Hello all,
I am currently in the midst of building a sand-box Dark Heresy, 2nd edition campaign. I will be opening recruitment for potential players to start a long-term campaign. The campaign will be centered on supernatural and paranormal investigations based on the premise of an underlying meta-plot leading the acolytes down the path of Thorianism, Fatalism, and Nihilism as they attempt to fight against the encroaching death of the Imperium in the final days of what is increasingly being called, "The Time of Ending".
The Themes:
- Thorianism: The ideology surrounding the nature of the Emperor's rebirth, the Divine Avatar, and nature of the Patronic Saints of the Imperium.
- Fatalism: The inability to stop the impending fate of the Imperium, the role of fate as dictated by the divinations of the Emperor's Tarot, and the interaction it has on the personal lives of the Acolytes (read: self-fulfilling prophecies, paradox' of fate, etc)
- Nihilism: The rejection of all religious and moral principles, often in the belief that life is meaningless.In this context, it will be used an underlying motif when facing against the enemies of the Imperium who seek to undermine it's role in the galaxy. Additionally, exploring the Paradox of Nihilism (continuing on even when equating a meaningless to all lives)
- Vampirism: A core focus on the enemies planned will be Haemovore Cults, vampiric enemies of various sorts, and the Dark Eldar (who can be described as Soul Reavers).
- Reincarnation: A strong and central theme of Thorianism, the idea of reincarnation and the potential of the Emperor's Children.
- Apotheosis: The ascendance to god-hood, the nature of the warp gods, and the ways the Materium and Immaterium can coalesce into one.
- Corruption: More so than the typical Dark Heresy game, moral and ethical corruption will be underlined in every mission as both an external force to safeguard, as well as an internal struggle between the goals and actions of the players - who will be given easy short cuts to solve issues, but at the price of their own humanity.
The Setting the game will be set in:
- Primarily the Dread Mandragora sector, with potential to tie-in the Calixis and Scarus sectors (all forged by the Angevin Crusades).
- Individual worlds will be explored as part of a sand-box environment. The group will be playing both low and high Inquisition (Stellar, Interstellar investigations)
Immutable Requirements:
- The first mission played will be a linear, pre-planned game with pre-generated characters. Afterwards, the players original characters will take over. This is part of a narrative device I've devised. Applicants must be willing to play pre-generated characters for the first few sessions.
- Roll20: The game will be hosted on Roll20. Internet access must be good enough to support the virtual table.
- Audio: The game will be played via Roll20, utilizing Skype or the in-built voice/cam features to talk to each other and run sessions.
Mutable Requirements:
- Webcam: I prefer for a full group to have a webcam available, especially during initial and ooc discussions. This is not a hard requirement however.
- Sessions will occur at 12 pm (noon) typically on Thursdays, Eastern Time (New York,USA)
Expectations I have for potential players:
- Timely arrivals to each session, as arranged in advance. If unable to meet a scheduled day, 12-24 hours advanced notice. I have a three-strike policy for those unable to attend without forewarning. If given forewarning, I do not hold it against a player (it's a respect and responsibility thing).
- Willingness to talk in-character. I am not, as a GM, obsessed with being completely In-character, straddling the line between Roll-play and Role-Play whenever it fits any given scene. At a minimum, if I were to say, "Ok, let's do this part in-character. Let me hear your pitch for that charm test", I expect some form of dialogue or monologue.
- Cooperation from the players even when character concepts are at odds (A puritan among the midst of Radicals, can still cooperate and build a narrative instead of devolving into total party chaos). At a minimum, all players should assume their party has worked together before the start of the campaign, and actually are at least comfortable of their allies.
- The ability to accurately keep up on your own character sheet. I will put a lot of work building the sand-box, recreating and expanding it based on the groups actions. I expect in return that I can trust the players to be honest, and accurately reflect their progress.
Expectations the players can have of me:
- I endeavor for this campaign to be a creation made by myself and by the players. I will endeavor to support ideas and input from my players as best as i can, but not always immediately.
- I will track sideline quests and interests, so long as the players show interest in pursuing their own goals.
- As a GM, I am very open to player input, at any time. As such, any gaming material from any of the 40k lines is open to the player, so long as we work out any capability kinks before inclusion. This includes many house rules I, or others have created.
- I favor player creativity and ingenuity, and will reward truly in-genius or memorable role-playing or game actions that lead to the players undermining my scenarios with alternative ways I have not considered.
- 2 sessions a month at a minimum
Character creation guidelines:
- The character generation for the player's own characters is base-line Dark Heresy 2nd Edition. You can either choose to roll or utilize point buy.
- Characters can use either the standard Divination table, or ThenDoctor's expanded Divination tables.
- Characters will belong, at least initially, to a minor cabal of Thorians known as the Ordo Bestilius.
Applying to Join:
- I will accept players based upon a.) their character concepts, and b.) ability to meet my immutable requirements.
- For character concepts, I only need the general idea of your character. I do not need a story or background - just enough to know where you want to go with the character and his/her underlying motivations.
- Applicants are not beholden to hold their characters by any mechanical crunch during their pitch (i.e. i do not want to see 'adeptus mechanicus forgeworld outcast' as part of their description.
- I am looking for 4-5 players. No more than that. Once approved, I will then require the group to come up with a binding story based on this statement: "The Castigation of the Apocrophyan Ravine". This will be the story that lead the characters towards working together under the auspices of the Inquisition. This is a blank-slate to be filled in prior to first actual game session.
Houserules in effect:
- Any Penetration Value that exceeds Armor Values will reduce Toughness Bonus. In other word, I.e. a Pen 6 weapon reduces AP 3 to 0, reduces a TB 3 to 0 as well. This is to make combats much more deadlier and faster to resolve. When a hit to the head penetrates armor, damage is not soaked by toughness
- Enumerations of Chaos: Whenever the shroud is weakened between the materium and immaterium, the numbers of chaos houserule is in effect. Ill post a link to it later when I'm not on my laptop.
https://app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/21506/shadow-of-the-imperium
Edited by Cogniczar