p. 168 : only melee weapons and pistols may be used in close combat.
p. 244 : how to leave close combat.
Team, I've been out of town and without materials.
Lorm, Ellipsis, thanks so much for your assistance.
Your welcome.
De'Lark is now back in the tropical humidity of Malaysia. Oahu and Kauai were indeed most excellent and nascent plans are in place for spending of accrued long service leave time on Kauai. 16 hours in a plane yesterday and 6 hours time difference to acclimatise to will make recovery relatively slow - but I'll be heading across to the game thread shortly to chime in.
Team,
Bal raised an interesting question with me. What, if anything, can the Oremor guardsmen share regarding their homeworld? Rook, I especially want your input. Since the Only War campaign is taking place well after whatever cataclysm will befall Oremor, I don't know how the players (and me as GM) should handle it.
Since some are blight survivors has the Inquisition put any sort of clamps on the Oremor IG? And as a GM side-note might this explain why they've been sent to a Death World? (heh, heh, heh...)
Anyways maybe the Swamp Rats can share with vague generalities regarding Oremor but leave the system's ultimate fate as a taboo, undiscussed subject.
Input wanted! Thanks!
Eradico
I know from Scope perspective Oremor is extremely taboo. Getting transferred to a death world waging war against an aggressive Xeno's race is a step up for him.
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It is a good question. I'd have to agree with Bal, though, even with the most stringent of Inquisitorial secrecy, the fate of an entire world is a difficult thing to keep under wraps.
I'd say for the purposes of the Foresaken campaign (at least until the ultimate conclusion of the Oremor Affliction) the subject of the fate of the world itself would be taboo. Those in the know have very good reasons not to discuss things, both from a psychological and survival standpoint (the Inquisition, as we all know, are not very forgiving).
In a nutshell, there are two main possibilities based on the outcome for the characters in my campaign:
- They failed (or even succeeded in a sense...) and Oremor is either a quarantined world or effectively no more due to an Exterminatus purging final sanction.
- Or, the characters "succeeded". I use the quotes only because we all know from a meta-game standpoint, the world has undergone a sizable Chaos incursion, both from the manifestation of the Fydae Strain, and the Changeling's machinations. I guess what I am saying, is that even with a successful conclusion, the world will take some time to recover, with events surrounding its ultimate fate shrouded in secrecy. That being said, all you Oremor Affliction players, do not lose hope, there is a 'complete success' ending to that scenario that is still very much achievable---I just can't get into too much detail without major spoilers.
The idea that the surviving Oremor regiments have been employed as disposable fodder during the Margin and Achilus Crusades make perfect sense to me. You quickly tie up all the loose ends when you keep shipping off the survivors to Death Worlds, suicidal assaults, and untenable last stands. This is the Imperium, after all.
I would say that of all the Guard survivors of the incursion on Oremor, those assigned to the Unduz prison claustrums (like the 4th) and the 1st Oremor Legion charged with pacifying Orcut Hive would have the most first-hand knowledge, but also the fewest survivors, given what occurred. Since it can be assumed there were catastrophic casualties, and many of the troops who witnessed things directly were consolidated into other units, some of the Oremites might not even have a clear picture of what exactly happened.
Our characters will be one of two things; either fully in the know and deathly silent for their sanity and survival, or, on the margins, knowing that some bad sh!t went down, but not being entirely clear on the cause or ultimate results of what happened.
Since Sarge has an inkling, I'll be dropping hints and reveals while roleplaying him, but since the final fate is still up in the air, they probably will be vague revelations at best for now.
Rook, thanks for your excellent elaboration. Leaving specific details as taboo is a great solution. And I love how if the acolytes "win" in the Oremor campaign, they're not really winning...
ROUS indeed! I liked that clip
Also, great post in IC.
I know that Doc knows more than a lot of people, but he would remain silent about it. The fact he dealt directly with plague victims, and how his parents died, he knows to talk about is a death sentence.
Team,
Sorry for the considerable delays (again!). Arg, it's not what I want. My posting time is limited and I get paralyzed somewhat by wanting to make longer, more descriptive posts but then I don't have the time and then I end up doing nothing. Apologies.
The current scene for each team will be brief and then you'll be moving towards your encampment. There should be some considerable role-playing opportunities at that point.
In the meantime I am granting everyone 300 xp for the initial combat against the shoota boyz. I am granting Mark a bonus 50 points for keeping his ammo tally "on screen" as it were. The bookkeeping for combats is somewhat overwhelming and if each player is willing to track their own weapon that would be of huge assistance. I'll give Cat an extra 50 xp as well for knowing when his ammo drum ran dry but ask that he also track the ammo in his posts or in a spoiler in the future.
For example, Mark posted at the end of his action:
Any player doing likewise will receive the 50 bonus xp in the future.
I'd like to revisit the split regiment as Mark suggested. We could split the regiment between native Oremites (Sarge, Dol, Doc, Scope, Dot, for example) and off-worlders that have been sent to Oremor for punishment or assignment (De'Lark and Drususon come to mind).
Another factor to consider would be to adopt one of the regimental drawbacks to earn some extra point for regiment creation. You could then perhaps upgrade standard weapons from the rather weak lasguns. Or spend them in any other way you see fit. Depending on the outcome of the Dark Heresy campaign, perhaps the unit could take "Lost Home World" and earn a hatred against heretics or chaos. Or the "Mistrusted" drawback seems very fitting. Heck, take both!
Also if anyone is dissatisfied with their current character and would like to change, I am open to discussion. I would allow you to carry over your xp from your first character. Once we move to the Supply Depot this transition would be easy.
A couple of other changes will be in the works. Unless Deiros comes back to the game, Anselm will appear only occasionally as an NPC (mainly when the squad needs motorized transport). Also I think the commissar is somewhat problematic and will be reassigned from the squad, only making a cameo from time to time, however. Ellipsis, let me know your thinking on this. I really prefer to have as few NPCs in the immediate team as possible.
As always, everyone, thanks for your continued participation and patience.
Huzzah - 350xp :)
Can we spend it straight away?
To be honest I'd prefer that we don't have a Commissar with the group full time. Allows for a more rounded game without worrying you've got a trigger happy exterminator lurking around.
I'll have another look over the split regiment rules and put up a proposal if you like?
Mark,
Yes, to all three of your questions/points:
Feel free to spend the xp on advances at any time.
I agree with regard to the commissar... I'd rather not have him attached to the squad--especially as an NPC.
And look those regimental rules over. Also play around with the regiment drawbacks and see what options you come up with.
Ok, so for the split regiment - it's clear that one arm remains as the native Oremites... but it gets a little tougher when looking at Lark and Drususon and thinking on the second half.
Lark is a hardened criminal and evokes thoughts of Feral Worlds and Close Quarters Battle and Scavengers... while Drusoson is one of the Imperial's finest and evokes thoughts of the Scola Progenum, Well Supplied and what not.
The real question is how to meld those two aspects into a single thread...
I wouldn't mind lost home world and/or mistrusted, but I would like what Rook thinks, since it is his world.
If we were looking at a Hathin's class of people type split for the regiment I'd have it something like:
Homeworld: Feral World – 4 points
Lawless and terrifying, feral worlds are realms of unrepentant violence, where power begins and ends with the sword.
Commanding Officer: Supine – 1 point
Bereft of any true command, the men must have faith if they are to survive in the fury of war.
Regiment Type: Grenadiers – 4 points
These heavy-hitting soldiers work either in their own units as powerful heavy shock troopers or in mixed infantry units as heavy support troopers
Training Doctrine: Close-Quarters Battle – 5 points
These Guardsmen tend to be reckless enough to fight the vicious enemies of the Imperium up close, and perceptive and skilled enough to survive doing so—until their luck runs out, at least.
Special Equipment Doctrine: Scavengers – 3 points
Others seek personal gain, or simply steal out of habit or necessity.
Hindrance: Condemned - 6 points back
Though many regiments seek death on the battlefield, these soldiers are not merely sent into incredibly dangerous situations but are placed against outright suicidal odds, even if there is little to be gained from their deaths besides the semihonourable and convenient disposal of troops who cannot be trusted or forgiven.
Seems fairly fitting no? - I haven't done the equipment loadout though.
Eradico,
I am fine however you choose to deal with the Commissar. I have a few ideas on splitting the regiment that I will try to post tomorrow once I have them better organized.
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Mark, I like those ideas and would be open to allowing players to choose which regiment background they prefer. Ellipsis, looking forward to your ideas.
Sorry for the delay on this, I got swamped a work and didn't really have the bandwidth.
I felt that the Frontier World was appropriate for the guardsmen who grew up in the wilds of Unduz and that Guerrilla Regiment better describes their composition (also, since we no longer have Deiros' operator it removes the vehicles as standard kit).
For the prisoners, I used Feral World as Mark suggested, but substituted in the same regiment type as the base regiment, since the talents and skills (Bombardier and Tech-Use) gained from Grenadiers were somewhat incongruous for a group of savage and uneducated criminals. Also, since they use the same kit as the base regiment Close Quarters Combat is pretty useless, so I replaced it with Hardened Fighters, which is similar thematically but provides a benefit.
For attachments, I pretty much went with my gut on how to put together a group which would mesh with what we have already.
Finally, I gave all the Oremorite guardsmen the Scarred by Loss drawback to describe their experiences. (Condemned is a super nasty drawback and I don't want to inflict that on anyone)
Claustrum Guards (Base Regiment)
Homeworld:
Frontier World (HoE - 4 pts)
Regiment Type:
Guerrilla Regiment (HoE - 4 pts)
Commanding Officer:
Maverick (2 pts)
Doctrines:
Survivalists - Jungle (4 pts)
Drawbacks:
Scarred by Loss (-2 pts)
Prisoners
Homeworld:
Feral World (HoE - 4 pts)
Regiment Type:
Guerrilla Regiment (HoE - 4 pts)
Commanding Officer:
Supine (1 pt)
Doctrines:
Hardened Fighters (2 pts)
Scavengers (3 pts)
Drawbacks:
Scarred by Loss (-2 pts)
Attached Personnel
Homeworld:
Schola Progenium (3 pts)
Regiment Type:
Guerrilla Regiment (HoE - 4 pts)
Commanding Officer:
Sanguine (2 pts)
Doctrines:
Iron Discipline (3 pts)
The base regiment will need to buy standard kit again (or at least expand it with the 15 extra points), the others share that kit per the rules of split regiments.
Condemned makes more sense for the hardcore penal elements. Given the grimdark, guys like Lark don't care that Oremor suffered calamity. But others they meet would look at them askew due to the criminal past.
Guerrilla is fine - though it does lose the vehicle for the base regiment.
The kit question is one that I half missed, but does have some interpretation possible. Does one of the minor regiment get their type of kit at character creation - and then can't replace it via logistics?
- or do they only ever get the base regiment kit?
If they only get the base regiment kit it makes some strange corner cases - where if you attach say the death riders of kreeg as the sub in a mixed regiment... they don't actually get steeds, etc.
Eradico? - what's your view?
In that case, where would Doc be? Would he be with the guards as they are kitted out?
Per the Core book, characters receive equpiment from their specialty and from the regiment's standard kit. Hammer of the Emperor explicitly states that all sub-regiments use the core regiment's standard kit and may not contribute or modify the standard kit in any way, though regiments recently merged in the field may have some of there original equipment at GM discretion. The example the book uses is Death Riders of Krieg combined with another Rough Rider regiment, but I don't think the split regiment rules are meant to combine vehicle/mount focused units like riders or armor with footsloggers.
For Doc, my thought when I was putting these together was that he would be with the guards, being that he represents the more reasonable and civilized elements of Claustrum society.
Ellipsis - which is kind of a 'if there isn't any real difference... why bother'? from me.
The only difference that Lark would have is maybe two talents and a skill - so probably best we just ignore the split thing and keep it within the one regiment.
Hey all,
Unfortunately I'm going to step back and out of the campaign. Work's picked up and I'm finding my head space is getting smaller and it's harder to keep multiple storylines straight in there. I know this has hardly been at breakneck pace - but with the time between posts I'm finding it hard to keep things straight and it isn't fair on any of you guys in that situation.
So with much thanks to you all I'm going to fade into the darkness. I wish you well in the future and tip my hat to Eradico for the opportunity.
Cheers,
Mark
Team,
Sorry for my prolonged absence. Have had severe logistical difficulties with work and family. No major crises or anything but it has just been too dang hard to carve out time for the PbP. Plus my wife asked me to back off on the computer time. If it comes down to the wife or the computer, well, the wife is going to win. Suffice it to say I'm working on the re-boot for the campaign. I will advance matters a little and provide a recap for each character. I'm still not sure when posting will resume... I don't want to make any false promises but try checking back in a week or so. Also if you want out of the game or don't even want to bother posting again, no hard feelings. I will miss Mark but I completely respect his decision.
Bal, thanks for reaching out to me. I'm doing fine it's just been too hard to get back into posting and when I do I feel overwhelmed because I want to do too much rather than too little. Then I shut down and procrastinate. Arg!
Sincerely,
Eradico
No worries Eradico. Just let me know when you want to get rolling again.
bump
