Heresy character creation

[Sons of Ananta]

Hi,

 

I tend to enjoy the narrative and story arcs of armies and characters and have just finished a year long 40k campaign with my group.

 

In this we used a lot of pure narrative elements, such as custom designed mission that were thematic but not necessarily 'balanced', as well as a lot of 'counts as' units and armies... so for example in my marine force I had a special unit looking to regain their lost honour who used the Legion of the Damned rules. Another player had a demon prince ascend during the campaign and found an appropriate ruleset.

 

This year we are doing what amounts to a prequel campaign set in the 30k timeline, and I've been looking hard at producing custom characters to go alongside our stories, our armies and so on. Some of these characters have been involved in our 40k campaign and frankly seem a little under-fun in 30k. After all, the Heresy is supposed to be all about narrative, and what's more narrative than creating your own characters?

 

An example would be Argus, an Alpha Legion vigilator, who has been a real character who grew into the narrative through his game contributions. But in 30k a Vigilator is neither a compulsory hq nor MotL. I'd also like to give him a *bit* of a power boost to allow him to survive better or contribute more to the lethal battlefields of the Heresy.

 

I'm playing a Shattered Legion Salamanders army, and I'm using characters who played in our Victory is Vengeance campaign last September, so they've already had some shaping of their story done by that campaign. I've attached the rules I've come up with for them. Hopefully they illustrate my thoughts and approach and would welcome comments in general how to approach this tricky scenario.

 

First is my leader, Deu K'Lian, who is close to Praetor level but not quite, who I've modded a little to try to make more flavoursome. Points wise he reflects a praetor equipped with terminator armour, a storm shield and thunderhammer.

 

The next one is Horkos, a Delegatus who specialises in ZM and small unit actions. He has more extensive changes and rules. I've based him off a Delegatus with artificer, a boarding shield plus, a power fist and a photon gauntlet.

 

I'd like to do a Herald, but haven't had any real chance to play larger games yet.

 

My guidelines I've used so far have been

1. Write their story and character first.

2. Try to reflect their position within the army by their profile. So although the 2 characters are effectively Prator and Centurion, neither of them started that way and have assumed their position by battlefield promotions rather than in Legion hierarchy. If Shadrak Meduson isn't a praetor, neither should my guy be.

3. For equipment I've tried to give but also take a little, to avoid power creep. I've probably taken this "give a little/take a little" philosophy a little literally here.

4. Warlord traits are meant to reflect their character, but I haven't play tested the AoD or Shadow Wars missions yet, so they may be hard to balance.

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/gallery/image/203383-deu-klian/

 

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/gallery/image/203382-horkos-oathsworn/

[Teetengee]

Those are a little hard to read, can you just put the rules portion into plaintext here in this thread?