Archeotech – Setting, Rules and Characters

[Trokair]

This thread is for information for the game, including the setting, rules and the player characters, please do not post in this thread for now.

Questions should be posted in this thread: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/368668-archeotech-a-narrative-game-concept-and-recruitment/

 

 

Setting
 

Norombearg

 

First settled at some point in the Age add Darkness and rediscovered and resettled buy Imperial forces in late M32. Aside from some ruins of clearly human origin no trace of the original inhabitants was found.

 

A civilized world that is showing the very early stages of developing into a Hive World. Einerzen, the planetary capital, and several other cities have been forming up into proto hives over the last millennia.  

 

Outside these proto hives the landscape is a mixture of semi industrialized, large scale farming collectives and extensive sways of wilderness. A little over half the planet’s surface is covered by water, in several large oceans, extensive inland sees and everything in-between.

 

Ranging from tropical climates at the equator to arctic condition at the poles Norombearg is very suited for comfortable standard human conditions. Extensive designated ‘Natural Parks’ keep some of the best wilderness in a low developed state, for the enjoyment of the populous and off world visitors, and especially the nobility and other wealthy individuals, many of who have summer estates in these areas.

 

A significant source of wealth for Norombearg is its extensive orbital docks as it has become a trading hub along many important routes across the subsector and beyond. Here you can find almost everything and anything.

 

 

Orealis

 

A smaller continent/very large island (depending on definition) mostly in the Temperate zone in the northern hemisphere. Along the southern edge lie several cities, including Keringrat, region capital and only proto hive on Orealis. The coastal regions are well settled and utilized, but further inland, from 50 to 150km from the coast population centers are sparser and a bit after that wilderness begins.

 

 

 

Arch Magos Ilmarnin of the Ordo Reductor and the grand expedition of 448.M41*

 

Late in the year 447.M41 an unusual and deadly ship arrived in orbit over Norombearg, the Ordo Reductor had come to this peaceful subsector. Initial panic at the arrival of a warship that was not a member of the sectors Imperial Navy where soon put to rest as Arch Magos Ilmarnin announced he was just here to resupply.

 

In truth he was here for more than that, but as this was an Imperial World he could not just descend to the surface and seek the promised treasure.  Petitioning the Imperial Govenor in the coming weeks for access to the planet, and to search for Archeotech amongs the ruins of the first human settlements, the Govennor was all too eager to agree once he had grasp what prize might lie on his world, and what power it could bring him and his family if he could seize it.

 

Granting the Arch Magos all the relevant permission the Govenor even went further and put half the PDF at the Magos’s disposal to assist with logistics and manpower. However such preparations cannot be made without escaping the attention of the other Nobel Houses, the local Ecclesiarchy and quite frankly anybody and everybody at large.  

 

As the year ticked over into 448.M41 everybody wanted to be part of the expedition and share in the treasure it was to find. The political maneuvering, scandals, alliances and backstabbing and all sorts of political theater threatened to stall the project.

 

Having lost control over the event, and in an attempt to still have some involvement , the Governor was forced to announce that the expedition would be a joint venture not just between his Imperial Government and the Arch Magos of the Ordo Reductor but with anybody who could register with the newly formed Expedition Company.  

 

While the political game continued as every agency and power block tried to gain the upper hand and exclude their rivals there was now a way forward, and by spring the main expedition was gathering on the ground in Keringrat, on the continent Orealis. While pre imperial human ruins had been found all over the planet there were a higher concentration in the hinterland of Orealis and Arch Magos Ilmarnin believed that this is where the first humans made planet fall back in the Age of Darkness.

 

The game will begin in Keringrat, at the mustering ground for the expedition. The main expedition is thousands strong, and will focus on the most promising site.

 

The game itself will follow a smaller expedition, one of many, sent to investigate smaller ruin and other lesser potential sites.  

 

 

*For reference this is just after the first War for Armagedon (not that any of the character should know of this, given all the secrecy about it, and it being half a galaxy away) and before either the Tau or Tyrnaids had been encountered by the Imperium at large.

Edited May 8, 2021 by Trokair

[Trokair]

Rules

 

The game will be running of a modified 40k rules set. As such mechanically this game will not go as deep or specific as a dedicated RPG rules set. This is both because I want the focus to be on the narrative and because this is my first time running a game and I want to keep it simple (and 40k rules, 3rd edition to current is what I know best/the longest). I am using 9th Edition as the starting point but will coble on or modify as needed.

 

Player characters will act as individual units of one, essentially everybody is a character.

The stats line will be as in 40k, but Initiative (I) will be added back in.

 

Characteristics Tests

If I call on you to make a characteristics test, for example Strength, then roll a d6 and you pass if you roll equal to or under your S value on your profile, a 1 is an auto pass and a 6 is an auto fail.

Leadership is rolled on 2 d6 (so like 3^rd to 7^th edition 40k) as current moral rules don’t make sense for models of one, 2 is auto pass, 12 is auto fail)  

 

There may be modifiers that I will tell you as relevant, for example if you just listened to an inspirational speech you may get +2 Ld for a time.

 

 

Example Character                                                                                               

Harold Smith – Retired PDF trooper

M            WS         BS           S              T              W            I               A             Ld           Save

6”            5+           4+           3              3              1              3              1              7              5+

Equipment:

Autopistol (R:12”, T:Pistol 1, S:3, AP:0 ,D:1)

Knife (melee, S:user,AP0,D1)

Flack Armour (5+ Sv)

 

This is a basic guardsman profile with two changes, an extra LD to show the experience of having severed for a long time in the PDF and WS is reduced by 1 point as he is a bit out of practice and mostly served as a vehicle crewmember.

 

 

Character Creation

 

You can play almost any sort of character you want as long as you can justify it to me (and your fello players) as fitting into the setting.

 

The expedition will draw members from all over the place. Locals hired as guides or workers. PDF or Guard troopers second to the expedition by their superiors for whatever reason. Preacher of the Ecclesiarchy. Lesser scion of a Nobel house trying for glory. Treasure hunter. Scoundrel. The possibilities are yours.

 

Post a rough description of the kind of character you want to play, with some initial history and ideas in the general thread http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/368668-archeotech-a-narrative-game-concept-and-recruitment/

 

Once a character is finalized enough they can be posted in this thread for reference and ease of use.

 

For rules purpose pick a profile from an existing 40k model, or variants such as Kill Team or Necromunda that fits your character and give them equipment as fits. I am not going to set hard points limits but 20 or so points should be sufficient. If you want to play a character, for example a Minstorum Prist, Enginseer, or Ogryn that is technical more than that that is fine, as we can and will adjust profiles and rules to suit before the game starts.

 

I would like a cast of ‘normal’ characters, not generals of armies, super human space marines and so on. As such I expect that most players profile will resemble a basic guardsman with some small changes (example Harold Smith above), at least at creation.  

 

In the end it is very much a case of what you can create as a concept and then persuade me will fit the setting. As a starting point I suggest the Imperial guard or Geensteeler cult Codex for profiles and such. Also as this is a ruls ligth game a lot of it will come from how you play your characters, not the stats and so on. 

 

 

 

Ruls summary from OCC thread for refference

 

Favour of the Lady

While all our player characters are mere mortals, as player character you will have some bonuses over NPC. To start with all player characters will have two additional wounds, so that you don’t die in the first combat that happens. Please mark this on your profile when you have a moment. 

 

In addition, on being reduced to zero wounds your character is not dead, merely knocked down, knocked out, injured, or otherwise not able to participate in the current combat time, after the current combat has finished some dice roles will determine what happens.

 

Death

I do not intend any of you to die, as that means that you can’t play the game, but as dice and random chance are involved it may happen, especially in the later part of the game. If your character dies the game is over for you, though of course you are free to continue to watch and take part in the out of character thread. If you are unlucky enough to die early then I may, depending on circumstance, give you a chance to start a new character, or take over a NPC.

 

That said, this is not a war zone, and I neither intend nor expect anybody to die in the earlier parts of the game.

 

Edited May 23, 2021 by Trokair

[Beren]

Kara Llamare - Void Clan Archaeo-Prospector

M   WS   BS    S    T    W   I    A    Ld    Sv

6"    5+    4+   3    3    3    3   1     6     5+

 

Equipment:

Autopistol (R:12”, T:Pistol 1, S:3, AP:0 ,D:1)

Knife (melee, S:user,AP0,D1)

Auspex

Photo-visor

Industrial Respirator

 

 

 

The void-clans of the Mythrat Cluster are lesser embers of the Omnissiah's illuminating gaze, but they serve a purpose to the Quest for Knowledge as long as their expertise pays dividends in retrieved tech-relics and local assistance. -Magos Explorator Khor-67

 

Kara Llamare is a member of the S'hel Void Clan of the Mythrat Cluster, who for centuries have salvaged archaeotech from the cluster's lost civilisations and traded them to representatives of the Adeptus Mechanicus for supplies, preferential treatment and relative independence. Their knowledge of the local grav-shoals, hazardous anomalies and hostile ruins have allowed them to prosper where multiple outsider expeditions have floundered and come to ruin. Recently there have been rumours that the old tech-hoardes are running dry, causing clanners to undertake evermore hazardous salvages to obtain their relics. As tensions over the Clans' future rise in the cluster, some have taken to looking farther afield for fresh sources of relics.

 

Kara is a part of one of those efforts. Though young and relatively inexperienced compared to the veteran S'hel prospectors, she has already honed her skills on a handful of expeditions in her native cluster, and possesses a quiet confidence in her abilities. Still, she approaches her line of employment with the practices caution common to the clans, reinforced by the loss of her brother on one of their recent high-risk expeditions back home. She might loosen up a bit aboard one of her people's ships, but rarely out in the field. Always bring the basic gear. Never touch a button if you don't know what it does. Never open a door you can't close it again. Never assume something can't kill you just because it's dead. Never assume it's dead in the first place.

Edited May 21, 2021 by Beren

[Petragor]

Mila Pereen - Valhallan Flamer Specialist

M   WS    BS     S    T   W  I   A   Ld   Sv

6"   4+    4+    3    3    3   3   1    6    5+

 

Equipment:

Flamer (R:8”, T:Assault 1d6, S:4, AP:0 ,D:1, autohit)

Laspistol (R:12”, T:Pistol 1, S:3, AP:0 ,D:1)

Ice Pick (melee, S:user,AP0,D1)
Fire Bombs: (R:6”, T:Grenade 1d6, S:3, AP:0 ,D:1, blast)
Flame-resistant armour

Cooking Utensils

Extra Rations

Mila Pereen is a veteran of the 327th Valhallan Ice Warriors, though in truth she hasn’t seen as much combat as that title would suggest. During her first deployment, her landing craft crashed, and left her with a nasty leg injury. While she recovered for the next few months, she was assigned to mess duty, cooking food for the other soldiers. She didn’t really mind this arrangement, but No good thing lasts forever and she was soon deemed ready for field missions.

She was chosen to operate a flamer, using it to clear ice and burn the spores of the orks the regiment was fighting. In her new cleanup duty she and her squad saw only light resistance, but Mila did grow quite fond of torching hostile structures and personnel.

In the Present day, she has been assigned as security/kitchen-help for the expedition. Her cooking skills have made her reasonably popular, her specialties being soup and grilled food. She also tends to Spice her dishes up with Amasec, at least when she hasn’t used it all up making and throwing improvised firebombs.

Edited May 21, 2021 by Petragor

[Steel Company]

Support Drone Designation: Alpha Class Utility Drone UD-9825

 

M            WS         BS           S              T              W            I               A             Ld           Save     

5"            5+           5+           4              4              3             2              1              6              4+          

Equipment:

Hydraulic Claw (Melee, S:x2, Ap:-1, D:D3,When attacking with this weapon, you must subtract -1 from the hit roll.)

 

 

 

Background to be filled in later.

Edited May 21, 2021 by Steel Company

[Trokair]

Orthal

Orthal, Observer for Arch Magos Ilmarnin of the Ordo Reductor


Orthal is one of several Thallax specially modified by the Arch Magos to act as his eyes and ears on the ground within the expedition. Before that he was the alpha of one of the many Thallax Cohorts that make up the Arch Magos’s troops, having served for several decades.

Unlike the majority of Thallax Orthal was neither a skitarii nor a servitor, instead Orthal’s internment in a Lorica Thallax construct was as an emergency measure in the field after he was fatally injured due to the mistake by one of his colleagues. Thus ended a promising tech-priest path to becoming a Magos.


Orthal

M WS BS S T W I A LD Save
8 4+ 3+ 5 5 5 2 2 8 4+

Equipment:
Lorica Thallax: Provides 4+ Armour and FNP 6+

Djinn-sight: Enemy units do not receive the benefit of cover against attacks made by this unit.

Lightning Gun: Assault 2, Range: 18", S:5, AP-1, D:1, Each time an attack is made with this weapon, an unmodified hit roll of 6 scores 2 additional hits.

Heavy Chainblade: Melee S:+1, Ap-1, D:1

Bulky: Bulky models count as two models for the purposes of Transport Capacity.

Djinn-sight and bulky will also come in narratively in that Orthal may detect things that the rest of you cannot, and when in cramped spaces the bulky aspect will also come into play (it is the reason why he cannot enter the cabin of either vehicle, just to big/bulky).

Edited May 26, 2021 by Trokair

[Urauloth]

Malgur Zelisug

M            WS         BS           S              T              W            I               A             Ld           Save

6”            4+          5+          3              3              3             3               1             5              6+

 

Equipment:

Autopistol (R:12”, T:Pistol 1, S:3, AP:0 ,D:1)

Brutal Assault Weapon* (Melee, S:+1, AP:0 D:1 Each time the bearer fights, make an additional attack with this weapon) * this has been modified with +1S

Scavenged armour

Line and grapnel

Primitive trap-making gear

 

Born to a barbarian society on the near-feral world of Sufferance, Malgur is an accomplished hunter and trapper who left his clan for a life in the void. Technically a bounty hunter and gun for hire, his career has taken him to lawless areas of wilderness space where his proficiencies in close quarter violence and pragmatic salvage were put to uses he would never speak of on law-abiding worlds.

 

Physically he is tall man with a wiry but muscular form, a multitude of scars on his pale skin, and lank black hair which he shaves back from one half of his skull to display a knotwork tattoo of a wild beast. He wears a mix of leathers and an eclectic assortment of armour components; pieces of a voidship worker's safety rig compete for space with scaled hide and primitive brigandine made of bronze disks. Several fangs and claws hang around his neck as hunting trophies, and a bullroarer fashioned from bone is wound by its cord at his belt. This is better maintained than the scratched and shoddy holster that holds his simple autopistol, as are the boning and flensing knives sheathed next to it. His weapon of choice is the murrizern, a brutal scythe-bladed pick with a haft long enough to accommodate a two-handed swing.

 

Malgur has a keen eye for useful items which served him well on Sufferance, as little but scrap remains of the failed colony's technology. He hoards wire, cable, spare munitions, broken parts and scrap metal in a satchel of "potential" from which he likes to rig traps. The higher arts of machinery, however, are wholly unknown to him. His experiences in the valleys and caverns common to his homeworld (and aboard derelict ship in wilderness space) have taught him the value of a simple grappling hook and a sturdy line, and he never travels without them, preferring to fashion his own.

 

Avoiding the large crowds of the main expedition, he has come to Keringrat to sign on with one of the smaller parties, much preferring to gamble on a lesser site. Here he sees a good opportunity for coin - and legally - as a guard and, if required, as a tracker.

Edited June 1, 2021 by Urauloth

[BadgersinHills]

                                                                                            

M            WS           BS           S              T               W            I               A             Ld           Save

5”            4+           4+           3              3              1              3              1              7             5+

 

Equipment: 

Power Sword (melee, +1 ,AP -3 ,D1)

 

Old Bladeswoman: On an unmodified hit roll of a 6 in melee, an additional hit is scored. This hit cannot generate further hits. 

 

Ariel Imperatora Hu, retired officer of the Astra Militarum. Rose to a moderate command, making a reputation as a reasonably famous duellist, and was able to retire with honour and some money after many grievous internal injuries at the age of 35. Twenty years before she came to Norombearg her husband, Jarek Hu, a wealthy merchant and purveyor of goods blurring the lines of legality, passed away. Her children grown and settled on a peaceful hive-world she would think of "as awful as an Ambull's arse", she travelled to Norombearg with her trusted used power blade in search of one last adventure before she meets her husband and the Emperor.