PensacolaWarhammer Joins Deathwatch

[PensacolaWarhammer]

Thanks guys for the support and suggestions. A quick update. The backstory for the first player character is up on my blog. The character sheet will be post as soon as the player gets a chance to roll for his armor history. As for campaign, I haven't settled on doing "Extraction" from the core rule book or "Final Saction" and "Oblivion's Edge" off of Fantasy Flight's support page. I've come up with a few ideas to extend "Extraction" and maybe even tie it into "Final Saction". I'd like to here your thoughts.

 

@blackoption

I have been working on a host of NPC, mostly ones that will appear in the game and possiblly do some fighting. The watch captian I figured would would just be me acting as the GM, but I like the idea of actually having a character and acting through the character. Different captians would have different personalities and therefore, I would basically be a "different GM" depended on the captian. A thought right now that may get tanked during actual game play. As for the squad leader and command, my mechanic that I think I've settled on is basically a Action cost and possible command check. If the player character can get the command out in 6 seconds or less, it's a free action. More detailed commands would cost either a whole action or half action and require command checks. To give players a bit of an incentive to follow orders, there would be small reward of XP to be dulled out by the squad leader. The reward would only be maybe 5 to 10 points, enough to make players follow commands, but not enough to force or railroad players into following every order. Let me know what you think.

[blackoption]

I actually think that is a very apt way of handling the squad leader. Does the squad leader get any bonus xp for how the squad performs?  (perhaps one brother instinctively covers another or does a tactically effective move without being told that syncs with the group's plan of attack). 

 

Remember, that the squad leader can also give commands for offensive and defensive manuevers via cohesion. These abilities can be quite powerful if used correctly. 

[PensacolaWarhammer]

@blackoption

The squad leader's reward will generally be given through Renown depending on the success (an increase in renown) or failure (a lose of renown). The squad leader will be eligible for extra XP at the discretion of the Watch Captain (GM). As to rewards for how the squad performs, it will be requested by the squad leader and then will be a consensus between the squad leader and Watch Captain as the Watch Captain will have little knowledge of what details happened on the ground. In your examples, the Watch Captain will not know that a brother my have covered another brother, or that a brother performed a move without being told that ended up syncing with the group's plan of attack. That will be in the hands of the squad leader and the small pool of XP he is given to dull out to the squad. He may not think that covering a brother is worth the time or effort to request additional XP from the Captain; however, he may fill that a brother taking the imitative and performing a move that helps the whole group should deserve a bit more. I think this will also be a helpful way of creating and awarding honors and distinctions.

 

I think this also takes some of the responsibility and attention off the GM and puts it in the hands of one of the players. I can focus on playing NPC and being the enemy while the squad leader can focus on the actions and history of his squad mates. I think the ideas that I have are balanced and reasonable. It makes being the squad leader a bit more important, and it puts some of the destiny of the players and their squad in their own hands. Of course as the rule book states, the GM has final say.

[blackoption]

I really like that system. I am curious to see how it turns out.

[Cmdr Shepard]

Well, considering I am currently looking for a new gaming group (as I just recently moved to the richmond area) and if by some tzeenchian chance you might be in the area, i'd be willing to help out.

 

Sadly there are several thousand kilometers between me and your area but I appreciate the offer.

 

 

Thanks guys for the support and suggestions. A quick update. The backstory for the first player character is up on my blog. The character sheet will be post as soon as the player gets a chance to roll for his armor history. As for campaign, I haven't settled on doing "Extraction" from the core rule book or "Final Saction" and "Oblivion's Edge" off of Fantasy Flight's support page. I've come up with a few ideas to extend "Extraction" and maybe even tie it into "Final Saction". I'd like to here your thoughts.

 

Nice to see the first kill team Battle Brother... I'll await for the other members to join the squad ;)

Edited May 30, 2013 by Cmdr Shepard

[PensacolaWarhammer]

Check back tomorrow as I'll have a massive blog update with the Watch Captain's background, a Horus Heresy tactica, and a few house rules that I've developed for Deathwatch.

[Cmdr Shepard]

Check back tomorrow as I'll have a massive blog update with the Watch Captain's background, a Horus Heresy tactica, and a few house rules that I've developed for Deathwatch.

 

I'll check it for sure

[PensacolaWarhammer]

Got another character up on my blog. It's the Watch Captain that I'll be taking on as the GM. Naturally, he doesn't have a character sheet. This is just to give me and the players an idea of who is in charge and calling the shots.

[blackoption]

Minor critique...The blood angels chapter recruit pretty much exclusively from Baal.  I like that he journeys to baal, but some might argue that he goes to baal too late (as space travel can take months/years).

 

But it is clear that you have put alot of thought into this character.... He strikes me as a Bruce Wayne who decided not to hide in the dark.

[PensacolaWarhammer]

Yeah, I saw that the Blood Angels recruit only from Baal and its moons a bit too late. It's a minor point as you pointed out, and one that I'm not going to worry or debate over too much. I didn't intend for him to be a Bruce Wayne when I wrote him, but I'll take it .

 

Thanks for the complement though. The character actually just sort of came to me, and I was able to write him up in an hour.

Edited June 1, 2013 by PensacolaWarhammer

[Cmdr Shepard]

Yeah, I saw that the Blood Angels recruit only from Baal and its moons a bit too late. It's a minor point as you pointed out, and one that I'm not going to worry or debate over too much. I didn't intend for him to be a Bruce Wayne when I wrote him, but I'll take it .

 

Thanks for the complement though. The character actually just sort of came to me, and I was able to write him up in an hour.

 

Are we sure they only recruit from Baal? I mean isn't possible they recruit someone during a long term campaign far away from Baal system or they see a potential recruit and bring him to Baal?.. just few thoughts...

[PensacolaWarhammer]

@Cmdr Shepard

This is the thinking and logic that I'm going with for the Blood Angel character. Besides, almost no chapter recruits from just one world. If they did, the recruit pool would be significantly lower than the already low number that they get. This would cause zero growth for chapter. Basically, the number of people they bring in would be less than the number of battle-brothers they lose in battle.

 

Like I said, it's a very small detail that I'm not going to worry over too much. First off, he's not a player character. He's the persona that I, the GM, can player through and interact with the player characters, so this level of detail was probably not needed. Second, only three of the six people that will be playing the game know the 40k universe in any level of detail, and even we don't know that much about the Blood Angels.

[Cmdr Shepard]

@Cmdr Shepard

This is the thinking and logic that I'm going with for the Blood Angel character. Besides, almost no chapter recruits from just one world. If they did, the recruit pool would be significantly lower than the already low number that they get. This would cause zero growth for chapter. Basically, the number of people they bring in would be less than the number of battle-brothers they lose in battle.

 

Like I said, it's a very small detail that I'm not going to worry over too much. First off, he's not a player character. He's the persona that I, the GM, can player through and interact with the player characters, so this level of detail was probably not needed. Second, only three of the six people that will be playing the game know the 40k universe in any level of detail, and even we don't know that much about the Blood Angels.

 

Understood

If you have enough time it would be interesting to create the stats for the Watch Captain, in the future... just for the sake of curiosity ;)

[Jareddm]

Thanks guys for the support and suggestions. A quick update. The backstory for the first player character is up on my blog. The character sheet will be post as soon as the player gets a chance to roll for his armor history. As for campaign, I haven't settled on doing "Extraction" from the core rule book or "Final Saction" and "Oblivion's Edge" off of Fantasy Flight's support page. I've come up with a few ideas to extend "Extraction" and maybe even tie it into "Final Saction". I'd like to here your thoughts.

 

I highly recommend doing Final Sanction and Oblivion's Edge over Extraction.  They offer far more interesting scenarios for the players.  Besides, there are some lovely maps that have been made of Lordsholm.

 

Unmarked map:  http://i337.photobucket.com/albums/n400/Dave_Robotham/LORDSHOLM/lordsholm-districts-big2.jpg

 

Marked map (players don't look!): http://i337.photobucket.com/albums/n400/Dave_Robotham/LORDSHOLM/lordsholm-districts-big-1.jpg

[PensacolaWarhammer]

@Jareddm

Thanks for the suggestion. I have checked out these maps and agree they are nice. I've just been flip flopping between the different missions.

 

@Cmdr Shepard

I probably will make up a character sheet for the captain since I'm making a character sheet for any NPC that I think will become a recurring character.

[Cmdr Shepard]

 

Thanks guys for the support and suggestions. A quick update. The backstory for the first player character is up on my blog. The character sheet will be post as soon as the player gets a chance to roll for his armor history. As for campaign, I haven't settled on doing "Extraction" from the core rule book or "Final Saction" and "Oblivion's Edge" off of Fantasy Flight's support page. I've come up with a few ideas to extend "Extraction" and maybe even tie it into "Final Saction". I'd like to here your thoughts.

 

I highly recommend doing Final Sanction and Oblivion's Edge over Extraction.  They offer far more interesting scenarios for the players.  Besides, there are some lovely maps that have been made of Lordsholm.

 

Unmarked map:  http://i337.photobucket.com/albums/n400/Dave_Robotham/LORDSHOLM/lordsholm-districts-big2.jpg

 

Marked map (players don't look!): http://i337.photobucket.com/albums/n400/Dave_Robotham/LORDSHOLM/lordsholm-districts-big-1.jpg

 

Very interesting maps!

Do you have any other map we could use for our campaigns?

 

 

@Jareddm

Thanks for the suggestion. I have checked out these maps and agree they are nice. I've just been flip flopping between the different missions.

 

@Cmdr Shepard

I probably will make up a character sheet for the captain since I'm making a character sheet for any NPC that I think will become a recurring character.

 

It would be very interesting to see his character sheet....

[PensacolaWarhammer]

@Cmdr Shepard

You probably know, but those maps are created using Photoshop. The land area is grabbed from Google Earth. What that land area is; I don't know. It's then over laid with more images from Google Earth. The space port is any airport of your choosing. The PDF base is a image of the Pentagon and the surrounding area from Washington DC. The rest of the city is probably an assortment of city images, again from Google Earth. On top of that, the effects are layered on: the circles and names for the points of interests, the district boundaries, etc. I don't have Photoshop, but I would imagine that it's not very difficult.

 

As for the Watch Captains character sheet, I'll probably begin working on it today. Check the blog post with his back story sometime today or tomorrow to see it.

Edited June 3, 2013 by PensacolaWarhammer

[Cmdr Shepard]

@Cmdr Shepard

You probably know, but those maps are created using Photoshop. The land area is grabbed from Google Earth. What that land area is; I don't know. It's then over laid with more images from Google Earth. The space port is any airport of your choosing. The PDF base is a image of the Pentagon and the surrounding area from Washington DC. The rest of the city is probably an assortment of city images, again from Google Earth. On top of that, the effects are layered on: the circles and names for the points of interests, the district boundaries, etc. I don't have Photoshop, but I would imagine that it's not very difficult.

 

As for the Watch Captains character sheet, I'll probably begin working on it today. Check the blog post with his back story sometime today or tomorrow to see it.

 

Well... I was actually talking about maps expressely created for 40K RPG. Like a map inspired by a scenario from the RPG books or inspired by other 40K works or even created with the purose of "capture" the style of 40K. In other words I didn't make my previous post clear enough ;)...

 

I'll check your blog for sure. I'm very interested in your DW posts... I'm currently working on a Black Crusade campaign but it is in the very,very early stage...