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Hey guys,

So for Christmas I will be receiving a copy of Deathwatch and the Deathwatch GM kit.

Is there anything I should know about this game before diving into it? Please note that this, in fact, is my first RPG.

Thanks,
Felsi

Well, are you GM'ing or playing?

If you're playing, just read the rules thoroughly.

If you're GM'ing, read the rules thoroughly and then, when you're done, read them again. Then make sure you are prepared for the players to do stupid things, and, most importantly, don't use all your best ideas first. During your first few sessions your players are going to be concentrating more on learning the rules than listening to your intricate plot. Keep it simple and 'introductory' and once everyone has the rules down pat then use your better ideas.

And read the rulebook a third time.

Google gm tips and advice and start off using the pre-generated adventure in the book. Stick the the rules and make sure to keep your players attention and the keep the tempo going, the last thing you want is to look up and see bored players.

Now if only my current DH gm knew the basics of dm-ing... man that would be nice.

juraigamer wrote:Google gm tips and advice and start off using the pre-generated adventure in the book. Stick the the rules and make sure to keep your players attention and the keep the tempo going, the last thing you want is to look up and see bored players.

Now if only my current DH gm knew the basics of dm-ing... man that would be nice.

Appealing to what the players want? Or the lack of it in this circumstance?

Lexx wrote:

juraigamer wrote:Google gm tips and advice and start off using the pre-generated adventure in the book. Stick the the rules and make sure to keep your players attention and the keep the tempo going, the last thing you want is to look up and see bored players.

Now if only my current DH gm knew the basics of dm-ing... man that would be nice.

Appealing to what the players want? Or the lack of it in this circumstance?

You mean regarding my dm? I have a thread I created here regarding it, but summed up:

When some players are chatting while the dm is talking, even looking up porn, while other players are trying hard to pay attention YET the party normally get split up and there is little we can do about it in some cases, followed by a lack of understanding of the rules, the dm creating incredibly stupid house rules that break the basics of the game (know what happens when you can in dnd trade a move action for a standard action? yea.....) and the dm not responding to the players concerns at all, even as to saying he doesn't remember us talking to him about X issue we have. Yea... the list of issues is much longer.

Ah sorry to hear about that. Sounds tough.

Another thing to remember as Game Master: The Devastator with a heavy bolter is unstoppable.

Give him a starting missile launcher instead.


If you are playing: Play a Devastator. The heavy bolter is unstoppable.

I've just started GM'ing Deathwatch myself, so I'll chuck my 2 cents in.

As has been said previously, read the rules - a lot more than you think you'd need to. Our first session, while fun for all involved, still required me to check rules on a fair few things, despite me having read through the rules a few times.

As it's your first RPG, I'd recommend you having a little play on your own to get the hang of how combat works out. Combat is a massive part of Deathwatch and you'll spend a lot of time doing it, so knowing the rules well for it will help out no end. Things to keep an eye on are:
* Hordes and how they fight/die - be be aware of how much damage they do and how it relates to their magnitude (in our first session, all of the marines got through unscathed as I had misread the rules for horde damage)
* Grenades and how they scatter when they miss
* Degrees of success and how they affect hits on semi-auto and fully auto mode and in melee
* Righteous Fury - This is a big one. There has been a whole mountain of posts of the FFG forums about how this is massively overpowered. As the rules stand at the moment, Righteous Fury is automatically confirmed against all Xenos. What this basically means is that, if someone rolls a 10 for damage, they instantly get to roll again for damage, instead of having to roll again to see if they hit, then roll for damage. This can lead to your players squishing some very big/hard things quite easily. The way we play, and the way that a lot of people who post on the FFG forums play, is to not have it automatically confimed. That way, if you roll a 10 for damage, you roll to see if you hit again (using the same modifiers as the first roll uses), it that hits, you roll for damage again and so on. It's they way we've played in DH and 2nd ed Warhammer FRP, so our players are happy with that system.

Other things that you might like to try are:

Have an evening with your players where they roll their characters. It gives you a chance to explain the world of deathwatch a bit to them while they get to make an uber cool marine of their own.
When we did this, I got them to roll for things such as their character history, but didn't tell them what it was. I asked them to come up with a bit of a back story about their character and mail it to me. When I gave them their neatened up sheets at the start of the first session, they each had an additional sheet with a kind of amalgamated back story between the one they rolled for and the one they came up with (if they came up with one). That way, the players know nothing about the other players marines and how they got seconded to Deathwatch, which leaves the door open for story-telling/RP at a later date.
IMO, it also helps get people (more) excited about playing the game if they had a big say in their character creation, rather than just being handed a sheet on the first night of gaming and being told, "You're Geoff the Space Marine and I've picked all your starting talents for you"

Final words of wisdom(?)

Be prepared for your players to choose the most unexpected options imaginable while you're playing. The group of friends I play with are notorious for this and our nights of gaming seldom run as I, or the other GM have them planned out. I find it adds to the fun of GM'ing though. I enjoy thinking up sneaky ways of getting them back on track and find it makes the game more enjoyable for me as a GM.

Try to keep everyone as involved as possible. If you find that certain players seem to hog the limelight, think up a quick little side mission that one of the less involved players will shine in. Have an ammo store that only a techmarine can gain access to through using his skills, or something that requires the assault marine to jump up high and scout for. Things like that will make everyone feel a lot more as if they're part of a team that requires the effort and skills of all, rather than "X" marines following a devestator around as he pastes everything in sight.

Finally, and I know this is going to sound like a massive cliche, but have fun with it and don't be afraid to tweak things to make it more fun.

If you have any questions, I'll be happy to help out where I can

Spustard wrote:As it's your first RPG, I'd recommend you having a little play on your own to get the hang of how combat works out. Combat is a massive part of Deathwatch and you'll spend a lot of time doing it, so knowing the rules well for it will help out no end. Things to keep an eye on are:

An interesting way to do this is to run a 'prologue' with a couple players. Give out stock characters (if there are any) or generate some and run a short mini-adventure to try out combat and anything else that has complex mechanics.

Stock characters are sued, and they'll die at the end of the adventure, most likely. As they're stock characters, there's no emotional attachment so it shouldn't be a big deal when they get one-shot by the Carnifex or Necron Lord or whatever you plan on having as a big boss a few months down the road for the 'real' characters. Run combats slowly and don't hesitate to try things out.

My limited reservoir of experience as a DM has taught me that alot of combat results (damage, amputations) especially in Deathwatch have serious consequences. However tweak those results, when they need to happen, so that it literally defines the character. A scar is cool, permanently deafening your librarian while extremely entertaining for me, not so good in the long run of the campaign. And don't forget that you supersede the rulebook. Bend rules if you have to (or outright break them) in order for your kill-team to survive.

The more work you do on your missions the easier it is to run them. But like previous posters has said, the best laid paths often aren't trodden. I've had to literally make up whole surroundings on the spot because I did not think it was possible to miss the obvious route.

GMing is alot of work, and really hard if your players dont feel like they are contributing. So never make a NPC better than a PC on there chosen focus. Its ok if they are a devastator, but dont have them have a Lascannon and a BS of 65.

Any and all reading you can do about the world of 40k helps immensely when spit-balling a side path. And the more detailed your descriptions, the more your PCs can relate and put themselves in character. Whether its the explosion of gore from a defeated foe or the architecture of an eldar craftworld.


Hope it helps!

Spustard wrote:I've just started GM'ing Deathwatch myself, so I'll chuck my 2 cents in.

As has been said previously, read the rules - a lot more than you think you'd need to. Our first session, while fun for all involved, still required me to check rules on a fair few things, despite me having read through the rules a few times.

As it's your first RPG, I'd recommend you having a little play on your own to get the hang of how combat works out. Combat is a massive part of Deathwatch and you'll spend a lot of time doing it, so knowing the rules well for it will help out no end. Things to keep an eye on are:
* Hordes and how they fight/die - be be aware of how much damage they do and how it relates to their magnitude (in our first session, all of the marines got through unscathed as I had misread the rules for horde damage)
* Grenades and how they scatter when they miss
* Degrees of success and how they affect hits on semi-auto and fully auto mode and in melee
* Righteous Fury - This is a big one. There has been a whole mountain of posts of the FFG forums about how this is massively overpowered. As the rules stand at the moment, Righteous Fury is automatically confirmed against all Xenos. What this basically means is that, if someone rolls a 10 for damage, they instantly get to roll again for damage, instead of having to roll again to see if they hit, then roll for damage. This can lead to your players squishing some very big/hard things quite easily. The way we play, and the way that a lot of people who post on the FFG forums play, is to not have it automatically confimed. That way, if you roll a 10 for damage, you roll to see if you hit again (using the same modifiers as the first roll uses), it that hits, you roll for damage again and so on. It's they way we've played in DH and 2nd ed Warhammer FRP, so our players are happy with that system.

Other things that you might like to try are:

Have an evening with your players where they roll their characters. It gives you a chance to explain the world of deathwatch a bit to them while they get to make an uber cool marine of their own.
When we did this, I got them to roll for things such as their character history, but didn't tell them what it was. I asked them to come up with a bit of a back story about their character and mail it to me. When I gave them their neatened up sheets at the start of the first session, they each had an additional sheet with a kind of amalgamated back story between the one they rolled for and the one they came up with (if they came up with one). That way, the players know nothing about the other players marines and how they got seconded to Deathwatch, which leaves the door open for story-telling/RP at a later date.
IMO, it also helps get people (more) excited about playing the game if they had a big say in their character creation, rather than just being handed a sheet on the first night of gaming and being told, "You're Geoff the Space Marine and I've picked all your starting talents for you"

Final words of wisdom(?)

Be prepared for your players to choose the most unexpected options imaginable while you're playing. The group of friends I play with are notorious for this and our nights of gaming seldom run as I, or the other GM have them planned out. I find it adds to the fun of GM'ing though. I enjoy thinking up sneaky ways of getting them back on track and find it makes the game more enjoyable for me as a GM.

Try to keep everyone as involved as possible. If you find that certain players seem to hog the limelight, think up a quick little side mission that one of the less involved players will shine in. Have an ammo store that only a techmarine can gain access to through using his skills, or something that requires the assault marine to jump up high and scout for. Things like that will make everyone feel a lot more as if they're part of a team that requires the effort and skills of all, rather than "X" marines following a devestator around as he pastes everything in sight.

Finally, and I know this is going to sound like a massive cliche, but have fun with it and don't be afraid to tweak things to make it more fun.

If you have any questions, I'll be happy to help out where I can

That was... Awesome.

GodofForge wrote:GMing is alot of work, and really hard if your players dont feel like they are contributing. So never make a NPC better than a PC on there chosen focus. Its ok if they are a devastator, but dont have them have a Lascannon and a BS of 65.

This is also worth bearing in mind if, like me, you play a character in your DW sessions as well as being GM.
As tempting as it is, try not to make your character Captain Awesome, but rather someone who can is there to help out should the need arise. Don't make yourself a comedic buffon, but position yourself towards the bottom of the food chain, so to speak. Most combats I tend to take a back seat, fluffing the occasional dice roll so that I don't kill something big. All decision making is left up to the main players, but an occasional nudge in the right direction/oposition of views may help steer things the right way

Games master trick included below


If you're just starting out with Deathwatch, the 2 downloadable pdfs from FFG's website are a nice place to start your Deathwatch gaming sessions

read the faq thread on the FFG forums, all of it... the book has lots of mistakes... LOTS! even the character sheet is flawed and the GM screen lists the wrong modifiers in one case. you'll save yourself some headaches that way when your players want to do something and the rules tell you one thing while the example right after the rules tells you something completely different. the book is spectacular as long as you squint so you can't make out the glaring editing mistakes... it's quite pretty though!