Anyone got a step by step how to create missions, and how you like to run them, and what resources you favor the most?



Upfront thanks

Not an easy question to answer. The Gamemaster's kit would help you on this one if you don't already have it. Best advice is to start with a concept; either a goal you want the team to accomplish or an enemy you really want them to fight. From there, establish the other half of the equation (foe/objective). After that, flesh it out with primary, secondary, and tertiary objectives as well as skill challenges and role-playing opportunities. Finally, set a requisition rating and run it! Obviously, core rulebook is a must. Mark of the Xenos offers a lot of options for enemies the team may not be expecting, as well as iconic foes such as lesser and greater daemons and the XV-88 Broadside battlesuit. Plus, Orks.

I always found it hard to start a session from scratch, but now i have the knack of it.

What i do is take a mission (Recon, Assassination etc) draw up a map with mountains or Hives or lakes, think up of what the Deathwatch command wants the kill-team to do and come up with 1 to 3 primary objectives, 1 to 4 secondary objective and then 4 to 8 tertiary.

For example, the mission is search and destroy, and it will happen in a manifactorium complex (a huge industrial sector). the primary objectives may be 1- Plant a melta bomb in the main reactor 2- Get out before the bomb goes off I find this basic but effective as primary objectives, as the Game Master can Choose to make the enemies in the Manifactorium aware of the kill-team, or oblivious to the fact that they are attempting to sabotage the reactor.

Secondary objectives are harder to think of, but continuing with my example, could be 1- Do not be seen 2- Don't kill anyone These objectives have an impact on the way that the players will try to complete the mission, and if you give a high exp gain of maybe 50xp for secondary objectives, the Kill-team will attempt to try to do them.

For Tertiary objective, i generally use things that will have little or no effect on the game, such as 1- Finish mission within 3 hours 2- Knock out the Head servitor and steal it's Pass key 3- obtain the blueprints of the complex 4- don't use any EMP granades If this is in addition to giving the Kill-team a set of EMP granades so that they have the option of using them, the objectives are somtimes tempting, altough no more than 10xp should be given for eact tertiaryobjective.

I hope that this is helpful for you and will have given you a base for your role-playing in Deathwatch

Every GM has his own style, and I normally have a very basic idea of how things will pan out at the beginning of the adventure. play around with ideas and start thinking of the adventure more like a movie with different scenes. once i have a few interesting scenes thought out, I then look to the different military objectives that the players will receive in their briefing, and note them down corresponding to the adventure outline. Remember that you can modify these objectives later in the adventure as new information and situations arise.

Remember that each scene should play upon the standard elements of the game, with either social interaction between the Marines and Important Npc's (Inquisitors, Imperial Navy etc) or Skill Challenges, making them use the different abilities that they possess, or make them see which ones they should try to purchase in the future with their xp. Finally you also need those epic combat experiences, and the use of Turning Points during the combat, to introduce new enemies or show the players an objective or action that could turn the events to their favor.

Maps help alot, allowing your players to plan out strategies, which is perfect for getting those players to assume their roles. Maps also slow things down allowing you a little time, as the players explore certain areas, looking for survivors or evidence of what has occurred.

Dont forget when using a Xenos creature to note down all those Traits and Talents, he has, but in terms that you understand, example now many attacks the creature can make in a round, how many parries or dodges, combat bonuses etc.

The creative experience of writing an adventure for your players, can by very satisfying - listen to your players likes and dislikes, what they would like to experience during the adventure, thus you can tailor the action to what they love most. And dont forget to make little sub-plots that grant each player his moment in the limelight, either by having him remember a previous mission, via flashbacks or discovering some new detail of the current mission, maybe he is very devout and is granted insight from his prayers. these little moments give the player character more depth.

Main thing is have fun, find your own style and pace for setting up games - and remember that these very forums can be a life saver, granting ideas, or helping with a rules question, there are always players who will be eager to extend a hand.

this was a great way to set up objectives! even a somewhat weathered GM likes myself just learned a little!

just onequestion do you tell the players what each objective is worth (XP wise) or is that a secret?

Rexasure said:

sorry about the misspost...

anyhow on to the question are the XP rewards a secret or do you tell your players?

I do a big tally at the end of the mission, like the score screen at the end of a level in an oldschool videogame, telling them what they got XP for, etc., but would obviously not tell them during the game, so as not to affect their decision-making. People like racking up large numbers of things, so it's sort of a psychological reward for the players, and is much more fun than just handing them one number at the end.

After all, wouldn't they have a debriefing of some sort? Might as well tell them what's up.

okay, actually last mission we played it did tell them the objectives, not the XP reward though. and it actually made them think allot more while playing instead of just going in guns blazing. which i thought was a nice change of pace^^ and that way i could make them think more while playing and fleshing out their playing allot and also i got to give them the BIG number at the end so for my group this was great do to atleast once but still experimenting with how i should do. Since the game we've played before hasn't had a real XP system

The way I have my missions set-up is I begin with Role-Playing the Watch Captain briefing the kill team on what objectives and reasons this mission is happening in the first place. This also gives the battle-brothers plenty of time to ask questions and role-play. Usually I give the primary objectives here as well as a little story for the mission. I tend to present Secondary Objectives as the players begin to dig into the mission by presenting them with obstacles or extra pieces of the story, giving them the option to dig into these tid-bits or not. Of course I throw in action where needed as well as plenty of moments to role-play.

The Tertiary Objectives I keep secret even when they are accomplished... only revealing them after the mission is complete. These I have set-up as situations that can help the team more readily for the Primary Objectives... simple things like "Defending the damaged Imperial Chimera from the Orks who are now surrounding it." If they manage to save the Chimera, the troops inside may provide them with information, or even offer to help the Kill-Team in their objective... perhaps offer a Lascannon for a particularly nasty enemy I may have waiting later on. This way my PCs feel that their choices have consequences and rewards.

As for pacing advise (which in my opinion is a very important skill to have as a GM), that is something you must learn yourself. You need to get a feel for how you like to run the game as well as seeing what your players like to do or how they like to play. By observing your enjoyment and theirs you can learn a lot about how you should pace the game.

Most important of all... have fun!

I do not give the xp or renown values they get before the mission, only in the debreiefing after the mission is over.

Also I usually send the players the mission briefing via email before the game. This gives them time to read through with the setting (planet etc) but also with the objectives and think on how they want to go about to accomplish the goals. I usually do not tell them how to do the things they need to do, only what should be the outcome.

Example: On their current mission they are ordered to assist the crusade in conquering a planet. They must capture and hold a communications array. But alos to assist the vanguard assault as best they can. How they should conquer the array I left up to them. and they were quite resourceful as they used jump packs to enter the compound and as such leave most of the defences in tact for them to use later.

Octus said:

I do this as well. I'll send a Roleplay briefing from either a Deathwatch Captain, Inquisitor or Senior Sergeant assigning the team to a task. This will have outlined some Primary and Secondary objects (like 2 to 4 of each) then on the side I'll have additional secret objectives that if they stumble across them in gameplay they add more xp or renown depending on how they handle the situation. Of course with the secret objectives you need to steer them into an area where they can interact with them if they choose, sometimes they get the hints, sometimes they don't. But it's never a wasted effort to allow them that opportunity.

I also tend to write a campaign story, then break up the sessions into missions where each one leads them toward the conclusion of the larger story, I feed small bits of information and wait for them to figure out the details.

The best tip I can really give, is to be flexible they may not do what you're expecting them to, so you need to adapt to the situation. It's also okay to call for a short break so you can restructure what's going on for you and think a little bit if you need it.

Im quite an old scholl GM and prefer to have an ovearching story that links everything together. A metaplot if you like. This isnt that easy to achive and I havent always been that succesful but when it works its really satisfying. Sadly these days I dont have time to create stories from scratch so I have found the stories publised by Fantasy Flight really useful. My group has just played through Extraction(from DW core book), Shattered Hope and Oblivions edge(the 2 intro missions on the website). I heavily adapted them both in the preparation and in the exection as you will always do cos players are unpredictable gits. But as a GM these resources are invaluable. I also advis the Emperor Protects(im not a FF salseman I promise!!!). There is is loads of room for a canny GM to drop bits and pieces in that add to the events(I stuck a trygon from mark of xenos in and have played around with introducing stuff for the emperor protects early). Always listen to what your players want and be ready to adapt. If your gonna use any pre gened stuff be sure you know it inside out so you dont have any awkward knoledge gaps and so the story flows properly.

I tend to award XP based on the evening events as opposed to mission objectives cos I dont have my players on mission every session. Last session I made them wander around Watch Fortress Erioch meeting loads of important NPC's. It was a great session as it really fleshed out the world that the PC's are inhabiting. I was also able to answer questions from the previous two missions and reveal a bigger mystery that the group will now investigate.

Like any game the most important thing is to have fun. How yopu do this is up to you. If your group likes doing missions then do that, if you want to try something more storybased try it out. They may not like it but thats way it goes.