Hello everyone!

I'm going to be the Game Master of a DeathWatch campaign in a few weeks. In preperations I've read the rulebook and now created a character so I will know what to expect when my players create theirs. I did stumble upon a few oddities however, most which are probably explained in the rulebook, but I must have missed it! Anyway, the questions:

1. What are trained skills?
I looked over the skills on the official character sheet and got slightly confused. The skills got four boxes after them, each labled Basic, Trained, +10% or +20%. Now, I understand what +10% and +20% is (the second time you gain the skill, you check this box, right?), but I'm unsure about the Basic and Trained boxes. At first I thought Basic was skills that everybody could try and do, although at half their characteristics, and Trained skill was just a different word for Advanced skills (which only those characters who are trained in can attempt to do). But looking at some of the skills, such as Awareness and Silent Move which have both Basic and Trained boxes check, I became unsure. A skill can't be both Basic and Advanced at the same time, can it? So.. can someone explain to me what the Basic and Trained boxes represent?

2. Deathwatch Training Talent for free, correct?
I get the Deathwatch Traning talent for free when creating the character, correct? It isn't on the character sheet with all the other talents and traits DeathWatch marines recieve before the game starts, which made me unsure!

3. Medicae advance and Apothecary
So I created a Apothecary which automatically get the advanced skill Medicae (which, again, made me confused. Do I tick both the Basic and Trained boxes or what? ). He can also chose the Medicae advancement in his Rank 1 advancment tree. Is this just a redundancy? I guess he'll have to wait till a later rank to get that Medicae +10?

4. Do the 1000 XP the PC start with add to the 13,000 they begin the game with?
If I understand things correctly the PC starts with 13,000 XP. Does that mean that after character creation, the PCs now have 14,000 XP? Sounds logical, but I have to be sure.

5. Hardy and Autosanguine the same?
Hmm, Hardy and Autosanguine have the same cost, but Autosanguine is much better. What gives? (Edit, read the FAQ. Only 100XP for Hardy. Still, why would anyone take that over Autosanguine? ).

6. Nathrk..narthec.. naarkk.. ARGH!
How do you prounounce Narthecium?

7. Rending
Other than beign a type of damage, rending have no further effect on the game (other than critical hits)?

8. Heavy weapons and firing while moving
So I got the armour history which made my marine better at firing weapons on the move, which include being able to fire Heavy Weapons on the move. The question is, does it say anywhere in the book that I can't move and fire with a heavy weapon? Anyone got any details on this?

Well, that's it for now. Thanks in advance everyone!

/David

players get 1000exp to spend after creation not 14,000 the 13,000 is what you would need to spend on a dark hersey/ rogue trader character to bring them up to the same starting level as a death watch character

I don't have the book on me, but here's what I can answer off the top of my head:

1) You are pretty much correct in your assumption that 'basic' skills anyone can use. A skill marked 'basic' means that a roll can be made off HALF of the governing statistic. In DW you don't get to 'default' to your full statistic, and skills that are not 'basic' cannot be rolled unskilled at all. Trained skills are rolled at the statistic. It's simply like saying '+0'.

2) Yes.

3) It's redundancy / a misprint.

5) Hardy is just being tough. Autosanguine involves little nanites swimming around in your blood. I believe that the nanites can go 'offline' somehow (mentioned in the talent description), but the bonuses from Hardy are always present. As it's from a machine there are also other times where you could be deprived of Autosanguine. For example in the wake of Haywire attack. AS is better than Hardy, but there are times when Hardy may still be useful.

6) Nar-Thes-ium. 'N' as in 'Not', 'ar' would be pronounced as 'are'. 'Thes' like 'these' without the softening at the end, or to rhyme with 'Greece', 'ium' is pronounced as you would if you said 'E-um' (with the 'E' the same as the 'E' in 'eat'.

7) Nope. In the same way that 'Energy' doesn't. It just tells you what critical table to look at.

Reclusiarch said:

1. You are correct on your take of Basic skills. There's no "tick box" for Advanced skills, because if a skill isn't Basic, it's Advanced. When you train a skill, you can either use it at your full characteristic (if it was Basic), or at all - also at full characteristic value (if it was Advanced).

2. There's a bunch of stuff that you start with but isn't on the sheet. Go by the text, and check everything for more discrepancies.

3. You check only the trained box (see 1. for the difference). Seems to be a redundancy, yes - no +10% for you until rank 2.... barring errata stuff, which you've checked. 8)

4. You start with 12,000XP already spent (pg.27), and get an extra 1,000xp to spend in advances at character creation.

5. Some people take both, just in case Prosanguine checks screw Autosanguine functioning.

6. Nár-thee-see-um? Maybe? No?Yes?er....

7. None

8. Don't you mean firing HEAVY weapons on semi-auto and full-auto on the move? 8) Check the descriptions of the Semi-Auto and Full Auto actions. 8)

8) pg. 239 states only pistol and basic weapons can be fired while moving.

The page with the armor histories - "Death from Afar" allows this to apply to heavy weapons, and improves the to-hit bonus for basic and pistols while moving.

Reclusiarch said:

If it's the same way the plant is pronounced, it's "nar-thek-ee-um", though most players I've met pronounce it as Siranui indicates.

Reclusiarch said:

All starting skills and talents are included in the Rank 1 list of advancements for all careers and/or specialties; here in Deathwatch as well as in Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader . They are included for the sake of completeness, and on the off chance that the introduction of new backgrounds or alternate career ranks (as in those presented in Blood of Martyrs ) may alter starting and/or available skills and talents. These are not able to be repurchased at rank 1 for Skill Mastery.

Reclusiarch said:

Hardy allows the character to heal and be treated as Lightly Wounded all of the time. Autosanguine allows the character to be treated as Lightly Wounded so long as the implants are working, and heal 2 wounds per day instead of the normal one. For more information on why a character would want both Hardy and Autosangine , read the Prosanguine talent on page 124. But in short, Hardy can't be lost for a week with a bad roll when activating Prosanguine , where as Autosanguine can. A powerful enough Haywire effects may also shutdown Autosanguine as well.

Hope that helps.

-=Brother Praetus=-

Brother Praetus said:

Everyone likes to miss the Box on Page 59 that explains this.

ItsUncertainWho said:

Well, I know prior to playing Dark Heresy I used to see a Side Bar and would skip it to come back and read it later. The 40K stuff really was the first system to change that with me. Now, I will typically finish reading the chapter subsection I'm in and come right back to the Side Bar , to make sure I don't over look something. It's a matter of training oneself.

-=Brother Praetus=-

Brother Praetus said:

Goddman side bars...

Charmander said:

I know, right? What's FFG , and previously BI thinking actually using those for rules and stuff? TSR used to put story stuff you didn't need to read in theirs... Seriously, and kidding aside, I've really grown quite fond of the general layout for these books.

-=Brother Praetus=-

Also FYI you don't even need the death from afar armor history if you aren't firing a heavy weapon on Full-auto. Many heavy weapons are single shot, which means they take a half action to use. You still have a free half action to do whatever you want.