I'd like some help maybe refining the flow/progression of what I have and maybe a few ideas as well. This is my first time running Deathwatch, or any 40k RPG for that matter. I have a fair amount of experience playing RPGs, but much less actually running them. Being such a big fan of the franchise and having a sudden itch to get into 40k again, I decided to look into the RPGs, and I landed on Deathwatch (Ohhhh, glooorious black-clad Space Marines *drool*)

We've tried to play once before when another GM expressed interest in the game, but the only thing he (very poorly) ran us through was the small Extraction adventure in the core book. Seeing as how that's been done already with the pair of players I'll have, I've decided that I want to take us through a few small combat tutorials first, but then I'd like to move on to my own adventure.

I want to know if anyone has any processes that they typically go through when forming up their own missions. There's the very obvious "Brief, Do Objectives, Win, Debrief" but I want my missions to be a little more in depth than that with the twists and turns and plot devices and lions and tigers and bears, oh my. I want them to fall more in line with the typical idea of a fantasy adventure and I know it can be done.

I have bunches of small ideas, some combative, some roleplaying, some just epic things for the players to behold before the events that they take part in unfold, but I have nothing to really tie them together.

I have a very, VERY basic idea of what I'd like to do for this , but I want to stretch it out in such a way that there is tension and a bit of ticklish feeling in the chest when things happen. And none of it's fleshed out beyond an "oh, that'd be neat" phase.

My idea is that Eldar are encroaching on an Imperial populated world and so to deal with the threat quietly enough not to gain the attention of the general citizens on the planet, the Kill Team is dispatched to handle the small force of Eldar on its own. That's the very face-value reason for the mission.

The Eldar are there for reasons that really don't concern the Imperium at all. The force is comprised of only a very small amount of elite warriors and a Farseer. They're their to retrieve an ancient Eldar relic (a remote of sorts) that actually links several concealed short-ranged Webways on the surface of the planet and destroy it because there is a foreboding Chaos presence that has begun to loom over the planet, and should the Webways be activated, the forces of the Dark Gods will inevitably use this to their advantage and force themselves into the network to invade the planet, perhaps the solar system, perhaps more...?

Inevitably, I plan to have the Eldar majorly screw up either on account of the players or through some other outside force, the Webways will activate and with such a strong Chaos presence ready to erupt, the Eldar will be pulverized (lightning disintigration by way of crazy Webway portal?) in favor of some messed up Slaaneshi and Tzeentchian Daemons.

I'm planning on only having the incursion be small at first giving the players the chance to quell the immediate threat and then systematically deactivate/destroy the Webways to prevent more Daemons from pouring through. (How do they get to each webway on the planet in a reasonable amount of time? Are the webways close together? Would Marines travel through a Webway gate? I don't know!)

I'd like to, at some point, present a choice for the players, that being that they either must save a fairly large amount of citizens or a few fellow Battle Brothers (nice and simple roleplaying dilemma? Two kill teams on one mission? One kill team split into two forces?)

Not saving the Battle Brothers will have repurcussions later on (perhaps in another adventure? or maybe they had something detrimental to a greater success in the mission)
But, of course, not saving the civilians will be a direct assault on the morals of my players and probably their Marines. We'll see.

All in all, I want them to be able to stave off a full on Daemon invasion before it occurs while still getting the chance to face off against some Eldar and some Lesser Daemons along with, maybe, a single Greater Daemon of some kind (Keeper of Secrets fits in line with the Eldar more)

I figure some Eldar and a nice a batch of Daemons won't be too tough to take on. After all, from a lore perspective, we're talking about seasoned Space Marines here, not neophytes.

I'm aware a lot of these things don't have stats, or maybe they do and I just haven't seen them, but I can make my own stats with enough time.

I'd just like some feedback and some suggestions, please! Maybe throw a couple of plot hooks my way for later, or just some nice ways to flesh out my existing ideas and link them.

And again, if you've got a process of creation you wouldn't mind sharing with me, I'm all for hearing it.

Sorry for the long post! And thanks in advance : )

The best piece of advice I can give is to not overplan your idea. Reason being is that no matter what you come up with your players will always find a way to break or disrupt your plan, whether it be to kill the important plot NPC, wander off the wrong way and go chasing a dead end, ignoring their orders and getting in an tight spot etc. Have backup plans in mind or be ready to play a few sessions off the cuff if you can manage it. Whether this is just vague ideas or possible escape clauses for player intervention it's always worth having something in mind

I myself find a billion ideas start coming to mind for plot ideas other than the one I want to work on. So stick to your idea no matter what. Don't fall into my trap where I keep thinking "This is a good idea", start working on something then think "This is also a really good idea for a plot" and find myself working on that more than the original idea.

Regarding the plot, Eldar rarely screw up as their farseers are usually pretty hot stuff. So you are more likely to see their failure as a result of player interaction than Chaos intervention. Note I did say "more likely", Eldar do have bad days! Also you mentioned a choice between civilian death and battle brothers. In my opinion the choice is a no brainer. Marines have strong bonds to each other and may have no quarrel saving their own at the cost of a few lives. This will likely not affect them as much as the civilian casualties are "acceptable losses". A space marine takes years of training and development, more effort than replacing a few humans . Last point, with all those daemons, be prepared for players to consider calling in the Ordo Malleus or Exterminatus. Unless this planet has significant tactical or strategic value then they may consider either glassing it or calling in the specialist Daemon hunters as this isn't necessarily their expertise and while manageable to the Deathwatch and can hold their own well, its not their speciality over the silver clad cheese knights. Also if it has little worth and is daemon infested then exterminatus is probably the better option. Removes xeno and daemon taint in one go.

Listen to Calgor, the don't overplan part is spot-on. Break the mission up into small parts (the sequence of the planned encounters should be as flexible as you can reasonably manage it), so it doesn't look like you're railroading the players.

And it depends on the players, but I think if you can depict the threat as imminent, you can count on the KT trying to fight it, and not call the Malleus in. My guys sure would try to kick some Daemon ass before calling in the big guns.

I'll follow up on a few more of your questions, but, alas, real life work calls

Regarding the plot, Eldar rarely screw up as their farseers are usually pretty hot stuff. So you are more likely to see their failure as a result of player interaction than Chaos intervention. Note I did say "more likely", Eldar do have bad days! Also you mentioned a choice between civilian death and battle brothers. In my opinion the choice is a no brainer. Marines have strong bonds to each other and may have no quarrel saving their own at the cost of a few lives. This will likely not affect them as much as the civilian casualties are "acceptable losses". A space marine takes years of training and development, more effort than replacing a few humans . Last point, with all those daemons, be prepared for players to consider calling in the Ordo Malleus or Exterminatus. Unless this planet has significant tactical or strategic value then they may consider either glassing it or calling in the specialist Daemon hunters as this isn't necessarily their expertise and while manageable to the Deathwatch and can hold their own well, its not their speciality over the silver clad cheese knights. Also if it has little worth and is daemon infested then exterminatus is probably the better option. Removes xeno and daemon taint in one go.

You might make the (moral) dilemma more interesting if you adapt the possibilities. I'd probably go for a choice between:

1. A possibility to save another squad of Space Marines. For example: "The kill team stands at the border of the portal area. A large, deepblue shimmering energyfield is visible between the ancient Eldar constructions. Looking through the field, the members of the klll team see another band of marines, possibly Dark Angels on the other side. They are under heavy fire from an unknown enemy, but they've taken a good defensive position and seem to keep the enemy at bay... for now. When the kill team examines the installation, it looks like it's a one-way portal. Should they leave the other squad and continue with their mission on this planet?"
2. An objective that is more valuable than just the lives of a few thousand/millions of civilans. The planet could be a forge world that is producing Titans for the Legio Vindictus. If they abandon the planet and its population, they endanger the production and possibly the outcome of an entire battle.

I kinda agree with Calgor Grim and Musungu. Players are always on the lookout for some way to sidetrack the story. However, I do appreciate a greater story behind the unique encounters, and that means you have to plan in advance. To avoid railroading your players, you could work with a kind of "decision tree". You start with you initial adventure, but leave (at least) two options open for the players. You then start working with the consequences of those options. This doesn't mean you have to prepare several storylines all the time. You can use different parts of stories later.

I realise that my explanation isn't very enlightning, so again an example

You give your players the chance to win or loose time in a quest. Depending on the amount of time they spend, they arrive earlier or later at the Eldar artefact. You now prepare two scenario's for the encounter at the artefact, but you can keep the stats of the enemy, maps of the encounter, fluff texts (perhaps a bit adapted),... The difference would be that if they didn't waste any time, they find the Eldar at the site, but they have the drop on them (suprise round). If they did take too much time to get there, the Eldar are well prepared. Give them some extra cover, perhaps you change the description of the artefact (bonesingers are in place, activating the thing) and this artefact has an area-effect. This way you have changed the encounter without having to prepare two completely different sets of scenario's. This makes the world you play in, come a bit more alive.

So, perhaps if I do Daemons, I shouldn't focus on them as heavily as I might have wanted to, for now , at least.
I'm liking the feedback I'm getting on the dilemma bit. I kind of figured one of the first responses I'd get would be "Space Marines will save Space Marines over civvies any day of the week." Don't really know why I didn't heed that, but I like the objective alternative.

Also, while you all don't necessarily flesh out a detailed path for the mission itself (instead going for single things that all get used within the mission) it makes me wonder if you spend more time detailing the back end of your sessions such as the details the planet, the aesthetic of the jungle, the very deep motivations of the Eldar, multiple ideas for success and failure of the mission. I wonder because there seems to be an explanation for everything in the examples I'm getting (not that that's a bad thing!) so I'd just like a rough idea of how much time you spend in that area.

For the mission itself, it seems like creating the decision tree would be optimal. But do you jot down everything that comes to you when it comes to you or do your force yourself to start at the beginning and step-by-step it all of the way to the end covering all of the possibilities (or at least the major ones) along the way?

Or would it be better to work backwards from a few desired outcomes and tip them off at "Disembarks from Thunderhawk" as an example.

How many major events do you each plan for a session and how much do you just improvise on, just in case the players take an unexpected route or do something completely out of the blue? What do you fill up most of your improv with?

I probably also need to brush up on my knowledge of Eldar a tad more, it seems, maybe not have a screw-up occur, or if it does, cause it to be due to the players as stated above.

I'm very wary of the possibilities of something going terribly awry in the process of a scripted event too. I once found myself overcome with terror when running a game of Star Wars because I had hidden a bunch of innocent civvies inside of mounds of laundry (I can't remember why...I was like 14 years old at the time) and without much warning, one my players decided to whip out his lightsaber and stab the mounds of moving cloth.

One thing I do know is that I like working with an overall theme. In 40k, my ideas typically revolve around what faction I'm working with since every race and faction in the game is very goal oriented, and I like to build ideas from there.

I love Eldar. Not more than Chaos...but I still love them.

And my initial thought was that since Kill Teams are supposed to be alien hunters, I'd go for Eldar.
From there, two of the most obvious things that concern Eldar popped into my head. Webways and Slaanesh.
And so I threw together my crumby little idea (or not so crumby?)

Also, visual conveyance seems like an extremely important thing to highlight the Eldar and all of their glory since the Eldar are supposedly such graceful warriors, and they also look **** cool too.
But what other things would you all say need to be concentrated on when presenting them?

Also, while you all don't necessarily flesh out a detailed path for the mission itself (instead going for single things that all get used within the mission) it makes me wonder if you spend more time detailing the back end of your sessions such as the details the planet, the aesthetic of the jungle, the very deep motivations of the Eldar, multiple ideas for success and failure of the mission. I wonder because there seems to be an explanation for everything in the examples I'm getting (not that that's a bad thing!) so I'd just like a rough idea of how much time you spend in that area.

I try to have some descriptions at the ready, both general (such as a description of the jungle when they first make planetfall) as specific (such as the Eldar artefact they encounter). The sole objective for me in providing the general description is to set the mood for the session.

Concerning the wider storyarc; I like having an overspanning story that connects the different sessions. This is not an obligation. I think the storyarc you provided (Eldar presence - Chaos threat) is sufficient. You could flesh it out a bit, by putting names on the different antagonists, but in my opinion it's enough.

For the mission itself, it seems like creating the decision tree would be optimal. But do you jot down everything that comes to you when it comes to you or do your force yourself to start at the beginning and step-by-step it all of the way to the end covering all of the possibilities (or at least the major ones) along the way?

Or would it be better to work backwards from a few desired outcomes and tip them off at "Disembarks from Thunderhawk" as an example.

You have to be careful around these decisiontrees. Even if you leave only two choices at each decision, you're counting already 8 different scenario's after only three choices. If you're using this method, things become unmanageable real quickly. Therefore, it is important to have central points where every choice runs back to. For example, in your scenario, whatever the kill team does, at some point an inquisitor drops by for a visit and redirects them towards a seemingly abandoned outpost on the moon of the planet. There and then you can restart your decisiontree from zero.

Also, try to use skipped parts of your story. For example:

Part 1 (finding the Eldar troops) leads to Decision A (Kill Eldar troops) or Decision B (Cooperate with Eldar troops)

Decision A leads to part 2 (Adeptus Mechanicus examine Eldar artefact)

Decision B leads to part 3 (Eldar try to salvage artefact but are overcome by Chaos)

Part 2 leads to Decision G (Let the Mechanicus salvage the artefact) Decision H (Kill team tries to destroy artefact);

Decision G leads again to part 3 (Mechanicus try to salvage artefact but are overcome by Chaos)

Decision H leads to part 4 (Kill team destroys the artefact)

Part 3 and Part 4 always lead to Part 5 (Inquisitor comes in, leads the kill team to abandon the site, to try again someplace else)

How many major events do you each plan for a session and how much do you just improvise on, just in case the players take an unexpected route or do something completely out of the blue? What do you fill up most of your improv with?

I'm very bad at improvising, so I try to plan out most of it. Some GM's excel when improvising. This really is up to you.

I don't think there is a fixed rule for the number of encounters you put into a session. In fact, in my stories, if we can end on a cliffhanger, it's a nice extra. If not, there will be pizza and we'll be happy anyway.

And my initial thought was that since Kill Teams are supposed to be alien hunters, I'd go for Eldar.

From there, two of the most obvious things that concern Eldar popped into my head. Webways and Slaanesh.

And so I threw together my crumby little idea (or not so crumby?)

Not so crumby at all

Also, visual conveyance seems like an extremely important thing to highlight the Eldar and all of their glory since the Eldar are supposedly such graceful warriors, and they also look **** cool too.

But what other things would you all say need to be concentrated on when presenting them?

Think about all the senses a space marine can put to use. Perhaps these Eldar are bathed in a perfume of sweet spices, when they talk to the voices, you could mimick or describe their xeno-voices. When they look at the Eldar, they not only see their red, sneaky eyes, but also the alien design of their armour and weapons. If they ram their chainsword through their pityful, frail bodies, describe that unlike the dense muscular biostructure of an Ork, the marine nearly overshoots because of their weak internal skeleton)

PS: Anyone knows how you can separate the same quote in multiple blocks?

For what it's worth, I think your mistake (and they are common rookie errors) is going too big. Don't go for the plot twists and epic storylines at the start. There's plenty of time for that. You first want to get your players into the game, not into the plot. Many short and unconnected missions get the players into their characters and the system. Once they're invested in their characters you can work on getting them invested in your story. Burying them in a new system, their characters, and a storyline often overwhelms starting players.