[DW] Blackthorn and Swordhand: OOC Thread

[Mojake]

Completed my entry in the GM kit.

 

Also, assuming Swordhand don't mind, I upgraded my Bolter to a Combi-Flamer as mentioned, using an extra 15 REQ from the pool.

 

Will update my Placeholder in the chat later today - Mol, I sent you an email about the Librarius Vault visit in case you didn't catch it.

[Commissar Molotov]

A quick search in the IC thread directed me to this post:

 

 

The Astartes are not, as a rule, prone to sentimentality, and none of you arrived on Azurea with much other than a few keepsakes and your years of combat experience. As such, when the Watch-Captain orders you to transfer to the Voice of Thunder, it does not take long for the nine of you to gather in on of the Station's cargo bays.

 

Azurea's Forge-Master, Fasumé, stands in the middle of the bay surrounded by monotask servitors mindlessly hauling crates onto the waiting ship. This is no Astartes craft - no Thunderhawk or Storm Raven. This is a flat-nosed, slab-sided cargo conveyor of the sort used by the Imperial Navy, capable of carrying hundreds of Armsmen.

 

Fasumé is large for an Astartes, and his size is only enhanced further by the bulk of the servo-harness upon his back. The servo-arms move as though they were an extension of his own body - and many of you realise that this is close to the truth. His Chapter, the Marines Ascendant, are rumoured to come from the gene-legacy of Vulkan, and in this craftsman and commander you can see his echo.

 

As you gather, he nods to Greysight and makes the symbol of the cog to Sabaan. His interactions with the rest of you during your tenure have been curt, and this is no exception.

 

"I have received your requisition requests. Any equipment you are not already carrying and any items released unto you have been stowed already, and you will have access to them aboard the Navy vessel." One servo-arm indicates the Conveyor. "Respect the war-spirits of your wargear, and they will see you home again."

 

He hands Sabaan a data-slate.

Emphasis mine.

 

One thing to look out for is that Mol seems to have changed his Chapter's name to Lions Regent as per the character thread, but apart from that, this should be up to date.

Good catch - didn't realise this about the Chapter name.

 

Additionally, Maladon has visited the forge in Episode III:

 

Whilst the Watch-Station is new to you, the standardisation afforded by STC designs allows you to orient yourself and to head deep into its depths. Your armour’s auguries register the steadily increasing temperature as you close, finally reaching a set of double doors surmounted with the bionically-enhanced skull-and-cog of the Machina Opus.

 

As you approach, the doors open inward, unbidden. Your newly-blackened warplate is bathed with the ruddy, volcanic light of a roaring forge. Discordant clangs and bangs resound, overlapping one another as the impact of hammers and forging tools can be heard again and again. The noise is loud enough that it forces your helm’s auto-senses to compensate. The air is thick with smoke and steam that billows up towards the ceiling. Around you, you see bonded serfs of the Deathwatch hammering, shaping, forging.

 

From your experience with your Chapter, and your arduous studies on Mars, you know that this is a scene replicated across the galaxy. Without the beating, churning heart of the Forge, the Astartes would find themselves unable to wage war.

 

The Forge is smaller than those of your Chapter; the oppressive heat and blinding steam make it almost claustrophobic. The space is made even smaller by the bulk of Azurea’s Forgemaster, Fasumé. His power armour is artificed and enhanced, reinforced with layers of crenellated ceramite. The multiple arms of his servo-harness jut over his shoulders, giving him the appearance of an arachnid; a sinister visage enhanced only by the ruddy light of the forge.

 

As you approach, the Forgemaster motions to a servitor. The lobotomised creature shuffles forward; you see its arms have been replaced by heavy bionics - and in those metallic limbs, you recognise Fusion, the combi-bolter you brought with you to the Deathwatch. The weapon, sized for Astartes hands, is almost the same size as the servitor's torso.

 

“Greetings, Brother,” the Forgemaster’s voice rumbles like the grinding furnaces. He makes the sign of the Cog with his hands. “Azurea recognises you, in the sight of the Omnissiah, and the bounty you have brought to us. Your journey was acceptable?”

 

[Mojake]

Also, a question for the group; I saw on previous episodes during fights that you guys would make your attack rolls, then state as part of the post that you'd killed your target on occasion. How did you know? Is it due to familiarity with the bestiary, or did you ask Mol OoC if you'd done enough damage to kill?

 

p.s. I don't know why I haven't mentioned this sooner, but there's a Blackthorn Lane just around the corner from my house :D

[Commissar Molotov]

Pics or it didn't happen!

 

Regarding the relics in the librarium, you could certainly come up with some interesting artefacts from Azurea's history - I'm open to you creating some mysterious that may or may not pay of sometime in the future!

 

In terms of your question - it's normally straightforward to work out toughness bonus and armour and then deduct it from your damage - and oftentimes I will show the number of wounds a target has remaining. Especially if a character has expended their reactions and you know they can't dodge or otherwise avoid the damage. There may also be a certain amount of editing after the fact.

 

One thing to consider is that when we get into battles (particularly with eleven marines, and the fact I might be writing two battle-scenes concurrently) my posts can get very dense with crunch, and so offloading some of the narrative onto the players (even a Matt Mercer-style "how do you want to do this?") can make my job easier.

[Mazer Rackham]

p.s. I don't know why I haven't mentioned this sooner, but there's a Blackthorn Lane just around the corner from my house

 

Yeah dude, that's our hangout.

 

The killing thing is based on rules knowledge and experience with our GM mostly.  If a single bad guy has burned their Dodge and I smash him up with 6 shots from Cadence, that thing is meat.    Alternatively, you can go on raw numbers.  Let's say I do land the six hits - well the guy still has his Dodge, but his Agility is 20, so he might doge 2 of them, but his Toughness Bonus is 6 and armour 6...and he doesn't have any special stuff, he has about 15 Wounds.  That dude is getting smoked by damage alone.

 

Similarly, (most) Hordes can't Dodge at all, so you can go ahead and write up how gnarly it's getting.

 

Sometime if you RP it well, the GM will just go "Heh, chunk this fewl!"

 

Other times we do a re-write! 

 

EDIT: Or what CM said.

 

MR.

Edited March 9, 2021 by Mazer Rackham

[Mojake]

Thanks for the clarity guys, and I would post a pic if I knew how to! Been meaning to take a picture of it for a while to send to my fellow Stormlight Archive fans!

[Commissar Molotov]

Swordhand looks like every brother has had first dibs and there's still 78 REQ available. I do think you should consider giving Boros Special Issue Ammunition - 30REQ for Metal Storm or Kraken; 40REQ for Hellfire.

 

Additionally, I think perhaps Yeng should acquire some SIA - 15 or 25 for those above.

 

In terms of Blackthorn, if you set aside Arcost's 45, there's 29 REQ remaining.

[ashlander47]

Blackthorn Boyz... I reckon we grab one of the Advanced Requisitions from RoB and maybe a Siege Auspex (13 Req ) with our leftovers. My vote is for the Orbital Surveillance (15 Req) for reasons previously discussed, leaving us with a cool single point of Requisition left over.

 

(Assuming Pallan uses all 45 of his own Req, that is)

Edited March 9, 2021 by ashlander47

[Commissar Molotov]

A.T. - you don't seem to've paid REQ for the Hesh-Pattern bolter (which we should rename) - had I agreed for a straight swap with the bolt pistol? Otherwise that's 15 REQ. Perhaps if you give up your bolt pistol permanently you could have the Hesh for a reduced cost?

[A.T.]

Siege auspex for indoors and surveillance for outdoors looks like a solid plan.

 

A.T. - you don't seem to've paid REQ for the Hesh-Pattern bolter (which we should rename) - had I agreed for a straight swap with the bolt pistol? Otherwise that's 15 REQ. Perhaps if you give up your bolt pistol permanently you could have the Hesh for a reduced cost?

 

IIRC it is weight 15, requisition n/a. You need to trade out a standard issue bolter and have suitable access to it (Atratus gets his from the tyrannic war advancement).
 
I will also be dropping his bolt pistol, let me know if you want any extra requisition on top of that.

[Commissar Molotov]

That's fine, I'd forgotten about the Tyrannic War upgrade. Swapping the bolter and removing the bolt pistol is fine with me.

 

As I mentioned, we should re-name the bolter at some stage, but that's fine by me.

[Deadass]

Swordhand looks like every brother has had first dibs and there's still 78 REQ available. I do think you should consider giving Boros Special Issue Ammunition - 30REQ for Metal Storm or Kraken; 40REQ for Hellfire.

 

Additionally, I think perhaps Yeng should acquire some SIA - 15 or 25 for those above.

 

In terms of Blackthorn, if you set aside Arcost's 45, there's 29 REQ remaining.

Sounds good to me - until a fellow Swordhander vetoes me, my final loadout will look like this:

 

Castor Boros - Standard Wargear

• Heavy Bolter (Astartes Backpack Ammo Supply)
• Bolt Pistol
• Chainsword (Exceptional Craftsmanship, Dipole Mag-Lock)
• Combat Knife
• Frag Grenades x3
• Krak Grenades x3

Requisitioned Wargear

• Deathwatch Suspensor (Attached to Heavy Bolter) - 25 Req
• 250 Kraken Rounds (Replaces Standard Ammo Supply) - 30 Req
• Lamp (Could be attached to the helmet?) - 1 Req

Assuming apologist picks up two clips of Metal Storm Rounds as mentioned yesterday, we'd still have 17 Req left. Although Petragor was right when he mentioned that the Xenocide doesn't have a teleportarium listed, I wanna ask you directly, CM - would a teleport homer be of any use to us?

 

 

[Noctus Cornix]

I.... probably got a little too carried away with my most recent post... 

[Steel Company]

I.... probably got a little too carried away with my most recent post...

Never so.

[Lysimachus]

Assuming apologist picks up two clips of Metal Storm Rounds as mentioned yesterday, we'd still have 17 Req left. Although Petragor was right when he mentioned that the Xenocide doesn't have a teleportarium listed, I wanna ask you directly, CM - would a teleport homer be of any use to us?

 

Just a thought but should we give one of those 2 Metal Storm clips to Thire? He's spent the least of anyone (20 on the meltagun) but doesn't have any SIA in his bolter?

 

Edit: possibly never mind on that, I was forgetting he'd get a freebie clip for being a TacM! Which type did he take? What about Kol and Argus too?

 

Edit edit: I must be missing the teleport homer, where is that available and what does it do?

[Commissar Molotov]

Xenocide doesn't have a teleportarium (and this in fact was a plot point in Episode II) - so a teleport homer isn't likely to be directly useful.

[Commissar Molotov]

Beautiful post Noctus - wasn't expecting that! Looking forward to seeing the next steps of the journey of Montesa and Akkad...

[Necronaut]

Necronaut - I've seen you flip-flopping a bit on the requisition sheet. You can have either of the weapons you've suggested (or, in truth, more than one) - all of them fit with a Chaplain of the Deathwatch. I liked the idea of Deliverance, your plasma pistol - but I'll leave it up to you.

Yep sorry I suffer mightily from paralysis by analysis. I'll stick with the plasma pistol unless we need more requisition.

 

I have one other boon to ask of you -- if I can replace Pilot +20 with an additional hatred, as hate is the bread and butter of a chaplain and I want to be able to fulfill the buffer role to the best of my abilities.

 

Cheers

Edited March 10, 2021 by Necronaut

[Lysimachus]

If Yeng and Thire do take Metal Storm clips, and we can't think of anything we need for the final 17, I might go back and take a clip of Stalker Rounds for 5 (I hadn't actually twigged that they wouldn't be the 'standard' ammo type for a Stalker, and would still need paying for... :D)

 

That's only if we can't think of anything else we need more, though.

[Reyner]

If we have a bit more Req in the pool can Vorr take one of the better Chainswords I have seen mentioned? I didn't see it in the living errata or the requisition section of the main rulebook. Think it's the exceptional craftmanship upgrade?

[Xin Ceithan]

Thanks for the update, Apologist. And thanks everyone for their patience.

 

On the  bright side, let the record show that I value all your work enough that I take the time and make  the effort to actually READ all your posts and not simply skim over it as I am forced to do with most visual stuff these days... so you can claim  bragging rights to be among the vaunted few, just next to Abbett, ADB and Wraight.  :) 

[Commissar Molotov]

I was mentioning in an email today to Sobek that some of our squadmates can definitely rival the Black Library's best!

 

Also, Xin - I did email you regarding a proposition - let me know if you've seen it!

 

EDIT: Reyner - that's that odd text box on p.149 of the Core Rulebook. Exceptional quality is 1.5x the REQ cost - so a Chainsword goes from 5 to 8.

Edited March 9, 2021 by Commissar Molotov

[Dosjetka]

Beautiful post Noctus - wasn't expecting that! Looking forward to seeing the next steps of the journey of Montesa and Akkad...

I'd like to echo Mol on this: fantastic work on that last post of yours, Noctus. A deeply evocative moment, for sure, and your depicted it superbly.

[Reyner]

Damn Noctus that was great. 

[Commissar Molotov]

I've added Vorr's Exceptional Chainsword and then a clip of 15 REQ SIA (to be determined) to both Yeng and Thire. You have 14 left.