Only War: The Faceless Legion (Inactive)

Game Master Tark the Ork

Alrighty so let's get character creation started.

The first thing we're going to do is select the regiment we want to be a part of. This help determines some things like starting aptitudes, doctrines and what not. Training stuff.

Cadian Shock Troopers: Disciplined fighters from the ever-besieged world of Cadia where over 90% of the population is raised form birth to defend against the forces of chaos. You've held and handled weapons since you were old enough to crawl. Your tactics, uniform, and doctrines set the standard that all Imperial Guard regiments strive to follow.

Catachan Jungle Fighters: Born and raised on a death world with legendarily inhospitable conditions to human life you represent man's ability to adapt and overcome. A true survivor in the most hostile of situations.

Death Corps of Krieg: Conceived in rebellion and born of nuclear fire you come from a background of regimented self sacrifice and penitence for the crimes of your ancestors.

Elysian Droptroopers: From the fringes of space you have served a tour of duty defending your homeworld and hunting pirates, raiders and other terrors that come from the deepest ranges of space. Lightly armed and lightly equipped droptroopers specialize in dropping on enemies from orbit, from dropship, or from other airborne conveyances to surprise and ambush an enemy and conserving resources until the battle is won or at least until reinforcements arrive.

MAccabian Jannissaries: Driven by zeal enflamed by the deepest of faiths the Janissaries see their tour of duties as pilgrimages rather than military service.

Mordian Iron Guard: Supremely disciplined and organized your regiment comes from a planet where the unruly require a tight fist to keep order. You represent that order.

Tallarn Desert Raiders: On the desert world of Tallarn you honed your skills for the ambush and the well placed shot on the deserts and tunnels of your home. Guerilla warfare is your creed whether emerging from the dunes lasguns ablazing or thundering suddenly from the mountains astride a powerful leman russ tank.

Vostroyan First Born: You are the first born of your family and due to an agreement made way way before your time whether you wanted to or not you were sent off to serve the imperium in tithe. Your family considers this a great honor and you may have even met a relative when you were shipped off. Vostroyans take pride in their equipment often getting heirlooms from their family in the guard but nonethless of the utmost quality due to your homeworlds close relationship with the Adeptus Mechanica.

The Swordmasters of Yatagan: Raised on a feudal world where skill with the sword is cherished and respected more than the crude ease of lasgun fusilades your regiment relishes the thrill of close combat even against physically superior foes. Your regiment is known for its grisly trophies and unparalleled skill in close combat.

If you want more info fluff wise on the regiments all but the last one can be looked up via google and be provided an absolute wealth of information.

I made the last group because I figured something from a feudal world (i.e. has tech closer to the 1300's) might be more comfortable to those unfamiliar with the setting.

As far as people from a mix of homeworlds might be concerned we can discuss it but I'd like for most of the squad to come from the same homeworld.

Hmmm, I'd like to be ground troops, so that rules out the Cadians, the Mordians and the Elysian.
Of the ones left I'd probably go for the Vostroyan, but I'd be willing to change to Catachan if we could agree to use some of the regiments equipment point to get a full set of armour.

Hi,

Got permission of the GM to still join you all.

From what little I actually know of the 40k lore, I thought the Cadians are primarily ground troops, so wouldn't count those out.

I could go for Vostroyan First Born, Catachan Jungle Fighters or Cadian Shock Troopers.

I know the catachan's don't wear much armor, just not certain how much difference it is compared to standard issue guard armor. But I can get behind the idea of making certain we are decently equipped.

The Cadian Shocktroopers are a mechanized unit, that is my number one objection to them.
And the Catachan's are a light unit, which means they start with vests and helmets only.

If I might interject Jannisaries can theoretically come from any world and fit the idea of footsoldier.

Unfortunately they do tend die standing a lot.

I'm for catachan. Obviously. However I also like the tallhan desert raiders and elysian drop troops.

Why do you want us to come from the same home-world?
There is the whole strange crew trope to consider. The idea of random disparate folks being forged together through the military life.

Sides my idea of a hive/forge worlder is diametrically opposed to rorek55's jungle fighter.

We both seem at least slightly attached to these concepts.
Mind you mess up paperwork could explain a lot.

Queue my character being issued a Vostroyan First Born uniform: "But I have an older brother, his name is Sam. He works quality control on level onesixteen."

All the same regiment yes but same homeworld?

If none of the regiments satisfy we can create our own regiment. The only trouble with that is it wouldn't be ready made in terms of fluff and crunch. We'd have to make our own crunch.

There's also the option of characters being support specialists rather than grunts.

The regiment itself is typically raised from a single world. However! Commissars, Sanctioned PSykers, Stormtroopers, and Priests can easily come from another world.

Can the crunch be randomized? That could lead to something interesting....

If not I could easily be tossed into any regiment through a paper work error or perhaps "temporarily attached while awaiting transport."

Of the listed I think the Desert raiders the Iron guard or the first born appeal, but like I said attach me anywhere.

As to the why it's primarily based on regiment design more than anything where people tend to come from the same homeworld.

It also simplifies things for me in the sense everyone will have roughly the same things in terms of equipment and certain abilities.

IF the group would rather design it's own hodge podge regiment that still accomplishes this goal for me.

Can the crunch be randomized? That could lead to something interesting....

If not I could easily be tossed into any regiment through a paper work error or perhaps "temporarily attached while awaiting transport."

Of the listed I think the Desert raiders the Iron guard or the first born appeal, but like I said attach me anywhere.

Sadly regiment creation is point based.

I honestly think Vostroyan does sort of fit you. They're pretty much a forgeworld and somehow "paperwork error" doesn't sound out of place at all.

So desert raiders with roek55 a jungle fighter commissar?

A Catachan commissar honestly sounds like the most terrifying thing I can imagine outside a cuddly ripper swarm.

So it looks like the jungle fighters are a the most popular choice, assuming we do something I don't understand to get heavier armor.

Mind you from what I have pieced together about the 40k games is that is you are depending on armor things have gone sooooo pear shaped that it is pretty much time to go into the light.

That would actually be the funniest thing to me ever.

You'd be the pasty white guy who wandered into the turkish wrestler public bath.

Or Steve Buscemi who wandered into the newest movie by Guillermo Del Toro: John Rambos.

I can live with that.

The primary goal of a player is to amuse the GM after all.

I am vehemently opposed to Commissars as PCs in Only War. If one gets included then I'm out.

I'm happy to run through the regiment creation aspect if there is a desire to custom fit our regiment? - I've got all the resources as PDFs so it's not hard for me. I also find regiment creation one of the nicer aspects as well; and the pre-built regiments come with too much baggage as far as how they're meant to react, etc.

Are we stationed on a Paradise world Tark?

What is a commisar?

Or is that a question like "What is reactor shielding?"

Think Soviet Union Morale Officer... except with more discretionary powers and less conscience. They have abilities that only function when they summarily execute one of the guard squad (not our characters but 'comrades' which are kind of like super underpowered cohorts). They can do whatever they want, you have no recourse against them, and if they like they can decide to shoot you in the head for sh1ts and giggles.

Perfect as NPCs... not so much as PCs.

oh.... I see your concern. That does sound iffy.

Morale/political officer. With a heavy bolt pistol.

Since you are going to be briefed on this anyway no you won't be stationed on a paradise world.

You are sent to a paradise world after the worlds local PDF just got up one day left all their bases and wandered into the wilderness. Those who followed never came back.

The game starts after a six month journey across warp space roughly two weeks behind an inquisitor being sent to investigate. You're there basically to babysit the locals until the fate of the AWOL planetary defense forces can be determined.

So it looks like Jungle fighters with new suits and no PC morale officers all off together for fun time at Camp Crystal Lake.

More or less correct, right?

More or less. But obviously I want more input. Atm it might be looking like making a whole new regiment.

Awesome.

My suggestion is to make our own regiment, but am happy to have specific Tark guidelines as to the core theme, mandatory choices, etc.

I would suggest the following as a skeletal regiment build (all from the Core book):
Homeworld - I am unfussed - we could go Death World to allow people to run with the 'Catachan' angle?
Commanding Officer - open to suggestions
Regiment Type - Line Infantry (it's boring, but gives us a main gun upgrade to the M36, full flak armor, and frag and krak grenades for all)
Training Doctrines - I'm fond of 'Hardened Fighters' (more stabby) or 'Sharpshooters' (more shooty)
Special Equipment - I like 'Chameleoline' (cloaks of elvenkind for all) or even 'Combat Drugs' (exactly what it says on the tin)

I am happy to let the folks who know the rules work this one out.

I don't have a set theme or guideline for the regimnt. I have a rough idea of a tight plot and how the pc's will relate to it. But beyond this you have quite a bit of wiggle room thematically. What I'm trying to avoid is getting overwhelmed in a mechanical sense.

Well in line with Tark's desire to follow KISS - here's my suggestion:

Homeworld - Deathworld (3 pts)
Commanding Officer - Sanguine (2 pts)
Regiment - Line Infantry (2 pts)
Training Doctrine - Hardened Fighters (2 pts)
Special Equipment - Chameleoline (3 pts)

This will give us a hard-ass line infantry regiment that can fight up close, sneak around pretty decent with the chameleoline cloaks, and has 30pts of regimental kit left to play with.

Are we doing random rolls down the line for character creation Tark?

I prefer to build, or do the 50/50 method, I'd hate to have the idea of a "melee" catachan, only to roll horrid for his melee score and great on his ballistic .

I like the above regiment. Fits well with me really.

Well I see the point method and the 2d10+20 method. So what's the 50/50 method?

its something a GM did for a deathwatch game, he gave us 60 points to spend on any attributes, then rolled, but we were only allowed to roll on ones we put no points into. He was thinking about another game I had to bow out of with a different version of it where he gave a player like, 40 points or something, that they could expend after rolling 2d10, he limited it to nothing higher than 55, but that was a space marine game, so if you used this should probably limit it a tad more.

Tell you what I'll give you the option of using either the point allocation or the rolling.

How does that sound?

I'll run with allocated points, and unless anyone else has a strong desire for it I can be our Sergeant.

I had thought about being SGt. though I would be hindered by my lack of game knowledge most likely. Catachans gotta respect there commanders though ;)

so far-

Weapon specialist

WS:40 (38+2)
BS:40 (35+5)
S: 40 (37+3)
T: 43
Agi:30
Per:30
Int:17
Will:30
Fell:20

Starting Skills: Athletics, Survival, Navigate surface, Common lore: Guard (war),

Specialist gear: Combat Shotgun, 4krak grenades, 4clips
Starting talents: Rapid Reload, die hard, lighting reflexes

its been forever since I played deathwatch.. ugh.
1d5 + 8 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 8 + 2 = 13= wounds. unless we are given max wounds at the start.

you said we had 30 points left to upgrade our starting gear?

The 30 points are on a regimental level to update our 'standard kit' - so they're spent as a group, rather than individually.

I thought I try my luck at rolling the dice:
If I'm not mistaken it means I have to roll 2d10+20 for all stats
Weapon Skill: 2d10 + 20 ⇒ (9, 9) + 20 = 38
Ballistic Skill: 2d10 + 20 ⇒ (7, 10) + 20 = 37
Strength: 2d10 + 20 ⇒ (9, 4) + 20 = 33
Toughness: 2d10 + 20 ⇒ (2, 7) + 20 = 29
Agility: 2d10 + 20 ⇒ (2, 5) + 20 = 27
Perception: 2d10 + 20 ⇒ (8, 5) + 20 = 33
Intelligence: 2d10 + 20 ⇒ (7, 1) + 20 = 28
Willpower: 2d10 + 20 ⇒ (5, 10) + 20 = 35
Fellowship: 2d10 + 20 ⇒ (3, 7) + 20 = 30

I still need to apply the starting bonuses/penalties from our regiment.
Was thinking of +3 in Toughness & Perception from Death World.

Any suggestions what role I could go for with this set of rolls?

Before we started I was looking into a more ranged focused character. Sniper type. In compared to most sniper types, I won't suck in melee combat with the weapon skill I have rolled ^_^ I could also go "melee" focused, but I don't think my Toughness will cut it then :)

Here's a fillable character sheet for peeps.

How do we wanna fluff our regiment and fill out our kit?

Smeggin 'ell! Look at all whats happened since I went to sleep.
Wow, you snooze you really lose eh?

That being said, I don't see anything I object to with this regiment.
The only thing I'd have done differently would be to take Sharpshooter doctrine instead of chameleon cloaks.
We could have got those with the points I think, but maybe that's a bit inefficient.
And as I said, that's the ONLY thing I'd change, and it's not important in the long run.

I'm going to be the squads heavy I think.

For kit - let's have the Heavy pick their gun, and if we have any Weapons Specialists then they can pick the favored basic weapon.

I would recommend we have at least one gun with some punch though. The M36 is a nice workhorse of a gun... but it does have Pen of 0.

Without access to the rules this is a bit tricky.

So what else do I need to do?
Judging from Marks character it looks like choosing skills etc. from a list time. This is problematic without the list.

So I am opening the floor for suggestions
What specialty/traits/skills etc should I have?

I am beginning to see this mook as a standard ground pounder, lazy but willing to do what he's told and take what he is given. He still believes his recruiting officer.
So shy away from any advanced training and go more for inherent advantages. As far as gear assume the quartermaster saw him coming and took the opportunity to dump some old stock on him. Hence the cloak rather than the lined armor and the mono(knife?) rather than a fancier choice.

Mind you random determination could also work. If it looks odd just assume there was a slot open in that training program and he was handy. A less than full program gets it's budget reduced next fiscal year so it's all about buts on seats.

Well, unless someone else is a heavy, that means it's up to me, anybody have a problem if I pick the auto cannon?
As for the basic weapon, I'd recommend the Triplex pattern lasgun, but that's just me.

weapon specialist here, I will be looking over the weapons and see if I find anything I like.

Got my hands on a book through a friend. (Also means, only working on character outside of work).

So for now we have :
Rorek55 - Weapon Specialist with shotgun.
Mark Sweetman - Sergeant
Boggbear - Heavy Gunner

I was personally looking into being a Weapon Specialist myself. Focused on ranged combat. I was wondering, we get a lasgun as part of our basic equipment, would it be useful to take the Good craftsmanship lasgun choice from the specialist equipment or better take another weapon like a flamer or some other weapon? Was wondering if there is a way to get other weapons? Like a longlas for example.

@Poor Wandering One, maybe Tark can give you the information you need so you can make you character.

@Tark, No idea for regiment background, but we seem to be a hardy bunch of line infantry from a death world. We have chameleoline armor, which means we are also good at being stealthy. Maybe we're a cross between the catachan jungle fighters & the cadian shock troops. Standing vigilant and defiant against the followers of chaos on a death world?

I was considering the flamer as well, if you would take the flamer we would have a good base of coverage. (imo, flamer>anytype of lasgun, save hot-shot)

is there a way for me to nab a combat shotgun at chargen?

@ Theorythmus, You can always requisition other weapons, but at the start, our resources will be rather low, so chances of getting anything is low.

@Poor wandering one, well, seeing as we will probably do a bit of stealth, I'd use part of the starting xp to buy the stealth skill and raise ballistics once.
Gaining dodge is always useful to help you stay alive.
And you could round off with Lighting Reflexes.
Stealth, Lightning reflexes and Simple Ballistic is 100Xp each, and Dodge is 200Xp.

you can also grab the reflexes for free due to our regiment.

also, if possible to grab a combat shotgun, is there a way to give a mono-weapon attachment? Like a bayonet? then place it on the combat shotgun?

also, Item customization, is this an option at chargen?

also, so far we have a lot of close quarters combat going on at the moment. with a shotgun and a flamer and the whole sneaky sneaky thing going on. My idea is we are the "behind enemy lines" regiment.