/40krpg/ Necron Super Destroyer Edition

OC pixel art. With it, a new topic!

Has any of your characters use any amount of servo skulls? What kind?
Has your group made up any homebrew servo skulls?

Servo-squids da bes, lesser servo-things and servitors can't even compete

one of my DH campaigns had a janitorial servitor which floated around the office we had commandeered cleaning up

Knuckle bones of a priest from their homeworld.
A braid made from all the PC's hair.
A translucent crystal that shows a slightly different reality through it.
A bundle of xeno feathers, bound with ribbon.

The Magisterial Navigator in my Rogue Trader group spent a day tracking down servo skulls to carry the train of her long, dragging robes.

I think that's the most use they've ever gotten, besides single-use distractions in firefights.

Played high-fantasy ttrpgs with the group for years and finally convinced them to try out rogue trader after one of the members got into the wargames a few months back, but a few problems pop up in the books and I cant find soultions in the handbook.

When you use xeno mesh it emphasizes its ability to be worn under other armor types but when using multiple armor types for the same body parts it says to use the higher of the combination not to combine the armor score. Since the xeno mesh seemed to be the only one to emphasize the whole wearing it under does it stack or was it just fluff for reasons? Maybe to be worn under common clothes in conditions where you might find yourself without armor/weapons?

And lastly when it describes power armor it says what they are also capable of like filtering air, isolated life support systems, and stuff but says the light armor is incapable of a few of the latter extra systems after listing near 6 but doesnt specify which ones. Also, it gives a 1d5 hour power supply for nonmilitary suits without giving a differing value for the two. What are the systems that are lacking from normal to light power armor and are all sources of power armor in RT nonmilitary or is this just for the off chance of finding a random suit on a world somewhere that the DM may decide is nonmilitary grade?

As far as I know, the "layering" emphasized for xeno-mesh is mostly that you can wear it under clothes. Rogue Trader and Dark Heresy both should frequently involve situations going tits-up if everyone stomps in with full carapace.

Military grade power armor could be pulled from an Only War rulebook, and I'd probably let them add one "system" per increased step of rarity.

I like this. Thanks

How OP would it be if I ported over the Artifice Armor from Rogue Trader: Faith & Coin over to DH2?

OP as fuck; it's severely underpriced in terms of rarity in that book.

I want to get started with WH40K rpgs, but the amount of books / lore is mind boggling. Where the hell do I start?

With corebooks, you only need the basics to start playing.

So the my Acolytes are just finishing off their current investigation and mystery and I am planning to send them off on a classic things that go bump in the night horror campaign.

The premise is that that their =][= has received a communique from an old member of their war band who won that most elusive of prizes, retirement. The note summons the inquisitor to his isolated farmstead on a frontier world. The inquisitor is busy but has not heard from this individual in several years and so sends the players.

The players reach the isolated farmstead in the middle of rolling hills and marshes to find that the refrigidarium is full of spoiled food, the house and outbuildings are both a mess and empty. There is no sign of their contact, no signal to get out a message the locals are inbred, surly and weird and the whole area feels wrong.

Does anyone have any good ideas for hideous cults, alien artefacts, etc that would underpin the place?

Which core books though, there's a million different games

The ones you wanna play the most, of course.

Select the book for the game you want to play, as they are not identical.
If you want to play DH1e, DH1e core rulebook.
If you want to be a Rogue Trader and associates, RT core rulebook.
If you want to play as Space Marines, Deathwatch core rulebook.
If you want to serve in/alongside the Imperial Guard, Only War core rulebook
DH2e, DH 2e rulebook.
Splatbooks for each game add to that particular game and are scaled to its powerlevels, but most can be converted with some effort.

And don't forget Black Crusade for being edgy.

The problem is I don't know what a imperial guard, a rogue trader, or a dark heresy is

What would a planetary governors home be like? I was thinking of making it take up multiple levels of the hive, but I'm not really sure what to populate it with.

Play Only War and grow the player base please

Only war is a war setting where you play a squad of soldiers.

Dark Heresy is pretty much a religious spy game where you try to root out heresy and cults

Rogue traders are venture capitalists where those business ventures involve purging planets of all life to set up a profitable spa or some such

Here's a rogue trader story, see if this sort of thing appeals to you

Meant to reply to this post

So, the players on my RT game have been very stupid and lucky during the last session and have managed to capture a small ork.
They plan to train him, make him grow to maturity and (maybe) sell him to the highest bidder.

Any advice on how to manage this situation ?

Paint chippings from the Imperial Palace. At least, that's what my astropath uses.

They make excellent disposable scouts.

Should be at least Near Unique in rarity. And consecration should be an armor upgrade.

Have their ship be infested by Orks. Employing Orks is about the worst idea a Rogue Trader could have.

Seconding the Orkoid infestation ! Unless one of the characters has a suitable level of Forbidden Lore (Xenos: Ork) they won't be aware of the spore problem...

Okay, which one is best?

I saw people bring up 1e or 2e for certain games, which editions should I get

I still don't know anything about lore, where should a complete newbie start?

So, anyone got any good stories to,share?

If you've never played the tabletop wargame, or didn't bother reading the introductory fluff in the rules/codices then you should read that first.
Check the "Mega" links in the post at the start of the thread for .pdf/.mobi/.epub files to get the Ciaphas Cain novels, for Imperial Guard.
Then the Eisenhorn/Ravenor novels for Inquisition and civilian life.
Each of the core rulebooks also includes an "about the Imperium/universe" chapter that explains the basic lore for/within that sub-setting as it is understood by the inhabitants of that setting. Most of it may even be objectively true...

No best one, whatever your group thinks would be fun. Dark Heresy is the only one with a 2nd ed and I've not played it so I can't help there.

I'm running rogue trader for a group that is completely new to the setting, and I have a limited knowledge myself. My advice would honestly be to not care too much about it, look up relevant stuff and make up the rest. You aren't adding to the canon, so why can't the things that happen in your group happen? Try 1d4chan articles and lexicanum articles and see what piques your interest.

Read the all Guardsman party stuff, it gives a good example of play and a decent introduction to the setting.

Are there records made when astropaths communicate? I remember reading about it somewhere, but can't find a source.

not that much of a story but here goes
>game of RT
>DM is coming out of DH
>party is tech priest, seneschal and void master
>start in a port as ship maintenance, supervisor and port pilot
>port gets bum rushed by chaos invasion
>see the noosphere practically being DDOS'ed and fucked over
>escape on a wreck of a ship to the RT ship Cerberus
>essentially get "persuaded" by Sarvus Trask to go pick up a package by any means neccesary
>get thrown in cells so cant work on ship
>go there on the wreck that keeps blaring alarms of hull damage
>find dude who has it
>arbite is with him
>whole situation goes tits up
>dude is dead along with arbite
>raid his office and finds a safe
>empty
>no package
>dead arbite
>pic is general party mood

unrelated to the story, how do your groups go about the craft armoury skill?
books provide very little info and from what ive read online its almost always houseruled.

also, would you as a DM allow a techpriest to make a Bolt Revolver with the following stats:
class: pistol RoF: S range: 30m Dmg: 1d10+5X Pen: 4 Clip: 6 Rld: Full Special: Tearing, Reliable and Customised

A complete noobie should start anywhere he likes.

Basic premise is that the galaxy has gone to shit in the 41st millennia. Mankind has a galactic spanning empire that is constantly at war against threats within and without.

Most people would recommend you Gaunt's Ghost novel series, Horus Heresy series, Ciaphus Cain, and Eisenhorn & Ravenor series.

The beauty of Warhammer 40k is that it is the kitchen sink of OP shit thanks to the ~~laziness~~ ingenuity of Games Workshop.

Wanna play Saving Private Ryan in Space? Play Only War as Imperial Guard.

Wanna play a grizzled veteran cop in a dystopian cyberpunk world? Play with a squad of Adeptus Arbites from Dark Heresy 1st or 2nd Edition.

Wanna play supersoldiers killing alien monsters in an abandon space station? Play Deathwatch as a squad of Space Marines.

Wanna play pirates in space? Rogue Trader

There's tons of things you can do.

Depends. Is it for DH or RT?

its basically a mish mash of both, but i think my DM is leaning towards DH.
but it still kinda is an RT game as were "serving" on a warpship.
and that was only the first session so i dont fully know what kind of game it is yet.

The most detailed crafting rules are in Inquisitor's Handbook for 1e, in the expanded skills chapter.
It shows how to define a project in terms of sub-tasks, gives rules for having multiple workers involved, the times and costs of creating something from basic components, and how to determine the quality of the resulting item.

Then to your question I'd make it a hard test. Bolt weapons should be a mid campaign upgrade. Making a customized bolt weapon like a Bolt Revolver should be hard since doing anything that deviates from the norm is heretical for the Adeptus Mechanicus.

i skimmed through that, but iirc there were some things it didnt account for and were a little clunky

i agree that bolt weapons are pretty potent, so im not expecting to get it just yet.
as far as difficulty goes, id argue that its a fairly simple construction as its essentialy just a .75 caliber revolver.
and as far as heresy goes its a very minor one, will probably get some dismissive looks but not much worse.

True, it is a little clunky, but it's still the most detailed method that they provided over all of the systems...

any good Death Watch/Only War conversions?
I remember some user was a making an X-Com conversion a while back.

how do I do interesting eldar related plots?

I dont really know anything interesting about them aside from muh soulstones and shurikens

>Wrath & Glory will be part of this year's Free RPG Day! And yes, this will be a Quickstart product.

Scans in June

I tend to use Eldar as an opponent that is working against the players goal, but not necessarily the direct antagonist. You also don't need to really come up with an explanation as to why they're working against them if you can't think of one, as it can always just be handwaved away as some Farseer's unknowable plan.

A weapon that is stated to be two-handed just means that you can't be holding a second weapon, correct? No other real benefits or drawbacks?

Do Dark Eldar plots. I think RT has an interesting one.

Usually has higher damage than one-handed version (think Eviscerator vs Chainsword) and is more likely to be Unbalanced or Unwieldy.

Well, shit, its been awhile, /40krpg/. Anyone having issues with the MEGA? I'm aware the Deathwatch books are starting to display the same issue as the Rogue Trader ones, the only solution I have still remains to use Adobe Acrobat until someone comes forward who knows how to fix them.

In other news, I'm no longer either forever LFG or Forever GM! So I'll probably stop disappearing for months at a time, and actually take care of the MEGA again.

Thanks, user.

>tfw somebody is running a HH game on roll20
>mfw so many applications already
It is a sad feel.

>What kind of worlds have you homebrewed? Which were your favorite?

Smoulder, the homeworld of my Death World pyromancer. The ecosystem may be familiar to one who's read the Culture series--it was sort of inspired by Echronedal, the Fire Planet, in Player of Games. Lemme copy-paste the description I made.

You know how certain plants' seeds will only germinate after being burned? It's because the period immediately after a forest fire is actually among the best time for plants to grow, since all that carbon and nutrients that was locked inside the trees and whatnot is now scattered into the soil. Basically, the dominant plant on his homeworld is that idea writ large. Most of the planet's terrain is fairly dry scrubland. No major predators (at least not who are dangerous to armed humans). The soil isn't the best, so it's not ideal for colonizing, but there's plants and life. Really, you'd hardly know it's a Death World unless you stay there for several years.

There's a certain phenomenon linked to the life cycle of a certain plant, which essentially figured, hey, why wait for someone else to start the cleansing fires? Why not do it yourself? So, for most of its life cycle it secretes various combustible materials and gases, and then at a certain point, once every five to seven years, it starts a natural ignition reaction. And the entire planet is bathed in a series of ungodly fucking firestorms for weeks or months on end. The fire-tamers play an important role in the human tribes on the planet, both providing advance warning through divination, and by forestalling the fires long enough to get everyone to safety. So yeah, that's my character's homeworld.

Alright, got a question here. What exactly is the function of the Total Recall skill? It says that it only helps you recall trivial details making it, by definition, basically worthless. Is it just supposed to be a fluff talent? Am I reading it too literally? How have you guys actually used it in play?

What's stopping the acolytes from getting the fuck out of dodge? Make it feel important for them to investigate.

It's a talent to force the DM to remind the players of some details like ship names, character names and so on. Helps quite a lot, because you can't hope to remember all the important shit.

Hmmm, do most DMs actually force their players to remember shit like that or get the Total Recall talent? Our DM will usually just remind us without making us roll for INT or anything.

Total Recall is as important as your GM makes it. There are certainly reasons in a well-told or intricate story that a character might not remember a critical detail. Total Recall is the lifeline that lets you make the "big connection" when it counts. Or if your campaigns are particularly long or weird then it's pretty useful if your GM or other members keep detailed notes.

>only need the basics
>play first game three days ago (rogue trader) with "basic" lore knowledge gained from games, youtube videos, and the first twelve books into the Horus Heresy series
>most of these are irrelevant since they're passed the Age of Apostasy, much more the horus heresy and earlier
>was fucking awful
>everyone attempting to out measure each others lore dick sizes with constant "ahcktually..." faggotry
>Actually astropaths have to come from X...
>Ahctually missionaries and ex-comissars (arch militant) are canonically male-only
>Ahcktually a rogue trader taking a mutant-like trait from start wouldnt work cause they would never have been able to have the writ of whatever the fuck
>Acktwally you would HAVE to respond positively to Y organization because everyone would

I can't condemn them entirely, since I will internally scream when someone says some ridiculous shit that I know is canonically wrong in a series I enjoy, but I was more than certain half of the shit that was being said in that garbage fire of a session was wrong and I have an almost nonexistent knowledge base post heresy. To better combat this shit in the future in attempts to shut people up, point out an example on how some situation could be justified, and just play the god damn game which books are post HH? I tried the wikis, I've tried a few other searches, and just get basic timelines in universe with no chronologically ordered list of the books themselves. With the two Rogue Trader books I've got on the list for obvious reasons, what other books are based on post HH that give the most information on the "current" state of the imperium (36K+) and it's notable organizations?

You're probably a little fucked to get a real general sense of how the Imperium works. It's a galaxy spanning dystopia with a ton of weird variation and stupid idiosyncratic problems within its institutions. But if you want a good basis try the Eisenhorn trilogy for a political/Inquisitorial view and Gaunt's Ghosts for a heavily skewed but in-depth look at the life of guardsmen. The core rulebooks for previous editions of the tabletop wargame are a good place to get a general fluff picture and I think a few of them do a good job of laying out the structure of the Imperium.

Just to be entirely clear, you can justify literally anything in Rogue Trader. If your players are having autismal tantrums over random points of Imperial societal nuance they're stupid. Basically anything and everything happens somewhere in the galaxy. True, there are a scant few "facts" about the Imperium that would require pretty calamitous workarounds to explain but that's up to a GM to do.

Current state of WH40K is M42. Only fluff comes from the codices of the 8th edition.

If you want any books post M36, read Eisenhorn/Ravenor, Ciaphus Cain, Gaunt Ghost series.

Most of the RPG book fluff are already up-to-date.

If you guys are really having lore dick measuring contests, propose you guys get a sitdown with the GM, let him set the basic premise of what is canon and what is not. Then roll for it whenever someone wants to conteract with their lore dick. Remember, what is canon is not necessarily true.

>Actually astropaths have to come from X...

If X comes from the Imperium or Black Ships, then yes.

>Ahctually missionaries and ex-commissars (arch militant) are canonically male-only

Wrong. RT core and supplements have lore-art of being female. Hell, cover page has a female Arch-militant next to the Rogue Trader.

>Ahcktually a rogue trader taking a mutant-like trait from start wouldnt work cause they would never have been able to have the writ of whatever the fuck

LOL. Age of the Warrant of Trade can come from as early as the Imperial Crusades of M31 to the end of start of the Indomitus Crusade. RT supplement Into the Storm clarifies this.

>Acktwally you would HAVE to respond positively to Y organization because everyone would

Stupidity at its' finest.

>LOL. Age of the Warrant of Trade can come from as early as the Imperial Crusades of M31 to
the end of start of the Indomitus Crusade. RT supplement Into the Storm clarifies this.
To clarify, the time period can be long enough that mutation can creep into a Rogue Trader Dynasty. Especially when said dynasty is dealing with warp and xeno artifacts.

Has anybody come up with a conversion for RT and DW to the aptitude system used by the later RPGs?

???

What WH40k RPG uses aptitude?

OW and DH2 (BC sorta uses one). To be clear I was referring to the leveling system.

They already have them in the core rulebooks. Download them from the mega above.

>aptitude
kys yourself, famalamdingdong

It feels like we're talking right past each other. I'm trying to use the clearest language I can.

I'm only talking about the leveling system. In DW and RT you spend XP based on what advances are available to you due to your rank. In DH2 and OW you spend XP based on your aptitudes. I was wondering if anyone had assigned aptitudes to the archetypes and talents in RT and DW so that you could level your characters the same way you do in OW and DH2.

What are you on about?

user, I think you need to read English better.
He's being a right twat, ignore him.

Home?
You mean palace?
Typically in the highest levels of a hive or whatever place where the rich and opulent hole up, major players often own entire spires or complexes for their own use.

Depending on the game line, you can not quick draw them, and almost all two-handed weapons are unwieldy/unbalanced, meaning you can not lightning attack with them and parrying is penalized or impossible.

Well in that case, RT and OW made it much easier. Each level has its own skills available. It's up to the GM's discretion to charge how much each skill and talent cost.

Different user, you are not answering his question at all.
There has been some homebrew attempts here and there, but nothing that was completed, and certainly nothing originating from Veeky Forums.

OP user is asking someone else had done his GM homework of assigning XP costs to skills and talents. I'm answering no.

Thank you for answering my question, that's exactly what I wanted to know. If you were going to do it yourself do you think it'd be best to just create an Excel and rely on your players to cross-reference? It sounds cumbersome, but can't really think of a better way.

I think you're trying to be helpful but each of your posts is less coherent than the last. At this point it's like you're talking about a completely different line or RPGs. Since when have you ever had to assign XP costs in a 40krpg (with the exception of elite advances in DW and RT)?!

I'm telling you to fuck off and/or stop being an idiot, but you probably won't do either, so kill yourself.
Really is no good way to go about it.

>RT Core pg 39 Elite Advances

Your character is broadly described by his Career Path;
however, the Advancements listed are not the sum total of
all that your character could learn. Sometimes your character
will be exposed to certain Skills or Talents during play. For
example, you might spend an adventure living amongst the
heathen nomads of Traxis 7 or learning to mine nephium on
Lucien’s Breath. If you think that you have a good reason for
learning a Skill or Talent not listed on your Advancement
Scheme, you can request an Elite Advance from your GM.
The base cost for an Elite Advance is 500 xp, which the GM
may increase or decrease depending on the situation. To make
a request, you will need the following:
• Logical justificition for the Elite Advance—e.g., “I’ve
spent three months on Lucien’s Breath, so it makes sense
I would pick up the Trade (Miner) Skill.”
• In-character explanation for how you gained the
Advance—e.g., “I joined a small independent mining
guild who taught me the trade in exchange for three
months hard labour.”
• An offer of how many Experience Points you are willing
to pay to gain the Advance—e.g., “I’ll happily pay 200
xp to learn the Trade (Miner) Skill.”

>Your GM may decide not to grant you the Elite Advance
or may require a higher Experience Point cost than you have
suggested. In these cases, gracious acceptance of the GM’s
decree is the best course. Your GM may also rule that you
need to pass a series of tests in order to successfully learn
the requested Skill or Talent. This will usually tie into your
explanation for how you gained the Advance, e.g., “Make a
Barter Test to convince the mining guild it’s worth their time
to teach you their craft.” The quest for an Elite Advance can
be an adventure in and of itself.

>i'M teLLiNg YOu tO fUCk OfF ANd/oR STop bEiNG aN IDiOt
MFW

Above user is not talking about elite advances, so your tl;dr doesn't apply.
If you don't know what the aptitude system is, you need to read a book like the rookie user above.

>Explicitly mention elite advances as an exception.
>Posts a section from the book about elite advances trying to prove some sort of point, even though the conversation was never even about elite advances in the first place.

At least at this point you've proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be a troll or a sub-literate mongoloid. Either way no one has to bother responding to you anymore.

>There has been some homebrew attempts here and there, but nothing that was completed, and certainly nothing originating from Veeky Forums.

My own GM made an attempt, but it's kind of a mess. Ultimately, his system boils down to 'build a DH2 character, and then give them RT career path stuff (minus homeworld) and RT weapons.'

How many players is best/max for OnlyWar? It seems like that should accommodate larger groups better due to the ideal squad size, but more players is always harder to manage.
Anyone had experience with more than 5 players in Onlywar?

Has anyone come up with homebrew ranks for Rogue Trader Ascension level play?

On a sidenote, one my minor projects is to gradually rewrite the Rogue Trader rules.

Right now, I'm rewriting the Explorator class. Basically, I want convert most of their tech talents to implants and come up with new talents that involve them mastering the use of those implants. I've also snagged the Mechanization Track from this kind fellow. community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/27184-the-mechanization-track/

I need example campaigns/scenarios for Only War because I can't seem to come up with anything other than "stand in trench and shoot enemies."

Watch war movies.

>being able to recall plans and blueprints
>being able to recall scenes and faces
>being able to recall passages of important texts

This is one of the best skills in game

Penal regiment, sent as the first wave as the Imperium retakes a space hulk.

The same amount of players you'd use in any other 40krpg. Don't forget about comrades. If you have 5 players that means there is gonna be about 10 members of the in-game squad.

>regiment is told to assault the necron positions
>suddenly chaos space marines from behind
>cut off from suply lines they have to fuck shit up
or
>siege warfare
>scout missions to map out the outer walls
>fighting beneath the walls
>assaulting the first line
>going to next line of defense
>gradual shift from Omaha beach-style fights to cqc battles
or
>shock assaults against enemy hq
or
>patroling
or
>setting up ambushes on enemy forces
or
>defensive siege warfare

>tfw want to do a Custodes campaign, but Shas hasn't finished the supplement
The wait is killing me

>The wait is killing me

I'll probably have at least the base Custode section done within the next few weeks to a month or so. Have faith, Word Bearer.