TheRPGSite

At the end of my pointlessly bitchy review of Wrath & Glory I made a point about how game designers working from a pre-existing setting, usually in a different medium (wargaming specifically here) tend to go about things backwards and wind up making blandly uninteresting pisstakes on the setting, essentially creating only an RPG version of the existing Wargame and leaving the vast possibilities of a living setting entirely unexploited.

Doing it Backwards like that is actually HARD, compared to making the rules more universal and adding in the setting specifics as necessary.   So, as a thought experiment, I thought I'd take a gander at my own 'house rules' for playing in the Warhammer 40k Setting, only using a pre-existing rule set and dressing it up. In this case, I'm going with Traveler, specifically Mongoose Traveller 2nd.  

Since I'm doing this on a lark over a long weekend, I'll generally try to stick existing assets, though as a place-holder, I may later remove and improve such things.

So, for our first 'big note', as the Setting of 40k includes as bog standard people with long lives (Eldar can live millennia, humans use 'science!' to live three or more centuries, and examples of 1000 year old Space Marines exist. Nobody asks an ork how old he is...), we're dispensing with the existing Life Path system.  Sorry folks, but not only is it superflous to need, its an actual impediment to the setting.  

So our 'basics' of Character Creation will be to roll stats as usual, then pick skills by distributing points.  Since I don't see a system for that in MongTrav2, I'll adapt the one from MongTrav1 here.

Our default is that every character gets 40 points to buy skills, ranks and benefits. Each level of Rank costs 2 points and provides any subsequent skills or benefits, while each Benefit Roll also costs 2 points.  I'm sticking with dice rolling for attributes, however.

I'm apolitical on Secondary Education (free 0 skills), so we'll just keep them in.   Aging tables are removed, but I'm willing to consider allowing each aging roll taken to count as bonus build points, as 40k has examples of 'old characters' roaming around being all old and decrepit and shit. Call it 2 build points per aging roll/step on the Aging table. The more you take, the more it will affect you.  On that note, I'll probably keep, maybe even muck around a bit, with the Connections Rule, though its not necessary to do anything with it.

Race: this is the biggie, and my 2e book seems a bit weak compared to 1e for this step, but luckily I have resources to command.

As the first big step in my design process, I'm going to put that in a separate post.

Careers: This will be another big change, but I'll give a quick overview. I'll probably wind up doing a post for careers in specific. Obviously, with the 'build point' system adapted for our use, I can MOSTLY skip this step. I don't need tables full of careers to roll for skills, what with qualifying and so forth.  I do intend to keep some of it, however, such as Rank Tables, Benefits (maybe a universal benefits table? Something akin to that?), and Event Rolls.  

Skills: I'll do an overview of the skill list, mostly a small pro-forma post, to cover the setting changes to the main rules.

Rules: I... can't think off the top of my head of any rules that NEED to be changed or added. We're talking about game play mechanics here, the nuts and bolts of shooting people in the face.  I may address a few things that Traveller doesn't do, or doesn't do well to make it more cinematic, but that's a low priority.

Encounters and Danger:  Here I'll do a brief gloss, at least at first, of common threats not present in Trav, such as Tyranids and Necrons and daemons and the warp. This is a low priority at this juncture, however, so this post will probably come later in the sequence.

Equipment: This is a big, but boring topic.  I'll probably gloss a few things along the way.

Vehicles: Low priority post, but I'll touch on it, sure.

Spacecraft: A big monster doozy of a post/posts.  I'll have to cover changes to how FTL works (warp travel, bitches!), and cover the scope of changes. For the purposes of this exercise I will refrain from stating up fully Star-ships... I may have to go so far as to, in fact, redesign the star-ship design rules (from MT2, in High Guard) to accomodate the change of scale.

Psionics: Another big monster doozy of a post. Probably just the one. As Psychics are foundationally different in 40k than they are in Trav, I'm probably going to have to gut the system and rebuild it from the bones.  This is where I'll have to cover Navigators, Astropaths, Weird Boyz, Wyrds, Imperial Psychics and sorcery, so... yeah.

Trade: Superflous to need, but I may do a post on the economics of 40k. Having said that, the existing system doesn't work for what we know of 40k, simply on account of scale, so obviously some thing will have to be done to address this.

World Building: Honestly, this will mostly be a gloss, perhaps with some notes for making it MOAR 40k.  Celestial Bodies are Celestial Bodies, in the main, but 40k has quite a bit of fantasy thrown in.   This is probably where I'll address the ideas of Tech Levels, which I've always found to be poorly implemented in all their manifold forms  (excepting the old GURPS Ultratech... that shit was the bomb, yo!)

And just for completeness, I'm going to steal a page from FFG and mock up a Subsector, though I make no pretense that its any form of canon.  I'm going to 'setting' this bitch up, so to speak.

So Endeth the Introductory Post...

40k is a big expansive setting, and not everyone in it gets along as Mr Rogers expects them to.  So it is more important than most that the Players consult with the GM before building their characters so that their characters can fit into the campaign.  Our default assumption is that most games will be focused on the Imperium, Humanity and the like.

Our second assumption is that most games will either be based around an Inquisitor and his Acolytes OR a Rogue Trader and his Entourage/ship, as these play styles are the most open and provide excellent focus for campaigns.  In either case the Inquisitor or Rogue Trader can be a PC or an NPC, however the players should be aware that this character is functionally their boss.  Insert GM advice here. Especially in the case of a PC 'boss', ensure the player knows that his 'minions' are in fact feudal vassals of a sort, and that his obligation to them is as strict as his to them.  In other words, being the in setting party leader is not carte blanche to order the other players around.  *

To make a character the player should chose a race and a career. Its rare but not impossible to change careers in 40k.  

From there the Player rolls their Stats, excepting Soc and Psy using the standard method.  Players MAY roll their Psy if they wish, or MUST if they are playing a psyker of any sort, however, a non-psyker with a high Psy score is essentially an untrained psyker, and a danger. Read the Psyker rules before randomly rolling this.

The player may chose a number of background skills based on their EDU score, per standard



Next characters have a number of build points to make their character. The default assumption is 40 points, for a competent well rounded character, though the GM may set this higher or lower to create a specific style of campaign.  A player may spend 2 BP on each level of rank in their career, or to buy a benefit roll from their career, and they may gain 2 BP by taking progressively harder aging rolls (2 BP per roll), but their character description must account for their advanced age. Aging rolls also allow additional Event Rolls, one roll per aging check.









*honestly, this sort of advice doesn't belong in this Thread, which is focused on rules, but I included it as How To Adventure is as much a design question as anything else.

Warhammer 40k is filled with Humans and non-humans. Its a big galaxy out there.  However, most races are not fit for a campaign, so we will focus on the ones who are.

Social Stat and Race:  As a general rule, ones Social status only applies within one's own race.  Outsiders  will have a 'fixed' score and some races do handle Soc differently than others, so each Race will have their own entry on Soc.  The entry on the character sheet should reflect their 'native' social status.

Humans:  The default race, inherently no changes, however it should be noted that there are several sub-races of humanity worth noting.
Space Marines and Primaris Marines: Post-Human super-soldiers.   Neither has a Soc score, but are treated as having a Soc of 12 by ordinary humans of the Imperium
Mutants: Humans who have been warped by toxins and taint. Mutants have a Soc of 1 in the Imperium, but may have a higher status in their own communities, though this is purely relative.
Psykers: Considered a separate Race, even a stable form of Mutant, a Psyker's Soc in the Imperium is determined by type of Psyker, but is generally lower than non-psykers.
Navigators: Perversely, while hated and feared, Navigators tend to have a very high status in the Imperium and are treated as royalty, or at least Nobility.  A Navigator takes his 'Native' Soc bonus (plus or minus) and applies it to a base of 13 to determine his Soc in the Imperium
Chaos/Corrupted: Many are mutants and/or Psykers. Others are simply heretical outsiders. All are treated as The Enemy if known, effective Soc of 0.
Abhuman: Stable 'near humans', essentially limited mutants. Abhumans have different Imperial Soc scores depending on type, from Ogryn's Soc of 2, to a Ratling's Soc of -3 to their score. Abhumans may or may not treat ordinary Humans with greater respect (unmodified Soc to bonus to Soc), but within their own communities they tend to disdain normal humans to some extent.


Eldar:  In many ways Eldar are very like humans, though with significantly improved reflexes, longer lives and greater psychic gifts. As with humans there are a number of sub-races, which really amount to tribal distinctions. As a general rule, the Imperium disdains the Alien, though Eldar struggle less than other races. As humans have no appreciation for the finer disdinctions of Eldar society, all Eldar generally have a Soc of 3 in the Imperium, though the GM may chose to lower it for obvious raiders like the Drukhari, or Dark Eldar.  Soc adjustments are therefore listed as internal to Eldar society as a whole.
Craftworld Eldar: The default Eldar. Eldar react to members of other Craftworlds as if their Soc was -1.
Rangers/Outcaste: These are Craftworld Eldar who do not currently (if ever) claim a Craftworld as home. They are generally well respected, -1 Soc from all non-ranger Eldar.
Harlequins: Special Case, Harlequins are treated generally as having a Soc of 12 by all Eldar, so long as they 'play their roles', but the exact reception they get is highly dependent upon such roles (and outside the simple numeric tracking of Soc).
Dark Eldar: Willful throwbacks to the pre-fall decadence of the Eldar, they are disdained even by other Eldar, and vice versa. -3 to Soc.
Exodites: Eldar living a comparatively primative existence on Maiden or Crone Worlds. -2 Soc, though the Crone World Eldar are held in deep suspicion even beyond apparent social norms.  
Humans: In Eldar society, as a general, Humans can claim the Soc 3, though not in all cases. Psykers can push that to a 4. Individuals may earn greater respect but again, that lies outside of the Soc score system.

Orks: Generally held as savage beasts, even 'The Enemy', it is rare to see an Ork in human society at all, and they are held in great contempt even then. Generally a Soc score of 0. There aren't so much sub-races of Orks, however.
An Orks Soc Score determines his 'sub-race'.  An Ork of 'noble' status would be a Nob or even a Boss, while an ork with a Soc of five or below would be a Grot, while an Ork with a Soc of 1-2 would be a Snotling.  An Orks Soc 'Bonus' is applied to their Str and End scores.  An ork with a 5 or less is Small, while a 12 or higher Soc is Large.

Tau: Tau have five 'castes' which can be viewed as Sub-races of a sort. What is important is that only Ethereals can have a Soc higher than 12, and will never have a Soc of less than 12.  In the Imperium all Tau have a Soc of 1, as aliens.  Tau treat all other races the same generally: If they are part of the Greater Good they have a Soc score of 6 or so, while if they are outside the Greater Good they have a Soc of 2, or 1 for Orks.
Kroot: Placed here as a 'sub race' of the Tau, though they are not, in fact, related. Kroot have a Soc -2 among Tau, and a Soc 1 in the Imperium.  Kroot generally treat all non-Kroot (except the Tau) the same, generally Soc 3.

Hmm...

That was a lot of work for a very minor part of the rules, not at all what I was expecting to be doing for half an hour.  In the end, all of that is just a sort of vague guideline on an already sketchy rule/stat.

Space Marines: A Space Marine trades a large amount of personal power in combat for a general lack of flexibility overall.  Space Marines are heavily hypno-indoctrinated, and may be assumed that a large percentage of them are little more than biological robots as a result, with interesting 'character' types being somewhat rare.*   Space Marines have a +2 to Str and End and a -2 to Edu, which if lowered to 2 or less represents an SM who is more or less entirely hypno-indoctrinated and should be 're-rolled.*   They are also Large +1 and have a Fast Metabolism (+2 to Initative Checks).  Space Marines, and Primaris Marines (who are almost identical in the rules here) also have a large amount of cybernetics and very standardized Wargear, see Careers for more.  In exchange for all this power, however, Space Marines also have a large number of Mandatory Skills and may not study/learn certain skills at all. Again: See Careers.  

Mutants: Any Human may become a Mutant, or be born a mutant. Some human-like aliens or unstable genetically modified abhumans from the Dark Age of Technology might also be mutants.  All Mutants can raise any one attribute(except Soc) by +2 and Lower another by -2. They are encouraged to work with the GM on their exact mutations, which can be modeled with Animal abilities. Tentacles are very common, as is Armor. Mutants should also roll a Psy score, though they are rarely, if ever, 'trained'... mutant psykers collected by the Imperium are sacrificed to the Emperor and/or Astronomicon rather than soul-bonded.

Psykers: Any Human who rolls a Psy Score, particularly if it is higher than 5

Untouchables: Untouchables are humans who have a Psy Score. However, they do not have Psychic powers of any sort, instead their Psy Score is used to supress teh Warp. See Psychic Chapter for more.  Note that any positive bonus on Psy is used as a penalty to all Soc interactions. Double for Eldar, ignore for Tau.

Navigators: +2 to Int and Edu, -2 to Str and End. All Navigators have a Psy score and should take the Navigator Career.  Considered Stable Mutants, but not Abmen.

Chaos:  Any Human race may also be "Chaos' version except Untouchables.  This means they exist outside the Imperium, in fact they are usually actively opposed to it.  Anyone with Chaos as part of their race may take an additional Mutation, if they chose, see Psychic chapter for more information on Chaos.

Ogryn: +3 to Str and End, -3 to Int and Edu. Large +2. Armor +2.  An Ogryn's Int reflects the maximum TL of equipment they can use.

Ratling: -2 Str, +2 Dex, Heightened Senses.




Eldar:  Despite falling into numerous sub-groups, all Eldar are mechanically the same.   They are all Psychic with 'Fast Metabolism' (used as an initiative boost, like I said, I'm repurposing existing elements for this project.) Eldar tend to prefer Dex and Mental stats to Str and Con,  and are known for their apparent gracefullness, but in practice they tend to fall within, or close to, human norms aside from their astonishing speed.  Eldar are also cursed with Soul Death, with different groups of Eldar having different responses to the same.  Soul Stones will appear in Equipment, while the more sado-masochistic practices of the Drukhari will appear in the Psychic chapter.  An Eldar who cannot protect his Soul from Slaanesh will suffer a -2 penalty to all actions except those related to regaining their protection (which actions are at +2), and has to make daily aging checks to represent the drain on their soul. However: once they have regained their protection any future checks are reset to zero, though existing losses remain.

Tau: All Tau have the Slow Metabolism trait (reflecting their poor reaction times, see Eldar above) but have excellent vision, giving them the Heightened Senses trait.  Beyond that, as a race they fall well within human norms, though they tend to be marginally smaller than humans, averaging perhaps 80% of a human's size. There are five castes of tau, and this size reduction is reflected differently in each. the Fire and Earth Castes tend to be shorter but with stocky, sturdy frames, while the Air Caste is taller than human, but painfully thin, while the Water Caste and Ethereal Caste tend to reflect more or less normal human proportions.  
Fire Caste: Gain +1 to Str and End
Earth Caste: Gain +2 Edu
Air Caste: Gain +2 to Dex
Water Caste: +1 to Int and Edu
Ethereal Caste:  Gains the Commanding Trait. Any Ethereal may order non-Ethereal Tau around and expect compliance, even fanatical zeal.  The death of an Ethereal tends to drive any Tau so influenced (by that Ethereal) into suicidal despondence, though actual suicides are rare.  Tau who have not been in the presence of an Ethereal for some time (Months, even years) have been known to grow suspicious of Ethereal influence. There is no known mechanism to create this loyalty, nor break it.

Tau may not have a Psy score, though an exception may be made for Tau 'blanks' or Untouchables with the GM's permission.  Note that even in that case, the Tau player only rolls 1d6 for his Psy score, and there is no Soc Penalty for Tau Untouchables.  

Kroot: One of several 'client races' of the Tau, Kroot are birdlike reptillian bipeds with hard, sharp beaks, claws and a penchant for eating their enemies. They will work for any one who pays them, usually in high technology, but insist that they be allowed to eat the dead.  This is part of their evolution, and the leaders of the Kroot are the Shapers, who guide Kroot Evolution by choosing 'meals'.
Kroot have Fast Metabolism, Armor +2, Heightened Senses and Natural Weapons: Bite 1d6+1.  Kroot tend to be tall and gangly but are surprisingly strong and tough, and while they seem like primitive savages, they can utilize high technology and even have their own spacecraft.   A Kroot with a Psy score is automatically a Shaper, though Kroot Untouchables are possible.  A Kroot may have a 'Strain', which is a genetic 'tweak' they or their ancestors developed through selective consumption of enemies.  This Strain is reflected in EITHER a +2 to any Stat (except Psy or Soc), OR an additional Trait, such as Poison, increasing Armor to +5 and so forth.  A Kroot may change his Strain only with the help of a Shaper and plenty of appropriate enemies to feed on (see Psychic chapter for rules on Shaping)

Orks:  As noted earlier, an Orks size, strength and social position are all deeply intertwined.   As such a player or GM may call for an Orky player to determine their Soc first, or to roll a d6 for their Soc to find the range within their 'sub-race' of orkydom.  Thus a Grot, or Goblin player would roll a D6 for their Soc, an Ork would roll a D6+5, and a Nob would roll a D6+9, with a minimum of 12.
Grotz: Gain a +2 to dex and are Small
Orkz: Gain a +2 to Str and End, but have Slow Metabolism
Nobz: Gain a +3 to Str and End, have Slow Metabolism and are Large

Orks cannot be Untouchables, and are highly resistant to disease, poison and for the most part even physical harm. A recently 'killed' ork (reduced to 0 in all attributes) may be healed by an Orky medic within an hour or so of death simply by bolting on metal gubbins or sewing body parts back together. Orks have 'survived' having their brains blown out of their heads by the expedient of nailing a metal plate over the hole.   Orks are in the main immune to fear, but they still express a primative survival instinct, so this is to be roleplayed rather than rule adjusted.  



A Note on balancing:  I make no real attempt to justify balance in this. The 40k Races are what they are, and it is up to players/GMs to ensure that parties can work together.  However, assuming Humanocentric adventures, the 'power' of the more non-human races is offset by their basic inability to get shit done.  An Orky freeboota hanging out wiht a bunch o humies isn't going to be able to participate in 'going to a dinner party', meaning that they may very well have to sit out a good portion of the game, in exchange for being a beast in a fight.  While the Space Marine MIGHT attend the dinner party, he won't do much other than stand around and look godlike, since he's hardly likely to have a dance with a maiden, and at least according to some lore couldn't even enjoy the food properly.




* This is MY personal explanation for how Space Marines can live hundreds of years but have comparatively few veterans and so many century old 'grunts' that can die anonymously, extrapolating from canon.  Feel free to discard it.

Careers and Traveller 40k:

To begin with we have the simple fundamental fact that Careers are both utterly unnecessary to creating a character in the system presented, yet are absolutely necessary to help convey the sense of, well, 40k for the characters.  While a great deal of what is presented here could be repurposed in expanding the races I have choosen to maintain the Career portion of character creation for good reasons.

In the main, a character's skills are entirely self-directed.  We may assume any number of utterly generic 'careers' such as 'fighting man' or 'criminal scum' which may be found across all the playable races.

As such a great deal of the Careers will be nothing more than basic guidelines, while more detailed careers will cover the more exotic life paths available, such as Space Marines and Aspect Warriors and the like.  Most of the details will be in things like background events and benefits tables.


The Generic 'Career':

There are many thousands of things people can do in the Imperium, and the same is true for each of the races.  As such a player should select their character's primary career, be it 'Guardsman' or 'Janitor' and write it on their sheet.

Any career should have at least 2 'primary skills' listed for it. For a Guardsman this may be Rifles and Tactics, as an example, and the player should have at least 2 ranks in each primary skill.

All careers use a single abstracted Rank structure with five steps.  While there may be many more, or in rare cases fewer, actual levels in the career, this abstract system reflects a simplified rule system and a sort of generic 'perception' system.  There are no commission/non-commission tables in this system.

In abstract: A character with zero rank is a basic bitch, a green behind the ears squaddie, a generic goober.
At Rank 1 he is treated like a competent professional
At Rank 2 he has some authority over his juniors (Sergeant or equivalent)
At Rank 3 he is a hardened veteran (Senior NCO or Junior Officer equivalent*, or Equivalent)
At Rank 4 he has a full command (Captain or equivalent)
At Rank 5 he is the top dog, the big boss man (Chapter Master or Equivalent)

Most people (PC or NPC) will be able to recognize a character's Rank in short order, faster if they have a similar Career, and will respond accordingly.  Characters within the same Career will naturally defer to their superiors in Rank (unless they are disobedient assholes by nature, of course)

Each level of rank comes with some benefit, usually a skill. For Guardsmen and other Men at Arms it might look like this:

Rank 1: Rifle 1
Rank 2: Tactics 1
Rank 3: Leadership 1
Rank 4: Tactics 1
Rank 5: Soc +1
Note that the basic career skills are the first skills improved by ranking up, followed by skills necessary to lead others, followed by a general increase in ones social standing at the top. This is the 'standard' format for Rank benefits.

Basic Kit: All careers are assumed to start with the fundamental equipment necessary to do their adventuring job. For technical careers this should include tool kits and the like and may include some rather fancy 'big ticket' items, for example a professional pilot should have a personalize Arvus Lighter or some similar craft as part of their kit.  As a general rule a player who sells, or attempts to sell off their basic kit for cash money should lose all their rank benefits of their career, seeing at they clearly have no intention of WORKING in that career.  If Kit is lost during play, it is assumed to be replaced by hook, crook or patron between adventures... after all, its a necessary part of their 'job'.

For a Guardsman basic Kit would include a Lasgun, a combat knife, a uniform, Flak armor and an entrenching tool. The GM may include some grenades if he feels generous.  The Guardsman could exchange the Lasgun for a Las Pistol and a Chainsword.

The Benefit Roll:

All careers have benefit rolls. Each player is assumed to have one free roll on the Benefit table to start with, and may get more through Aging rolls or buying them with BP.  Lets look at the generic Benefit Table:

1: Cash Money (1000 Thrones)
2: Upgraded Kit (exchange one piece of kit for an improved piece, say Flak to Carapace, Lasgun to Bolter)
3: Specialty Kit: Add/replace a piece of Kit with a more exotic type (lasgun for Meltagun)
4: Cash Money (10000 Thrones)
5: New Kit: Add something new to your Kit that you didn't have before
6: Archeotech: replace a piece of Kit or gain an item that is Archeotech (see equipment for Archeotech)

Note than anything that qualifies as Kit can be replaced if lost between adventures. Anything acquired with cash money or during play may be lost permanently.   There may be times when the GM delays replacing Kit, such as in the middle of an active adventure, but eventually the character should 'replace' their Kit. If a character somehow changes careers during play, they also replace their kit with the basic kit of their new career.

Event Rolls:
In the main, for expedience, I'm totally stealing the existing Event tables from the Traveller book. A character rolls one event just for existing (Life Event table, default), and should roll on an event table appropriate to their career for each Rank and each Aging roll they have. Obviously the events should be 'dressed up' to make them 40k, such as the Psionic event from the Life Event table makes one a Psyker,  for an Imperial this probably means a Wyrd, though with the GM permission the PC might be Sanctioned. For Eldar it simply means Gain a New Psychic Power, while for an Ork it means 'you are now a weirdboy' and for Tau it should be rerolled.


Imperium Careers:
Generic Careers: Guardmen, Enforcers/Arbites, Adepts (scholars), Gangers, Priests, Cult Assassins, pilots and tank drivers, ship crew, merchants, nobility
Notes: All Mechanicus have extensive Cybernetics as part of their Kit, to include Tech Priests and Skitarri (Guardmen in all but name).
Special: Space Marines, Sisters of Battle, Temple Assassins, Rogue Traders, Inquisitors, Knights

Eldar Careers: Note that there is an Eldar specific entry for 'generic' stuff.
Generic: Includes Guardians and Bonesingers, as well as Rangers
Aspect Warriors: treat as Guardians with specific kit and one or more Aspect psychic powers
Warlocks and Farseers: 'generic' Psyckers using the Eldar rules for Psychics
Archons and Wytches: Still 'generic'
Haemonoculus and Mandrake: Notable entry
Harlequins: Honestly... I'm going to save these for later.  Mostly they are generic, almost defined by their kit. Also, I'm not entirely up on all their lore.

Orks:
Pretty much everything the Orks do is generic fighter crap. Orks have very simple careers by default. If they are psychic they are weirdboyz, using weirdboyz rules, Maddoks and Big Meks are doctors and scientist types, etc.  There will be a single generic Orky entry.

Tau:  Practically define Generic Careers, as their life path is laid out by their Caste.  

Kroot:  We generally only see Kroot Mercenaries in 40k, except for the Shapers, which are as noted a Psychic career.  We can assume Kroot have other jobs and skill sets that we haven't seen. Krootox Riders and Kroot Hound handlers are simply Kroot with the appropriate skills, obviously.


Now for the 'hard part', the unique and vibrant 40k Careers that need special entries...

Mechanicus:  All Mechanicus are heavily cybernetically augmented, depending on their job. Skitarri have multiple bionic limbs and implanted armor as part of their kit, while techpriests start with potentia coils, mechadendrites and augmetic mantles. In all cases a gain in rank should include, automatically, another piece of cybernetics being added to their Kit.    Mechanicus characters are fluent in both Gothic and Binary Cant.  Tech Priest Career Skills will always be technical (this may include biological sciences and medicine), while Skitarri function similarly to guardsmen, only with different 'Kit', namely Galvanic Weapons and Cybernetic Armor instead of Flak.  In general any 'new kit' for a Mechanicus should be cybernetic in nature.

Space Marines:

Many of the 19 implants of the Space Marine can be covered with existing cybernetic or trait rules, and shockingly many don't require actual rules in themselves. The Soldier Organ Package covers quite a bit, and the Black Carapace provides a modest amount of Subdermal Armor (3) as well as the Nerve Plug Response Rig for their Power Armor (battle Dress).  Space Marines are fluent in Gothic, and generally speak in High Gothic to the exclusion of all else.  ALL Space Marines have 20 of their BP spent for them on skills, to whit:  Gun Combat: Bolter 4, Melee: Blades 3, Tactics: Military 3, Athletics 3, Vacc Suit 2, Melee: Unarmed 2, Heavy Weapon (choice) 3

Space Marine Kit is also pretty standardized, and largely dependent upon Rank and tactical role.
Note that ALL Space Marines have as part of their Kit an Astartes Combat Knife, and all Space Marine weapons use the Astartes trait.

Scouts: Rank 0 to 3:   All Space Marines start as Scouts, but many chose to remain as Scouts for their entire careers.  Scouts are the only Space Marines not to wear some form of Power Armor, instead wearing 'Astartes Carapace', or Scout Armor. Rank 2 or 3 Scouts may upgrade a Bolter to a Stalker Bolter.

Kit: Choice of weapon: Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Shotgun, Heavy Bolter, Sniper Rifle, Missile Launcher, Scout Armor, Cameoline Cloak, Auspex

Tactical Marines: Rank 1-3: Choose 'Doctrine': Tactical, Assault, Devastator.  Kit choices only vary slightly: Assualt Marines are armed with pistols and chainswords and have a Jet Pack, Devastators (except Sergeants) carry Heavy Weapons, Tactical Marines almost exclusively stick to Bolters, but some may carry Flamers, Meltaguns or Plasmaguns (Kit Upgrade benefits typically), all wear Marine Power Armor (Battledress equivalent), and grenades. Sergeants (Rank 2 or 3) may carry Bolt Pistols and Chainswords.

TechMarines, Apothacaries, Ancients: Rank 3+ only:

Techmarines are highly trained by the Mechanicus after their time as a Scout, and as such must have technical skills in addition to their basic Marine skills.  Techmarines can achieve Rank 5, where they are the Chapter Master of the Forge, but TechMarines never lead other Marines.  They often command Servitors on the battlefield, which are available as Kit Additions.  Tech Marine Kit includes Artificer Armor, Servo-Arm, Bolt Pistol and Power Axe as standard.

Apothacaries: Similar to Techmarines, they are trained by the Mechanicus Medicae shortly after their Scout training and serve as medics, having both Medical and Science Biology Skill. In addition to combat medicine, they also are responsible (at higher ranks) for turning children into supersoldiers, and they maintain the Geneseed of their chapter.   Kit is: Power Armor, Bolt Pistol and Narthecium

Ancients: Ancients are 'banner men', a position of high honor earned by years of service and achieving veteran status. Marines of great bravery but no particular tactical or leadership accumen may chose to stay in this position as they rise in rank, gaining honor and glory by serving their captain or chapter master faithfully.  Ancients also maintain the chapter's relics and banners off the battlefield, serving under the Chaplains in this position.  Kit: Power Armor, Bolt Pistol, Banner or Relic. An Ancient also may upgrade or augment their kit once for free.

Veterans:

At Rank 3 a Space Marine is a Veteran. Many stay with the Tactical or Scout Squads, often as Sergeants, others leapfrog in limited positions such as Techmarines and Apothacaries.  For those who stuck in the ranks until they'd proven themselves, options open up for them (see Ancients above for one example), to include Champion, Sternguard, Vanguard, Honor Guard, Terminators, centurians and others.  In general these options tend to have improved kit over staying with the Tactical brothers (note: See a codex for their kit... I've laid out the structure here already...).

Command: (Ranks 4 and 5)

Captain: A Veteran Marine who rises to Rank 4 is generally made a company commander, a Captain. If there are no captaincies available, he may instead serve as a Lieutenant, or a detachment commander, to test his skills.  Captains default to very simple Kit, but tend to have a lot of options to upgrade. Generally a Captain's choice of wargear reflects his background as a Tactical Marine or Veteran, but their 'basic kit' is bolt pistol, chainsword and power armor, though they may add a bolter to this if they like.  A Captain should also chose one additional piece of kit, such as Terminator Armor or a Jump pack, or a Storm Shield. Captains also have an Iron Halo force field.

Chaplain:  Rather than rising to direct command, the more zealous may enter the Chaplaincy. This is not 'bypassing' command, as Chaplains serve regularly as combat commanders, though they have no permanent command. Chaplains must have leadership skills as well as persuade, as well as Psychology and theology.  Chaplains are heavily involved in training new Marines, and help oversee the Hypnoindoctrination.   Like Captains, they get an upgrade or augment to their Kit:  Power Weapon, Rosarious Force Field, Power Armor, Bolt Pistol

Librarians: A Marine with a Psy Score is automatically elevated to the Librarian status, after they've been sanctioned on Holy Terra.  Weak Librarains (as Psy is rated) don't see much use outside their cloisters, but high powered Psychic Librarians often serve as battlefield commanders, even if relatively young and untested.  Kit: Power Armor, Psychic Hood, Force Weapon, Bolt Pistol

Benefits: Space Marines do not collect Cash Money, but instead should replace rolls for Cash Money with Kit Upgrade and Kit Augment respectively.  Aside from small tokens and trophies, Space Marines generally don't carry anything BUT Kit.

Primaris Marines:  

Rather than go through all that again, Primaris Marines are generally just like regular Marines, only bigger and slightly stronger (Add another level of Large, and +1 to Str and End), with some minor differences in Kit, see the Codex if you can't figure it out from the equipment chapter.  Note that Primaris don't really do Scouts or Veterans, and generally stick with pre-defined roles.

Marines in Parties:

Marines are very big on conformity, with some chapters even punishing with death excessive pride in one's abilities.  Not surprisingly there are a number of relief valves in place to remove the more individualistic marines from the Chapter without wasting their lives, to include Deathwatch duties, Kill Teams, penance missions and, perhaps most importantly (for us?), detachments to honored Inquisitors or Rogue Traders.   In all cases a small number (even... one) of Marines, often with freer access to Wargear to suit their temperment (or ability to beg, borrow or steal from the armory) are sent forth for decades to represent their Chapter in some far off place.   Some even return with high honor and eventually rise to command, where their individualistic temperment is actually a benefit to the Chapter, rather than a hindrance.  Its not unheard of for a Marine to assign himself a personal crusade or quest and beg leave of his chapter to pursue it.

Marines have no use for money, even then. In the Imperium they will expect a certain level of deference and support, and will not shirk repaying those favors with their own services. Essentially its an 'honor economy' where Marines are concerned, and demanding payment from a Marine Errant is a good way to get shot in the face.  Chapters normally provide all the equipment a Marine needs, and for Errants, the Mechanicum or depots for the Munitorum can provide some repair parts and ammunition even for the Astartes, though this can be unreliable for a Penitent Marine.  More official detachments will normally bring truly inspiring amounts of ammunition with them, and will ensure the local Mechanicus are prepared to produce more if needed.  

Events: Marines do not roll on Life Events, but instead roll on the Marines table (from Traveller, per existing protocol). Any 'roll' for life events indicates a period of detached duty, such as Deathwatch service, in the prior career of said Marine.


Sisters of Battle:
All Sororitas Characters must have Vacc Suit 2.  Battle sisters (not including Hospitallers and others) must also have training in Bolters of at least 2.   Psy among Sororitas represents access to Faith powers. Kit always includes Sororitas Power Armor and a Sororitas weapon (Bolter, Flamer, bolt pistol and chainsword).  Penitent Sisters are not playable normally.

Temple Assassins:
Heavily augmented (Equivalent of Soldier Implants for all three physical stats, treat as a +2 to Str, Dex and End, as well as the Fast Metabolism Trait (+2 Initiative)), they have no other lives outside their profession, per se.  Assume 30 BP are pre-spent for them. Note that Assassins do not get free Benefit Rolls, nor can they take Aging rolls unless they are renegades from their Temple.

Note that only Callidus and Vindicare are properly playable.  Benefit rolls indicate items gained during an extended mission, as their kit isn't really upgradable, and would be reclaimed if they returned to their Temple.

Pre-spent skills:  Gun Combat: Exitus 5 (V), Melee Blades 5 {C}, Athletics 5, Melee: Unarmed 5, Stealth 5,  Survival 5 (V), Deception 5 {C}, Recon 5 (V) Streewise 5 {C}

[Ed. Note: Rather than tediously grinding through exact lists of gear, I'll trust that proper Kits can be gleaned from other 40k sources, and the format I've outlined demonstrates a rough idea of how it works.  Call it laziness, I call it doing this for free on a lark. The odd bracket choice for C above is to prevent the system from converting them all to © symbols...]


Eldar Careers:

Any given Eldar may take Psychic Skills as Career Skills, as they are a psychic race.  Eldar generally have Psychic skills in their Rank paths.

Benefits: Eldar don't have archeotech so much as they have relics from Pre-Fall era, which are functionally Archeotech for the rules.  Other than Rangers Eldar don't collect Cash Money in Thrones, but in some esoteric version of Eldar money, but it functions the same.

Aspect Warriors: A combination of Kit and specific 'aspect' psychic powers. An eldar may have multiple aspect powers, reflecting a long winding career as a warrior, but would only be an aspect warrior if they actually have the proper Kit for it.

Warlocks and Farseers: In general we'll treat Farseers as the upper ranks of the generic Eldar Psychic career, with Warlocks occupying the lower tiers.  Other than Kit, the only other difference is that Farseers focus more on precognitive psykic powers.

Haemonculi:  Their weird flesh crafting business is reflected in access to 'cybernetics' using the biological trait..  Should have plenty of medical and science skills, naturally.

Mandrakes: Honestly I'm not sure. I'm outside my lore depths, but I'm thinking their weird darkness powers are manifestations of psykic powers, so its another case of 'check the psychic chapter' biz, which is looking like its going to be multiple chapters?

Orks:  What can I say that I haven't said? Orks use Orky gear for Kit, use Teeth for Cash Money, and instead of Archeotech may get Loota gear, which is gear from other races that has been orkified.

Tau:  In general a Tau's Career must reflect their Caste and vice versa.  Instead of Archeotech, Tau have access to Prototype equipment, which tends to be powerful but unstable.  Tau do use money (they have a merchant caste, after all), and on things like Life Events they can have events like Bonding Ritual instead of marriage.   While Tau tend to be conformists, they do allow a fair amount of individuality within that conformity, unlike the much more regimented space marines.  In fact, to a degree eccentricity is equated with potential greatness, as unlike the conformity of the Space Marines (imposed by doctrine and indoctrination) the Tau come by theirs naturally, and respect and admire the individuals who have the strength of personality to overcome it.   Of course, straying too far from The Greater Good is Bad, but a little time serving among barbarians can teach any Tau the value of The Greater Good...


*In promotion systems where a Lieutenant is an officer basic bitch (the US Army comes to mind) then their rank would be zero. Rank has less to do with pay in this system and more to do with general authority and respect.  This system assumes that in the Imperium Officers either rise through the ranks or have much more training than their subordinates. Note that a Rank 2 soldier could still be a junior officer, and a Rank 1 might very well be a well trained but newly commissioned officer. This is abstract, so you'll have to put on your big boy pants to interpret it.







Post Note:  So, I think I got too in-the-weeds with the Space Marines portion of it. If I were honestly planning on running this I'd have to sit down and revamp existing Event Roll tables to properly 40k them, but honestly I think anyone using this as a jumping off point has more than enough information to do that on their own without me.  As I hope I made clear in the beginning, this is a thought experiment, a brain-storm on how it can be done.   My goal is to make it fully usable, without gnawing on the details much.

If I get a lot of positive feedback (high RandyB!) I may do a second draft as a more cleaned up/usable doc with all those reworked tables for Benefits and Events and the like.  As with any first-draft brainstorm project, as I move along I get wild ideas as I go, and old stale ideas get tossed about in the noggin and revealed for the crap they were... making a second pass desirable.  I promise nothing! NOTHING!   Anyway: that's part of the fun of doing a project like this... finding those areas that take turns you didn't anticipate when you just had a vague notion in the brain-fog.


EDIT TO ADD: Crap, forgot to include the Inquistor and Rogue Trader parts. Hell, I'll do those as a separate post later.  I"m gonna let 'em churn in my subconscious a little longer.

Traveller 40k Skills

In the main I don't see too much work here, though admittedly I haven't gone into the weeds of psychic powers yet.

I don't see a Lore skill, and I really feel that the game needs one, so we can assume there is an EDU based skill covering Lore, with all those pretty sub catagories of lore that 40k has (where, among other issues, knowledge is not free...)

As a general note, a large number of skills will also have racial variants, which are treated like any other sub-skill (default to 0). I had considered banning certain races from certain skills, but upon pondering the possibilities of Orkish Lawyers, I realized that was dumber than Orkish Lawyers so yes, absolutely there are Orks out there who diligently master Orkish Diplomacy (I hear it involves a lot of 'eadbutting), though the other Orks probably think there is something wrong with them.

Admin: No change other than Racial Sub-skills
Advocate: No change other than Racial Sub-Skills
Animal Handling: No change
Art: No Change, but note that other races generally only have a dim appreciation for art from other races
Astrogation: No change. Note: the Imperium and the Eldar generally don't use Astrogation for Warp Travel (though they can... its deeply inferior, however. See Space chapters for more.)
Athletics: No change
Broker: No Change other than Racial Sub-Skills
Carouse: No Change other than Racial Sub-Skills
Deception: No Change
Diplomat: No Change other than Racial Subskills. Note that Xeno-Diplomats (such as exist) will generally attempt to learn the sub-skill of the race they are diplomating too.
Drive: No Change, but Racial variants for all existing Sub-Skills.
Electronics: Change Computers to Cogitators. Remote Ops is rare outside of Tau, Racial variants and all that.  Very common among Mechanicus, but not exclusive to them (in the Imperium)
Engineer: Very Rare outside Mechanicus (and considered by the Mechanicus to be heretical outside their ranks), racial sub-skill variants, J-drive is 'warp drive'.
Explosives: No change other than Racial variants.
Flyer: No Change other than Racial sub-skill variants
Gambler: No change other than Racial variants
Gunner:  Macro-battery, Lance, Torpedo, Nova, Shields. Racial Variations of same. See Space
Gun Combat:  Archaic, Energy and Slug, with variations for racial technologies. This may seem to contradict the earlier Careers chapter, but thats a simple fix: Swap Gun Combat Bolter for Slug.  
Heavy Weapons: No change other than Racial Variations
Investigate; No Change
Jack of all Trades; Removed (provisional)
Language: Imperial Characters generally have Gothic, chose high or low, with the other at default (0), Eldar have on primary language shared by all sub-tribes, but may have dialects that use the default, Orks speak Orkish, but for some reason can communicate to all races at Default, but generally can't learn languages beyond that Tau speak Tau, but also have caste languages that default to 0 from the basic tau. Kroot speak Kroot and generally learn Tau and may learn Low Gothic.  There is a Necron Language and dozens, probably hundreds of minor languages all over the joint.
Leadership: No change other than Racial variants.  Note that leading others outside your race is difficult due to how Soc works. Orkish Leadership is based on Str more than Soc, however and if learned by non-orks (why???) could be used without significant penalty if they are strong enough.
Mechanic: Racial Variations. Common among the Mechanicus, but also taught widely to soldiers and ship crews who assist the Mechanicus.
Medic: Racial Variations
Melee: No Change
Navigation: No Change
Persuade: Racial Variations. Note than in the Imperium a certain type of firebrand harangue is the most common type of persuasion, while the wheedling con-man style presented in the Traveller rules is comparatively rare.  Most Imperials, outside the Mechanicus, respond positively to being screamed at while someone waves fire around madly.
Pilot: Aside from Racial Variations, it should be noted that Spacecraft, as Traveller defines them, are extraordinarily rare among all races.  Most pilots will be trained in Small-craft, with a small minority trained in Capital Ships (and who are probably also trained in Small Craft to some extent, though not necessarily vice versa).
Profession: I'm... not going to muck about with this one.  The sample specialties in MT2 aren't really 40k flavor, but the skill itself is fine.
Recon: No Change
Science: Only common among Adepts and Mechanicus, with some racial variations thrown in. This is a minor case, like Profession, that would take a lot of work to unfuck that isn't really worth it for this post. Second Draft with a complete entry maybe.
Seafarer: Rare but unchanged except for racial variants.
Stealth: Unchanged
Steward: Racial Variants, naturally
Streetwise: racial variations
Survival: Unchanged
Tactics; Unchanged
Vacc Suit: Unchanged except for Racial Variations. Note that this is your Battledress skill in MT2, used for qualifying for Power Armor.  Tweak SM notes in earlier post: In addition to qualifying for increasingly complex Power Armor, this skill is also the cap for all other physical skills performed while WEARING Power Armor. (This is a change from MT2).

Like I said: I figure to add in a Lore Skill to cover knowledge of esoteric topics that don't rise ot the level of a science, but that's a simple add.

Easy as pie, eh?

Traveller 40K Equipment

Unfortunately for me, I don't really think I can take shortcuts here, per se.  

Lets dispose of certain points up front: There will be no discussion of Tech Levels, full stop.  Frankly we can say that Eldar tech is higher than Imperium (Human) tech, but things get shadier when discussing the Tau and Necrons, and the god damn orks arguably don't even have technology per se, just janky looking fetishes for their collective psychic energy to focus on.  

Second, in keeping with Traveller's general standard, I'm not going to get into the weeds on individual makes and models and all that jazz, which is certainly a suitable approach for 40k.  Sure: I'd love a traveller 40k gun catalog with umpteen variations on Bolters, but we're not going to get that any time soon, so don't hold your breath, you'll only turn funny colors and pass out.

Lets talk Kit upgrade paths for a moment.  Now there is some crossover (at least in this draft...) between upgrading and replacing, but in general a schema might look like this.

Bolter>Mastercrafted Bolter>Plasmagun>Mastercrafted Plasmagun

Leaving three potential upgrades for a basic item of Kit.

A Replacement Kit path would skip the Mastercrafted, but would allow more options.

Bolter> Melta/Flamer/Plasma/Shotgun/Grenade Launcher etc.  So if you rolled a replacement and an upgrade and really wanted that MC Plasmagun, you can have it in two steps instead of three.

This can get fiddly. Take a longer potential chain of upgrades:

Laspistol>Bolt Pistol>Plasma Pistol>Inferno Pistol... complete with MC steps for each. A replacement shouldn't allow you to just jump up to Inferno Pistol, should it?  Maybe, maybe not.  In theory I can work around this with 'tiers' of equipment, so a Replace shouldn't jump tiers, but that gets wiggy when looking at plasma, which is often both a replace and an upgrade, depending on the role (See: Tactical Marines using Plasmaguns as replacement kit, while Plasma Pistols are significant upgrades for the Sergeant of the squad)

All in all, its enough to make me ponder chucking the Kit and Codex idea right out the window... which isn't a bad thought, but neither is it a good thought, so lets muddle on a bit longer and see where it goes.

Now: A clear unambiguous path is Quality.   We can presume that most gear is of at least average quality, skipping shoddy gear for now. This gives us three or four tiers of 'quality'

Normal>Mastercrafted>Relic>Archeotech

Though I'm inclined to fold Relic and Archeotech into one category, and I'm reluctant to allow 'upgrading' to Archeotech as that cheapens the idea of ancient, rare and precious, and makes the archeotech Roll on the benefits table seem a bit redundant.   Of course there are lateral tiers that can exist in that framework, but I'm too lazy to format that graphically in word for you. So daemonic or sanctified weapons are the same tier as Relic weapons but aren't directly in the upgrade path, right?

Generic as a way of life:

One aspect of my concept here is to treat all 'classes' of weaponry under generic standards with common and easily handled modifiers.  Lets take a look at the idea in abstract with the Primaris Bolt Rifle.

So we start with a Bolter, which could be 'modified' to a Bolt Pistol, reducing its range and damage. We'll quantify Bolters as Carbines by default, but thats optional.  As Primaris are Astartes, we add an Astartes Modifier, giving our Bolt Rifle a standard upgrade to damage (Astartes weapons are bigger, so they hit harder within our level of granularity). As its a Bolt Rifle we upgrade it from a Carbine to a full sized Rifle, giving another (minor) boost in damage and a bigger boost to the range of the Standard Bolter (or optionally, the Bolter is downgraded from the standard Rifle, or alternatively, the Bolter is treated like a rifle and the Bolt Rifle is 'long barreled' like the Long Laz).

So ALL Bolters start from “Bolter” and go from there. Storm Bolters simply add increased firepower (double barrel or somesuch, though the Storm Bolter would probably better be served as a separate weapon in this case, as its literally the only Storm- weapon in the system on this scale.)

This way there is no need to grind out every possible variation that exists in 40k. Yeah, lazy, but also elegant/clever?

It might be taking it too far, but the generic concept can move further. Shuriken weapons, for example, have nearly identical mechanics to Bolters except for being Eldar weapons, at the wargame level of granularity, so in theory we could simply take 'Bolter' and allow 'Eldar' as an option, with Eldar Bolter eventually being Shuriken Weapon...  I think that it would work, but its probably offensively reductive, so we'll skip it.

Of course, working out the exact modifiers will be the chore, but we've got a more important step ahead of us, which is Benchmarking. There is no purpose in trying to work out weapon stats without a clear understanding of what the numbers will actually mean!

And it will be much easier to benchmark from Armor, giving us the 'range' in which our weapons will have to be able to damage.  Luckily, 40k, despite having a vast array of races, actually has a small range of protections, most of which are reasonably map-able to Traveller's existing equipment! Huzzah!

So what are we looking at?

Well, in 40k we can look at it from tiers.

6+ Armor is primative crap and tough skin or leather ponchos
5+ is Flak armor (Imperial Guard) or Mesh (Eldar), and the tough hides and leather clothes of Orks
4+ Is Carapace, basically Hard Armor of some sort, used by Imperium Storm Troopers, Aspect Warriors, Tau and so forth.
3+ Is Power Armor or equivalents
2+ Is monsterously heavy armors, Terminator armor or Centurian Armor, or Mega-Armor (orks), which usually includes an invulnerable save...

Of course that implies that certain weapons will have some form of penetration, which is fine. Of course, getting into man-portable heavy weapons we run into issues mostly in ensuring they have the firepower to punch through tank armor on par with their counterparts.  Thankfully we can simply ignore the existing guidelines on instant kill weapons... the wargame's lack of granularity produces weird artifacts like infantry surviving hits from anti-tank missiles (Krak in 40k lingo) one time in six... we don't need to keep that, but we WILL need to benchmark vehicle armor to get heavy weapons more or less correct at the top end.

On that note, lets then assume that anything with a strength of 7+ in 40k translates to a Destructive Weapon for Traveller 40k, and start from there.  Super simple starting guideline is that each point of strength (seven, eight, nine and ten, or 1-4) translates to the number of DD damage dice (or, for old school notation 1-4d6x10) as a starting point. Armor penetration and other effects may alter that equation eventually.

Back to our Benchmark Armor:

Starting from the Traveller Equipment table we can project the following, largely ignoring the 6+ save crowd (armor from 1-3?)

Flak/Mesh armor has a value of 5 as a base
Carapace has a value of 15
Power Armor has a value of 25
Terminator Armor has a value of 35

PA is right in line with Battledress, which was the plan, while Carapace comes in a bit under Combat Armor, and the linear extrapolation for Terminator Armor seems too easy, but what the hell.  To include the 'invulnerable' part, we can presume that armor can be hardened to ignore a certain amount of AP, so Terminator armor might ignore up to 15 points of AP?  Its a thought.  

A Note on Power Armor: like Traveller Battledress Power Armor increases the Wearer's Strength to a significant degree, which was the plan even when I was working up the Space Marine 'rules' earlier, for those of you bitching that a measly +2 Str seems weak. Okay, no one said that, but I heard you anyway!

On the subject of Force Fields, my initial thought is to have them simply absorb a fixed amount of damage (obviously ignoring AP values along the way), recovering a set amount each turn. Of course, 40k Force Fields can be a bit fiddly, including effects like teleporting out of the way and so forth, so that's merely a starting point.  For Void-Shields the standard across multiple interpretations is that they simply absorb one hit of sufficient force per shield, each 'turn', but they don't exist at the character level, so we'll ignore them for the moment.

Moving forwards we know that a Bolter outright ignores Flak, so we can assume it has 5 points of AP value in addition to its damage.  A Plasmagun ignores PA, but then a PG has a strength of 7, which means its doing 1DD of damage, so AP is sort of irrelevant at that point?  Something to think on, anyway. A meltagun is doing 2DD, or 20-120 pts of damage, so we could more or less ignore Terminator Armor, which is right in line, meanwhile Lasguns are infamously pathetic.

Starting from that idea... an MT2 Lasgun does 3-5 dice of damage depending on its class (Pistol, carbine, rifle), which utterly blows through even Flak...

So maybe our Flak is weak? Without adding any AP, even a laspistol can get through Carapace, if rarely, so we're doing... ok, I guess, while a Lazgun (laser rifle) with 5d damage can, on rare occasion, hurt even Power Armor.

So our real issue is that Flak feels inconsequential, even more than it should.  This is our baseline gun against our benchmarked armor, and the numbers more or less are adding up, just not the way I expected?

So we're looking at two variables here, Damage and Penetration.  For a simple starting rule (Generic is Cool), if our default Str 3 Lasgun does 5d6 damage, then every point of strength adds one die of damage? So a Pulse Rifle and a Heavy Bolter do 7d6 damage?  Scaling down 'size' drops a step, scaling up size adds a step?  So a Long Pulse Rifle (not that we've seen such a creature to my knowledge) would do 8d6 damage, while the absurd concept of a Heavy Bolter-Pistol (not a Heavy Bolt Pistol, that's a different critter!) would do... 4d6?

Hmm.. simple universal solutions make a decent framework, but clearly tweaking for individual cases will be necessary.  We can also adjust the dice another way, with pluses and minuses, and we've got AP to consider.

Mind you, this is all preliminary, even the armor. A real difference on our increased granular level between types of PA is clearly called for (Space Marine armor should be tougher, objectively, than the smaller, lighter Sororitas armor, just as an example, while Tau Carapace should be different on some level from Imperial Carapace), the Benchmarks are  more or less the average range for type, I guess?

While I'd love to keep stealing from MT to cut my workload, I think we need to pull back and consider our translation.

Essentially a point of strength equates a dice of damage to 6, after six it equates to a DD. This creates a working scale of sorts, though the jump in damage between six and seven is rough.  As a starting point this is fine, but it will mean odd artifacts where certain configurations of weapons will not quite directly translate properly, and we haven't addressed Str X weapons (needlers and poisoned weapons), which may need a case by case 'design' rather than the universal (generic) framework.

For Ranges I'm going to ignore, mostly, the tabletop

So now to put this together.  Lets do a sample, applying on the fly some of the lessons learned.

Lasgun (Base): Damage 3d6, AP 0, Range 200m
Las Carbine (shortened) Damage 3d6-1, Range 100m
Las Pistol: Damage 3d6-3, Range 50m
Long-Laz Damage 3d6+1, Range 300m
Heavy Las Pistol: 3d6, 25m
Hotshot(heavy) Lasgun: 3d6+3, 100m
Heavy Laz (lazcannon): System does not Scale to Heavy, treat as individual weapons

Of course, I didn't do anything with Ammo, which would probably make more sense for the heavy than cranking down the range.

So we've got a vague framework here, and in the example I added a bit of modifier (Heavy Caliber) as a thought experiment.

We can go a step further and make a purely figmentary Astartes Lasgun:  3d6+3, 200m
Or a heavy Astartes Lasgun: 3d6+6, 100m?

Exact numbers may be the issue.  Lets do the same for Bolters

Bolt Pistol 4D6-4, Range 50m, AP 5
Heavy Bolt Pistol: 4d6, 25m, AP 5
Bolter (carbine): 4d6-1, 100m AP 5, Auto 3
Astartes Bolter: 4d6+3, 100m AP 5, Auto 3
Bolt Rifle: 4d6, 200m AP 5 Auto 3
Astartes Bolt Rifle 4d6+4 200m AP 5 Auto 3
Long Bolt Rifle: 4d6+4 300m AP 5, Auto 3 (Notional weapon, naturally...)

Now, this is merely the framework numbers, and you can see that for right now being Astartes and being Heavy are nearly identical traits, at least for damage.  But lets keep using them for now: One thing to note is that our Astartes Bolter does an average of 17 points of damage per shot, ignoring 5 points of armor, which means it pretty reliably cuts through Carapace armor, but not overwhelmingly so, and can, with a bit of luck, put some hurt on Power Armor as well, so at least we're hitting our benchmarks.

As an aside, an Astartes Heavy Bolter would do 5d6+5 and have an AP of 15, with a range of about 400m, with Auto 5 (notional numbers for range and Auto).

Hows that stack up to Carapace? Well, it ignores it outright, which is how it works in the wargame. How's it stack up to Power Armor?

Well, 25 points of average damage, against 10 points of armor after AP, thats enough to reliably put down a Space Marine with one shot, but probably not enough to kill him outright unless its a great hit.

Seems... a bit overkill maybe? Hard to say. I was originally going to go with 10 AP for the heavy bolter, and I think that might just be the right call there.  So AP scales in increments of 5 instead of ten (ignoring the rare and crappy AP 6 Warhammer 40k weapons...)

That does leave a question for things like Power Weapons, though the simplest answer may be best, I think.

Bears the question: Plasma against PA?

Also; Scaling Plasmaguns down to pistol size?

Lets default Plasma Pistols to 1DD-5, or 1d6x10-5, or a range of 5-55pts of damage. They have an AP of 15, which might seem low since they 'ignore' Power Armor, but if we scaled them up to 25 AP, they'd be TOO effective against Terminator/Mega Armor, while the Average, after armor, Space Marine Shot is still a brutal 15-25 points of damage, with a top end of 40 points, which I think is pretty much an Insta-gib for most Marines given the rules so far.  So, I think our Generic framework is holding up.

A non-question for this project would be how much of my work to show to gamers, but since this is a design forum and a cheapo brainstorm, I think showing all my work is actually a good idea.

Now: some weapons can be found in multiple races hands, like Lasguns (Eldar), Meltaguns (Again, Eldar) Plasma guns (Tau, maybe Eldar?), so we'll have modifiers for those suckers too.  The question that comes up is should Eldar weapons be more accurate (Bonus to Hit) or more accurate (longer Range?) or something else?  How about Tau weapons, when they cross over racial lines?

With the existing framework I, or really anyone, can do a reasonable job porting over weapons... so far. There are still questions to answer, such as vehicle armor scaling and so forth.  Clearly Heavy Plasma weapons gain an AoE and range rather than increased damage and AP, stuff like that.

But we've got the baseline, so most of what's left regarding weapons is grindy grunt work and filing down any oddities that crop up.   Ditto armor, though we haven't really dealt with Force Fields properly yet, but that will be simple once I dig up a list of the exact types of 40k force fields.  I think a 'chance of activating' all or nothing sort of rule will cover most of it.

Yes, virgina, I will do the grindy grunt work. Later, once I've finished nailing down the rest of the conversion work. I still got lots to do, yanno?

So a quick note on melee weapons: Honestly? I'm pretty much going to put it out there as 'use the weapons as exist in MT as is.  There are totally stolen 40k knock offs of things like chain weapons and such, so use them!

Whew. That's done for that, eh? Ok, so that was totally unsatisfying, but I'll come back to them when I get to the grindy bit, m'kay?

Heh. So... I just looked up the MT2 equivalent of a powersword in the Supply Catalog. AP 30, or enough AP to give a terminator pause.

So... on the right track.

Of course, shock weapons and power-fists and the like don't really match up, and the Psi-Blades seem like a crappy substituite for Force Weapons, so...

For Shock weapons, adding the Stun effect seems obvious, but that runs into the problem that in 40k, Shock Weapons are supposed to Hurt Worse, there is no weeny 'non-lethal' in 40k. Life is too damn cheap for that!  My initial thought is that Shock Weapons do damage twice, once as whatever weapon they are (almost always something blunt, like a big faaking hammer), then again as Stun.  Thats... unsatisfying, but simple and simple is good.

Power Fists and their manyfold equivalents:  This one is a doozy, as the mechanism provided in 40k simply doesn't translate to Traveller.  In my generic Guideline, a normal human using a powerfist is chalking up 6d6 damage, while an Astartes or an Ork is chalking up 2DD, or 2d6x10, and that's before we talk AP (lets steal the AP30 from our erstatz power sword, why not?).  

But while that works, it presents a small problem: its not a scaleable rule, its a purely ad hoc work-around, and we've got to include rules to govern how ungainly these weapons are for all their power, and presumably toss in something for the upgrade to Chain-fists for them Termy bastards to use.  As irritating as it is, I think we'll keep it this way unless something smart happens, so this will be an exception to the usual Astarte upgrade to weapons.
So I still need Str X weapons and probably a better take on Force Weapons than I have, and really I should be doing moar bettah work on melee all around, but I'm not, so suck it.

Honestly?  I don't think there IS a generic answer to Str X. Simply put, weapons that rely on poison will need to use poison rules, while weapons that rely on other mechanisms will need other solutions. The idea of translating the Neural Shredder is giving me gas, and most Sniper Rifles will simply have to be high damage/high accuracy weapons, or poison 'needler' type devices.

As for Force Weapons, the MT2 rules for Psi blades gives a modest amount of bonus damage and decent AP and the ability to 'boost' damage by spending Psy points.  Honestly, it falls a little flat, but its functional, and doing “more” will require an in depth dive on psykers anyway. Besides, Force Weapons seem to have a number of different effects depending on the edition, and insta-gib anything seems a bit... wobbly for the translation. Much as I hate to do it, I'm taking the lazy way out for this one.

Right. So that's the framework for weapons. Just the framework, but I think its solid work.  Plenty of margin tinkering, but thats another day, another project...  That also covers armor reasonably well, though again, I still have tinkering to do, another day, another project.

Conventional equipment seems short and sweet, so lets knock that out of the way: Much of the MT2 equipment either exists as is (with different names and/or appearances), or it doesn't.  Going through the two list (MT2 and WH40K) to reconcile the two is mere grindy grunt work, and outside the scope of today's project. Honestly, if you're using this at home, you probably don't need me to hold your hand on this part. I'm lazy enough for both of us.

Computers, on the other hand... I'm tempted to write them right out, stick in a note about data slates and cogitators and move on.  That's the right track, but I think its.. too... extreme. Lets put a pin in that idea and move on for now.

Augements/Cybernetics:

Okay, so this is interesting territory. Lets start with a bit of a racial overview for the non-humans.

Eldar don't do cybernetics. Eldar who are maimed can get pretty much life-like replacements from advanced psychic healing and/or advanced living psycho-memetic plastics (Wraithbone) that function just like the real thing.  Some canon nazi can check me on this and I'll happily change my stance.

Tau don't really do Augements, but they do use various neural implants and the like, usually with a very specific effect in mind.

Orks normally just bolt on a crude hunk of metal in something approximating the right shape and somehow it just works.  Some Mega-armored Nobz are literally Ork heads crammed onto crude robotic bodies.

So, we're just going to deal with Imperium tech here for the nonce. Orky Bioniks will require a seperate entry and Tau implants are distinct as well.  Putting all that in will be at least a little 'grindy', and you know how I feel about grindy stuff.

Were going to skip right over 'crude' bionics, which mostly means things like peg legs and hook hands and glass eyeballs. Quality largely comes down to aesthetics, actually.
Unlike Traveller, 40k's Imperium LURVES it some bionics, and they usually make no bones about showing them off.  To be sure, most people seem to have some sort of 'work' done on them to help customize them for the job or to help off-set the process of aging, and most of that 'little stuff' we're going to ignore. If your guy has pipes coming out of his head, that's your business.
[ed. Note: Wrath and Glory, coincidentally, does have a rather elegant explanation for the artwork, praise where it is due. Honestly, a lot of 'augements' in Trav are abstract and systemic enough to justify all that weird artwork, so feel free to keep that in mind.]

Imperium Cybernetics are always obvious, rugged and usually, but not always, pretty chunky. Cybernetic Limbs, Eyes, armor and breathing devices are all shockingly common, barely worthy of note.  Limbs are functionally armored, often able to withstand hits that would kill the owner outright and still function.  

For now I'm going to stick to talking about the MT2 cybernetics and how they apply to T-40k:

Augments: Specifically the STR, DEX, END and INT augments: These are all available with a caveat. From a design standpoint I was seriously considering applying the physical augments to the Space Marines as a default, and may still go with that, otherwise they are rare and generally only used on gladatorial slaves and the like, probably for cost effective reasons, or just as likely, due to the Imperium's fetish for the 'divine human form' or somesuch.  INT Augments may be considered Kit for Adepts and Tech-priests if the GM wishes, however.

Note that the Imperial Guard does not generally apply Augments to ordinary guardsmen, so most most cybernetics are replacements for combat injuries.  High end assassins to include the Temple Assasins, however, are another story.

Right out the gate I can say that with the possible exception of the Neural Comms/Wafer Jacks, nothing in the Main Rulebook seems to require any work other than roleplaying/GMing the hows and whys.

In Supply Catalog things get more interesting.
Aslan Cyber Claw: Aside from the name, implanting a blade in the arm is quite do-able, if uncommon
Autonomous Locomotion Rig: Eh, I'd... skip? Maybe the rare Tech-Priest might have something like this.
Combat Arm: TL 11 versions seem 'standard', with TL 13 versions being very high quality, even Archeotech, or close too it.
Weapon Implant: Possible, maybe not too common
Enhanced Mobility: Not common, but possible? This is basically combat cyberlegs designed for running, which would be unusual.
Additional Manipulators: The starting point for Mechadendrites!  Some changes to make them longer (twice as long), and to allow lots of them are simple changes. If you know anythign about Mechadendrites you don't need me, so I'll push off further notes to 'grindy' posts
Epidermal Symbiote:  Eh. Actually I think this is equivalent to one of the Space Marine implants...
Bio-Fusion Power Plant: Other Name: Potentia Coil
Cardio-trigger Detonator: Eviscerator Assassin, anyone?
Full Body Transplant: No.
Internal Auto-injector: Sort of not internal? Picture a box stuck to your chest with tubes going into your body and you're thinking Imperium.
Metaplatelets: Another Space Marine 'implant'.
Soldier Organ Package: Inspired by and now repurpose for Space Marine Implants
Smuggling Container: Totally in canon
Subdermal Armor: Yes
Terminal Stabilization System: Um.. Space Marines? Seems legit. Could see it for high end Techpriest, though fluffy-wise it's got some work.
Assisted Ambulation: SM's again?
Ballistic Tracking Lenses; Yup, though PROBABLY more like 'big honkin' video camera replacing half your skull tracking lenses
Cockpit Sensory Suite:  So there's a guy in the Eisenhorn series that has something similar in effect, if not description, otherwise this sounds like something the Tau would have as an implant for their pilots.
Complex Cranial Processing Unit: Yup. Techpriest and Adepts would commonly have this
Enhanced Vision: See Trackign Lenses
Fabulous Augmentation Treatment: Er... sure. Nobles get into some weird fashions, and this makes a fine catch-all for that sort of aristo.
Mechanostatic Scanner:  Seems like a Techpriest bit of kit, and they'd go nuts since it'd go off for everyone they know.  But as a basis for other weird sensors? We've got a bit of a go, here...
Nerve plug response kit: Space Marines only, already mentioned. This is the Black Carapace, basically
Null Skull: No
Periphrial Vision: Absolutely, and mostly Tech-Priests. Lots of lense/eyes all over their heads... freaks
Psi-Taps: No
Shriekerbox: Possible, yes. Common? No.
Skill Augment: yup, seen it in books I'm sure
Venom Glands:  Well, SM do have acid spit....

So, we have a solid basis for cybernetics already in place.  Honestly, to do it justice I'd probably have to do somethink like a Splat Book just for the Mechanicus, and I'll probably later do a dig on 40k tech that I'm not thinking of right now to see if anything needs adding.

The Small Stuff:

Honestly, There is a fair amount of 'stuff' in 40k that could get a write up. One advantage of a system like Traveller is that you really don't need to do a lot of translating and rules for most of it. Sure, I CAN write up an entry for Corpse Starch Rations, but why? What you need to know is that they exist, they are a cheapo food product, and you probably don't want to think about the name too long if you're about to eat some.  Price? Weight? Small questions. 1 throne, 1 kg for a day's 'rations'.   Sure, I can write stuff out of MT2 for being out of setting, but honestly how much of that is truly out of setting?

Do you NEED me to tell you that Thermal Goggles are Preysense Goggles in 40k? That the Tau have low-light technology they call 'black-sun visors'?

You souldn't.  So all that small stuff is relegated to low priority 'grindy' posts for later.


Vehicles..

For the main I was going to ignore this until later, which is why I didn't include a Placeholder Post for them, but given my noshing on Heavy Weapons earlier, I guess I'll touch upon them here.

So we have a benchmark of sorts. Strength 8 Heavy Weapons have a possibility of harming even the heaviest of tanks and small craft, doing 2DD damage as a baseline, or 20-120 points of damage.   We can therefore speculate that 14 armor tops out somewhere near 100 points of armor for MT2.

That's... not impressive.  

An Armored Fighting Vehicle (Rhino equivalent) has roughly 70 armor in MT2, which is close to our scale here, and AP seems to apply fully to vehicles but not spaceships, but a G/Carrier (not even a proper tank) has an armor of 120, which negates entirely our strength 8 weapons.

Now, a simple solution that does NOT solve this is to translate Armor values by multiplying by ten, and then conjuring up a likely hull value, and just assuming that Str 8 is not quite what its cracked up to be at first blush.

But then: A Krak Missile (a standard Str 8 weapon) has an AP of 15 according to our earlier framework, making its functional damage range 35-135... or very close indeed to 'occasionally harming' a heavy tank.  Clearly we can boost the AP translations for heavy weapons. With an AP of 30 its death on four wheels to a Space Marine in Power Armor, and damn close for the Terminator (disregarding Invulnerable save translations), and frankly I'm cool with that, and I'm not entirely sold on the value of Terminator armor as armor in this translation as written... so yeah.

So, lets say that 'heavy' weapons get double AP value.. specifically anythign with a DD attack.

So an Autocannon (not an Assault Cannon) with a 7/2 would be 1DD with 40AP, capping its anti-armor at 100 potential points, or far short of caping a battle tank, but enough to maybe scare an AFV... so that's good.
Our Plasma weapons would be 1dd with 30ap, which breaks our earlier bit, but makes them nearly as effective as the Autocannon, which is on point
Krak, covered, with its top end at 150 it can now do on a lucky shot 10 points of hull damage to a main tank...
Melta Weapons start at 2DD and 50 AP (!!), and at close range would have 'double AP', making it a 2d6x10 vs 40 to hurt heavy armor.

That leads to questions about the previous AP calculation, but I'm fine with anti-vehicle weapons slaughtering even heavy infantry like wheat before the scythe.

Now, where this breaks for me is the artificial cap on armor values, and questionable bits like Necron vehicles wiping out AP, which creates... gaps, but again: I'm here for the framework, the margin calls come later.  Its easier to adjust the Necron armor rules than to revamp a good translation formula from scratch, right?

From there we pretty much plug in the existing 40k vehicles and assign them numbers. I'm willing to ignore Superheavies indefinitely.

Knights:  Look, I'm a johnny come lately on 40k's Knights and MT may not be the best system for big walking suits of armor-robots.  Beyond that, I think my starting framework puts me in a good place though.   As a GM I could totally put a Dreadnaut suit on the table and know it has 120 armor on the front, could tell you how much damage its weapons do (Power-fist: 4DD, 60AP), which is enough to use it to harass PCs.  I'm sure Knights have any number of weirdnesses to them that will make that simple calculation a bit rougher, but I'm ready for that challenge when the time comes.  I'm in a good place at the moment with my work...  don't ruin it for me!

Ok, I'm going to do this one in smaller chunks, with edits adding in more 'stuff' as I go.  I didn't have a bolt of lightning eureka moment while I slept, so chances are I won't actually finish up any sort of 'rules' for designing mega-craft until I've had four or five days of driving under my belt (Upcoming vacation mentioned earlier) to hash it out into oblivion.

So lets start with the more manageable parts.

To begin with there are some surprising similiarities you might not expect between Traveller's ship system and 40k, namely that Faster that Light travel involves leaving 'realspace' for a long enough period of time that 'downtime travel mini-adventures onboard ship' are quite possible, if that's your cup of tea.  Bottle Episodes, as they refer to them in TV land.

The big issue is Scale.  Warp Travel probably takes long than a week in most cases and 'jump ratings' don't seem to be a thing, so all that cool work of laying out jump lanes for Traveller is wasted space, sort of.

In many cases we can treat Warp-Ships as McGuffin devices, which seems a sad waste of Traveller, and perhaps a bit too lazy.  I'll note instead that if the party lacks a Rogue Trader (and presumably a Navigator), then its probably for the best to skip most of the Warp-Travel stuff and focus on character actions, rather than ship scale stuff.

But that's not to say that you can ONLY use this stuff if ya got an RT. Far from it. Leaving aside rules for Navigating teh Warp and Perils of hte Warp (which honestly will at least partially have to wait for Pyschics... yeesh...), I've long been pondering the presence of 'Guncutters', 'Lighters' and so forth, and it seems to me that the 'small ship' scale is perfect for handling all of that, and pretty much any serious adventuring crew in 40k should probably have access to their own Bird, if not their own ship... though not necessarily as a PC run thing.

As a vague baseline, we're going to assume that the larger Gunships and Lighters can be 100 tons, which technically removes them from 'small craft' rules in Traveller, but for our purposes we'll just scale that whole system up into the low hundreds. I have no idea how 'big' a Thunderhawk should be in Traveller terms, but I'm guessing 'big enough to make >100t dicey'. Luckily for me, MT2 doesn't actually care, so that's nice.

I've already got a system in place to translate WH40k numbers into Traveller Numbers, so that works pretty good for a crude workup of WH40k Ships and their guns, we just have to make it work with the rest of the system. My assumption is that all Imperium Ships have Reinforced Hulls, I'm thinking of using the Crystiron as a substitute for Adamantium/Ceramite armor (only, you know, going to 14) and sticking to Manuever drives, despite their clear design choices for more 'chemical' style drives, simply because 40k ships and vehicles seem to have an absurd endurance and are notoriously unaerodynamic, implying, of course, that they aren't burning Prometheum in some from of Internal Combustion Jet Engine*.

Translating weapon mounts gets a bit dicier, since we aren't using Traveller's weapons. I'm thinking that we've seen plenty of Infantry Scale Heavy Weapons mounted in multiple configurations that using existing fixed forward and turret mount rules  is fine for them, and using the 5t Barbette style rules for the larger cannon and missile rack mounts works, leaving us only the question of Bays... and I can imagine at least some 40k vessels out there exist that are just chock full of racks of guns, even if we haven't seen them.

What else?  

Well, clearly all 'small craft' seem designed for use in atmosphere as well as space by default, which makes sense given that they are based in what amounts to habitable interstellar bodies.

Computers? Well... I mean I could write them out entirely, that's the 40k way, or I could say just leave them alone but call them 'machine spirits' and 'cogitators' and call it a day.  Either way seems to work, though any computers should be 'hardened', and go ahead and skip the jump optimization, clearly.

Sensors? We'll they get funny names, but otherwise why change them?

To be honest I can't say that you really need to change the system very far. Oddly, even the armor values from 40k to Traveller line up shockingly well, so long as you realize that the Imperium doesn't make un-armored vehicles.  Our 'ten scale' lines up, which I believe IS a change from Traveller (100 scale for small arms to ship scale, I believe? Too lazy to check...), but that's kinda where we're at.  Now to take a look at a common 40k vessel that just about any Party could have regular access too, just so I don't feel super lazy when I'm done with this part of the post.

So, right here I was going to do a write up of something like the Arvus or the Aquila lander, but apparently my 40k-Fu is weak, as a result of years spent ignoring new editions coming out.  To my shock I can't find the sort of stats for these vehicles I expected to find... indeed, to my surprise even ye olden Land Raider Tank no longer has Armor ratings but a goddamn Armor Save!    I checked Rogue Trader, but the Arvus and Aquila don't have any armor listed, just structure points.  I be stumped, yo. Temporarily, I assure you, but stumped none the less.

So... I'll have to come back to this once I've had a little time to do more research.  If necessary I'll just make a vehicle from scratch, rather than translating one over.



*I know...

Placeholder Psionics Post

Looks good so far - this is a massive project given the size and scope of the 40K setting. I hope you compile the results into a single document for offline use. :)

Quote from: RandyB;1070051Looks good so far - this is a massive project given the size and scope of the 40K setting. I hope you compile the results into a single document for offline use. :)

"Pay Me".


Thats a joke, for the record.   The best I can manage is to collect all my posts, and do future posts, in a Word Doc or in Google Docs, complete with typos and forum formatting...  We'll see how far I get tonight on this, since I'm taking a vacation in a couple of days and I'll probably forget all about the internet while I'm gone.


EDIT To ADD:  'Finished' the Race post.  Its all very rough draft/outline like, and clearly sleep helped, since it was much smoother and easier than I expected. In fact, I'd guess a lot of the initial grind was simply due to how knackered I was when working on it.

Quote from: Spike;1070097"Pay Me".


Thats a joke, for the record.   The best I can manage is to collect all my posts, and do future posts, in a Word Doc or in Google Docs, complete with typos and forum formatting...  We'll see how far I get tonight on this, since I'm taking a vacation in a couple of days and I'll probably forget all about the internet while I'm gone.

LOL. Sadly, you won't be able to sell the results. Even if you used Cepheus Engine as your rules base, no license for the setting means no salable product. And GW has chosen their RPG publisher, as you reviewed their effort in the other thread.

The irony is, there is a strong rumor that Warhammer 40,000 began life as GWs in-house Alternate Traveller Universe. Then GDW pulled, or declined to renew, the existing licenses held by GW, Judges Guild, and others I cannot recall, and GW adapted the Warhammer Fantasy rules for their far future setting. The rest, as they say, is history.

Dropping a note: I realized I forgot that I was going to treat the Mechanicus as a 'Race'.  I'll either go back and add them in later as I work on the other parts (currently doing a Word doc for Careers...) or I'll drive on without.  It can go either way, honestly.

Dropping another note: Since this is a free, low quality effort as a thought experiment, I'm not going to lay out any 40k lore beyond what is necessary to make rules for.

So, for example, I'm doing 'careers' now and I realized that I'm not going to make a seperate entry for Tau Pathfinders vs Fire Warriors vs Stealth Suit warriors... none of that business, since the only thing they really need is the proper support (Eg Equipment mostly) to take on that role.

This is where I think a lot of adaptions, especially for 40k go wrong, in trying to make hard rigid rules for all these little sub-castes of groups.  What is the real difference between a Pathfinder and a FireWarrior?  

On the tabletop wargame quite a bit, but as a practical matter? Almost nothing beyond the name.  Both 'types' can use Pulse Carbines and Markerlights, both wear Tau Carapace armor, both can ride around in Devilfish armored transports.  They have the same faaking stats. From an RPG perspective at best the Pathfinder might have more Stealth skill than a Firewarrior, but really it comes down to doctrine and naming conventions.

I sort of explain all this in a roundabout and unclear way in my working draft of Careers, but I realized dropping a note about it here may save me some effort as I move forward.

I have run Traveller 40k many times using the LBBs. It rocks on the Imperial Guard level, especially when using the setting as envisioned in the original Rogue Trader.

Its extremely gritty and like the minis game, its kinda one hit one kill. But that fit the campaign.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1070112I have run Traveller 40k many times using the LBBs. It rocks on the Imperial Guard level, especially when using the setting as envisioned in the original Rogue Trader.

Its extremely gritty and like the minis game, its kinda one hit one kill. But that fit the campaign.

I can totally see that! Of course, some of the fun is trying to push the boundaries a bit.

Dropped the Equipment 'framework' post.  Lots of pointless yammering about how I'll have to sit down for a second draft one day and apply the rules I set forth to the actual 40k equipment, but fuck me if it wasn't ten god damn pages in Word, and several hours of typing.  I actually thought I'd have time to do more! Silly me...

Still on my plate are two doozies, the Space Ships and the Psykers.  Now... it is possible I can skate on the Space Ships to some extent... at its worst I'm rebuilding on system by forcible translation, at its best I can excuse abstracting out most of it. You're loonier than I am if you believe I'm going to make deckplans for ships that measure in cubic kilometers.  That was never ever going to happen.

But Psykers? So much of making this project work hinges on getting 40k Psychics to line up, and that, my friends, is going to be a bitch.


Watch: when it comes time to do the actual work I'm going to breeze through Psykers like I was born slinging game rules, but I'll sweat every permutation of Starships like I'm giving birth to porcupines.