"Do You Play Deathwatch?" Topic

Are you playing Deathwatch, the Warhammer 40K RPG?

No.

Nope

Never heard of it…I thought the Warhammer RPG was Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying…..

nope Never heard of it

No.

One of the guys in our RPG group has been buying all the 40K RPG books as they come out… he brought Deathwatch to the game for a look see.
I'd like to play Dark Heresy, but I don't see much point in roleplaying the drugged up clone-soldiers of Deathwatch.

Deathwatch, no. Dark Heresy, on the other hand…

I have Deathwatch but kind think I would like Dark Heresy better.

I've played Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader.

I prefer Rogue Trader as they've stream lined the skills and talents a bit and it allows for greater leeway in character creation due to not having to deal with being an enderling of someone who's rank you realistically will never attain. Just much more open. It also allows for running a Xenos character without a rediculous excuse for your Inquisitor allowing it.

Which game is most malleable towards letting you run more street-level stuff like gang thugs, pirates, hive-sprawl detectives, holo-vid starlets, bodyguards/hired muscle, renegade mutants, organized crime mobs?
I'd really rather play with the Imperial agencies not being center stage… and more as foils for the PCs.

No. I like Dark Heresy quite a bit. Rogue Trader doesn't do much for me and Deathwatch (which I had been looking forward to) didn't impress me upon reading.

Played Dark Heresy; know a guy trying to drum up enough other players for Deathwatch.

So to answer the question in one word: no.

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Warren B.
minisculpture.co.uk

We just finished a campaign of it. I like the group a lot, which is 90% of the fun of role playing. I found the rules tedious. Stacking bonuses got a bit over the top I thought. It seemed like in combat either you got a massive overkill or nothing. The setting is actually well done and the squad abilities are neat. The adventures our little band had were fun, but I never really understood why the rules did things a certain way here and there.

No, but I own a couple of the books. They're good for background material and inspiration for gaming with other systems.

Not personally, but there's a very active weekly roleplaying group playing Deathwatch at my store.

Like Parmenion I have the books for background and ideas. Having read them I do not think they are as good as the old Inquisitor system for rpg/narrative gaming or as "In the Emperors Name" for straight up 40K skirmish gaming.

I thought that was a type of beetle…..

Have the book, haven't played it. Use it as a sourcebook for other systems.

Yes.I run a bi-weekly campaign.

Uhhh… Bill…
This should go to the 40k board…

Yes. I play it on occasion.

We played the introductory adventure. Really, I don't find much to like about Deathwatch. Most of the role-playing aspects would seem to be party in-fighting/rivalry over who's chapter is better. The characters even with their various specializations are more similar than they are different.

Dark Heresy on the other hand, we have a blast with. We are in a long running traditional campaign as Acolytes of the Inquisition.

VenusBoys3, you could certainly play Dark Heresy as street level characters without being part of the Inquisition. It should run just as well as members of a Hive gang or some criminal organization.

Death what?

I've played both but prefer Deathwatch but that is mostly due to having a superior GM.

I don't, but I know some folks who run a game or three on a play-by-forum-post site.

Brennor's RPG Corner
link

They seem to have a good time, though my interest in the 40k universe tends toward alien races, and not the Imperium.

No …

Nope.

Gave up on RPGs when I couldn't find a regular group.
And by regular group I mean people I wouldn't be embarrassed to be seen with in public.

"I'd like to play Dark Heresy, but I don't see much point in roleplaying the drugged up clone-soldiers of Deathwatch."

Deathwatch aren't the drugged up clone troopers. That's something totally different. Deathwatch are Space Marines that, from a wide collection of chapters who volunteer, are temporarily recruited to serve the Ordos Xenos. They receive special gear, special firearms training that surpasses that marked out in the Codex Astartes and repaint their armour black, removing all of their livery and keeping the right arm silver(something about not dishonouring the machine spirit.) while the left shoulder pad keeps their respective chapter livery. They serve for a certain period of time and once their term is over, they're allowed continued access to the specialist ammunition they enjoyed the use of in the Deathwatch, are sworn to silence and honoured by their own chapter with veteran status. In fluff terms, most of the Sternguard Veterans in a marine chapter formerly served a term with the Deathwatch.

In a sense, think of them as the closest thing the Imperium gets to having a Black-Ops organization. Everything they do is extremely hush hush and they're the only organization capable of acquiring entire army groups for their disposal without question if they need the back-up.