The Great Crusade - A Warhammer 30k RP (Interest Check)

[Primarch]

"The universe has many horrors yet to throw at us. This is not the end of our struggle. This is just the beginning of our crusade to save Humanity. Be faithful! Be strong! Be vigilant!
- The Emperor of Mankind


I aim to start an RP set during the Great Crusade of Warhammer 40k (or 30K). Given the vast scope of that setting I believe it would be best to narrow the RP down to focus on a single Expedition Fleet. The Adeptus Astartes Legion that will feature will be selected by the group later, or we may opt to create one to really 'make it our own.' This RP should be considered a 'War Drama' and is likely to feature RP based around 'day in the life/sandbox' experiences for people to do more casual RP with their characters but also threads focused on progressing the plot. This is intended to be a long term game designed for players interested in world-building, plot development and collaborating on a larger narrative.

Will you be 'GMing' the story?
Yes & no. This is a collaborative narrative and anyone who wishes to participate will be expected to contribute to the overall experience. I will set up a Discord chat everyone will be required to join, we will use it to keep in contact, plot events, organise and world build but but ideally my GMing will be limited so I can also enjoy the RP. Preferable I will be more of a first among equals who might nudge things along or take the lead as we get started. If others wish to come forward and volunteer to help manage the game, it would be appreciated.

Who are the character options?
Adeptus Astartes, Imperial Guard & Navy, Remembrancers and just about anyone else that may have been involved in an Expedition Fleet of the Great Crusade. I should advise the character sheet is likely to be on the brief side so as to make it easier to take up multiple characters so various concepts can be explored.       

Do I need to be an expert on Warhammer 40k to take part?
Some familiarity with the setting is likely necessary. The lore can be dense and is specific in its own way. Someone entirely unfamiliar with the setting may struggle with terminology or concepts within the RP.       

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Character Sheet template to be posted after sufficient interest expressed.
Questions, Comments & suggestions are welcome.

[HairyHeretic]

Would the players be ranking members of the Expedition, or more rank and file ones, so to speak?

[Pockets]

I second Hairy's query.

[Primarch]

Technically both are viable and we could absolutely have the RP playing out across two different tiers. As noted above the app should be short enough that writing up two different characters would be manageable, and more beyond that at your discretion.
I'm inclined to say starting off it might be easier to look towards ranking members and I mostly say that because the ranks might be more likely to regularly communicate between each other, while if we have a handful of rank & file from the very varying parts of the Fleet it might be a little harder to explain. Unless we put a little more work into coordinating character ideas, as opposed to everyone just writing what they immediately want to play and submitting.

[HairyHeretic]

The initial problem I see with rank and file from a variety of services is that in the Great Crusade, they wouldn't be mixing during most operations. You're not going to send a Remembrancer down with the first wave of Astartes, and once the navy pilot has escorted them down, their job is done. Outside of combat, Astartes and AdMech are unlikely to be mixing much with the rest of the mortals.

The command cadre at least have reasons to talk together in planning operations and so on.

What might work better from a mixing perspective would be if the players were on the ship of a Rogue Trader running ahead of a main Crusade fleet in a scouting capacity perhaps? That allows for a wider mixture of character types, a wide variety of encounter types, and reasons for the players to interact.

[Primarch]

I wouldn't be interested in Rogue Trader angle myself. Taking on various characters at the command rank/forefront of the Fleet might be the easiest approach, at least until we have a healthy roster of characters. People can always branch out with secondary characters. 

[HairyHeretic]

That's fair enough, just figured I'd toss the idea up.

[AndyZ]

I have a basic understanding of 40k but have been looking to learn more.

[HairyHeretic]

30k is a bit different to core 40k :)

[Pockets]

Well, depending on how close we are to the Horus Heresy, none of the Legions have fallen to Chaos yet. So contain the murderous zeal. It wasn't until after the Heresy was in full swing that Angron would order the Butcher's Nails be implanted in everyone in the Legion. Even Kharn was a pretty respectable marine until getting his head bounced off a bulkhead by Angron.

I think Captain rank would probably be best as I doubt anyone of lesser rank would have an opportunity to interact with other Legions unless the battlefield went particularly screwy.

[Primarch]

To contribute to the ongoing discussion, it may be worthwhile to start focused. Not on a particular type of "squad" though. because one of the truths of RP in 40k is that some want to play the big names and some prefer the small names. There might be someone interested in playing that Astartes Captain or a Lord-General but then people like me love rank and file characters and the grittiness of combat. (World Eaters FTW) So, I might suggest one of three routes: initial characters are all from a single organization, we submit sheets for squads and not individual characters, or we start with the idea that this Campaign has a council as leadership and we start at that level and make characters for individual missions as needed with the leadership being the primary character. Yes, the third option breaks with lore a bit, but it'd make the game more coherent and give us an excuse to be in contact.

Personally, I like the squads option but eh.

Two things, are we prohibiting canon characters? I'd really rather like to. And, blood for the blood god!

I don't think we'll use a council leadership and take up short term characters. Warhammer as a setting has always had a leaders taking to the field so if we play characters in the higher ranks who coordinate their organizations we can have characters with reasons to interact while also being available to enjoy the fighting.

Also my RPs generally shunt most canons to the side. So we might preserve the Primarch but otherwise our OCs can take the positions held by canons.

[AndyZ]

30k is a bit different to core 40k :)

Well, I admit I know nothing at all about 30k, and thought it was a mistype.  Given the kindness and helpfulness of the people here, though, I think I'll be able to handle things well enough to hold my own in an RP.

[Outcast]

All of the random bits and pieces I've seen for this time-period of the setting (in all their contradictory iterations) have been interesting.

If we can presume that the 40k fandom wiki is a good source of information (e.g. on the Great Crusade itself), then it should be easy enough to wind up on pretty much the same page in all cases. 

When in the Great Crusade would you be thinking of this being set?  I'd imagine that there could be quite a lot of difference between something set 25 years in, when the whole process is still being figured out, and something set 200 years in once discontent has begun becoming noticeable even among some of the Astartes legions.

I don't have any clear ideas for a PC: I've got vague inklings for a Remembrancer, an Iterator, the commander of an Old Hundred regiment of the Imperial Army, an earnestly eager recruit from a liberated / unified / conquered world....  I'm not sure if any of them will come together into anything clear enough to make a character (nor if they'd suit the game), but at the least I can confirm that interest has been piqued. 

[Primarch]

I don't have a strictly defined period in mind, though I think perhaps prior to the Ullanor Crusade, so the the Crusade is in full swing, all the Primarchs are accounted for, the Emperor is still taking the lead and Horus is not yet War Master.

On another note, if we're assuming for the moment we're going to use characters of rank & the remembrancers that are documenting it all, there's some ideas of viable characters from this wiki page on the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet. To give an idea. We could have several Space Marine Captains, an Imperial Army Lord Commander, Remembrancers, a Master of the Fleet (& Ship Captains), an Envoy of the Mechanicum, a Chief Astropath and more. 

[Outcast]

Extending my list of vague half-ideas, I can now add an Imperial Knight commander.  The close interaction with artificial intelligences (especially during a period when rationalism is supposed to reign supreme and they're not - at least not officially - seen as 'machine spirits') could add some interesting elements, while the contrast between consciously archaic values and epic star-travel definitely appeals...

But I'm clearly not doing a good job of settling onto a single concept as yet.