Good evening Roll20 - for the longest time I´ve been meaning to run a proper Only War campaign but until now I`ve never really been able to find the time to run it - this recently changed due to shifting work schedual and so I´ve sat out gleefully to find a group to grind through the horror we know as (only)war. Regardless, before we get into the pitch for the campaign I´ll drop some hard information to ensure we are all on the same page! I am planing to run on Fridays as mentioned in the title(if I don´t derp timezones again then my time should be 16:00 EDT) - the times can possible be changed an hour here and there but ultimately is rather fixated (its the one time I can run) of course I should note that should my Saturdays be free I might run longer should the party request it. The game is planned to take place with Voice - we can use the internal roll20 system alternatively skype depending on players preferences - I also run a long-standing TS server that can be used for the game. There will be a session zero - as in: Every player I have will be expected to show up to a "pre" session lasting say 2-3 hours to discuss what we want in a game and for me to make some clarification in regards to what people want to play - and are expecting of the game, every group is different and as such we need to come to some common grounds in regards to tone/and/or similar. If we can´t find a day we´ll use the first session for this. You don´t need to have a character concept coming into session zero of course - and should you be brand new tell me here and I´ll be more then happy to help you create the character. On that note: I am alright with using splash books - and in highlight of the pitch I´ll get into later encourage a myriad of characters (you are a mixed regiment - that being the only thing set in stone, the rest is up to you - I´ll get into this later) however: If you use something not from the Core, please note down which pages you are using so we can check it up quickly, and as a final note in regards to min/max because people always bring it up: My games tend to be as social as they are combat, expect to sit 2-3 sessions just guarding a bunker in the middle of no-where while dealing with more social problems like where the bastards of squad 8 hid your flak vests as a prank. Ultimately it served little purpose to min/max - I don´t design encounters around simple static stats but rather to be "easy" or "hard" etc - as such I´ll change them before you step into it to ensure that happens - a "poorly" combat oriented group might just face off against that one heavy bolter - while the combat focused group runs into three - and a guy with a sniper. Still, I understand a lot of people find it enjoyable my point however is that: Make a character you´ll enjoy - and I´ll make it viable somehow, you don´t have to focus on making a character that will survive because all it amounts to is my increasing the difficulty of what you are facing. With that out of the way: Some things I as the GM want: Make an interesting character you´ll enjoy to play - if everything goes as planned this campaign will be lasting for quite a bit, I´ll be giving you some questions in regards to the character to answer before the first session - general stuff like motivations, goals - likes/dislikes dreams, etc these are there to allow me to tailor the campaign more around the characters. Do Roleplay not rollplay! - If you are coming into this expecting a dungeon crawl of encounter upon encounter then look elsewhere - I can enjoy the simple combat focused campaign - indeed I´ve GMed the in the past multiple times - this campaign however will be character driven. (to a degree). What can you as a player expect? In the end you as the player have preferences and that is very important, so lets talk about some of the common things I get asked in PM´s: There will be a degree of railroad - you are playing Only War and not Rogue Trader - in short: There will be someone of higher rank then you telling you what to do, maybe one day if the campaign runs to high enough levels you´ll be the leaders of your regiment but Only War is about being soldiers before anything else - with that said I won´t yell at you for being creative in your own way, hell how you deal with taking the hill is up to you, command only cares that the hill is taken not the nitty gritty like how many corpses of your friends you had to crawl over. So while you´ll have orders coming in from the top, you are rather free in how to deal with them most of the time - sometimes there will be restrictions of course - like "don´t shoot civilians" or "Bloody hell, try not to blow up that hostage" and should you fail command won´t be happy. This is the way of war after all. I might change some cannon around to further the story, and as the GM reserve my right to change some things around to ensure the game flows smoothly - if you are a die-hard fan of the lore and refuse to let even the slightest inaccuracy slide then maybe it ought to be best to find another game - with that said I won´t change something major, the Emperor is still on the throne, there is only war a lasgun is a lasgun and its shit etc - what I mean is that I can´t remember every single minute detail of all regiments in the world - if I say that you meet the 623th cadian and that its colonel have black hair I really can´t be arsed to deal with I would rather not have to deal with a player coming in and saying: "Actually according to page 210 of the 3rd edition (revised version) he´s a she and she´s got brown hair" (this have happened for the record) I understand the importance of keeping true to the source material but I will at times takes some liberties - think of my game as detached from the established canon much like many of the BL books. You can expect combat maps for most maps involving shooting - but not all, sometimes I´ll run the "minds eye" version where I´ll describe the combat, an example of my horrible map building can be found here: <a href="http://oi62.tinypic.com/suzj10.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://oi62.tinypic.com/suzj10.jpg</a> its generally this style you can expect from my maps this one is 80x80 some are going to be larger some smaller. If you are interested in what I sound like since I´ll be describing the things you see here´s an example: <a href="http://vocaroo.com/i/s1Kjcj8PVWnU" rel="nofollow">http://vocaroo.com/i/s1Kjcj8PVWnU</a> Right, woah - that ended up being longer then expected - anyway for the pitch: The year is 941.M41 and the Imperium is at war. Across the galaxy great battles rage as unending conflict fills the soil of countless planets with blood and cracks their skies with fire. Of these countless violent fights for supremacy one in particular is known as the Edessan Crusade, taking place in the Segmentum Obscuris near the border to the Ultima sector. Sixty years ago countless imperial worlds fell here in a storm of uprising by separatists and associated previously unknown Xeno´s - to which there still is little information. The worlds have been declared top priority for reclamation by decree of Imperial high command - their strategic location and the artifacts located on a shrine world that fell in the ensuring chaos have made it so. The crusade however quickly took a sour turn - unexpectedly the enemy forces where well equipped and dug in - while there are rumors of Chaos worship nothing conclusive have been found so far, leaving many to ponder why these worlds would separate from the Imperium in the first place. Despite their best efforts the crusade have grounded to a halt and been reduced to a slug fest over a few particular worlds - high demand from forces on the relatively nearby Cadian front have taxed any support heading the way of the crusade. High command is in distress for if new ground is not won soon the crusade will collapse within the year and be forced to leave these worlds and their secrets behind in favor of a renewed attempt another day - something the high command is -not- willing to do. You are part of The [Insert name you pick here] 264 "Crusade" Artillery Regiment and have been assigned as reinforcement to Crepa IV - luckily for you this is an old imperial world and of the war zones the Cepra system (named Gaius by the locals) have been the one meeting most success - it is expected that if the new wave of reinforcements (and in particularly the artillery which have been sorely laking) is able to punch a hole in the defenses of Defiant StrongPoint #0112358 (Named Caral by the locals) and the hive is able to be properly invaded the enemy forces will not have the strength to withstand the Imperial march - it may be a critical junction for if the city falls much needed manpower can be shipped elsewhere. As such, during session Zero we will be discussing what manner of mixed regiments made you up - the "crusade" regiment is in essence an idea hatched by high command - multiple regiments where destroyed to the point where merging them is required to keep them up to strength - but being large enough and close enough that merging with other destroyed regiments is the most viable notion rather then integrating you into an already existing one: None of your regiments can ever hope to receive support from your home world large enough to ever replenish your numbers and as such where forced to comply - in return this "scratch" regiment should the crusade ever end will be granted the right to settle a world, unfortunately you are often used as cannon fodder due to your nature and will have to deal with hand-me-downs from more established and honorable regiments still at strength. Good luck soldier, you´ll need it. For remember: In the grim future of the forty first millennium, there is only war. If after seeing this Wall of text you are still interested then send me a PM or post a reply here! Yours truly Ferlond
