his bouts of sanguine rapery.

cont?

Fuck you guys, Im gonna continue on anyways.

>After 13 years of rape Krakenkock the Dread came to claim his son for good, as a rower on one of his ships
>Krakenkock and Wulfencock spent 2 years raiding and raping together
>During a fateful raid a Wolfpriest happened to see Wulfencock kill 8 men all while raping another
>he was taken almost immediately by the Priest and began his training to join to rout.
>Ragnar Blackmane himself spoke out against this man who was clearly tainted by slaanesh joining the wolves, but eventually had his mind changed when Chad Wulfencock gave 3 Long Fangs and a Wolfguard the worst embarrassment of their lives during a training exercise that ended in a humiliating rape.

>Ragnard admitted that the young Chad Wulfencock was a talented warrior-rapist, but needed something the wolves could not give him
>Deathwatch sends a wolf back
>Ragnar has an idea, partially inspired by his own time in exile
>40 years later
>Chad Wulfencock requested to be permenantly attached to the deathwatch
>the wolves give their blessing along with a hellfrost gun, a master-crafted frostsword, and 30 barrels of booze, happy to be rid of Wulfencock but needing to make a show of things
>A legend is born

I could keep going. I also have an imperial fist who's callsign is "The Fister". You can probably guess what he is about. Incidentally my FLGS like him alot more than Wulfencock, even though Fister does more fucked up shit.

>Name: Hrothgar
>Chapter: spess woof
>Speciality / Advanced speciality: techmarine.
>Renown threshold: 12
>Kill-Team call sign (if any): None
>Personal Demeanour: Jovial
>Main Crusade Salient / area of operations: the tyranid one
>Any additional comments, biggest achievements, failures or stories

Collects trophies, and lots of them. Not from every single gaunt he's ever skronched, but the bigger tyranids are toothy beasties and there are plenty of tooth and sinew based fetishes that adorn his armor. Some are even fastened to his standard issue mechadendrite's jaws, which sees as much action taking bites out of whatever he's up against as it does performing more traditional mechanicus duties. If asked he will comment that the machine spirits appreciate the tribute of the drier bits of the enemies they are used to slay, and may or may not absorb some of those enemies' might when the fetishes are properly prepared. He considers the tyranids every bit as dangerous as all the other enemies he's fought, and so will happily use their bits when he can get them. He is an equal opportunity scalper.

Keeps the standard issue beard very short, and shaved around the neck so the helmet will seal properly - which he makes a habit of wearing at most times in the field.

When having downtime or otherwise given an opportunity to interact with the more human of the Emperor's forces, or even civilians themselves, he is prone to removing his helmet and breaking into grand and sweeping tales about the frozen world, or about his exploits in other parts of the galaxy - although he keeps the more inquisitorial unfriendly bits out of them. Will attempt to inspire/encourage the troops with these if possible.

One of the standard issue oversize canines is chipped off halfway up, and in the process of regrowing. Questions about that will eventually result in a story about a young and proud marine who foolishly got entangled in close combat with a genestealer cult's brood mother.

I like you

This is rad

Elves are often specifically mentioned as being alien and decidedly "not human" in most fantasy settings. Why have they been a standard race in fantasy games for almost 40 years if not human = not relatable?

>Marines have no family and cannot pass on their genes except through creating another battle brother
Their family is their chapter and passing on their gene seed when they die to sustain the chapter is a close enough parallel to humans giving birth to sustain the species to give even the biggest turbo autist some reasons to relate to all but the most poorly written Marines.

It seems like the problem here is you.

Brother Tork, Space Wolf multi-melta operator.

You should just build from that - he's definitely not giving to frothing and he seems to genuinely view killing horrible mutants as an act of mercy, not slaughtering enemies.

Anyway, unless one of the players makes him your campaign should have a Space Wolf multi-melta operator named Tork somewhere.

Thanks a lot for all those who contributed. Just to give you a bit of context - the campaign has been ongoing for over one and a half years, it does have plenty of NPCs, yet I'm always looking for new ideas and experimenting with new ideas, trying to enhance players' experience.

Your ideas are very valuable and I'm already playing with some concepts based on what's been kindly shared so far and possible tie in to the existing arcs.

On a related note, I'm fairly amused by patronising hostility from some of the resident trolls.

Nothing shared is at a cost for the ones describing their characters and in fact it may give them a new life and besides it's always a good idea to collaborate and get new sources of inspiration or concepts which would have been otherwise missed.

So thanks again - please continue sharing, I'd love to hear more of your stories.

Used this in a Black Crusade game, perhaps as a villain or henchmen to be dealt with?

Garus Eksander
Member of the Jade Blades (Homebrew Chapter I rolled up. A renegade bunch of Ultramarine successors that didn't realize they had turned rogue)
Sorcerer

The Jade Blades were one of your typical Ultramarine Successors, until some strange ritual by either Tzeentch or a powerful servant twisted their minds to the point that their senses were inverted. Where chaos spawn and CSM trod the Jade Blades saw friends and allies, like literally they saw other loyalists. And when they looked to humans, loyalist marines, they saw horror and heresy. So pretty much think of a band of marines praising the Emperor and his Glory whilst murdering and destroying their own.

I thought it was kind of a funny concept but my group really liked the dynamic of the blissfully ignorant running around with his greatest enemies as allies.

Bump in the interest of seeing more marines.

I will post one of my plot NPCs when I get home from work.

>Name
Magron

>Chapter
Dark Angels

>Speciality / Advanced speciality
Apothecary

>Renown threshold
Respected

>Kill-Team call sign (if any)

>Personal Demeanour
Hot-blooded

>Main Crusade Salient / area of operations
Currently Slinnar Drift

>Any additional comments, biggest achievements, failures or stories

Signature gear: jump pack. Always ready for battle, prefers meeting Emperor's enemies head on. Biggest victory so far - recovering one of the Heavenfall blades from the Dark Mechanicus after it lost a decade ago in the Cellebos Warzone.

ok cool, here is another one of mine

>Name
Theoda Fisticus

>Chapter
Imperial Fists

>Speciality / Advanced speciality
Using power fist on xeno scum/ Using two powerfists on xeno scum

>Kill-Team call sign (if any)
"The Fister"

>Personal Demeanour
Always Angry, All the Time.

>Main Crusade Salient / area of operations
varies

>Any additional comments, biggest achievements, failures or stories

>Once punched an eldar in the back so hard that her tits flew out of her armor and right into the face of a certain deathwatch brother with a penchant for rape

>Spends whatever free time allocated punching various things

>has a neckbeard but no moustache, the real reason for being sent to the deathwatch

Guys, please, we need more.

For every NPC he can't come up with, he's going to turn them into a soulless robot.

I don't mean in the "No personality" kind of way. I mean in the "10 feet of servomuscles, hidden weapons, and meltabombs on a dead-man's switch shoved into power armour" kind of way. I'm the only survivor of the original party. I want to spare the new blood as long as possible. Death, fire, and Eldar are all that await us, and I'd like to postpone that for as long as possible.

>Name
Brother-Sergeant Cortain
>Chapter
Blood Angels
>Specialty
Assault Marine
>Renown
Don't remember
>Kill team call-sign
N/A
>Demeanour
Proud

Cortain is proud almost to the point of arrogance, both of his chapter and of his skill as a swordsman. This often manifests as a borderline disrespectful attitude toward most anyone who has not earned his respect, which often causes friction with other Astartes. Notable deeds include singlehandedly defending a breach during the defence of Ba'al, and killing a Tyranid Hive Tyrant with the help of Brother Sollos of the Salamanders.