Greetings! I'm about to start a new Black Crusade game and would like to ask about memorable monsters for the first encounter. My group is a mix of players - one played D&D 4th E, one has never played RPGs before, and the third has clocked lots of World of Warcraft. I am the GM and ran Call of Cthulhu for nearly 10 years, played in Vampire the Masquerade RPG for about 6, and ran the aforementioned D&D game for about a year.

I am planning on running a few games based on the Tyrant's Cord scenario in the book that came with the GM screen. The party will consist of a Forsaken Chaos Space Marine, an Apostate, a Psyker and myself as a NPC Heretek. They will have recently escaped an Imperial prison ship and will have landed on a planet. I plan on having a combat encounter at every game session and will ambush them as they approach a walled city.

I'm looking for interesting monsters for this first combat - something memorable and challenging but I don't want to wipe out the team either.

I have several of the other core books - Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, Deathwatch, the Radical's Handbook and Creatures Anathema, but I'm still looking for basic combat creatures. My campaigns tend toward the roleplaying side, so there will be plenty of plot-driven combat encounters - I'm looking for filler material I guess. The more interesting the better.

Suggestions welcome!

I'd say a team of Space Marines/an Ordo Hereticus cell coming for the express purpose of hunting them down. And you want to make it memorable? Have the enemy talk to them, promise retribution with dying breath ("You really think we're going to stop coming because you killed me?") have an assassin or something slip away from the battle to haunt their footsteps, etc. If you can spin it so that they're about to get their butts kicked and pull it off at the lest second, it will stay with them for ages.

Dommael said:

I once wrote some additional scenes for that adventure and put them up on Darkreign40k.com
http://www.darkreign40k.com/drjoomla/index.php/gm-tips/tips-for-scenarios/1336-added-scenes-for-qrivals-for-gloryq

Some of them are combat encounters, I hope they are helpful.

Idea: The Spilling Field
“The Spilling Field“ is an anomaly, something not common in the Vortex but more frequent then it is healthy. Locals will for sure know about it and either might warn the PC or lure them inside (if they wish them ill).

As the PC move across the land, they might notice the field long before they reach it. The carrion birds circling the sky above are a dead giveaway for those who can read the signs [ordinary(+10) test for either Awareness or Survival ]. After a while, the will notice an old battle site ahead of them. An area covered in rotting corpses, skeletons, broken weapons, hulks of different vehicles and other detritus stretching out before them. Greedy PC might see a chance for scrounging and should be given a chance (tests for both Awareness and Commerce). Wary PC might not want to cross it. Walking through will take about 10 minutes, walking around about half an hour. Psyker might not immediately sense anything as the Spilling Field is hiding what it is [ Psyniscience (-20 ]. Otherwise, the Psyker of the group will feel a radiance of hatred and bloodlust, of warp power and daemonic presence.

As the PC are halfway through the Field, ask for an ordinary(+10) Psyniscience or challenging(+0) Scrutiny test . Those who pass the test will recognize an upcoming urge to spill blood and Psykers will sense a force of the warp rising from slumber.

This is the moment shades rise out of the field, looking like badly wounded soldiers with empty black holes instead of eyes and a death grin for a mouth. Otherwise, they are a mismatched lot, non looking like the other (robed cultists, traitors of the imperial guard, wasteland warriors and so on). They rise all around them. They rise with melee weapons in hand, and with them rises a choir of hateful voice. They hiss, they whisper, they moan.

Use whatever stats you deem fitting, but make sure that they can be harmed by normal weapons (which will draw ectoplasma), that they have the “Stuff of Nightmares” and “Warp Weapon” trait as well as Instability. Oh, and their attack deal 1d5 wounds. No reduction from Toughness. They do not create wounds. Instead, old wounds re-open and worsen. If a PC reaches “Heavily Wounded” all further attacks will only cause 1 wound.

Their will be more and more them. In the first round, every PC has an opponent. In the second, everyone will be facing two (outnumbering them). In the fifth round of combat, it might get worse. But this ecto-shades do not intend to kill. It is about spilling blood. The amount of blood will be equal to enough wounds to reduce 1/3 of the group to zero wounds. Their attacks cannot be parried, just dodged. Each PC with Linguistic skill is entitled to a challenging(+0) extended tes t. After 5 success, the PC recognize that all the voices talk about spilling blood in one way or the other. With an ordinary(+10) Scholastic Lore (Occult) test a PC can improvise a ritual taking three turns. Every wound s/he then spills with a blade weapon willingly as a sacrifice will count as thrice the amount in regard to the wound total the Spilling Field wants to achieve.

Of course, the PC can simply try to run away. First, the must fight their way through the ring surrounding them (some successful attack levels, up to the GM) and then need to run through battlefield debris (Dexterity tests, up to the GM).

Thank you so much! I appreciate the references and suggestions!

I guess what I feel like I'm missing is a "Monster Manual" type book for Black Crusade. The books C reatures Anathema , Mark of the Xenos and all of the Core Rulebooks feature the same list of potential antagonists - Orks, Mutants, Chaos, Tau, Tyranids and Eldar. I was actually disappointed when taking one of the books out of the wrapper that it featured the same list of villains, worded slightly differently. I appreciate the beauty of the books, but was hoping for more variety in adversaries to throw at the players.

You would think that in the Eye of Chaos, where planets are being re-shaped due to the influence of Chaos Gods, that there would be plenty of beasties to choose as random encounters. Yet I can't seem to find any books that list too many creatures besides Orks, Mutants, Chaos, Tau, Tyranids and Eldar.

Does anyone else feel this way or is it just me?

Ever thought about creating one yourself?

Dommael said:

Dommael said:

"Spiritual Creatures" will not be as inspirative but still have some good examples in their sleeve

"Abominations" will feature chaos-mutants to populate the scenario. Here you will find a lot of things you will yawn about since you could have come up with them yourself. But then, their are at least some nicely fleshed out ideas like for possessed like the "Freak Crawler" , the "Octowhal" or a "Tree Hag".

"Demons" are exactly that and proivde some easily adaptable concepts for those warp spawns "unaligned". The line to "possessed" and "sorcerer" is rahter blurred here, so. Some of the Daemons are individuals, providing you with unique entities or ready-to-go daemon princes.

The chapter about factions will be a waste to you, but it is only a view pages compared to the rest.

All in all, you get about 200 "creatures to encounter" and 40 "package ideas" to mix into any given creature (so a stone tendril daemon will not make much sense).

If the mentioned FFG books where "to race focused" for you, this product might be your tread. A freebee download is available as well, so you do not need to make a total blind buy. Go over to RPGDrive Thru and have look

Thank you for the recommendations! I've ordered the Alpha Omega book - looks promising!

"The Encountered" book was just what I was looking for! I wasn't expecting the beautiful drawings. Perfect inspiration material for Black Crusade encounters. Thank you for the recommendation!

You are welcome

Hi Dommael,

you might want to skip through "Beasts of the Koronus Expanse" at your local retailer. Beside a beast generator (very random!) you will find some beasts whose power level might match that of your group..plus some infos about xenos races you could fit into your BC game as well.

I tried to open up a little discussion about the creatures featured in the product (see the link below).
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=123&efcid=3&efidt=709368