Are there any rules for running a campaign for aspirants before they become Marines?

If no, does anyone have any suggestions for doing so or know if there are going to be aspirant rules in future supplements?

No, no rules for aspirants. I doubt there ever will be.

I can't think of too many people who would be interested in playing a teenage boy undergoing traumatic, invasive surgeries, hellish training regimes, and brutal psycho-indoctrination.

If this does interest you, as it seems to, I would start with a feral world guardsman from DH with survival and another skill or two and that's about it.

I think it could be interesting, but I think you would have to have a unique chapter to pull it off as a interesting PC for a role playing game.

The best comparison I could make would be the Knights of Bretonia (not that the Knights are space marines lol). But if you had some small chapter of marines who had thier scouts blooded by quests instead on the battle field. The classic "In order to achieve the next step in the Order of the Space Marine, you must seek out and slay the nefarious sorcerer plaguing the court of Malfi!" After so long of questing (like the quest knights) the scout will eventually see a vision of the Primarch and recieve the Primarch's Blessing and Mark and then he can return to the Chapel Homeworld of the Chapter and receive his sacred armour.

These "knights" would have scout marine level stats (so probably US and UT and most of the implants) but chances are their stats will be in the 30s to start with and they will not be wearing power armour so they wouldnt be too out of balanced with Dark Heresy or Rogue Trader characters.

I would be interested in working on something like this, as long as the rules were usuable in all three systems.

I had basically the same idea, but instead of knights I was thinking of some Roman Legionnaires set out to repeat the 12 tests of Hercules as their trial.

Basically, start with a Warhammer fantasy RPG character and, as story rewards/blessings from the gods, give them the implants. When they're all done, they get to ascend with Hercules and serve Jupiter (the Emperor) in the heavens.

It's the gradiation and getting from "no gun culture" to high-tech space culture that's kind of holding me back...especially when I don't really want the players to know they're getting railroaded into being Space Marines.

Also, making a Space Marine chapter that actually fights like legionnaires did, would be another goal. Similar to the Grey Knights, but with spears and shields instead of halbreds.

Speaking of the Grey Knights, does anyone know if they are going to be in an upcoming supplement?

jbuck said:

Ultramarines are the most Roman chapter I know. Iron Snakes fight are Greekish with spear and shields.

Grey Knights will appear in a Dark Heresy supplement (Daemonhunters or whatever, see DH support section).

Alex

Here's what I've cobbled together.

The party is all from a feudal world which is basically Imperial Rome (surrounded by supernatural nastiness). I've taken the main classes from DH and turned them into something resembling members of the Roman army. I've also taken the homeworld stuff and adjusted it to a more provinical background while striking some of the aspects which don't make any sense. I've smeared cannon and history, so please don't be offended with the "not quite cannon" and "not quite historical" stuff.

Another departure from cannon is the age of the aspirants. When these guys start out, they've already been identified as exceptional members of society, but they're also all adults (so I'd guess 16 at the absolute youngest). I figure the average age will be about 20.

The character creation rules would be from Dark Heresy with a few extra XP to make folks better than beginners. The professions in Rogue Trader don't really work and the Space Marines in Deathwatch are too powerful. Basically, we're going to start with Rogue Trade level characters, but use the Dark Heresy Professions. Once the characters have advanced enough, they'll start geting their impants (though they won't really know they'e getting implants...they'll undergo bizarre magical rituals which bless them). This will be a gradual process: "Now that you have completed [this quest] and brought back [this mcguffin] you may receive the blessing of [this god or spirit]. Go with the priests and you will awake anew." I've also cooked up a "as best as I could figure" method for filling in the extra +5 needed to bring the starting traits from +25 (DH)to +30 (DW) where certain implants give a +5 to a stat in addition to what they usually do (and a couple of them make no sense).

Changes to core rules:

Character creation

Step one: Home World
Pleb from the Provinces (Feral World); Primitive= -10 fellowship when dealing with nobility only
Pleb from the Slums (Hive World); Lose Caves of Steel, lose Hivebound
Schola Imperialis (Schola Progenium); Semantic changes only
The Equestrians (Imperial World); Semantic changes only
The Patricians (Noble Born); Semantic changes only

Step two: Generate Characteristics
Due to the setting (initially no guns at all), anyone may swap their WS advance scheme their BS. Start stats at +25 instead of +20.

Step three: Career Path
Vigiles/Cohortes Urbanae (Arbitrator)-Soldier specializing in urban concerns/policing
Auxilia (Assassin)-Soldier specializing in individual, unconventional, and stealthy tactics
Priest (Cleric)-A follower of one of the primary Roman gods. The battle priest.
Legionnaire (Guardsman)-Soldier who's a legionnaire.
Immunis (Adept)-Learned member of the legions

There are (obviously) no Tech-Priests or Psykers. Scum don’t have the necessary moral character to be accepted into the Brotherhood.

Step four: finishing touches
Wounds: RAW
Fate Points: RAW
Movement: RAW
Income: A whole new can of worms.

Step five: player’s choice

Skills
RAW unless otherwise noted
Chem-Use: is Alchemy/Poison
Common Lore: changes due to setting
Demolitions: is a very rare skill, but Imperial sappers exist and there are primitive explosives
Drive: replace drive with wrangling or Pilot.
Forbidden Lore: changes due to setting, not particularly useful, may be replaced with other lore skills
Invocation: Not available
Pilot: Deals with ships
Psyniscience: Not available
Scholastic Lore: changes due to setting
Speak Language: changes due to setting
Tech-Use: changes due to setting (tech is obviously very low, but this would be the skill to fix a crossbow or other siege type equipment or figure out how to use one of a foreign design)
Trade: changes due to setting

Talents (the weapon use talents seem to be one of the biggest stumbling blocks for me)
Talents are RAW unless otherwise noted, tech and psy based talents are obviously unavailable. Certain talents function RAW, though the reasons for the talent change (i.e. orthoproxy)
Basic Weapon training is not available as written. Use the following are talents instead. The talents include the care and upkeep of such items.
All characters may take Double Team and Shield Wall, which are required talents for any serving in the Legions (Your average Legionnaire/Guardsman has 7 talents before leaving the 1st rank, learning 6 when learning to function as a unit…Double Team, Shield Wall, WP: Shield, WP Sword, WP Spear, Armor Use)
Armor Use (New): The character can fight without penalty in any armor of the Empire.
Shield Wall (New): When facing an opponent with an alley, you gain an additional +10 bonus to your parry roll. If you both have this skill, this increases to +20 for both (this is just like Double Team, except only works for parry).
WP: Swords
WP: Spears
WP: Shields
WP: Axes
WP: Bludgeoning
WP: Calvary (required skill: wrangling, allows use of weapons and armor on horseback without penalty)
WP: Bows
WP: Crossbows
WP: Slings