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So I'm getting ready to run a Rogue Trader game (IRL, kids, sorry), and I'm very specifically choosing friends who are aware of RPGs but aren't gamers (or at least my normal crop of gamers), and especially avoiding people who know about the 40k ephemera since I am stripping out as much of the "blind emperor-god BURN THE HERETIC power armor DAKKA DAKKA" nonsense as possible and running it as more of a Firefly/Mass Effect/Star Wars type game. Lots of hives of scum and villainy, lots of moral choices, lots of space stuff. I put together a worksheet, since a lot of them haven't played RPGs before or at least haven't played anything other than D&D, so some of this may be a little foreign, and the rule book is both expensive (meaning I only have 1 to pass around) and slightly confusing. Thoughts? Specifically, other examples from pop culture you would use in addition to/instead of the ones I picked. Also, the final paragraphs about picking classes. Does it make sense? Sound mean? Any ideas to gussy it up? I also want to have handy reference cards for their activities, so I made this flash card for reference. Figure I can print it out, laminate it and have a useful prop forever. I am aware not all of these are exactly right (specifically, "Adjust Speed" is vastly simplified from the full action) More to come. I like to plan stuff. Since I'm scaling back the scope of a rogue trader's ship to more Millenium Falcon/Serenity sized, and the crew sizes to about 30 from 18,000, I'm planning on naming the NPCs (I've got about twenty, in the Battlestar Galactica "nickname as name" style, like Sawbones (the ship's medic), Lists (the ship's Petty Officer) and Knockout (a beautiful and deadly shock trooper). While the NPCs won't be as competent as the PCs, they should each have 1 or 2 skills that are useful, and I've got their character sheets on 4x6 cards, and I'll let the PCs take 1 NPC at a time on 'away missions.' For the opening mission, the PCs will be on another ship that is on a salvage mission in a huge ship graveyard from a former conflict, when it gets into a conflict with a surprise super-capital ship from a band of evil void-faring marauders (think Reavers from Firefly or the Geth from Mass Effect) thought long-since-banished. The party will escape in pods, only to bump up against a ship that is completely intact, as its crew dissolved in a warp-accident and it showed up days-late to the fight twenty years ago. The lone survivor is the now-quite-mad Astropath, who they will have to deal with before rechristening the ship whatever they want and limping their way back to Port Wander. I went to rubberstampchamp.com and had a stamp made, so when I want to enter an NPC I can have a standard format and space to do it in, and I want to see if you guys think I'm designing the adventure right, or if there's something I'm missing. 
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Feb 9, 2012 01:30
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I read in another thread about combining all three games into one epic campaign, and that is what I have set out to do. The meta plot is that the last Old One who is sustained by a Platinum Throne is working with the Emperor to get himself reborn to fight back against the Ruinous powers and the C'tan. The DH part of the campaign will first have them investigating the growing death cult on a Feral planet named Agra. Regardless of their success, the leader of the death cult, who is a latent psychic who has been promised great power by the Necrons, activates a relay station on the planet. Once the relay is activated it will shoot a beam that will activate the Necrons that are hidden on a ghost planet that only comes out of the Warp every thousand years. When that happens we will switch over to the RT portion. Since my players bribed me, I’m giving them two ships, one for each of the two Rogue Traders. They, being the ones that transported the DH characters to the planet, will be hit by the beam and phase into the warp as well. They will reach a virgin world (uncolonized world built by the Eldar) that has a strange energy reading in the center. Since their engines are disabled, Ill lead them down to the planet where, after a few Eldar related combats, they will discover a modified STC that has been built with one primary purpose. The entire structure has been re-engineered to house and develop a single child, the reborn Emperor. He will of course awaken and task the RT with helping him develop his powers so that he can reclaim his throne. (the ultimate goal being them killing the old emperor so that he child can reclaim his full power) Once they meet with the kid, Ill switch modes to a Grey Knight Death Watch campaign. On the shrine world of Luz Sagrada, the Grey Knights have been dispatched to perform Final Benediction on the planet along with the Ordos Malleus. They have given in to despair and sloth, letting a cult of Nurgle set up shop and allowed a Daemon incursion to happen. The players will fight through the nurgle hordes and insane citizens all the way to the corrupted Basilica of the Eternal Emperor, where the Daemon hosted High Inquisitor Vartarious awaits. After a furious battle they will find scrawling in blood and pus all over every surface of the Basilica "The False Emperor is Born” Also with the RT part, is that 3 of the 5 players are spies for the Tau (A Kroot), Orcs (Orc Freebooter) and the Tyranids(A perfect genetic copy of a human with access to the hivemind). Im planning on setting up a massive space battle between all of the factions and the other two players who will lead Imperium forces. I just hope it all works out.
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Feb 9, 2012 04:06
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Excelsiortothemax posted:I read in another thread about combining all three games into one epic campaign, and that is what I have set out to do. Well, it's about your usual standard. Me personally, I think the whole drat thing sounds dumb as hell, but hey, this is 40K- it's all about finding the level of dumb as hell that's right for you. And as you've taught us in the past, you prefer a level of dumb as hell significantly dumber than most other people. The platinum throne bit stands out as the stupidest part in a story composed almost entirely of stupidest parts, though.
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Feb 9, 2012 04:12
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Well Im really not sure whats stupid, there is still one last old one alive. I was just grabbing it from the Emperor. Im not sure what the flaws are, there are adventure hooks. Perhaps you could provide assistance instead of just redicule, but then again its far easier to just throw insults.
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Feb 9, 2012 05:10
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Excelsiortothemax posted:Im not sure what the flaws are, there are adventure hooks. Perhaps you could provide assistance instead of just redicule, but then again its far easier to just throw insults. It's not so much that there are flaws, as the whole thing in general just lacks any sort of restraint or evidence that you have even a shred of good taste. Lacking that, no amount of assistance can help you.
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Feb 9, 2012 05:43
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St0rmD posted:It's not so much that there are flaws, as the whole thing in general just lacks any sort of restraint or evidence that you have even a shred of good taste. Lacking that, no amount of assistance can help you. Though to be slightly more constructive: if this is for the same group that found the antics I linked to be legitimately high-larious, yeah, you're probably dead-on. I weep for your souls, but you're probably going to be just fine.
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Feb 9, 2012 05:49
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I appologise for my earlier response. I had just gotten off work and was cranky. I do want to make a good story and have the best possible adventure for them. Im trying to go big, so in general tune it down? I mean, this is the game where thousands of psychics are sacrificed every day so the desicated form of a God Emperor can continue to provide illumination to his people. But if its too big Im totally willing to work on it, I've got a month before the game is supposed to start.
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Feb 9, 2012 06:54
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St0rmD posted:It's not so much that there are flaws, as the whole thing in general just lacks any sort of restraint or evidence that you have even a shred of good taste. Lacking that, no amount of assistance can help you. Wow, man, for a guy in a thread that's all about talking about "Power Metal: The Role-Playing Game", you sure seem upset at a silly storyline. Ever considered that Warhammer 40k isn't really meant to be the setting to play the deepest, most meaningful campaign ever?
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Feb 9, 2012 09:21
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So I just finished the Dread Pearl campaign and I went up a whole rank. Fantastic. We allied with one of the Bros (The dude with two swords) and we went to go fight Djanko Scourge and him and his 7 Companions turned up all riding motorbikes to the music being pumped out of the Tech-Priests Boombox Bicep. 
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Feb 9, 2012 09:43
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FrozenGoldfishGod posted:Wow, man, for a guy in a thread that's all about talking about "Power Metal: The Role-Playing Game", you sure seem upset at a silly storyline. Ever considered that Warhammer 40k isn't really meant to be the setting to play the deepest, most meaningful campaign ever? I agree, excelsior's game sounds really awesome and I think it's perfectly in keeping with W40K. Then again, I love Through the Fire and the Flames only a little bit ironically, so V  V
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Feb 9, 2012 10:35
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I think one big problem with you're super duper destroy everything plot, Excelsior, is that there's not much room for player agency. You'll be moving the characters from big set-piece to bigger set-piece, for not much reason other than 'you arrive at this new planet, now investigate it' (which makes sense for acolytes, but not so much for Rogue Traders or high-ranking GKs). Once they're there, it looks more like you want to determine where they go in the story, and what they do - which at one point includes adding a DMPC child-deity to the party, who immediately takes over direction of it (which would be terrible under the best of GMs - given how you played a pooka in the game above, it's not really encouraging). As it stands, there isn't a campaign here - there's a set of events that you want to happen in narrative order, and are dragging the party along with them, which also opens you up to criticism based on the story you're trying to tell, and how it might not be very good. There's nothing wrong with including big stuff in games - I, for one, ran the Haarlock Trilogy campaign under the assumption that Haarlock did a deal with the last Old One, that the Tyrant Star was its egg, and that the acolytes - as the long-lost descendants of Haarlock - were party to its dark influence. Despite ripping off the Lovecraftian 'my parents were monsters  ' storyline a bit, it worked OK - it gave the players license and space to consider what they'd do about the potential rebirth of a supremely powerful, unaligned precursor race, and whether it was wise to bring back something whose time had passed (it kinda wasn't), but allowed them to meaningfully interact with the campaign, and make choices. The plot above just seems to layer on more and more big flashy things, though, without giving much time for characters to react with them in their own way (a functional STC that can create life? gently caress the Emperor, any Mechanicus characters are going to either start bowing down and worshipping it as the Machine Demiurge, or destroy it as the ultimate deceiver) - there's a whole epic plot there in itself. I don't think there's anything wrong with going big, but it needs to be interesting, and serve a narrative purpose - not just layered on for the sake of 'epic win'. FrozenGoldfishGod posted:Wow, man, for a guy in a thread that's all about talking about "Power Metal: The Role-Playing Game", you sure seem upset at a silly storyline. Ever considered that Warhammer 40k isn't really meant to be the setting to play the deepest, most meaningful campaign ever? Ehe. Chilli sauce is yummy. I'm going to slather all my food in chilli sauce. Actually gently caress that. gently caress food. I'm just going to have chilli sauce. Anything that's more meaty or complex than chilli sauce - gently caress that. It'd just get in the way of my appreciation of that most 'power metal' (     ) of foods. By the way, 40k isn't even 'power metal' - it's 'baroque, over the top gothic', which comes with its own particular and distinct set of assumptions.
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Feb 9, 2012 10:49
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WINNERSH TRIANGLE posted:
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Feb 9, 2012 11:01
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Zereth posted:What the hell is this thing? Haven't got a clue - just searched the emoticons list for the coolest, sickest, and nastiest  emoticons there were, as a way of showing subtle contempt.
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Feb 9, 2012 11:07
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WINNERSH TRIANGLE posted:Ehe. Chilli sauce is yummy. I'm going to slather all my food in chilli sauce. Actually gently caress that. gently caress food. I'm just going to have chilli sauce. Anything that's more meaty or complex than chilli sauce - gently caress that. It'd just get in the way of my appreciation of that most 'power metal' ( Yeah, stop having fun wrong!
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Feb 9, 2012 11:13
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Pththya-lyi posted:Yeah, stop having fun wrong! Perhaps you're right - perhaps humour is subjective, and it's really unfair to suggest that certain sorts of games aren't exactly that good. Non-judgementalism all round! Still, I'd suggest that bad game, especially when written poorly and without much choice for player agency, in a setting that doesn't exactly encourage that sort of game, is indeed wrong fun, or at least a failure to have as much fun as you could possibly have in a game. Waving the 'metal 40k' wand at whatever stylistic rough edges you have isn't necessarily going to lead to that fun a game, or that good a story.
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Feb 9, 2012 11:26
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Wait a minute, are you saying that being metal as hell and not providing player agency are the same thing? 'Cause I don't get that at all. [E: Just realized that you're saying that we, excelsior's defenders, are conflating a lack of agency with being metal. Well, that's certainly not my position.] This blog post right here has some good ideas about player agency, and I'd recommend it. Pththya-lyi fucked around with this message at 11:40 on Feb 9, 2012 |
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Feb 9, 2012 11:38
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Pththya-lyi posted:Wait a minute, are you saying that being metal as hell and not providing player agency are the same thing? 'Cause I don't get that at all. [E: Just realized that you're saying that we, excelsior's defenders, are conflating a lack of agency with being metal. Well, that's certainly not my position.] Nah, they're two separate points (though related). The script outlined above (and it feels much more like a script than a campaign arc) doesn't provide much in the way of player agency. It presupposes that the players will act a certain way, and Excelsior even claims as much - that he's trying to engineer things to be a certain way. It's not helped by the fact that things just seem to be layered on for the purposes of them being there (the metal part). Old Ones, 'all the factions', turning up because hey, why not - you don't get much opportunity to interact with them in any meaningful way other than just adding them to your list of allies for the next stage of the plan. 40k does work as a :rockon: metal as hell, kitchen sink setting, but Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, etc., specifically play up other themes that don't work well with that approach. Dark Heresy's all about corruption, intrigue, how much are you willing to drat yourself in order to ; Rogue Trader's about the horrible fuckery that unaccountable corsair-capitalists can unleash upon the galaxy, and how long they can get away with it while maintaining a debonair front. All of those are enjoyable themes, and suffer massively if you're just going for a solely 'rockin' type game. By dialling back the latter, even only a bit, you can get a lot more fun out of the game, by allowing people to 'explore themes and battle foes' rather than just 'score righteous fury on Ork Warbosses'.
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Feb 9, 2012 11:51
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WINNERSH TRIANGLE posted:Lots of good You're right, actually. You're just not so angry about it in your posting. That's mostly what I was making fun of.
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Feb 9, 2012 12:40
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Wow, this thread kind of went to poo poo with a bunch of passive-aggressive sophistry. To add content instead of commentary, though -- a question about Rogue Trader (et al) -- we're in a campaign, and I've noticed several times now there are many things such as the MIU Bionics that basically have no supporting mechanics -- ie, where MIUs are to be expected, how common they are, etc. Since I bought the PDFs through DriveThruRPG, I can search them (slightly broken) and be sure of this. Are these covered in other books in the series (This is just an example of several we've run across in the current campaign)? Or is this meant to be hand-waving for the GM to figure out? I don't actually mind that, except I kind of wish that things in that category would actually state it, rather than leaving it unclear.
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Feb 9, 2012 19:07
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Fayk posted:we're in a campaign, and I've noticed several times now there are many things such as the MIU Bionics that basically have no supporting mechanics -- ie, where MIUs are to be expected, how common they are, etc. Since I bought the PDFs through DriveThruRPG, I can search them (slightly broken) and be sure of this. Not quite sure what you're asking, are you talking about Availability? That's in the core book, page 152 for me. MIU's are Rare. There's another sidebar on that same page that tells you how to handle installing bionics and implants. Also mentions the people and resources required to attach bionics can usually be found in "substantial medical facilities and worlds with a very high technological base."
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Feb 9, 2012 20:46
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Anyone have a good recommendation for random planet/system generation with some actual nods to physics/orbital mechanics? I've tried fiddling with the old Traveller stuff and the updated Gurps stuff, but I really don't feel like spending a weekend doing calculus.
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Feb 9, 2012 21:31
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Astus posted:Not quite sure what you're asking, are you talking about Availability? That's in the core book, page 152 for me. MIU's are Rare. There's another sidebar on that same page that tells you how to handle installing bionics and implants. Also mentions the people and resources required to attach bionics can usually be found in "substantial medical facilities and worlds with a very high technological base." Sorry, I guess I was not clear. I'm not asking about the rarity of the MIU implant or getting it installed, but what systems are sophisticated enough to be connected to via MIU (to gain the mechanical benefits from the MIU implant). If I recall, there's another implant (or maybe it's an explorator talent) talking about dataports for example - but if I remember right, the RT core book doesn't talk about what has/doesn't have dataports. Just an example - and one I'm not as sure of since it's from memory.
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Feb 9, 2012 22:29
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Fayk posted:Sorry, I guess I was not clear. I'm not asking about the rarity of the MIU implant or getting it installed, but what systems are sophisticated enough to be connected to via MIU (to gain the mechanical benefits from the MIU implant). A lot of that is up to the GM, and the source of the item in question. The Imperium has some planets where you might find a dataport implant in every sewing machine or leafblower. Another planet might have city-sized computers that run off of punchcards, steam power, and the screams of tortured children. I know it isn't really a helpful answer, but "you decide!" is all I can really offer. I would err on the side of "doesn't have dataport" for most things, though. Direct interface seems like a much more sophisticated technology than most of what the Imperium would have available, simply because difficulty of data storage/transfer is a pretty key element in the setting.
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Feb 9, 2012 22:42
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Signal posted:A lot of that is up to the GM, and the source of the item in question. The Imperium has some planets where you might find a dataport implant in every sewing machine or leafblower. Another planet might have city-sized computers that run off of punchcards, steam power, and the screams of tortured children. As a general rule I'd say Adeptus Mechanicus stuff is almost entirely MIU-interfaceable, Naval stuff has it on pretty much anything important, servitors generally have something along those lines, and everywhere else it's limited to really big computer systems. With the occasional wierd-rear end inexplicable relic that's got a data port on it for some reason, of course.
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Feb 9, 2012 22:48
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Well the MIU is a useful and not too preposterously rare Mechanicus implant which could be seen to have significant sacred qualities, so it's safe to assume MIU implants are recognized and valued enough that a decent majority of the Mechanicus' high-end, sophisticated, and/or important machines are compatible with them. Basically any mechanical thing owned by techpriests has a non-zero chance of this; they are ritualistic technofetishists who aspire to turn men into machines, so it wouldn't be surprising if they had like an MIU toaster oven or something so you could commune with the oven's machine spirit to exert optimum toasting parameters for the glory of the Omnissiah. Beyond that, military and space vehicles in general are almost wholly dependent on the machine cult to run, and they are also recognized to have relatively strong/sophisticated machine spirits, so they'd probably have dataports if not specialized MIU compatibility hardware so that you could quickly ask the spirit what's bugging it if it breaks down in a life-threatening situation. Anything with a more than rudimentary level of automation or computerization would potentially be compatible as well, from high-end dataslates to ancient holographic archives to the control consoles on a ship's bridge. Just about any system more complex than basic moving parts could turn out to have an MIU wired in, if a guy with the appropriate skills cared enough to do so. How likely a given doohickey is to have a brainjack is pretty much based on a) how much time it's spent around Cult members, b) whether it was made, modified, or extensively repaired by Cult members, c) how arbitrarily sacred it is to Cult members, and d) how complicated it is to utilize, maintain, and repair the thingy (i.e. how badly you'll need to call the Cult if it shits the bed) - if it takes six guys and a four-hour ritual to reboot it, then yeah it probably has MIU bits tacked on somewhere from when the Magos got sick of the loving thing acting up so much.
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Feb 9, 2012 22:55
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I concur with Angry Diplomat. A lot of the fluff points toward many vehicles having MIU capability (think space ships, titans and even tanks). Also, with the right resources/contacts, a PC could conceivably give an item MIU capability. Hell, you can even make a mini-adventure out of it if you want. edit: \/ Space Marine stuff and maybe Imperial Guard high command, sure, but probably not your regular chimeras/leman russes. IG is all about quantity, not quality. MaliciousOnion fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Feb 10, 2012 |
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Feb 10, 2012 01:19
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I'd say almost all military vehicles and a lot of their hardware would have MIU interfaces. A raider dune buggy, nah, but any given chimera or human-manufactured spacecraft would.
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Feb 10, 2012 01:20
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Obviously the GM has the final word, but what are people's thoughts about MIU compatibility on fairly (not some disposable poo poo from a hive-world) nice quality man-portable weapons (vs vehicle mounted, etc) - like a Solo Bolter for example? Either having or being able to be retrofitted via TechUse/Armourer/etc?
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Feb 10, 2012 01:23
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Pharmaskittle posted:I'd say almost all military vehicles and a lot of their hardware would have MIU interfaces. A raider dune buggy, nah, but any given chimera or human-manufactured spacecraft would. Really? My impression has always been that almost every Imperial Guard vehicle is basically just armor and a big gun (or five) on top of a tractor. Isn't the Chimera supposed to be the tank version of the lasgun? Y'know, really easy to manufacture, maintain, and ship, but pretty crappy unless used in absolutely hilarious numbers? I can't imagine someone saying, "Yeah, slow production by ten minutes per unit to install something that'll let the Mechanicus fix it. There's no way the first dozen through a breach will be just utterly destroyed." Seriously, the Guard goes through armored vehicles like a hypochondriac goes through penicillin.
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Feb 10, 2012 01:26
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You could be right, but I don't assume the Guard streamlines anything from the original designs. I think it'd be appropriate to have a slot on the vehicle that most of them think is a broken-rear end tape deck or something until a techpriest or someone who isn't an idiot starts punching deck in their lovely APC.
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Feb 10, 2012 01:35
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Fayk posted:Obviously the GM has the final word, but what are people's thoughts about MIU compatibility on fairly (not some disposable poo poo from a hive-world) nice quality man-portable weapons (vs vehicle mounted, etc) - like a Solo Bolter for example? Either having or being able to be retrofitted via TechUse/Armourer/etc? I'd say in most cases it's not likely. The fact that it's man-portable sort of makes the need for an MIU moot. Having said that, this is 40k - there's always an exception. I'd personally make it either archaeotech or best quality.
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Feb 10, 2012 01:38
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Well, during long hours waiting for code to compile and for stress tests to run I've been convinced to run a game of Rogue Trader for a few friends at work. Things have been a bit hectic for them so far. Only one of them has ever played before, for the others it is their first time. The one who knows the game is playing a Navigator, the others are a Rogue Trader and Explorator. We've played 3 sessions so far. They started out in Port Wander, their ship based on one of the transport hulls. A rival Rogue Trader approached them with a bet while they were making preparations to set out. On a recently and incredibly lightly colonized planet in the Koronus Expanse the citizens have reported sightings of what they're calling a Mega-Grox grazing in the grassy flats between the jungles. One of these animals is at least 5 times the size of a regular Grox. If someone were to head out there and prove that these creatures exist they could make a killing in the beast trade market. The bet the other Rogue Trader made was that he would find one way before they could. Its a fairly decent bet, to be paid in trade contracts worth 5% of their profit factor. Before they leave port, they pay off a mercenary to sneak aboard their rival's ship and lay low until they contact him via a long range vox, at which point he'll sabotage the engines. Finally, they head off into the Maw, which is particularly active today. Following some terrible navigation checks, they just barely make it to the first station of passage. Their trip to the second is no better, and they come out of the warp dangerously close to a wandering asteroid. One failed pilot check later, and their ship is fairly damaged, and they've suffered large crew and morale losses as well. Doing what they can to repair while in the void, they decide to press onward, and suffer six hellish months lost in the warp when they lose sight of the astronomicon and nothing they do seems to give any indication on where they are. As they come out of the warp, and find only empty void to greet them, the crew mutinies. Their first officers turn completely against them, and in yet another spectacular failure while trying to talk them down, the mutineers gain complete control of the bridge. Our "heroes" manage to at least save themselves from being immediately shot, pointing out that if they die the warrant of trade goes with them, and their dynasty would pay massively to have them returned safely, so they're taken to the brig. The navigator manages to convince the few guards that if they don't let him out he could melt their faces off. He is let out and immediately releases the other two. After a few failed attempts at rallying other crew members to take the bridge back, a failed attempt to hack the central cogitators to turn life support on the bridge off, and a 3 vs 10 fight against some of the mutineers to retake the armory they decide that they've almost completely run out of options. They journey to the depths of the ship and after murdering some tech priests trying to guard the room, they unthaw two of the murder-servitors. They shove them in one of the turbo-lifts, send it to the bridge, and jam the controls so that it can't be sent to any other floor. After waiting a few minutes they unjam the lift and take it up themselves. As far as they can see all the mutineers, and everyone else, have been slaughtered by the servitors. They find one laying dead, but the other is standing amidst a pile of corpses. Realizing they had to turn off all the safeties to get it to shoot its own crew on its own ship, they begin shooting at it, but it's twin-linked arm-gatling guns quickly drop the Rogue Trader and the Navigator. The Explorator manages to escape around the corner where he sets up a melta-bomb on a short timer, perfectly detonating it on the murdertor as it chases him. The ship retaken, they patch themselves up and finally make it to Footfall, where they find out they've only truly lost about a week of realtime. They restock on supplies, get their ship repaired the best the can, replace most of their crew, and then head out once again. On their way to the mega-grox planet, while in the warp they find the bridge suddenly filled with translucent shades of their former first officers. The Rogue Trader fires his hellpistol at one, but the shot passes through it, damaging part of the bridge systems, but the Explorator is able to get it fixed before any serious problems arise. They arrive at the correct star system, and a few system scans show them that their rival is nearby. They take a few crew members and head down to the planet surface in their Gun-Cutter. They land at the starport, and go around the settlement looking for someone to guide them into the jungle. A naturalist who has been studying the local wildlife offers to help them, and they take 5 crew members and leave civilization. After a few hours of walking, the naturalist tells them that the sounds they're hearing up ahead beyond the brush are most likely one of the mega-grox. They weren't. Instead, a 30 foot tall carnosaur emerges from the jungle. Their crew members laser pistols seem wholly ineffective against it, and the Explorator nearly is bit in half while meleeing it with his power axe. Eventually they bring the creature down. The wounded are helped as best as they can be, and they press onward. Further into jungle they come to an open grassy area and there they find a massive mega-grox waiting for them. Shots fly from everyone present, and the killing blow is dealt by the Explorator with a full auto shot from his bolter. Critical hit to the body, the entire beast explodes. There is next to nothing left. Not helpful to their proving that these exist. They continue their search until they finally find another mega-grox. They bring this one down mostly safely, though the final critical against it melts its head and it goes charging off on fire, but not burnt up enough for it to not be useful. They call their other crew members to bring the Gun-Cutter and shuttles, and begin to wonder why they didn't do the whole trip through the jungle as just a sweep over with the Gun-Cutter. Back on the ship, their prize in tow, they use a long-range voxcaster to talk to their hired mercenary on the rival's ship, which is also in close orbit around the planet. They learn that he too has just captured a mega-grox. Determined to beat him back, they tell the mercenary that now is the time, and he sabotages the ship's engines. They begin preparing for the trip back, and right before they enter the warp one of their enginseers issues an emergency all stop. They've experienced a full gellar-field startup failure. It seems that they're not going anywhere any time soon either. All in all, I think they're finally starting to get the hang of the game.
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Feb 10, 2012 01:39
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Pharmaskittle posted:a techpriest or someone who isn't an idiot starts punching deck in their lovely APC. I was under the impression that most if not all techpriests were still idiots punching specific buttons to produce specific results. At least, that's how our current Magos got his start. He just got really lucky with his die rolls and never told anyone 
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Feb 10, 2012 02:05
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MaliciousOnion posted:I'd say in most cases it's not likely. The fact that it's man-portable sort of makes the need for an MIU moot. Having said that, this is 40k - there's always an exception. I'd personally make it either archaeotech or best quality. I dunno, they seem to serve multiple purposes, and on a man-portable weapon they seem like they'd be basically smartlinks ala cyberpunk - better man-machine integration than moving your meat-fingers to pull a metal trigger.
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Feb 10, 2012 02:19
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The higher up you get in the Mechanicus the more the mystical  is replaced by genuine  (though still with a healthy dose of rhetoric and STAY THE gently caress AWAY FROM X, Y, and Z)
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Feb 10, 2012 02:20
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So! 2nd session (3rd, technically, given that due to hilarious mutual ineptitude our 1st mission took two Sundays to complete) of the Deathwatch game I am in is this Sunday. Our four-man posse has been bolstered by two new players arriving, running a Blood Angels Apothecary and a Dark Angels Librarian. Our primary goal is thwarting a rogue Ordo Xenos Inquisitor who has defected to Chaos and is hiding in a massive fortress in the middle of a city on a Forge World. Chaos Marines may be present. Our secondary goals include capturing him alive, making any heretics accompanying him VERY VERY DEAD, and generally blowing things up. At our disposal are Predator tanks (including a Baal-pattern for our groups' Blood Angels), Guardsmen, and an NPC-driven Land Raider containing 5 NPC Terminators. Whether a spectacular success or a spectacular failure, this shall be nonetheless spectacular.  Glorious tales of derp, damnation and destruction shall be forthcoming.
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Feb 10, 2012 06:32
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Galaga Galaxian posted:The higher up you get in the Mechanicus the more the mystical Maybe, but I'm fairly sure that it actually begins getting more and more 'weird and horrifying a-rational incantation-based stuff' after a bit - boring stuff like 'how does boltgun shoot bolts' is beneath them. The highest level Archmagi are playing about with soul magnets, fragments of billion-year-old transdimensional sun gods, and daemonic nanobots. Hell, the Emperor, the big-up advocate of all things Bright and reasonable, couldn't finish the Primarch project without doing deals with the four ultimate powers of spiritual evil.quote:Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be relearned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods. And all that. Ultimately, when you pull back the 40k science curtain all the way, there are only more gribbling horrors behind it.
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Feb 10, 2012 11:07
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re: Generating systems without having to do the GURPS or Traveller maths yourself, here's a random generator for systems: http://donjon.bin.sh/scifi/tsg/ and I found the random tables in the back of Stars Without Number good for generating details about the interesting planet - obiovusly you have to add the 40k flavour yourself, but it's a good jumping off point. Used it to create the known details for the PbP I'm running, and will be using it again when they visit places that are off the map. Player's handout Player's map It's intended to be a exploration focused game rather than pure profit chasing or Big Plot game - the PCs have been sent off to a previously cut off area of space to reclaim a bunch of colonies, find the lost flagship of the dynasty and otherwise boldly go. Angrymog fucked around with this message at 14:01 on Feb 10, 2012 |
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Feb 10, 2012 13:57
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WINNERSH TRIANGLE posted:And all that. Ultimately, when you pull back the 40k science curtain all the way, there are only more gribbling horrors behind it. The distinction, at least as far as the Adeptus Mechanicus goes, is that the gribbliest horrors are actually frighteningly well-understood by those who meddle with them. You have dudes pulling off cybernetic resurrections and turning brains into computers and transplanting minds into other bodies and poo poo. This one Magos has almost perfected a nuclear-driven tank that shoots lasers made entirely of the gunner's soul, while that one just isolated a handful of genes tied to psychic potential and is theoretically capable of literally creating an alpha-level psyker from scratch. The top levels of the Mechanicus absolutely possess huge amounts of sound and applicable knowledge, both practical and scholastic. The problem is that their fanatical pursuit of knowledge inevitably drives them to tamper with Things Man Was Not Meant To Know.
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Feb 10, 2012 14:00
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Angry Diplomat posted:The top levels of the Mechanicus absolutely possess huge amounts of sound and applicable knowledge, both practical and scholastic. The problem is that their fanatical pursuit of knowledge inevitably drives them to tamper with Things Man Was Not Meant To Know. Yeah. I think it's been fairly clear that the low-levels just do poo poo by rote ritual with no real understanding. As they get higher up they start to understand - but you see a branch between 'science' (ie, poo poo from earlier ages of man) and that-which-should-be-left-alone. It's not superstition if the mysticism is real. Plus then you have poo poo like rumors whether there's a C'tan under the surface of Mars.
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Feb 10, 2012 19:15
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