So I just started playing Deathwatch tonight. I've got a GM who wants to run it but so far I'm the only player. Any good character creation ideas for a solo adventure or campaign? I'm still new and learning the system so it's a bit overwhelming to me, I'm not sure what to prioritize in terms of characteristics, chapter, skills, etc. We ran a Space Wolf tactical marine tonight which didn't seem to bad. Any help would be welcome.

J

if I were you I would choice a apothicary, techmarine or librarian.

They open door to skills and talents that nio other could have and really usefull in game to solve problems and enigma.

Tactical, asssault, devastator are all perfectly good carrier but only the specialist could (IMO) run a solo game who would not be only shooting.

Techy, librarian and apothicary open the door to a lot of plot: tech research and learn or destroy, sabotaging plant or factory for techy.

Search on new viral weapon from ennemy or for the deathwatch or the inquisition, recover lost geneseed, sqmple and analisys of new xenos form or new tyrannid specie for Apothicary.

Mistery and occult quest for knowledge, deamon influence to root out, strange dreams leading to a quest for an artifact, llost tome of lore or maybe lure by the voice of a deamon who has to be killed before his grip on this part of the veil is too strong for librarian.

Of course there's alwqys the alternative carrier like scout for infiltration behind ennemy line with sabotage, long runs out of the ennemy hunt team, traps, aid to a imperial shadow fighter in a chaos, tau, ork, …etc world

There's also the one man kill team Sm who can be dispatch anywhere in the imperium as an asset for an inquisitor retinue, find back xenos tech take by rogue trader to be sell in black market, even the discovery of an alliance between imperial official and xenos, cult or anything tio suit your GM.

The chapter is secondary, it depends on what kind of personnality you wanna explore. What kind of background you like ect…

Good luck and hope it help.

First of all, you will either play with a squad of NPC space marines, or by yourself so play style will be dependent on that. A lone space marine is called a Killmarine if I understood that part correctly They need to be a bit more badass than regular space marines, or maybe just more versatile, so a tactical marine would be a nice choice.

Also, since a lone marine needs to be a bit more badass than a full squad, your GM might consider giving you a bit more than the regular starting 1000xp to spend, and in addition might consider allowing you to get a reknown boost (to respected) so you will get the option of a few more weapons, though that is up to him/her.

Note that the character sheet has some pre-filled skills, but Dodge and Intimidate should be " trained " on the sheet. This allows you to use your full modifier instead of just half, and will be a life saver. Also, if you're going to play a Space Wolf, you begin with the Counterattack talent (they forgot to add it in the corebook) and have the option to buy the Fleshrender talent for 500 xp as a chapter advance (also not mentioned in core book, but in the errata).

If you're going to be playing alone, you should take Bolter Mastery, which gives you a +10 ballistic skill and +2 damage with bolter weapons.

Since you're new to Deathwatch I'm not sure what you know or not so I might mention things you already knew, sorry about that.. But here goes

Weapons with the Tearing quality, like the chainsword or bolter weapons, roll an extra d10 for damage and can choose the highest instead. This means with a chainsword you'll roll 2d10 and take the highest, then add your damage modifiers. The Fleshrender talent allows you to roll an extra die with melee weapons, so instead you would roll 3d10 and take the highest. This not only increases your chances of Righteous Fury but will make sure your damage is most of the time not too low.

The Hardy talent (400xp) allows you to heal faster which could be helpful when you might need to be on the move and don't have an apothecary.

If you have 35-39 toughness, or 45-49 toughness you should also add a +5 toughness to make sure your toughness bonus is 4 or 5 instead of 3 or 4, this will also keep you alive much longer. If you start with more than the normal 1000 experience you might wanna raise toughness twice.

It's easy to get bonuses to hit with ranged weapons, especially if you're playing it safe and hitting people before they know you are there, so I'd stay away from raising ballistic skill for now, unless you feel it's really needed. +20 for full auto goes a long way, and +10 for short range (50m with bolter, or 75 with kraken rounds). Aiming for half an action is +10 and full is +20 so… It's easy.

As for skills, you might want the Pilot (personal) skill for 100xp (also in errata) that allows you to use a jump pack, which might come in handy when alone. With Hardy and either fleshrender or a +5 bonus to toughness, you will have 900xp spent leaving 100 from the original 1000xp so it fits perfect

You might want to take the Tech-Use skill later as it allows you to use things like an Auspex for some added awareness of near surroundings. It's 800xp though. All in all, as things progress, you should probably make sure you get 50 or so thoughness, for the awesome 10 toughness bonus, then take a few weaponskill increases, willpower, perhaps agility for some added speed (and initiative) all depending on what your starting stats are and what you feel like. Be careful, sniper from cover if you can, as tactical you also get a free special ammo each mission, Hellfire rounds are pretty awesome. Check them out.

Good luck

RItes of Battle has an advanced speciality for situations like this called "Kill Marine". Basically it allows you to be your own squad, which can be very, very helpful.

If you haven't played Deathwatch before or any roleplaying games at all? Then Librarians, Techmarines and Apothecaries might be a bit of a mouthful, other marines will automatically look to them for guidance, they might be a bit of a mouthful roleplaying wise.

On finding other players, go to your local community centre or hobby club. If there is a bookshop that sells sci-fi and fantasy (a barens & noble will do) then go hang a flyer.

Welcome to the game,

A

If you are playing mano a GM, you and your GM need to understand that very fact. In the same way a watch commander isn't going to send a single space marine out on missions which would require multiple marines, or send unqualified marine on missions requiring specialized training, so to must your GM tailor your missions for a single player (and character). For instance, If you don't choose a character who can take forbidden lore (warp, or daemonology) your GM should not use or create missions for you which would rely or even utilize those skills at all.

This doesn't mean things should be easy, but your GM should be aware of your characters abilities and should create challenging missions your character should be capable of completing.

first of all, you must decide which type of char you would be in this universe……

as for me, I like to be a space wolf….and if I do solo mission, I try in this way:

space wolf

grey hunter (tactical marine with bolter mastery)

talents:

hardy (400), flash render(500)

deeds:

ritual duel fighter (that give me the swift attack talent)

wargear:

ask for a chain sword (req. 5)

mk6 Corvus (history: bring death from afar, and helm of mordicus variated in the wolf helm)

charm (req.6)

chapter trapping:

wolf tooth neck lace (frenzy talent)

regards

Do NOT take the wolf tooth necklace if you are playing on your own. Frenzy turns you into an NPC for the length of the ability.

i think the most dangerous character would have to be A librarian 'kill-marine' for the purposes of any game, Add in a very good chapter and I think you'll do fine (I.E. Iron Hands because of the 'Flesh is weak' chapter talents and with the deed 'Price of victory'.)

The next thing I would do since I'm doing the same with a good friend of mine is to think of abilities that have multple purposes in combat.

The last few things would be to work on interaction skills as you will be the only person to shape the adventures in your campaigns. Make sure that you have a 'balanced' setup for handling all the opponets that you'll eventually face in the campaign's.

This is all the advice I can give you since I haven't seen how you play….good luck my friend.