Hello,

I'm a relatively new GM. I'm currently leading a squad of 5 Deathwatch Marines through their first few adventures.

I completed the Final Sanction mission with them (using pre-gen characters) toi help them learn the rules and how to role-play.

They have just completed their first successful mission, a slightly toned down version of 'Righteous Fury', taken from this websites support section.

They successfully escaped with Ashram Vail and Orpheus Vander in their party, I then submitted the characters to a mission report/trial for Orpheus and Ashram. After Ashram's near heretical actions.

My plan was to use either one of those NPC's as an Alpha Legion marine furher down the road.

Unfortunately I'm struggling to find any good pre-generated adventures for Rank 1, I've attempted to write my own but I don't know how well balanced or good they are, so I'd like to stick to some pre-generated ones until I have more confidence with scaling and the rules.

If anyone has any mission they think would be good or could suggest one from any of the books that would be great. I own nearly all of the books, but most suggest being rank 2-3 before using, I was wondering if there are any designed for lower ranks.

Thanks

You could tone some of the existing ones down a little bit if they are proving too difficult? Although they might recommend Rank 2 or whatever, you can still run with it. As a GM you have an immense amount of power to adjust stats on the fly. If you for example notice that players are struggling to damage a particularly potent creature in the book, you can perhaps allow some creative licence and perhaps quietly bring its maximum wounds down or allow its armour/toughness/damage to degrade slowly.

To be honest though, Rank 2 is not that far above Rank 1 and players might be ok with it. You probably wont have an awful lot of problems playing a campaign that's a rank or two above especially if you have a strong tactical party or sufficient numbers. Five marines with good skills and teamwork should allow you to manage but as above, just be prepared to reduce the numbers. If players comment on it you can always remind them that you aree adjusting it for their benefit to make it both fun and challenging but not a total wipeout.

Honestly? Rank 2 or 3 is not much better than Rank 1. The specialty that scales the most with rank is the Librarian, watch out for that. But in Deathwatch, combat effectiveness is more dependent on Renown/Requisition points, aka the gear you bring to the battlefield. A Storm Shield will make a difference. A Plasma Cannon also will. Much more than having another +10 to BS.

So you can run Rank 2/3 missions without problems, you don't even have to grant them extra renown. You can simply have the Watch Captain assign a handful of otherwise restricted weapons/items that he thinks the team requires for success. A meltagun here and a Storm Bolter there and suddenly things are much more manageable.

Alex

NPC characters can sometimes help at the lower levels when you are still finding your balance. Have them in the background but it means they can make 'lucky' shots to reduce the wounds of critters or offer advice or drag Pcs to safety. Never enough to steal the limelight but a enough to smooth things out.

Also have a few 'exit' strategies.

For example assassination missions where the target is a really nasty creaure can be dangerous because if the PCs can't kill it then they auto fail the mission regardless of how well they have performed. Make the targets bodyguard a horrible gribbly then technically it dosn't matter if they can't defeat it as long as they bypass it and get to the target (you can always claim that that was the best solution).

The reverse is true as well. Establish a way that the bad guys can credibly have reserves arrive at a convenient time. That way if it turns out your mission is populated by goons who die like punks then insert your secret weapon of elites who up the ante. If on the other hand the mission is going swimmingly then the elites don't exist.

The key is not to break the illusion that you have everything planned out in advance. If the PCs know that either if something is too dangerous or too weak the game world is adjusted it will cause...complications, in their attitude

We as GM's know of course that half of the fun is improvision.

Finally it's just a game! If the Kill team gets horribly mauled by the Deamon Prince that you thought might be appropriate for the Rank 1 guys well they can spend fate points and if they don't have any there are plenty of good character generator sheets they can fill in for a replacement.

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I'm thinking of running 'Price of Hubris' from 'The Emperor Protects' campaign book, as it reccomends being between ranks 1-4, this mission involves a trip to a feral world and includes a link to the Alpha legion, this also allows me to use the 2nd/3rd missions from this book much later on in the campaign, which should complete this story nicely.

My problem now is how to reveal Ashram or Orpheus as an Alpha Legion member, I have written personal logs for my team to read to give them some insight into the mind-sets of each NPC and their captivity aboard the vessel, both are free to travel around the ship unarmoured and unarmed but must be escorted at all times.

From these logs, I've made Ashram seem remorseful for his past transgressions and endangering the squad in the last mission even though until this point he has shown no care or respect. Orpheus on the other hand has shown himself to be angry with the fact that ahsram 'the heretic' survived judgement and is still alive. I've also very cleverly hidden some clues in his personal logs. If you read the first letter of each line it reads:

I am Alpharius, I am among you, prepare for. (broken across 3 logs.) none of my players have picked up on this yet, I'd have thought it was obvious but it'll be a nice reveal later if I do use him as the Alpha legionnaire.

My plan was possibly to have Orpheus kill Ashram and his guards and steal one of the body guards suits of power armour and mash up the body of the guard to make it look like Ashram and Orpheus fought to the death with no survivor, this unknown deathwatch marine would then blend into the background and continue his devious plan to get to Aurum (to link up with the other alpha legionnaires there).

But how can I make it plausible that an unarmed marine took a fully armed battle brother by surprise with no weapons or armour? I think this might be unworkable.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.