Details on Xenos?

By Giaus Novus Khan, in Deathwatch

So far there has been allot of speculation on the chapters and what kinds of Space marines you can play - but I'm interested in the 'bad guys'! Sure there will be the normal Orks & Eldar - but will there be stuff on Genies, Tau, Nids and Necrons? Perhaps a chapter on making your own aliens (like the mutant rules in dark heresy)? It has been said before that FFG aims to 'add on' to what has gone before and not revisit old fluff... so will we be seeing a range of NEW Races?

I'd imagine we WILL see new races. Each of the RPG systems has introduced a range of new xenos so far:- Slaugth, the Whisperers, Enoulians, Simalcra etc for DH, the Strixis, Rak'Gar marauders (and no doubt tonnes more in due course) for RT.

I would imagine we'll see more combat orientated xenos, given that the Xenos in the Calixis Sector are more infiltrators and scouts than fully fledged invasion forces. The background given already hints that the Deathwatch were overseeing the setting's region of space in their capacity as guardians of ancient xeno sites BEFORE they were called in to invade it, so I imagine there'll be at least one horrific and powerful xeno race to contend with.

The Description page states:-

"The Deathwatch RPG drops you and your group of fellow Space Marines squarely in the thick of the action, stationed at the heart of the Jericho Reach – a region of the Imperium long ago devastated by war, and now on the brink of destruction.

For centuries, the Deathwatch have maintained their silent vigil over the ancient ruins of the Reach, but now you find yourselves on the front lines of a grand Imperial Crusade that has been launched to reclaim this vast region of space from darkness and heresy."

So for the Deathwatch to be maintaining a "silent vigil" suggests to me that there is a highly dangerous latent Xeno presence in the Jericho Reach already.

I hope to see the Tau make an appearance. In Rogue Trader, they hint at their existence when talking about the Kroot's rifles being modified to fire a pulse charge from an unknown source which leads me to believe it is only a matter of time before we see them making an appearance in the DH universe. If Deathwatch is going to be a more military oriented game (which it should be) the Tau will be a good addition to oppose the Space Marines.

That depends mostly on the place, where the new setting is locate. Remember that the Tau-Space is in the Ultima-Segmentum, but the two settings from DH and RT are in the Segmentum Obscurus.

The Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader settings are adjacent to each other, so it would KIND of make sense for the Jericho Reach to have some relation to them, but the description section makes no reference to this.

We all kind of knew from the fairly early days of DH that RT would deal with the Halo Stars region beyond Port Wander...but there's no hint (thus far) in RT that DW will be set anywhere near the "home setting" of the rest of the 40kRPGs.

So yeah, Tau could theoretically make an appearance, but somehow I doubt it. FFG have opted so far for limited inclusion of the galaxy wide generic races (Orcs & Eldar) but have steered clear of dealing in depth with any region-specific races (Tyranids, Tau etc) other than ones they have created themselves.

Lightbringer said:

The Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader settings are adjacent to each other, so it would KIND of make sense for the Jericho Reach to have some relation to them, but the description section makes no reference to this.

I am also betting on the "adjacent sectors" or at least "in the same Segmentum" theory. If FFG ever wants to make a cross-over adventure module, it makes things much easier. Just my 0.02€.