Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Ok so after many years of waiting to start RPG me and my group have decided to start up with Deathwatch with an experienced GM

Now I have chosen to be a Black Templar, Assault Marine but I have a small dilemma as one of the group members has decided to be a librarian..

Now my dilemma is that since I am new to RPG's I don't know how my character would interact with witches.

Knowing as I have observed that Space Marines do take things to the absolute extreme when they dislike something, my first thought would be "if my character sees him, I will kill him" he's a witch after all..

While this maybe in character for a BT I don't think I want to be hacking away with a chain sword or power sword at him every time I lay eyes upon him so could someone help me understand how a BT would react in these circumstances and has anyone else had similar experience's in situations like this? if so how did your character react? also anyone that can help me in detail with the background of BT that would be great, I do know the jest of how they run, but I just would like to know if I may have overlooked any small details..

Cheers to all comments

I would discuss it with the other player and the GM. You are absolutely right, you do not want to be in a situation where you are trying to kill someone else's character. That won't go down well. Generally, you should try and make characters that will be able to at least work together, even if they have a rivalry.

I mean, look at it this way. Black Templars travel through the warp. So they must utilise psykers and not kill them on sight, otherwise their navigator towers would be fairly empty and they'd have no astropaths.

So your character could have extreme distaste for the psyker, but not kill him. You could roleplay the distaste, with insults or disgust when he uses his powers to do something, without having to kill the character. Discuss it with the player, and it might even be that he enjoys having a rivalry like that in game.

You can take a few of different approaches.

1. You're an outspoken Black Templar who thinks that the Chapter's zero tolerance policy against psykers doesn't make any sense. Your devotion to the Emperor and your (supposed) hatred for psykers run contrary to one another because you're unable to reconcile the fact that the Emperor was a psyker himself. How can you fight in his name yet at the same time hate psykers? Your "promotion" to the Deathwatch was simply to get you and your more radical thinking out of the way (that does happen).
2. The complete opposite, you utterly hate any and all psykers and find their presence - their mere existence - offensive. Working with another psyker, even a fellow Marine, makes you boil with rage but as he is a fellow Marine your focus your hatred against your enemies and in the downtime simply refuse to speak with him. You can talk through the other players "Tell the witch that his assistance was not required. I had it under control", and things like that. It could make for a good narrative arc as you come to learn that the psyker on the team is more useful than you first thought.
3. You hate psykers, but you're part of the Deathwatch now which means you're Deathwatch first, Black Templar second. You have a duty - you swore an oath even - to the Deathwatch, and if that means working with a psyker then so be it. Take the Stoic demeanour, and go from there.

There are many other ways to approach this, but also yes talk to the players and the GM. The guy playing the Libby may want you to hate him (well his character, not him obviously ) as he wants to have an antagonistic rivalry in the group.


And people say you can't roll play Space Marines.

Well since last night I have found that there will be two witches in the group haha

I'm probably going to go with option 2 since it seems the Templar way imo..

My character is going to have fun times

The trick is it's OK for your character to be rude, as long as you personally are not rude.

Roleplaying a Space Marine is an interesting challenge, but it can be fun, you just have to know your background material and play little nuances. I, for example, made a Lamenter, so my character comes from a former Renegade chapter. Just to rub it in, I gave him a name referring to famous historical traitor. So other characters often make veiled remarks about my characters loyalty and he's often butt of jokes questioning his allegiance. Especially as he tends to make remarks which hint that he holds a grudge from Badab War...

Backfire wrote:
Roleplaying a Space Marine is an interesting challenge, but it can be fun, you just have to know your backmaterial material and play little nuances. I, for example, made a Lamenter, so my character comes from a former Renegade chapter. Just to rub it in, I gave him a name referring to famous historical traitor. So other characters often make veiled remarks about my characters loyalty and he's often butt of jokes questioning his allegiance. Especially as he tends to make remarks which hint that he holds a grudge from Badab War...

Think this is one of the only ways I can imagine RPing a marine, and having it interesting. The standard, dyed-in-the-wool marine is necessarily a single-minded killing machine, who has had any character drilled out of him in the shared interest of his battle brothers and the chapter. In other words, utterly, utterly dull.

I haven't read ADB's Black Templar and Grey Knight novels yet.. he seems to be more successful than most in transposing character onto what must be a pretty difficult subject matter, not sure how he handled it?

The Black Templars in ADB's Helsreach did not encounter psychers, that I recall. So no interactions there.

There were no Black Templars in his Grey Knights novel, so that won't help you with BT vs psychers, either. There was some interesting interactions with the Space Wolves, but they have their own prejudices.

 Balance wrote:
The trick is it's OK for your character to be rude, as long as you personally are not rude.

Of course