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.

[Black Cohort]

so I haven't had a ton of time this week between work and trying to make progress on some actual paid rpg work.

 

But I am thinking that the initial Votann Rogue Trader class, which I am tentatively calling "Votann Surveyor" will have Strength, Toughness and Intelligence as their cheap stat upgrades with Fellowship and Agility as two of their bad stat upgrades.  I am also thinking they will start with less free XP compared to other RT characters because they will get a choice of what cloneskein they have.  each cloneskein (I will probably have 3) will probably be +5 to a stat and a talent/trait.

[Mazer Rackham]

I like the idea of the cloneskin being the stat upgrade, but I'm not sure that an xp reduction would be attractive for a choice and a talent - unless the talent was an exclusive no-one else could acquire and was something that could be used often with success like: 'once per session, the Surveyor can.....and automatically succeeds...'

 

Thoughts?

Edited October 24 by Mazer Rackham

[Black Cohort]

7 hours ago, Mazer Rackham said:

I like the idea of the cloneskin being the stat upgrade, but I'm not sure that an xp reduction would be attractive for a choice and a talent - unless the talent was an exclusive no-one else could acquire and was something that could be used often with success like: 'once per session, the Surveyor can.....and automatically succeeds...'

 

Thoughts?

 

Would Cloneskein work better as their special ability?  Basically a "Chose one of the following options:" which are all +5 to a specific stat and something else.

[Mazer Rackham]

I would consider something like that, yes, just OTTOMH.

[Black Cohort]

24 minutes ago, Mazer Rackham said:

I would consider something like that, yes, just OTTOMH.

 

OTTOMH?

[Mazer Rackham]

Sorry - off the top of my head. 

[Black Cohort]

if anyone wants to see the first draft of the starting skills and traits, stat advance table, and rank 1 advances let me know and I can PM the link to the google doc.  I should have a couple of Votann weapons done tonight as well.  Cloneskeins and more weapons tomorrow.

[Lord_Ikka]

I can see two good options for Votann in an rpg- a lone-op Hernkyn Scout, as a forward operating pathfinder, and an Exile who is cut off from the Kin. The first works more as a quasi-military character that has access to some Votann weaponry while the second is more like the Ironhead Squats of Necromunda, using mainly Imperial gear that has been either modified or improved. 

 

Specific cloneskeins as possible options during character origin seem like an easy way to give the Votann some varied builds.

[Black Cohort]

So here is my initial take of Cloneskeins.  I welcome any thoughts you have.

 

Special Ability
Cloneskeins
At Character Creation a Votann Surveyor choses one of the following cloneskeins.  This cannot be changed later.

 

Skein of Mining
+5 Strength
Bulging Biceps

 

Skein of Augmentation
+5 Intelligence
Votann with this Cloneskein treat all cybernetics as a step higher in quality than they are.

 

Skein of Hardening
+5 Toughness
Autosanguine

 

 

21 hours ago, Lord_Ikka said:

I can see two good options for Votann in an rpg- a lone-op Hernkyn Scout, as a forward operating pathfinder, and an Exile who is cut off from the Kin. The first works more as a quasi-military character that has access to some Votann weaponry while the second is more like the Ironhead Squats of Necromunda, using mainly Imperial gear that has been either modified or improved. 

 

Specific cloneskeins as possible options during character origin seem like an easy way to give the Votann some varied builds.

 

I think one of the big challenges with the Votann is they have very little lore, so we haven't seen a lot about the types of characters that would interact with rogue traders.  Also you are assuming a human focused campaign.  Why couldn't there be a primarily Votann party using rogue trader or only war?  If a Votann "Origin Path" was built, a bunch of Rogue Trader classes would mostly work as is.  Same with Only War, A Votann "Regiment" would do a lot of heavy lifting for running Votann in that system.