Be Your Own Boss

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**Hanskrampf**

I'm not diretcly picturing me as the HQ, but I do like to build my own characters. One of the reason, why I'm switching from Ultramarines to creating my own chapter. Too many special characters.

**UlrikDecado**

My generic HQ has names...its fluffity

Of course, when I use character, I cant change it, but...my Sly Marbo is named Arny Tamrix, works same and...opponents like it

**Tigramans**

I practice this frequently, and rarely use unique heroes.
After all, I've got a chapter of my own, so they need their own heroes.

**Furyou Miko**

UlrikDecado wrote:
My generic HQ has names...its fluffity Of course, when I use character, I cant change it, but...my Sly Marbo is named Arny Tamrix, works same and...opponents like it

This only counts if you have an awesome model for Amy. :p

**Hive Fleet Cerberus**

I personally go for Non-Hero HQ's, because customizing them is a little more justifiable. Also, because projecting myself on the board as a giant Hive Tyrant is freaking awesome.

**Tennants Lager**

I agree in trying to stay away from named special characters for the most part. Generally speaking I'd far rather come up with my own fluff for the army, and get something that fits that style. No harm to anyone that likes to take them though. They're great fluff themselves obviously but they do sometimes become a bit ubiquitous due to their strength on the table...and to me they therefore seem better suited to really large games or occasional use, not the main army build.

That said I do like to take direct inspiration from stories GW have published. The Ork army I have in mind is pseudo-based off a particular story from back in the day and the characters that were in it, just because I liked it so much.

**Boniface**

I don't mind either way, although sometimes using special characters is a necessity (FOC effects etc).

The advantage to making your own often is avoiding finecast.

**melkorthetonedeaf**

I prefer the generic HQs as well for this reason, but sometimes you need to utilize those special rules from a character. My Eldrad is currently "chief Farseer" until he gets a name.

Narratives!

**Wayniac**

I almost think they should come up with a way to buy certain special things for your regular characters, not like uber wargear but like the FOC changes. That might be a compromise.

**Furyou Miko**

You mean like Space Marine Captains unlocking bikers as troops if you give them a bike?

**Gorlock**

BlackArmour wrote:
Well this is an interesting question for me, since I love making my own themes to my armies and back stories etc. etc. BUT as a Blood Angels player first and foremost, I love playing a Death Company theme army and with that Astorath is always at the lead.

As for buying Characters from GW well the only one I've ever done that for is again Astorath (yea paying what they want for a single finecast pos) but other than that I make my own that I like better and make sure they look like who they represent in case I want to use them as such.

I really enjoy the Commander for Tau and how you can just purchase him for a set cost and kit him out how ever you want and wish there were more options like that in codexs cause its so much fun to do.

I cut my teeth in 40K with the BA's. I had over 1500 of them, more than a Chapter. And not one of them was a special character. I too led mine with a Death Company Chaplain (Creflo A. Dollar, who is some real TV preacher. I thought his name was funny) and enjoyed great success with him.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Jimsolo wrote:
Here's why I like special characters.

A few years ago I tried playing in a Star Wars RPG, and I hated it. Everything we did left me with this inescapable feeling of 'why the hell does this matter? Somewhere in this same universe, at this same time, Luke is making his run on the Death Star. The most important story in this universe has already been told. And I'm not part of it.' Every franchise game I get involved in (Start Trek, LotR, Babylon 5) leaves me with the same feeling. 40k is like every other franchise, but in this one you can PLAY the special characters.

If my homemade Chapter Master mattered in the grand scheme of the universe, then the novels would be about HIM, not Uriel Ventris or Ragnar Blackmane or Talos the Soul Hunter or any of those other guys. It seems like when it comes to special characters in 40k, you can either make a Joe NoName, and enjoy participating in the creation of a cog-in-the-machine character. (This can be fun, don't get me wrong. I love my own custom characters, but I try to bear in mind that need to be obscure for a reason.)

I don't want to take my need for uniqueness to the point where I'm making up ridiculous Mary-Sue characters just so I can be a special snowflake. If I really feel like my army is too generic, I can just do a really cool conversion or homemade version of a character's model.

That's just my own opinion, of course.

I believe that a lot of these special characters were used by play testing gamers. That they were their creations for their armies, and thats how they became part of the fluff. That doesnt make them any more important than your Captain, or your Warboss. Just because they get published in the Black Library, or Inferno magazine. Create some awesome fluff from one of your games, write it down, and submit it, or just post it on one of the numerous short story sites. How do you think Gaunts Ghosts got their start?

Automatically Appended Next Post:

WayneTheGame wrote:
I almost think they should come up with a way to buy certain special things for your regular characters, not like uber wargear but like the FOC changes. That might be a compromise.

GW might be able to come up with something like that the way they did with the 'Create your own vehicle' rules back in, what...2001?

**Wakshaani**

Never touch named characters and would truly love to go back to the 3rd ed way of them being banned unless permission is given.

That said, the ones with special army build rules should have those rules ported over to general use, such as when the COmmander on a Bike let you take Bikers as Troops.This allows people to make a force in line with their imagination, while keeping the big names out of the picture.

Fair compromise, IMHO.