Deathwatch: The RPG

[Chengar Qordath]

My biggest bugbear about Deathwatch is no Chaplain specialty.

I'm pretty sure Chaplains are supposed to be added in the expansion that's coming out at some point next year.

 

Rule 116: If you decide to set the epic final battle of your campaign on Terra, the party will somehow find a way to destroy the Imperium.

 

You think that is bad? I'm NEVER letting my players anywhere near mars again.

No matter what your players did to Mars, I think it's hard to top letting an unending horde of Daemons into the Imperial Palace.

 

It does seem that, like with a lot of RPGs, the player characters have a tendency to spread chaos and destruction wherever they go, which is why letting the party go anywhere near the really important bits of the Imperium is a bad idea. Then again, it does make things interesting.

[Techmarine Data007]

I have to ask, how exactly did they so completely screw up things? I mean, didn't any of them say "Let's 'not' play with the only thing holding back legions of demons from the seat of the Imperium."

[Chengar Qordath]

I have to ask, how exactly did they so completely screw up things? I mean, didn't any of them say "Let's 'not' play with the only thing holding back legions of demons from the seat of the Imperium."

The thing was, the big bad's entire scheme over the course of the campaign was to mess with the only thing holding back legions of Daemons from the seat of the Imperium, so that part was a bit understandable. Even having the mole within the party finally decide it was time to show his true colors was pretty much exactly as planned; adding some PvP to the final battle just made it that much more dramatic.

 

Where things went horribly wrong was halfway through the epic final battle to stop the big bad from doing that. Things were going alright; the party was taking some heavy hits, but the final battle should be pretty tough, and they were still doing well enough to win without too much trouble. Then, despite being in a good position, some of the players panicked and started getting stupid. Instead of sticking with their current battle plan that was working, half the party started trying all sorts of crazy plans that just didn't work, leaving the other half of the party without any support. Every time a crazy plan didn't work, the first half of the party decided that the only solution was a new, even crazier plan that didn't fix any of the things that went wrong with the last crazy plan.

What really got me about the whole thing was that the players busy being useless were the ones who were generally my best players, and thus should have known better.

 

With half the party now busy being useless (and that half included the Apothecary and the Librarian), the rest of the group had no chance of winning, and the battle started turning against them. Instead of deciding to stop being useless, the players busy doing zany schemes decided that it was time to run away. Despite that, the rest of the party might have pulled off a win if the group's traitor had not been rolling really well; he was nearly dead before the party got stupid, but after that he was no longer getting attacked, and got some really good attack and damage rolls on the good players.

 

So, we wound up with two dead PCs, a traitor, one player deciding to throw his lot in with the traitor when it was clear that all was lost, and three PCs who ran away from the battle. On the bright side, I at least managed to give the traitor in the party a happy ending as Chaos' newest Daemon Prince; as far I'm concerned, if you help Daemons overrun Terra itself you've earned daemonic ascension.

[Techmarine Data007]

Kind of run out of play-space though, eh? Seems like you end up with what amounts to post-post-apocalyptic 40K.

[Brother Captain Kezef]

My biggest bugbear about Deathwatch is no Chaplain specialty.

I'm pretty sure Chaplains are supposed to be added in the expansion that's coming out at some point next year.

 

Rule 116: If you decide to set the epic final battle of your campaign on Terra, the party will somehow find a way to destroy the Imperium.

 

You think that is bad? I'm NEVER letting my players anywhere near mars again.

No matter what your players did to Mars, I think it's hard to top letting an unending horde of Daemons into the Imperial Palace.

 

It does seem that, like with a lot of RPGs, the player characters have a tendency to spread chaos and destruction wherever they go, which is why letting the party go anywhere near the really important bits of the Imperium is a bad idea. Then again, it does make things interesting.

 

They woke the Dragon

[Techmarine Data007]

*facepalm*

 

That is all.

[Chengar Qordath]

My biggest bugbear about Deathwatch is no Chaplain specialty.

I'm pretty sure Chaplains are supposed to be added in the expansion that's coming out at some point next year.

 

Rule 116: If you decide to set the epic final battle of your campaign on Terra, the party will somehow find a way to destroy the Imperium.

 

You think that is bad? I'm NEVER letting my players anywhere near mars again.

No matter what your players did to Mars, I think it's hard to top letting an unending horde of Daemons into the Imperial Palace.

 

It does seem that, like with a lot of RPGs, the player characters have a tendency to spread chaos and destruction wherever they go, which is why letting the party go anywhere near the really important bits of the Imperium is a bad idea. Then again, it does make things interesting.

 

They woke the Dragon

I'll call it a draw; both our parties succeeded in essentially destroying the Imperium and dooming humanity to extinction.

[Brother Captain Kezef]

My biggest bugbear about Deathwatch is no Chaplain specialty.

I'm pretty sure Chaplains are supposed to be added in the expansion that's coming out at some point next year.

 

Rule 116: If you decide to set the epic final battle of your campaign on Terra, the party will somehow find a way to destroy the Imperium.

 

You think that is bad? I'm NEVER letting my players anywhere near mars again.

No matter what your players did to Mars, I think it's hard to top letting an unending horde of Daemons into the Imperial Palace.

 

It does seem that, like with a lot of RPGs, the player characters have a tendency to spread chaos and destruction wherever they go, which is why letting the party go anywhere near the really important bits of the Imperium is a bad idea. Then again, it does make things interesting.

 

They woke the Dragon

I'll call it a draw; both our parties succeeded in essentially destroying the Imperium and dooming humanity to extinction.

 

Pretty much

[Kamikaze14]

#64: Someone, in a fit of rage, will yell "SINDRIIII!"

 

Dawn of War makes for some good jokes.

On a related note:

#65: Someone will refer to the vehicles as "Metal Boxes".

#117: The squad leader will make the "Spess Mehrens" speech.

[BrotherCaptainJames]

Rule # 118: Someone will try to punch a grenade through an enemy's chest WITH A POWERFIST.

[Hfran Morkai]

Rule 119: If your Dark Angel member starts muttering terrible things to himself it might be time for a highly accurate Lance Strike, it's not paranoia if you ARE watching them permanently. Was an interesting turn of events.

 

Rule 120: If reinforcements are required during the mission DO NOT forget your jump pack...

 

Rule 121: Do not shoot a Heavy Bolter into a combat featuring allies, particularly unarmoured allies.

 

Rule 122: If the unarmoured paranoid Dark Angel wants to raid a weapons store in a hive world with a suppressed auto-pistol, satisfy his whims. He might just get the information you need

[Kamikaze14]

123: When asked if the vehicles the kill-team is sent to recover has an assault cannon, the answer is no unless you plan on that 500 wound boss to die in record time.

[Kamikaze14]

Rule Number Ten: As soon as a player discovers the neuroglottis, they will eat everything they find.

When the blood angel players are the first to discover this, the apothecary will assume they are succumbing to the Red Thirst.

[Firenze]

#56: Space Marines will at some point eat their frag grenades, because they can.

Ive seen this happen in Inquisitor. I then saw said marine headshot and kill a ganger by throwing the pin at them.

[Codicier Lucion]

124: Simply because you are on a mission from god does not mean the GM will not shoot you for making Blues Brothers jokes.

125: Do not dare a player to take down the Ork warboss in close combat by repeatedly headbutting it. They will try it.

125.5: They will find a way to win.

126: No matter how strong the space marine, no matter how tooled up his guns are by the tech marine, no matter how high level they are; they cannot duel wield heavy bolters.

[Kable]

#127: At some point someone will scream "GET TO THE CHOPPA!!!"

 

Cant wait for #404 :lol:

[Kamikaze14]

#128: You know those lamps you gave your players at the start of the GM kit mission? Nobody will bring an Auspex, and the Techmarines will fail their roll to figure out what's special about it, making the players assume its useless.

[Maladict]

#129: There is no plan so stupid awesome that the players will not give it serious consideration. Not even "Can I slow the descent of the crashing gun-cutter by ripping chunks off the bulkheads and using them to increase the lift surfaces?", "Is there any way we can turn the suspensors on our heavy weapons up to give us more lift?" and "Well, if we all hang on to the Assault Marine with the jump pack..."

 

#130: At least once, the Librarian will say something that will lead to him staring down the barrels of five bolters, or possibly four bolters and one heavy flamer. Such remarks may be something like "Oh, I think I've just deciphered the Daemon's name. It's -" or "Incidentally, I have been working on my commentaries on volumes of the Codex Astartes which haven't been written yet" or "I may have just been slightly flirting with a Greater Daemon of Slaanesh".

[Kamikaze14]

#131: When 7 heavy bolter shots righteous fury a wounded enemy, you're going to need a bigger critical damage table.

[Codicier Lucion]

Something I just learned from a one shot game to properly test out the rules and put the characters though their paces:

 

# 132: Do not ever give any of the Deathwatch marines bikes. Especially if the player requesting them is using a Space Wolf Tech Marine and they are facing Tau Devilfish. It will only result in mass slaughter of the enemy and the party breezing through the entire session in a few minutes.

[Kamikaze14]

#133: Someone will take it upon themselves to make the fastest character possible. He will then argue that going over 200 meters in one round should add to his charge damage.

(Working on a chaos campaign. I let the slaneeshi raptor take unnatural speed in lieu of the unnatural agility usually given by the MoS.)

[Grey Mage]

126: No matter how strong the space marine, no matter how tooled up his guns are by the tech marine, no matter how high level they are; they cannot duel wield heavy bolters.

Suspensors, with vox operated. /yawn.

 

134) Your player may not be an Eldar Warlock, no matter how cool his model may be.

 

135) Your player may not be a titan princepts, moderati, or other operator of a giant death machine before becoming a marine.

 

136) Your players will invariably forget to ask each other what their chapter or role is, and proceed to make 7 ultramarine devastators just to annoy you.

 

137) They will then make 7 Space Wolf Grey Hunters, likewise without consulting each other when you remind them that tacticals are important.

 

138) The rule you forgot because its unimportant will change the face of the entire battle.

[Kamikaze14]

138) The rule you forgot because its unimportant will change the face of the entire battle.

#139: Roleplayers used to D&D will need dodging, parrying, fate points, squad mode abilities, and solo mode abilities drilled into their heads. It does not help when the GM (me) forgets too.

[Chengar Qordath]

138) The rule you forgot because its unimportant will change the face of the entire battle.

#139: Roleplayers used to D&D will need dodging, parrying, fate points, squad mode abilities, and solo mode abilities drilled into their heads. It does not help when the GM (me) forgets too.

So true. In the first four sessions of my campaign the party used one squad mode ability and zero solo-mode abilities. At least they did not have problems with the other rules since most of them were Dark Heresy veterans.

[Akuro Adennyciia]

#140: You should never allow your players onto the bridge of a ship larger than an escort.

 

#141: Your party is not allowed to create new chapters, or rule planets.