Feedback Wanted for Campaign.

Hi!

First i was planning to give some background on myself and the groupe, an outline what i got planned, for feedback and tips. Also, English is not my first language + i'm dyslexic, so keep that in mind!

I played swedish RPG called Mutant some decade ago with some friends, one of them was serious about it rest just gun go run in die kind of ppl that lost intrest fast, and never got around to play much games since. recently a friend that know i got interested in these things came to me after watching DH being played on stream, wanting to play. So, after much work i got a groupe over skype going, 3 swedish, one rumanian and an englishman from our local EvE corp to play using Roll20.

All of them have made background histories outlining their relationship to my inquisitor Nathanial, of the Ordo Xenos, some of them joining willingly when asked, two under threat. they are well rounded for social interaction and different “combat roles” as they call it. so overall a well coordinated and planned out 5 man unit. so far we have done all 3 parts of Purge the Unclean, and take a month break for Uni exams, thus me coming here to ask for input on my first campaign in a decade.

Was thinking something like this as “Background” for Nathaniel, and sorry, its a lot but i try to make it proper for a long long time onwards:

He grew up on a backwards almost pre medieval world, that was sacked by chaos followers following a champion of Tzeentch from the Thousand sons legion. Having survived, and having strong psychic potential, he was taken in by the Ordo Malleus as an acolyte for a radical Inq. after decades of battles and tracking, study and learning, he helped his master challenge the chaos champion again much later, but what he did not know was that his master had planned.

on a world, much like his own, sacked as a sacrifice to his dark patron for ascension, as he took the step towards deamonhood the master struck, dissipating the energies of the champion to destroy it as he is created, but it did not work as planned and most of the planet, as well as surrounding worlds of the fringe system was sacrificed to stop the daemon from being born. being the only surviving human on the planet, he was charged but cleared of the charges of heresy under one condition, he was forbidden from continuing his masters research, as well as from confronting the demonic, or utter to anyone what transpired that day, thus taken in as an apprentice of a Ordo Xenos inq where he eventually became a full fledged inq of his own.

I think of three “seasons” atm, that is long term goals of mine to work towards:

First would be signs that something is not right, that the chaos lord thought destroyed was not, actually, dead, but thinned out so much over calix that he just got a weak presence in the warp again, seeking for a host to use and collect himself to complete his ascension. i want to drop hints about Nathaniels obsession of the demonic, as well as his flat refusal, if found out, that anyone gets to know about it. with the conclusion that the acolytes, by mistake (most of their chars are somewhat naive and trusting) provide the lord with a host and confronts nathaniel and the acolytes b4 they have to flee the world and plan how to counter the threat as the planet burns under them.

second “season” i was thinking of introducing “remote hosts”, the lord spreading influence make more parts of the whole sentient, and they infest ppl making them inhumanly strong, fast and gain strainght for their “network” by consuming humans, making it so that they see the price of failing in season 1. culminating with the second try at ascension of the lord at the seasons end and nathaniel, having worked for a lifetime and a half on his masters theories, sacrifice his own soul and a world without sentient life purge the lords essence forever as they acolytes (if survived) get out.

at this point, i have planed to have molded them for the ascension book (some what ironic) and let them take their place where Nathaniel once stood, in control of their own destiny.

Season 3, i was toying with the idea that part of the network survived Nathaniels ultimate revenge on the lord that burned his world, the essence of the lords and Nathaniels curiosity scraping together forming a shadowy daemon that thirst for knowledge, consuming it of books and humans turning them to dust as he do so, taking on the form of those it consumes, introducing itself to the acolytes in the guise of Nathaniel, having “similar” but more disturbed parodies of the other twos powers, putting the players in Nathaniels choose from season 1-2 on how to tackle this and what can be sacrificed for the greater good of mankind.

As for my first few adventures, i was thinking about having a Orc invasion be the main reason a big problem arise in the fringe systems close to where the lord died, the forces of chaos created a warp rift sucking a colony effort with small fleet support of Tau out from their own space delivering them to Calix fringe, the inq, after learning this have a big problem.

The support fleet for the now established colony is small, but with Fleet assets deployed vs the bigger orc threat, having a second front open up as the tau take contact with systems close to their new home can not be permitted, thus the acolytes are sent there to make sure no sutch front opens up, while Nathaniel work out a way to take out, or reallocate, the Tau.

The Tau was moved there by supporters of the lost lord, wanting to spark a three way war of empire, Tau and Orcs to fuel the blood needed to amass enough of his essence to awaken the lord, thus a Infiltrating Chaos Marine and his groupe of chaos cultists and tech-priests have spread around the few worlds the Tau share with humans, or border the system, to sow discord, something the players need to find out and stop over a series of 3-4 missions.

was also thinking of concluding with a crash landing on a eldar maiden world as Eldar and Orc make battle for the planet in space, and exodites fight them on the ground, having it be a sneaking survival mission till they link up with Nathaniel, brokering a deal with the craftworld eldar to take the Tau back to their space through the Webway in exchange for a eldar autarch soulstone, gotten SOMEWHERE i haven't figured out yet. and as they leave, they get cryptic prophecy of all that is about to happen long term from the farseer as Nathaniel have left. (Nathaniel also got info he wanted, that they don’t know).

As for the players themselves, i plan to form missions and scenarios around them, tailoring antagonists and happenings so it impacts the character themselves, for Role Play opportunities. examples:

One joined to protect her community in the underhive, plan to let her go there and interact now and again, but in season two kill them all with a lord puppet, mirroring Nathaniels backstory into hers.

Tech Priest is interested in all knowledge and tech, even stuff he should not be, why he joined inq to be able to see and learn new things. was planing to have chaos TPs show him the glory of knowledge and tech unbound, seeing the price of what he wants, as well as confronting xeno tech users and how that can **** ppl up hard, so he can start question what he really wants.

A Noble Sniper assassin is out for blood sport, was condemned for hunting humans and now do the same thing for Nathaniel instead, he is only player who did the scenario in the core rule book when we tested rules with another group a few years back, so plan to have him have visions as well as engaging the dancer beyond the threshold in some way or another, survival guilt etc as rest of his groupe are dead or die to the dancer as game goes on.

Also got a questions for those who actually read this far lol.

For a noble, anyone have had issues playing with this in terms of income? i feel kind of bad saying several months have passed, as he becomes more rich from that, and unsure how to handle that. overall it probably won't be a big problem, as the character is mostly looking out for himself, or making sure maximum carnage is wrought for his own amusement. so far he have done nothing big with the cash he got other than get night vision as well as decking out a sniper rifle, and help the tech priest get a grenade launcher, for the joy of exploding gore.

will Nobles income be an issue, or am i just overthinking this?

Sounds like an interesting campaign. As the Initial Kickoff, however, I'd rather not take Tau into the game (Chaos Portal or not, Tau Empire is totally on the other side of the friggin Galaxy) but instead use Slaugth, maybe a Yu'vath cult (though that'd probably be something the Chaos-Lord is interested in himself, with Yu'Vath using Warp etc etc. or maybe the Rak'gol from the Koronus-Expanse (which would be a whole other can of worms to open).

Oh, and the income... interesting Question indeed... In fact I think the whole economy of the Calixis-Sector is quite wonky, I hardly see being guns and bullets as cheap as they actually are, with prices depending a lot more on local conditions and with questions being asked when you want to buy that Melta from the store, even more importantly guns are probably not that wide available. In my campaigns, it has hardly been a problem, seeing as the players sometimes also want other stuff then gear (sometimes they'll need bribes or want to rent a car or something).

So, yeah, I don't really see it as a problem, since there are still more then enough ways of stopping players from getting the ubergear consisting of Power Armour, Daemonhammers and Meltaguns, should that become a problem.

Interesting campaign. Just be sure that your über nemesis don't come too often. Let your players rejoice of their victory over him, let them have a few non-linked missions, let them purges some cults. Let them have another "big boss" of something (cult, renegade rogue trader, mercenary officer gone bad, uncontrolled psyker in the depths of a hive having a big cult, etc.), and then, when they seem to be really on their way to greatness: BANG your evil isn't dead, has (again) planned it's return.

You could even always bring him back, but not because it's cool to have long lasting ennemies (because if that is simply what you want, don't let them kill it until the final time); but suggest to them, through lore, books and prophecies they find, that their master's cursed with the chaos lord, and anyone befriending their master become cursed too; and as long as there are people cursed that way, the chaos lord will come back.

In the end, they'll have, if they want to stop it once and for all, to kill all Nathaniel's former agents, friends, contacts, etc. and in the end, killing themselves too. The choice will be hard, but that would be an epic conclusion to a long lasting campaign against an ennemy that provokes the death of millions (if not billions) at each of its return.

Sounds like the basis of some great storytelling, really nice stuff. However, there is a pitfall in these longterm campaignplans and it is called "the players". Don't count on them following your scenario to the letter. They might find out what's happening after yout first season and adapt their actions accordingly. There is nothing wrong with this as long as you don't try to railroad them on your scenario. In my experience, players (and in fact generally every human being) don't like to do that which has been set out for them to do. Especially when they feel like it's a trap (and we gm's are known to lead them most of the time in traps - it's what we do)

To avoid this, you could try thinking about multiple outcomes after each season (with for example a normal outcome, a good outcome and an outcome where they brought hell upon themselves. This will make them feel in control and give you all the control you need to run this mighty story you've prepared.

If you feel like it, post a short summary of your sessions here. I'd love to see what'll happen

Having a hard fever, so not bin able to reply here, thx for all the feedback! hope for more as we discuss a bit here!

I am not planning to just do this one after another, a set of fast scenarios towards my end goal, nor do i plan to overuse recurring antagonists or they are not scary/fun to fight. rather, i plan to use official scenarios like saints gambit, filler/intermediary missions etc to make sure that the action is varied. combat missions, detective stuff, sneaking etc.

As for the big bad(s) and stuff, i plan to let the players fight them, get time to research nathaniel, the enemy as well as what is at stake as they plan how to do it, fight it, on and of and win/lose until the final confrontation. as for players being unpredictable, hehe.

when we did the space hulk mission, they agreed with the ghost that getting out his way was good, as they could not come up with a good way themselfs, and got promised that he would contact the fleet to pick them up as they left. after building a terror of a minefield of traps and stuff, and fight starts, the tech priest basicly said “wait, could we not have used that ONE signal we could send to tell them to fire NOW and not wait? so we could just leave?” to a lot of groaning and “ofc, why!” stuff, making me LoL. i plan not to restrict them to much, and roll with the punches making it feel natural and not railroaded, they will beat my ****, but i can run with it and use it later to “get back” so to speak.

Why i wanted to use the Tau is due to a few facts. they live on the other side of the universe, so its fun for those who know of them in boardgame to see them here. they are diplomatic as needed, especially if so far from their own space, making diplomacy and “helping xenos” possible and interesting. i would like to use a race that they somewhat know of, and one that is not flat out aggressive and non diplomatic. could switch them for a eldar exodite world and diplomatic relations with the eldar, perhaps visiting a craftworld/move around on the planet making sure that there won't be any new fronts opening up anytime soon, but i kind of feel i want to go with the Tau route, just for the WTF factor.

gonna post a brief overview of my 3-4 first missions and plans for them. as well as more on my thoughts for the inq and his motivations etc, and ofc, gonna post a synopsis of how the games go here also, or in a new thread, for those interested. need to sleep a bit, still not well.

Hello! This sounds really interesting and epic, and funny enough, definitely has some similarites with my ongoing campaign I'd be very interested in hearing more.

However, from my own experience, one word of advice: make sure your players want what you are trying to do, especially the involvement of their character's past. For my part, I can't fathom why one would NOT want to have the GM incorporate bits of my characters personal story, but I ran into the exact problem with the group I had before: I had character arcs prepared for every one of them, tied them into the plot to motivate the PCs, made them absolutley irreplaceable to the story. Like, in a novel or a movie, where the protagonists don't tend to just leave midway the story, nor does the story unfold without them being entangled in it.

It was pretty much a desaster.

Not only did I run into the problem of not being able to actually let the PCs die (stupid me!), but after a couple of sessions I found out that most of my group didn't overly enjoy being the center of attention, and the one who did told me he didn't like "that solo thingies" (meaning pretty much every scene centered around one PC, even if the group is present). The upshot was that I canceled the whole campaign, found a different group that likes this kind of playing, and started all over again.

Not saying that it might happen to you, but I know how disappointed I was when I found that all my careful planning and the endless hours of work I put into the game were essentially pearls before swine. Just make sure your players deserve and enjoy what you are working so hard for. Good luck!

The upshot was that I canceled the whole campaign, found a different group that likes this kind of playing, and started all over again.

Auch...

The game has been made to be fun. Some GM wants to fit with their players' style, others want players to their style. I am of that second kind, but I do not lack at all players, I've got some 25+ persons that want to be in my games, so that is pretty easy for me to be selective.

Cool, I'm happy for you.

Anyone else who does not have the luxury of choosing might heed my advice condensed from 22 years of roleplaying: first, get straight what everyone expects from the game, then get to work - and never make the mistake of assuming that what is fun for you is fun for the next guy

Ok im back! im now done with all my uni stuff, not sick anymore and had time to sit down pondering on how to do it as i want it to be done and came up with some interesting ideas to run this sunday.

its gonna be a arc of about 2-3 sessions/missions with the Tau area, but general thing is that its not real. was thinking of a artefact that projected into reality scenarios, used to learn or study stuff is activated and thus “creates” a tau presence in the area. Alpha legion is there with tech priests to create an artificial third front as the empire engages two fronts of a waaagh in the frontier of calix.

first mission will be centered around exploring the tau world, and talk with human and tau, see what is going on and find stuff out ending with a confrontation with a chaos tech priest that do experimentation on the real humans to see how they react and adapt to the falls reality projected on the world. seeing that one of the PC is a techpriest that want to find and learn new tech, it can be an interesting contrast to see someone with the same goal but so radically different.

how does this sound?

I'm not sure that I understand the whole arc, but I'm interested to know how your players will find out that they are in the unreal world. Or will they be knowing about the virtual reality from day one (that would be a pity though, cause I think you'll have some really cool looks on the faces of your players as they become aware that their actions didn't mean diddly squat). Furthermore you could plug in some real cool 'the matrix'-style stuff into the session. Perhaps they have an unexpected ally that sends them messages from the real world (such as follow the white minigrox).

Having it not be real, but extremely powerful alien simulation opens up some interesting paths. you can have a fight against stuff outside city, and when they take inq and/or the Tau there to show it, its gone, no battle damage at all, as if it never happened. you can also give interesting answers to scans using auspex and psychic powers.

planning to start out with the inq + pc being in a meeting discussing the newly opened front with the local governor for the sub sector at the border of the empire. playing up how ridiculous it is that tau is all the way out here, its imposible etc from the officials, b4 sending them there with the inq with the goal to assess their strength for future confrontation and smooth over the current brewing civil unrest so we don't fight on multiple fronts we can't handle.

after being greeted by the tau, get a tour of the facilities and city, they are left to themselves to look around, to see the greatness of the greater good. so they can interact with the fake tau and real humans, and try to get heads or tales with what is happening.

the nature of the machine is that is a powerful psychic device that project into ppls minds knowledge, visuals and sound, thus making them see, and think they feel, the objects and scenarios projected (probably eldar in origin), the alpha legion is using it to create a false front, to try and destabilize the region, but the tech priest leader they have with them use it to experiment on the humans. see how they are affected by the device and learn about Tau tech. plan to introduce the legion leader as a normal “big guy” selling stuff in the city, that the PCs can ask for help, will make his show in power armor at end of the arc more fun.

to show that something is amiss, i plan to add several hints that something is wrong. like earlier, that things that should impact the world is retracted when they return, dejavu events and feeling strange when using auspex/psychic powers (machine is forcing them to see fals results, making them feel bad).

climax of the story this weekend will be when they confront the tech priest leader and he discuss with our tech priest if he don't want to join, to unfettered look for new tech and experiment. he will take it as a pitty when he refuse and send out some heavy weaponized servitors as he preps his lairs self destruct and leaves.

at end, i will read out a dialog when he discuss with the legion leader about further testing and to try and prep the device for extraction etc, but in a way that make it ambiguous to their real goals, or omit it entirely.

how does this sound for a arc/first adventure in it?

for long term, i plan to play the players backstories a bit into my stories to give them more flavor, and **** with the players.

for instance, the player most involved with the game (made a small novel of backstory and fret over and over to please the inq so he dont get killed so he cant help his ppl) i want to play a bit. his char got a nickname of “light” back in his town in the underhive, so was planning to use that. my inq use a bit of contacts of the eldar to try and foresee when the big bad returns so he can take him out once and for all, at any price. he got to learn that the light will guide the darkness, thus he will keep this char alive, unpunished, to be possessed later by the big bad, this will fuel the paranoia of that player as hell, as he will get lenient treatment, as he know he should not.

this is just one of the things i plan to run, but will ofc reward more investment in players story.

ofc he won’t be possessed in the end, i plan to have a scenario where indeed he will let the evil return, but as the inq is about to strike him down, he gets stabbed in the chest by the real possessed dude, someone that “light” lead to this point in time.

the inq is somewhat mad, but don’t show it outwards, the lives that was taken when his master did his anti ascension ritual weight on him, and he hear their voices, for revenge, accusing him of their deaths, so he drinks amsac to dull the voices, and talk to himself etc. he also do stuff like consort with eldar, save forbidden books and stuff to prepare for his revenge, and will let the players more and more get a glimpse of how damaged he is, and stuff he does that is not ok.

i also have a idea about having a eldar ranger work for the inq, as an “expert agent” that the players are not to trifle with. and he is there also, but later in arc is the one figuring out what is wrong unless the players does and ask them for help/help them turn it of. idea i got for him is that, way in the past, the inq fought the eldar and killed a exarch, with helmet he now is in possession of. the eldar ranger is a sibling/whatever and invested in the return of the artefact, but was caught trying to find/steal it back. he was given a choice to help the inq, without revealing his identity in exchange for, in future, the return of the artefact. he is also the link the inq used to contact a eldar craftworld farseer to get the information he needs to plan for the big bads return.

the climax of the first two season is when the inq lures the big bad to a dead eldar exodite world, that the evil crushed long ago, and the eldar dead adds their psychic powers to his, letting him push his soul fire out on the network of fragments of the evil and burn them out of existence, himself included. probably gonna add that as it all goes up in flames he seem surprised, and happy, saying that the voices stopped.

long term stuff, and later parts of current arcs is not fleshed out in detail, as i will change it to due to how the players interact and do during the story, but this is in general, and i want some feedback of

Hey there! You did copy my campaign notes, didn't you

I like that general arc with the inquisitor slowly slipping into despair and delusion and in the end killing himself for the greater good (of course I like it, I do the same ). Only thing that is not immediately apparent to me is why he feels so darn guilty - since it was not his call to sacrifice all those lives, but his late master's iirc? I'd probably change Nathaniel's backstory as to make him the culprit, maybe leave out his master entirely, making Nathaniel a tragic figure haunted by the past and obsessed to correct his mistakes whatever it takes - doing the wrong thing out of the right reasons is very 40k, if you ask me.

Just another word of caution: be sure not to get carried away with the story of your NPCs. We GMs love our NPCs, after all, they are "our" characters in a game that's supposed to be about characters. So while it's very cool that the Inquisitor has his arc, be sure to involve your players every step of the way. Make the end of your campaign a direct result of your PC's actions, not a solo run of your lovely inq character. There's nothing worse in storytelling than minor characters taking over, and every character that is not a player character should be considered minor in roleplaying.

Random thoughts:

Let the protected character be possessed by a fragment of the lord, but find him a way to contain the evil somehow (probably because the inquisitor actually took precautions?) and get exorcised, so he becomes totally resistant to your big bad and is hence crucial to your inquisitor's final stand-off.

Let the characters protect the inquisitor from some other forces when he pulls off the final ritual, but only after they learned what he did, so they know it is a just sacrifice in the eyes of the Emperor. Depending on the desired scale, make the more combat-inclined among them fight alongside Eldar forces for the planet while some opposition tries to stop the ritual on the surface, so you can have nice Star-Wars-like crosscuts all running to the final climax.

Since I have more than just some similarities in my own game, I'd be really interested in bouncing around some ideas with you, maybe we can help each other out. So if you have a mind to brainstorm just drop me a line at "ofenkatze (at) googlemail.com"

(Edith found some typos...)

Sent you a mail, in hopes of trying to talk to you on skype and/or mail, can be fun! haven't roleplayed for a decade now more or less, after my first groupe just gave up. so a bit rusty but got the mojo for storry still!

As for why he feels guilty, in the backstory i made while planning my campaign and making the inq, i made him out as a victim. A young boy, only survivor on a feral world after the chaos lord ransacked it, left alive to die, for fun more or less. saved by the inq, he spent decades learning and perfecting his psychic powers to aid his master in destroying the evils that destroyed his world.

but as the master tried to use others life energies to dissipate the ascension, it was too much power needed so billions died, not only on the world they were on as it happened but also neighbor worlds. losing arm, leg and part of his skull/all of his right side body trying to shield himself, he was only one that survived the ordeal, aiding in mass murder of lifes he thought he was saving, he is wracked by guilt and insanity, hearing their voices accusing him of their death and torment. seeing he was a powerful psyker, as well as a prime candidate for inq himself, he was taken on as a protege of the late masters friend in the Xenos, forbidden to practise demon hunting or involving himself with that field on pain of death.

having spent rest of his life, secretly toiling, he have conspired with eldar to take down the fractured chaos lord as he resurface, when light leads way to darkness. so he is like, radical lite? hehe.

i like idea that a fragment of the lord is in her, that can work, but the inqs plan is not to shield it, but to make it happen. he want her to be possessed, so he can kill the main network and end it. but i also plan to involve a dormant psycher that will help the acolytes, which will be the target of the dark lord as he returns, having been led to the perfect host by the light. as he stands over the protected acolyte, with the sword from purge the unclean, as he gets stabbed in the back of his chest by the now risen lord, to his surprise.

will go into details of end of season 1 stuff later, as i'm more focused on the start atm.

Having it not be real, but extremely powerful alien simulation opens up some interesting paths. you can have a fight against stuff outside city, and when they take inq and/or the Tau there to show it, its gone, no battle damage at all, as if it never happened. you can also give interesting answers to scans using auspex and psychic powers.

planning to start out with the inq + pc being in a meeting discussing the newly opened front with the local governor for the sub sector at the border of the empire. playing up how ridiculous it is that tau is all the way out here, its imposible etc from the officials, b4 sending them there with the inq with the goal to assess their strength for future confrontation and smooth over the current brewing civil unrest so we don't fight on multiple fronts we can't handle.

after being greeted by the tau, get a tour of the facilities and city, they are left to themselves to look around, to see the greatness of the greater good. so they can interact with the fake tau and real humans, and try to get heads or tales with what is happening.

the nature of the machine is that is a powerful psychic device that project into ppls minds knowledge, visuals and sound, thus making them see, and think they feel, the objects and scenarios projected (probably eldar in origin), the alpha legion is using it to create a false front, to try and destabilize the region, but the tech priest leader they have with them use it to experiment on the humans. see how they are affected by the device and learn about Tau tech. plan to introduce the legion leader as a normal “big guy” selling stuff in the city, that the PCs can ask for help, will make his show in power armor at end of the arc more fun.

to show that something is amiss, i plan to add several hints that something is wrong. like earlier, that things that should impact the world is retracted when they return, dejavu events and feeling strange when using auspex/psychic powers (machine is forcing them to see fals results, making them feel bad).

climax of the story this weekend will be when they confront the tech priest leader and he discuss with our tech priest if he don't want to join, to unfettered look for new tech and experiment. he will take it as a pitty when he refuse and send out some heavy weaponized servitors as he preps his lairs self destruct and leaves.

at end, i will read out a dialog when he discuss with the legion leader about further testing and to try and prep the device for extraction etc, but in a way that make it ambiguous to their real goals, or omit it entirely.

how does this sound for a arc/first adventure in it?

For a first adventure, this sounds pretty cool. Your acolytes do have to be pretty radical to begin with though, since they are visiting a former Imperial world (now Tau), without the mission to cause as much havoc as possible.

I'm still a bit worried about the "railroadedness" from your arc. Make sure that your players can have an impact on this story. Think about a possibility for them to stop the burning of their inquisitor. I'm not saying that it should be easy for them to avoid the pending doomsday, but not giving them a single option to go off track, will probably alienate your players.

Concerning the weaving of personal stories into the main storyline: I'm all for it... if your players are into it. Make sure to check with them if they feel ok with it (but in my experience, most players will grab this opportunity with two hands and all mechadendrites they have to spare )

Best of luck with this story. I'm interested in hearing how it worked out!

For a first adventure, this sounds pretty cool. Your acolytes do have to be pretty radical to begin with though, since they are visiting a former Imperial world (now Tau), without the mission to cause as much havoc as possible.

I'm still a bit worried about the "railroadedness" from your arc. Make sure that your players can have an impact on this story. Think about a possibility for them to stop the burning of their inquisitor. I'm not saying that it should be easy for them to avoid the pending doomsday, but not giving them a single option to go off track, will probably alienate your players.

Concerning the weaving of personal stories into the main storyline: I'm all for it... if your players are into it. Make sure to check with them if they feel ok with it (but in my experience, most players will grab this opportunity with two hands and all mechadendrites they have to spare )

Best of luck with this story. I'm interested in hearing how it worked out!

Not necessarily true, in the original codex for the Tau, there is a story section where a imperial fist space marine commander and some other dudes get lead around the training areas of a Tau world, see humans that live there etc and talk with a ethereal. so the empir do have contact, or can have contact with tau to some degree, even if they rather just rather kill them.

thus imo it fits that the inq would like to stall for time to first take care of the Orcs, then go take care of the Tau and avoid an extra front as long as possible. also give the players a chance to role play, seeing as it out of norm overall.

for char stories, i plan to make it lite to begin with, see how they like it, for those who do i will do more, and for those who is not interested i plan to make it so they do things that interest THEM even if focus lies on another players background story or interests.

as for long term plans, reason i don’t 100% say “this needs to happen in this order” is cus, well, players do **** you don’t prepare for. what happens if they get the guy i plan to get possessed killed? or they totally ignore others stuff or comes with clever solutions to problems thus making plot points null and void?

in the space hulk of the purge the unclean, they got told by the guy there that he would send a message to the fleets to pick them up after the hulk gets blasted, and after they finished setting up a kill ground for their last stand, the tech priest was like, wait, couldn't we like, used that ONE CALL to tell them to start to fire NOW and we just get out b4 the eldar comes? would totaly have allowed it, but put in other events to compensate or just roll with it, changing future plans accordingly.

so for major plot points, i outline my general feel of a season, and its goals when its finished, then make scenarios and missions to gently guide it towards that, but leave room so my players get a chance to affect the story, making it feel more organic and that their choices and actions impact the world.

i was not 100% happy with the story, so will do the mission of Tattered fates first, then start, giving me more time to flesh out my first few scenarios.