Campaign/Adventure ideas for Deathwatch

By Kael of Tyr, in Deathwatch

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craigpearson81 said:

Atheosis said:

forward unto dawn said:

Atheosis said:

TCBC Freak said:

Atheosis said:

TCBC Freak said:

Atheosis said:

Not really. An Inquisitor actually has to petition Deathwatch for aid. He can't just waltz into a Deathwatch base demanding a kill team to root out a Slaaneshi cult. Well he might be able to, but he wouldn't receive a very warm response. In fact, he'd likely be expelled from the premises. Deathwatch is essentially autonomous. They aren't the Inquisitorial toadies you think they are.

Beyond that Inquisitorial power is not total over all Imperial institutions as you seem to think. Both the Adeptus Astartes and the Adeptus Mechanicus are free to refuse an Inquisitor if they wish.

The highest ranking Inquisitor is, as far as say over the Deathwatch, almost like the Deathwatch Chapter Master, but yeah any other Inquisitor would need to petition for their aid if they weren't working directly for the High Lord Inquisitor. And the Machanicus and Astartes can refuse to work with the Inquisition but it could be very bad for them if an Inquisitor Lord gets into the mix as they have the power to excumnicate members of both Adeptus. But yeah the Inquisition isn't all powerful, for a Chapter to be put out for not helping an Inquisitor he/she'd have to be really powerful and they would still have to have a trial.

Err...Inquisitor Lord isn't an actual title. It's an informal recognition by other Inquisitors. In the end however he's still just an Inquisitor. No one Inquisitor has any actual authority over Deathwatch. That isn't to say Deathwatch says no very often. They have the power to however.

As far as the Astartes and Mechanicus go, it takes a lot for the Inquisition to go after them. When I say a lot I mean clear irrefutable proof of corruption, heresy, or treason. If the Inquisition went after a Space Marine Chapter without such proof they'd quickly find themelves embroiled in a war with many Space Marine Chapters at once, so sacred do the Astartes hold their sovereignty. In the case of the Mechanicus the Inquisition is much better off leaving any heresy within their ranks for the Techpriests themselves to deal with. A war with the Mechanicus would more or less be the end of the Imperium.

The Inquisition has ranks, just like everything else and if you've read the Eisenhorn trilogy then you know Inquisitor Lord is a 'rank'. It‘s the person within an Ordo who tells the other Inquisitors what to do and if there is a dispute between two Inquisitors he/she decides it. This is also the person who has command of the Inquisitors when two Ordo‘s are forced to work together; the highest ranking Inquisitor in the field no matter the Ordo is in charge. And if two or more share the same rank then it’s the one with the seniority.

Who do you think excommunicates the Reneged chapters or fallen Inquisitors? A Inquisitor challenges the chapter and then there is a trial, if found guilty by a tribunal of high ranking Inquisitor then the order comes down from the Inquisitor Lord of the Ordo Hereticus, who would be the highest ranking member of the Ordo Herecticus in the sector in which the trial is taking place. Read the Soul Drinkers stories and you see this same thing, a sufficiently high ranking Inquisitor takes on the chapter and he has the pull and power to bring them to question before a shot is fired; true they attack and that's what sets the events off but it was because they knew he was bring his rank to bear. (And your assertion that Chapters would unite to keep a possible renegade chapter from being brought down is not only wrong but absurd. The whole of the Badab War was one group being accused by the Inquisition and others rallying against them, only a hand full joined them to “maintain their autonomy.” Most Chapters are more prone to attack a possible Heretic chapter on the word of an Inquisitor than side with it. What’s that old Marine moto, “Kill them all, let God sort them out?”)

And starting your post with, “Err…” as if I’m just another forum posting idiot is kind of rude, I may be taking it wrong and if that’s the case I’m sorry (Also if I sound rude in this my apologies, that is not my intent). But I know my stuff, I’ve read nearly all of the Imperial Guard novels by Black Library, the full Ciaphas Cain series and Gaunt’s Ghost works, The Soul Drinkers Omnibus, the Inquisition War trilogy the Ultramarine stories, and the Eisenhorn trilogy; with many other tails besides... Oh and my table top army is a Which Hunter force. I know my stuff. I’m not an expert and certainly not infallible but I‘m also not some guy whose only brush with 40K is what he learned from DH and RT, which is not the end all be all of 40K.

Please refer to this article: wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Inquisition

Read the section on Inquisitorial ranks. An Inquisitor Lord really isn't what you think it is.

Oh and Badab is a good example of what can go wrong when going after a rogue Chapter (and the Astral Claws weren't a well known or particularly honored Chapter). Imagine if the Inquisition went after the Ultramarines...it would get real ugly real fast...

The lexicanium is not set in stone, just like a wikipedia page it can be altered and often contains informantion from persious texts, as far as fluff goes, the GW codex for demon hunters states there are in fact ranks, and that the inquisitor can recqustion forces from any imperial organization, espically since the orde xenos is a part of the organization called the Inquisition, an inquisitor can use any part he needs

i also feel insulted in the manner in which you responed to my post (if i am in error with you intention my aplogizes) it was a simple clarification for some game ideas

Sorry you feel insulted. Not sure why you do, but oh well.

Anyway what you're saying is that you want to ignore materials that contradict your position(s) while focusing on whatever you believes supports it. That's fine, but don't try to pass it off as what the official material states. I referenced you to the Lexicanum which uses official material, and you choose to dismiss it. That's fine. If you are running a game and prefer a setting where the Inquisition is a strictly heirarchical organization, and the Astartes (Deathwatch included) and Mechanicus do whatever an Inquisitor tells them, that's fine. That's not the official story, but you have the freedom to do whatever you like.

After looking through Lexicanum it says the following:

"If required, Inquisitors may call on the service and/or resources of any Imperial servant or organization. Not even a High Lord of Terra may refuse the order of an Inquisitor without good reason. This power extends across the Adeptus Astartes and the Adeptus Mechanicus, however learned Inquisitors show discretion and request the assistance of the Space Marines and attempt not to anger the Adepts of Mars."

This suggests the Astartes and the Mechanicum are not free to refuse assistance, it is just considered polite to make a request rather than demand.

I don't think it is what you say that causes is taken as an insult. As someone looking from the outside of this arguement, your replies do come across as preaching and treating everyone elses views as rediculuous because they differ from your own. I doubt this is intended, but I can see why people feel that way, especially as tone is lost in text.

Your views are ridiculous. gui%C3%B1o.gif

The issue of whether or not Inquisitors can order around the Astartes is a bit muddy. To quote Lexicanum's article on them: "Ultimately the Chapter is subject to the orders of the highest-ranking among the Adeptus Terra, although only in a general sense." A highly vague and suspect endorsement of any kind of authority over Astartes. As the Inquisition's authority is ultimately derived from the Adeptus Terra, one can see why Inquisitors request aid rather than demanding it. At the same time, Chapters that develop the habit of refusing to aid Inquisitors are playing a very dangerous game because the Inquisition does have the power to declare them Excommunicate Traitoris. Usually it takes quite a bit for this to happen though.

As far as the Mechanicus go:

"While the Adeptus Mechanicus is a part of the Imperium, it has developed separately and enjoys a considerable degree of independence. Due to the great amount power it wields, the Adeptus Mechanicus is more like an allied empire than an organization within the Imperium."

The Inquisition can really have issues with dealing with the AdMech because, in the end, they have so much power and independence. Once again members of the Mechanicus can be declared traitor, but it can get very hairy.

Ultimately in these cases the absolute nature of Inquisitorial power has to be seen as something of an illusion. While as an organization they have virtually limitless power, individual Inquisitors are rather limited by the forces they can muster to enforce their will. A single Inquisitor is highly unlikely to have the overarching influence necessary to actually pursue a vendetta against the Mechanicus or Astartes, and must rely on his brethren for support. If said brethren see his demands as unreasonable or unnecessary then ultimately very little is likely to come of it.

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I think this is one of the reasons why I tend to avoid debates over the background of 40K. Being a fictional universe, nothing is set in stone and fluff will vary depending how much knowledge the author producing the newest book has about the background.

I could come out with something totally rediculous and say I want half of the Imperial Guard regiment I command to be made up of beastmen. In (I think)1st and 2nd edition 40k, but definately Epic, beastmen were perfectly accepted members of the Imperial Guard.

And I would like to withdraw my statement about tone. The winking smilie settles that completely. lengua.gif

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I made up a pretty good idea for a campaign, the idea is that the sqaud is sent to a space hulk to retrieve an ancient and powerful artifact, at first what seems to be a simple mission gets very complicated as the hulk remerges into the warp with the marines inside. From there the marines become devoted to mission and must keep and hold the relic till the hulk reemerges in real space, without the support from there superiors they will have no new ammo or power for there armour then what they had when they walked in. There adversaries: A tyranid hive, some eldar scouts, an ork colony native to the hulk and some ork looters from another clan, a tau expedition and a chaos cult. All are tasked with the retrieval of the relic.

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reidchapman said:

I made up a pretty good idea for a campaign, the idea is that the sqaud is sent to a space hulk to retrieve an ancient and powerful artifact, at first what seems to be a simple mission gets very complicated as the hulk remerges into the warp with the marines inside. From there the marines become devoted to mission and must keep and hold the relic till the hulk reemerges in real space, without the support from there superiors they will have no new ammo or power for there armour then what they had when they walked in. There adversaries: A tyranid hive, some eldar scouts, an ork colony native to the hulk and some ork looters from another clan, a tau expedition and a chaos cult. All are tasked with the retrieval of the relic.

Quite a potpourri you have there. Should be interesting.

By the way Astartes armour has a fusion reactor in it so it doesn't really run out of power.

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****, I wanted to force the PC's to wear xeno armour as they became ever more desperate. Although they do not have infinite ammo so they will have to scrounge for guns, by the end of the campaign I''m expecting the heroes to be whereing tyranid hives with ork shoulder pads and wielding burnas, shootas, railguns and the captain of the sqaud has his mighty laspistol and powerless chainsword. Let's not forget the fact that theres an eldar ranger helping them and you probably shouldn't ask why the "Tech Marine" is green (likes to call himself a Mek Marine)

The potential interest comes not in the mad battle royal but the Space Marines being forced to make allies with the very creatures there made to hate.

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reidchapman said:

****, I wanted to force the PC's to wear xeno armour as they became ever more desperate. Although they do not have infinite ammo so they will have to scrounge for guns, by the end of the campaign I''m expecting the heroes to be whereing tyranid hives with ork shoulder pads and wielding burnas, shootas, railguns and the captain of the sqaud has his mighty laspistol and powerless chainsword. Let's not forget the fact that theres an eldar ranger helping them and you probably shouldn't ask why the "Tech Marine" is green (likes to call himself a Mek Marine)

The potential interest comes not in the mad battle royal but the Space Marines being forced to make allies with the very creatures there made to hate.

Don't forget, you as GM can't force the players to do anything. A good GM has an idea and makes the player think they came up with it, lol. I had a problem once where I had planned on my DH team working with some Kroot, the Kroot Captain came to them and they killed him before he could get a word in. I had to adapt the whole idea cause the Kroot now wanted to kill the team. I do think it an intresting idea.

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By forced I mean things should look very dire from where there standing and theres a nice warm bed and a few defence drones in the tau encampment. Some players might think lets kill em and get there loot and others would say I think we can make friends here leading to infighting leading to corruption making the story interesting in a very differant way.

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TCBC Freak said:

reidchapman said:

****, I wanted to force the PC's to wear xeno armour as they became ever more desperate. Although they do not have infinite ammo so they will have to scrounge for guns, by the end of the campaign I''m expecting the heroes to be whereing tyranid hives with ork shoulder pads and wielding burnas, shootas, railguns and the captain of the sqaud has his mighty laspistol and powerless chainsword. Let's not forget the fact that theres an eldar ranger helping them and you probably shouldn't ask why the "Tech Marine" is green (likes to call himself a Mek Marine)

The potential interest comes not in the mad battle royal but the Space Marines being forced to make allies with the very creatures there made to hate.

Don't forget, you as GM can't force the players to do anything. A good GM has an idea and makes the player think they came up with it, lol. I had a problem once where I had planned on my DH team working with some Kroot, the Kroot Captain came to them and they killed him before he could get a word in. I had to adapt the whole idea cause the Kroot now wanted to kill the team. I do think it an intresting idea.

That just goes to show that players -never- do what you expect, and rarely what you want them to xD

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You have crashed on a feral world. You have perhaps a hundred bolter shells between your squad, some random equipment that survived, and whatever spare parts or components you can salvage from your wrecked lifepod. The ship itself probably came down somewhere on-planet, but Emperor knows where or how far it might be. Nobody knows exactly where you are, and it's unlikely they're coming to get you any time soon.

Ten thousand years ago, this colony was lost and forgotten to the Imperium. They fell into savagery, spread across the planet, forged empires and kingdoms, and have re-risen to the level of feudalism and steel. There are multiple civilizations with wildly differing languages and cultures. They have no idea what Space Marines are, and no knowledge there are other humans out there. Their greatest scholars have figured out heliocentrism.

Every religion on this world is heretical if not actually chaos-tainted. There are Psykers living openly as "wizards" and wielding their power to achieve lordship over their fellow primitives. You're pretty sure that the "dragon" the locals are talking about is some kind of very big, very mean Tyranid, and from the other tales of monstrosities it likely isn't alone. They never are. There are signs indicating the presence of Eldar Exarchs living somewhere on-planet, possibly with Webway access. Local myths indicate Dark Eldar have attacked at some points in this world's history, a possibility that is the exact metaphysical opposite of reassuring.

And are there Orks? Of course. There are always Orks.

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@The Wyzard

I'm gonna steal your campaign idea! I'm going to run it as a fantasy game. I shall call it: Hammer of War. I think it will do well.

On a more serious note, Chapter affiliation can add some story idea by themselves. A Dark Angel character is a font of story ideas as they hnt down The Fallen of the chapter AND attempt to hide the Chapter's dark secret from the other members of Deathwatch.

When the Dark Angel investigates the Fallen rumors ala. Dark Heresy, what will he do when he learns the Fallen is hidden somewhere in a civilian village? If he decides to nuke the village from orbit (it's the only way to be sure) what will his Salamander Chapter pal say about that?

Also, the Blood Angel vampiric mutation could be interesting. Imagine the Apothecary discovering the Blood Angel player is falling into the Black Rage. Does he keep the secret and risk the lives of his brothers? Does the Blood Angel decide to wade into a sea of Orks and die honorably before becoming a monster?

I think Deathwatch offers more roleplaying and moral quandry than people give it credit for.

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Warboss_Gurk said:

When the Dark Angel investigates the Fallen rumors ala. Dark Heresy, what will he do when he learns the Fallen is hidden somewhere in a civilian village? If he decides to nuke the village from orbit (it's the only way to be sure) what will his Salamander Chapter pal say about that?

I think Deathwatch offers more roleplaying and moral quandry than people give it credit for.

It absolutely does, but be careful with the DA Fallen dealy, remember that the DA will stop at nothing to keep their secret just that, a secret and that one needs to be a member of the Inner Circle to even know about them. This can and should lead to interparty conflict if it ever comes to light, as said Dark Angel (if they know about the Fallen ahead of time) will have to do something about the rest of the Deathwatch squad knowing... Having actually played out this scenario with some home brew space marine goodies (DA Librarian seconded to the DW because, there are few chapters who hate aliens more), I was lucky that when the Fallen Angel my GM sprung on me decided to go all Bond Villain on me and yammer on that the Black Templar and the Flesh Tearer in the party were tied up on the other side of the cathedral out of earshot or I would have had to kill my own party members (BT codex has a story about them picking up a Fallen Angel, the DA asking nicely for him back once and when they said no... well that BT crusade never made it back home. as the Templar was looking for any reason at all to declare me a heretic and detested working with me cause I was a psyker ;)

For other campeign fun plot twists, the Badab War hasn't taken place yet, would be interesting to have a Mantis Warrior or Astral Claw in the party when the rest of their chapter goes renegade/chaos, what's it like being one of the few out of Huron's grasp who doesn't want to turn on the Imperium? What lengths will he go to to rectify such... betrayal of chapter? ;)