Implimenting Leagues of Votann into 40k RPGs

[Black Cohort]

So the Leagues of Votann were still squated when all the 40k rpgs we know and love were released.  But they are super cool and it would be good to be able to use them in campaigns, as player characters and NPCs.

Let's start with an easy question.  Which system do you think they best fit in?  And why is it Rogue Trader?

[Mazer Rackham]

We did have a Squat Engineer in a RT game a while back. @Xin Ceithan Can you remember/do you have any notes about your character Tavesh Malov?

 

Mainly, IIRC we just did a little stablock alteration - I  might even have the Chargen sheet somewhere.

 

Here's the IC, anyway, might be of some use going forward:

 

 

[Trokair]

My first question would be to ask are you trying to make Squat (as seen on Necomunda (i.e. Imperial with some tech to their own name, but sanctioned Abhumans otherwise) or League of Votann (full independent (from Imperium) high tech society?

[Xin Ceithan]

5 hours ago, Mazer Rackham said:

We did have a Squat Engineer in a RT game a while back. @Xin Ceithan Can you remember/do you have any notes about your character Tavesh Malov?

 

Mainly, IIRC we just did a little stablock alteration - I  might even have the Chargen sheet somewhere.

 

 

IIRC The basic building block used the “built for purpose” background / species from the DH AdMech book - they already get a boost to Str and Toughness since they were pretty easy to votannize. I think the only change was giving them some  resistance to psionics? Pretty straightforward actually.
 

Google Drive still lets me access that sheet - can’t really tell about any changes from that, though. 

[Black Cohort]

3 hours ago, Trokair said:

My first question would be to ask are you trying to make Squat (as seen on Necomunda (i.e. Imperial with some tech to their own name, but sanctioned Abhumans otherwise) or League of Votann (full independent (from Imperium) high tech society?

 

Yes

[Mazer Rackham]

Not going to lie, that's a tall order.

 

I think the best way would be to try to put together a character technical package, ie Chargen Profile and backstory first to get the bare-bones working before doing anything else. Piggybacking off one of the systems like RT is probably the best way, since you could just supplant the RT Character with a Clan Elder (or whatever they're called - Theyns?) and keep your Profit Factor relatively unscathed from the original incarnation/mechanics.

 

The only thing I see as a problem with that is, RT kinda makes them more of a Squat Prospector type, whereas if you want a combat ecosyetem of a professional military force like the Votann, you're likely looking at Only War as the better of the two candidates (the other being Deathwatch). So like Tro says, might be best to narrow down which project to pursue first, then expand or refocus as appropriate.

 

Thoughts?

[Black Cohort]

1 hour ago, Mazer Rackham said:

Not going to lie, that's a tall order.

 

I think the best way would be to try to put together a character technical package, ie Chargen Profile and backstory first to get the bare-bones working before doing anything else. Piggybacking off one of the systems like RT is probably the best way, since you could just supplant the RT Character with a Clan Elder (or whatever they're called - Theyns?) and keep your Profit Factor relatively unscathed from the original incarnation/mechanics.

 

The only thing I see as a problem with that is, RT kinda makes them more of a Squat Prospector type, whereas if you want a combat ecosyetem of a professional military force like the Votann, you're likely looking at Only War as the better of the two candidates (the other being Deathwatch). So like Tro says, might be best to narrow down which project to pursue first, then expand or refocus as appropriate.

 

Thoughts?

 

I agree that it would be good to do something like this in stages rather than trying to tackle everything at once.  I think the most logical would be to start with a single RT character class + small armoury of appropriate new weapons.  But I don't see why a Squat Prospector would be more logical than an actual Votann character.  RT already has rules for multiple xenos player characters, an Abhuman would not be a stretch.

 

After that I think the second phase would be figuring out generic NPC profiles for some Votann/Squat stuff, including some ship classes.

Third would probably other character classes for RT and OW.  Though with only war, I wonder if you could largely get away with basically treating being Votann as the party "regiment" and then only really needing that + weapons.  Most OW classes could be somewhat easily reskinned as a Votann equivalent.