In California Our own game

We are a group of skirmishers from California. I left an introduction in the welcome mat "sticky". We are looking forward to improving our own game using DS. the players in our group each plays a small band of Inquisitional troubleshooters being directed by a patron who doesn't participate. Each player controls 3-4 models, a acolyte and its henchmen and working together work their way through a scenario. It has worked out well and each player has their group pretty well fleshed out and defined.

I think the backgrounds each player has developed and its interaction in the 40K universe has been interesting and fulfilling. I'm working to make the days we play more dramatic and interesting and not just a series of battles won or loss. Between games I work on setting scenes and also the dialogue of various interesting people the group encounters.

Our last game, an ambush by gangers in the industrial section of a hive city, resulted in the gang losing its leader before the acolytes were set upon by a more dangerous foe. Those few surviving gang members now look to our players as a new gang it would be beneficial to bond with. The surviving gang members (two brothers) also know of a contract being issued on the characters and a massive pending attack.

Hi there,

Welcome to the forum, your club sounds excellent, especially with the work you put in, I don't have anything like that around me here, just the usual gamesworkshop store, where nothing but warhammer rules must be played.

would be great  to see some images of the games you guys play, and some miniatures!! 
Chris

Stuart81 wrote:

Hi, Recently joined. Our group in a small 25K person community. We are in California, a hundred miles from Death Valley the split east to Ludlow and north to Las Vegas. Our group of a dozen players play a kind of "Dark Heresy"/40K codex Witchhunter RPG variation of WH40K. We take the mechanics of 40K (DS) and make it a sort of "role playing game" with additional "USR" and traits. It has worked out wonderfully and as "Gamemaster" I assist the players in designing their "Squad Leader" to embody what they imagine it can do, keeping balance and game environment/background in mind. Rather then assign a point cost we determine what would be appropriate, reasonable and probable for the character. The players are a Acolyte or Throne Agent of the Inquisition tasked to perform certain missions (or else!-lol). They also have often a few "henchmen" to help them.

The mechanics of DS/40K make playing an Inquisitional "Kill Team" or a "Warband" or squad much easier then conventional RPGs and even Dark Heresy. 40K also makes engaging with multiple opponents so much easier then conventional RPGs. Normally the admin difficulties of keeping track of a character or opponent's status is daunting and it (IMO) distracts from expressing the narrative of what is going on in the game. With 40K mechanics I can quickly let players know what happens in a dramatic fashion.

For new players, the game is easy to learn. they find it easy to understand the use of common 6 sided dice and the yatzhee like practice in WH40K to roll several dice and discard what dice aren't relevant. We use traits and abilities that allow full rerolls or just rerolls of "ones" and this seems to make the characters that have these abilities more interesting.

DS or these smaller tactical and narrative games are also good in that it is a wonderful gateway to larger skirmish games if the player develop an interest. At our level a player only has to be responsible for either selecting a few models to representing their group from my collection or getting/purchasing 3-4 models they like better. They aren't forming huge armies at considerable expense and they only have to worry on the dynamics of their team and how they interact with other or how they operate against certain opponents.

As characters has become more interested in the game, they become more interested in the 40K worldview and how their characters operate in it. I encourage our players to develop a "backstory" and I have used those expressions to give characters intelligence information based on what that character's background would indicate. I do what I can to keep to 40K canon but there is some small (IMO) variation to suit the needs of our adventures. In our current campaign "Squats" are prominent, and several are in the group. In delving into subterranean areas the team has battled "Skaven" who cause the same kinds of trouble they do in the classic world of Warhammer.

Why I liked about is that you can use it as YOU need it to be. We have used it as a pre-game for 40k... we play the sabotage Scenario and the winner gets some Orbital bombardments on the 40k game. I have NEVER heard of anyone using it to enhance their Dark Heresy (RPG) game. Wow... very cool!

is very cinematic. Since the Scenarios are Objective driven, it works a general setup for your movie/story and each game Turn fills in the details (who does what and the results, etc).

Check the battle report section and you get MANY stories from many players. All of them are quite interesting! I have my favorites... but you would need to spot the 'off-colored' adventures to really know. (OK... my Battle Reports about The Albino... jesh!) Also check the "Graphic Novel" ones (not mine!) ... pure awesomeness!

Looking forward reading about your adventures!

Welcome to DS! The RPG sounds interesting.

Cheers Laney