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Hello again Dakka! I've very recently started my hand at GM'ing some Fantasy Flight Games. It was my first time playing, let alone GM'ing as it was for most of my group. They did enjoy it,
primarily the Deathwatch game I ran and wanted me to turn it into a campaign. I started with the Final Sanction starter adventure and will be going through the Oblivion's Edge. However, I
did change some things per how it was played and for flavor. I do have some ideas on how I want the campaign to advance, and just want to see if this would fit with the races and the setting,
as well as to see how it would be best to portray the xenos elements.

I won't go into detail on the Final Sanction or Oblivion's Edge campaigns, but I will note the changes so the big picture can be seen and how I want the team to connect with and interact with
other elements of the Imperium. The Governor was contacted, but quickly abandoned. When the team came back he and his inner circle were dead. They did not succeed on the search
check to find eldar shurikens in the corpses. They also have made contact with a Soritas Order that arrived to perform genetic testing on the populace in the presence of the genestealer
infiltration. There was also an Ordo Famulous sister on planet who arrived a few days before the Kill Team to straighten out the Governor. She did survive the eldar attack by being in a meeting
with a local guilder.

Now the idea I had for an overarching campaign was this:
The Eldar are trying to hamper Imperial Defenses, to allow Hive Fleet Dagon to consume Avilos drawing the hive fleet away from Tau Space. They used a double agent on a Rogue Trader
ship to transport a lone genestealer to Avilos to lure the Hive Fleet there.The Farseers are doing this based on visions where their Craftworld (Iyanden I think, the irony of a Kill Team foiling
their plots seems too rich to pass up) would ally with the Tau at a later date to save their Craftworld. I think this could be used to incorporate the Violet Hand further down (the pro-Tau human
resistance group).
Also borrowing from Dark Disciple by the Black Library, I'm thinking of inserting some dark eldar slaving raids so they have some variety to their combats and a chance to take a break from
the campaign but still be productive.

Does the above sound plausible for a campaign? Am I keeping true to the races mindsets and histories?

Also, as I am getting ready to start Oblivion's edge, I am wanting to actually insert a couple eldar encounters since they missed the relatively subtle clues I left in the previous missions. So, this
leads to the first half of the thread's title:

Would rangers ever split up when amongst the mon'keigh? Eldar essentially look like tall, thin humans that're quite beautiful, could they hide their features in the classic hooded robes? I am
thinking of having a ranger, or a small team moving along with a group of refugees the PC's are escorting to the Spaceport.

Eldar are supposed to be very mysterious, enigmatic, and living with one foot in the future (at least their Farseers and maybe even their Warlocks). How should I, as a GM portray this? Do any
of you experienced GM's have any suggestions?

I managed to do a fair amount of improv on the fly during the 1 Deathwatch game and the 1 Rogue Trader game we did, I don't like the concept of railroading much unless it is absolutely
required for realism/the story. This would make it hard to add anything but the vagueist of prophecies, and if I do much forshadowing in regards to the Violet Hand I want to do it well and not
exactly heavy handedly.

Hope this makes sense and isn't a confusing mess!

Edited to make it easier to read.

Captain Avynn wrote:
Hello again Dakka! I've very recently started my hand at GM'ing some Fantasy Flight Games. It was my first time playing, let alone GM'ing as it was for most of my group.

Welcome aboard. I can see the enthusiasm in your post. This is a good thing, but it needs to be channelled and contained otherwise you risk piling idea on top of idea until you’re left with an uncontrollable mess.

Captain Avynn wrote:
*snip a whole bunch of oddly-formatted text*

Does the above sound plausible for a campaign? Am I keeping true to the races mindsets and histories?

To a point, but let me give you the best tip from when I started GM’ing Dark Heresy:

Forget all your best ideas (at least initially). The players (and you) will be so busy learning the in’s and out’s of the system (and getting the rules wrong) that they won’t be paying attention to your carefully crafted story. Before I started our campaign proper I ran three ‘one shot’ scenarios to introduce the players (and myself) to the concepts and mechanics of the game. By the time we actually started playing we all had 2-3 games under our belt, so the initial problems with getting people used to the game were (mostly) solved. We still got rules wrong (took us a year to get the flamer rules right!).

Now you’ve started with the demo adventure, and that’s a great place to start. Even when we did start the campaign proper the first thing I did was run a slightly modified Shattered Hope (the demo adventure for Dark Heresy). All I did was change the end to be a rogue Tech-Priest rather than a Plaguebearer, and add a couple of extra big mutants as the group was Rank 3 by then.

What you have to avoid is piling ideas on top of ideas on top of ideas. Ok, so you’ve got the Jericho Reach. That place is already a melting pot for plot-lines and it has three major adversary forces (Tau, Tyranids & Chaos). They recently added a fourth with the Necrons in The Outer Reach, although they’re small-scale compared to the other three. The Eldar, Orks and everyone else have very little presence within the Jericho Reach though. The Eldar mostly sit the fight out (except where the Necrons are involved) and the Orks, while ever-present, aren’t a big enough group to be considered a serious threat. They’re only there because Orks are everywhere!

Now that doesn’t mean you can’t introduce them – go and buy The Koronus Bestiary for heaps of Eldar profiles, but keep in mind that they’re balanced for Rogue Trader, not for Deathwatch – but just be careful about how much and how quickly. Putting Eldar into the campaign as a mostly-behind-the-scenes-manipulating-things makes perfect sense, and is a great idea. What the KT shouldn’t be doing is facing down Avatars and full units of Aspect Warriors every other mission; when it comes to the Jericho Reach the Eldar are far more subtle than that. And that brings us to the Dark Eldar (all their rules are in Soul Reaver, another Rogue Trader expansion book). I’d avoid adding them, as that’s another layer of complexity that the campaign doesn’t need. If you need random forces to fight, the Orks are always a better choice because they’re really easy to justify (as Orks are everywhere!).

Otherwise you’ve got a potential clusterfeth of various races all dog-piling onto a plot that your players are only half paying attention to because they’re still learning the rules!

In an odd way the layers of your proposed plot reminds me a bit of our DH campaign:

1. Investigate re-emergence of a Chaos Cult.
2. Discover rogue Tech-Priest working on a Chaotic artefact to create mutants, using the Chaos Cult as a distraction.
3. Discover that the Tech-Priests are creating a technological method of making mutants.
4. Discover that they have succeeded and are creating tens of thousands of these mutants.
5. Discover that the mutants are being created to weaken the defences of several key worlds as the Tech-Priests (and part of the Sector Synod) have fallen to a Genestealer Cult, and they want the worlds weak when the Cult rises to take over.
6. The Cult, if not destroyed, will eventually call in the Tyranids, and that’s a huge problem!

It’s a bunch of different layers, and what starts as a simple “Find out what this cult is doing?” mission eventually escalates into a multi-world war where Marine Chapters are razing Forge Worlds, the Sector Synod has turned against the Emperor and there’s the constant threat of Tyranid invasion around the corner. What I wouldn’t do with this though is add in any other elements, like a sudden Dark Eldar raid, or some Necrons emerging somewhere, or Orks suddenly invading. Things’d get too crowded, and the campaign would lose its focus. So you probably need to pare back some of your elements to avoid distracting the players from the larger plot.

Would rangers ever split up when amongst the mon'keigh? Eldar essentially look like tall, thin humans that're quite beautiful, could they hide their features in the classic hooded robes? I am thinking of having a ranger, or a small team moving along with a group of refugees the PC's are escorting to the Spaceport.

To answer this, here’s an excerpt from The Soul Reaver:

“Although Eldar and humans look far more similar to each other than either does to any other alien species common to the Koronus Expanse, this does not mean that Eldar merely look like tall, thin humans with pointy ears. Eldar are taller, more slender, and more poised than humans, moving with a fluid, easy grace that is exceptionally difficult for a human to mimic. Their features are more tapered and pointed, and in the case of Dark Eldar, subtly touched by a savage aspect that makes them appear predatory. The Eldar eyes in particular can be described as dark crystalline pools within which an ageless and utterly alien mind dwells. In all, it is quite difficult for an Eldar to pass as a human, or for a human to pass as an Eldar, at least up close. At a distance, when robed and hooded, such a deception may be easier, but it is unlikely to fool anyone for long. An Eldar or a human attempting to pass as the other suffers a -30 penalty to any uses of the Disguise Skill he makes against the Scrutiny Skill of a member of the race he is impersonating.”

I managed to do a fair amount of improv on the fly during the 1 Deathwatch game and the 1 Rogue Trader game we did, I don't like the concept of railroading much unless it is absolutely required for realism/the story. This would make it hard to add anything but the vagueist of prophecies, and if I do much forshadowing in regards to the Violet Hand I want to do it well and not exactly heavy handedly.

You don’t have to rail-road to get players to do what you want. You can give them lots of options, but make all of them really hard except one option. That way they can always get off the train, but there are mines on either side of the tracks!

My only real concern so far is that you mentioned a DW and an RT game. You’re not attempting to link the two are you? I ask only because DW is a vastly different game in terms of power level, and what presents near-certain death for a group of Explorers might be a cake-walk for a Kill-Team. Be very careful about crossing the streams, so to speak, otherwise you might create a situation where everyone hates the RT game because they’re not as ‘powerful’, or, worse, where they find the DW game ‘boring’ as it’s too easy.

Thanks for the response HMBC, And sorry about the funky formatting, I had firefox in split screen watching videos while I made the initial post.

I'll keep that in mind about the first few games and keeping focus on an indepth story. In the first game, we completely forgot about squad/solo modes or cohesion which seems to be an integral part of the DW system. I'm thinking of stretching out the next part of Oblivion's Edge, to allow the players and myself to become more familiar with the system. Perhaps I'll include little observances with high perception checks such as a small group of tall hooded figures darting into alleys far down streets, coming across dead PDF and guardsmen who were killed by Eldar shurikens, etc. I will also look into getting The Koronus Bestiary, it sounds like it would be a useful resource.

I also see what you mean about toning down the scope of enemies, especially with both ideologies of eldar. Thanks for that excerpt from Soul Reaver as well. I'll not include a single or group of tall hooded eldar with any refugees. More likely they'll be making cameos as above in rare circumstances after a few more games. My initial thought for all the eldar on Avilos would be maybe 5-10 rangers, 5-10 dire avengers, and 1-3 warlocks fighting guerilla style, just enough to whet the group's appetite. You are right though, this should be icing to the cake. Where the cake is essentially learning the system and how to play their characters.

I like how you formatted the DH campaign, I suppose my campaign would follow a pretty close format:

1. Investigate Genestealer Cult
2. Defend Avilos against Hive Fleet
3. Discover Eldar sabotage (later, as the team is wrapping up on planet one way or another)
4. Discover the depth of the Eldar interference on a subsector level/begin confronting them.
5. Discover existence of Violet Hand and connections to Eldar involvement.
6. Discover that the Eldar Tau alliance is nearing completion.
7. This alliance could allow for a 4th phase of Tau expansion while the Empire is busy fighting off the Hive Fleet.

My only real concern so far is that you mentioned a DW and an RT game. You’re not attempting to link the two are you?

No, of that you have no worries. My fiancee encouraged me to try a different system for our 2nd game to see if the group had a preference. The only connection I had was that it was the Rogue Trader ship that the PC's where on who transported a genestealer in stasis to Avilos. I pulled each of the players aside on the RT game to give them some intrigue. One player, the Seneschal was new to the crew, having replaced the last Sensechal who did not return from his last shore leave. The Rogue Trader had been sent to the area the starter mission was in by his uncle to keep him out of trouble because of possible Inquisitorial review.

The players liked the depth of the connection to the story, however that game did not go as smoothly as the DW game did. If we go back to the RT system, I'll have the group roll up an entirely new crew and ship.