So here's the thing, I like the book campaigns since I don't have enough time to sit down and write a new thing each week for my group. I want to run No Surrender this spring with my group, however they all want to use the same characters that they had used in the final Testimate book.

The characters they used were from the valhallan regiment. there was a commander, a psyker, a breacher, a medic, and two sharpshooters. At the end of final Testimate they werte sentenced to life in a penal colony which was commuted to penal servitude by colonel Schaeffer of the Last Chancers.

My question is this, How well would No surrender work if they were to use the same characters as they did in final Testimate? Obviously I would need to scale combat which could help since they wont have their normally issued equipment. Would it just be better for them to roll new characters?

You should take it as a compliment that they want to keep their characters, it means they thought it was so fun and exciting to play the last time that they now have an attachment and want to continue that adventure. I haven't read No Surrender, but what is the alternative? Making a new regiment and make the regiment so powerful that they are suited for the adventure?

I'm going to reveal a secret, as the game master you are all powerful and can make anything happen. Maybe you can set up a way for the characters to redeem themselves? Or the characters can be recognized as skilled fighters and be given first pick of gear from the penal regiments stores for this dangerous mission?

What I'm trying to say as that there is no real problem here, and ofcourse the players want to see what happens next in the epic story you are creating.

Taking back a space station, and fighting Chaos seems just like the "regular" suicide missions Schaefer's Last Chancers get sentenced, er assigned to. As for gear, if they found some leftovers from a defeated Guard unit, raided some stockpiles of the enemy (Penal Legionnaires are crafty), or however they might approach their "regular" gear picks, it shouldn't be too hard.

And I agree, if they liked the last one enough, I'd say try to run this with them. I've never seen FT, but heard some horror bits for No Surr (what they should say, in game ), so I doubt it'll just be cake, by comparison. Give them a shot and, if nothing else, let them earn the Emperor's Pardon, and then build something new, if they have to. I hope that they find it to be another fun experience.

I'm perfectly fine with them keeping their old characters, I just want to make sure I have the combat scaled correctly. usually these books are built for starting characters so I wasn't sure if that would be the best idea since some of their characters are fairly overpowered.

Working it into the story is not the problem, I already have something written in case they do use their old characters. I'm talking about simply how the mechanics of their characters would work with the new book as I haven't gotten it yet. I could always give them NPCs to help them through spots where they might need an operator, tech priest, priest, etc. but I want to make sure they have a balanced party so they aren't spending 3 days trying to climb a wall again.

just scale enemy weaponry and numbers up as you go, the first few enemies will be rather easy to defeat lets say they are recruits but than the enemy sees that veterans are needed and here come the plasmagun and shotgun and what not in growing numbers until you almost kill them than you found a good level

Funny you mention that, my current players doing Final Testament are all Penal Legionnaire from the Last Chancers, needless to say the behind enemy lines missions is well suited for their type of Regiment, and will surely make Part 3 all the sweeter.

I did plan on running No Surrender after that as well, as beachheading an assault on a Star Fort (far from your usual guard operation) is something the Penal Legion/Last Chancers are there to do