I've been a big fan of the 40k RPG material released so far - Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader, plus the various supplements - but what I've anticipated most of all is the release of Deathwatch or Space Marine Roleplaying as we like to call it! I've always been into larger than life, cinematic style roleplaying with plenty of explosions and some implausibly powerful characters at times so Space Marine Roleplaying sounded like a pretty natural fit. In fact, my only serious attempt to create my own setting for the Hero system revolved around what was basically Space Hulk the RPG, so this was most definitely going to be my scene, or so I hoped.
So with all that in mind I grabbed the free RPG day introductory adventure from the FFG website within a few hours of it appearing and started plotting how I could rope some friends into playing through it. As it turns out that wasn't too ardous, Space Marine Roleplaying is pretty popular as it turns out! I'd skimmed the adventure a couple of times before getting distracted by the release of the sequel (hopefully more on that in a later post) and the excitement of impending play.
Final Sanction is a fairly straightforward adventure involving a Deathwatch Kill-Team dropping onto a planet in the midst of a Genestealer Infestation driven rebellion. The idea is to straighten things out by completing a variety of mission objectives, primarily sending for backup via the worlds astropath and then taking out the Broodlord behind the whole thing. Once the PCs hit the ground there is actually a surprising amount of latitude in terms of places to go and things to do (although most revolve around killing genestealers or hordes of rebels) but I figured I wouldn't make things too tough and try and nail it in one night.
So with players gathered and fed we started the mission (after the obligatory questions about rules, equipment, etc.) which kicks off with a bang. The first thing that hit us was the scale of the game, with the horde mechanics simply and effectively representing combat with thousands of opponents (the numbers kind of stretched out imaginations a little to be honest - 10 heavy bolter shells were quickly breaking hordes of over 1000 men!) As combat kicked into gear we instantly fell in love with jump-packs and powerfists, before having the heavy bolter blow our minds. Combat was snappy and enjoyable, we even tried out a couple of demeanours (fortune points available for good roleplaying) and had a little banter. I should point out that I thought the suggested horde for the opening was a little small and went with 2x50 magnitude in front plus 2x40 magnitude on the flanks, which the Kill-team vapourised in short order.
For there the session sped along at a fair old pace, with plenty of good chat and action. The 40k world is a pretty unfamiliar place, even to a group with a few Games Workshop veterans, and we found ourselves constantly asking questions such as "are shape shifting assassins pretty normal?" or "Would anyone on this world know what a Genestealer is?". I'm not sure how much these really matter, but there's probably something somewhere in 40k lore to justify virtually any answer... it was just a little odd to be thrown for a loop by seemingly obvious stuff like that. We came up with our answers and then got on with dishing out bolter justice.
The PCs proceeded to the governors manor and had decided that they were going to kick his ass for not doing enough about the invasion, again we wondered who had jurisdiction but opted for the guys in the power armour. Thankfully a well timed Genestealer assault led to the guys treating the Governor a little better than they initially planned. After some chat with him it was straight off to the Astropath to send a message and repulse some rebel scum. Jump-packing from the top of the tower into the assaulting horde was awesome, so awesome that I felt sorry for the PCs without jump-packs. I used the suggested horde sizes here, but threw in a Lictor from Creatures Anathema to add to the fun - the guys that were familiar with them from DoW2 appreciated that I think.
With the rebels repulsed (again) the Kill-team solved the riddle of were to find the Broodlord (impressively quickly I must say) and decided to set off by boat for the Fabrica district. Sadly by this time midnight was upon us and we suspended play for another day. I think that we all had a blast and I don't know whether I'm more excited about playing again or the Deathwatch book getting released, hopefully both events coincide miraculously! Hordes, Space Marines and Genestealers were all very well handled and I think this could be the start of a beautiful friendship.
