As it seems FFG is upping the anti on the collectors edition, how about they make the deathwatch one really nuts.

Say, a full sized bolt gun with clip and ammo and the book comes inside the casing?

Bolters are big enough to fit RPG books in them afterall.

Any other cool ideas?

Hellebore

A gunmetal gray collector's tin that includes the book, a purity seal, and a personalized life history of your very own Deathwatch Inquistor?

A full size Space Marine Chapter Master in Tactical Dreadnought Armou who not only hand delivers the book for you but also stands ominously in the background whenever you play a game of Dethwatch!

When not in use, it hangs on a chain around his neck like some holy tome of Terra.

He can also help around the house (cleaning, washing, vacuuming, etc).

Or is that going a little too far?

Or on a more serious note, it comes with a choice of three hand crafted xeno artifacts such as a Stealers head, a Shuriken Pistol, or a Halo Device. Obvoiusly this would push to cost up to rediculous amounts, even above and beyond the RT Collector Price.

That's hilarious, especially the bit about the Space Marine standing in the shadows while you play RPG's with your friends. Funny image. I'd take mine packaged with the halo device.

It should look as if its bound in stitched-together xeno-hides. Instead of leather, it would be covered in scales, shark-like hide, and feathery felt surfaces, with a massive deathwatch seal embossed on the front.

Formorach said:

I laughed out aloud.

I'm not sure what it could be. Maybe an ammunition container with a raised two-headed eagle (Aquila?) insignia.

Personal Land Rider with crew

Firstly, it's "Upping the ante", "Ante" being a type of poker bet.

I'd actually like them to remain consistent with the collector's editions. Nillius' idea is closest to what I'd like to see, just a book bound in something resembling leather, perhaps with a certificate of indoctrination ("This is to certify that X marine of Y chapter is formally inducted into the Deathwatch"). anything else would be a bonus.

Also, there are no Deathwatch Inquisitors, just as there are no Blood Angel Inquisitors or Black Templar Inquisitors.

I'd like mine to be:

- handstitched in genuine panda hide

-to come in a presentation pack with a free Brazilian Supermodel

-to come with a warrant of trade enforceable in the real world that enables me to trade whatever I want with whoever I want

Though I'm not paying more than $160 for it this time.

Charax said:

Actually Ordos Xenos does make the final command decisions regarding their chamber militant (namely whether to deploy them or not) and some sources cite teams (does not specify what kind) being lead by Inquistors except in extreme circumstances. Meaning no, they are not recruited from Space Marine chapters but yes there are Inquistors in Deathwatch. If a situation is so bad that it requires turning Space Marines from multiple chapters loose on an entire planet without unbiased leadership holding the reigns, it's probably more economical for a Inquistor to order a Exterminus.

I would like to see a Deathwatch collectors edition book done in a fashion similar perhaps to the collectors edition of the original Dark Heresy and the collectors edition of Darkness Rising from the Black Library ( link ). Thus a very nice, perhaps leather-bound book that comes in a metal case that could bear the symbol of the Deathwatch (perhaps as a 3d relief of some sort) on the front of the case. The internal book could have the same symbol on the cover of the book of course. Instead of golden pages like the original Dark Heresy book perhaps silvered or blackened pages would look better to fit the overall motif.

I'd like for it to come in a leather-bound case that looks like the DH and RT Collectors Edition books but actually be a single, giant scroll.

It could then include a suitably archaic and skull-adorned gadget that quickly (but safely) winds the scroll to the page of the reader's choosing.

Like a Deathwatch Marine's own copy of "On the Road".

I'd pay good money for that.

I'd like the more personal approach, y'know...

Each Collectors Edition is individually hand-written by a master of Caligraphy, then the cover is bound in what ever material you wish (Hamster Fur!!), hand-stitched by blind Tibetan virgins before loaded onto the back of an old, arthritic donkey and marched 1000 miles to the nearest port where it's loaded into a huge crate (like the Ark of the Covenant), and placed aboard a rowingboat manned by Chuck Norris dressed as a Space Marine...

...OK, I give up.

Just leatherbind it like the RT one, perhaps with a pewter bust of either a Marine of the Deathwatch, or some kind of alien like a Slaugth. Though a pewter bust may push the cost up to beyond what I'm wiling to pay. After all, the RT book was stupidly overpriced (though it didn't stop me ordering one! Stoopid, stoopid me!!!)

I dunno I am so iffy about a Deathwatch book, because we already have DH, and DH covers all three forms of inquisition. (although it more or less only likes the other two) I think Deathwatch would be better off as a supplement to DH then a stand alone. Unless...... Unless that is of course the Deathwatch are not the players at all, as in they are the enemy. HAH, think of it if you were a team of mercenary Xenos on the run from what seems to be the most terrifying enemy of all, Marines.

Otherwise the only point to it would rather than be an acolyte again would be to play as a marine. Esepcially since we can not play as either chamber militants in DH (although you can get close by taking the soriatas path)

Also to rebuttle a comment above about Inquisitors coming from Deathwatch... No there are no Inquisitors in the Deathwatch. IT was a joke of semantics. Deathwatch is the chamber militant, a tool to be used by an Inquisitor of Ordos Xenos. Eisenhorn was such an Inquisitor and he did not even have the power to summon the Deathwatch. So.... Ordos Xenos needs to have an Inquisitor lord authorize the use of Deathwatch.

Deathwatch comprises Marines from local chapters to the specified engagement zone who show a knack for killing the enemies present. Old fluff stated that they would stage their death and take them in secret. Current fluff now is that they go with honor, serve a few tours of duty and return to their parent chapter and re-don their chapter armor but with a new spiffy death watch shouldar guard as a badge of honor.

Terminus_Est said:

That would actually be quite interesting now that I think about it. Being one of the Chamber Militants on the other hand, is something I'm also skeptical on. With few exceptions, the Militants don't seem to have as many options for role-playing as others. I can be wrong, but FFG needs to be the one that convinces me.

Terminus_Est said:

Not a particularly funny one but okay.

Charax said:

That is what I mean as a joke about semantics. He was plainly stating Marines are Marines and are never inquisitors, he just did not correct the person fully

Terminus_Est said:

And I still don't see the humor in it. But moving on, I have to say that I find your idea about having an alternate perspective to be interesting. Casting the players as a motley group of xeno mercs/travelers who somehow attract the attention of a Space Marine chapter or as a cross-section of one particular Xeno society (being different Eldar for instance) trapped on a planet when Deathwatch pays a visit does have potential. Imagine the terror of trying to flee a planet with guntoting crazies in power armor cutting you off at every turn. I like it, reminds me of the fun terror you can have in DH.

I used the Dark Reign rules for Space Marines to let one of my players play a Deathwatch Marine from Blood Angels chapter. It worked out just fine. Well, he died in a most gruesome fashion whilst serving the Emperor's Will, but other than that...

I really don't see Deathwatch as a stand-alone (role playing) game. It would just be a series of kill-team missions using other-than-40k rules. As an addition to DH, it's a fine idea.

Maxim C. Gatling said:

I am also not quite convinced Deathwatch will have the same broad level of role-playing options the other two games have. Granted there will be something for scholars and AdMech players (probably as Librians and Tech-Marines) to do inbetween battles but it would still be missing the social, investigative, and inflitration aspects of Dark Heresy. Not saying fighting isn't fun; but if you make a campaign (or game for that matter) too combat-focused it can end up feeling a little flat.

Again, there is the possiblity FFG can prove me wrong but I will not be really satisfied until I hear the offical word.

Exactly my point which makes way more sense than playing a guntoting Marine or yet another acolyte. Also from what I saw around these boards is that there was heresay of playing xenos in later books, IE Deathwatch. So... I think that would be very cool and it would a different aspect of the Grim Dark that no one has seen before, it would also be more character driven too. Which is kind of the point of rpgs. Plus the the personal horror which you said DH heresy is supposed to be more driven towards.

Psion said:

I'd have to say that calling it "flat" is a bit of an understatement. Fighting can MOST CERTAINLY become extrely dull and boring after absurd amounts of it- Unfortunately this has occured for me when playing Dark Heresy, and after a while you just get sick of all the dice rolling...

Varnias Tybalt said:

Well, I tend to agree but I was trying to be diplomatic since every time we voice valid criticisms on the subject; it gets defended by Marine fanboyism. But I have been there Varnias, I have been there.

Eh, my issue is with the presumption that Deathwatch will be nothing but combat. That presumption seems to stem from the idea many seem to have that renders Marines into one dimensional one trick wonders. I think there is potential for more and that those that dogmatically insist that Marines are all the same,drones that can only shoot stuff and nothing else, are as bad on their own extreme as the "teh Mereehnz is roxors" fanboys are at the other.

Wait and see what FFG does with it before you judge it.

Terminus_Est said:

Marines are NEVER Inquisitors? Says who?

One of the GW origin stories for the =][= has two out of the three original inquisitors being space marines.

Now granted over the years GW has put out several alternate origins of the =][=, but still...

DocIII said:

I always do.

But I will be more or less sceptical to certain ideas. Deathwatch doesn't strike me as an interesting one, and I've explained why in several threads. But I certainly hope im wrong. I might like being right most of the time (and most of the time, I am), but if im right this time it will mean that a crappy game gets released, and what good would that do? Im already a smug, arrogant and self-satisfied bastard as it is, I think I can take losing an amount of self-satisfaction if it means I get another good RPG to decorate my bookshelf.

So I sincerely hope that im wrong in this regard...

DocIII said:

I already said that, still doesn't stop me from being skeptical. As a chamber militant, Deathwatch is more limited in scope then say the Inquistion or Rogue Traders. And Space Marines ARE trained first and foremost to be very efficient killers; that's not an assumptation, it's right there on pretty much the first page on any entry concerning them. Roles like Tech-Marine and Apothecary are trainings a Marine can receive after he's proven himself to be a capable post-human warrior. He is still first and foremost very well trained in the art of making things dead. It's a very valuable skill in the 40k universe to be sure, but it's just one thing.

But my main problem is not so much with their possible inclusion, instead I'm wondering about something that is unarguably intergral to their lore, "And they shall know no fear." How do you scare players who stuck themselves into the armored overshoes of people who are not supposed to have fear, have doubts in their abilities? That is one question I have yet to someone answer to my satisfaction, where would the element of doubt, of uncertainity, that is important to all good roleplaying.