Category: "Meta"
The projected next-next generation
With a massive 1400 scouts the 10th Host should gain in the vicinity of 1200+ new marines (potentially 60 per company) when the growth/training period is up.
With the new forge-capacity there should be enough wargear for all by the time.
Net gain of marines depends on the amount of action throughout the period. Looking back at the last cycle Castor was conservative and careful, but also conducted several large operations that gave him resources (not least in terms of a vast fleet). The Warleader is operating with a projected attrition rate of 6-12%, depending on circumstances. His best aestimate is that there will be a 900 marine net gain, or about 45 per company, bringing average companies up to about 170 marines.
The Next Generation
Of 600 scouts (both glands intact) 72 failed implantation, died in service, or were deemed unfit to live (gross mutation or underdevelopment). Both their glands are forfeit and the host gets 72 less new marines. This equals 12% of scouts, which is a low number, especially in times of war. A more typical figure would be 20-30% attrition rate/unfit mark. So Castor's orders are having the desired effect, without making the new marines less worthy or less skilled.
---
Prior to the battle of Valpolicella mature glands were removed from exisiting marines (very good timing!). A total of 1366 glands were successfully removed from 1377 live Astartes; the rest were unsuitable for anything but Doctore's experiments.
---
The Host has suffered a further 97 battle deaths; a handful over Guytoga, but the vast majority as a result of boarding actions over Valpolicella. Of these 36 came from amongst those Marines with a single gland remaining, and 11 had both of theirs intact (boarding actions over Guytoga). The rest of the deaths came amongst those without glands.
---
Using the 1366 recovered glands, plus a handful of stored ones, Doctore has created/is creating a new batch of 1400 scout-candidates. It will take at least 6 months (preferably 1-2 years) post-Valpolicella to create the Scouts (his rate of success is currently very high). After creation they will receive some further training and be assigned to companies. Five years after they've received all implants they are ready for 1st extraction.
---
The current gene-stock is 44.
---
Casaulties: 5 Anointed, the rest (164) can be taken from the companies.
Armoury: Updated with returned suits.
Daemons, chaos and other dangerous stuff
A word of caution:
Just because you're champions of chaos doesn't mean you're immune to the dangers of chaos. The warp may favor your journeys on a regular basis - or not, as it pleases the powers. Your fields fail while in warp transit - you get ripped apart by daemons or get possessed, just like the rest of the galaxy. The daemons don't care. So baring any special powers or rituals or the ability or strike quick bargains (or just beat up the daemons!?) you're in deep shit.
And speaking of daemons. You know of their existence and sometimes the chapters make use of them. But when they do they do it for a reason and taking precautions. Summoning and warding. Sacrifices to appease the gods. Whatever the sorcerers think works best. Clearly daemons have their uses, but you won't find them fraternizing with the rank and file.
Then there is possession. It's another fact of life. Daemons (and other spirits) can possess. Even Space Marines. Hell, there are even Possessed Primarchs out there! But most Chaos Marines (the saner ones at least) would not want to be possessed. They are MARINES you know, not puppets to be directed by someone else. They might not FEAR possession like Imperial Marines, but they don't like it anymore than their enemies do.
Tougher than the rest
Not many days left now...
So, how tough is a Marine really? Since this is the first time you're playing Marines a short piece will probably help role-playing. No?
Lets start easy. A single Marine standing in to open, within effective gun rang, getting fired upon by:
- Stubbers: These are like contemporary firearms. They can't take down Marines in PA. A lucky hit could knock out some auxiliary feature on the suit, but that's it. A heavy stub sniper or heavy stubber could do some damage - or at the very least knock the Marine around a bit.
- Autogun: These are fancy futuristic guns. You ge the same types as with stubbers - pistols, SMG, rifles, sniper rifles, etc. They do more damage, have better penetration, better accuracy, more ammo - in short they are more advanced and thus more deadly. Against PA they aren't much more effective than stubbers. PA was designed with this type of weaponry in mind. Heavy sniper rifles and autocannon CAN do real damage to a Marine if they hit anywhere but the heavy armor plates.
- Lasgun: This is hi-tech shit. Made by the AdMech to take down a variety of foes - keeping cost and reliability in mind. Highly accurate even when wielded by novice riflemen. Slightly better damage and pentration than autoguns. Even non-penetrating hits have a tendency to accumulate damage to armor - where a squad equipped with autoguns can do little damage a squad with lasguns can be a real threat. Heavy versions like multilasers and lascannon can regularly defeat PA.
- Bolters: Bolters are deadly to Marines in PA. The heavily armored sections will stop a few hits before failing and glancing hit will be deflected, but massed bolter fire will penetrate. And given the explosive warhead any penetrating hit is likely to at least incapacitate even a Marine. Heavy bolters will pulp a Marine, and sniper rifles properly aimed will kill.
- Plasma: The lasgun version of the bolter. Basically an energy weapon with high rate of fire that can reliably defeat PA. Even if individual hits don't penetrate the damage will add up and cause eventual burn-though.
- Melta: This is anti-armor weaponry. Range is lousy and ROF low, but any direct hit is almost guaranteed to end a Marine's life.
- Grenades/missiles: Depends on type. Frag and most gas-types are completely ineffective. Same with shock/stun grenades etc. Krak grenades are dangerous. Missiles have larger warheads and are more dangerous - even a frag missile could be problematic, a hit from a krak missile is very dangerous. Other hi-tech warheads can have other effects.
Blog organization
I've plut a number of pages up on top: Plot, NPCs, Warband, Locations, Ship. Should be pretty obvious what's hidden underneath!
These pags are primarily OCC; they are there to make it easier to track stuff. There will be updates and comments added as we proceed.
Campaign premises
The game will be set in the opening years of the 42nd Millennium. You are part of Abaddon the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade. Your target is Terra and your goal is nothing less than the complete and utter destruction of the Imperium of Man. Well, Abaddon's target is Terra anyway - you have a different, but no less important, role to play in upcoming events.
The game is essentially a Black Crusade game, but will borrow from other games as well; you'll get to play a Space Marine (Deathwatch), a high-rank non-Marine (essentially Ascension-level characters), there will be starship action (Rogue Trader), and a fair bit of gritty low-rank investigation-and-murderous mayhem (Dark Heresy, only reversed).
You will be required to submit several characters:
1 'renegade' Space Marine: One Deathwatch-style Space Marine. Only a renegade one. This means you'll be a cut above the 'common rabble' Marines, but not über-experienced (or perhaps old and experienced, but slow and weary of war). Suitable for being you main character.
1 suitably 'heroic' non-Marine: One high-end DH/Ascension-style human. A powerful psyker, a tech-magos of many secrets, a temple Assassin, a fallen Cardinal. Someone who is very, very good at his choen vocation. Suitable for being you main character when a Marine is not desireable.
1+ supporting cast: Any number of non-heroic supporting cast.
Black Reavers of Abaddon
You are a Reaver of the Tirteenth Black Crusade and Abaddon is your master. You will fight on the front lines of the final war where it is your duty to tear down every last vestige of the Imperium of Man. You will triumph where lesser warriors would fail; you will infiltrate Imperial worlds to sow the seeds of sedition, you will stalk the corridors of enemy strongholds with bolter and chain-sword in hand, you will torch their ships at anchor and in the dark void between stars, and you will meet their soldiers on the battlefield - the Angels of Death that know no fear, the near-invincible war-machines of Mars, and the endless hordes of lesser men that slave for the High Lords of Terra. You will meet them and you will destroy them all. You will likely never lay eyes on Terra, but if you stay true you will die knowing that you did so as a free man, and that your sacrifice was not in vain, for it is only by the blood of martyrs that Terra can be liberated and humanity freed from the shackles of tyranny!
Dawn has come and a dark sun rises!
This is the dawn of the 42nd millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the decadent priests of the false Corpse-God of Terra have ruled the galaxy with an iron fist. But no more. Their god is dead, freed from the deathless prison his jail-keepers named the Golden Throne in mockery of its purpose. Warmaster Abaddon, heir to Blessed Horus, is leading a mighty Crusade against all the wicked works of Earth. He has sworn never to rest until there is no more falsehood left in the galaxy. Yet even with their god fallen the fools of the Adeptus Terra refuse to see reason. They continue to drone as they always have, blinded by false faith and numbed by fear of everything they cannot understand. And so the dying Imperium continues to fight. Mighty Imperial battlefleets continue to cross the Immaterium. Vast armies still give battle in the name of the Corpse-God on uncounted worlds. The Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, still slave for Terra as they have done since they were broken. Their comrades in arms are ever legion; the inexhaustible armies of the Imperial Guard and countless planetary defence forces, the enforcers of the Adeptus Arbites, the servants of the Inquisition and the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are failing. As the Crusade grinds on more and more worlds are breaking free from the tyranny of Terra, adding their strength to Abaddon's holy quest, the liberation of Mother Earth. For when the cradle of humanity has been scourged free of all taint the human race will know that it is free at long last. To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to rise up to topple the most oppressive and powerful regime imaginable - or die trying. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be re-learned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for there is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods.
OOC
Hei,
Virker som vi har dreid mer i rettning av en Marine-kampanje enn en Kaos-kampanje. Den originale ideen var å holde seg mer til Black Crusade konseptet med ulike typer characters. Derav den greia med at dere skulle ha en Marine og en ikke-Marine. To ulike perspektiv på samme events. Men det funker fint med å konse på Marine-delen først. Så kan vi evt. ta med mer av det andre senere. Uansett; disse Marinsa har blitt litt mer epic enn det som originalt var tenkt, men det funker greit det også - de har jo sitt lille warband og der kan det dukke opp mye morsome NPCer og evt. et par støtte-PCer. Funker mycket bra.
Men for at denne kaos-kampanjen ikke skal bli bare...kaos er det greit å tenke over en del ting. Dere kan svare her - eller ikke - det viktigste er å tenke litt på det.
- Hvor menneskelig er du? Marines er i utgangspunktet ikke så veldig menneskelige. Og hvis man er veldig gammel og veldig kaotisk i tillegg...da blir man til slutt klin sprø. Og ganske uspillbar. Dette er vel problemet til mange av NPCene der ut. Så dere får nesten tenke ut hva som gjør at dere, tros alt, er sånn passelig i vater.
- Hvor gammel er du? Ikke egentlig å viktig i forhold til hvor god du er, mest i forhold til å spille. Er du 10.000 år gammel huker du Det Store Sviket som det var i går - og noen viktige ting his og her - men ellers er de lange årene med krig mest sannsynlig ganske tåkete. Skallen til en Marine er ikke laget for å leve så lenge.
- Hvor dypt inn Kaos er du egentlig? Er du bare med av vane og tradisjon? Er du Troende - altså at Kaos er din religion? Eller er du en av disse som har sunket virklig dypt og latt ditt indre mørke manifestere seg på utsiden?
- Har du noen lojaliteter? Utover til deg selv altså. Kaos har plenty av lojale folk som er dedikert til et eller annet. Gudene. En sterk leder. Sine nærmeste 'brødre'.
- Har du et problem med Imperiet? Sånn utover det normale altså. Et brennende behov for å ødelegge det for eksempel. I så fall; hvorfor? Har du det ikke fint i Horus Øye?
- Hva er dine svake punkt? Du har garantert noen. Og hvis du bare har et eneste ett er det garantert et alvorlig et..
- Og så er det greit å ha klart for seg at dette ikke kommer til å ende godt. Du er tross alt en av the Lost and the Damned, så jeg håper du ikke tror du får et trivelig liv herfra og inn i evigheten!
Look and feel - a little old school influence
I'm sure each and every 40k player/reader has his own mental imagery pertaining to how things look and what the world 'feels' like. Most likely those images are heavily influenced by 40k artwork. Artwork has always been one of Warhammer 40k's fortes, supplying high-quality images in a variety of styles. Whatever the personal style of the creator, such images have always been suitably heroic, gothic/baroque, and grandiose.
For this Dark Heresy game I want to tone the worst excesses a bit. Architecture will still be gothic and Imperial high society will still be suitably baroque. What I'm trying to do away with is the monstrously misshaped pieces of personal equipment, the endless array of bulky and steam-punk-looking machines. So I want to tone it down, not remove it altogether. Less is more and all that.
Example: You meet an Adeptus Mechanicus Magos, who is deep in the mysteries of the Deus Mechanicus (the Machine God). He's still going to be suitably robed and covered with techno-arcane symbols. He's still going to be able to speak to the machine spirits (i.e. interface with anything that has a processor of some sort). He's also going to have various cybernetic and/or bionic upgrades and replacements. He is, however, not going to look like some steam-punk monstrosity, with visible gears, cogs - even exhaust pipes showing. If you get a glimpse of his true nature its going to look ultra-tech, but with a suitable gothic appearance - ornamentation, gilded parts etc.
The same applies to how the world works; everything can't be all bad, corrupt, defunct, etc. Its a dark and dismal world, but it is not all pitch black. People get born, most survive after a fashion into adulthood, get work, match up, get children of their own, die of old age. Their lives may be hard and there is precious little freedom to be had (but who would want that anyway), but death does not lurk around the corner ALL the time, nor is life and endless march of pain, degradation, and abuse (for some it is, but not for all).
Once again this has to do with believability...but more importantly it has to do with contrast. If everything is as dark as it can get, then it gets damn hard for me to make an interesting game. If every Imperial citizen is equally downtrodden and corrupt, then they are all the same and without variety the world gets gray and boring.
Example: Orphanages are a common sight throughout the Empire. Some are undoubtedly nice places to grow up, filled with light and hope. And some are without a doubt pits of terror and despair, where the children prey upon each other and their caretakers heap abuse in every form upon them. But the majority are just...not very nice. The management might be skimming the coffers, leaving the children with little to wear or eat. Or the staff is disinterested and leave it to the children to establish their own pecking order, so that only the strong prosper. This allows me to describe various orphanage settings, rather than have every which one a pit of corruption.
The same goes for threats to humanity, and by extension the Acolytes; there is evil and there is Chaos evil. I don't want a game where every thug is a mutant or chaos-possessed (but no doubt you'll meet more than enough of them). I've already hinted at this with the Ordo Malleus post - and this is definitely Old School - the true nature of Chaos, the existence of the Ruinous Powers, daemons and such, will not be common knowledge even within the Inquisition. Inquisitors and others in the know will be knowledgeable to various degrees, but junior servants are not privy to such knowledge - its simply too dangerous. So you'll definitely see evil and heresy, but it won't always be of the pure Chaos evil kind.