How to bring the role play....

By Fire-Born707, in Deathwatch Gamemasters

I try many things to make my players believe they are space marines,(music, different voices for npc, settings etc.) But i have a player who believes fist bumping their watch captain or inquistor he also says "Yo" or "what up my homie"

Its sad cause he really likes this game... or he likes making my life hell.

But the reason for this post is how do you bring a reliable character into his space marines shoes? (he is a raven guard devastator...yes i know its kinda stupid but his favorite chapter is raven guard)

or should i take his entrails and fashion them all over my armor and use his skull as my cup for wine and a mixture of his blood.

you know....

Have the watch commander or inquisitor chastise him for lack of proper respect?

In all honesty, just take him aside, tell him you love how he's getting ito th game, but he's making it not fun for you by turning it into a giant joke.

Ive done that and more

i do series of things that imply how lose in renown/req. Heck i had one time where the team saved a space wolf all fine and dandy he speaks says of his gratitude to the deathwatch and my idiot player tried to fist bump yet again! So I explain how the space wolf is threatened by his action and attacks him and it got worst from there.

What the sad thing is i know he loves space marines he reads many books from black library he understands there ideals and ways but he rather play himself then play a marine i just wanted to know if anyone kinda had same problem and figured a good way to resolve this.

if not

armor could always use a coat of red

If you've talked to him outside the game and determined his lack of willingness to play to what you want is not due to not understanding the fluff, just make sure that you and the other players are 'getting into it.' Some people just have a hard time acting out a character- they feel silly.

Once that's out of the way, I'd simply have the rest of the people in the world start to respond the way you think that they would, like you did with the Space Wolf. Stop threatening with reductions or responses, act on them. I wouldn't go to crazy over fist bumping, but do what you need to keep your world a living breathing thing; if the watch captain has rules established, things like loss of renown, ostracism, reduction in authorized load out/req for missions, penalties to cohesion, etc., are all things that could be consequences of acting in ways the captain takes issue with.

No, he understands the fluff, the player's just a ****** idiot and acts like an ass. true story. Hes been the cause of more failed missions than I can count.

If it bugs the other players and ruins their simulation, kick him out.

Fire-Born707 said:

But the reason for this post is how do you bring a reliable character into his space marines shoes? (he is a raven guard devastator...yes i know its kinda stupid but his favorite chapter is raven guard)

DW Devastators aren't just heavy weapon guys. They are shooting experts, including snipers.

Alex

To an extent there will always be people making inappropriate jokes or acting 'out of character'. So a certain amount of just not letting it bother you will be needed.

How about embracing it? Make the Fist Bump the Marine salute. Have important Marines say 'What Is Up My Homies! Your Mission Is To Bust A Cap In The Ass Of Those ***** Ass Mother Fuckers. Do You Know What I am Saying!' in your best Space Marine voice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfpNkeyPXFs

Marines are not, after all, speaking English anyway, so simply view it as translating what they are really saying in to modern vernacular.

And a Fist Bump backed by the strength of Marine powered armour and the Astartes genetically enhanced physiques could be an awesome sight to behold...

Raven Guard... what? Devastator?? That's light years from their usual assignment attitude. Ok, they CAN become whatever they like (with hard work and survivability) - BUT - they usually have the most stealthy appearance in both stance and equipment. In my player group I have one Raven Guard 1st rank Librarian, one Warik Azuri. One thing that illustrates he being a Raven Guard in the psyker way, is he almost never use his powers as a Librarian. He reasons that using the very power that stems from the arch-enemy is taking unnecessary risks in all kinds of situations. So, he's more of a learned Tac marine than anything else.

Ask your player if he really values the FLUFF of WH40K. The answer should be "yes". Then ask him, "ok, if you do, then think of how they behave in the books". If a space marine talks to another one of his battle brothers, the choosing of words is very seldom out of order. AND: the Raven Guard primarch Corax himself is described thus: "he was a taciturn warrior who kept his counsel until he had something of worth to impart." That's the primarch of the Raven Guard! This quote is from 23rd chapter of the Horus Heresy novel "Fulgrim - Visions of Treachery".

I repeat: the DW Devastators is not like the home chapter Devastator. He is the shooty guy, not necessarily the heavy weapons guy. Also RG aren't above using heavy weapons, are they? It's just that they use them ambush style. Nasty stuff to have a MM Ravenguard appear right behind you. Note that heavy weapons give no penalty to stealth.

Alex

I don't see what's wrong with a Raven Guard Devastator - the Raven Guard are, afterall, a Codex Chapter, and thus they do have Devastators (so do the White Scars - trust me on this, I checked just to make sure during development of First Founding). Just because it doesn't fit the stereotype doesn't make it an invalid concept.

Just don't expect them to openly take position somewhere. Instead ambushs and hit&run tactics are the name of the game. I probably would rather face an Ravenguard Assault Marine than a RG Devastator.

Alex

My players weren't the greatest roleplayers either. They had flashes of brilliance amidst a lot of...hesitant silence. I asked numerous times for just a little background on each of them to no avail.

So, after the game fell apart and I decided to reboot from scratch, I had everyone roll random characters followed by going through and auctioning off a lot of the marks of distinction and past events from rights of battle. Then they were able to connect the dots and forced them to get in the head space instead of just the numbers on the page. I firmly believe getting players outside their comfort zone gets the best out of them.

Or yeah...just roll with it and let the Ghettoblaster marines reign supreme. WORD TO THE EMPRAH!!!

The problem with not playing with the Raven Guard Dev, is that he is only 1 of the 2 players, the other being myself, an Iron Hands Techmarine this time around.

I am confused, if he reads a lot of the books and knows the lore than that means he does understand that is not the "normal" behavior of a Space Marine. As far as my advice it is the same as most of the posters here. Either adapt and make it to where when he does these things he will actually be doing the normal Space Marine greetings and the such. Only other option, as stated, is to talk with him again and explain that if he does not then ask him to leave the game until he gets in order.

Chapter, Class has nothing to do with it. He could be a Dreadnought running around trying to fist bump the watch captain it sounds like. If he is disruptive to the game and taking away enjoyment of the game from the rest of the players then boot him. There is no reason to pull your hair out and get mad doing something that you enjoy.

Kjax8 said:

My players weren't the greatest roleplayers either. They had flashes of brilliance amidst a lot of...hesitant silence. I asked numerous times for just a little background on each of them to no avail.

So, after the game fell apart and I decided to reboot from scratch, I had everyone roll random characters followed by going through and auctioning off a lot of the marks of distinction and past events from rights of battle. Then they were able to connect the dots and forced them to get in the head space instead of just the numbers on the page. I firmly believe getting players outside their comfort zone gets the best out of them.

Or yeah...just roll with it and let the Ghettoblaster marines reign supreme. WORD TO THE EMPRAH!!!

Some real quality advice here! Hear hear! Is it ok if I use that same strategy with my players?

And Ghettoblaster! Stevie Wonder in the service of the Emprah! Or am I reading it wrong? :)

There's only 3 people. the Dev, me the techmarine, and our GM, a Salamanda libby. Don't get the allusion that he's some hood rat either, he's just a dipshit white kid that can't have a moment of seriousness. Can't play Deathwatch with 1 person though so... /shrug.

dracopticon said:

Some real quality advice here! Hear hear! Is it ok if I use that same strategy with my players?


And Ghettoblaster! Stevie Wonder in the service of the Emprah! Or am I reading it wrong? :)

Stevie Wonder is not Ghettoblaster music.

Unless you're Alpha Legion.

Captain Ventris said:

dracopticon said:

Some real quality advice here! Hear hear! Is it ok if I use that same strategy with my players?


And Ghettoblaster! Stevie Wonder in the service of the Emprah! Or am I reading it wrong? :)

Stevie Wonder is not Ghettoblaster music.

Unless you're Alpha Legion.

HAHAHA! Does that mean it's not only Salamanders that's dark skinned??

In the end we showed him this post...

and the game wasn't to bad he interacted with the Npc fairly well!

But he still wants to fist bump..

That **** aint gonna fly with my crew! We salute and ****! and say "SIR!" or "My lord!" which ever is needed.

you know..

Fire-Born707 said:

and the game wasn't to bad he interacted with the Npc fairly well!

Progress!

I'd have said Marines were more likely to fist bump than salute. Saluting is to modern military for the warrior ethos of the Marines.

dracopticon said:

HAHAHA! Does that mean it's not only Salamanders that's dark skinned??

It's just that it would be very confusing to hear "Isn't She Lovely" blaring out of a boombox. The Guardsmen just wouldn't know what to do until it was too late!

Captain Ventris said:

dracopticon said:

HAHAHA! Does that mean it's not only Salamanders that's dark skinned??

It's just that it would be very confusing to hear "Isn't She Lovely" blaring out of a boombox. The Guardsmen just wouldn't know what to do until it was too late!


I am quite sure that's the usual song used as a diversionary tactic of the Emperor's Children when fighting imperial forces!

(And just to clarify to everyone: that first comment about "dark skinned" marines, it sounded racist! But I have no such views, so if anyone got offended, I apologize most sincerely!).