I was recently browsing through a pdf of the Only War RPG rulesset which again sounded... kind of interesting?
Just wanted to ask if there are people around on Dakkadakka who are interested to give it a shot.
I have some experience with forum RPGs as player as well as GM in a fantasy setting (Das Schwarze Auge). From my experience the best chance to get this of is usually to have some very focussed scenario, more like a single scene or very clear mission to not get overwhelmed or bogged down to much. As I assume anyone interested would like to "build their own dude" what I could imagine would be something like:
1. a bunch of guardsmen from different regiments are hanging out off duty in their favorite bar/gambling den, but today... something just doesn't feel right. The bartender looks really twitchy and the once so chatty waitress has barely said a word today. Maybe it's just your imagination... or the bunch of burly dudes in slightly deformed trenchcoats that just entered and went straight into the storage rooms in the back of the hovel, who knows...
2. (stolen from one of Ciaphas Cains novels): A local sectorhouse of the Adeptus Arbites. A couple of garrison soldiers that seemed to have partied a little too hard last night are waiting in the arrest cells are waiting to be processed, some hopeful to get away with a warning and latrine duty, others dreading the arrival of their regiments commissar. All of a sudden shots ring from the plaza outside. What's going on? Why are the arbites barricading the door and why are the senior officers argueing so hotly? "... arm them? Are you insane?" "... only chance..." is all you can here from over there before one of them comes over with a determined look and the key to your cell in his hands.
3. The trenchline has fallen... to be more precise, the front has rolled right over it as well as the second line and is now 3 miles to your rear. By a miracle or the emperors grace the enemy seemed to have missed a handfull of foxholes, while some other Guardsmen dig their way out of a half collapsed trench. A rag tag group of survivors meets each other, realizing that not only 3 miles of no mans land but also some hundred thousand enemy soldiers stand between them and their allies lines... By the throne, what shall we do?
In the vain hope that this just went under over the weekend: anyone interested? I would offer to be the GM, but prefer to let a character tag along for the party banter
Ok, great. I found a nice little scenario at the end of the pdf, that should fit our needs. If you want to have a look on the character creation rules and don't find it online write me a PM and I send it your way.
A word regarding my "game master style": As I always have to GM in my rpg group but at least want a bit of player feeling myself I tend to have a character of my own around. But this one is usually an NPC created for party banter who will only do stuff the players come up with to avoid feeling like a Mary Sue. I hope that is OK.
I'm also a proponent of "story trumps rules" so if you have an idea - be it in character creation or in game - that fits the character, go for it, even if it's not technically legal. We'll find a workaround
In my experience these forum RPGs tend to take their time, so maybe if your freetime brightens up some day and you are still interested you can join in later. I'll ask some of the people on Dakkadakka with currently running IG projects including lore if they are interested directly. Maybe I can drum up some players more.
So here is my idea currently:
I have the three scenario ideas I listed in the starting post but also a small "Adventure" at the end of the Only War PDF. As that one is designed for the system we will be playing in, I tend to try and choose it and then improvise from there.
In short (and without to many spoilers): the player characters are part of a reinforcement force on a planet where pdf and Brontian Long Knifes fight against a mid-sized ork incursion. We have the initial landing (obviously with some fighting going on), then the potential for some scenes in the baracks/garrison (for some social play, to get hands on equipment etc.), then a recon/attack mission and as a finish a defense mission.
All in all there are points in this adventure path where every character can shine - the soldier , the brawler, the sneaky guy, prince charming, etc.
As Bob mentioned in a PM: yes the system assumes that the characters hail from the same regiment, but I would find it more interesting if everyone was free to choose his own if he likes to. The easiest way to get this result (and also an easy explanation for very diverse Squad compositions) would be that all our dudes are in for one or the other disciplinary failure. Therefore we have been "volunteered" for the first transport down in a kind of "Redemption Platoon". Basically all the "baddies" from different regiments thrown together for the opportunity to redeem themself on the battlefield and return to their regiments afterwards.
Alternatively, if we end with a more or less limited amount of different regiments or something like soldiers from two regiments + a commissar, a Techpriest and a Psyker we can assume that those are two depleted regiments that have been put together to fill up the numbers.
Oldmate had the excellent idea, that we try and ... lets call it "knit together" a common story, how our characters know each other, which relations exist between them etc.
So just to give you an idea I'll tell you what my (half NPC) character would be like:
He is from the 2nd Thoth Askaris (my homebrew regiment that I present in my thread).
In short: a backwater planet with desert/jungle climate. A tribal society with strong Ecclisiarchy influence and quite little knowledge of the wider imperium (but a very idealistic view of it), bad standing with the Munitorum and therefore poor equipment. They have a reputation of being involved in all kind of at best half legal activities to improve this - black market, battlefield salvages etc. High Command and the Munitorum also deem their combat effectiveness less then mediocre. On the plus side they are considered very loyal, and quite able in wilderness terrain and operations that expect very bad supply lines, in some cases "living of the land" for years.
To reflect this the regiment is created as:
Frontier World
Maverick Commander
Light Infantry
Survivalists
Scavengers
Poorly provisioned
Favourite weapons: likely Lascarbaine and Grenade Launcher (sound like the easiest to get and find ammo for)
And regarding equipment an additional laspistol, a sling (cheap, you can find ammo everywhere and it is still good enough to hunt) maybe a sword, maybe trade flakvest for a shield, and besides that stuff that carries across that they are involved in some black market activity: LHO sticks, recaff, porn slates, ammo for weapons they don't even have, spare grenades...
The character himself will be an older common Infantryman. So not the grizzled veteran that can kill a Tyranid bare handed, but the strange old guy who has been on a dozen battlefields and... survived. Nothing more, nothing less.
Oldmate also already gave me some character ideas, but I would leave those to him.
@ Easy E: how about that: if you read one of the others character idea and feel "yeah, I could see me playing a guy from that regiment", than go for it. If instead you have a certain image in your head what your dude (or dudette) should be like, pm me and we puzzle something together.
Also a word regarding equipment: I have absolutely no problem with sidegrades or downgrades. So if you want a Lucius pattern Lasgun instead of Galaxy pattern, an auto- instead of a lasgun, or a Stub Revolver instead of a Laspistol etc.: go for it. As long as the replacement is equally or more common, go wild.
If we go the penal route way of things, I could fit in a Krieg Grenadier that spent too long with Catachans and his regiment booted him to the Penals because he was growing too much a personality for the rest of the unit, lol. I'll think things over.
Any idea what you want to play as a character? Any wishes regarding regiment? If you need any help, just ask.
@ All slowly making my way through the character creation rules: I would propose with characteristics we make a hybrid of rolling (the proposed "every stat = 20 + 2d10" =279 points on average rolls) and points distribution (100 points to distribute on 9 stats with 20 base = 290 points):
Roll your stats, than add/substract until your sum comes down to 290.
This way we have some variation instead of 20/20/40/40... characters, but everyone is more or less on the same level
Sure thing. In that case I mark you down as Cadian White shield and coble something together.
So, so far we have:
The inexperienced scared Cadian white shield Conscript (Dekskull)
The Krieg Grenadier who caught a bad case of personality (Bobthehero)
The old Askari Survivor with a bit of shady business going on (myself)
Either a Karsk Grenadier (not unlike a Krieger but different...) or a Medieval Soldier suddenly pulled off world to fight for the Emperor (Oldmate)
+ to be announced (Easy E)
=> sounds just like the guys for a redemption platoon
Now apart from Game stats, I would work a bit on how our characters got into this mess and how we all stick together (or not).
Oldmate also made me aware of this pretty cool video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wES5ufXETdE => the interesting part I want to talk about is between 6:15 and ~ 17:00
This is in a way similar to what I tend to do with my pen and paper RPG group, just a lot more thought through. Basically we create our characters (not the stats, but who we are) and their relations towards each other together, as we are not in a vacuum. Quite likely some of us have already met each other or have certain expectations of each other. It starts with a rough description of what is your character concept together with possible links to another character.
Of course it does not have to be in depth or anything but in my experience RPGs run a lot more interestingly if there are already some relations within the group before we start.
One thing that immediately came up as an idea for me:
Tambo (my character) has found himself on the wrong end of the Commissariats attention because one of his dealings to improve his regiments equipment went awry. The guy in charge did not have the evidence that warranted an immediate summary execution, but enough for the redemption platoon. But here is the twist and potential relation: he is stuck in the classic prisoners dilemma with one of the other characters. Both have enough evidence to get the other into serious trouble. If only one confesses, he gets free, the other one gets shot, if both confess both get 10 years in the redemption platoon, if none of them talks both get 3 years. In a seldom turn of comradry both decided to keep their mouths shut, and are now sitting in the sh** together, torn between suspicion and gratefulness. Anyone who sees his char being that guy?
For these type of Play-by-post games, I do not get hung up on stats, more on "roles".
Trooper Njahl Pietrson will come from a Mechanized Platoon from a cold weather planet. Therefore, they spend a lot of time huddled up in their tin cans and then pile out for short, sharp firefights and breaching actions against enclosed, armored structures.
The character themselves will have seen some action, but did not like what they saw. As a result, they have lost their fighting spirit and shy away from danger, they prefer to find alternate solutions than fighting. This is what led them to the Penal battalion as their regiment prizes aggressive assault tactics and such "cowardice" as this character shows must be rooted out mercilessly.
Due to the mechanized and wintery nature of their regiment, it makes sense that this character has a bit of a mechanical aptitude to them for tinkering with heaters, hand warmers, stuff in the back of a Chimera APC, etc. Their home planet is a "blue-collar" place, so some mechanical aptitude is needed to survive.
So looking at what you sent over, I think the following:
- Class: Breacher (?) or Weapon Specialist
Regiment:
- Frontier World - St. Paulus
- Mech Infantry
- Breachers
It's interesting that we'd have a tech guy that isn't a Tech Priest. ยจ
For the Grenadier, I am using the Stormtrooper as a base class, for the gear. As far as special things, I am thinking he got himself a Catachan Fang from his time with them, and a habit of not wearing his rebreather at all times.
@ Easy E: sounds good so far.
Regarding class: Operator sounds also fitting for the described character with a technical knack.
Regarding the talents: I don't see anything keeping you from selecting multiple talents, if you like. Each Guardsmen has 1000 XP that can be distributed between talents and skills.
I should say that the adventure I'm planning is set in a jungle. But depending in how much we stretch it out, maybe the survival suit comes in handy (don't know yet).
@Bob: sounds cool. Would be funny if he has some identity number that the Catachans read as a name. Like 808 => Bob
@ Dekskull: As it looks that we have no shortage of "guys with guns" how are your feelings towards your Whiteshield being a medic? The planet we will land on has just been nearly overrun by Orks. I could see a young promissing med-student suddenly being drafted and thrown into the grinder. Specifically because this way he might have had only hours to wrap his mind around the situation instead of weeks on the troops transport but would be quite important as a local
Well I already play a character called Bob somewhere, but that's neither here or there, lol, that's a good idea, though, let me see what I can come up with.
Pyroalchi wrote: @ Easy E: sounds good so far.
Regarding class: Operator sounds also fitting for the described character with a technical knack.
Regarding the talents: I don't see anything keeping you from selecting multiple talents, if you like. Each Guardsmen has 1000 XP that can be distributed between talents and skills.
I should say that the adventure I'm planning is set in a jungle. But depending in how much we stretch it out, maybe the survival suit comes in handy (don't know yet).
@ Dekskull: As it looks that we have no shortage of "guys with guns" how are your feelings towards your Whiteshield being a medic? The planet we will land on has just been nearly overrun by Orks. I could see a young promissing med-student suddenly being drafted and thrown into the grinder. Specifically because this way he might have had only hours to wrap his mind around the situation instead of weeks on the troops transport but would be quite important as a local
Sounds good to me! Tithes must have gone up on his home world lol!
Pyroalchi wrote: @ Easy E: sounds good so far.
Regarding class: Operator sounds also fitting for the described character with a technical knack.
Regarding the talents: I don't see anything keeping you from selecting multiple talents, if you like. Each Guardsmen has 1000 XP that can be distributed between talents and skills.
I should say that the adventure I'm planning is set in a jungle. But depending in how much we stretch it out, maybe the survival suit comes in handy (don't know yet).
Sounds like the Munitorium, send the guy in the cold weather gear to a Jungle. LOL.
My take was Operator was like a guy who drive stuff around. This guy is a passenger more than a driver. That said, for party reasons it might make more sense to have Operator than another dude with a Las-gun.
Wheter these men are piloting a mighty Leman Russ into the heat of battle, operating a Vox to relay a commander's orders, or performing litanies on jammed lasguns in the trenches, these men are indespensable to the Imperial war machine.
So pretty much a general "operator of technology" as you described him.
I'm also considering making my dudes a Sergant for some party variety. Regarding that a small question: in my image a sergant as NCO is pretty much still a soldier, not a tactical genius or commander. So would it Match your image of a sergant if he was not that into commanding people around and more like the dude putting his hand on the whiteshield shoulder saying "I've been around the block a few years kid, let old Tambo show you around a bit and we'll make a soldier out of you in no time. "?
It's a bit of both. They have enough experience to help the newbs, yes, but they have to lead a section around, so the handholding is usually done by more senior Corporal. The Sgt has a mission to do, and he'll prepare his troops for it, which can include giving tips. They're definitely in the field themselves, but they're the one being put in charge of a section of 8 to 12 soldiers, and it's up to them to make sure they do what the section is supposed to do.
Bobthehero wrote: It's a bit of both. They have enough experience to help the newbs, yes, but they have to lead a section around, so the handholding is usually done by more senior Corporal. The Sgt has a mission to do, and he'll prepare his troops for it, which can include giving tips. They're definitely in the field themselves, but they're the one being put in charge of a section of 8 to 12 soldiers, and it's up to them to make sure they do what the section is supposed to do.
OK, good point. In that case I likely stay with the Weapon Specialist. I read up a bit on it thinking of my time with the German Bundeswehr and realized what I want him to be is what we call "Oberstabsgefreiter". It's a rank that does not really exist in the other Nato armies. Basically it's kind of a veteran private that is juuuust under a corporal, but can basically function as one. As they had 5 lines as insignia they were jokingly called "french fries general".
Fits the bill as he would be that kind of guy that has been enlisted soldier for years, but never quite made the cut to NCO.
But characterwise he will be the described dude trying to teach the newbies at least the basics.
As far as the party hooks in the background, Njal would be the kind of guy to get some contraband. Probably some cushioning or cover for his old squads seats to make it easier of a ride.
He may not be much for getting up close and fighting, but he is still a squad focused kind of guy and plenty loyal too.
Bobthehero wrote: It's a bit of both. They have enough experience to help the newbs, yes, but they have to lead a section around, so the handholding is usually done by more senior Corporal. The Sgt has a mission to do, and he'll prepare his troops for it, which can include giving tips. They're definitely in the field themselves, but they're the one being put in charge of a section of 8 to 12 soldiers, and it's up to them to make sure they do what the section is supposed to do.
OK, good point. In that case I likely stay with the Weapon Specialist. I read up a bit on it thinking of my time with the German Bundeswehr and realized what I want him to be is what we call "Oberstabsgefreiter". It's a rank that does not really exist in the other Nato armies. Basically it's kind of a veteran private that is juuuust under a corporal, but can basically function as one. As they had 5 lines as insignia they were jokingly called "french fries general".
Fits the bill as he would be that kind of guy that has been enlisted soldier for years, but never quite made the cut to NCO.
But characterwise he will be the described dude trying to teach the newbies at least the basics.
In Canadian Forces term, that guy is a Corporal. The leadership starts when you get you Master Corporal qualification, though with shortage of personel, we might use more experienced Corporals. Weapon Spec with some fellowship talents to teach the newbs would work.
I'll probably make my Krieger a bit of a marksman, it's a build I ran often as a Stormtrooper, but you might as well go that route to fully benefit from the fact that you start with a Hotshot lasgun.
I'll write a starting post up soon.
@ XP: just checked, it's 600 starting XP for Guardsmen, 300 for support specialists.
=> pretty sure they will at the beginning not be able to do everything they should be able to do background wise (since that might only be enough for 2 or 3 skill points). Feel free to describe them doing it anyway, if it fails they just have a bad day. XP dir customization will come
@ Oldmate: haven't heard from you lately, mate. Are you still on board?
@ Easy E: regarding the contraband: if it's ok for you I will assume our dudes had been trading before
@ Dekskull: I'll get to your dude later, he is planetside wating with other defenders on the new arrivals.
@ everyone else: feel free to position your dudes wherever you like in the drop ship. Would be nice if everyone posts a small description of obvious features of his character in his first posts and updates them there, so that we can just look it up if we want to know "how did that guy look again?"
It is pretty loud in there, but I assume if you shout, the guy next to you or on the other side of the aisle should hear you.
I would recommend to put character details in the first post you write in time and update it during the adventure. This way we should be able to find all characters on page one
Just going to ask where everyone stands on correcting their story section s after the fact. I made a small fix to my character's perception of Bobthe hero's Kreiger. It does not change anything narratively speaking but it makes more sense after reading his intro.
Sure, I also edited around a bit. Most notably I changed the time the battle rages already to just one year, makes more sense for Dekskulls Conscript to still be overwhelmed that way instead of the original 7 year battle.
Oh, and the Drop ship now also contains Chimeras and Horses.
Just as an info for you I rolled up my character sheet today and came to the point of equipment:
I have 3-5 points left and would chalk this up as general "amusement stuff for trading". So... chocolate, bubblegum, "recreational magazines", videogames... the typical stuff you would get to trade around.
I would also interpret "good quality lasgun" as something I imagine for my dudes: a kind of crude, ugly looking adapter that you can use in a pinch to fit different sized charge packs into your gun. There was a Gaunts Ghosts novel, where they ran into the problem of having lasguns needing size 3 but only getting size 5. Would be fitting for my dudes to also having experienced that a couple of time and fixed a solution. (Ruleswise it doesn't matter, but it would be a nice little personal touch)
I just mention that to highlight that you can feel free to include similar little customizations to your equipment if you like. Especially when you want to upgrade something to "good quality" and have a funnier idea than just "+ 10 to skill xy".
Yeah, I've decided to be a bit cheeky with Poncho's gasmask. He's going to wear it more often than not in battle, but off duty, those damned Catachans influenced him in the worst kind of ways.
Good question. I would say your dropship is exclusivly filled with your regiments miscreants. Or rather "those that got caught or were in the wrong place at the wrong time".
Regarding Command structure: I imagine there being a Commissar and a Junior Commissar in charge of each platoon, so four in total. For now you don't have to function on a platoon Level, so you are just roughly divided into squads depending on where you are sitting. I'm undecided if one of you is the squad leader or if I come up with an NPC one. Lets see
The people in the lander still have a couple of seconds before the craft hits the ground.
@ Easy E: don't know how hard of a guy Njall is, but lets put it that way: whatever you do, nobody will ever know of it.
Edit: and don't forget that due to how only war works, each of you has a comrade, a kind of buddy running around with him. He/she is just an NPC, but I think they deserve a name at least. If you specifically don't want one, I will not force you, but this way we would sum up to a squad of 2x 5 = 10 dudes which sounds good.
@ All: yeah, thinking about it I would say we can start with 1000 XP for the normal dudes and 700 for the specialists (sorry for changing my mind back and forth).
@ Dekskull: this means you can give the char I send you a pip in Tech use and a second one in Medicae
@ my char (for if someone is interested:
Spoiler:
WS 38, BS 36, S 30, T 26, Ag 37, Int 29, Per 30, WP 36, Fel 39,
12 wounds (not the toughest guy around)
Acrobatics, Athletics, Awareness, Common lore (War, Imperial Guard), Linguistics (low Gothic), Navigate (Surface) +20, Parry, Security, Stealth, Survival +10
Equipment: the standard pack + Shield and sword (both common) instead of Flakvest and helmet (both average)
change 2 Krak Grenades into 2 Anti plant
add 2 fire bombs
(=> so he has 2 each of: frag, krak, smoke, anti plant, fire)
Add stummer, LHO sticks, Recof, Grapnel and hook, various small trading items
He has 300 XP remaining where I'm still a bit torn as to what best rounds up the character: Commerce, Ears to the ground or surefoot wayfinder...
@ all: when we get out of the lander soon: remember that your equipment is stached under your seats. But bulky items like heavy weapons might have to be assembled.
@my character, his equipment is completely not of his class, as I just sorta homebrewed that up.
Spoiler:
WS39, BS31 S38, T30, Ag23, Int33, Per33, WP31, Fel32
11 wounds, the pox and plague has left him ravaged!
Fieldcraft, defence+10 offence+20, Common lore(war), parry, furious assault, resistance
I think i have done a good job of descibing his feudal world kit. Also has 3 frag grenades and a pair of magnoculars. Although we will be deploying in a jungle so they might not be too useful LOL. Oh and a horse.
Oh I forgot:
A roll on Tech +10 reveals that cutting/shooting through the hydraulic I pointed out for Dekskulls character would drop the ramp, but permanently.
To do this, the mentioned blow torch, a power weapon or an aimed shot (Ballistic +/-0) of Ponchos Hot-Shot lasgun should suffice, as would continous fire (6 Lasgun or 2 Hotshot Lasgun hits at +30
An Operate roll +10 is needed to hit the correct runes to open the ramp enough to get through. If you do it that way you still have the option to close it again.
The door at the side can be opened with security +10 or as proposed by Bob: a hot shot round through the lock. If no one else has the talent, Tambo would try opening it (but he'll stand back if someone wants to give it a go first).
Njall knows how to open a Chimera hatch that is secured for transport, the others should do a simple operate roll (-10 for Simond as this looks really strange for him, +10 for the others). The turret bolter will quite likely also make short work of the jammed hydraulic.
I guess Simond will look around for something to lever it with. He does afterall have 2 horsepower that he might be able to harness.
He's not about to waste a blasting egg by rigging it to the hydrolic and then remotely detonation via lanyard (a length of waxed linnen leathernworking string from his sewing kit(or more likely Baldwin's sewing kit...). Those eggs are too valuable.
But that's what he thinks the options are.
@ Easy E: yes, I reconsidered the XP, you can upgrade to 1000.
And if you have a lascutter: sure, that's exactly what could do the job
Edit: @ Easy E: the Chimeras are uncrewed, but as you too should have a Comrad, he can drive the thing while you do your stuff in the back. Even if none of you is a designated driver, getting it out of the transport bay should not be that hard.
I do assume though, that they are really bolted down to the floor with some heavy clamps screwed to the ground. Just the Job for the lascutter.
rear facing, so away from the current fighting. See the pic attached in one of my last posts.
@ All: just wanted to say, I love the characters you came up with. One can really feel their different upbringing and different experiences with life, war and their role within it.
Edit: Oldmate: if you have any lances in your equipment, they will likely be stored with the horses somewhere. Maybe at the wall or so.
And you still have to open the ramp, as your horses will not fit through the side door.
I realized that I have been pretty inconsistent with using past or present tense as well as watching between writing about you in third person (he) or second (you).
Any preference regarding that for reading flow?
Also: imperial or metric units when I refer to measurements?
@ Easy E: if you have 56 in that skill you need a 66 or lower to succeed immediatly. If you fail you can try again next time where you'll need a 86 or lower.
Umm... I don't really care. You can roll yourself using dice at home, you can use any dice rolling tool you like or just tell me that I should always roll for you as Dekskull did.
@ Easy E: no problem: your Tech roll was a 34, so I will include the ramp opening in my next post.
@ Bob: how about that: You roll whatever you want to roll (maybe put the result in spoiler tags) and if you want me to roll you also put just a small "roll for me" in spoiler tags.
So... just read up about combat in this system again. So technically we would now use initiative to judge who goes first. But I think this is kind of inpractical in this form of forum RPG. Therefore I would propose the following: each round starts with a post from me and then everyone else can act in whichever order the player posts. We assume that unless I present an extremely agile or veteran enemy (like an Ork Commando or Boss) ALL your characters have their turn before the enemies.
We start of fresh as the last round Tambo and M'Gele needed to draw their weapons (Tambo had the lock picks in his hands just before), Njal was busy with the ramp, Simond mounted up and grabbed his lance, Poncho and Teodore fired.
Each Grot has 7 wounds no armor, Toughness Bonus 2 (which is like armor, so try to do 3+ damage somehow or else it will be wasted). As soon as their wounds run out they start taking critical damage which will in the end kill them.
They might roll for dodge (which I will do) but are not very good at it.
They are weedy in size (-10 on your BS which have to be added to the modifier below)
In your turn you can choose to do either one full or two half actions. The most obvious ranged options are:
Aim (+10 BS for a half action, +20 for a full action)
called shot (-20 BS, full action, you choose the hit location instead of me rolling)
Standard attack (+10 BS, half action)
Semi Auto Burst (+/- 0 BS, half action, every two degrees of success = 1 additional hit)
Full Auto burst (only Teodors autogun, full action at -10 BS, every degree of success = one additional hit)
Suppressing Fire (-20 BS, uses up one the ammo of a semi-auto burst, Opponent must roll to not get to ground).
I have to read up how melee on horseback works, but I highly suspect Simond will need the first round to charge towards the grots.
Ack, I forgot they were weedy, and thought they only had 2 for their toughness bonus. Good thing I didn't write down the Grot dying, especially without considering all the critical damage side of things xD
I do not think I have the necessary Trait to operate the heavy weapons on a vehicle right now? He has the Trait Weapon Training- Las so I think that means he can use the Multi-laser, but am not 100% sure. However, he would be "unskilled" with the Heavy Bolter? Am I understanding that right?
Edit: Nope, He needs weapon training- Heavy as well or takes a -20 when using them. I guess I know what to spend some XP on!
Is our Toughness Characteristic bonus also used to "soak" damage as well?
The initiative order you proposed makes sense to me.
Yup. You get both armor and toughness, and some things have Unnatural Toughness that adds further damage soak without cranking their Toughness to high heavens. That Unnatural Toughness can be bypassed with some weapons, though I forgot what the weapon's trait that does that is called.
Edit: What was the distance between where Poncho fired, and Theodore's position in cover? I went a little ahead of myself in my own post, so Poncho's decision to move to cover will be his action this turn, remains to be seen if it's a half or a full action, which will dictate if he does anything more this time.
Uhhhmm... I would guess there are roughly 3 meters between Poncho and the cover of Teodore and the others. As I understood it, Poncho only went a couple of steps out. Or have I misinterpreted your post and you kept in cover? if so, tell me and I will edit my last post.
But generally: as the Grots are currently breaking and only two are left and running away from you, Poncho would likely not look for cover, as nobody is shooting at him. On the contrary you would be very much recommended to bring them down before they get to their friends.
@ Oldmate: just because I want to see it done: the Grots have been running a bit towards the others, so I would judge them to be just in range for you to charge one. Referencing Hammer of the Emperor page 133 this would be a full action ending in a routine (+20) WS test that can not be parried and might kick one Grot to the ground.
Alternatively you can make a survival test -10 to take over the Grots and cut their escape route by galopping towards the opening they are trying to reach.
Your Comrad can mainly support you (as to the rules as I understand them) in this case giving you +5 to WS.
Pyroalchi wrote: Uhhhmm... I would guess there are roughly 3 meters between Poncho and the cover of Teodore and the others. As I understood it, Poncho only went a couple of steps out. Or have I misinterpreted your post and you kept in cover? if so, tell me and I will edit my last post.
But generally: as the Grots are currently breaking and only two are left and running away from you, Poncho would likely not look for cover, as nobody is shooting at him. On the contrary you would be very much recommended to bring them down before they get to their friends.
Yeah, fair, he'll go to link up with the others, but seeing as there's a cavalry charge about to go down, I'll not ruin the moment by engaging too early
Pyroalchi wrote: Uhhhmm... I would guess there are roughly 3 meters between Poncho and the cover of Teodore and the others. As I understood it, Poncho only went a couple of steps out. Or have I misinterpreted your post and you kept in cover? if so, tell me and I will edit my last post.
But generally: as the Grots are currently breaking and only two are left and running away from you, Poncho would likely not look for cover, as nobody is shooting at him. On the contrary you would be very much recommended to bring them down before they get to their friends.
@ Oldmate: just because I want to see it done: the Grots have been running a bit towards the others, so I would judge them to be just in range for you to charge one. Referencing Hammer of the Emperor page 133 this would be a full action ending in a routine (+20) WS test that can not be parried and might kick one Grot to the ground.
Alternatively you can make a survival test -10 to take over the Grots and cut their escape route by galopping towards the opening they are trying to reach.
Your Comrad can mainly support you (as to the rules as I understand them) in this case giving you +5 to WS.
@ Easy E: I forgot: the Chimera has a turret multilaser, a hull bolter and 3 lasguns per side that can be handeled by troops inside.
Out of personal gut feeling I would say as Njal is really used to Chimeras he only suffers -10 on using the Turret Multilaser and "only" -15 on the hull heavy bolter. So a bit less than usual.
On a personal note I would again ask for your opinion: My dudes come from a jungle region. So combat ranges are likely pretty short. Would a laspistol be more sensible than a lascarbine? Especially in light of them using shields instead of flakvests?
Edit: Oldmate: I thing you got it mixed up. You have to roll below the number in question to succeed. So if you needed a 59, a 91 would have missed. But I would say we let it stay that way. Didn't matter too much and we are all still getting accustomed to the system.
@ Bob:could you tell me your BS, then I can integrate your Overwatch shot in my next post.
Thanks for restraining from cutting the grots down with lasfire till after the charge Bobthehero very cinematic this way
I guess it would depend on the size and weight of the lascarbine, also they could loop the sheild over their left shoulder so it covers the side of their body(so its basically like a turtle shell)as they fire side on with both arms(this is also an effective way to use a spear 2 handed but still have some passive protection from the shield.) Alternatively their shields could jave a cut out or a simple protruding support to rest the las carbine upon.
Okay cheers Pyroalchi, well i guess we'll have another try soon enough. We want low WS high damage next time. I think we should make a roll to see if the lance is stuck fast in an adult ork when Simond charges one as this does make sense and he is carrying the javelins and chainsword for a reason.
I am glad i made a cavalry character I am really enjoying this whole zooming around the battle zone lancing folk, and it adds another dynamic.
There are items and talents to let you use full size weapons one handed, I would assume the Carbine also has less penalties for untrained/unequipped troopers.
yeah, I also thought about it a bit more and somehow it is fitting for the Munitorum to arm them with a two handed weapon while also expecting them to use a shield
But what you say makes a lot of sense Oldmate and Bob. So I think it comes down to either carry the shield on the shoulder and fire normally or use the Carbine one handed with -10. Likely the latter, even though that further worses their shooting skill.
But I guess shooting isn't their main role in the group anyway.
@ Dekskull: As mentioned, Teodore should also get a Comrad that supports him. But if you like her that could also be Wyona, even though she was originally intended just as some random NPC. I leave it up to you. She would definitly take a bullet for you
@ Oldmate: nice that you have fun
@ all: as I understand the rules, the stuff from your standard equipment pack gets replenished each time you "get to base" as long as you don't blatantly waste it and keep loosing your gun time and time again. So feel free to use your grenades and charge packs, they don't have to suffice for the whole adventure, just for this scene.
Also: instead of one big chunk of XP at the end of the adventure you will get smaller chunks after each bigger scene, the first being "survive the landing!" So if for example Njall wants to get Weapon Training heavy, he might still get it. Alternativly if you - Easy E - want to switch one of your weapon trainings for "heavy" because he knows how to operate a Chimera gun, feel free to swap it.
Yeah, I was thinking of switching the generic Krieg mono knife for either a mono combat knift or a Best quality sword (as per the Catachan rules), to represent Poncho's own Catachan fang, but I am not set on either weapons.
As we are under us and this whole thing here is intended to try the system out: do whatever you like. You can switch between to combats and try out what fits better for you.
This is of course also allowed for the rest of you, if you want to try something.
It makes sense to me that Njal is an infantryman first, and trained as a back-up driver for redundancy. He may have not been cross trained as a gunner. Other folks were trained for that.
Does not mean he can not throw some suppression fire!
@ Easy E: as it just occured to me: you have three options for the Chimera:
1. drive along the blastshield like Simond did (with the option of letting Tambo jump of at the opening first)
2. just hit the gas and power through the opening between blastshield and rubble which I would allow with a simple (+10) operate test (use Njal's dice, they should be the same as his comrad's) => this might damage the lasgun arrays a bit
3. try and drive right over the rubble. Here I would say it is a -10 operate test, but the Orks would definitly be surprised and the tanks weapons are safe.
@ Oldmate: just for clarity: do you have Cavalry lances or something with an explosion tip on top?
Simond's lance is a regular steel pointed cavalry lance
rules from here: http://gagetowngaming.wikidot.com/only-war-weapons#toc1 which puts it at a 1D10 (rending type damage for criticals) Proven2(meaning it will do a minimum of 2 damage) unbalanced (-10 for parry)
Nothing on my end, and I'll be away for most of the week-end, so don't wait up. If there's combat, for, now, at least, Poncho would stick to aimed single shots, no telling when's the next resupply.
Okay so how tough are these orks because I just landed a solid hit on the Runtherd with that sharp pointy stick!
There does not seem to be any rules on the matter, so I have arbitrarily decided that if it does more than 5 damage it is a solid hit that is being lodged in the foe's body. It just makes sense to me.
I just realised that I have not been using my talent: 'furious assault' which gives me another attack on a successful WS test.
Don't mind me over here lol.
Very tough. Not a lot of armor by high toughness and unnatural bonus, plus they get tedious to kill with the crit chart, to the point where our DM gave up on the crit chart for Boyz, we'd kill them when they hit 0 wounds.
Step 1: you roll your damage. If it is a 10, you get "righteos fury" (more on that later)
Step 2: the enemy substracts his armor and toughness
Step 3: what is left is reduced from his wounds, if he reaches 0 wounds, every excess damage and every following hit does critical damage. Critical damage does effects as listed on page 259+ in the core rule book
Now comes the catch: Righteous fury:
Step 4: if you rolled a 10, for damage you roll another 10 for righteos fury. This second d10 is for critical damage, regardless of the enemy still having wounds left or not (at least that is how I understood it).
So lets get to that runtherd: he has 15 wounds, Flak Armor (2) and total Tougnness Bonus (7). So he unfortunatly reduces incomming damage by 9.
So your 10 damage unfortunatly are reduced to 1 wound and he has 14 left. BUT: here comes your righteous fury which means I consult the critical damage (Rending) chart for body (rolled a 61 for the hit zone) at point 7:
The attack cuts open the targetโs abdomen. The target can either choose to use one arm to hold his guts in (until
a medic can bind them in place with a successful Medicae Test), or fight on regardless and risk a 20% chance
each Round that his middle splits open, spilling his intestines all over the ground, causing an additional 2d10
Damage. In either case, the target suffers 1d5 permanent Toughness Damage and is now suffering Blood Loss.
So now the Runtherd has to do an opposed strength test (he has 46) vs. the horse (51) I rolled:12 vs 6, that means he is knocked prone.
Interesting result, and kind of fitting. So the Runtherd is such a big fellow, that technically, Simonds tiny lance should not kill him that fast (technically you can only do damage on a 10 to him). But Simond hit him perfectly, meaning that while his lance might have made just a tiny cut compared to his overall posture, it cut right between some big muscles along a long line, completely tearing open his belly and also knocked him right from his feet. Pretty awesome result and I have to think about what that does to the moral of his Grots. Nothing good I guess.
Edit: note that this means regardless on how well armored and tough your opponents are and how meagre your weapon: as long as the attack can trigger righteous fury there is at least a small chance to stack a critical damage result on the enemy. So even if you stand against a Swarm Lord with a knife, there is a minimal chance to stick it in his eye
The cavalry lance is proven 3 though. So any damage delivered below 3 counts as 3 as well.
Should have probably went for a hunting lance with a poisoned head. That would have added firstly 'poison' and bizarrely 'razor sharp'. I guess Simond is a slacker so the process of putting poison on the spearhead before every battle and actually keeping the thing sharp might not have fully been in character.
@ Proven: As far as I understand it that mean that dice rolls below three are counted as three. So unfortunatly that is done before the armor and toughness is applied.
Don't worry, we'll get you some special tips for the lance later. Maybe even a poison dispenser.
On topic of poisons: has anybody stumbled upon the page in the books how these are handled? I found some mentions like tox dispenser, poison lance etc, but no list of poisons. So is this treated abstractly and each just has a "poison value" without any further details?
@Easy E: you can decided if you want the Chimera on top of the heap firing down or if it should drive right in the middle of the fight
I think Simond will be commanding Balwin to sharpen that lance tip till he can shave with it if they survives this encounter at the very least LOL.
Yeah the book is a bit long and hard to navigate, I am currently using it and Gagetown Gaming's site which is much more slimmed down.
Here is the description for the toxins: Anyone that takes Damage from a Toxic weapon, after reduction for Armour and Toughness Bonus, must make a Toughness Test with a penalty equal to 10 times the number in parentheses (X) or suffer an additional 1d10 points of Damage (of the same type as the weapon which inflicted the hit) not reduced by Armour or Toughness. For example, a weapon with Toxic (4) would impose a โ40 on Toughness Tests.
Yeah, its a lot of pages. But with asking around we should find most stuff we need and for the rest we will use good old handwaveium if we aren't sure with something.
@Poisons: I somehow expected there to be a section explaining how to get poisons/hallucinogens. Prices, difficulties to find them etc. But when in doubt I assume the chemyst profession of Teodore should help us out...
Short headsup: what is everyones Regiments favourite basic and heavy weapon? Just considering what the guys in the shuttle likely have at hand.
@ Oldmate: can you tell me again where Simond and Balwin are heading too? I though towards the three Boyz trying to storm the ramp?
@ Easy E: so suppression fire with the Multilaser. Sounds doable, as it has an effect regardles of you succeeding on your Ballistic skill roll, so even without Training at heavy weapons it should work.
@ Dekskull & Bob: if you decide to stay in the Chimera you should have small viewports at the lasgun array to look outside. There is also a hatch on the top of the troops compartment which you could technically open to look out and fire, if you prefer your own weapons.
Yeah Simond recognises he probably does not at this point want to fight an Ork who is fully aware of his presence. So he's going yo do a ride past on those 3 orks and hurl a bomb at them. Then hopefully the runt herd will be distracted by the approaching chimera. He intends then to set about the beast with his chainsword if it is still standing.
You should definitly see the runtherd lying in the ground. The flamer dude is unfortunatly almost invisible still. Unless you look out of a lasgun array viewport and succeed with awareness-10, than you can catch a glimpse. But until you really look out, you will likely not see that he carries a burna
Edit: if Njals checks the turret periscopes he might also catch that glimpse
@ Poncho:
I meant the hatch on top of the passanger compartment between the lasgun arrays:
Spoiler:
The turret is likely too cramped to look out with Njal inside.
@ Teodore: even though Poncho closes the hatch, Wyone still gets a bit burned (or badly, if you choose to not pull her down). But less severe. Nothing that won't heal with time.
OK... that didn't went too well. But fair is fair, would be boring if everything went all to plan all the time.
Edit: messed up the frag grenade damage from Simond. I rolled 10 and 8 and thought like with the skill rolls that would be 08 damage. It's 18 of course and another Rigtheous Fury result on top of it. So the second ork is indeed wounded pretty severely and now has only one leg left.
I hope I don't put you under too much pressure, but as we had a pretty fast pace so far: Bob, Easy E: do you want to post something for this "turn" or can I prepare the next post?
You might also have seen my topic opened on the question of "how loud are lasweapons anyway?". As it might come up in this RPG I would handle it the following way with solid projectile and Lasweapons:
normal projectile weapon: firing one can definitly be heard and the source can be made out accoustically. If you look in roughly the right direction you can see the muzzle flash, but not the travelling projectile
+ Silencer of normal quality (automatic in sniper rifle): The sound is equal to a loud clap and usually not missed, but it is hard to make out the source accustically. The muzzle flash is not visible
+ Silencer of good quality: the sound is even more silent and might be missed on a busy road/in the jungle at night (which is pretty loud), even when heard the exact source can usually not be identified
+ Silencer of best quality: the sound might be missed unless you are within 20 yards of the shooter
Lasweapons:
normal Lasweapon: the shot itself and therefore its source is clearly visible, The sound is equal to a loud clap and usually not missed, but it is hard to make out the source accustically.
+ normal "Supressor": the shot is not that easy to see (very narrow, little scattering), but if seen, the source is clear (straight line), sound as above
+ good "Supressor": as above, but only visible in UV/IR light, so one would need preysence googles/nightvision (which Xenos might have...), the sound is even more silent and might be missed on a busy road/in the jungle at night (which is pretty loud), even when heard the exact source can usually not be identified
+ best "Supressor": as above, but unless you really know the exact wavelenght, you should not be able to see the lasbolt, sound as above.
I don't know if that is perfectly sensible physically, but I would handle it that way as it leaves interesting choices when trying to do things "the sneaky way". I also want to say this now, so you know what to deal with and what you can expect from the enemies.
In the core book at page 243 on actions they write:
A character can take two different Half Actions on his turn instead of taking one Full Action.
Now english is not my mothers tongue. I read this as inclusive, so the two half actions CAN be different but don't have to. You can for example make two single, unaimed shots. Or do you think this is exclusive and both half actions MUST be different?
No problem. This "battle scene" is almost done and the next is more role-play heavy (talking, interacting with each others and NPCs), were it is less important for everyone to post an action every turn
@ all: it might have been unclear: 3 Grots run to the lower right on my map and can be shot at without endangering Simond (and the troopers at the ramp shoot at those) one runs to the lower left and can't sensibly be shot at, but is well within range of Simond.
So I assume Teodore just targets the group of three where he should be safe
There was also a battle in Game of Thrones (Battle of the Bastards) where the bad guy did that intentionally (fired on his own troops who were locked in melee) killing both sides in the process, but he had more soldiers so he came out ahead. The first thing I thought of when I saw that was...why didn't I ever do that back when I played Warhammer Fantasy battles?
Dekskull wrote: Sounds good to me. BTW I just got wrath and glory, when this game wraps up would anyone be interested in doing a game of that?
Looks very similar to only war just much more open ended frame work.
I'm all for it. Do you intend to GM yourself or should someone else?
This here is intended as an adventure with four scenes, the first is almost wrapped up.
If you are up for GMing that's fine with me! I'm still getting aquainted with the rule system so I wouldn't mind going through the player experience first.
I don't know that system yet, but I could have a look. As I'm GMing a lot with my PnP group at home, I'm always interested in trying out new systems, grab the rules I like and integrate them.
I hear you though, I'm already running a Warhammer Fantasy RPG Game on Roll 20. GMing is a lot of work!
You could probably get a group together from these forums to do something on Roll20 though. The connection is pretty decent. We haven't had any big issues with audio quality and it can automate some of the stuff pretty well.
@ Easy E: I will likely post later that day or tomorrow. Feel free to just roll a couple of Tech rolls (+10 easier everytime, so +0, +10, +20) until he succeeds. I just need to know how man tries he needs.
I am adding Lasgun Volley to Poncho, using 200 out of that 300 XP we earned. Right now, not a particularly useful talent for now, as it works off an order, but the trait tree that it opens up, Las Weapon Expertise (every degrees of success lowers the enemy agility by 5, up to -30 or -35) and Las Weapon Mastery (every 2 degrees of success adds 1 damage) are killers, later on, especially once he gets more BS and possible gun attachments to increase accuracy.
Bob: My intention was that the Microbeads are also on the list, not physically there. But OK, lets put it that way: let us all just assume that those parts of equipment you want to look at are physically present (as the stack of weapons Teodore was looking at) and the rest is on just mentioned on the list.
@ XP: I guess Tambo will use his for "Ears to the ground", as that would pretty much round up the character he was intended to be
@ current scene: the aim of this scene would be:
1. figure out how you will work as a unit (leader, roles, etc.)
2. getting to know each other (a bit of background etc.) and what each of you can and can't do
3. explore the garrison, meet the regiments (some opportunity to describe what wild ideas you come up with for regimental traditions etc.)
4. if you like, feel free to come up with some adventure, practical joke or heist you think your dudes would pull of while garrisoned. Like go gambling, try to get into the city to go partying in a club, break into the laundry room and dye all parade uniforms pink or steal some equipment you are not at all supposed to have! Whatever you need to have some fun before deployment
@ further equipment: I thought about how to handle it with requisitioning stuff. On the one hand I don't see anything explicitly forbidding you from just trying to get as many items as you want. Meanwhile I don't want to let it get out of hand. Also the mechanism for trading is really really wonky Therefore here is what I would propose mechanically regarding requisitioning stuff:
Taking everything into account you can automatically get anything that is ubiquitous or abundant. For everything else the Commerce test has a bonus/malus of:
+20 (plentiful)/+10 (common)/0 (average)/-10 (scarce)/-20 (rare)/-30 (very rare)/-40 (extremely rare)/-50 (near unique)/-60 (unique)
This can be modified by Craftmanship (poor +20, good (-30), best (-50)) => when you are willing to take a poor weapon, it gets much easier
Furthermore if the item is a favorite weapon of a present regiment it gets another +20
If you are willing to trade it for an item you get another +5 for each level above abundant of your traded item (so +5 for plentiful, +10 for common etc.).
Lastly: you or the guy trying to requisition stuff (I assume Tambo would be best as he has commerce) can make an opposed Commerce test and get another +10 for every degree of success. Tambo gets +20 on this commerce test if something is traded.
That sounds rather complicated, so I'll just give some examples:
A meltagun (scarce, but favorite weapon of one present regiment) is +10. a Chameleoline cloak (rare) -20 etc. Trading in some LHO-sticks (common) would give a +10 bonus.
=> just so that you have a rough idea what difficulties we are talking about.
Now, to not let it get out of hand I would say within the week you are there, each one of you can have 5 tries on requisitioning something (as I said, Tambo can do it for you, if you want). Which includes trying a second time for the same item. So as example: Tambo could try first to get a Camelioline Cloak and fail. He tries a second time, still fails, tries a third because it's important to him, succeeds. He would still have two tries to get something else
=> this should guarantee that you have a good chance to either get one seldom item you REAAALY want or 4-5 less seldom things. Your choice.
Weapons with upgrades would be two separate items, even though that might not always make sense (like a compact gun. Of course you don't just get a full sized gun and than magically make it smaller... some suspension of disbelief is necessary).
You might also be able to build some low tech weapons from scratch. Maybe not a sword or flint-pistol, but a sling, bola, blowpipe or maybe a bow should be possible.
@ Dekskull: just if you want to mention something for Teodore: the people of Skrynne have a centuries long history with Orks. So even from civilian life he should have pretty good knowledge about them, their abilities and even (to a degree) culture.
1. Good quality "Brontian Long Knives" knife (Which I think is available from the list)
2. A smoke grenade or two (To create cover if needed)
3. Dozer Blade for the Chimera
Brontians, in the rule book, start with with a Best quality Mono Knife. You could get a ''Warknife'' as well, which has better stats than a basic knife, and could be ''Best'' and ''Mono''.
@ Brontian knife: if they have best Quality Mono-Knifes those would be definitly on the list. Also a best quality mono-warnknife, why not.
@ Smoke grenade: those are pretty common. Tambo has two, so if you need those they would be present. But you can of course later get some through requisitions.
Just like the dozer blade.
@ topic: of course you can also discuss in time what equipment you should/would get later on.
From Tambos perspective the most urgent points would be:
1. something that is able to kill an Ork or help you other kill it (therefore he takes the grenade cache now)
2. something to complement his stealth skill (so he'll try and get a Chameleoline cloak over the next days
3. something to kill an ork without getting to close (a long-las likely, as he at least can use those and ammo is interchangeable with his rifle)
Longlas would freaking rule, to kill Orks, they have just a bit of AP, enough to ignore the Ork's scrap armor, and a property to ignore Unnatural Toughness and roll extra D10's of damage.
Edit: Triplex Pattern Lasguns are also pretty great
I think a long las would be a great addition to the party, it would definetly add to the long range punch, which, well that's probably the best place to try and keep the orks.
Ironically the armour reduction that razor sharpness confers (a trait that the poisoned lance tip has, which potentially can double the penetration chance) would be pretty good, its a -2 to armour; so keep your weapons properly sharpened folks it'll make a difference. The effect of the poison which seems potentially pretty brutal.
The regular exploding tipped hunting lance casually does twice the damage of my cavalry spear and that is before the blast modifier.
I vote that if Bobthehero ever needs to use his shovel for whatever reason in combat, despite also having the fang, that it should definitely automatically have the 'razor sharp' trait added.
@ everybody else: I would propose Irishpeacockz creates his character and then our characters decide in game that they would like to requisition that character.
@ Irish: currently we have
A melee focussed cavalryman
A lasman
A stormtrooper
A medic
An Operator.
And the role of sergeant is already kind of taken fluff-wise
Of course we can always have a second of the same soecialization, but if you want to have something unique, we still lack a heavy weapons dude or a Sergeant ruleswise, who would have to live with being second in command (so corporal) fluff wise.
I will do my best to get back to you guys with a concept today. If he is a Brontian I would imagine a CQC character you shall check the rules. Not concerned about the Sergeant being taken that's fine
Actually caught up with the squad right now and I'm digging it.
@ Irish: you could also go for a Brontian Commissar. Those are also pretty good in CC
@ all: As it seems none of our characters has first hand experience with Orks, integrating Irishs Char seems pretty easy: we can just get to the conclusion, that we should ask for a Brontian that has fought them.
@ Tambo: now that I understand a bit better how everything works, I regret a bit that I took "Scavengers" as regiment trait as it seems to be more disadvantage than advantage. Would you mind if I switch this for "Chameleoline" as equipment doctrine?
@ Easy E: I love how you modify Njals language with Ice related words. It works excellent. As does Oldmate giving Simond a really conservative touch, Ponchos switching between being just a number and an individual and Teodores "I just want to get out of here" mentality. I'll try to give Tambo and the NPCs some more fitting quirks too.
@ Oldmate: stables for your horses should be on the ground floor by the way and some grazing grounds outside.
If I need to know where the horses are kept should we be worried
I guess Simond could try the jumping out of window gambit in case of an ork attak, it'd be cinematic and in character.
Or in the case that the Sarge might get a bit fed up with Simond's gak.
@ Dekskull: should I leave Wyona up to you or do you want to concentrate on Teodore and I should describe her actions?
@ all: feel free to add to the scenery as you see fit. You can always invent NPCs, buildings or things happening. Only limit would be that this scene should focus more in interaction and non-combat talents.
@ Irish: your guy is currently in that recreational tent. He and his battle buddy are the last two of his squad (so he would be free to join us). Introduce him as you like. Maybe he is just playing the good old "the knife goes chop chop chop" game...
@ Dekskull: I remember giving your character perfect memory as trait and logic as skill. So if you want to mention some incredible feat of recollection feel free to do so. He might also be able to be really good at playing (and counting) cards or for example notice how some of the dice at the gambling table roll suspiciously high over the last 100 rolls...
Its all cool. Pretty understandable for the character. Especially in the circumstances, especially when meeting our group that has been in combat for like 5 minutes and have been treated like they single handedly fought all your guy's battles for them.
I could say the same for my 'party like there's no tommorrow' cocky little bantam of a feudal worlder, but I'm quite enjoying writing him.
I believe the Ciaphus Cain or Eisenhorn books mention Thrones as currency which is where pyro got it from I imagine. Since he used it first I just followed suit.
@ Dekskull and all: You should have some days in the depot to get your stuff. As it would be a pity to break the bar-round up so soon I would propose you use this evening to get some contacts. From my regiments fluff for example I know there are some Askaris that would pay very handsomely for Ponchos Rebreather mask, that's why he carefully asked for the story behind it, to find out if he would be willing to part from it. Or knows a place where one could get a replacement - the receipients wouldn't see the difference...
By the way: nice idea with the music
@ Irish: good job on the jaded Brontian. I also like the contrast between both.
Adamo is the one to make sure thibgs remain somewhat civil and more importantly drag Malakai into situations he wouldn't tread on his own....such as a penal unit.
Waiting for someone with authority to officially ask/order the Brontian's to merge with the penals. Considering how they are the only two left in their own squad, consolidation makes sense.
Regarding what you want to do: I'm open for your ideas. This second scene is a bit of a sandbox, where you can come up with all kind of mischief you want to do.
But if you don't have any and want to go on to the next planned action again, just say so, would be OK for me. In that case everyone should just say what his 5 tries for requisitioning equipment will be, what he is willing to trade for it and if he/she wants to try himself or if Tambo should do it. Then I'd roll it out and we could skip to getting your assignment and then diving into the jungle...
@ Integrating Brontians: Commissar Cole already said, the squad could requisition another soldier or two and Peabody mentioned how great it would be if those were Brontians. So I assume when Cole swings by the next morning to ask who will be promoted to Sergeant, the Squad will mention Adamo and Malakai. Maybe the two of them even already crash in the squads hideout after a long night drinking
@ Ponchos gasmask: I suspected as much. Which might lead to a possible mini-adventure: where to get a normal gasmask and how to fix it in a way that one could believe it is the original deal. Together with a bit of acting on Ponchos part to convince the buyers that this is indeed an original Death Korps Rebreather...
@ other ideas: as this would be a nice chance to use talents that might not come up otherwise I also considered if you guys might come up with some kind of heist, to get the credits/trading items to get the equipment you want. Stuff like staking out some kind of civilian building, breaking in etc.
Or maybe realize that Teodore is good at cards (Dekskull already set this in motion) and then try to get him into a high stakes game somewhere, selling his talents as pure luck?
We could also improvise some scrumball rules, if you want to measure yourself against others.
You know as much as I'd like to try a heist, I don't think this group of characters would really be up for it. They don't know eachother well enough to trust each other to do anything too crazy. A fair number are from very different worlds and so it's difficult for them to even understand each other all that well either.
So I'd say let's wrap up recruiting the new character get those requisition roles done and then tee it up for the next scene.
So, what does everybody else think? Cut it short and jump to the mission assignment?
@ Requisitioning stuff:
Here is what I wrote above again:
Spoiler:
Taking everything into account you can automatically get anything that is ubiquitous or abundant. For everything else the Commerce test has a bonus/malus of:
+20 (plentiful)/+10 (common)/0 (average)/-10 (scarce)/-20 (rare)/-30 (very rare)/-40 (extremely rare)/-50 (near unique)/-60 (unique)
This can be modified by Craftmanship (poor +20, good (-30), best (-50)) => when you are willing to take a poor weapon, it gets much easier
Furthermore if the item is a favorite weapon of a present regiment it gets another +20
If you are willing to trade it for an item you get another +5 for each level above abundant of your traded item (so +5 for plentiful, +10 for common etc.).
Lastly: you or the guy trying to requisition stuff (I assume Tambo would be best as he has commerce) can make an opposed Commerce test and get another +10 for every degree of success. Tambo gets +20 on this commerce test if something is traded.
That sounds rather complicated, so I'll just give some examples:
A meltagun (scarce, but favorite weapon of one present regiment) is +10. a Chameleoline cloak (rare) -20 etc. Trading in some LHO-sticks (common) would give a +10 bonus.
=> just so that you have a rough idea what difficulties we are talking about.
But I misunderstood how trading works: It means Tambo would get the above mentioned Bonus on his opposed commerce test.
As Tambo has gotten a cache of 12 scarce grenades he would offer to use one each of those to trade for items. So one per player character and they increase the chance for Tambo to get a Logistic bonus from the opposed commerce test by +10. Also Tambo can get another +10 via "Scavengers" (I decided to keep it), but if he rolls a double, we might get in trouble with the Commissars.
So again what I would need from you:
1. what do you want for your five tries on requisitioning stuff
2. would you be willing to take it in low quality (which gives a +20 buff on the logistics test) or do you need better quality?
3. would you trade something for it?
4. Do you want to risk Tambo trying to get it in a half legal way?
Our basic logistic rating is 15 (being heroes must mean something), modified as above. So to get a better grasp on how this goes I'll just post for Tambo (skip if you are not interested, this was half for me to practice and keep track of):
Spoiler:
1. try: get a Chameleoline Cloak (rare, -20), trade a Hallucinogenic grenade for it (scarce +10 to commerce, so Tambo rolls on a 29+10+20), opposed Commerce test against a requisitioning officer (I assume he rolls Commerce on 30): Officer: 95, Tambo 55. So he is 65 over, I'm 4 under. So Tambo has 1 degree of success more for +10 on the logistics test. He risks getting through dark channels (+10 Logistics) and is willing to take a bad quality cloak that only works in jungle (+20) => final score is 35
rolled a 20 on the logistics test. So no double, he didn't get caught.
2. try: a bad quality (+20) Long-las (-20). This time he uses some LHO sticks to trade (+/- 0, but allows Tambo to use his bonus from ears to the ground), opposed Commerce test gives: 68 to 5. So 4 degrees of success for him for a +40 on logistics. As that went rather well he doesn't risk scavenging something for a final score of 55:
Logistics test: rolled a 9. That went great.
3. try: some photo visors (Scarce, -10). They are in Njal's standard kit though (+20). Tambo tries to trade some miscallenous trading stuff he has (payed this as one common item). As above: commerce gives: 14 to 78, this time Tambo fails and gets no bonus. Final Logistic score: 25. Roll: 46, he does not get them.
4. try: red dot laser sight (Scarce, -10), Tambo is willing to part with one of his anti plant grenades (+20 to Commerce): 24 vs. 14. So he has 3 degrees of success more=> +30 logistics, and he is willing to risk and try scavenging again (+10)=> final score 45. Roll: 17, success and didn't get caught.
5th and last try: a blowgun (common, +10), he trades one of his smoke grenades (no bonus, but ears to the ground): Opposed Commerce test: 91 to 42, => +10 on logistics for final value of 35 (he skips the scavenger bonus to not get caught for something as basic as this...): rolled a 99. Pew, good that I skipped scavengers...
Final result: Tambo has given away one of his plant, smoke and Hallucinogenic grenades, as well as LHO-sticks and some trading stuff and got a bad quality Long-las, bad quality Chameleoline Cloak and a normal quality red dot laser sight. The other two items (Photovisor and Blowgun) were a miss.
Edit: sorry, I mixed up the sights. I meant a telescopic sight (which es even more frequent). So he has one of those, not the red dot variant
So, I would jump to the mission assignment soon, but first we would have to wrap up some open points:
@ Irish: does Malakai "just" want to ask for equipment? Or in other words: are you OK with me wrapping this up narrativly in my next post, or do you want to write it back and forth between our characters? I'm fine with both
@ card players: same question: should I wrap it up narratively or are you interested in developing it? If so I could offer to shuffle a deck of cards, deal for each player and we see who wins something
@ Oldmate: I read your post and Wyona would agree to retire now. But I wanted to wait posting that until I know the answer to the above questions
@ all: I still need your wishlist what equipment you want? 5 tries as mentioned.
I think I'd like the exsplosive lance head(i have changed my mind from the poison as havinghad sucsess with the grenades I think it'd be more in character). And some definitely spirits from the Askari camp.
Maybe try to upgrade his knife with one of those Brontian knives too. I mean if you need to go for a sidearm you want it to be able to do someting.
In terms of equipment I assume my two Brontian's have special warknives. Apart from that Malakai would carry a shotgun whereas Adamo would carry a basic Lasgun.
Apart from that I imagine a fairly standard guardsman kit with maybe an extra knife or two l.
@ Irish: your standard equipment would be (from Hammer of the Emperor):
1 Lasgun, 6 charge packs, 1 best craftmenship mono knife, 2 knives, Flak armor, 3 Frag and Krak Grenades, 4 weeks rations, photovisor, microbeads + the usual stuff like uniform, sleeping bag etc.
You can of course exchange that mono knife for a (mono) Combat knife. Should not make to much of a difference.
My question was more aimed at what additional equipment your dudes want, as now is the stage in the adventure, were we can try to get some. As described I give you 5 tries on getting equipment, but rarer equipment might need more than one try to get it.
@ Easy E: sure, feel free to activate it. Might as well be that he learned it before and it was just on "stand by" due to XP shortage. That's what I think of regarding Tambo taking "ears to the ground" from his XP. Likely he had it before I just couldn't pay for it. The XP cost of Weapon Training depends on your Aptitudes, but it should be possible to take it.
@ all: I'll likely roll out the requisitions tomorrow and write the next larger post then. Hope you can wait that long
I see no problem in that. Purely for convenience reasons I could also live with the assumption that the tips are shaped charges and that the shaft of the lance survives the attack with the profile of a cavalry lance. This way it would be less awkward to switch between the two.
I'd be happy to have 2 exploding lance strikes and then to use the chainsword. But as I have already modeled exactly what you described It would be a shame to not show it here.
Ah, I forgot something: I still need 2 more infos from you:
1. as I said each of you gets one grenade from Tambo for trading. Do you have any other items you are willing to trade to get your additional equipment? As long as Tambo has something he can trade, he gets +20 on his opposed commerce roll, so it is pretty worthwile. But of course this also means that item won't be there on the mission.
2. do you want Tambo to go the risky route (which gives another +10 on logistics, but might earn you unwanted attention), or should he play it safe?
Can I also use my XP to get Weapon Training- Las? Maybe spend some time in camp at the range with an instructor before we deploy?
Unless Pyroalchi has something in mind for that, you can, for 300 XP
Yeah, I am not super familiar with the system but it looks like I bought Weapon-training at character creation with the extra XP we got to spend, but I would NOT have enough to pick it up now as I do not have the right Aptitudes.
I guess I will grab Security at Known instead, and carry over 100 XP for later. Not great, but at least it negates the -20.
For Trading I have:
1 set of Cold Weather Survival Suit
1 Set of poor weather gear
1 rucksack
1 sleep bag
1 rechargeable Lamp
1 mess kit
1 set of basic tools
1 Infantryman's Uplifting Primer
1 canteen
2 weeks rations
Not a lot of things other troopers would not have all ready, or want......
Still, I can work with that.
It may surprise you, but specifically the cold weather suit is highly sought after by the Askaris as they deem almost everything as cold weather
Okay so a handful of silver and five or so gold coins.
A knife
2 javelins if anyone wants them lol
I'm going to assume my guy got issued gear, on top of what he has brought. being a seasoned campaigner he has already packed his world's equivalent of these items
canteen
mess kit
sleeping bag
guardsman's uplifting primer
OK, @ Easy E, the Dozer Blade is a given, as that was your pick from the spoils of the first battle.
The other items:
Spoiler:
1. try: a Brontian Warknife (Average +/-0, and it is likely in their standard pack: +20. Looks easy enough). Tambo tries to trade the Cold weather survival suit (Average) => opposed Commerce from Tambo (49) vs. requisitionsofficer (30): 29 vs 32, 3 degrees of succes. Final Logistics roll on 15+20+30 = 65: 61, success
2. try: Smokegrenades (Common, +10 and in multiple standard packs: +20), trade in rations. Opposed roll: 64 vs. 42, no bonus from the commerce rol
Logistics on 45: 82, nope. Which at least means the rations were not used
3. try: the same: 59 vs. 8, again no bonus from commerce, 39 on the logistics roll. Thats a smoke grenade
4. try: the same, but this time no sensible trading stuff: 93 vs. 84, but 18 on the logistics
So, Tambo used up the Cold Weather suit and the two rations, but got your Warknife and 2 Smoke grenades in return and you still have one try left. He also has not yet used the single scarce grenade (Hallucinogenic or Claymore [which I would tread as a directional frag] ) he offered each companion. So if you want I can try for something else or you can feel free to keep the scarce grenade or just switch it with any other grenade that is at least scarce.
@ Oldmate:
Spoiler:
1. try: Hunting lance (Scarce, -10, but as your dudes are cavalry those should be in their standard pack: +20). Tambo trades in one of his scarce grenades as offered. Opposed commerce (Tambo has 29+10+20, the other 30): 38 vs. 25. So 2 degrees of success more. Logistics roll on 15+20+20 = 55: 19
2. try, the same, this time trading in a Javelin (why not): 88 vs. 89, no bonus from commerce. Logistics on 35: 93... not at all
3. try: the same: 12 vs 13: 3 degrees of success more: logistics on 65: 45
4. try: the same: 68 vs. 8, no bonus, Logistics on 35: 29, success
5. The spirits should be an automatic success, as those should be plentiful
Tambo used up the offered grenade and both javelins and got 3 Hunting lances (or their tips, whatever) as well as some spirits from the Askaris.
Only thought of this at work today, did we get any training on the native dangers of the world, I mean Wyona should presumably have some training and knowledge in that regard.
Yes, but there is only so much you can do within some months on the transport ship and a week on ground. Therefore it mainly boils down to heaving heard of the largest predators, knowing a hand full of plants that are edible and quite a couple of plants that are highly poisonous and being aware of the fact that drinking uncooked water or having untreated wounds is an open invitation for a fast and violent dead by plague.
Overall on a scale from todays amazonas jungle and Catachan, Skrynne scores somewhere in the middle. At least the plants don't actively hunt and the predators can usually be downed by lasgun fire (sometimes A LOT of lasgun fire).
Ok cheers so not quite take a step off the path at your own immediate mortal peril sorta territory. Oh and don't forget the non predators, such as the really territorial herbivores. Rhinos and hippos are pretty frickin dangerous, as a re riled up elephants, they won't eat you but that's no comfort after they have ripped your arm off or jumped up and down on you.
1. try: a Long las of normal quality (scarce, -10), Tambo uses the one scarce grenade he offered to try and get it. opposed Commerce test (Tambo gets +30): 57 vs. 64, 1 degree of success. Final score: Logistic 15. rolled a 47: nope
2. try: the same: 3 vs. 87 on commerce, for an impressive 6 degrees of succes. Logistics 75: 20. Hmm... so Tambo is 55 below what was needed. I would treat this as him getting a good quality Longlas (which would have needed a 45)
3. try: a red dot laser sight for the Long las (scarce, -10). I did not hear from you if you want to trade something for it. But as Tambo wants to make himself useful, he trades one of his own frag grenades for it (which gives him at least +20 on commerce). Opposed test: 43 vs. 81, 1 degree of success: Logistics 15 is needed: 29
4. try: the same: 67 vs. 8, no bonus from commerce. Logistics 5 is needed: 51
5. try: as it is the last chance, Tambo sets everything and tries illegal channels (+10 on logistics): 6 vs. 72 on Commerce for 4 degrees of succes. Final logistics score: 55. 59... Sorry, that didn't work out.
Tambo tried his best. He managed to even get a good quality Long-las, but he couldn't get the red dot laser sight, sorry. The scarce grenade from his grenade cache was traded for the longlas.
I would leave it up to you if you want to handle that as a separate weapon using the charge packs of a lasgun or if this is some kind of "long barrel and power modifier" that are fixed to your Hot-Shot lasgun and powered by your backpack. Option one has the advantage of more ammo compliability, option 2 is lighter to carry.
@ Dekskull and Irish: any bonus equipment you want? Maybe a power- or chainsword/knife for Malakai? Or an autopistol or refractor field for our marksman medic? (You seem to have shot more greenskins than most of us)
Eh, the Red Dot was a cherry on the proverbial sundae, just having a not-Unreliable Longlas will work well. As for how it's integrated, I'll think of something. Carrying two rifles can be a bit of a pain, especially if one is cabled. Then again, I do dig the idea of long barrel swapping like in Republic Commando. And barrel swaps are part of how we do things with machine guns, it's *not* unlikely.
As you only want one thing and we have 5 tries, I'll go for some high quality stuff:
1. try: Chainsword (average 0), good quality (-30), trade in one scarce grenade (Tambo gets +30 on commerce):
opposed commerce test: 25 vs. 26 => 3 degrees of success more => logistics 15: rolled a 9, great. You have a good Chainsword
2. some stims (average, 0): 65, vs. 69, no bonus, Logistics 15: 23
3. the same: opposed test: 48 vs. 80: , need 15 logistics, rolled 37
4.the same, 5 vs. 32, 3 degrees of success, need a 45, rolled a 1
=> I would treat that as enough stim to carry you through the month
2. Ok, as we still have one last try tries, lets try and trade that good Chainsword for a best quality one: (-50 on Logistics, but total +50 on Tambos Commerce test):
opposed Commerce: 27 vs. 69, 6 degrees of succes, Logistics: 25. Rolled 83
Tambo got a good quality Chainsword for Malakai (meaning +5 on your WS roll) and enough stimms to carry you through the month
All right chaps, does that leave us good to proceed? Do we have other questions or need additional information before we load up the Chimera and head out?
In preparation of that: Easy E, you can roll 3 rputine (+10 bonus) operate surface tests and tell me your outcome. Just to have a rough idea how well you get through the jungle
Just to check: does anyone of you have the skill to use the heavy bolter you got? So weapon training bolter and heavy?
Edit: if not, that might also be an option to win the locals over or trade it for something more useful. Being only able to fire full auto (-20 in BS) it is pretty useless when shot untrained
just for reference: Tambo has las, low tech and launcher
And for planning: before you battle for the refinery, you'll likely be able to distribute another 300 XP. So you might be able to activate another weapon training or something if you want.
Just a quick headsup:
I could describe 1 or two further scenes in the jungle, mostly to avoid the typical "boom, you are at your destination!" feeling. But if you prefer jumping right into action, I can also skip this, just mention, that you travel through the jungle some time, struggle with the local wildlife and maybe witness some dogfights overhead and then just let you reach the refinery.
I haven't forgotten you, I just won't be able to really set the next post before 2023. But I guess I'm not the only one pretty involved with family at the moment.
Enjoy your holidays and have a nice new years eve
No worries man. BTW this is a good group of people we got going on here. Looking forward to finishing strong!
@Pyroalchi have you ever thought of GMing via Roll 20? I've been running a Wrath and Glory campaign with my friends for a while now. Even the free version isn't bad.
@ Oldmate: just to be sure we understand each other right: Tambo warned you of something BEHIND Simond, what Simond sees is IN FRONT of him
@ all: just so we are on the same page: The Chimera has a
1. large ramp on the backside where 2 soldiers can exit shoulder by shoulder
2. a large hatch on top of the crew compartment where 2 soldiers can look or climb out if they don't have too much gear on them
3. a hatch on top of the turret and in front of the driver where one can get out, but it might take a bit of wriggling.
4. the lasgunarray has a vision slit at each gun. With a bit of fumbling one could also remove the gun and get a shooting port for an Autogun or pistol or whatever
Yeah, he rolled such a low awarness that i am going with him not getting that warning. The lance is exsplosively tipped. He's not taking chances with the wildlife out here.
As Game Master: I mainly need to know:
1. do you announce yourself to whoever is in the clearing?
2. do you hurry to reach the downed chimera or do you want to round the whole clearing first for recconnaissance (which will take at least another hour) or something in between?
Edit: there is no "wrong" choice her, just different outcomes with their own advantages and disadvantages
Then, Poncho, Malaki, Teodore and the rest out on foot spread out?
We can leave Erc, my "companion" in the Chimera so he can back us up with the Heavy Bolter in the hull and pick us up if needed?
Thoughts?
Poncho is definitely taking up a position further back, yup
As for approach, we can try and raise them on comms, while still approaching careful, yes? If they confirm the area to be clear, then we move in with more haste.
Simond and Balwin can either poke in as armed recon, or as a mobile reserve with the chimera. He'd be a bit faster and should be able to extract himself from trouble a bit faster. Either role plays to his character.
=> just to avoid misunderstanding: from what I know of the lore Scions are highly indoctrinated and elite-soldiers. So my description of them being quite bossy, cold and not very talkative is not meant to be out of the ordanary. If your characters ever had contact to them they react more or less like you would have expected, even if that means pretty bitchy ;-)
@ the Lieutenants Order: I would prefer if one of you lets Wyona answer. Who comes first can decide. Technically you were ordered by HQ to only use the high powered Vox AFTER you secured the promethium facility as they are not sure if the Orks would pick up the signal. That's less about hearing in on what you say and more about knowing that you are in the vicinity. If you use it now, you might loose the element of surprise (at least part of it).
Also even if you call for backup, there is the question if you stay and defend the Scions until they are picked up or just continue your mission. You might also try and convince them to join yours, but that should be pretty hard, as they have their own orders (which they of course don't share with you).
The snippet about Tambo intending to mine the bodies is based in his culture not really valueing dead bodies that much. The soul of the warrior is gone, might as well boobytrap the corpse if you can take some enemies by surprise. The same reason why he personally would strip them of all belongings, but has already learned that a lot of fellow guardsmen deem this inappropiate. Feel free to react to that as you like.
Scions do have a special piece of kit in their medkit tailor made to trap their corpses. It all depends on the regiment's culture, but it's just something you might want to know
Oldmate has a point though. It makes sense to get the current story to a decent stopping point. Besides, it'd give me more time to plan things out.
I'm thinking nominally it would run on the Wrath and Glory system (and I can design character stats but will probably stick to something very streamlined).
But for the most part the rolling will be limited. The game will be more about the strategic and business decisions that the Lords of this planet make and then dealing with the consequences of those decisions over a long period of time.
Your Grenade has a range of your strength Bonus x3 and throwing is rolled on your BS. Meaning: Simond has a SB of 3, so up until 17 meters you can throw it unmodified, from 18 to 26m you get -10 on your roll, 27+ meters is a roll -30. The turrets are 10m high. So for the unmodified attack you have to get pretty close.
Just tell me how close Simond goes and roll your BS. I will then see if the Ork is taken completely by surprise or sees you approaching.
@ all: you can decide if you want to shoot at the greenskins as soon as they are in range or if you want to wait until they are really right in the middle of your lot.
I updated the map a bit (on page 8 of the thread), to give grid coordinates. Simond and the orks come in from I1 moving along the path. You have a line of fire when they are around J7. Letting them come closer gives you easier shots due to short range but also a shorter charge distance for the Xenos
@ Dekskull: does Teodor say "Simond no!" in normal talking volume into the combeat or does he shout it conventionally as if none of you had combeats because he lost his nerve?
@ Bob: could you tell me your damage rolls?
I think you missed some damage modifiers in your posted 9+5+2 damage
You should do 1d10+3 (longlas) +1d10 (for accurate and two degrees of success) +2 (for mighty shot) +1 or 2 if you use the variable setting to fire a higher powered shot (which I assume as Poncho already saw what tough SoBs the Orks are)
Edit: also some minor comments:
1. Teodore has an autogun, so it should be bullets, not lasbolts
2. Njals semiburst will hit, but only once
3. The mines are at the otter ambush side, so that Simond and Balwin have the option to charge in. Balwin waits somewhere to the left of the battle map. If he want, Simond can turn around and charge next turn, but he might get in the way of the gunners
From what we learned so far the autogun and normal lasguns might be better of going for suppression fire against the orkboys instead of shooting to kill. That might be better suited for Gretchin or in case of explosives etc.
Pyroalchi wrote: @ Bob: could you tell me your damage rolls?
I think you missed some damage modifiers in your posted 9+5+2 damage
You should do 1d10+3 (longlas) +1d10 (for accurate and two degrees of success) +2 (for mighty shot) +1 or 2 if you use the variable setting to fire a higher powered shot (which I assume as Poncho already saw what tough SoBs the Orks are)
Chalk it up to Poncho's (and me) not being too familiar with variable settings on more common Lasguns pattern and forgot to set it to something more powerful. Krieg does get their own Lasgun in one of the expansions, and its power setting it fixed, same for the Hellgun. I'll do that next turn, thanks!
Ah, I understand. Damn Orks are tough. He still has one wound left.
So from what I see we still have Adamo/Malakai left as well as maybe Wyona. Tambo/M'Gele are looking for the one missing ork and won't fire at the two in front of you right now.
Bob, are you there? I would need some indication what Poncho does the second turn: take a last shot at the boyz charging over the treetrunk (in which case I would potentially edit my last post) or refocus on the two stabby grots that just appeared near him...
@ Irish: give me a sign if you are still with us. Otherwise I would handle the fight of Adamo/Malakai with the Gretchin as "NPC fight".
@ all: technically the adventure would include you "conquering" the promethium facility and then defending it against a counterattack by the Orks. As I have the impression that we all start to loose a bit of drive and this was meant mostly as a one-shot adventure to try out the system I would propose the following:
1. we finish this fight out here
2. we handle the final liberation of the refinery in story telling without rolling lots of dice
3. we do the counterattack, but to make it more interesting and do something we haven't already done, the Orks will use a vehicle, so that we can try out fighting of a light tank or something.
@ Easy E: from what you describe I assume that would be two semi-auto bursts (half action each) and that Njall switches to high powered setting?
@ Oldmate/Easy E: Since Simond just rounded the tree and I don't want to steal the spotlight, Tambo will reaim for the grots running around south. Your are 4:1, I think you can handle it
That should be 2 x BS +10 (+30 for point blank R
range, but -20 for firing into melee)
If you suceed you score a hit each and another one if you habe at least 2 degrees of success.
Every hit would then do 1d10+4 damage.
You can roll if you want, otherwise I will roll when I write the next passage
Sorry, I meant two separat roles of BS+10 each.
You basically make one Semi Auto burst half action followed by a second and each can make a maximum of two hits. Your 39 is the first burst and scored one hit. You can roll another one
@ Easy: OK, than we can keep your three damage rolls. One hit on the first, two on the second semi-auto burst.
@ Bob: yes, a full auto burst scores 1 extra hit per degree of success up to the number listed for full auto. But Laspistols can only do a semi auto burst up to 2 hits.
Teodores Autogun on the other hand can do full auto bursts up to 10 hits...
Edit: so to clarify: Njalls first burst (on 47 => rolled a 39) scored one degree of success = 1 hit
the second semi auto burst (47 => rolled a 13) hit and scored 3 additional degrees of success. For each 2 of these he gets an extra hit (so +1 in this case).
Even if he would have rolled a 7 (so 4 additional degrees of success) it would have remained at 2 hits from the second burst, since the laspistol cannot do more than 2 per burst.
=> that's the strength of the projectile autoweapons
BTW: This story has been going on for like 8 months now. Bravo to the GM and the players for keeping it going!
Reload and shoot at ork. Unless its in close combat then I will wait for my friend to fall back, then shoot said ork. (Just like any good 40K guard player would do)
Hey, I thought a bit about it and had an idea I want your opinion on.
As much fun as this was, I think we should keep the action up and not iddle too long. Meanwhile I would be interested to try out the rules for heavy weapons and vehicle combat. So here is my idea:
I wrap up the overtaking of the refinery as a text, the Scions call in Evac, but your guys get the order to hold the facility. To give you the means to do so, the transport coming for the Scions will bring in some heavy weapons of your choice and/or some kind of vehicle. You can all feel free to give yourself some abilities to use them, so feel free to activate "Heavy weapons" and if needed "Bolt Weapons" or "Projectile weapons" or whatever and get 1000 XP on top.
And then we will do a finale, where the orks attack with one or even some of their tanks and we experiment a bit with vehicle and heavy weapon rules. What are your thoughts on that?
I think it could be interesting. One thing my DM did to speed up combat in TT session was to kill off NPCs at 0 wounds, except for bosses encounters and some elite enemies. Up to you if you want to do that
As implied, I would like to finish this of with some vehicle fighting. So feel free to give your guys the necessary talents to pilot one of the mentioned thingies.
Sentinels come with the usual armor options + Heavy bolter or Multimelta because... why not.
Tauros comes in Twin-Multilaser, Twin-Lascannon and transport option:
http://gagetowngaming.wikidot.com/only-war-vehicles
I suppose me and Erc will be manning the Chimera anyway!
The auto-cannons as sniper positions could come in handy as well. For Heavy Weaposn being brought in, good ol' missile launchers with Frag and Krak could be useful too.
To finish with a bang you willface a Killtank with crew. So plan for heavy fighting.
@Oldmate: take your pick of any 6 lance tips you want
@ Easy E: if there is any othe heavy weapon you would like to try out, feel free to imagine then flying in a Chimerax/Chimedon/whatever turret + a powerplant to stick it in the crew compartment as replacement.