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I'm gming an rpg based on 40k, and the players all want to play as different races. I want to do a sidonia/stargate universe inspired exploration plotline, but I can't think of a way to get the players not to kill each other in the first session. How can I get them to cooperate?

Everyone are in the gladitorial pits of comorragh. Have to work together like the group of fighters from different areas in the roman empire like in the movie gladiator.

^ Yes, something like that. A mutual interest against a common threat. Maybe some new unknown one or an established one (tyranids, necrons?) The party has some inside info so they must cast their differences aside until some goal is met.

The criminal / outcasts element does wonders

Some sort of radical Ordo Xenos Inquisitor? Or a Farseer up to something devious? Either one of those might find a way to coerce various species to work for them. Dark Eldar slaver as was previously mentioned as well.

As far as everyone getting together voluntarily and being just great friends, that's tougher.

just make sure that they and the minority of the NPCs aren't respected members of their society since almost all races are extremely xenofobic this makes a bad setting for multi race sifi groups.

Some races it's easier to see working together than others. I suppose it would depend on how long your campaign is going to be.

You could start with each warrior having been dragged to the warp, from various conflicts all over the universe, and no find themselves grouped together purely by chance, surrounded by Khorne Daemonkin.

Assuming every player is playing a sentient race, there's a strong need to work together at that point to last more than 3 seconds.

Give them a common threat that they can't handle on their own.

A Rogue Trader scenario might work. Maybe the party are a group of freebooters.

You could think about the game like Paranoia, wherein everyone has hidden agendas and is intentionally at odds with each other? That or play a rogue trader/fringes-of-the-Imperium sort of game wherein a human crew might have mercenaries from other species on board; you can't really justify Space Marines that way (though I have seen people put runaway Marines in fanmade Rogue Trader army books), there isn't really a good way to get Chaos, Necrons, or Tyranids working with other people, and you'd need to make approximate-equivalent organizations to a lot of Imperial institutions, but you can probably get Kroot, Tau, Blood Axe Orks, Eldar Outcasts/Corsairs, and renegade humans on the same team easily enough.

 AnomanderRake wrote:
You could think about the game like Paranoia, wherein everyone has hidden agendas and is intentionally at odds with each other?

Sub-plot: who's the Genestealer?

Which races are you planning to use for your players?

What races are you trying to include? It will be hard (impossible?) to include a Tyranid and I don't know enough about Necrons to guess if they would ever join such a thing. An Ork Blood Axe/Freeboota mercenary would get involved for teef, weapons, things. An ex-Guardsman-turned-Gue'vesa would be more likely to join forces with Xenos than your average Imperial. The reasons are myriad why an Eldar could get involved - strands of fate, ethereal knowledge, save the race stuff. A Chaos champion on a pilgrimage for their god of choice (Tzeentch probably the easiest fit) or making their own fate despite the gods that cast him down perhaps. A Tau emmisary or soldier caught out of place on a diplomacy mission to speak to one of the other RPG characters or their group before things got out of control.

A band of individuals on a planet facing immenent Exterminatus with only a few ships left. Work together and take the heavily armed Imperial Navy cruiser thus increasing your chances of escape or go alone and take an Arvus Lighter, get nowhere in-system and die in the void?

This is a dytopian universe based on hatred, not Star Trek


Automatically Appended Next Post:
You're the GM. It's your job to tell them what kind of characters fit into the universe, not make the universe fit whatever character ideas come into their heads.

Make them all unaware at first that they're actually Alpha Legion marines undercover.

What 'level' are they starting at?
Chances are that they're on the younger or less experienced in the art of war, it takes a while or some awful experiences for the hate to flow so freely.
I could see a party including an eldar civillian navigator, space marine early initiate, a Guardsman who went through training but didn't have the bottle, a necron who has had some of his killer instinct removed by an electrical storm, a young blood axe spy or something like that being able to cooperate to complete a mutually beneficial task.

Less so a Striking Scorpion, Deathwatch Marine, Imperial Commissar, Necron Deathmark and an Ork Big Mek although these are potentially what your group could grow into. Through their adventures they have made some kind of pact.

two words Rogue Trader

Alcibiades wrote:
This is a dytopian universe based on hatred, not Star Trek


Automatically Appended Next Post:
You're the GM. It's your job to tell them what kind of characters fit into the universe, not make the universe fit whatever character ideas come into their heads.

There is plenty of room for mercenaries, radical inquisitors, other manipulators, smugglers and plain integrated worlds. It's easy to add things to 40k, even things that aren't covered by the army lists.

Bunch of mercenaries in the employ of a Rogue Trader is probably the easiest. Some backstories don't fit so well with this - Space Marines for example are unlikely to be both a staunch loyalist and a deserter working for a rogue trader, for example.

Another alternative is people working as Acolytes for an inquisitor - they're known for picking up varied and disparate followers with diverse talents. The Dark Heresy game uses this model, but players are usually limited to human characters.

Blackmail and mind-control, either tech or psychic.

BrianDavion wrote:
two words Rogue Trader

The rogue trader RPG isn't the ideal place for a multi race xenos party really. The social implications of not being human are just too serious.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
There is however an FFG adventure that you could easily be used for an introduction adventure of a incoherent xenos group. Its the Black crusade "broken chains" adventure.
Its best to skipp to page 16 where the story begins the rest is an introduction into the game.

https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/c1/07/c10735e5-4db7-450b-98dc-94d22441d8de/broken_chains_low_res.pdf

we managed to play 2 hilarious games with more than humans (both in RT). Orks make everything funnier

I think Men/Tau/Eldar, a pinch of Orks and the odd Dark Eldar can work together - but be sure to have a common enemy they want to defeat. Tyranids, Necrons, Chaos...

 Dakka Flakka Flame wrote:

 AnomanderRake wrote:
You could think about the game like Paranoia, wherein everyone has hidden agendas and is intentionally at odds with each other?

Sub-plot: who's the Genestealer?

Plot twist: They are all Genestealers







40k is really not suitable for multi-race player parties though. That said, renegade humans might be less xenophobic than Imperial humans. Eldar will often use other races as pawns in their plans (this sometimes involves a degree of cooperation between eldar and the other race). Orks of the Blood Axe clan and freebooter groups have been known to work as mercenaries for humans or other races. Tau will happily cooperate with anyone. Tyranids or necrons won't work as player characters because they lack individual free will (unless it is necron lord or cryptek or such).

I'd probably go with a radical member of the Ordo that deals with Daemons whom puts together a group of xeno retainers to help him or her investigate a potential Chaos incursion.

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 Dakka Flakka Flame wrote:

 AnomanderRake wrote:
You could think about the game like Paranoia, wherein everyone has hidden agendas and is intentionally at odds with each other?

Sub-plot: who's the Genestealer?

Plot twist: They are all Genestealers
.

Those are the better one shot RPG adventures ; P

 Alex Kolodotschko wrote:
What 'level' are they starting at?
Chances are that they're on the younger or less experienced in the art of war, it takes a while or some awful experiences for the hate to flow so freely.
I could see a party including an eldar civillian navigator, space marine early initiate, a Guardsman who went through training but didn't have the bottle, a necron who has had some of his killer instinct removed by an electrical storm, a young blood axe spy or something like that being able to cooperate to complete a mutually beneficial task.

Less so a Striking Scorpion, Deathwatch Marine, Imperial Commissar, Necron Deathmark and an Ork Big Mek although these are potentially what your group could grow into. Through their adventures they have made some kind of pact.

"A necron who has had some of his killer instinct taken away by an electrical storm".

You just described the plot to short circuit. You can name the necron johnny 5.

Yeah I quite like the idea of 'assorted scumbags in the arse-end of the galaxy' for mixing races together. It's easier to get species mixing if they're each individually relatively weak (so they can't afford to go full xenophobe and still get by in life).

Someone had a kickass idea of a Dark Eldar character that's been captured and fitted with an explosive collar by their Rogue Trader. There's a neat little dynamic of the DEldar hating everyone's guts and trying to get them killed, but also saving his own neck, so everyone's always on their toes.

As for Tyranids Genestealer Cultists are your friend there as they've got more free will and agency. Perhaps they're closet cultists and no-one knows about them. Perhaps they've got a similar explosive collar arrangement to our DEldar friend above, and they're being kept around because they can sense the presence of other cultists/'nids in the area.

Space Marines are simple enough too. Perhaps you had an initiate whose psychological conditioning didn't quite take, and he's deserted. Not full traitor, but just fled the psychotic warrior monks to live life as a Merc. Either that or an Alpha Legion or Raven Guard operative.

Necrons are truly difficult though...

A Tau maximum security prison satellite. Dangerous aliens are processed and incarcerated here while providing the sadistic Ethereal warden the opportunity to study the various xenos races and how they interact and react to his whims.

The assorted convicts must find a way to escape from this impregnable fortress prison, using their natural skills and abilities. Can they find a way to unite the disparate alien prisoners trapped together, if only briefly, and escape while taking revenge on their captors? Or will the warden discover their plan and have them all lobotomised?

Say you are part of a rouge trader crew, problem solved.