hello,

it may be a little late to post this but here is what i did when i ran the introductory adventure at free game day.

instead of just dropping the PCs onto the planet i told them they arrived with a couple of squads, they were supposed to be a back up squad and were led by a tech marine. as they were about to be dropped the ship got hit and the tech marine had to stay behind to use his servo harness to launch their jammed drop pod. of course he died with the rest of the ship and the other pod with the commander, the librarian and the seasoned veterans got hurled off course by a few hundred miles, leaving the PCs to take care of everything and after the brood lord was taken care of the other squad came into communication range just to be told that everything was taken care of, impressing the commander no end.

just a wee tweak that made the beginning a bit more tense and overwhelming and the end a bit more rewarding.

dirk