Hi there,

since I want to get my players off the hive world they are in (they have even more trouble to imagine a hive then I do) I looked through the new world description in "Enemy within" and decided to give them a tour to Temperance (fits the current happenings in my game).

I was rather suprised about the distance mentioned between the two cities of the world, Beacon & Bastion. They are said to be more then 1000 Kilometers away, I guess it even said "several". I wonder how this should allow for any significant interaction between the two cities.

Little me is living in Germany. 1.000km alone is a distance that would make me start at one end of my home Country and make me reaching it´s border (or even crossing it) by the farest point of the other side. In my daily life, everything that happens in such a distance is something I just "take note of", and I am having access to the internet, television, etc. and I am not a farmer who has to go through a backbreaking choirs of works most of the hours of my day but somebody working in an office, 9-to-5,so to speak.

Thereby, I assume that all the populace of Bastion knows about Beacon is "hear-say" from merchants or perhaps news broadcasts via Vox (if they have such!) while the Arbites will have to rely on "gathered intelligence" by their local agents and deputies (again, likely to be Vox or personal Rapport/ messengers being send).

On the other Hand, it seems like everything Beacon is knowning about Bastion will be likewise hearsay, and of course the picture they get from the deputy caders Bastion sends there. And with the distance between the town, I imagine that the deputies will have literal garrisons with barracks there, as it is unfeaseable to transport the caders back and forth between Bastion and Beacon between assignments, as long as we are not talking "reinforcements for special duty", that is.

All of this assumes, of course, that the deputy forces of beacon aren´t recruited from the local populace. This is just me guessing again, as I guess their would be much less troubles between deputies and populace if the deputy forces would actually be PART of the populace instead of "strangers from outside". One is much less likely to rough up his neighbor then he is likely to rough up a stranger, after all.

Somehow, I guess the overall feel of it (the deputy Situation in Beacon) might be akin to Irland a few decades back, especially with those (spore) bombings going on.

What do you think?

Well, it is possible that the effect of distance is minimised by futurespace passenger transportation, be it maglev trains travelling at speeds well over 500 kph, or even suborbital fliers that make the trip feel like the daily commute. Remember, what you said about Ireland a few decades back was similarly true for the rest of Europe a few centuries back! Technology has done a lot to bring people closer together.

http://www.dailynews.com/business/20140707/coming-soon-sub-orbital-flights-from-new-york-to-beijing-in-just-2-hours-for-billionaires

That being said, you still have a point about the locals likely just not having any time and means to inform themselves. I do not believe in 40k having stuff like a public internet and unlimited information exchange between the locals, not to mention that most people would be preoccupied with their daily survival and probably not even know what's going on within their own Hive outside their immediate district. Things would be different for the nobility and government officials as well as security forces, of course.

This is just me guessing again, as I guess their would be much less troubles between deputies and populace if the deputy forces would actually be PART of the populace instead of "strangers from outside". One is much less likely to rough up his neighbor then he is likely to rough up a stranger, after all.

As far as I recall, that is precisely the point for security enforcers being recruited from elsewhere. No reason to hold back when "enforcing law and order" at the barrel of a riot control shotgun.

Hey Lynata

Well, it is possible that the effect of distance is minimised by futurespace passenger transportation, be it maglev trains travelling at speeds well over 500 kph, or even suborbital fliers that make the trip feel like the daily commute.

you are of course right with that, but with a Frontier world I was under the assumption that such stuff is not there.Especially since the entry for things like that anti-fungi-flamer-car in Enemys within was mentioned to run on horsepower before the arrival of the reinforcements

I thought abit about it and decided for myself that while flyers are available (freighters and cutters), fuel/energy and spare parts are rare so flight is pretty lilmited. I have this picture about about oldfashined trucks (like WWII), running on alcohol made from crops, carry dozens of deputys with flamers out into the muddy ground, rain still pouring from the sky so the monsoon phase being over (or not! Depending on the trouble).
To migitate the distance thing, I will reduce the distance to about a thousand kilometers. A day of travel by truck is hard enough for sure. Aaaand... I will have the a project running where a railroad is actually build to connect Bastion with Beacon. But not a high speed thing but an older steam base model. Still, most in Beacon don´t like it. It is bad enough having the deputies in town, having them there in much shorter time and much greater number doens´t sound good.

Apologies, I completely missed that you wanted to get them away from the Hive... It was late!

Re-reading your intentions, I agree with transportation possibly being an issue as ground vehicles would take their sweet time crossing such vast distances. Flyers would still be available, but I presume they would be limited to important officials and military/security forces. You could perhaps just assign a couple old-fashioned Valkyries to the settlements and call it a day?

"The Valkyrie is a twin-engined armoured flyer used primarily by the Imperial Guard to launch massive air assaults upon the enemy. Entire infantry regiments can be embarked from their forward bases and transported for hundreds of leagues, the exact range limited only by the availability of refuelling facilities. Valkyries are also capable of atmospheric insertion, being launched from Imperial Navy carriers in low orbit."

- GW Liber Apocalyptica

As for the train, there was a GW event which had this:

Or maybe, if you know the movie " Priest " (which, on a sidenote, I keep recalling as an example of how cool a 40k movie could actually be if GW wanted to give it a real try):

Hi Lynata,

I know the Valkyrie, but I personally try not to use to much militar craft when I stock civilian worlds. While "old military surplus" might be very available due to the Imperiums huge warmachinery, I like to have some old Arvus Lighters or similiar stuff around. Personally, some of the system-generic templates of "Future Armada" fit my bill most of the time.

But the train picture from the GW event is a treat, thanks for that!! I will use this one for sure when it comes to the train, so I will still have the railroad something that is still far from being completed. With the frequent rainsstorms and flashfloods and following fungal investations, I guess building 1000 km of railroad might take some time. Especially when you do it "old west style", which means no heavy construciton machinery (or abundance of servitors) but many human hands and backs (most like taken from the last wave of Deputy Recruits from last year... idle hands are a bad thing).

I know the Valkyrie, but I personally try not to use to much militar craft when I stock civilian worlds. While "old military surplus" might be very available due to the Imperiums huge warmachinery, I like to have some old Arvus Lighters or similiar stuff around.

Fair enough - I was thinking that on frontier worlds in particular, military surplus might be suitable as leftovers from the initial survey, or the colonists being Imperial Guard veterans who were allowed to settle down there after the planet's integration into the Imperium. I'd have to read more about the individual world's background myself before I'd commit to a single idea though.

With the frequent rainsstorms and flashfloods and following fungal investations, I guess building 1000 km of railroad might take some time. Especially when you do it "old west style", which means no heavy construciton machinery (or abundance of servitors) but many human hands and backs (most like taken from the last wave of Deputy Recruits from last year... idle hands are a bad thing).

Indeed; it's almost an adventure itself, in that such a project could easily be integrated into the plot of a new campaign! After all, with such a massive undertaking, there's all sorts of things that could go wrong, and certain forces possibly wanting to see it fail, or repurpose it for their own advantage.

As for the workers, mutant slave gangs or Human sinners "volunteered" to hard labour by their local Confessor would also be an option. With such a huge project, I'd probably mix all of them and have different camps working different sections. This also creates potential for conflict when the camps or work gangs are in close proximity and chafe at each other.

Fair enough - I was thinking that on frontier worlds in particular, military surplus might be suitable as leftovers from the initial survey, or the colonists being Imperial Guard veterans who were allowed to settle down there after the planet's integration into the Imperium. I'd have to read more about the individual world's background myself before I'd commit to a single idea though.

The Supplement has it established that the first wave of colonists was taken from Kalto, which is an Agriworld. Suiting enough, since Temperance was planned to become one, too.

The railroad Project is no Focus of the current game, so. I just wanted to have some mentionable, semi-unique elements for this world so that the Players can actually have some Immersion and to include somethings going on in this world that are -not- related to there mission.

What still bothers me is the size of Beacon, the largest of the (only) two cities on the frontier world of Temperance. It was said to have a populace of three Million, but most of the builidngs on temperance are only three stories high as everything must be in reach for a good cleansing by flame due to the need of cleaning fungal growth. As one can guess (and as it is already mentioned), the City is literally sprawling. In wonder what would be a matching City size, if only for a rough estimate. And to add Insult to injury, Beacon is sustaining itself with agriculture. Unlike other large cities, it is not getting the majority of its Food from surrounding communities, because everywhere else on Temperance (except: Bastion) the populace is scattered in small Settlement. Beacon was, in fact, founded to be a Producer of crops to ensure that the Population of Temperance is not threated by starvation that much (!). This City must surrounded by a Long Stretch of fields....

Thanks for the description, that clears things up! In that case I agree that a Valkyrie - or an Arvus - might appear somewhat out of place, as both are military vehicles. Perhaps just use local (read: freely invented) designs, then?

As for the cityscape, that does sound a bit strange. Perhaps a sizeable part of those 3 million people are living on the surrounding farmlands, though, and the farms are still counted as belonging to the city proper rather than to separate communities?

Some real world cities might offer inspiration on how a system based on these factors could look like. From wikipedia:

Is there any mention of underground levels of the buildings? If you can't build up, why don't just build down into the earth? There would be no problem with the fungus and it would generate a lot of space for living.

why don't just build down into the earth? There would be no problem with the fungus and it would generate a lot of space for living.

That sounds far too logical for 40k.

Is there any mention of underground levels of the buildings? If you can't build up, why don't just build down into the earth? There would be no problem with the fungus and it would generate a lot of space for living.

This time, they have a Logical reason to it: the soil is might be rich in nutrients, but the ground gets rocky early on and from the description I got it, that there are in Facts large rock formations below the ground which do luck like the remains of a large Desaster involving a lot of heat/flames (either some tectonic Event, Meteor strikes or orbital bombardment, it seems)

[The ruins of Thirdstone and their guards]
The book tells about the ruins of Thirdstone being guarded, to keep the populace out of it. In addition, investigation teams of the Adeptus Mechanicus have been mentioned and of course, the Inquisition. No details are given, but let´s just say other entries indicate that the security isn´t airtight.

My current approach is, that the Legion of Twelve had a garrison fort erected shortly after the events, as a base of operation for a guard force of about 100 deputies, up to 30 of them on horseback, every individual deputy serving at the garrison in a six month tour. A high chain link fence, topped with barbed wire, has been erected, as a physical obstacle to stop intruders, along the outer perimeters of the city. Up to ten yards on both sides of the fence were cleared of trees and larger bushworks, so grass has grown high by now and some smaller bushes riddle the landscape. The old road from Beacon to Thirdstone has been blocked, too.

At strategic points, guard Towers were erected and the fence is patrolled by deputies on horseback, in groups of three. One of the three riders will have a vox, as well as each tower and the garrison fort itself. While this is far from perfect, it helps to disencourage would-be trespasser. To underpin the importance of the site, I will have one of the remaining six Aribtrators (not counting the head-honchess as she is not leaving Bastion) officially being assigned to the garrison for a six month tour (and defacto spending half of her time in Beacon, assisting in certain arising situations if her presence isn´t strictly needed at the Thirdstone Garrison). The garrison will have jeeps and some trucks, but only use those if riding out on horseback does not seem feasible (like, entering the ruins, as one has always to assume that some patches of fungal growth went unnoticed). Supplies are collected in Beacon on a regular basis, usually about once a month.

As the Mechanicus grew a keen interest in the matter, they had send a detachment to Temperance “for investigation and study”. This includes three Tech-Priests (Augurs and a Calculus Logi), five Technomants, about a dozen servitors (three of them combat models) and half a dozen servo skull (mostly equipped for recording and auspex). This detachment was given a separate area in the garrison fort so that the groups could cooperate and results could be shared. Defacto, the Tech-Priests are rather secretive and most of the reports and analyses they file with the Arbites seem to exclude more then they reveal, at least if one compares the time they spend in the ruins any given day to the information that is shared. So, the official statement is that “only relevant data is compiled”.

A typical day at the garrison sees three shifts, changing from “rest” to “ready” to “patrol duty”, so deputies that are “ready” spend a lot of time being sent into the ruins to locate and eradicated fungal growth. Mostly, this happens either after a rainy day, when the Mechanicus reveals that it wants to relocate their analyses to a different part of the ruins within the coming days or when the Captain of Garrison sees a need to keep his men occupied. At regular intervals, groups on horseback are roaming through the wider area on the lookout for illegal encampments, wild grox or feral dogs. In addition, there is not one month passing without at least one or another group of zealots from Beacon coming to the garrison. Those are usually trying to preach to the garrison (that they should leave this damned ground or that the endtimes are coming), just wail about the woe that has came or that want to walk around Thirdstone, flogging themselves.
Those that are flagellants are often tolerated by the garrison, depending on their general attitude and behavior, but always closely monitored by at least five riders on horseback to ensure that they stay on the right side of the fence. Very large groups, counting far more than two dozen people, are always ordered away or dispersed, by force if it must be.

If a patrol or watch tower recognize a breach of the fence (either intruders getting caught at it or a gap being noted by the patrols), it leads to a small search Mission to comb the city streets and building Close to the inccident (which is usually aborted between 8 and 24 hours later). It is a known fact among the garrison that a fresh tear in the fence is often to be attributed to wildlife, as the surrounding area has a number of wild grox and dogs which can be ravingly mad due to fungal infection.

GM Notes: This approach was chosen to ensure that people with determination, skill and perhaps the right gear have a chance to steal themselves into the ruins of Thirdstone.

EDIT: Culling of some of my bad gramma

[„Native“ wildlife of Temperance / further ideas]
Before the settlers came, Temperance was home to no complex life form but the mind-molt. Which must literally mean “next to no obvious life at all”. So says EW, mentioning wild grox a little later that can happen to eat away the crops (and with bad luck: the people!) of remote, isolated farms.

To have agriculture, the Imperium needed to import what it needed to turn the world fruitful. I envision “seeded bombs” being dropped in large areas to plant grass, some flowers and seeds for trees in areas far from another and the first settlements while the first settles created the first fields, planting crops in an orderly fashion while the stage for a greener world was set. Hives of “pioneer bees” where later included into the farming and brought out into the landscape, to help the plant life evolve. As crops yielded and grass grew, farm animals were brought along next. Having them earlier is foolish, as they would just have meant more mouth to feed while waiting for the first crops.

Somewhere in this cycle of taking land, the disaster of the warp storm happened. The world was cut off from outside resources, order crumbled more and more and people started to starve as mind-molt took the crops away. I guess that it was in this chaotic times that farm animals escaped. While a starving population would never let life stock flee, an insolated farm with just a family running it could see the small herd escape after a case of mind mold took one or more of the family members and the remaining simply not up to the task to run the farm alone. In a surrounding where there was grass but no natural predators, the herds might not even have been kept fenced in. The land is flat and wide, you see them for miles and can herd them with horses. But when they escape the human hands, this lack of natural predators BUT the mind molt means they have a chance to strive.

Grox will not be the only things that escaped then, so for sure the largest. Dogs might have escaped, so they will have been a very large and powerful bread to help in herding the Grox. Some that might be able to prey on old, sick or young animals once they go feral…. or on humans if hungry enough. Sheeps and goats will be able to life in those surroundings, too, and are a nice choice for farming as well. While hardly a danger, the provide a food base that explains the dogs, for grox are a really dangerous game to one to three farm dogs that escaped their dead masters leash. The “pioneer bees” will have been a non-aggressive breed, but with a warp storm their might have been mutations, forming into small colonies of an aggressive strain. And while I think about it, horses make an excellent choice for a flat-ground frontier world. As I once have read in a GURPS scifi supplement. “We use horses here instead of hoverbikes because we can grew the fuel for horses on the fields and cannot breed hoverbikes”. An animal that is part of an insolated farm can be lost at some point during the ages of the warpstorm. And a horse is an animal that should have no problem surviving as long as there is plant life and surface water. The only thing to cull a wildlife population based on the offspring of escaped farm animals is the mind molt.

Still, I guess that might be about it. The mind-molt will be the prime threat in the wields, men and the mutant being second and everything else being just something that could be encountered, but is more of nuisance then a threat to who carry along a trusty rifle. The land is describe as flat, evading grox should not be a problem.

If anyonebody else has good ideas “domestic animals that will have escaped men”, let me hear. But please keep in mind that the settlers were unlikely to bring along anything not meant to build society in the first wave (pets aside). I don´t see any escaped gladiator-beasts here 

Rats/mice would certainly be there. Pests from the shipments of agriculture.

Insects (cockroaches) could also have come as hitchhikers.

Cats to fight the rats/mice.

How about a symbiotic relationship between a certain bee mutation and the mind mould?

Rats/mice would certainly be there. Pests from the shipments of agriculture.

Insects (cockroaches) could also have come as hitchhikers.

Cats to fight the rats/mice.

How about a symbiotic relationship between a certain bee mutation and the mind mould?

I am not that sure about rats/mice: crops have been shipped AWAY from the planet, not to it, as far as I got it. But yes, I should asssume some of those, but more near the two cities and less in the Country side. Simply because their main Food source would only be available where it is stocked. Those buggers will likely come direct from a ship (as compared from a shipment of crop) and might have adapted to staying Close to human Habitats.

Other insects are a good Point, so. The tiny eggs of small insects are the easiest to be carried along without noting them.

Cats are nice, but since I don´t see numerous rats/mice in the wildside, I will Refrain from having to much off them there. Having them in the cities, so, will be nice for sure.

Symbiotic relationships between the mind mould and mutated "pioneer bees". ...hmm... I guess them would not even need to mutate to be a thread combined with them spores. After all, bees gather and Transport spores as part of the activity, right? I guess a spore investations will call for the hives in the surrounding area to be burned. Good Point, thank you.

I am not that sure about rats/mice: crops have been shipped AWAY from the planet, not to it, as far as I got it.

Well, at some point, the colonists would have to have imported the seeds at least. Window of opportunity?

[Regulated Promethium Distribution]
The operation of flamers is crucial to the existance of every single human being on Temperance. The flamers are used to burn away the fungal growth, and Promethium does not seem to be available on the planet itself.

In my game world, I have the city of Bastion including a huge underground reservoir of Promethium which is distributed under the close surveillance of the Deputies and the administrative staff of the Precint Fortress. A certain amount is given out "for free", the colonist only needs to register himself and his own. The given Locations of farms and homes are checked randomly, and woe to the one who lied, as waste or unnecessary hording of Promethium is considered a crime.

Anybody with a very high demand for Promethium will be checked soon, as well. It either speaks of wasting ressources, hordign, black market activity... or a dangerously high growth of fungi in the vicinity, which Needs to be burned down by cadres of deputies from bastion. Any community who STOPPED securing Promethium might have been whiped ..and either needs to be checked or crossed from the map.

As a side effect, this System makes sure that a lot of the popuolace is actual registered in some crude Fashion ("per capita"). Nobody in his sane mind will turn down a Chance for getting Promethium. The next storm will come, and with them the spores.

In game this helps me to add some colourite. In addition, I will have "sanctioned Promethium distributers" that have centres of operation far from Bastion, only traveling there once every three to four month to get their share for re-distribution or even being given a deliver by truck from the Bastion (imagine a large convoy of fuel trucks moving about the outer rim of what is civilization on Temperance). Those "SPD" would be the people to point the characters to if they ask around for "strange activities that happened recently". Bastion will not be up to date in regard to the outer farms, but an SPD might had have a chat a while ago.