Hi! I recently purchased Only War, Hammer of the Emperor, Shield of Humanity, the Game Master's kit and Enemies of the Imperium. I run sessions for a high school Gaming club, but before now we've only ever used our own homebrew system based very loosely on the public information available on the 40k systems. However, now that we have this new system, we're all very eager to use it. We've already created the regiment and characters, and I'm taking them on the adventure in the GM Kit, Old Soldiers. They've had their first combat, so we know how it works, and they already have seen the full severity of the system when one of their number burned fate to avoid dying to a multi-laser's crit roll. Any advice, both for what to do after this adventure concludes and how to work this system, would be greatly appreciated!

Would you mind telling us a bit more about the regiment the players built? The challenges you present to them would be tailored to their type.

Do you want to stick to prefabs or do you feel ambitious enough to try writing an adventure of your own?

Well, the regiment they made is a Guerilla regiment from a Post-Cataclysmic world. They got the Sharpshooters doctrine, Choleric Commander, and Covert Strike doctrine. They have Regimental Rivalry, they are Honorbound, and they're Iconoclasts.

I actually only have the GM kit adventure and the one included in the Core Rulebook, as I didn't buy any of the campaign splats, so I was looking to write my own, mostly centering around the war on Virbius at first but expanding to other planets. They're used to my homebrew version of Rogue Trader, where they wound up in, I kid thee not, Flaming Omnissian Centurion armor because they didn't understand 40k' much at the time and I didn't care much to correct them. They threw their "mooks" to die enmasse, and I warmed them up for Only War by literally saying "You know those nameless mooks you called for by the dozens? Thats you now." I'm kinda hoping to show them war, and maybe let them become pretty critical to winning their little part of the war.

Covert Strike and Honour-bound seem kind of counter intuitive to put together. But so far a reasonable objective. These guys are ultimately going to be recon, hit, run and fade and repeat I imagine if they're a covert guerrilla regiment. Have you established a primary antagonist yet? I find it tends to help.

Thus far their primary antagonist is the general they were sent to kill or capture, General Scarus, and knowing their penchant for screwing up their plans in dramatic fashion I expect their capture attempt to fail. However, should they get him out of the picture, I'm really thinking I'll set up Scarus's successor as this, an officer embittered towards the squad in particular for what they did to Scarus.

Considering this thread was started two weeks ago, this advice may be a bit late for you, but here it is anyway.

Guerilla Regiment, okay. Your players should be made to live off the land as much as possible. Returning to base to roll Logistics is a luxury for them.

Make sure they are regularly deployed behind enemy lines for extended periods of time, expecting little or no support from high command. Give them a nebulous, seemingly impossible objective to complete- Conquer or Destroy Fort Suicide before the next full moon! When they get to within visual distance of the Fort, they see it's a death trap for their limited numbers. Heavy weapons, trenches, bunkers, even a few tanks.

They'll know this is a long term goal to accomplish. Point out a number of other objectives in the area that they can accomplish to make the assault on the base succeed. Destroy a bridge that crosses a valley to cut it off from reinforcements. Blow up a dam to flood and destroy the first line of defenses. Observe the frequency of patrols the enemy launches- allowing them to set up ambushes to cut down on the number of men in the fort (say 200 even, plus 20 men guarding each of the targets of opportunity; keep track of any kills they make that count towards the Fort's total- at 100, the commander there hunkers down and calls for reinforcements).

Finally, give them a small base camp to operate out of- an old cave that can't be seen from the air or a secluded village that is pro-Imperial.

Keep track of the group's rations and ammunition with all the scrutiny of a tax collector, and warn them when you note that they're getting low on either. If they fight you about this, remind them that they can roll Survival to try and hunt/forage for food or craft primitive weapons to use in hunting or combat like spears and bows.

Thats actually a really good idea, that I think I'll put into practice. Especially so since, defying my expectations, not only did the party capture the general, in the ensuing fight with the DEldar, the Sergeant used a called shot with a hotshot las and oneshot their leader, rolled Righteous Fury and nailed a 10 for his crit roll. Now, they're being sent behind enemy lines since they are being praised as the heroes the Imperium needs as, following this, they assassinated a very important politician via sniping. As of the moment, they are in a firefight with 3 CSMs and in real danger of a TPK since they've been engaged at range and their heavy weapons guy with his precious autocannon and minimum of 12 damage against them is 4 wounds from death.

TPK. Excellent.

Well, the CSMs could be taken care of narratively. Have a friendly squad vox and say they're closing in on the sound of battle. The squad has to survive a few more turns. Mind you, the friendlies only provide an avenue for escape, not real support.

If the party takes it, maybe then incorporate the above plan to capture Fort Suicide? If they ran, it's their punishment for getting an entire squad wiped out AND retreating in the face of the enemy. If they succeed in killing the CSMs, it's their reward because they're so competent.

Definitely introduce some enclosed enemy vehicles to prevent the One-shotting again. Not that that didn't sound awesome, but you'll want to get it through their heads that if they walk into this fort guns blazing, they are dead. All of them. This is something they're going to have to get done in a long campaign.

Do some research on old fashioned "Star Forts" (not the sci-fi kind, but the old European fortresses). Notice how they have two lines of defense and the overlapping fields of fire. Now take that style, make the interior all castle-y (cause it's 40K, so why the f not?). Note the locations of the Armory, the different barracks, the vehicle garage and the command center, all of which should be in the inner walls.

Now, GUARD THAT MAP WITH YOUR LIFE. File it away with the troop/vehicle count and don't pull it out until their commander tells you that he/she is prepared to order the attack.

They only get a partial map of the OUTER defenses, a FULL map of the entire region they are approved to operate in (with the targets of opportunity and their base camp/friendly village highlighted/circled) and a psychological profile of the enemy commander- what does high command know about the commandant- is he paranoid, is she lazy, are they prone to executing their own soldiers for failure or retreat? Under what conditions will they call for reinforcements (a mission failure for the players)? Make half of these things true, and split the other half between half-truths and outright lies spread by the enemy. Your squad has to find out what's really going on in the commander's head.

Some mission-of-the-week objectives could be:

Cut base communications (demolish an antennae/"telegraph" line outside the fort's)

Make contact and forge alliances with local Partisans who hate each other (Hatfields vs McCoys).

Infiltrate and map out the base's interior for the eventual assault (only do this one if the entire group has Deceive or Stealth).

Acquire heavy explosives to break through the inner walls of the fort once the attack begins.

Destroy auxiliary solar panels powering the fort.

As for why all these valuable targets (antennae, power plant) are outside the base's defenses, maybe this fort is far behind the front lines? It was never expected to be in the middle of the fighting so they never moved any of these assets, and it's the best place for the enemy to halt an upcoming Imperial offensive.

This stuff is awesome guys! I only just started my campaign (previously annotated on another thread) and the guys just got through the beginning parts after running them through boot. However, I will definitely love to run with these ideas!

I like coming up with a lot of general situations, then try to fit them in when it's feasible. Here's a few examples.

1) Kicking back with the local PDF when an Ork Rok falls through the cloud-line on the horizon. Hilarity ensues.

2) Orks have dug themselves into a massive underground fortress that is impenetrable by ground troops. The Mechanicus augments Astares drop dops with drills and stronger retro-boosters to allow your squad to become a bunker-buster to get to the core of the problem, and shine some light on it.

3) You're in void-transit to your next combat zone to fight some rebels, a vacation of sorts, when your void ship is hit my 30 Ork salvaged boarding-torpedoes. Vacation's over, cadet.

And these are just Ork seeds! Come up with a bunch for each race that you have access to and use them in a modular fashion to supplement the core of your storyline. This will help you, as a DM, by allowing you a reprieve from constantly coming up with new content for your players. Because of this, it will give you more time to flesh out the core of your story and give the players a better campaign overall. Well... if they survive the Rok impact!

Could the same ships just point lances at the ground, and pen to the fortress? I'm not saying it couldn't work, but modifying drop pods seems unnecessary, if already present ordnance can do the job, and if there's a ship up there, carrying drop pods, mostly only a thing for Space Marines, they have a ship up there with guns, too, and I think SM ships might even be more often outfitted with bombardment cannons, as they build to quick-assault planets.

A thought that might actually matter; remember to describe how the team of NOT Astartes goes down in a pod, hits, and doesn't die. While I'm not certain it's mandatory, RT threads have frequently described how Power Armor is partly how Space Marines get down there in one piece. The retros too, certainly, but flak or carapace troops hitting at that speed, without the pod pulling a a Demolition Man, and filling with restraint foam, or something, might not survive, based on some "canon" materials. Whatever, but if a token explanation of how they land comes up, coolz.

There's valuable tech to be salvaged, so lancing it is out of the question. At least until the targets are retrieved.

There's a surplus of Mechanicus deployed to the front and they're bored, so they've researched baby drop pods with retroboosters specifically designed to regular humans.

All the Astartes in the sector have been reassigned to a bigger problem on a different planet.

It pays to be creative. The lore is there to have fun with, not dictate what you can do as a DM. Unless you like that kind of thing, but then why not just go play a videogame?

Ah Ah Mr Stimpson! With this talent for improvisation,you must be a GM impossible to trap... and a very annoying PC sometimes. Love it.

It's good in deed not toget stuck and limited to technical details you can read in the fluff.

Rogue Trader just says that drop pods can be safely used by people without power armor if they use safety harnesses. That's a descent handwave if you want to use drop pods and are wearing flak.