Since the first two sample adventures focused on the 'nid threat, I was concerned that the bulk of the first book would be occupied by their carapaced evil...and was right.

More discussion about them than most of the other xenos threats, the map of the region is rife with 'nid-infested planets, and the bestiary has more tyrannid entries than any other race (and, sadly, the bestiary completely excludes Orks or the other nebulous xenos that get a quick mention).

My concern is how fast my play group will get bored fighting what is currently the 'heavy' in the setting. Its like running an Aliens RPG game. Its fun for a few sessions then gets boring fast.

Any thoughts on how to spruce things up a bit with this being the case?

Erm... are you sure? I mean, the Tau get just as big a section for stats, weapons, etc as the Tyranids do, and get just as much coverage in the "Deathwatch" section (that catalogues some of the enemies of the Imperium the Deathwatch deal with) as the Tyranids do, and the info on the Tau-held worlds in the Jericho Reach, which includes those planets that the Tau are fighting the Imperium over and the already Tau colonised ones, is more than the info on the planets attacked by the Tyranids.

So I'm sorry, but I'd have to disagree with you. The 'nids only have the same amount of coverage as either of the other two "bad guy" forces of the Reach (Chaos and Tau). Sure they get coverage in the demos too, but since one of the archetypal missions of the Deathwatch is, as they say in the Aliens trilogy, "a bug hunt", that makes total sense.

The secret to running the aliens RPG was to focus the game not on the aliens, but on the humans, either in the form of human survivors of a xenomorph infestation, or human terrorists, or on corperate and miliatary intrigue, in which the aliens played a part.

Nids can be used in the same way. With the death watch being sent in to kill a guard regiment that have taken to worshipping the tyranids, or wiping out an adeptus mechanicus facility which is doing research on genestealer genetics. Just as easily, you can have the PCs acting as a body guard to an inquisitor, as he visits a tau ship, to propose a tempery cease fire, so both sides can focus on drestroying a nid splinter fleet.

If anything it's too little. Tyrants, Warriors, and two flavours of Gaunt. No Genestealers/Broodlord (really thought the Broodlord would be in there), no Lictor, no Tyrant Guard (would have made sense to go with the Tyrant) and no Carnifex (I know it'll be out in a book later). Same goes for the other adversaries - from what MILLANDSON has said we're getting four Tau units, and, what, two Chaos units (plus rules for Marks).

That's not very many.

BYE

Thanks for the insight, good to know!

Tyranids are probably THE biggest xeno threat in the galaxy.

Not the greatest with respect to role-playing per se, though. As a GM you have to come up with methods for the group to achieve success against a threat that appears thus far in the fluff nigh unstoppable. Tyranids have the following cycle:

1. Move through space to the next target, creating bioweapons for conquest along the way
2. Attack said target and subdue
3. Devour all biological matter
4. Goto Step 1

Players can mainly interact with them in Step 2, or versus Genestealer cults or Lictor scouts prior to an invasion. While assaulting a hive ship is cool, you can't play that card much and by fluff it should be a 1-way journey for most players. Tyranids don't have rear areas to maraud or a code key to be stolen or a superweapon to be destroyed. They just come and eat.

Coming up with interesting campaigns will likely involve one that involves coordinating with allies to slow their advance and working with experts to find a weakness in a given fleet to exploit.

@H.B.M.C.

Um... we already have 'stealers in Final Sanction and Creatures Anathema, the latter also supplying us with a Lictor. How many more versions of those do you want?

I mean, I know a few systems where the fans regularly riot because the authors reused material from other books instead of filling the new splats with new stuff...

@Darknite

Tyranids are probably THE biggest xeno threat in the galaxy.

That is rather debateable. After all, while Tyranids are THIS close to devouring all life in the galaxy, so are the Necrons. And let's not forget the Orks who actually outnumber the Imperium. I think the only ones that don't have too much of a chance of destroying the Imperium in the short term would be the Tau and the Dark Eldar as both races are just too small.

H.B.M.C. said:

Well no, you get Daemon Princes, Chaos Marines, Renegade Militia (think Blood Pact) and Heretics (think fanatical troops willing to lay down their lives). So it is 4 units per faction, and that's not including the big section of NPCs that could be used, with a few stat tweaks, with most of the factions.

Plus, you do have Genestealers and Broodlord for free in the Final Sanction pdf, they work entirely within the rules. Same for the Lictor and various other xenos in Creatures Anathema.

EDIT: **** you Cifer, you thrice-cursed Ninja!

zombieneighbours said:

Yep and it included nifty random mission generation tables too, ideal for an impromptu one-shot.

Alex

PS No Orkz?? No (Dark) Eldar??

Well, you get Ork PCs in RT, and there are example characters in the other game systems. Sure, you've got to own the other game systems but... Well, there you have it.

Kage

Cifer said:

Pretty sure I read somewhere Necrons are out of scope (haven't woke yet), but I would certainly have rather seen Orks than Chaos. Chaos aint Xenos.

It looks like RT will have a lot of stuff on Orks and the Dark Eldar did appear in "Purge the Unclean" for DH.

Of course with rumours rife about a new codex (with revised background) and new models for the DE maybe FFG are under orders to wait until the new lines are launched before featuring them in their products.

DW

Kage2020 said:

Yep and iirc correctly there were dark eldars in one DH scenario. Still... sounds like they want me to buy their supplements. ;-)

Alex

ak-73 said:

Yes. In the Purge the Unclean adventure trilogy there is indeed some information for Dark Eldar.

-=Brother Praetus=-

Cifer said:

Cifer said:

It is certainly debatable. The Necrons just seem more lethargic in getting around to the whole "wipe out the galaxy" riff. It's like they want to, but it's such a bother and other things keep popping up on their to-do list. Orks have been a nuisance since the dawn of the Imperium and longer. They'd be more of a threat if they didn't fight each other as much as everyone else and their Waaaghs didn't sputter out once their one big charismatic Boss bought it. The Imperium actually reclaims planets that were taken by the Orks, too. So it's a cycle of sorts. The Eldar are in decline and a shadow of their former selves.

But the Tyranids are a massive, unified, unstoppable force of destruction that in just a few hundred years have vigorously pursued a course of attack that puts the whole galaxy at risk. Sure, they've been stopped. But at too high a price. The worlds they destroy will never be repopulated and there's no sign that their numbers have slackened in the least. If anything more hive fleets arrive.

Orks have been a nuisance since the dawn of the Imperium and longer. They'd be more of a threat if they didn't fight each other as much as everyone else and their Waaaghs didn't sputter out once their one big charismatic Boss bought it. The Imperium actually reclaims planets that were taken by the Orks, too. So it's a cycle of sorts.

It's more of a question of when a Waaaagh! appears that gains so much momentum it can't be stopped anymore. Also consider that once a planet has been attacked by orks, the infestation never truly goes away.

The Eldar are in decline and a shadow of their former selves.

...who still happen to have their little masterplan of creating a new deity of death. I can't see at all how that might go wrong...
Though it does have something of a Tech Victory from Civilization when your civ is horribly outmatched in all other areas...

There are just so many forces that could sound the deathknell of the Imperium that it's more of a question which one gets there first than whether any specific one could pull it off.

Cifer said:

Well, that's just grim. And dark.

MILLANDSON said:

Guess Im a lucky git.

As I consider Rogue Trader and Deathwatch to be supplements for Dark Heresy. YAY ME!

But here you go.

Eldar: Creatures Anathema, Rogue Trader, Purge the Unclean (Dark Eldar), Lure of the Expanse, Ascension

Orks: Rogue Trader, Creatures Anathema

Tyranids: Creatures Anathema, Deathwatch, Final Sanction, Oblivion's Edge

Chaos: Dark Heresy, Disciples of the Dark Gods, Creatures Anathema, Ascension, Deathwatch (oh hell, any Dark Heresy book)

Yu'Vath: Rogue Trader GM Screen, Forsaken Bounty, Dark Frontier

Tau: Deathwatch

Yeah, you have to buy different books from across the three games, but the PDFs arent that costly.

Peacekeeper_b said:

Exactly what I am going to do gotta have them all.

Peacekeeper_b said:

Well, YMMV on the relative cost. For example, $30 may be steep to someone for a PDF, though it's obviously less expensive than the hard copy. That and if they're having trouble with that then most game materials are going to be too "rich" for them.

On the other hand, what I do like about the cheaper costs is that it increases the chance of impulse buying, at least for those that don't find the cost too much of a burden. The number of game supplement PDFs that I've purchased because it looked interesting and it was fairly cheap are... Well, suffice to say that there are quite a few of them.

With that said, I'm not sure that I would be tempted to lay down a three figures to get statistics on aliens, but I think that is more me than your average DH-fan experience.

Kage

Kage2020 said:

I agree overall on that thought.

However, if I knew the next few sessions was going to be a huge ork infestation issue with various Deathwatch kill team missions (or Rogue Trader endeavors or Dark Heresy investigations) and that these adventures were going ot cover 3 to 5 or so weeks of gaming, Id be more than willing to spend $20-$30 on a PDF or two to get the proper ork stats. And if I already were running Rogue Trader Id already have one of the ork monster entries.

The Yu'Vath stats are free in two PDFs, Nid stats free in two PDFs, a plaguebearer in another free PDF and so forth.

Honestly I would just recommend Creatures Anathem to everyone who plays and 40K rpg. Sure the psy-powers may be different, but you can squint a bit for that to come into focus. With the Genestealer entry in there you could easily update the broodlord in Final Sanction to match up with additional traits and talents.

I forgot to mention one other race earlier:

The Slaugth: Dark Heresy GMs Kit, Disciples of the Dark Gods, Ascension (I think, may not be correct), Dead Stars, and Dead Stars (again, I think).

Still nothing stat-wise on the Necrons yet then?

Peacekeeper_b said:

Yeah, and that's the issue. Folks buying 'just' this RPG are stuck with what they're stuck with. I'm fortunate to own most of the other two lines, but as this is touted as a standalone (as were the other two) it stands to reason things should be covered in each book or reference where to find the information in the other ones. It seems like it would make sense to cross-promote the books which each setting would find of value...

keltheos said:

That's not my problem. A company publishing a creature supplement isn't too uncommon.

What the should have done is publish a xenos supplement that has been geared to support all the three product lines at once. Which means that it would have to certainly cover all the major xenos races from the tabletop. Eldar, Dark Eldar, Orks, Tyranids, Chaos, etc. In the respective core rulebooks, you'd then put brief basic versions of some of those as well as setting specific xenos.

Alex

keltheos said:

Psst, I'll let you into the great secret that must never be admitted ... almost everyone who posts here owns more than just one of these games and stacks of the books.

Actually forget I told you that. They are all entirely seperate rpgs. Unconnected and seperate.

Phew, I think I got away with that.