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If you have weapons that can take on a Bloodthirster, you have weapons that can take on a blast door or bulkhead. Pass your willpower tests (I'm assuming you all have fearless or ItJoH or similar ways to not cower uselessly the first time you see it), cut your way out, leave. Shoot a massive hole in the wall and try and vent it into space. Get your ship's crew to make an INCREDIBLY precise lance-strike.
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Feb 13, 2014 13:37
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Yeah, blow it up. Be in debt to the other rogue traders, find other foes to blow it off = penance and profit.
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Feb 13, 2014 13:44
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Send in some ablative armsmen/ship ratings/local hires to keep it bogged down while you shoot it from a distance or rig the whole place to blow.
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Feb 13, 2014 13:51
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The facility is still planetside so venting it into space isn't an option. And just blowing it up is sort of a difficult option since there is an actual objective in the chamber the Bloodthirster is in, the aforementioned Radical Inquisitor's sword. Just abandoning that mission would not be very Rogue Traderish. Especially since our group has a reputation to maintain as the most batshit insane Rogue Trader crew in the Expanse. Also we are bad at orbital bombardment and last time we tried we accidentally shot the planet's moon. That was on the other side of the planet at the time. We are not sure how. Plus the planet in question is Lucien's Breath. A planet Winterscale and Chorda had a war over - and we just made a permanent solution to their hostilities last session so we are not gonna just nuke it from orbit because I think both would want to murder us afterwards, and they are still in orbit. In game time, they literally just left our ship after succesful 48 hours of negotiations when we are about to land on the planet and go check out the facility (after everyone has taken a nap of course). The "just shoot it with a Lance"-option sounds funny but in practice it is going to be a BS 30 mook doing the shooting with massive minuses sooooo... probably not practical. We'd probably accidentally hit both Chorda's and Winterscale's flagship with one shot. While they are on the other side of the planet of course. But eh, I doubt we are going to fight against it in a fair way any way, there's probably something the GM wants us to do to beat the Bloodthirster if it actually is that and not some Daemon Prince or something. Maybe the sword holds the key, maybe we blow up the facility and collect the sword later, maybe we say gently caress the sword and just blow up the facility and call the radical Inquisitor an rear end in a top hat, maybe we lure our Slaaneshi nemesis there as well and get his aid in combating the Bloodthirster... who knows. Maybe we actually tell Chorda that there's a loving Bloodthirster in one of her facilities and explain that it might do some long term financial damage if it is not dealt with, and get Winterscale in on the action as well since while Chorda does most of the Nephilium pumping as per the agreement, it is still his planet.
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Feb 13, 2014 14:00
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SpiritOfLenin posted:The "just shoot it with a Lance"-option sounds funny but in practice it is going to be a BS 30 mook doing the shooting with massive minuses sooooo... probably not practical. We'd probably accidentally hit both Chorda's and Winterscale's flagship with one shot. While they are on the other side of the planet of course. This sounds like it might actually solve more problems than it would cause! RE: the Macguffin discussion earlier. The warp idea was great and I want to use it some other time, but I came up with one loosely based on something I read in one of the Haarlock modules. I'm spoiler tagging this because one of my players has an account and I know they're a cool enough dude not to mouse over this: It's a drinking vessel composed out of six small and one larger part that can be fit together like a puzzle. If you have the big piece, you can subtly guide the will of whoever is nearby one of the other parts. If you combine one or more pieces, you can drink from the resulting small vessel and gain physical power. The more pieces, the bigger a vessel and the more power you get. But if you combine all pieces, you do not - strictly - gain the ultimate power, you just become a demonhost. Enter some intrigue and skulduggery, a recently assassinated governor (who had the biggest piece), and exactly six noble houses, some cultists hunting for the pieces of the vessel, and you have more than enough fuel for some shenanigans. Oh, and the whole thing was given to the governor by his brother - the acolyte's boss. They felt like it was the best way to keep the six noble houses in check on a world whose tithe is critically important to the Imperium. Sulphagnist fucked around with this message at 14:22 on Feb 13, 2014 |
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Feb 13, 2014 14:03
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I never said they're slow, but even at 100m per turn, in an optimal scenario that's 10+ rounds you can spend shooting before it gets close enough to do anything. Of course, your situation (walking into a confined space where it was summoned without knowing what it is) makes things far from optimal. In your highly specific scenario I'll admit it will be a challenging fight, but again, a greater daemon should never be a safe or easy thing to go against.
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Feb 13, 2014 14:20
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Admittedly: Killing Chorda and Winterscale would do pretty much everyone a favor, as they're both badly written dicks. I like a fair number of the RT stock NPC dynasty heads, but Winterscale is an insufferable douchebag and Chorda is one of those 'not actually nearly as clever as she thinks she is' types who doesn't understand that constantly making enemies means you'll make fantastic profits for a time until they eventually all team up and murder you. Comedy Option: "Chorda, Winterscale! We've found an incredibly valuable relic in that room and I CERTAINLY HOPE YOU DON'T FIND IT FIRST!"
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Feb 13, 2014 14:39
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Okay, the grand campaign outline for the Squats so far looks like
I figure the Squat Homeworlds are going to be mostly abstracted, but they'll basically be if I rolled max everything on the system generation tables. Are there any Tyranid ships statted out, or should I just use reskinned normal ships with, like, bio-plasma, spore missiles, and umm, whatever their fighters are called (Gargoyles?)? Do Tyranid ships have a particular style in their loadouts? Lots of fighters? Lots of bio-plasma? Boarding?
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Feb 13, 2014 14:44
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See that right there is a far better way of dealing with a daemonic infestation of any sort that rushing in personally to stab chaos in the face. Suicidal charges are best left to priests and berserkers.
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Feb 13, 2014 14:45
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We sort of don't want to kill Chorda and Winterscale since we used so much effort on forcing the two into peace+ there's an Ork Waaaargh coming and killing the two most influential Rogue Traders just before that sorta fucks up Expanse's defenses. Also Waci: Have you read the rules for flying? If you are actually that far away from a Bloodthirster, it will probably fly in high altitude while approaching - which means that RAW, if you are on the ground, you can't shoot it. Period. I mean, if we were going to face a Bloodthirster on a battlefield we'd have plenty more options to deal with it, including tanks, Furies and so on, but from my experience battles are rarely fought in optimal situations. Like, I'm pretty sure the GM is going to rule that the Bloodthirster can't fly because it is still in a room with a roof while being the size of a tank, but the area is going to be probably less than 100x100 metres. Besides, how often in any 40k Rpg party expect Deathwatch and Black Crusade do parties actually know how to prepare against a Bloodthirster? Or that there might be a Bloodthirster somewhere they are headed?
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Feb 13, 2014 14:48
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SpiritOfLenin posted:Also Waci: Have you read the rules for flying? If you are actually that far away from a Bloodthirster, it will probably fly in high altitude while approaching - which means that RAW, if you are on the ground, you can't shoot it. quote:Besides, how often in any 40k Rpg party expect Deathwatch and Black Crusade do parties actually know how to prepare against a Bloodthirster? Or that there might be a Bloodthirster somewhere they are headed?
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Feb 13, 2014 17:29
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Throw a brick at the bloodthirster.  Anyone read the new OW book yet? Squat ship design probably runs towards the superheavy, I'm guessing, going by their war machines, so I suppose a superheavy industrial ship would fit in. What's the lightest fastest ship that can mount a ram? A cruiser? A high speed raider with lascutters and filled with Slayers might be an interesting alternate tactic. Haha, reskin the murder-servitor upgrade as a Slayer cult shrine. I'm trying to think of additional story hooks for the players to use. Does anyone have any they think would be good? I'm worried about the first and fourth parts just being boring grind fests without them. Are any of the prepublished adventures suitable for this kind of thing, or are they too heavily tied in with the expanse and with human Rogue Traders? I might try to read through them for ideas. So far, all I've really got is a plan to randomly generate a grid of systems for the players to explore and do whatever, coming up with their own ventures. Does RT work well this way? Just have players decide on some kind of venture, and have the GM put it together on request? Eldar and Ork hooks seem like the most obvious ones to look at, while I can comb through the published books for more Imperial ones. Orkz seem like more of a problem to be warded off instead of an opportunity, though; kill Orkz or lose PF, basically. Ork mercenaries seems a bit farfetched for a Squat game, but...I shouldn't underestimate the players. They are Rogue Traders, after all. Eldar, the thing that jumps out at me about them is that they used to be allies, left you to fight the Orkz alone, and, uh, probably don't want to bother with you now because they can see that your race is literally fated to be eaten by the Tyranids. (Until the players come along, of course) Rockopolis fucked around with this message at 18:59 on Feb 13, 2014 |
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Feb 13, 2014 18:57
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Night10194 posted:
This. And make sure to conduct proper memorial services when seizing their ships under salvage law.
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Feb 13, 2014 21:05
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Rockopolis posted:
Damnit, now I want to make Spacehammer, Warhammer Fantasy in space that isn't 40k. All the 40k races gain spaceflight via magic or tech, but retain their land on the homeworld. Fighting over planets they can strip the resources from in order to support the behemoth warfronts that have evolved.
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Feb 13, 2014 23:08
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Well the Bloodthirster only killed one PC after all, and it was because the character was stupid enough to touch the massive daemon sword which contained the daemon post combat. Luckily we were pointing guns at him when he decided to touch it and we just killed him before he got possessed, and gave him a decent burial.
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Feb 13, 2014 23:27
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SpiritOfLenin posted:Well the Bloodthirster only killed one PC after all, and it was because the character was stupid enough to touch the massive daemon sword which contained the daemon post combat. Luckily we were pointing guns at him when he decided to touch it and we just killed him before he got possessed, and gave him a decent burial. Did the player not want to spend a fate point, or was he not allowed to?
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Feb 14, 2014 04:59
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Jack B Nimble posted:Did the player not want to spend a fate point, or was he not allowed to? Out of fate points. edit: it was sort of funny, the Bloodthirster could not afford to use his special "gently caress your reactions"-attack, since we all had Force Fields and a 50%ish chance to just say gently caress that hit, so a single hit that couldn't be parried wasn't so good. We are using the Black Crusade/Only War combat rules as well, so it made more sense for the Bloodthirster to lightning or swift attack with his weapons, he got a lot more hits in that way. Our Ork Kommando was super lucky that fight, every time he got swift attacked with the Bloodletter's bigger weapon, the Bloodthirster rolled badly and only got a few hits in, which all got parried - and the Bloodthirster only used lightning attack on the smaller weapon against our Missionary, first round because he didn't like a priest of the Emperor (duh), and afterwards because the Missionary did shitloads of damage with his thunder hammer - weapon which got turned into a holy weapon after the Missionary's death, despite the fact that technically he died from us ripping him into pieces after the demon possession. That makes for a poor heroic ending so we just told everyone he died in battle against a Bloodthirster (or major demon) and played a crucial role in that. SpiritOfLenin fucked around with this message at 07:32 on Feb 14, 2014 |
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Feb 14, 2014 07:06
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Bad timing too. I presume surviving a fight with a goddamn Bloodthirster would be fate point award time.
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Feb 14, 2014 08:31
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Probably would have gotten a single Fate Point, but the character would have been at one fate point after that, and the player didn't think playing with just one fate point is worth it. Also I don't remember if the GM even gave the Orks fate points for surviving the fight, probably because he and the Ork players agreed that the Bloodthirster was a pussy. Missionary would have definitely got one though, just from the sheer balls he showed, as well as the way he survived the two lightning attacks from the Bloodthirster, he burned a fate point for both times to negate all the damage of a single attack thanks to some Missionary talent (and the GM ruled swift and lightning attack as a single attack with multiple hits) and both times it was described as the Emperor's light protecting him. The Missionary also had a series of really loving bad rolls, his force shield blocked only a few hits from both lightning attacks that caused fate point burning, and he would have survived a hit if only one had gone through - barely, but still. Oh well, poo poo happens. The player was a bit bummed, but he statted up one of the NPCs on our ship, our Voidmistress, and took her as a PC. At least now we don't have one PC that hates every other PC - although we do still have one PC that everyone hates, the False Man Seneschal. If the rest of the party finds out that he did a deal with the radical Inquisitor who tasked us with getting the sword, he might get in some trouble as both the Orks and the Genetor don't like the Inquisitor - with the Genetor actively wanting him dead.
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Feb 14, 2014 09:09
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Does anyone have thoughts on The Soul Reaver adventure? I bought the book for stats as I've started having Dark Eldar making themselves a serious nuisance to the party. It seems alright from what I've read of it, but I'm always very hesitant of having the players imprisoned and their equipment taken away.
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Feb 14, 2014 17:53
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What would make for a good mastermind BBEG for a Deathwatch campaign where they'll be fighting lots of various factions? I was thinking a Lord of Change, but I've already done that in my previous game.
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Feb 15, 2014 00:52
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Funktastic Dog posted:What would make for a good mastermind BBEG for a Deathwatch campaign where they'll be fighting lots of various factions? Eldar Farseer. If your players are anything like mine, they will relish a chance to punch a space elf right in its stupid face. And they're absurdly deadly!
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Feb 15, 2014 00:55
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Funktastic Dog posted:What would make for a good mastermind BBEG for a Deathwatch campaign where they'll be fighting lots of various factions? Besides the excellent Eldar Farseer suggestion... maybe a really manipulative Necron Overlord/Cryptek? Hell pick both and make them try to out-manipulate each other and your Marines are in the middle of it
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Feb 15, 2014 00:59
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Space Marine Chapter Master. Have the Dark Angels abandon the kill-team's warzone to go hunt down one of their little shameful secrets and leave the players to die and the Imperium to suffer a major military disaster, spend the rest of the time hunting the dicks.
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Feb 15, 2014 01:00
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The Illuminati. Or at least, someone who thinks they're part of the Illuminati...
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Feb 15, 2014 01:16
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Rogue Inquisitor. Non-Rogue Inquisitor.
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Feb 15, 2014 01:27
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The last of the Brain-Boyz. edit - A great old one that is a frog. Not a huge, humanoid Slann-frog, a fits-in-the-palm-of-your-hand frog. Named Throg. edit 2 - The Inquisitor in charge of their missions. Especially if they can be there providing back-up for the fight and get to have an incredibly complicated conversation with themselves that requires you to do silly voices. edit 3 - A properly ancient AI that believes it's spent the last 36 millennia running simulations about what would happen if the human race encountered a galaxy full of hostile races. It possesses a wide variety of ancient, awe-inspiring and inventive robotic death machines. edit 4 - A being who claims to be the Emperor, who has realised he is so far above the various species in the galaxy he might as well use them as test subjects. goatface fucked around with this message at 01:45 on Feb 15, 2014 |
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Feb 15, 2014 01:35
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A Dinarii. If you don't have the mind-shield, prepare to suffer the same fate as the Ur-Quan.
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Feb 15, 2014 01:38
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quote != edit
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Feb 15, 2014 01:43
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The Eldar Farseer is the best choice. Manipulating the gently caress out of other races is something they do more easily than breathing. And a Deathwatch team will go to absurd lengths to punch a Farseer in their stupid Eldar face, as is right and proper in the Dark Millenium. Seriously a Deathwatch team that ISN'T salivating acidic saliva at the chance to beat the poo poo out of an Eldar isn't getting into the role well enough.
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Feb 15, 2014 20:51
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Hey, my DM put together a new version of the aptitude charts for every OW class, now including the Comrade Talents and Talents from Hammer of the Emperor: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ahv2w1fHiN1CdFdmOTNnNnZUdzJESXBqMlQ1NFJFZlE&usp=sharing The color coding has also been slightly improved.
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Feb 15, 2014 21:12
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I feel like necron overlord is my best choice, simply because an elder farseer would be too wimpy, and it would turn into space marines assfuck the elder. With an overlord though, they'd be a little more cryptic, and it would be more lovecraftian in the way that he's introduced.
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Feb 15, 2014 22:55
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Yesssss pit your players against Necrons, it will be extremely fun! Be sure to check The Outer Reach and Tome of Fate for Necron enemies/artifacts. They all have pretty fun things (for the GM) to use!
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Feb 15, 2014 23:00
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VanSandman posted:The Eldar Farseer is the best choice. Manipulating the gently caress out of other races is something they do more easily than breathing. I agree with this guy. The fact that they're not really evil is great, because then the group can end up in situations where they can deliberately gently caress up the Farseer's plan but then cause even worse things to happen, or they can just suck it up and stare acid-dripping hate daggers at her while they do the thing because it's a catastrophe even more unacceptable than letting her live. Of course, there's always the option for full-tilt "no compromises," but that gives you license to throw whatever absolutely terrible sector-threatening things you want at them. In my long-running Dark Heresy game, I had a Farseer hassling the team for a while. The team's tech priest eventually convinced everybody to just ignore her. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ His reasoning was that it was way easier than trying to decide whether doing what she said or not doing what she said was actually her plan, and then unraveling the further layers of whether or not either of those things helped or hurt their mission/chances of survival/etc. Before that point, holy hell did he hate her. Of course, my DH game was radical as all hell, so your mileage may vary. By about mission 3, they were tasked (as a disposable suicide mission hail mary, not that they knew that) to hijack an Imperial Navy ship blockading an ork-held moon, then crash it into the moon so that the orks could rebuild it and escape with it as part of the Inquisitor's long term master plan.
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Feb 16, 2014 00:18
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I'm doing a bit of thinking about about the Squat Trader setting, in conjunction with reading the adventure hook generator in Stars of Inequity. Most of the results on the venture generators probably only need a few adjustments, to make them more Squat and less Koronus specific. What is the reason for this ship, what are the homeworlds like, what is the relationship between the Imperium and the Squats, and what is the Imperial presence like in the region beyond? The Squat homeworlds are supposed to be rich in mineral resources, high gravity, and extremely inhospitable. I sort of have the idea that the homeworlds are kind of overcrowded and their economies are kind stagnant. Dumping a huge amount of effort into shipbuilding is a way to relieve overcrowding, and it's an opportunity for those hurling themselves into the vast unknown. The Squats are part of the Imperium, but it's more of a mutual aid situation; they trade, they share tech with the Adeptus Mechanicus, and they send military aid to each other. But they have their own government(s), they don't follow the Creed, and their relations with the Space Marines are rather frosty. The independent aspect actually makes for decent Rogue Traders; it's like the race has a Warrant of Trade. The sector...I want to say it's at least as unexplored as the Koronus Expanse, with the Squat Homeworlds serving a similar function as Port Wander. Not sure what the reason should be; Great Crusade stalled against the Squats, or the region has a history of Warp Storms? I'm also trying to decide what arrangements to make when generating systems; I was initially planning on a grid, but now I think a more polar system might work better, especially if I weight things based on angle and range band. Wait. Range bands? I should totally rip off Traveller for adventure ideas. Rogue Trader Beowulf kind of fits; you're neighbors with the crazy Solomani, and I would be greatly amused to see the Eldar wearing turbans and capes. Hexes might make keeping track of ships easier...ooh, I like this. Edit; jeez, maybe I just want to play Traveller; the ships and character sheets would be way smaller, at least. 
Rockopolis fucked around with this message at 02:43 on Feb 16, 2014 |
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Feb 16, 2014 02:37
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Rockopolis posted:Not sure what the reason should be; Great Crusade stalled against the Squats, or the region has a history of Warp Storms? Squats are classified as abhumans actually, like Ratlings or Ogryn!
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Feb 16, 2014 04:08
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Yeah, but things started out with shooting before they signed a treaty. It's the backstory for MK III "Iron" Armor. Also one of the reasons Squats play better with the Imperial Guard than the Space Marines. I think the other big thing is that they seem to be a much more powerful, coherent, organized, and (unfortunately) less widespread group than the other two major abhuman groups.
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Feb 16, 2014 04:45
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Rockopolis posted:... Isn't Traveller the GURPS of space games? Never got around to tinkering with it myself, but I've always heard it's the express train to crunch-town. Anyway, as for the new sector, how's this? Orks occupied it for generations and the squats were never able to dislodge them. Now, all of a sudden they are just GONE. Preliminary scout reports indicate nothing but scattered ork space forces a fraction of their former size. Entire ork worlds totally depopulated, with only vague and extremely unsettling clues as to what has happened. Heck, maybe some of the colony ships were built to take advantage of this (by plopping down premanufactured industry with large stores of supplies) after this discovery and the squat shipyards have just brought the first couple online as the Hive Fleet hits. Of course, being out on initial tire-kicking maneuvers, they weren't properly stocked at all, but most of the equipment works. MilkmanLuke fucked around with this message at 05:46 on Feb 16, 2014 |
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Feb 16, 2014 05:07
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We are all familiar with Tim Curry as avatar of Slaanesh, but he makes a drat fine Nurgle as well. Ascension idea: Inquisitor and retinue discover that the biblical amounts of pollution Imperial industry generates is one of the greatest sources of power for Nurgle. Thus, a hilariously futile quest install industrial safety measures and environmental conservation programs across the galaxy. "I need 10,000 guardsmen. Tell them to bring mops instead of lasguns." Working name for campaign: Carbon Hoofprints. Ronwayne fucked around with this message at 06:38 on Feb 16, 2014 |
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Feb 16, 2014 06:33
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Eh, the main thing that sticks out at me is that the character sheets and info sheets fit on index cards, and you could end up with a rolodex of characters and ships. I like the removal of Ork pressure, but the worlds seem like they'd be either Tyranid or Ork, not depopulated. It would also mean a very rapidly paced game, because the hive fleet is here in force. It might be that the pressure from Ork raiders is being relieved, because the Tyranids are diverting them. Craftworlds can't move in any kind of hurry, right? The wiki says they're sublight, and while they've got huge Webway gates, they can't travel in the Webway or the Warp?
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Feb 16, 2014 10:36
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