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A quick little post detailing my gaming group's starting of Deathwatch. I'll be posting the campaign story and characters' back story and sheets for everyone to follow. I'm also doing this so those who have more experience with the game and GMing can give some pointers.

Case in point, last night one of the characters hosed a Nid Warrior and basically killed him out right, a hoard of gaunts got into close combat with one of the characters and he took no damage, and finally, a couple of shoot attacks to that Mag 30 hoard down to Mag 14. So I'm going to have to figure out how to balance things out. Thankfully, none of this took place during a campaign. It was just us learning, experimenting, getting the hang of the combat system.

Like I said, I would love to hear any pointers about handling the game and GMing in general. To help with that, I'll be using the two campaigns provide by Fantasy Flight on their web site: Final Sanction and Oblivion's Edge.

Hmm, whilst I've never actually played Deathwatch (I GM dark heresy instead, highly recommended) I'll see if I can give some tips. Firstly never try to put them in head on fights, ambushes traps and feints are your friends. They may think they're doing awesome until they realize it was a trap. Weapons that hit AOE (so grenades and flamers) should be used to spread them out and to ensure they can't also dodge their way out of trouble. Also make sure whatever they are fighting have some sort of means of dealing with power armour. As the combined AP and toughness bonus for a space marine is insane so a couple of well placed meltaguns/rocket launchers will keep them on their toes.

For more general advice, depending on your group, never expect to much intelligence or common sense as I swear the second anyone starts an RPG they lose all common sense and basic reason. Also if possible keep your notes for an adventure flexible as the players WILL try and break your carefully prepared story, it's not their fault but they will a way to get off tangent. Whilst it's always best to explore tangents as some of my best moments have come from these you need to have the ability to drag them back on track when it gets a bit too off topic. Hope that helps mate.

Read the Errata, and check it over carefully, it fixes some of the worst issues that were in deathwatch.

Though it'd be nice if you could tell us a few things:

1: What characters were playing (stats included)

2: What equipment

3: What level of rank you had.

Because a couple of shoot attacks should not have brought that horde down that quickly


Automatically Appended Next Post:
For example, seeing as the Magnitude 30 horde of Hormagaunts (going to presume without toxin sacks) got into his face.

It would have dealt 1d10 + 5; pen 3 +3D10 due to magnitude 30, not to mention Swift attack, which means they'll hit twice, AND as an overwhelming horde they roll an extra 1D10 as long as it's over magnitude 20!

Your basic space marine would have around Toughness 8-10 due to Unnatural toughness (X2) Along with 10 body armour, with 8 all around.

You'd need at least 15 damage to penetrate (due to Pen 3) which with 5D10 + 5 + 5D10 + 5 , Even if you Botched Horribly, should've gone through!

Not to mention a Nid warrior is pretty much something that should've taken a solo character a bit to take down..

I have my books, ask away and I'll try and answer things to the best of my knowledge, i can also tell you that finding all the rules for things is harder then it should be.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite_sec.asp?eidm=108&esem=4 For the Errata, and some other useful things.

The Deathwatch RPG is special in that it's meant to be "300" style epic. Think "Movie Marines the Roleplaying Game". Characters there get a ton of +1 equipment and a huge bag of bonuses right out of the box for that cinematic combat experience some people may know from the Space Marine computer game or various novels. Because of this, you generally need to throw more enemies at them. Don't worry, though, as it should just be a matter of time until you get a good feeling for what your group is capable of dealing with! Each party is somewhat unique, all depending on how much they want to minmax and how well-versed they are in the rules (correct use of talents and special abilities in the right moment can make all the difference).

Be careful not to throw too much at them either, though. I feel that another problem with the DW ruleset is that it tends to get dangerous for the player characters via the issue of "exploding dice". The characters in this game have an extremely high resilience, which means that, to appear dangerous, their enemies need to do high damage. This can easily result in them doing too much if you happen to roll well, however, especially when using Horde rules that just add d10s to your roll. The surprisingly moderate amount of hitpoints a player character has in DW is woefully small compared to their extreme damage soak.

Try to make the enemies incrementally harder instead of skipping tiers in order to slowly approach the ideal where it feels "just right". Making hordes just a little bigger, giving opponents a small boost in soak or hitpoints or damage .. that sort of stuff.

Good luck!

And yes, do use the Errata.

I GM'd a deathwatch game for a year...combat balance was always the hardest part to get right because of the differences in class balance. For example, a techmarine can easily become a nigh undamagable tank without too much thought or effort on the part of the player. While an assault marine can tend to be fast enough to avoid most attacks, but should it get hit by anything higher than an elite and it will usually crumble in one or two hits.

The best recommendation that I can make is to throw hordes along with IC's and elites and push the stuff that makes the most sense against the characters that can best fight them without either dying immediately or killing it with impunity. Also take the time to invest in some of the scenario books such as The Emperor Protects. They provide a great framework for most groups.

I played exactly one game of this. The other players were the most stereotypical greasy nerds you could imagine, and honest to god, I spent the whole game being told exactly what to do by the squad leader or whatever, and just rolling dice.

"You will move to that corner and shoot at those Orks! What do you do?"
"Uh... move to that corner and shoot at those Orks?"
"Good, roll some dice now"

Is that the way the game is suppost to be played?

Thanks for the great tips. After the play test last night and starting to organize the character sheets I'm learning more and more. Case in point, 3 out of the 5 players have picked mk6 armor with the Fury like lightning history. Playing around with some dice rolls this morning and those characters are easily getting double digits for Initiative, so I'm now debating whether to have them keep the armor and roll for history or do something else. I do have the errata, but I just skimmed it as I was not expecting such a power difference.

@ZebioLizard
The player that hosed the Warrior with no problem had the following stats. He was a Tactical Marine and Rank 1
WS 39
BS 44
S 40 [6] {10}
T 44 [4] {8}
Ag 39 [3]
Int 44 [4]
Per 45 [4]
WP 48 [4]
Fel 45 [4]

I ran the encounter that the Nids were taken by surprise, and the player used full auto burst with Hellfire Rounds. He succed his BS test with all four shots hitting. He got two Rightous Furies rolls doing something like 70 something damage. Hellfire rounds ignore Natural Armor, and the nid was surprised so couldn't Dodge.
As for the Horde, I think we all goofed on that. I failed giving the horde all the bonus of its size and number, and I think we misunderstood the damaging horde rule. As we understood it, a bolter shot on the full automatic (trust me that well must assuredly be changed for the actual campaign) would land 3 shots. Roll 2d10 taking the highest for tearing + 9. Example rolling a 16, 18, and 15 the hordes mag would be reduced by one.

A problem I'm having is trying to figure out whether or not the base characteristics are fill out correctly. Taking the above stats as an example, I'm curious as to how the unnatural characteristics would be filled out on the sheet. I actually wrote the base characteristic in the space to the right on the box. The number in [] is what I wrote in the box, and then the number in {} is the number I wrote in the small box in the upper left hand corner. Is this correct or do we have things wrong. Finally, when determining damage. The rules say to use the Toughness bonus. Is that the base toughness bonus or the bonus that include Unnatural Toughness?

Again, thanks for the great tips. I will be sure to implament most if not all of them. I am beginning to see that the learning curve for being a GM is a rather unique one.

 ZebioLizard2 wrote:
Read the Errata, and check it over carefully, it fixes some of the worst issues that were in deathwatch.

Yes, original Deathwatch weapons tables have way overpowered Bolt weapons. Errata goes long way to fix them.

BrotherVord wrote:I GM'd a deathwatch game for a year...combat balance was always the hardest part to get right because of the differences in class balance. For example, a techmarine can easily become a nigh undamagable tank without too much thought or effort on the part of the player. While an assault marine can tend to be fast enough to avoid most attacks, but should it get hit by anything higher than an elite and it will usually crumble in one or two hits.

The best recommendation that I can make is to throw hordes along with IC's and elites and push the stuff that makes the most sense against the characters that can best fight them without either dying immediately or killing it with impunity. Also take the time to invest in some of the scenario books such as The Emperor Protects. They provide a great framework for most groups.

I'm beginning to see balancing is a challenge. I probably will eventually get the books, but for out first true campaign, as you probably read, I'm going to be using Final Sanction and Oblivion's Edge. I don't know how well that will turn out.

Dakkamite wrote:I played exactly one game of this. The other players were the most stereotypical greasy nerds you could imagine, and honest to god, I spent the whole game being told exactly what to do by the squad leader or whatever, and just rolling dice.

"You will move to that corner and shoot at those Orks! What do you do?"
"Uh... move to that corner and shoot at those Orks?"
"Good, roll some dice now"

Is that the way the game is suppost to be played?

I'm new to the game and can say that that is not how the game should be played. The rulebook mentions it as many times as it can that the squad leader cannot boss other players around. I'm working out a mechanic where the squad leader could maybe attempt to issue commands with some kind of command check and characters making an opposing command check, but that's for something after I get the rest of the mechanics down.

bkiker wrote:I'm new to the game and can say that that is not how the game should be played. The rulebook mentions it as many times as it can that the squad leader cannot boss other players around. I'm working out a mechanic where the squad leader could maybe attempt to issue commands with some kind of command check and characters making an opposing command check, but that's for something after I get the rest of the mechanics down.

Ouph. This is entirely a player-generated issue.
On one hand - sure the squad leader should boss the others around. It's a military-style RPG, for the Emperor's sake (and I'm actually puzzled why Deathwatch goes out of its way to reduce this influence, as this aspect comes with a whole lot of style and potential).
On the other hand - it's a game, and people are supposed to have fun, which includes not getting told every single action they can take.

Why should it be difficult to figure out the happy medium? Even in terms of realism, no, the squad leader won't have the time and leisure to plan every single step of his guys whilst being in the midst of a fight. This isn't some turn-based strategy game. How (to my best understanding) it is supposed to work is that the troops should have enough initiative to follow the appropriate course of action by their own mind, so that it isn't even necessary for the squad leader to correct and babysit them all the time. I'm actually a bit surprised that this can get out of hands in anyone's game - I have honestly never seen this before, and so far I've played in three campaigns that were focusing on the military angle of 40k (Imperial Guard, Battle Sisters, and right now a Deathwatch Kill-Team). Things just fell into place all on their own. In my current DW game, I usually just have to shout a rather general (compared to the range of options in the ruleset) order every ~5 turns or so; my guys are perfectly capable of then getting the job done on their own. And that's one order either for an individual or for the entire team, not dishing out individual commands to every single Marine in my squad!

On a sidenote, I also believe that giving too elaborate commands wouldn't even be possible without giving up focus on the combat aspect of a turn. I think I've read this in Dark Heresy (so I have no idea if DW has a similar rule), but whilst you can talk as a Free Action, it'd just be half a dozen words or so, which means you've got to be real quick about what you want to say. If you want to talk more, you'd have to start expending Minor or even Major Actions. So, no way could a squad leader micromanage his or her entire team by giving individual orders to everyone whilst simultaneously hacking or shooting through a bunch of Orks or whatever.

@Lynata
I like your idea about orders being a type of action and one that is rather blanketed and general. I may use that in my game. I don't think my group will be too bossy with each other, and they've already picked a defacto squad leader for every mission. I guess it might be a moot point .

As for the Horde, I think we all goofed on that. I failed giving the horde all the bonus of its size and number, and I think we misunderstood the damaging horde rule. As we understood it, a bolter shot on the full automatic (trust me that well must assuredly be changed for the actual campaign) would land 3 shots. Roll 2d10 taking the highest for tearing + 9. Example rolling a 16, 18, and 15 the hordes mag would be reduced by one.

Three, it's once per shot.

A problem I'm having is trying to figure out whether or not the base characteristics are fill out correctly. Taking the above stats as an example, I'm curious as to how the unnatural characteristics would be filled out on the sheet. I actually wrote the base characteristic in the space to the right on the box. The number in [] is what I wrote in the box, and then the number in {} is the number I wrote in the small box in the upper left hand corner. Is this correct or do we have things wrong. Finally, when determining damage. The rules say to use the Toughness bonus. Is that the base toughness bonus or the bonus that include Unnatural Toughness?

Unnatural toughness is a base increase to the Toughness bonus, so you use the overall bonus. (Toughness 40 x 2 Unnatural bonus = 8) which will be what you use for toughness checks.

I played exactly one game of this. The other players were the most stereotypical greasy nerds you could imagine, and honest to god, I spent the whole game being told exactly what to do by the squad leader or whatever, and just rolling dice.

"You will move to that corner and shoot at those Orks! What do you do?"
"Uh... move to that corner and shoot at those Orks?"
"Good, roll some dice now"

Is that the way the game is suppost to be played?

Some people play like that, but for most it's an annoying experience, just a poor group.

@ZebloLizard2
Thanks for all the clarifications. I spent most of the day and good long conversion with my brother whose one of the players going over what was what. Learned a lot.

I'm curious about a Hormaguant horde of mag 30. They have the Swift Attack talent which is a full action. The rule says that a horde gets its full attack with Swift Attack. I take that to mean that the horde would get Swift Attack even if they only had a half action left in their turn. Am I misunderstanding that?

I'm also curious to know how you handle player characters being surprised, and do you make use of how a model is facing. If you do, how do you make use of it?

 bkiker wrote:
@ZebloLizard2
Thanks for all the clarifications. I spent most of the day and good long conversion with my brother whose one of the players going over what was what. Learned a lot.

I'm curious about a Hormaguant horde of mag 30. They have the Swift Attack talent which is a full action. The rule says that a horde gets its full attack with Swift Attack. I take that to mean that the horde would get Swift Attack even if they only had a half action left in their turn. Am I misunderstanding that?

I'm also curious to know how you handle player characters being surprised, and do you make use of how a model is facing. If you do, how do you make use of it?

We actually used our 40k models and such for facings, but generally you can try and describe an area, and figure where the players are viewing. We generally used a board for it though, and later we moved on to like Maptools when we couldn't game much anymore together.

As for the Swift attack, if it only has a half-action, it cannot use Swift Attack. The rule under hordes means that if it can, it will be able to use Swift Attack every player it can without a penalty, which is why it says it "may use its full numbers of attacks." rather then can use

@ZebioLizard2
I understand now, though I think it's a little weak. A horde of Homaguants only getting one attack that may only do 10 damage (an extremely low roll).

Anyway, we will being using our 40k models. Between my brother and I, we have enough models to create characters, NPC, and monsters with. Since it's easy to see and represent which way the character is facing with the model we've been trying to figure out if there are any perks or drawbacks for facing. To the best of my memory right now, the rule book doesn't really mention anything about facing. The only thing I know about facing is if the player takes damage to the back it has a chance of damaging the armors power unit.

 bkiker wrote:
@ZebioLizard2
I understand now, though I think it's a little weak. A horde of Homaguants only getting one attack that may only do 10 damage (an extremely low roll).

Anyway, we will being using our 40k models. Between my brother and I, we have enough models to create characters, NPC, and monsters with. Since it's easy to see and represent which way the character is facing with the model we've been trying to figure out if there are any perks or drawbacks for facing. To the best of my memory right now, the rule book doesn't really mention anything about facing. The only thing I know about facing is if the player takes damage to the back it has a chance of damaging the armors power unit.

10 damage.

A Magnitude of 30 is 4D10 + 5/ Pen 3

Scything claws: 1D10 +5/ Pen 3 + 2D10 from Magnitude 30 + 1D10 from Overwhelming Horde Trait

The average damage is around 33, negated from average toughness (lets go with 8) and hitting body (10)

The average you'll do to a space marine is around.. 13, to someone who has around 1D5 + 18 wounds.

Also facing does matter because it's easier to hit various locations (Like the arms/legs are only armour 8), not to mention it matters for system damage, overwatch, and some other shooting/facing related things. I can't remember what exactly it'll do, but it doesn't matter as much as in like dark heresy, where the back usually is weaker in general, though not the space marine armour.

Keep in mind that deathwatch isn't 40k tabletop, it's different.

Space marines in fluff are supposed to be able to down hordes of nids, single handedly kill nid warriors and stuff, the key to making deathwatch challenging is to not throw more enemies at them, thus adding to the damage, but the throw more constraints.

For example, they must escort a magos out of the warzone, but he won't leave until he's collected his data stores. Suddenly genestealers crawl outta the walls and the marines gotta defend him while he does his thing.

Stuff like that. Make it dynamic and fun, without making it all about combat.

Players will die, hordes do massive damage since they add d10's per their amount, up to a max of +2 d10 so a horde of hormagaunts do something like 3d10+ whatever, which is more than enough to hurt a guy in power armor.

Remember that deathwatch isn't there to fight a war but to solve xenos related problems. You can always throw in chaos and stuff from time to time, but be mindful of how much damage you are throwing at the players. No one likes dying in one hit unless there are ways to avoid having it happen.

Players will die, hordes do massive damage since they add d10's per their amount, up to a max of +2 d10 so a horde of hormagaunts do something like 3d10+ whatever, which is more than enough to hurt a guy in power armor.

Aw man, I forgot there was a max for Horde Magnitude damage.

Gotta recalculate my own

So it's 4D10 +5 /Armour pen 3 then.

1D10 + 5, 2D10, 1D10 from overwhelming bonus.

 Dakkamite wrote:
I played exactly one game of this. The other players were the most stereotypical greasy nerds you could imagine, and honest to god, I spent the whole game being told exactly what to do by the squad leader or whatever, and just rolling dice.

"You will move to that corner and shoot at those Orks! What do you do?"
"Uh... move to that corner and shoot at those Orks?"
"Good, roll some dice now"

Is that the way the game is suppost to be played?

We had a similar issue where one player, squad leader or not, really liked to tell people "hey wait just a second before you do that!" Then he would go on about what he thought that player should do.

As gm, I recommend that as soon as you hear "hey wait a sec" in a combat environment, you interject and tell that player that it's not his turn and that the players are in combat and there is no time to discuss the matter.

It'll make for more engaging play, and players will be happier to be able to play their own characters instead of having their character played for them.

ZebioLizard2 wrote:So it's 4D10 +5 /Armour pen 3 then.

^ Exactly what I meant with exploding dice!
Roll low (2, 3, 2, 1) and the attack will slip off harmlessly at the power armour and the ridiculous Toughness - roll high (6, 8, 10, 9) and you might just instacrit the poor guy.

Gotta be careful with dem Hordes.

BrotherVord wrote:As gm, I recommend that as soon as you hear "hey wait a sec" in a combat environment, you interject and tell that player that it's not his turn and that the players are in combat and there is no time to discuss the matter.

This is very sound advice.

In general, there's nothing against the players meta'ing a bit on the table ("hey guys, what if [...]" "yeah, that'd be awesome!") if everyone enjoys it and you don't want to push for 100% immersion as some groups do, but if you have someone who starts to push the other players around it gets too much.

juraigamer wrote:Space marines in fluff are supposed to be able to down hordes of nids, single handedly kill nid warriors and stuff

Gonna insert my obligatory "depending on the fluff you read" here.

There have been more moderate representations of Space Marines, even in RPGs. I for one prefer the ones from GW's own Inquisitor game for being somewhat more compatible to "mixed" groups.

 Lynata wrote:

juraigamer wrote:Space marines in fluff are supposed to be able to down hordes of nids, single handedly kill nid warriors and stuff

Gonna insert my obligatory "depending on the fluff you read" here.

There have been more moderate representations of Space Marines, even in RPGs. I for one prefer the ones from GW's own Inquisitor game for being somewhat more compatible to "mixed" groups.

Sorry, original fluff.

Because it's a fantasy sci-fi,the tabletop game has always mitigated the destructive power of ranged weapons. Tabletop 40K isn't designed to be a warfare simulator. It was a beer and pretzels style game designed for fun. Over the top weapons and combat, with different styles. If ranged weapons dominated the game, there'd never have been any hope for assault based troops that have always been a staple of 40K.


The problem with the Deathwatch RPG is two-fold. First, it realizes that Space Marines are ridiculously lethal if they are allowed to fight to their strengths. Given the way Space Marines are depicted in all the baseline fluff in terms of experience, and the technological superiority of the power armor, autosenses, etc, as well as the stated lethality of the bolter, they probably should be walking murder machines against enemies like Tyranids, especially the non-shooty kind. Play any of the Space Hulk games. They mow down Genestealers like bosses. The only time that Genestealers can do damage to the Marines is by maneuver and surprise. When forced into ranged confrontations, they are mulched. Even the 1st Edition power armor Marines were Genestealer butchers under most circumstances. Not that Space Hulk is any better of a combat simulator as compared to the standard 40K tabletop, but you get the idea.

The second problem with Deathwatch is that Space Marines just aren't good characters, and don't make for a very good "roleplaying game". Because they are purpose built murdermachines, there's not a whole lot of realistic depth to a game about them. But that's really not relevant to this thread. If you want to play DW, you will, lol.

So if you're going to mitigate the power of the Marines, you need to make smarter enemies. I ran a game of Twilight 2013 (the sadly failed reimagining of the old classic T2000 had an amazing ruleset). The players were almost entirely all former Special Operators. And yet they were easily contained once they realized that the enemy would use their numbers to their advantage and fight intelligently. And everyone had a great time playing that. Their favorite scenes were being stalked by a pack of hyenas in the middle of the night, and having to fight heat exhaustion while sneaking through a battlefield between the two opposing sides in a conflict trying not to get killed in the crossfire. Good GMing is really what is needed to effectively run Deathwatch. The Marines are supposed to butcher everything on the battlefield. That's just part of the fluff, and how a single Chapter's actions can turn the tide of a huge battle like we've seen in the Armageddon stories, lol. So yeah, if you're giving a group of Marines the chance to hose down a mob of 'Gaunts, they will. On the other hand, if a few Genestealers get the drop on them by being sneaky, suddenly you might find your players acting with a bit more caution.

juraigamer wrote:Sorry, original fluff.

If you mean FFG's original fluff, then yes.

The second problem with Deathwatch is that Space Marines just aren't good characters, and don't make for a very good "roleplaying game". Because they are purpose built murdermachines, there's not a whole lot of realistic depth to a game about them. But that's really not relevant to this thread. If you want to play DW, you will, lol.

I always found that Deathwatch was the best to start anyone with the game system proper for the 40k RPG's, as it gives you a stronger character that you'll be strong with, but it can allow them to ramp up the challenges. It's not the best for roleplaying, but you can mitigate that too by having them interact with other civilians/leaders/etc.

I've said it before, but I want to say it again. I really appreciate all the advice that you have been giving. I'm understanding that a lot of the quality of play and difficulty rests on my shoulder as the GM. Knowing when to put pressure on the players and when to ease back really only comes with experience.

@juralgamer
You are quite correct that DW is different from standard 40k, and that's something we find ourselves contently telling each other. However, it is that difference that has me really interested with DW and most of the other 40k RPG. I love the fluff and universe of 40k, so all I'm really trying to learn and figure out is the mechanics of the game and the roll of being a GM. Your suggestion for adding constrants to make an encounter challenging is a great idea, and one I'll make use of. However, I can say straight combat can be just as challenging as long as I as a GM keeps in mind what the players can handle.

@Veteran Sergeant
I like your review of the players being hunted by a pack of hyenas. Again, I think that's a call and situation created by the GM, and again, that's something that I'll learn with time.

@Lizard
Did your group create house rules for facing because I'm not finding really anything in the rule book.

These are all points that I will certainly keep in mind, but they only spur me on even more to GM as that it sounds like a load of fun mixed with a healthy dose of challenge.

 bkiker wrote:
I
@Lizard
Did your group create house rules for facing because I'm not finding really anything in the rule book.

These are all points that I will certainly keep in mind, but they only spur me on even more to GM as that it sounds like a load of fun mixed with a healthy dose of challenge.

It only matters for Overwatch and suppression fire, 45 degree's facing.

 bkiker wrote:
Thanks for the great tips. After the play test last night and starting to organize the character sheets I'm learning more and more. Case in point, 3 out of the 5 players have picked mk6 armor with the Fury like lightning history. Playing around with some dice rolls this morning and those characters are easily getting double digits for Initiative, so I'm now debating whether to have them keep the armor and roll for history or do something else. I do have the errata, but I just skimmed it as I was not expecting such a power difference.

This is the problem in bold...you let the players pick what armor to wear instead of rolling on the armor charts as they were supposed to. Always remember that, as a GM, your players will always try to take advantage of you. I've been a player and, if a GM allows me to pick my gear, I'm going to pick the best, game breaking gear I can which, from your description, looks exactly like what your players did. Being that this is your first time as a GM, judging by your post, you really need to restrict your players to stay within the rules as much as possible until you get a feel for how the game is played and can adjust accordingly.

@Zathras
I took care of the armor issue by making everyone roll on the tables, so things will hopefully be better when we meet.

 bkiker wrote:
@Zathras
I took care of the armor issue by making everyone roll on the tables, so things will hopefully be better when we meet.

Good job. Might I also suggest that you have your players roll for their armor in front of you. I'm not saying that your players are cheaters but it does reduce the temptation to do so and also puts everyone on the same ground.

@Zathras
I already ahead of you on that. I'll say this losely, but I'm the only one with the rule book.

Anyway, I'm eagerly gobbling up all the tips and hints that I have been given. The nice thing about our situation is that most of us are new to the table top RPG scene. I think only two of the players have had experience playing a table top RPG, so there is a bit of a learning curve for some of us. We also know that mistakes are going to be made, and are willing to work to correct them. Case in point, there wasn't any complaints or moaning when I said they would have to roll for armor history.