So, when creating a character, you get your starting equipment and off you go to the Deathwatch. I have a couple of questions on how the rules make things and up and how you, my esteeemed fellow Gamemaster, handle certain things:

- First, do you have to requisition that starting equipment or does it somehow count as "Personal Wargear" sort-of-starting talent ?

-What happens with the guns between missions ? Do you think everything (maybe except for the knife) is returned to the Armoury, or do the battle brothers keep guns and ammo in their personal or shared quarters ? Or would that be tied to rank ? What happens to the power armour between missions - do ou return it for upkeep to the Techmarine to have it delivered to your quarters, or will it be stored in the armoury between missions anyway ?

I was thinking of that because I was envisioning a scenario involving the attack of one of the Watch Fortress - ie, is it possible to catch the marines pants down ?

Let me think how you handle the equipment.

Thanks, Ariolan.

All the stuff from the starting kit (page 28) is free. It costs the Battle-brother no requisition points to have and keep this equipment. So yes, in a way it is sort of a collection of "signature" gear that each marine keeps with him. Being highly trained professionals it is up to each Battle-brother to keep and maintain his basic kit, weapons and all. I doubt that any Battle-brother is ever very far from his gear. It is likely stored in his foot locker (or what ever) near his bunk when ever he is not using it. I imagine it would be rare to ever see a Battle-brother without ANY weaponry.

I am sure they take showers, but I'd guess that's about the only time you'd catch one completely unarmed. They have to remove their armor to perform routine maintenance and such and it takes a while to put on and take off Power Armor.

Thanks for the reply.

Still, I have a hard time imagining a professional soldier carrying a loaded gun - all the time.

I was wondering, even with their stellar service record, someone will stumble sooner or later, discharging their Astartes Bolter at Full Auto inside of the dorm. Well, it might be for the better that they wear their armour continuously as well.....

But maybe I shouldn't extrapolate from info on "real" military to our greek space heroes here....

Ariolan said:

Only if the bolter's machine spirit hasn't been properly soothed.

Alex

These Astartes fellows are basically a sort of "warrior monk", when they are not on a battlefield they are either eating, sleeping or training. They will have perhaps 15 minutes a day of "free time" and that is only if their chapter master does not consider free time to be frivolous. Aside from their physical modifications and conditioning they are also thoroughly conditioned psychologically. To the man they consider their duty to be the most important aspect of their life and frankly they know no other life. They are content with their lives and the regimen that they live each day.

Edsel62 said:

It is said in the rulebook that they do get a lot more free time in a DW fortress, or at least they have more of a say in what they're doing when not on a mission (it doesn't actually say how much free time marines get back home - but I remember reading about it in one codex - and IIRC those 15 minutes you mention is considered frivolous by some more strict chapter masters). I actually plan to mention this a few times at the beggining when players are getting used to service in DW - so much free time might come as a shock to e.g. Black Templar.

Indeed, one can easily imagine that the regime in a DW fortress is more akin to a Special Forces barracks than a trooper barracks, meaning they have more say in how to spend their 'off time' and the interaction between different marines there will most likely also be more informal. Pour over that the sauce of a warrior monk monastery and you've got the perfect setup for marines being out of armour, wearing only a tunic or robe doing hand-to-hand training, a marine tryign to decypher xenos texts, another marines religiously sitting in front of a disassembled bolter in his cell/bunk and ritually cleaning each part, some apothecaries huddled over a dissection table, a techmarine frowning at the schematics of a recovered xenos gun...

If you want to GM a secretive raid on the watch fortress that would make for an excellent starting situation and have ancient alarm horns start blaring. The sparring marines run into the hallways still carrying their wooden practice weapons, the studying marine draws his bolt pistol and checks the comm system, the weapon-cleaning marine raises an eye brow and starts deftly re-assembling his bolter, one of the apothecaries checks the comms for an update while the rest continue the fragile experiment, and the Techmarine jacks himself into the auspex systems and curses under his breath to find the defense systems sabotaged but also detects hoof-shaped footsteps appearing out of thin air on the floor of one of the secondary access tunnels. To his shock he realises that Tau Stealth teams have come to reclaim the corpse of their beloved leader and his experimental weapon lying on the techmarine's lap.

Oh, I just sprouted an adventure here, now let's just hope that none of my players reads this. ^^

Edsel62 said:

When you look at the 'daily rituals of a space marine' most of the text I find indicates this is wildly different from chapter to chapter. Some chapter masters may remove free time, you're right, but that doesn't mean all of them adhere to the warrior monk image- even if heresy stems from idleness. Maybe it's that I vew 'free time' as something different. I'm not saying I see all the marines sitting around watching reality tv, but sports, drinking & smoking, stories, strategic games (chess anyone?), reading/research- maybe I view some of these, which may be very organized or structured, as 'free time'. But in Kage speak, YMMV, and if you want them all to be warrior monks that pray, fight, and clean guns all day go for it.

Meph said:

Consider your idea stolen!

Ariolan said:

I've been having them stay responsible for their standard kit- my players took to naming their weapons and equipment, and since they're theoretically responsible for their own maintenance, they keep them in a given area. I have them store it in kind of a ready-room/chapel for their specific KT, as the concept of storing a suit of power armor and a jump pack or a heavy weapon in your small cell/bedroom seemed silly to me.

Like Meph's description, the group tends to be armed and armored 'as appropriate' for what they're doing. They don't wander around in their power armor all day long, and trust that the Watch Fortress they're in has enough guards and automated sentry equipment to keep most enemies at bay (even if they're mistaken).

Once they're prepped for a mission and getting ready for a briefing they're likely to be armed and armored.

While a little off topic id like to ask, as far as tau stealth suits go i play tau for 40k table top and as far as i understood they dont convey full invisibility more that they make you look really fuzzy the farther away from them you get. just thought id ask cuz if i was going to use them in a mission i want to know weather the KT will need to find a way of detecting them while invisable or not.

Nicodemus-phycic-rat said:

They're detailed in the book on page 366 and (mostly) 367; basically they're like the "Preadator" invisibility in that they're not perfectly invisible but are **** close. It imposes a sizeable pentalty to detect/shoot/interact with them. Basically the KT will have trouble seeing them or using sensors to detect them, so much of their attempts to detect them will rely on the Marines ridiculous bonuses to awarness tests or autofire.

I preatty much run it as each battle brother has his gear in his quarters because its his personel responsbility to mantain that gear. So their bolter, bolt pistol, or other personel weapon. Special equipment, or stuff issued just for the mission gets returned to the armory.

Yes professional soldiers, depending on enviroment, and yes I have done, kept a loaded weapon by me at all times, or a least a Magazine in the chute, so all I had to do is cock the weapon to be battle ready. This includes in the toilets, the showers, while eating, and sleeping. Given the conditions of the muj, and iraqis liked to rush our camps, on a regular if random basis.