Lynata said:

No worries! I've seen way snarkier posters, and truth be told, my own stubbornness may glimpse through in some my posts as well (even after my epiphany concerning "canon", though that certainly helped to deal with a lot of issues), as best as I try to avoid it. I think in good part we can blame it on the internets - the condensation you already mentioned as well as sarcasm and other underlying themes getting lost.

I definitively agree about the combat medics and the importance of their job - an oft-overlooked thing in fiction as well as in media, although fortunately at least the actual soldiers tend to know and appreciate them better.

And thanks for the warm words! Since you've been so kind in your last post, I dug out the old WD #102 which actually had a few pages about Imperial medics. Could be inspirational for anyone who is interested in playing a Deathwatch Apothecary or an Imperial Guard Medicae! Or perhaps even for the contact mentioned in this thread, if OP adopt's the idea about it being an Apothecary on a quest.

The Marines tensed as they heard the faint but unmistakable sound of an approaching mole mortar shell. Battle-brother Draeg was already moving before the earth began to bulge upwards - hurling himself flat onto the rising shell before his brothers even saw it. He was only fully aware of his action when his world exploded in white flame that hurled him down into darkness.

It was the feel of cold air on his face and the acrid smell of burnt flesh that revived him to a dim awareness. He struggled to ignore the pain of his shattered body and made his remaining eye focus on the figure that knelt beside him.

"Your wounds are too grave, Brother", he heard the Medic speak, as though from a great distance. "Do you desire the Emperor's Peace?" The Medic raised the carnifex, and Draeg was dimly aware of the click as the bolt was drawn back into the firing position. With what remained of his life, Draeg tried to speak. The Medic seemed to understand.

"The others? They are whole, Brother. You saved them. Your name is entered into the Book of Honour."

Draeg nodded weakly, and closed his eye. His gene-seed would return to the Chapter.

--

It had once been an arm. The melta-blast had fused metal, flesh and bone into a twisted mass; weapon, armour and arm were indistinguishable. The bolter's magazine had exploded under the intense heat, showering the Marine with shrapnel. There might yet be hope, though.

The Medic worked swiftly, cauterising head and body wounds. He pulled a tube from the elbow-joint of his power armour and pushed the end into the Marine's good arm. Fighting off cramp and dizziness - for this was his fourth transfusion - the unlimbered his chainsword.

"The pain will pass, Brother", he murmured as he brought it down on the maimed shoulder.

--

He that may still fight, heal him.

He that may fight no more, give him peace.

He that is dead, take from him the Chapter's due.

- attributed to Master of the Apothecarion Aslon Marr

Sidenote: the above is from late 1st Edition 40k, when Apothecaries were still called Medics, explaining the weird terminology. The article even had a picture showing Squat medics evacuating a wounded Imperial Guard trooper! An interesting detail that could possibly be adopted into playing a Marine Apothecary might be the blood transfusion tube that can "link" the Apothecary to a wounded Astartes. Another picture of the article depicted an Apothecary discharging his bolter whilst simultaneously donating blood to a Space Marine on the ground nearby, with the caption describing it as a "standard field transfusion". Badass!

Thanks for this! Very cool insperation. I'm all pumped to play a Apothacary now.

Thanks for the link Lynata.

DigitalRedneck said:

I want to run a RT campaign where at some point they have a team of marines on their ship. Once they get to where the marines want to go I was going to hand out a stack of Deathwatch PCs and let the group know they will be running a mission with the marines. I also want to tie in Dark Heresy somehow. The main focus of the game will be RT but at times the will be playing DH or DW characters. I'm not sure how I'll tie it all together though. I think it will involve the Haarlock adventures somehow but I haven't read enough to put anything together yet.

I imagine it as a 40K campaign that focuses on RT but has DH and DW elements sprinkled throughout. If the players enjoy playing the DH and DW characters I'll have them create their own PCs and we'll use them more often.

DigitalRedneck said:

I want to run a RT campaign where at some point they have a team of marines on their ship. Once they get to where the marines want to go I was going to hand out a stack of Deathwatch PCs and let the group know they will be running a mission with the marines. I also want to tie in Dark Heresy somehow. The main focus of the game will be RT but at times the will be playing DH or DW characters. I'm not sure how I'll tie it all together though. I think it will involve the Haarlock adventures somehow but I haven't read enough to put anything together yet.

I imagine it as a 40K campaign that focuses on RT but has DH and DW elements sprinkled throughout. If the players enjoy playing the DH and DW characters I'll have them create their own PCs and we'll use them more often.

theronin said:

That does sound like a cool game. I can see a Inquisitorial team asking a Trader to take her and her team to a particular world or series of worlds for an undercover investigation. (say a heretical conspiracy spanning three or four planets). Since the Inquisitorial team is undercover the Trader needs to be trading and whatnot so the cover is solid. And the Deathwatch Kill Team is there at the request of the Inquisitior for cleansing the bad guys and rescuing the other two teams and also to route the occasional Xeno invasion on the way.

You could start the game with the inquisitors and the Deathwatch keeping to themselves and not involving themselves with the trader and crew. Then later the three groups could bond. Then they will be easy to keep together once the great Herasy Conspiricy is handled.

I didn't see this mentioned before, but my apologies if it has.

Have the Explorers go aboard an abandoned station and find an Apothcary who had entered suspended animation (via his Sus-an Membrane). The Apoth. carries the gene-seed of his late kill team, and he needs to get to a Deathwatch station or meet with Apothecaries of those Chapters. If he was "out" long enough his Watch Station might have been lost, causing the Explorers even more headaches, as they can't easily get him to where he needs to go without abandoning or delaying their current objectives.

Of course, protecting the Apothecary from a small fleet of Chaos Raiders who have been searching for him for centuries would go a long way towards earning his trust, and the thanks of a few Chapters…

Telemicus said:

This idea is pureGOLD! I love the hell out of It!

Telemicus said:

I don't believe that a SM in a sus-an trance can self-revive and I'm pretty sure that no one outside of the Astartes (and forsaken/Chaos Marines) would have the knowledge of how to perform that procedure. Now if you want to do the Astartes version of Sleeping Beauty, it might be fine.

A Genetor might have a chance to revive the marine. However, I am sure the marine's chapter would prefer the body to simply be shipped back. The chapter's apothecary is by far the best place. Also the Genetor would be risking the wrath of the marine's Chapter - particularly if he was unsuccessful.

However, if there is a story reason to revive the marine, then I would let the PCs do it.

Fresnel said:

Its been a while since I players Deathwatch (which it totally awesome) but I remember getting the impression that marines can voluntarily wake themselves from the trance. I could be wrong here but I mention it because I think it's worth a look into the RAW

I only brought a couple RT books with me to work, deathwatch is at home. I can check in about eight hours….

Fresnel said:

Fresnel said:

Its been a while since I players Deathwatch (which it totally awesome) but I remember getting the impression that marines can voluntarily wake themselves from the trance. I could be wrong here but I mention it because I think it's worth a look into the RAW

I only brought a couple RT books with me to work, deathwatch is at home. I can check in about eight hours….

Given the nature of fluff in the franchise, it probably depends on where you look.

"Only appropriate chemical therapy and auto-suggestion can revive a Marine from this state - a Marine cannot revive himself. The longest known period of deanimation followed by successful reanimation is 567 years in the case of brother Silas Err of the Dark Angels (d.321 M.37)."
- WD #247, Index Astartes, Rites of Initiation

Depending on how closely the group wants to stick to which sources of fluff and/or how important the Marine's participation is for the story, I am sure one could come up with ways on how to trigger revivification … possibly even with unintentional side-effects due to using non-standard procedures! *plot hook*

But if the idea is to have a whole team of Marines (possibly player characters) on the ship, the Apothecary could well suffice as a "Sleeping Beauty", as HappyDaze put it, good only for establishing the initial contact.

Don't forget the Squat Heptad that accompanies the sleeping Astartes!

Lynata said:

Oh, good catch, I don't think I've seen that before!

A weakened, irritable Astartes (like when the 10th Doctor first regenerated in front of Rose) who needs a special cocktail of nutrients to get himself back in shape could be amusing (for the GM) and a memorable complication for the Explorers to overcome

Telemicus said:

Rogue trader is a heavily social game with some focus on combat (especially starship scale combat).

Deathwatch is a combat grind with very little social focus.

Those two work well to mesh together, but the problem is Dark Heresy - your players wont enjoy how underpowered the characters are compared to RT and DW. Also of issue is the fact that DH has a focus on inquiry, which can be done in RT via your seneschal or dynasty's network of operatives, at low levels and at high levels becomes a political power game, which is what Rogue Trader is from the start.

I'd personally skil DH and just do an RT/DW hybrid.

Reading through this thread I had an idea I've not seem written yet do here's my two cents.

The recent Salamanders trilogy showed a side of SM that we haven't really seen before, and a number of the main characters (all full battle brothers with at least a couple of decades of service under their belts) had great difficulty adjusting to the loss of thier company captain, and the head apothecary of the company is so grief stricken by the loss of such a close friend that he decides to withdraw from service and leaves on a journey across the deserts of Nocturne as a form of honourable suicide not unlike the Japanese tradition of Harikiri. Though he is not expected to return, his brothers hope he will for a warrior returning from the edge of the abyss is a warrior reborn, and to find out if he does, you'll have to read the books XD

Now onto my original point. If a battle brother was a member of a task force that suffered a crushing defeat from which he was the only survivor, he may feel his personal honour was injured, or he may feel responsible for destroying those responsible for killing his brothers, he may take the a death oath, as some have mentioned, or he may request leave from his chapter master to hunt down the ones responsible. This gives you scope for a future campaign with the SM, and an almost infinite number of ways to introduce him to the RT group. Meeting him devoid of armour in a spaceport bar while he looks for suitable transport to follow his next clue, finding him in almost destroyed power armour barely conscious after a confrontation with his sworn-enemies, those are just two, but theres any number of ways to bring him in.