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Ronwayne posted:On that note, SLAANESH IS PLEASED. What the hell did I just read?
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Mar 17, 2014 08:43
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That was absolutely horrifying.
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Mar 17, 2014 15:38
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It's Philly, whaddayagonnado?
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Mar 17, 2014 15:47
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Jesus, it's like a missive from hell. I thought it was going to be about super hot wings and the pleasure/pain of eating them but uh, I guess not.
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Mar 17, 2014 16:45
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Holy poo poo, it's rare that a link title delivers, but that one sure did 
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Mar 17, 2014 17:57
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As a palate cleanser, I have decided to translate the table I made to quickly roll up some Imperial nobles for use in Rogue Trader to English: Noble Generator v1.0 Reasons for power, roll once 1. Industrialists. Wether it’s mines or factories, this house produces something the imperium needs in vast quantities. 2. Bankers. This house deals in money itself and has many favors it can call in at any time. 3. Merchants. The nobles from this house have attained their position through their monopoly on trade goods. 4. Landowners. This noble house rules over vast swathes of land, sometimes even entire planets. 5. Inheritors. The might of this house has been established for eons and it’s members still profit from it to this day. 6. Conquerors. This house possesses vast military might. 7. Priests. Eclessiastical ties have allowed this house to get into the hearts and minds of many citizen. 8. Criminals. This house holds considerable influence in the underworld. 9. Aristocrats. The might of this house is backed by a powerful organisation within the imperium. 10. Roll twice on this table, add +1 to the Power roll. Power, roll once 1-5. Weak. This house is is the laughing stock in the few places where it’s crest is still recognized. 6-8. Moderate. A house like this rules over a minor planet or a part of a larger one such as a hive. 9-10 Strong. This house might rule a solar system, a hive world or be a significant factor in sector politics. 11+ Mighty. A house like this could rule a subsector or even have a scion who is heir apparent to a lord sector. Dark Secret, roll once(optional) 1. Mutants. The members of this house are tainted and prone to mutations. 2. Witches. Members of this house are often psykers. Pick the Pysker individual quirk result and roll only once. 3. Heretics. This house is part of a forbidden cult. 4. Traitors. This house secretly convenes with Xenos and plans to rebel against the Imperium. 5. Patrons of the Forbidden Arts. This house is known to shelter hereteks, xenos traders or warp dabblers. 6. Murderers. This house is behind some high profile deaths that would ruin them if discovered. 7. Profiteers. The power of this house is built on crimes long ago, a shaky foundation indeed. 8. ???. This house owes large favours or quanities of money to somebody or something. 9. ???. Members of this house are fighting a secret war amongst themselves. 10. Radicals. A radical Inquisitor has enlisted this house for a dark purpose. Individual Quirks, roll twice, reroll duplicates 1. Mutant. This member has a well concealed mutation. 2. Psyker. This noble is a psyker and possesses psyschic powers. 3. Sub-dermal Augmentations. Several powerful cybernetics hide beneath this person’s skin. 4. Duelist. A youth of duelling left this person with surprising skill in melee combat. 5. Marksman. Either being a game hunter, duellist, or paranoia left this noble exceptional well trained with guns. 6. Shunned. This noble is no longer part of his house, reroll Power with a -2 modifier for this person only. 7. Resourceful. This noble has many connections and commands more resources than his station would imply. 8. Silver Tongue. This person has a way of getting what he wants in conversations. 9. Heretic. This noble secretly worships the Ruinous Powers and can call upon the aid of Heretics. 10. Inquisitor. This person secretly has ties with the Inquisition. Doesn't go deep into game mechanics(actually does gently caress all), just general aid for coming up with concepts.
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Mar 17, 2014 18:02
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Ronwayne posted:On that note, SLAANESH IS PLEASED. This sort of thing is genuinely how Slaanesh should be written in the fluff. Not tentacle rape, just... human excess on a ridiculous scale.
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Mar 17, 2014 19:36
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If you like hip-hop the video for DJ Snake and Lil Jon is certainly a scene from a Slaanesh party. Minus tentacles.
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Mar 17, 2014 19:44
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thespaceinvader posted:This sort of thing is genuinely how Slaanesh should be written in the fluff. Not tentacle rape, just... human excess on a ridiculous scale. Yeah, but it all ends up in tentacle rape, doesn't it? Also I wonder how the Khornates in the Pentagon are going to take this. Asehujiko posted:As a palate cleanser, I have decided to translate the table I made to quickly roll up some Imperial nobles for use in Rogue Trader to English. Huh, this is genuinely cool! Thanks!
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Mar 18, 2014 07:26
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Yeah, this stuff is pretty good for plot on the fly, Asehujiko! E: Thought I'd share a little something I wrote for cyberpunk, but which may have utility here too, have tried to edit it to be 40k-appropriate. Gang generator: Gang Name (1d5): 1 - Composite. Two words, often describing the gangs methods or coming off intimidating ("Plasteel Shivs", "Icon Robbers") 2 - Familial. Often the case for gangs who draw their members from the same (usually urban area), are all related by blood or serve a particular patron ("Lord Havelocks Murder Dogs" "Hive Primus Steel Lords" 3 - Legitimate Veneer. Attempts to name the group as something that sounds like a legitimate business. ("Havelock Security Services", "Icon Retrieval Group"). 4 - Trangressive. Something that plays on a local taboo or otherwise sounds as intimidating as possible. ("Khornes Bloodletters", "Murderjunkies") 5 - Spiritual Veneer. As with legitimate veneer, but does not necessarily have the intent to sound legitimate as to claim supernatural power. ("Emperors Gunjacks, "Great Spirit Ratskins") Gang Purpose (1d10): 1-2 - Rage gang. Also known as "thrill killers", these scum assemble for the rush of pummeling, torturing and murdering others. While they may become wealthy off murder contracts or robbing their victims, their primary purpose is the joy of spilling blood. A variant is the Death Cult, holy terrors who believe their fetish is spiritually ordained. 3-4 - Scummers. Bereft of a better plan, this common gang type claims turf by force, wring citizens for cash and fight other gangs for the spoils of the area. 5-7 - Chrome Gang. Also known as bionic- or cyber-gangs, these soldiers are addicted to the cybernetic augmentation process for the power or sensation it gives, and commit crimes to replace themselves with steel and electronics. Sometimes sponsored by a tech-priest or even rogue heretek elements. 8 - Wiz-Gang. Having sorcerous or psychic talent in one or more members, this gang tries to accumulate more psychic talents and training for their 'gifted' members. Unfortunately, this makes them both erratic and highly dangerous to their surroundings, and some are even under the thumb of daemonic entities! 9 - Chemmers. These gangs are deep in the drug trade, and will likely have members who indulge themselves in all manner of stimulants. Connected to both chem manufacturers and scores of desperate addicts, chemmers can muster a lot of assets on a good day. 10 - Outcasts. Whether heretics, traitors, mutants or scavvies, these guys can't go home. As an alternative to the draconian justice awaiting them, they gather to commit crimes to survive. Quirks, 2d10 (optional, roll as much as you want): 2 - Inquisitor links. However the relationship works in practice, an inquisitor has a working relationship with them. 3 - 'Toos. Group members are extremely easy to recognize thanks to an affinity for covering their limbs, torsos and even heads in electoos or primitive tattoos. 4 - Skilled marksmen. The group has one or more extremely gifted shooters (BS 60+), and may have decked them out with special sensors, scoped or long ranged weapons to take advantage of the fact. 5 - Super Mutant! The gang has one or more mutant members whose deformity is actually a great advantage, such as being a twist-brute or having fully functional wings. 6 - Superstitious. The gang has genuine belief in either the God-Emperor or another entity (hive spirits, chaos gods etc.), and will avoid breaking the strictures and taboos of their faith. 7 - Gearheads. The group has mechanics and pilots enough to pose a serious threat to others, riding ground APCs, bikes or even walkers or planes into battle! 8 - Cutters. The gang has a thing for blades, and will prefer to use monoswords, -knives or polearms in close combat. 9 - Bashers. The gang has a thing for blunt instruments, and will use great mauls, clubs and power mauls in close combat. 10 - Chaotic infestation. The gang has spiritual rot in their midst, a member sacrificing victims to the dark gods, or carrying an item or a person host to a daemon! 11 - Bad Genes. One or more members are genestealer hybrids, and will turn the gang into a host for a full scale ‘stealer cult if given the chance. 12 - Bomb Squad. The gang has proficiency with demolition, loves to blow things up or, in the worst case, both. The group will respond to enemies by planting massive bombs, perhaps even in public areas. 13 - Xenos links. The gang has had contact with aliens, and, in the worst case, bartered with them for weapons and gear. High-level gangers may sport shuriken guns, Slaugh fusils or something even worse. 14 - Ostentatious Displays. The gang believes in displaying their success in as vulgar manner as they can, and individual members carry garish jewelry, smokes expensive nicomoss cigars or plate their rides in chrome. 15 - Working class. The gangers are all employed in local businesses in their off time, meaning they can very easily blend in with civilians if they’re not wearing gang colours. 16 - Insane Leadership. The gang leader, and perhaps also his lieutenants, have too many insanity points for comfort, and may direct the gang in ways that are simply not rational, such as finding a sheep on a death world or finding a space marine chapter to fight. 17 - PDF/Guard ties. The gang consists of demobilized PDF, Imp. Guard or local enforcer troops, and thus has knowledge of military tactics, and may even have access to surplus equipment or weapons! 18 - Foreigners/Natives - The gang stands apart from the society it is located in, because the members come from another continent/hive/planet. Or, on the flipside, it may consist of native humans that lived in the area before Imperial colonization (for a good example of this, see ratskins in Necromunda). 19-20 - Membership exclusion. A common trait, this gang discriminates on some arbitrary criteria when recruiting. This means that all members will conform to some standard, a good example is House Escher, who only admits women as members. I hope some of you can use it 
Tias fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Mar 18, 2014 |
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Mar 18, 2014 20:46
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Might wanna make it 1d20. 2d10 means results 9-12 will be the most common and 2 and 20 almost never.
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Mar 18, 2014 22:43
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Ronwayne posted:Might wanna make it 1d20. 2d10 means results 9-12 will be the most common and 2 and 20 almost never.
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Mar 18, 2014 22:53
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Zereth posted:And specifically being a genestealer-cult-in-waiting is the most common result. I'm pretty sure things aren't that bad. That is basically the set up to 90% of dark heresy plots.
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Mar 18, 2014 23:24
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Oh, darn. Math never was my strong suit  Would doing it like so be better? quote:Advantages and Quirks, 1d20 (optional, roll as much as you want):
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Mar 19, 2014 00:45
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I just gm'ed by first session of Black Crusade, holy poo poo. My tzeentchian psyker was telling a group of children some dark boogeyman stories when my khorne worshipper bursts through the door and flames all of them but the youngest. When the mother bursts in in tears, the tzeentchian blows her head off with a shotgun. My slaanesh apostate then drugged that four year old into having sex with a sheep. A sheep which my nurgle worshipper gave AIDS. Black Crusade everyone. (USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST) Funktastic Dog fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Mar 19, 2014 |
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Mar 19, 2014 03:59
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Funktastic Dog posted:I just gm'ed by first session of Black Crusade, holy poo poo. 
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Mar 19, 2014 04:01
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Not really sure that's the gaming story I'd have chosen to share with everyone on the internet, myself.
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Mar 19, 2014 04:11
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Kai Tave posted:Not really sure that's the gaming story I'd have chosen to share with everyone on the internet, myself. It's Black Crusade. In some games thats like a new level of hosed up. In Black Crusade it's Tuesday. I'm just the GM.
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Mar 19, 2014 04:26
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Funktastic Dog posted:It's Black Crusade. In some games thats like a new level of hosed up. In Black Crusade it's Tuesday. No, in Black Crusade that's still hosed up. Oddly enough, the GM has the power to go 'uh no dudes it's weird to make the four year old kid gently caress a sheep' and make things not totally weird.
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Mar 19, 2014 04:37
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man. no. Look, i'll be the first to admit that BC requires a poo poo ton of trust between the GM and Players, more than any game I've ever seen. Because poo poo like that can happen and still be IC. "I am the GM" is the horrible elf game equivilent of "I was just following orders". There's tons of IC poo poo you can do and still not be acceptable. Seriously dude, edit that post out. You don't want someone doing a post history search five years down the line and finding that.
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Mar 19, 2014 04:37
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Funktastic Dog posted:It's Black Crusade. In some games thats like a new level of hosed up. In Black Crusade it's Tuesday. Please don't run child rape games. Its pretty hosed up. I can't believe i need to explain this.
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Mar 19, 2014 04:39
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Funktastic Dog posted:I'm just the GM. Right, you're just the GM, that is to say you're the one enabling your players to play 40K: FATAL edition and then deciding that's a cool story worth sharing so everyone knows what sorts of games you run. "Man, I can't wait to tell everyone about the game where my players murdered a bunch of children and then forced the survivor to have sex with an AIDS-ridden sheep, how wacky. Oh but hey, it's really the game you see, I'm just the GM."
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Mar 19, 2014 04:42
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Tias posted:Oh, darn. Math never was my strong suit  I'm... gonna go do something else.
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Mar 19, 2014 04:44
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Funktastic Dog posted:Black Crusade everyone. Black Crusade is the Thousand Sons sorcerer riding his magic bird and raining hell on a group of Khornates, and periling so hard a bloodletter drop kicks him off of his mount because it manifests right in front of him, and then proceeds to eat his bird in flight. Black Crusade is a Khornate dueling a commissar and narrowly losing, and trying to turn the commissar to Khorne because he was such a bitchin' fighter and because said Khornate burns infamy in every fight because he wants to outdo the commissar. Black Crusade is the Nurgle renegade getting Grossly Fat and Corpulent Body and having to waddle to every fight because they focused on WS instead of BS, and tanking an autocannon in spite of it. Black Crusade is a Slaaneshi sorcerer causing a haywire field that shuts down the armor of his Khorne and Tzeentch allies while they're stuck in melee combat with orks, and then disappearing via a time rift long enough to gain the Face of Slaanesh and reappear, super handsome, to re-enact the Joker from 1989's Batman doing his whole 'Devil in the Moonlight' dance. Black Crusade is not making little kids gently caress an AIDS sheep, that's more of FATAL.
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Mar 19, 2014 04:49
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Funktastic Dog posted:I just gm'ed by first session of Black Crusade, holy poo poo. quoting in case of edit
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Mar 19, 2014 05:43
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 I'm glad I'm into the war game more than the role play. Say what you will about dudes who have daemonettes and paint on their well-sculpted tits with expertise but at least we don't simulate four year olds committing bestiality. Hahahahaaha
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Mar 19, 2014 06:44
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Funktastic Dog posted:It's Black Crusade. In some games thats like a new level of hosed up. In Black Crusade it's Tuesday. Oh hey you're trying to justify this poo poo, thats funny.
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Mar 19, 2014 07:06
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Funktastic Dog posted:It's Black Crusade. In some games thats like a new level of hosed up. In Black Crusade it's Tuesday. What I'm getting at here is that the moment one of the said "I set the children on fire," you could have saved everyone a lot of trouble and demonstrated the correct norms and values by going "Dude, it's not that kind of game. By the way, one of the kids is a psyker and sees you going for the flamer, and promptly shoots X amount of lightning into you dumb rear end for Y damage." Alternatively, you let some people pretend to setup a situation that would make anyone highly uncomfortable and just kept rolling the dice, so maybe you are the one that needs correction. ANYWAYS, What would you guys recommend as the best starting place for people new to the system but familiar with 40k fluff and lore? My buddies and I all know 40k, and we've played pen and paper before, but always some variety of DnD. We all want to get involved with Dark Heresy/Only War/Rogue Trader/Deathwatch/Etc, and I'm keen to DM it. I'm just not sure where is the best place to start, mechanics wise. I know they are all essentially the same system, but I understand they can have heavy differences. For instance, I understand Dark Heresy can be kind of a slog, so that's why I ask. Are the remainder all about equal, ease of mechanics wise? I just want to get them into the game, get them used to it, and if being a Rogue Trader is the easiest way to start rolling D10s and the like, well, that's the goal.
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Mar 19, 2014 07:20
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Moving on. I have been looking at the psychic powers available in Black Crusade and was wondering just if the Exalted powers were worth building around.
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Mar 19, 2014 07:22
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The crunch answer is "yes". The roleplay answer is "only if it helps your dude be interesting without making him a gimmick who can only do one thing"
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Mar 19, 2014 07:27
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Von Humboldt posted:When one of my players started being racist, I told him it wasn't cool and then I shot his character in the rear end until he was on the verge of death. He stopped that poo poo quick, because he picked up on what was acceptable and what was not, and if he felt like being a jackass and making edgy jokes, I could abuse my position to make his entertainment rubbish. Honestly I think that the first part of this (tell them it isn't cool) works just fine on its own without the in-game followup of shooting/burning/exploding the offending player's character. Trying to address player behavior with character-based consequences is just inviting passive-aggression into your games. quote:What would you guys recommend as the best starting place for people new to the system but familiar with 40k fluff and lore? My buddies and I all know 40k, and we've played pen and paper before, but always some variety of DnD. We all want to get involved with Dark Heresy/Only War/Rogue Trader/Deathwatch/Etc, and I'm keen to DM it. I'm just not sure where is the best place to start, mechanics wise. I know they are all essentially the same system, but I understand they can have heavy differences. For instance, I understand Dark Heresy can be kind of a slog, so that's why I ask. Are the remainder all about equal, ease of mechanics wise? I just want to get them into the game, get them used to it, and if being a Rogue Trader is the easiest way to start rolling D10s and the like, well, that's the goal. I haven't played nearly as much 40KRP as many folks in this thread I'm sure but my recommendation for a game that's quick and simple for beginners to get into would be Only War. The key advantage, as I see it, is that it's the easiest of the games for someone new to gaming to grasp without needing as much explaining or steering the players around counter-intuitive pitfalls, characters don't have as much raw "stuff" packed into them as they do in, say, Deathwatch, you don't have to worry about stuff like ship-to-ship combat, and it's dirt-simple to come up with basic Guard-type missions. It's also the latest iteration of the 40KRPG rules (barring the upcoming revision to Dark Heresy) so there's that too. Ultimately it depends on your group and if they're all really super stoked to play some Rogue Trader then that's what you should go with, but if you just want to bang out a quick and dirty one-shot to introduce them to 40K roleplaying then I'd go with Only War.
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Mar 19, 2014 07:34
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Only War is decent for a One Shot, but it's really hard to keep it interesting for anything that's going to run for any length of time. Very little variety and EVERYTHING is based around combat and killing poo poo. You don't really get a chance to be social or anything.
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Mar 19, 2014 07:40
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FireSight posted:Only War is decent for a One Shot, but it's really hard to keep it interesting for anything that's going to run for any length of time. Very little variety and EVERYTHING is based around combat and killing poo poo. You don't really get a chance to be social or anything. I know Dan Abnett is kind of an overused go-to but really, I think the Gaunt's Ghosts novels (or even the Ciaphas Cain series) are a reasonable counterargument to this. Yeah, there's a lot of shooting and exploding and stabbing going on but there are also breaks in the action, social shenanigans, drama, espionage, etc. All it takes is not constantly going from big shooty mission to big shooty mission without pause and actually including some opportunities to do things that aren't all about "go here, kill these guys."
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Mar 19, 2014 07:55
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I've always found Only War really awkward to run but it's more because of the rules and structure and general scale of the poo poo Guard find themselves in than anything else. I've really never liked the whole Comrade thing; in trying to simplify those characters they make them kind of a pain to deal with.
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Mar 19, 2014 08:09
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Kai Tave posted:I know Dan Abnett is kind of an overused go-to but really, I think the Gaunt's Ghosts novels (or even the Ciaphas Cain series) are a reasonable counterargument to this. Yeah, there's a lot of shooting and exploding and stabbing going on but there are also breaks in the action, social shenanigans, drama, espionage, etc. All it takes is not constantly going from big shooty mission to big shooty mission without pause and actually including some opportunities to do things that aren't all about "go here, kill these guys." You have to move away from RAW if you want to really do anything outside of combat. They put a basic framework in for non-combat stuff, hedged it in with a bunch of rules and Challenging (+0) rolls and made it basically worthless. poo poo like requisitions, "Oh, make a requisition roll" instead of actually having your dude go argue with the munitorum clerk. Who needs Charm or Decieve when you can just boost your logistics rating! My point is that you CAN do all that out of combat stuff, but you need to really push for it and be creative with it, instead of just following the rules blindly (as far too many people do), or you might as well not do it. And for someones first introduction to the setting, they are probably going to be a bit lost when it comes down to how the IG and the munitorum and the techpriests all interact.
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Mar 19, 2014 08:19
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FireSight posted:You have to move away from RAW if you want to really do anything outside of combat. They put a basic framework in for non-combat stuff, hedged it in with a bunch of rules and Challenging (+0) rolls and made it basically worthless. poo poo like requisitions, "Oh, make a requisition roll" instead of actually having your dude go argue with the munitorum clerk. Who needs Charm or Decieve when you can just boost your logistics rating! I was unaware that the other 40K games had robust and detailed social challenge frameworks outside of "roll Charm or Deceive as needed." A basic framework hedged with a bunch of rules and "roll this at +X" sounds like how most of the 40K RPGs handle that sort of thing including the one about being investigators and the one about being merchant lords in space. In fact, just to make sure I'm not talking completely out of my rear end I went ahead and cracked my copy of Rogue Trader to see if I was drastically misremembering. The rules for social interactions comprise a single page and boil down to "roll with a modifier, successes slide someone's disposition towards you along a track." Meanwhile why bother having your Rogue Trader go and haggle with local merchants instead of just boosting your Profit Factor? It turns out the only real difference between that and OW is that the opposed Commerce Roll you can make works in degrees of 2 points of Profit Factor in Rogue Trader while in OW it's +10 skill bonuses on Logistics Tests. So I'm not seeing how Only War is somehow more stunted when it comes to things outside of "shoot stuff" than the other 40K games. Rogue Trader can be nothing more than random murderhoboing in space, Dark Heresy can be "kick in the door, shoot cultists, rise repeat," and Deathwatch is pretty obviously going to gravitate towards nonstop violence. Of course you need to be willing to step back and go "okay, time for something different" if that's what you want, but OW isn't unique in that regard.
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Mar 19, 2014 08:53
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Kai Tave posted:I was unaware that the other 40K games had robust and detailed social challenge frameworks outside of "roll Charm or Deceive as needed." A basic framework hedged with a bunch of rules and "roll this at +X" sounds like how most of the 40K RPGs handle that sort of thing including the one about being investigators and the one about being merchant lords in space. FireSight's advice should be applied to all 40k games. Seriously, character interactions is one of the least developed parts of the game when it really shouldn't be. The 40k universe is ripe for all kinds of social shenanigans. I've heard the social combat rules in Tome of Excess are not bad, though.
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Mar 19, 2014 11:09
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Yup. Also, while i prefer point buy (because it just causes people to be sad when they roll trash stats), a downside of point buy is ending up with a gently caress ton of fellowship 20 PCs in all classes that don't need Command. Worse, 17fel in units that take a penalty to it. As amusing as Johnny Sperg Goes to War may be, I'm thinking changing pointbuy from "base 20, add 100 points to 9 stats, max 40, before modifiers" to "base 25, 55 points to spend." This will make them a bit less crippled (Ongoing experiments to see if you can hit int 0 at chargen with an Ogryn notwithstanding.) My houserules for any OW game i run are probably going to be; -aformentioned 25x9 +45pts, max 40 -all PCs get 2fate points (seriously, even more than attributes, something this critical should never be randomized) -Wounds are 3(average of a 1d5)+homeworld modifier+class modifier. -Everyone starts with Dodge. Parry would still be attractive for its respective classes since its easier to get bonuses to via balanced/high quality weapons. Getting new gear is still a pain in the rear end. I'm thinking of just using the Rogue Trader acquisition table but with starting profit factor 5 (hive gang) and just letting them pick stuff with the caveat of the players not making me cry (i.e. no bullshit like that full auto basic class shotgun), and me being free to tweak availability mods (Power armor at just v.rare? AHAHAHAH. No).
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Mar 19, 2014 11:34
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Yeah, confession time, I don't actually know much about how Black Crusade handles things (especially sheep, heyo), so it could very well have better non-combat support than the other 40K games so far, my point is just that Only War is no worse in that respect than the games that came before it. Rogue Trader isn't going to give you a ton of support for cunning duals of mercantile wit and high-society politics, if you want any of that stuff you're also going to have to go outside of RAW in order to do that. The issue with Only War isn't really a rules one so much as a conceptual one. In Rogue Trader the players have a literal mandate to just say "gently caress it, we're going that way." In Dark Heresy the players all have a boss telling them what to do but they're generally a distant sort of figure who doesn't care how they go about their mission so long as it succeeds. Only War is a game about being in the military though, and that means that unless you're running an unusual sort of game that the players generally won't just be doing whatever the hell they feel like, they'll be assigned missions and given orders and generally told to go to point A in order to kill dudes B-Z. On the one hand this can be a useful thing, especially for groups that work best when they have clear goals rather than a big, open sandbox and an expectant GM. And a good GM will give players in a military game some latitude when it comes to following through on missions rather than micromanaging them. The trick to running a longer-term OW game if you don't want it to just devolve into a constant litany of "go on mission, kill dudes, go back to base, repeat" is to remember to actually give the players some downtime and the chance to do stuff that isn't all assigned orders and missions. That's how stuff like this is handled in the 40K novels. In the very first Gaunt's Ghosts novel whatsisname, Rawne, cooks up a plan to do some hustling while the regiment is stuck somewhere and winds up ripping off some local crime boss to the tune of a huge shipment of drugs, booze, and porn. Meanwhile Gaunt himself is dealing with assassination attempts and intrigue as he tries to deal with Inquisitorial fuckery as well as Guard politics which trickles down through the ranks in the form of a vicious rivalry between the Ghosts and the Bluebloods. Half the poo poo Ciaphas Cain does he does when he's away from the front lines, drinking and gambling and generally loving around instead of getting stuck in and chainsawing space marines. So if you want to develop an OW game that has legs outside of combat then that strikes me as the way to go about it. Regularly give the players downtime when it feels like combat is wearing thin. Give them stuff to do that isn't straight-up shooting and killing...haggling and hustling, throw investigatory plot hooks at them (who murdered a fellow trooper, where's that other regiment getting all those supplies from, who set someone up to take the fall for stealing the Commissar's hat), get Rogue Traders and Inquisitors and local nobility involved, give them opportunities to get themselves in trouble on the side. And if you really feel like you want to change things up then scoop them back up and send the regiment to some other world with a completely different campaign underway, with different NPCs and complications. Again, that's how Abnett handled it with Gaunt's Ghosts...in one book they're skirmishing in a fast-moving push to secure a planet at the tip of a Crusade, then in the next they get whisked off to a hive world for protracted urban guerrilla warfare during a siege.
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Mar 19, 2014 11:35
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Ronwayne posted:As amusing as Johnny Sperg Goes to War may be, I'm thinking changing pointbuy from "base 20, add 100 points to 9 stats, max 40, before modifiers" to "base 25, 55 points to spend." This will make them a bit less crippled (Ongoing experiments to see if you can hit int 0 at chargen with an Ogryn notwithstanding.) The alternative is to give them array of scores to add to their base (ie. 5, 5, 8, 10, 10, 13, 15, 15, 18).
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Mar 19, 2014 13:40
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