Messages

16

RPGs / Re: Making Dark Heresy engaging for new players to 40k

« on: February 25, 2013, 04:10:11 AM »

Thanks guys,

In response to your question about what the goal of the campaign is, I really wanted to run a game which shows of just how labyrinthine the workings of the imperium is. to put it another way, what is life like for the majority of humanity when there is a persistent threat of either heresy, aliens or chaos just out of sight? How would someone with very little experience of dealing with these threats react when they are recruited by an organisation meant to combat  all these dangers?

I want to put the players through the full range of different locations described in the books because I think they are pretty good resources for a long term campaign.

Sorry if this doesn't answer your question very well. I really want to run a narrative campaign and this is my first attempt at it with any real thought put into it so I'm sure you can understand how much I want it to succeed

17

RPGs / Making Dark Heresy engaging for new players to 40k

« on: February 24, 2013, 09:49:51 PM »

Hi all,

I have just started running a campaign for Dark Heresy and while I am pretty well read on the setting material I would really like to get the players interested in the setting as while they have all played warhammer 40k, they don't care so much for how the imperium works and runs when it isn't in a state of constant warfare.

With this in mind I would like to ask if there are any GMs or players out there who have either run or played in a Dark Heresy game where the setting was used to create a unique game, rather than CoC in space with some grimdark thrown in.

Does anybody have any suggestions for unique encounters within the 40k universe which would be interesting for players and are somewhat unique to the setting?

To give you a little background to this question, I have been using the Dark Heresy core rulebook setting material to flesh out a long term campaign which will explore most of the different locations mentioned throughout the different source materials. the emphasis is on investigative gaming with bouts of either combat or survival horror to change things up a little during sessions. The goal is to provide a campaign which explores how the political and social influences of galaxy-wide institutions can be used be the evil or corrupt to gain personal power for their own ends.

So far the players have encountered a heretic who was using a drug which gives people visions of the warp (aka space-hell) to fracture their minds while he turned them into sleeper agents for a galactic conspiracy and now the players are about to encounter mutant mine workers who have formed a socialist workers union with the help of a terrorist cell connected to a being known as the King in Yellow.

I hope this helps as I would really like to differentiate this game from the other campaigns I have run for the players in the past but I don't want to fall into the pit trap of simply using the setting to retell the same old stories which are commonly found in RPGs

18

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: The Heroes of New Arcadia - RPPR Superheroes campaign - Wild Talents

« on: September 05, 2012, 10:15:24 AM »

This sounds intriguing. What made you decide to create your own rules though? from the podcast episodes so far the Wild Talents rules seem to be working fine for the core of the game.

19

RPGs / Re: Wild Talents Shenanigans

« on: August 22, 2012, 06:48:53 AM »

Thanks for the help guys, I really like that idea of adding in NPC heroes to the mix. in regards to how the police are reacting to them, I reinforced the police with giant mecha which has given the players massive trouble thanks to the amount of armour on them and have just introduced a PMC subsidiary working for a corporation which re-engineers stolen super technology. The players know just how deadly these new threats are but it hasn't really slowed them down thanks to their ability to get away very quickly.

Saying this, i guess i'll just bring the pain next session 

Thanks again for the help, and i guess if you are interested i can link to the weekly news reports i post up for the players so they know what effects they are having on the world. Once we reach the climax of this part of the campaign i will post my recordings of the games up on the community AP site too I guess.

20

RPGs / Wild Talents Shenanigans

« on: August 21, 2012, 11:54:47 PM »

So I have been loving the Heroes of New Arcadia AP, so much so in fact that i decided to shamelessly rip it off, my problem however, is that the players seem to be completely oblivious to the fact that their actions have repercussions within the game world. Some examples of this are: 1. The police have declared martial law after the "Heroes" obliterated the terrorists attacking the bank in the first game (One player just completely disintegrated an enemy in front of a massive crowd of citizens and police), 2. When fighting the evil Columbian ex-nazi sorcerers in their warehouse, they decided to kidnap a power armoured super soldier with the sole purpose of tearing his armour off so that a player could wear it, but left the Fabricator which was making OGRe weapons in the hands of a Cuban gang which was also fighting the Columbians, 3. killing said super soldier in the middle of a suburban street after he escaped by first throwing a neighbour's minivan at him, shooting him repeatedly with a martian death ray and finally, punching him in the head so hard that the only thing left above the shoulders was a fine red mist - all in front of their neighbour's children

all of these actions have escalated the reactions of pretty much every faction in the game towards instant hostility towards them, but while the players' actions are way over the top, they still want to help the city and consider themselves as heroes.

My question for everyone here is: do you have any experience with players overreacting with their superpowers? and if so, how do you scale the game to incorporate this without just having every single encounter becoming a shoot on sight battle.

21

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Upcoming RPPR One Shot games

« on: August 21, 2012, 11:02:16 PM »

Long time listener, First time poster here,

If you have not played 40k or know any of the lore, then i would probably stay away from Dark Heresy - it relies on all the players knowing about the lore - especially the imperial stuff.

Rogue trader can be great, and I would actually recommend it to people who do not know anything about 40k over experienced 40k players. Judging from how Ross is able to keep a handle on all sorts of reputation stats and factional interaction Rogue Trader would be great to listen to, but it really needs a campaign dedicated to it simply because of the sheer scale of the game.

I only have a very little experience with Black Crusade, but it would probably be the best for a one shot set in the 40k universe, especially for players who don't know the fluff. being able to play a regular sane person in 40k pretty much means you are heretic anyway, and this way you can have not only the overbearing Imperium pressing down on the players, but also the opportunity to make pacts with Daemons for possessed rocket launchers which fire miniature plague demons which can not only blow up tanks but turn anyone hit by the blast into zombies too!