Killteam Campaign

[Dryad]

Hey,

 

So a few guys I know have agreed to embark on a little Kill Team Campaign throughout the summer. However, I want to add far more depth than what the Battle Missions book suggests for Kill Teams. I want to incorporate experience and acquisition of wargear/transports, while keeping the players engaged and looking forward to the next gaming night.

 

BASIS:

 

D&D meets 40K. A lot of us used to play D&D when we were teens, but we have lost the attention span for roleplaying and now prefer the high action of tabletop wargames. But, everyone agrees that the fun part of D&D was the progression and constant evolution of the character sheet. Getting XP at the end of a game was like getting a new toy, and everyone was always excited to pick new skills and such...

 

The idea is to have a base Killteam (200 point non-vehicle unit from Troops, Elites, or Fast). I want the Sarge/Champ/Exarch of each unit to be a focus character and represent the "player" for all intents and purposes. As the game progresses throughout the summer, players will be able to gain enough XP to get their Sarge/Champ/Exarch to the level of an HQ choice.

 

GAMEPLAY:

 

Games are played on an 8x4 board with 4 players, each player starting in a quadrant. Each game will have a predetermined storyline with a common objective that will set the pace for the game (hold something, kill something, find something, blah blah blah). I will not have an army on the board, but rather I will act as a "DM". Basically, I will control NPCs (Non-Player Characters) and narrate the game. At different points in a game, some random NPC unit may show up, an orbital bombadment may drop, a gate to the warp may open.... whatever. I control that stuff and delegate the flow of the game. Players will hence be encouraged not just to shoot each other, but interact with the NPC environment and make decisions.

 

The game will follow the 40k turn based system, but every once in a while, the DM (myself) will "pause" the action for an event. I will narrate that event, make changes to the environment (such as a NPC that teleports in) then resume the turn play. However, rather than resume in the player sequence that was determined at the start of the game, I want to use an "initiative check" system. Bascially, use the initiative of your unit, and add a D6 roll. Highest roll gets to resume after an event first, and so forth. Ties are determined on a roll off until the new sequence of the 4 players is determined. That sequence continues until a new event happens and the game gets paused again.

 

EXPERIENCE:

 

I want to incorporate 3 kinds of experience:

 

SQUAD POINTS: At the end of every game, each player gets awarded base squad points. They can be used to either add more models to a unit (if the player didn't suffer many casualties), or rejevenate lost models to bring back the strength of the unit.

 

WARGEAR POINTS: At the start of the campaign, each unit must be made with standard wargear, ignoring the "options" section of the unit entry in their codex. The idea is that you have to gain options (melta guns, banners, etc) by playing the campaign. However, wargear points are never awarded by the DM at the end of the game like other experience. Instead, tokens will be placed upside down all over the board at the start of a game. When players find the tokens, they can flip it over and claim the prize. Token examples might be: 5/10/15 Wargear points, 1 Orbital Bombardment, 1 Demo-charge, etc... Players can then use their wargear tokens in the following game.

 

CHARACTER POINTS: These points are awarded at the end of the game like Squad points. This is the one type of XP that will differ depending on the play and action of that player (like D&D). How well did the player command his squad? How much stuff did he kill? etc... If the character (Sarge/Champ/Exarch) dies in the game, it is assumed that an "Apothecary" from his army's vessel in orbit will come down and gather the body. The player can use his Character Point to rejuvenate his character for the next game. Rejuventation costs the same as the character (So, if your Sarge is the Aspiring Sorc for a Thousand Sons unit, you don't want him to die cause bringing him back is expensive!). If the character survived, he gets to use Character Points to upgrade his character. This is where it gets interesting. As DM, I will allow the character access to the HQ armoury and skills of its codex. This is to represent the slow rise to to "champion" status in his fleet. The player makes a proposal to me, then I either allow it or decline it. The player needs to use fluffy evidence to show that the character could have access to that item. AND, the player needs to WYSIWYG that new change to their model :P

 

If people survive lots of games, by the end of summer they should have a ~200 point value character with a ~300 or so point value squad and transport, so that the conclusion to the campaign (The Final Battle) will be 4 players dropping a ~500 point army. If a player keeps getting lots of Squad Points but not losing many casualties, and they max out their unit (say 10 guys), then they can save up Squad Points to add new things (an Attack Bike, a Vyper, Wave Serpent, Rhino, a Dreadnought, whatever as long as DM approves). Additions may not be another whole unit of infantry (cause that would destroy the whole Kill Team "squad" focus), and as long as it is not something from the Heavy slot.

 

 

So, how does this all sound, and has anyone tried anything like this? Any advice before we begin would be great. Thanks

[Lansirill]

Okay, I'm going to admit that I tldr'ed your post. I've never really been a bit fan of experience-based campaigns (or campaigns in general) since they tend to work on a win-more basis.

 

One thing you could consider, instead of rolling your own system entirely, is to use Necromunda/Mordheim rules and use counts-as for your models. Another possibility is, since you're going to DM, you could consider using Inquisitor. I know Necro/Mord have campaign rules. I'm not sure about Inquisitor, but it's great for a more narrative style of game if that's what you want.

 

It's a whole new ruleset though, so it may not be your cup of tea.

[Inache]

I'd play. However I wouldn't go so far as to require an equal number of character points to revive. Mainly because not all squad leading elements are equal. So one of your players, by choosing a unique expensive unit as his Kill team leader is going to gimp himself early on if things go badly. That'd even be a strategy that I would use vs an opponent with a squad leader like that.

 

Make it half, or even a third of the cost, but have the cost go up the number of times the character is killed.

 

Other than that, it sounds it sounds like a blast!

[Deadlight]

why not use the inquisitor rules and scale down to 28mm model size?