IDK if this the right area for this so if its not sorry in advaced.

Me and my gamemaster were asked to create The Blood Ravens Chapter For one of are players and are having a hard time of making it, im posting heatr to enlist the help of my fellow battle brothers in creating. Thanks in advance.

May the Emperor's hand guide your thoughts brothers.

How convenient. I had just finished a writeup for the Blood Ravens a few days back. Have a look!

docs.google.com/viewer

Credit where it's due, I took a lot of the inspiration from this thread www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp

(Sorry, don't know how to embed links in text with this board)

Thank you sir this will be a great help. I think my GM will want a look at this. As i know he wants to add more of the involvement of the Grey Knights with the Blood Ravens. But dude this is sweet thanks.

Thanks for the Blood Ravens house rules

Not a problem at all guys. Any playtesting feedback would be greatly appreciated

Well done sir, I have a similar custom chapter for the Silver Skulls that I'm working on.

DaedalRogue said:

I'd love to see it when its done. Let me know if I can assist in any way

First draft of the Silver Skulls chapter write up. I still need to come up with Advancement Tables. Most of the other rules are covered in there and since they're an offshoot of the Ultramarines, plus those skills made sense, they use the Squad Mode and Solo Mode abilities from the Ultramarines.

Pretty good Blood Ravens and Silver Skulls so far! Can't wait to see the finished product.

Your Blood Ravens chapter is amazing its just plain awesome

I have a Blood Raven player in my group; we used Dark Angel rules mostly with the Solo Mode from RoB that gives Psyniscience. We've been wanting to expand on the chapter and create unique rules. I'll definitely have to look at this and see what my player thinks. Thanks for posting!

Also I know another GM wrote some Blood Raven powers for me for a PbP. I'll try to find them.

Anyone is welcome to use my Silver Skulls or Scout Marine Specialty.

Mkall said:

Very nice writeup. So far, everything looks peachy, except for a minor typo, and one thing I felt was a bit too over the top.

The typo: in "the great father", you say that Azariah Vidya commanded the blood ravens in a "viscous" attack. I assume you mean "vicious". Viscous is sticky, mucus-like.

The over the top: the chapter trapping Treatise of the Librarians. +1 to PR on push is very, very powerful. A newly created librarian with this would be doing 7D10, Pen 7 with a pushed smite, right off the bat. Couple this with the +5 WP for the chapter, and the Blood Ravens become a total no-brainer for psykers. I'd change this trapping to something less overwhelming (perhaps +5 to Invocation tests).

Still, consider the rules nicked, I plan to use them whenever a player asks to play a Blood Raven.

Just took note of a minor bit of redundancy: Resistance (Psychic Powers) appears on your advance table for Blood Ravens. All Space Marine characters start with this resistance.

This is very well made in my opinion. The trapping for psykers seems a bit strong though.

Also, where did you get all the fluff for this? They seemed to be rather "unspecific" about them in the games.

Thanks for the feedback guys, I'll make the change to their psychic trappings when I get home to where I have the document

Sgt_Joseph said:

Oddly enough, Games Workshop put up an Index Astartes article on them. It was quite a decent read. I also read the books which gave me a little more insight into how they worked.

Hello

I am the new player in Deatwatch and i would like to know if you have imposed any new amandments in Blood Raven Chapter. I read it what you have now in your site and i must say I am Impressed, Mkall

Ooh, the primarch's curse really plays up the Magnus the Red bit eh?

The psychic powers somewhat match the chapter idea, but don't match the video game's skills. Though I certainly don't advocate a 30 second long invulnerablility power(gahhh), do you consider the core powers adequately cover those abilities?

Only thing I see that isn't great is the past histories are a tad bland, but besides that you do good work.

BurnMaster said:

Thanks for the compliment! However I've declared the Blood Ravens to be completed as far as I wish to take them.

SirRunOn said:

When I did the Blood Ravens, I had recently finished reading their Black Library Novels and the Index Astartes published on Games Workshop's website. I didn't use the game's abilities because I look more to capture the lore of the Chapter. And IMO what they can do in the Dawn of War game(s) is there more for game balance/player interactivity rather than to showcase what makes the Chapter unique.

I would like to offer some alternative Solo and Squad Mode abilities. Do note that those are not playtested at all (yet).

Chapter Abilities:

Solo Mode Ability: Know Thy Foe
Chapter: Blood Ravens
Type: Passive
Effects: The Blood Ravens do not just hoard knowledge for its own sake, but also to use it against the enemy. With this ability a Battle-Brother of the Blood Ravens can use his understanding of the enemy to his advantage. At the start of any combat, when rolling for initiative, the Battle-Brother may attempt a Lore Test pertaining to the enemies he is fighting (e.g. Forbidden Lore (Xenos) when fighting Tyranids), gaining a number of re-rolls equal to the Degrees of Success he scores. These re-rolls can be used for rolls to attack, evade or resist special abilities by the enemy in question. If multiple different types of enemies are present which are not covered by a single Lore skill, the Battle-Brother must select for which enemy he is rolling. He may only re-roll tests related to the chosen type of enemy and the GM is the final arbiter of whether a Lore skill applies to the enemy.
Improvements: At Rank 4 and above the first Degree of Success grants a number of re-rolls equal to the Battle-Brothers Intelligence Bonus. At Rank 6 and above, the Battle-Brother may exchange three of those re-rolls to automatically pass a Skill Test during the combat, passing by a number of Degrees of Success equal to his Intelligence Bonus.

(As you may notice, this is basically the Ultramarines Solo Mode ability "Student of the Codex", but with Lore instead of Tactics)

Squad Mode Attack Pattern: Unfailing Prediction
Chapter: Blood Ravens
Action: Half
Cost: 2
Sustained: No
Effects: The Blood Ravens prepare for battle methodically and thoroughly, often using either their Librarian's abilities of divination or their own understanding of the foe to prepare for any eventually and come up with a plan to swiftly and decisively crush the enemy forces before they can properly react. When this ability is activated the Battle-Brother and all in Support Range gain +2 to Initiative and +10 to WS and BS. This ability lasts for one turn and must be used in the first turn of combat and may not be used if the Kill-Team was surprised.
Improvements: At Rank 3, the Initiative Bonus equals the Battle-Brothers Intelligence Bonus. At Rank 5, the WS and BS Bonus increases to +20.

Squad Mode Defensive Stance: Knowledge is Power
(Rites of Battle, p 33)

Some other things I did for the Blood Ravens are:

• Giving them +5 Int and +5 Per instead of +5 Int and +5 WP.
• New Oath:
  Oath of Knowledge* (Deathwatch, p. 229)
  *: Blood Ravens may take the Oath of Knowledge regardless of Specialty.
  

Wow man, this is awesome. I was thinking I was going to have to hold out for Honour the Chapter and cross my finger that they were included. I'll be adding this to my repertoire immediately. Unfortunately, I'm the only player in my group who has played Dawn of War so I'm the only Blood Ravens fanboy amongst them lol.

One of my players was talking about running a game though so I could try DW from the player's perspective. I might run this by him if I don't go with the Storm Warden I was thinking of.