I was wondering, are there any tips out there on how best to roleplay a lowly Imperial Guardsmen?
Mostly relating to Only War and perhaps playing a Krieger but any tips to play a Guardsmen would be appreciated
small victories count. Killing a genestealer is a big deal. Taking a ridge from heretic autocannon emplacements is a big deal. Embrace regimental culture, propaganda, life back home. Know that you're going to die on some world you cannot even pronounce for a culture of humans that seems backward to you. Learn to ahte bureaucracy. Learn to fear your leaders.
If you are a Krieger, read Dead Man Walking, the best black library book I ever got through. It will show you that to be a Death Korps man/woman, you are already dead. Your world is gone, and you are as soulless as a necron. Your lasgun's maintenance is more important than your wounds.
>>46626441
You could also look at Eagle Ordinary for inspiration.
>>46626441
Avoid Krieger, as that is a very extreme personality type. Kriegers are the most fun when contrasted with a team, they are not great as pcs or as pc squads.
Anyway, a Guardsman is
>Aware that he is the BEST OF THE BEST
>Aware that about 60% of what he has heard about the front is lies.
>Firmly believes in the Emperor, and that his sacrifice, whatever it is, will not be in vain.
>Misses home.
>Trusts his kit.
>Trusts his bayonet more.
>Knows that if he fails, if he is weak, millions die.
>Knows that even though ten shall take his place when he falls... he is not replaceable. The War Machine is not built on mindless cogs, but on the sacrifice of the brave and selfless who go before it.
>Knows that Ollanius lives.
>>46626464
>If you are a Krieger, read Dead Man Walking, the best black library book I ever got through. It will show you that to be a Death Korps man/woman, you are already dead. Your world is gone, and you are as soulless as a necron. Your lasgun's maintenance is more important than your wounds.
Mah nigga
>>46626666
>Avoid Krieger
Fuck you, nigga
>>46626441
Some depressing old writefaggotry about Kriegers that might help.
>>46626666
My problem is that I love the Krieg look so much
Maybe I can convince my group (if I get one soon) to pick some options to give us sweet looking gas masks
>>46626674
>avoid krieger
I think what he meant by that is, a person playing a Kriegsman wouldn't really be interesting.
It would literally be ''Wake up, follow orders, lay down for six hours, repeat''
It'd be extremely difficult to play one properly. Much like most things in 40k.
>>46626724
I can see what you mean, are there tips to just playing a Guardsmen?
I feel like I'd have difficulty getting into the mindset and playing it properly
>>46626777
This will help.
>>46626687
>>46626724
I also think that could be interesting, if the rest of the squad have more "Personality" I think I would have fun playing that kind of guy
>>46626777
Have you considered playing as troopers of the Armageddon Steel Legion?
>>46626692
Respirators are not hard to come by in the Guard. A fun option might be to play a "City Fighting" Guard squad, in which case your GM would have each player come from a different regiment that has been chewed up in the battle for a particular city, and the lot of you have come together on an ad-hoc basis to keep up the good fight. A Krieger could be fun there, but again I advise going for something like Steel Legion for the look, as opposed to full Kriegers who are mostly ruthless, personality-less men and women desperately trying to forget their humanity. Still, a cold hearted Krieger in with a regular team could be fun.
>>46626724
Thanks, Anon. You get it.
Aww man, we had a few sessions of rp:ing an all guardsmen group in a homebrew.
Me and two other ex-mil dudes were having a blast, easily falling in the role of regular grunts but for the gm and one player who hadn't been in the army it was a bit more difficult to adapt to the mindset.
Sadly the group fell apart for unrelated reasons and the IG rp was buried.
>>46627064
Oh, and Harakoni Warhawks ftw!
>>46626441
Am I the only person who doesn't like the Kriegers? I like the idea, and their aesthetic, but I feel like the person who came up with them didn't understand the real tragedy of WW1.
>>46626777
>are there tips to just playing a Guardsmen?
Kind of depends on what line you want to go down.
Remember that the IG is more or less a parody of various military forces from history.
If you want a more fun (and probably more realistic) experience watch Generation Kill, Buffalo Soldiers and maybe Jarhead. They actually show how much of a joke life in the military actually is. Add in a rival regiment (perhaps from another part of the same planet, or fufill another role -like a logistics regiment) for your guys to play pranks and get into brawls with at the canteen and you have a recipe for success.
If you want to keep it grimdark, and if you want to be a Krieger you probably do, just remember that a single guardsman exists to die. You know it, but (unless you're a Krieger) that doesn't mean that you embrace it. You might even be a coward in a squad of heroes, or the hero in a squad of cowards. Just make sure that you're character knows he's probably going to die on some backwater planet fighting against an enemy he doesn't understand for a cause that he only knows is important because he is told it every single day
I always wanted to play a all Guardsmen game, specifically as a Catachan, but I feel like they totally out class any regular guardsmen. Only stuff like Grenadiers, other deathworlders, and really hardcore hive gangers compete.
>>46626953
>Dat fallschirmjäger style helmet
/k/ here, I highly approve
>>46627095
Tragedy? Yeah it's tragic but so is being a Krieger
>>46626441
The imperium has more than a million inhabited worlds, and guardsmen are drawn from all of them. A guardsman can be literally anything from a stone-cold mechanical robot from an airless death world to a barely civilized savage who empties his latrine helmet into enemy positions by way of a slingshot.
>>46627452
> Both of these guys live in the same trench
> Savage guy uses civilized guys helmet as his latrine helmet
The key is the mindset.
90% of the time you're miserable, be it because you're a jingoist who wants to be fighting but you're stuck digging latrines or you're a slacker who got conscripted and you're stuck digging latrines. The munitorum doesn't pay you on time and your regiments constantly undersupplied. You're superiors are always on your case and probably trying to get you killed. Your orders are written by bureaucrats who have no idea what's happening at the front, if its not an exercise in futility it's a suicide mission. Food is shit. You barely get to bathe. No (legal)booze. No women(depends on regiment). Constant boredom, broken up by bouts of bad news, hard work and the occasional bombardment from your own artillery. You're also constantly being inspected, keeping your shit clean and being drilled, mostly in parade manouvres. Your also expected to praise the emperor and mean it, the priests get a kick out of finding "heresy". You're also terrified of the commissars, they seem to execute guys for shits and giggles. Desertion would be awesome if it weren't a death sentence.
If that weren't bad enough, you're fellow guardsmen are assholes. You're stuck with your squad 24/7, even off-duty you're stuck with them. They're just as miserable as you are, they stink, they screw you over and make your life hell to relieve their own misery, they bitch about petty shit and tell the same damn stories over and over again, your tired of their stupidity. To make it worse, sometimes they'll die, and you'll realise how much you missed them, that you probably would've died to save them and that they would've done the same for you.
You also shoot at the enemy occasionally.
>>46626687
Perfect Krieger example
