"Monster" Manual

By ExGemini, in Deathwatch Gamemasters

Posted at

Hey guys, sorry to bother you.

I've been collecting some of the manuals from different games

Dark Heresy, Black Crusade and ofcourse, DeathWatch.

My problem is simple: how are you supposed to come up with some pretty basic mobs if you don't have a reference?
I mean I got the Mark Of The Xenos manual and there are plenty of things over there but what about the basic genestealer? Or the basic ork?
It would be nice to have some basic reference to create both basic or high level enemy that the kill team can face in combat.

Posted at

What my old GM would do is find something of the appropriate challenge rating or would fit as a boss/mob/convenient squishy. Then 'Re-skin' it, a.k.a take a kroot hoard and use it as a ork hoard, modifying weapons or tweeking the stats slightly.

I'm personally going to have to do something similar in the game I'm running as they have no (or none that I'm aware of) Advanced human empire troops. I'll need to basically 'Re-skin' a tau fire warrior and go from there.

Hope this helps.

Posted at

The core books all have adversary chapters, though of course these aren't comprehensive. What you are looking for is in Mark of the Xenos however. Ork Boyz are the generic ork troop and their writeup is on page 62. The genestealer is on page 44.

The traits section generally exists so you can build your own enemies and the templates are just guidelines for generic versions of those enemies.

But yes, I wish there was a generic adversary book because I find it annoying to have to open my Rogue Trader books or w/e when I plan to use enemies besides the ones that appear in the Jericho Reach. Maybe its done this way to compel GMs to buy the other core books besides the game they run?

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Algus said:

The core books all have adversary chapters, though of course these aren't comprehensive. What you are looking for is in Mark of the Xenos however. Ork Boyz are the generic ork troop and their writeup is on page 62. The genestealer is on page 44.

The traits section generally exists so you can build your own enemies and the templates are just guidelines for generic versions of those enemies.

But yes, I wish there was a generic adversary book because I find it annoying to have to open my Rogue Trader books or w/e when I plan to use enemies besides the ones that appear in the Jericho Reach. Maybe its done this way to compel GMs to buy the other core books besides the game they run?

Could be but usually the format is the same

1) Game Master Manual Or Core Rules

2) Player Guide that expand on the core rules

3) Freaking monsters manual :D

But thanks for the tip, it will help

Posted at

Sara_Oko said:

What my old GM would do is find something of the appropriate challenge rating or would fit as a boss/mob/convenient squishy. Then 'Re-skin' it, a.k.a take a kroot hoard and use it as a ork hoard, modifying weapons or tweeking the stats slightly.

I'm personally going to have to do something similar in the game I'm running as they have no (or none that I'm aware of) Advanced human empire troops. I'll need to basically 'Re-skin' a tau fire warrior and go from there.

Hope this helps.

A little help is always better than no help :) Thanks!

Posted at

ExGemini said:

Sara_Oko said:

What my old GM would do is find something of the appropriate challenge rating or would fit as a boss/mob/convenient squishy. Then 'Re-skin' it, a.k.a take a kroot hoard and use it as a ork hoard, modifying weapons or tweeking the stats slightly.

I'm personally going to have to do something similar in the game I'm running as they have no (or none that I'm aware of) Advanced human empire troops. I'll need to basically 'Re-skin' a tau fire warrior and go from there.

Hope this helps.

A little help is always better than no help :) Thanks!

Hey NP! I'm still trying to settle into the GM chairs too.