Mission reports anyone?

Alex

I ran this game yesterday,

It went Horrible. My PCs have almost no tact. While the "leader" BA assault was intimidating and using Orlos as a shield against the crazed guardsmen, the DA devestator called the commisars, effectivly killing them, this caused an actual argument between the players. The only player with actual non combat skills could not pass any rolls, so finding the Delerium Trellises took forever. Lots of infighting, lots. If more games turn out like this Im going to stop running games.

Did you tell your players?

Alex

not having run Shadows of Madness I cannot comment to the specifics of the adventure you mention but you may want to have a out of character chat with all the players involved in the infighting. I have had the same problem before with some of my players and its no fun for anyone.

As to the specifics, with the Blood Angel and Dark Angel, could this have been an instance of players playing new characters and trying to find their personality? I have had this be a problem before but it usually sorts itself out if they players are talking and they understand why this has happened. Otherwise, see my previous advice of having a frank discussion with them away from the table. as for the rolling, well, c'est la vie, we lost an entire Dark Heresy party to falling off a rope bridge and falling 15 feet just because of a spree of bad strength checks.

That being said, your entitled to have just as much fun as your players are, and if its just not working, its just not working. I've lost two people from my gaming group because of issues like this, and you know, we are better for it

Cheers

This is totally a bad blood issue. The DA guy takes everything as a personal attack, The BA guy is somewhat the same but to a lesser degree. I tried to "reprimand" them by reducing cohieson. But the group doesnt even use squad mode or solo mode abilities, so that didnt work.

But back to the game.

I got so confused running shadows Because the locations page on 12 lists speciffic areas, but only 2 chapters have the same name so I accidently skipped the Southeast continent. Newbie mistake ya. Hopefully the emperor protects will be better.

I'd say openly what you didn't like about the last session and what you think how it should work like. Try to signal to the players that you don't mean to put them down or disrespect them, just that it doesn't work for you like that and that you ahve imagined things differently. Have a look at their reactions and then make up your mind.

As for the mission itself, what does a trellis actually look like? That thing on page 5? And there are 'images' forming between its wings?

I'm not too fond of the scenario because it doesn't seem to have many role-playing situations? Mostly fighting again? Can anyone confirm that?

Alex

Lots of fighting, hardly any role playing, which is fine for our group, but the skill tests could only be accomplished by our tech marine and he didnt roll well that day. as far as i can tell the trellis is the thing on page 5. i made it out to be rather large, large enough to cast a looming shadow over a battlefield anyway.

Hi all

I hope it's not a thread necromancy yet, but I'm wondering if now - some time since the OP - anyone has some more insight on this adventure? Maybe some useful handouts, maps, tips, advice?

We are not yet through with that mission, however i had a blast roleplaying the effects of visions on my blood angel character, now the kill team is uncertain when exactly their techmarine will break down and start ripping people apart in brief flashes of black rage. The experience broke the charakter, to a point which is fitting for his background story, but leads to a totally different way the character will grow and develop in the future.

I'm asuming Shadows of madness is an adventure? Where can I find this?

Jackal_Strain said:

DW GM Kit.

Alex

Thanks!

I should probably pick up the gm kit someday soon.

Jackal_Strain said:

The screen is nice but I don't consider it a must have. The mission is fairly combat-oriented in its presentation. As with Final Sanction and Oblivion's Edge, I feel the GM has to think about adding roleplaying stuff to make the mission more interesting. The screen is of the usual high quality but does sport one or two jaw-slacking errors, most notably they copy-and-pasted the box about weapon qualities directly from RT, although DW uses completely different ones.

How this can happen on something as simple as a GM screen remains a mystery... the screen is nice to have nonetheless.

Alex

I usually don't use a screen. I have a laptop with me and do all my rolls behind tha laptops screen. Would you recommend the Gm kit for the book/adventure alone?

Jackal_Strain said:

It's okayish. If you need a mission against the Tau to run or you are intrigued by the story of Baraban, you can buy it. Problem is that PCs have to travel to various points on the planet by Landspeeder and the journey between the various points of interest is undetailled, you don't get really a flavour of what's going on at Baraban unrelated to the story. It seems to take place a bit in a vacuum... which is what I meant by the GM has to do some work to make it entertaining.

The rest isn't much to write home about for me. Details for a handful of Erioch personel (without stats) and 2 or 3 plot hooks for each of them? Nice but not essential. Mission construction guidelines which are really not too interesting for any experienced GM. They too contain an occasional nice idea but that's about it.

I got it as a birthday gift and I liked for the screen. Shadow of Madness I am just getting a feel for it and ideas for the blanks I think I have to fill in.

But then again GMs who have a fast-and-loose style of running as opposed to a more in-depth one won't mind.

Alex

Well, the vacuum you're talking about is what got my attention when I was reading it for the first time - now I'm thinking of how to fill it in. One idea is to create several groups of more or less feralised humans - guardsman etc, maybe a Kurz-like enclave. One (or all! )of those groups will be actually supporting the Tau. The players may came across them on their travels (via awarness, scanner checks etc).

But! I know that there is an adventure in 'Emperor Protects' where the PCs have some diplomatic mission to a feral world - isn't the same really as my idea? Haven't read through that yet.

Skie said:

I have had it in hands and TEP looks very good . What little I have seen it makes highly attractive to me.

As for SOM... the planet Baraban is a battleground. I assume the kill-team will have to cross frontlines more than once. No entrenched positions in the woods? No large scale fights in areas where the forest has given way to moon-like craterscape due to heavy fighting?

Alex

Good point - the encounters should be close distance, and the biomass should interefere with scanning,auspex etc. I think I'll use this little program and put some POI on my version - exploration would add some fun to the scenario. I'm looking for ideas other than combat you see - vanquishing enemies is fun, but after the100th horde, even with great description and tactical challenge, everyone can be a little bored

Skie said:

Thanks for the great link.

Yeah, you see, that's what I mean... if the battle is a huge battlefield, there should be many enemy imposed obstructions to movement. Kill-team or no, they will not be able to blast through some of the enemy positions, they'll need to get by through stealth.

Alex

I haven't run the adventure yet but I agree that it needs some work to become more fleshed out.

I'm planning on incorporating it in a slightly bigger story arc.

I plan on posting more about it when I'm done writing it. But basically a rogue trader has found some xenos lifeform that appears harmless except when infecting sentients it renders them more compliant and easy to interrogate before dying or going mad or something he trades these xenos grubs to tau in exchange for technology for the cold trade and personal use. The grubs are found on a planet where the civilization behind trellis devices once ruled.

In the first mission the kill team come across drifting transporter where the crew have all died or gone mad. The discover that they have traded something to some tau but something went wrong when the crew awakened a sleeping xenos lifeform they found on the same planet as the grubs. A trellis device was activated on the ship also.

Reporting this to the watch captain they are sent to baraban for the shadow of madness mission.

In the part with the captured general they learn the location of a prison camp where some kind of xenos grub is used to interrogate prisoners.

The next mission is to destroy the prison camp and find a way to locate the badguy rogue trader.

They lastly track the rogue trader to some horrible xenos world stopping his foolish messing around with xenos, saving the day once again.

OK that was a huge detour. In short I like the adventure it just feels to short/ incomplete and needs some work. I also plan on including far more background on the war on Baraban allowing the players to contribute during their stay after mission end and before their pick up arrives in system.

Last question (I'm running it tomorrow) - how would you scale the Commander's team for 4 Marines (Librarian, Tech, Apothecary, Tactical). I assume the tau commander wouldn't travel alone, so how many stealth guys and firewarriors?

Skie said:

Hard to tell. I'd keep the fight at a distance so that it's not over as quickly. This will also give the Tau am advantage. Put the fight into a more lightly forrested area (trees with big trunks though) and at a distance of 60m to 100m perhaps. Keep the commander always covered by troops of firewarriors or trees, having him hop from cover to cover (tactical advance although this might actually be more a tactical retreat, trying to keep the team at distance) if necesssary that should increase his lifetime a bit. Add a stealth suit or two to spice things up.

1 suggest 1 Commander, 2 units of Firewarriors and anywhere from 2 to 3 Stealth suits. The Stealth suits don't have as much firepower as the massed Firewarriors though. Those can deadly - the players should understand that they need to reduce the amount of amassed firepower they can put out ASAP.

Really, it's tricky, especially in an ambush. If the KT doesn't spot the ambush soon enough, there can be lots of burnt fate and broken hearts quickly. Otoh, never understand a kill-team's capability to make short wood-work of anyone and anything once they get started.

What does everyone think about 2 mag 25 hordes for Firewarriors with Pulse Carbines? Too hard? Too soft? If they get the first shot, they can unleash an immense fire. And the Stealth suits can play lots of mind games with the kill-team, luring them into the open arms of the firewarriors. If that happens, allow a Forbidden Lore(Xenos) or a Tactics roll to remind the player of the danger of a possible trap (see page 368 - the kill-team should be familiar with Tau tactics). The DW are dedicated xeno hunters after all...

Let us know how the mission goes for you.

Alex