Over in another thread, Decessor told me that he wanted a blog post I'd written to tell him more about what I'd had in mind about running Deathwatch. I'm definitely keen to GM the game, but right at the moment my focus is making sure I can get a reliable gaming group together.

This might seem a bit odd. You know how it usually works, right? You work up a campaign pitch, plan a story, think about acceptable characters then pitch it to folks you think might be keen. I want to try something a little different, though. I want to save the brainstorming about the campaign until after I've got a bunch of interested folks in the one place at the one time; actually get them involved in thinking about places, NPCs, PCs.

In the meantime, though, I want to take the system (and the Roll20 online tabletop software) for a spin and give us all a chance to get a taste of roleplaying a Space Marine with the Deathwatch. So I'm trying to schedule a session where we'll play the “Final Sanction” introductory adventure.

In between trying to rummage up responses from another one or two potential players, I've been reading Final Sanction and making notes. It's a pretty comprehensive adventure, but one thing I want more of is potential for interesting character interaction – by which, I mean a conflict between two characters who have mutually incompatible wants.

Now, in theory, this pretty much includes every potential combat in the module: The Rebels want to control the city of Lordsholm, while the Kill-team wants to call in reinforcements and off the Broodlord. But what about everyone else?

Take Lord-Governor Thorsholt. He's the man in charge on the planet Avalos, and when the rebellion escalated into full blown warfare, the good Governor isolated his palace and secured it with as many Planetary Defence Force as he had available. In the meantime, what's left of the loyal citizenry of the crumbling city of Lordsholm are suffering and dying in the darkness.

The Marines need the Lord-Governor, because he's the only man who's authorised to let anyone into the quarters of the planet's Astropath. They may also need his garrison of Imperial Guard to help turn the tide with the rebellion while the Marines go sort out the Genestealer Broodlord behind it.

But having them march in and request / order the Lord-Governor's assistance and have him agree after some chat isn't particularly interesting to me, even if I require a Charm or Intimidate roll. I mean, you should only roll the dice if something interesting and entertaining could happen either way, right?

The question it seems I need to ask is, what could Lord-Governor Thorsholt want from the Marines?

“Final Sanction” states that Thorsholt isn't evil or (hugely) incompetent. A quote in the book shows that he's trying to downplay the rebellion, that it's not a big deal and he has things under control. It also mentions that he's holding court for the nobility that made it to his manor when the rebellion broke out. Thorsholt feels he needs to keep face with his peers.

How can the Marines help? Well, they can back him in front of his peers, make him look like the Man with the Plan that he wants to appear to be. Letting them see the Astropath might not be a big deal - they just need to update their superiors, it's no concern, my lords and ladies - but if the Marines ask him to free up some troops, he might not be inclined to agree. Why would the troops in the city need reinforcement if the rebellion is the flash in the pan Thorsholt's been making it out to be?

The Marines, of course, don't have to ask Thorsholt about dispatching some reinforcements, so another thing I can do is give them some incentive earlier on. In order to get to the Lord-Governor's mansion, the Marines must pass through Calistria District - where they can meet a few Guardsmen who ask them to pass on their messages to relatives at the manor.

I can also, when the players get to Thorsholt's manor, let them overhear other nobles getting agitated, speaking quietly about how Thorsholt couldn't maintain a privy in a hardware store and that perhaps they ought to open the doors to the (brainwashed and bloodthirsty) rebels, giving the Marines reason to go along with Thorsholt even at the cost of the brave souls they met earlier.

On top of that, I can introduce other nobles who are the aforementioned relatives of the PDF fighters, people honestly concerned for the wellbeing of their kin. Can the Marines do anything to ensure their safety or at least give them a better chance out there?

This is what I'm after: Creating a moment of choice where the Marines have some sort of personal take in the outcome, a moment where the actions the Marines take to resolve it reveal things about their personalities. Do they risk rolling Charm or Intimidate to get Thorsholt to both let them see the Astropath and get the PDF reinforcements they and the city need? Do they agree to his demands? Do they tell him to go jump and then have to face the Astropath's Hollow Guard? Odds are that someone is going to suffer for the Marines' choice, but just who, and how?

And what happens when those eight Genestealers that managed to sneak into the mansion with intent to kill Thorsholt make their appearance, themselves agents of a Broodlord whose overall goal is to ensure maximum biomass is available for the oncoming Hive Fleet?

The thing is, I don't want to pre-suppose an outcome. I can guess at some options, but if the players surprise me I want to be in a position to roll with it – and the best way I can prepare for that is get an idea of what Thorsholt wants and how he'd be likely to jump when the players come up with something unexpected.

That's my overall goal when we get together and organise the campaign: Have the entire group come up with a laundry list of characters in the Jericho Reach that the Marines could encounter, characters who have visions of their own for the Reach's present and future and / or their personal prosperity, who are already taking action to see those visions realised – and whose actions step directly on the Marines' toes somehow.

That means the Marines need to have either roots of some sort in the Reach or goals that involve its people and organisations. And those roots have to come from what the players find interesting / engaging / infuriating about the Warhammer 40,000 universe in general and the Reach in particular. They have to be as invested in these NPCs as I will be; that way I won't have to worry about pre-planning a story or designing some grand plot structure; I can just have my NPCs acto according to their natures and watch as the players decide how the characters will react – or even act themselves.