WHAT UP, GMMMMMMMMMMMMMMS!!!

So I'm gearing up to run No Surrender and I wanted to start a thread where we can share ideas and inspiration on. I have some qualms with this adventure, but overall, I think it has the potential to be an amazing one, with a few tweaks.

If you're a GM and have gotten your copy of No Surrender, please feel free to contribute!

First of all, VOID SUITS!!!

I don't play Dark Heresy or Rogue Trader, so I don't know if there are any rules for them there (I'd think they'd be the most likely sourcebooks, instead of Deathwatch or Black Crusade), and I haven't been able to find them in the No Surrender book. Am I missing something? Anyway, here's what I assume they look like, based on an old Goodwin sketch.

GRIMDARK!

Although, to be honest, I've always thought of Void Suits looking more like Isaac's from Dead Space, but without the glowing spine...

I think the Void Suit offers some distinct challenges for us GMs in this adventure. Do void suits have a profile or special rules? Does it have AP? When the guardsmen aren't using the void suits, (i.e. once they've landed safely and are allowed to take them off) do they take them off? If so, where do they store them?

Here are some ideas I had, unless someone can point me to the correct (or better homebrew!) rules that I've overlooked:

The suit gives AP 2 to arms and legs, with AP 4 to head and chest. If the suit is ruptured by a wounding hit, the PC has to make an Agility test to effectively work the knobs and dials on his suit's joints to patch or close the seal on that body location of the suit. If this test is failed, that location is ruptured and although he may still be protected from the freezing atmosphere by the underarmor he wears beneath the suit, the player receives a -10% modifier to any tests using that limb until seen to by a tech priest. If the rupture is in the head, the player must be wearing appropriate goggles and rebreather or be suffocated and have his eyeballs ruptured (GRIMDARK! HELL YEAH!!!)

If there is sudden depressurization, the PC has to make a Tech Use test to activate their boots' mag locks, and if they fail they go floating through space toward the rupture in the hull, and must try to grab hold of something.

Idk, what do you guys think?

If you play RT there are rules for void suits, armored void suits (two patterns) and for having your voidsuit get penetrated (Hostile Acquisitions? not sure). I imagine that the IG just gives their men voidsuits that they then strap thier flak armor over. Specialized regiments use sealed carapace armor (Storm Troopers for example). They might use the Selenite-Pattern Voidsuit (AP3, Head AP4 but -10 Agility when worn) which is a reasonably effective option, and can be equiped with an impellor unit for zero/reduced gravity conditions.

There's rules for Void Suits on page 198 of the core rulebook. They're not armored at all and give an agility penalty - my assumption is that Rogue Traders tend to give out better gear than the Departmento Munitorum. Pretty minimal and with no rules for having your suit penetrated, but they're there.

Got my copy of No Surrender on the way - I'm excited!

Agh thank you for that! I just found it!

The Selenite-pattern void suit (Rogue Trader main rulebook, page 141) is only scarce availability (same as Guard Flack, so not too bad). The fluff states that it is 'the most common pattern of heavy void suit used in the Imperium'. They are used by 'voidwalkers, belt miners, and the like'. They might be an unusual choice for most IG units, but I could definitely see them being standard issue to units based on voidships or special equipment for certain operations. If they are making a beachead on a void station, they might be issued such suits. Most Imperial warships probably have a dozens (or hundreds) of such suits on board for Hit and Run or Boarding actions.

Oddly, my crew considers them too slugish for their troops. Their troops wear Vacuum Carapace Armor or wear Footfall Pattern void suits (much more comforatable, can be worn as work uniform) under their other armor.

The main points you need for your game is that they are AP3 for all but head (AP4). They have 10 hours of life support and can be recharged without breaching the suit. They have Vox, photo-visor, seal patching kit, and hand grapnel with 10m of line. They mass 25kg and impose a -10 on Agility tests. Some have an impellor that grants movement of 6 in zero gravity. They follow the armor rules for quality as well. If they borrow the suits I imagine that they will smell like old socks too. If I remember properly, if you take more than the suits AP it sprouts a hole that you need to take a Full action to fix with a seal. If you don't you start to sufficate. Unfortunately I don't have my books with me and don't have that one on PDF.

The Selenite-pattern void suit (Rogue Trader main rulebook, page 141) is only scarce availability (same as Guard Flack, so not too bad). The fluff states that it is 'the most common pattern of heavy void suit used in the Imperium'. They are used by 'voidwalkers, belt miners, and the like'. They might be an unusual choice for most IG units, but I could definitely see them being standard issue to units based on voidships or special equipment for certain operations. If they are making a beachead on a void station, they might be issued such suits. Most Imperial warships probably have a dozens (or hundreds) of such suits on board for Hit and Run or Boarding actions.

Oddly, my crew considers them too slugish for their troops. Their troops wear Vacuum Carapace Armor or wear Footfall Pattern void suits (much more comforatable, can be worn as work uniform) under their other armor.

The main points you need for your game is that they are AP3 for all but head (AP4). They have 10 hours of life support and can be recharged without breaching the suit. They have Vox, photo-visor, seal patching kit, and hand grapnel with 10m of line. They mass 25kg and impose a -10 on Agility tests. Some have an impellor that grants movement of 6 in zero gravity. They follow the armor rules for quality as well. If they borrow the suits I imagine that they will smell like old socks too. If I remember properly, if you take more than the suits AP it sprouts a hole that you need to take a Full action to fix with a seal. If you don't you start to sufficate. Unfortunately I don't have my books with me and don't have that one on PDF.

ARGH! This is fantastic, thank you! I think these void suit rules are perfect! I wish they were included in No Surrender, I'm definitely going to use them.

In fact, I've been writing up a short "training mission" to start off Chapter 1, rather than the "your PCs must travel 60 meters to a platform while being fired upon by servitors" bit in the book. In my version, the PCs' squad begin in the cargo/crew compartment of an Arvus Lighter flying around the giant converted zero gravity training bay.

The Sergeant is giving everyone last minute instructions on how to patch suit breaches, how to use their impellor to maneuver in zero gravity, etc. Then, the squad is deployed in zero gravity and have to propel themselves forward to a location and hold it while a techpriest or operator downloads information from a small cogitator, all the while being fired upon by a defending team of guardsmen whose goal it is to keep the PC's squad out. Everyone's weapons are set to "tag" the target, rather than do any damage, and tagged guardsmen are all immediately removed from the exercise to serve latrine duty.

This serves a few purposes:

1) For a new group of players, it allows them to get used to the dynamic of working together in a high stress assignment. Sergeants deploy everyone to utilize their abilities in the best possible way, everyone gets used to following orders and working cohesively, its a great way to make everyone see the value in working as a unit (heavy gunner and sniper overtaches, sergeant barks orders and gives buffs to everyone with orders while trying to create as tactically efficient a deployment as possible, Ogryn in oversized void suit yowling in terror about floating in zero g while he shoots wildly into the enemy, specialist gunners and Stormtroopers watching the corners, operator or techpriest fiddling with the data slate and connector ports, Commissar and Priest shouting encouragement and threats.

2) For an experienced group used to fighting together, you can emphasize the danger of the void suits by maybe having someone's oxygen feed be damaged and have to help them stay calm (Command Test!) while it is replaced. Or patching holes in the void suit, or the disorientation of fighting in zero gravity (I'm recalling the second to last mission in Call of Duty Ghosts, where the good guys assault an enemy held satellite/space station. PERFECT for this style of fight.)

3) In the book, the first time the void suits actually come into play is when the PCs join up with the Void Shrikes and all hell breaks loose when there is a hull breach in the beachhead. Including this little scenario raises the tension nicely and familiarizes everyone with the proper operation of the suits early on, so that you can focus on the details more on the story later on, rather than fiddling so much with the suits being new.

Have you all added or changed anything in the book to make it more playable for you?

I got my copy today and only reached until the Vox Belli's...well smashing exit.

I got to admit, this Captain sure has a way with making things epic for the Guard, way better than some crappy boarding action and then lame landing.

got my copy yesterday and after a brief read through I really like it. Mostly I like the maps included as I am not very good at making things up on the spot so it provides a good visual aid for me. As for the void suits I always imagined them something like the hazardous environment suits that forgeworld makes.

Clunky voidsuits more fit the 40K aesthetic, IMO.

so just a thought here (starting this campaign this weekend with my group) how do you deal with zero gravity physics? Also what to have people do if they are sucked into space (besides what it says about that in the Uplifting Primer)?

so just a thought here (starting this campaign this weekend with my group) how do you deal with zero gravity physics? Also what to have people do if they are sucked into space (besides what it says about that in the Uplifting Primer)?

I don't know about the first (there are low-gravity rules but no zero-gravity ones as far as I know), but in the latter case what level of realism are you going for? Hollywood space or real space?

probably Hollywood space, I think real space might be a little too difficult for the players.

Well then they blow up.

The rules for vacuum I think will cover that.

so just a thought here (starting this campaign this weekend with my group) how do you deal with zero gravity physics? Also what to have people do if they are sucked into space (besides what it says about that in the Uplifting Primer)?