Hello all,

My players want to establish a lasting presence in the Koronus Expanse. They have decided to “find” a planet that is suitable for habitation, claim it for the emperor, build a spacedock, and colonize the the planet so that they have a good base that they can call “home” while in the Expanse. Basically: they are looking for a “home away from home” within the Koronus Expanse.

I’ve been talking to my players regarding this fact and we’ve decided to make it a grand endeavor, there are a lot of things involved when you look at what they want. but that’s not what this thread is about. I’m curious what you –my fellow Gamemasters think of the following concept;

“Give” the players a planet that is worth fighting for but not without said fight.

A planet that was obviously in times past part of the Imperium, but due to some accident / chaos / xenos / awfull thing that has happened millennia ago, has become a wasteland littered with destroyed Hive cities, while some hive cities are infested with Xenos (Orks) there is still one that is abandoned, although deep within its bowels there is still a powersource that powers a very small portion of that Hivesector. (which in fact keeps playing the same distress call over and over)

Although completely abandoned with (imperial) human life (maybe even no atmosphere) there are signs of life present on the planet.

The planet itself a huge barren wasteland, its ocean’s almost non-existent, the air itself is to “thick” to breathe and since it’s quite close to the systems “strangely Bluecolored sun” the temperature is uncomfortably hot.

• Chaos worshippers use (some) of the planet’s surface as “training grounds” for their acolytes.
• Orks have infested a large number of the Hives and are fighting their own fight
• Eldar have selected this planet for reasons unknown at this point

You can wonder why they would like to undertake an endeavor on this scale with a planet that has such obvious drawbacks (Xenos, little to no water etc.etc.) and I completely agree. There are a few reasons however to decide to “liberate” this planet.

• Archeotech found within the Hive Cities
• Xenotech due to the Eldar presence
• Trade opportunities due to the Eldar presence
• Fame and Fortune: (re) claiming a planet in name of the imperium is right up a Rogue Traders alley, especially when said Rogue Trader can name the planet.
• The effects of that strange bluecolored moon might be interesting to investigate
• One of the Hive cities is in fact a long lost Grand-Cruiser

Location: a small system in within the Heathen Stars (3 planets, all moving around a strange bluecolored sun)
Size of the planet: Huge (as in 7 times the earth)
Satellites: yes, the planet has three small moons roughly the size of “our” moon

My goal: give my players a chance to investigate, trade, start a military campaign, and receive fame and fortune in the process

My question to my fellow Gamemasters: What do you guys think of the above idea / planet. The particular adventures and minor endeavours aside, the above is ofcourse the big picture. AND: maybe even more interesting to know, what do you guys feel about a "HQ" in the Expanse?

if anyone has any plothooks that they might like to add, please feel free to reply!

In my opinion you should make the planet soewhat more on the green side - at least to be able to feed it's population and generate enough surplus for the ships who are going to stop there.

It doesn't fit well to with the 'former hie world' since those tend to have no ecology left beyond the rich's glasshouses.

Also if there's orks there, odds are they will have spread over the whole plent, unless they're newcomers.

An option could be to date the planet's fall to several millenia back and have the planet's main activity being organic chemistry (petroleum and coal based products). This will let the pollution clear enough to enable an ecosystem back, along with limiting the amount of surviving tech. It can also lead to funny moments when the PCs figure that the 'moutain' is in reality a partly broken hive that's been covered in trees.

The orks should be a recent additions, the likeliest cause being a crashed ship. Getting lost and crashing their ship is about the standard orkish way of colonizing new worlds.

Technically Orks don't get lost, they just take a detour to a fight they haven't found yet!

As to the original ideas, I'm not really a fan of the chaos worshipers idea; the Heathen Stars are a long way from civilisation proper; the cult would likely have an easier time training their acolytes aboard a ship than they would by sequestering one to deliver the newbies there; better to go the other way, in my opinion. The small remaining native population is being hunted/gathered/bred for unknowable purposes by the forces of Chaos; either as potential recruits, living cannon fodder, or even another of Fabius Bile's horrific experiments. I tend not to use Chaos much in my games though, so YMMV.

Play up the weirdness of the interactions between the sun, planets and moons of the solar system. Let the Explorator notice that each of the planetary bodies has a remarkably precise orbit - like the gears of a clock in motion - that from space the sun's colour is a drab yellow while down on the planet's surface it's a virid blue that the atmosphere should not be causing.

The cruiser-as-a-hive bit makes me wince thinking about the inevitable efforts of the players to restore it to functionality and their attempts to make it lift off.

If there's one piece of advice about giving the players a star system I can offer, it's to encourage the players not to focus on it too much. It's been my experience that there are usually one or two people who get really into the Sim-Planet aspect of owning a solar system, and the other players get bored of it but can't split up the party because, y'know, starship. Throw challenges their way until it seems like they're getting bored, then taper it off. Let the colony run well, with no interference from the players. Nothing goes wrong, there's nothing for them to involve themselves with. Then dangle someo ther interesting endeavour in front of them.

@ Manunancy: Thanks for your reply, the Orks did crash there pretty recent, so that's the reason the entire planet is not yet infested our greenskinned friends.

While i've thought about the whole problem that they have with the planet having very limited access to water i decdided to make that the players problem. If they come up with a plausible (read a cool) solution they will be able to provide enough water for the first colonies that they establish

I do like your idea to set the downfall even further back with several millennia, i might use it with this endeavor and otherwise perhaps in the future with another planet / campaign etc. etc.

@ Errant: (whom i also thank for his reply) Yes, i agree, the Chaos worshippers are a bit farfetched come to think of it. only reason i've put them in the original idea is due to the fact that our player group did not have many encounters with Chaos, the whole "demonworshipping" thing does not tend to work very well with us. I'll keep chaosworshipping traininggrounds in the back of my head for a later date (and closer to footfall)

The thought of some Chaos-allied organization breeding all sorts of bad stuff and "testing" them out on the population & environment alike does sound something that I could use in later gamingsession when they are inside some abandoned hive. Some super-abomonation-bred-for-hunting is stalking them in the tight corridors and highstrung balconies whilst the characters are following a lead that there might be a powersource inside this particular Hive-Habsector. With great effort they open a closed gate only to find a ChaosCult breeding program complete with acolytes and security staring them in the face. Knowing their characters (and players) they will almost instantly reach for their weapons and at that time the super-abomination-hunter-stalker thing drops on them trying to proctect its "children"...yeah, that might make a fine introduction to state that there is also Chaos present on "their" planet.

The weirdness with the planets and the suns color will be played, just don't know how yet, probably will be something like the Lathesystem but im not sure yet. thanks for the "color in space / color on the planet" by the way, i did not thought of that

The Cruiser as a Hive makes me whince also, and while i agree that they will try to get the thing in the void once again,I've put it in as a lead to an entire different endavor all to gether, although one that can be "connected" to the whole colonization of the planet

the Sims Starsystem: yeah, thanks for the heads-up. It seems that there is one player in our group that like to paly that game. but that player is me, and since im the GM i can fill it with whatever I (and the players) like. Once they've established a strong hold on the planet, the void calls to them once again. any aftermath concerning the planet will be "down-timed" in all the fluff that I'll provide my players.

In all honesty they've just finished the first module of the Lure of the Expanse, but we've decided that it would be more fun to carve out this planet then go after all the puzzlepieces provided in the second module. (Although i'm trying to put a few puzzlepieces on the planet we're currently discussing)

I concur that the planet doesn't need to be more green. So the first colonists will have little water and trouble growing their food - that's just another problem the players will have to solve! They can set up asteroid mining operations to convert ice into water and then initiate trade negotiations with other Rogue Traders, Imperial worlds and outposts or even local xenos. In the end, food shortage will just limit the colony's growth or let it fail completely, but there are ways to deal with it, and doing so can be an endeavour in its own right.

As for the cruiser, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Simply make it so that it crashed so long ago that it really cannot be made to fly again, unless the players want to invest even more resources than they would have to build a new one from scratch . With such a remote location that completely lacks any repair facilities and even workers (not to mention the specialists that would undoubtedly be needed), I just don't see how such a task would seem feasible. And even if that beast could be made void-capable again (after many decades or even centuries of hard work), gravity will simply prevent it from taking off. There's a reason such giant ships are built in orbital docks.

The players can just as well try to take one of the Hives and mount engines below.

Sometimes I think that the idea to repair one of these gigantic ships is taken too lightly. When fully equipped industrial worlds with millions of workers and full AdMech-support need a century to recommission them, I don't see how the same thing would seem even possible on a freshly colonized planet with a couple thousand unskilled toilers living in basic accomodations.

But if you feel that's not enough to make it seem tough, have that wrecked cruiser be looted by the Orks you mentioned. It could even be (one of) their new home(s), making for an interesting exploration adventure into that "hive".

Let them negotiate with the various factions required to emplace an imperial population on the planet trading favors, contracts and promises. All that stuff happens in port wander or footfall.

The process of colonisation, building shipyard / orbital industries and the like is Someone Else's Problem as far as the players are concerned. The more work you do on it for fun the more real it may seem to the players but on the other hand players are tricky beasts and they may just decide to use it as a sort of truckstop between jaunts in the expanse.

They can poke around the system looking for excitement and adventure while the hard work is done by their thralls / serfs / valued employees.

As for Orks, chaos incursions, xeno intervention and archeotech those could be activities for when they return "home" and discover that the mining operation on the far continent / in the asteroid belt / in the kupier belt (comet halo provides water if you can stand the months of deep space isolation) etc has gone silent... or there's a space hulk drifting within the atmosphere of the system's gas giant.

Not absolutely clear on the fluff but as far as i recall Orks are fungus, they reproduce via spores... so once they're on a planet for a while there is no practical way to get rid of them short of exterminatus or biological weapons thus providing a handy demand for ammunition, weapons, military organisations and a testing ground for "new" mechanicus toys and all the infrastructure those require.

Just got another idea ...

If you want, take a look at the realm management rules of "Fields of Blood". They are originally written for fantasy settings, but should be easy to adapt for 40k. Basically, they enable the players to run their planet using hex maps for troop movements and the construction of roads/fortifications as well as founding new settlements and improving them with various buildings affecting their productivity or the population's wellbeing. Run the Ork clan(s) and other opposition as NPC nations and you can throw in a "realm management" phase every now and then between your normal sessions.

"Fields of Blood" turns are meant to be 1 season each, so this could be some icing on the cake, i.e. something to do "on the side".

It's now available for cheap as an e-book, too.

My two cents:

@go green
Yes, plantlife IS better. Not only for colonization (and thereby "selling" the world to the players) but for adventuring as well. If you are able to see for miles and miles...if you can fly above something to scout ahead... where is the danger? Where is the ambush? Where is the Exploration? You CAN have you deserts (perhaps the the main cities where bombed/nuked/lanced from orbit) but have dense forrest and even jungles as well. Have some different types and zones on two or five different continents.

@the Humans
How about having some human survivors? They might have been reduced to gunpowder or medivial with the technology lost......and they are in hiding! Why?

@Change Eldar for DarkEldar
The Eldar DO visit the world from time to time...to get some slaves! The people thereby spread and went into hiding. Larger cities where never able to amass... which hindered/set aback technology (no cities = no specialisation = no good changes for high-tech) and made them weak against their newest enemies.

@The Orks
use ém as you said. It is never a bad idea to have some Orks somewhere!

@Hives
Unless they are vital to your design, remove them. Take vast citiy ruins instead. make "war" the reason the place went to hell. You can have fun with general destruction, rests of radiation, bio-toxin, mutants and whatever.

IF you need a hive...build ONE hive on ONE barren continent. The original settlers where wise enough to take only ONE continent to strip-mine and left the majority for food production. Further resources where planned to be gained from other mining colonies to be had in the expanse... a new empire, truly.

A private base in the Expanse is very valuable for a number of reasons. But, no one has mentioned the single biggest difficulty: Getting such a base is relatively easy compared to the challenge of keeping it. Orks, dark eldar, and chaos will all see your fledgeling colony as a source of slaves and plunder. Rak'Gol, however, will simply kill you.

In addition to the foul xenos, there's the human element. Sure, you got colonists to occupy your new HQ and do all the grunt work. From where? Unless you're into wholesale kidnapping and slavery (which begs a slave rebellion), you're going to have to advertise to get the warm bodies you need to run the colony. And, that means everyone back in Calixis (i.e. civilisation) is going to know that your private base exists. So, the Administratium is going to want you to turn the colony over to them once it gets big enough, and they'll be wanting to collect the Imperial Tithe too. The Ecclesiarchy will, of course, be interested in the spiritual well-being of the humans there and that means you're going to have missionaries and other zealots infesting your colony... some of whom may object to some of a Rogue Trader's more, um, questionable activities. In other words: "Uh, sir? That redemptionist street preacher just tried to kill the Eldar envoy."

Furthermore, there is the matter of other Rogue Traders. Look at the situation on Lucin's Breath for just one example. The Winterscale dynasty has held the hugely valuable world of Lucin's Breath for centuries. However, Aspyce Chorda disputed their claim to the world by simply invading it. They've been fighting a full scale war for it since... and no one really expects the current cease fire to last. If one of the most powerful rogue traders in the Expanse can have a world outright invaded by a rival, then it can certainly happen to you. And, out of all those colonists you just landed on "your" planet, can you guarantee that none of them are spies in the pay of a rival?

And finally, there is the Inquisition... If you're trading in xenos artefacts or dealing with xenos, the Ordo Xenos may make its displeasure felt. On the other appendage, if you don't keep psykers, mutants, and deviant cultists in check, then you are asking for a game of "hide the excruciator" with your friendly neighborhood Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor. If the cultists really get out of hand, well, let's just say you don't want to provoke a visit from the Ordo Malleus. Remember, the Inquisition has called exterminatus on one world in the expanse already...

Cheers,

- V.

Once again, thanks all for your replies and ideas. Some of them i'll put to good use, others will go to the back of my mind only to come out another time.

@Vandegraffe

You state a valid point, honesty demands me to say that I've not really thought about the consequenses that the 2nd and 3rd steps (colonizing the planet & finally start making some hard earned profit factor) can have on the characters. Thanks for that insight, I'll make sure that if my players' actions regarding these matters are blunt and loud that there will be heap of trouble raining down on them. I''ll also discuss this matter with my players and see if we can come up with a solution that is satisfactory to both parties (my players on one side and me as GM on the other)

Tomorrow night we will have the first session (and therefore the first step) in this whole megalomaniacal plan. Some of you might like to know what the planet turned out to be / have etc etc. however very basic, i've only thought about the "landing zone" and the first city that i want to chase them in.

• System: Small, one bluecolored sun, 3 planets, one "fit for habitation" and two dead rocks
• Planet: Huge, a little to close to the strange sun. a few patches of desert (of which one can be seen fromout space), little water (altough more than my original idea) lots of mountains and rocks and what not, not to much green.its there but just not that much.
• Satallites: 3 moons the size of our moon

My objective for the session: Get my players in the middle of a "tribewar" between 2 warring Ork tribes, get them "involved" in the exploration of the destroyed city, give them some small hints about the age of their respective surroundings and end the session when they are ready to depart inside a "huge metal cave which probably is the correct way towards the signal sir"

I'll start with the Astropathic choir, they'll pick up a distress call from the warp. Being the fickle thing that the warp is emperor only knows how old it might be. Ofcourse they go onward "to the rescue" and come eye to eye with the planet. it helps that the Rogue Trader has had a vision in downtime "and that might just be this planet" their scans will not tell them much, only that the signal is located "roughly around these and these coordinates sir"

The start their decent, will spot the city, walk around a bit, gving me time to explain the awesomeness that this city once held. then suddenly a violent gangwar erupts, <<enter fight scene with some BoyZ>> patch up, get deeper into the city discuss amongst eachother the possibilites etc.etc. and then try to get back towards the shuttle.

After preparations go back to the ruins of the ancient city but this time with guns loaded and looking for that fight the Orks still want, <<Enter arial fight scene>>. when they land / crash <<End fight scene>> dust theirselves of, decide to follow that lead that is the distresscall / beacon thing and enter the huge metal cave...

at least: the above is what I'll want my player to do, so i'm curious of what they will do ;-)

on the whole Grand - cruiser turned Hive idea. yeah, i thought about it some more and yes, i agree, its not do-able in their life time (or at least playtime) to "salvage" the Starship. While i like the whole "planetbound" idea still. I'll have a spacehulk "ready for session" when I think its time for them to receive another ship.

As stated before: Thanks all for your ideas / suggestions! nice to see that we're in this together!

from france

too much greeskins for my taste. i prefer dark eldar;

- keep the idea of differents environement.

- keep the hive

- the society was once pacifics a whole then came teh asteroids well it did not destroy the world the problem is that it contain one lictor and a handfull of genestealer. curiously the planet environements unable them to send a signal to any hiveor to evolve more ( like ymgarl genestealer). a large part of one of the continent quickly became infested before the humans learn to used again the weapons (all dating back to the dark age of technology so archeotech) they swear to never use again.

- the second tragedy came when the continent s population manage a naval blocus of the infested continent. the dark eldar came. they found this world to their licking they capture genestealer and lichtor for their arena and humans as slave and victims. the surviving humans are facing a war on two fronts against the dark eldar and the genestealer.

- they desperatly need help cause they have no ship against eldar and their last missiles ar almost all gone. any rogues trader with ship will be welcome.

well that just my ideas but i like creepy setting.

@Intereference into an Ork war.

If the Orks are not hiding underground, under dense canopy/jungle and/or are not having "atvanzed orky tekk", be prepared for your RT to simply

a) Lance them from orbit once they are spotted
or
b) Bomb them with fliers once they are spotted.

If one has air superiority AND theire is nothing valualbe that makes bombing inappropriate (city ruins, innocent peo...wait...OILFIELDS!), expect a sever bombing and next to no ground warfair.

Unless, they have cover against attacks from above

use you hives, then!

A few thoughts on the ship, maybe if they investigate it they might find a few cogitator banks that can be repaired with minimal effort. These could contain info such as a nearby star system which has a habital planet which they charted noting it wasn't of great value however this jungle world could easily be turned into a secondary colony to provide food stuffs to their new HQ either as a minor endeavour or another source of achievement points.

Alternately maybe it has some augury scans in it that could point out one or two things about the planet they might have missed *cough* plot hooks *cough*.

Maybe before the shipped crashed it was on its way to another neighbouring system in search of an ancient temple/library/exploitable resource... basically something for a future adventure, something for them to do in the early stages completely different to their new HQ but keeps them close enough if the world encounters trouble.