Hello fellow Gamemasters. Recently my friend and I have discovered 40k rpg. We are big 40k fans and since we can not viably participate in the tabletop game we thought an rpg would work out for us. Not only do we get to play characters we will see grow in powers but we also love the fluff in the 40k universe as presented by the Black Library.

Now I am not new to rpgs but I am definitely new to being a GM. I decided to be GM because I really like to write stories (although I never can find time to finish them). I thought being a GM can get me to use some of these partly written stories and turn them into something fun and exciting.

Two of us are very familiar with the 40k universe. Three of us not so much. So we tried to get the group to read some of the main book and get a little background info before we could meet up to go over rules and make up characters. Some were able to get some reading in, others not so much. We set up sessions to go over a brief history and info for everyone in general. We went over a lot of the basic rules and set up characters in our second session (most of the group learns more from playing a game than just reading rules). Making up characters helped with going over some of the rules. We cleared up some questions everyone had and decided to give the Extraction mission in the main rulebook a go this past sunday.

I am worried it didn't go as the designers planned. I understand the mission was more a general outline and I needed to fill in encounters and other info. I did stick a bit to the suggestions in the mission and think it may have been a bit too easy in the beginning. Within an hour of narrative time? The group had found the Magos and were making their escape about an hour of narrative time later. I had the group after discovering the Magos in the Mag train station (which I randomly rolled for), encounter a small group of hormagaunts. Which for the most part they dispatched fairly quickly. I didn't want it to be overly difficult for their first encounter and we were all still getting the rules set in our minds. Also at this point something other than land, find clues to the direction of the Magos and find the Magos was just a little boring.

My group also kind of threw a kink in the works. I tried to direct them to the encounter with the Commissar but they insisted on going right for the Mag train and dicovering the Magos in the process. In hindsight I should have maybe made it harder to discern what direction the Magos seemed to go (darn them rolling really good). The group after the slaughter of the 'gaunts made their way to the main processing plant and on their way to a fairly quick win. I made it a bit difficult to get in, having to ascend the cliffs the facility was buried beneath. There at the top the group encountered a Shrike, again being we are all new to the game and not knowing what to expect I sent one Shrike at them. It got a couple of good slices in, causing a little damage, but a few lucky bolter hits had him exploding in half and the group seeing their way into the facility.

At this point, with the team virtually on the way to a very easy victory, I threw one more wrench into the works. I had them enter the facility and need to find a way up several floors so they can plant the beacon and be retrieved. As their Techmarine was able to power up and get a service lift working and moving up several floors to their level I placed in the lift 30 more hormagaunts and 3 Shrikes. The team expecting maybe something might happen, had set up ready for anything that might come out of the lift. I gave them one half action response due to the team setting up for an encounter (was this a smart decision?). So the Devastator in the group misses by a decent amount with that half action, I determined the Magos with his prime directive to protect himself was moving to a safer distance and bumped into the Devastator throwing off his shots. The Librarian tried smite and again made a failed roll, I determined that the blackness the 'nids project into the warp prevented the Librarian from drawing enough energy for the power to work.

Now combat started in earnest. The 'gaunts pouring out of the lift and the Shrikes urging them to bog down the marines. Now is where the Devastator and Librarian shined, destroying all but a handful of the 'gaunts with their turns. Full auto heavy bolter and the psych power avenger really did a number on the 'gaunts. This is where I am not sure I played it right. I read the rules for damaging hordes as for every 15 pts. of damage the horde suffered 1 pt of damage to their number. So I added up the total damage of the damaged caused and divided by 15. After re-reading the rules afterwards I think I did it wrong. It may have been taking each hit and after armour and toughness and regardless of damage would take 1pt from the horde. Doing it this way I think the players would have left the horde nothing but a burnt up pile of 'nids in the first round of combat. Either way some 'gaunts survived and thanks to the hive mind stuck around and attacked one player. The Shrikes despite having a round of combat to move could not get quite into contact with the players and one of their number was left behind in a stain of viscera thanks to the heavy bolter. Could I have had with let's say a roll by the player, have some of the shots hit the other Shrikes? I also should have the Shrikes shooting on the run.

Now is where frustration in the group started happening. Close combat, the weapons for close combat the players had were not bad I would say. We had an assault marine with bolt pistol and chainsword, a Librarian with a force weapon (which thanks to the player not double checking the weapon's rules, did not use it properly). Well suffice it to say the team was not fairing well against the Shrikes ,most taking damage and one actually being knocked out. No one could do damage with their cc weapons (which I told them they would most likely be using for the combat once the Shrikes hit them). We kind of ended the game at this point after several rounds of not damaging the baddies and the frustration levels sky-rocketed, also some of us had to leave at this point. A session that seemed would end after a couple of hours of real time turned into a 5+hr marathon.

I think know where things went wrong and why. I am slightly upset with myself for not being more familiar with the rules. I am a bit upset that at least one player didn't read the rules for their powers and equipment and make sure they wrote everything down right. I hope to get my nerves settled for our next session in a couple of weeks. I really wanted it to be a fun and exciting game and it kinda did not go as I wanted. I need to add a bit more narrative to the game and make sure I know a lot of the rules including the powers and skills my players have. They are all supposedly going to go over the rules and their own stuff more thoroughly before our next session, I hope they do. I am going to do the same. Any suggestions on what I should do for our next session? Should I just give up at being GM?

I think poor planning on my part and not having all the reference material at hand made the session a bit sloppy. Even with the GM screen there was a lot of stuff I had to go back and check and know, especially when it came to the players using their powers, skills and traits. I also need to prep the next mission with more maps for areas not really defined and possibly add more encounter areas. Also need to have reference sheets made up for different things that might come up in a session. Any suggestions on what I may need to add to my GM screen?

For now I will keep the the missions from the books and GM kit before making my own up. I have a full campaign idea in it's seedling stages which I will be discussing here in the upcoming weeks and months.

Thanks to those that read this far, also thanks to those that skipped to the end to the more key points.

Deathwatch can be a tricky game for newcomers to 'get their heads around'. I always recommend running a test combat or two before launching into the campaign proper. This helps get everyone on the same page about how the rules work, and gives the GM a sense of what constitutes a Legitimate Threat to a Kill Team vs. a mere 'speed bump'.

When I started my campaign, after roleplaying the new recruits' arrival at the Watch Fortress and first meeting with the Watch Commander, I had the Kill Team go to the Fortress' combat arenas, to fight waves of Combat Servitors (both individual 'Astartes-grade' Combat Servitors [from the Adversaries section of the DW Rulebook ] and Hordes of 'commercial-grade' Gun Servitors [from the Adversaries section of the Dark Heresy Rulebook ]). This was quite useful for figuring out just how much damage a Space Marine can take, and how the Hordes mechanic works.

Its a pretty simple system to get the hang of. Especially with only needing d10s. Once you get your first few missions done things will become a bit smoother. I'm relatively new to GMing myself but things have worked out pretty well.

You should check out the Balancing Encounters thread. Lots of good advice on adversaries and whatnot.

Good idea. I really should have played the narrative a lot more. Like the team meeting up for the first time and maybe some of the cirumstances to their recruitment into the Deathwatch.

First thing I should have done was come here and get some advice. See even with all the knowledge one thinks they have on something, there is always something to learn.

So now the question is do I have a re-do? Have the team meet properly, train against Servitors and put them into a new "let's see what you guys are made of" mission. That way I can put more emphesis on the narrative as well as the combat.

Okay, some advice.

Don't think about being a bad GM. Deathwatch is not a beginner's game, no matter what some might say. It has far too many special rules for that. You're out to have some fun with friend's and from your description it seems you basically did a lot of right.

And by that I mean challenging your players. Deathwatch Kill-Teams are good. They are **** good. The biggest mistake novice GMs can make is go too light on them and then the game becomes boring because soon the players realize they are on auto-cruise to victory. The smarter approach is to confront them with seemingly insurmountable odds and then, if the going should indeed get too tough for them, help them out. And by help them out I mean encourage them to engage in epic actions to try to turn the tide of battle. Demeanour/Fate Points and Solo Mode abilities are always good for such.

Secondly, use a lot of handwaving in your first sessions. Shrikes are too tough? Okay, maybe they are some pretty young Shrikes who deal 4 points less damage. In my first mission, Final Sanction from the support section on this site, I dropped 1d10 damage from a bunch of Genestealers.

And now the most important advice: Use the Errata 1.1 stats. They are also in the support section. Deathwatch was a bit of a rush job and it shows in various parts. Use the errata. There is no excuse not to. None.

Also, why can't you hurt Shrikes in melee? Chainsword is 1d10+3+Strength Bonus so normally 1d10+13. Pen 4 (or 3 in the errata). They have a soak of Toughness 10 and Armour 8. Which means that 1d10+13 - (8-4) -10 = 1d10-1 gets through. Yeah, Nid Warriors/Shrikes are better than Rank 1 marines in melee. Which is why you should shoot them dead.

As I said: Don't worry. Tell your players that Deathwatch is the most complex of the 40K Roleplay games. Because Marines have so many special rules. They should understand that.

Behind the scenes, if something doesn't work right and you can't see why, assume that there is a rule you don't know yet, handwave things and make a note to yourself to look it up or ask here until next session. Don't let the system hinder you in weaving an epic story and exploring what life as a super-human special forces warrior-monk in the 41st millenium is like.

Alex

The main thing you should take away is: one suboptimal game session does not a GM make. Don't be so hard on yourself.

Also, like, it seems as if your players failed a lot of rolls. IMO the best use of Fate points is for rerolls of Tests, whether that's a BS test to shoot or a Focus Power Test. You should encourage your players to use their Fate, since stockpiling it accomplishes nothing.

Depending on their Oath, DW players can shred the action economy with Squad Modes like Furious Charge and Bolter Assault. Squad Modes add complexity to the game, but they're also the mechanism by which Kill-Teams pull victory from the jaws of defeat.

Hordes: a hit that deals damage in excess of the Horde's TB + AP reduces Magnitude by 1. For a lot of weapons, you don't even need to roll the damage; if the base damage (assume a roll of 1) of the hit is above TB+(AP-Pen)of the Horde, it's automatically going to damage the Horde and rolling is pointless (no RF on Hordes, which was IMO a stupid design decision but I suggest you not attempt to add house rules yet).

You said you gave them a half-action as they set up. I would encourage everyone to read the combat actions section since there is an action specifically designed for this situation: Overwatch. If nobody was overmatching, your half action was generous but not game breaking. Also how did your Dev act as a half? Shooting on full auto is a full by the DW RAW.

How did a PC get knocked unconscious? The power armor itself acts to negate that once it's detected. I know there's a lot to go over but I encourage you to tell players to know exactly what benefits their armor and special organs provide - it's a lot more than simple damage mitigation.

The main thing you should take away is: one suboptimal game session does not a GM make. Don't be so hard on yourself.

Also, like, it seems as if your players failed a lot of rolls. IMO the best use of Fate points is for rerolls of Tests, whether that's a BS test to shoot or a Focus Power Test. You should encourage your players to use their Fate, since stockpiling it accomplishes nothing.

Depending on their Oath, DW players can shred the action economy with Squad Modes like Furious Charge and Bolter Assault. Squad Modes add complexity to the game, but they're also the mechanism by which Kill-Teams pull victory from the jaws of defeat.

Hordes: a hit that deals damage in excess of the Horde's TB + AP reduces Magnitude by 1. For a lot of weapons, you don't even need to roll the damage; if the base damage (assume a roll of 1) of the hit is above TB+(AP-Pen)of the Horde, it's automatically going to damage the Horde and rolling is pointless (no RF on Hordes, which was IMO a stupid design decision but I suggest you not attempt to add house rules yet).

You said you gave them a half-action as they set up. I would encourage everyone to read the combat actions section since there is an action specifically designed for this situation: Overwatch. If nobody was overmatching, your half action was generous but not game breaking. Also how did your Dev act as a half? Shooting on full auto is a full by the DW RAW.

How did a PC get knocked unconscious? The power armor itself acts to negate that once it's detected. I know there's a lot to go over but I encourage you to tell players to know exactly what benefits their armor and special organs provide - it's a lot more than simple damage mitigation.

The Dev I want to say had a skill, or actually might have been an armour history (can't remember which off the top of my head) that allowed him to move and shoot a heavy weapon (bolter) as a standard weapon.

We definitely need to go over the rules again. I need to read it several more times so I can remember a lot of the little things. I never checked for an errata and will need to download the rules changes.

Whoops, should say "One suboptimal game session does not a BAD GM make!"

The Dev I want to say had a skill, or actually might have been an armour history (can't remember which off the top of my head) that allowed him to move and shoot a heavy weapon (bolter) as a standard weapon.

Ah yeah, I recall that now.

Where in the rulebook does it say a chainsword is 1d10+3 + SB? I just went throught the weapons section and it does not show that anywhere. Unless it is under another section maybe?

All melee weapons add Strength Bonus. Page 140. Like I said, if something seems odd to you, handwave it and look it up between sessions.

Alex

I've actually decided on only using errata rules for ranged weapons, since melee weapons seem fine the way they are, I might do otherwise if it comes to it but they seem to be fine using pre-errata stats.

Yeah the errata frankly made the Thunder Hammer completely overpowered and made the combat knife even less worthwhile.

Thanks all for the info. I am currently reading the ruies again. Especially on weapons and how to play.

To piggyback on others' thoughts, don't kick yourself for mistakes. Learn from them and press on.

I would suggest some short missions to get the combat rules down. Try some simple 3 step missions...deploy, perform, extract. For example, a simple sabotage mission might entail drop pod insertion right on top of the objective, a short firefight to clear the opponents from the objective and the setting of the demolition charges, followed by a fighting withdrawal in the face of insurmountable odds to a position where the Thunderhawk descends and obliterates the opposition long enough for the kill team to board and depart.

Then do a nearly identical mission except you change the opponents and the mission becomes an assassination. Then branch out. Both GM and players learn the system before going on to the bigger stuff that connects stories.

Oh, and in the beginning never give out "special" equipment and always do the rolls in front of the players. Don't fudge die rolls and let the chips fall where they will. That's what learning the system is all about. Otherwise your players don't get the full experience and don't really learn the game.

Besides, it's fun for the players to wave their bionic arm around while bragging how they lost the original.

Astartes really don't deserve fudged dice rolls. You have amazing gear and special organs and at least 3 Fate (aka 1-Ups) to start with. If you're not giving them hell to plow through, the game is actually pretty easy and boring.

Not sure where everyone got that I was fudging with the dice. The only rolls I did behind the screen were fo rencounters and what they were going to encounter. I rolled all damage in front of the group. Thank you all for the suggestions and help. I think a few quick missions is the way to go to get started, thanks for that. A sabotage, maybe an assassination, this way I might get a couple of quick missions in one session and get an idea on how things should go.

I think it was just a general suggestion.

Though I have done things like...if a fight vs hordes is dragging on too long and becoming really boring/stale for everyone, as the GM I'll just reduce the total Magnitude size to end it faster and move on. Nobody needs to know.

I wasn't suggesting anyone was fudging the dice. I was just throwing it in there as a common mistake made by many new GMs and pointing out its flaw (i.e. players don't learn the system).