So, I've been thinking of a kill-team mission and this is the basics, so far.

A raiding Dark Eldar party has been located in the sector. They have already raided several small space ports and/or settlements. After the initial reports however, they were untracable until a few weeks ago. They popped back up on the radar and have been located in "insert name here" and appear to be preparing a raid on "insert name here". The mission is simple, locate "insert name here", eliminate the threat. However, there will be additional objectives as well. Keep as much of the Space Port and/or settlement intact as possible, and recover the Archaon alive so that the Ordo Xenos may extract additional information. There will be additional XP earned depending on how much of the Space Port is left intact and a substantial amount of bonus XP earned if they are able to capture the Arhaon and bring him back to the Ordo Xenos alive for interigation. This will be my first mission, and I hope it turns out to be a solid one.

Dark Eldar are a tough opponent to plan for because they choose the where and when of the attacks. Rather than the typical mission of targeting the xenos "base" try doing the opposite. Let the Inquisition have worked out what the Dark Eldar are after. Let them figure out the next likely set of targets, and send Deathwatch teams to prepare ambushes at these sites. The players are one such team, and they happen to be the ones that are sent to where the Dark Eldar strike next. The really nice bit here is that this gives the guys that like to think defensively a chance to shine (most Deathwatch missions have the team on the offense) and there can be plenty of Guard/PDF NPCs to add a bit of non-Astartes roleplaying flavor.

Happy has a good point when it comes to most of the time the kill-teams will be on the warpath instead of holding a ground. Much like stealth, if your kill team is anything like mine they won't worry about it and just charge straight into combat as they go on more missions.

Thanks for the guidance. Here's some of my "thoughts":

1) I was thinking of making a Dreadnaught NPC and keeping him in a pod to arrive at a much needed moment.

2) Have some IG NPC's to man some defensive weapons (heavy bolter and missile launcher emplacements)

3) A coms relay station to allow the kill team to contact the Imperial Navy to try and cut off a would-be retreat.

I haven't ran a game yet, but these are my initial thoughts.

Firstly, you'd want to handle the IG support teams in a very abstract manner (see the introductory scenario on the FF site for ideas), so as not to waste time rolling dice for them.

Secondly; avoid the Dreadnought idea like the plague. There is nothing that says Mary Sue Deus Et Machina more than a GM-controlled killing machine plummeting from the sky and saving the party. It's amazingly frustrating and annoying for players to be bailed out by something that's far better than them and controlled by the GM. It might seem cool to you, but it robs your players of any sense of achievement and is horribly contrived.

About the Dread in the Pod;

How about if I let the leader of the mission take control of the Dreadnaught for the mission? If this a bad idea, should I allow the kill-team to arrive via pod if they choose?

That depends on your players. Mine would hate me for it.

Remember that if this is a first scenario, the players will be finding their feet in their new characters and settling into them both mechanically and emotionally. It's hard to do that when someone then hands you an additional character with a ton of different mechanics to play as well as your own.

They need interaction to ease them into character, and then to be gently eased into the mechanics via an initially fairly simple confrontation, and then given a chance to really shine and feel great about it. It's had to do that when an NPC is overshadowing you and mowing down five times the number of foes that you can.

Siranui said:

Well put, the dread is out.

Use the dread this timeanother time but rather than as a saving grace use it as a commanding officer that gives them specific tasks to accomplish like: "I will hold this flank while you hunt down the snipers in those towers""Take out the lascannon crew in cover that took out the transportnow risk destroying this sacred machine while i provide covering fire".

This will show the players that armourfirepower have their place but aren't key to the game. It gives them specific accomplishments that will be theirstheirs alone. As the game progresses make the tasks gradually less straightforward so they have to think moremore for themselvesbecome more self reliant.

Then have the dreadnought get into troublehave the players save it instead!

As for the dark eldar.. have prophecies of their next several targets provided via an inquisitor. Let the players go through some of the list slowly catching up to the attacks till they complete the goal (this way if the archon escapes them they get to try again a couple times as they are finding their feet making him a more memorable villainthe victory all the sweeter). Once he's nabbed have the players superiors find the accuracy of the predictions dubiousinvestigate. It can turn out that the information was passed to the inquisitor by a less than conventional priest who it turns out is a puppet for the Craftworld Eldar manipulating goings on in the area to end future threats to the craftworld before they can eventuate. Trouble is this doesn't work so well if the deathwatch knows they are behind it. Then they can have a nice battle with a Warlocksome of the more potent eldar warriors they can handlereceive a nice lesson of the duplicitous untrustworthy Xenos. Making them all the more wary if they every get an offer of help from craftworld eldarworse, need their help against a mutual foe such as the TyranidsOrks.

GM says:

Battybattybats said:

Players hear:

"I will be awesome and single-handedly win this half of the fight without even picking up dice. Mwahahaha, look at me ROCK!!! You guys sweat the small-stuff and struggle for 2 hours to do something that I could easily have done, but was to busy being awesome with my heavy flamer to get 'round to."

See?

Siranui said:

I absolutely agree.

Battybattybats said:

I agree even more. This is a great idea how to deal with that problem – you can be sure this will increase the atmosphere.

However, I think the Dreadnought shouldn‘t command your players: No, the Dreadnought should be a special "gimmick" your players can direct. This will integrate the dreadnought into their tactical plans: „Hey, we could send the dreadnought to the flank as distraction for the enemies while we use this distraction for a sneak attack to take down their commander.“

Siranui said:

I don‘t think players will interpret it this way as long as the dreadnought will do a minor job compared to they players – e.g. as long as the dreadnought will operate in the background of the mission. The Mary-Sue-problem will only arise if the GM-controlled wondermachine is working on the same task as the players and solves the parts of the mission your players should solve. I think it‘s perfectly valid to let the dreadnought do the monotonous work in the background (holding the flank) while your players accomplish special missions. (especially if the players have to rescue that dreadnought at last... – this will clearly show who‘s the leading man.)

Graf said:

...In which case there's no real need for it to be there. Which makes it look even more crowbarred into the narrative, which makes it look even more contrived, which makes it look even more Mary-Sueish. To my mind, anyway. Kinda like some mysterious figure showing up at the start of an action movie, telling Stephen Seagul what to do, then saying 'I'm off to pick litter' and disappearing. It's utterly superfluous and yet still manages to somehow steal some limelight away from the real star.

I'm not opposed to a supporting cast, but I generally think that they should be portrayed as less awesome than the PCs in heroic games. There's no reason why -if a flank needs holding- it can't be done by a platoon of Guard. Heck: Make it a battalion and make sure that they get heavily mauled in the process. That way the players think "Yeah: What it took 300 men to do on that 'half' of the battlefield, we did with FIVE!"

Siranui said:

Well, it's simply a matter of style. A Dreadnought is simply more remarkable than 300 faceless soldiers. And after all, we're playing 40k – so people want to see things like Dreadnoughts.

Another solution: Instead of sending your players a Dreadnought, give them access to some kind of mech when they get into real trouble: A combat-robot with a cockpit in which one of your players can take place. (Use the stats of a heavily armored Dreadnought.)

It will be quite the same than a Dreadnought, but it will be completly controlled by one of your players – so you can include a cool thing like a Dreadnought AND the reward of being awesome goes to your players.

Of course keeping the dreadnought and then showing it's tactical inflexibility could dissuade any players hell-bent on becoming a dreadnought themselves because it's "teh strongest!!!1111". In fact i may just have to do something like that with one of the people who will likely be joining my players for Deathwatch once my books arrive.

Graf said:

This *is* very much a matter of taste, but I'm very much with Siranui on this one.

Basically I think everybody agrees on the details, but disagrees on the implications.

Yes, a Dreadnought is way cooler than 300 faceless soldiers, but the problem is that it's *also* cooler than five starting Deathwatch marines. Having the flank held by a guard platoon says "those guys are doing the grunt work, you guys are off being awesome super soldiers". Having it held by a Dreadnought says "you guys are doing the grunt work, that guy is off being an awesome super soldier".

To put it another way, yes there's a certain tourism quality in a 40K RPG, and it *is* cool to go "ooh, dreadnought!" "ooh Eldar Craftworld!" but it's also important to let the players feel like *they* are the source of the coolness, particularly when they're playing elite Space Marines, and particularly in your first scenario.

Well, in my defense, I never even said what I was going to use the Dreadnaught for, what his role was going to be, that he was going to "tell" the kill-team what to do (that's what the kill-team leader is for), or if he was going to be the saving grace. I like how everyone freaked out on this thread about a ******* dreadnaught. The group I just joined almost had their dread taken out by a harlequin, and in the end the dread ended up getting destroyed.