I was wondering how good does this stand on your radar as a potential adventure for the introduction to BC? I've read it and it seems ok. With some modifications it has potential, I think. Players know the universe quite good and system isn't new to them.
Experiences, thoughts? Good/bad? Has potential or better to make a homebrew adventure?

It's good starter to get the players introduced to each other if you want to start them out as strangers.

Cardinal Nicodemus said:

I found it to be a great starting point from a player perspective. Just enough events built in that you don't do the whole "hack & slash" threw a module route.

Sets up the players pretty well. Explains how they meet, and provides them with a ship (albiet in sh*tty condition) to boot.

Nice, thanks for replies. Confirms my thought about some things, specifically that it can be great for 'how did you all meet' and it can give a great follow up adventure on whatever planet or place they end up in the end. Also, they can retain some allies from the adventure also who can become maybe part of the ship? Anyhow, this should provide some good fun and great follow up if need be.

I just finished playing through the Broken Chains adventure the other day as an Apostate. Our GM is new to GMing and my other friends were new to BC, and it was pretty awesome. I managed to gain the trust of the carrion feeders and our GM created a few extra NPCs and such which by the end of the adventure gave us a nice little collection of 'cannon fodder' (The carrrion feeders and reprogrammed murder-servitors). We just put into port in one of the docks above Q'Sul (sp?) and had the ship repaired, and I managed to purchase a huge number of slaves and gladiators to fill the ship with and also had artisans come aboard and craft several mass shrines to the dark gods aboard the ship. Right now we're waiting for our GM to work out more of the continuing adventure, but we took that 'rusted piece of crap' and have turned it into a space-born shrine to the Kings of the Warp!

A few minor issues of course, namely being it doesn't really state what class of ship it is, so we settled on Iconoclast from the Rogue Trader series.

We finished it recently. I chopped a couple of parts out and modified it a little, but not much. It clocked in at about 10-hours total, which I thought was plenty for an introductory adventure.

It is bit heavy on combat encounters meaning my single human player was left with little to do at times, otherwise no real complaints about it except that the layout of material didn't make it easy to reference during play. Not the end of the world since it is a fairly linear adventure, but a flaw nonetheless.

Aside from those issues, I think it is a reasonably good introduction to the game rules and setting. It allows heretics from different times and backgrounds to tart together and share a set of common goals, hopefully that means they'll be a cohesive band by the time the adventure is over.

I think if I had to run it again I would do some things differently. Mostly dealing with the Inquisitor Henchmen's equipment and the Interrogator. I had two marines in the party, and even with the hotshot lasguns, they didn't feel particularly threatened. I might up the amount of enemies depending on your group. I might certainly take out the Conversion field on the Interrogator (the party gave it to the World Eaters Raptor....hurray). The fights are certainly challenging from a human perspective, but again, you might want to alter equipment for the marines.

I found it was a good adventure to introduce one another, though. But forget the idea of building trust for the team. The setting doesn't lend itself to that sort of party dynamic. The Chains is a good ship once they can get it repaired and crewed (the focus of their first Compact). Enjoy it!

Hey, thanks for replies all. I was wondering how to balance the combat, because if it's on par for marines, it probably means that 'mortals' have to make way in the cover or that they should have some good weapons like meltas or plasma guns. Still, Black Crusade is couple of weeks off, currently I am engaged in a DW campaign as a GM, so there is plenty of time to see what kind of a group will my players form. Its definitely easier if they are all marines or mortals, mix is a bit tougher, but I guess only running the adventure itself and seeing where did it go wrong, if it goes, can I properly adjust it.

One more question: How do people usually run purchase of new items? Personally, I don't like the RT/BC way of getting stuff as it's sometimes pure luck based, so I am thinking of combination between acquisition and/or thrones, infamy etc.

UlricKessler said:

Actually, it does. You got it correct on your guess though, which is pretty **** good. "The Chains of Judgement is based on the hull of an old Iconoclast destroyer, heavily modified and altered down the years."

Cardinal Nicodemus said:

Sorry for the double post, forgot to answer this. There's some changes you could make to the default system without too much headache if you want to cut out the randomness. Say, make it that you can Requisition X items (2-5, somewhere thereabouts I'd say) per session without any rolls if they're at a modifier of Y (+10 or 0 would be best, I think. Maybe even -10). That way Infamy still plays a significant part, as do all the modifiers, but there's no luck involved.

Cardinal Nicodemus said:

the way that my group approached this was simple: they now have a ship (the Chains) with somewhere around 5-7000 souls onboard and theres pleeeeeeenty of devious persons that would trade, oh say, ship repair services at THE HOLLOWS for fresh bodies to turn into war servitors. I agree that not having any listed monetary value can be difficult but I find that my players are now pushed more into the in game haggling for trade, or, for those devilsh psykers out there, there is DELUDE and COMPEL.....those seem to work great at lowering any shop keepers ire when someone in your group is trying to get something shiny.

Ive discovered that getting my players to interact that way with that one guy on the corner that-amazingly- has an affinity to be able to aquire **** near anything for them.....long as they got good stuff to trade. you would be supprised what little menial things can mean to a hiver: toilet paper, clean clothing items, etc. the trick is for my guys they scored a "rusty beat up looking plasma pistol" but then after working their way to a reputable tech smith one of my players has a functioning plasma pistol, and some other stuff got repaired and little upgrades rewarded for the wheeling and dealing they did with the prior npc.

They now have 2 npcs that they can return to and are more likely to have favorable results with, vs continually meeting new ppl and having to worry if they are going to get ripped off. commerce is a wonderful thing >.<

oh yea almost forgot: they do make mention that certain circles inside the screaming vortex do actually make use of (probably) defaced Thrones as currency.

It all depends on what youre trying to get, whos selling it, and what they see is an acceptable currency. Thrones, ore, promethium by the barrel, human trade, weapons, etc.

have a great new year.

Thank you Adept Orcadius and Tom Cruise for help and input. I will discuss with my players on what to do rather than just modify it and risking an argument
I can see this adventure becoming a RT/BC hybrid if they keep the ship and get some loyalties from those aboard the vessel. Let's hope for some corrupting fun in the upcoming weeks.

Happy New Year to all you heretics out there!

As has been mentioned, a lot of Chaos Space Marines WILL make a total mockery of the combat encounters in Broken Chains. Fully equipped, they are incredibly powerful and even if they are not totally kitted out or have to find their gear bit-by-bit, they are still vastly superior to most foes in the adventure.

Now, I've got to admit, I don't really think this is a bad thing. It is an introductory adventure, not the climactic battle... I was happy to let the players lord it over their foes and get a feel for how adeptus astartes compare to " mere humans " after playing Dark Heresy. The murder servitors are the only real threat, mostly through numbers and their ability to double damage occasionally, which certainly gives them a chance to score some serious wounds against power armour-wearers.

As I say, this level of power isn't a problem in my eyes, but it is something to be aware of.