Doing Your Thing in 40K

While making terrain for our first club night I was talking with my good friend and long time 40K'er Toby. He mentioned that one of the frustrations he had with the evolution of the rules was that special abilities that were introduced for a particular unit to give them a unique and flavoursome ability where often watered down, given to others widely and, in the example of Chaos Raptors and Hit & Run, removed for that unit but left for others.

With my current Dark Heresy GUMSHOE hack in mind, I started thinking about how often in 40K you don't get to do your 'thing'. By 'thing' I mean that which makes your army unique, that which your character is feared for. It's your shtick. There are so many special abilities across units that there has been a steady increase in the countermeasures to them. Taking pinning for example. I can't remember the last time I ever saw it work, let alone considered a usable tactic, because so many units ignore it, or have enough leadership for it to be a cold day on Nocturne when it kicks in.

GUMSHOE's philosophy of being good at your thing can, and should, translated to war games. You should, unless you plan poorly, be able to do the glorious deeds you're forces are infamous for at least once during the game.

A very simple, and probably ill conceived idea to improve the situation in 40K would be to give each player a Joker card. When played, the Joker means an HQ, and any unit it is attached to can automatically make, or force the failure of a single dice roll. It also removes an immunity to a particularly ability that would resolve normally on that single dice roll. So, for example a Tau HQ leading a unit that has pinning weapons plays it after it's shot at a unit of Space Marines, who are normally immune to the pinning effect. The Joker means that they lose that immunity for that single test and automatically fail. Further examples would be a unit of Warp Talons deep striking with an attached winged Daemon Prince. The player uses the Joker to make the blind test a nearby unit of Devastators makes automatically fail.  A Tiberius, down to his last wound, uses the Joker to avoid making a psychic test, and activates his powers without fear of the warp consuming him. Of course it might mean that an HQ with a squad with a powerfist could remove the Instant Death rule from an opponent and force it to fail an invulnerbilty save. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Possibly it couldn't be used for attacks that have more than one to-hit roll.          

Initial skills matching in GUMSHOE Dark Heresy

I went through Dark Heresy RPG and Trail Of Cthulhu and compared the skill sets. Sticking, for now, to the basic skills from Dark Heresy and not looking beyond ToC I compiled this match, which is pretty impressive. There is a lot less work here to do than I fear, clearly Messier Hite and Laws knew someday it would come to this. I can see that I'll need to add some kind of specialisation option to Athletics, to allow people to be particularly good at Contortionist, or more likely Dodge. There are quite a few GUMSHOE skills I'll want to added to GDH. Finally I realise that the list of Lore skills will be quite large and I should consider if PC's should get more investigative points to adapt to this increase. Probably not.

Dark Heresy Basic Skills with existing Trail Of Cthulhu GUMSHOE counterpartsAwareness - Sense trouble
Barter - Bargain
Carouse - Athletics
Charm - Flattery or Flirt
Concealment - Conceal or Stealth
Contortionist - Athletics
Deceive - Reassurance
Disguise - Disguise
Dodge - Athletics
Evaluate - Art history (partial)
Gamble - Streetwise (partial)
Inquiry - Interrogation, Reassurance or Assess honesty
Intimidate - Intimidate
Logic - Cryptography or Physics
Climb - Athletics
Scrutiny - Assess honesty
Search - Conceal
Silent Move - Stealth
Survival - Outdoorsmanship
Swim - Athletics
Tech Use - Mechanical repair or Electrical repair
Tracking - Shadowing

Trade - Craft or Art
Animal Wrangling - Riding (partial)

ToC GUMSHOE Skills missing from Dark HeresyCredit Rating
Evidence Collection
Language
Locksmith

Medicine

Oral History (gossip, traditions, folklore)

Streetwise

ToC Abilities To ConsiderAthletics
Conceal (items)
Disguise
Driving
Electrical Repair
Explosives
Filch (pilfer)
Firearms
First aid
Fleeing
Health

Mechanical Repair
Pilot
Preparedness (kit, stuff)
Psychoanalysis
Riding
Sanity
Scuffling
Sense Trouble
Shadowing
Stability
Stealth
Weapons

Dark Heresy Lore SkillsCommon Lore:
Adeptus Arbites
Machine Cult
Administratum
Ecclesiarchy
Imperial Creed
Imperial Guard
Imperium
Tech
Underworld
War

Forbidden Lore:The Black Library
Cults

Daemonology

Heresy
Inquisition - Ordos (Malleus, Hereticus or Xenos)
Archeotech
Mutants
Adeptus Mechanicus

Adeptus Astartes
Psykers
Warp
Xenos

Scholastic Lore:Archaic
Astromancy
Beasts
Biologis
Bureaucracy
Chymistry

Cryptology
Heraldry
Imperial Creed
Judgement
Legend
Numerology

Occult
Philosophy
Tactica Imperialis

GUMSHOE Dark Heresy

In The Grim Darkness Of The Far Future There Is Only Heresy.

While not a straight conversion GUMSHOE Dark Heresy is based on the original game, particularly around background and occupation suggestions. As GUMSHOE is a points based character system there are no enforced classes though, and players are free to imagine their own backgrounds if they wish. Characters spend points to gain access to class abilities. For example to gain augmentation, the character must buy points in Tech Priest. The starting power level is akin to Trail Of Cthulhu, in that the characters are talented but still starting out. The game will also feature troupe style play, like Ars Magica, where each player also has one or more secondary support characters, mostly likely more combat based. This is not to say that investigators, the primary characters, shouldn’t take combat skills, there is danger in every corner of the 40K universe, but when needed the investigators can call in combat retinue. 

There Is Only The Emperor, And He Is Our Shield And Protector.

The sanity and stability rules will be used from Trail Of Cthulhu, however Sanity is called Faith, and is a measure of how far from the emperors light the character has fallen. There are of course many ways that a character may descend, towards Chaos, towards rebellion, towards The Greater Good, towards selfish corruption, or towards inhumanity. Pillars Of Stability, that which helps you keep your faith, will come from the reasons behind your dedication to the inquisition, and can range from pious belief to utter self-interest. It might be that you’re a naive believer in His Divine Light, you may rationalise that only the Inquisition stands between mankind and the darkness of the void, it might be utter devotion to your lord inquisitor that keeps you sane or it might be you see power and righteousness trickles down to you through service.  

Big Guns Never Tire.

The gun-crunch and combat rules will mainly come for Ashen Stars. Further action elements can be discovered in Essoterrorists 2.0 and and Night’s Black Agents. Ship to ship combat, and design, as and when we need them will also come from Ashen Stars. Characters spend points to access more powerful weapons and armour than basic equipment. However while they can loose these items situationally, you get them back between acts. Likewise found items are yours only until the end of the current adventure unless you buy them with points.

The Flesh Is Weak.

Biomechanical augmentation can provide special abilities from Mutant City Blues. These tend to be things that enhance senses and provide beyond human-normal capabilities. However these enhancements reduce Faith as the character becomes less and less human. 

And When You Gaze Long Into The Warp The Warp Also Gazes Into You.

Psychic powers also come from Mutant City Blues and from a greater range. Psykers use the Quaid diagram in much the same way as intend in the MCB rules and gain the drawbacks of psychosis when they cross power boundaries. Some MCB powers are not available as psychic powers however. There is also always the danger of the perils of the warp.

Many Are The Faces Of The Enemy, And Many Are The Hands Which Do Its Work.

Investigative abilities are the main stay of the characters and much of the game will be driven by their application. This means that characters will get a separate pool of points to spend on investigative skills. 

A lot of work

After the fantastic roller coaster of running the Owl Programmable Pedal Kickstarter, I've been preparing and starting my new job [Development Manager @ Gamesys] and have been pretty exhausted. This weekend however I'm at GW's centre in Nottingham for Throne Of Skulls. I decided to take a similar lists to last year but with a Helldrake and more MoN Chaos Spawn, so I've been busy painting them. Here is a picture of the Plaguedrake, made from a bitz from a Vampire Counts Zombie Dragon, Daemon Prince and Forgefiend. I'm very pleased with it, although the painting needs a lot more work, it's 3-colour ready.

I'm getting a really strong itch for some roleplaying again though, after our Inquisitor game finished. While I really want to run the D&D Slavelords campaign, with A0, my group isn't so keen on fantasy, so I'm tempted either by The Armitage Files ToC or running GUMSHOE Inquisitor using Bleeding Rim Ashen Stars rules.     

Dungeons & Detectives

GUMSHOE-like rules for AD&D, which are far more rough and poorly thought out than the excellent Lorefinder. As I ponder running AD&D again for the first time in very many years I find the lack of a skill system, particularly knowledge and research skills, a bit daunting. Recent de-motivating experiences with skill rolls in the otherwise excellent Dark Heresy make me favour GUMSHOE style never roll points pools, and it’s a relatively simple idea. Player characters with a particular skill never need roll to receive information from the GM that pertain to that skill. Initially to an old-school gamer this might seem bizarre. Why not just read the wholegoddamn scenario out to the players, why don’t you? Gah.

But actually the art of figuring out things isn’t in the rolling of dice but knowing to ask the right question. And GUMSHOE adds an additional level of decision making, as you spend points if you believe there is more to known about a subject than just the base line given to you, and you have limited points.

So for example, until the Identify spell came along in Unearthed Arcana, it was difficult to know as a PC what magic items did and as a GM it was always a little awkward to manage them unless you were very meticulous. However, say we have a character called Thego the archeologist-duelist and who has 5 points in History. Upon finding what appears to be a magical sword he examines and, suspicious that there is more to meet than meets the eye about this weapons spends 3 points. The GM reveals that yes, the sword may well be the fabled Nailbiter, created by the ancient war-wizard Thanazdul for his henchman to battle against the Golem foes of his rival. The sword was past from father to son for many generations, as Thanazdul extended his life by necromatic means and retained the services of the henchman’s family. It was lost some 300 years ago, stolen by a band of Ogre mercenaries. The sword has a minor enchantment (+1) against most foes, but against Golems and constructs it is immensely destructive (+4).

The GM decided that the baseline (no spend) would reveal the sword is indeed unusually ancient, 1 point would have revealed the swords name, two points that it was created by Thanazdul and passed onto his henchman and that it was designed for use against specific foes and 3 points revealed that the foes were Golems and constructs. If Thego spent 4 points the extra point would have been wasted.

It’s important, vital in fact, that information that the players absolutely must have to continue the story can be revealed at the baseline. Further points can give more background and flavour in these cases but you shouldn’t hold up the flow because someone didn’t spend or have enough points.

Now that the points are spent, how do you refresh the pool? It’s between the GM and player to come up with interesting refresh opportunities, but Thego might for example spend the evening talking to a sage in a tavern or an afternoon in a old library and the next day wake with a refreshed pool.

One final optional extra, specialization. PCs can specialize in a particular area. This means that they spend one less point, and 1 point clues or information become free, if the area is in their field of specialization, and is always available meaning they always know more than just the baseline.

Rules stuff...
1st level characters receive points based on their class.

Magic-users and Illusionists get 5 points at 1st level and gain an extra 1 point per 2 levels thereafter.

Thieves, Clerics, Druids, Paladins, Fighters, Rangers, Assassins and Monks get 4 points at 1st level and gain an extra 1 point per 3 levels.

Specializations cost 1 point to add to a skill and can only be taken once per 3 levels.

Example skills & specialization

History (ancient, local, regional, military, secret societies, religious, magic)
Magic (elemental, demonology, necromancy, illusion, alchemy, fae, planar, spells, divination)
Religion (pantheon, ancient, planar, history)
Nature (regional, fauna, flora, fae, peoples)
Dungeoneering ( monsters, peoples, underdark, caves, traps, regional )
Military (strategy and tactics, arms and armour, melee
Appraisal (art, jewelry, gems, magic items)