New to Death Watch

By Emperor's Champion, in Deathwatch Gamemasters

Hey all, i have been a massive Warhammer fan and player for over 10 years now but i have only found out about deathwatch this week. Therefore me and a group of friends are going to be getting together next week to start a nice long campagin.

We have all been playing D and D for a good while now so we know what we're doing RP wise but its going to be very different just reading through the book. I was just wondering, do you have any advice that i could use to help me make the campagin a really good one as i'll be GM.

I know my 40K history well but what can i do and involve from the 40K uni to make the game awesome. Thanks

i propose you to read as much as possible all the book novel from the black library. i read +/- 20 novel to connect with the huge world of warmmer 40K. Just the description from the book of DH is just not enough for me...

Knowing as much of the lore as possible is always good, oh and if you are running the missions, limit Righteous Fury. I limit my players to 3 Righteous Fury each turn, they still slaughter everything.

Download the free Final Sanction and Oblivion's Edge Missions, for one they are pretty long, and for another thing the base book has a Tyranid mission also in it so all you have to do is throw the "Extraction" mission from the book in between the other two missions stating that a distress signal is coming from somewhere else on the planet where the hive fleet has already touched the surface.

So in order Final Sanction, Extraction, Oblivion's Edge should keep you really busy until you can learn the rules as you go along. Also might wanna mention the data in extraction is the hive fleets location as well as the primary hive ship just to make things relative and related.

Thanks guys, one thing i have is that i am a totally lore buff. I love the books and have read tonnes of books :)

Ok, could you give me any advice on working in Dark Heresy and Deathwatch together. My group are split as some want to be Space Marines... others the Acolytes. So any advice as i know you start of like all powerful as Marines but with very low xp in DH compared to the marines

To do Dark heresy characters with Deathwatch you want to graab Dark Heresy: Ascension, it details with ascended acolytes, where they are higher up in an inquisitor's retinue, or Inquisitors themselves.

Basically, in game terms, a 14,000 XP Dark Heresy Character is the equivalent of a just starting Deathwatch Character. So, if you don't mind blending, then give the DH characters 14k and switch them into Ascension.

If blending Dark Heresy with Deathwatch note that Dark Heresy characters, even ascended, tend to be squishier when the heavy bolters start laying down fire. That and make sure they all get a chance to shine and you should have a great time.

As for rules, playing the sample adventures as Warhawk mentions is a very good start that should get you used to the rules and system.

For running and playing, the core of the system is pretty simple (d100, roll equal to or under your applicable attribute, with bonuses and penalties based on skill, action, and circumstance) but there are a lot of bonuses and penalties that are easy to forget- I find creating a scratch pad for math and a cheat sheet for you and your character's special abilities to be very helpful (I still always forget my good quality sword bonus or my laser sight).