'The planet is doomed, nothing left to save, no worthwhile manufactoriums to be liberated, no old shrines to be purified, no astartes chapter loosing it's breeding grounds.. out at the rim, this world was always the end of the line, even the great and all powerful Inquisition couldn't care less. Mython is the bottom of the list to be purged of life, and more important planets keep getting on the exterminatus list ahead of it...

What is even worse, after the astropaths died, after the great orbital platform that kept the rifts stable for warp travel fell.. after the hordes of orks took three quarters of the planet... there are still people alive... desperate and clinging to life, fighting day after day, trying their most to hold onto their sanity, hold onto those they love, stay strong and protect what they must.. they fight.. they die, and to the orks it's just a game..

You are one of these lost souls, damned to a slow death, forsaken by the great and all powerful corpse god, yet those around you still cling to the aquilla, grasp at their holy symbols and pray.. pray to a god that can't hear them.. not this far out.. you pray too.. you pray every time you pull that trigger on your guard duty that your shot rings true, pray each day you're cooking your meals that there will be food for tomorrow, pray that you will feel the warmth of your loved one tonight when you return to your home, and pray to think of someway off this damned rock...

But one day, when you think there is nothing else.. when there can't be a way to find even the smallest of hopes, you hear a whisper.. "I hear you child.. I hear your words.. pray to me.. and I will help you.. pray to me and I will give you what you need... pray.." and you pray.. you pray and you feel it touch you, a power beyond you, something not of the emporers impotent light, something strong.. something with purpose.. and when you open your eyes.. you know.. from now on.. there is a hope.. and the time you have left, is all you need to do what needs to be done.. and you feel that power smile at you.. you have its symbol in your heart, you have the glimmer in your eyes, others see it.. and feel your confidence.. things are changing.. and you have started it .. you have begun the new push to reclaim this world.. and that's just the start... '

This is just the start of an idea that formed for me as a I was looking over the possabilities of the campaign available to this game.. There is far more than just breaking out of the grasp of the imperium that would drive a man or woman to the ruinous powers.. This will build from garnering the ability to win this war, to getting the populace to follow the players and their chosen god (or Gods, no need to have the bickering start up untill the world is dipped into the warp) from there slipping onto a new world to help liberate those poor people being oppressed and forgotten by the corpse god, showing them a new path, and a way to make themselves so much more. Hahah Mostly it's all guidelines in my head to be written up and readied for the players to ignore whats going on untill I have an ork eat them, but that's the basis of the start of a campaign... Anyone else have some campaign ideas?

I'm actually gearing up to run Deathwatch but I figure that I should perhaps offer at least one idea.

Desperate Prayers: An Imperial world finds itself abandon by the Imperium in the face of strategic need elsewhere, but with a Tyranid splinter fleet starring down at them the population can only see as the God Emperor abandons them to their fates. Unwilling to simply roll over for the aliens the population decides to fight for their lives with any means possible.

"You lost it all. You lost your legs during a tour of duty in the Imperial Guard, and the bionic replacements never worked right. You lost your father to blood infection because your meagre stipend from the Imerium couldn't pay for the treatment, and your pleas for charity fell on the deaf ears of the doctors, even as they gladly took in less critical, but far richer patients. You lost your wife and son to the Eldar Corsairs when they came to raid and pillage your planet. No Imperial Guard regiment heeded your distress call. You lost your daughter, the last thing that mattered to you in this world, to the Black ships of the Inquisition, as she began to manifest psychic ability. What could you, a crippled old war veteran, do to protect your little girl from the men who came to take her? Her screams for you still haunt you at night. Then, as if things couldn't get worse, the Eldar returned, not to raid this time, but to kill anything that moved. You had enough. You picked up your Lasgun, the last thing you had to your name after all these horrible years, and hobbled out to meet your death like the guardsman you once were. And death did come.

Just not for you.

Fire and death rained from the sky, slaughtering countless Eldar. their Farseers tried erecting barriers to protect themselves, but it was no use. It seemed like something out of the scriptures of the Ministorum, but you knew it to be otherwise. You could see the daemons ravaging the Eldar in the distance. You could see the sorcerers in their dropships weaving their unholy spells. You could see the Traitor Marines charge out of their corrupted landing craft to meet the knife ears. By all rights, any emporer fearing citizen would have turned tail and fled at the sight of these damned forces, but you were no longer an emporer fearing citizen. The emporer had taken everything from you, and then abandoned you when you called out for him. But these men, women, and things besides had come to meet your foe. 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' you had heard once, and that was a lesson you took to heart.

It's been five years since that fateful day, when you took up arms alongside what you had been taught since birth was the Great Enemy. The servants Chaos have since made you whole again. They restored your youth, and made you stronger, faster, and more powerful than you could have ever imagned. They replaced the poor replacement legs you had been issued with vat grown, true, functioning, organic legs. Your legs, a part of you as much as you are a part of them.They have armed you with weapons befitting of a warrior such as you. they have girded you in armor to match your ferocity in battle. they have blessed you with abilities in payment for the losses you've suffered. They tell you that they can help you relclaim your daughter from the clutches of the False Emporer, if only you will help them take the fight to his puppets. You have done so before, and you will do so again, each time more freeing and satisfying to you. The Imperium took everything and more from you. You intend to return the favor."

This! Thank you. This is the best contribution I've seen for BC so far.

I love it!

I do my best. I'm hoping they create rules for Playing Word Bearers, Since i have a nice little plotline going on in one of my DW games where the Assault marine of the squad is a Black Shield who's actually one of Lorgar's boys. Crossover games are always fun

lol i am running a similar chr but the prefix was that i was on one of the original ships "lost in the warp" (ref the first heretic) and the ship came out of the warp thinking a month or os had passe sdbut in fact nearly ten milenia had. ofc he has learned what has happened and is now fighting to find the truth will be hell to play when the ultramarine librairian finds out though .......

Drake56 said:

Glad to see that i'm not the only one experiencing that problem! heheheh in my campaign it's a Ultramarines Devastator (which can potentially be really bad since, as an assault Marine, he has the advantage of range). The only other Character that knows what i am is the rune Priest after he saw a copy of Lorgar's Word Hidden in a void safe in my cell. now he's walking around with my big bad secret, not exactly sure how to handle the fact that the closest thing he's had to a friend is technically the enemy. it's really fun to watch

Chaos Monte Christo:

The PCs – high-rank members of the empire – were tricked by their noble rivals, accused as criminals and sent to a prison planet. But chaos gave them a second chance: They escape from jail, return to their home sector (Tzeentch gave them new bodies, so their enemies won't recognize them) and now they are attempting vengeance and they plan to ruin their enemies.

The campaign starts with the prison break, goes on with their search for a spaceship that brings them back to their home sector and ends with their conspiracy against their unsuspecting rivals.

In the meantime, Tzeentch will give them the opportunity to become doublegangers of a (killed) Rogue Trader. With the riches of that Rogue Trader, they'll have the possibility for long-term plans to ruin of their rivals.

One idea on the Comedy side of things.

Black Crusade: Excel Saga.

Your Cult Leader is desperate to take over the world! You're a bunch of... well, let's just say Cultist Chan would fit right in (Seriously, Excel seems like she was a strong inspiration for Cultist Chan )

Strange Missions and Hijinx ensue from there.

I have an idea where the PCs are backed by an Inquisitor who takes advantage of his position within the inquisition to further his own selfish interests.
He sends his cadre of "special throne agents" to sites where heretics or other cults have been sighted but not only to cleanse them but to bring him every artifact or forbidden text they can lay their hands on.

Sometimes he will even send them in advance of another group of throne agents to salvage something before the other group can destroy everything.

At first the PCs (not the players) will think they really work for the good of the Imperium but over the time when corruption becomes more and more they at some time realize that thei are really minions of chaos.

Till BC comes out I'll use the DH rules for it but with an expanded mutation chart.
This will include for example the possibility to develope the Space marine special Organs (excluding the black carapace) one at a time. So acid spitting or gaining temporary knowledge by eating dead foes for mutants.

How about playing as a group of potential Alpha Legion initiates set to various tasks to prove themselves worthy of being made into full Adeptus Astartes of the said legion? They could come from a number of different places and be put together to form a team with a selection of skills and talents and trained to work together before they are being made into Space Marines. After which they'll naturally form a squad for furture operations.

Gillam Harrow said:

Good **** Gillam Harrow.

Here's my try:

The Culling
When they came I had already four kills to my name; a true and tried member of the gang. I think I was fourteen, my family died shortly after my sixth birthday. I had to make my own way after that so I cannot be sure exactly how old I am.

It had taken me a lot of skill and effort to get where I was and I weren’t about to give that up without a fight. I fought harder and more savagely than anyone else in the gang. Not out of duty, or fear or even belief in the God-Emperor but simply because they were trying to take away what was mine. Everything was coming apart around us. The whole hive. When our leader wanted to give up I killed him and led the gang myself. Our enemies were big and strong and callous but against us they only ever used stun guns or lasguns with their power set low. I never realised why until the very end, back then I only thought they were stupid.

It was a shock when I found out that it was almost like a game to them, we were their playthings and nothing more. I hated them and fought them and led my personal war against them and for all that they barely took notice. It made my hate for them blacker and colder than I thought possible.
In the end it didn’t matter of course. They took us just like they did everyone else. I managed to get one of them though; I tore off his helmet and plunged my dagger into his eye. I could feel their grudging respect after that; it is still one of the proudest days of my life.

What really changed my life was afterwards, when we were chained and caged on the space ship. For the first time in my life I saw one of Them. He came walking on the upper gantry with a fluid grace that I will never forget. Everyone fell quiet and cast down their eyes. He was enormous; His armour a deep red with chains and fresh human heads dangling with each gigantic step. His weapon looked larger than me. For all of that it was the way He glided across the walkway that impressed me the most. Each step echoing across the hall, the chains soft jingling – all that strength and power held in absolute check by a cold fury. He was a consummate warrior completely alien to the crude human soldiers that I had fought against. It is only much later that I have realised the power and arrogance of someone who can claim the population of an entire hive for himself.

It made me realise that if I could achieve even a fraction of His power and will I would finally shape my own destiny.

That has been my only strength and desire since then. It moulded my hatred and became the point from which everything else followed. It is what keeps me going when everyone else has fallen. It is my greatest weapon. More than skill, or luck or anything else it is what keeps me alive in the pits. More than the club or the sword or the axe it is what I use to kill my opponents.

One day that power will be mine and then the galaxy will tremble before me, this I swear.

The characters are taken by some Chaos warband together with everyone else on their planet/hive/society. They will have to struggle to stay alive as the weak are weeded out and their hatred is shaped into something useful. The campaign can start either with the invasion or just after.

If I ran a game of this I would carry on my own 40K themed campaign where...

In my DH campaign the pc's failed to stop the renegade world of Malice in the Calixis sector from enacting a huge ritual that opened up the systemthe surrounding area to the warp. The creature that led the ritual was one of the pc's npc's minions that had become possessed after being abandoned by the teamwas elvated to daemon prince hood. This was also the chance for a third of the home grown marine chapter to openly rebel after being corrupted by artifacts (A pc had returned to the chapter)a gene seed flaw. The corrupted elements of the chapter failed in its bid to take power in its home systemfled to Malice.

So I would have my pc's playing minions who are from the 'nose of fright' and under orders from the daemon prince ruling Malice.

Badab War - Astral Claws:

Player characters would be a mix of Astral Claw serfsBadab Primaris officials with maybe onetwo Astral Claw marines thrown in... Considering that they have just lost the war, their homeworld is crumbling around them, psychotic MinotaursCarcharodons are are pillaging their homes, summarily torturingkilling everyone they catchInquisition has just declared eacheveryone of them Heretics who do they turn to for help?

A silly idea for a Slaanesh themed campaign: A group of chefs working together in an attempt to make a perfect meal. As the quality of their meals improves, they have to do more dangerous things to collect stranger ingredientsfall deeper into Slaanesh worship, while hiding all of this from the people they serve the meals to, so that they can serve people with moremore power within the Imperium.

I'm not sure which ending would be more appropriate, having them get a piece of the Emperor's corpse for their final meal,them serving it to Him. Or the third option of doing both.

The worst part is that the only liberties I can see this story needing is explaining how they avoid being caught as they move closer to Earth. Though I don't see myself being able to expand this idea into a campaign that long.

I plan on taking the rules from Black Crusade and using it to make a mid-level mashup loyalist game, where players can play as Rogue Traders, Inquisitorial Agents, and maybe even Space Marines.

I'll remove the skills and abilities being aligned, but keep the classless system, I think.

It'll probably be similar to a Rogue Trader campaign, but one in which the Rogue Trader's ship has been commandeered by an Inquisitor (and a Lamenters Deathwatch Librarian) in order to find the missing Lamenters chapter...

How about something based on the chaos 40k books, a squad of Night Lords, A squad of Logars boys or a squad of Iron Warriors?

For two centuries you have served your Chapter well. The enemies of the almighty Emperor have been stricken before your holy bolter in countless battles from one side of the Imperium to the other. Your name is garnering whispers of admiration from the 2nd and 1st Companies; a bright future was yours to have. Or so you thought.

A campaign against the greenskins was handed over to your command, your first real step towards leadership and, more importantly, power. Thunderhawks screamed in rage entering the atmosphere, dropping squads of your Battle Brothers to cleanse the vile Orks from the face of a nameless planet. Your tactics proved impeccable as always, the greenskins stood no chance against your merciless assault.

In your fervor to punish the enemies of Mankind, however, you made a costly mistake. The Orks were driven before you in what appeared to be a retreat. Filled with bloodlust, you ordered a full advance, only to realize too late that it was an ambush. Killa Kans, spewing black smoke and Ork curses, fell upon your Battle Brothers with brutal savagery. You retreated with your personal revenue, leaving your Brothers to their fates. Weakness was not to be tolerated under your command, and you had a planet to save.

The campaign was a total success; the greenskins were utterly eradicated.

Your superiors thought otherwise. They called you a "coward" and a "fool." They memorialized the weakling brothers who died like dogs and stripped you of your title and possessions,.

You left in secret, disgusted with the weakness of the Marines that caused this travesty.

You've found a new master, one who does not shy away from violence.

This master does not reward weakness, nor does he suffer from the indecision of cowards.

This master asks not for unswavering loyalty or putrid devotion to a corpse.

No, his request is far simpler.

Blood.

Well written Nekros22

Always had the idea of setting up a Dark Heresy/Black Crusade campaign. Where one group is the inquisitor acolytes and the others are minor cultist members, both work their way up. The cultist are there to try and corrupt a system and strike a blow to the False Emperor. Acolytes are there to stop them or die trying. If things work out it'd be a game of cat and mouse, where who's the cat turns from point to point. The Acolytes must investigate and purge the cult, cell by cell. Each on separate days with separate DMs, and only on certain days do they meet up and engage in combat. However to stop it from ending there unless the group wants it, the losing side always escapes. The winning group either relocates and sets up shop somewhere else or continue to hunt down the other side, of course depending on which side your group is in.

I'm going to try to lure my players to Chaos, as they think as today boys yet instead of 40k boys. They are an strange Kill-Team

I will prove their faith in the Rotten Body by showing them the worst of the Imperium: the tyrany, the demagogical leaders, the inquisitorial autoritarism and not-so-purity...Then, my Word Bearers Lord in Jericho Reach will try to convince them to unite to him at the final confrontation (just took the idea from...the Powerpuff Girls movie) but adding the deep of Saren's character from Mass Effect to his reasonements

We will see if they pass their prove.

I already started mine, with housebrew rules: Players started as marines of the Blood Guard chapter, ended up cleansing a feudal planet from chaos heretics and Genestealer before they were made knight protectors of the planet,and the planet swears fealty to their chapter (and become directly administered by them, in exchange for their protection). Then they discover that a Tyrannid fleet is already headed there, and no reinforcements are planned. They discover ancient ruins, and among them, a chaos gate and 2 damaged sleeping Banelord titans. They realize the only way to save the planet is to activate the chaos gate, repair the banelords, and hope demons and tyranids kill themselves (with them finishing the survivors off) before taking too much of the population with them. They chose to negotiate a deal with the banelords, and keep the chaos gate open for a short duration, in order to get some needed reinforcements, without having to deal with too many demons afterwards.

They could have chosen to remain pure, and let the planet fall, but getting corrupt in order to save the inhabitants and their chapter's honor was their choice.

My campaign idea have been simmering a while now and I decided to work a little on it. But since I do not play Rouge Trader or Death Watch I need some help. While I am hoping there is some sort of similar mechanics in Black Crusade I want to roughly outline an abstract system to keep track of he PCs power/influence/resources.

Naturally the Profit factor from Rouge Trader comes to mine, and I am sure I've heard something similiar existing in Death Watch, objectives mabye? Anyways I am simply wondering if anyone has any thoughts on how these existing mechanics can be used to track PCs rise in power and influence by accomplishing objectives or missions in Black Crusade?

Thanks in advance

I actually got my idea originally from someone on Warseer. I'd properly attribute it, but someone keeps trying to do malware attacks on the site, so they've taken it down for now.

Dire Intrigue-

The PCs are summoned before the overlord of their particular domain in the Screaming Vortex. He knows how capable they are, making them both a threat to his rule and a possibly quite useful tool to expand it. He tells them of a system at the edge of the Jericho Reach that has turned from Imperial rule. The region is in the line of the Tau Empire's expansion, and the Imperium is going to want it back. The system's foolish attempt at independence is doomed, and they WILL fall to one power or another. The PCs are being sent to claim the system for the Dark Gods and defend it against any who try to take it from them.

They will have to deal with agents of the system's brutal, autocratic, pro-autonomy government, along with agents of the Tau, the Imperium, a Rogue Trader who's looking to make some profit off the whole mess, and likely a Genestealer cult (which I may "inadvertently" lead them to believe is homegrown Chaos cult to begin with *EVIL GM LAUGH!*).

I've been brewing up a 4 Horseman of the Apacpolyspe idea. Because I'm leaning towards a more biblically nuetral use of the Horsemen I'm not sure if the Horsemen will be actual Chaos agents. The idea is to run the game across all 4 lines with each Horsemen presenting that games theme and then winding into the stories conculsion with all 4 games.

The theme I'm likely to go with for Black Crusade is Death. I've started discussing the basics in the DH forum.