Alpharius wrote:

Ozymandias wrote:Alright, Dark Angels!!

Would a Deathwatch marine wear robes??

Hell no!

Sheesh!

H.B.M.C. wrote:That is Commissar Calgar.

I said he'd return in 3D. And he has.

Greetings, Deathwatch fans!

One thing about creating a new game in a setting that you love: sometimes it is difficult to be patient! I am really looking forward to going more in-depth with details about the setting, the new mechanics, and all the other great stuff you will find inside the Deathwatch RPG. In the upcoming weeks I (and the other members of the “Project Iceberg” design team) will have a lot to say about such things as Renown, Power Armour Histories, Missions, Watch Fortress Erioch, the Omega Vault, and much, much more.

The Crusade in the Jericho Reach musters troops from across the galaxy, and no Crusade would be complete without Space Marines from the Black Templars Chapter. A successor Chapter to the Imperial Fists, the Black Templars have a long and glorious record of engaging the foes of Man in fierce assaults. These solemn and zealous Battle-Brothers bring faith and fury to the Deathwatch, and author Andy Hoare tells us more about who they are below:



The Black Templars

“To the darkness, I bring fire. To the ignorant, I bring faith. Those who welcome these gifts may live, but I will visit naught but death and eternal damnation on those who refuse them.”
–Chaplain Grimaldus

After the Great Heresy, Rogal Dorn, primarch of the Imperial Fists, resisted the breaking up of the Legions into smaller Chapters. It was only when the Imperial Fists were branded heretics that Dorn relented, allowing his beloved Legion to be subdivided into Chapters. One of the new Chapters born of this time was the Black Templars.

To prove his loyalty to the Emperor, the first Chapter Master of the Black Templars—the High Marshal Sigismund—assembled a massive war fleet and began the greatest Space Marine Crusade in the history of the Imperium. It has lasted for 10,000 years.

Eschewing the establishment of a home world, the Black Templars took to the stars in a mighty war fleet. Rather than constructing a single Chapter fortress-monastery as most Space Marine Chapters do, the Black Templars determined to establish a chapter keep upon each world they conquered, to keep watch for treachery, to stage future Crusades, and to recruit new Battle-Brothers.

The ten-millennia-long Crusade of the Black Templars has seen its warriors embroiled in some of the most momentous conflicts ever to engulf the Imperium. The High Marshals have followed the example of their founder and taken the fight to the realms of the alien, the heretic, and the witch. The Black Templars are crusaders, holy warriors battling to bring the truth and light of the Emperor to the unconquered worlds of the galaxy. With bolt shell and chainsword, the Black Templars convert the benighted to the light of the Master of Mankind and destroy those who refuse to welcome his truth. Each Crusade is directed by the will of the Marshal in command, and each is despatched by the decree of the High Marshal of the Black Templars to fulfil their prime mission to cleanse the stars.



When not engaged in battle, the brethren of the Black Templars are invariably to be found preparing for it. They pass their time in prayer and meditation, or engaged in exacting training rituals. Those Initiates entrusted with the training of a Neophyte spend long hours passing on their knowledge to their young pupil and supervising endless drills, practice sessions, and trials. The brethren frequently impose upon themselves many hardships, foregoing all but the bare necessities in order to purify themselves in the eyes of the Emperor and their primarch, and to emulate the example of their founder Sigismund.

When serving alongside the Battle-Brothers of other Space Marine Chapters, many Black Templars prepare themselves through long fasts and week-long vigils in order to tolerate the presence of Space Marine librarians. For those who serve in the Deathwatch, fighting alongside a brother Space Marine who wields psychic power is a particular hardship, a trial they must undergo in order to serve the Emperor more fully and to strike down the hated alien. For this reason, great care is undertaken when selecting a Black Templar for secondment to the Deathwatch, for only a brother able to contain his deep-seated intolerance will be able to fight to his full capacity. Despite this, even these individuals are likely to pass every hour not spent fighting in deep contemplation and prayer, often cloistering themselves away from their fellow Deathwatch Space Marines in a personal shrine to the Emperor, Dorn, and Sigismund.

Forward, Battle-Brothers!

Join me next week as we explore the fifth Space Marine Chapter for Deathwatch!

Greetings, Deathwatch fans!

My name is Ross Watson, and I am the Senior RPG Developer in charge of Deathwatch. When I sat down to think about how to approach the Deathwatch RPG, one of the foremost things on my mind was the interaction between characters. The player characters would all be Space Marines, of course, but what is the foundation of a Space Marine? The answer is simple: nothing is more core and central to a Space Marine than his Chapter; it’s beliefs, traditions, and experiences wrought by the Chapter’s Primarch, its battle history, and much, much more.

Once I saw that the bedrock of a Space Marine is built upon his Chapter, it was easy to see that the Deathwatch RPG needed to present to the reader a set of the most distinctive and iconic Space Marine Chapters in all of Warhammer 40,000. By selecting these particular Chapters, the players would be able to understand where their characters came from and what guides them into the future. Because each of these iconic Chapters is greatly different from each other, they present a wealth of opportunities for great roleplaying and stories that the players can tell about their particular characters. Within his home Chapter, each Battle-Brother knows the members of his squad and his company very well, having campaigned with them for decades or even centuries of war against the Emperor’s enemies. That all changes, however, upon being seconded to the Deathwatch...the Battle-Brother is suddenly placed with strangers, some of whom may turn out to be friends, rivals, or even both!

This direction informed every aspect of Deathwatch. A Blood Angel, for example, will have a particular way of doing things, and that should be represented in how he leads his Kill-team on a mission. Likewise, a Space Wolf would have a very different outlook on many subjects, and this would create some fantastic gateways for some really interesting stories and roleplaying.

What you will find in Deathwatch is that every Chapter has their own individual flavour that is represented in a number of ways, from Special Abilities and Advance Tables to special Demeanours and other abilities, depending on whether that Space Marine is acting as an individual or working with the other Battle-Brothers of his Kill-team...but perhaps I have said too much, at least for now!

I depended a lot on the writers of “Project Iceberg” to bring across the special nature of each Chapter so that the reader would gain a deep understanding about what the Chapter stands for and what a Space Marine of that Chapter would be like in the game. As an example, the designer diaries for the six Chapters in Deathwatch are simply presenting a very small piece of the entire puzzle; much like the codename of the project itself, there is a great deal more beneath the surface!

All this brings me to this week’s Chapter for the Deathwatch RPG: The Blood Angels. I have a special affinity for these noble Space Marines. One of my first armies I collected for Warhammer 40,000 was the Blood Angels, and I have followed their impressive exploits ever since the 1996 Games Workshop Codex, titled Angels of Death.



Below, I am proud to present the Blood Angels Chapter, from the pen of talented Warhammer 40,000 author, Andy Hoare:

The Sons of Sanguinius

“For he today who sheds his blood with me shall be my Battle-Brother eternal.”
–Last Line of the Invocation Initiate of the Flesh Tearers

The Blood Angels are the noble descendants of that most puissant and angelic of the primarchs—Sanguinius. They are perhaps one of the most celebrated Chapters in the entire Imperium, their countless heroic deeds and victories known to untold billions of the Emperor’s subjects across the length and breadth of the Imperium. The beauteous, angelic visages of the Chapter’s heroes adorn gothic facades and stained glass windows in a million holy basilicas, and their portraits gaze serenely from endlessly copied and much cherished illuminated tomes.

Yet, hidden from the multitudes, the Blood Angels harbour a terrible curse. When their beloved primarch was slain at the hands of the arch-traitor Warmaster Horus at the very height of the Horus Heresy, every Blood Angel was doomed to share a portion of the pain inflicted upon his flawless form. From that day forth, every Blood Angel has been tormented by visions of the last moment of Sanguinius. The older the Space Marine gets, the more frequent and debilitating such waking nightmares become. Should he not fall in battle, every Blood Angel will one day become so consumed by these soul-searing visions that he will descend into a madness in which he must witness the death of Sanguinius over and over again, ever unable to intervene as the warmaster enacts his vile treachery.

The very inevitability of their curse ennobles the Battle-Brothers of the Blood Angels, driving them ever onwards to a glorious death in the name of the Emperor and their primarch. Where lesser men might have surrendered to the dark urgings to shed the blood of the enemies of the Emperor, the Blood Angels have remained pure and noble for ten thousand years. Despite this, the Chapter is dying, for each year ever more of its brethren succumb to the so-called Red Thirst—the desire to rend limb from limb those responsible for the death of Sanguinius, and by extension every enemy of the Emperor.

The Blood Angels are amongst the longest-lived of all of the Space Marine Chapters, their gene-seed granting a vastly increased lifespan on all who possess it. It is not uncommon, therefore, for a Blood Angel to live for a millennium or more, if death in battle or the Red Thirst does not claim him first. These vastly extended life spans allow the Blood Angels to perfect their techniques in art as well as in war. They have centuries to perfect the disciplines to which they turn their minds, and this accounts for the fact that Blood Angels’ armour and banners are amongst the most ornate ever produced.



Following the example of their primarch, the Blood Angels espouse a vision of the galaxy in which the enemies of the Emperor can be defeated and mankind can progress to the life he was always fated to live. There is a deeply mystical streak in the Blood Angels’ doctrines, and a strong belief that things can be made better. After all, the Blood Angels are recruited from the scrofulous wastelanders of Baal, and if such can be transformed into a tall, proud, and handsome warrior, then there is hope for mankind yet. This belief can be seen in everything the Blood Angels do. They strive for perfection in all of their endeavours. Their works of art are things of beauty and symmetry. Their martial disciplines are practised unceasingly. Their doctrines are permeated with a sense of mortality and the fallen greatness of Man.

The beatific countenance and noble bearing of the Blood Angels is in stark contrast to the curse they bear. While lesser warriors might become morose or fatalistic, weighed down by the inevitability of their fate, the Blood Angels remain stoic. The Blood Angels’ cadre of Sanguinary Priests—the equivalent of Apothecaries in other Chapters—tirelessly pursue a cure to the Red Thirst. But each year, more and more brethren succumb to it. Perhaps in an effort to hold the curse at bay, many Blood Angels sleep in the same casket where their bodies were transformed from the ravaged Baalite wastelanders to the perfect forms they emerged as, the arcane machinery filtering and purifying their blood as they slumber. This is even true of many Blood Angels seconded to service in the Deathwatch. Their caskets are stored within a watch station or watch fortress, and the Blood Angel sleeps there to heal any wounds suffered during a mission, emerging whole and unsullied once more.

The quest for perfection in all they do makes Battle-Brothers from the Blood Angels ideal warriors to serve in the Deathwatch, yet their curse becomes all the more terrible. A Blood Angel may find himself isolated from others of his kin while he serves in the Deathwatch. He appears a paragon of virtue to his fellow Deathwatch Battle-Brothers, but by night he fights damnation alone in his cell, praying fervently that the curse will not claim him here, so far from his Chapter and the Sanguinary Priests who may aid him on his final journey. When the Red Thirst takes hold, it can only be overcome with extreme difficulty.

Forward, Battle-Brothers!

Join me next week as we reveal the sixth Space Marine Chapter for the Deathwatch RPG!

H.B.M.C. wrote:By the time they finish revealing all the Chapters, the damn book'll be out already! I wish they'd tell us how it actually plays.

Kroothawk wrote:But I am not excited to play a group of flawless superheroes who all look exactly the same.

Hello Rogue Traders,

Sam Stewart here, and this week I’m pleased to bring you a tool that promises to be a great help to Rogue Trader Game Masters.

As the first book-sized supplement for Rogue Trader, we always wanted Lure of the Expanse to go above and beyond what people would expect from an adventure. One way was to present detailed locations such as Footfall and the Heathen Stars, so people wanting to run their own adventures could find the book useful. Another design concept we pursued was the Achievement Point Tracker.

The Achievement Point Tracker is designed so that the entire adventure of Lure of the Expanse works as a single massive Endeavor. The adventure itself is broken up into sections, and the end of each section has a list covering potential accomplishments and setbacks the Explorers could encounter. Each accomplishment has an Achievement Point award associated with it, and each setback has a penalty. The Achievement Point Tracker has a place where you can record the Achievement Points received and chart them onto a graph. When the adventure ends, the players and GM will have a tangible record of their successes and failures.

However, there is no reason the Achievement Point Tracker cannot be used for other adventures as well. Now, you can download a blank Achievement Point Tracker (pdf, 3 MB) from the Rogue Trader support page. The Tracker is a PDF with text forms that allow it to be filled out on a computer, or you can print it out and fill it out by hand during each session.

Until next time, success to all your endeavors!

H.B.M.C. wrote:Yay. Still no indication of what's coming up for DH or RT. Still no clue as to how DW works.

I know that I’ve spent a lot of time over the last several weeks talking about Space Marine Chapters...it is difficult to overstate just how significant a Space Marine’s Chapter is to a Battle-Brother, particularly in the Deathwatch. One of the core elements of the Deathwatch is that it is the one unique place where you will find numerous Space Marines from completely different Chapters serving together in the same squad. A great deal of the Deathwatch RPG was built upon the foundation of that one simple idea. The designer diaries up to this point have pointed out many of the differences between the Space Marine Chapters in the book, illustrating what makes each one unique.

One of the best things about getting the chance to build a game about the Deathwatch was a special, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that speaks to the heart of almost every Warhammer 40,000 fan; the opportunity to create a completely new Space Marine Chapter. I have been a huge fan of all things 40K for over thirteen years, so there was absolutely no way I would ever pass up an offer like that!

I worked very closley with Games Workshop licensing manager Owen Rees to help develop this brand-new Space Marine Chapter, taking it through the approval process one step at a time...from the Chapter’s history to its combat doctrine and battle cry all the way through to its heraldry and colour scheme. As a tip of the hat to original Dark Heresy creators Owen Barnes, Kate Flack, and Mike Mason, I chose to place the new Chapter’s home base upon a world in the Calixis Sector, a forbidden planet known as Sacris. In addition to this, there were a number of Deathwatch RPG-specific details that needed to be designed as well...and many of these details will be revealed in the next few weeks. Designing this Chapter from the ground-up was a very eye-opening experience, and I learned a great deal about what it takes to have our brand-new Space Marine Chapter—the Storm Wardens—join that august group alongside such renowned Chapters as the Dark Angels, Revilers, and Sable Swords.

I gained a lot of inspiration from Space Marine-centric communities like the Bolter & Chainsword forums (particularly from the fan-made Chapter known as the “Warriors Eternal”), and from Black Library novels such as Sons of Dorn, Brothers of the Snake, and the Horus Heresy series.

During the creation of the Storm Wardens, I took a lot of notes about what I learned along way—because I knew that I could apply these lessons towards making a thorough create-your-own-Chapter system for an upcoming Deathwatch supplement. I know there are a lot of Warhammer 40,000 fans out there eager to see this, so it was very important to give it all the space and attention that it deserves! In a similar vein, many of these philosophies could be applied towards creating a successor Chapter to one of the First Founding Chapters such as the Blood Angels and Ultramarines.

Keep an eye on the FFG website for more information about this and more future Deathwatch products in the coming months! Without any further ado, I am deeply honoured to be able to present for the first time, the Storm Wardens Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes:



The Storm Wardens

“We are the storm! We are the fury!”
–Lorgath Maclir at the Purging of Vigil

The Storm Wardens are stoic defenders often found upon the very borders of the Imperium. Up until recently, these Space Marines focused their attention upon the great warp storms that trouble the Halo Stars region on the galaxy’s western edge. There, they protect frontier worlds from the predations of xenos threats, Chaos renegades, and heretical recidivists. They are often unknown and unsung heroes to those planets they defend, for the Storm Wardens are highly insular, and there are only a relative handful of monuments and records that celebrate their long list of battle honours. A bizarre twist of fate occurred in the depths of the 36th Millennium, during the Age of Apostasy—an event that many hold responsible for the Chapter’s aloof nature.

The Storm Wardens lost many of the records of their founding during what later became known as the Nemesis Incident in roughly 945.M36. This event began during an ill-omened joint operation involving elements of the Inquisition against the Enslaver infestation of the Steropes Cluster. It is unknown exactly what transpired amongst Steropes’ cyclopean ruins, but the aftermath of this campaign forever altered the destiny of the Storm Wardens Chapter.

Upon the conclusion of the Nemesis Incident, the serving Storm Warden’s Chapter Master, Owin Glendwyr, consulted with an Inquisitor Lord of the Ordo Xenos upon a most dire decision. The Chapter Master sealed many sections of the Storm Wardens’ fortress-monastery by the authority of the Lords of Terra. All traces of their history and even the proud legacy of their heritage to one of the primarchs were destroyed or hidden away. The Storm Warden’s home world of Sacris was forbidden to have greater contact with the Imperium at large.

The only sanctioned record of that time, the Liber Tempest, claims that many Storm Wardens were placed in hidden stasis vaults, including the Chapter Master and the entire veteran First Company. The Chapter’s Dreadnoughts are the guardians of these hidden chambers, and each has taken a vow of silence, standing as mute sentinels over these forbidden places.

After the Nemesis Incident, the Chapter re-built its First Company. These honoured Battle-Brothers know themselves as the “The Inheritors”, custodians of the Chapter’s honour until the day their ancestors rise from their timeless slumber.

Ever since this time, the Storm Wardens have redoubled their diligence, and their fortress-monastery mounts sophisticated scanning technology placed reluctantly by the Adeptus Mechanicus as payment for an ancient pact. Currently, the Chapter is led by Lorgath Maclir, a cunning strategist who constantly challenges his captains with tactical exercises and obsessively studies the Tactica Imperialis. Some rumours claim that Lorgath has managed to memorise these precepts of war, an impressive feat even for a Space Marine’s enhanced memory.

The Cleansing of Vigil

A singularly savage conflict was fought entirely underground in the tunnels beneath the dead world of Vigil. In those lightless passages, the Storm Wardens battled metre by bloody metre in a series of close-range firefights against the foul Slaugth and their warrior constructs. The cleansing of Vigil proved to be a crucial test of the Chapter’s resolve, as the tight quarters of the tunnels precluded the use of heavy armour and the alien forces seemed particularly adept at provoking the Storm Wardens into abandoning a cautious, methodical approach. The planet was cleansed at last, but at the cost of many veteran Battle-Brothers. The survivors, however, had learned to pay closer heed to the wisdom of the Codex Astartes, and Chapter Master Maclir promoted many of these veterans to his honour guard.



While fierce upon the field of battle, Storm Wardens are no less committed to the tenets of personal honour and obligation. Generally considered clannish and aloof even by other Space Marines, Storm Wardens prefer to remain distant from the Imperium at large. A Storm Warden is slow to make friends, but esteems and protects those who persevere to become companions.

Amongst the Storm Wardens, one’s word is his bond, and honour is paramount. The night before battle is often spent in meticulous planning of tactics and strategy, sharing quiet camaraderie amongst their fellow warriors. Many of the most senior Battle-Brothers engage in ritualised duals, the victors gaining a coveted place in the vanguard.

Most Storm Wardens enjoy debate and crafting points to support their arguments, although some outsiders see these tendencies as quarrelsome or insubordinate. However, once a course of action has been agreed upon, a Storm Warden will set aside any dispute and carry it out. Perhaps because of their fondness for debate or their own turbulent history, Storm Wardens have an interest in mysteries and engimas. This curiosity has led more than a few Battle-Brothers to volunteer for the Deathwatch.

When battle begins, Storm Wardens fight with keen fervour, often seeking out an enemy champion or commander to test his skills against.

Forward, Battle-Brothers!

Come back next week to see another Deathwatch Designer Diary as we start to dig into more details about how the Deathwatch RPG works, its innovations, and how it connects with the other Warhammer 40,000 RPG lines, Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader.

Deathwatch is a roleplaying game in which players take on the roles of the bio-engineered super-soldiers known as Space Marines. United with their battle-brothers, players will complete extraordinary missions involving some of the greatest heroes and deadliest opponents the Warhammer 40,000 universe has to offer.

Reds8n wrote:I'm a bit unsure as to what you mean here, what is it you are unsure of?

BrookM wrote:Guess I'll skip the embraces and try a few happy endings instead.

Is Ascension worth it by the way? I've got a copy at my FLGS that they kept aside for me without me asking for it, so is it really, really worth it in terms of background and info?

H.B.M.C. wrote:
We don't know what the future is for DH or RT. They've announced nothing, previewed nothing, and revealed nothing. Other that Dead Stars, it might as well be the end of the DH line there's so much 'nothing' on the horizon. All we've got is a useless chat over at Dark Reign where Ross and the other guy told how much they couldn't tell us anything. Great.

As for Deathwatch - Chapters, Chapters, Chapters. Great, by now we knew about Endeavours and Achievement Points, how ships worked, how the Career Path thingy worked - lotsa stuff about the game. For DW... Chapters. But how does it work? What is the central axis around which the game turns?