Space Marines Corps?

Would you rather control a single unit in an elite squad, or a whole squad in an elite platoon?


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Insomnant

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Hello everyone!

I want to run a sci-fi RP about heavily armored elite super soldiers! One with an extensive character creation system (like I did with my other game about space ships) allowing you to choose armor, abilities, weapons, equipment, etc. to come up with powerful yet balanced character(s)! One with deadly, high stakes combat where your actions have a large impact on the development of massive planetary and interplanetary conflicts!

But! I have a couple of questions I'm not sure about, so I figured I'd open an interest checking thread and see what people think!

Before that though, I want to be up front with everyone. Like with my other game, I expect high quality posts, at least once a day. I don't like waiting several days for a post and I don't care for short blurbs that don't do much to develop the characters or build the world or further the plot. I know that's not for everyone, which is why I'm saying it right away.

Okay, that aside, here are the things I'm not sure about:

Setting
I like both StarCraft and Warhammer 40K! I know that there's a lot of contention between fans of both but... I love both settings! The thing is though, I like certain aspects of each. For instance, I prefer the feel of the 40K Space Marines over SC's Marine Corps. I like the heroic feel of each unit, the over the top weapons and even the ritualistic/quasi-religious nature of them.

But I prefer the StarCraft universe's impression of actually freakin' accomplishing something. 40K is so grimdark it's hard to see the point sometimes. I like how in SC, armies can actually win battles and further goals rather than just clashing heads for a long time before inevitably nuking the whole planet, making the whole thing moot anyway. But it's okay because there're countless other worlds so losing this one wouldn't've mattered anyway!

I also like the Zerg way more than the Tyranids. Tyranids always seemed like 'Zerg with guns' to me, which is important to keep things balanced in the tabletop game I guess, but strikes me as dumb. I love how the Zerg units are basically a colony organism, striving to spread their neural network to other planets, like a giant organic replicating planetary computer network of sorts. If I wanted a race that sweeps across the stars consuming all biomatter, I think the Flood from Halo is more interesting than the Tyranids.

Protoss vs. Eldar (and I guess Dark Templar vs. Dark Eldar)... kind of a draw. I hate the whole 'Eldar orgy humped a chaos god into existence' thing but the Protoss have never really seemed that interesting to me either. Oh, and I guess the Tau go here as well? Come to think of it, the Protoss are basically the Tau + Eldar.

But that being said, I do very much love the forces of Chaos as the ominous outsider, far more so over the hybrid/Amon/Narud thing going on in Starcraft. Or... I guess the UED invasion in SC1. Chaos forces are pretty cool, with great imagery.

Orks can be fun, though in a more serious setting I'd prefer to downplay their comedic stupidity and focused on their brutality and barbarism... and for the love of god, leave out the 'they are fungi!' thing.


So anyway, what do you guys think? Which universe would you prefer to play in? Or! Would anyone be down with taking the best parts of each and combining them? I'm thinking, Space Marines/Imperial Guard vs Zerg vs Protoss vs Chaos vs Orks... with a bleak but not quite as grimdark-everything-is-hopeless outlook.


Player Characters
One other thing I'm not sure about is... would the players play one character? A single soldier in an elite response squad? Or... would you guys like to play as 3 to 6 characters working in a squad, in conjunction with other squads? The latter could of course always include creating one 'hero' unit for your squad, who is considered your main character. Not that it has to.

The former would lead to much smaller scale missions, or if they are larger scale ones the player characters would be part of a larger operation involving NPC squads as well. I feel like the latter could be more interesting but... it would also be more work for each player, having more characters with different abilities/gear to keep track of.

Needless to say, I'm interested to hear everyone's thoughts. I'll put up a poll!



So yeah, that's where I'm at now. Feel free to chime in if you're interested!
 
I love both universes as well. I am definitely interested in this, and think whether it's a single character or a squad depends on the scale of the RP, and whether it would be realistic for some of the created characters to die. I am personally in favor of something along the lines of controlling a four or five person fire team, with the expectation of some turnover of the characters. The option of sacrificing old characters for new ones brings new life to the rp in my opinion, while obtaining some of the realism expected for repelling a horde of enemies. Also, the generation of a squad allows a bit more customization of play style. However, this also necessitates large scale battles or multiple small converging missions, which can be hard to both plan and keep contained. I realize this tends to put more work on the gm of thread. Count me in.
 
I love both universes as well. I am definitely interested in this, and think whether it's a single character or a squad depends on the scale of the RP, and whether it would be realistic for some of the created characters to die. I am personally in favor of something along the lines of controlling a four or five person fire team, with the expectation of some turnover of the characters. The option of sacrificing old characters for new ones brings new life to the rp in my opinion, while obtaining some of the realism expected for repelling a horde of enemies. Also, the generation of a squad allows a bit more customization of play style.
I suppose I didn't reveal my own preference in the initial post but... I feel pretty much the exact same way you do. Having a squad allows you to build up characters and develop their personalities and relationships and thus have meaningful, impactful loss through their deaths without completely putting a player out of the game and making them effectively start over. Even if just one person from their squad survives, they can carry on- or if not then simply start over with a new squad, since that is the way things would go in a combat situation anyway. I definitely want to include character death for dramatic purposes as well as to emphasize the danger and treachery of the setting, and yes, I agree that having more than one character to create allows you a bit more flexibility as well.

However, this also necessitates large scale battles or multiple small converging missions, which can be hard to both plan and keep contained. I realize this tends to put more work on the gm of thread. Count me in.
I don't mean to toot my own horn too much but I think I'm pretty capable of handling this. The one thing I'm not very adept at, however... is map-making. I can edit pictures, I can craft a quality post, I can come up with a fun character-building system... but when it comes to making a map from scratch, I'm pretty hopeless. And that's unfortunate, because having the ability to graphically show things like important structures, enemy positions, strategic assets etc. would really add to the game. I guess if people are okay putting up with my rudimentary drawings we might be alright. But yeah, I don't mind the work necessary to keep this all straight. I thrive on it. XD
 
Personally I say we go with StarCraft Universe and with that said Though it would be a hell of alot easier to to have a small squad the epicness doesn't match a scence where 2 squads are holding the enemy back making time for another one to signal a extraction point that the last squad will fly down in ready to evac the other 2 of some desert looking planet with moments to spare before they are over run. And If we Rp well enough maybe a member from one of the squads sacrifices themselves but the pain of the sacrifice is not only felt with one squad but the others aswell.......Screw it lets go with Squads XD
 
We can always mix and match and create a new one. A mishmash of sorts. I love world building if you want to go that route.
 
Please keep in mind that this will be an Advanced RP so proper grammar and spelling are expected from all players. I don't intend to seem like a snob, but I have pretty intense OCD and frequent mistakes leave me twitching uncomfortably when reading.

We can always mix and match and create a new one. A mishmash of sorts. I love world building if you want to go that route.
That's probably what I'm leaning toward. But at the same time, I don't want to completely reinvent the wheel, y'know?

That being said, I'm not completely familiar with all the Warhammer 40K lore and lingo and whatnot, so I think we'd be better served coming up with our own take on elements from that setting than trying to copy and paste them exactly.

So, yes! I'm down with us doing some world building. =)
 
I guess the first couple questions that should be answered is what factions do you want and how should we organize them. The second is how is this version of magic going to be used? Warhammer has psykers and voids, with a large helping of some good old gothic imagery, while SC has telepaths and the weird way the Protoss channel psionic energy. We can even pull in some Mass Effect mythology with dark matter channeling, or other methods. The third will be organizing the technology, of which there will probably be plenty. So, once you figure out those, we can start divvying up some of the work.
 
I am interested in this idea. I love Warhammer 40k and I enjoy StarCraft, but I enjoy WH40K more than the other, but seeing the two mixed together or ideas taken from both and made into one universe could be pretty interesting.
 
I am insulted you would not tell me about this @Insomnant !!!! I adore WH40K and everything space related. You can count me interested.

I am much more interested playing a squad of solders rather then a single character, it would feel much I have much more impact and give me more to work with post wise. As long as the Adeptus Machanicus is somewhere in here I am all good to go.
 
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I am interested in this idea. I love Warhammer 40k and I enjoy StarCraft, but I enjoy WH40K more than the other, but seeing the two mixed together or ideas taken from both and made into one universe could be pretty interesting.
Ah, cool! Welcome to the mix! I think... I'm leaning toward doing just that- Using primarily Warhammer 40K but replacing a few of the things I don't like, such as Tryanids with Zerg, and making tweaks to psionics. Everything else in Warhammer I'm pretty alright with. The only other real problem is that I'm not as familiar with WH40K as I am SC, as I said, so I'm a bit concerned about all the lingo and fake Latin involved. xD I might make mistakes, so people will need to be able to roll with it!

I am insulted you would not tell me about this @Insomnant !!!! I adore WH40K and everything space related. You can count me interested.

I am much more interested playing a squad of solders rather then a single character, it would feel much I have much more impact and give me more to work with post wise. As long as the Adeptus Machanicus is somewhere in here I am all good to go.
Ohhhh, heyyyy! xD I didn't even think of inviting anyone from my other thread. I kind of thought that would be frowned upon, though I'm not sure why. ^^; I'm also not as familiar with the Adeptus Mechanicus as I should be. They're the tech marines, right? I'm thinking... repair ability on the field, plus autoturrets.

I think there's a pretty good group consensus that playing a squad would be better for this. @Artorias, would you be alright with that? You can make a small squad if you'd like, and focus more on your primary character within that fire team.

I guess I should start working on this in earnest! Seems there's enough support. I'm looking for three other people to play, as I want to have my own squad in this one too. I'll play the NPCs and the world and everything but... I want my own PCs in this game. >.> Maybe if someone wants to we could even swap off GMing responsibility for a mission or something, but that's not required.
 
A small squad is fine with me, and just like Honorific. I like the Adeptus Mechanicus (Tech Marine). What they do is they take care of the weapons for the Chapter, make sure everything is working and functioning, watching over Relic Weapons, etc. Anything that involves Tech, they are the one to deal with it because others would just 'piss off the spirits' that rest within weapons.
 
There is a lot of lore surrounding WH40K alot of chapters of Spacemarines with their own stories many of them having history dating back to the Horus Heresy and the almighty emperor. I would suggest playing a dumbed down versoin of the 40k world s we can add our own twist to things.

Also Necrons are a race we forgot about.
 
There is a lot of lore surrounding WH40K alot of chapters of Spacemarines with their own stories many of them having history dating back to the Horus Heresy and the almighty emperor. I would suggest playing a dumbed down versoin of the 40k world s we can add our own twist to things.
Yeah, that's what I'm leading toward. Don't get me wrong, I've read a lot of the Warhammer 40K wiki and played Space Marine and Dawn of War I and II but... there's still a lot I don't know. And I don't like not knowing everything about a universe I intend to run a game in, heh. Which is why I'm just letting everyone know that this isn't going to be an accurate to the source game. x3

Also Necrons are a race we forgot about.
Intentionally, I assure you. =P
 
Intentionally, I assure you. =P
But Necrons are awesome D: They reanimate and stuff. Their also overpowered in the Table Top game.
 
But Necrons are awesome D: They reanimate and stuff. Their also overpowered in the Table Top game.
They are undead space robots.

It's hard for me to take them seriously from a lore perspective... xD
 
They are undead space robots.

It's hard for me to take them seriously from a lore perspective... xD
Actually, the Necrons (Spirit King? and what I remember) Their king left/disappeared so and they turned themselves from Organic beings into what they are now. They are now sleeping, waiting for their king to return and awaken them once more, that is why the Imperials, Eldar, and anyone hunts down their Tombs to destroy them before they awaken because of how powerful they are, because of their new bodies and technology.

Something like that. I haven't read up on the Necrons in like...years.
 
Actually, the Necrons (Spirit King? and what I remember) Their king left/disappeared so and they turned themselves from Organic beings into what they are now. They are now sleeping, waiting for their king to return and awaken them once more, that is why the Imperials, Eldar, and anyone hunts down their Tombs to destroy them before they awaken because of how powerful they are, because of their new bodies and technology.

Something like that. I haven't read up on the Necrons in like...years.
I actually read it a couple days ago. The Silent King made the deal with the C'tan to exchange their organic bodies for robot ones so as to achieve immortality (at the cost of their souls but they didn't know that going into it), the C'tan feasted on the life force of the Necrons as they abandoned their mortal coils, and then the emboldened C'tan and their Necron servants waged war on the Eldar and their patron god race I forget what it's called. Then the Necrons turned on the C'tan once the Eldar were in shambles and their gods defeated, and after they beat the C'tan they were so weakened and saw that the Eldar were rising again so they went into hiding in Tomb Worlds for some reason that is never explained, planning to wake up millions of years later in the space future which wound up being in the 41st century conveniently. And then the Silent King left the galaxy apparently by himself or something and ran into the Tyranids somehow and came back conveniently at the same time the Necrons were supposed to awake anyway and now he wants to fight off the Tyranids for some reason and-

It's all very dumb. >.> Maybe the Necrons could be remade to be cool but as the lore stands now it's just silly.
 
The necrons are actually somewhat interesting in the WH40K. The ancient patron race is equivalent to the old lizard Old Ones in WH, who created the orks and the eldar, and another race that got retconned out of existance. The war between the C'Tan and the ancients caused the emergence of chaos in the first place and the ending of the war basically forced the necrons to shut down to survive. This has been changed more than once.
 
The war between the C'Tan and the ancients caused the emergence of chaos in the first place
Well, I just read in the wiki today that the Immaterium was always there, but it was the excesses of the Eldar that caused it to become so virulent and chaotic, making it into the Warp that it is today. But ah well. I guess the Necrons are fine, I just don't like the whole perpetually reforming thing, like a race of slow, skeletal Wolverines. That goes well with WH40K's theme of never getting anything accomplished but as I said in the opening post, I prefer settings with a feeling of having accomplished something, even if at great cost and effort.


Okay, so here are my thoughts on 'magic for this. I want there to be two types, one more limited but safer, called 'Psionics' and one more in line with traditional WH40K psyker abilities, called 'Warp Magic'.

Psionics is the application of the mind to affect the physical world around the psion, collapsing the multiverse wave function via intense quantum observation into a reality that matches the psion's desired outcome. Generally this creates effects like thermal manipulation (cryo- and pyrokinesis) and energy manipulation (electrokinesis and telekinesis), as well psychological effects like telepathy, mind control, and psychic attacks.

This is the form of magic seen in Starcraft (called Psionics there as well) and it is less powerful but also less dangerous than Warhammer's 'psionics'. The user risks neural feedback from using too powerful an ability or for too long, symptoms of which can range form as mild as headaches to as severe as cerebral hemorrhage.


Warp Magic is effectively also Psionics, but it is specifically manipulation of the invisible alternate dimension known as the Immaterium where the normal rules of physics act more like suggestions. And where the Chaos gods dwell, lending this form of magic's other title of 'Chaos magic'. Manipulation of the Warp can create many powerful though less predictable results, such as mutation, entropy (rapid decay), mass teleportation, singularity/black holes, etc.

Warp magic is far more ritualistic than psionic abilities, as such things as belief and religion have a large impact on the rippling fabric of the Immaterium. Practitioners of Warp magic carry totems and relics to hone their abilities and can engage in things like meditation and sacrifices to improve the impact of their magic. But such manipulation of the Warp comes at a greater risk: in addition to the potential harm that normal psionics comes with, Warp magic can backfire and cause disastrous effects like unintentional (or partial!) teleportation, friendly fire and other unexpected results. Plus, use of particularly powerful Chaos magic has the potential to attract the attention of the malevolent beings of Chaos that reside within the Immaterium, waiting for a chance to engage in warfare against the beings of Order.



I'm considering posting my thoughts on character creation here, rather than just coming up with it and then posting the finished product, if you guys would prefer that. =o
 
I am quite ok with the differences between both forms of magic. Though I do not agree that all beings of chaos of malevolent. Khorne is just a lovable dude that just happens to enjoy death.... BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! D<


I would love to see your ideas on character creation so I can pick through it and tell you what I like and dislike! Throw us your ideas miss @Insomnant though may I sugest you get to that post you promised this morning and I have been waiting for xD
 
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