Creating a Regiment? you or them?

By CommissarWilliams, in Only War Game Masters

Hey guy's.

Ive noticed alot on Roll 20, and a few other RPG sites, that Only war GMs are Creating Regiments for there players and saying " hay this is your only option" Or stating that they must play a regiment in the core rule book.

What do you do ? The first session for me Is normally a Regiment creation and character gen.

We will sit down create the regiment, the planet they came from there customs, what's the planet like, Founding traditions ect.

Personally I think it show's a closed minded GM that says " you must play this reg" and really takes the fun out of it, but what guys think ? or do for that matter of fact.

I understand that if you want to play a story , like say a Battle on Cadia during a black crusade, that's a bit different.

Commisar.

That is called "railroading" for short.

Regiment Creation process is an interesting social interaction between Players (not PCs) in that most options are better for some classes while being pretty bad for others so they must work in cooperation to agree on what they are getting in the end. Without it You lose that possibility to have fun.

The only problem I see is that Mixed Regiments rule makes absolutely viable for players to pick different regiments for each PC, or groups of them, killing that part and having a few narrative problems sometimes. So maybe those GMs were just trying to keep that camaraderie spirit of being all of the same regiment.

Still the way I see it is that GMs who are playing on roll20 with people who don't know each other are just trying to keep it simple and don't let some Optimiser-type guy create an OP regiment (that is pretty easy to do with drawbacks).

I play on Fantasy Grounds with a dedicated group of 6 players. Now initially I allowed a mixed regiment game and was handed several utterly nightmarish builds.

For other games as a result, I've had the players sit down in the Skype chat and have a typed out conversation to agree what kind of regiment they want to shape together, with the understanding that everyone will be a member of that regiment unless a very compelling argument can be made why an anomalous character would have a positive impact on the story. The result is that the players usually settle on the best compromise that they all like and everyone has a fun time.

I've been playing in a game where I spear-headed the creation of the Armageddon 101st Siege Infantry, and it is glorious. We've ended up assigned to Skrynne in Against The Savages...which is a Jungle World. (Yay Armageddon's drawbacks lol), but it was ultimately a team effort from people who wanted to dig in and entrench positions, fighting off waves of Orks.

That is called "railroading" for short.

Regiment Creation process is an interesting social interaction between Players (not PCs) in that most options are better for some classes while being pretty bad for others so they must work in cooperation to agree on what they are getting in the end. Without it You lose that possibility to have fun.

The only problem I see is that Mixed Regiments rule makes absolutely viable for players to pick different regiments for each PC, or groups of them, killing that part and having a few narrative problems sometimes. So maybe those GMs were just trying to keep that camaraderie spirit of being all of the same regiment.

Still the way I see it is that GMs who are playing on roll20 with people who don't know each other are just trying to keep it simple and don't let some Optimiser-type guy create an OP regiment (that is pretty easy to do with drawbacks).

I can understand that Some GMs may want to keep thing simple , but I always say to them " bonding starts with regiment creation"

And with OP Regiments, you can as a GM alway's Nudge the players in the direction of saying " well you guys can have all this, but I'm going to have to up the anti to balance things out" Which indeed is only fair. But Mind you, even with Carapace armour, and a Chimera, my group still got our butts handed to us by orks then Necrons, then dark elder.

Do it together, even for certain battles. You can create exact regiment still, unless only one or two were present. I mean, using your example of Cadia, there weren't just Cadians particpating. There were many different regiments.

For an online game with people you don't know, who don't know each other, and that you want to get moving quickly, definitely pre-build

Hell, if you have players that are completely unfamiliar with the game and rules you should pre-build.

Regiment Creation is not just for the players, they should sit down with the GM and work it out together, otherwise someone is likely to end up in a game they don't want to play. If your GM isn't interested, the game is going to go downhill.

I'm planning on starting a game this spring with new players, some with no 40k experience at all, so the regiment world and type will be predetermined, then they can pick out equipment, training, etc., by going through a "Basic Training" course and seeing how things work.

I allow my players to create their regiments but always require that those regiments are approved by me and/or corrected if needed to prevent major BS from getting into the game, but it is very rarely required.

I have let my players make their own regiments the only limit I set is that the regiment must come from a world in the calixis sector.

Edited by SMKeyes

The one truism of the Warhammer 40,000 setting is that, no matter how big or bad you are, there is someone bigger and badder than you will crump you right upside your head.

As a GM i've always felt regiment creation was an important aspect of character creation, and it should be a half-session or full session all on it's own. A good point to begin to interact with your group if your unfamiliar, and even if it's a 'broken' regiment, it gives the gm the chance to really throw out the big bad toys of the 40k universe.

The one truism of the Warhammer 40,000 setting is that, no matter how big or bad you are, there is someone bigger and badder than you will crump you right upside your head.

As a GM i've always felt regiment creation was an important aspect of character creation, and it should be a half-session or full session all on it's own. A good point to begin to interact with your group if your unfamiliar, and even if it's a 'broken' regiment, it gives the gm the chance to really throw out the big bad toys of the 40k universe.

Yet you did not manage to bring something bid and bad enough to take out Commissar Lithonius Haddaway ;)

What is love? Baby don't hurt me. Don't hurt me, no more.

*Commissar bodyrocking ensues*