So Deathwatch is a combat heavy game, with juiced up superhumans in armour powered by a small sun on their backs.

so what ideas do people have for keeping this interesting? what particular tips can you apply to deathwatch missions to make sure you keep things interesting?

in particular, the sorts of things im looking for are ones relating to:

making combat interesting
creating tension
challenging powerful PCs
creating interesting character backgrounds
balancing encounters
etc etc

they dont have to be your own ideas, lift them off somewhere else if you like (just cite the source ) i'll put the best in this post.

one to start off with: balancing encounters -

it wont be simple to work out what your players can deal with, but the joy of the 40k RPG system is you dont need to. throw them in at the deep end, and once they start burning fate points to stay alive, ease up a little. give them a bit of luck, as this encounter really isnt going their way. then make notes, and eventually you will get a feel for how nasty you can make things. just be sure to reward them fate points back for being particularly epic.

skatingtortoise said:

making combat interesting - use turning points in hordes combat; before each session each player needs to create on the fly at least two short litanies to chant during combat.

creatign tension - run Final Sanction and let the Genestealers come into close combat and play openly by the rules, then when they are getting shredded, openly tell them you're switching to doing half damage for the demo only to keep them alive (because that's what you'll need to do). During real play, they'll be s**t-scarred of enemies.

challenging powerful PCs - look at the enemies in Final Sanction and Oblivion's Edge. End of story

creating interesting char backgrounds: use Heroes of Tomorrow generic roleplay supplement. Tweak results to the setting.

balancing encounters - as usual when running a new system, fudge the dice the first few sessions without getting caught.

Alex

There's something besides combat?

I hate to say it, but so far my party has found it pretty boring other then jerking around the inquisitor. I havn't made up my mind yet if they're just doing it for the lols or trying to get me to kill thier characters to get an extra night of Rogue Trader per week.

Howdy!

First of all...Come up with a Nasty Bad Guy.

Then make a multilayered web of nastiness around him. Connecting the story lines.

Now give a "Frag Order" or hasty mission brief including Overt/Covert status, resources, intellience, and mission objectives(primary, secondary, tertiary, and targets of opportunity). Allow the characters time to get information, develop a plan, and aquire gear and equipment.

Story board encounters to include local government/ military/ police, horde enemies, non combatants, shoot/no shoot situations, and chapter/character specific story triggers.

Remember this is a "war/combat" rpg game so little things matter. Planning, deversions, recon/ surveilance, fire support, insertion and extraction, and battlefield terrain. Watch a war movie if you need ideas. Also who is the leader is very important...not just for squad mode abilities, but for communication with higher and adjacent units, CHAIN OF COMMAND ( The team leader "says so" in a Marine unit is an order, not a suggestion, and this caused some interesting role playing with some of the more independent and rebelious players. Insubordination is at least a corporal if not capital offense in the DeathWatch.) and scheme of manuever to insure mission accomplishment.

Have fun.

It might be more interesting to discuss the type of things that might be involved in an "action" and "military" campaign. Then it becomes something that people can take with them to other settings... That's just me, though.

Kage

One of my players just emailed me his early background notes, they need some work and are a bit scrappy, but a good start I think;

Born to the Abyssal pirate clans of Landunder, he lived as an arditi (daring) raider in the cramped caissons of the Damgalnuna (lady of all that is below). Built during the legendary days of the Gigantomachy (war of the giants) on Landunder, the archaeotech ichthyoscape contained many secrets and even a vaulted palace. Headed by the feared and grisly Barocrat Alcinous (mighty mind), whom some whispered was an ancient tech-magos banished below the waves, they plied their pirate trade boarding factory vessels creaking down tether lines between the cities that hung precariously to the asthenosphere (thin crust) far above, hunted Tither guild war craft down rifts and canyons, explored abandoned cities laying in wrecked sprawls lost in chasms and upon steep ridges, looting priceless artifacts but always bent on finding the fabled terraforming engine Orogenator (mountain-maker). When needing repair, Damgalnuna would return to Eengura (house of subterranean waters), hidden in a great karst tunnel network deep below the Bakan Rise. Here the pirate masters would indulge all their desires, many trading fortunes for the prized berdache (both sexes) hermaphrodite courtesans bred in the Landunder hives.

This forum software is absolutely the worst I've ever used - it just took me 15 minutes to cut and paste a paragraph of text, and then it double posts for no reason.

BaronIveagh said:

Are you using the samples? If so I'm not surprised they're finding it boring, as I had those pegged as mindless hacks myself.

If you've done your own adventures, I'm curious as to what they have involved?

Adam France said:

Its generally agreed that the FFG forums are the biggest pile of **** ever to grace the internet*

*By me, so there

IF the player is doing to well, kill him with lava.

Howdy!

The movie "The Expendables" is a great starting point to build a story around. Or pick any John Wayne War movie. The prepackaged adventures are great starting points but you have to flesh them out. Remember that all encounters are not firefights or hasty ambushes. The group of orphans fleeing the city, but wait the auspex just detected genestealer dna in one of the teachers escorting them. The local PDF has set up an ambush at night and the DW Marines wander into the kill zone, the PDF does not have Autosenses, and are aiming at the characters, and there is a command detonated mine in the ambush site. Just a few ideas....How about giving the local military allies some personality and name...I like Larry, Darryl and the other Darryl....They never met a Space Marine before...Oh yes the party has heavily armed groupies now.

Combat is handled by the turning points I felt quite nicely. However, allow the players to be descriptive on their actions, and certainly against the hordes, so combat isn't just rolling dice.
Example, in the freebie a horde attacked the marines from above them from the decrepit buildings using heavy stubbers. The Assault marine checked the building below the horde and used his rocket pack to take him through the wall weakening the structure and bringing the level the horde were on tumbling down to their deaths. This makes it far more interesting as the players will think more, and perhaps this combat will become more cinematic. Obviously silly requests should of course be denied.

Seriously bad, bad guys IMO can be bad and become a bit of a circus to choo choo. I would myself look to a shadowy organisation that may inter-connect some missions (not all to chuck in some red herrings) that may allow players to piece together this unknown force.

Conspiracy - very powerful people have very powerful agendas, though these individuals should never be mentioned, the force of their actions should. Combined with above, the Kill Team could be sent to deal with something of a personal nature, without their knowledge, and perhaps over the course of an the campaign start to piece clues together.
A classic example would be the collection of certain artefacts, and perhaps a few key locations for some dreaded ritual. The whole Kill team, unbeknownst to them, could be making the preperations of some foul ritual.

Party inter-play. The most important aspect of the game, and I feel any military based game, is the interaction of the players to each other, and should be promoted at all times. With the DW coming from different chapters, there is a sort of in built competition among them to be the best of their chapter.

In the freebies, the Dark Angel Assault Marine Brother Elyas and Ultra Marine Brother Octavius (extra characters) had a running dispute over who killed the Broodlord, over tactics, over choices, in fact over anything, with Brother Octavius frequently referring to combat logs, and rash actions taken by Brother Elyas.

All this has built a team relationship where getting one over is as important as the mission, the by the book attitude of the Ultra Maine, and the lets get it done attitude of the Dark Angel. The other members have supported each marine on differing points, and this made the game great fun.

Orders - Strange orders are always great, as the marines should follow them, but may once complete question them as per above with the gathering of artefacts.

Colourful NPCs - Make them as believable as possible and promote player npc interaction (perhaps extra xp for great roleplaying), and where possible try and involve as many pcs as possible in these encounters, nothing worse then sitting through a NPC player soliloquy for a great length of time, if nothing is moving on.

Sense of Urgency - introducing a sense of urgency is a good tip to move things along, and should be used to promote a more dramatic tale, however over a campaign it should be used sparingly, else the players never get to stop and roleplay, and the game ends rolling dice all the time. A good example of this is the start of Oblivions Edge with the Zulu style fight at the space platform.

When in doubt, lubricate.