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So my players want to play a deathwatch campaign, but want to play without being in the Deathwatch. They would like to all be from the same chapter, and I would like for them to start as scouts and work their way up. There are a couple of areas I'd like to get some advice and suggestions about:

First, is there already a resource that I can access that has this idea already worked out? Failing that…

The DW Rulebook is designed so that characters start out as vet marines in the Deathwatch. I would like to eventually use the DW advancement tables, but not until after they've gone up some ranks as non-vet marines. I was considering doing this by scaling back skills, talents, and characteristics that characters start with, and adding them into a table for scout advancement. Does anyone have input on this area?

What I'm not sure about here is what should I do after scouts, but before vets? I've always thought that the DW starting character package better represents a "normal" marine better than a 200-year-old combat veteran. <rant>Also, It's apparent that either the British combat forces operate very differently than US ones, and/or Matt Ward has no fing idea how introducing new soldiers to these units works. According to C:SM, marines graduate from Scouts, to Devastator, Assault, then Tactical squads. This makes no sense to me, as when I was in the 82nd for 8 years, we always went from trainees to (equivalently) Tactical, then we'd either stay in Tactical Squads, or go to Devastator or Assault squads respective of our aptitude in any capacity. With that being said, I'm changing the fluff in my campaign.</rant> I was considering here, allowing access from all of the rank 1 advancements (and maybe 2) for all specializations, excluding some of the librarian and techmarine advancements. This would be as if marines are not, in fact, elite or specialized until after rank 2 (and thus would be ineligible for DW or 1st company service until this point), and that they are introduced to all capacities of the combat roles before rank 2. After rank 2, they would be required to "specialize" and would be restricted to choosing advances from their specialization from rank 3 on. I'd have to figure out what the characteristic advancement table would be for this level. Any foreseeable complications I've overlooked?

Another possibility for handling the in-between ranks would be to just call the specializations something different. It would be more like a combat style preference, not the position that they fill in squads, for instance, Tactical would become "Leader", Devastator would become "Heavy", Assault would become "Melee" and so forth. This would kill 2 birds with one stone. I wouldn't have to develop a characteristic advancement table for general marine ranks 1 and 2, and I wouldn't have to explain why an Assault Marine is in a Tactical Squad, or a Tactical Marine is in an Assault Squad. Thoughts?

The floor is yours.

Potentially yes, you could make this work.

What you'd do, at the most basic level, is simply take away any Deathwatch-related starting Skills/Talents (and maybe a few of the others, especially any speciality starting abilities), and not allow them to take things from the Deathwatch skill tree. And, of course, limit them to one Chapter advance table, as they're from one Chapter (Honour the Chapter might be a good book for you to get as it has a big section on generic 'Codex Chapters' and how they function in the rules - it might give you a bit more freedom in how you build the Chapter, not to mention a bigger advance table to choose from to compensate for the fact that everyone will be from the same Chapter rather than multiple different ones).

As for starting them as Scouts, again that's possible. Give 'em Scout Armour and have them use Scout-style weapons (Bolters, Shotguns, Missile Launchers, HB's), even if that means changing the starting load outs (especially for the Assault Marine) and limiting them only to Tac/Dev/Assault and maybe the Apothecary.

Let them develop the Squad Modes as they themselves develop, rather than starting out with them. You could even have one player play a fully fledged Marine (Tactical Marine) as their 'Sergeant'.

I would make them Scouts late in their development to save yourself the pain of having to work out what implants they have and which ones they don't have.