Star Phantoms

[Tycho's Ghost]

I have been working on an idea for Star Phantoms for awhile now want get some feedback. As far as gameplay goes my plan is to have infantry lists using the Space Wolves codex and then have lists using Deathwing and Ravenwing rules. I really like bikes and terminators but i dont like the dark angels and i really like the space wolf rules and fluff but hate the models so i want a single chapter to play both codexes with. Fluff wise, they are a very large, decentralized fleet based chapter originally tasked with patrolling the centaurus and cygnus galaxy arms although they were called to the maelstrom during the badab war . The chapter numbers around 1500 marines along with a higher than normal number of ships, thunderhawks, terminator armor, and vehicles. this is due to that while the chapter was stationed in the galaxy arms the companies operated individually in both combat and recruitment ,each one bringing in a steady stream of recruits. Also the Chapter fought mainly small actions and rarely took heavy casualties while still receiving regular equipment resupply from the mechanicus. the Star Phantoms are highly mystical chapter due to their relative isolation, practicing what amounts to ancestor worhsip, each marine knowing the legacy and ancestry of his geneseed, in many cases passing down the name of the original marine to carry their Geneseed and considering that geneseed to carry the psychic imprint of its previous carriers. Thanks to this they have a high tolerance of psykers going so far as to merge their librarians and chaplains into one group of psyker-preist , each company having one senior shaman and several apprentices. also the chapter does not follow the codex organization, every company raises its own scouts and full marines although the terminator companies are pure terminator units that stay with the main fleet. the Phantoms have never had knowledge of who is their Primarch since their founding (which is also unknown) and are always searching for clues to discover the truth. occasionally a shaman will receive a vision and commandeer a ship and go to each company asking for recruits for a crusade to search for clues of their history.

 

so anyway, more will follow and give all the feedback you think of.

[Arkangilos]

I do not have a problem with that (I would like to see more stuff on it, like in other IA). However, I can tell you that you might get quite a bit of people who do not support it. Many of them will probably not have a problem as long as you can explain why, and make it believable. So, What I am trying to say, just make sure you include reasons, and try to make it believable.

Many of them do offer great advice, and I would listen to them, however, none of us are truly the gods of fluff, and so we can only tell you what we think fits best. This does not mean you can not do what you want to do, it only means that it is likely to meet with some resistance.

Good luck, have fun, and enjoy :)

[soddinnutter]

Avoid the Unknown Primarch thing like the plague. Seriously. The locals round here seem to treat it like wearing an eight pointed star at a Commissar Pride march.

 

Founding, even if the exact batch number is forgotten, can still be known in a vague sense. You see how far the Librarians/Remembrancers/Archivists have got records for and take a stab at the founding that takes place before that.

 

I really like the Psyker-Priest thing. Sort of an auto-confession when they can see the guilt inside your mind, also they can spot the Heresy.

 

You could explain the larger number of Battle Brothers by saying that as the companies are responsible for their individual recruitment the Central Authorities of the chapter have sort of lost contact with distant Brothers for extended periods of time. Decades some times. The numbers are always an estimation. They may have less on the roll when bad news from the Grendal Stars Campaign reaches and they find a Company obliterated. They may receive good news when they discover that the Gethsemene Cluster has provided a bumper crop of new Initiates. As astropathic signals can take month even years to get from one end of the galaxy to the other any new the Chapter Master/High Marshal/Lord Abbot/Warlord receives is going to be automatically out of date before it arrives.

 

I would reconsider the whole 'patrolling the centaurus and cygnus galactic arms' thing you have going. thats like ~2/5 of the galaxy. That HUGE. I lack the vocabulary to fully express just how mind bogglingly big that area is. Its like me or you being given a rubber dingy and being told to patrol the Pacific Ocean. That times about 1,000. And its full of sharks and lovecraftian horrors from beyond time and space.

 

Also wall o' text. It's hard to read and makes people switch off with out reading past the first two lines. It took me 3 attempts to make it through.

[Quozzo]

Librarian-Chaplains or a 'psyker-preist' as you say is not going to happen. The Librarians with the connection to the Warp are always more vulnerable to turning to Chaos and believing they are doing humanity a service by killing their Chapter. Chaplains are around to prevent such a thing happening, they guide those who may believe the Emperor has forsaken them back onto the right path. If a Librarian was his own counselor than he will be more inclined to follow his own ways and even teach the chapter (he is a chaplain after all) what he believes is right. Without knowing it, the Chapter will be following the Dark Gods believing that is the Emperors will.

[Tycho's Ghost]

Avoid the Unknown Primarch thing like the plague. Seriously. The locals round here seem to treat it like wearing an eight pointed star at a Commissar Pride march.

 

Founding, even if the exact batch number is forgotten, can still be known in a vague sense. You see how far the Librarians/Remembrancers/Archivists have got records for and take a stab at the founding that takes place before that.

 

I really like the Psyker-Priest thing. Sort of an auto-confession when they can see the guilt inside your mind, also they can spot the Heresy.

 

You could explain the larger number of Battle Brothers by saying that as the companies are responsible for their individual recruitment the Central Authorities of the chapter have sort of lost contact with distant Brothers for extended periods of time. Decades some times. The numbers are always an estimation. They may have less on the roll when bad news from the Grendal Stars Campaign reaches and they find a Company obliterated. They may receive good news when they discover that the Gethsemene Cluster has provided a bumper crop of new Initiates. As astropathic signals can take month even years to get from one end of the galaxy to the other any new the Chapter Master/High Marshal/Lord Abbot/Warlord receives is going to be automatically out of date before it arrives.

 

I would reconsider the whole 'patrolling the centaurus and cygnus galactic arms' thing you have going. thats like ~2/5 of the galaxy. That HUGE. I lack the vocabulary to fully express just how mind bogglingly big that area is. Its like me or you being given a rubber dingy and being told to patrol the Pacific Ocean. That times about 1,000. And its full of sharks and lovecraftian horrors from beyond time and space.

 

Also wall o' text. It's hard to read and makes people switch off with out reading past the first two lines. It took me 3 attempts to make it through.

First off sorry about the bad spacing in th original post and im kind of going out of order in the reply.

 

I had in my mind that they are linked to the 2nd or 11th legions as successors or maybe direct remnants of them. I have been very interested in those two mystery legions since I first got into the game and loved the mystery around them, so thats why i will probably keep the primarch and founding unknown.

 

Also, the Star Phantoms established fluff implies that they have always been a mystery of a chapter only coming into the spotlight during the badab war. I wanted to preserve this so i thought they should have spent a large portion of their history in the galactic boondocks as it were. I realise now that i should have clarified more about the arms thing, I didnt mean the entirety of the arms from galactic core to tip (again my stupid mistake), I meant the far edges of the two, at the very edge of the astronomicons range and over their entire history moved from the eastern fringe to near the yme-loc craftworld. hope that clarifies the patrol issue, I really just needed some viable reason that they seemed to come out from nowhere.

 

your take on the extra numbers thing is dead on the money with what i was thinking you just said it alot better and thanks for that. and Im also glad that you like the Psyker-Preist deal, I will come up with a solid name for them as I lockdown the fluff.

 

and thanks for the feedback, it helped to air that stuff out and make it all clearer.

[Tycho's Ghost]

Librarian-Chaplains or a 'psyker-preist' as you say is not going to happen. The Librarians with the connection to the Warp are always more vulnerable to turning to Chaos and believing they are doing humanity a service by killing their Chapter. Chaplains are around to prevent such a thing happening, they guide those who may believe the Emperor has forsaken them back onto the right path. If a Librarian was his own counselor than he will be more inclined to follow his own ways and even teach the chapter (he is a chaplain after all) what he believes is right. Without knowing it, the Chapter will be following the Dark Gods believing that is the Emperors will.

 

I get where you are coming from but the idea is really central to the chapter fluff. Chapters are incredibly diverse in just about everything, including their Chapter Cults, so it is not unreasonable that after a long isolation something as radical as this could come up. also this could serve to give a reason for conflicts with other imperial forces, something I think needs to be addressed with every faction.

[Arkangilos]

I agree that the Librarian Priests add something to the chapter's fluff, and I think the idea is interesting. It would, however, probably lead to Inquisitorial investigations. If it is done right, and you explain it well, you could probably get away with it.

Or, one way to completely get away with it is to change the name to some chapter not really established, and then talk about how they have come close to being excommunicated. You could lead to some rather large disasters too. There are quite a bit of routes to be taken with this. Not all ending in tragety.

[soddinnutter]

Having had a look at the Lexicanum you seem to have an almost unblemished canvas to work with.

 

All you have to do is write how the entire chapter converged upon that single campaign, only time in history they have all been in the same sub-sector, and ~1,500 brothers beat themselves down to barely ~400 before they got close enough to Huron Blackheart. It was only by luck, or the blessings of Dark Gods, that the Arch-traitor survived the melta-beam of Captain Androcles.

 

Do this and you will have kept to all of the sparse official fluff.

 

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Star_Phantoms

[Tycho's Ghost]

Thanks for all the input I will post later with the whole thing fleshed out.