Hi,

I´m new to the GM thing and decided to let my fellow RPG-friends to get to know the dark world of warhammer 40K. I started with Broken chains and after four hours when the bridge was taken, they decided to trust a daemon and let him navigate the ship. (Bad call, I know) I decided to let the ship exit close to the planets of Asphodel and Berin. Soon it´s time for the heretics second adventure and they are going down on The orc infested planet.

My plan is that there will be three acts. The first they will encounter surviving acolytes and murder-servitors (They didn´t go to the armoury, because we didn´t have time) And hopefully after beating them, the should have enough servitors to begin repairs on their ship. Also they will have acquired insight of their situation that they will die on this planet if not "Chains of judgement" is flightworthy.

Lucky for them, an orcband arrives in makeshift vehicles, thinking the heretics something akin to gods. The tribes leader is a Big Mek named Wurzag and the mission is to kill the leaders of two other tribes (the closest water holes) and use those boys to finish the repairs of their ship.

Last act will be when the ship is done and ready to go when the kroots attack (in act 1, heretics with high perception will notice something happening between the sister-planets, and that will be the kroots coming on their giant moths). I will use the rules from rogue trader or Deathwatch and there will be an epic battle where hopefully one of the most annoying characters die (he is a stubborn man who draws his lascarbine on anything unknown, The dark eldar which I inserted in the beginning to be a form of giver of information, even those with good intentions), not that I will intentionally kill him of course but they have had a really strange dice luck. When the kroots are dead, they take away in the sky with new, greenish crew members.

My question is if this will work. I´m still trying to learn most of the rules and my group are psychotic failures who doesnt hesitate hurting each other. So much for group dynamics I would like constructive critisism to my idea and suggestions to make this adventure smoother and with diversity etc, etc.

//The Octagon

Sounds Fun.

I'm also thinking about big battle, so I can recommend you rules from Mark of Xenos or Jericho Reach which helps quicken fights of big groups of NPC. I prefer rules from Jericho. They are bit more complicate but they are better. Also the mechanic of Turning Points. During battle let players roll few times for their soldiers. But victory will be won by completing objectives. The easiest to think is to kill The main Shepard leading the kroots.

coolzyg said:

Thank you, that helped. I really like the idea of turning points, where maybe two out of three needs to be dealt with otherwise they are DOOOOOOMMED!!!!! Hopefully that will split the group during the battle and it will make them feel that they don't HAVE to do everything in a group. It will leave an excuse Not to leave a couple of thousands of screaming orcs in the players hands. That would truly be chaos Three turning points I'm gonna use are: 1. Kill the main Shaper (with a small bodyguard) of course 2. Kill the bull krootox (the thing got 80 wounds and truly powerful) and 3. Hurting the great knarloc enough that it will rampage through the kroots. Killing the great knarloc will be near impossible with the most powerful weapon they have is either a boltgun with 34 rounds, a force weapon or doombolt. If they are smart (or truly dumb) they could allways try using the orks rokkit-launcha with Spectacular outcome

We will run it tomorrow, after that I could give a summary, whether it was a good idea for an adventure in the screaming and the power of turning points.

//The Octagon

Okay, so my group and I ran my adventure and this is how it went. BTW, my group contains two undivided hereteks Amalia and Icaros, a slaaneshi psyker named Caitlyn, the Death Guard sorcerer Monberu-Lux and renegade Cynthia who gives blood and skulls for you know who. With them is fellow ex-con, a Dark eldar named Telashyr, having the role as a helper (more or less).

It begins with the hereteks attempts to steer the ship out of trouble. The rest do nothing and Telashyr screaming curses at the Mon-keigh for trusting a demon. She looks for her equipment which she finds later on. I make the hereteks roll dices for some test involving the ship and they succeed. The ship crashes and they all have to make Acrobatics and athletics tests. Those who failed I forced to roll on the critical hit chart for Impacts. All but the psyker avoids damage when she gets hit with a metal object and get fractures in one of her legs. After a while the leave for the closest exit. The heretics reach it and notice that it is a 25 meter drop. Using different methods they reach the safety of solid ground except the psyker, which falls and brake her leg. The other hereteks is a coward and tries to find another way out. The rest leave the psyker with her delightful pain and the company of Telashyr.

Amalia finds queen Scarna and she tells her how metal men (servitors) still attacks and the source must be from the plain of big metal (The gun deck, with adjoining hangar) She goes there and there she meets the other heretics - Caitlyn. They had at the same time as Amalia, explored their surroundings. They see a servitor and Cynthia destroys it. They then notice the hangar-door and the hole which they enter. After a short battle with surviving acolytes, Amalia notice them and they continue to the source of the servitors. There, the last of the acolytes are gathered, five of them with a tech-priest standing at some controls. Battle, and the heretics won. Amalia stay behind when the others leave her for Caitlyn. Amalia issues commands to the servitors to fix themselves and start fixing the ship. All those outside notice how Telashyr have entered the ship again and then the large dust storm approches. This is when they hear curses, laughter and automatic fire. Closer they hear thousands of throats yelling WAAAAAAGH!!!!!!

That is Act 1. Three of five players are stubborn and see everything as an excuse to play with death. This took most of the time because that´s how they are. Also, I am just doing a summary.

Act 2. The orks surrounds them with makeshift vehicles and the boss stands before them. A Big Mek named Wurzag states his business with screams and fire his Mega-blasta in the air. He wants to leave this planet. This is when Monberu-Lux asks if he can do a Nurgle power of him (yes, he is a idiot, but he is in a group of such people). The rest of the characters talk him out of the disaster and agree to Wurzags deal (He wants to leave and so do they). They need more boyz though. A roval klan close to Wurzags water hole have the required ork-power which is needed for the repairs on "Chains of Judgement". Kill the rival orc boss Grimgor and boyz will join the strong boss Wurzag. Wurzag leaves 2000 orks at the ship for safe-keeping etc. The rest leave with the heretics. I gave them option to ride ork vehicles. Cynthia took a bike (used the rules from Rogue trader, I think) and the rest a trukk. By luring away most of the boyz from the enemy horde, they could attack Grimgor and his Nobz.

In the beginning of the battle, an enemy Nob smashed his power klaw in the front of the trukk and all except Cynthia could only watch the battle. Wurzag and Cynthia reaches Grimgor and it ends quickly. Cynthia gets a lucky hit and hurts Grimgor. Even better, Wurzag takes his Kustom Mega-blasta and rolls a 02. Grimgor dies without using his turn during the first round of combat. Hours goes by and the heretics loot all they can find whilst Wurzag and his Nobz are trying to ensure order to the new boyz.

Then they go back to the ship and the heretics have free time whilst the orks and servitors are repairing the ship. Also, The orks have built the ship in their image. A giant ork glyph dominates the fore, with the bridge in its mouth and a macro cannon in each eye. chess patterns dominates the hull. The heretics finds Telashyr with a new green coat and made herself overseer. Caitlyn rests her leg, Cynthia gain some orks as followers by killing some and hitting more. Both hereteks used their time and repaired the bridge. Monberu-Lux helped the ferals and queen Scarna, whilst contaminated their food. Also he took those orks which had died during accidents and took them to the bowels of the "Chains of Judgment" to rot and to prepare a future ritual.

When Amalia is still on the bridge and understands that the ship is flightworthy, the Kroots attack. Three fronts, Giant knarloc to the left, Krootoxs to the right and a shaper at the center. They split up. Cynthia runs inside to find her new motorbike. Amalia leaves the bridge. Caitlyn goes for the shaper, and Icaros and Monberu-Lux goes for the Great Knarloc. Caitlyn have help from Wurzag and they attack head on. Doombolts fly and hits everything except the shaper. A shot from a rifle hits Caitlyn in her chest and she is badly hurt. Wurzag steals the kill with dice luck and that front is secured. Amalia prepares a battle-wagon filled with explosives and with servitors guide it through the ork horde against the krootox. It explodes and killing lots and lots. With that awesome idea a let that flank be secure as well. The great knarloc. Long story short, it ended with two doom bolts in its ribs, a power sword in its brain and a lot of dakka from Cynthias bike. Amalia had already returned to the ship and and started the ship. With the Kroots on the run Wurzag led the remaining orks to the ship and the heretics went for the bridge. Then, when the ship was in the void, they entered the immaterium and went on new adventures.

Thats it. Do not forget that I this is just a really simple summary. I can´t let you be bored to tears of all the stubbornness the players let me handle. Come with critisism and everything else, questions and so on. And feel free to use this in your own campaign