I got my copy of the Emperor Protects this weekend. (I'm UK based.)

I think it's excellent. DW is not my favourite of the three lines, as I prefer the open-ended sandbox majesty of Rogue Trader, but tEP is a model of how to produce a tight, linked campaign. I've only read the first of the three adventures as of yet, but I love what I've seen so far.

FFG have tackled the alleged "problems" of a Marine-based RPG system head on by giving the players plenty of alternatives to combat - if they want to take them. The consequences of each option are clearly laid out, and there are well developed themes for each chapter that reflect the issues at stake.

I was slightly disappointed that there only appears to be a proper Gazetteer for the first of the worlds within the campaign, (I love the Gazetteers) but it's clear that real thought has been given to linking each of the three adventures into a wider, coherent whole.

It's necessarily more focused, and perhaps slightly less ambitious than Lure of the Expanse (which up to now I think has been the best published 40k RPG adventure) but the way it's written suggests to me that it would be easier to run for most GMs. It's a stripped down contrast to Lure of the Expanse, but no worse for it. I'd say LotE and tEP are now the high water mark for 40k RPG adventures.

could you post the genestealer and broodlord stats?

Bazleebub said:

So I'm unfamiliar with running pre-written FFG adventures- how easy is it to plug and play into an existing campaign? Meaning are there pre-deteremined level/renown requirements to deal with some of the baddies, are they intro level, or do they come with easy to customize encounters?

I'll probably pick this up either way, just wondering if I need to get it now or wait until the next campaign takes off.

The intro says that it was made with a Kill-Team of 5 Space Marines of Rank 1-4 in mind. They should have a minimum of 1000 additional xp over the starting characters though (so minimum of 14000 xp characters). It says most encounters can be easily be modified by increasing or decreasing the number of advesaries, higher level characters doing more of the optional encounters etc, and in some cases gives explicit guidance for using groups that are smaller. Some of the encounters also give a guide of "one whatever for every Space Marine plus another number".

Basically this is the equivalent of Pure the Unclean (ie intended for lower level characters), rather than the Haarlock Trilogy (explicitly designed for higher ranking characters).

Nothing is said about reknown, but then I can't really see anything that would be impossible without certain equipment, and even if there was you are free as GM to give the players it for a mission regardless of Requisition and Reknown.

I am still puzzled by the requisition level given as it is much lower than suggested by the rulebook (I am pleased, as I thought the rulebook gave out too much, and it looks like the writers may have realised they had been a bit generous).

For example, the first mission had 3 Primary objectives, one Novice, one Skilled and one Veteran. According to the rulebook this should be:

Primary (Novice): 20 + 1 = 21

Prmary (Skilled): 20 + 5 = 25

Primary (Veteran): 20 + 10 = 30

Total = 66, maybe rounding to 70 or 65.

In Emperor Protects they give:

Primary (Novice): 16

Primary (Skilled): 17

Primary (Veteran): 18

This gives a total of 51 which they round up to 55. Looking at the whole books it looks like they worked from a basis of 15 for a Primary objective, 10 for a Secondary and 5 for a Tertiary, plus 1 for Novice, 2 for Skilled and 3 for Veteran.

Could someone post the broodlord and genestealer profiles please, or send them to me in a message. I am preparing for a game this weekend and those stats would help a great deal until TEP is released in my neck of the woods.

Thanks!

borithan said:

Yep, it is quite a bit lower. I couldn't see anything specific in the text, but the impression I got from reading the three adventures is that resources for the Crusade as a whole are becoming increasingly stretched (hence the need to "bed in" on worlds like Aurum, and the warp gate (and required veil of secrecy) is something of a bottleneck. This is presumably having a knock-on effect on the Watch Stations' own ability to source supplies.

I agree with you, the lower settings work - and give a more frontier feel to the Deathwatch in the Reach. I particularly liked the fact that success or failure in certain mission objectives could also affect the resourcing level in the final mission - a nice touch to see those kind of consequences in play.

InfinityDoctor said:

Super excited for this to finally show up in a store near me, thanks for the info guys!

Re the knock-on effect on the Watc Stations', I like the idea but it seems to go against what was written in the core book in that the DW has been stockpiling guns and ammo forever, and they've been in the Reach the whole time, so why now would they run out? I guess increased operations in support of the crusade or the current Tyrannid issue. Either way, I it sounds like an interesting twist and cool addition (though I'm the guy that also makes his players track standard ammo).