Hi folks!

How about getting your creative juices flowing, now that the game is out and many rules questions have been answered? I'd like to hear about various small set-ups you'd like to test your players with, stuff that can be incorporated by others in their scenarios. Oh and preferably role-playing related although all kinds of situations are welcome.

I'll start with this: in preparation of a Battle, let the kill-team participate in some festivity of mass by the ecclesiarchy. The local preacher/cardinal/congregation is of a brand that preaches the Emperor as a God (of course) and the Astartes as his Angels. Try to make some of your players feel as uncomfortable with heaps of praises and hallelujahs and deification as possible - as many chapters might disagree or even disagree strongly with such notions. Then after the sermon has finished (assuming the players don't do anything), let the cardinal ask the kill-team's leader to say some words to the congregation.

If this still doesn't lead to conflict with the preacher, have the mass end with some silly, superstitious and over-the-top ritual in which the players are asked to participate (holding hands, chanting cumbaya, whatever you think might tick them off). The point is here to force the players into conflict with the supersititous faith of this brand of the imperial cult, to see how much it takes for the individual character to vent and how he does it. If they only refuse to participate, just have the preacher ask them what's wrong and otherwise let him be obnoxious in his adoration.

Alex

ak-73 said:

If you could please. At the moment, I can't help thinking that this could have been a board / card game rather than a RPG.

The Radical

The team are assigned to assist an Inquisitor (or Interegator if you want to make it more dubious) seize a Xeno building or ruins. After the battle (or a search) they take the building and the =I= starts maticulously cataloging and packaging xeno artifacts crate fulls, even studying some in depth maybe discretely pocketing some.

What you gonna do Astartes, let him get away with it or does you're chapter not give a sh!t.

I should mention here again another dilemma that I mentioned in the DA thread already: the DA librarian sees among the rescued people from Avalos a pregnant woman and recognizes her face from his dreams. He doesn't remember anything in particular except her face but he has a strong feeling that this woman matters. This woman is somehow a person of fate. Through using Psyniscience/Reading Psy Power and interview he realizes that she is unaware of being a weak latent psychic. Unsanctioned.

So what does he do? Kill the woman because she could be a witch? Send her to Terra? In either of those cases he might cause great harm without realizing it. Or keep her under wraps? In that case she might pose a latent danger to her environment.

Will he take her with him to the Watch Fortress? And if so will he tell the Watch Captain too? Or will he try to arrange something secretive (in true Dark Angel-style)?

Anyway I have yet not fully decided which role of Fate the woman will play so if anyone has any suggestions, I am all ears. :-)

Alex

Oh and let's not forget the now classic "Do we kill the baby Vespid or not?"

Alex

A variation to the "baby vespid" theme...but not much of one....

The DW marines are sent to escort a puritan firebrand Inquisitor in scouting the ruins of a long dead xenos world. When they get there, they discover that in fact the descendants off this xenos race still live, but they have devolved to spear-wielding primitives, despite evidence of an ancient and powerful technological culture. The puritan orders the DW team to exterminate the aliens, who number in the pitful few hundreds.

As they commence doing so, they encounter a radical Ordo Xenos Inquisitor who frantically tries to get them to stop, arguing partly on moral grounds, partly on grounds that the xenos are harmless to the Imperium, and partly that the xenos can give an insight into the operation of the technological wonders buried on the world. The players must decide which Inquisitor to obey.

To complicate matters, their very presence on the world has activated long dormant defence systems which treat the killteam as hostile. These systems become more and more challenging, and the players soon realise that they either risk all dying on the world, or using some of the primitives to deactivate the defence systems by enacting an ancient ritual.

I have a Storm Warden Techmarine in my party. Now the Storm Wardens have a very good relationship to the AdMech. The AdMech has heard rumours that the Master of the Forge Harl Greyweaver (see GM Kit) has been starting to deviate from the traditions of the AdMech and asked the Storm Wardens to send a Techmarine to keep an eye on it. Now HG hasn't been treating the Storm Warden very friendly (being quite dismissive of his approach of communicating with Machine Spirits). Interestingly enough Greyweaver is a strict opponent of xeno tech which actually should please the AdMech a lot and might make them much more hesitant about approaching the Watch Commander over HG.

How does the Storm Warden deal with it? Will he try to get Greyweaver "promoted" back to his home chapter? Will he try to collect evidence if the Master keeps pushing him? If so, will the AdMech desert on his efforts? Or will he try to win the respect of the old Space Wolf?

Alex

ak-73 said:

Let the woman have a recurring dream of an ornate sword dissapearing in the pitch black well with the night sky in the background. Any self respecting Dark Angel should get that hint

Evaluate your kill-team's chapters.

The kill-team is assigned to a world under tyrranid assault to act as advisors to the two companies of astartes and massed regiments of guard present.

The plan is a tried and true special. Engage the tyrannid swarm in a protracted land battle and then, when determined by the Ordo Xenos inquisitors attached to the effort, exterminatus will occur.

Complications:

1) A particular regiment of the imperial guard is woefully inadequate. It is a penal levy from an imperial world and is filled with goldbricks and 4F specimens packed off by the planetary governor as criminal and heretical undesirables. Not only is there a heretical cult of "democracy" in the ranks, but also the regiment has been assigned to a key frontline position due to the expected casualties. Only the kill-team seems to understand that this position must be actually held rather than simply have the guard die in their boots. How does the kill-team handle solve the tactical problem. Do they purge the ransk themselves? Whip the guard into shape? Draft some commisars from other regiments? Check and see if the Ordo Xenos present have any buddies in the Ordo Hereticus used to dealing with this crazy "democracy" cult?

2) The two companies of astartes assigned to the world are section 8. Whatever will gall the kill-team the most, these guys are it. My personal preference, given the time setting of the core book and the recent publication of Imperial Armor 9 is to make it two companies of Astral Claws one of which contains at least a squad or two of Tiger Claws. Why won't our brother astartes let our apothecary over there? Why won't their chaplains talk to the kill-team? These guys are great fun at the pre-battle chant'n'keg and ripped through those hormagaunts, but when the shootings over they talk all crazy and laugh at us. Also, show the kill-team squads of all the same chapter using chapter squad abilities together and really working as a team. Make them realize that while they get along together, they miss their brothers back at home. (for an alternate version, make the two companies from the same chapter as one battle brother and see if he sticks with the kill-team or drifts away from them.)

3) During the orderly evacuation of the world, two strongholds of nobles and their retainers refuse to leave. One is a full-blown genestealer cult. Time to break out the flamers and go to town. The other just doesn't want to leave. They love their homeland and refuse to abandon its defense. Too bad that their industrial fief has been officially moved to another planet by order of the administratum and the imperium doesn't care about your love for your homeland. We care about you cranking out industrial parts over on this other planet and paying your tithe. So get gone already. Could it really be that clear cut? Could it they be hiding some awful xenos or chaos artifact that cannot be moved? The second noble house knows the lay of the land. With their assistance defenses in their area could be considerably more effective. Does the kill-team buck the administratum to their face? Can the inquisition end-run the beauracracy? Would anyone actually notice? It's not like the administratum can actually process all their orders. (an option for a totally amazing epilogue for a character killed during the campaign could be 500 years in the future after he has been killed, down in some stinking industrial hole on holy terra, some admistratum drone processes a piece of aged scrip, and generates another piece of scrip issuing the centuries dead kill-team leader a demerit.)

4) After a particularly vicious assault in which one of the bravest commisars present is killed an Ogryn mutiny occurs. That commisar was their favorite. They hate the weather here, the rations stink, they don't have enough ammo and their favorite commander just got eaten by a carnifex. None of the guard colnels want to go near that Ogryn encampment and get torn apart. Maybe the crazed abhumans will listen to the mighty astartes...

5) The Ecclesiarchy appear at a planning meeting and point to an extended hill off on a flank. "That's the cathedral of saint frank." they say. "The Tyrannids cannot be allowed to touch it during this the holy month of his feast. We can remove his artefacts and deconsecrate the area when the feast is ended." This creates a dangerous salient. Maybe a deathwatch kill-team can provide the oomph to acctually hold out in such a precarious position.

6) There is an outbreak of "Tranch Foot." A regiment is mutating at a terrible rate. Maybe a deathwatch apothecary can find a cause. Maybe a deathwatch librarian will have the perspicacity to figure out if there's a warp problem present or an undetected witch in the ranks.

7) One of the astartes assault veteran sergeants present on the world has finally gone loco. After a bad dust-up with a pack of lictors, he lost his squad and his mind. He's screaming about blood for the blood god and skulls for the skull throne. Strangest thing is that within hours twelve street gangs from the nearby hive had come out of the woodwork with their knives and stubbers painted up in red and howling along with him. Was this planned by some daemonic force from the beginning? The general in charge doesn't want this to be cleaned up by that marine's brothers, by the emperor, he wants some professionals to put this down. Call in the deathwatch. But what happens when the marine's buddies from the first company decide he's really their problem...

8) Whenever things are bad. Whenever the chips are down. Guess who shows up to throw a wrench in the works? The frakkin' Eldar. A bunch of lithe freaks in flashy armor with all kinds of silly tiny weapons show up. Worst of all, there's an inquisitor with them and we have to listen to him! He's even got all his paperwork in order. Who gets to escort this clearly suicidal inquisitor and his little band of harlequins off into the tyrannid infested forest on some unkown mission? The deathwatch. That's who.

9) Remember that temple of saint Frank we had to defend? Well, it turns out the ecclesiarchy forgot a couple of relics when they packed it up. Nothing important to the locals you know, just to some cannonness off on crusade. Well, on crusade nearby. Well, on crusade here now actually. Another hot potato nobody wants to touch has arrived. Guess who gets to cut back through the lines with a group of mad abbesses setting the pace? Send that kill-team that already knows the lay of the land.

10) They hit the ammo dump. The characters look around in shock as they pick up themselves up out of the pieces of the nearby guardsmen. Armor dinged up, low on gear. In the middle of a major assault. This was a week scheduled for rest and meditation. Who knew the 'nids would burrow under that river. Is that a new type of 'nid over there? We have to live through this and we have to get to a more secure HQ. (for extra fun, throw this a four days before the exterminatus is tentatively scheduled. Then have a message go out that it's been bumped up to today.)

Face Eater said:

Couldn't any RPG really be converted to something that simple, and haven't most of them already been converted? It's ideas like you have already that make it an RPG, and the whole story element

Love your idea by the way, was thinking of doing something similar in mine, where the team works with two different inquisitors, one radical, one puritanical. The Inquisitors work out of the same base of operations, and conflict invariably occurs between them. Now they're smart enough not to directly involve the DW marines they work with into things, but do the Marines feel any sense of loyalty to an inquisitor? What if that Inquisitor has done something of direct benefit to the kill team, such as helping them to access or aquire information, or even assistance in a more martial encounter- does that change their feelings at all? Does one of the Inquisitors stoop to subterfuge to the the KT to 'side' with them, such as falsifying documents, leaving misleading reports or information around for the players to 'find,' luring the other Inquisitor into compromosing situations in view of the KT.

A RT in the system has gone missing after investigating alien ruins. DW KT sent in to provide support to an Inquisitor and help locate the probably Xenos-Posessed RT. Problem is the RT has left already. KT hunts down last known port of call of the RT, a bustling hive or space station. Do they go in guns blazing or do they try to work with station security and arbites to coordinate some kind of search and minimize casualties and collateral damage? Do they go in with full inquisitorial authority or do they attempt to infiltrate? How does a KT member question someone, especially civilians who likely pass out when they come face to face with a DW Marine?

Have a psyker and a BT in your group? Ocassionally prod the BT and give him hints, notes, or subtle feelings that something is not right with the team's psyker. Make your players to create the tension in the team for you (no krak missles fired please).

Different twist to AK's psyker; A non-sanctioned psyker allies himself with the group on an assignment- the psyker is an official of some kind on the world the KT is sent to (comms officer that coordinates their movements through a hive, a guardsman that is running parallel operations. The psyker has the gift of precognition, clairvoyance, and uses this gift to help the team by guiding them and giving them directions that directly increase the probability of success of the mission. When the mission is over, have the fact that he's a psyker come out to the players- the man just saved the lives of the KT memebers, and was instrumental in the success of the mission. Does he face the justice of a bolt to the brain, or has he earned clemency or leniency for his service to the Emperor?

Lucky, awesome ideas man!

Also, someone should probably move this thread to the GameMaster's area... Don't want the players to know when you've shamelessly stolen an idea afterall.

Ran out of ideas already folks? Keep it coming.

The kill-team gets dispatched to a system in the Canis Salient. It contains a planet inhabited by an anthropoid lifeform. The kill-team's task is to verify if the denizens are abhuman or mutated former imperial citizens (even the DW records are sketchy on that at best) or actually a xeno lifeform. In the latter case several Imperial Guard Regiments can be requested from the crusade. The plot involves much interaction with the planet's political, military and spiritual leadership.

Personally I think to bring more role-playing interaction with NPCs into the game, it's best to assign a kill-team to a sub-sector region and let them develop contacts with imperial officials there. Who knows - one or more of them might turn out to be traitors allying with xeno scum?

Alex

The killteam are sent to assasinate a former Deathwatch Watch Commander who seems to have fallen under the baleful influence of some hideous Xeno artifact. He has set himself up as the ruler of a primitive world, enslaved the population and is in the process of building some baffling device of great power that harnesses the life energies of his followers. Demanding sacrifice and blood, his rule has become infamous throughout the local star cluster.

The players must cooperate with the Inquisiton in running a secret conspiracy to prevent knowledge of this great warrior's fall, for that will fatally damage the standing of the Deathwatch amongst crusade forces in the Jericho Reach region. This may involve stealth strikes against loyal Imperial forces who seek to release word of the Watch Commander's actions.

Once this is done, they must clear the stain on the honour of the Deathwatch by killing this once great hero - no easy task given his great skill at arms and the bizarre xeno forces at his disposal...

Lightbringer said:

What if the Watch Commander fell due to the road being paved with good intentions somehow? Make him a little less demonic and a little more sympathetic, like he started doing Bad Things in order to more effectively combat a xenos threat (real or perceived). Then perhaps he tries to convince the members of the KT that he's in the right, and that they should come with him.

Still involve the Inquisition, secret conspiracy, but put the characters in a moral quandry where they may even side with their enemy.

If possible, make the Watch Commander someone the players knew, someone they have some kind of a relationship with to make fighting and killing him either more difficult or more satisfying (or both!)

Charmander said:

At first, I thought they handed me the wrong dossier. I couldn't believe they wanted this man dead.

Everybody wanted me to do it, him most of all. I felt like he was up there, waiting for me to take the pain away. He just wanted to go out like a soldier, standing up, not like some poor, wasted, rag-a**ed renegade. Even the jungle wanted him dead, and that's who he really took his orders from anyway.

Hey, man, you don't talk to the Colonel. You listen to him. The man's enlarged my mind. He's a poet-warrior in the classic sense. I mean, sometimes he'll, uh, well, you'll say "Hello" to him, right? And he'll just walk right by you, and he won't even notice you. And suddenly he'll grab you, and he'll throw you in a corner, and he'll say "Do you know that 'if' is the middle word in life? 'If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you'..." – I mean, I'm no, I can't – I'm a little man, I'm a little man, he's, he's a great man. I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across floors of silent seas.

Charmander said:

Well some change more than others in the translation, I had a lot of fun playin Arkham Horror about a month ago (you can just post me the cheque FFG) which is based one of the least combat based MMO's.

Unwanted assistance. Inspired by a story in the SM codex.

The kill team and some auxillary troops are sent on a mission to destroy a chaos artifact, discretion is the key so the team is sent in on foot or by cround vehicle. When they are ambushed by a group of Chaos Space Marines, there vehicles are wrecked assistant troops are hit heavily, most people are badly wounded and it looks like the time is up when a group of Xeno's appear and attack the chaos forces breaking the back of the attackers.

Works best with enigmatic eldar, rangers, some of the sneaky aspect warriors, jet bikes etc but could easily apply to tau, steath suits, crisis suits and fast vehicles.

Perhaps the xeno's have realised the importance of the mission. Do the kill team uphold the honor and fight side by side with Xeno's letting them disapear into the night or do they take the opertunity to kill some additional xeno scum. Either way their watch commander is surprising nonplussed by the events and has some sage advise on the nature of those Xeno's 'The Eldar are fickle race brother, at times you may have to accept aid unasked for but never offer them your backs.'

The kill-team gets a mission to recover a lost Deathwatch Terminator suit and give the guy stuck inside a proper burial. What a proper burial is is up to them, differences between chapters are bound to emerge. Hand-out xp according to the ideas suggested by the players.

Alex

A Kill-Team is sent to guard a VIP (Planetary Governor, Inquisitor, Lord General etc...) from repeated attempts on his/her life by undetermined Xenos threats. At first the Kill-Team have to play the hard angle of keeping the person safe while the person in question still fulfills their role, whatever that may be. The VIP's task is so vital that it cannot be stopped, and the VIP is the only or best person for the job. This would force the players to have to walk a fine line between security and practicality. If the Kill Team causes the VIP to fail in his/her task, it would be just as telling of a defeat as if the Xenos succeed in their schemes(or so they think).

However, as after a series of assassination attempts, the Kill-Team realise that the VIP isn't who or what they seem to be and the Xenos have logical reasons for attempting to gak the VIP. This leads to the discovery of a political conspiracy that forces the Kill-Team to use surgical precision or risk plunging a whole planet into turmoil. Perhaps the VIP is a sort of Xenos in disguise or affected by an artefact of Xenos or Chaos origin. The players may even have to pool resources with the Xenos in order to meet a mutually benificial goal. Using our favorite pointy-eared space elves as an example, maybe a Farseer is using the forces of the imperium to hide a Craftworld from the Tyranid threat and the VIP is seeking to remove the Imperium from power, which would naturally upset both the Eldar and the Imperium.

I don't actually own a copy of Deathwatch, but I thought I'd try my hand at mission building. Is that too far off?

Got the idea yesterday while I was walking home through the snow and some kiddies were aiming at me with their pocket laser toys or whatever it's called.

Basic idea? Cause an apparent threat, like suddenly seeing a laser targetter spot sweeping at them from behind, tempt the players to a rash action. The source of the apparent threat is really harmless in nature and it should, should the players act rash, end in the death of innocents, possibly a child.

How does the responsible marine deal with that? How do the other players deal with that, how do they react to him? Just another fatality amonst the billions? Or do they still have a humane side left?

Alex

"Head Hunted" in "Heroes of the Space Marines" is a perfect DW adventure - In fact its about a Deathwatch team sent on a one hour mission aboard a Space Hulk. With a specific objective with individual squad members having sub objectives.

if your gonna screw the preacher just put a chaplin in and have him lead the congregation and watch the marine version of praying to granddad rather than god flow around the preacher.

Lucky_Strike said:

My thoughts exactly, as well.

Von Todkopf said:

The old ones are the best.

How about this as a set-piece on a mission:

The Deathwatch have boarded a space-hulk and realise that one of the ships in the hulk is a Traitor Marine battle barge and they are directing the hulk towards an inhabited planet in the system. The Imperial Navy is moving in to destroy the hulk but won't be able to compete with the unexpected firepower the battle barge is packing. It is obvious to the squad that boarding the battle barge is tantamount to suicide so they start to consider a) ways off the hulk (their shuttle was taken out after they were on board) and b) how to disable critical systems on the barge. They find a depowered and damaged teleportarium in one of the ships making up the hulk along with two teleport beacons, the tech-marine can cobble together enough power cells to hold a charge sufficient to teleport three people a short distance and he can provide it with sufficient charge each round to teleport one person, though it can't teleport whilst charging.

The squad know that they'll be overmatched on the bridge, but figure if they make a lightning raid (they are already inside the shields) they can cause sufficient disruption to give the Imperial Navy a fighting chance.

It opens up a lot of options about getting over, who goes first, when they are coming back, etc. that adds a puzzle element to the combat. Knowing that they only have to survive and cause some carnage for a few rounds lets you throw some nasty stuff at them as well. I had five fairly high ranking Chaos Marines on the bridge along with a very proficient psyker as captain and two Terminator bodyguards, plus a load of cultists and servitors operating the ship's systems. The PCs plan went off fairly well (aside from a couple of them ending up in a bad way) and everyone seemed to really enjoy it.

Role-playing opportunity:

Now some people apparently belief that all the illustrations of Marines fighting without helmet on is imperial propaganda. So... truly the kill-team gets assigned a serf of the Blood Angels chapter who is a master painter. Not only do they have to protect them, he'll also instruct them on pose, lighting, facial expression, etc after a successful battle so he can make his sketches. The Watch Commander himself (remamber he's BA) expects full cooperation and to be returned the serf in one piece.

Neat one, eh?

Alex

ak-73 said: