Viking Slade Posted November 27 Share Posted November 27 (edited) Hello, folks! I'm Viking Slade, or just Slade. I'm interested in running my first game, an Only War campaign, with the plan to get started shortly after the Christmas holiday. I have a Guard regiment I have created a little bit of background lore for, in order to flesh out my custom Chapter, and I figured why not give them a little life of their own, too. My idea would be to string the published adventures together, starting with (a slightly modified) Eleventh Hour and continuing into Against the Savages. After those short adventures, if everything is chugging along smoothly, we would move on to Final Testament and then eventually conclude with No Surrender. So would anyone be interested in playing this campaign? Thoughts, opinions, questions? Spoiler Penal Legion Theta-Delta-Beta, Recon Regiment; “Wilson’s Irregulars” Characters belonging to Wilson’s Irregulars gain the following advantages: Characteristic Modifiers: +3 Perception, -3 Willpower; +3 to any two of the following—Agility, Strength, Toughness Starting Aptitudes: Weapon Skill Starting Skills: Awareness, Intimidate, Linguistics (Low Gothic) Starting Talents: Combat Sense, Resistance (Fear); [Combat Master or Double Team]; [Peer (Underworld) or Street Fighting]; [Berserk Charge or Cold Hearted or Frenzy or Paranoia] Close-Quarters Battle: Members of this regiment gain an additional +10 bonus to all Ballistic Skill Tests made at Point-Blank Range. Larcenous: Hailing from worlds where the black market is the only market, penal colonists are skilled at obtaining illicit items, whether to sell, on or for their own purposes. Penal colony characters add a +10 to all Logistics Tests made to acquire illegal or contraband items. Beyond Redemption: Members of this regiment suffer a –10 penalty to all Fellowship-based Tests made when interacting with members of other Imperial Guard regiments, their own commanding officers, the Departmento Munitorum, and other officials both local and Imperial who would have likely heard of the regiment’s reputation. Additionally, its members suffer –10 penalty to all Logistics Tests. Further, this group is always assigned to the most dangerous missions on a given battlefront, and is rarely given respites between its missions to recuperate and reorganise. Wounds: +1 starting Wounds Standard Regimental Kit: [1 lascarbine (Main Weapon) with four charge packs and the Compact modification or 1 combat shotgun (Main Weapon) with 4 clips and the Sawn-Off modification or 1 Common (or more available) Low-Tech weapon and a laspistol with two charge packs per Player Character], 1 Good Craftsmanship knife with the Mono upgrade per Player Character, 1 suit of light carapace armour per Player Character, 1 frag and 1 smoke grenade per Player Character, 1 injector or inhaler and three doses of frenzon or five doses of stimm per Player Character; One Sentinel Scout Walker or one Chimera Armoured Transport per Squad (dependent on mission, NPC-controlled), and one set of magnoculars per Player Character. Favored Weapons: Hades Assault Flamer (Basic); Accatran Automatic Mortar (Heavy) Starting Experience: Members of this regiment gain an additional 500 experience at creation, to represent any formal training of any kind prior to incarceration. Edited December 1 by Viking Slade Added Regimental Rules N1SB, Mazer Rackham, Trokair and 1 other 2 2 Back to top Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord_Ikka Posted November 27 Share Posted November 27 Never played Only War, but always up for a new challenge. Some thoughts- Using your home-brewed regiment, what are its basic characteristics/in-game rules? How many players are you looking for/what type of squad would be best? Are you going to limit the number of Specialties/Support Specialists? Mazer Rackham 1 Back to top Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/#findComment-6077908 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Slade Posted November 27 Author Share Posted November 27 (edited) 2 hours ago, Lord_Ikka said: Never played Only War, but always up for a new challenge. Some thoughts- 1) Using your home-brewed regiment, what are its basic characteristics/in-game rules? 2) How many players are you looking for/what type of squad would be best? 3) Are you going to limit the number of Specialties/Support Specialists? 1) I'm currently going through the books and putting the regiment together. I'll get it added to the opening post shortly. Being a Penal Legion, it is generally expected for them to be front-line troops, often (always) being given missions that may or may not (mostly may) result in death. Think Suicide Squad, but not as much betrayal by those pulling your strings (considering they're Space Marines and you're criminals, be thankful you've been given a chance at redemption). 2) I'll be looking for a solid squad of 5-8 players. And a nicely balanced squad is never a bad thing, but I'll take an unbalanced squad if it means players are happy (I can always fill any critical gaps with NPC's). 3) That's going to have a rather involved answer. The short answer is yes. The slightly longer version is kinda sorta. Players won't be able to select Commissar or Sergeant as their specialty. Beyond that, I would rather have more "combat" specialists (Heavy Gunner, Ogryn, Ratling, Storm Trooper, and Weapon Specialist) than "support" specialists (Medic, Ministorum Priest, Operator, Sanctioned Psyker, and Tech-Priest). I split the types differently than FFG did, but as I said in my answer to your second question, fun will take precedence. If I get 3 combat specialists and 5 support, so be it, we'll make it work. Edited November 27 by Viking Slade Spelling Mazer Rackham and Lord_Ikka 2 Back to top Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/#findComment-6077913 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazer Rackham Posted November 27 Share Posted November 27 (edited) 15 hours ago, Lord_Ikka said: Never played Only War, but always up for a new challenge. Do you need the books, @Lord_Ikka? I'm tempted, but not sure given my commitments. I could possibly be interested in a Heavy Weapons Specialist (with Comrade) who are brothers, or maybe a Stormtrooper, but I have no solid idea on the latter. @Viking SladeBecause the unit is a Penal Legion, are you allowing characters to draw from old regiments? ie ex-Elysian, or is the penal unit a homogenous block recruited from a single world or the like? I wasn't sure how your homebrew Chapter did this (I did take a peruse of your IA). Edited November 27 by Mazer Rackham Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/#findComment-6078039 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lysimachus Posted November 27 Share Posted November 27 Hmm, never done Only War. It sounds interesting, but I think I might struggle to fit another game in, what with playing in Blackest Heart and running Murderers in Black... That said, my aim (loosely) is for the current Act/session of Murderers to run until end December (with a few weeks off over Christmas/New Year) and then for the final Act to play out in Jan-Feb and (maybe?) into March. So depending what you're thinking to be 'after Christmas' maybe I could join in later? (Although possibly you'll have plenty of players anyway, and won't need a latecomer, which is no problem, in which case I'll happily stay an observer! ) Mazer Rackham 1 Back to top Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/#findComment-6078048 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord_Ikka Posted November 27 Share Posted November 27 3 hours ago, Mazer Rackham said: Do you need the books, @Lord_Ikka? Nope, I have them just haven't played. Mazer Rackham 1 Back to top Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/#findComment-6078058 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Necronaut Posted November 28 Share Posted November 28 (edited) @Viking Slade welcome to the zone of crippling social ineptitude tower of high sorcery deep end of the board. I haven't played Only War in nigh on 8 or 10 years and would love to take it for another spin. I'll need to crack the books open again, but please pencil me in either for a weapons specialist or an enginseer. Edited November 28 by Necronaut Mazer Rackham 1 Back to top Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/#findComment-6078065 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Slade Posted November 28 Author Share Posted November 28 6 hours ago, Mazer Rackham said: I'm tempted, but not sure given my commitments. I could possibly be interested in a Heavy Weapons Specialist (with Comrade) who are brothers, or maybe a Stormtrooper, but I have no solid idea on the latter. @Viking SladeBecause the unit is a Penal Legion, are you allowing characters to draw from old regiments? ie ex-Elysian, or is the penal unit a homogenous block recruited from a single world or the like? I wasn't sure how your homebrew Chapter did this (I did take a peruse of your IA). Rules-wise, everyone will use the Regimental bonuses I added to the opening post, but players may flavor their character however they wish. The Irregulars mostly receive new "recruits" from several penal colonies in the Sanguine Gargoyles' patrol zone (mainly the Gothic Sector, but also Segmentum Obscurus on the whole). These recruits fill the rank and file, while the non-coms and officer ranks are filled by actual Guard personnel. This is why characters will not be able to use other Regiments' rules; "boot camp" lasts one Terran standard month, and mostly focuses on proficiency in one's role, rather than survivability (medical corpsman being the only real exception, and only barely). Generally the Legion parcels out its units at platoon strength or larger, with each unit being led by a Lieutenant (or higher as unit size increases) and an attached Commissar. Spoiler If When a Legionnaire dies in service to the regiment and the Emperor, they are posthumously absolved of their sins, and their name is recorded in the Gargoyles' Scroll of Absolution. 4 hours ago, Lysimachus said: Hmm, never done Only War. It sounds interesting, but I think I might struggle to fit another game in, what with playing in Blackest Heart and running Murderers in Black... That said, my aim (loosely) is for the current Act/session of Murderers to run until end December (with a few weeks off over Christmas/New Year) and then for the final Act to play out in Jan-Feb and (maybe?) into March. So depending what you're thinking to be 'after Christmas' maybe I could join in later? (Although possibly you'll have plenty of players anyway, and won't need a latecomer, which is no problem, in which case I'll happily stay an observer! ) Optimistically, I'd like to start by the end of January. I feel like that should give me enough time to get the first adventure set up (and maybe even get started on the second), and give players enough time to finalize their characters and get some connections with the rest of the squad written out. From what I remember (I do need to go reread the adventure again), there are a couple points in Eleventh Hour where I could "Jedi hand wave" another member of the Irregulars into the squad pretty easily. 41 minutes ago, Necronaut said: @Viking Slade welcome to the deep end of crippling social ineptitude extreme nerdery the board. I haven't played Only War in nigh on 8 or 10 years and would love to take it for another spin. I haven't cracked my books open in ages, but please pencil me in either for a weapons specialist or an enginseer. Heh, thanks. Pleasure to drag you to the edge of hell (and maybe back, we'll see ). Mazer Rackham 1 Back to top Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/#findComment-6078069 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord_Ikka Posted November 28 Share Posted November 28 6 hours ago, Necronaut said: deep end of the board The Den of the Weird and Strange. Anyway...I'm down. Doing my normal Random thing, lets see the Specialty I get. Specialty 1-5 Combat (Slade definition), 6-10 Support Roll - 4, Combat 1-2 Heavy Gunner, 3-4 Ogryn, 5-6 Ratling, 7-8 Storm Trooper, 9-10 Weapon Specialist Roll - 6, Ratling Ok. Got room for a sneaky, thieving git who may or may not be able to snipe? Necronaut, Viking Slade and Mazer Rackham 2 1 Back to top Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/#findComment-6078087 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Slade Posted November 28 Author Share Posted November 28 12 hours ago, Lord_Ikka said: Got room for a sneaky, thieving git who may or may not be able to snipe? Sure! If you want to start working on your character, feel free to use either stat generation method (roll or point-buy), and add 500 exp to the starting amount, representing at least some limited experience beyond just basic training. Necronaut 1 Back to top Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/#findComment-6078209 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Slade Posted December 1 Author Share Posted December 1 Alright, I thought I had found a solution to my problem, and it does work, but it would require extra effort on the players' part. So I'm seeking help in the hopes I can find something that works better. Right now I have an editable PDF file for the Only War character sheet, and I can upload it to my Google Drive and share it from there, but it is not editable on the Drive. Players would need to download the sheet file, create their character, and upload that edited file back to the game Drive. They would also need to re-upload their sheet every time they updated their character, which could be a bit of a hassle. Does anyone have, or know how to put together, a character sheet for Only War on Excel/Google Spreadsheet? I have no experience formatting spreadsheets in such a manner, and my only other option to save extra work is just using a text document for character sheets. Mazer Rackham and Necronaut 2 Back to top Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/#findComment-6078581 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Necronaut Posted December 1 Share Posted December 1 (edited) @Lysimachus is the resident character sheet wizard (in that he seems to have time to spare to contribute/help out ), but if I have some time this evening I would be happy to take a crack at it, having done a few of my own in the past. We have a rather good template that has gone through a few iterations over the past couple of years. Edited December 1 by Necronaut Viking Slade, Mazer Rackham and Lysimachus 1 2 Back to top Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/#findComment-6078593 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Slade Posted December 1 Author Share Posted December 1 That would be much appreciated. Mazer Rackham and Necronaut 2 Back to top Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/#findComment-6078594 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lysimachus Posted December 2 Share Posted December 2 I'm not 100% sure on the ways that OW changes things from DH or DW, so if @Necronaut is available to modify one of the templates into something more suitable that's probably the smart option? But if I can assist in any way, then I'm happy to do so! Viking Slade, Necronaut and Mazer Rackham 3 Back to top Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/#findComment-6078699 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Slade Posted December 2 Author Share Posted December 2 (edited) If it's a sheet for DH 2nd Edition, that might work. Otherwise it might be easier to work backwards from the Black Crusade sheet, now that I think about it. DW has several things not found in any of the other RPG's, and DH1 has a lot of stuff that got trimmed/streamlined in OW. If it's just modifying a template for one of those, I might be able to work on it too. Edit: Hah! I found a sheet that's editable directly in Drive. It's not nearly as pretty or as well-organized, but it has everything, and that's the important part. Edited December 2 by Viking Slade Lysimachus and Necronaut 1 1 Back to top Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/#findComment-6078788 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Necronaut Posted December 2 Share Posted December 2 I was going to use the BC sheet as a starting point, mostly since it and OW are the closest to each other mechanically. It has been a while since I have done OW character and legion creation so there will need to be some alterations made. Lysimachus and Viking Slade 2 Back to top Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/#findComment-6078792 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Slade Posted December 2 Author Share Posted December 2 Feel free to keep going forward with the modifications, if you wish, though I did find a sheet finally. A note on the regiment creation if you do keep going, you probably don't need a whole section for that on the sheet, since you can plug everything gained from a character's regiment into sections that are already there. Necronaut 1 Back to top Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/#findComment-6078799 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Necronaut Posted December 2 Share Posted December 2 Yeah sorry I was hoping to be able to get to it last night and then I had a sick kid on my hands and everything went out the window. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/#findComment-6078803 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Slade Posted December 2 Author Share Posted December 2 No worries, I completely understand. I've got one in 3rd grade and one at home with me, so I know the struggle, haha. Hope they feel better soon. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/#findComment-6078804 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord_Ikka Posted December 3 Share Posted December 3 (edited) Ran through the character creation with the ratling, seemed fairly straight-forward. I'm assuming that the +500 XP is in addition to the 600/300 (Guardsmen/Support Specialists) that is given by the regular creation method, so for example my Ratling would get 800 XP to play with. The Aptitude interaction for gaining Talents was a little annoying, but I can see the design purpose, especially for spending XP. I think it was more annoying when you were given options to pick a talent during creation but couldn't take one due to the aptitude prerequisites. Comrade interaction will be interesting. One thing I was confused about was whether or not your character got the normal Main weapon (Laspistol, or regimental option) in addition to the weapon options that their specialty was allowed, or if the specialty option just straight-up replaced the Main weapon. Edited December 3 by Lord_Ikka Mazer Rackham 1 Back to top Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/#findComment-6078878 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Slade Posted December 3 Author Share Posted December 3 (edited) 4 hours ago, Lord_Ikka said: Ran through the character creation with the ratling, seemed fairly straight-forward. I'm assuming that the +500 XP is in addition to the 600/300 (Guardsmen/Support Specialists) that is given by the regular creation method, so for example my Ratling would get 800 XP to play with. The Aptitude interaction for gaining Talents was a little annoying, but I can see the design purpose, especially for spending XP. I think it was more annoying when you were given options to pick a talent during creation but couldn't take one due to the aptitude prerequisites. Comrade interaction will be interesting. One thing I was confused about was whether or not your character got the normal Main weapon (Laspistol, or regimental option) in addition to the weapon options that their specialty was allowed, or if the specialty option just straight-up replaced the Main weapon. Correct, characters will start with a total of 1100/800 experience to spend, depending on their specialty. If your specialty allows you to take a talent that you wouldn't otherwise have the prerequisites for, you are still allowed to take it. (Incidentally, you can still take talents without having any matching aptitudes. Aptitudes are there to represent how easily it is for a character to learn new abilities; the more of the associated aptitudes a character has, the easier it is to learn that skill, or talent, or even just raise their base stats.) Always is. Imagine playing an Ogryn character with a normal human as a comrade. Do you roleplay more as the actual character, or as the Comrade? Yes, it is in addition to the weapon(s) your character receives from their specialty. All characters in this campaign receive weapons from three different sources. First, the Universal Regimental Kit gives each character a knife and a laspistol, Second, the Regimental Standard Kit gives all characters another knife and a choice of "main" weapon (lasgun, shotgun, or laspistol/low-tech weapon combo). Third and last, a character's specialty may grant them one or more weapons. Think of the weapons from the first two sources as "permanent," in that they're your character's for life, while the weapons from specialties are "on loan," as if/when your character decides to advance into a different specialty, you "return" any gear granted by your previous specialty in exchange for gear more suited to your character's new specialty. Shoot me a PM with an email address and I'll add you to the Google Drive I've got set up for the game. I can also answer anymore questions you have there as well. Same goes for anyone else interested in the game, send me an email for you and I'll get you added. Edited December 3 by Viking Slade Mazer Rackham 1 Back to top Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/#findComment-6078899 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord_Ikka Posted December 3 Share Posted December 3 I don't think I have any other questions, just found the weaponry thing odd. As a Ratling, I doubt any wargear acquired will ever be returned... Mazer Rackham 1 Back to top Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/#findComment-6078903 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viking Slade Posted December 3 Author Share Posted December 3 Don't let the Quartermaster hear you saying that. Or the Commissar... Mazer Rackham 1 Back to top Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/#findComment-6078909 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malice Jr. Posted December 3 Share Posted December 3 I only got to run this game once for a group of friends but it was a complete mess. Would love to take another shot at playing it. This would be PbP, correct? Necronaut and Mazer Rackham 2 Back to top Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/#findComment-6078949 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazer Rackham Posted December 3 Share Posted December 3 So, confused about what to roll up, I used @Lord_Ikka's Patented Randomiser, and got a Ministorum Priest. Given this: 8 hours ago, Viking Slade said: Always is. Imagine playing an Ogryn character with a normal human as a comrade. Do you roleplay more as the actual character, or as the Comrade? I was tempted to delve into Lieutenant Valea Konstanz, and her Trusted Bodyguard BoneEAD Sergeant (Brevet) Gratthogg from my short series of Ogryn-centric Rapid Fire pieces in the Fan Fic forum, but I think Sebastian Korlack, ex-Elysian Drop Trooper Padre is required by this unit... Thoughts? Necronaut 1 Back to top Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/384691-penal-legion-campaign-with-my-custom-regiment/#findComment-6078954 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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