Deathwatch: Murderers in Black (OOC Thread)

[Lysimachus]

Deathwatch: Murderers in Black

 

 

So, basically I was brainstorming for a new story to write, and I came up with a fairly vague idea for a Deathwatch-based murder mystery style novel/novella. I did a bit more work to create an outline, but then I realised… …we haven't got a 'proper' DW game in the PBP at the moment!* So I wondered if maybe it would be more fun to use the idea as a starting point for a oneshot DW RPG adventure?

 

*A Time of Reaving is obviously DW-based in rules, but not setting, and Blackthorn/Swordhand hasn't played since early 2022, if you can believe that - almost 2 years! 

 

 

 

This game would be your typical DW fare, with plenty of xeno-killing, but hopefully with a bit more to the plot as well, with an edge of intrigue and investigation to keep things interesting!

 

I'm not quite sure how it would work in terms of whether the story would develop along the same lines that I had originally imagined, or if it would go off in a completely different direction, but I think it would be interesting to try it out?

 

 

 

Even with Vulgar Display now on hold, there is plenty currently happening with Archaeotech 2 and Time of Reaving (and then Silent Architect still to come) so I might hold it back for a while?

 

But I figured it couldn't hurt to see if anyone thinks the idea is interesting enough for me to start developing a few bits in the background?

 

So, does anyone fancy a bit of DW?

 

 

 

Edited March 1 by Lysimachus

[Mazer Rackham]

Do eeet!

 

31 minutes ago, Lysimachus said:

*A Time of Reaving is obviously DW-based in rules, but not setting, and Blackthorn/Swordhand hasn't played since early 2022, if you can believe that - almost 2 years! 

 

Weird, I was literally thinking about this this afternoon. I blame myself.

 

31 minutes ago, Lysimachus said:

So, does anyone fancy a bit of DW?

 

If you'll put up with this old, curmudgeonly has-been, yes, yes I do.

[Machine God]

Always up for a Game!

 

@Lysimachus - Yes Please!

[Lord_Ikka]

I am as well.

 

Edit- I think a Tactical or Devastator Marine would be fun, though I could be persuaded on a Techmarine too. 

Edited January 15 by Lord_Ikka

[A.T.]

I seem to recall that Atratus was at least somewhat competent in investigation, provided he was not investigating concealed meltabombs...

[Mazer Rackham]

Depending on Rank, there's a Counter-intelligence Blackshield running around somewhere. Funny guy in a robe.

 

Never played an Assault Marine before, possibly could go Reviler, but he's too much like Ravyx. Dark Angel *again* would be a good call, though, since Intelligence bonuses are pretty handy and the Chapter Advances are really good.

 

Never Played a Libby, either. Cheap Int Advances: Wait....

 

So....Consecrators Librarian in Mk VI with a Master-Crafted Force sword, Ritual Duel Fighter (Swift Attack)...

 

Space Wolf: Wolf Scout...with mammoth (no pun intended) Perception, that treats Shadowing, Concealment and Silent Move as PER based skills...

 

 

[Machine God]

Psst - it was the Dark Angel. Shh, its a secret!

 

Or the Sneaky Ravens, collective noun anyone?

[A.T.]

17 minutes ago, Mazer Rackham said:

Never Played a Libby, either. Cheap Int Advances: Wait....

 

I await the day we see the pinacle of all chapters... the novamarines.

 

+50 to common lore tests, backpeddling as a squad ability, no-clip free cam and the ability to turn yourself into a drooling moron at will as psychic powers, and of course the best chapter trapping in the game - the Ultramarine fan-club card.

[Mazer Rackham]

43 minutes ago, Machine God said:

Or the Sneaky Ravens, collective noun anyone?

 

An Unkindness. 

 

Fitting for Revilers...

 

25 minutes ago, A.T. said:

- the Ultramarine fan-club card.

 

Yeah, but the after-dinner speeches are so long and boring....

[Xin Ceithan]

With VDoP on hold and RT some way off, I’d be interested. Even if it’s jut loyalists again 

 

Have considered setting it up in BC ? A cell  of AL or an TS cabal  might take on some really wierd stuff. And isn’t every BC game a murder mystery sooner or later? 
 

3 hours ago, Lord_Ikka said:

I am as well.

 

Edit- I think a Tactical or Devastator Marine would be fun, though I could be persuaded on a Techmarine too. 

 

Knock yourself out! Even with Serpent’s Coil mostly a side line, I think I currently have enough characters in service to the Omnissiah   
 

I’ve no idea on a role here… always wanted to try a psyker but I do not want to steal anyone’s thunder. 
 

Mentor Legion or Exorcists might make interesting detective types…

Space Wolves have already be mentioned… Or maybe I’d the opportunity to play around with the pre-fall Thornwatch?..….

…sound of gears turning …

[Necronaut]

Oh twist my arm. A Black Templar or Salamander Apothecary (possibly even a Charnel Guard Sanguinary Priest??) since no one has volunteered for that yet?

 

Dark Angels and successors have been on my list to try out for a long time as well. 

Edited January 15 by Necronaut

[Lysimachus]

Lovely stuff, if people are up for it then I'll start working out some ideas for Character Creation, keep your eyes peeled!

 

One thing I would say is that the idea is that you are all brand new recruits to the Watch, so this will be at the starting level of DW, starting Archetypes with 1k xp to spend - so I'm afraid Orphiel/Cephas and Atratus are out, sorry guys!

 

@Necronaut I was hoping to get someone to run a Black Templar... maybe as you never got to bring your guy out to play in Space Hulk...? 

 

 

Edited January 15 by Lysimachus

[Necronaut]

@Lysimachus I don't think you want Brother Gerhardt conducting this investigation, but maybe you do? I'd need to run him as either a tactical or assault marine -- he's a little unhinged for the apothecarion, or really anything outside of xenos extermination. 

Edited January 15 by Necronaut

[A.T.]

38 minutes ago, Lysimachus said:

One thing I would say is that the idea is that you are all brand new recruits to the Watch, so this will be at the starting level of DW, starting Archetypes with 1k xp to spend - so I'm afraid Orphiel/Cephas and Atratus are out, sorry guys!

 

Perhaps the novamarine librarian is back on the table then. Sky Sight and a hesh boltgun from his ultramarines club card. Brother Bethesda, keeper of the blessed cartograph.

[Necronaut]

@Lysimachus okay pencil me in for a Black Templar of some sort -- I can run *another* apothecary if no one else wants to, or turn Gerhardt (tactical) into a Rank 1 marine.

[Machine God]

3 hours ago, Mazer Rackham said:

 

An Unkindness. 

 

Fitting for Revilers...

 

 

Yeah, but the after-dinner speeches are so long and boring....

Or a Conspiracy...

[Xin Ceithan]

Oh boy, I had forgotten how…emo.. the Exorcists newer fluff addition was..

[Mazer Rackham]

Might just port Iorek across if the Libby slot is taken.

[A.T.]

26 minutes ago, Mazer Rackham said:

Might just port Iorek across if the Libby slot is taken.

 

The novamarines librarian isn't too serious a character, so by all means grab the librarian if you want.

 

A Blood Angels apothecary perhaps, Carcharodons tech priest, or Leandros, the favoured son.

 

Edited January 15 by A.T.

[Urauloth]

I'm still new to "regular" DW, so if you don't mind that, I'm also interested - you might have all the players you need by now, of course! If you are still recruiting, I'd be looking at making a Space Wolf tactical.

[Lysimachus]

Ok, brilliant that people are interested in this! So, with that in mind, some preliminary stuff about character builds.

 

Have a read through, and if you're still interested, post what Archetype and Chapter you'd be interested in playing?

 

 

Player Character Creation Info:

Timeline: Approx. late 38th Millenium, so well before anything in recent history, like the Badab War, 13th Black Crusade, Primaris, or anything after that. However, that date is well after the 23rd Founding, so any official Chapter (pre-Ultima Founding) is still fair game to be included.

 

NB. Obviously, Tyranids and Tau haven't arrived on the scene yet, so PCs won't be aware of them. Early-rising Necrons or advance/scout Genestealers could in theory have been encountered, though they wouldn't have been identified by the Imperium or the Deathwatch as such.

 

Chapters: I'm happy for people to build whatever characters they would like*, created in the usual way from Core, RoB, FF or HtC. For simplicity I won't be using the DIY Chapter Creation tables from RoB, just the pre-existing ones. However, I'm happy if you wish to use one Chapter's rules to represent another, eg. for a Successor that doesn't already have its own rules?

 

*with a few very small restrictions:

• As mentioned previously, XP at starting level, part of the plot is that everyone is new to the Watch, so no existing characters, I'm afraid!
• I would like to find 1 player who would be willing to take on a Black Templar#. This is not essential, but would fit because of storyline reasons that will become apparent as we move forward.
• Finally, it's just a personal preference, but I'd rather not have all First Founding Chapters, as that just doesn't seem very likely to me! There are so many great Successors to choose from!

#possibly Necro has this one sorted, in fact Gerhardt is just the sort of guy I was looking for! 

 

Available Archetypes: There are (at most) 9 slots for PCs, thereby creating a full DW Kill-Team. Slots 1-7 will need to be filled before I open up the 8th or 9th slot.
 
1. Tactical Marine
2. Tactical Marine
3. Tactical Marine
4. Tactical Marine or Assault Marine
5. Tactical Marine or Devastator Marine
6. Tactical Marine or Apothecary
7. Tactical Marine or Techmarine
8. Tactical Marine or 2nd Assault Marine
9. Tactical Marine or 2nd Devastator Marine
10. NPC - to be revealed… 

 

Obviously, one of the above PCs will need to serve as Watch-Sergeant. In theory, the squad could be built as a pure Tactical (or whatever the DW analogue is called?) Squad, and therefore doesn't have to include any Specialists at all! However, as you might expect, you could find your efforts to be somewhat hampered without their various skill sets?

 

You'll notice this list does not include the option for a Librarian… again because of storyline reasons that will become apparent! (Sorry guys, I promise I don't mean to keep shooting down your potential builds! )

 

XP: Starting level as per DW Core - 1000xp to spend from Characteristic Advances and Rank 1 tables, which will bring you to the start of Rank 1.
You can take 1 Deed from RoB if you wish, but no Distinctions at this level of the game.

 

Power Armour: D10 Roll: 1-5=Mk7, 6-9=Mk6, 10=Choose any from: Mk4 - Mk7.
(Mk3 is getting too rare at this point in history to have been given out to a non-officer, and Mk8 is unavailable as it doesn't exist yet!)

 

Power Armour Histories: To be selected randomly. You may choose which table to roll on*, I will then make the roll, and you may then adjust the result up or down by 1.
*If your Armour type allows you to make more than 1 History roll, you must select a different table for each roll.

 

Equipment: Renown: Initiated. Requisition will be determined at Mission Briefing… but it won't be particularly high! All DW Wargear such as SIA will be available, except for Hellfire Shells which don't exist yet! Standard Ammo will follow the Rule of Three whenever you are away from sources of resupply.

 

Individual Instructions: There may be times where I will give a character (or characters) individual tasks or goals that may… or may not… run in harmony with the goals of the Kill-Team overall. If I do so, I will arrange it via PM chain rather than spoiler tags so that no one knows who is receiving them or what the true motivations and goals of their squadmates are. If you do get PMs in this regard, please keep it on the qt! 

 

 

 

Anyway, that's probably enough to be going on with, as I said please post with your wishes for Archetype/Chapter!

 

 

[Trokair]

Looks like there has been a party in this thread.

 

Would there be any room for a none Astartes invetigating specillist, given that this is a murder mystery. 

[Necronaut]

@Lysimachus if Brother Gerhardt is what you want, then that is what you're going to get. It sounded like @A.T. might also be interested in running an apothecary? I'm happy to build either a sawbones or a tac/assault marine. 

 

Edit: on second thought, rebuilding Gerhardt as an apothecary is ultra twisted. I will strongly consider that. 

Edited January 15 by Necronaut

[Mazer Rackham]

Keep your needles away from me you nutter! 

[Machine God]

Well if someone plays a BT then not everyone will be First Founding as they are 2nd!

 

 

No Carcharodons allowed either if it is pre-Badab. 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 15 by Machine God
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