Decided on a new title because the previous one appeared to be generating some confusion.

This is ultimately based on my Closer To Codex vision of Marines. Those who want higher powered Chaos Marines are welcome to go play Black Crusade or adapt these rulesets for their own tastes.

Weapon Skill - 25 +2d10

Ballistic Skill - 25 + 2d10

Strength - 35 + 2d10

Toughness - 35 + 2d10

Agility - 25 + 2d10

Intelligence - 25 + 2d10

Willpower - 25 + 2d10

Perception - 25 + 2d10

Fellowship - 25 + 2d10

Implants/Innate Abilities;

Forbidden Lore (Adeptus Astartes), Linguistics (Low & High Gothic), Ambidextrous, Weapon Training (Bolt, Low-Tech), Heightened Senses (Hearing, Sight), Nerves of Steel, Resistance (Cold, Heat, Poisons), Unarmed Warrior, Amphibious, Larraman's Organ (Black Crusade), Catalepsean Node (Black Crusade), Omophogea (Black Crusade), Sus-an Membrane (Black Crusade), Betcher's Gland (Black Crusade), Black Carapace*, True Grit

* You may wish to negate the effects of the black carapace for balance reasons in your own game. I retained it for the ease of management of combat.

Comrades - By default, Chaos Marines are accompanied by Cultists in these rules. You may wish to substitute these cultists with NPC Chaos Marines. If doing so, I encourage use of greater bonuses and extra wound states.

Warband Structure

Origin Legion

Lord

Warband focus.

Doctrines

Marks of Chaos - On acquiring a Mark of Chaos, a character may not enter a class which would mean that he acquires another of the Marks of Chaos, except with GM approval (Such as in the case of a Chaos Undivided player seeking to court the favour of all the gods)

Basic Specialisms

Champion

Havoc

Raptor

Operator

Tactical

Support

Chirugeon

Dark Apostle

Sorcerer

Warpsmith

Obliterator

Advanced

Chosen Champion

Plague Marine

Khorne Berzerker

Noise Marine

Helbrute

Possible future specialists?

Champion

Characteristic Bonus - +5 Fellowship

Starting Aptitudes - Fellowship, Leadership, Weapon Skill, Strength, Toughness, Defence, Willpower

Starting Skills - Command, Scholastic Lore (Tactics) OR Navigate (Surface)

Starting Talents - Weapon Training (Chain), Iron Discipline OR Air of Authority

Specialist Equipment - Chainsword OR Chainaxe, Bolt Pistol

Starting Wounds - 16 + 1d5

Advances - Sergeant Orders, Mentor

Havoc

Characteristics Bonus - +5 Toughness

Starting Aptitudes - Ballistic Skill, Toughness, Defence, Strength, Perception, Offence

Starting Skills - Athletics OR Survival, Intimidate

Starting Talents - Weapon Training (Heavy, Pick two excluding Exotic), Iron Jaw

Specialist Equipment - Heavy Bolter OR Heavy Flamer OR Missile Launcher with 5 Frag Missiles OR Warband Favoured Heavy Weapon

Starting Wounds - 18 + 1d5

Advances - Stabilise, Loader

Raptor

Characteristics Bonus - +5 Strength

Starting Aptitudes - Strength, Offence, Toughness, Agility, Fieldcraft, Perception

Starting Skills - Operate (Aeronautica), Navigate (Surface) OR Awareness, Intimidate

Starting Talents - Frenzy OR Sure Strike, Weapon Training (Chain)

Specialist Equipment - Bolt Pistol, Chainsword

Starting Wounds - 16 + 1d5

Advances - Terror In The Sky, Wings of Angels (As Assault Marine)

Terror In The Sky (500xp) - The Raptor gains Fear (1).

Operator

Characteristics Bonus - +5 Agility

Starting Aptitudes - Agility, Finesse, Intelligence, Tech, Fieldcraft, Ballistic Skill

Starting Skills - Operate (Surface), Navigate (Surface), Common Lore (Tech)

Starting Talents - Technical Knock

Specialist Equipment - Mind Impulse Unit, Combi-Tool, Dataslate

Starting Wounds - 12 + 1d5

Advances - Gunner, Put That Out!

Tactical

Characteristics Bonus - +5 Weapon Skill OR +5 Ballistic Skill

Starting Aptitudes - Ballistic Skill, Weapon Skill, Toughness, Strength, Offence, Defence

Starting Skills - Survival Or Athletics, Scholastic Lore (Tactics)

Starting Talents - Rapid Reload OR Quickdraw, Combat Formation, Weapon Training (Choose two, excluding Heavy & Exotic)

Specialist Equipment - Good quality Boltgun OR Common quality Flamer OR Common Quality Combat Shotgun OR Warband Favoured Weapon

Starting Wounds - 14 + 1d5

Advances - Armsman, Hail of Fire

Chirurgeon

Characteristics Bonus - +5 Intelligence

Starting Aptitudes - Intelligence, Knowledge, Toughness, Weapon Skill, Agility, Finesse, Fieldcraft

Starting Skills - Medicae, Scholastic Lore (Chymistry), Trade (Chymistry)

Specialist Equipment - Narcethium, Chainsword, Bolt Pistol, Medkit

Starting Wounds - 14 + 1d5

Advances - Medicae Auxiliary, Create Toxins (As Apothecary)

Dark Apostle

Characteristics Bonus - +5 Fellowship

Starting Aptitudes- Fellowship, Social, Leadership, Willpower, Toughness, Defence, Weapon Skill

Starting Skills - Command, Charm, Deceive.

Starting Talents - Air of Authority, Heroic Inspiration OR Unshakeable Faith

Specialist Equipment - Accursed Crozius

Starting Wounds - 15 + 1d5

Advances - Gather The Penitents!, Annihilate Them!

Sorcerer

Characteristics Bonus - +5 Willpower

Starting Aptitudes - Willpower, Psyker, Intelligence, Knowledge, Weapon Skill, Perception

Starting Skills - Psyniscience, Forbidden Lore (Psykers), Awareness

Starting Talents - Warp Sense, Up to 400xp worth of Psychic Powers

Starting Traits - Psyker, Psy Rating 2

Specialist Equipment - Force Weapon

Starting Wounds - 12 + 1d5

Advances - Improve Psy Rating, Overseer, Ultimate Sanction

My God man! All the conversions, there are so many! I would imagine the classes having skills and talents similar to their counterparts, with better gear and wounds/ maybe more attributes being the decider in making you feel like marines as well as all the additional talents and skills that come with being a marine.

Warpsmith

Characteristics Bonus - +5 Intelligence

Starting Aptitudes - Intelligence, Knowledge, Tech, Weapon Skill, Toughness, Defence

Starting Skills - Tech-Use, Trade (Armourer), Forbidden Lore (Adeptus Mechanicus)

Starting Talents - Mechandrite Use, Total Recall, Technical Knock

Specialist Equipment - Ballistic Mechatendril, Utility Mechatendril, Two Cybernetics of Choosing, MIU, Combi-Tool

Starting Wounds - 14 + 1d5

Advances - Binaric Curse (500xp), Improve Cover (As Techmarine)

Binaric Curse - As Black Crusade ability, albeit remove the requirement to spend an Infamy point, given that mechanic is not being carried over.

Obliterators

Characteristics Bonus - +10 Toughness, +10 Strength, -10 Agility, -10 Fellowship

Starting Aptitudes - Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill, Strength, Toughness, Defence, Tech

Starting Skills - Intimidate, Tech-Use

Starting Talents - Weapon Tech, Integrated Weapon Expertise, Integrated Weapon Mastery

Specialist Equipment - Heavy Bolter OR Autocannon OR Lascannon

Starting Wounds - 25 + 1d5

Advances - Integrated Weapon Systems*, Target Lock

* Modification. Obliterators can integrate Heavy Weapons into their bodies using this advance, though it costs an extra 200xp to do so.

Chosen Champion

New Aptitudes - Weapon Skill, Strength, Leadership, Social, Fellowship, Intelligence

New Talents - Air of Authority, Heroic Inspiration OR Into The Jaws of Hell

Specialist Equipment - Power Weapon, Plasma Pistol, Vocal Implant

Advances - Born Leader, Commander Orders

Plague Marine

New Aptitudes - Toughness, Defence, Ballistic Skill, Weapon Skill, Willpower

New Talents - Iron Jaw & Diehard OR Hardy

New Traits - Mark of Nurgle, Abominable Physiology

Specialist Equipment - Plague Knife

Advances - Hideous Resilience (500xp), Infectious Miasma (500xp)*

* No longer requires the spending of an Infamy point, as the mechanic has not been carried over.



Mark of Nurgle - Gain Unnatural Toughness (2) & Stuff of Nightmares Traits

Khorne Berzerker

New Aptitudes - Weapon Skill, Offence, Strength, Toughness, Willpower

New Talents - Frenzy & Battle Rage & Resistance (Psychic Powers) OR Never Die

New Traits - Mark of Khorne

Specialist Equipment - Chainaxe

Advances - Avatars of Slaughter (500xp), Unstoppable Wrath (500xp)

As with other abilities taken from Black Crusade, ignore the Infamy point cost.

Mark of Khorne - Gain Unnatural Strength (2) trait

Noise Marine

New Aptitudes - Perception, Fieldcraft, Finesse, Agility, Ballistic Skill, Toughness

New Talents - Heightened Senses (All) OR Hip Shooting

New Traits - Mark of Slaanesh, Blessing of Hearing

Blessing of Hearing - +20 to Hearing based Awareness tests.

Specialist Equipment - Sonic Blaster

Advances - Dread Wail (500xp)*, Ecstacy of War (500xp)

Ecstacy of War - The Noise Marine revels in the cacophony of the Battlefield and knows little fear in the face of the storm of bullets the enemy fire his way. The Noise Marine benefits from a passive +20 bonus to resist pinning, or an additional +20 bonus to break free of pinning on top of any circumstantial modifiers.

*Infamy Point expenditure removed.


Mark of Slaanesh - Gain Unnatural Agility (2) & Unnatural Fellowship (2)

Hellbrute

New Aptitudes - Toughness, Defence, Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill, Willpower

New Talents - Frenzy, Berserk Charge OR Furious Assault

New Traits - Engine of War, Weight of Years, Auto-Stabilised, Sturdy, Enormous

Specialist Equipment - Two options from the Hellbrute equipment list in Enemies of the Imperium

Advances - Ironclad (As Dreadnought)

Well Drath, I certainly hope that they don't disappoint. I need all of these things playtested eventually, so you're more than welcome if you want to experiment with either marine ruleset and see if it's a solid baseline.

Obliterators

Characteristics Bonus - +10 Toughness, +10 Strength, -10 Intelligence, -10 Willpower

-10 FS, -10 AG maybe?

Aren't obliterator covens secretive no-nonsence forbidden lore seekers?

Admittedly, I haven't done a great deal of research on Obliterators. I just picked some numbers out of thin air to tide me over and I was going to do more research in a bit.

Generally speaking though, I was working on the basis that Obliterators are virally infected monstrosities. An agility penalty seems like a logical choice, but I'm not sure about "FS".

Obliterator, a huge monster who can turn his limbs into any weapon he has absorbed into him.

Obliterators

Characteristics Bonus - +10 Toughness, +10 Strength, -10 Intelligence, -10 Willpower

-10 FS, -10 AG maybe?

Aren't obliterator covens secretive no-nonsence forbidden lore seekers?

I always imagined that the Obliterator Cults didn't focus on forbidden lores (as in booklernin') but rather forgotten technology, archeotech and ancient weaponry - or things that may lead them to it.

I think that -10 FS and -10 AG is better, though. They are thinking and intelligent individuals (even if single-minded and essentially brainwashed by a virus) and they are probably stubborn as all hell. Meanwhile, I doubt any of them have little more than the charisma of an angry badger, and are described to be lumbering and slow.

I think I'd even suggest upping the Fellowship penalty even more, and give them some other Agility-based penalty (such as "Subhuman Agility", a Trait (Subhuman Characteristic) I came up with for my own homebrew stuff).

Because I can see Obliterators Dodging or Parrying just fine, but they should be slow as hell.

A penalty to Perception might also work, because it can't be easy to keep situational awareness up through all that twisted metal and flesh. It's arguably worse than having your head fused to your chest á la Black Crusade Gift of the Gods.

Edit: Also, a note on "Hellbrute", it's actually a Helbrute . Yeah, it's stupid, but it is what it is. I don't blame you if you stick to Hellbrute over Helbrute, I'm sure as hell sticking to Hellguns over Hot-Shot Lasguns, but I just thought I'd point it out.

Ah. FS. Fellowship. Now it becomes apparent what you meant. Yes, I could agree with that.

Yeah I'll implement those two stat penalties. Not sure about the others.

Edit - Just the advanced classes left to round out now.

I think I have actually finished this ruleset in frightening time. Definitely a new record, doing it within a day. I've probably missed a few things lol, so I'm ears to any suggestions. Otherwise, I'm going to divert onto my unified CTC armoury project that I have in mind. Probably. Though I think I still owe Pearldrum a Lictor conversion.

Given the rough equivalence of Fate Points to Infamy Points, and the fact that there are talents in OW that require the expenditure of fate points to work, I would recommend replacing instances of spending infamy points with fate points instead of simply removing them.