I am still a bit new to Only War as a system, but wondering what regiments are best for a commissar. Was hoping to be able to be decent at social stuff, especially because the rest of the group seem to be leaning towards elite strike force operating in the enemy's "territory", but someone has to be able to command native PDF and whatnot when we find them.

I'm.. I'm not entirely sure what you're asking for here.

Are you asking us what regiment would be the best for a commissar? Commissars don't have special regiments, they are assigned to regiments by the Commissariat.

Commissars are political officers usually motivating troops and breaking down communication barriers (languages and dialects) to ensure that the troops are able to follow orders and fight.

If your squad is an 'elite' that often operates behind enemy lines and establishes restistance cells or mobilzes the locals they could need a good Commissar to do .. well ... his job. Not to mention to make sure his squad does not go native.

Since i'm AFB i cannot look up such regiments, but you will surely find some in the CRB or HoI.

Okay, maybe I misunderstood the rules. Still pretty new to OW for the chargen bit. Isn't the first step to pick (or make) a regiment (often shared by the group), then choose the specialty?

Okay, maybe I misunderstood the rules. Still pretty new to OW for the chargen bit. Isn't the first step to pick (or make) a regiment (often shared by the group), then choose the specialty?

So you are choosing the regiment along with your fellow players.

I thought I had to originate from the Schola though, so my training would differ somewhat?

I thought I had to originate from the Schola though, so my training would differ somewhat?

Technically yes, but for simplicity's sake, we usually use the main regiment for the commisar as well.

You will notice an overlap between the Schola bonuses and the Commissar bonuses. I believe that to be intentional.

the system assumes you have gone through schola training as commissar and than basic training with your assigned regiment so you understand their style of warfare, you could of course use the mixed regiment rules to create a freshly assigned commissar but i would recommend talking to your GM first

I thought I had to originate from the Schola though, so my training would differ somewhat?

Fluff wise yes, game mechanics and for over all ease you create a Commissar based on the rest of the Regiment for the core rules.

Meaning if your group are playing a squad of Vostroyan Firstborns then your Commissar will be created using that template and the reason your character shares some of their training is your character has adapted to their way of life and doing things.

By this understanding of their way of life can the Commissar truly keep the esprit de corps...

If your Game Master/Storyteller is using the Hammer Of The Emperor then it's possible to build your character differently then be attached to the rest of the group...

Okay, maybe I misunderstood the rules. Still pretty new to OW for the chargen bit. Isn't the first step to pick (or make) a regiment (often shared by the group), then choose the specialty?

I thought I had to originate from the Schola though, so my training would differ somewhat?

In Only War, you create the Regiment with the other players, and unless you are doing a Mixed Regiment from Hammer of the Emperor, you all share that Regiment, no matter where you originally came from.

Commissars, fluff-wise, all come from the Schola Progenium, yes. But a Regiment does not denote where you, as a person, is from, and where you are from has no relevant gameplay effects.

The internal logic of this is that no matter where you are originally from, the effects of being in that Regiment is what decides your modus operandi and communal character. For example, in fluff terms, Stormtroopers belong to it's entirely own regiment. But since he's now a part of your Regiment, steeped in it's culture and origins and dogma, it shapes him as a person after it's own mold.

I'm not 100% happy with how this works in Only War, since it boils character creation down to 1-2 choices (some Doctrines offer multiple choices on a per-character basis) and a choice of Specialization, but there you have it.

Not to start an old line of arrgh! up again, but yes, they are built like any other character of the group's chosen regiment, be they Commissars, Storm Troopers, Ogryns, or whatever. The only notable difference, at least to me, and this MIGHT depend on your GM, is that Specialists will get, RAW, shafted on gear. I started that discussion with "Would a Psyker character get the same starting gear as all of the Soldiers being played along side them if they are all Kasrkin (HoI regiment; elite Cadian "Storm Troopers"), and the overall consensus, though it got well argued from both sides, seemed to be that Specialists DON'T get the cool regimental gear, if the regiment has any, because they aren't that integrated, or something. A Kasrkin Weapon Specialist will have carapace armor, a hot-shot lasgun, and such other things, while a Kasrkin Psyker will have a stick, a datapad, and some serious envy of his...no, no, no...and a really cool trench coat. Again, this can depend on the GM; they might give similar gear to everyone, or they might agree that "Specialist Class" advantages (I can blow things up with my mind, or I'm built like a Space Marine) balance out, and the "regular" soldiers better gear is their advantage. And of course, the Specialist can requisition said gear as normal; what else is a psyker likely ever going to want to requisition?

Minusing that, they re built the exact same, with the same Aptitudes, Characteristic Adjustments, etc. In this way, unless you are playing a mixed reg, your players won't as easily cherry pick what works more than necessarily well for their individual character, and it gives them some uniformity and solidarity/camaraderie. The Commissar might not have grown up among the Vostroyan troops he's with, or the Psyker might be reviled by the Catachans he's attached to, but the stuff of their lives together will cause them to become more alike, no matter how hard they try. So long as the Psyker doesn't regress to also wanting, and hunting for a pair of paradoxically hard to acquire Catachan Devil boots, they should be okay.

i actually use the mixed regiment rules a lot, firstly for specialists and secondly in slight variations in specialist gear and training to reflect some members of the squad having been to say demolitions or closequarter classes

it makes the palyergroup a bit more powerful, which can be easily mitigated by balancing the opposition but makes them more diverse on a very personal level but still keeping up the uniform regiments except for commissar and such which i want intenionally stand apart a bit

It seems the best option is using the regiment rules as provided by the finished regiment, then swap out homeworld, CO and so on as needed to reflect my different training (but still being compatible with the regiment)

I think you should keep the CO - after all, he is your current CO, even if you are outside his chain of command.

While I agree with the sentiment, I want to stress that if you divert from the given logic of the rulebook and the basic assumption as to why the regimental nature applies to all characters equally, you open up a whole can of worms in regards to who get what parts of the regiment choices.

Abhumans, for example, are almost certainly not from the same homeworld as the one the regiment was raised on. What homeworld do they get? Ministorum Priests? Stormtroopers are also all Progena. Psykers, too, are unlikely to be from the same homeworld as the rest of the regiment, and even if they are, they've got basic, fundamentally different training on-par with the Schola Progenium (Scholastia Psykana). What if another character wants to roleplay someone that joined the regiment mid-campaign? What if the regiment is a penal regiment? The vast majority of members of a Penal Legion were not born on a Penal World.

I strongly suggest that unless you are willing to revamp the system (..which I'd recommend, but it's a lot of work), you stick to the rules.

Funny, I don't want to start a whole new thread for this question, even though it isn't really OT, but maybe it'll kind of fit, so:

How might you "incorporate" some classes into certain regiments? Take the Penal Legions; my character is going to be one of Schaeffer's Last Chancers. However, being the little dweeb about it I am, I want to play my Psyker. Would they waste time throwing a Psyker into the PLs, or just "oh, was that a nosebleed...?" BOOM goes the bolt pistol? If the Penal Legions are sort of "you WILL die, but we'll make you work it off for Him on Terra", what's the difference between sending the Psyker off to die on a suicide mission, and remembering that he's a big risk, assuming his crime wasn't a warp-related thing, and the Commissar didn't shoot him, right there? Would Storm Troopers get sent, or just back to the SP for "reconditioning"? Ogryns? I know that some people don't approve of the Specialist class options, and while I do, since they seem like some great fun options, I can see where some don't always fit.

As for the prior, tweaking rules is fine, but you should remember that, like a game of pick-a-stick, many of the other sticks might be deceptively supported by that one, and the game fails when it goes all Jenga on you. Certain advantages can be nice for a character, but some of it can just be more acting; a Commissar knows how to act Commissar, even if he doesn't have the Schola Progenum on the sheet.

I DO realize that this is pulling a thread forward in time, but one thing that I haven't seen mentioned here is an important Out of Game/Universe concern about Only War, the other FF RPGs, and 40K in general.

Warhammer 40,000 was created by a group of British people, and in the British military tradition a person enlists into a regiment and that regiment is their home for the entirety of their career. There are exceptions, and personal are often loaned to other units, but the main point of attachment is the soldiers home regiment. This is strongly different from the American military tradition, where a soldier enlists into the branch (Army, Navy, whatever) and moves units several times over a career.

I (and the other members of my gaming group with whom I have discussed this) believe that this is the basis of the emphasis on the individual Regiments in the backstory and game rules for the Imperial Guard. This was then carried over into Only War as established flavor and feeling.

I am unsure about other cultural military traditions, so they may or may not have an impact on game design.