Hiya all.

I'm planning on making a campaign where the PC's are space marines, yes I know, dark heresy wasn't made for space marines but I'm still gonna do it.

I'm planning a thing that me and my buddies often do in roleplaying games, a military campaign, many of you will probably think this sounds boring, but I'm not planning endless sessions of dice rolling combat. The campaign will focus on their ability to think on their feet, to find impressive and innovative solutions and to stay alive.

Say for example that they have been ordered to take over a bunker. How will they do it? They could run straight towards it guns blazing, but that will likely end up with them being mowed down by enemy fire. Instead they will have to think strategically how they will accomplish it, should someone create a diversion while the other sneaks up with a demoliton charge? Should they find a better position to fire heavy weapons at it? etc.

Still there? Good.

The players start by sitting down and planning their characters together, who should be the leader? The demolition expert? The heavy weappon expert? etc. They make their own plans on how their squad will work. As the players progress through the campaign they will obviously rise in rank and their duties will be tougher, I was planning on beginning the campaign when they are scouts, fresh out of novice training.

We will probably not progress this far unless I really speed things up, but I was planning on ending the campaign with how they move on to start a sucessor chapter.

Well whaddaya think? Sound good?

I would appreciate any advice you care to give, what chapter should they belong to? Should I make my own? What kind of missions should I send them out on? Should I limit them in some way, like, they can't become members of an assault squad?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Emperor protects.

Dark Reign has a great Adeptus Astartes sourcebook. I don't have the link right now, but I am sure one of our fellow whackos do. Still, here are a few points you can consider.

1. Start them out as Neophytes as the sourcebook says. Let them earn their black carapace and power armour. Maybe they end up wearing the armour of one of their brethren that died heroicly, or end up carrying their chainsword or bolter.
2. Which chapter is dependent upon the pace you want the game to go at. If you make them Blood Angels then they will eventually succumb to the Black Rage. Ultramarines would be stable, but very vanilla. If you make your own then you will need to come up with a philosophy and ethic. What Legion were they founded from? Which founding did the chapter originate from? How are they organised? Not all chapters follow the Codex Astartes, just look at the iron Hands and the Spacewolves.
3. You may want them all to come from the same world. This is a normal practice in Space Marine Chapters. At the very least from the same sector.
4. How are the players being moved about? Will they be fighting in a crusade of some sort? You could have an entire campaign on a single planet if fighting the Orks or even renegade Imperials.
5. Let them decide what path they take as far as being Assault, or Devestators. They can easily work together as a special team put together by their company commander.
6. And remember, noone gets to be Chapter Master until they earn it. And considering the exploits of most Space Marines, you better be on your game to just make Sergeant.

Personally, I can only answer a few with my opinions without my opinions being heavily anti-sm biased.

You should make your own chapter, with their own traditions, people, and customs. Why? So you know everything single thing that is going on. There is nothing left in the dark. If they ask a question, you can answer it fully.

Always try to switch it up a little for mission wise. Having the same mission ideals twice or more is okay, just as long as the situation is changed obviously.

I don't think in a normal chapter they really split up marines from different squads to form them together to make one single miniature squad to do whatever task you assign them AS FAR AS I KNOW DISCLAIMER. You make the chapter, you can assign whatever rules you want . But to really answer the question, the less restrictions, the more freedom the players have, and can have fun with. Really also sets them apart as well. Everyone in the group will have their own place, which I personally ALWAYS STRIVE FOR.

Last thing, good luck and have fun planning this.

(Too many emoticons? NOT ENOUGH I SAY)

We're playing pretty much that, except with members of the Imperial Guard.

What kind of missions?

Well, there are the classics: Disrupt supply lines ; scout out enemy emplacements ; take out sniper positions and enemy towers ; poison food supplies ; sabotague vehicles ; capture communications posts to intercept transmissions ; recover allies pinned and injured close to enemy lines ; sabotague medical units ; scout mine fields ; lay mines before the enemy is encouraged to advance ; capture someone in authority so interogate them ; capture xenos specimen for research ; capture xenos tech to determine weaknesses (some chance of tech heresy by eager tech priests here) ; retrieve any relics from temples or similar locations siezed by the enemy ; plant a plague mine and get away before detonating ; help retrieve and organize pockets of resistance ; retrieve hostages/prisoners of war ; steal supplies if your unit's are running low ; capture a key location and hold it while the unit advances ; stop spies from getting back to enemy camp with sensative material ...

... And, I'm spent. Other ideas anyone?

Some ideas i planned to use: Investigate in missing supply, search old abandoned missionary (since Marine Chapters often build missionaries to secure places of importance on various planets which tend to be given up/forgotten).

Damien said:

Yeah I got the Dark reign rules, they are good.

Okay, so thanks for the advice, this is how I planned to do it.

First of all I would draw a map which will act as a handout for the players (and me) to familiarize themselves with the terrain and what they are doing right now, where they stand, where the enemies fortification is, etc. This would storytelling wise be the tactical HUD map that all space marines get before a mission and which they can access through their suits.

Every map is a mission with one main objective, usually blow the **** out of the enemy's HQ or something, with side objectives that they can choose to complete, but they will not be able to complete every side objective, there is just to many. For Side objectives I was planning on those that you have already given me, rescue a hostage, destroy a supply line, etc.

In the end I was thinking of it looking kinda like this.

They start at one edge of the map, at the other edge is the goal, they have several different ways to reach that goal and pre planned events will be layed out along the road they chose to take. When they reach the goal they will probably face a boss or something as a climax.

That's about as far as I have planned it.

Be sure to mix it up a little as well ... more than "start at point A, get to point B, boss fight". Sometimes you'll want them to encounter major events along the way ... perhaps the heretics summon something unexpected - maybe a psyker mishap - and it begins rampaging through everything in its path, your team and the enemy's. Or you come upon the location of a major relic which needs to be safeguarded, going on puts it in jeapardy, while turning back wastes time and gives the enemy an edge, which do they do? The enemy awaken something in the earth ... perhaps a slumbering beast, perhaps ancient xeno tech, and it needs to be put down before it can commit an act far more horrible than anything the enemy had intended. Etc. Primarly I'm encouraging you to have "boss fights" or similar events in places other than the expected far end of the map.

Another idea as well, depending upon how you do moral, the army might get a bonus so long as the Squad banner and the Imperial Aquila are displayed (+10 to rolls, say) so guarding and maintaining these standards are of major importance.

Another thing I was thinking over was what enemies they will face, depending on how long the campaign goes they will probably face each and every one of the imperiums enemies, but what I'm brooding over is which enemy they should face first. Cultists aren't that dangerous and could be a good start, a PDF force that has gone chaos or something. My other choice was orcs since they work almost the same as a normal army in tactics and warfare (Given that their plans are usually kinda straightforward).

Another thing I was planning was an arch-nemesis, a recurring foe that the PC's will have to face, but when it seems like they have finally taken him down he will miracously escape. I'm thinking the same kind of thing as in William King's space wolf novels where the protagonist Ragnar often face off against a Thousand sons chaos space marine named Madox (Well at least it is inclined to be so).

Well, there are two thoughts on that ... ease them in nice and slow or throw them in and force them to swim. Personally I prefer the second option, especially for something like Space Marines ... you want the players to feel like they are in the action and doing something big right off the bat - if they have to struggle to keep up all the better, it will make them appreciate the victory more. In my first Star Wars adventure I threw the party against General Grevious ... they fealt pretty **** cool when they managed to delay him long enough to escape with what they'd come for - knowing from the second they saw him that they were a hair's breadth away from death.

So I say something heavy and nasty right off the bat ... Gene Stealers or Cultists with summoned demon servants and heretical rites. Being as they're what they are, you don't have to take the careful approach DH tends to encourage ... make it bloody, big and memorable.

As for the recurring villain ... I'm not a fan of them myself and have a rule which says "no villain may appear more than three times before he is defeated" ... otherwise you begin to feel the baddy is the GMs indestructable toy against which you can, ultimately, do nothing. Feh. The only exception to this is if the villain is more background and ultimate goal than actually recurring bad guy ... like the Ecclesiarchal high priest-heretic who is dealing with many vast and far reaching schemes, the players merely being one of them. He never really shows up himself, but occasionally sends lackies out after the players and puts bounties on their heads/declairs them hereticus exterminatus. By no means should he be behind even the majority of the pc's woes, but he might be the one constant presence they know they must eventually take down. Maybe I've just had bad experiences with the party nemesis type villain ... but I hate dealing with it and never pull it on my players.

Jack of Tears said:

Fine, so be it.

He is the guy who won't die, he is the GM's indestructible tool, it's his job. The PC's will face him as a threat they at first will not stand a chance in hell to overcome. Eventually they will be able to beat him, but that's the thing, they will beat him, he will fall before their prowess, but he will escape and try another day, eventually they PC's will change their opinion of him as a boss to an equal, and eventually he will die.

That said he will also use not only direct confrontation to take down the PC's. He will also try to use cunning, trickery, soul testing trials, mercenaries etc.