... please

I have not roleplayed in what seems like ages and my prospects look gloomy for foreseeable future, but I found myself reading the OW sourcebooks again, so I wonder: How are your battles to protects Mankind going?

What does your group look like? What is your regiment? Who/what are your enemies? Do you play your story as Gaunts Ghosts war epic, unfortunate incidents alá Caiphas Cain, or brutal one-shots, Fifteen Hours-style? Is it all action action action death, or have you find some way to make downtime enjoyable but not goofy? Any memorable, awesome or hilarious incidents?

I would be grateful for such general chatter thread.

I'm currently a player in a OW game, which is probably mostly inspire by Gaunt's Ghosts.

We're Vanguard Grenadiers, fighting secessionist who're atleast partially infiltrated by chaos.

The GM has been dropping tips that the planet itself is tainted.

It's very action heavy. Very.

I'd prefer a bit more downtime, but no, let's get to the front.

How do you handle the "humanity" of your enemies? I have experience from one-shot I gamemastered that some players can be disturbed by the graphic description of war against ordinary humans, and especially there could be some ugly implications with non-combat interactions (such as interrogation). At least not all in the group I played were not comfortable with some of the shades of grey I presented. Funnily enough, when I upped "grimdarkness" and they were discovered some really monstroues and creepy heretek experiments it got much better.

Also, when meeting chaos, is it more villians-with-spikes variety, just guys with different ideology and some weird iconography, or something downright disturbing (as I started with novel analogies, imagine Traitor General or insanity in Fire Warrior)

What could you have possibly said to disturb your players? I think of the most hideously awful things and my players are just like, "cool!"

What could you have possibly said to disturb your players? I think of the most hideously awful things and my players are just like, "cool!"

Proceed with caution:

http://www.crossedcomic.com/category/the-webcomic/

Substitute your chaos cultists with Crossed psychos (don't forget to read all the Crossed comics, especially the Badlands series) and watch the world burn!

What could you have possibly said to disturb your players? I think of the most hideously awful things and my players are just like, "cool!"

I guess that was the problem was, it wasnt hideously awful enough*. After the first big fight, they inspected the enemy fallen and I probably overemphasized how young and scared and horribly massacred were the antagonists (PCs were Stormtrooper assault force, first enemies regular secessionist conscripts). The real breakdown was when one character, whose player is cool guy and great roleplayer, witnessed the interrogation/torture of mysterious female** NPC. he broke incharacter and shot the interrogator which was the commando second-in-command. The other player was in character enough to obey the order to execute him, but it killed the game as well.

This episode taught me,that if you want to up cruelty and some really bad actions, not in the over the top manner, you should learn what the players consider tasteful, or "not fun anymore".

*same group in other rpg burned down the whole innocent village, including the inhabitants, by accident, and it is one of our funniest stories

**just to clarify, I am no misogynist, I have a lot, and I hope believable female characters, and this scene was dictated by logic (she was infitraitor double agent), sadly it probably stroke the nerve of one player

My players regularly execute any and all Severan civilians, including women and children. One player takes the tongues of every person he kills. Very little would shake them.

Our Campaign is the first outing of our penal legion the Luggnum 14th, we`re enacting an pacification and depopulation of a world embroiled in a two hundred year long civil war.

The basic fluff is that after two hundred years of not prticularly caring the Imperium has noticed that orders of the naval armour produced on this world have started to build up a two century backlog and tithes have been all but non-existant, this will not do. Time to cleanse it all with fire and repopulate with fresh genestock.

The war started when Orks invaded the planet by the time honoured method of crashing a rok into it. To avoid any personal loss of life the nobility withdrew to an orbital station, leaving orders to repel the orks, after almost three decades of fighting the Orks were defeated (if not annihilated) and the nobility was shocked to find that the workers they`d abandoned to fight the war while they sat in orbit drinking were not all that pleased with them. Since then the nobles have mounted o attempts to9 regain a foothold in their old domain and the workers below have launched raids with captured or crudely manufactered orbital craft.

Essentially we are sent into the nobles orbital station first as a band of terrorists, ordered to cause as much chaos and distraction as possible to divert men and resources from resisting the main push by the pacification fleets more conventional forces.

So far we have unleashed a frenzonned (sp?) Ogryn in a defensive turret control centre, collapsed an occupied civillian tower block with a demolition charge, burned down a noble`s manse and highjacked loading servitors to carry homemade firebombs.

Also we`ve had in-squad conflict as our ogryn and our commissar have fallen out after the commissar confiscated the ogryn`s ripper gun "gibby"... twice. This has lead to the commissar being given a detonator for the ogryn`s explosive-collar. We also have a strange development as our Ogryn and heavy gunner (whose players are married IRL) are becoming "good friends" which raises issues of a logistical and anatomical nature nobody wishes to think about too much.

Aside from that we have a corporal whose nervous breakdown makes him incapable of making command decisions, a medic who may just disect us and sell the meat for food, an operator whose sticky fingers are the stuff of legend and a pyromanic who somebody gave a flamer.

So far we have unleashed a frenzonned (sp?) Ogryn in a

My campaign is organized as a series of three-session mini-campaigns each set on a different world. Between each mini-campaign they return to their staging area and have a session to rest and get into trouble exploring a friendly city. So far we’ve played two full mini-campaigns and one rest session.

By far the best session we’ve had was the resting one. I unleashed them on a city based on Seoul with several plot hooks. They managed to trash an expatriate bar, hook up with women from another regiment, party at a cutesy café that turns into a fetish nightclub after dark, connect with the local underground for ‘second hand’ cybernetics, and finally ‘borrow’ a high ranking officers medals in order to bluff their way into the stormtrooper giving a special lecture at a local educational institution while the rest of the party breaks into the chemical storage in order to steal what they need for the medic to make a huge batch of drugs.

I’m going to have a lot of fun dealing with the ramifications of their actions next session as the people they beat up in the bar fight are eager for revenge, and one of the girls they hooked up with has a surprise (hint: it’s been about a year since they last saw each other). The bit I’m most interested to do is an optional mission to track down the son of an important noble. Last time the party was here, they made a special order for some bionics. The two are connected in a suitably grimdark fashion.

Umm...well...umm... What I will say is that I really like the human feel on this. Even when it is 40k's endeavor not to, it often feels unbelievable. People live to die, fighting endless battles that don't matter against foes that can never be defeated, supplied by only the fact that Humanity is the largest faction. People know nothing, are taught little, and live and die droning through their assigned tasks. I often find it hard to envision people in 40k actually being people, NOT slaving away at a station they'll never leave, that their parent never left, drooling asleep, and dying. I never imagine them going out, blowing off steam, finding a bar, getting laid, having fun, getting into trouble, etc. (In fact, the way I often see the Imperium portrayed, I question how many people ever find the chance to reproduce, to be honest.) I really rather appreciate the human twist on this, even if it makes me stare at it, bug-eyed, wondering how these people know how to live it up. Very nice. These feel more like people who might actually want to LIVE in their sh*tty universe, something of what Humanity is, rather than just another mindless horde trying to consume the galaxy (read: old Necrons, Nids, etc.) Very good.

I am currently GM'ing an OW campaign:

The players are members of a Light Infantry Regiment from Marioch, in the Calixis Sector. Approximately 1 year before the start of the campaign, Marioch is destroyed - hence "Lost Homeworld." The Regiment is the Marioch 3rd and Last, a combination of survivors from the 5 Marioch regiments that were left after the loss of their world.

The campaign has been going for about a month, so the players are still on their first theatre of warfare - Fourtheden, against Severans and some Dark Eldar down the line.

I try to keep the campaign RP-first, which is difficult to do in OW, but not impossible. It's a big group, rounding in at 7 players right now. Thus far, I think we've done a good job mixing in the RP and I've afforded the players as many opportunities to do so as I can. We'll see how it goes, but I'm liking where it is right now.

I am currently GM'ing an OW campaign:

The players are members of a Light Infantry Regiment from Marioch, in the Calixis Sector. Approximately 1 year before the start of the campaign, Marioch is destroyed - hence "Lost Homeworld." The Regiment is the Marioch 3rd and Last, a combination of survivors from the 5 Marioch regiments that were left after the loss of their world.

The campaign has been going for about a month, so the players are still on their first theatre of warfare - Fourtheden, against Severans and some Dark Eldar down the line.

I try to keep the campaign RP-first, which is difficult to do in OW, but not impossible. It's a big group, rounding in at 7 players right now. Thus far, I think we've done a good job mixing in the RP and I've afforded the players as many opportunities to do so as I can. We'll see how it goes, but I'm liking where it is right now.

Hey, mine is on Fourtheden too! They've just finished fighting the Severans, and have gotten their asses handed to them by the Dark Eldar. I'm GMing mine with 8 players, and I'm awfully new. I would love to hear what you've been doing in your campaign!

I'm playing a heavy gunner for thw 10th Cadian Mechanised Siege Infantry (The Siege Dogs). We've just been caputed by the Dark Eldar after trying to escape a planet which had to be given the exterminatus because we accidentally awoke some necrons while fighting Orks.

The amount of detail for the regiment is beautiful though, and I couldnt do it justice. Its all stored on http://onlywar.enjin.com/forum if you want to take a look at the full regiment history, decals, badges etc.

We also have part of a session on youtube if anyone wants to listen to it

81st Landrian, Drop Bears. We fall out of the sky and take positions through shock attack, though our SoP is slowly changing to silent drops, patrolling up and winning through stealth.

Our platoon is the 44th, LT is a player, I'm the Gunnery Sergeant, another player is our requisition officer (has some munitorum ties) and the last PC is our chief medic. We're all NCO or above (mostly through changing specialities and field promotions) and run the whole platoon, so we have a lot of outside combat responsibilities now.

Our regiment was recently blended with the Landrian 202, light infantry assault regiment (result of heavy losses on our last deployment where we liberated a desert planet from chaos insurrection). We've got the 209 guys up to speed on drop proceedure and we're now on Dusk where the Seney Clan has returned and taken hold on the planet.

Our drop took us into a rail station, we were the first boots on the ground and it was a rough fight, but we retook it and captured the base commander.

Now we've learned that one of our allied regiments, the Osivian 209 Riverines, has been compromised by mutant insurgents, our commissars have been catpured while on leave and they snagged one of the 44th's squads. I scouted it out and they're held at a run down church, HQ has given us permission to drop in and perform a rescue operation, but we'er all worried our comrades will be corrupted and we'll have to kill them. They're good mates (aside the bloody commissars), even on our first deployment there was a "rogue element" but we knew they were still on the Emperor's side, it was all a cover up for a bungled inquisitorial job. This time the threat is real and we're not liking it.

Next session should be the drop. Here we go again.

I am currently GM'ing an OW campaign:

The players are members of a Light Infantry Regiment from Marioch, in the Calixis Sector. Approximately 1 year before the start of the campaign, Marioch is destroyed - hence "Lost Homeworld." The Regiment is the Marioch 3rd and Last, a combination of survivors from the 5 Marioch regiments that were left after the loss of their world.

The campaign has been going for about a month, so the players are still on their first theatre of warfare - Fourtheden, against Severans and some Dark Eldar down the line.

I try to keep the campaign RP-first, which is difficult to do in OW, but not impossible. It's a big group, rounding in at 7 players right now. Thus far, I think we've done a good job mixing in the RP and I've afforded the players as many opportunities to do so as I can. We'll see how it goes, but I'm liking where it is right now.

Hey, mine is on Fourtheden too! They've just finished fighting the Severans, and have gotten their asses handed to them by the Dark Eldar. I'm GMing mine with 8 players, and I'm awfully new. I would love to hear what you've been doing in your campaign!

Thus far, it's been a very straight-forward series of operations surrounding taking and holding a bridge. They have just pushed off the bridge after being relieved by the remainder of the platoon, and are now scouting into enemy territory towards a suspected Severan command or communications center - which it is not. This is where they will meet the Dark Eldar for the first time. I've instructed them NOT to do any reading on Fourtheden - assuming they have followed my instructions, they should have no idea of what they will find there.

All goes according to plan, their encounter with the Dark Eldar will start them on the path that ends their time on Fourtheden. I planned this arc to be about 8 sessions of ~3 hours a piece. It will likely be closer to 10 because some combat encounters went long due to piss poor rolls by everyone. Either way, it's close enough that I wouldn't say its dragged on in any way.

The players seem to like it so far, but most of them are just waiting for the other shoe to drop - i.e. something unexpected to happen. They know me too well...

Following up on Cail's post, here are the links to the recordings of our groups session (1st hour, 2nd hour, with 3rd and 4th incoming). Our last session was very combat heavy, but our next session tomorrow will have more social interaction to get a feel for the 10th's personalities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z14vgGShY3E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo8Xk4ji5JU

NSFW due to swearing, but otherwise fine.

One thing we will be doing in our next batch of recording is making an ooc introduction to match voices with players and their characters. We forgot to do that, since we are already well established among each other before Callum (playing the Commissar) suggested recording.

Cool stuff guys, thanks a lot *plunges into reading and listening*

I wonder, how would you modify your games with coming of new codex, if at all.

Are you referencing all the name changes going on in the new Astra Militarum/Imperial Guard codex?

Qiute simply, not going ot take a 'pow, right in the face' effect. I've already been using some of the terms when some npcs were speaking in high gothic ("We are the hammer of the Imperium. We are the Astra Militarum, sworn to fealty to defend it's realms!"), but the line troopers only know 'I am a guardsmen".

Other than some fanciful names, I haven't heard of any big changes that would effectively alter the IG in a way i'd have to take into consideration.

Are you referencing all the name changes going on in the new Astra Militarum/Imperial Guard codex?

Qiute simply, not going ot take a 'pow, right in the face' effect. I've already been using some of the terms when some npcs were speaking in high gothic ("We are the hammer of the Imperium. We are the Astra Militarum, sworn to fealty to defend it's realms!"), but the line troopers only know 'I am a guardsmen".

Other than some fanciful names, I haven't heard of any big changes that would effectively alter the IG in a way i'd have to take into consideration.

No... and probably won't ever switch over to the new nomenclature. I've always known them as the Imperial Guard. I won't be changing that any time soon, and certainly not based on the fact that GW couldn't trademark/copyright "Imperial Guard."

Thus far, it's been a very straight-forward series of operations surrounding taking and holding a bridge. They have just pushed off the bridge after being relieved by the remainder of the platoon, and are now scouting into enemy territory towards a suspected Severan command or communications center - which it is not. This is where they will meet the Dark Eldar for the first time. I've instructed them NOT to do any reading on Fourtheden - assuming they have followed my instructions, they should have no idea of what they will find there.

All goes according to plan, their encounter with the Dark Eldar will start them on the path that ends their time on Fourtheden. I planned this arc to be about 8 sessions of ~3 hours a piece. It will likely be closer to 10 because some combat encounters went long due to piss poor rolls by everyone. Either way, it's close enough that I wouldn't say its dragged on in any way.

The players seem to like it so far, but most of them are just waiting for the other shoe to drop - i.e. something unexpected to happen. They know me too well...

I see, and I like where you are going with it! I started our siege regiment out with a somewhat botched combat landing, then trench warfare for a time. I moved them up to small squad based missions, first to sabotage an artillery fixture and then to a series of villages for different tasks. I found a planetary map generator, and a city/town generator tool that I used to make the villages and now the cities they've been fighting in.

The players have steadily built up enough experience and weaponry to trounce most Severan squads, so I had a tense mission where Dark Eldar descended from the sky, raiding, pillaging, and taking slaves from the city as the PCs had to fight their way to the spaceport. Surviving that, they had to plant a bomb on the Dark Eldar ship in orbit, and their next mission will be them attempting to flee on an Aquila lander. Pursued, of course, by Dark Eldar fighters. Should be fun!

What do you do for social interaction? I've had some with villagers, but my players are more "shoot first, ask later" kinds of folks.

Thus far, it's been a very straight-forward series of operations surrounding taking and holding a bridge. They have just pushed off the bridge after being relieved by the remainder of the platoon, and are now scouting into enemy territory towards a suspected Severan command or communications center - which it is not. This is where they will meet the Dark Eldar for the first time. I've instructed them NOT to do any reading on Fourtheden - assuming they have followed my instructions, they should have no idea of what they will find there.

All goes according to plan, their encounter with the Dark Eldar will start them on the path that ends their time on Fourtheden. I planned this arc to be about 8 sessions of ~3 hours a piece. It will likely be closer to 10 because some combat encounters went long due to piss poor rolls by everyone. Either way, it's close enough that I wouldn't say its dragged on in any way.

The players seem to like it so far, but most of them are just waiting for the other shoe to drop - i.e. something unexpected to happen. They know me too well...

I see, and I like where you are going with it! I started our siege regiment out with a somewhat botched combat landing, then trench warfare for a time. I moved them up to small squad based missions, first to sabotage an artillery fixture and then to a series of villages for different tasks. I found a planetary map generator, and a city/town generator tool that I used to make the villages and now the cities they've been fighting in.

The players have steadily built up enough experience and weaponry to trounce most Severan squads, so I had a tense mission where Dark Eldar descended from the sky, raiding, pillaging, and taking slaves from the city as the PCs had to fight their way to the spaceport. Surviving that, they had to plant a bomb on the Dark Eldar ship in orbit, and their next mission will be them attempting to flee on an Aquila lander. Pursued, of course, by Dark Eldar fighters. Should be fun!

What do you do for social interaction? I've had some with villagers, but my players are more "shoot first, ask later" kinds of folks.

Sounds like a nice campaign thus far, bud. Well done. Would play.

As for the social interactions, they've had a lot of in-squad RP, and some with other members of the Regiment as well as a Mordian Iron Guard Sergeant they "rescued" from captivity by the Severans holding the bridge they took.

The majority has taken the form of interrogating the few Severans they've captured. I like a lot of non-linear elements in my arcs. Which, this far, has taken the form of info they got from one of their prisoners triggering a sub-story. They didn't have to get the info, but when they did, it opened doors that would have otherwise remained shut. That sort of thing makes them feel "important" to the war effort - even if they are no more than 1 squad amongst the hundreds of thousands of troops on Fourtheden.

My players are RP-focused, so I never really have to worry about shoot first mentality. Despite that, I underestimated them getting the trigger info from the captive. In the future, I'll hide the keys a little better.

Thus far, it's been a very straight-forward series of operations surrounding taking and holding a bridge. They have just pushed off the bridge after being relieved by the remainder of the platoon, and are now scouting into enemy territory towards a suspected Severan command or communications center - which it is not. This is where they will meet the Dark Eldar for the first time. I've instructed them NOT to do any reading on Fourtheden - assuming they have followed my instructions, they should have no idea of what they will find there.

All goes according to plan, their encounter with the Dark Eldar will start them on the path that ends their time on Fourtheden. I planned this arc to be about 8 sessions of ~3 hours a piece. It will likely be closer to 10 because some combat encounters went long due to piss poor rolls by everyone. Either way, it's close enough that I wouldn't say its dragged on in any way.

The players seem to like it so far, but most of them are just waiting for the other shoe to drop - i.e. something unexpected to happen. They know me too well...

I see, and I like where you are going with it! I started our siege regiment out with a somewhat botched combat landing, then trench warfare for a time. I moved them up to small squad based missions, first to sabotage an artillery fixture and then to a series of villages for different tasks. I found a planetary map generator, and a city/town generator tool that I used to make the villages and now the cities they've been fighting in.

The players have steadily built up enough experience and weaponry to trounce most Severan squads, so I had a tense mission where Dark Eldar descended from the sky, raiding, pillaging, and taking slaves from the city as the PCs had to fight their way to the spaceport. Surviving that, they had to plant a bomb on the Dark Eldar ship in orbit, and their next mission will be them attempting to flee on an Aquila lander. Pursued, of course, by Dark Eldar fighters. Should be fun!

What do you do for social interaction? I've had some with villagers, but my players are more "shoot first, ask later" kinds of folks.

Sounds like a nice campaign thus far, bud. Well done. Would play.

As for the social interactions, they've had a lot of in-squad RP, and some with other members of the Regiment as well as a Mordian Iron Guard Sergeant they "rescued" from captivity by the Severans holding the bridge they took.

The majority has taken the form of interrogating the few Severans they've captured. I like a lot of non-linear elements in my arcs. Which, this far, has taken the form of info they got from one of their prisoners triggering a sub-story. They didn't have to get the info, but when they did, it opened doors that would have otherwise remained shut. That sort of thing makes them feel "important" to the war effort - even if they are no more than 1 squad amongst the hundreds of thousands of troops on Fourtheden.

My players are RP-focused, so I never really have to worry about shoot first mentality. Despite that, I underestimated them getting the trigger info from the captive. In the future, I'll hide the keys a little better.

Thanks, I appreciate it

They've had some interactions with villagers that went well, but interrogations and captures usually end up as, "I cut off his fingers one by one" for no reason except to mark it as a kill on the back of their character sheet.

I do like the idea of a rescue, as that can add some RP in the form of a favor. I might try that if the players survive a crash landing. If.

I think anyone cutting off fingers as kill markers should be accumulating insanity points as well. thats not the action of a sane mind. In my game anyone doing this sort of thing will be gaining them till an appropriate insanity kicks in to warrant such barbaric behaviour.

I'm running an online game using Infrno.com. Its a reboot of an old game that I couldn't get off the ground, but with a new regiment. We ended up with a Schola Progenium Drop Troop unit that uses Jump Packs (stats borrowed from Rogue Trader). We started with a Commissar, a Storm Trooper, a Heavy Weapons grunt, and a Ministorum Priest. The Storm Trooper's player has stopped showing up, and the Priest had some seriously bad luck (fell down a few stories, got an ear blown off, got an arm broken...) so his player may try making a Medic instead.

I've been running No Surrender for them thus far, which kicks off with a crazy assault on a star fort. Its been intense and fun if a bit exhausting. We've gotten to the end of the first Act after 3 sessions, and I'm hopeful the next session will have more breathing room for roleplaying and developing the personalities of our regiment. Scheduling is a bit tricky (but when isn't it?) and I wish we could meet more frequently, but its been quite rewarding.

If you want to read up on the game, see some recaps, and review character profiles, check this website: http://www.infrno.net/games/4280-only-war-force-majeure