Deathwatch by Mikael Kreoss

Character Generation

posted by Mikael Kreoss Original SA post

EDIT: This is a pretty terrible post and I am not funny so if you are reading this from the index link, just skip it. Seriously.

Deathwatch Chapter Generation: Or how I learned to stop worrying and love the charts.

1d10 roll on the first chart for the reason the chapter was founded gets us a 4 - meaning that they were established due to a strategic prognostification. Then we roll 1d100 on 1-2 to see when it was founded, also getting a 4. Consulting the chart, the chapter was founded in the 32nd millenium, as one of the earliest chapters beyond those who came in the wake of the Horus Heresy. So far we have an ancient chapter that were essentially created due to some ~prognostification~. So let's roll to see where they come from. 88 on table 1-3 means they descend from the white scars. For those who don't know who the White Scars are, imagine the Ghengis Khan on a motorbike that has rapid-fire rocket launchers mounted on the front.

Let me just repeat that. WARBIKE. MONGOLS.

Anyways, 1d10 on 1-4 to see how ~*pure*~ the chapter's gene-seed (essentially their common traits, passed down from their ancestor legion) is. A result of 1 means the legacy of the White Scars is intact, and the chapter's gene-seed is pure. (IE they use the same basic rules as the Scars) That means we skip tables 1-5 through 1-10, just using whatever the Scars have. 1-11 is a 1d100 roll to see who the chapter's greatest hero is. 74 means their Master of the Fleet (pretty much exactly what it sounds like. The marine who coordinates the chapter's shit in space.) who was (1d100 on table 1-12) known for killing the FUCK out of Orkz to the point where no one has ever matched his greenskin bodycount, presumably because he was using orbital bombardments rather than bolters! So we have a group of bike-riding Mongols who keep in touch with their "parent" chapter closely, have been around for nine millenia, and hero worship a dude who loved to blow up orkz from space. 2d100 roll of 8 and 80 (1-13 and 1-14) tells us that they live on a Hive World, dystopian spires full of ganger scum. The world is predominantly urban, meaning that the spires are HUGE. Also, Ganger Scum make great marines. So we have ex-gangster urban biker mongol space monks.

There is no big enough.

1d10 on 1-15 gives us a 7, meaning they rule distantly and rarely interfere - presumably because they're too busy street racing. 1d10 on 1-17 (only Ultramarine successors use 1-16) gives another 7, so they do diverge from the Codex Astartes in some significant manner. What kind of manner? There's not a chart for that so we don't know! (Normally this is where "player creativity" comes in but fuck it I'm just in it for the charts) Now we roll to see how they fight. 1d10 on 1-18 is a 9, meaning they favor Shock and/or Awe tactics, striking from space with massive bombardments before they land and run over anything left standing.

Oh, and I just noticed that the White Scars don't actually have any rules, so we need to go back and roll on some more charts! (True story, I fucking LOVE charts)

1-5, 1d10, we get a 7 - they fucking hate aliens. Consisten with their Hero bombing the shit out of orkz. 1-6, 1d% compared to chance of mutation (White Scars have a 20% chance) 15 means they have some sort of flaw, and another 1d% of 89 means it's identical to those exhibited by the Scars. 1-8, 1d10 for their Flaw, rolled a 6. They hate one arm of the Imperium and refuse to work with them. Normally you choose one, but fuck it I'm on a roll ( ) so a random.org roll of 1d19 nets a 5, meaning they refuse to work with the Adeptus Mechanicus, meaning they're pretty much Hereteks by definition since SOMEONE has to keep the ships, bikes, etc. running. 1-9 is ignored, 1-10 is their characteristic modifier. 43 means they get +2 wounds (out of ~20 on average for a Space Marine) and +5 to whatever ability score they want, because they're flexible.

Anyways back to where we were, 1d100 on 1-19 for their solo mode ability (a special bonus when not working as part of a squad) 88 makes them trained to fight and resist psykers, gaining Psyniscience (the ability to sense psychic disturbances) and re-rolled saves vs Psychic powers. 1-20 and 1-21 are 1d100 rolls for their Squad attack and defense patterns, 4 and 81 mean their offense is a tactic stolen from an existing chapter and their defense is a Swift Advance - when they dodge ranged attacks they can move forward and (at higher ranks) reload their weapons. We skip 1-22 since it only applies to highly divergent chapters, and 1-23 - "Specialized Wargear" - gives us a 78 for "Special Vehicle" meaning they use something besides Rhinos as a primary transport. I'm obviously picking Bikes here, and then we roll 1d100 on 1-24 for the chapter's beliefs getting a 10 (Revere the Primarch) so their chapter's "religion"-analogue is reverence for their Primarch, Jaghatai Khan . We then roll 1d10 on 1-25 for chapter strength, getting a 10 meaning they are actually ABOVE the normal 1000-marine limit imposed on chapters. 1d100 on 1-26 is a 62, meaning we have friends among the Ecclesiarchy (explaining their disdain for the Mechanicus) and 1d100 on 1-27 turns up 8, meaning their main enemy is the Orkz.

Table 1-28 (though it's labeled 1-27 in a typo) is for the first part of the chapter's name. 51 and 90 gives us "Mailed" or "Storm", and 1-29 for the second part gives us 33 and 76, corresponding to "Fire" and "Tearers."

So, what do the goons think our ganger mongol space monk bikers should be called?