Hey guys I have been running Deathwatch for while now and I have gone though two story arch's that have used Chaos as the main antagonists. I have been talking with some of the players and they would like to see some of the races as the main antagonists, but I am having problems with using the other races in that role.

Tyranids

Orks

Tau

Eldar

Dark Eldar

Necrons

Any ideas would be appreciated.

I personally have a hard-on for the Nids and the Necrons, but that's just me. I like the idea of the whole 'absolutely will not stop, you cannot win, only hold them back' thing, so they work for me.

It really depends what you're going for - diplomatic missions, with loads of interaction and potential betrayal? Generally Tau, or Eldar, will fit best. Want fun, fast combat, full of ridiculous hijinks? Orks are good for this. Want constant battle, a desperate fight for survival, wiping out waves of guys only for a massive one to spring up behind you? Tyranids. And so on. Just think about what you want your campaign to be. And for that matter, why not have all of them? I'm running a mission where the KT are investigating what obviously is a Necron Tomb World being fought over by the Tau and the Imperium. However they've also encountered the forces of Chaos and been approached by an Eldar Harlequin.

Do what'll fit with your idea of the campaign best.

I'm having some trouble filling in my campaign. I know The general layout of what I want to happen but I'm not sure how to fill it in and make it take as long as my group usually likes to play. The general campaign outline is this: The Imperium got word of an ancient relic from a science outpost(Can't remember the imperial term for the science branch) and then suddenly stopped receiving transmissions. The deathwatch team is supposed to land and then discover that Dark Eldar have taken over the outpost and the Guardsmen there have pretty much been wiped out with very few survivors. I want them to find the relic but An archon is there with it already and retreats to the webway just before they can make it, leaving his incubi to deal with the squad. Then one of the scientists helps them enter the webway through a webway gate to get it back and while they are there another Archon helps them because he wants to overthrow the first archon and gain power anyway(Only way I can see possible that they could even survive in Commoragh and get out alive) But I haven't really worked out what happens while they are there or how they get back. I want the campaign to take about 3 missions(First one planet side ending when they get through the gate) My group has never played Deathwatch before and neither have I but I love 40K and I play it a lot and they told me to GM something I can be passionate about. I don't have a whole lot of experience as a GM but I want this to be a fun campaign for everyone. If anyone could help at all I would greatly appreciate it.

Also I am looking for some rules for stats and what not for the Dark eldar(Pretty much the whole army list) and any help there would also be appreciated

Lots of Dark Eldar stats in the Rogue Trader adventure Soul Reaver . And a fair amount in the Adversaries section of Black Crusade rulebook- albiet not perfectly compatable with the SR stuff…

As for Necrons, there was an upcoming DW supplement anounced a short while ago (I'm blanking on the name- Outer Reach, something like that?) which features Necrons.

Bran Redmaw said:

My only advice on 'filling in a campaign' is to not worry about filling it in. Every time I've come up with a start and an end, and try to come up with a complex middle that bridges the two, the middle falls apart (or someone gets bored). So what I do instead is fill in the parts I know and feel good about, then let random adventures fill in the blanks. In this case, to me and the length of my normal campaigns, this sounds like a short set of missions rather than a full rank 1-8 campaign. My personal lack of interest in the webway would have me take your outline and run it almost as is- they land and deal with the DE, they find a way into the Webway, find the other Archon and negotiate the recovery of the artifact and how to get them out of the damned place (that's the trick- what would the Archon want in exchange for helping the Marines- DW Marines aren't going to be eager to give anything of value to a Dark Eldar), they ambush the other Archon, take the artifact, and ride out of the Webway on a wave of awesomeness.

They get xp, renown, then they start up their next mission with some better skills and better gear. That next mission can be anything- investigating reports of tyranid-like activity on the edge of a settlement or city, assassination of a high ranking Tau, hunting down and destroying a ship that violated a Quarantine Zone, etc. Not all the adventures have to be tied together with magic string- if you end up coming up with an overall storyline for the campaign, you can simply sprinkle tidbits here and there to hint at the overall plot without having to rework all your adventures. You can even make your players do the work for you- toss in three random mysteries - say a medallion with an arcane symbol, a heavily encrypted dataslate, and the scent of fresh linen - and they will come up with 1001 theories as to what it means. You now not only have more time to invent what it means, but your players will come up with some of the best ideas out there.

Thanks for the input Charmander. I never really thought of it that way. I've got a few new things to think about now. But at least now I have a better idea. And thank you for the resources for the stats Adeptus.

Well choosing adversaries some times can be kinda hard :S.Well I am running a campaign with Tyranids and maybe Chaos I'll see.You can always make a conversation with the players or another idea which I use to help me choose adversaries is the use of the hunting grounds of Erioch I throw the players inside with a variety of adversaries and I choose the one nearly killed them for the next mission hehe or I let them choose an adversary in order to understand the feeling of the players and what they want to fight .