Deathwatch (40k RP)

[Serafina]

Hm...no comment on the Salamanders, but i think it would be nice if you could add more to represent the tactical prowess of the Imperial Fists, especially in Defense.
Ideas for that:
-Command Skill, at least early levels
-Evaluation - you can use it to maximize firepower against stationary targets and your usage of cover
I don't see why they should have the Peer Talents, so you could throw those out. Likewise, Hardy and Iron Jaw could be taken out, given that those are available early on anyway.

Other than that, good work.

[Bedlam]

EDIT: Why did the GM just drop you in? The pre-mission phases are very important. Requisition for gear is huge; the standard-issue equipment is not adequate for a serious entanglement with Deathwatch-level enemies. Oaths and how you plan around your Squad Mode are likewise important for a smooth mission. Skipping all of that is... bizarre.

I think it was just suposed to be a warm up game so we can get to know each other. Its the first time hes run the system as well so he's not sure on the system and how important requisition is either. I think we just ran out of time, so it'll probably be a few rounds of combat before were resqued next time and presumably we'll get a proper breifing and requisition next time.

If I was running a campaign I would probably have a few sessions when either you dont have time to requisition or the mission breifing is completely wrong so you're likely to requistion the wrong thing just to mix things up. I probably wouldn't do it as the first session though.

[Serafina]

Requisition is quite easy to handle. Determine how much Requisition that mission justifies (there is even a nice table for it, and you can eyeball it quite well).
Then the players simply buy equipment from those points - whatever they want, limited by their renown.

Say, for example, you are a Devastor Marine on a short mission that gives you 50 Requisition, and you have 0 Renown.

Suppose you are on a mission which requires heavy firepower and involves a lot of cover-heavy fights. You want a missile launcher - that's 10 Requisition. That already includes enough Krak&Frag missiles. You can now add some Incendiary Missiles for 15 Requisition, enough for the entire mission. Finally, you want some explosives and take 3 cluster mine arrays (3x5) and Demolition charges (10). That's a lot of heavy firepower, can burn foes out of cover and the mines and demo-charges allow you to build lots of traps.
For another mission profile, you might instead take a clip of Hellfire Rounds against those pesky large Tyranids (25), Metal Storm Rounds to REALLY decimate hordes (15) and two mine Arrays (10).

That's just very basic stuff, and it already enhances your capabilities quite well.

Such equipment might also be vital to your character. Say, you play a Blood Angels Apothecary - you are good at close combat. But you have no melee weapon other than your combat knife. You can get a Chainsword for 5 Requisition or a chain-melee attachment for your Bolter for 9. Let's go with the former and also get a Diagnostor-Helmet (+10 Medicae, Preysight) for 15. Get some Blind Grenades to cover you and your patients (10) and extra doses of Pain-Supressant and De-Tox (10 each).
All of this is basic stuff for an Apothecary, but you don't start with it.


The system is really quite easy - look what you want and take it. The math is pretty easy, and item-selection is mostly straight-forward. And while the standard equipment is hardly lousy, it lacks versatility and you lack a lot of options with it.

[Talk738kno]

When you requisition ammo, do you only get 1 clip per requisition? And how many clips is "default?" it is referenced quite a few times, but isn't directly stated as far as I can see.....

Where is this table you speak of?

[Imperial Overlord]

When you requisition ammo, do you only get 1 clip per requisition? And how many clips is "default?" it is referenced quite a few times, but isn't directly stated as far as I can see.....

Yes, you only get one clip of specialty ammo per requisition. It's right there in the specialty ammo section. Heavy Bolter ammo costs another five points and bolt pistol is half price due to the quantity differences.

Standard ammo doesn't have a requisition cost. You can load up as much as you want and you can reasonably carry.

[Serafina]

Right now, quantities work like this:

When you get a weapon, you get "an adequate supply of basic ammunition" - basically, unless your players use a lot of ammo, they have enough. Likewise, explosives (grenades, missiles etc.) last for the duration of the entire mission - unless otherwise noted. Again, it's up to the GM to determine how much that really is - 3 clips/grenades per primary objective seem appropriate.
Drugs are always in a single dose - frankly, i would house-rule that to be "single dose per kill-team member" for Apothecaries at least, otherwise they are way to expensive.

Special ammo is just one clip - normal cost for boltguns, half for pistols and +5 for heavy bolters (and you could house-rule storm-bolters to add +5 due to their large clips). With heavy bolters you only get the 60-shot clip, not the 250-shot backpack. A neat trick is to use Hellfire-ammo for your heavy Bolter - it's 30 Requisition, but since that changes your bolter to single-fire it will last very long.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Hm...no comment on the Salamanders, but i think it would be nice if you could add more to represent the tactical prowess of the Imperial Fists, especially in Defense.
Ideas for that:
-Command Skill, at least early levels
-Evaluation - you can use it to maximize firepower against stationary targets and your usage of cover
I don't see why they should have the Peer Talents, so you could throw those out. Likewise, Hardy and Iron Jaw could be taken out, given that those are available early on anyway.

Other than that, good work.

Thanks for the feedback. My justification is as follows:

Command and Evaluate have a broader scope to them. Anything they can be used for for tactical defense is already covered better by the Tactics skills, subset Defensive. Hardy and Iron Jaw are offered cheap as early as level one for an Imperial Fist, because they mesh nicely with their legendary resilience. It may only be a small boon, but the small ones are as important for character differentiation as the large ones.

The Peer is, granted, a little iffier. But they were the de facto personal guard of the Emperor back in the day, they are the only Chapter who lists Holy Terra as a homeworld, and they are second only to the Ultramarines in loyalty, devotion, and the very essence of what it means to be a Space Marine, but without all the Ultra baggage. I'd say that gives 'em some cred with other Space Marines.

[Imperial Overlord]

Handled the combat this session and started the game rolling on the next mission.

The battle was against three Hordes of Chaos infantry, three Dark Mechanicus, and a Traitor Legionnaire (Alpha Legion, thus disappointing the Space Wolf and the Dark Angel). They pretty much massacred the enemy in exchange for taking minor injuries. They were attacking from surprise and over focused on the Marine, which lead to the Assault Marines essentially trying to find him instead of getting stuck in and killing down the Hordes. One of the Assault Marines was pretty disappointed in his HTH bodycount when he did get stuck in, but has equipped with dual hand flamers for the next mission to rectify that.

[Serafina]

Again, Hordes have to be used the right way. If you do that, they can get pretty nasty.
Some hints, tips and ideas:

-use hordes with non-standard weapons, especially heavy ones. You can mix their ranged attacks between heavies and basics, but that's optional - a horde of traitor soldiers with heavy stubbers already causes 4D10+5 damage. If you give them heavy bolters (5D10+5), missile launchers (6D10+6, Pen 10) or even lascannons (8D10+10, Pen 10) they are a threat even to high-end Space Marines. Grenades are also a nice alternative here.
That also encourages melee, even for those who don't specialise in it - 3D10+3 damage are certainly favorable to all of the above!

-Let your hordes use cover! Normally, every attack will do enough damage to do actual damage - but a standard soldier (TB 3), flak armor (4 AP) and a flakboard trench (8 AP) will more than double his damage resistance and take no damage from about 1/3th of all boltgun attacks. Better cover and armor will increase that rapidly.
Again, that encourages melee or the usage of specialisted weapons and ammo - dragonfire shells, grenades, flamers etc.

-give the horde an objective, rather than just being a target. That works especially well if the Marines are defending - perhaps the horde plans to plant a charge on your building. Or they are attacking allies of your marines.
Furthermore, being cannon fodder is a great "objective" for hordes - if the combat is time-critical, it's always more interesting.

-give them proper leadership. Soldiers should have officers to bolster their morale, even if those are not good combatants on their own. You can represent that in various ways - you could just increase the Willpower of the Horde or give them other boni on such tests. You can put an actual officer into the battle who uses leadership skills, treating every horde as a single creature (that also works for your marines and their allies). Or you put the officer into the horde - but your Marines can only target him in close combat, where he will face them in addition to the horde (preferrable with some nasty CC-weapon).

-use REALLY big hordes, especially for ranged combat. A single 60+magnitude horde is much more dangerous than two 30-magnitude hordes - it has the same number of ranged attacks, but is much more resilient to breaking.
Again, that encourages melee, since a large horde is no more dangerous than a small one there.


Oh, and in case you are wondering why i am talking about "encouraging melee" that much: Especially at the beginning of the game, ranged combat is much better in nearly every way than melee combat. It's certainly better at taking out hordes, and will not be outdone by melee in that regard later on (tough melee can outshine ranged combat against single targets later on). But that's only in a relatively unmodified battle - all of the above makes melee a much more viable options, even for your tactical or Devastor Marines.
If a horde has good cover, uses dangerous randed weapons AND is very big, going into melee can be far saver than a shootout. Assault Marines and other CC-specialists will thank you, and you will challenge your ranged combatants as well. Oh, and remind them that those without multiple attacks can use an all-out attack, since you can't parry a horde anyway.

[Imperial Overlord]

Prevailing conditions (darkness and cover) favored the Marines in a gunfight and the players took advantage of it. While the Hordes (multiple, one very large) were poorly armed in comparison, they were capable of inflicting damage and did so. They also made some use of cover. The Dark Mechanicus and the Traitor Legionaire both made use of cover and had dangerous weapons, but the dice did not favor them.

The Assault Marines essentially flew above the enemy for several rounds trying to spot the Traitor Marine while the Dark Angel Devastator and the rest of the Kill Team opened up. They only got stuck in at the end of the fight and didn't really focus on how to fight Hordes so their body count was unimpressive compared to the Devastator Marine with Unrelenting Devastation. The Traitor Legionaire ending up trying to gun down the Devastator and failing and that's when they decided to drop down. If they had taken more Horde focused abilities, as well gotten stuck in earlier and Swift Attacked, then they would done better.

The next mission is against the Tau. I imagine they will teach a very good lesson about the merits of getting stuck in.