Have anyone lost a DH or RT character due to excess of corruption? Or is it too difficult to earn so many points?

I think it would be cool for a player to regain a character lost to corruption to play it under a new view.

After reading the new Codex: Grey Knights I got this idea... See, the Grey Knights really, really like to keep their secrets. Indeed, they like to kill off anyone who has ever witnessed them just to keep their secrets. Which comes around to this:

Player characters start as people intimately involved in defence or administration of a planet. There are several Chaos Cults on the planet that try to summon and bind daemons for their own purposes and the characters originally try to capture the cultists. Something goes terribly wrong and Daemonic invasion of the whole planet starts. The Grey Knights pounce in, stop the infestation with their strange psychic sorceries (it might be impossible for a layman to distuinguish between Chaos Cultist and Grey Knight use of psychichs, it all looks the same warp-witchery really) and then line up all the witnesses to be shot...

Now, assuming the characters manage, by some (dark?) miracle, avoid the firing squad, whose side are they on? Imperium, that tried to kill them? Chaos cultists who started the whole mess? Or their own side? Which side is that, then?

Polaria said:

I love this idea. I really like to surprise players by twisting the story and giving them tough moral choices. Often enough the players do something surprising in turn.

It's going to be interesting to see how GMs cope with this game. It's been noted more than once that bad guys are harder to GM for than good guys for the fundamental reason that good guys are almost always protagonists, reacting to stop the evil plans of the bad guys. Bad guys are the antagonists, creating their own plans, making their own agendas, shaping the world to suit their desires. They might have a boss, even one that is terrible to cross, but they are not going to be the mindlessly obedient drones of the Space Marines or the Guardsmen with Commisioners standing by to shoot anyone with a thought in their heads.

My character has plans, big ones. He's almost certain to fail, but if he succeeds he will fundamentally change the nature of the 40k universe. Heck even in his failure he's likely to destabilize the already sketchy balance of power.

I really do not see the problem with playing "bad guys" and would be surprised to hear much about it post-release.

Another game idea I've had is to do X-com 40K.

By using the different profit/influence/renown/infamy mechanics I think it could work well to let the players "play" an organisation rather than a single character. They have to administer their headquarters and resources and set up short and long term goals and then send out various units on missions. They can then choose which missions or personnel they want to focus on and "play".

I think a mercenary charter would fit the bill quite nicely (per the Dogs of War write up in one of the Rogue Trader supplements). I've heard that Black Crusade is pretty "chaosy" but it should be feasible to pick and choose what mechanics to use (classless/leveless).

Not quite sure how to begin though, it's always fun to chose the base and establish the organisation from scratch but given 40Ks general time line that could take decades...

Restless Ancients

A strange alien space hulk suddenly breaks from the Warp and crashed onto one of the planets in the Screaming Vortex, and this is but the first part of a chain reaction of space hulks appearing and alien ruins "suddenly" becoming accessible. The PCs runs the gauntlet between greedy warbands, awakening ancient warp inclined Xenos and an Eldar strike force, that all wants to keep the mystical Xeno-tech out of anyone's hands but their own. But if successful, some truly magnificantly mad pre-Eldar warp-based technology will fall into the hands of the heretics.

Unholy War

A Dark Apostle named Zoharus brings his Word Bearer warband to gather all able bodies warrior they can in their ships before they launch themselves against the shrine world of Eleusis in the Jericho region, to desecrate it in the name of the Dark Gods. The warriors of Chaos catches the Imperial by suprise and overwhelm the slaves in a fierce battle. But just as their victory is acertain, spores begin to fall from the sky and bioships force the Chaos ships to flee or enter the space ports. While the Dark Apostles works their sorceries and sacrifices millions of captives pilgrims, guardsmen and their own warriors alike the rest must hold out in what strongpoints they can find untill the warp storm arrives to save them from the Great Devourer.

Red Rebellion
The characters play gifted under-hive dwellers that are brought to the attention by a rouge psychic man who is possessed by a powerful daemon. The daemon guides the characters in the ways of Chaos and to spread the taint of Chaos across the under-city, advices them in different ways and then finally manifests when the rebellion turns into a great war – and the world is remade into a daemon world with the daemon as its master, and the players as his satraps

I tend to sandbox, sometimes with a little nudge along the way for meta-plot and overview but mostly I'll be starting out small with PC's being assorted lowlifes, shitbags, rebels and rabble from the respective classes of Imperial society. I'll add a bit of serious incentive to break from society completely and from there we'll see just how misceivous they can become.

I have a similar idea with a twist: I'll have them start out as slightly tainted, but basically normal, Imperial guys. Not exactly the epitome of holiness, but not ready made cultists. Then, in the introductory adventure, I have them do a HUGE service for the Imperium and having the Imperium typically showing no thanks, but instead royally screwing them over and trying to have them killed for having learnt "too much forbidden knowledge" in the process.

Once the name of the game is that they really can't get back to Imperiums side and probably wouldn't even want to, then the rest is really up to them. Do they want revenge? Justice? Or just freedom from persecution? Well, Chaos delivers... Just sign here, above the small print.

I kind of take the different approach with the campaign fairly well planned ahead. Some might consider it a bit railroaded but that's how I do it. I naturally plans for various ways that the PC:s can achieve their goals, or change their goals, but I'm not to keen on making things up on the way.

miss dee said:

CAMPAIGN

Loving Night Lords I'd go with a simple trail of ideas for the first few games and see what the players bring extra to the table, this to complement the campaign later on...

1) A section of Night Lords aboard a ship are given a mission to undertake by one of their higher rankings who wants to dispense of them; To liberate a Demon Prince that have something powerful and in direct link with their Primarch past... <2hrs>

2) They have to meet with a lesser daemons to gather clues/access on acquiring entrance to where the Demon Prince is contain... he send them on their way... <2hrs>

3) Travelling space they find their first clues/access within a warped old space battlefield of the time era of the emperor crusade... having to fight empire survivors, tyranids and chaos beasts... they gather the clues/access and make way... <2hrs>

4) The clues/access bring them to a lost space station on which they have to fight against Dark Eldar human slavers to gather next clue/access. <6hrs>

5) Finding the clues/access they liberate a Greater Demon of Slaanesh with is personal Daemonettes who is ready to give them the entrance coordinate on the frozen planet below in exchange for the killing of approaching Space Marines. <2hrs>

6) The section of Night Lords are given campaign "freebie" on findings ways to split the Space Marines and kill 1/3 of them. <4hrs>

7) They bring the Space Marines into an abandoned Hive and kill another 1/3. <4hrs>

8) The Greater Demon of Slaanesh intervene saying that they need few survivors to open the gates where the Demon Prince is found and give them the coordinate to where they must reach without fighting. <2hrs>

9) The Night Lords bring on a chase the last 1/3 of Space Marines survivors into a Emperor first era vault in which they have to bleed them to death to free the Demon Prince. <4hrs>

10) The Demon Prince give the players "Chaos Powers/Special Equipments" for its freedom ...but... Does not have what they were looking for in the first place at this time apart from some history drama of old ages... and... send them on an embargo to take down an Imperial Colony for the second part of the campaign. At which point you should know what your players wants to play and worship for their characters own stories to develop. The Demon Prince being now the Higher Ranking to who they must follow orders... in tail with 'somehow' taking revenge on who sent them at the start of the campaign <2hrs>

I thought maybe begin with my players first dealing with their ''recruitement'' in the eye of terror, having to prove their worth by battling other rival forces of chaos, finding artefacts, raiding for slaves, and then participate in a massive raid of the imperial sector. Pretty much of the details will be determined by my players characters, so for now I dont have much to say.

Drag down characters from another game one by one until they either all serve Chaos or kill the loyalists off...then make new characters already corrupted to join the ones who turned. Then continue as per normal with new objectives in exile...

An inquisitor who believes conflict makes the imperium stronger sets about engineering a crises on a world she believes has grown lax in its vigil against those forces which would tear down the empire throughout the Calixis Sector. The inquisitor chooses a few heretics imprisoned on an Inquisition prison ship and decides to set them free upon the planet, trusting the heretics are dangerous enough to engineer the crisis he envisions for this world. He explains his motives to the heretics that he only wishes them to act according to their nature and leaves their gear in a place where they can obtain it without posing a direct threat to his personal safety.

The PCs will have their choice of how to approach bringing chaos and destruction to the planet, though the inquisitor has implanted them technology which allows him to track their progress. The PCs can either act according to the inquisitors plan, attempt to escape the planet the inquisitor has stranded them on, strike at the imperium authority on the world where they find themselves stranded, or pursue a course of revenge against the inquisitor.

I plan on it mostly being sandbox because of that whole "Freedom of Chaos" thing. I do have a few events stored away for later though. Namely, a composite Daemonic entity akin to a sapient Daemon World. The God-Snare. It pops in and out of the Warp like a Space Hulk but it does so with the mind of a predator. It is the size of a moon and pops into existence in orbit around a planet explicitly to be seen. It exerts no gravitational pull on the body it orbits (unless it desires to go to war with the place for some reason) and ensnares peoples' minds. People travel to it, which is exactly what it wants. Those whom view the landscape notice it is obviously artificial and alien in nature and riddled with miles and miles of twisting channels throughout the surface and its labyrinthine innards. What they don't know is that in its deepest recesses, away from prying eyes, it holds legions of its previous victims. They are ensnared by liquid copper filaments that look like metallic and thorny vines. These filaments pierce their victims in grotesque ways. Finding their way under their skin, snaking their innards and wrapping around their bones. The Snare is also home to many, many daemons bound to its architecture that are as ensnared their as their mortal counterparts. Once the Snare has had its fill of fresh victims, it springs its trap, ensnares them and returns to the Warp with its new harvest. Every victim of every species and all of the daemons are linked together artificially. This web of minds creates an over-mind that knows all its victims knew while alive.

It is the product of an alien species whom augmented their bodies and minds with cybernetics to an incredible degree trying to create an Arc-Ship to ferry its people away from their dieing world. Things went incredibly wrong once in the Warp and the hybrid intelligence was born. It will try to ensnare my players. I will have it try something new if it manages to ensnare them. It is bored. Instead of killing my players and reducing them to fleshy components of its mind, it will keep them alive and interface with them because it is bored. Players will get the chance to escape and even plunder the minds of the other victims. I plan on rewarding anyone especially good at such a feat with unnatural intelligence representing the various lifetimes of experience of many different species that the player has incorporated into itself.

To be honest if I was to run this I would set it Pre-Horus Heresy with your characters being members of a Warrior-Lodge on top of various other heretics who are on one of the Expeditionary Fleet's.