I'm wanting to run a game that's more focused on heretics and daemons than xenos. Is that something I should expect to be severely flamed for, or is it something that could be done easily enough? I just like them more as adversaries than the various alien species.

GW are always keen to say that while Inquisitors and their associated chambers militant are always going to seek out the enemies they are trained to hunt, they won't turn down "enemies of opportunity." So an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor accidentally encountering a chaos cult will enthusiastically leap in and start burning people at the stake, and will expect support from any Deathwatch marines he has to hand. Don't be afraid to throw something other than xenos at the Deathwatch, the whole Jericho Reach is designed to give you a wide field of fire!

Or even better you could make a special unit brought together through a special circumstance by the Ordo Malleus that basically says, they need more than Throne Agents or Inquisitor but not enough for entire IG armies or bringing in the already stretched thin Grey Knights. An Inquisitor that asked either a single Chapter or multiple Chapters to form a team of Space Marines that have faced Daemons/Mutants before and in return he would do things behind the scenes (or even openly) that support said Chapter(s).

The best part of a RPG is that you can do practically ANYTHING, especially in a Sci-Fi setting. So what cannon doesn't openly support it, I don't think EVERY single detail of every occurance has been documented by the Imperium....that is YOUR job!!! =D

Just make a xeno influenced human chaos cult. Problem solved.

Honestly I don't see a problem with it. While the various Ordos concentrate on their areas of expertise a given Inquisitor can dig where ever they see a threat to the Imperium. And the Deathwatch themselves are not a lap dog of the Ordo Xenos, they can have their own motivations for operating as they choose.

No, i don't see a problem using them to fight demons. you don't technically even have to have them be deathwatch. you can even have them play as a squad of veteran sternguard marines (to explain their variant weapon options) from the exorcist chapter instead working closely with the ordo malleus. they can still fight aliens (as deathwatch still can fight daemons) but their primary focus is different.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Exorcists

Sanguinary Priest said:

There's no reason you can't run these ideas together. There are xenos that worship the powers - and inhabitants - of the Warp. The Yu'vath (now extinct) are covered in Rogue Trader and present one such species, and there are likely more.

In fact the first of the Eisenhorn books features a Chaos-worshipping xenos race; in the final battle the xenos were supported by Chaos Marines and the invading Imperial Guard had 60 Deathwatch Marines in support.

See - no problem

DW

WillisRBC said:

I am exploring that in my games at the moment, one of my players is a Grey Knight as part of the Tyrantine Cabal(my campaign is in the calaxis sector) and we also now have a Palatine Sister of Battle representing the Ordo Hereticus/Ecclesiarchy for the cabal. Another chapter of marines that seem to focus on daemons is the Exorcists chapter, so if you are starting this campaign maybe consider righting up some rules for this chapter and allowing your players to choose it.

That is the fun part of investigating a death-world; you never know what threat will be there, so I would encourage use of all enemies be it xenos, hereticus, or malleus.

If you concentrate your missions and campaign in the Acheros Salient (the middle one on the jericho reach map), you got a bunch of heretics and daemon-infested worlds, plus the hades anomaly. Cellebos Warzone should be interesting to you. Throw in some odd xenos for variety, and I think it will be alright. The Deathwatch isn't only about killing xenos, you know.