So, I´m thinking about sending my players into a Space Hulk. I´ll propably give them some kind of motion sensor(Auspex?) and compensate their low level by giving/letting them find stronger weapons (Melta/Plasma,Chaos-tainted and so on) within the hulk. Enemies would be Tyranids, heretics and some lesser demons.

My questions are:

Are Carnifexes, Genestealer Broodlord and Chaos Marines too much for 5 lvl 1 players, even with superior firepower? Or am I just being too gentle with them? And if anyone has any experience/ideas about Space Hulk adventures/layout/anything, I´d appriciate if you would share them with us.

There's a Deathwatch 3-part adventure called Ark of Lost Souls (due out in January, I believe) that is supposed to double as a general space hulk supplement; you might want to run one or two 'one-shot' missions to kill time until that comes out- sounds like it will be very helpful…

Beyond that, yeah, I'd say Broodlords and Carnefexes are too much for Rank 1 characters- another good reason to to squeeze in a few short missions until AoLS comes out.

For adventure ideas, I would look into Space Hulk (the board game). There are a few fan sites still kicking around with fan-made missions. These will give a good idea of what a mission might look like, and nearly all of the published missions were a part of a larger campaign. You'll also have maps, which might help make GMing easier. You can also modify the largely Genetealer opponents to other xenos or even Marines or lesser dameons.

As for opponents, that's a tough one. I've only played Deathwatch twice (but very familiar with 40k), so bear with me. A Carnifex is out of the question. While I was a part of a 10 man squad that took a Hive Tyrant, that was mostly the GM's fault (and there being 10 marines firing on it with heavy weapons). A single Broodlord might not be too bad, especially along side a handful of Genestealers to prevent ganging up. A small number of Chaos Marines should be doable, as my rank 3 Librarian recently killed 4 no longer Loyalist Marines with a single Smite (pushed, mind you). Basically, you want to look at the scale. Such an end boss should be a rough fight, but such a fight should only have one "high level" opponent. The rest of the fights should be easier. Maybe small hordes of Genestealers or Chaos Cultists (with respirators/voidsuits, of course).

Two things to keep in mind. 1) Not every encounter needs to end in death. If the squad is overrun by Chaos Marines, they may simply choose to leave, having bested their opponent. Or they could be low on ammo, or in the middle of some other task and not wanting to press the attack. 2) Space Hulks are massive collisions of voidships, so they may very well have several different threats on board. Maybe some Orks took root in another section of the ship, near where the squad is fighting a Genestealer infestation. Or maybe a small Dark Eldar force was looting the hulk when they too ran across some daemons. This will help drive home the size of the ship and the ever present threats to the Imperium. Plus, it'll keep the game from going stale fighting just one opponent.

Hope that helps.

FYI, there's a new preview of Ark of Lost Souls :

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=3860

Little disappointed that there won't be any tactical maps (that's the most time-consuming part of designing an adventure, in my opinion!), but it looks cool enough that I'll but it anyway…

Adeptus-B said:

Thankfully, I have eight sets of Space Hulk tiles (two sets from the original, four from the 2nd Ed, and two from the latest Ed).

FFG 40K RPG adventure designers must simply hate making maps. Why? Who knows? Personally, I feel if they are going to include an encounter "area" they should include a tactical map.

Alekzanter said:

Nice. One of my players has a complete set of the 1st and 2nd edition sets (the 'brown' and the 'blue' sets, as I call them) that I occasionally use in Deathwatch and Dark Heresy . They work great for intact voidships (as well as space stations, research outposts, etc.). For general 'wreckage' areas, I made a 'battlemat' by drawing wreckage with markers on a three foot long piece of brown wrapping paper; distances are determined with a tape measure. To keep it from getting too repetitive, we 'flip' the direction each time we use it.

Alekzanter said:

Agreed. Not sure why good maps are so scarce in WK40KRP modules. Expense would be the obvious answer, but I know so many unemployed graphic designers who are willing to work cheap that I have a hard time accepting that. Of course, that could just be because I'm from Portlandia, where practically every other person is an un- or under-employed graphic designer. Or in a band. Or both…

-And now Ark of Lost Souls is out. At least according to the banner.