Battle Sisters and Orks

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl**

Uh, okay. I will try to remember that, then.

**Furyou Miko**

Thank you. I apologise for my tone, clearly, this was an ESL issue rather than a straight-up ignorance one.

**squidhills**

If my understanding of SoB and fanaticism is any good, the only outcome would be for the Sister to follow her orders from her Order... heh...

And then do whatever paperwork is required to formally accuse the Inquisitor of Radicalism, and get him burned as a heretic.

The DH rulebook entry for Sisters says that they will have nothing to do with anything "...tainted by corruption or mutation." I cannot believe that they will accept a xenos, especially the most hated xenos species in the Imperium, if they will get all hostile towards someone who has a few corruption points. Heck, they can't even use their faith powers if they have more than 10 corruption points themselves, and in DH you get that many corruption points just going down the driveway to get the mail. The only thing that makes sense is, as has been suggested, for the Sister to "accidentally" kill the ork and the Rogue Trader in a friendly fire incident. Anything else wouldn't be Sisterly enough.

**AlexHolker**

Ashiraya wrote:
Would an Inquisitor be able to convince a SoB to not kill the Ork (And even plausibly have them in the same party, albeit with lots of tension) or would the SoB kill the Ork regardless of being ordered otherwise?

The Inquisitor is a moron. An Ork is literally a bioweapon that produces more bioweapons everywhere it goes. It must be incinerated if you don't want a plague of orks on your hands.

**Ashiraya**

AlexHolker wrote:
Ashiraya wrote:
Would an Inquisitor be able to convince a SoB to not kill the Ork (And even plausibly have them in the same party, albeit with lots of tension) or would the SoB kill the Ork regardless of being ordered otherwise?

The Inquisitor is a moron. An Ork is literally a bioweapon that produces more bioweapons everywhere it goes. It must be incinerated if you don't want a plague of orks on your hands.

Whether the Inquisitor is a moron or not is, unfortunately, not relevant for the Sister. Orders are orders.

**AlexHolker**

Ashiraya wrote:
AlexHolker wrote:
The Inquisitor is a moron. An Ork is literally a bioweapon that produces more bioweapons everywhere it goes. It must be incinerated if you don't want a plague of orks on your hands.

Whether the Inquisitor is a moron or not is, unfortunately, not relevant for the Sister. Orders are orders.

Heretical orders are not orders, and an order to allow an Ork to spread its spores on Imperial worlds is a heretical order.

**Ashiraya**

AlexHolker wrote:
Ashiraya wrote:
AlexHolker wrote:
The Inquisitor is a moron. An Ork is literally a bioweapon that produces more bioweapons everywhere it goes. It must be incinerated if you don't want a plague of orks on your hands.

Whether the Inquisitor is a moron or not is, unfortunately, not relevant for the Sister. Orders are orders.

Heretical orders are not orders, and an order to allow an Ork to spread its spores on Imperial worlds is a heretical order.

Except the point of the 'excursion' is that they are going beyond the Imperium.

**Psienesis**

Radical Inquisitors wisely avoid employing non-Radical Acolytes in their retinues, because while your rosette carries a whole lot of authority, that authority doesn't mean anything in the cold depths of space when someone has a melta pointed at you.

**Ashiraya**

The Inquisitor will not actually accompany the group.

He just ordered it to be formed.

Maybe he wanted to get rid of the Rogue Trader secretly and decided that sending an Ork along would hopefully do the trick?

And sending the Sister as well just to make it look like he did not deliberately set it up.

Who knows? I don't yet, I am not the GM.

**Psienesis**

This is the kind of scenario that I, as a DH GM, try to avoid like the plague. If a party wants to be ultra-Orthodox or ultra-Radical, either way, is totally fine by me... but never the twain shall meet on PC concepts. It just doesn't "work" for the game, in my experience.

So basically what you have here is either someone who has to play a SOB as a watered-down chick in power armor... or someone who is going to make it her primary goal to exterminate the Ork at the first opportunity, provided there is not another, larger threat to contend with (like, something on the Daemonic scale). That kind of storytelling sleight-of-hand, though, is very hard to pull off, and also very hard to maintain for long-term play. While something bigger and badder might come along that distracts the Sister from killing the Ork, because she needs to deal with whatever the new threat is, that does not make them friends, and Sisters don't have the whole "martial honor" thing of the UM or the BA allying with Necrons or Tau. The only good Xeno is a dead Xeno and all that sort of thing.

That said, I can see that the Sister will not kill the Ork for however long it takes them to complete their mission, provided the mission is important enough... but will almost certainly tell the Canoness about the Radicalism of the Rogue Trader and the Inquisitor when she returns to her Convent. This could be problematic for the Inquisitor in question, depending on the purpose and application of the Xeno, especially if Puritan Inquisitors take an interest in the report.

... of course, the Sister will probably not speak to the Ork. Ever.

**Ashiraya**

I am not the GM. Most people there are... Uneducated on the lore, as to speak. I do what I can as the fluff is important to me but at the end of the day I'll happily sacrifice a bit of fluff for a good game.

I do that every time I play 40K.

**Psienesis**

Basically, were it me playing the Sister, I would let it be known that I don't like or trust the Ork, and I won't sit near it at the dinner table, and by no means would I endanger myself on its behalf... but as the Inquisitor has instructed that it be on this task, it stays my hand from delivering the Emperor's Justice to it.

This keeps things cool between players, as I'd not be going out of my way to snuff the Ork character, but it is fluff-friendly enough for a game of RT to not sell the Sister's faith short. Especially if you start getting Faith Powers and start doing things with them like making everyone in the party get Righteous Furies on rolls of 9 or 10 (except the Ork).

**Ashiraya**

Seems like the best compromise to me.

**Smacks**

It does kind of sound like the beginning of an odd-couple buddy cop-movie. You should make sure that if the ork is listening to the radio while driving the landspeeder, you immediately switch the station to something that he doesn't like... *hilarity ensues*

On a more serious note: you could choose to act completely unmoved by the ork. It is easy to imagine that an SoB would quickly deteriorate into a seething ball of inner-turmoil, and righteous fury, but that is going to get old quickly if she can't act on it.

On the other hand patience is a virtue; the ork (and other heretics) will all burn in good time, when the emperor wills it.

Perhaps instead of a hot-head she could be calm a calculating. Treating her time with the ork as an opportunity to observe and 'know thy enemy' (and perhaps be more effective at killing orks). Instead of angry and hate-filled, she might act completely calm and impartial, viewing the ork as nothing more than a subject in an experiment (which will obviously end with the subjects termination).

While you can expect an SoB to detest Chaos and heretics with some passion. She might view the ork as little more than a dumb beast that needs putting out of its misery. This might help with some of the 'trust' issues, since even a dumb-beast can be trusted to save its own skin. I see no reason for her to fear or concern herself too much with such a lowly creature. "Emperor protects".

**SisterSydney**

What really matters is the interaction among the real, live people playing the game. If you decide your character turns on the rest of the party at a critical moment, for whatever reason, saying "this is in character for her" doesn't make it less of a jerk move by you towards the other players -- unless everyone expects and enjoys a game with backstabbing and lethal conflict between player characters, in which case they'll be high-giving you.

On the other hand, if you and the Ork player as real people get a good back and forth going, it could be comedy gold: the Ork doing all sorts of heretical, socially inappropriate, or just plain disgusting things; the Sister quietly seething with her finger trembling on the trigger, or praying for patience, or trying to tell him off, or even trying to (ha!) enlighten him; and the Ork of course blissfully misunderstanding and responding in even more hilariously inappropriate ways ("Hey, Sistah, you looks like you wants to krump sumtpin. Let's krump dat priesty git!"). It's especially fun because the Ork, while asexual, fits all the stereotypes of the sloppy male yob while the Sister can act like a stereotypically uptight and frustrated wife in a sitcom....

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Alternatively, think of the Ork as a big green Homer Simpson and the Sister as a female Ned Flanders with a flamethrower.

**A Town Called Malus**

SisterSydney wrote:
What really matters is the interaction among the real, live people playing the game. If you decide your character turns on the rest of the party at a critical moment, for whatever reason, saying "this is in character for her" doesn't make it less of a jerk move by you towards the other players -- unless everyone expects and enjoys a game with backstabbing and lethal conflict between player characters, in which case they'll be high-giving you.

On the other hand, if you and the Ork player as real people get a good back and forth going, it could be comedy gold: the Ork doing all sorts of heretical, socially inappropriate, or just plain disgusting things; the Sister quietly seething with her finger trembling on the trigger, or praying for patience, or trying to tell him off, or even trying to (ha!) enlighten him; and the Ork of course blissfully misunderstanding and responding in even more hilariously inappropriate ways ("Hey, Sistah, you looks like you wants to krump sumtpin. Let's krump dat priesty git!"). It's especially fun because the Ork, while asexual, fits all the stereotypes of the sloppy male yob while the Sister can act like a stereotypically uptight and frustrated wife in a sitcom....

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Alternatively, think of the Ork as a big green Homer Simpson and the Sister as a female Ned Flanders with a flamethrower.

Just... this. All of this.

**da001**

SisterSydney wrote:

Alternatively, think of the Ork as a big green Homer Simpson and the Sister as a female Ned Flanders with a flamethrower.

Thank you for this, you made my day

**SisterSydney**

Ha! Glad y'all liked it. But the serious bit: making the characters work well together is beside the point. Getting the real people involved to have fun together is everything.

**Ratius**

Why is everyone ragging on the poor Ork and making excuses for the sister?
Why not string a grenade collar round the sisters neck and if she gets stroppy, its off to see the emperor in the next life..... :p

**Psienesis**

Because the game doesn't work very well when you include non-Imperial characters. It's really intended to be played by a crew of human characters, who are more or less loyal Imperial citizens.

Adding the Freebootas is something FFG did for fan-service, but they really don't work very well in the game.

**A Town Called Malus**

SisterSydney wrote:
Ha! Glad y'all liked it. But the serious bit: making the characters work well together is beside the point. Getting the real people involved to have fun together is everything.

Again, this. If people aren't having fun because you take the fluff too seriously and constantly kill their character (because they forgot to take their hat off in a church or whatever) then they are not going to want to play with you.

I'm involved in an RPG at Uni where I play a drunk, religious, Irish, ex-IRA getaway driver. At the beginning of the game I worked for the italian mafia and more specifically for the future Don who also happened to be a werebear who couldn't completely control his transformations. Our carefully laid plans were almost always getting ruined by the sudden emergence of a brown bear in the remains of a tailored suit (and, in one instance, trying to claw off a rubber mask he'd been hiding his identity with when interrogating a prisoner).

The other players could have got annoyed that you couldn't give us a simple task without it escalating into some farcical adventure involving a bear escaping from police in a Dodge Charger being driven by someone 100 times over the limit, but that was the kind of game they wanted and so the adventures involving us two often got the whole group laughing hysterically.

In later adventures I also:
1) blew up myself, a homeless person, my ex-IRA friend and two PCs with a grenade whilst missing the big bad I was aiming for
2) drove a car through a portal into the fey realms (fey do not like iron)
3) blew up a queen vampire by getting her to sit on a sofa with a jury-rigged claymore (made from a paint pot, home-made plastic explosives and priest-blessed metal pellets) under it.
Which are all remembered fondly and frequently form the basis of in-character reminiscing/arguments/firefights.

So find out what kind of game the other players want. If they want a super serious, no-nonsense with the fluff game where your sister would be expected to kill the Ork then that's ok, try and kill the ork. If they want a more relaxed fluff-wise game where lots of wacky stuff will happen then maybe ease up on the "kill all xenos" stuff. Have your sister be keeping a journal of all infractions by the party and writing strongly worded letters to her superior, trying to tame the Ork, coming up with ever more elaborate and ridiculous plans to kill it (like the CIA trying to kill Fidel Castro) etc.

Most of all, have fun.

**liquidjoshi**

A Town Called Malus wrote:
SisterSydney wrote:
Ha! Glad y'all liked it. But the serious bit: making the characters work well together is beside the point. Getting the real people involved to have fun together is everything.

Again, this. If people aren't having fun because you take the fluff too seriously and constantly kill their character (because they forgot to take their hat off in a church or whatever) then they are not going to want to play with you.

I'm involved in an RPG at Uni where I play a drunk, religious, Irish, ex-IRA getaway driver. At the beginning of the game I worked for the italian mafia and more specifically for the future Don who also happened to be a werebear who couldn't completely control his transformations. Our carefully laid plans were almost always getting ruined by the sudden emergence of a brown bear in the remains of a tailored suit (and, in one instance, trying to claw off a rubber mask he'd been hiding his identity with when interrogating a prisoner).

The other players could have got annoyed that you couldn't give us a simple task without it escalating into some farcical adventure involving a bear escaping from police in a Dodge Charger being driven by someone 100 times over the limit, but that was the kind of game they wanted and so the adventures involving us two often got the whole group laughing hysterically.

In later adventures I also:
1) blew up myself, a homeless person, my ex-IRA friend and two PCs with a grenade whilst missing the big bad I was aiming for
2) drove a car through a portal into the fey realms (fey do not like iron)
3) blew up a queen vampire by getting her to sit on a sofa with a jury-rigged claymore (made from a paint pot, home-made plastic explosives and priest-blessed metal pellets) under it.
Which are all remembered fondly and frequently form the basis of in-character reminiscing/arguments/firefights.

So find out what kind of game the other players want. If they want a super serious, no-nonsense with the fluff game where your sister would be expected to kill the Ork then that's ok, try and kill the ork. If they want a more relaxed fluff-wise game where lots of wacky stuff will happen then maybe ease up on the "kill all xenos" stuff. Have your sister be keeping a journal of all infractions by the party and writing strongly worded letters to her superior, trying to tame the Ork, coming up with ever more elaborate and ridiculous plans to kill it (like the CIA trying to kill Fidel Castro) etc.

Most of all, have fun.

FWIW I'm gonna third this.

Anecdote time, I'm in a game of AD&D at uni, playing an Elf Rogue. First mission, I team up with our party's fighter to steal a door. To clarify, it was a massive stone door, sveral inches thick carved from a mountain interior. About five sessions later, we found a Sherman tank. Yes, we did drive it through the streets. Yes, we did cause far more collateral damage than we should. No, we did not care about the civilians. Now, we could have played it "properly" (i.e, actually trying to do things in the conventional manner, not stealing doors, etc), but where's the fun in that? Far better IMO to have a laugh about it, as long as the party doesn't mind.

By the by, whereabouts are you at Malus? Just outta interest.

**MWHistorian**

Sisters barely tolerate the Mechanicum and Space Marines. They wouldn't tolerate the presence of a xenos let alone work with them.

**A Town Called Malus**

liquidjoshi wrote:

By the by, whereabouts are you at Malus? Just outta interest.

Well I go to the University of Kent in Canterbury.

During holidays I'm down on the south coast in a town called Littlehampton (it's nearish to Brighton).

**liquidjoshi**

A Town Called Malus wrote:
liquidjoshi wrote:

By the by, whereabouts are you at Malus? Just outta interest.

Well I go to the University of Kent in Canterbury.

During holidays I'm down on the south coast in a town called Littlehampton (it's nearish to Brighton).

Fair enough. I'm in Winchester/ IOW myself... anyway, I'll stop dragging this OT now.

**Psienesis**

MWHistorian wrote:
Sisters barely tolerate the Mechanicum and Space Marines. They wouldn't tolerate the presence of a xenos let alone work with them.

While this is true from a fluff perspective, it's not always practical from a playability standpoint in an RPG. An RPG is, first and foremost, a social event, and the game needs to be tailored to fit the tastes of the people playing it, and the people playing it also need to be keyed in to what the rest of the group is expecting out of the game. Some groups will prefer to have their game of Dark Heresy or Rogue Trader or whatever stick quite closely to the fluff (however that group happens to interpret it), while other groups might want their Rogue Trader game to play more like a "grimdark" version of Star Trek, complete with xenos friends, away teams lead by the command staff, and theme music.

So while a "purist" group might be able to roll with a pair of players who always seem to be at each other's throats (in-character), other groups won't be able to function with that kind of tensions. So how one would handle this situation, especially if there's a split in fluff-adherence between those involved, is going to need to be a sort of compromise.

**SisterSydney**

This. ^

**iLLiTHiD**

Smacks wrote:
It does kind of sound like the beginning of an odd-couple buddy cop-movie. You should make sure that if the ork is listening to the radio while driving the landspeeder, you immediately switch the station to something that he doesn't like... *hilarity ensues*

This. Can we make this the next 40K fan movie please?

**mattyrm**

At the end of the day, I don't see it being a massive issue, military people follow orders.

We took plenty of captives in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as much as I hated the fethers I wouldn't have dreamed of mistreating them,I regularly fed and watered them too, and I was happy to do it because it boils down to being professional and following orders.

Sisters of Battle are both, they would absolutely be happy to work alongside an Ork if they were required to do so.

**SisterSydney**

On a serious note: Bless you for serving. On a 40K note: a 21st century Western military is a lot more professional in many ways than the quasi-feudal fanatics of the Imperium. On a totally silly note:

iLLiTHiD wrote:
Smacks wrote:
It does kind of sound like the beginning of an odd-couple buddy cop-movie. You should make sure that if the ork is listening to the radio while driving the landspeeder, you immediately switch the station to something that he doesn't like... *hilarity ensues*

This. Can we make this the next 40K fan movie please?

I can totally see the trailer already. Warning: Hollywoodization ahead.

EXTERIOR SHOT - A DYSTOPIAN CITY - NIGHT

The camera pans past GOTHIC SPIRES as a POLICE SIREN wails.

THAT VOICE-OVER GUY:
In a galaxy choking on corruption....

INTERIOR SHOT - ARMORY - NIGHT

CLOSE UP from BEHIND on a SEXY FEMALE putting on HIGH-TECH ARMOR.

THAT VOICE-OVER GUY:
....she's the purest there is.

The female TURNS -- we still don't see her face, she's only in frame from the NECK DOWN.

THAT VOICE-OVER GUY:
But Sister Maria Kickassia....

Her GAUNTLETED HANDS pull out a HUGE GUN and perform a COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY COCKING ACTION to make a COOL NOISE.

THAT VOICE-OVER GUY:
...is about to get a big, green surprise.

INTERIOR – INQUISITOR’S OFFICE – NIGHT

INQUISITOR (played by Mark Hamill):
I’d like you to meet your new partner, Thogsnot.

WHIP PAN to show THOGSNOT, a HUGE GREEN ORK (played by Duane “the Rock” Johnson in green prosthetics), with his FINGER up his NOSE.

Sound effect: RECORD SCRATCH.

SISTER OF BATTLE (played by Amy Adams):
What.

THOGSNOT pulls something out of his NOSE. It is MOVING.

THOGSNOT:
Oi !

He eats it.

SISTER KICKASSIA:
Oh hell no.

The soundtrack switches to “Who Let the Dogs Out,” because clichés.

INTERIOR – GRIMDARK GOTHIC INDOOR BASKETBALL COURT – DAY

Sister Kickassia is poring over huge TOMES with a grimdark gothic PRIEST (Ray Romano).

SISTER KICKASSIA:
There’s got to be some mistake!

PRIEST:
Well, there’s no rule saying an Ork CAN’T be on the team....

They both LOOK UP as Thogsnot SLAM DUNKS a basketball. RECORD SCRATCH.

INTERIOR – PATROL CAR – DAY

LOUD MUSIC is playing on the RADIO. Sister Kickassia reaches over and turns it to a station playing HYMNS.

THOGSNOT:
Oi !

SISTER KICKASSIA:
Look, I don’t like you, you don’t like me....

THOGSNOT:
I likes you.

RECORD SCRATCH.

EXTERIOR – GRIMDARK GOTHIC SEEDY NEIGHBORHOOD – NIGHT

Thogsnot and Sister Kickassia are watching some UNSAVORY TYPES doing business in a GRIMDARK ALLEY.

THOGSNOT:
So we’s gonna krump da gitz?

SISTER KICKASSIA:
Listen, Ork, we’re not “krumping” anybody.

THOGSNOT:
Awww!

SISTER KICKASSIA:
This is MY op and we’re doing it by the book.

THOGSNOT:
Wut, we’s gonna killz ’em wit BOOKZ?

SISTER KICKASSIA:
No, we’re burning them to death.

THOGSNOT:
M’kay.

RAPID FIRE MONTAGE OF TYPICAL ACTION MOVIE STUFF

THAT VOICEOVER GUY:
She’s a hard-as-nails xenocidal religious fanatic.

SHOOTING and stuff happens.

THAT VOICEOVER GUY:
He’s a sentient fungus with an attitude.

More SHOOTING. Possibly EXPLOSIONS.

THAT VOICEOVER GUY:
Together – they fight crime.

Definitely some EXPLOSIONS. Thogsnot and Sister Kickassia do a POWER WALK away from a HUGE FIREBALL.

SISTER KICKASSIA:
You know, Ork, you aren’t half-bad at this.

THOGSNOT:
You krumps da gitz okay too, Sistah.

SISTER KICKASSIA:
I. Do. Not. KRUMP.

RECORD SCRATCH.

INTERIOR – GRIMDARK GOTHIC NIGHTCLUB – NIGHT

Thogsnot claps as Sister Kickassia is KRUMPING.

CLUBGOERS:
Go Sistah, go Sistah, go!

INTERIOR – GRIMDARK BAD GUY HEADQUARTERS – NIGHT

BAD GUY (Gary Oldman):
I am the bad guy of the movie!

RECORD SCRATCH.

BAD GUY:
Okay, see, now you’re overusing it.

RECORD SCRATCH.

BAD GUY:
I have a BAFTA award, you prick!

THAT VOICEOVER GUY:
But not an Oscar.

RECORD SCRATCH.

GARY OLDMAN storms off the set, pursued by a chorus of RECORD SCRATCHES.

INTERIOR – GRIMDARK WAREHOUSE – NIGHT

Thogsnot and Sister Kickassia are taking cover behind a STACK OF CRATES as BAD GUY MINIONS shoot at them with GUNS BEYOND NUMBER.

THOGSNOT:
Oi, what’s we’s gonna do, Sistah?

SISTER KICKASSIA:
We’re gonna krump da gitz.

RECORD SCRATCH.

They BURST FROM COVER and there is SO MUCH SHOOTING AND EXPLOSIONS AND STUFF you cannot believe it, seriously.

THAT VOICE-OVER GUY:
This summer.... get ready to KRUMP.

The screen goes BLACK. Then the title comes up: SISTAH KRUMP.

THAT VOICE-OVER GUY:
This film is not yet rated.

[Edited to de-Americanize the Ork's dialogue by adding lots of "oi" and "gitz," because Americans loved Crocodile Dundee, and Australians are, like, almost the same thing, right?]
[Edited 12/17 (yes, eight months later) to add a joke about Gary Oldman's "Oscar Curse"]