Morvius's Uplifting Primer

Game Master Tourach


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This is the OOC thread for our Only War game. I'm going to start by running the mission from the GM's Guide and I'll let you know that it is primarily a recon style mission.

The first step is talking about regiment creation as well as character creation. Unless someone has a really strong reason to suggest otherwise, let's stick to the Core Rulebook (instead of adding Hammer of the Emperor) to reduce the number books people will need access to.

For Regiment, the only types I'm saying no to are Armoured and Drop Troops. I will warn you though that in the first mission vehicles may be a liability (particularly Chimeras, less so with Sentinels though still a concern).

For characters I'd like to see at least one Sergeant specialty and preferably more Guardsmen than Support Specialists.

Question can be asked here or in PM.

Scarab Sages

Checking in.

I've got no preferences on type of character or regiment. Just happy to be on board.


Here we are.

I'll call dibs on being the squad Medic, I guess.

As for Regiment...if we're using one of the pre-designed ones, Vostroyans seems most appropriate given the name I got. I'm not picky though.


From my end, doesn't matter if you want to use a pregen regiment or make one. Though I'm leaning slightly toward suggesting that you make one to get a little more camaraderie. Also, a number of people are unfamiliar with 40k, so it gives a chance to make a world people are familiar with.


WS-25, BS-35, S-25, T-33, Agi-40, Int-50, Per-33, WP-35, Fel-25, W 13/13, Fate 1/1, Insan 0, Corr 0, Armor 6 All Fortress World Human Guardsman - Medic

Logical.

In that case, here's my suggestions/preferences for maximum plug-and-play utility:

-Imperial World: It's Cheap, Willpower is always good, plus another bonus...can never go wrong with Ballistic Skill. And everyone loves to hate mutants.

-Choleric Commander: Being able to test out of an ambush is a great benefit.

-Hunter-Killer or Line Infantry: Hunter-Killer has better stat adjustments and a very nice free Talent - Fear tests can be devastating, so an always-on resistance bonus is valuable. Line Infantry has a decent talent and a good all-round starter equipment kit.

-Sharpshooters Doctrine: We're Imperial Guard, we don't belong in melee.

Total of 10 points, leaving 2 for extra Kit Customization points.


While not necessary, I'll say that in the first mission/adventure, things like Chameleoline and Well-Provisioned would be helpful. You'll be operating behind enemy lines for recon work, so if there are people inclined to take those kinds of things, they are unlikely to go to waste.


Checking in.


I haven't looked at the rules yet or anything.

I am thinking I'd like to be a stealth/assassination type archetype.

-Ian D


As it was asked - I'm a fan of point buy instead of random stats. So 110 points to be assigned as if rolled (just like the point buy sidebar).


Let's try to ramp up to our 1+ post per day schedule. If at any point we don't have enough people to go on, I'll recruit from the boards here as necessary.

For those that have checked in, please weigh in on the regiment. I'd love to get at least a little background together from you guys about what your world and regiment are (thematically, not just mechanically) and if you have no input there, starting character conversations is a good thing. You can (and should) roll any random stuff you need to roll in this thread (stuff like wounds). For those not used to it, below the space to write a post there is a button after "How to format your text" that shows everything like how to roll dice, how to write spoiler text (to hide huge chunks of text so they aren't walls of unreadable text), etc.

For this campaign (at least the first adventure) the primary "enemy" will be the Severan Dominate. That is a group of human separatists - still claiming to obey and revere the God-Emperor but rejecting the High Lords of Terra - that are largely a poorly equipped version of the Imperial Guard. The Guard command structure doesn't acknowledge that they exist as an entity, but fighting on the ground shows otherwise. Be prepared to military vs. military operations - not to say that you won't also fight Orks and other xenos from time to time.

Scarab Sages

I'm also interested in a stealth/infiltration style character. Perhaps we could be a recon or light infantry unit?

As to regimental building, I don't mind the above build. It's a little on the bland side (Imperial world, Line unit, all pretty standard) but I don't actually have any issues with that. I do suggest we use all 12 points on building the regiment (or as close as possible).


Let's keep the discussion and character creation going. I'm going to try to get the actual gameplay going on Monday, so we'll dodge the slowness of the holiday weekend and give people some time to finish things up.

For character creation, remember that Guardsmen start with 600XP and Support Specialists start with 300XP.

Scarab Sages

Here's my Regiment Suggestion:

Home World: Fortress World
Cost: 3 points
Characteristic Modifiers: +3 to any two of the following - Ballistic Skill, Willpower, Toughness
Skills: Common Lore (War), Common Lore (Imperium), Common Lore (Imperial Guard), Linguistics (Low Gothic)
Hated Enemy: Gain Hatred Talent against the group the world is set against. Must make Ordinary (+10) WP Test to restrain from attacking hated enemy without mercy.
Combat Doctrine: Gain Nerves of Steel or Sprint
Bred for War: Must make a Challenging (+0) WP Test to go against rules and regulations of the Imperial Guard.
Starting Wounds: Normal

Commanding Officer: Choleric
Cost: 2 points
Starting Talents: Rapid Reaction

Regiment Type: Reconnaissance
Cost: 3 points
Characteristics: +3 Perception, -3 Willpower
Starting Skills: Awareness
Starting Talents: Combat Sense
Standard Kit: One Sentinel Scout Walker or one Chimera Armoured Transport per Squad and one set of magnoculars per player character

Training Doctrines: Sharpshooters
Cost: 4 points
Starting Aptitude: Ballistic Skill
Starting Talents: Deadeye Shot

Total Cost: 12 points

Additional Equipment in Standard Kit:
Replace laspistol (Main Weapon) with lascarbine (Main Weapon) 5 points
Chameleoline Cloak (Rare Availability Item) 15 points
2 weeks' worth of additional ration packs 3 points
Chrono 2 points
Smoke Grenade 5 points

Total: 30 points


I think a lot of that (especially the equipment) will serve you guys well.

I'll add, as an aside for those that aren't familiar with the system, Scholastic Lore (Tactica Imperialis) is the skill that you test on to "figure out what to do". It is kind of the catch all for being able to develop tactically sound plans in any given situation. It won't give you all of the details, but having someone that is capable of testing well on it will generally give you tactical and situational hints when you might otherwise be stuck.

Scarab Sages

Anyone have preferences on what type of world the home world is? Like what it looks like?


I'd personally rather Hunter-Killer over Reconnaissance, mainly because Hellhounds are awesome and killing things with excessive amounts of fire never gets old. But it's not a big deal, and the rest of that package lines up pretty well with what I had already suggested.

As for what the fortress world is like, I'd imagine that depends a lot on what sort of enemy we're Fortressed against. A bastion against Chaos is going to be different than one holding the line against Orks or Eldar. Just as a random idea, though, both Recon and HK are suited for fast-deployment, so I've got a random hankering to be from Mongol World; lots of wide-open steppes and plains, broken up by huge siege fortresses.


I'll say that I'll try to find a way to incorporate whatever mobility you guys have, but if your want stealth/recon, a Hellhound will definitely be harder to hide than a Sentinel.

Scarab Sages

The mechanics for HK are *vastly* better than Recon, but the role they play isn't as interesting, I think. HK units hang back and only deploy when something hard hits the line.


I'm happy with whatever we end up on with the regiment. I don't know the universe, so I'll let others decide that stuff.

MY character is a Ratling sniper. Probably will take some demolitions too, if that's not useless in this game.


aptinuviel wrote:
The mechanics for HK are *vastly* better than Recon, but the role they play isn't as interesting, I think. HK units hang back and only deploy when something hard hits the line.

Sure, but by the same token, Recon's job is to run away and report back as soon as they find the enemy, which would get kinda repetitive. I've got confidence in Colin's ability to vary our mission assignments whatever our nominal role is.

As for stealth - is there any particular reason we can't just leave our big clanky vehicle behind if we need to? Sentinels aren't exactly quiet or easy to hide either, I kinda assumed that any outright recon mission would, at most, be leaving our transport/vehicle behind at the evac point and doing the actual scouting on foot.


I'd like to play a Heavy Gunner, if either we upgrade our laspistols to lascarbines or our regiment type is line infantry so our laspistols are replaced with lasguns.

Homeworld: I am okay with Imperial World or Fortress World, slightly leaning towards Imperial World (unless we have a Psyker) because I think it's a bit more interesting & because we don't need to make a test to violate Imperial Guard procedures. In the case of Fortress World, I'd like some kind of ethnic theme, and my suggestion for Hatred is Orcs or perhaps Chaos Worshippers.

Regiment Type: I am leaning in favor of Line Infantry because I like the kit (lasguns! grenades! less bad armor!), but I'm not opposed to Recon or HK either.

I think a Choleric commanding officer is fine.

Also I am rolling for wounds in this post.
Wounds: 1d5 ⇒ 2


Glyphstone wrote:


As for stealth - is there any particular reason we can't just leave our big clanky vehicle behind if we need to? Sentinels aren't exactly quiet or easy to hide either, I kinda assumed that any outright recon mission would, at most, be leaving our transport/vehicle behind at the evac point and doing the actual scouting on foot.

You definitely are able to leave big vehicles (or gear) behind in most cases. But not all recon will be of the super stealthy variety (though the first mission has a lot of stealth). So there are different roles for everything, but a Sentinel is fairly easy to, for example, hide in trees or scale a mountain with while things like tanks are much more prone to having a bad time without some form of road.

But yeah, I'll try to mix things up here and there, but I'll sort of gravitate toward things that your regiment "should" be good at. So by default if you go Hunter-Killer, a number of missions will be like SWAT - months of boredom punctuated by days of terror. I obviously won't have you RP all the boring stuff, but remaining vigilant and avoiding jumping at shadows will be important. By contrast, a recon regiment will have more missions that focus on operating out front - not all retreat on contact missions, but gathering forward intel, waiting, mapping, etc.

Scarab Sages

Well, if people are keen on Imperial World, we can change the home world to that. Then we could be Light Infantry or Line Infantry and have points left over to have Chameleoline Cloaks from the special equipment doctrine. Or we could add another Training Doctrine, like Close Order Drill.

If we go with HK and Imperial World, I suggest we take the Close Order Drill as well.

Any of these would free up a ton of space in our standard equipment kit.

I'll be out most of the day, but I'm fine with any of the above. I think playing the absolute standard IG (Line Infantry from an Imperial World) could actually be pretty fun.


I'd prefer Recon over Line Infantry - the latter would definitely be a more 'authentic' IG experience, but also very bland.

Overall, to commit to a 'final proposal' - so we can start on Monday, I'll suggest:

-Fortress World - +3 BS/+3 WP, Hatred of Orks, Nerves of Steel
-Choleric Commander
-Recon Regiment - Sentinel Walker w/ Heavy Flamer
-Sharpshooters Doctrine
-Lascarbine, Chameoline Cloak, extra rations, chrono, smoke grenade

Homeworld Theme: Mongol Planet, as suggested above. Open steppes and plateaus, trains excellent scouts and fast-attack troops. Fortress world Positioned on the border of a large Ork empire.


Base Stats
WS: 5 + 20
BS: 15 + 20
Str: 5 + 20
Tou: 10 + 20
Agi: 20 + 20
Int: 25 + 20 + 5
Per: 10 + 20
Will: 10 + 20
Fel: 10 + 20
Total: 110

Specialty - Guardsman: Medic (Ballistic Skill, Fieldcraft, Intelligence, Knowledge, Perception, Willpower)
Trade: Chymist training, Jaded Talent
Wounds: 1d8 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11 = 11 Wounds
Fate: 1d10 ⇒ 1 = 1 Fate point

XP: Awareness Traing (2x Aptitude, 100 X), Master Chirugeon (2x Aptitude, 400 XP)
100 XP remaining

If we take the Deadeye doctrine, I'll swap the redundant Ballistic Skill aptitude for an Agility aptitude and buy Stealth training with my leftover XP.


Hrm. Cant see an Edit Post option, but I don't qualify for Master Chirugeon. Make that a 200XP Medicae +10 instead, and bank 200 XP for now.


Glyphstone wrote:


XP: Awareness Traing (2x Aptitude, 100 X), Master Chirugeon (2x Aptitude, 400 XP)
100 XP remaining

Correct me if I'm missing something, but I think you already have Awareness Known from being a Recon Regiment (Trained would be 200xp so I'm assuming you meant Known). And you need Medicae +10 to buy Master Chirugeon, so you'd need to buy Medicae at Trained (200xp with the 2 Aptitudes). So you could get Medicae +10 and Master Chirugeon for the full 600xp.

Scarab Sages

My plan was to stat up a Sergeant or a Commissar today since we don't have a commander-type, but I'm feeling a Weapon Specialist a lot more. I'll finish him up and post him in a bit.

Scarab Sages

Oh, does anyone know what they want for regimental favored weapons? For an open steppes and plains world I'd suggest something with range.

Maybe Long-las or Sniper rifles for Basic and a Missile Launcher for Heavy?


DM Morvius wrote:
Glyphstone wrote:


XP: Awareness Traing (2x Aptitude, 100 X), Master Chirugeon (2x Aptitude, 400 XP)
100 XP remaining

Correct me if I'm missing something, but I think you already have Awareness Known from being a Recon Regiment (Trained would be 200xp so I'm assuming you meant Known). And you need Medicae +10 to buy Master Chirugeon, so you'd need to buy Medicae at Trained (200xp with the 2 Aptitudes). So you could get Medicae +10 and Master Chirugeon for the full 600xp.

Yeah, I did the math wrong, but it won't let me edit a post with dice rolls in it.

So if we do take Sharpshooters, I'll get Stealth Known for 100XP, Medicae +10 for 200 XP, and bank 300 towards Master Chirugeon once we finish our first mission. If we don't take Sharpshooters for some reason, I'll get the Medicae+MC combo. But Stealth seems like a good choice for Recon troops, and it'll be a double-aptitude purchase with the trade-out from Sharpshooters' redundant Ballistic Skill affinity.

Long-Las and Missile Launcher are good options for regimental weapons. Missile Launchers in general are good choices for any unit since they're multipurpose.

Something small that occurred to me, but there doesn't appear to be any skill related to riding mounts. Survival lets you train exotic creatures as mounts, but there's no actual Ride skill or its equivalent. This seems like a logical thing for people on Mongol Planet to know; do you want to invent an Operate (Living) skill, add it as a specialty use of Athletics/Acrobatics, or would you just be fine with us saying 'our regiment knows how to ride horses', since it'll probably never come up in the actual game outside of being a background detail for characterization.

Scarab Sages

They have rules for riding mounts in Hammer of the Emperor (though more for riding mounts in combat). It falls under Wrangling in the Survival skill. Luckily, Survival will be a popular skill, I expect. :)

I actually expected it to be under Operate (Surface).


Yeah, I'm willing to stipulate that you can all ride simple mounts for quiet and uncomplicated overland movement. If you want to ride in combats or otherwise do complicated riding we can use the rules from Hammer of the Emperor.

Scarab Sages

Cool. I don't expect that we'll be full on rough riders, but mounts might be useful on long distance missions where we need to carry some extra stuff and get somewhere quickly. And they're better for climbing, at least.


And it's flavorful for the regiment if all the infantry are cross-trained as dragoons, which was my first thought to begin with.

Scarab Sages

Good call. I like it.

Scarab Sages

Here's my initial build for my Weapon Specialist. I'm looking at him as support for our sniper. Either as an additional sniper, or fire support, with the ability to bring the right kind of firepower to bear as needed.

I like the idea of them using the chameleoline cloaks because they tend to work out in the open without a whole lot of natural cover (though they'll certainly do what they can with what there is out on the plains).
---
Weapon Specialist
Characteristic Bonus: +5 BS
Starting Aptitudes: Agility, Ballistic Skill, Fellowship, Fieldcraft, Finesse, Weapon Skill
Starting Skills: Athletics or Survival, Navigate (Surface), Common Lore (Imperial Guard, War)
Starting Talents: Lasgun Barrage or Rapid Reload, Weapon Training (Las, Solid Projectile, Launcher)
Specialist Equipment: 4 Frag grenades, Common Craftsmanship Long-las
Wound Roll: 8+1d5 1d5 ⇒ 5
Wounds: 13
Fate Roll: 1d10 ⇒ 3
Fate: 1
---

Characteristics:
Weapon Skill: 20+5 = 25
Ballistic Skill: 20+20+3+5 = 48
Strength: 20+10 = 30
Toughness: 20+10 = 30
Agility: 20+20 = 40
Intelligence:20+10 = 30
Perception: 20+15+3 = 38
Willpower: 20+15 = 35
Fellowship: 20+5 = 25

Redundant Aptitude (Ballistic Skill): Perception
Aptitudes: Agility, Ballistic Skill, Fellowship, Fieldcraft, Finesse, Weapon Skill

Skills: Common Lore (War) +10, Common Lore (Imperium), Common Lore (Imperial Guard) +10, Linguistics (Low Gothic), Awareness, Athletics, Navigate (Surface)

Talents: Hatred (Orks), Nerves of Steel, Rapid Reaction, Combat Sense, Deadeye Shot, Lasgun Barrage, Weapon Training (Las, Solid Projectile, Launcher)

Experience:
Acrobatics 100xp
Survival (Surface) 100xp
Stealth 100xp
Scrutiny 100xp
Light Sleeper 200xp


So, I'm considering a post in the recruitment forum to get us a few more people. I'd look for a Sergeant (or Commissar) to hopefully help with Commerce tests to get more gear on the gray/black market and maybe an Operator (or other thing, I'm less set there). In total would be adding 2-3 people.

The upshot is that I'd need help evaluating any responses and it would push back our start date until (probably) this Friday. I don't want to cut down on posting though - let's keep up with the one per day. You guys could spend the week working on joint backstories and finishing up characters (and getting aliases with character sheets).

Thoughts? Seem like a solid plan?

Scarab Sages

Sounds good. I'll work up an name, alias, and a little bit of personality later today and see if we can't get some shared backstories going.


Works for me.


I have been convinced to add this additional rule:

To give people more flexibility, I'll let everyone swap out a single aptitude as if they had a redundant aptitude. If you already have a redundant aptitude, that counts already for your "swap" so you don't get an additional one.


WS- 25, BS- 48, S- 30, T- 30, Ag- 40, Int- 30, Per- 38, WP- 35, Fel- 25, Wounds 13/13, FP 1/1, Insanity 0, Corruption 0, AP- 3 (Body, 4 vs. weapons with Blast quality)

Here's my avatar. I didn't do too much work on the character today. My basic idea is that he's kind of a backwoods raised guy, even for the Fortress World that they're from. Really quiet. His companion is going to be talkative and superstitious.


Good stuff.

For those that didn't see in the recruitment thread, we also have a Commissar incoming from a friend of mine. So our squad is shaping up nicely.


I'm probably going to have my character be a veterinarian by training, cross-trained in military medicine when the supply of human medics dipped. Beyond that, I'm not sure.


WS- 25, BS- 48, S- 30, T- 30, Ag- 40, Int- 30, Per- 38, WP- 35, Fel- 25, Wounds 13/13, FP 1/1, Insanity 0, Corruption 0, AP- 3 (Body, 4 vs. weapons with Blast quality)

Updated the character sheet with equipment and the regimental special "abilities" (or flaws to some people).

Scarab Sages

I would have expected more interest in an Only War game even on these forums. (40k games are usually oddly popular here.)


Stats for my heavy gunner:

---
Heavy Gunner
Characteristic Bonus: +5 T
Starting Aptitudes: Ballistic Skill, Defense, Fellowship, Offence, Perception, Toughness
Starting Skills: Athletics or Survival, Common Lore (Imperial Guard, War), Intimidate
Starting Talents: Iron Jaw, Weapon Training (Las or Solid Projectile, Low-Tech, Heavy, choose 1 excluding Exotic)
Specialist Equipment: Common Craftsmanship missile launcher with 5 Frag Missiles or Common Craftsmanship heavy stubber or Common Craftsmanship Regimental Favoured Heavy Weapon
Wounds: 12 (10+1d5, rolled in earlier post)
Fate Roll: 1d10 ⇒ 2
Fate: 1
---

Characteristics
Weapon Skill: 20 + 15 = 35
Ballistic Skill: 20 + 20 + 3 + 5 = 48
Strength: 20 + 15 = 35
Toughness: 20 + 15 + 5 = 40
Agility: 20 + 15 = 35
Intelligence: 20 + 10 = 30
Perception: 20 + 10 + 3 = 33
Willpower: 20 + 5 + 3 - 3 = 25
Fellowship: 20 + 5 = 25

Redundant Aptitude (Ballistic Skill): Fieldcraft
Aptitudes: Ballistic Skill, Defense, Fellowship, Fieldcraft, Offence, Perception, Toughness

Skills: Athletics, Awareness, Common Lore (Imperial Guard) +10, Common Lore (Imperium), Common Lore (War) +10, Intimidate, Linguistics (Low Gothic), Stealth, Survival (Surface)

Talents: Hatred (Orks), Nerves of Steel, Deadeye Shot, Rapid Reaction, Iron Jaw, Weapon Training (Las, Low-Tech, Heavy, Launcher)

Experience:
Ballistic Skill 200xp
Stealth 200xp
Survival (Surface) 100xp
100 XP banked


Please take a look at the submissions in the recruitment thread and PM or email me your thoughts. And for those that haven't, finish up character creation and get some aliases up. We'll tart either this weekend or early next week.


WS- 40, BS- 25, S- 30, T- 30, Ag- 35, Int- 35, Per- 31, WP- 30, Fel- 45, Wounds 12/12, FP 1/1, Insanity 0, Corruption 0, AP- 3 (Body, 4 vs. weapons with Blast quality)

Rolling for Wounds 1d5 ⇒ 2

Rolling for Fate 1d10 ⇒ 3


Will be posting selections later. So if you want to weigh in and haven't, shoot me a PM or email within the next couple of hours or forever hold your peace.


That Nimon guy had a gigantic chip on his shoulder for some reason, I'm not sorry he changed his mind about joining.

I think the Operator, plus the Commissar/Sergeant you mentioned coming in, will be enough. That's 5 PCs - with one Comrade each, we're a full 10-man squad.

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