Deathwatch

[reckoning]

Let me start off by saying I've never played a RPG that didn't require a controller of some kind. Not from lack of interest, just inexperience. It probably doesn't help that I'm also a bit of an introvert who keeps a very small group of friends. Friends who've never even heard of this little hobby of ours.

 

Having said that, I'm incredibly excited to have just purchased nine of the DW expansions during FFG's holiday sale. The DW is one of my favorite groups in 40k so any chance I get to read up on them I take it. But I also want to give the game itself the old college. If it doesn't work out at least I've got some good DW material. So a few questions:

 

1) As a pen and paper RPG noob, how difficult is this game to pick up? I have ZERO experience in this field.

 

2) I've read a few reviews and recaps of the game so far - It seems long. What sort of commitment are we talking here? I have a few family members who might be interested but I only see them once a month. MAYBE.

 

3) My pool of prospective battle-brothers is extremely small. I've read, here and elsewhere, about long distance gaming. How viable is that? It seems like you would miss out on a lot of the camaraderie this way. Which might be a moot point as I would probably play a Blackshield.

 

4) Probably should have asked this to begin with but is the game even worth all this trouble?

 

I appreciate any help my fellow Frater can provide.

[Black Cohort]

All the FFG rpgs are good in their own way as they each focus on something different. The background in deathwatch is awesome.

 

Deathwatch probably isn't as easy to pick up as dark heresy but the basics are the same and very simple. Unless the rules say otherwise you are rolling two ten sided dice to generate a percentage, if that percentage roll is under the appropriate stat after modifiers are applied you succed, otherwise you fail. Really as long as you read the rules sections of the core rulebook and have it available during play you should be fine.

 

For any rpg you are looking for at least 2 other people preferably 4 or 5. A standard session is 3-4 hours, but you can go shorter or longer if desired. Pen and paper rpgs are usually designed for campaigns, multiple sessions with the same group of people and characters where you have a series of linked adventures and track experience allowing your characters to develop new skills and abilities. But it can also be run as single adventurers where there is no plan to do multiple sessions. Campaigns can run any length or frequency you can think of, most groups I have done stuff with meet weekly, every other week or monthly.

 

As for online play there are 4 options, Skype or something similar, rolld20 or something similar, a forum game or a combination of Skype and rolld20. Skype and rolld20 tend to work similar to normal sessions, just people aren't in the same room. Forum games are much slower as they are done through posts in a thread on a forum and tend to be more roleplay focused rather than dice rolling.

 

As you can see I have some experience with rpgs and will try to answer any other questions you have. Feel free to pm me as well. If there is enough interest I could probably also be convinced to run a couple Skype sessions or a play by post in the new year.

[Jareddm]

I have a lot of experience with all five 40k RPGs and can back up a good chunk of what Black Cohort has said.

 

For someone with no TT RPG experience at all, I would say that Deathwatch is the most mechanically difficult of the five, if only because there are a whole host of sub-systems for all of a marine's organs, his armor, solo mode, and squad mode. In addition, Deathwatch was caught in a time when the RPGs were making the transition from Black Industry's original structured design to a more open and streamlined system and thus tends to require a good bit of finagling to keep the game's power levels from getting out of control. Although assuming your players are new as well, this probably won't be a huge issue.

 

I'd be happy to walk you through the whole system over Skype if you're interested.