I was just wondering... if so many people have advanced copies of the book, where are all the "Our First Deathwatch session" posts? Where are all of the "Please rate my character build" posts that all of the other games seem to get so early on?

Come on you lucky few. Get gaming and tell us more unfortunate people what you thought! We need new stimuli to keep our spirits up, and the majority of the posts I've been watching are really getting dull real fast. The nice NEW tid-bits they used to drop in are drying up faster than a nun's ******!

Remember the old Deathwatch saying "Only one in a million may be lucky enough to own the Deathwatch book, and maybe only 5 of those may actually frequent the FFG forums!"

You have a duty to the Emperor and your fellow forumites to supply us with juicy details to keep is drooling from the mouth with anticipation rather than foaming at the mouth with rage!

I guess what I'm saying is... Has anyone put any gaming time into Deathwatch yet and if so how did it go? For both you and your players? Did some prefer RT or DH? What kind of characters did they have? How do you think they did at role-playing their marine?

Not sure if I'll get the opportunity to play this game after recent events within my "troupe" but since neither of them are familiar with the 40k background save for what they've experienced playing DH and RT, I can't imagine they'd RP Marines the way I'd like to see them RP'd...

Spoilers on Final Sanction may be Inclueded, so please refrain from reading, if you do not want to spoil the experience for yourself:

Well i can only provide the Final Sanction experience so far. Based on scraps and bits of Information available on various forums, and provided courtesy of those who already have the book, my gaming group has created 4 Characters.

A Blood Angel Assault marine (Darus Barahiel) , a Black Templar tactical Marine (Hans Kruger), a Dark Angel Librarian (Daimos) and an Ultramarine Apothecary (Cratos).

Based on 1000K starting experience points, and the Devastator Preview, which priced ranged talents between 300 and 500 experience. The Assault Marine spent those to get Swift Attack and Crushing Blow, the Tactical, Deadeye Shot and Crushing Blow, the Librarian took some telepathy and telekinesis powers from the RT (Mind Probe, Telekinetic Crush and Shield), the Apothecary invested heavily in skills.

The loadout consisted of a Power Sword and Boltpistol for the Assault marine, A Force Sword and a Bolt pistol for the Librarian, a Chainsword, Bolter with Kraken rounds and a Boltpistol for the Tactical, Narthecium, Chainsword and a Boltpistol for the Apothecary.

A small example of our groups start with the Final Sanction:

While hastily boarding their Drop Pod to Avalos, the Assault Marine and Librarian through timely and clever use of their skills packed additional 3 clips of ammo for their Bolt pistols.

The Pod descended towards Lordsholm while the pious Blacktemplar recited a prayer to the Emperor, inspiring determination in his Battlebrothers. After crashing through the roof of the Imperial Cathedral, the Squad, quickly stormed out of the pod and secured the interior, while a rainstorm and a battle thundered outside. The Blood Angel rose slowly through the hole in the ceiling, and soared into the rainstorm above on wings of fire, presenting a splendid view for the imperial defenders outside. Following his update on the battle outside, the squad charged into the fray, reinforcing the surrounded and nearly ovcerwhelmed PDF forces. Apothecary slid into cover to take care of the wounded and maimed defenders, while the Tactical and Librarian climbed over the barricades to confront the rebel horde advancing on them, the Blood Angel landing in the midst of the Rebels in a whirlwind of gore.The squad agreed on conserving ammunition and the three combatants switched to swords. A small group of inspired PDFs followed in their fray, peltering the rebels with lasgun fire.

The horde flowed and ebbed upon the trio of the Space marines, halting the tide, while the PDF militia took out stray rebels. On the far side of the battlefield a huge Rebel leader bellowed a challenge and advanced through his ranks pointing with his chainsword to the kill team. The Blood Angel to the challenge and stormed forwards with a few bounding leaps landing in front of the rebel leader, and decapitating him in a single fluid motion.

So far we had two sessions of Deathwatch, each was filled with over the top gory combat moments, inspiring speeches, shock and awe on the part of PDF and Avalos population while encountering the space Marines. Our group consists of diehard 40k Fans all of us have been in the Hobby for almost two decades by now. Roleplaying is although the Holy Grail of the Group, so every single conversation and scene is a real treat, as the players try hard to push it to the limit. I also enjoy narrative combat, supplying descriptions for each and every attack and combat round, trying to push the mechanics as much into the background as possible. I also put a lot of work and effort into handouts providing the with dataslates containing recon, battlefield updates, maps and communication logs, so players not directly involved in interaction can spend their time immersing themselves in the game, instead of being possibly distracted, we refrain from using models and a mat in combat though, as i prefer combat being as narrative as possible. As of now Deathwatch has been the definite 40k roleplaying experience for us. Both Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader have their merits, but Deathwatch is definitely the favorite so far, perfectly capturing our perception of the 40K universe, dark, brooding, hopless and filled with immens feats of prowess and Heroism. The players truly feel as if their Charakters were Demigods bestriding the battlefield, and their first encounters with genestealers, who are not only their equals, but probably their betters in melee, kicked them into even a higher gear. I suppose the squad mode abilities will only underline and give a better framework, to the way they already performed in combat against such and individually superior foe, making extreme coordination and cooperation a necessety.

We are all dying for the real Rulebook now, and are severy dissapointed in its late arrival, but seeing as we still have one or two sessions of the Final sanction ahead of us, and could perhaps even bridge the time with a start of Oblivions Edge, we can at least substitute for the lack of definite rules with gaming enthusiasm

Howdy!

I have been fortunate enough to be able to run/play Deathwatch since the RPG Day demo came out. We learned alot.

First of all...flesh out the worlds and combats. I have run the starting demo misions with 4 different groups and they take a bout 15 hours of role playing if you flesh them out. The hordes and turning points really add to the strategic feel of combat. We also use a house rule we started in RT. The PCs control the attached/colocated NPC allies with command roles....instead of them rolling to hit. This way it gives the PCs a chance to role play command and tactics etc...and not have half of the combat time spent having the GM roll for NPCs.

Please give your players visuals. Make your own maps, use minis, we have a giant cardboard dry erase board that kids fold up and use for science fair that is great for adding to the visuals, actually print off pictures prior to the game to show them the lander, or the Levithan. We have had great sucess with premission briefs done by powerpoint. I try to email the "Team" a "Frag Order" prior to the game session to let them plan and get the role playing juices flowing. All of these add fuel to the players imagination.

Specialities. Everyone of the specialies are valuable. The Devasators are amazing verses hordes. Apothecaries are not combat healers they fix up Marines between fights, but during the fight they are marines. Librarians are not as amazing as people thought, because BOLT weapons are amazing. As are missile launchers, flamers, and grenades, which BTW every class can aquire and use. Assault Marines are fun, but fragile. Tactical Marines are the stars of the team, usually the best choice for leader.

Leader. It is amazing how the squad rules and who is the leader truely adds to role playing.

major shultz said:

In many systems mages start out weaker but become more powerful at high levels. If you revise the mechanics - might this be the case in Deathwatch too?

Alex

I was one of the lucky few to get a copy of the Core book and GM screen at Gen Con. We ran our first mission last weekend. I was GM and ran a 5 man kill-team through the Extraction mission in the back of the Core book. I was also lucky enough to get my copy signed by the beautiful and masterfully creative Ms. Gausman.

We had a fantastic time. The system has all of the elegance of the other 40K RPGs with all the “Bolter Porn” fun you would expect from playing an Adeptus Astartes. The design team did a great job at developing excellent mission style mechanics, from Objectives, Countdown Timing, and Cohesion to the individual marine specialties. My group had a blast running through the mission and we are looking forward to the next one.

The only thing that we ran into trouble with was remember all the abilities and powers that the marines had. But, this will fade with time as we all get used to the mechanics of the game. Quite simply, the capabilities the marines have are amazing. This is incredibly empowering for a GM, since I'm not afraid to throw insane challenges at my players, because I know that they can rise to the occasion. The levels of the enemies also allows for a fun progression and climactic build throughout the game. The marines easily chewed through the basic Troops, but their final battle with the Master was a harrowing ordeal that kept everyone on the edge of their seats.

I don't want to give away any spoilers without direct questions. So, if you want more detail on the session, let me know and I post with the appropriate spoiler alerts.

I’m planning on running the group through the Final Sanction mission and its accompanying web supplement and then taking them through the adventure included with the GM screen.