High Moon
Relic of a Bygone Age
Does anyone here know of the Warhammer 40K Role-playing game Only War? if so could some one teach me a bit? I will be GM'ing a session of it in real.
Only War
- Thread starter High Moon
- Start date
Umbrie
Adorable Little Nymph
i don't know much About "Only War" but i do know a bit of Surface Knowledge about the "Warhammer Universe".
you have lots of Space Travel. in fact, most of it, is loaded with unimportant random events that could probably be glossed over unless you actually need to stall for time
you have all the Standard Fantasy Races under Variant names, each has their own technology, culture and classes, you can find more about that on the Wiki
it is a Very "Planet of Hats" Universe
you will always have that one player who absolutely wants to play a Space Marine because they want the cool power armor. but most of the time, they payed no attention to the various responsibilities and duties that make a space marine not really a good player character for most campaigns. they are the Epitome of Rigid and Strict. they are effectively the paladins of the setting. and like anybody trying to play a paladin, you should screen them through the lense of an alternate character or few to see if you beleive they can honestly play a paladin or space marine or whatever. most of the time, they are a powermad munchkin who just wants the cool power armor so they have a decent amount of protection while they murder random NPCs and doesn't want to deal with responsibility. if a player actually plays a character for a whole campaign that isn't a bloodthirsty idiot who causes problems for their companions. say about 52 weeks at an IRL tabletop, you can reward them with the ability to play a Space Marine/Paladin/Judge Dredd Clone for maybe an Arc to see how they do it. and if they pull it off consistently, allow them as long as they don't cause trouble for other players.
any tabletop RPG with few exceptions is about group chemistry. you can have an Evil Character work just fine in an otherwise good party as long as the party has a sense of chemistry and cohesion as well as a good reason to work together. but don't be afraid to let players change characters in between adventures when they get a little bored, or even change back with a bit of an Experience and equipment bump. players get bored of characters too. especially on long campaigns, nothing worse than telling a player who is bored with their character they have to stick with it for a year. tell them to hold on until a dramatically appropriate point between adventures where they can get away with changing characters, and don't be afraid to let players change characters. sometimes, a character has achieved all the goals they desired and has no further reason to continue risking their lives, such a character should be allowed to retire to the background and allow a new hero or heroine to take the spotlight. all too often, Novel series use the same set of characters throughout the whole series when it would simply be easier to pass the torch to a newer protagonist than to reboot and ruin an existing one that everybody loved.
think of Ash Ketchum From Pokemon, he has gone through like 8 or 9 regions if you count the orange islands, and they reboot him with every new region. they would have been better off including a new protagonist for each region. i know Pikachu is the Mascot. but it would have been cooler if we could explore from the perspective of different mascots for different protagonists with different traits. the same applies to tabletop characters, including warhammer. i mean, if you are building a character who is identical to a character you played before, you might as well steal the name and faceclaim, but maybe this alternate incarnation grows and progresses differently from that point. say you have an Eldar Apothecary named Ilina who was Similar to a Nymph Apothecary named Ilina you played before, maybe the Eldar reacts to different Stimuli than the Nymph and progresses differently, even with the same general goals. both want to learn to create artificial lifeforms, but maybe they end up reacting to different things. the Nymph might have learned to create daughters by cloning herself, but maybe the Eldar Version takes up an apprentice who is like a daughter figure.
sorriesies for the long tangents. but yes, a mechanically identical character can have different experiences and react differently. Say you have 2 Dwarven Warriors named Klaus, they exist in 2 different Games, lets Say Klaus 1 Exists in Forgotten Realms and Klaus 2 Exists in an Urban Fantasy setting. both of them are noble Dwarven Axe and Board fighters clad in plate with all the same starting stats and skills, Klaus 1 becomes a defender and literally becomes a Tanky character in response to the combat heavy world of forgotten realms and exists purely as a fighter, because fighting is all he ever needed to do, but lets say Klaus 2 learned quickly about the danger inherent in firearms, and took up a pistol as a secondary weapon, learned some stealth, had to talk his way through a few problems and had to learn to pick a great deal more locks. so Klaus 2 had to multiclass rogue. same character at first, but both reacted to the different stimuli they were exposed to in their relative settings,
you have lots of Space Travel. in fact, most of it, is loaded with unimportant random events that could probably be glossed over unless you actually need to stall for time
you have all the Standard Fantasy Races under Variant names, each has their own technology, culture and classes, you can find more about that on the Wiki
it is a Very "Planet of Hats" Universe
you will always have that one player who absolutely wants to play a Space Marine because they want the cool power armor. but most of the time, they payed no attention to the various responsibilities and duties that make a space marine not really a good player character for most campaigns. they are the Epitome of Rigid and Strict. they are effectively the paladins of the setting. and like anybody trying to play a paladin, you should screen them through the lense of an alternate character or few to see if you beleive they can honestly play a paladin or space marine or whatever. most of the time, they are a powermad munchkin who just wants the cool power armor so they have a decent amount of protection while they murder random NPCs and doesn't want to deal with responsibility. if a player actually plays a character for a whole campaign that isn't a bloodthirsty idiot who causes problems for their companions. say about 52 weeks at an IRL tabletop, you can reward them with the ability to play a Space Marine/Paladin/Judge Dredd Clone for maybe an Arc to see how they do it. and if they pull it off consistently, allow them as long as they don't cause trouble for other players.
any tabletop RPG with few exceptions is about group chemistry. you can have an Evil Character work just fine in an otherwise good party as long as the party has a sense of chemistry and cohesion as well as a good reason to work together. but don't be afraid to let players change characters in between adventures when they get a little bored, or even change back with a bit of an Experience and equipment bump. players get bored of characters too. especially on long campaigns, nothing worse than telling a player who is bored with their character they have to stick with it for a year. tell them to hold on until a dramatically appropriate point between adventures where they can get away with changing characters, and don't be afraid to let players change characters. sometimes, a character has achieved all the goals they desired and has no further reason to continue risking their lives, such a character should be allowed to retire to the background and allow a new hero or heroine to take the spotlight. all too often, Novel series use the same set of characters throughout the whole series when it would simply be easier to pass the torch to a newer protagonist than to reboot and ruin an existing one that everybody loved.
think of Ash Ketchum From Pokemon, he has gone through like 8 or 9 regions if you count the orange islands, and they reboot him with every new region. they would have been better off including a new protagonist for each region. i know Pikachu is the Mascot. but it would have been cooler if we could explore from the perspective of different mascots for different protagonists with different traits. the same applies to tabletop characters, including warhammer. i mean, if you are building a character who is identical to a character you played before, you might as well steal the name and faceclaim, but maybe this alternate incarnation grows and progresses differently from that point. say you have an Eldar Apothecary named Ilina who was Similar to a Nymph Apothecary named Ilina you played before, maybe the Eldar reacts to different Stimuli than the Nymph and progresses differently, even with the same general goals. both want to learn to create artificial lifeforms, but maybe they end up reacting to different things. the Nymph might have learned to create daughters by cloning herself, but maybe the Eldar Version takes up an apprentice who is like a daughter figure.
sorriesies for the long tangents. but yes, a mechanically identical character can have different experiences and react differently. Say you have 2 Dwarven Warriors named Klaus, they exist in 2 different Games, lets Say Klaus 1 Exists in Forgotten Realms and Klaus 2 Exists in an Urban Fantasy setting. both of them are noble Dwarven Axe and Board fighters clad in plate with all the same starting stats and skills, Klaus 1 becomes a defender and literally becomes a Tanky character in response to the combat heavy world of forgotten realms and exists purely as a fighter, because fighting is all he ever needed to do, but lets say Klaus 2 learned quickly about the danger inherent in firearms, and took up a pistol as a secondary weapon, learned some stealth, had to talk his way through a few problems and had to learn to pick a great deal more locks. so Klaus 2 had to multiclass rogue. same character at first, but both reacted to the different stimuli they were exposed to in their relative settings,
ARSENIC
The Sweet Release
Space Marines: SUPER RIGID, ALWAYS ANGRY, RUTHLESSLY XENOPHOBIC. PURGE THE HERETIC. FOR THE EMPEROR. CAPS LOCK CRUSE CONTROL.
Sisters of Battle: Female space marines with no versatility, a fetish for melee combat, and are responsible for 98% of all 40k-related porn.
The Inquisition: Space Marines, but replace the power armor with an unquenchable internal paranoia. THE ENEMY IS LITERALLY EVERYWHERE. BURN ALL THE THINGS.
Imperial Guard: These guys exist exclusively for the purpose of being brutally murdered. The redshirts of the 40k universe.
Chaos: Difficult to really say in one word. Easier to group them by what they're not, which is devoted to the emperor. Within them there are:
Devotees of Khorne: Edgy McEdgeLord. Blood for the blood god, skulls for the skull throne.
Devotees of Nurgle: Zombie fetishists. Who wants to live forever?
Devotees of Tzeentch: These guys are like always tripping balls, and obsessed with fleshwarping. Change we can believe in.
Devotees of Slaneesh: Hedonism and sexual deviance in its purest form. The thirst is real.
Orks: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH. These guys are pure testosterone and adrenaline made flesh.
Tyranids: Starcraft's Zerg wish they could look this cool.
Eldar: Elves with laz0rbeems. Not really much else to say.
Dark Eldar: Drow with laz0rbeems, and exactly the same amount of BDSM and black leather, but without the matriarchal thing. Apparently they learned about gender equality somewhere around the same time they started shooting phallic objects into space.
Tau: Take every eastern culture you can think of, melt them in a vat of acid then mix the resulting sludge in a planet-sized cauldron, and you've got the Tau. THE GREATER GOOD.
Necrons: Basically the Reapers from Mass Effect. Seriously. There's like no difference.
Sisters of Battle: Female space marines with no versatility, a fetish for melee combat, and are responsible for 98% of all 40k-related porn.
The Inquisition: Space Marines, but replace the power armor with an unquenchable internal paranoia. THE ENEMY IS LITERALLY EVERYWHERE. BURN ALL THE THINGS.
Imperial Guard: These guys exist exclusively for the purpose of being brutally murdered. The redshirts of the 40k universe.
Chaos: Difficult to really say in one word. Easier to group them by what they're not, which is devoted to the emperor. Within them there are:
Devotees of Khorne: Edgy McEdgeLord. Blood for the blood god, skulls for the skull throne.
Devotees of Nurgle: Zombie fetishists. Who wants to live forever?
Devotees of Tzeentch: These guys are like always tripping balls, and obsessed with fleshwarping. Change we can believe in.
Devotees of Slaneesh: Hedonism and sexual deviance in its purest form. The thirst is real.
Orks: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH. These guys are pure testosterone and adrenaline made flesh.
Tyranids: Starcraft's Zerg wish they could look this cool.
Eldar: Elves with laz0rbeems. Not really much else to say.
Dark Eldar: Drow with laz0rbeems, and exactly the same amount of BDSM and black leather, but without the matriarchal thing. Apparently they learned about gender equality somewhere around the same time they started shooting phallic objects into space.
Tau: Take every eastern culture you can think of, melt them in a vat of acid then mix the resulting sludge in a planet-sized cauldron, and you've got the Tau. THE GREATER GOOD.
Necrons: Basically the Reapers from Mass Effect. Seriously. There's like no difference.
High Moon
Relic of a Bygone Age
Thanks but the problem is my failure to understand the mechanics. I know the lore from all the way from The Unification Wars.
ARSENIC
The Sweet Release
@High Moon
In that case you may want to try a forum with more of an emphasis on TT gaming. The Roll20 forums might be a good start.
In that case you may want to try a forum with more of an emphasis on TT gaming. The Roll20 forums might be a good start.
