# A custom 40k RPG.



## Wrath of Khaine (Dec 29, 2006)

Has anyone created custom warhammer 40k rpgs? Using another rpg's system with 40k mods is pretty much the way to go and fine by me, but just wondering if anyone else has done it. And if so, care to share some of your work and a summary with the rest of us?

-Khaine-


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## torealis (Dec 27, 2006)

im thinking about running one over at http://nexusarcanus.net/forum/index.php

basing it on a modified World of Darkness system. might not do it though


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## Guest (Jan 4, 2007)

http://www.blackindustries.com/default.asp?template=40k you do know there doing a 40k rpg theres the link


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## Anphicar (Dec 31, 2006)

We could always have our own in mIRC or in the Heresy Online Chat.


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## Galahad (Dec 21, 2006)

The problem I always had with the conceot of a 40k RPG is that 40k just isn't roleplay friendly for the most part.

At least, not the people anyone will actually want to play.
No space marines, no aspect warriors, no battlesuit pilots, no sisters of battle, etc.

They;re all too dedicated/subsumed buy their role/duty/philosophy.

Roleplay prospects would pretty much be as follows:
Inquisitor (which is why the closest thing we havr to an RPG is about them)
renegade/runaway IG soldier
Rogue Trader
Imperial Peon
Eldar Outcast

That's about it.
Tau are too dedicated to their greater good schtick
Eldar are too invilved in their craftworlds (exceot the afforeentioned outcasts)
Chaos and Dark Eldar are just too insane
Orcs don't go anywhere by themselves and are universally feared/hated
Space Marines never leave their chapter, unless they go over to chaos

There just isn;t a lot to play with
About the only interesting options are rogue trader or outcast eldar. And while you could do some bitchin Firefly-style action wigth that, it's just not what people think of when they think 40k.

They think "I wanna play a space marine"

That said, if anyone figures it out and wants to play online, I'm totally in ;-)


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## Wrath of Khaine (Dec 29, 2006)

Here is a bonus to what you can play..

Space Marines, from time to time, get exiled from their chapter for either misdeeds, dishonor, or just plain failing to stick to the code. More and more marines think for themselves and are getting tired of the life of unending war 'til death.

Plus, sometimes said exiled marine might get to keep a prized weapon or even his ceramite armor, as it is fitted for specifically him. He would become a depressed shadowy figure, rarely wearing that armor and probably becoming a batman-eqsue effigy on a random hive world until someone recruits him with enough charisma.

Even certain Eldar get exiled from their craftworlds, for way more minor things, like agreeing to help an Imperial. Imagine a dishonored striking scorpion and an exiled marine working together on a deathworld.


-Khaine-


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## Grinning Daemon (Jan 5, 2007)

Or you could just have a hive gang losing themselves in the darkness of the undercity?

Or how about a group of unlikely allies drawn together through adversity? Marine-Eldar-Orc-Tau all huddling together against a sudden chaos assult?

It's not all about Space Marines and big shooty armies. What stands 40K head and shoulders over any other wargame is it's deep and involving history and background fluff. There is no limit to what you could have an RPG about:

Terminators clearing a space hulk.

Eldar hunting tyranids upon a craftworld.

Orcs exploring a mysterious tomb.

Cultists searching for a long lost artifact lost deap in the heart of a shrine world.

Tau lost behind enemy lines trying to get back to safety.

An infiltration squad breaking into a city to lower it's defences before the main assault.

An assassination force hunting down a renegade hidden in one of their own cities.

Adventure hunters seeking out forgotten techno treasures in long lost places.

No, when it comes to 40K I don't believe there is such a thing as 'too little material' to come up with any concept or situation.

~GeeDee


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## Anphicar (Dec 31, 2006)

Those are good ideas, GD.

This makes me wanna o a 40k RPG really ad.


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## Wrath of Khaine (Dec 29, 2006)

If anyone is tickled with the want to run such a game, WoD system or other, I'm in. I'd say do it on OpenRPG still, as it's the best medium out there IMO, especially for record-keeping and die-rolling.

-Khaine-


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## Grinning Daemon (Jan 5, 2007)

Well I have no idea how to actually run an RPG but ifsomeone is willing to colude with me I think we might be able to come up with a good system and storyline.

Any takers?


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## Wrath of Khaine (Dec 29, 2006)

I would definitely be up to creating a 40k RPG ruleset. I would use a d10 system to just simplify the game and give better odds. I'm a pro at doing this, so I could prolly finish it within a day or so, in a good usable condition. I'll work on it in my offtime. Anyone with useful ideas should post em. Make sure they are intelligent and able to manipulate into die rolls or the like, and I will take them all into consideration. Then you can all take the basics and maim them as you will to your end evil ends!

-Khaine-


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## Grinning Daemon (Jan 5, 2007)

Go for it boyo...


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## Anphicar (Dec 31, 2006)

I'm in.

We can use any one of those ideas GD already posted.

BTW--i might need help with the RPGing.

I've never actually done one with dice. I've done the "story ones."


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## Wrath of Khaine (Dec 29, 2006)

Ok folks, I've been doing work on this whenever I have freetime away from work and GF, so it's not as far as I'd like, but I have a great base concept written out. I've used a slight base of the WoD system and altered it in a unique and radical way. I'm still working out weapons, deeper special advantages of weapons & armors, and deeper racial advantages/disadvantages. Then there is psychic powers. I figured it would be best to have a human psyker as a race all its own, as the run-of-the-mill ones tend to be frailer, withdrawn and/or paranoid, and exceptionally wild in random situations. A more proper psyker wouldn't be starting character, but earned through a long campaign, and avoiding black ships.

A little of the pages I've written..

Major Abilities(aka physycal/mental attributes)
Strength, Reaction, Endurance, Intelligence, Perception & Charisma.
--These are the base of your Minor Abilities and pretty much everything else. They all range from 0-5, as 5 is the racial maximum for all playable races. Equipment, psychic powers, and possession can pass these, but never the base score. You start with a given amount of points to disperse through those 6 abilities, depending on your character.

Minor Abilities(aka skills/talents/abilities)
Alertness
Armed Combat
Athletics
Computers
Demolitions
Diplomacy
Dodge
Empathy
Imperial Law
Intimidate
Leadership
Medicae
Unarmed Combat
Pilot
Ranged Combat
Repair
Security
Stealth
Subterfuge
Warp Knowledge

There is an amount of points dedicated to these 'skills'. Minor abilities work different than WoD, in that the character has every skill, but must BUY IN to that skill to avoid harsher difficulties and failures. All of them are derived from two major abilities and are given a base score according to the division of the two. Halves aren't disregarded and instead grant a +1 to a single die roll per pool. Specialization is possible by buying into a skill twice. Difficulties and failures are reduced doing this with a particular weapon or during a particular task.

Combat is essentially the d10 normal. That's what I'm working on at the moment, i.e. working abilities into the scheme and how initiative and rounds should change if necessary.

Weapons and Armor are going to be fairly simply in combat implemention, but each will have special abilities regarding its type. Power weapons use "Powered" which causes burst damage on impact and ignores armor bonuses, and Chain weapons use "Rending" which causes deep wounds and excessive bleeding. I'm still working on these heavily as well.

Backgrounds. Fairly unchanged but adding and removing a few.

Virtues. They are different in implementation from their WoD counterparts, as is the removal of Conscience and addition of Faith. Willpower is changed to Fate and worked in a few different ways.

I've done very little with psychic powers an playable races, but an Imperial Human is complete. They pretty much get a few basic skills as Bought In, one having to be Imperial Law.

To be real, Ceramite Armor is rediculously powerful and making it less powerful would shame it's capabilities. An Astartes is near-impossible to beat one-on-one without getting a huge drop with powerful weapons.


-Khaine-


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## Anphicar (Dec 31, 2006)

I wouldn't have trouble being a hiveworld gang-banger.


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## Wrath of Khaine (Dec 29, 2006)

I need to add a few more skills methinks. I have to think of any situation, cause the oddest things always happen or PCs want them to.
Also, for things that are more generalized, you make a Major Ability roll to accomplish the task, with a little bit more difficulty.

Khaine


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## Anphicar (Dec 31, 2006)

Tell us when your ready. Look-in-good!


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## Elchimpster (Jan 31, 2007)

There are a couple systems that actually work well for this:

Savage Worlds.
I've run this one myself. We had a Space Marine (remainder of a Deathwatch Kill Team) a telekine, an assassin, an Interrogator and a couple other retinue folks. Very quick and easy to run.

Mutants and Masterminds.
When you get down to it, an Astartes, Psyker or the like would easily be on the superheroic scale, where the retinue folks will vary between agent-bashers and supers. Sounds dorky but it works.


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## Greyskullscrusade (Jan 24, 2007)

Can I be a kroot merc? I want a master-crafted ass kicker +2

BTW, im in. Just tell me,when, where, and how.


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## Sei 'fir (Mar 23, 2007)

i'm in of course i couldn't really do much but i could help with the storyconcept

i like the cultist idea ,it fits in with the website, you could start as a human or an exile from another race (mmm a nurgle worshipping ork) and you join an underground cult trying to overthrow a hive city and there could be insurgent ambushes and the space marines would have to be called in then something weird like the sheer will of the cultists calling into existence a new daemon prince then they over throw the city and move of in splinter fleets to gather followers for the daemon prince (chaos pirate-missonaries) :mrgreen:


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## purerockfury (Apr 8, 2007)

i've never been a rpg player. i just don't have the imagination to remember what is going on and what needs to be done. a chat stlye rpg would be cool something i have never heard of till this post. but, i'm sure some d&d'r did this a long time ago.

for the rest of us especially if you play inperson why not just play inquisitor? or better yet take a lot of the ideas from that game. it's almost a rpg except the models are huge and so is the terrain. and than you can spin off that.

just my .02$


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## Elchimpster (Jan 31, 2007)

A lot of folks play by post: whether via email or chat. There are some chat applets with built in die rollers etc. I totally understand about inquisitor. I see no reason why Inquisitor can't be played with standard 28mm figs anyhow. Lots more variety, costs a helluva lot less.

:cyclops:


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## Flam (Feb 7, 2007)

You know, a great game system to scavenge for a 40K setting would be Shadowrun. Tons of races that relate to a 40K equivalent (elves=Eldar, Orks=...well, Orks), gobs of weaponry that's easy to adapt, "spells" for psykers, tanks, drones, bio-technology, and hordes of monster templates. The "classes" in Shadowrun also sync up quite well with 40K counterparts, with shamans being pretty similar to cultists, and riggers being a lot like Tech Priests. The only thing lacking would be stats for ships, but starship battles aren't usually that big a draw in the 40K universe...my apologies to Battlefleet Gothic.


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## Azakiel (May 20, 2007)

We on Aftermath (etaftermath.com) developed a system several years back known as Duelling. The basic concept is that you create a character and duel others via either an AIM or IRC chatroom (we have both running at the moment). There are a great many variations of characters that can be played, while still mainting the basic 40k stats system and weapons.


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## Wrath of Khaine (Dec 29, 2006)

*UPDATE!*

After many life-related pauses and scrapping my work to start over, I'm nearly done with a working version updated with the d10 WoD system. Having less free time actually made it easier because I had to try harder. I'm transfering it from paper to MS Word at the moment, and should have most of it up for viewing within the week. The character sheet is pretty much done, which I'll post the sheet below. It's not crazy different in the abilities and attributes area, moreso in the advantages and equipment area.

I'm starting the weapons as pretty basic Imperial stuff, and adding more high-tech/military stuff and Xenos stuff with expansion files, like a 2-3 page codex per setting or race. This weekend is going to be some test runs of the weapons and combat in general. Should be fast and brutal, with armor a necessity in the grim future. And yes, marines are killing machines in the rules, but not something to fight in large numbers or often.

The current character sheet layout:









Khaine


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## Zora (Aug 14, 2007)

Hey Wrath, the game you've made sounds really cool. I have in my possesion a complete game, though I havent made it. Its based upon Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying. However, I believe this game you're making seems likes its much easier to play, since its based on the d10 system. I have been making my own system which can be played with and without dices, though its far from being done. I look forward to be seeing and playing the game. Grats on the sheet, you've done a great job on it. 

/Zora


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## Anphicar (Dec 31, 2006)

Holy shit i didnt see that.

See..thats the stuff i have never done. With dice and stats etc.

I'm willing to learn if you are still around, Wrath.


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## hephesto (Feb 24, 2007)

Not that much of an RPG'er, but this does look very interesting. Judging from the charactersheet this could make for some fun stuff, maybe even for those that have Inquisitor models, but never got into those rules :mrgreen:


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## Zora (Aug 14, 2007)

Anphicar said:


> Holy shit i didnt see that.
> 
> See..thats the stuff i have never done. With dice and stats etc.
> 
> I'm willing to learn if you are still around, Wrath.


That system isnt really that difficult. If the system hasnt been changed much from what its based upon, then its really just a matter of adding skills with the keyed attributes, and the number you have from adding the skill and attribute in question, thats the number of d10 you will roll. And with that number of dices you have to score above a certain number, also termed difficulty-number, the number of successes indicates the degree of success (or failure).. The system is based upon World of Darkness, and what the looks of it, I'd say more specificly that its Vampire hes basing the system on. The character sheet is basicly the same apart from the modification of skills and the grafical appearance of it. But it nonetheless looks really cool, and Im looking really forward to be playing this game.

/Zora


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## Wrath of Khaine (Dec 29, 2006)

I'm very much still working on the game whenever I have time. I'm really trying to make things powerful but not overpowering. Due to this, melta and plasma weaponry have been on my backburner but I've amped up the wargear in their place, with tons of random new gadgets to get you through that underhive ambush or that cultist uprising.

I had all the sheet skills changed once, but later decided lots of the skills are worthwhile and shouldnt be swapped. I have a slightly altered version that I've printed out my pencil/paper group to test. This past weekend was a combat and character creation test and things went fantastic. I'm mainly working on weapon modifications, body modifications, and general gadgets & gear. 

*If you have any item ideas, feel free to share them and I will most likely make acceptable rules for them and test them to be in the final version!*

Khaine


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## Zora (Aug 14, 2007)

Wrath of Khaine said:


> I'm very much still working on the game whenever I have time. I'm really trying to make things powerful but not overpowering. Due to this, melta and plasma weaponry have been on my backburner but I've amped up the wargear in their place, with tons of random new gadgets to get you through that underhive ambush or that cultist uprising.
> 
> I had all the sheet skills changed once, but later decided lots of the skills are worthwhile and shouldnt be swapped. I have a slightly altered version that I've printed out my pencil/paper group to test. This past weekend was a combat and character creation test and things went fantastic. I'm mainly working on weapon modifications, body modifications, and general gadgets & gear.
> 
> ...


Khaine, it will be a bit difficult to come up with ideas for gear, weapons and other items, when we dont know what you've made so far.
Would it be possible for you to release a preliminary issue of the ruleset`?
Im looking really forward to seeing it, and actually I wanna help you, I've made a ton of my rpg's, including larps too. I've been rp'ing for many years now, and have been making games for at least 10years, so I do have a lot of experience. Do you have msn, Icq, anything which I could contact you through besides this site's pm system?

/Zora


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## Red Orc (Jun 14, 2007)

Likewise... though make it more than 25 years of making up RPGs.

Except about the MSN thing, I'm cool for you to pm me if you want to!

There are a few things that I can say now, however, and these really are in a spirit of trying to help get this going;

1 - the character sheet looks quite complicated to me - I would have thought that the easiest way to sort abilities would be to start would be with racial profiles (blimey, i sound right like the police!) and work out characteristics from there;

2 - several items are not immediately comprehensible, and while there's no reason they should be, it perhaps contributes to how complex it seems (I figure 'expression' is something like 'ability to express oneself' or eloquence, but I'm still no nearer with 'demeanour' and 'concept');

3 - a different character sheet will be needed for different races, at least in part, as a whole load of stuff will not be relevant, but other stuff will ('knowledge of teachings of Gork (or Mork)'; 'History of the Fall'; 'Clarification of the Greater Good', for instance), so I'd say it would be easier to keep these off the charactersheet and have a list of skills to pick (sorry if that's just an example sheet, but it's not clear if that's the case).

What is this 'WoD d10 system' of which you speak? (Yeah I figure it's World of Darkness.) How does it work? How closely is yours based on it anyway?

Unfortunately, without understanding what you have got already, it's difficult to put positives in here... I don't mean to be so negative really, you've obviously put a lot of work in with the character sheet and playtesting with your face-to-face group, so thanks for that, but without an idea of how it hangs together, I'm just feeling a bit confused... sorry!

Yours, in confused anticipation,

Red Orc

:cyclops:


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## Elchimpster (Jan 31, 2007)

Using WoD is a cool idea. I hadn't thought of that. Making the various weapons work could be a challenge, but doable. The WoD system is well suited for social interactions and politicking. Combat is easily breakable (ever made a combat monster in V:TM, it can be disgusting. W:TA is even "worse".) but considering what the high-end combat characters can do in 40k, it works. I'd love to see more of this and test it out with my local crew.


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## Cryiron (Jan 2, 2008)

Might want to check this out. It requires a copy of WFRP v1, but is fairly complete and seems balanced with that ruleset.

http://www.goblin-online.net/fortyk/wfkrp.html


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