40k Space Marine RPG - Information & Character Creation

Create and trade characters and discuss aspects of the RPG.

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Kinslayer
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40k Space Marine RPG - Information & Character Creation

Post by Kinslayer »

Welcome to the first thread for what will hopefully become a successful Roleplaying Group on the site, perhaps even the first of many like it. As the title of this thread says, this RPG Group is going to be slightly different from the rest. Completely different, perhaps. As mentioned, this is the first of its kind, so I can hardly be expected to know how it is going to turn out. Think of it as painting a warhammer model. I'm throwing down the ground rules and initial ideas, a bit like painting the basecoat. The fine detail comes later. And, similarly, if things don't work out and go a bit messy, we can start over.




So, this is the new Warhammer 40,000 RPG Group. I know everyone has a different race they favour, but it would make sense to keep things simple, so everyone that wants to join in will play as a Space Marine. The Groups players' are going to form a Tactical Squad, led by their Brother Sergeant, an NPC (That's non-player character to the new guys).

The name and look for the Chapter I have created is The Night Claws,

Image


The Night Claws Chapter is a relatively young one, being a third founding successor to the Hawk Lords. The Astartes of the Chapter are selected from the inhabitants of Feurax, their hostile homeworld. The planet was once home to an industry that spanned half the globe, but during an invasion from Tyranid forces it was decimated. The population rebuilt itself in the aftermath of the 'Hive War' but never got back its glorious industry. Life turned hard, trying to survive in the bombed out shell of a vast City, and soon gangs and clans formed. The fighting that ensued has lasted centuries, and the City is a dark and shadowy place. When the Night Claws Chapter formed, it build a fortress monastry high in the mountains outside the ruined City of industry, and there they remain to this day. New marines are recruited from the strongest gangs in the City below, but have memory of their previous life erased before induction to the Astartes. The four big names in the Chapter, known to all the Marines that wear its black claw upon their shoulder, are as followed. Felis M'shun, the current Chapter Master. Nathaniel Dexor, his second in command and leader of the first companies Terminator squadrons. Dorgan Vay, high Chaplain of the Night Claws, and Brother-Librarian Grandis Thane.

The Chapter is made up of ten companies, with most of those being infantry and mechanised infantry companies. The first company is made up partially of Terminators, and the second through seventh are completely infantry based. The eighth company is made up of scouts and mechanised infantry, the ninth just mechanised infantry, and the tenth heavy support. The Chapter tends to shun the use of fast transports such as bikes and land speeders, in favour of the reliable treads of tanks and, even better, soles of your boots. Once belonging to another squad in another company, you have for whatever intents and purposes been transferred. You are now to be part of seventh company, and more specifically Tactical Squad Beta. You’ve yet to meet anyone else in the Squad, but word has it everyone forming the unit is new to it apart from the Sergeant, who is the last surviving member of the ‘old’ Tactical Squad Beta.

[you can make up your own reason for being sent into the unit, be it that your own was wiped out or that you are being punished or rewarded in some way. Be imaginative.]





I've modified the existing Character Creation method a little, and you should post characters below if you want to join in. Please only post characters if you are serious about joining. You will be expected to post as close to every day as possible. This is going to be a proper RPG Group, meaning this is going to be a long term commitment. My other RPG Group has been running almost a year now, and three of the four original players are still in it. I should hope the same would be the case here. I will say it honestly up front, those of you that have Roleplayed on the site before and/or are longer standing members have a better chance of getting a position in the Group. That's not to say new members can't join in, though I recommend you take a look over some of the active Groups in the Role Playing Forum to see what work and commitment is involved before you consider it.


So, time to give you a pretty good idea of how the Game as a whole is going to run. I'll be the Game Host and Mod, playing the role of all NPC's and Narrator. Each player will play the role of his/her chosen Space Marine, battling their way through the scenarios I throw them into. Character interaction, good quality of posting and posting frequently will soon lead to reward. Those players not pulling their weight in the group could quickly find their Marine laying face down on the ground with a bullethole in their head!

In order to do this, however, you each need a character. You're going to need to create one as described below, picking the stats and equipment that best suit your characters role in the squad. There will be a list of skills that can be learned in-game, and stats can also be increased through good quality gaming.




CHARACTER CREATION:

Character Name: This one should be fairly obvious. You need a name.
Character Class: Battle Brother, Weapons Specialist or Combat Specialist?
Character Height: Just a little physical description for the others to see you by. Remember Astartes start at around 6'5
Character Age: Your age, in Astartes terms of course. And no, you have not been alive since the Heresy.
Other Descriptions: Hair colour, eye colour, scars, tattoos... all that goes here.
Character Background: This is where you tell us about your character's history. The better the background, the more likely your character gets picked.

CHARACTER STATS:
You have 20 points to distribute amongst your 6 different statistics. No more, though you may use less [no real benefit to that, though]. No stat can have more than 5 points in it, and each stat has to have at least one point in it. There are other restrictions below.

Weapon Skill (WS): How good your character is at fighting in melee, whether armed or unarmed.
Balistic Skill (BS): How good your character is at firing a ranged weapon of any description.
Strength (S): How strong your character is. This will obviously be used for any strenuous phsyical activity.
Toughness (T): How durable your character is.
Dexterity (D): How fast and agile your character is.
Intelligence (I): How smart your character is. This doubles as your roleplaying stat... because your intelligence is what I will use to see whether you are playing your character correctly.


Battle Brother: must have at least 3 in every stat
Weapons Specialist: must have Balistic Skill of 5
Combat Specialist: must have a Weapons Skill of 5


STARTING WARGEAR
This is the equipment your character starts with. As you progress through a mission, you can get more wargear.

Note: Everyone wears Power Armour, including a helmet with inter-squad Vox Communication.

Battle Brother: Bolter, Bolt Pistol, 5 Frag Grenades
Weapons Specialist: Flamer or Meltagun, Bolt Pistol
Combat Specialist: Bolt Pistol, Chainsword

This gear is what you start with, no exceptions.




List of Weapons and what they do best –

Chainsword – combat weapon, effective versus infantry.
Power Sword – combat weapon, effective versus heavy infantry.
Power Fist – combat weapon, effective versus infantry and vehicles.

Frag Grenade – thrown weapon, effective versus infantry.
Krak Grenade – thrown weapon, effective versus vehicles.
Melta Bomb – placed weapon, very effective versus vehicles.

Bolt Pistol – short ranged weapon, effective versus infantry.
Bolter – medium ranged weapon, effective versus infantry and heavy infantry.
Flamer – short ranged weapon, effective versus light infantry and breaking morale.
Meltagun – short ranged weapon, effective versus vehicles.

Missile Launcher – long ranged weapon, effective versus infantry and vehicles.
Lascannon – long ranged weapon, very effective versus vehicles.
Heavy Bolter – long ranged weapon, very effective versus infantry.






List of skills that can be learned later in the game

Acute Senses
Prerequisites – Intelligence 4
The senses of an Astartes are always sharp, but yours are even sharper. Years in the field have honed your sight and hearing to near perfection, and you can sense problems vitally early compared to those around you.

Armoured Shield
Prerequisites – Toughness 5
You’re pretty good at dodging bullets, or at least glancing them off the strongest parts of your power armoured frame. More than once you’ve stood up as live bait so your squad can complete a mission and lived to tell the tale, but you’ve toughened up your armour just in case.

Basic Driving
Prerequisites – Dexterity 4, Intelligence 3
Don’t get me wrong, everyone can drive, but you know how to get a tank over a trench without making a mess of things. You’ve certainly spent more time than most behind the wheel, and your skill at it evidently shows.

Combat Awareness
Prerequisites – Intelligence 5, Acute Senses
Even in the thick of the fight, you can tell different sounds and sights apart that others couldn’t even comprehend. You know when that Chainsword is coming at you from behind even before you hear the whir of its teeth.

Command Material
Prerequisites – Intelligence 5, Acute Senses
You may not be the Brother-Sergeant of the squad, but the guys sure know you’re the next best thing. You’ve a certain head for tactics and strategy that sets you one above the rest of the squad when it comes to issuing orders and thinking up a quick plan B.

Heavy Weapons Mastery
Prerequisites – Ballistic Skill 6, Heavy Weapons Training
You’ve excelled in all aspects of heavy weapons training, and know the workings of missile launchers and similar weapons inside out. You know how to handle the big guns, and you don’t tend to miss with them either.

Heavy Weapons Training
Prerequisites – Ballistic Skill 5
You have gone through extensive training with heavy weapons, from missile launchers to heavy bolters. You know how to handle the big guns effectively, even when things get a little hot.

Masterful Driving
Prerequisites – Dexterity 6, Intelligence 4, Basic Driving
You spend far, far too much time behind the wheel. Luckily for you, it’s done you some good. You can get a razorback through a trench works without breaking sweat, not to mention turn a mob of orks into road kill.

Melee Weapons Training
Prerequisites – Weapon Skill 5
You spend most of your spare time in the training cage, dodging robotic arms and honing your skills with the blade. You sure as hell know how to wield one when the real fighting starts too.

Melee Weapons Mastery
Prerequisites – Weapon Skill 6, Melee Weapons Training
You’ve dismantled a few training cages in your life, and not with a spanner. You’re so good with a blade they just can’t keep up, and that statement is true of more than just the training apparatus.

Monster Hunter
Prerequisites – Strength 5, Acute Senses
You once had a battle with a big, nasty monster. Somehow, you won. You took the experience on board and worked on the art of Monster slaying, and now you’re pretty damn good at finishing off the big guys.

Monster Slayer
Prerequisites - Strength 6, Toughness 6, Monster Hunter
You've knocked the heads off a few big aliens in your time with the Chapter, be it up close or at range. You're so good at it now that you tend to single them out as objectives.

Special Weapons Mastery
Prerequisites – Ballistic Skill 6, Special Weapons Training
You’ve excelled in all aspects of special weapons training, and know the workings of flamers and similar weapons like the back of your hand. You’re damn good with a meltagun, all the dead enemies can vouch for that.

Special Weapons Training
Prerequisites - Ballistic Skill 5
You have gone through extensive training with special weapons, from flamers to meltaguns. You’re not a bad shot with one either, or so they say.

Tank Hunter
Prerequisites – Intelligence 4, Acute Senses
You managed to get a lucky shot in at a tank once... or did you. You’d like to think it was skill, so you went away and looked into the best ways to overcome heavy armour. You’re getting pretty good at it now.

Tank Slayer
Prerequisites – Tank Hunter, Heavy Weapons Training
You know exactly where to shoot a tank to make the fireworks happen. You’ve done it numerous times, and normally all that’s left is a smoking husk of metal. Of course, you need a big gun in your hands before you can make it happen, but you’re pretty good with those too.
Last edited by Kinslayer on Sun Oct 18, 2009 7:44 pm, edited 14 times in total.
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Post by Drainial »

It’s very difficult to create a background without knowing anything about the chapter, so much depends on it. It’s kind of like trying to create an elf character without knowing which race branch they belong to. So it might be helpful to lay down some basics, like say whether or not they are a codex chapter, do they have a home world, and (roughly) what is it like. Obviously the background for a space marine recruited from a sun blasted desert world raised in a chapter focused on lighting speed manoeuvrability is going to differ quite a lot from that of an astartes taken from a hive world by a strict codex chapter.

Before I go to all the trouble of creating a character is this bound by the restriction of one active RPG group at a time or not? Either way it will be interesting to see how this goes.
Last edited by Drainial on Sun Oct 18, 2009 5:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Kinslayer »

I just updated the thread above with my idea for a Chapter name and look. If we use my model, you can build a background around it. Alternatively, you can go on the Space Marine painter and try your own look / name and suggest them.

I'm only the Host, it's you lot that play, so if you don't like my idea / design then say so!




Also, for now I am going to be opening one group with whichever proposed players I see fit to pick.

Perhaps, in the future, there can be more groups.
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Post by Dauricha »

HEy Kin i would be very interested in joining. You know of my rping skills (Group 22!!!) So yeah i think i would be quite capable to get involved. I just have a fews questions/suggestions.

1.Maybe if we could have a little bit more chapter background info. Who do they usually fight? What was htere last big campaign? Which chapters have they fought besides before?

2. Though the colour scheme works, i would suggest darker colours. After all they come from a grimy hive world, and i think this should be reflected slightly in there armour.

Thats all apart from that i love it!!!! I think its a great idea and i would love to get involved. If theres anything else i can do to help thing getting started just ask, until then im off to make a space marine!
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Post by Kinslayer »

Just going by the lack of interest the first thread received I decided this is probably not the correct forum / time for a 40k RPG. If a decent number of long-standing members had wanted to get involved I would have set something up, but it seems that was not the case.

Maybe in the future, eh? ;)
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