Deathwatch: The Shadow War (Inactive)

Game Master Yuugasa

Hello all and welcome to the Discussion thread.

Three thing I would like to mention:

Just wondering about choosing a leader and/or oath for this first mission. Any volunteers? I've got Brother Keeper Sardus ready, but I'd be willing to step down for someone better suited or with their heart set on commander.

Hey just checking in. I hope to have my librarian up and running tomorrow.

I'm fine with Brother Sardus being the leader for this mission. My suggestion for the oath would be the Oath of Glory so that we can gain renown faster.

Im okay.

Will have my profile sorted by tonight... i hope

Sounds good guys, and it's Thursday so the game has officially started!

I shall kick it off by...waiting till friday to give you guys a chance to post an intro if you like. =P Feel free to post one even if your Characters not quite done yet, we will just have your character fade into the background a bit till you are done. (though they can still talk and stuff, just won't be using skills or fighting).

Brother Sardus will consider it an honor to lead you all. We'll be pledging the Oath of Glory, time for Chaos to fear Squad Thanatos.

Edit: This is my first stab at Leading a Squad in Deathwatch, so bear with me. I'm in another DW game and we've yet to use Squad Mode. May not be all that beneficial, but remember, you do get to keep your solo mode abilities if they are "passive."

Also in ROB book, there is an elite advance for 500xp that we should all take after this mission, it'll let us share our Chapter's squad mode abilities with the whole squad for adding +1 to Cohesion costs at LEvel 6, +2 at Level 5. Not sure if any of you have some good squad mode abilities, but if you do, it might be worth getting to share with the rest and have more tactical options.

I view my leadership as more of a manager. Brilliant and capable marines capable of extraordinary feats individually, and unlimited potential as a squad. I hope everyone plays their part, speaks up, disagrees, etc..Unless you are playing the silent type. Still, I'll have some great ideas, but they may not be the best. Speak your minds. But do not act alone. Do not abandon your brothers or break the chain of command. We must all respect why we are here and whom we truly serve.

That's the gist of a speech I gave while on route.

Alright, Leader: Sardus, Oath: Glory.

That's what I am assuming for this mission, if anyone disagrees speak up today.

@Ren-Shaw and GM- Maybe open up the recruitment thread here as its a place to discuss this and we can save Game and discussion for in game things.

On your Profile Ren-Shaw-

1. You need to put what Chapter and Role you are. I had to go back and search from your original name, Seth86 to find out what you had posted you wanted to be before in another thread.

2. Choose spcecial ability of Assault marine. This should aslo include the special equipment you get with your specialty, like your Jump Pack.

3. There's just too much for me to go back from the ground up and rebuild it and figure out points. You need to list something like in one of my profiles that lists what you spent the xp on. How did you keep track and add it up yourself?

Without the above, there are just too many mistakes that I can't explain. For instance, you have an AG of 57, (Don't know how you got that) but in any case, some of the skills like Acrobatics, Conceal, and Silent walk all have different values on your sheet. Is that because you bought AG +5 for 200xp and then again for 500xp? Is that because you bought acrobatics +10? Did you buy conceal +10?

One other thing, the skills you have listed at 15, because of your Fellowship 30 is incorrect. Its not like other games in WH, marines can try basic skills at full characteristics if you have it as a basic skill. Then you'll need to purchase it as trained if you want advances for it like +10, +20 etc. Some other games let you try untrained basic skills at half or -20, but marines are trained in pretty much most things, at least basically. Remember, you can't try advanced skills without training, no matter.
I don't know how you got the numbers you have now, so impossible to check really. Maybe some people don't have option for certain things within their chapter or at a current level, but when things get mixed up...It's difficult to tell.

Did you buy anything from the Deathwatch Advances? General Space Marine advances? Some things are cheaper and more expensive and available at different points for different specialties and Ranks.

Did you buy the Acrobatics in your class or from the Chapter?

Some of your INT based skills like Tracking and Tactics, don't match what you have for Common Lore. They should be the same, but maybe you boght INT advanes? You bought Recon and Tactics +10? Tracking +10?

See what I'm getting at? I can't help you until you can outline where you get things from, otherwise I'll never be able to calculate all the places you got it, then try to work out the possible costs, etc etc.

You don't have artificer armor, just standard power armor. You should list your history and Mark. I'm guessing you got Mrk 6 because you have a +10 Agility bonus, but maybe that from History, Fury like Lightning +5 Agility and then you took Mk. 6 legs with a different set of armor to get the +10 bonus.

I could continue, but I think you get the picture.

List all your equipment, the starting equpment for Marines, and then your specialty stuff as an Assault Marine. Cut and paste the other parts of my profile, its pretty standard Bolter, Knife, Grenades. Then you get requisition, but lets save that til you get the other stuff in order.

I guess BayouSnowman pretty much has it covered. Your profile is incomplete Seth86 and can't really be double checked until it is complete.

I am still struggeling with the last xp points. Let me know if you have any comments.

Brother Naaman

Dark Angels Librarius
40 Weapon Skill
40 Ballistic Skill
(4)0 Strength
(4)0 Toughness
(4)0 Agility
(5)0 Intelligence
(4)0 Perception
(5)0 Willpower
(4)0 Fellowship
Demeanour: Stoic
Chapter demeanour: Sons of The Lion
Wounds: 22
Fate: 3/3
Movement: 5/10/15/30

[spoiler=Tales]
Past – The Lion and the Wolf

^^Looks good. That's your Rank one PC I presume?

Just list what type of armor you are using, looks like Mark 8, but helps to know for sure.

Nice range of choices with Librarian, I've never played or played with one taking those powers. There are some cool ones to gain, not sure of your chapter ones, but the "infinity gate" or something like that lets you create portals and basically teleport anywhere, including squads and even vehicles. There "force dome" which could be defensive and less aggressive if you're going that route.

Not sure why you took the staff, I prefer the sword for power and one handed as Invocation isn't all that great and I never use it as a librarian. But maybe with your range of psy abilities it'll be more important.

Lastly, don't forget deeds and distinctions in Rights of Battle, I'd suggest one of the willpower bonus ones or possible "second in command" if you're interested in that role/responsibility.

Don't forget to list special abilities and equipment you get for your class/specialty.

Other than that, looking forward to seeing the Rank 5 build and having your drop pod touch dirt.

Sorry, I'm late!

Welcome Threeshades!

@-BayouSnowman- Your critiques and advice on character creation and sheets seems alot better (and quicker) then mine would be would you mind having the responsibility in this game of helping players get their characters ship shape if they ask for help or inspection?

All the costs were on the sheets i had... at work again. So will have to see if im home early i can look at it again. Sorry

-Posted with Wayfinder

Welcome Threeshades!

@-BayouSnowman- Your critiques and advice on character creation and sheets seems alot better (and quicker) then mine would be would you mind having the responsibility in this game of helping players get their characters ship shape if they ask for help or inspection?

Sure, just be sure to give it that final approval. I'm here to help, anything I can do to let you focus on the GM tasks.

Yuugasa wrote:

Welcome Threeshades!

@-BayouSnowman- Your critiques and advice on character creation and sheets seems alot better (and quicker) then mine would be would you mind having the responsibility in this game of helping players get their characters ship shape if they ask for help or inspection?

Sure, just be sure to give it that final approval. I'm here to help, anything I can do to let you focus on the GM tasks.

Will do, very cool, thanks.

By the way, sorry of it appears I'm being slow to respond to game play thread, was giving the new guys a little extra time to finish up and join before we push in. I'll post this evening, my time.

You guys can continue. Work gave me a curve ball. Busy this week. Maybe im a contact or my DropPod scattered

-Posted with Wayfinder

It's all good.

Just finished Vengeful Spirit, it's pretty good, it pretty much confirmed what they have been hinting at for awhile in the Heresy books, that the Emperor got the bulk of his powers from the Dark Gods themselves before betraying them. Makes sense.

Anyone else been reading any 40k fiction lately?

Just finished Vengeful Spirit, it's pretty good, it pretty much confirmed what they have been hinting at for awhile in the Heresy books, that the Emperor got the bulk of his powers from the Dark Gods themselves before betraying them. Makes sense.

Anyone else been reading any 40k fiction lately?

Kind of a huge spoiler to casually put out there like this, don't you think?

Still on the Dark Apostle Trilogy myself, just finished the first book recently, gonna start with Dark Disciple probably tomorrow.

Also I've started rereading the Anphelion Project (Imperial Armour Volume 4) since i recently got the second edition of IAv4, which i bought because the new tyranid releases got me kind of interested in playing 40k again. Also I managed to somehow get a physical copy of Shield of Baal: Leviathan, so even more Tyranid stories for me to read, although neither Shield of Baal nor the Anphelion Project are strictly novels (although the latter does have novel-like sections, intermixed with schematics, report notes and all kinds of other things)

Hmmm apparently my posts are getting eaten again.

To sum up my last post here:

@Threeshades-

Sry for spoiler

Imperial Armor is great.

Ever play Apocalypse?

=)

@Temujin:

Don't forget you can aim, since we were in narrative time, you could've aimed for a full action = +20 to BS. Also, there are many other modifiers, range, size, visibility, etc. You didn't need any of these for a single shot, but if you are shooting in semi/full auto then the DOS (Degrees of Success) determine how many hits you land. So then you really do need those bonuses so you can land more hits. You are also able to allocate multi hits to other targets, spreading out your fire, but must be close and no harder to hit.

So in your Gameplay post you didn't say how many shots you were firing and I doubt a single burst would've done it..Actually, now that I recall, the heavy is a 10 round burst only. In that case, you need to roll 2d10 for each hit landed. In full-auto its every DOS is an additional hit.

You got a 6 on your 70, which could've had +20 for an AIM, gives time for us to get ready, you went before we were in position perhaps...Then the range for yours is 150m, we are at short range, maybe even point blank, lets say short, +10, also Full Auto fire is +20, (Check page 236 of Core, the ACTIONS are important, have those handy for posting in combat)
That means if you add the Full auto bonus and range bonus, its 100 vs the rolled 6, 9 DOS, if would've been a full action aim (+20) or a half action aim (+10)then youd of had over 10 DOS, landing all hits.

Your gun is 2d10 +10, Penetration 10. Roll for each hit. If you get a 10, then you can roll your BS skill again to confirm Righteous fury. With ten hits you have a high chance of that. If you confirm a BS check for each 10 roll you have, then its counts as an additional hit, in which case, more 10's can lead to more hits, which don't need to be confirmed after the initial roll test.

When that's all done, add the damage, the penetration, and denote the damage type.

Sorry if this seems like its too much or confusing. If you need more guidance ask, I'd suggest looking at the Core for the Actions and then reading the combat modifiers section, that describes bonus/penalty for range, cover, visibility, etc.

Been wanting to post for a while, but waited for people to catch up, glad we got a few additions, I'm happy to help. I'll be posting atleast daily from now on.

Also it's important to note your action type. For example, half action or full action. Usually a full auto burst is a full action, but with your suspensors it's a half action, meaning in the same turn, you could half action aim before your shots and/or half action move before or after. Stay in cover if possible.

Also, seems like your first combat? We'll this one is different, because we are fighting a horde. Rules are different, most notably you can't Dodge a hordes attack. Other modifiers and rules, but I need to freshen up on those myself before I post.

Lastly, I had wanted to fire a missle, temujins post says as ordered, but then enters before I fire... Not sure if our actions happen by order post or as Sardus planned. This type or initiative for attack is new to me and unique to this game, so need some explanation.. I'm going to fire the missle and see how it plays out.

Perhaps our actions are based on the earliest reply or our actions are posted and then the GM manages the order of our actions when he replies with enemy action.

Actions simply occur in the order posted, if players post real close together without reading the other we will work together to make them work with as little retconning as we can. (although you can rewrite yours if the hour to edit isn't up)

In general I ignore friendly fire in rpgs where I am not using a grid, like in this game. If you use a weapon with Blast (x) you can fire away without worrying about hitting your friends we will just say you place it right, the one exception to this is when using the occasional weapon or psy power that lands in a random place, then that can hit anyone.

I will point out at this time that Righteous Fury doesn't a weapon to have its quality activate multiple times rather it just adds additional damage dice to see if you get past the horde's toughness and armor.

So with Brother Sardus's attack he would hit the horde with his krak grenade and get 8 hits for the blast quality and 1 more hit for the weapon dealing explosive damage, and another hit for the devastating quality. More hits might be based off some talents he has but here is then how it would work.

The devastating quality immediately inflicts one loss of magnitude of the horde. Then Brother Sardus would roll damage for the 9 other hits. If these hits deal enough damage to bypass toughness and armor then the horde's magnitude is further reduced by 9. If any of these hits result in a Righteous Fury then they just add an additional damage die to the total for that hit to determine if the horde is damaged.

ie: 2d10 damage, and Pen 4 for each hit, and assuming that the horde has armor 4 and toughness 2 then if Sardus deals 2 damage from one of his hits the horde's magnitude isn't reduced as the damage comes out to zero that hit deals no damage to the horde's magnitude. If Sardus Righteous Furys 2 times on one hit for 45 damage then the horde's magnitude is still reduced only by 1 for that hit. The most he can reduce the horde's magnitude by is 10 for one hit from the rocket launcher (assuming no other talents that affect horde magnitude loss).

Also the horde's size only adds to ranged attacks so Apothecary Morgan's attack should have 3 less DoS and he should have only hit the horde twice for a magnitude loss of 2 (1 from his successful hit and the second hit from the power field quality, also assuming those two hits beat the horde's toughness and armor to deal damage).

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. (everyone who is from the U.S. anyway =p)

Official Description

Devastating (x)
Either because of an unnatural psychological property or
pure destructive power, a Devastating weapon shakes the
confidence of a Squad struck by it. If the weapon hits, it
does one additional point of Cohesion Damage regardless
of Damage to Wounds, in addition to secondary effects on
Cohesion from the hit’s Damage and other results. If the target
is a Horde, it reduces its magnitude by a number equal to the
number in parenthesis every time it is hit by this weapon.

You could interpret 'hit' a couple different ways, I however rule that the frag missile counts as one hit for the purpose of this quality, not one hit per hit inflicted on the horde from the Blast and Explosive qualities.

Also, good call Void Dragon, I forgot the size modifier only counts for ranged attacks.

So a few things to discuss here, glad we're figuring this out.

First, on the size modifier to attacks from horde size is applied to BS and WS test.

From Core:
aTTacking a horde
A character can damage a Horde by shooting it with ranged
weapons or attacking it in melee. These attacks are treated
as if they are against a single creature even though they may
represent mowing down ranks of enemies or scything through
many foes.
Characters must still roll to hit a Horde, but the appropriate
size bonus should apply to these tests based on the Horde’s
Magnitude.

Doesn't say anything about being only for BS, I don't think its an exclusive statement and didn't see conflicting text elsewhere, please point it out if I'm wrong.

Next, in regards to RF:

You're right. I remember reading that now, thought a game I'm in now does things a bit differently, they are using rules from different WH40k games. My bad.

Also, rolling RF in hordes is kind of pointless usually. Never gonna have a horder that needs a RF to deal damage, as only hits matter in reducing magnitude.

Third, in regards to Devestating
We agree on that, deals an extra single point of damage to magnitude.

In regards to Blast weapon damage:

That's not my understandig of how Blast damage to a horde would work. I read it was automatically considered as hits if damage is enough, then devestating would add one more.

IF, its as you say and I need to roll for each hit, then devestating would be for each hit and not just the blast, that's how some people play it. I'd agree I think, rolling damage against enemies hit when I us something like a Metal Storm bullet blast (2), but in hitting hordes...I don't know, seems a bit excessive to roll for each hit b/c I have blast (8).

Also consider the Power Field Quality adds an additional hit, is that one total hit? Or is it an additional "hit" for each 2DOS? If you get a "hit" with every 2 DOS, then that "hit" should score an extra "hit" too that b/c its from a power field? Makes sense, a normal weapon would get the hits from DOS, but only the powerfield would add a "hit" to magnitude for each hit because you are slicing through a horde. WHICH, is why I think that the size modifier is and should be included for melee vs hordes, you are fighting a lot of soldiers, so many in fact that you can't dodge. You are going to be slicing through them with every swing, without even trying.

As for my attack in gameplay:

Let's disregard the the additional hits from RF obviously. Lets see how the GM calls the Blast (*) quality rules in horde attacking, either my way or Morgan's...Or maybe he has his own interpretation of the rules.

Anyways, Happy thanksgiving everyone, I'm in China, but from America. We're a day ahead, so just had my Thanksgiving day, didn't have time to post Korbin, but going to now. Enjoy your turkey!

If nobodies opposed I will rule Blast against Hordes is roll for damage once, if you do damage count all hits. Maybe that's not right, but it's a damn sight less annoying than rolling x times. On the other hand on the off chance you don't do damage on that hit you just lost x hits, but unless we have a protest to the contrary I will rule in that direction.

Hmmm the size thing confuses me, I remember normally it only applies to ranged attacks (though size matters in things like grappling). It does make sense though that if your so surrounded you can't dodge or parry you would have an easy time hitting though. Let me do a bit more research and ponder a bit.

Edit: eh, I really like the size modifier applying in melee, it makes sense to me when fighting a horde, I am going to rule it does apply.

Hello and Happy late Thanksgiving to everyone. I just got done offering up my place, and I have had some time to look over my Deathwatch books again.

On Hordes:

Strange, I for some reason thought that size modifier didn't apply to melee attacks on hordes' but looking over it I'm wrong on that one, so sorry about that error.

On Power Field:

I 'm not as sure on the power field quality as the way it is worded it might inflict 2 hits per 2 DoS or it just might inflict one more. I'm just going to leave it up to the DM since I have no clue how it should work.

EDIT: Also I want to ask this question now, but how fine is everybody with the use of the Omophagea organ to learn information? This does require the Space Marine in question to consume a portion of some enemy and that might make some people uncomfortable. Just asking now so that I don't make any unexpected moves by trying to reconfirm any of the information the heretic gives us by consuming a potion of one of the fallen heretics.

I'll cut a piece off for both of us.

Power fields just add one hit in my game. =)

Which way we wanna go? My guy is more likely to choose long way, but since they are such animals, I wouldn't mind putting them down. But, walking into ambushes sucks. How about that roof? Might let us avoid ambushes and head there directly.

Can iI see if tthat's an option on the cartograph?

Though I didn't explain it in detail in the gameplay thread yet the roof is already a big part of the slow route.

Apothecary Morgan wants the glory of charging straight through an enemy position, but he's even more curious about the Dark Angels presence here, so he's voting for the long path in the hopes of finding more information about them.

^^Yea, how and why they are here, assuming it's really Dark Angels. How'd they get past the troops and go inside, then to only have the traiters set up again? They died? Working with them? Lots more to understand here, observation key. Let's scout ahead quietly and see if we can't observe or find something to give us more details.

2 of us have grapnels, we'll shoot our lines, climb, then leave them for others to use and get up. Not sure how "Big" this mansion is and what the rooftop is like, flat? Lots of access/windows/visiblity?

Korbin didn't do a security (Perception) test earlier, but he will afterwards for the roof, just to know if they got eyes on us and/or automated defenses that could be used.

Im assuming this is a big big place, otherwise it'd be pointless to climb over to the roof just to hop back down again, when it could've been easier to just go around.

All right all the crunch except equipment, I have used some of the suggestions you had BayouSnowman. I hope to have an alias and a background up and running tomorrow, I have to leave for work now.

Any equipment the group needs?

Librarian...Hmm...

What Psy Powers are you going to take? Not sure if you took a specialty or not, but hopefully you got the highest PR you could. Sorry, not sure if you've played a Librarian before and/or need general advice.

(EDIT..Just reread your previous post with stuff, I missed your XP spent, just assumed it was level 1, b/c I saw PR 3 and you hadn't added in the WP, INT, etc that you had bought...Anyways..)

Not gonna spoil it and tell you things we forgot, but in general, just think about how your character plays and what you want to do in the game. I always take a grapnel, makes me feel like Batman,and cheap at 3 req.

Pyschic hood is good, maybe an additional force weapon for signature wargear..Didn't you say you were taking the staff? Maybe I'm confusing another game...Anyways, picking up a sword could make you more offensive.

Seems like Dark Angels excel at Interrogation, lots of Chapter abilites and psy powers for that, maybe have something to assist you in interrogations, you could be that guy. How useful is interrogation when you can just mind scan??

I'm a fan of Force Barrier and Gates of Infinity codex powers, that "Mask of Shadows" seems fun, as does the Worm power.

If you want to be stealthy, use a masking screen. You going to be using your bolter? Or you want something more exotic or different? Grenades? Explosives?

OR, you could save req points to be used during the mission, there are assets that can be purchased while in mission. There's an auger for detecting daemons, universal translator, machines that stop time and give you unnatural speed, combat shield with force fields, lots of cool ammo, pretty much whatever you might need to contribute how you'd like.

Looking forward to seeing the final PC and having you join us in game. Something tells me we're gonna need a Librarian soon.

Not sure how "Big" this mansion is and what the rooftop is like, flat? Lots of access/windows/visiblity?

From what your characters have seen so far the palace covers more than a kilometer and is designed almost like several massive mansions that were, over time, built and expanded until they were integrated. The roof is steepled over every small section of building making it rough terrain, and has lots of windows and access points, visibility is limited by terrain and the occasional tower that rises up through and above the roof.

Gonna begin work on the Campaign Info tab soon, it will eventually have all the setting info, rules rulings, character creation info, in game info the characters have learned etc.

It will take awhile before it's all up though as I will mostly be doing it when I have some spare time(which is limited at the moment)

It's been a day since the last post, does everyone have what they need to keep playing or are we hung up on something I need to fix? I realize a day ain't long but just trying to keep the pace up and everyone involved=)

It's prolly just a tiny bit of a lag but if anyone needs any help with anything I'm here. =D

I'm good.

I'm good, just been slower than usual, trying to give people time to catch up after the holidays and hopefully give a few people more time to submit PCs. Sorry for the hold up.

I'm going to ask this now since Morgan might start having to deal damage in a grapple soon or not, but if we have the unarmed master talent which allows our fists to deal 1d10+SB rather than 1d5-3+SB does this also replace the damage dealt in a grapple?

I'm going to ask this now since Morgan might start having to deal damage in a grapple soon or not, but if we have the unarmed master talent which allows our fists to deal 1d10+SB rather than 1d5-3+SB does this also replace the damage dealt in a grapple?

Yes and you don't count armor as double.

I know it is quiet some time since I posted last, real life just got in the way. I see you are quiet well ahead and think it would be to late to join in. What is your oppinion?

Nah, it's not too late, come join the game whenever you are ready Big OM =)

I know it is quiet some time since I posted last, real life just got in the way. I see you are quiet well ahead and think it would be to late to join in. What is your oppinion?

There are lots of ways in, we really haven't done anything. We just had a few battles really and learned a bit. We could really use a librarian, hopefully you make it around soon.

EDIT: Sorry for posting slowly the last couple days, it was my 10 year wedding anniversary yesterday, been doing stuff with wife and daughter and wasn't able to post too much. Back to normal now.