Hi everybody!
So in this post I am going to share with you 2 things.
1) The custom Only War campaign that I have running with my friends for close to a year.
2) A link (that hopefully works & can be found below) to an expanded armory that runs from Dark Heresy to Only War, complete with updated qualities and prices! [Meant for humans, not Space Marines]
So let's get started with some back-story on this idea. (Read it if you want, or skip to the meat of this post below it)
When I first started running Only War with my friends sometime last year, we hit a few rough patches. Firstly, after coming off of Deathwatch, they felt weak, without any real power in terms of firepower and authority (they are a tough lot to run), didn't like the requisitioning / Logistics system, and so on. Combined with troubles occurring within and without of our group, the campaign lasted a whole 2 sessions before being throw out and resulted in me having only 2 willing players. So over the course of a short hiatus, the thought struck me to combine Dark Heresy, Deathwatch, & Only War into a pseudo-game that would be the best of all three. I then gathered my remaining participants and ran this new session. It was a roaring success. Providing both the old and the new with tons of options, the game slowly became more solid and functional. Now I run a 6-man group with this game type and they seem to enjoy it, so I hope you all will too!
Now, let’s get started.
The G.O.L.D. Initiative (or GoLD if you want to be technical)
Stands for Guardsmen On Licensed Duty and it is a group that works in a kind of limbo between the Imperial Guard's High Command and the Inquisition. It is loosely based on the concepts of the A-Team, the Last Chancers, Deathwatch, Dan Abnett's book The Armour of Contempt, and other similar things.
The premise is very much of Deathwatch, in which an elite / specialized group is sent in to an area to complete set objectives with a variety or lack of parameters to disrupt the forces of Chaos, the Orks, Dark Eldar, and Severan Dominate (or the Imperium if you want to do it from the S.D.'s point-of-view). They do this work at the behest of known or unknown individuals (G.M.'s discretion). These individuals can be anybody in power, ranging from a General (or maybe the High Marshall himself), Inquisitors, perhaps a Magos, or whomever you think will be funding this shadowy organization. And their objectives can include sabotage, assassination, recon, or whatever you think of.
-This allows any Player Characters to choose from whatever regiment or class they want, creating a whole set of specialized skills for whatever scenario the G.M. wants.
-The thought behind this is that the PC's are supposed to be some of the best from their respective regiments and forced to work with others to accomplish their objectives in order to weaken the enemy factions.
-This can create a whole melting-pot of Imperial Guard culture in the squad for the sake of conversation,narration, and scenarios. [Example: the group is supposed to infiltrate a fortress as it comes under fire from nearby Imperial Guard forces. As they approach, one of the members, a Tallarn, sees a squad from his home regiment pinned down by enemy fire. If the soldier does't help, they'll die but if they do help the pinned squad, they might blow their group's chance at a stealthy infiltration ]. (Again, think Deathwatch)
-It also allows for almost any world provided in not only the Core Rulebook, but any of the other FFG Warhammer 40,000 RPG games, to be used. (I've been bouncing my group around the entire Spinward Front trying to track down a mysterious counter-group that is bringing havoc to the crusade.)
- And in terms of power, though it can have all of the authority of High Command (or whoever), the G.O.L.D Initiative is supposed to be a shadow organization and the PC's technically don't exist in the Munitorum files. So although they can pull some strings to get into places that are usually restricted to the normal rank-and-file troopers, they can't (or at least shouldn't) go around shouting, "Hey! I'm better than you!" to a Commisar's or a General's face. [This actually happened in my and one of my more headstrong players was chased through a city by a Commisar and a squad of Enforcers.] But it's your game, your universe. Do whatever feels right.
And so we now come to the second part. As I stated above in the back-story for this game type, my friends didn’t like the Logistics system for Only War. So I chose to kind of do away with it and brought back, not only the monetary system from Dark Heresy, but many of the weapons tied in with and its many supplements with relatively good results. The thought behind this is that because the G.O.L.D. Initiative is a shadow organization and the members do not really exist, they receive “hazard pay” for their services instead of the normal pay stubs they receive from the Munitorum. And being both funded by any number of powerful groups and on the edges of the Calixis Sector (where Dark Heresy took place), this allows the group to get their hands on a whole host of weapons and technology that normal Guardsman cannot (or can through other means).
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6OeNoicjVg2UjRqLVFIajF4aWc/edit?usp=sharing
The above link should take you to a document that took me a fairly long time to assemble. It contains just about every weapon meant for humans from Dark Heresy to Only War along with a few custom weapons that I made. It also includes armor, weapon upgrades, cybernetics, etc.
So… yeah. I hope you all find some use or interest in this. I will be checking in when I can to answer any questions or to simply view comments and feedback.
If you do try to play Only War in this fashion, I recommend giving the Player Characters:
-1d10 + whatever instead of 1d5 wounds, makes them last longer.
-Around 1,200 – 1,500 xp to start. Their characters aren’t green rookies, they are veterans.
-And anywhere from 750g – 1,500g for starting money. Lets them get started.
The Emperor Protects.