Hello all!

My university games society is hosting the National Student Role-Playing and Wargaming Championships here in the UK next weekend. They were in need of GMs so I put myself forward for WH40k RP, it being the only system I have ever really had anything close to any experience in running as a GM and the system I have the most interest in. However, that experience is limited to one or two "mess about" sessions to dip my toes into the water so to speak.

My task is to hold two sessions, one on each day of the championships. I dont feel like this really gives me enough time to run a premade adventure, and as the players involved will all have experience in WH40k RP they may have already played these. Ideally these sessions would be unique to each day but I don't have time to do that.

As this is my first time GMing such a session I'm looking for advice in a number of areas.

The mission concept is that the KT have to drop down onto an Imperial planet being invaded by Tau forces. Their objective is to capture an Ethereal and to assassinate the Fire Caste Commander. I want the session to be as sandboxy as possible, so in addition to these two main objectives I will offer them a selection of side objectives which will offer different benefits, but they will not have time to accomplish them all. In addition, they will have the opportunity to assist a group of IG that are holding the city the KT will drop into in order to make their primary objectives more easy.

I will be using pre-made characters, of which there will be a large selection (I anticipate 6 players, so I will have 10-12 pregenned PCs). I'm having trouble building the librarians however. I want 2 to choose from, one being a sort of combined melee combatant and buff/de-buff psyker and the other to be a lore master and divination/blaster psyker. Are these viable builds? Which chapters would be best for both? I was anticipating a Blood Angel for the former and a Blood Raven for the latter, but I already have a Blood Angels Sanguinary Priest and a Flesh Tearers assault marine, and I didn't want there to be too many Blood Angels/successors characters.

Second, as experienced GMs, do any of you have advice for encouraging role-play in DW sessions? I was planning on having interaction between the KT and the IG officers on the planet, but I feel this might leave the campaign too combat heavy without other opportunities for interaction.

Thanks for any advice you can give, especially if it answers my questions above.

1. For which Rank and which Renown level? Also, you could always switch the Flesh Tearer for a Black Templar Assault and have the BA Librarian. Here's the basic thing with melee Librarians: Most cool melee psy powers are Sustained. Which means he can't use Swift Attack if he has it. In melee, what matters is the number of attacks you can dish out and how many you can parry/dodge. Of course damage matters too but every librarian can channel damage through the Force Weapon. Ofc, if the Librarian is Rank 1 and doesn't have Swift Attack, this isn't a concern. That said, Solo and Squad Mode abilties still matter. BA have some of the strongest.

For a nice blasting diviner Blood Raven might work but I would be partial to a White Scar Stormseer. Casting bones and calling lightning.

I recommend Renown of at least Respected for such a game so that the players can requisition at least some cool toys.

2. I find DW requires some work (fore-thought) by the GM to stimulate roleplay, unless the players are already SM fans. I would tackle the issue from 3 angles:

a. create potential conflict by not having only different chapters but also clashing personal demeanours (calculating versus impatient, etc.)

b. create potential conflict by promoting competition. Killing a major villain or monster brings honour, lots of it. Maybe tell your players that the most valiant fighter will get an honour after the mission. They should strive to outdo each other.

And with all that divisiveness:

c. Promote unity, that invisible band of brotherhood. Maybe they come too late rescuing some regular marines and need to bury some of them. Maybe they will eventually face odds so steep that they realize they need to stop the squabbling and need to come together.

If the PCs/players are more or less torn between these 3, you're doing right.

Alex

The PCs have 20 renown and 5000XP to spend (so they will have reached rank 2 upon spending all of that). I wanted them to have access to some decent equipment (like plasma guns and melta guns) and a fair number of talents and skills, so the players have characters they can do something with but aren't overwhelmed by having too many talents and skills to keep track of in case they arent too experienced with the system (though I think everyone who is playing has asked to be put into the WH40k RP category).

I picked Flesh Tearer because I like their fluff and they get some really cool melee talents, as well as Flesh Render for free. I wanted him to be duel wielding Chain Axes (which I would take the rules for from the Black Crusade CRB). Although, having a BT in the party would create some tension if a Librarian is involved (though I have always considered the BT's hatred of psykers to apply only to the enemy, it wouldn't make much sense for a fleet-based chapter to be hating on allied psykers when they need them to navigate The Warp safely).

Thanks for the advice on the blaster/diviner, I will take a look at the White Scars rules.

I had considered the first point for creating conflict (differing chapters and demeanors) but not the other two. So again thanks for that input, I will give that some consideration. The issue I see with fostering competition is that this is a one-shot campaign, so I don't expect the players to get too invested in their characters (though as GMs we are supposed to rate our players on their RPing and pick a winner at the end of the weekend). As a result why should they care if their PC who they will never see again gets the final blow on the Big Bad?

As a new point, one of the "archetypes" for a PC I was considering was a Scout/Sniper tactical marine. Now I wanted to include a Space Wolf in the party in case someone picks the DA Apothecary I stated up, but looking over the rules for Raptors in Honour the Chapter they make perfect scout/snipers, having access to Marksman and a number of applicable skills (concealment, silent move, tactics (recon and stealth)). That said, there is a Wolf Scout advanced specialty, but I don't like him not getting access to the marksman talent and I dont like the aesthetic of the stalker pistol over the regular stalker bolter. Am I making a mistake here (in so far as a personal preference can't really be a "mistake")?

Wish I'd seen this earlier.

If you want a sandbox, don't give them animated opponents. Give them a stationary target, maybe a shield generator or power station. Live targets move. They react. Stationary targets have garrisons.

Two sessions could be...

1) Land, infiltrate, assault, and plant the charges

2) Escape and retrieval