The Regiment // Space Marines

So, my local hobby shop runs an event once a year called 40 Hours of 40K, which is a 40-hour marathon of Warhammer 40K themed events. They try to change it up so that it's not just miniatures wargaming - they have auctions, prize competitions, trivia, and a couple of RPG sessions.

I ran one of the latter last year, using FFG's Deathwatch game. The adventure was fine, but since I'm running an event halfway through a marathon, none of the players have the mental acuity necessary to play the complicated rules system; it's complex enough some people have trouble comprehending all the fiddly bits when wide awake.

So, I think The Regiment can be reskinned/hacked to do this quite well, and the system is simple enough that I think they players will be able to actually have fun.

Space Marines in the setting are genetically-modified supermen, religious zealots waging a war against the Enemies of Mankind. Each Chapter has it's own line of genetic material which it uses when a new Space Marine is chosen and the regimen begins. They receive implanted artificlal organs to give them superpowers and hypnotraining to develop abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Each chapter also has its own unique religious doctrine.

I'm thinking the chapters could each give the Marine one move, then they could select two moves from their playbook. I need to sit down with the rulebook and see what moves are appropriate for each type of Space Marine. "Grit" would be reskinned as "Faith." Smokes I'd get rid of entirely, since they're pretty monastic.

I haven't had a lot of time to play around with it yet, but I think it looks promising. Any thoughts?

Chapters

Black Templars: zealots who have carried out a 10,000 year religious crusade against the Enemies of Man.
Chapter Move: righteous zeal - 1-Faith
Playbooks: -Devastator, -Librarian
Organs: -sus-an membrane (allows suspended animation), -Betcher's gland (lets them spit acid)

Blood Angels: celebrated warriors suffering under the Red Thirst - battle-madness.
Chapter Move: blood frenzy - flight stress boxes are instead fight stress boxes.
Playbooks: all
Organs: all

Dark Angels: mysterious and proud warriors whose Chapter hides a dark secret.
Chapter Move: stoic defense - when you're holding your ground, you get 1-tough until you leave your position.
Playbooks: all
Organs: all

Space Wolves: fierce Viking-style Marines who seek glorious death in combat.
Chapter Move: wolf senses - when you assess the situation, take +1 forward. If you attempt a dangerous combat action using TACTICS, on a hit you also get +intel. (Maybe one or the other?)
Playbooks: -apothecary
Organs: all

Storm Wardens: clannish Highland Scots-style Marines from an isolated world.
Chapter Move: thunder's call - when you designate a single enemy and call them out to duel, you inflict +1d damage on them; if they attack anybody but you, they inflict -1d damage.
Playbooks: all
Organs: all

Ultramarines: virtuous exemplars of the Space Marine code.
Chapter Move: favored son - when the kill-team leader rolls to lead a new engagement, he takes +1 if you are in his kill-team.
Playbooks: all
Organs: all

Playbooks

I'm thinking I can save time by reskinning playbooks from Colonial Marines:

Apothecary: healer. Reskin: Medic
Assault Marine: close-combat specialist. Reskin: schlaghund's Trooper
Devastator Marine: heavy-weapons specialist. Reskin: schlaghund's Gunner.
Librarian: psychic marine. Steal moves from the AW Brainer?
Tactical Marine: general-purpose marine. Reskin: Sergeant
Techmarine: augmented marine with cyberware. Steal things from the Synthetic and the AW Synthetic?

General

I will reskin "Grit" as "Faith: Zeal. Reduces stress taken from an attack, 1-for-1."

WEAPONS

Bolt Pistol (2d tight/close)

Bolter Reskin: Pulse Rifle

Hand Flamer (2d tight burn)

Flamer (3d tight/close messy autofire burn terror)

HEAVY WEAPONS

Heavy Bolter (4d near/far autofire suppress)

Missile Launcher Reskin: Rocket Launcher

Dammit, you beat me to doing this. :P

This looks good. I always thought the gang combat system would translate well to the Horde-fighting mechanics from Deathwatch.

Yeah, it was thoughts along those lines (and the need for something simpler for the exhausted "Midnight Madness" gamers) that led me to the idea of the reskin. I don't have time (2 weeks) to do an actual hack, but a reskin should be doable.

General

I will reskin "Grit" as "Faith: Zeal. Reduces stress taken from an attack, 1-for-1."

WEAPONS

Bolt Pistol (2d tight/close)

Bolter Reskin: Pulse Rifle

Hand Flamer (2d tight burn)

Flamer (3d tight/close messy autofire burn terror)

HEAVY WEAPONS

Heavy Bolter (4d near/far autofire suppress)

Missile Launcher Reskin: Rocket Launcher

As a great fan of Dark Heresy I would love some downward size compatibility and would give astartes weapons higher stats, countered by massive armour and toughness, so that you can fit in lasguns, autoguns, ork & eldar weapons, special ammunition, etc. as well.

I would also suggest a change in armour piercing: Some weapons reduce armour by different degrees (bolter vs. hellgun), others ignore it completely (plasma-gun and melta). n-ap: reduce target's armour by n-much.

Representing a Space Marine's might could easily be done by treating him like a group, as the not to be f*cked with move from the AW Gunlugger. This way, he automatically deals more damage/suffers less damage when fighting smaller (human size) targets, but when fighting something of his size – like a traitor marine – weapon and armour stats are of the same level.

Oh boy, I have so many ideas…

BTW: There is already someone doing a Rogue Trader hack: http://apocalypse-world.com/forums/index.php?board=21.0 .

My suggestion for creating weapons:

All weapons have a base size (handgun, rifle, heavy), that define default tags. The type then adds/removes additional tags.

Size
Handguns 2d tight
Rifle 3d close/near
…

Type
Las +reliable +infinite (+quick for handguns)
Auto +spray (+quick for handguns)
Bolt +1d +1ap +spray
Hell +2ap +spray
Plasma  +2d +3ap +reload +overheat
Melta +3d +4ap -range
…

Examples
So a laspistol would have 2d tight reliable infinite quick
and a boltgun 4d close/near 1–ap spray.
…

Summary
Some concepts (reliability, infinite/capacity) need clarification and some weapons would slightly deviate from this procedure but I think you can model almost any 40k weapon with this method, including loathsome xenos stuff.

That's a fantastic idea! Wish I'd thought of it...

That's a fantastic idea! Wish I'd thought of it...

If you are interested in collaboration, drop me a note.

-overheat
I could see a rule like this: "When using a weapon with this tag in an assault or attack move, if snake-eyes are rolled on the dice, the weapon overheats. The wielder takes 1d damage (ignoring Tough) and the weapon needs to cool down before it can be used again."

-reliable
This has to do with Jamming, yes? Since Jamming in The Regiment is more in the nature of a "bad outcome" of failing, I'm not sure I'd want to mess with that just using a weapon tag.

-overheat
I could see a rule like this: "When using a weapon with this tag in an assault or attack move, if snake-eyes are rolled on the dice, the weapon overheats. The wielder takes 1d damage (ignoring Tough) and the weapon needs to cool down before it can be used again."

I was thinking about matched rolls as well, but I would say "any matched failure" triggers overheating.

-reliable
This has to do with Jamming, yes? Since Jamming in The Regiment is more in the nature of a "bad outcome" of failing, I'm not sure I'd want to mess with that just using a weapon tag.

Hm… I think you are right, reliability and jamming would be too detailed for this approach, especially if you need the game quickly.

Rename Grit to Faith.

Know no Fear (universal move for all space marines)
You start game with 1–Faith. (Optional, the rules below are already making marines better, if you don't use 1-Faith at default, you do not have to change the Black Templars Chapter bonus).
Stress is tracked like in Colonial Marines, six boxes in pairs of two, each pair with an own effect associated (fight, flight, shock), for unaugmented humans (and comparable individuals)!
For space marines: There are six boxes, without any grouping, and no effects attached to them. They still suffer stress (minus Faith), but only once all boxes are crossed they go stress-critical without any effects in between. (This contradicts the Blood Angels' Chapter bonus; change that bonus to: "When you are at 3+ stress, gain +1ongoing to all assault rolls")

Genehanced Post-Human (universal move for all space marines)
When compared to average human physical conditions, a single marine counts as a small group. When fighting human-size targets, you suffer 1 less damage die and deal one additional damage die, regardless of weapon used.

Whirlwind of Death (Assault Marine Move)
When you assault the enemy and are armed with a sidearm and melee weapon (usually a bolt pistol and a chainsword), your weapons gain the area tag.

Assault Weapon (Tactical Marine Move)
You may replace your bolt gun with an assault weapon of your choice. Options are: Plasma gun, melta gun, flamer, storm bolter (add others as needed, but no heavy weapons).

Targeter Implants (Tactical Marine Move)
Extend the range of your bolter (or other ranged weapon) by one increment (e.g. close/near becomes close/far).

Playbooks

I'm thinking I can save time by reskinning playbooks from Colonial Marines:

Apothecary: healer. Reskin: Medic
Assault Marine: close-combat specialist. Reskin: schlaghund's Trooper
Devastator Marine: heavy-weapons specialist. Reskin: schlaghund's Gunner.
Librarian: psychic marine. Steal moves from the AW Brainer?
Tactical Marine: general-purpose marine. Reskin: Sergeant
Techmarine: augmented marine with cyberware. Steal things from the Synthetic and the AW Synthetic?

Hm… I'd rather use the trooper for Tactical Marine, keep the sergeant as sergeant and completely make up the assault marine.