I am at the start of a campaign with my group and am torn between doing one of two things...so I hope that a group of like-minded folks could help me. A few facts about the campaign are useful as background. [sorry for the long post]

The scenario that I'm come up with is that the players received an anonymous astropathic signal that foretold of the invasion of an isolated but mineral rich/strategically important planet. The players went there and discovered the planet was, in fact, besieged by Orks. At the time of their arrival, the Orks has already made their initial attack and landed on the planet. The mission is for the players to shore up the defenses as much as possible and ensure the Rule of Man until reinforcements arrive. Two squads of Imperial Fists are already on the planet as a garrison force – the plant was only recently (relatively speaking) brought into compliance.

Unknown to the players (so far), there are two Fallen on the planet [there are two Dark Angles in the party who each individually received a separate, anonymous message alerting them to this]. Also unknown to the players (so far), the planet is rumored to be the home of a working STC. Both of these story pieces will be fleshed out more when as the campaign matures [we’ve only had one session and the players haven’t made planet fall yet.]

I’ve segregated the campaign into three phases to reflect the dynamic nature of war. At the moment, each phase has different “missions” available to the players [i solicited input from the players about cool things to do in the defense of planet prior to the campaign to avoid totally railroading them].

My question is this: should the “missions” available to the players in each phase be related to each other OR should they be independent? My concern is that I want the players to feel like the choices they make (i.e., which missions they pick) matter to the plot/story….I’d like to hear some thoughts on how to do that.

For example, the players just boarded and destroyed the engines of an Ork Kill Kruzer in Phase 1. BUT one option the players will not get to in Phase 1 is an assault on an Ork landing zone – I pre-determined the number of “missions” the players can do each phase to represent the fact they cannot be everywhere at once.

Currently in Phase 2, there is no follow-on option like “the Orks rallied around the hulk of the cruiser and turned it into a base of operations for raids. PDF is too tied down to handle the problem; Orks pillaging (etc. etc. etc.)” Likewise, there is no real consequence for the players leaving the Ork landing zone intact.

To rephrase the question; should player choices of “missions” in each Phase carry on to the next, or should it all be independent?

To ask another way; since the players were unable to assault the Ork landing zone in Phase 1, should there be an available option in Phase 2 where the problem becomes bigger – something like, “those Orks are attacking XYZ (etc. etc. etc.)?”

Thanks for y’all’s input! Sorry for the tirade.

I'd say, ALWAYS smash your players's choices and their consequences in their faces. Plus your setting can lead to great RP sessions, especially with those Dark Angels.

Respond to a mysterious call to track a Fallen, or protect this manufactorium ? Duty to the chapter, or duty to the Deathwatch ? And how will the techmarine reacts ?

Do you sacrifice those guardmen to protect civils, and risk being really outnumbered by the orks (I mean, even more) ? Or do you sacrifice those civils, and strengthen your ground ?

Also, have NPCs comment on the PCs's choices.

Last time my players were to face a hard decision was when an Alpha Legionnaries squad offered to "team-up" with them to bring down a common foe. The KT almost blew up when the squad leader accepted the deal. Eventually, he came up with something that everyone agreed on : "Sometime, Honour must be cast aside to complet your duty" (in this case, pretty much saving the Reach).

Other examples : it could lead to guardmen progressively hating the marines, or loving them (but, for instance, at the cost of precious time), and thus give them bonuses to command/charism tests when dealing with them. Kill a great part of the orks, but let them loot an armoury, or protect the armoury ? Less orks with better gunz, or more orks ?

Evantually, those choices could lead to a special "event". Like, if you decide to protect all that is mechanicum related, why not have the mechanicum staff give you access to their best weapons ? And for the orks example above, you could have the KT recover/destroy the stolen weapons.

Hope it'll help, and sorry if my post is a bit desorganised !

Be careful, If one of your Dark Angels is a Techmarine, he will not know about the Fallen . The Dark Angels don't trust their Techmarines with the secret (they should have excluded Techmarines from the Ravenwing and Deathwing Specialties as well) as they have to many ties outside the chapter (i.e. the Mechanicus) and might be torn between one or the other, leading to the Mechanicus discovering the secret of the Fallen.