It may be necessary because someone doesn't want to play a SM...for whatever reason. I'd rather play an inquisitor myself. Why would it be canon-breaking to have an inquisitor or some such with the DW marines? DW works for the ]I[ after all.

Eponral said:

The Deathwatch work WITH the =][=, not FOR .

Astartes don't work FOR anyone but their Chapter Master.

ItsUncertainWho said:

^ This...

The Deathwatch are not a tool that can be directed at the whim of the Inquisition like the Adepta Sororitas.

As with the Daemonhunters of Ordo Malleus, they are in partnership with the Inquisition. They recieve petitions for support and are fed intel from the Inquisition, but are not directly controlled. So the party dynamic would be two different groups working to one goal... well that sounds better run as two different games, or else you end up with the Marines killing everything efficiently and having access to Squad Mode, and characters from DH or RT getting hurt all the time and hiding during mass combat, whilst trying to hijack all the social scenes.

As a Deathwatch player there is nothing i hate more than other players or GMs assuming that all i want to do is fight and that i'd be fine leaving social or intrigue games up to other system's characters. Wrong. Each system is written with different things in mind, at different levels of power and with expectations of different expansion books and upcoming mechanics.

Power creep has meant that even trying to compare psykers from the 3 settings is a massive headache (no pun intended), let alone your GM trying to balance encounters because someone didnt want to play a Space Marine. Well cry me a river, don't play in my game then. I don't come along to your D&D game and moan about not being able to be a time-travelling killer cyborg, or that i can't be an anime cat-girl in your World Of Darkness game.

Sheesh, let a system shine for what it was written for

Kasatka said:

But a GM can handle that. He can ask his Marine players to invest in social skills (remember irthe Fel characteristic). And he can ask DH characters to invest in characteristics, combat talents and he can give them gear like refractor fields.

A DH PC should try to avoid hordes in close combat. In ranged combats hordes will tend to fire at Astartes anyway.

Alex

I have one female player playing a female character in my group. I didn't want to go into the trouble of trying to balance DH/RT rank whatever with DW so I intended to use DW rules as much as possible. My take on this was simple: I gave her two choices of character: Inquisition trained Combat Psyker or Adeptus Mechanicus elite secutor. She chose the psyker, so I decided she was a gamma+ level biokinetic with some telekinetic and telepathic abilities. Gamma+ level biokinetics along with best-of-the-best genetherapy was easily handled by giving her the same benefits Astartes get from implants as results of her biokinetics and gene therapy. The rest of the character was made using slightly modified Librarian rules, topped by some power with slightly modified descriptions and new names from Space Wolf runepriests and basic Librarian powers.

Oh, and what is she doing with Deathwatch Kill Team? Easy, this Kill Team has been tasked with aiding Ordo Xenos Inquisitor in her investigations, so she is their "Ordo Xenos Liaison" and, as it happens, a direct psychic link to the Inquisitor in question.

Polaria said:

This i like - thinking outside the box yet not messing with the balanced game mechanics too much. This means more streamlined play and the game doesn't have obvious "switch from these characters to focussing on this different sort of character" moments.