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.

Lexx wrote:

juraigamer wrote:

Lyzin Locrian wrote:He is supposed to be an amazing knife fighter, but now that I think of it that doesn't seem to be a very good idea, because knifes don't do a lot of damage. I'm still going to keep it, because I think it gives him some character. I'll just need to find a way to balance it out so that he can do more damage, perhaps a mono edge for his knife, or maybe starting with a few extra skills would help.

Check through the inquisitors handbook, there are a lot of good knives there, if you have the funds go for the chain knife. There is also a melee talent that allows you to choose were you hit, perfect for your idea.

Even a power knife would be deadly used right.

Poisons work well too.

Serpentine Power Blade would be a nice choice - 1D10+2 standard damage, Pen 6, Power Field... and the 'Fast' Quality, which is a very nice quality to have.

[EDIT]: To make matters easier, here's a weapon PDF summary that was made a while ago (it has DH Core Rulebook, RT Core Rulebook, Inquisitor's Handbook and a few other things - but not a lot of the latest stuff). It's good for starting players as it groups everything together logically in a way you can compare stats.

How do you guys go about creating your campaigns? any tips?

I started writing one and realized it would be a lot more work than I initially though, lol!

At least when I write about areas and people, its good artistic material :p

Go with a general theme and the things you want to have the party do, as general ideas.

Then find a way to link them together. Make sure you pick an ordos for who your running.

daedalus-templarius wrote:How do you guys go about creating your campaigns? any tips?

I started writing one and realized it would be a lot more work than I initially though, lol!

At least when I write about areas and people, its good artistic material :p

Depends how in-depth you want to go.

There's the very lose approach, such as "Your Inquisitor is named X, he works for the Ordo Y, and he's sent you to investigate Z. Each of you make a Rank 3 character of your choice - no psykers - and be here next weekend. E-mail me if you want any specific wargear or have any requests" and then you do a 'one-shot' style scenario where, if people like it, it can expand. We've done that for a lot of our Deathwatch games, trying out new characters almost every time and rotating the GM position.

Or there's the in depth approach, where you write everything out like it's a published adventure book, just like I have. I'm over 170,000 words in and even created my own sector. We've been playing the same campaign for over a year and we're about... 1/2 way through. But I'm crazy like that...

Well, I do want to do a scenario style thing... but its 3 acts, with at least 3 parts to each act, and multiple sub-parts for each part of the act!

Although that could change, I'll just try to finish writing the first part of the first act before we play next and see how it develops from there.

Sounds kinda like what I did. Mine was 5 acts.

Act 1 had was Shattered Hope with a changed ending, so two parts (at the Guard camp, within the Shatters).

Act 2 was on a Hive World, investigating what they'd found at the end of Act 1, and it had 3 parts (arriving at the Underhive town, exploring the nearby ruins, returning to the town and trying to stay alive).

Act 3 was far more expansive, and set mostly on a Forge World. It had 5 parts (arriving on the Forge World/kangaroo court, breaking out from their execution, helping the Tech-Marine locate his fallen brother, escaping the Forge World, fighting off the boarders that attacked their ship as they left).

Act 4 is huge, being partially sand-box based, and has so many parts it's only worth counting the beginning (counter-boarding the raiders, finding the Magos' hidden space station and taking him into custody, then going to the nearby planet on order from their Inquisitor... and they've been there ever since).

Act 5 is actually the smallest, but may end up involving a 'one-shot' Deathwatch mission (as I can't expect Acolytes to take on a Genestealer Cult Patriarch and his attendant Brood Lords, Purestrain Genestealers, Hybrids and Brood Brothers all by themselves, can I?).

Or can I...

H.B.M.C. wrote:Act 5 is actually the smallest, but may end up involving a 'one-shot' Deathwatch mission (as I can't expect Acolytes to take on a Genestealer Cult Patriarch and his attendant Brood Lords, Purestrain Genestealers, Hybrids and Brood Brothers all by themselves, can I?).

Have the Deathwatch mission as a one-shot that fails, then have the regular party have to do a desperate suicide mission to pick up the pieces.

And you could have undead grey knights as either set dressing ("The corpses shriek as you walk down the corridor...") or even adversaries (Does it count as being corrupted if you were literally killed first?)
"

Sounds awesome HMBC

I want to do a sort of clandestine mission on a pleasure world city, where the Logicians have setup a front and are operating out of a highrise in a high security city on the beach.

Also, I want their constructs to be much faster than those dumb body snatchers. 2 metre move and full move, wtf?! I am thinking a brass monstrosity with scalpel limbs and the only biological part would be a wired in brain... maybe with that white mind-control thing on it from edge of darkness.

But aside from figuring out where the logicians base is within the paradise city, they also need to break into it and steal the data that will lead to another, larger lab where I want to do an all out assault on it with their inquisitor and his bodyguards (http://galefire.com/2011/04/40k-an-inquisitor-vindicare-assassin-and-grey-knight-brother-captain-walk-into-a-space-hulk/ ) and maybe some other acolytes.

And that's just the first act.

Sounds good daedalus, but remember not to outshine the players. While they are just lowly acolytes, sending their inquisitor with them and having them watch as he blows away the enemy isn't that fun for them.

If you must, have a multi-pronged assault planned and roll randomly for the other groups. If any other groups fail, it's up to the acolytes to get out alive/succeed.

Ah see that is the plan.

The acolytes will be simultaneously attacking while the Inquisitor and his bodyguards are as well, so while they will be in the same compound, they won't be directly together, other than for perhaps a set-piece moment where they get to watch their Inquisitor and his bodyguard crush some guys/save them from certain doom.

Good idea though to roll for the other groups, to see if they accomplish their objectives I suppose.

So writing the opening scene... I am far too verbose, must be a holdover from when I was trying to write novels.

daedalus-templarius wrote:

So writing the opening scene... I am far too verbose, must be a holdover from when I was trying to write novels.

You can always give the players handouts, this eases your workload and they can read it in their spare time. I tend to have all the extra data on the next planet for my players on paper for them.

I guess that would work too. The way that they do it in the official books has you reading passages and stuff, so that was pretty much how I was doing it.

However, this is the opening reading, meant to set the stage, so I imagine it can be a little verbose.

Wow, I'd like to start playing Dark Heresy (with some friends) but I have a problem: we'd probably mostly play it during lunch breaks at school, which only gives us about 45 minutes each session, max. Now of course this would mean a lot less XP per session, but is this possible at all, or would there just be too little immersion and too little time to really get started, or would it be possible? Occasionally, we could do a long session during the weekends, but it is just really, really hard to get my entire group together anywhere else than at school.

So would it be possible to do such short sessions? The upside would, off course, be that we can do a really large amount of sessions.

Just give more xp and money?

I think 200xp for 4 hours is hideously low. I want to have fun and play a scenario, not worry about how horrendously weak my acolytes are.

Adeptus Noob wrote:Wow, I'd like to start playing Dark Heresy (with some friends) but I have a problem: we'd probably mostly play it during lunch breaks at school, which only gives us about 45 minutes each session, max. Now of course this would mean a lot less XP per session, but is this possible at all, or would there just be too little immersion and too little time to really get started, or would it be possible? Occasionally, we could do a long session during the weekends, but it is just really, really hard to get my entire group together anywhere else than at school.

So would it be possible to do such short sessions? The upside would, off course, be that we can do a really large amount of sessions.

It's better at that rate to give xp based upon completion of a mission or something.

So for my bronze scalpel monstrosities, any suggestions of how nasty I should make them for average level 2-3 acolytes? My personal character is a level 5 assassin, although probably shouldn't be since I ran missions with my wife and them, cc machine with decent shooting.

They will all be allocated some decent gear from the Inquisitor's armory on his cutter, so for the main fighting segment, I expect most of them to be equipped with chainswords, but not quite bolters for ranged; maybe I'll give our heavy weapon guy a heavy bolter, but that's it.

Classes will be: Power melee assassin chopper/sniper/pistols/sneaker (me), The talker Arbitrator bolt pistol/chainsword/carapace, heavy weapon dude Guardsman autogun/chainsword/guard flak, face melter Psyker monostaff/bolt pistol, support tech Tech Priest dunno/what/items/to/give/yet

juraigamer wrote:

Adeptus Noob wrote:Wow, I'd like to start playing Dark Heresy (with some friends) but I have a problem: we'd probably mostly play it during lunch breaks at school, which only gives us about 45 minutes each session, max. Now of course this would mean a lot less XP per session, but is this possible at all, or would there just be too little immersion and too little time to really get started, or would it be possible? Occasionally, we could do a long session during the weekends, but it is just really, really hard to get my entire group together anywhere else than at school.

So would it be possible to do such short sessions? The upside would, off course, be that we can do a really large amount of sessions.

It's better at that rate to give xp based upon completion of a mission or something.

But would such short sessions work at all?

daedalus-templarius wrote:So writing the opening scene... I am far too verbose, must be a holdover from when I was trying to write novels.

I used to go hoarse when running RPGs. I'm a pretty quiet person by nature, so my voice just wasn't up to reading big blocks of text and trying to keep control of the group.

I miss running a game, though. It's a good/bad thing as it's a major time suck for me (I spent a lot of time doing prep. I was the kind of GM that wanted my NPCs to at least kind of fit in the rules) but it was a fun outlet. Nowadays, though, i really don't have the prep time.

Balance wrote:

daedalus-templarius wrote:So writing the opening scene... I am far too verbose, must be a holdover from when I was trying to write novels.

I used to go hoarse when running RPGs. I'm a pretty quiet person by nature, so my voice just wasn't up to reading big blocks of text and trying to keep control of the group.

I miss running a game, though. It's a good/bad thing as it's a major time suck for me (I spent a lot of time doing prep. I was the kind of GM that wanted my NPCs to at least kind of fit in the rules) but it was a fun outlet. Nowadays, though, i really don't have the prep time.

Yea, I should be working on art.... however at the same time, my narrative generally gives me all sorts of ideas for said art, rather than just jumping into something I haven't written anything about/have no idea what I'm drawing (like those characters....)

Oh, so I got the Daemonhunter book, and are psycannons the most ridiculous weapons or what? Might take the alternate advance on Sicarus for my assassin at some point...

daedalus-templarius wrote:
Oh, so I got the Daemonhunter book, and are psycannons the most ridiculous weapons or what?

Not in the slightest. A mutli-laser with sanctified power pack is just as deadly, if not more. Any bolt weapon with storm basically outshines it, if you have say a psy of 6, since you can pump out more shots than a psycannon and have tearing. Remember the psycannon doesn't have tearing.

What you should really be worried about is a psycher with an accurate weapon with psy ammo. Toss in some psychic powers and you basically instant death things all day long. Unnatural aim and divine shot. Tearing + around 13 with accurate dice. Can't be dodged, only way to stop it is a power field. Goes through most armor. The rifle will in most cases have felling at some quality, so goodbye unnatural toughness. The shot to the head should average around 30 damage before reduction, what's left of it that is.

I figured since it was 2d10+15 with proven(4) it would still outdo a bolt weapon in most cases, but I guess a stormbolter on full-auto is still hitting with 8 shots as opposed to 5, with tearing.

So what you're telling me is that I should take the Sicarius Initiate on my Assassin and get Unnatural aim? I don't think I'll be getting psy-ammo for my regular mortal anytime soon though, hah.

Oh and I redid this picture of some of my acolytes... although its a shame since my character isn't even using that gear anymore really.

You would have to acend or start as a psycher to really make good use of psy ammo, simply take what you want.

Yea, I was mostly kidding

but really, are the alternate classes in the DH book good? I see the Sicarius initiate gets Psyker level 1, but I mean, with that low of dice its going to be rough getting any powers off at all.

Consider alternate ranks carefully, as they replace the rank you would have had (so you can miss something vital).

daedalus-templarius wrote: with that low of dice its going to be rough getting any powers off at all

With a standard willpower bonus of 4, you can basically auto-pass most power rolls for minor powers. Since you can't get major powers, having that low of a rating doesn't really hurt you. You just can't sustain more than one power.

Yea, I wish I could have skipped one of the worthless ranks that I didn't pick anything up out of earlier to grab the Sicarius stuff. Eventual force weapon + death cult assassin would be kinda sick.

daedalus-templarius wrote:So for my bronze scalpel monstrosities, any suggestions of how nasty I should make them for average level 2-3 acolytes? My personal character is a level 5 assassin, although probably shouldn't be since I ran missions with my wife and them, cc machine with decent shooting.

This may sound like a strange idea, but given your talents it may be a good way of solving this problem:

Draw one.

Seriously. Draw one of these bronze beasties and put it up here, then we can see what it looks like in relation to a regular squishy human and work out its stats from there.

daedalus-templarius wrote:They will all be allocated some decent gear from the Inquisitor's armory on his cutter, so for the main fighting segment, I expect most of them to be equipped with chainswords, but not quite bolters for ranged; maybe I'll give our heavy weapon guy a heavy bolter, but that's it.

Heavy Bolters are stupidly expensive to maintain – over 1000 Thrones for a full belt of ammo. With no ability to fire less than 10 shots a turn you’ll be literally wasting money every turn you fire it. Truth be told you only really need a Heavy Stubber against most regular foes. If you need (as in really need) the stopping power of a Heavy Bolter then your Inquisitor is a sadist and is trying to get you killed. My group has a Heavy Stubber and they’ve used it once (the Arbite mud-taped it to his Cyber-Mastiff and used the dog as a gun platform!), and they’ve never really needed a Heavy Bolter (though they did once face a pair of automated Twin-Linked Heavy Bolter turrets... that was a tense game).

Also be wary about giving out too much equipment for free. If the players get everything for free all the time, it can get a little dull as they never feel like they ‘own’ anything or have earned anything. The Psyker in my group has a Best-Quality Force Staff, and he made that using the crafting rules. He actually got to roll the dice and go through all the steps, paying the costs (having a Noble class income helped there!), and using the in-game downtime of two weeks that I gave them between Acts I and II. I even used it as a character building moment where I had him write a small prose piece to justify him making his own force weapon, and he created a character which has since become part of their Inquisitor’s personal retinue of Throne Agents (Master Astropath Augustus Vard). It worked quite well and now that Force Weapon is his main weapon outside of Bio-Lightning.

daedalus-templarius wrote:Classes will be: Power melee assassin chopper/sniper/pistols/sneaker (me), The talker Arbitrator bolt pistol/chainsword/carapace, heavy weapon dude Guardsman autogun/chainsword/guard flak, face melter Psyker monostaff/bolt pistol, support tech Tech Priest dunno/what/items/to/give/yet

There’s only one weapon fit for a Tech-Priest. The Omnissian Axe. That is one of the things I did give the Tech-Priest in our group for free right at the start. I just can’t stand the idea of a Tech-Priest without one, so he got one immediately. And despite being given it, he has made it his own, using the crafting rules to modify it and increase its power supply (more damage).

daedalus-templarius wrote:I figured since it was 2d10+15 with proven(4) it would still outdo a bolt weapon in most cases, but I guess a stormbolter on full-auto is still hitting with 8 shots as opposed to 5, with tearing.

The Storm Bolter has a higher average damage and is a (mostly) more consistent weapon (more hits + tearing = consistency!). The Psycannon has a higher potential damage, especially when Psybolt ammo is factored in, because you’re not rolling 2D10 and picking the higher of the two but instead adding them together. Proven (4) certainly doesn’t hurt either.

So what you're telling me is that I should take the Sicarius Initiate on my Assassin and get Unnatural aim? I don't think I'll be getting psy-ammo for my regular mortal anytime soon though, hah.

daedalus-templarius wrote:Oh and I redid this picture of some of my acolytes... although its a shame since my character isn't even using that gear anymore really.

I actually saw your Inquisitor/Grey Knight/Vindicare picture on 4Chan before I saw it here, believe it or not. Keep making these. They’re great.

Draw a bronze beasty? Yea, I can probably whip something up real quick for the purposes of using it in a story (although I actually have a Dark Heresy commission I am working on right now )

We did the "armory" thing and they didn't actually request anything that outlandish, mostly since they don't really have the skills for most things. Maybe I will give my tech-priest an omnission axe though. No heavy bolters for them, although I think I will give the guardsman a "armageddon" autogun, but he can pay for the fire-selector/etc himself.

The Omnissian axe seems pretty powerful, that's for sure, but I still think he should get it. They insisted I not give them any skills, so no chainswords for any of them; I don't think I'll be able to make my bronze scalpel monsters that tough.

Wow my art is showing up on 4chan?
Wild.

You could always give your techpriest an unpowered omnission axe, treat as a mono great weapon.

Multi-lasers are better than heavy bolters for the cash striken party. In fact any las weapon is, such as death light and delaku hellguns and hell pistols. I played a game with a terrible GM were we were forced to get las weapons only, even at rank 7.

You can always use a pre-made creature as a template for the bronze things you are looking to make. Check the servitors and other robo stuff in the radicals handbook and the creatures anathema.