I saw that MILLANDSON had cross-posted his review, so I thought that I would take the time to cross-post my own "First Blush" review. The main difference between these two reviews is that MILLANDSON, a fan (and playtester) of the 40k RPG line has had his Deathwatch book for a month (?), whereas I (not a huge fan of the system) got my hands on it for about an hour. The purpose of the "First Blush" review is to represent what perspective someone who has managed to sit down with the rulebook might have come up with.
The nature of the "First Blush" review is that it is biased because of not being able to sit down with the product for weeks at a time. It means that you only come with your biases as a roleplayer. After 20 years of roleplaying, my own bias is that system doesn't really matter and as a result of this I have selected a single system to abstract my games. Despite this I continue to buy systems/settings so that I might "best" get to grips with the setting before I convert it over to my system of choice. (My last FFG purchase was Fireborn , a system that I was assured was incredibly broken but is nevertheless a fascinating setting.)
So, with that in mind, and with the idea that this is not written as an independent review, just a review for people that "know" the official 40k RPG line, on with the "First Blush Review." Please note that this was originally posted 6 days before MILLANDSON's preview and has been viewed by multiple people since then (including the dev's). Make of that what you will, but at the least remember that this is the review of someone that spent an hour with the book. Maybe you've spent similar times with another system before buying it...?
I realise that this is going to be contentious posting on a traditionally pro-FFG forum. Thus, take with a pinch of salt.
* * * Original "FIRST BLUSH REVIEW" follows... * * *
Okay, I've temporarily got my grubby little hands on a copy of FFG's latest offering for 40k RPG, Deathwatch, so I thought that I would take an unusual step and pull together a "First Blush" review of it. For those of you that happen to be unfamiliar with the premise of this type of review, it's basically where I sit down with the book for one hour to read through it and relate my first impressions of it as part of the review. As part of this process I also break down the chapter contents so that you've got a better idea of just what the book entails since FFG don't actually release a table of contents for their products (fair's fair—neither do most other companies). I consider the "First Blush" to be equivalent of standing in the store, and having a gander at the book to see if you want to buy it.
For those of you who don't know me, I'm not intimately familiar with the official "40k RPG engine," so there are obviously going to be misunderstandings, but this is part of the design of the review. Remember, though—this is written in one hour, and I type as I write.
Oh yes, and it's not a true "review" in that it assumes that you already know about the other games, so it doesn't really stand on its own.
Layout/Presentation
If you're familiar with the 40k line then you're familiar with the presentation, both in terms of book quality and layout. High quality as always, and typically branded to the line. It's not really pushing the boundaries as Dark Heresy did so... Yeah. Nothing much to report here other than FFG might want to put the cost savings from their graphic designer/layout artist and invest it in some more proofreaders. There are a few too many errors littered about from the very get-go.
Just out of interest, one thing that it would have been great to see (or amusing anyway) would have been the "Chapter Heads" (the Marine "bust" upon which the chapter number is hovered over) were coloured in the appropriate Chapter colours. Thus, for example, Combat (VIII) would have been coloured like the Night Lords.
Foreward/Introduction
You Shall Know No Fear | What is a Roleplaying Game? | What's in this book? | Game Dice | The Space Marines (The Origins of The Space Marines, The Codex Astartes, Conditioning, The Path of the Space Marine, Masters of the Chapter)
So, Alan Merrett giving a foreword. That one set the hackles on their end, but it's the typical self-promoting PR nonsense that I've come to expect from the man. If you're an admirer than you'll love it, but... Meh.
After the typical "grimdark" speech we move into the text that describes the intent of the game and specifically mentions the "medieval knight" image and heroic/mythic approach. For those that have been following the 40k universe there's no surprises here, though the "What is roleplaying" and "Game Dice" section in between that and the history was a bit jarring.
On to the history and describing just what Space Marines are. A solid section that introduces the origins and history of the Space Marines and, of course, the 19 zygotes. Again, there's nothing surprising in here and will be pretty familiar for those who have read the introductory materials to many a Space Marine codex or the original White Dwarf article.
Character Creation
Creating Your Deathwatch Space Marine | Demeanours | Space Marine Abilities | Space Marine Chapters of the Deathwatch
Creating a Deathwatch character is all fairly standard for the line, so again nothing particularly exciting in there. One thing that becomes obvious is that the authors seemed to have been struggling with the concept of "rank" and how it applies to a Space Marine character specifically with regards as to what it is to be a "veteran." While they try and get at this with 1,000 XP it just falls a bit flat, and perhaps into a bit of a gamist conceit (e.g. for level based systems). It's no deal breaker, but it's just the point at which the mechanics poke out and wave their hands before not quite disappearing again.
Aside: Seems that we have more height/weight data. Seemingly in their armour Marines are now 6'11" (or thereabouts).
Past Events offers some randomly-rolled background events, though it nicely says that you're permitted to insert your own if you've already got a concept for your character. Power Armour History got me excited, but then I realised that I'm going to have to wait over 100 pages until I get to that.
Nature gets into the thorny issue Marine "personality" and, unsurprisingly given Alan Merrett's comments in the promotional video, Marines are presented as regular humans writ a little bit larger with the descriptive language.
Demeanours introduces another mechanic to the 40k line where, in essence you select a personality characteristic and once per game (sesssion?) per demeanour you get to have the benefits of spending a fate point without actually spending a fate point (re-rolling fate points, bonus to dice rolls, degrees of success, etc. etc.). It's a buffing mechanic, pure and simple, and one that aims to engender roleplaying by doubling the bonuses if the player "roleplays his Demeanour well," with the "Improvement" being ratified by group decision. I regard this mechanic with suspicion as it seems to lend itself to misuse unless you're dealing with experienced roleplayers, in which case its buffing nature is revealed.
Roleplaying a Space Marine is unfortunately brief and requires you to answer the unanswered questions about Marines are that are commonly debated on the various fan forums. There are also many questions that probably should have been answered left open to speculation. It's not a particularly artful dodge, but there you have it.
Space Marine Abilities was up next, which is something that interested me more than the standard character generation, what with the modelling just what a Marine can do and what their organs can do. I wasn't overtly fond of how they modelled the omaphagea (which comes off in a Matrix-like "I know Kung fu[/i]), nor that inspiration seems to have been lacking with some of the organs ("Errr, that works to give them their Unnnatural Attributes"). Still, for most people these will be fairly minor.
Also in this section the designers pre-load the reader on Squad Mode, Solo Mode, and Cohesion. It comes off as very metagame and a whole lot of video game but it seems to work.
Next up are the descriptions of the six Space Marine Chapters included in the game. I won't go into detail, but they are quite effective in describing the different Chapters and should offer a solid basis for fans to begin to add their own Chapters. This is one of the strengths to the book, though I wasn't overtly fond of the Chapter Demeanour (see above, though).
Specialities
Character Advancements | Apothecary | Assault Marine | Devastator Marine | Librarian | Tactical Marine | Techmarine
This is where we're introduced to what you can spend all your experience points on and, you'll be unsurprised to hear, it's all pretty standard fair. We get back into the problem of the question of "veteran" status and how it relates to speciality and where certain game considerations take over and the mechanics poke you in the eye, but there we go.
Then follow pages and pages of advancement tables, which are most yawn-worthy from a general reading perspective and, since my time is limited, I'm going to gloss over them. <flip, flip, flip>
Oh, the specialities. Guess what? Yep, there are no real surprises here. Well, sort of. The Apothecary has now acquired the ability to heal the corruption of the warp, which was a bit of a surprise. There are, however, some interesting bits of 'fluff' dotted around the section even if the "grabby claw" Techmarine art is a bit... Well, Toy Story.
Skills
Gaining Skills | Basic and Advanced Skills | Skill Descriptions
Lots of information on how you acquire skills and what they mean. No surprises here.
Talents & Traits
Gaining Talents | Talent Groups | Talent Descriptions
Lots of information about, quelle surprise, talents and traits. Lots of themed names which always bugs the heck out of me, but most people seem to eat it up.
Armoury
Requisition | Renown | Craftsmanship | Weapons | Armour | Wargear & Relics | Chapter Trappings | Cybernetics
Ah, at last. The section that I've been waiting for.
First up are the other big "new rules" for the game, Requisition and Renown. Renown brings back the "veteran" glitch once again, but there we go. Requisition should be familiar enough to players of Rogue Trader (getting hold of equipment), and Renown is just another form of experience (getting hold of cool weapons and equipment). As it is introduced, however (five ranks: Initiated, Respected, Distinguished, Famed, and Hero), it's not really ringing any bells. I would have preferred to see something akin to the concepts of Glory out of Pendragon.
Lots of weapons follow, raising the various thorny issues that have cropped up in the game, i.e. the requirement to have "Astartes"-level equipment.
I've been looking forward to the "powers of power armour" thing that is encompassed with Power Armour History. Here you randomly roll to see what special little ability your power armour gets from being ancient, e.g. "Cower Not Before the Enemy" (increases Command at the expense of Silent Move and Concealment), "Death is Joy" (adds damage to Critical Damage rolls and Horde Damage rolls), or "to forget is to forgive. Forget nothing" (acquire oath of vengeance and gain a Hatred), etc. Overall it's an interesting take, and one that the fans in the "Shameless Speculation" thread had latched onto before this was published, but it needs more examples. (Presumably there are going to be more added with latter supplements.)
Aside: The Crucible Resolviate (Magos that study alien 'machine spirits') is a nice touch, as is the implicaton about how non-STC technologies are integrated into the Imperium.
Relics is an interesting section, even though it comes off a bit like the "Magic Items" section of other fantasy games. The Skapulan Bolter was an amusing throwback to some of the earlier Marine miniatures.
Space Marine Librarians
Psykers in the Imperium | Space Marine Librarians | Psychic Powers in Deathwatch | Perils of the Warp | Codex Psychic Powers | Chapter Psychic Powers
As one might imagine, this contains information on Librarians. The structure of the Librarium is mentioned, but other than that it's just a long list of psychic powers. Nothing overtly interesting or intriguing in here.
Playing the Game
Tests | The role of Fate | movement | Cohesion | Squad Mode and Solo Mode | Squad and Solo Mode Abilities | Missions
Normally I would skim through this, but it has a number of concepts in there that I want to take a gander at and see how interesting/elegant they are. Much of it is—yet again!—familiar from previous incarnations, and thus goes on to explain how to make tests, etc.
So... Cohesion. This is a resource pool that is at the heart of the Squad Mode. You get it at the beginning of a mission with the number depending on the rank and Command skill of the leader (thus while everyone can be a leader, chances are that the leader is going to be the leader!). This pool can by damaged by certain weapons, and regenerates by completing missions, spending fate points, etc. It's quite an interesting game mechanic but we'll see how it pans out when it starts talking about the powers, which it does in the next section on...
...Squad Mode and Solo Mode. Beyond the cynicism about waiting for FFG to produce "Mode counters" and the likes, echoing what they have done with WFRP 3, the gist of this is that if you're in the "Support Range" you get to enter Squad Mode by either miss a turn or by making a test on a d10 and rolling less than the current Cohesion (remembering that it diminishes so gets harder the more you use it). You can stay in this as long as you've got points of Cohesion remaining, or can drop out of it back into Solo Mode at any point.
Sooo... What do you get in Solo Mode? Yes, you guessed it--more incredible Marine buffing because, yes, they're not quite buff enough with all their Unnatural Attributes, Traits from the zygotes, etc. You get Codex and Chapter-specific Solo Modes for purchase. Codex ones include anything from enhanced movement ("Burst of Speed") to, at level 7, "Emperor's Grace" which means that the entire universe shapes itself around the Marine since once per game for at least 7 rounds, any Fate Points that are spent are recovered on at least a roll of 7 or less (i.e. less than or equal to the character's rank). On top of that you've got your Chapter-specific abilities like "Blood Frenzy" for Blood Angels, "Thunder's Call" for the Storm Wardens, and so on.
This is where my eyebrows were beginning to disappear into my hair line since that's before you get to Squad Mode, which like Solo Mode, comes in different flavours and different durations. Some can be maintained indefinitely, though remembering you can "jar" the Space Marines out of Squad Mode (or they can run out of Cohesion). Now this is where it gets real crunchy since you get access to:
Codex Attack Patterns
Lots of different firing drills here, from a "Bolter Assault" (charge and fire, with "level up" abilities allowing you to fire on SA and FA), "Fire Support" (helps with suppressing fire and "overwatch," for fond memories of Space Hulk), and "Tank Buster" (enhance your BS or movement when taking out a vehicle), to name but a few. I get the impression that more options will become available in other publications, which is... Yowzers.
Chapter Attack Patterns
If that wasn't enough for you, you can also buff your Marine with Chapter-specific Squad Mode abilities, that make you better in hand to hand combat (Space Wolves), force surprise (Storm Warders), or whatever.
Codex Defensive Stances
Marines aren't all about attack. Using these Squad Mode abilities you can (mystically?) improve the structural integrity of any cover that you hide behind (Dig In), magically divide automatic fire between them even if they're not targeted (Soak Fire), or the ability to share your reactions with your squad (Tactical Spacing).
Chapter Defensive Stances
These range from resisting psychic attacks (Black Templars), the sacrifice of a reaction to allow another squad mate achieve an auto-hit (Space Wolves), and so on.
And if you hadn't predicted it, all of those abilities are automtically "leveled-up" whenever you find a Power Node and a Nanobench. Errr... no, wait. That's another video game ().
Okay, you might be getting a sense that I'm not fond of the Solo and Squad Mode. You would be right in that assessment since I feel that it serves only to buff the Marines above and beyond the realms of the "reasonable." It looks and tastes like a video game. Now, drawing inspiration from video games isn't necessarily a bad idea (and was one of the suggestions from the "Shameless Speculation" thread), but from my perspective it just goes a bit too far both in terms of the "video gameyness" and simulation of the Marines.
One other problem that springs to mind is that these abilities can operate over up to 120 metres! Tactical Spacing fnargles.
With that said, it is an interesting mechanic and on the face of it would seem to engender a team dynamic. The tactical selections would probably make them game far more interesting for a face-to-face RP group. With that said, from the Dark Reign perspective, one has to wonder how that is going to work for a PbP game.
The Missions concept was one of the more hotly contested topics, with some people worried that it was going to be a random roll situation. Yet this section strikes me as one of the hidden little gems of the game, though with the sweets comes the sorrows. While it breaks down the Mission into a nice framework for the GM, Oaths end up being... Yes, you guessed it--yet another way of buffing the abilities of Marines. The Kill Team takes one of the Oaths and it applies to all members of the team for the duration of the mission. These include Oaths to the Emperor (+10 Willpower and you get Fire for Effect, Regroup and Strongpoint), Oaths of Glory (extra renown for achieving objectives as well as getting Squad Advance, Bolter Assault and Furious Charge), etc.
Putting on the fair hat, it's an interesting addition to the pre-mission load-out as you select your Oath to get the best (or maybe just most appropriate) set of modifiers or Squad Mode abilities for that mission. This then flavours how the squad is going to approach the mission itself. Again, though, good gameyness but not necessarily a great simulation. (I'm an unapologetic exploration-focused simulationist if you believe in the jargon from The Forge.)
Moving beyond that, the Mission information, Complications (things that can go wrong) all provide a decent focus for combat/military games. It would have been nice to see more information and advice but, well, I guess that's another thing that might be waiting for another supplement. (Or perhaps a fan supplement?)
Combat
Initiative | Actions | The Attack |Injury | Critical Damage
I'm just going to gloss over this one since it's once again familiar territory. One thing that it would have been nice to see, though, is some modifications to the Critical Damage tables that were appropriate for damage received by the Marine but that might look bad for the game.
The Game Master
Evoking the Setting | Themes in Deathwatch | Styles of Play | Rewards | Interaction | Fear and Damnation
Okay, one thing that is becoming obvious is that a "First Blust Review" on an entire system is pretty hard to do in an hour. I might have to trend to even more brevity to stay within my hour.
Anyway, this is the traditional chapter that is focused on the GM, how to run the game, etc. Unsurprisingly it will be familiar to players of the other 40k RPGs and doesn't really bush the boat out in terms of originality. The experience guidelines for the missions was, however, interesting and certainly something that could be useful to GMs in general (and even people that don't use the system!).
One thing that I did enjoy seeing was the "Heroic Sacrifice" section on what happens upon the successful harvesting of the geneseed. It's a good way to create a "heroic lineage," and one that I have been using myself for a fan supplement. With that said, though, on first blush I'm not sure that the rules go far enough. The Rewards sidebar is weak, and should have included options that one can find on many fan sites like Lexicanum.
Creating Missions adds to the previous Mission section in terms of setting difficulty, but is otherwise fairly tenuous and still requires the extra information on military campaigns.
The Imperium
The Divine Order of the Imperium | Domains of the Emperor | A Galaxy at War
Nothing surprising in this one, and just the same 'ole information.
The Deathwatch
The Origins of the Deathwatch | Organisation of the Deathwatch | The Xenos Threat | Deathwatch Missions
*claps*
A meaty section that I just didn't have the time to read on "First Blush." Indeed, the first blush just revealed that I need to wrestle it from my friend and sit down and read it.
One thing that continues to annoy me is the dilution of the Eldar background. It used to be the case that the Fall was a big secret, now everyone and their pet cherub seems to know about it. How tiresome. Of course, that's just a personal beef and something that I don't bother to include in my own interpretation. It was just frustrating to see it here as well.
Also, I liked the Black Shields (no known Chapter) but was frustrated that they were not included here. Another supplement, I imagine.
The Jericho Reach
The Jericho-Maw Warp Gate | The Domains of the Deathwatch | The Achilus Crusade | The Orpheus Salient | The Acheros Salient | The Canis Salient
First off, the image on p322 is quality. Just wanted to start out with something very positive since there is a big negative: the Jericho Maw Warp Gate, something that most deservedly has the title of "contrived."
Beyond that? I didn't have the time to go through the setting information. There looked like there were some interesting ideas in there, but it seems to be pretty standard stock for a 40k setting--nothing that really stands out. Well, almost. There are certainly some good bits of 'fluff' hidden in there.
Adversaries
Tiers of Enemies | Hordes | Chaos | The Tau | Tyranids | Non-Player Characters
Again, there's nothing surprising about this section, with the various representations only really meant to be viewed down the sight of a bolter. On the other hand it has one of the other major rules inclusions in this flavour of the "40k RPG engine": Hordes.
Now, I'll be blunt in that I haven't really liked what I've seen of these before and I still don't like them. It would have, IMO, been much better to see more information on running varying levels of conflicts, expanding upon the Turning Points that were mentioned in Final Sanction (and are thus far absent from Deathwatch), etc.
As I'm running out of time, I couldn't really go through the mountain of information that one has to look through to figure out just what the profiles actually mean (you cannot take the stat line or the attributes at face value as they tend to concatenate).
Extraction
GM's Briefing | Mission to Tantalus | Seek, Locate, Destroy | Exit Strategy
The typical back of the book adventure and about as interesting. What is interesting, however, is to see the Mission and objectives laid out.
* * *
And that's it. It took me a little over an hour, but I managed to get through most of it but the major 'fluff' chapters, which hopefully I'll get the opportunity to get to when FFG eventually get their lazy () arse around to releasing it in PDF.
My "First Blush" opinion? There is certainly some good information in there, but I think that the overall product is weakened by drawing too heavily on "video game" mechanics that ultimately end up buffing Marines to the levels of incredulity. I can remember someone once suggesting that later editions of the wargame are going to have auto-win rules for Space Marines or come down to "Red Marines" vs. "Blue Marines" (and with "Blue Marines" automatically winning). Unfortunately Deathwatch is taking an incredibly crunchy step down that road. I'm horrified to think about how complex an "Eldar RPG" would be because of this, but I guess that is going to be seen later on down the line.
On the other hand, there are some interesting mechanics and background in the game, even if some of the advice that should be in there is not. All the Squad Mode abilities etc. certainly serve to engender the team ethos, which is clearly what they are meant to do and certainly what they achieve. While very complex, this strikes me as a good game to introduce younger "newbies" into the setting if it is appropriately filtered by the GM (i.e. they take on the brunt of the complexity). Alternately, it might make a fun "one off" type game, or the equivalent of a good "dungeon bash."
My rating? 5 out of 10. It's pretty hit and miss. This is as a "ROLEPLAYING game." As a "roleplaying GAME," however, it deserves a higher rating, i.e. 7 out of 10.
Kage