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I'm thinking about running a freeform roleplay for my friends where they play as Imperial Guardsmen.
The only thing is they know literally nothing about the 40k universe other than the fact that the space marines exist essentially
I'm seeing this as an opportunity to really put them in the mindset of the average guardsman who would probably know jackshit about whatever he was fighting.
Do you have any tips on how I could make this better/what a guardsman might actually know?
>>46587161
Totally depends on the Guardsman, I advice you to start as guys in a newly formed regiment from a peacefull planet that either hasn't seen much war. If your players want to play characters that are not new to combat you can easily just let them roll former gangmembers (that way they only ever fought other non-heretic humans) or police-officers/bouncers/hunters. That way the charaacters of your player have no clue whats out there in the galaxy.
Before the battle have an Officer conduct a poor, vague and incorrect overview of the enemy they'll be fighting, then have it go to shit as the misinformed guardsman stand no hope against some 40k enemy.
As far as what a guardsman would know, to limit the amount of knowledge they would have make them the planetary defence of some backwater planet rather than from a famous regiment.
They'll have knowledge about their equipment and basic knowledge about the Emperor (Savior of humanity for some reason etc,).
As far as their knowledge about space marines go, make them semi-legendary soldiers who no one from the guardsman has actually ever seen.
>I'm thinking about running a freeform roleplay for my friends where they play as Imperial Guardsmen.
>The only thing is they know literally nothing about the 40k universe other than the fact that the space marines exist essentially
I don't see this ending well, OP.
>>46587224
This, why do you want to run a game in the 40k universe if you know nothing of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoj7woIww0g
>>46587238
I'm pretty well informed on the universe but they're not.
>>46587161
Here's my ten cents.
Make them come from a civilized world (one with tech level close to our own world) and tell them stuff like the state religion is the belief in god emperor and anyone who disagrees with it gets shot.
Also tell them that space marines are his angels of death and leave it at that.
After that, copy somewhere pages of Guardsmans uplifting primer and hand them to them for some info on what guard are like, after that let them make their characters and move them to the frontlines.
Start off with something easy, like an ork WAAAGGGHHH!!! in a nearby system.
>>46587252
Aaah, sorry I read the OP wrong. So, just let them start on a semi-peacefull backwater world. Let there first combat action be against something easy to understand like rebels and after that ramp shit up.
>>46587252
>I heard there are catgirls in 40K, so that's what I went with!
>Meet Nato: she's a qt catgirl assassin with twin katanas, here to kick alien butt in the name of the Emperor!
>She's also got magic fire-powers that sometimes get out of control when she's angry, and a talking wolf friend called Kale!
>>46587335
I'm not worried about that they're normies not filthy degenerate fa/tg/uys.
>>46587399
>thinking that normies don't do stupid shit like this too
You don't seem to have very much experience.
>>46587161
>they know literally nothing about the 40k universe other than the fact that the space marines exist essentially
That's absolutely perfect.
Have them read the Uplifting Primer, tell them the God Emperor watches over them, and that their laser rifles can blow a man's head off in one shot. Keep them misinformed and lure them into a false sense of security. Have them fight lowly cultists or hive gangsters to make them feel like badass hot-shot operators.
Then they butt heads with ONE common enemy that can wipe the floor with a Guardsmen squad. Say a Chaos Spacemarine, a particularly rustled Ork, you name it.
So after they got the first taste of cosmic terror and go "holy shit, was that thing a boss fight or something", you start to hint that those were just the lowly footsoldiers of the shit that lies ahead, and it's only gonna get worse.
Welcome to the Imperial Guard.
>>46587399
In that case try something like this >>46587253
with additions from here >>46587209
And tell them that the job of a guardsman is VERY dangerous and that they "might" have to roll nev characters every once in a while.
After that, introduce them to the commissars.
>>46587161
I'm doing something kinda similar. I'm running a DH2e game for these under privileged kids that I usually volunteer with. I'm running it as a reward for their recent improved academic performance and to also teach them certain ideas/values like exploration. The only thing though is that to really wow them, they don't know the setting of the game. I gave them all packets of all of the rules but to them its just homebrew feudal fantasy. Within the next 2 sessions the NPC who is the mentor of the party will call down an orbital bombardment on an massive army of mutants. And then boom, they are all recruited into the Inquisition under their mentor aka a "retired" interrogator. they don't know what WH40k is and they are in for one hell of a surprise. They are basically completely blind to the real setting.
>>46587161
Just play OW and get it over with. It'll prime them on the setting, relative power levels,and you can finally man up and stop playing like a queer
>>46588092
You... i like you.
>>46587253
Ork WAAAAARGH might be a bit daunting. I rather suggest Traitor Guardsmen/PDF for first 2 sessions then start dropping hints of Chaos. Add a Word Bearer Chaos Space Marine as the mini-boss for the third session and make sure plenty of casualties.
>>46587161
You're going to have to have a pretty patient commissar/ecchlesiarch GMPC who'll reign in their inevitable heresy with bits of education without resorting to burning them to set an example.
>>46589918
How about a world that has recently become part of the imperium and so the whole convertion to the imperial creed is still halfway done and thus the priests and commissars are ordered to be a slight bit more lenient?
>>46589918
or you could just BLAM their first set of characters as an example
>>46589513
Thanks!
Too be honest I wasn't sure if the kids would be up for trying the game. None of them had ever done a tabletop RPG before and the first session was just reviewing how everything worked. From there I gave them another packet with world information. As much as I wanted to run a fun game, I also wanted to run a "learning" game. I wouldn't give any hints to players. I would provide them with any relevant historical info they would need, but it'd be up to them to actually read the documents I'd give them and try to understand what it means, if there is any bias behind it or if it is contemporary or a secondhand opinion piece by some crackpot.
Fortunately all of the kids really look up to me for some reason so they were eager to join and try out the game. The beginning was rougher for some than others. Out of the 5 players 2 would be what I call academically motivated. The other 3 are less so. 3 of the kids actually brought great starting characters, 1 had a good one, and the last player had to be walked through making a proper character according to the rules. From there I run everything in character or as a narrator and encourage role play and problem solving.
Problem solving is huge for me, its something I want them to really understand cause it goes along with setting goals and overcoming failure etc. So one of the things I did was give the setting German names. Everything from titles, to cities, to locations are in German. No one speaks German, I don't nor do the players but It's clue that they can solve. It took 2 sessions before one of them figured it out. Now that she knows the cypher I use, she is really quick to pick up on hints about things based on the code I use. She actually figured out some big but not essential info about the main NPC who they all work for.
Also, since it's set in Feudal/Renaissance era tech is different, but I allow them to use their current knowledge and resources to better understand things.
>>46592356
I'm also really trying to teach them how to deal with failure. These kids aren't from great backgrounds. One of the prerequisites of the program they are in that I volunteer with, is that their family is borderline homeless/in public housing and using vouchers to maintain their residence there. There are 2 freshmen, 1 senior, 1 sophmore, and 1 8th grader, 2 sets of siblings. So i figure that it is important for them to have a mindset about approaching the future. I want them to understand that their circumstances don't have to define them. While it may limit them in some regards, it doesn't have to be that way. Equally I want them to understand that there will be times where they don't succeed in something due to a number of reasons in or out of their control, but I want them to know that failure doesn't mean it's the end, just a setback and a learning opportunity.
We've had 5 sessions now and the 4th session, the party faced a devastating blow. Essentially the setting is that all of the party members were recruited by a reclusive noble in their city, on this feudal/renaissance era Imperium world. Turns out the reclusive noble is a "retired" Interrogator of the =][=. They don't know that yet. But he hires them to do tasks for him and after they proved themselves he revealed why he recruited a team. Basically he discovered the presence of a massive mutant population hidden in the neighboring kingdom. While this alone is a worry, normal mutants aren't a big deal because the world has muskets, and fortified cities and the mutants tend to lack tech and organization.
The reason why this new mutant horde is so troubling is that it is led by "super" mutants. Basically mutants that were the creation of a mad magos biologis from centuries ago. While the majority of these designed muties died off a small colony escaped to this world and hid. Now they want to lead a takeover of the planet.
>>46592644
So over the course of the sessions they've played the party has explored their local city, been introduced to political intrigue and have been introduced to real world issues with a fun spin on them. However as they kept adventuring they began to stumble signs and evidence of this new mutant movement. They've fought a few, and worked with a few that aren't hostile or supporting the genocidal agenda of the others. However the recently managed to seriously help out a small city in a neighboring Duchy with a problem of trade that was having terrible effects on the populace. /In the 4th session they were returning to the small city where they had been informed by their escort that a parade was to be held for them in their honor. However when they arrived the city was in ruin. It was desolate with the majority of nobles and soldiers dead and most of the population missing. The really sad part that got some of the players upset was that they found the hat an npc acquaintance of theirs prized above all else, and they really liked this NPC and knew she would never leave her hat behind. They've spent the remaining session and the last one regrouping with the Margraf (retired inquisitor) and planning to hunt down the disappeared city dwellers and warn the neighboring rulers and to prepare their cities.
>>46592843
Please, continue.
>>46593768
Should I just recap the campaign?
>>46594224
Why not, id love to hear about how your renaissance era players react to the realization that there is a massive galaxy wide empire around them.
>>46592843
Thank you for your work men, keep going that way.
>>46594255
Unfortunately we haven't gotten up to that part yet. But, they do know that there is high tech stuff. The interrogator uses a musket modified with a Maglev Impeller attachment (from a Rogue Trader splatbook, basically turns a gun into a rail gun). Also the last session ended with the Interrogator showing the players to the 2 Ironstrider walkers in his possession as they gear up for war.
>>46595018
Huh, i take it he was in good terms with the mechanicus?
>>46595101
Nope. The Ironstrider's were actually a result from one of his last missions. It was putting down a heretical uprising. The heretics had managed get in the good graces of an infamous and elusive tech-heretic and he gifted them the ironstriders. However the heretics in question went about modifying them like removing the servitors that piloted them and installed manual controls and bike seats. After the heresy was resolved Avro, the interrogator, was confronted by a magos who had come to collect the ironstriders to properly cleanse them, and he also found it fit take Avro's acolytes to be turned into servitors for he felt that they had committed a tremendous sin by destroying one of the Ironstriders, simply because it had threatened a residential hab block. So Avro killed the magos and through the help of his loyal acolytes and his own mentor inquistor high-tailed it out of the system and ended seeking a hiding place on the little known Imperial Feudal world of Koralis on the edge of it's sector. The Maglev Impeller as something he looted off the Magos he killed. He has a really bad habit of stealing things that he likes. He was known to his =][= buddies as the Magpie. Ever since then him and his devout bone'ad Ogryn friend Ruk had lived on Koralis safe from the reach of the Ad-Mech in case they want justice for the murder of a high ranking magos.
>>46595585
Are you going to destroy their imagination? Because....Heretics, Mutants, Xenos that will consume your flesh.
Slaanesh....
>>46595101
>>46594719
>>46594255
>>46593768
>>46589513
>>46594255
>>46594719
>>46593768
So to start from the beginning I gave them packets of info on the setting which I described as a generic-ish fantasy homebrew. Basically it was low magic, feudal-renaissance setting with three playable races: Humans, Pygmies (Halflings), and Greatmen (Ogryns). In my world building for the campaign I figured that the world was settled early on by a splinter of a crusade. However the world was on the fringe of it's sector and had no real stable warp route for a few millennia. So it turned into medieval cause they were essentially on their own for very long. The only settlers were the IG who were left on the planet which included human regiments, ogryn regiments and ratling regiments.
I then made up some history for the relevant areas of the map and made up cities. Fast forward to 300yrs prior to the game, IoM finally officially returns and reclaims the planet. From there life goes on. The Eclessiarchy maintained a small presence because the world had always worshipped the emperor. They just had some small differences, namely what they call him. And history is for the most part forgotten.
To the vast majority of the world, little to nothing is known of the IoM. The Planetary Gov is only known to the highest ranking nobles and his shuttle only ever comes down upon the estate of the current Crown regent of the confederation of princely states (Basically similar to the Holy Roman Emperor).
Psykers were known as witches but were not often encountered and those who were found were heralded up by local powers if evidence of their abilities was found out to be taken to a territory designed to hold psykers until the Black Ships would come, which is every decade. Mutants were often killed when born, but outside of the settled and civilized lands there was a significant, but relatively hidden mutant population.
>>46587279
This is a good idea really.
If you place them in the position, of a fresh faced guardsman, they can be introduced to aspects of the universe as the guardsman would be.
Might actually work better, in terms of their enjoyment.
Just make sure you have some brief descriptions at hand for random things, that you intend to throw in.
>>46595800
Well to be fair, I'd warn them that the wold is a dangerous place. However I am not going to be too grimdark with them. I doubt I'd ever have a mission that really involves Slaanesh. I told them already that there will be war, famine, suffering, violence, backstabbing, and injustice in the campaign. However I made it clear that really bad stuff like torture, rape, and seriously dark stuff like excessive graphic details won't really be allowed.
For me it's more important to instill in them a sense of curiosity and exploration. I do feel bad though that the setting I've started them in won't allow them to choose Tech-priest as a background/character tho, because I really don't like restricting my players.
Also unfortunately I only have 2-3 more sessions planned out cause then I'll be heading back down to uni for summer courses (I was off for the year for medical reasons, so that's why I was volunteering and had so much free time) So at most they'll experience one session in the real
=][=. I'd be happy to run more sessions for them, but it's up to them to agree on doing it over roll20 or skype.
Not your average guardsman, but slightly related.
>>46587224
Well, that means they know just about as much as the average Guardsmen.
>>46587161
>I'm thinking about running a freeform roleplay for my friends where they play as Imperial Guardsmen.
This sounds like a bad idea.
