Ok, here's the deal: I'm starting my first Deathwatch campaign next weekend and can't figure out how Kill-teams are "assigned" to a particular Watch Captain. In other words is it that:

A) a Kill-team is assigned permanently to a given Watch Captain and will be under his command until the Kill-team disbands due to its members ending their service in Deathwatch or all of its members get killed. (example: Kill-team "Jericho Septimus" is assigned under the command of Watch Captain Brother Vigilant and he will remain under his purview no matter where (i.e. in what particular Salient) "Jericho Septimus" is operating.).

or

B) a Kill-team is assigned temporarily to a given Watch Captain based upon where the Kill-team's next mission is going to take place (example: Kill-team "Jericho Septimus" is assigned under the command of Watch Captain Brother Vigilant (who operates mainly from Watch Station Andronicus) when the Kill-team is operating in the Canis Salient. Upon completing the mission, "Jericho Septimus" receives instructions from Watch Fortress Erioch that its next mission will take place somewhere in the Acheros Salient, so, upon arriving there, Watch Captain Kain Vibius (who operates throughout the Salient from numerous Watch Stations) becomes the Watch Captain to which the Kill-team responds when operating in the Acheros Salient.).

I know this may sound trivial, but, I simply can't make heads or tails out of it using the fluff featured in the books. The description of Deathwatch Watch Captain Advanced Speciality provided in "Rites of Battle" states that he "is usually placed in charge of several Kill-teams and given guidance on broad objectives by the Watch Commander. (p. 127)" So far so good: variant A seems to be the correct one. However , five sentences later we learn that he "must learn how to best employ a changing roster of Battle-Brothers from different Chapters to assemble the most effective Kill-teams for the missions required." This would suggest that some sort of fluidity is allowed in terms of which Kill-teams are assigned to a given mission, which favors variant B.

I'm really trying to figure this one out, because, if there's one thing I absolutely hate when GMing any RPG it is to learn that my assumption regarding a given aspect of a setting is completely wrong and therefore everything I or my players did under this assumption neeeds to be explained in a way which would make the most complicated solution to a "Star Trek" inconsistency seem trivial in comparison or outright retconned.

So, fellow GMs, help me out with this one!

I was curious about this as well, but the conclusion that I came to was that:

Watch Captains are based in Stations/Fortresses. They oversee the Teams that reside in that Station/Fortress. Teams may be moved according to need, but will return unless they're called further afield, say, another Salient, and are relocated to a new Station, which would lead them to fall under the purview of that Station's captain.

This is how I run it, but I'd like some 'official' citations if there are any.

How I've been running it:

The KT has a certain Watch-Captain, stationed on the base they are most frequently on (for me that's Erioch itself), who is predominantly their direct superior. He assigns the majority of their missions. This assignment of Primary Captain is entirely arbitrary and plot, but as Captains have widely different personal goals, presumably you stick your KT with a Captain you either think they'll mesh well with or will cause them moral strife, depending on what you like. For example, my KT has a number of SMs from aggressive, CQC-focused, unsubtle Chapters. They got assigned primarily to a Raven Guard Captain, in order to better train them in the ways of stealth warfare.

Though the Primary Captain assigns most missions from the nominal home base, KTs get rotated to and from various small Watch-Stations. When the KT is rotated from Erioch to, say, Arkhas, they receive their orders from the Captain on Arkhas or who is in charge of Arkhas's operational area. But sometimes they may get an astropathic message from their Primary Captain on Erioch, deploying them to a particular mission or a particular new duty assignment.

Then there are the times where their Primary Captain is on-mission himself. At those times, typically, the Primary Captain tells a couple other Captains "I'm going on assignment, feel free to use Kill Team Gamma-Tertius as you see fit." I'd say these are usually Captains the Primary Captain gets along with, because he's effectively giving them full access to his subordinates.

Then there are times that the Watch-Commander might tell the KT's Primary Captain that "Captain so-and-so needs a team for a mission with X capability, and your Gamma-Tertius fits the bill, so coordinate deploying them with Captain so-and-so." And of course the KT's Primary Captain will do it because his boss gave him an order.

And occasionally there will be a time that the KT has fulfilled a mission, is heading home, and gets a priority signal from some random Captain who says "hey if you get this, you're in the area where something is going down and guess what, I'm ordering you to respond to it." I figure this happens with regularity, but the KT's Primary Captain might have issue with someone constantly poaching their assets for their own missions.

igotsmeakabob!! said:

This is how I'd run it as well.

As I see it, personally (I don't know of any official word on the matter, if there even is one), a Watch Captain isn't assigned to a particular area of space so much as a particular strategic goal. The Watch Captain's duty is to make decisions on behalf of the Deathwatch as a whole in regards to the matter he has been assigned to, based on intelligence received concerning it. This matter could be a particular foe's incursions, or it could relate to the investigation of dormant threats based on prophecy and gathered intelligence, or it could be liaising with an Inquisitor or other high-ranking Servant of the Emperor with regards to a common goal. The Deathwatch cares less about borders (because in many of the places the Deathwatch operates, borders don't exist) than it does about discrete threats and strategies.

In some cases, this means that a given Watch Captain focusses on a particular region as his area of concern is bound by geography (though such regions may be the size of subsectors). In others, it may require that a Watch Captain move from location to location regularly. The two I created for The Jericho Reach - Captains Avincus and Scarion - demonstrate some of this variability. Avincus operates from a starship most of the time and focusses his efforts on the Tyranid threat, while Scarion's duties as a political liaison actually require him to remain within the Canis Salient specifically.

Watch Stations are quite variable in nature, and frequently unmanned, with even the manned ones operated more by serfs rather than Deathwatch Marines. If an individual Watch Station is sufficiently valuable to warrant a permanent Astartes presence, it's likely that a Keeper will be given that duty (particularly if the Watch Station exists for reasons beyond the commonplace).

Kill-Teams, then, would be assigned to individual Watch Captains for a period of time - and during that time they serve as the eyes, ears and iron fist of their Watch Captain in matters pertaining to his remit. A Watch Captain is likely to have between three and six Kill-Teams (of variable size) under his command at any one moment, with individual teams dissolving, reforming and being reassigned as required by the Watch Commander, casualties and the individual Vigils of the Kill-Teams' members. With Watch Captains serving longer - and sometimes indefinite - Vigils than their junior brethren, their presence allows a given threat to be monitored consistently in spite of the changeable nature of individual Kill-Teams.

Killteam Onslaught in my campaign don't know how or why they were assigned to their watch captain. Interestingly, the stealth specialist watch captain let slip to the Raven Guard PC that he didn't know how the PC wasn't assigned to one of his killteams.

Onslaught rarely see their watch captain. He's back in Watch Fortress Xerxes in a secret location in the Calixis sector, coordinating the activities of multiple killteams, while they are a rapid response unit based on a frigate captained by a Keeper. They receive orders and data via astropathic messages and have the Keeper and marine pilot to advise them.

It is possible that they will be assigned to a different watch captain if circumstances change in campaign, or that a PC might become a watch captain. If the latter happens, I've already let both the PCs and players know that some watch captains remain in the field but are unlikely to have the time to lead more than one killteam.

My Kill-Team, Fortis, operates primarily out of Erioch, though they've recently acquired the services of a Rogue Trader courier vessel to serve as a mobile base. Their Watch-Captain, Endrick of the Salamanders (I swear to the God-Emperor I didn't intentionally base his name on Indrick Boreale), is assigned to monitor Chaos actions that could directly affect the Warp Gate. He tends to serve as a more hands-on Captain, though he's only deployed on the field once. Typically, he sticks around the area in orbit or in a Thunderhawk or Storm Eagle. Back to the subject at hand, Endrick needed a new Kill-Team after a previous team had exited the Deathwatch. So, when Fortis joined up (or the four members of Fortis that are still with the team…), they were assigned to Endrick.