My group recently acquired "First Founding" and my Blood Angel player is *highly* interested in becoming a Tyrannic War Veteran. His IC logic is, as the Blood Angels deployed several companies to assist during the second(?) Tyranid war it would be possible his character learned how to fight the Tyranid sufficently to take up the speciality.

Opinions? While I see the point he's making that we could House-rule this sort of thing, I'm not sure this is a floodgate I want to open.

Your floodgate level is something you have to determine but I would totally be fine with it, especially if it encourages the player to develop back story for their character that can aid in roleplaying. Blood Angels, indeed, were involved in the Tyrannic Wars so that would be fine with me. In fact, I would be alright with pretty much any chapter taking on that advanced specialty, so long as they have some great fluff to back it up. Tailoring it for Crimson Fists and Orks, for example, would be great. Also, my game group limits you to 1 advanced specialty only so our players choose cautiously.

Well, if you're playing in the canon Deathwatch timeline, circa 817.M41, the Second Tyrannic War hasn't happened yet. Hive Fleet Kraken didn't arrive in force until 993.M41. Otherwise, I don't see why other Marines couldn't have the same sort of experience as the Ultramarine Tyrannic War Veterans.

Normally a character can only take one advanced specialty. So a tyrannic war veteran blood angel isn't getting into another one without GM fiat.

I'd be fine with allowing it myself *if* the player has a decent background and isn't making the game less fun for the other players.

The Tyrranic War Veteran requirements do not seem to have anything to do with game balance, but rather tied to the fluff. Your player thinks it's a good idea, you seem to be open-minded about it, so if the other players are ok with it then you should go ahead.

As a general rule you should allow the players the option to make their own unique characters, but you should always reserve the option to review the effect of those choices down the road. Sometimes what adds to one player's character may be detrimental to other characters in the group. A too powerful player character can make the encounters built to the group average trivial to overcome, while an encounter that is challenging to that character may overwhelm other player characters in the party. Finding the right balance is an on-going process, and you should make sure the players are willing to work with you on this.

-K

I am not really that happy for chapter-restricted classes, so i removed that... Ofc if an ultramarine wants a Sanguinary priest i might ask for a very good reason to justify that... But otherwise i don't really see any problems... though i removed the 1d10 reknown boost..

The Tyrranic War Veteran requirements do not seem to have anything to do with game balance, but rather tied to the fluff. Your player thinks it's a good idea, you seem to be open-minded about it, so if the other players are ok with it then you should go ahead.

As a general rule you should allow the players the option to make their own unique characters, but you should always reserve the option to review the effect of those choices down the road. Sometimes what adds to one player's character may be detrimental to other characters in the group. A too powerful player character can make the encounters built to the group average trivial to overcome, while an encounter that is challenging to that character may overwhelm other player characters in the party. Finding the right balance is an on-going process, and you should make sure the players are willing to work with you on this.

-K

It should be permissible with a decent background explanation - same with the Honour Guard (different Chapters will have their own equivalents, with the right adjustments to gear and advances, it can fit any Chapter - Imperial Fists Praetorians, Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard, etc). The Tyrannic War Veterans are listed under Ultramarines because they're the Chapter most commonly associated with the archetype (for good reasons).

It's the same with using them for Successor Chapters - other Unforgiven Chapters can employ Deathwing and Ravenwing equivalents, Blood Angels successors can use the Sanguinary Priest and Furioso Dreadnought, etc, etc.

I am not really that happy for chapter-restricted classes, so i removed that... Ofc if an ultramarine wants a Sanguinary priest i might ask for a very good reason to justify that... But otherwise i don't really see any problems... though i removed the 1d10 reknown boost..

It does depend on the speciality - some, like the Sanguinary Priest are tied heavily into a Chapter's nature (whether their genetics, their organisation, their culture, etc). The Honour Guard and Tyrannic War Veteran are tied to the Ultramarines more because they're commonly associated archetypes.

Less so with the Honour Guard. Every Chapter has some form of Honour Guard and many use that specific name for those warriors, and they serve the exact same function. The few exceptions would be those Chapters that are more divergent than the standard Codex Chapter. The Blood Angels (and successors) comes to mind, as do the Space Wolves, Salamanders and Dark Angels.

This is even stated in book, and not only that, it's very easy to slightly change the requirements, gear, and advancement table for the Honour Guard to turn it into something more specific like the Sanguinary Guard or Wolf Guard.