I have been running a campaign for the last 5 years now, with the players being Consecrators (and not Deathwatch).

This have been pretty cool, and they have risen in ranks from going through Scout training, until they are now in charge of the 5th Company, with one of them being the Captain.

As things are now (very long story behind this), they will most likely be creating a new Sister Chapter soon. There is even a risk of them being turned renegade sometime in the future, but that remains to be seen.

I have been using some ideas for how to upgrade their Company buildings and such, as well as running battle missions with the Marines in their Company, and getting promotions and such.

These things I intend to transfer to the new Chapter of course. But now I also need to figure out what else they will need to handle, being in charge of their own Space Marine Chapter. For this I could really use some ideas and key-words from some of you all-knowing people

The things I am thinking about for now is:

- Requisition. I will need to figure out how much requisition they have and how it can improve and/or go down.

- Gene-seeds. This will be a big one! I know the basics from the Wiki's, but not sure how to really handle this for the players.

- Gear? I intend to give them a bunch of normal SM gear. And they already have some Adeptus Mechanicus [AM] contacts, but I am not entirely sure how such deals work between a SM Chapter and the AM?!

- They will start on a Star Fort, as they are not that many to begin with. Would an agreement with the AM keep everything here up to date, or should they also keep track of weapons/ammo spend here?

- Battleships. Not sure how many a chapter have, and how to replace broken ones? (Again I am guessing something with the AM)..

Some thoughts on the above and other ideas I can use, would make me very happy! Thanks

New ships take years, even decades to complete, for regular battleships. I suspect it would take even longer for strike cruisers and the like would be centuries minimum. As for requisition, I'd keep the deathwatch system but remove relics, instead stat up your own as time goes on. For geneseed, I assume they're being given stocks by the mechanicus, otherwise it'd take them forever to make a full fledged company, let alone a chapter. For gear, let the techmarine figure that out, give him a forge and tell him to make items, with the help of the mechanicus, all marks of armor from MK.5 down being impossible to make, and Mk.8 being a -20 to craft. As for the Fortress Monastary, a Ramilies class star fort works good for that.

" As things are now (very long story behind this), they will most likely be creating a new Sister Chapter soon."

Space Marine chapters are usually created in groups referred to as foundings which are planned and enacted over long stretches of time covering centuries.
So, you might want to assume that this has been in planning for a long time and that elements have been piece by piece put in place.
If you have Rites of Battle, there is a list of reasons why chapters are created. That might be useful going forward.

" - Requisition. I will need to figure out how much requisition they have and how it can improve and/or go down."
You might want to make an inventory of what the chapter has which will be limited while pieces are still being constructed. Then, the PCs can make decisions about who gets what.

Also, depending upon the reason for the chapter's creation, this migth be altered. So, if the chapter is being created with the intent of spear-heading a crusade, it might have entire forge worlds assigned to creation of its equipment.

" - Gene-seeds. This will be a big one! I know the basics from the Wiki's, but not sure how to really handle this for the players."

The chapters tithe their gene seed to the Mechanicus both for inspection to detect mutation and as a storage for the creation of future chapters or to restore depleted ones. So, just determine how many you want the fledgling chapter to have on hand and whether or not the Mechanicus is still going to be actively cultivating the chapter's gene seed. You can make this a small or large number.

" - Gear? I intend to give them a bunch of normal SM gear. And they already have some Adeptus Mechanicus [AM] contacts, but I am not entirely sure how such deals work between a SM Chapter and the AM?!"

These are major undertakings and, by canon, not nrmally handled in such a manner...

A few notes:
You might want to "force" the chapter to work out agreements with various factions.

With an agreement to track down pirates and defend a region of space important to a forge world, the chapter may gain the services of a forge world.

Or, an inquisitor can take the chapter under his wing and offer both gear and training to do his bidding. for instance, if you have Rites of Battle, they may gain access ot the Daemon Bane or Xenos Bane chapter advancement table depending on whether the inquisitor is of the Ordo Malleus or Xenos. Gear particular to that organization can be made available. In exchange the chapter might hunt down daemonic incursions or Chaos Space Marines.

These will allow "missions" devoted to securing future assets for the chapter.

These various "missions" can both gain needed assets for a new chapter or create serious problems.

Thanks Sgt.

We normally jump anywhere from 1 to 5 years between each scenario. So things that take time can be used, though centuries will not be possible of course. But I am also wondering how large a fleet a Chapter normally hace access to?

The typical Codex Chapter has something like 1-4 Battlebarges/battleships, about a squadron to a squadron and a half of strike cruisers, and various escorts and other support craft, probably a few dozen escorts, or roughly three or four squadrons worth of frigates and destroyers.

Nominally, Chapters are limited to ships focused around planetary assaults and "necessary escorts and support craft".

However ... the establishment of a new Chapter is something that normally requires the involvement of the High Lords to commission one (or more likely, more than one), and the highest ranks of the AdMech. And then probably a century or more, possibly as long as three centuries, to build up the assets required of a new Chapter.

I have to be honest - as a GM I probably would not go for PCs establishing a new Astartes Chapter. If I did, it would likely be a crowning moment in the campaign, if not the final one - and probably require a century or more of careful preparatory groundwork in advance of even proposing it, much less actually getting it approved, then there'd be even more time, most likely multiple centuries, required in the building of the various infrastructure, ships, materiel, and other assets a Chapter requires.

All told, likely a half-millennia between actually starting the process and ultimately achieving - assuming, of course, that no difficulties were encountered and that there was no real opposition, and everything went smoothly.

Thanks Javcs,

I have no problem with you being honest! I figured I would be getting some raised fingers on this topic, but hopefully also some other feedback

I agree that it should be a crowning moment. But we are also close to getting there, as we have as I mentioned played this campaign since 2011, and the players are now reaching Hero rank soon, with a long list of heroic exploits to boot.

I do not expect this to start out as a full-fledged Chapter! On contrary I would want them to help build it up, and perhaps even take larger in-game breaks, like 10 years between sessions perhaps, as they watched their Chapter grow. Actually I just found another thread on the subject elsewhere:

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/132379-guide-to-diying/

Especially this part sounds right up my alley:

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/132379-guide-to-diying/?p=1523413

It is still not fully settled whether it will happen yet. I am in the process of figuring out the correct reasons why it would be established, that a High Lord would commision it. But have some ideas already.

You could make the PC's the new chapter master and captains, giving each the responsibility for one aspect of the buildup, recruiting, material, armor, construction, etc... If they are nearing the level limit, they should then become NPC's and the players can switch to neophytes of the new chapter working for their former PC's. The history would continue, the old PC's gear can now become new chapter relics, their stories the new chapter history, and they can break out the old characters to do some high level political stuff that the new characters have to implement.

I wish I could get a game to last that long...>sigh<

Hey Anvil,

That is sort of the plan already, as they are currently already a Company Captain, Epistolary, Forge-Master and Champion (Assault). They are currently both doing personal missions in their squad, but also delegating the rest of their Company based on a list they get every time with available missions they need to resolve with as few casualties as possible, including missions to recruit new marines. They then use some seperate XP to build and upgrade buildings for their "Company Wing", and also use XP tp promote the other marines (from Scout, to Assault/Devastator/Tactical, to Veteran, Terminator and Hero, etc. Usually they struggle just to keep the Marines they have, but have managed to upgrade a couple to Veterans).

So this is what I intended to expand upon, when they would be in charge of their own Chapter. So thats why I was looking into ideas to what else they could "micro-manage", that would still be fun. Knowing how much they are starting to protect their Marines after their first couple of tactical experiences, I think it could be really interesting to keep track of their gene-seeds available and such.

PS: Main reason why it has lasted this long, is probably that we do not play that often anymore, with family and "real life" making it more complicated these days

But I like your idea of having them start over at some point! Though I worry that it might feel hard if it was for good?! (Though your idea sounds abit like Ars Magica, and I think that actually works very well from what I have heard). I had thought a bit about the idea to run a mission a bit like their first, which was their Scout "final" mission, before becoming real Marines. (In hindsight I should probably have used a few more Scout missions, as they really loved the combination of firepower and stealth).

Hey Praetorus,

Thanks alot for your reply. I am aware that it does not happen overnight, but might cut a bit of corners on it, and make it happen within a 10-15 years span, instead of a century in my case.

Your notes were very helpful!

The colony-building section of Rogue Trader: Stars of Inequity might be worth checking out. I'd stretch the time intervals a lot, though.

If you have it, or can get it, the Traveller: Supplement 12: Dynasty rulebook is definitely worth a look.

Thanks, I'll look into those! (Don't have them yet though)