deinol said:
Adeptus-B said:
So, I've been playing Dark Heresy for a while now, and I'm trying to hook my players on the idea of using Deathwatch as a "back-up" game, to play when a player is missing from what would be key plot-point sessions of DH . So, having not yet played DW , my question is: is it possible to create challenging encounters for Space Marines armed with the currently official "mega-bolters", or do they go through anything short of a Hive Tyrant like a hot knife through butter?
It is possible to challenge them, particularly with the horde mechanics. So the debate is really about what level of critter needs to be turned into hordes in order to scare the space marines. At the current rules orks and genestealers need to be hordes, but I'd prefer if a half dozen genestealers or a dozen orks were a decent challenge instead of 20+. I'm certainly ok with scum, imperial guard, termegants, and gretchin needing to be large hordes. Your tastes may vary.
The mission based nature of Deathwatch definitely makes it well suited for one-shots or occasional games.
I think it's absolutely possible to create a challenging adventure, despite the bolter 'issues.' If you ask me, and you only kind of did, the 'problem' with the bolters is different for different folks. Some people have problems with the bolters overall being too powerful, some of us have issues with them just seeming skewed in comparison to other systems, and with the lack of love given to other astartes weapons (plasma and melta most noteably).
There is no doubt SMs can be killed (just use the genestealer stats from Final Sanction instead of DW). I'd suggest using the horde mechanic for certain as suggested, but make sure you're not just using basic hordes- throw in elites, powerful NPCs (starting xp for DH to be 'equal' to starting DW is something like 13k) that can goe toe to toe, use hordes with special qualities, stage your encounters to sometimes let the characters unleash the specialty of their class and shine, and other times to channel them into areas where they're much more vulnerable.
The biggest issue I've seen alternating from DH to DW is the power level. When you move into DW the players feel super powerful- they're super resilient, they're super powerful, they're super smart, and they're super charismatic. They have weapons that do 2x what the DH weapons do, they have armor and toughness that's 3x DH. When switching back and forth be mindful of that and make sure that each of the character sets is filling their niche- as No-1 pointed out in a separate post, the DW is just one tool in an arsenal the Imperium has. Make sure that each time they play the players feel that they're the best tool for the job at hand.